Chapter 3589
Chapter 3589
Chapter 3589
Zhou Sen couldn't help but cry out that he was wronged, saying that although the quartz sand mine in Liuhe County was a very profitable business, the county's financial situation was actually not as good as the outside world believed.
The several mines in operation in the county were all joint ventures between the two countries. Most of the shares belonged to several large trading companies in Yangzhou with official Hai Han backgrounds, and the rest were jointly held by local officials, merchants and gentry.
The profits from the mine operations, after deducting the taxes paid to the Ming government, will be distributed among the shareholders in proportion.
Not all of the taxes collected by the Liuhe County Government were turned over to the imperial court, because in addition to covering the daily expenses of the county government, the local revenue had to cover the expenses of more than a thousand troops stationed in the county, so there was actually not much left.
Shi Chengwu asked doubtfully, "Shouldn't the military expenditure of the Ming army be allocated by the Ministry of War?"
Zhou Sen said: "Nanjing City has been lost, and the Ministry of War is not willing to allocate money to the South! I heard that the court is going to build a new defense line to the east of Shuntian Prefecture to protect the capital. I guess all the money in the Ministry of War has been spent there!"
Last year, under the command of Chen Yixin, the Northern Region marched straight to the capital and fought all the way to Tongzhou. Although they later signed a ceasefire agreement and withdrew their troops, the Iron Gate Shanhaiguan in the east and Tianjinwei, the gateway to Bohai Sea, were both occupied by Hai Han.
This means that as long as Hai Han is willing, it can attack the capital again at any time. If the Ming Dynasty wants to resolve this risk, it must either move the capital to another place or build a solid defense line in the capital area.
It is impossible to relocate. Once such a move is made, it will be tantamount to voluntarily giving up Shuntian Prefecture, which has been operated by the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years.
What's more, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, who decided to move the capital to Shuntian Prefecture in Beiping, and subsequent emperors, a total of twelve people, and a large number of empresses and concubines, were all buried in the imperial mausoleum in the northwest of the capital. Even the mausoleum built by Emperor Chongzhen for himself was also there. How could this place be easily handed over to the enemy?
In this way, it would be more reasonable for Ming to plan to build a new line of defense in Shuntian Prefecture to prevent Hai Han from attacking the capital directly. However, such a line of defense would require a huge investment and a long construction period. It is hard to say whether Ming Dynasty is still capable of building such a large project.
If what Zhou Sen said is true, then this project has affected the Ming Dynasty's military spending in other regions. There may be more than one region like Liuhe County that needs to bear the cost of garrisoning troops on its own. This is a relatively valuable piece of information.
Shi Chengwu's expression eased a little, and he ordered his men to remove the shackles from Zhou Sen's body. He said in a friendly manner: "If you know anything else, you may as well tell me in detail."
Zhou Sen said, "I have offended Wang Bingzhong this time, and I am afraid my family will be persecuted by him. Please mediate on my behalf."
Shi Chengwu nodded, called his adjutant over, and asked him to lead the team to protect Zhou Sen's family. Fortunately, Zhou Sen's family lived in a courtyard adjacent to the county government office, and there were Hai Han soldiers inside and outside, so Wang Bingzhong's men did not dare to cause trouble here.
Seeing this, Zhou Sen felt much more relaxed, and Shi Chengwu learned some other information from him.
The situation of Liuhe and Jiangpu counties, which originally belonged to Yingtian Prefecture, became very awkward after the change of ownership of Nanjing City last year. Although the imperial court wanted to arrange for the neighboring Chuzhou and Fengyang Prefectures to take over temporarily, no one was willing to take on these two hot potatoes, because everyone knew that Hai Han would sooner or later cross the river and attack the north bank, and these two counties would definitely be the first to bear the brunt.
Although the two counties had decent fiscal revenues thanks to the quartz sand mines within their borders, this part of the profit had already been divided up by the relevant people, and outsiders would not be able to gain much benefit from it. Therefore, Chuzhou and Fengyang refused to send reinforcements to the two counties. Similar situations were probably the norm in the Jianghuai region north of the Yangtze River. Last year's war between the Ming Dynasty and Hai Han caused serious losses to all the places in Jiangbei that contributed money and effort to reinforce Yingtian Prefecture. Afterwards, the court could not come up with any compensation and appeasement measures, but instead increased the tax quota in the Jianghuai region, which disappointed all the prefectures.
Nowadays, these provinces are acting independently and trying to preserve their strength. They have begun to disobey the imperial court's orders and are no longer willing to fully cooperate.
Shi Chengwu said: "Since Jiangpu County's situation is similar to Liuhe County, what attitude do you think Jiangpu County will have towards our army?"
Zhou Sen understood his hidden meaning and replied with a wry smile: "Jiangpu County Magistrate Bi is old and probably doesn't have the energy to organize a resistance."
Shi Chengwu was still worried, so he asked again, "Are there any other troublesome people in the area?"
Zhou Sen shook his head and said, "I have never heard of it. If the general trusts me, I would like to write a letter to Jiangpu to persuade Magistrate Bi to open the city and surrender."
Seeing that he was so docile, Shi Chengwu couldn't help but wonder why he was tied up by Wang Bingzhong and used as a sacrifice to surrender the city.
Zhou Sen sighed and said, "Wang Bingzhong is reckless and afraid of death. He opened the city without even discussing the conditions. If the leader of the army is a bloodthirsty person, all the people in the city will be killed by him!"
Shi Chengwu said: "So you had a dispute with him before, just to negotiate terms with us before surrendering? Why did I hear that many people advised you to open the city and surrender, but you refused? You also gave an order to Wang Bingzhong to start the war, is this true?"
Zhou Sen said without changing his expression, "Those who advised me to open the city and surrender are people who have connections with your country. I am not sure if they are playing tricks. As for Wang Bingzhong, I knew he didn't have the guts to start a war, but I didn't expect him to dare to attack me."
After listening to what Shi Chengwu said, he felt that he had some truth in his words, so he told him that Wang Bingzhong's family was the shopkeeper of a business in Yangzhou.
Zhou Sen suddenly understood why Wang Bingzhong had the guts to surrender without reaching an agreement with the Hai Han army. It turned out that he had a way out. He thought that this was a safe approach for the overall situation, but in Wang Bingzhong's eyes, it was probably blocking his bright road to promotion and wealth. Naturally, he was eager to kick away this stumbling block.
General Shi Chengwu had a pretty good understanding of the situation, so he let Zhou Sen go to see his family first. At the same time, he ordered him to write a letter of persuasion as soon as possible and send it to Jiangpu County by express horse.
Since there was no trouble in Liuhe County, Shi Chengwu did not plan to spend too much time here. Once the local temporary management committee was up and running, he could lead his troops to Jiangpu County in the west.
However, Zhou Sen and Wang Bingzhong have already had a feud, so it is obviously not convenient to place both of them in the temporary management committee. They must be separated.