New Shun 1730

The ministers in the court speculated what the emperor was thinking, but they also knew that the expedition to Japan was settled.

The only difference from the previous one was that the emperor appointed three people to assist in handling various confidential matters of the expedition to Japan.

One was the fake Privy Councilor Jiang Chen, one was Lu Zhilei, who was once the Minister of the Household Government and now entered the Tianyou Palace, and the other was Liu Yu.

This was both reasonable and unexpected.

When the military reform gradually took away the power and responsibilities of the military government, some people saw that the emperor wanted to continue to strengthen centralization, especially the control of military power.

During the expedition to Japan, these three people were obviously the emperor's personal secretaries, not the secretarial team with a system like the Tianyou Palace.

These three people each had their own official positions and titles, but this time the assistant to the war against Japan was obviously a temporary agency without a name.

As for whether it will be completely changed in the future to form a real Privy Council dedicated to military affairs, or even to reform the Tianyou Palace, it is unknown.

Apart from the duties of these three people and their legitimate status in the system, these three people are not qualified to issue orders to their subordinates.

In the end, whether it is the transfer of troops, food, coordination, etc., Tianyou Hall and the Six Governments are still needed, and the emperor is the intermediary to take charge of the overall situation.

In this way, many people feel relieved. So it seems that Liu Yu is already the number one in the military after Jiang Chen's generation completely retires?

If this is true, it may not be a bad thing.

After the military reform, the number one in the military is useful when fighting, but when there is no war, his say in the government affairs is much smaller.

The emperor should not let the person who is destined to command the army participate in too many political affairs.

Some people also speculate from today's events that there may be some institutional changes in the future. What will the Six Governments, Tianyou Hall, and the Privy Council, which has just been established, look like in the future? Now the court is a little confused.

The only thing that can be confirmed is that Liu Yu has not fallen out of favor. There may be other inside stories about the navy.

After the court meeting, the three met for the first time in a room in the Forbidden City, and the emperor was there.

This place is not far from the Tianyou Palace, and there are no other people in the room, only four people. After all, this is not a formal organization.

The window is still covered with window paper, not glass that can be seen clearly from the outside. There are ice cubes in the room to cool down the heat, and there are no eunuchs or female officials to serve.

Liu Yu thought that this time it was both legitimate and illegitimate. Even if his words were effective, they were just farts according to the rules. In the end, the emperor had to come forward to follow the formal procedures.

At this time, he was really not as good as a secretary. A formal secretary had certain rights and responsibilities. Now he was at most a guest of the emperor, or a palace official without functions. He could talk to the emperor directly and even make decisions, but he had no power...

The remaining two people, whether it was Jiang Chen or Lu Zhilei, except for this room, they all had official seals. Now he had a private seal.

The people in the room were all familiar with each other. They had heard Jiang Chen's story as early as when they were in Wude Palace. Since then, he has been in charge of the army in the northwest.

Lu Zhilei, the former Minister of the Household Government, had seen him in the court, but he was not familiar with him and did not know his temperament. However, the reason why the emperor asked him to participate in this matter could be guessed. First, he was a member of Tianyou Hall, and second, he was originally the Minister of the Household Government, and he was familiar with some of the situations of the Household Government.

Time has changed, and the new people have replaced the old people. The members of Tianyou Hall at this time are no longer the old people when Liu Yu was still the guard.

The military reform has not been completely changed in the system, and Jiang Chen's position as the Privy Envoy is very embarrassing.

Jiang Chen is not embarrassed, but the position of Privy Envoy is very embarrassing. The power and prestige now belong to Jiang Chen. What exactly is the Privy Envoy has not been determined yet.

It is not clear where it will belong in the future, or whether the emperor will take the lead in directly managing the Navy and the Army to separate the Privy Council, or whether the Privy Envoy will be given a quota to enter Tianyou Hall.

It is estimated that the emperor is also trying, especially wanting to use this war against Japan to try out what to do in the future.

Changes always need to be tried, but no matter how to try, the emperor has a clear idea of ​​seizing military power.

The small circle is much more relaxed than outside, and there is no need to kneel all the time or the emperor's permission not to kneel. The emperor sits in the middle, and Liu Yu and the other two sit on the low stool.

"This time, the expedition to Japan has been roughly determined. The sea power is in my hands, and we can land everywhere. Liu Aiqing went to Japan first, and the Japanese have basically divided their troops. I think there is nothing to say about this battle. What do you think?"

Liu Yu's mind has been full of the expedition to Japan over the years. This is the first step for Dashun to go out of the sea, and it is also the most important step in determining the new tribute system in East Asia.

In general, he has deduced all possible actions of Japan. When the emperor asked at this time, he did not say too much.

"I think the Japanese don't have many choices."

"If they are forced by me to divide their troops and organize four or five mobile corps scattered around, this battle will be simple. As long as the army goes ashore, the general situation can be determined."

"If they only care about Edo and Kyushu, the navy will either transport troops to Busan to look for opportunities, or linger in Ryukyu and take advantage of every opportunity. In less than half a year, their country will be in chaos."

"Now the army has gathered in Weihaiwei, and part of the navy has also joined the troops in Songhua River, and will soon occupy Ezo. I think it is not appropriate for the army to move first, but to order the navy to gather in Busan first, and camp there with the marines and part of the army. Three thousand people will be enough."

"The navy will conduct armed reconnaissance along the coastline of Japan to see if Japan has dispersed its forces into several mobile corps. If so, the main force of the navy will return and prepare for landing operations. The navy will send a small part of the troops from Busan to land and harass, attack cities and capture strongholds."

"According to my estimation and the calculations of the naval staff before, the military expenditure this time will be within two million taels, which will surely make Japan surrender."

"The Japanese shogunate must first defend the interior and then fight the outside. A long war is not good for Japan."

After reporting the "two million taels of military expenditure" that surprised the three people present, the three people were shocked.

"Two million taels?"

Although I know that this war should not cost more than the expedition to Junggar, I really can't believe that it only cost two million taels.

"Two million taels. At most, it will rise by a few hundred thousand taels."

Taking advantage of the opportunity of everyone's surprise and disbelief, he repeated it again.

However, Liu Yu also set an ambush and played a trick.

The money spent on building ships and navy before is not counted.

The money spent on military reform, training of new troops and refitting is not counted.

The logistics and transportation are outsourced to trading companies with the future trade monopoly, which is also not counted.

The normal military pay during the war is not counted, anyway, you have to spend money to support the army even if you don’t fight.

With that said, the amount of two million given sounds shocking.

Two million taels seems to be a lot, but for a country of the size of Dashun, it can’t do anything.

Although I know that Japan is not too strong, with the experience of the previous dynasty fighting in Korea, I always feel that it must be at least a big country of Goguryeo level.

It sounds like child's play to beat such a big country with two million taels.

What can two million taels do?

Lu Zhilei, the former Minister of the Household Government, is very sensitive to numbers. He has experienced the war against Junggar that year. He really spent money like water back then. Two million taels in the northwest at that time is just a noise.

If Liu Yu had not led his troops out of the Altai Mountains and used the strategy of Da Tsereng Dunduobu to lure the enemy deep into the territory, he would have had to spend twice as much money on the war against the Junggar.

Of course, the money was not saved afterwards. The military reform and shipbuilding were used up again.

He wondered if Liu Yu had miscalculated?

The emperor was also somewhat shocked by the number and asked in detail. Although he trusted Liu Yu in his heart, he did not dare to believe that he would report such a number.

But after listening to Liu Yu's detailed explanation, he felt that it seemed to be the case.

After listening to Liu Yu's explanation of where the money was saved, the emperor laughed and said, "The grain from Jiangnan, which is transported along the canal, costs one cent to the capital, and the people can afford no less than four cents. In the expedition to Junggar, only half of the military rations were left at the front line. One tael of silver per stone of rice was transported to the Altai Mountains, which cost more than twenty taels of silver."

"For the expedition to Japan, Ying Suo Bo gave a one-tenth loss for sea transportation. Japan is thousands of miles away, separated by the sea, but it is almost the same as sending troops from the capital to fight Zhangjiakou?"

Liu Yu thought to himself that the biggest expense of war is always logistics. If you fight from Beijing to Zhangjiakou, the consumption of grain may not be as much as transporting grain from Songjiang to Nagasaki. After all, merchants in Southeast Asia can transport rice from Siam to Guangdong to sell, and they still make a lot of money.

Sima Qian's "Biographies of Merchants" said: No one sells firewood within a hundred miles, and no one sells grain within a thousand miles. In front of the sea, it is no longer true.

I also thought that if you had stipulated that the price of rice shipped to Hami was two taels per stone when you conquered Junggar, the merchants would have been scared away long ago. But if you attacked Guangdong and told the merchants that no matter where the rice came from, two taels per stone would be paid upon delivery, as long as you had control of the sea, the merchants would spend all their savings to buy rice in Southeast Asia.

During the Opium War, soldiers were transported from Britain and India, and the war lasted for two years. Including wages and some newly built special ships, it only cost 12 million taels in total, and the wages of soldiers were also included.

From Dashun to fight Japan, there was no need to occupy land or rule, and the distance was close. Excluding the money for shipbuilding and military reforms before, and not counting the military wages of soldiers, two million taels was definitely enough.

The most critical point was that the war against Japan, the most troublesome logistics problem of the court was "contracted" to the trading company, and the court did not have to spend a penny, and all it needed was the monopoly of trade with Japan for two years.

Before Liu Yu intervened, the customs revenue from the trade with Japan was only a few thousand taels of silver a year, given the tax collection level of the Dashun Customs and the rampant smuggling.

The trade with Japan was not initiated by Liu Yu, but has always existed. But the money that can flow into the navy, workshops, military industry and other directions was dominated by Liu Yu.

For the court, especially the Dashun, a classical land power court, and the court that believed that the British export subsidies gave money to merchants, the British prime minister had a problem with his brain, always felt that the money that was not in the hands of the court was equivalent to not existing at all.

Due to the special high rent and high interest rate of Dashun, it is impossible to set up a bank to issue bonds and national debts: ordinary people have no money to buy, and those who have money lend or buy land by themselves, the income is much higher than national debts. Unless the Dashun court can offer a high annual interest rate of 30%, only fools will buy national debts.

And the Dashun court cannot afford the annual interest rate of 30%.

Therefore, Liu Yu chose this extremely profitable way, exchanging the monopoly rights for war bonds, which seemed to make the court feel that it did not spend a penny, but in fact, the two-year monopoly rights were worth at least two to three million taels of silver.

Especially when the Dutch were driven away, Korean trade was liberalized, and the Japanese trade letter system was liberalized.

But as long as it doesn't go out of the treasury, in the eyes of the court, it is equivalent to not spending it. As for the advance payment of monopoly rights... the court had no chance to advance it before, so this naturally does not count.

Therefore, the two million taels mentioned by Liu Yu are extremely exaggerated.

These two million taels are money for gunpowder, shells, lead blocks, medicinal materials, pensions, and enemy killing pay. Originally, part of Songjiang's rice this year was to be transported to Weihai as military rations. For these sea merchants who have been to Nagasaki countless times, there is really not much difference between transporting it to Weihai and transporting it to Nagasaki.

If converted to a normal situation with all the items included, it should be around 8 million taels; including military reforms and shipbuilding, it should be around 13 or 14 million taels.