The sunset was still shining, the north wind was cold, and in the sound of gold, the Ming army besieging the city receded like a tide, ending the day's tentative attack. The city of Taean was full of smashed rubble, and more than a dozen iron spears stuck in the wall emitted a dark glow in the afterglow of the setting sun.

The Ming army camp was full of smoke, filled with the smell of rice and meat, and it was said that the officials and gentry of Feicheng today specially sent more than a dozen big fat pigs to comfort the army, so the Ming army added food tonight.

At this moment, Xu Jin was standing on a high ground, observing the movement of the city head with a telescope. This monocular was specially polished by Xu Jin with high-grade crystal, and the barrel also uses a copper tube, which is much more high-end and atmospheric than the bamboo telescope given to the eunuch Zhang Zhong, and the magnification is also higher.

At this time, Xu Jin could clearly see the movements of the defenders on the head of the city through the telescope, they were cleaning up the corpses at this time, and their morale looked very low.

Xu Jin launched an attack on the city today and did not use all his strength, just wanted to test the state of the defenders, if today's results came out, the morale of the defenders was undoubtedly low, but the defense was still very tight, and the thieves did not show weakness and weakness, so it can be seen that the food in the city is enough to supply for a period of time.

Xu Jin observed for a while, then shrunk the monoculars, and said indifferently to the brocade guards around him: "Go back to the camp!" ”

Originally, if the thief soldiers were tired and weak today, Xu Jin planned to launch a continuous onslaught, even if he paid a certain number of casualties, he would take Tai'an City in one fell swoop, so as not to continue to waste time and money.

Of course, time is secondary, the key is the problem of money and food, the army is originally a gold-swallowing beast, tens of thousands of troops are stationed here, the daily consumption is like flowing water, the little emperor has sent a "private message" twice to Xu Jin to cry poor, and specifically mentioned that Yang Tan, the head of the household, "forced" in front of him all day long.

Xu Jin couldn't help but feel sorry when he saw the word "forced" in Zhu Houxi's letter, and at the same time he felt heavy, Daming's financial situation was so worrying. But there is no way, the people of the old Zhu family are too capable of giving birth, Zhu Yuanzhang himself gave birth to more than 20 sons, all of whom were named vassal kings, after more than 150 years of reproduction, the seeds of the old Zhu family have been sown all over the country, direct and indirect blood relations, there are no 100,000, I'm afraid there are 90,000 ninety-nine, the key is that these people are supported by the state finance, living a luxurious life of raising pigs.

The annual salary of a prince is 50,000 stones, 25,000 pounds of money, 40 horses of brocade, 300 horses of silk, 100 horses of lea, 500 pieces of silk, 1,000 pieces of winter and summer cloth, 2,000 taels of cotton, 2,000 taels of salt, 1,000 catties of tea, and 50 horses of fodder......

How much food does it cost to spend a year on so many vassal kings, county kings, princesses, county lords, grandfathers, uncles, etc., in the country? The huge clan has become a heavy burden on the imperial court's finances. In addition, the previous Emperor Zhengde was not good at running the country, and he didn't even blink an eye when he squandered it, so Zhu Houxi took over a Ming dynasty with an empty treasury.

Moreover, in the past two years, there was the rebellion of King Ning, this year there was a great drought in Shanxi, and there were floods in Shandong, and in the past two months, riots have occurred in many provinces and regions, and troops have been used in many places at the same time, which has made the already poor financial situation even worse.

Some people may ask, when soldiers are not used in peacetime, don't those soldiers need to eat and drink, why do they consume a lot of money and food when it comes to using soldiers?

It needs to be explained here. First, if you need to transport food to fight a war, you have to recruit people to help transport food, and these people also have to eat and drink, right? For example, if a man transports 100 catties of grain, if it is a long-distance transportation, when the grain is transported to the destination, the man himself is afraid that he will kill 50 catties of grain, so the main reason is that the transportation cost has surged.

Second, soldiers who fight in war must be paid. The Ming Dynasty implemented the system of tuntian in the guards, and the soldiers in the guards were divided into cultivated fields, and they ploughed the fields without fighting in peacetime to ensure the self-sufficiency of the guards, and the state did not need to spend a penny to support these soldiers, but only provided equipment.

But when it came to the war, although the guards of the Ming army brought their own rations, the army also had to issue another "ration" to the soldiers, which was the military salary, generally grain, salt and the like, which was converted into silver about one tael a month, and if the military salary of the Ma army had to be doubled.

Therefore, Xu Jin has now transferred nearly 30,000 horses, and the monthly military salary will be tens of thousands of taels, not counting the consumption of other materials, and it is not too much to say that the army is a gold-swallowing beast.

The horse army is the gold-swallowing beast of the gold-swallowing beast, Xu Jin formed this five-hundred-person horse team, it is estimated that it will cost two or three thousand taels per month, fortunately, these horse troops are selected from each guard, and the military salary is allocated by each guard, if Xu Jin recruits it himself, he can't afford it at all.

Of course, even if you can afford to raise Xu Jin, you won't spend your own money to raise it, this is a taboo, the army is the state, you pay for it yourself, it is to raise private soldiers, if it is dozens of personal guards, forget it, privately raise a horse army of 500 people, if it is in the Hongwu Dynasty, the whole family has to lose their heads.

At the beginning, Shen Sanwan, the richest man in the Ming Dynasty, was because he got carried away, and he proposed to Zhu Yuanzhang to spend money to reward the three armies, but he was almost slaughtered by the violent old Zhu.

Zhu Houxi cried poverty to Xu Jin in two "private messages", although there was a taste of self-deprecation, but the subtext was undoubtedly for Xu Jin to hurry up and exterminate the thief army and collect the troops. Xu Jin also wanted to save some money for Zhu Houxi, but after today's temptation, it was impossible to break through Tai'an City in one fell swoop, compared to the heavy casualties, Xu Jin would rather spend tens of thousands of taels more, after all, as the commander, he had to be responsible for the lives of his soldiers.

As for the financial problems of the imperial court, it is already difficult to return, if you want to improve, you must carry out drastic reforms, otherwise it will always be difficult to cure the symptoms, and the reason why the imperial court at the end of the Ming Dynasty did not pay military salaries was mainly man-made disasters in addition to natural disasters.

Xu Jin returned to the camp, and not long after dinner, the Jinyi Wei spies sent to Jinan to inquire about the news returned, and asked Xu Jin for the information he had returned.

"So Yuan Yi's old father is not sick at all?" After Xu Jin listened to Jin Yiwei's reply, his sword eyebrows couldn't help frowning.

The brocade guard grinned and said, "What's the illness, the old man in his sixties still went to the Qinglou to drink flower wine, and after Yuan Yi returned to Jinan, he went to visit the town guard eunuch Luo Gonggong." ”

Xu Jin couldn't help but move in his heart, Yuan Yi panicked and ran back to Jinan overnight to visit Luo Xiang, this matter is probably not simple, so he ordered: "Jin Baihu, send some more people to secretly keep an eye on Luo Xiang's station, and find out what the hell he is doing." ”

Jin Biao said with a smile: "Don't worry, my lord, my subordinates have already sent more brothers to keep an eye on it." ”

Xu Jin nodded with satisfaction!