Turbulent Times Chapter 1014: It’s all made of money

Before, Wang Junlin felt that he had too much money to spend. Except for the money spent by the intelligence organization led by Shen Guoer, he didn't have any big expenses. Every day, he owned perfume, backing wine, Xiaoyu Theater, Lihuaxiang Tea, the weapon town in the northwest, etc., are all ways to make money every day, and now the money is just used to raise soldiers.

In order to maintain a force of 15,000 people, the paid soldiers and even the garrison are almost completely self-financed, the requirements for logistical supplies are extremely demanding, not to mention that the county army has cavalry battalions, infantry battalions, In the water camp, the complexity increased geometrically.

According to what Wang Junlin asked Nie Xiaoyu to settle a bill years ago, the property under his name can support a maximum of 30,000 troops, which is naturally enough money for the moment, but Wang Junlin knows very well that in the future the Great Sui In the troubled times, 30,000 troops are far from enough.

Of course, when the world falls apart, Fanyang County's salt tax, commercial tax, and grain tax can naturally be controlled by itself, and it will be no problem to support another 40,000 to 50,000 people with the power of one county. What's more, there is Lu's treasury that can be slaughtered at any time.

Wang Junlin asked Du Ruhui to focus on the civil affairs of Fanyang County, while Liu Ziming took care of the logistics supplies of all the troops. Although the two people were doing things outside the army, they were actually the busiest,

Shared most of the affairs for Wang Junlin, otherwise these things would be piled up on Wang Junlin's desk, and his head would be stretched.

Comparatively speaking, although running the army is the most important thing, it is an easy thing to do. With the help of Nie Xiaoyu and Shan Xiongxin, in the past few months, Lu Han, Guan Xiaotong, and Yuchi Jingde have been successively sent to the army. , Lu Shijun gathers his subordinates, these people are all great generals or talented people, with him pointing out, they can stand alone, of course, the premise is that he can always have enough money.

Right now, Wang Junlin still has one very important matter to do. He wants to form a formal merchant fleet, to open up sea trade routes to Japan, Goguryeo, and Silla in the north, and to reach Sui Jiangnan, Guangnan, and even Ryukyu in the south. , and toes and other Southeast Asian countries.

Wang Junlin knows better than anyone else that after the sea merchants form a safe route, the profits will be more than a hundredfold. After the sea business is completed, he will not worry about money for a long time.

And this requires a large number of sea-going ships, and such a long-distance route, ordinary civilian ships are not enough, he needs a shipyard to build large merchant ships of more than 3,000 stone.

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Before leaving the saltworks, Wang Junlin called Xu Xiaohu, Qian Zhengkuo, and Lian Zhongtao over, discussed for a while, and finally concluded: "The saltworks will build farms and cultivate fields, accumulate fertile fields, purchase animal power, and build water conservancy projects. Facilities and road construction all require long-term continuous investment. In addition to increasing investment in these things in the next period of time, in addition to reclaiming wasteland in the form of collective farms for farming, the most important thing is to build various workshops."

"The artisans trained by Xiao Yu have already learned the method of taking soil and burning bricks. You must hurry up and promote it vigorously. I hope that it will be quite large-scale within three months. This is not only the next step for the saltworks to build cities and military The most important thing is to sell the stockade and the building materials to all the people in the eight counties of the whole county, and even the entire Sui Dynasty.”

"This will be a big source of income in the plan. At least it will support the army, logistics and people's livelihood in the salt farm. Large-scale pig raising, shipbuilding, etc. are all basic factory operations that urgently need large-scale investment. Some of these have already started, and some have not yet started. The plans and methods have been given to you, and the necessary personnel Xiaoyu has also been specially trained for you. The next thing to do is to implement the implementation and expand the scale, how much money is needed, you report to Liu Ziming, and I will approve it to you."

"Especially in shipbuilding. In the next step, the navy under my command must ensure a strong surface combat capability, and the scale of the shipbuilding workshop must be expanded."

Wang Junlin finished speaking in one breath, and the three of them each took a small notebook to write it down carefully, and then repeatedly said yes.

At this time, Lian Zhongtao thought for a while and said: "My lord, what I just said, many aspects require iron, armor, arrows, war equipment, warships, and farms. The consumption of iron products is very high. There are a lot of them, and now we don’t lack ironmaking skills and craftsmen, what we lack is iron materials. I specially calculated that according to your lord’s plan, we need millions of catties to smelt raw and wrought iron and pour steel every year.”

Wang Junlin nodded. He asked Liu Ziming to make a rough estimate. In order to maintain the level of military equipment under his personal command, at least 500,000 catties of raw, wrought iron and steel would be needed each year. The level of equipment is almost directly proportional to the amount of iron used by the army.

Wang Junlin’s armies must be self-raised for the ordnance needed, and iron smelting, ironwork, and various ordnance repair workshops must spend a lot of money for construction; even from now on, it is necessary to build iron sand The storage of materials such as coal, coal, etc., so as not to cut off the supply of materials in troubled times.

Wang Junlin knows better than anyone that wars are often fought for food and money. A strong army needs excellent generals and brave soldiers. A strong army is almost all piled up with silver.

The ancients often said that "the number of soldiers is not expensive, but the elite is valuable." It's not that they don't want more elite soldiers, the better, but that the regime with farming civilization as the main body simply cannot afford to support a large army of elite soldiers. In history, there are often classic cases of winning more with less. Tactical strategy is one aspect. In fact, there is a deeper reason for this. When there are too many troops, it is difficult to ensure that there will be no problems with the logistics supply of the troops. This will easily lead to The morale of the army drops and shakes the morale of the army, but morale and morale are contagious.

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Nie Xiaoyu has already solved the problem of technology and craftsmen. Qian Zhengkuo, Lian Zhongtao, Xu Xiaohu and others are planning these things these days. The manpower of the saltworks is enough for the time being, but these factories need to be built on a large scale , In the early stage, 400,000 taels of silver will be used for preparation. To be honest, Yang Guang couldn't help but frown if he asked Yang Guang to take out so much money all at once, and it would be very difficult for the implemented household department to collect enough money, but Wang Junlin had the confidence to do so.

Of course, taking out four hundred thousand taels of silver at once would hurt even Wang Junlin.

In addition, there are still many places that need to spend money. For example, according to the plan, within three years, Wang Junlin will build a coastal city in the salt field, but the scale is smaller, but the construction cost is naturally high amazing.

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