I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 504 Huge Bill
Zhu Houzhao proudly said in his edict that "the inland areas did not know the hardship of conscription, and the military and civilians did not know the suffering of war." The reason why Zhu Houzhao could say this was entirely because Zhu Houxun spent money to buy it.
Why don’t people in the Mainland feel that being conscripted is very tiring?
That was because Zhu Houxuan paid enough money, so the conscripted people naturally did not feel the hardship. Not only did they not feel the hardship, they also hoped that this money-making job could last longer.
Why don’t the soldiers and civilians know the pain of war?

That was because Zhu Houxuan did a great job in logistics. The soldiers fighting on the front lines had no idea what it felt like to have a shortage of logistics. In order to maintain the healthy mental state and morale of the soldiers on the Western Expedition, Zhu Houxuan even went to great lengths to rotate the troops.
The 60,000 guards Zhu Houzhao brought with him had already been rotated to the interior, and the rest of the guards were transferred to the Western Regions for rotation.
Zhu Houzhao liked the rotation battle plan very much and even wrote a long letter to praise Zhu Houxuan. But how did he achieve this? It was all done with money.
The above is only the military expenditure. It also costs money to migrate to the Western Regions and relocate the garrisons there, and the cost is not small.

Part of the migration cost is spent on the road, and the bulk of it is used to subsidize immigrants and military households in the garrisons. After all, no one would be willing to go to a barbaric place like the Western Regions without sufficient subsidies.

During these three years, Zhu Houxun relocated a total of 100 people from three garrisons to the Western Regions. The migration cost for each person was as high as 100 silver yuan coupons. Even though the silver yuan coupons have depreciated a little now, 1000 silver yuan coupons are still a considerable amount of money. In this way, more than million silver coins were spent.

It can also be expected that for a very long period of time, the Western Regions will not be able to bring any income to the central government, and the Ming central government will need to make a large investment in the Western Regions in order to maintain stability there, which means spending money, at least 600 million silver coins every year.

That's not even counting the money spent on preparatory work, such as building railways and roads.
If the Ming Dynasty's finances were still like in the eighth year of Zhengde, with the central government's silver revenue of only three or four million taels, and the rest in kind, the Ming Dynasty's finances would be dragged down just to maintain the stability of the Western Regions, not to mention the expedition to the Western Regions. The cost of the expedition to the Western Regions would bankrupt the Ming Dynasty's finances more than a dozen times.
Fortunately, Zhu Houxun was really able to print money, and the steam-powered printing press was running at full capacity, otherwise it would not have been able to withstand Zhu Houzhao's spending.
Zhu Houxuan also used all his skills and lifelong knowledge to constantly improve every detail, fearing that Zhu Houzhao would fail for some insignificant reason.
Thanks to the opening of the American route, the Royal Group was able to obtain gold and silver from America at a very low cost, and Zhu Houxuan also relied on these gold and silver to maintain the value and credit of the silver yuan notes and keep the central government from going bankrupt.
For this reason, the Royal Group's long-distance fleet took away most of the gold and silver accumulated by the Inca Empire over the past two thousand years. It can be said that it was the gold and silver accumulated by the Inca Empire over the past two thousand years that helped the Ming Dynasty expand its territory.
However, this gold and silver is only a small part of the gold and silver in America. Due to the limitations of the indigenous technical capabilities, many gold and silver mines in America have not yet been mined.
Even so, the central government's finances, or the finances of the Royal Group, were in a tight spot. On the one hand, they had to maintain the expedition, on the other hand, they had to develop industry, on the other hand, they had to build infrastructure, and on the other hand, there was the bottomless pit of education.
Therefore, compared with Zhu Houzhao's comfortable and enjoyable life in the Western Regions in recent years, Zhu Houxuan's life in the past three years was quite miserable.
It was precisely because of this that he sent Chen Hong, the person he trusted most, to Jiayuguan, just to confirm that Zhu Houzhao had really returned, instead of continuing to stay in the Western Regions to cause trouble and expand the war. Otherwise, Zhu Houzhao would really go crazy!
It was for this reason that Chen Hong felt relieved when he saw Zhu Houzhao in person.
In response to Zhu Houzhao's question, Chen Hong quickly said: "Your Highness misses Your Majesty very much and hopes that Your Majesty will return soon."

"Prince Jing often writes to me, and in his letters he often urges me to come back," Zhu Houzhao said with a smile.

"As a result, I actually feel a little homesick when I get here. Prince Jing has worked very hard in the past few years. He has scolded me a lot in his letters. I am a little afraid that he will scold me when I return to Beijing." Zhu Houzhao said in a joking tone.

The people around to greet him pretended not to hear what Zhu Houzhao said.

Zhu Houzhao also skipped this topic and continued, "Where is the governor of Shaanxi?"

"Shaanxi Governor Yao Wenyuan has come here in response to the imperial edict!" an official stepped out and said.

"Mr. Yao, are the 4,000 coffins that I asked you to prepare in the imperial edict ready?" Zhu Houzhao looked straight at Yao Wenyuan.

Yao Wenyuan felt that Zhu Houzhao brought him tremendous pressure, which made him feel suffocated.
He said in a reluctant voice: "Four thousand coffins have been prepared in accordance with your majesty's order. Now these coffins are stored outside the city of Xi'an." "Well done!" Zhu Houzhao praised casually.

"I wonder why Your Majesty wants so many coffins? Is it because there are huge casualties in the army?" Yang Yiqing asked with concern.

"No, there are no major casualties in the army. These coffins are not for the soldiers in the army." Zhu Houzhao said.

Yang Yiqing thought quickly, and then he really thought of something.
"Could it be the Anxi Army?" Yang Yiqing asked in surprise.

"They are the remains of the Anxi Army, but another part of them are the remains of the Guiyi Army." Zhu Houzhao nodded and said.

"I promised three years ago to bring back the remains of these heroes of the Chinese nation, and I must keep my promise. After my Western Expedition, I sent people to search and collect them for three years, but unfortunately only collected nearly four thousand remains. This time I brought them all back, and I want to build a shrine for them so that they can be worshipped for generations to come." Zhu Houzhao said with great emotion.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace!" Yao Wenyuan bowed down quickly.

“Your Majesty, there is no need to blame yourself. It has been seven hundred years. It is very rare to collect so many remains of the Anxi and Guiyi armies.” Yang Yiqing said quickly.

The Shaanxi people in the welcoming team instantly became excited and bowed to Zhu Houzhao, saying: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace. We, the Shaanxi people, will never forget it."

Others also uttered praises.
Zhu Houzhao waved his hand and saw a large number of carts full of body bags appearing behind him. These were prepared for the expeditionary army, but they were not used much in three years. Zhu Houzhao used them to store the remains of the Anxi Army and the Guiyi Army.
(End of this chapter)