"Strengthening military discipline is important, but before strengthening military discipline, there are still some necessary conditions. Once the conditions are met, everything will come naturally, so that our soldiers of Dachen will become stronger. Not to mention surpassing Yan State, they may be able to be even more comparable to Liang State!" Zhu Xiuyuan said with a smile.

"Beyond Yan State, beside Liang State! Haha, good, be better than Yan State, beside Liang State!"

Emperor Chen was excited, laughed loudly, and slapped the table.

"I wonder what the necessary conditions mentioned by the Marquis are?" Han Qingshan asked.

"Simple, food, and armor and equipment!"

Zhu Xiuyuan raised two fingers.

After he said this, the entire hall fell into death-like silence again.

Chen Huang, who was excited and slapped the table, suddenly stiffened there, and he shook slightly twice...

Food and pay and equipment require a lot of money.

There are so many soldiers across the country, how much money does this cost... it would be better to kill Emperor Chen with one sword.

But Zhu Xiuyuan seemed to have not discovered this.

He only heard him say, "As far as I know, the food and salary of the Yan army is more than twice as high as the soldiers of our Great Chen. And the soldiers of the Liang State are several times higher than the soldiers of our Great Chen!"

"At least, the food and salary of my Dachen soldiers must reach the level of the Yan army!"

"Then there are armor and weapons, etc. The elite troops must at least wear black iron armor. The weapons they use also need to be made of exquisite iron, and they must not be ambiguous!"

"As the saying goes, if you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools. This is the reason. Before strengthening military discipline, you must first ensure food, pay and weapons. Only in this way can you build an iron-blooded army!"

"In this way, surpassing Yan State and comparing with Liang State will be just around the corner!"

Zhu Xiuyuan finished speaking!

Then the only source of sound in the entire hall disappeared.

"Shenlei Marquis, we all understand what you said, but... but the imperial court's Ministry of Revenue has limited taxes, so we give priority to protecting you Shenlei Army and Changning Imperial Army. I am afraid... the court is powerless!" said a general.

"Yes, according to the Marquis, the food and salary reach the level of the Yan army, and the elite troops also need black iron armor and weapons made of fine iron... These are all difficult to achieve!" said another general.

Everyone talked for a while, and Emperor Chen suddenly waved his hand, and the ministers' heated discussion stopped.

"My dear, your good strategy is indeed a way to strengthen the army, but... all dear dear know that I, Dachen, have been causing constant natural disasters in the past two years, and the disaster relief in various places has been used to provide a lot of money and food!"

Chen Huang's tone was quite peaceful.

Because the person who dared to propose food and military supplies was Zhu Xiuyuan.

If it were someone else, Emperor Chen would have been depressed.

"And the tribute to Liang State..." As soon as he said this, Emperor Chen gritted his teeth.

"There is another point. I wish you a return. Your Majesty just ordered a general amnesty and a reduction in the world's taxes..." Concubine You added one.

Zhu Xiuyuan's mouth twitched, thinking that he was blamed for me?

"Anyway, although my dear friend's method of strengthening the army is good,... it is not suitable for me, Da Chen!"

Emperor Chen shook his head repeatedly, then looked at King Zhongshan again and asked, "What are the great ideas of Uncle Zhongshan?"

"Your Majesty, old minister..."

King Zhongshan struggled for a while, as if he wanted to stand up, but this was impossible.

"The old minister spent half his life in the camp and half his life in war. He knew more about the various shortcomings in our Dachen army!"

King Zhongshan gave up and got up, but his voice was very loud.

"The old minister believes that if we want to strengthen the army and surpass Yan State, then General Han's military discipline and the proposals for strengthening the army, as well as the food, salary and military equipment of the Shenlei Marquis, all need to be adopted!"

"In addition, the old minister also needs to add one: eliminate the ills of the military!"

Taking advantage of Zhu Xiuyuan's words, King Zhongshan was very blunt after all.

After hearing this, Emperor Chen's face changed several times.

Finally, he sighed, fell back to the dragon throne, wiped his face and asked, "My dear friends, is there no other way?"

"Your Majesty, the old minister thinks that if you want to strengthen the army, this method may be the only way to do it!" King Zhongshan's voice was very loud.

"Your Majesty, I will discuss it!"

The generals following Zhong Shanwang immediately agreed as if they were following the crowd.

They had no reason to disagree. They were so happy that they only increased their food and wages...

"Since that's the case, can you all beloved officials have a plan to increase revenue and reduce expenditure? After all, the Ministry of Revenue only has so much taxes..."

Emperor Chen became decadent and collapsed on the dragon throne.

He once again felt the difficulty of a strong country!

He experienced this kind of difficulty when he was young. That time, he gave up... The result was that he paid tribute to Liang Guo every year!

Now that Emperor Chen asked this sentence, he was actually quite helpless, and he also meant to throw the problem to his ministers.

Since you all think you should increase your food and pay and create better weapons, but you don’t have money, what do you think you should do?

"Well……"

Emperor Chen gave up the blame, and the ministers immediately became mute.

Even the people from the Ministry of Revenue cannot do such a problem well, let alone military officers like them.

Emperor Chen is seeking medical treatment by an emergency.

They shouldn't be asked about this kind of question!

"Increase revenue and reduce expenditure, increase revenue and reduce expenditure..." Zhu Xiuyuan muttered in secret. Suddenly, his inspiration flashed and remembered the way Emperor Wu of Han opened up his source-

Salt and iron specialty.

The reason why Zhu Xiuyuan thought of this was actually because he had secretly thought about the problem of dealing with salt in the past few days after returning to Beijing.

I have been thinking about salt all day long, and naturally I think of the salt and iron franchise.

In Zhu Xiuyuan's idea, Jingyan will definitely let it appear, after all, this is a huge deal.

He doesn't plan to take the high-end route either.

Instead, make fine salt into a low-priced product to seize all markets!

In fact, this way of making small profits but quick turnover can make more money.

Of course, there is also the consideration of "benefiting the people". In Zhu Xiuyuan's perception, salt is a cheap commodity, nothing special.

Zhu Xiuyuan is actually quite difficult to accept the current phenomenon of high-priced salt.

Moreover, in order to do this big deal, Zhu Xiuyuan returned to Beijing and learned about the current salt administration in Chen State and the situation of the people eating salt.

The salt administration of Chen State was actually quite chaotic.

The salt tax obtained by the imperial court was actually very small, and most of the benefits generated by salt were earned by salt merchants on the southeast coast.

Of course, this is the "innate disadvantage" that Chen State had since its founding.

It was tied up too many interests and could hardly be shaken, so all the courts just let it go.

As for the situation where the people buy salt and eat salt, it is even more of a bloody and tears...

Most people eat coarse salt, which is of poor quality and high price. In some families, most of the cost of buying salt accounts for half.

Anyway, it's just miserable!

When Zhu Xiuyuan learned about these situations, he made up his mind to make the fine salt into low-priced goods, benefit the people, and make some pocket money from it...

Now it's just right that the court is short of money, so he can cooperate with the court to buy salt together.

With the influence of the court, his salt will definitely quickly seize the market, and the profits in it are probably astronomical.

In this way, it can be said that it will kill three goals in one fell swoop!

It not only allowed him to make money, but also solved the problem of the lack of money in the imperial court, and also allowed the people to eat high-quality and low-priced salt!

Perfect!

"Your Majesty, I may have a way to solve all the current problems!"
Chapter completed!