In order to fulfill the promise of the Northern Expedition the following year, Qin Shuhuai began an intensive deployment.

In terms of money and food, he doesn't have to worry about it now, now that the new policy has been fully rolled out, by the middle of next year, the imperial court should not be short of money and food.

The most important issue is, of course, the reorganization of the army.

The main force of the Northern Expedition in the future, Qin Shuhuai has already thought about it, that is, Yuan Chonghuan's Guanning Army and the Wulin Coalition Army that returned from the Western Expedition will be the mainstay, and then bring the Liu Guoneng Department, He Huchen Department, Cao Wenzhao Department, He Renlong Department and Datong's Mangui Department on the three sides, about 150,000 to 200,000, which should be enough.

However, in terms of the combat quality of the troops, in addition to the Wulin Coalition Army, other troops, including Yuan Chonghuan's Guanning Army, still have a significant gap with the Eight Banners, and they urgently need to be improved.

Who will be promoted?

Of course it's a demon cult!

The Demon Sect has already said that it will continue to support the imperial court in the future, and the personal relationship between himself and Yan Chengzhi is there, as long as he sends an invitation, the Demon Sect will definitely agree to help train the army.

It's just that let the Demon Sect train them, and these soldiers of the imperial court will definitely not be convinced. In particular, Yuan Chonghuan's Guan Ning Army and Mangui's Datong Army are both known as the Gyeonggi Pro-Guards, and people have their own pride, and if you let a group of former thieves train them, they may be able to mutiny.

Moreover, there will definitely be doubts in the court, such as if these soldiers are well trained, will they be infected by the Demon Sect?

Thinking about it, this matter had to make the Demon Sect aggrieved.

So, he immediately found Li Jingting and asked him to write a letter to Yan Chengzhi. In the letter, he first stated the necessity of the Northern Expedition, then explained that the soldiers of the imperial court urgently needed to be retrained, and finally asked Yan Chengzhi in an inquiring tone if he could send 200 elites of the Five Elements Banner to join the Jianghe Gang, and then he went to reorganize the imperial army's army in the name of the Jianghe Gang.

This did not say why he didn't let the Five Elements Banner go directly to the training, but Qin Shuhuai believed that Yan Cheng must understand his difficulties.

With the style of the Demon Sect, they should not be obsessed with any name, as long as they think that it is beneficial to the Kuangfu Imperial Court and the revitalization of the community, they will definitely do it without hesitation - just as they knew that Zhu Yuanzhang might not be friendly to the Sun Moon Sect after winning the world, but just because they believed that he could become a good emperor, the Demon Sect still helped him conquer the world.

Qin Shuhuai doesn't understand the ideals and beliefs of this group of people too well, but he sighs to himself.

After the letter was written, Li Jingting immediately sent Jinyiwei 800 li to Guangmingding urgently.

Qin Shuhuai then set out for the second thing, that is, armament.

In addition to increasing the production of green gong water, fire oil, light shield, and light armor, the most important thing is to manufacture red-coated cannons in batches.

At present, the main gun type of the Ming Dynasty is still the Franc machine, and the expensive red-coated cannon has not been mass-produced, only Ningyuan City and the Forbidden City have a small amount of equipment, and all of them are bought and modified from the Dutch and Portuguese.

Of course, there is only one reason for the lack of mass production, that is, the imperial court had no money before and could not afford to build it.

Now the Ministry of Industry knows the red-coated cannon well, and Xu Guangqi and others have a deep study of the red-coated cannon, as long as there is money, large-scale manufacturing is completely possible.

To build a red-clothed cannon, in addition to inviting Xu Guangqi, an old guy, to preside over the overall situation, it also needs the cooperation of the Ministry of Industry.

Qin Shuhuai didn't dare to provoke Xu Guangqi now, and the old guy was excited to see him, so he threw the task of lobbying him to Chongzhen.

But the Ministry of Works, he still has to talk about it in person.

The previous Ministry of Industry Shangshu has been imprisoned because he is a member of the Donglin Party, and the new Ministry of Industry Shangshu is Zeng Qicheng, who is said to be from a family of craftsmen, and has a good official reputation.

Qin Shuhuai asked Li Jingting to bring his own message and ask Zeng Qicheng to come to the Guogong Mansion to talk about it. Within an hour, Zeng Qicheng came in a hurry, and brought two waiters from the Ministry of Industry, which can be regarded as bringing the entire Ministry of Industry to the Guogong Mansion to work on the spot.

After greeting them, Qin Shuhuai got to the point and asked, "Zeng Shangshu, two waiters, let's make a long story short." My father wants to build 200 red-coated cannons in half a year, but I don't know where to start?"

Zeng Qicheng frowned and pondered for a while, and said, "Grandpa Return, the red-clothed cannon often weighs three or four thousand catties, and if it is two hundred, the refined iron consumed will cost nearly one million catties. Refined iron is not better than ordinary iron, from the current Ming minerals, just to get together these fine iron will take more than half a year, if you want to do it, I am afraid that a year may not be enough. ”

Qin Shuhuai smiled faintly, "This is not in the consideration of this father, what this prince is asking is that two hundred doors will be built in half a year, what are you going to do." ”

Zeng Qicheng smiled bitterly, "If the grandfather of the country has to make it within half a year, then only in the name of the emperor will order that the iron from all iron mines in the country must be supplied to the imperial court first, and the imperial court will pick out all the good quality iron and pull it back to smelt refined iron, and the rest of the bad quality can flow into the market workshop for smelting, so that the price of iron in the country is bound to rise, and the people may have complaints." In addition, the iron ore must be transported to the smelter urgently, and the craftsmen must also be recruited nationwide to be sufficient, and the freight costs, food, drink, and remuneration of the craftsmen are bound to rise. We originally calculated that the cost of a red-coated cannon was about 2,500 taels, but if it was based on the conditions of the grandfather of the country, I am afraid that it would have to be increased by eighty percent. ”

Qin Shuhuai nodded and said, "That means that the current cost is about four thousand five hundred taels for one door? Two hundred...... That's 900,000 taels?"

Zeng Qicheng nodded, "This is a conservative estimate." ”

Qin Shuhuai waved his hand, "Then count it as one million taels!" I would like to ask Lord Zeng to prepare an excerpt to play the emperor as soon as possible, so that this matter can be settled as soon as possible." ”

Zeng Qicheng arched his hand, "The lower official will play tonight." By the way, if you want to build a good red-coated cannon, I'm afraid there is still one person missing. ”

"You mean Xu Guangqi?"

"Hehe, Grandpa Guo is wise. Zeng Qicheng paused, and said with some hesitation, "Grandpa Guo, the lower officials have the courage to say a few words from their hearts for Lord Xu's crying that day." Actually, Lord Xu ......"

"Master Zeng doesn't need to say it," Qin Shuhuai interrupted, "It is the duty of Xu Ge to scold his father, and his father will not bother with him." I'm afraid that the old gentleman is still angry with his father-in-law, so I have to ask you to go and persuade him. If he asks why he didn't go there in person, you will say that he is afraid of him and will not dare to go to his house! If he has any orders, just ask someone to bring a message, and he will do it. ”

Zeng Qicheng and the three of them couldn't help but smile, and said in their hearts that the grandfather of this country is really good-minded and funny.

It was almost noon when the people who saw off the Ministry of Industry came to the study and called him for lunch.

When he was about to go out, Steward Qiao came to report, saying that the Zheng Mansion was going to move into the house, and he sent an invitation to invite him to eat wine in the house at night.

Qin Shuhuai then remembered that Zheng Zhilong's family was going to move into the emperor's house today, and this wine had to be drunk.

Because I also have to talk to them about the details of opening a sailor school, as well as building a few more large warships.

......

More than a month passed in a flash, and soon it was closed in recent years.

Chongzhen's four years passed so quickly.

This year, the new policy was implemented, the demon sect was submissive, and the world was ...... It is finally showing a trend of peace.

And Daming's preparations have stepped up.

At the beginning of December, Xu Guangqi was again appointed by Chongzhen, and the governor of the whole country was prepared. Under his organization, the work of manufacturing and improving the red-coated cannon was carried out in an orderly manner, and the work of making green gong oil, thunderbolts, gunpowder, fire oil, new light shields, and light armor was also supervised by him, and the organization was well organized.

At the end of December, the elite of the Demon Sect's two hundred and five elements also set off from Guangming Ding and went to the Jianghe Gang, and then prepared to help the Ming reorganize the army in the name of the Jianghe Gang.

Also at the end of December, the "Zhilong Naval University Hall" was also announced at a port in Qingdao. Zheng Zhihu and Zheng Zhibao became the two chief instructors and vice presidents, and there were fifty instructors, half of whom were transferred from the inland naval division of the imperial court, and half were transferred from the original Zheng Zhilong's subordinates. Just wait for the spring of next year to enroll students.

In addition, the government-run Suzhou Shipyard, Qingjiang Shipyard, and Longjiang Shipyard of the imperial court each received the task of building two large warships, and the task period was eight months.

Everything is advancing according to the plan, in order to do these things, Chongzhen allocated Qin Shuhuai five million taels of silver at one time, and arrogantly said that if it was not enough, he could add more.

Of course, on the other hand, Chongzhen summoned Qin Shuhuai into the palace almost every two or three days to inquire about the progress of various matters.

Qin Shuhuai saw that there was a kind of fanaticism surging in Chongzhen's eyes.

The Northern Expedition, the frenzy of shame.

Expand the territory, surrender to the four provinces, and become the fanaticism of a generation of holy lords!

Chongzhen, it's really burning!