Half a day later, Yangzhou merchants obediently handed over the silver to Zhu Youlang.

All of them were combined to a total of 6.73 million taels, which was more than Zhu Youlang expected.

Originally, Zhu Youlang thought that it would be great if these merchants could donate five million taels of silver, but they did not expect that they would donate six,730,000 taels!

Of course, these silver cannot be the entire wealth of these merchants, but Zhu Youlang felt that their sincerity was enough.

He didn't want to kill chickens and get eggs. After all, in this way, merchants in other places would definitely be resistant and would fight to the death to help the Qing army attack the Ming army.

This result is a win-win situation.

In the past two years, the Hu Ben Army has been expanding its troops.

Nanzhili has extremely high population density, and the quality of the troops that can be recruited will be higher than other places.

Zhu Youlang hopes to recruit 20,000 troops in Nanzhili, so that the entire Hu Ben Army will reach 50,000.

This also means that the number of personal troops Zhu Youlang can directly command is no less than Li Dingguo, Zheng Chenggong, Li Laiheng and others.

This is very important to Zhu Youlang.

Although he knew that these ministers and generals were very loyal, it was hard to guarantee that there were some inappropriate thoughts in their formation.

If these people always urged Li Dingguo and others, what if one day they really had the idea of ​​replacing them?

This is not entirely impossible.

Zhu Youlang still has to prepare for the future and make plans early.

Zhao Da was also very sudden when he was wearing a yellow robe. Didn’t he end up being the emperor?

But it would be different if Zhu Youlang had an army that was comparable to the general's direct lineage.

Those ambitious people also have to think carefully about the price of instigating their lord's rebellion. If the price and risk of rebellion are too high, they may not take action.

Putting aside these things, Zhu Youlang also felt that the military system before the Ming Dynasty was very unreasonable.

After the founding of the country, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang established the garrison system.

The soldiers worked in daily life and were soldiers during wartime.

It looks very reasonable, very similar to the system of the government troops in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

But after careful analysis, it is not the case at all.

The soldiers of the Sui and Tang dynasties took turns to the capital to defend the capital, and were relatively free at other times.

Moreover, the government soldiers in the Sui and Tang dynasties had a high status, and were not as miserable as the tenant farmers who eventually became officers.

Moreover, I am a soldier from the garrison, and my son must be, so there is no possibility of changing careers.

You can't run away, if you run away, you will escape from your family. As long as you are caught, you will end up hanging according to military rules.

Under this deformed system, the combat effectiveness of the first generation of garrison soldiers may be good, but it will decline sharply from the second and third generations.

By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, there was no essential difference between the military soldiers and beggars.

This is why during the Jiajing period, tens of thousands of soldiers were chased by hundreds or thousands of Japanese pirates.

It’s not that they don’t want to fight, it’s that they really don’t have the ability to do so.

Later, Qi Jiguang and the border troops all took the tricks of recruiting troops.

This can solve the urgent problem, but it is not a reasonable model.

If this continues, it will only cause the local warlords to expand their power and eventually become bigger and bigger.

Zhu Youlang thinks the most reasonable military system model is to combine recruiting troops with the government troops.

In this way, the country will not have no troops to conquer, and the court will have a powerful army that can suppress the local area and make the local area obediently bow down and surrender.

The Ming Dynasty was founded for three hundred years, and its imperial power was still there.

As long as Zhu Youlang can set this model and develop it well for decades, I believe that the future of the Ming Dynasty will be bright.

Of course, this has to be done step by step.

The first step is to consolidate the imperial court's control over the army. Zhu Youlang must firmly hold the military power of the Hu Ben Army in his own hands.

Not to mention military generals, even eunuchs can't be involved.

...

...

The news of the fall of Yangzhou reached Su Song? People were panic for a while.

As the richest area in Jiangnan, Susong has always been the main contributor to taxation.

Among them, there are countless wealthy businessmen and tycoons who live a life of luxury all day long? Naturally, they don’t want this pattern to be broken.

But if the Ming army attacked, it seemed that everything would be impossible.

But Su Song's troops were far less powerful than Yangzhou.

Even Suzhou and Songjiang combined together only have 30,000 Green Camp soldiers. Among them, there are 10,000 of them old, weak and remnants.

There are only 20,000 people who can really fight.

There is nothing I can do about this? Originally, there were more than 10,000 elite cavalrymen? They were sent to aid Yangzhou but were all lost there.

Now that it is Su Song's limit to being able to raise 30,000 people.

Relying on 30,000 people to fight the Ming army's nearly 100,000 troops?

No matter how you look at it, it is not reliable.

Even the Qing army himself was not optimistic that they could defend it, let alone others.

Some merchants in the city are already discussing how to pave a way out for themselves.

"I heard that after the Yangzhou city was destroyed, the merchants in the city took the initiative to donate silver to the Ming army? They donated a total of millions of taels."

"so much?"

"What's so much? This was collected by dozens of wealthy merchants, and the total number of one is only hundreds of thousands of taels."

"These merchants still have millions of taels, but there should be no problem with taking out hundreds of thousands of taels to save their lives, right?"

"It seems that this is true when you say this. Spend money to buy peace."

"Since the Ming army did not directly search their house? It seems that it is not as arrogant as the rumors. If Su Song can't defend it in the future? Can we follow the example?"

"I think it's OK? There's no need for us to stay in another boat until we die. It's just a change of emperor? Our benefits are unlikely."

"Oh? But you must take the initiative as soon as possible. If you express it too late, it is hard to guarantee that the emperor will get angry. I heard that he still killed one of them to establish his authority."

"Only kill one person? That's great. We won't make the stones in the pit. We will give in earlier, and we will have nothing to do."

After the discussion, the merchants already had a scheming in their minds.

They made preparations, and if the Qing army could resist the Ming army's troops, everything would be the same.

Otherwise, they would have offered half of their wealth to the Ming army to ensure safety.

...

...

The situation in Huai'an is very different.

Although Huai'an produces salt in Linhai, the money was earned by salt merchants in Yangzhou.

Huai'an is not as developed as Susong Hangzhou? At most, it is fishing and farming.

How much money can this make?

Even if it is placed in the entire Nanzhili, Huai'an is a relatively poor prefecture.

But the more this happens? The stronger the Qing army in Huai'an was to seek war.

If they win, they can make a big splash in front of the Qing court, and officials will be promoted and make money.

Even if you lose, you can escape in the sea and retreat to Denglai.

Is there such a sure profit without losing money? What's scary?

Moreover, Huai'an still has the strength to fight, and there were 40,000 to 50,000 troops in the entire mansion.

In this case, they still want to give it a try.

...
Chapter completed!