The recruits are enough, but now they are facing two major problems. The first is the problem of weapons. The problem of cold weapons is easy to deal with. Zhao Peng was appointed by Li Zicheng as the supervisor of the Military Weapons Bureau of the Capital. In the process of creating weapons, some materials can be deducted for making weapons for himself. Ordinary firearms are also easy to deal with. Use some materials to save Li Zicheng's cannon to build Lumi guns and turtle dove guns; the most troublesome thing is grenades and gunpowder. These grenades must be filled with new gunpowder "made by Zhao Peng". If ordinary black [fire] medicine is used to charge the medicine, its power is far less than that of new gunpowder. The burning speed of new gunpowder can reach 5,000 meters per second, which can reach half of the modern explosives, while the burning speed of black [fire] medicine is only one-eighth of the new gunpowder. Even the granulated and improved black [fire] medicine has no more than one thousand meters per second.

To produce new gunpowder, you need a lot of sugar. In this era, sugar is a luxury. Ordinary people use brown sugar at home. Even wealthy people such as dignitaries and salt merchants, most of the storage in their homes is brown sugar. At this time, sugar was very expensive and more expensive than refined salt. This allows you to imagine how rare this thing was back then.

The second is the military pay and food issues of the new recruits. Gao Wencai was not a wealthy and noble family. After surrendering to Li Zicheng, he also donated military pay and 1,000 taels of silver according to the requirements of the Shun Army.

Li Zicheng specially changed the original Jinyiwei Beizhenfusi to the Fufusi Department, and after registering officials above the fourth rank and above, he began to recover stolen money and provide assistance. At the same time, Li Zicheng adopted the Tang system, changing the cabinet to the Grand Secretary of the Tianyou Hall, six ministries to six governments, and Hanlin Academy to the Hongwen Academy; changing the six departments to the court clerks, the Thirteen Censors to the Direct Instructors, Shangbaosi was the Shangxi Department, Tongzhengsi was the Minister of the Government, and the head was the entrusted; in addition, he merged and abolished some management etiquette institutions. The chariot and horses were abolished, and the eunuchs were limited to no more than a thousand. In the local area, the governor was changed to the governor, the governor was the governor, the military was the governor, and the military was the defense envoy; the prefect was changed to the prefecture, the governor was changed to the prefecture and the prefecture was changed to the county magistrate.

According to Li Zicheng's regulations, the Grand Secretary and above must pay 100,000 taels of salary, 70,000 taels of honors, 50,000 officials of the Ministry of Education, 30,000 officials, 10,000 taels of Hanlin, and 1,000 taels of minor officials. Even Luo Yangxing donated 50,000 taels of silver. Of course, Gao Wencai is far inferior to Luo Yangxing. Donating 1,000 taels of money was almost his limit.

Li Zicheng was a small official who had no money and was given a salary of 1,000 taels of silver to help him. Where can he have the money to support his soldiers?

Seeing Gao Wencai's face frowning, Zhao Peng offered a plan: "Brother, don't be anxious. For new recruits' rations, you and I can go to the palace to meet the King of Chuang and ask him for food. For the matter of making gunpowder and weapons, we will discuss with King of Chuang together. As for the issue of military pay, when our army goes south, it will be the home of civil servants and gentry."

"Well, that's all." They really have no better way at the moment, so they can only ask the King of Chuang to ask for food and materials for producing weapons. For military pay, they can only search their homes when they go south.

The silver copied from civil and military officials in the capital by Li Zicheng's assistant to the tutoring department surprised Gao Wencai, especially the righteous former chief minister Chen Yan, who was forced to pay five million taels of silver by Liu Zongmin! This number is shocking, and none of the other officials above the fourth rank can be said to be clean.

Although small officials under the fifth rank in the capital are relatively honest, and some people can even be said to be very poor, this is not their own voluntary, but it is impossible to do anything. There are so many high-ranking officials in the capital, and it is basically not their turn to accept bribes and filial piety. Therefore, after becoming a Jinshi, they have certain financial resources at home and need subsidies from their families to survive in the capital. There is an advantage of being a small official in the capital, that is, after being released from the future, the speed of promotion is much greater than that of being a Jinshi and being a magistrate.

The next morning, Gao Wencai and Zhao Peng went to the palace to meet Saint Li Zicheng.

When they saw Li Zicheng, before they could speak, Li Zicheng asked first: "What is the image of thunder that you have created? How difficult is it to speak! I can help him with all my strength."

The new gunpowder charge of the sky-shaking thunder really shocked Li Zicheng. He believed that as long as there were more such powerful weapons, as long as everyone in his elite old camp could be equipped with this sky-shaking thunder, it would not be a problem to flatten the Eight Banners. Of course, he also knew that the gap was too big. According to the elite old camp of the Shun Army, each of the four, which would require 100,000!

Zhao Peng quickly saluted: "I need another thousand kilograms of white sugar, but before the army sets out, I will create another two thousand thunders for Your Majesty. Your Majesty, I will not hide it from Your Majesty. New gunpowder needs to be made of white sugar. Therefore, it requires a lot of white sugar."

Li Zicheng laughed: "I think you can eat sugar, but you are not afraid of sweetness? Since you create thunder, I will give my own gifts. In addition, there must be more firearms such as turtle dove guns, turtle machines, tiger squat cannons, etc. to deal with Jiannu from Liaodong!"

"Your Majesty, I have something to ask you for."

"But it's okay!"

Zhao Peng hurriedly bowed and said, "Your Majesty, the new gunpowder matter must be kept strictly secrets and should not be known to Jiannu, otherwise it will be an unprecedented disaster in China."

Li Zicheng laughed and said, "I know that the army's powerful weapons can be underestimated to others? If Jiannu also creates thunder in the sky. I will make the essence and armor tight. Since the two gunpowder can actually shake the sky, it is powerful. If you use decorations to decorate guns and cannons, wouldn't it be powerful?"

"Your Majesty must not! This medicine is too powerful to be used to load guns and cannons. Otherwise, before the projectile was released, the guns and cannons would explode on their own. Not only could they not kill Jiannu, but they would injure our army."

Li Zicheng smiled slightly and said, "So that's it. I know it, so I love you. When I sent troops to Shanhaiguan, I got Wu Sangui, and I had no time to send troops to Liaodong to fight against Jiannu! With Zhao Qing's thunder, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty could not settle for Liaodong, and they would definitely succeed."

Gao Wencai bowed and said, "Your Majesty, the army has gone before it can move food and grass. Your Majesty's army will go to Shanhaiguan. The rear needs our Jinyiwei to monitor the civil servants and gentry in the capital, and also need the Jinyiwei to obtain the military information of Jiannu. I am ordered to recruit more than 2,000 Jinyiwei, but I really have no food to support them. I hope Your Majesty will allocate grain and grass for me."

Li Zicheng said: "Gao Aiqing, the north is drought and there is no enough food. When I arrived in Beijing, the grain transportation was gone, and I was short of food. In this way, I will personally conquer Shanhaiguan and conquer Shanhaiguan for half a month, and I will pay the wages to the tribes. You will buy grain with silver."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Gao Wencai said with gratitude. Although he did not get the food he needed most, it was already very good that Li Zicheng could send the military pay to everyone.

The reason why Li Zicheng wanted to provide large-scale salary was for money. The rebel army came from Shanxi, and the Ming army surrendered along the way. The rebel army's forces had expanded to 50,000 or 600,000 troops. So many surrendered soldiers needed military salary, but Li Zicheng could not pay military salary, so he had to focus his attention on the surrendered Ming officials.

Zhao Peng said again: "Your Majesty needs a large amount of pig iron to build many cannons and firearms. You also need pig iron to create a thunder. In this way, I need at least 30,000 kilograms of pig iron. I hope your Majesty will be right."

"Authentication!" Li Zicheng smiled and waved his hand, and directly gave Zhao Peng 30,000 kilograms of pig iron.
Chapter completed!