Lord of the House

Vol 12 Chapter 42: Fire Crossbow

(Ten years after graduation, I will go back to my alma mater for the party tomorrow, and ask for three to four days off)

Haizhou is prosperous because of the military. The military port, camp city, and logistics system have brought a large number of people. The huge military supply market has attracted a large number of emerging workshop owners, merchants, craftsmen, and hired workers, making Haizhou appear in a short period of time. thriving prosperity.

At the same time, Haizhou is a brand new seaport and city port, so Haizhou can be built according to Lin Bing's thoughts.

Lin Fu nominally came to Haizhou to oversee the army and preside over the Northern Command, but after he arrived in Haizhou, he left his daily military affairs to Gao Zongting, Wu Qi, and Ge Cunxin. His own thoughts were mainly on Haizhou City Port. on the construction.

In order to facilitate direct interference in Haizhou's government affairs, Lin Fu entrusted Luo Yicheng, the prefect of Haizhou, to also lead the Zuo Dianshu of the Northern Command.

The support of Haizhou City was originally planned and budgeted. Lin Fu intervened, especially when Lin Fu had some incredible new ideas from time to time. The local officials of Haizhou Prefecture were naturally happy, but they called Jiang Huai Xuanfu. The envoy and the Privy Council complained.

In November, seeing that the situation was uncontrollable, Lin Mengde had to come to Haizhou in person to persuade Lin Fushao to intervene in local government affairs.

"Master Guo, you don't know that firewood, rice, oil and salt are expensive," Lin Meng said with a bitter face, sitting in front of Lin Fu, complaining, "You arrive in Haizhou for a month, and the Haizhou government will report to Huaidong's envoy. The extra cost of 300,000 silver dollars. Luo Yicheng has no good intentions, so he can't wait to put some money for Haizhou. Holding your words, go to Huaidong Xuanfu Envoy Secretary, Huaidong Xuanfu Envoy Si Bei is not , but where can I allocate an extra 300,000 silver dollars this year? I can only go to the top of the Privy Council—I brought all the requests for the Privy Council sent by Feiqi in November. My lord, you can review them for Mengde. See which money should be allocated and which should not be allocated?"

In the Privy Council, Lin Mengde has the highest qualifications and the most outstanding achievements. Luo Yicheng said a few words, and he couldn't say a word while sitting on the side.

Lin Fu watched Lin Mengde open the small wooden crate that he was carrying, took out a handful of letter boxes, grinned, pushed the letter boxes back to Lin Mengde, and said, "You are the big housekeeper, you can't approve the money. Son, just reject it. That's fine, forget it this year, the Privy Council will squeeze out an additional 300,000 silver dollars for Haizhou next year; if there is any shortage, I will arrest Qian Xiaowu and see if the inner government can squeeze it out. some come..."

"200,000 silver dollars is worth the sky," Lin Mengde bargained and said, "My lord still wants to ask for more, let's see if the military can squeeze some out from elsewhere. Next year, the Privy Council's contribution to the military will be raised to 1,400. Ten thousand silver dollars, an extra 100,200 and 200,000 yuan should be convenient. If there is a major disaster like western Zhejiang next year, the Privy Council will also keep the silver in the hands of emergency..."

"The military needs to support 400,000 people. Although the funding will increase, it will add 30,000 to 50,000 troops next year, but not much money can be squeezed out." Get the head of the military, and quickly shove it off.

"If the land tax of the Xintian Tax is suspended from being transferred to the local area, the central center should get four or five million more silver dollars every year..." Liu Shidu, who served as Jianghuai's ambassador, said by the side.

"Sooner or later, this will belong to the place, and now we have to make a decision with ruthlessness, and we cannot hesitate," Lin Fu said.

After the new tax policy, Lin Fu put the basic land tax into the local finance.

In this way, the local finances can add four or five million silver dollars in total each year. Only in this way can the township system be propped up and the local governments have the financial resources to carry out large-scale projects such as canals, roads, bridges, and river embankments. Construction of works.

With more local fiscal revenue, correspondingly, the central revenue will be reduced by a large amount.

Last year, the central annual revenue, combining the two pieces of the Ministry of Household and the Privy Council, totaled 20 million silver dollars. This year after the Battle of Jingxiang, with the further clarification of the local relations between the two lakes, Fujian, Jiangxi and Guangnan, the annual revenue should be able to have further. surged.

However, because Lin Fu implemented the new tax policy after the new year, not only did the central revenue this year not increase significantly, it was slightly reduced compared to last year, and it did not even reach the scale of 20 million silver dollars.

Liu Shidu previously served as the envoy of salt and iron, assisting Lin Mengde and Lin Xuwen to sort out the central finances. After the autumn, Lin Fu split Jiangdong County into four propaganda envoys of Jianghuai, Luzhou, Jiangning and Chongzhou. Liu Shidu came down from the central and took office. Jianghuai Xuanfu envoy, but in terms of the balance of interests between the local and the central, his thinking is still habitually stopped at the central.

It's not that Lin Bie doesn't feel distressed that the center has lost such a large amount of income all of a sudden, but some things must be done now.

The land tax and Ding tax itself is the annual revenue under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Household.

For the time being, Lin Fu still retains the Yuanyue Emperor's house and the six departments of the Political Affairs Hall. After the stalls have entered the mu, the basic land tax will be included in the local tax source, and the Ministry of Household will no longer have financial power. In this way, the original Zhengshitang and the six departments were completely empty and placed there as a gorgeous skin.

On the other hand, the center cannot get the basic land tax, and the annual income has to be stabilized or increased, so the eyes and minds can only focus on the sea trade and emerging industries such as industrial and mining, banks and other industries, as well as the additional land tax, which can fundamentally make the center Attach importance to the development of maritime trade, the development of industrial and mining, and the suppression of mergers and acquisitions of fields and residences.

This year, after digging out a large piece of the basic land tax, the central revenue has not decreased significantly, which shows that emerging industries such as sea trade, industry and mining are still maintaining strong growth-this is what Lin Fu hopes to see.

After the Jiangning War, the annual output of iron materials controlled by Huaidong would be 20 million catties, and Lin Fu still determined to make Sun Daluo build a larger-scale Putang iron yard.

At that time, everyone thought that after the completion of the Putang iron yard, there would be an excess of iron materials produced every year in the Jiangning jurisdiction.

The actual situation, after the completion of the Putang iron yard, due to the extensive use of new craftsmanship, the annual output of iron materials originally designed to be 10 million catties has reached a height of 20 million catties by this year.

Together with several large government-run iron yard in Chongzhou, Shanyang, Yizhou Zhuxi and other places, the total output of iron materials this year will exceed 50 million kilograms. With the establishment of a large number of private iron yard, the market has not overflowed. In addition, although the price of iron has dropped, it is still maintained at a level higher than that before the war.

The profits of these government-run iron yards are not counted. This year, the field tax paid to the Department of Taxation alone will be as high as one million silver dollars.

The tax-sharing thinking promoted by Lin Fu not only increased the local finances, but also increased the local ability to implement projects such as canals, roads, bridges, and river embankments. In fact, it also directly stimulated the local purchasing power of primary industrial products. , to stimulate the further development of new industries.

This kind of simple thinking about macroeconomic regulation and control will be accustomed to ordinary people in later generations, but in today's world, it is still difficult for people to understand the whole picture.

Others can't figure out the whole picture, but Lin Fu will do it first and then talk about it. If the actual effect can be produced, it will naturally be accepted by others; otherwise, it is not Lin Fu's good at debating with others.

When it comes to governance, although Lin Fu scolded Chen Xiyan as a pig in his early years, today, at least in the Privy Council, no one will question Lin Fu's ability to govern; What he is more important is to connect the advanced political thinking of later generations with the reality of the current world, so as to be ahead, but not too advanced or too out of touch.

In the mining industry, Lin Fu focuses on the development of coal and iron; in the light industry, Lin Fu focuses on the development of textiles; in the manufacturing industry, Lin Fu focuses on the development of shipbuilding, vehicle building, textile and mining machinery; in terms of tax sources, Lin Fu mainly focuses on industrial, mining and The field tax and tariff related to sea trade; other government affairs, Lin Fu let go if he could, and asked Lin Xuwen, Lin Mengde, Song Fu and others to share them.

Lin Fu has even begun to limit the scale of government-run factories and mining areas. In addition to continuously innovating technologies and improving productivity, he strictly controls the scale of government-run factories and mines to increase the scale of employees, but to give the excess market space to the Jianghuai region. The new factory owners and miners go to make a profit.

When splitting the tax, Lin Fu alone more than doubled the municipal commercial tax on charcoal, restricting the use of charcoal and firewood as fuel by households in various prefectures and counties, directly promoting the great development of the coal mining industry in various places.

At present, there are eight government-run coal yards directly controlled by the Privy Council, but this year's coal yard tax only accounts for three-fifths of the government-run coal yards, and this proportion will drop further next year.

The benefits of the huge increase in iron production are obvious.

Later generations are no strangers to coal, but many people think that coal is a near-industrial product.

In fact, over the past two hundred years in Jiangning Prefecture alone, more than one million baskets of coal have been consumed every year—it can be said that coal mining is the oldest traditional industrial sector that coexists with porcelain, iron, and copper smelting.

There are ten counties in Jiangning Prefecture, with a population of more than 2.5 million. The number of urban households is as high as 40%. If the urban households do not use coal on a daily basis, but mainly use charcoal and firewood as fuel for cooking rice and vegetables, the surrounding area will surely be crowded. Wood does not exist.

The proportion of urban households in the world is highest in Liangjing, followed by Hangzhou, Pingjiang, Chongzhou and other places, but even in the most remote prefectures and counties, urban households, that is, urban residents, account for about 10% of the total population. The oldest industrial sectors, such as iron smelting, copper smelting, silver smelting, tin smelting, porcelain burning, brick burning, burning lime, etc., are also in a critical period when both charcoal and coal are used as fuel.

A step forward will promote the great development of the coal mining industry; a step backward will lead to the contraction and stagnation of the coal mining industry.

The total output of the coal mining industry this year is about 30 million baskets, not including the nearly 2 million baskets of high-quality Shannan coal imported from Korea and specially used for glaze and high-quality refined iron.

There are also serious problems in the rapidly developing coal mining industry. The Lishui coal yard collapsed once this year, burying more than 100 people. Almost all the officials demanded to stop the bids for the coal yard in various places. Lin Bing suppressed the opposition under pressure and only asked the coal yard to pay attention to the safety of the mine.

Lin Fu is now in a high position, and is often exposed to all kinds of strange comments.

Some officials, in order to strengthen the control of the people under their rule and prevent the recurrence of the Huaisi Revolution, even suggested restricting the use of iron tools such as kitchen knives, saw axes, shovels, and coulters. Lin Fu couldn't laugh or cry just like he met Zhou Zhiyun in Guanyun County. While throwing Jinyan into the trash, he put the official into a separate book that would be phased out and never be promoted.

In light industry, Lin Fu determined to develop textiles and sugar.

Sugar production is mainly due to the sparse population of Yizhou, and the fertile land and hot climate, which is very suitable for planting sugarcane orchards.

And fabrics, like rice grains, are necessary for people to survive. The white cloth produced by the new textile industry has an incomparable quality and cost advantage over the native cloth.

In order to ensure the smoothness of the market and the formation of a unified market, Lin Fu determined Jiangning as the center of domestic trade, and made Chongzhou, Mingzhou and Jin'an the center of foreign trade, and made the prefectures where the Xuanfu envoys are located to be the regional center. In the center of trade, there are commercial departments directly under the jurisdiction of the Privy Council.

First, the municipal business tax has become one of the main tax sources for local officials, and local officials are happy to see industrial products entering the country for trade; on the other hand, emerging industries have cost and quality advantages that traditional products cannot match. Perhaps more importantly, the forces behind emerging industries are beyond the reach of traditional forces.

Once the sales of new cloth, cane sugar, and iron in Huaidong are hindered by local forces, the forces behind the emerging industries will first think of replacing local officials, and second, will they kill some people to kill chickens and monkeys...

Weaving and dyeing is also an emerging industry that Lin Fu first ceded market space to. At present, in Chongzhou, Jiangning and Haiyu County, which has developed new industries, there are 80 textile factories using the new method. Together with the textile factories under the jurisdiction of the Privy Council, the number of employees has reached 60,000. Around the periphery of the emerging textile industry, there are a series of derivative industries such as dyeing, sail weaving, cotton planting, textile machinery manufacturing, clothing and shoemaking, which can be regarded as a complete new industrial system. There are even special button factories and belt factories.

Clothing in the world is still dominated by robes, but military uniforms pursue simplicity and convenience, mainly half jackets, in order to kill the enemy more effectively on the battlefield. Brass and tin buckles and armed belts are commonly used in military uniforms.

The Huaidong Army's uniforms are directly formed in Lin Bing's hands. Although the armor is mainly in traditional styles, the uniforms are as close as possible to the styles of later generations. The buttons and belts have become the mainstream, but the color of the clothes is still traditional. Mainly blue and black. There are no plastic products in the world, only copper or tin metal buckles that are easy to punch and forge can be used.

The Military Staff Department purchases more than 800,000 sets of military uniforms every year. The military's demand for metal buckles alone is three or four million pieces each year, which is almost worth 10,000 silver dollars, enough to support two or three buckle factories.

Lin Fu's current energy is almost all on the development of the New Deal and new industries.

Coming to Haizhou, Lin Fu's current main thought is to take advantage of the huge military supply market of the Northern Army to promote the root and development of new industries in Haizhou. He spent a lot of money in Haizhou, and he also did some auxiliary and promotion work, such as setting up a higher public school, and building the first museum in China in Haizhou with his mind, so that people in the world can see it at home without going too far. world.

Although the construction of Yanhu's defense line in northern Shandong was in full swing to the north of the Yihai line of defense, Lin Fu didn't care much about it. In Lin Fu's deployment, no matter how perfect Yanhu's defense line is, it is impossible to resist a powerful army supported by a new industrial system.

Lin Bie is the master of spending money, and he is excited when he thinks about how to spend it. Lin Mengde is the master of money, so he naturally has a headache when he thinks of spending money. I didn't expect to make a special trip to Haizhou, and the Privy Council would send another 200,000 silver dollars to Haizhou next year, so Lin Mengde was not in a good mood.

Lin Meng wanted to cheer himself up a little, not to discourage Lin Bing, but he thought of other things and asked, "I heard in Jiangning that the fire-fighting giant crossbow was quite effective in Haizhou, will it be equipped with warships in the near future? If the Ministry has such a plan, it is better to tell it earlier, lest the Privy Council be caught off guard..."

"Silver money was spent on building a museum. If I couldn't see the benefits, I was impatient in my dream. At this time, I was urging to equip the fire-bending giant crossbow to see his eagerness for quick success..." Lin Fu turned his head and made fun of Lin Mengde with Gao Zongting. .

Lin Meng smiled awkwardly.

"Mengde Gong is eager to win the battle," Lin Fu casually teased Lin Mengde for nothing, but Gao Zongting wanted to cover it up for him, and said to Lin Mengde, "The fire crossbow may still explode, it should be made of iron. It’s not pure enough, I’ve already asked several ironworks to send people to deal with this matter, and it will take some time to test it; if they all use copper materials, the cost will be too high…”

"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter," Lin Mengde said. "Each set of Fuhuo Giant Crossbow is more than 1000 jin, and a hundred sets are only 100,000 jin of copper. The Privy Council can pay for it..."

"But what the lord means, the newly built Jinhai-class warship, one needs to be equipped with forty to fifty fire crossbows, is the Privy Council still willing to let it go?" Gao Zongting asked with a smile.

Lin Meng was stunned for a moment, a little silly, and asked in amazement, "How do you want to cloth so densely?"

Lin Zhengjun-class warships only had eight scorpion crossbows and bed crossbows. All of them were replaced with ambulance crossbows~www.wuxiaspot.com~ The density should be increased by six or seven times, and Lin Meng was indeed stunned.

At present, the copper material that the Privy Council receives every year is about one million catties, which is not enough to meet the requirements of the Mint.

Lin Mengde thought that he would be able to squeeze out more than 100,000 to 200,000 catties of copper material next year. He thought it was quite generous, but he didn't expect to be able to equip only two Jinhai-class warships.

Lin Fu spread out a drawing on the desk and asked Lin Mengde to look at it: "This is the drawing of the new Lin Zhengjun-class warship, don't bite your tongue when you see it..."

Huaidong battleships currently use scorpion crossbows and bed crossbows as their main long-range weapons.

The scorpion crossbow is a projectile weapon and needs to be placed on the unobstructed deck above, but the crossbow has been installed in the cabin, and the crossbow is opened on the broadside to attack the enemy ship, no longer occupying the space on the upper deck. It's just that the range of the bed crossbow and the scorpion crossbow is very limited, making the naval battle tactics still inseparable from the traditional category. Therefore, Lin Bie did not abnormally set up crossbow ports densely in the lower cabin of the warship.

At this time, the blueprint that Lin Mengde looked at was the latest battleship designed by the Huaidong Ship Administration Department, and it was only stored on the blueprint.

The new type of warship, the upper deck is still a traditional sea sailing ship, with five masts standing upright and a total of forty-two sails, but two layers of crossbow compartments are added under the deck and above the water surface, and the broadsides are all crossbow ports. The crossbow mouth is densely packed, and there are no less than fifty or sixty eyes on one side of the broadside.

The complicated drawings made Lin Meng feel dizzy and made him dare not ask the cost of such a battleship.

Lin Mengde naturally participated in every upgrade of Huaidong's warships, as Huaidong's big housekeeper and a person who paid for money, knowing that such a warship could not be built without 500,000 to 600,000 silver dollars; Building two new warships will directly consume more than half of the additional money for the military next year... My QT room is open! More vulgar official QT room number [9167] Click to enter

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like