How many regular legions can the Ming Dynasty expand now? This is not actually how much money the Ming Dynasty has now, nor how much Zhu Cijiu wants to expand. It is mainly determined by the reserves and production speed of weapons and equipment.

Zhu Cijing wanted to expand ten legions at once, pressed them up, and overturned all the Wats and Tsarist Russia, and then finished the work and let some people go back to continue farming.

However, expanding the army is not just about gathering people. It is necessary to form a regular legion, muskets, artillery, war horses, telegraph machines, etc., and without these things, it is no different from the reserve legion.

Zhu Cijing didn't know much about the reserve quantity or production speed of these things, so he had to ask someone to ask. Just so happened that he had to find someone to discuss the specific strategies of the Western Regions. He simply made two things together and recruited all relevant personnel at once.

It is said that he is all the relevant personnel, but in fact he can recruit not many, because almost all the senior generals have gone to the front line. Only Qin Liangyu and Shi Kefa stayed near the capital, and the civil servants are basically there, but no matter how many calls are, it is useless!

In the end, Zhu Cijing simply recruited Qin Liangyu, Bi Maokang, Sun Yuanhua, Cheng Guoxiang, Shi Kefa and Wang Zhengnan to discuss. There were only six people in total, and they didn’t even have to go to a special conference room, just hold a meeting in his study.

Except for Shi Kefa who was a little far away, the others were all in the capital. The next morning, six people gathered in Zhu Cijing's private study room and began to discuss strategies for the Western Regions.

Zhu Cijiu first introduced the current situation roughly, and then said firmly: "This time, it is obvious that the anti-Habsburg alliance is making trouble behind the scenes, and wants to hold back or even drag down the Ming Dynasty to gain time for development and catch up with the Ming Dynasty in an all-round way. To catch up with the Ming Dynasty, they must expand their colonies, otherwise the economy and resources will not be able to catch up. Therefore, we must end the war between the two or three lines as soon as possible, free up our hands and restrain their subsequent expansion."

Everyone here can understand the previous words. The gap between the European powers and the Ming Dynasty in military industry is not very big, and the two sides are mainly competing for economy and resources.

Now, the vast territory of the Ming Dynasty is simply incomparable to the European powers. Whether it is competing for economy or resources, they are no match for them.

Then, only by expanding to the outside world, robbing colonies and plundering resources can they catch up with the Ming Dynasty.

But everyone is a little confused about the last sentence of ending the war between the two or three lines as soon as possible. Everyone knows the situation of the three lines. In addition to South Asia, there is still a little hope to solve it in the short term. No matter how you look at the other two lines, it will not be solved in a short time, because the Ming Dynasty has no soldiers to send!

Zhu Cijing certainly knew the problem, and he immediately said: "Now, the key to the problem is that we have no more troops to invest in the battles on both sides, so I decided to continue to expand the army, and expand as much as possible!"

Is it still expanding the army? Now the regular and reserve corps of the Ming Dynasty have all reached a terrifying 2.6 million. Except for the early days of the founding of the dynasty, when did the Ming Dynasty gather so many people? Even in the early days of the founding of the dynasty, it did not last long before most of the people were dispersed and farmed, because the Ming Dynasty's national strength could not afford so many troops.

Now the tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty cannot afford so many troops. Cheng Guoxiang knows the most. Most of the military expenditure in recent years has been allocated from the Royal Rixing Bank of the Ming Dynasty. That is the money earned by the emperor himself, not the tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty!

He didn't know how much money the royal family could make in a year, so he was worried. If the royal family's business could not make ends meet, it would be troublesome. You should know that it was a hole of tens of millions of taels a year.

When he heard that the emperor was going to expand his army, he immediately couldn't help but dissuade him: "Your Majesty, please forgive me for being rude, this military expenditure may be difficult to maintain."

Zhu Cijiong raised his hand and said proudly: "Zhongruo doesn't have to worry, even if he expands his army, I can still support it!"

When everyone heard this, they all showed an admiration. In all dynasties, only the state supported the royal family, and had never obedient to the royal family to make money to supplement the national treasury. They can roughly estimate how much military expenditure the Ming army needs in a year, which is at least hundreds of millions of taels. How much does the emperor have to pay in a year!

Zhu Cijiu really doesn't care how much money you pay for it, because this era is an era of the strong prey on the weak. The stronger the army, the more colonies it plunders, and the more colonies it has, the more profit it has obtained. In this way, the money you spend can be earned sooner or later.

If there is no strong army, no matter how much money it is, it will be stolen by people.

The Qing Dynasty is a good example. More than one billion taels of silver were robbed by the great powers. If this silver was used to expand the army, who would be the opponent in the world at that time?

Thinking of this, Zhu Cijing said firmly again: "Don't consider other issues for the time being. Now, the Ming Dynasty must expand its army and suppress the great powers, otherwise, the disaster will not be far away. Meng Hou, how many troops can the muskets and artillery in the Ministry of Industry stock be equipped with?"

After hearing this, Bi Maokang estimated it roughly and immediately bowed: "If it were the third-class legion, it would be possible to equip 150,000 people."

It's only 150,000, which seems to be a little small, but I can't care about so much anymore. Zhu Cijing nodded and said, "Well, I immediately ordered the relevant factories to work overtime. Within half a month, I will ask for weapons and equipment from two third-class legions."

Upon hearing this, Bi Maokang hurriedly bowed again: "Weichen understands."

Zhu Cijiu nodded, pointed to the Western Regions map on the conference table and continued: "I decided to use the thorns as a breakthrough point to break through the Western Regions passage, directly carry the railway from Hamiwei to the Ob River Basin, attack Tsarist Russia from the east and south, and take down the entire Siberia in one fell swoop!"

When everyone heard this, their eyes lit up. The breakthrough point of Watshu is indeed good. If the railway can be built into the Ob River Basin, Tsarist Russia will undoubtedly be defeated.

However, the military strength seemed to be a bit insufficient, Qin Liangyu couldn't help but remind: "Emperor, all countries in the Western Regions are remnants of the Mongol Yuan. If they unite, the 500,000 army would probably be in danger!"

Zhu Cijing nodded and sighed: "Yes, I have to be careful about this. Come to Xian, how are you investigating the relationship between countries in the Western Regions?"

Wang Zhengnan hurriedly bowed: "Return to the emperor, according to investigation, the Yarkand Khanate and Wassai have the worst relationship, because they are descendants of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate who was destroyed by Wassai; Khalkha also had conflicts with Wassai, but there has been no friction in recent years; the Kazakh Khanate is closer to Tsarist Russia and has also had conflicts with Wassai tribe; as for the moon, it seems that there are very few people looking north, and they are mainly fighting with the Persian Safavi Empire."

The reason why Zhu Cijiu understands the relationship between the countries in the Western Regions was to first attract a group of people to fight again and again, because the Ming army is indeed not strong enough now. If they go to war with the five countries in the Western Regions at the same time, they will definitely lose more than they win.

Judging from the information found by the Jinyiwei, the Yarkand Khanate should not help the Wass. The Kazakh Khanate has now been persuaded by Tsarist Russia to join forces with the Wasss to attack the Ming Dynasty, so there is no need to consider it and it must be fought.
Chapter completed!