Chai Ke is indeed very embarrassed now.

Gaotai and Suzhou were entrenched by the rebels, but the rebels obviously gave up the eastern Gansu guards directly in the early stage, and places like Liangzhou Wei and Yongchangwei retreated without hesitation, and it can be said that the elites of the Xu Dynasty did not suffer many major losses.

At present, there are nearly 20,000 rebels stationed in Gaotai and Suzhou, 5,000 in Gaotai, 13,000 in Suzhou, and 1,000 in Jiayuguan.

The northernmost Zhenyi Place, that is, Hexi Fort and Yanchi Fort, as well as the Golden Pagoda outside the side wall, were handed over by Liu Dongyang to the Bi Chengen Department who escaped from the side wall.

Fortunately, Ganzhou has been recovered intact, which makes Chai Ke breathe a sigh of relief.

It was expected that the war would continue until the end of the year, and that he might even have to face a town of Ningxia and Gansu that had been beaten to pieces, and the emperor and the cabinet were also most worried about this, if that was the case, the imperial court might even have to face the difficult choice of either abandoning the two towns or paying a huge price to rebuild them.

It is impossible to give up, and whoever dares to give up is afraid that he will be directly impeached by the imperial historians immediately, but in that case, to rebuild, I am afraid it will not be a matter of two or three million silver, and it is normal to not be able to spend more than five million taels.

This is not counting the fact that more than one million taels of silver have been spent on this trip to counterinsurgency, and the imperial court is really overwhelmed.

But now it seems that the situation is not so bad, Ningxia is a little worse, but it is quite bearable, Gansu Town is a surprise, I was worried that it was worse than Ningxia, but now it seems that in addition to the losses on the Yongchangwei side, only Suzhou, Gaotai and the northernmost corner of the Zhenyi are still in the hands of the rebels, in a sense, they have completed the task.

When Ye Xianggao and Zhang Jingqiu explained themselves, although they didn't say it explicitly, Chai Ke could feel that if they had no choice, as long as they could keep the two guards of Yongchang and Xining, and resist the Tatars and Fanren to the west of Yanzhi Mountain.

This is the final bottom line, but Chai Ke knows that the consequences of this bottom line are quite large, and it is impossible to accept it.

Chai Ke didn't believe that Ye Xianggao and Zhang Jingqiu dared to make such a statement without the acquiescence of the emperor, even if the imperial court's financial resources were difficult, it was impossible to make such concessions to lose the city and lose the land.

Once the Tatars and the Fan people in the West Sea and the Tatars in the north are connected, the strategic situation in the northwest of the Great Zhou will be reversed, and Suzhou and Ganzhou may even become the hunting grounds of the Mughal people, Xining and Yongchang, and even Liangzhou and Zhuanglang will be difficult to hold, and the Great Zhou may really become the second Southern Song Dynasty.

"Xiuling, how are you resting?" Hearing the sound of footsteps, Chai Ke raised his head and put down the pen in his hand.

"It's okay, I went out to take a look, the situation in Ganzhou City is quite stable, I have asked Zitang to arrange for someone to clean up military discipline and avoid disturbing the people." Yang He stepped into the house and frowned, "Zishu, you didn't sleep last night?" ”

"I slept for a while, but I couldn't sleep, so I woke up early." Chai Ke shook his head, stood up with his clothes on, stretched his waist, and moved his body, "I have written a recital for the emperor and the cabinet, and you can also take a look at it, if there is nothing, it will be printed and distributed, and it is estimated that the imperial court is also looking forward to our recital." ”

"No, didn't you send back some good news in the early stage? As long as you settle down, Brother Zishu, it's not that I speak meanly, I'm just afraid that many people in the DPRK and China don't even know how much difference between Ningxia and Gansu is, how far apart the two towns are, and they may not know where they are. ……”

Yang He's tone was very bland, even understated, but it was to the bone.

"......, it's no wonder that these generals below can fool the court at will, if it weren't for you and me to come and go on such a trip in person, I'm afraid that the two of us may not know the importance of Shandanwei, and we don't know that Xiaosongshan actually belongs to Ningxia Town and Guyuan Town, and we may not even be able to figure out the real relationship between the rabbits on this grassland, such as Achi Rabbit, Li Rabbit and Bu Shi Rabbit,......"

With this experience of working together, the relationship between the two has also become closer in the past few months.

Yang He felt that Chai Ke was also a person who could do things and especially consider the difficulties of the imperial court, unlike some officials, who only thought about doing things and making meritorious contributions, but no matter whether they could hold it up or not, how many messes and big holes would be placed.

Chai Ke is much more meticulous and cautious in this regard.

In Ningxia Town, in Yongchangwei, Chai Ke did not first look at how many enemies were killed, but to see how the local situation was, whether the people were too damaged, whether there were too many displaced people, from this point of view alone, Chai Ke was much stronger than many people.

Don't seek great achievements, but seek not to leave future troubles, this is the person who really does things.

The current Da Zhou can't stand the toss.

The 800,000 taels of silver brought when he left Beijing, and later the inner treasury collected another 300,000 taels of silver, which was already the limit of the imperial court.

It is said that the emperor has taken out all the money that can be scraped together, and even plans to sell a few imperial villages, and for this reason, he has also compressed the use of the palace, of course, the use of the emperor and the imperial concubine is indispensable.

However, it cost 600,000 yuan just to make up for the arrears of the soldiers in Yulin Town and Datong Town, and this is the most basic condition for the soldiers of Yulin Town to sell their lives, and the grain and materials cost another 300,000 taels, which is only about 100,000 taels.

But except for the relief and pacification of Ningxia, it is estimated that it will cost more than 500,000 taels, which is still the lowest number, and it is estimated that the Gansu town will not be lower than this number, and this is not counting the compensation and reward casualties and meritorious soldiers after this battle is fought.

Chai Ke and Yang He made a rough estimate, even if they put aside Suzhou and Gaotaihe, it would take at least two million taels of silver to end the war.

This battle really can't be fought, as soon as the battle is fought, I only see the silver flowing out like water, and there is no rest, these expenses make Chai Ke and Yang He both tremble.

At this point, even generals like Feng Tang did not shy away from warning Chai Yang and the others, if they continue to fight like this, I am afraid that the imperial court will have to increase taxes again.

"Xiuling, be cautious, since Tang heard it, I'm afraid that my face will be unsightly again, well, your words will be transmitted back to the court, I'm afraid that you will all be accused of you in the procuratorate." Chai Ke smiled and shook his head.

"I dare to say this in front of Zitang, I'm not afraid, this guy has already quarreled with me before." Yang He snorted coldly, "You want to fool me every day, more than 6,500 people died in battle, and more than 100 of them died of illness, how can you count all of them into battle death?" He also demanded a pension according to the price of rice in the land where he died in battle, how is this possible? ”

Chai Ke shook his head and smiled bitterly.

He can also understand that the Yulin Town Army has killed so many people in total, and if Feng Tang wants to control this group of proud soldiers and fierce generals below in the future, he must strive for the greatest interests of these soldiers.

finally caught up with this war in name and made great achievements, but he couldn't get the most satisfactory result for the soldiers, he, the chief officer, couldn't sit steadily, maybe the next Shi Guangjue would be him.

The Great Zhou also followed the previous Ming Dynasty's pension for soldiers, but it was slightly improved.

For example, the soldiers who died in the war can retire to the civilian household if they have no children except for the military household at home, and if they have brothers, they can make up for it, and the parents, wives and children of the war dead can receive a pension of 50 stone of rice grain.

However, rice grain in the south of the Yangtze River is only 600 to 1,000 yuan per stone, and the amount of silver is less than one tael, and in the north it can be as high as 800 to 1,200 yuan, or even 1,400 yuan, in Shaanxi it will be as high as 1,400 yuan, in Ningxia and Gansu it will reach 1,600 yuan, and in Ganzhou it is even as high as 1,800 yuan.

The amount of rice and grain for the pension was determined, but there was no detailed description of the price at which the pension would be paid.

The battle damage in the land of the nine borders is generally local, so it is needless to say, but if the Yulin soldiers die inside and outside the local border wall, then they will be compensated according to the price of 1,400 yuan per stone of grain, and in Ningxia and Gansu, it will cost 200 yuan more, and 50 stone of grain is 10,000 yuan, that is, it will cost more than 8 taels of silver, and more than 6,000 people will be calculated as 50,000 taels of silver, which is not a small amount.

There is a difference between the soldiers who died of the same disease and the soldiers who died in battle, and the soldiers who died of illness could only receive a food pension of 30 stones, which was 20 stone less than that of the war dead, which was quite considerable for a family.

Under such circumstances, Feng Tang was of course unlikely to give in.

Seeing that Chai Ke was silent, Yang He knew that this governor was afraid that he had the idea of making peace with the mud again, and glared: "Brother Zishu, you are not only the governor of the three sides, you are also the right attendant of the military department!" You know the situation in the court, and the follow-up affairs for you and me are still in trouble, this little bit of silver is not enough at all, if you don't save a little, how can you deal with it? ”

"Xiu Ling, since Tang and you are only fighting for tens of thousands of taels of silver, but how much worse are we?" The smile on Chai Ke's face was no longer a bitter smile, it was an extremely ugly and miserable smile, "Two million taels!" How big is the gap between these tens of thousands of taels of silver and two million taels, do you think it is necessary for us to argue with Zitang for these tens of thousands of taels? ”

Yang He was stunned for a while, and then he was also depressed.

yes, what's the point of tens of thousands more and tens of thousands? agreed to give tens of thousands of taels more, and it could also make Feng Tang remember a favor, but now the imperial court can't make up these two million taels at all.

But without these two million taels, if you don't get Yulin Town, it will become the second Ningxia Town, there will be no mutiny, there will be a civil uprising, and there will be countless bandits swarming, this Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and other poor countryside have always been the root of the horse thieves and bandits, if you can't eat enough, if you are not a bandit, what can you do?

Thinking of this, Chai Ke and Yang He's mood was depressed again, and the good mood of the counterinsurgency war was about to end.