New Shun 1730

This was part of the plan to build a navy. When Li Gan read it, he was amazed and thought it was wonderful.

But many years later, some things that he didn't feel at the time have caused some uneasiness in his heart.

Looking through this memorial again, which he was amazed at when he read it, Li Gan tried to think about the things in it without thinking about the ideas laid out by Liu Yu.

The content of the memorial itself does not seem to have a big problem.

At that time, most people in the court did not agree to build a navy. Li Gan decided to give it a try after listening to Liu Yu's theory of southeastern maritime threats.

Later, Liu Yu trained the Qingzhou Army and replaced the argument with victory. The winner always seems to have a reason. In addition, the battle solved the border troubles in the north, and the navy was still built.

Now the war against Japan is like a replay of Liu Yu's fearful prophecy. Using the whole of Japan as a stage, he showed what he said at the time - the navy's mobility seeks opportunities to fight, 10,000 can be as good as 100,000, and it is always more than less.

It's just that Li Gan read this memorial today, not to lament Liu Yu's foresight, but to focus on a seemingly trivial matter in it.

That is the military obligations of the trading company and the sailor training system.

It is basically a two-way arrangement.

The trading company built soft sailing boats to help the court train sailors, and those registered sailors could be directly recruited in the war.

Retired soldiers and officers of the navy went to the trading company to make a living. Relying on the skills they learned in Jinghai Palace and the means of sailing and gun control they practiced in the army, they made a living and asked the trading company to help the court solve the resettlement problem of retired navy.

Encourage the children of sea merchants to learn practical knowledge, enter the navy, and become officers.

The navy took out part of the money and invested in the trading company as annuity for retired soldiers in the future.

At that time, it seemed that there was no problem, which could be said to kill two birds with one stone.

It not only solved the problem of soldiers, but also solved the problem of the retreat of retired navy soldiers. By the way, the court did not have to spend much money, and the retired navy soldiers could get part of the money from the profits of sea trade as a guarantee for their retirement.

However, the times have changed. When reading this memorial again, Li Gan couldn't help laughing again.

"It's true that a dog can't change its eating habits. It's still forcing the court to do the same thing."

Looking at the time and month on the memorial, it was definitely after pacifying the Western Regions and beating Liu Yu not to "force the court to change" and "force the court's policies."

At that time, Li Gan was really worried about the threat of Westerners, and also worried about Liu Yu's saying that if there is a sea without defense, sea transportation will be convenient and 10,000 is equivalent to 100,000.

The court disagreed, and Li Gan's treasury did not have much money. No matter how to build a navy, money and people are indispensable. At that time, it felt good, saving money and having people.

Many years ago, the memorial was interpreted under the current situation, and Li Gan tasted a different taste.

The current situation is very different from before.

This is not a discussion about whether Dashun should build a navy or not, but after defeating Japan, if Dashun does not continue to build a navy, then it will have to worry about Japan using its own methods to retaliate and build a navy for revenge.

And Liu Yu played a strategic role of the navy in Japan, or a "live broadcast" to the vassal states and Western countries, simply telling Westerners that if they want to fight Dashun in the future, they should fight like this. Concentrate troops, mobilize the army, evade when assembled, fight when alone, occupy the city to build momentum, and run away when attacked.

So this forced Dashun to continue to maintain a navy.

At this point, in the eyes of the core decision-makers of Dashun, it is unnecessary to discuss whether to continue to retain and build a navy.

However, the navy costs money. It costs money to maintain it. If there are civil uprisings in Shaanxi, Henan and other places, the navy cannot sail there by land.

The war against Japan pointed out a way for Dashun to support war, support the navy by war, and support the navy by trade.

However, some of the policies in this memorial seemed to be policies of spending less money and doing more things at that time. At this time, Li Gan felt that Liu Yu was still secretly forcing the court.

This memorial forced several things.

The construction of the navy was not forced by this memorial, but by the war against Japan. If it was not built, it would face the curse of "you start with this and you must end with this."

Based on this, in Li Gan's view at this time, this memorial several years ago forced at least three things.

It forced the court to maintain the stability of the attempt to distribute dividends in the shareholding system, forced the court to continue to try to make merchants cooperate with the court's policies, and forced the court to continue to expand abroad, at least to Southeast Asia.

This involves the interests of a large number of naval soldiers and officers, as well as their future retirement annuities.

This led to the court not daring to act rashly. Dashun knew very well what the consequences of not paying soldiers were, and knew that it was better not to pay from the beginning, but if it was paid and wanted to stop paying, it would be a big deal.

But now they are forced to continue to build the navy. The navy has more and more people, and the court can't afford to provide pensions and other benefits, so they can only go down this route.

Going down this route, they have to allow more social funds to flow. For example, developing Ezo, etc. Only in this way can the pensions of retired soldiers in the future be maintained within an acceptable range.

If the excessive flow of social capital is not allowed, this money, according to the previous situation where land tax and salt tax were the bulk of tax revenue, cannot be taken out at all, which forces the court to find a way to use warships to solve the navy's military pay.

If the imperial court did not encourage the continued development of industry and commerce and encourage industry and commerce to find ways to make money, the financial gains from the war against Japan would actually only be one million per year for the monopoly fee.

Is this money enough to support a navy to guard against Japan's revenge? Is it enough to support a navy to guard against Westerners' invasion of the southeast?

Obviously not enough.

But if industry and commerce are encouraged, and the "buy and throw" system is encouraged, at least on Ezo, the imperial court can get tens of thousands of taels of silver a year.

Add to that the taxes levied on shipbuilding and textiles, and the factory taxes levied on new handicrafts such as glass before leaving the workshop. The more they sell, the higher the income of the imperial court.

And even so, the money is still not much, and it cannot support a navy that can make the imperial court feel at ease, without worrying about Japan's revenge in the same way, and without worrying about Westerners harassing the southeast coast.

Then it can only go to Southeast Asia and expand in the direction of Southeast Asia. After the expansion, the development of industry and commerce must be encouraged. Otherwise, in the future, we will not only have to worry about Japan's revenge, but also the Netherlands' revenge. We will have to spend more money and raise more navies, which will lead to a deeper bond between the navy and overseas trade.

I am afraid that in the future... whoever supports external expansion will be the wise ruler in the eyes of the navy and industry and commerce.

There are supporters and opponents. Those who oppose expansion must also regard those who support expansion as thorns in their eyes and flesh.

This is the kind of sign that Li Gan is worried about, which has no historical evidence and is more difficult to predict than the struggle between the new and old parties in the Song Dynasty, and will completely divide the world.

The struggle between the new and old parties is in the court. And this new situation may be a double blossoming inside and outside the court.

Although it is only a small sign at this time, Li Gan even believes that he can completely control the situation.

But this is just the navy.

What about other new things?

Will other new things bring about changes that are difficult to control?

If it were in the past, Li Gan would have sent someone to call Liu Yu overnight, and learned from Jia Sheng, a Chinese writer, to sit and discuss, turning some fears of unknown things into questions to seek answers.

But this time, Li Gan had the idea of ​​letting Liu Yu leave for a while to see if there were any problems with these new things, so he didn't think of calling Liu Yu.

Indistinctly, he felt that if Liu Yu was called, Liu Yu would give answers to these questions, but the answers would definitely be all good news and no bad news, at most there would be some minor problems, but in the face of huge benefits, these minor problems were not worth considering.

Putting down the old memorial, Li Gan took off his glasses with tortoise-shell frames, rubbed his sore eyes, and looked around.

Tortoise-shell is the most suitable material for glasses frames at this time. If Liu Yu was here at this time, even the self-ringing clock next to him would not be as good as these glasses to make Liu Yu feel a trance of time and space confusion, as if the standard imitation tortoise-shell reading glasses of later generations had traveled to the emperor's desk.

At this time, Li Gan also had a special sense of trance.

The glass on the window is not a new thing. Many years ago, officials in Guangdong had paid tribute to it. It was just too expensive to transport it to the capital, so only a few pieces were installed in the Forbidden City.

But now, there are too many glass windows in the capital, which is a completely new atmosphere.

The palace began to use matches, so in the gloomy and closed palace, the first palace maid who committed suicide by swallowing a match head appeared in recent years. The standard way of death in the past was to throw herself into a well.

The special whale oil lamps on the table, which were paid tribute by the glass factory, replaced the traditional candles in some places where lighting was needed. Whale oil is paid tribute every year around the Whale Sea, and even a set of huge whale skeletons are paid tribute, allowing those in the palace who have read "There is a fish in the north sea named Kun" to see for the first time the huge animals that they have read in books but can hardly imagine.

Some moisturizing skin care powders called glycerin appeared in the palace, as well as soaps made from walruses and sea lions killed in the far north Whale Sea.

The guards of the Forbidden City began to change to flintlock rifles with bayonets, still wearing the bright armor of the guards. The walls of the Forbidden City began to be remodeled externally, adding protective slopes and protruding corners.

From time to time, there are hot air balloons flying into the sky outside the city. The rich and the children of the nobles try to realize their dreams of flying into the sky. They no longer scream and panic when they see something flying in the sky like they did more than ten years ago.

Everything is changing quietly. Perhaps, twenty years ago, if the eunuchs of the previous dynasty were reborn, they only needed to ask about the current year and dynasty, and they could adapt to all the life in the palace on the same day; but now, they may have to ask this and that to make sure what they are looking for.

This trance made Li Gan feel indescribable. Everything seemed to be taken for granted, and everything was too taken for granted. Even if you ask a female official or eunuch at this time, they can clearly tell where the Whale Sea is, where whale oil, walrus, sea lion oil, soap, glycerin and other products are produced, and even know that there are Russians in the north, and that the Russian black man who is an idle official in the court comes from far away Africa.

He was in a trance for a long time, and the sound of the self-ringing clock pulled him back to reality from this trance. The eunuch whispered: "Your Majesty, it's time for Duke Qi to enter the palace to discuss Russian affairs."

Li Gan nodded, looked around again, and suddenly asked: "You are also an old man in the palace. These years, whether it is glass, whale oil or other things, it is more and more different from the past. What do you think?"

The eunuch laughed and said: "I think that the Weiyang Palace when Bowang Hou Tong first dug the Western Regions; the Daming Palace when the four towns of Anxi were at their peak, they were all like this, right? The cucumbers in the Weiyang Palace in the Han Dynasty and the muskets with bayonets in the imperial army today, in my opinion, are no different."