"Ma Qing, don't be disappointed." Chongzhen said with a smile, "Even without the vassal palaces and farmlands in Guangxi, Yunnan and Huguang, the Ministry of Internal Affairs still made money from the battle in Yunnan. I have already calculated it.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs spent less than 5 million taels in total on this battle, but the goods obtained from Yunnan included 8 million taels of silver alone, in addition to various rare and rare items worth 50 million taels.

Treasure, so no matter how you calculate it, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is making a profit."

At this point, Chongzhen finally understood why Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were able to grow stronger.

Because after letting go of your hands and feet, fighting can really make money, and you can make a lot of money.

The Duke of Guizhou was already so fat. Chongzhen could not imagine how much money and rare treasures Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong had robbed from the vassal kings of Henan, Huguang, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Shanxi.

The combined value of these rare treasures is unimaginable.

Of course, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong may have difficulty realizing it.

"Your Majesty, I am greedy." Ma Mingluan said with a smile.

Waving his hand, Chongzhen asked again: "How are the ordnance preparations going?"

Ma Mingluan said hurriedly: "Going back to the Lord, 200 4-inch cannons have been built, 20 of which have been taken to Yunnan by the Lord, and the other 180 have been sent to Huguang. A total of about 20,000 flintlock guns have been built.

of which 15,000 have been sent to Huguang Communications and the New Army, and the remaining 5,000 are still in the warehouse of the Ministry of Internal Affairs."

"Two hundred 4-inch cannons and 20,000 flintlock muskets are still a bit short." Chongzhen sighed, "This reserve is not enough to launch a large-scale Northern Expedition, but can only launch a small-scale harassment war."

Ma Mingluan said quickly: "Your Majesty, the production capacity of each arsenal can be doubled this year. In other words, by the end of next year, the new army will have 50,000 flintlock muskets and 1,000 4-inch Hongyi cannons.

At that time, we can have an upright and upright decisive battle with Jiannu."

"To fight a decisive battle with the Jiannu, it is not enough to have weapons alone, but also to have food."

Chongzhen asked again: "Ma Qing, how much food has the Ministry of Internal Affairs saved in total?"

Ma Mingluan's face became a little embarrassed: "Your Majesty, there are only 400,000 shi of food left, a decrease of 100,000 shi."

Zhu Cixiang heard this and said hurriedly: "Father, this is all down to my son. It was my son who urgently transferred 100,000 shi of grain from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to Songjiang Mansion to stabilize the price of grain, but in the end..."

Chongzhen said: "In the end, all these grains were bought by grain merchants?"

"I can't hide anything from my father." Zhu Cixi said bitterly, "Father, those grain merchants are so treacherous. They specially hired people to line up in a long line in front of the rice shop designated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In the end, they actually wanted to buy

The common people could not buy rice at all, and all the rice fell into the hands of grain merchants."

A similar scene three hundred years later suddenly came to Chongzhen's mind. It was just speculation.

In this way, the nature of these merchants has never changed. These people are really willing to make any money. It is no wonder that there are Shanxi merchants who secretly resell grain and information to the slaves.

Zhu Cijiong said again: "Father, why don't you just give an edict to Yingtian Governor Jin Xuan and order him to dispatch the model soldiers of Caojiang Town to arrest these profiteers who are hoarding money?"
Chapter completed!