When Prince Ning heard this, his eyes widened slightly.
"They are trying to steal money."
"My lord, it's faster than grabbing money. Although their cannons are indeed of good quality, the price is too expensive. Even if you have money, you can't afford much."
Li Shishi nodded and said.
"How much shortfall do we have in military expenditure?"
Prince Ning had a headache. After coming overseas and becoming the king of a country, he realized that the emperor's position was not so easy to sit on.
Not to mention the huge Ming Empire, even the small Ning Kingdom has already made Prince Ning very anxious.
Now that we want to fight a large-scale war, various problems arise.
There are too few Han people in the country, so we have to recruit all the troops. This heavy use of non-Han people as soldiers may cause various problems in the future. This is also an issue that requires great attention and attention.
The second issue is training. With an army of fifty thousand people, Ningguo has no systematic training mechanism and manpower at all. Of course, these are not problems.
The most important thing is the issue of silver, weapons and equipment, grain, horses, etc. These things are all gold-swallowing beasts, and silver is like running water, disappearing quickly.
"At least five million taels are missing!"
Li Shishi calculated and said: "Even if you don't buy helmets and armor, but only weapons, bows and arrows, and not muskets, cannons are definitely indispensable. Cannons must be used to siege the city, but there is still a shortage of five million
Two pieces of silver."
"We in Ningguo have had great harvests every year in the past few years, such as grain and grass, so we don't need to spend money to buy them."
"Five million taels of silver~"
"If I hadn't let go of the one million shares of Egyptian Canal stock, I could have just sold tens of thousands of shares."
When Prince Ning heard this, he looked at the newspaper on the table and regretted it even more.
"Forget it, let's take out five million taels of silver from the palace's inner treasury first, and then conquer Beitianzhu first."
"It's only tens of millions of taels of silver. You can get it back casually in Beitianzhu."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Li Shishi nodded quickly.
The Ning Kingdom is similar to the Ming Dynasty. The court's money is called the national treasury, and Prince Ning's personal money is called the inner treasury. Just like Emperor Hongzhi's personal money is called internal money, it can be regarded as a clear distinction between public and private matters.
Of course, the richest person in Ningguo is naturally Prince Ning. Prince Ning’s private industries have occupied almost all walks of life in Ningguo. Many times, the entire Ningguo is serving Prince Ning’s industry.
Just like the slave trade, although it is an industry of Ning State to the outside world, all the money earned goes into King Ning's personal pocket. The advantage of this is that King Ning has money in his own hands and can do what he wants to do, instead of what happened before.
The situation in the Ming Dynasty was that the emperor was too poor to do anything.
"Liu Yangzheng, how are you inquiring about the latest railway that appeared in the Ming Dynasty?"
After talking about forming a large army to attack Northern Tianzhu, King Ning asked about the railway again.
Because this is a very hot topic now, almost all newspapers in the Ming Dynasty are reporting on the relevant content, which also makes the train amazing.
Another reason is that two new railways have been listed on the Tianjin Stock Exchange, and both railways have raised hundreds of millions of taels of silver.
Prince Ning couldn't help but pay attention to it.
"Your Majesty, I have inquired clearly. The people I sent to Ming Dynasty have also sent back letters."
"The situation on the train is basically as reported in the newspapers."
"It has a strong carrying capacity. It can transport two thousand people at a time, or transport more than 200,000 kilograms of cargo. The speed is very fast, and the speed can exceed 80 miles per hour. It can also be transported day and night, even if
You can also walk at night.”
Liu Yangzheng also quickly replied.
"It's pitch dark at night, can this train run?"
Prince Ning said very puzzledly.
"It's okay~"
"Because this train is different from ordinary cars. The train runs on special pre-built rails. It cannot be seen clearly and has no impact on its movement."
"To put it simply, it is like a ball walking in a round tube. It is a fixed path. As long as the round tube is not blocked, day and night will have no big impact on it."
"Moreover, the train runs on the rails and is basically fixed on the rails. There is no need to worry about deviation or deviation, so it can also be driven at night."
Liu Yangzheng replied.
"You can travel 80 miles in one hour, and in twelve hours a day, you can travel almost a thousand miles in one day. The carrying capacity is so huge, it's incredible!"
After hearing this, Prince Ning silently calculated and sighed.
“It’s really incredible~”
"The Beijing-Tianjin Railway, which has been opened now, is very popular every day. There are many people just to experience this train."
"When the train is running, it is very stable. Even if you put a glass of water on the table, it will not fall out. Taking the train for a long trip becomes very easy."
“That’s why newspapers also called it an epoch-making great invention!”
"The Emperor of Heaven also specially met with the research team that invented the train for this purpose, and awarded several key personnel titles and awards."
Liu Yangzheng nodded solemnly.
Even if you have never ridden a train, you can still imagine how powerful the train is. It can transport two thousand people or two hundred thousand kilograms of goods at one time, and it can travel thousands of miles a day. This is completely beyond the imagination of people in this era.
"In the past few years, there have been many inventions in the Ming Dynasty, all based on steam engines, such as the steam cultivator. It is said that it is more powerful than an ox and can cultivate land very quickly. One person can control such an extreme machine and can easily cultivate land in a day.
Dozens of acres of fields.”
"There are also steam harvesters, which also use steam engines to harvest wheat and rice. One person can easily harvest dozens or hundreds of acres of fields in a day."
"In addition, the use of steam engines has become popular in factories and workshops in the Beijing-Tianjin area of the Ming Dynasty, especially in textile factories. Steam engines are used to drive textile machines and looms, which is very efficient."
"Your Majesty, our country of Ning is vast and sparsely populated. Can we also vigorously develop steam engines? Whether it is used for farming, in factories, or for building railways, etc., these will be of great benefit to our country of Ning.
.”
Liu Yangzheng spoke out what he was concerned about.
Steam engines are now used more in the Ming Dynasty, but not much overseas. Tianzhu is far away from the Ming Dynasty, and there are even fewer steam engines here, so Ningguo does not pay much attention to steam engines.
After all, in the colonial era, there was no need to rely on steam engines to increase productivity to make huge profits. The casual slave trade allowed Prince Ning to accumulate huge wealth. Coupled with maritime trade and the like, money came quickly.
If you are so relaxed, why would you think about developing technology to improve productivity?
A machine is used to plow the land and harvest rice. If the machine is broken and cannot be repaired, it will fall asleep. It is better to buy more slaves. As long as they are full, the slaves will have the strength to work.
"Well, you can't go wrong learning from Daming."
"You will be responsible for this matter. We will send people to learn how to make steam engines. Later we will also try to build a railway here in Tianzhu."
"I don't know if we can go to Daming to raise funds if we build a railway. The cost of building this railway is definitely not cheap. It often costs hundreds of millions of taels of silver, and only Daming can support it."
Prince Ning nodded solemnly, thought about it and then gave the order.
"Your Majesty, I have asked someone to find out clearly. The cost of building this railway is almost 50,000 taels of silver per mile. This is still in a plain area. If it is in a mountainous area, hilly area, etc., it needs to build bridges, change routes, dig mountains, and drill holes.
If so, the cost will be higher, which is why the two railways planned by the Ming Dynasty require hundreds of millions of taels of silver."
"Only the Ming Dynasty can afford such huge expenditures and high construction costs. Our overseas vassal states simply cannot afford to build it."
Liu Yangzheng also sighed and said.
The Beijing-River Railway and the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway each cost hundreds of millions of taels of silver. Only the Ming Empire could afford such a huge budget.
"Let's learn first. I'm afraid we can only discuss this matter later."
Prince Ning nodded and said.
Just as the three of them were discussing the matter, a eunuch hurriedly came over and reported: "Your Majesty, the envoy of the Japanese shogunate wants to see you!"
"The envoy of the Japanese shogunate?"
When King Ning, Liu Yangzheng, and Li Shishi heard this, they looked at each other and wondered what the Japanese people were doing to come to them.