"Nowadays, European countries have a lot of artillery, and they are much more powerful than our country's red cannons. Five or six thousand kilograms is just a piece of cake."
Wei Zhang said with some indignation: "The Nanyang Navy was stationed in Hunan and even saw the Dutch's 4,000-ton ship!"
(One thousand materials equals approximately three hundred tons)
"It is fully loaded with sixty artillery pieces, and no one in the Nanyang Navy can defeat it!"
"Nanyang Navy?" The shopkeeper was surprised.
He had only heard that the imperial court only had the Bohai Sea Navy, the East China Sea Navy, and the Nanyang Sea Navy. Where could there be a Nanyang Navy?
"The Nanhai Navy will be expanded into the Nanyang Navy and will be stationed on Luzon Island to inspect the affairs of Guangdong, Guangxi, Qin, Qi, Wei, and Hunan."
The civil servant on the side said softly: "That's why we came to purchase artillery."
"I'm telling you, this little cannon can't fit on a big ship with five thousand fuel!"
The shopkeeper was surprised and said: "How many doors are needed? As long as you keep asking for them, I will build them even if I have to search all over the world!"
In the Ming Navy, ships with three thousand charges are now the main force, and they have been dominant for more than ten years. Now that they are suddenly replaced by five thousand charges, won't the number of artillery be doubled?
I'm afraid the artillery on the ship is more expensive than shipbuilding.
"For a five-thousand-pound artillery base, just build it upwards." Wei Zhang blurted out: "Whoever makes the best cannon will be the one we buy!"
The civil servants smiled and said nothing.
Before leaving, the two money bags were put into their pockets respectively.
"Hey, fifty yuan in silver notes!" Wei Zhang said with a smile.
"Don't worry, this is just a deposit, there's more to come!"
The civil servant chuckled and didn't take it seriously: "This little money is just a mosquito's leg for a business of hundreds of cannons."
In the past few days, all the major shipyards and cannon foundries in Songjiang Prefecture have been busy.
Ten large ships with 5,000 pieces of material, and 500 large, medium, and small cannons. This was a big deal involving 300,000 silver coins.
The profits therein are eye-watering.
The competition immediately became fierce.
At the Pier New Church, Andre had just finished praying for the believers, and he immediately received an invitation. Someone wanted to see him.
"Are there any great believers?"
He came to the teahouse happily and saw only a wealthy businessman in brocade clothes.
"Father An!" The wealthy businessman did not hesitate and said directly: "I heard that you came to Ming Dynasty three years ago?"
"That's right!" Andre nodded.
"Oh, your mandarin words are so good!"
Hearing this flattery, Andre's eyebrows jumped. He was tired of hearing this sentence.
I know you southerners are poor in Mandarin, but don’t praise me every day!
"To be honest, the main reason I am looking for you this time is to cast cannons!" The wealthy businessman said solemnly: "Our artillery field wants a batch of five thousand kilograms of heavy cannons, but in the entire Ming Dynasty, only the capital has them."
"That's it, I thought you European monks know everything, so I came to ask you for advice!"
Andre said dissatisfied: "Sir, I am a priest, I am only responsible for missionary work, not a gunsmith, that is just my skill!"
"In other words, you can cast it?"
"It should be possible!" Andre frowned and said: "The principles of artillery are the same, but I need to preside over the church at the moment and I am not free."
"Go find someone else!"
Andre put down his tea cup, stood up and left.
"Father An, I heard that the church has not been installed yet? I am willing to donate two hundred silver coins."
The businessman gritted his teeth and said: "If you really cast it, I will donate another three hundred!"
"It's a deal!" Andre's butt was next to the chair again, with a smile on his face: "It's a church, but it's also a practice!"
…
Shaowu's budget for the 23rd year began to be worked out at the end of the Lantern Festival and was not finalized until the end of the first year.
The total tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty last year reached 105 million silver yuan, which was not directly deposited in the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Although salt taxes, customs duties (canal checkpoints, border customs, and customs), including iron, wine, tea and other highly profitable taxes were levied directly by the court, the increase in taxes was very little.
Only two to three million.
Taxation continues until high growth, which seems to have come to an end.
But even so, the imperial court was satisfied with such a high tax revenue, so it relaxed the squeeze on local areas.
For example, the land tax takes into account the differences in local wealth and poverty, so three are set aside for upper counties, four are set for middle counties, and five are set for lower counties, thereby easing the pressure.
In terms of expenditures, local finance is only responsible for the salaries of officials, that is, officials below the seventh rank, and half of the military expenses of patrol battalions.
Officials' salaries are paid directly by the court.
Of course, some counties were so poor that the court even had to give back money to support the army.
The central court is responsible for only four items of expenditure:
First of all, there are 1,780 counties and 342 prefectures in the country, and the number of officials above seventh grade has reached more than 18,000.
Among them, there are 14,000 local people and more than 4,000 central people.
They devoured nearly 20 million silver coins.
If you include the local staff salaries, it would be at least 30 million. After all, staff are several times more than officials.
The total cost of the Beijing camp plus the frontier troops is 350,000. Considering the fragile finances of the frontiers, they will generally only bear 20 to 30% of the total, and the total expenditure will be around 20 million.
There are 600,000 local patrol camps, and the court pays half of them, which is about 12 million.
The reason why it is low is because the salary of the patrol camp is only half of that of the Beijing camp and the border army. After all, it is an inland security war and the risk factor is low.
The Navy has more than 30,000 people, but its annual expenditure reaches 3 million. The largest expenditure is artillery, which is replaced every year on ships.
Total military expenditures reached 35 million.
The army and officials alone ate up 55 million from the fiscal budget.
The third one is naturally the nobility, the Montenegrin nobility, and the supply to the clan and the inner court.
Although the Ministry of Internal Affairs is very rich, the emperor can take it, but the court cannot deny it.
According to the custom, the imperial court will give millions of silver every year.
The annual income of the nobles, the Mongolian nobles, and the clan is about two million.
The total amount is only three million silver coins.
Finally, naturally there are those large-scale projects of the imperial court.
Dredging ditches, relieving victims, building official roads, maintaining dams, supporting the vassal state, and other miscellaneous expenses totaled more than 20 million per year.
If there is a war, more will be added.
Generally speaking, the four major categories combined are about 80 million.
The net surplus reached 25 million yuan.
The accumulated surplus over the years has directly reached 100 million silver dollars.
If not for the Northern Expedition to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which consumed some of it over the years, the scale would have been tens of millions more.
It should be noted that the court spent two to three million on the pension alone, as well as a large amount of land, reward exchange, and more than tens of millions of hidden expenditures.
Of course, such a huge surplus was enough for the feudal dynasty to face any risks, and the civil and military officials of the dynasty could live a peaceful life.
Moreover, the salaries of hundreds of officials were not paid directly in silver coins, but in silver notes from banks all over the world.
This not only effectively alleviated the money shortage dilemma, but also allowed the bank to make a lot of profits and support the court when necessary.
This is also why Zhu Yixi is willing to expand the navy and build those behemoth-like ships.
However, for the emperor, the money collected by the Ministry of Finance could only be deposited in the warehouse of the Ministry of Revenue, while the money from internal funds was his own.
Because of his wise decision at the time, he gave up gold and silver and chose customs to become the emperor's personal money.
By the end of the 22nd year of Shaowu, the customs office alone had brought in 20 million yuan, and other miscellaneous contributions from the Ministry of Internal Affairs were about 12 million yuan.
A total of 32 million.
The regular expenditure of the inner court is about five million, the regular expenditure of supporting the vassal state is two million, the festival reward is one million, the sacrifice is one million, and the Wannian Mausoleum is one million.
Since the Imperial Guards in the Department of Guards all rely on funding from the inner court, and the emperor's most trusted people are well-paid, there are only 5,000 of them, but their annual income is one million.
The average per capita income is 200 yuan, which is seven or eight times that of Jingying.
Save some money and you can buy a house in two or three years.
The total annual expenditure of the inner court reaches tens of millions of yuan.
Think about it carefully, because the emperor spends tens of millions a year, one-tenth of the fiscal revenue, it is really extravagant.
The Queen of England was moved to tears.
Due to the low expenditure, the Internal Affairs Bureau's annual surplus exceeds 80 million, and most of it is placed in banks all over the world to make money!
On the eighth day of the second lunar month, which was the Queen's birthday, the Chief of Ceremonies handed down an oral edict from the emperor, granting the imperial court a month's salary and a pair of cloth shoes.
For the three thousand eunuchs and two thousand palace maids in the inner court alone, the accountant spent one hundred thousand silver dollars, which shows how arrogant the inner money was.
As we all know, the imperial guards took over the role of the Han generals and imperial guards in the past, so the guards, who had always been the emperor's favorite treasure, spent 200,000 yuan.
In the evening, a new batch of guards came to take over the rotation, and Jia Daishan and his friend Bayar were laid off together.
Although they changed shifts every half hour and took breaks, the two of them were exhausted from the three-hour patrol.
Holding the knife, Jia Daishan couldn't help complaining: "In this weather, it rains a little, and the cold wind goes directly into the seams of the clothes. If you wear too much, you will be hot, and if you don't wear enough, you will be cold."
"Damn, it's so weird!"
"This is much better than the grassland!" Bayar said in a slightly awkward voice:
"Sheep grazing on the grassland are exposed to the wind and sun, but there is no roof to shelter from the rain and wind."
"Be content, my young master!"
Jia Daishan rolled his eyes at him and could only mutter: "I went to the martial arts hall, how could I know that after finally becoming a guard in the palace, I would have to suffer like this."
"If I had known this, I wouldn't have gone to the martial arts hall even if I were killed!"
Listening to his words, Batya was really envious.
His father was just an ordinary tabunang, who could only feed and clothe the family on the grassland, and occasionally eat some mutton.
It's a pity that the eldest brother is destined to inherit the family property and title, and the younger brother is still young and may be sent to someone else's house to be a son-in-law, or to be a young lama in a temple!
As the second oldest child, he was extremely embarrassed.
You can only get a sum of money and either help the nobles herd cattle, serve as a guard for merchants, or risk everything and go to the Northeast or Mobei to open up wasteland.
Of course, if the vassal king comes to the grassland to recruit people, it would be a good idea to follow them to the vassal.
But in his mind, the best choice was to attend the Naadam Conference held by the imperial court.
After practicing hard for a long time, with his excellent archery skills, Batya became the eighth, equivalent to being a Jinshi. He was recommended to Beijing and became an imperial guard, and he was also an imperial guard.
The ordinary imperial guards only stood guard in the imperial city, while the imperial guards protected the inner court and harem, with only about 500 people.
As soon as he came to Beijing, he was awarded the title of third-class bodyguard, the eighth-grade title, and his annual salary reached one hundred and twenty silver coins.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs even arranged for a residence near the imperial city to avoid having to travel too far every day.
After one year of standing guard, if you have not been promoted to the second-class guard, you will go to the martial arts hall to study for two years, and then be directly sent to the Beijing camp or the border army.
Directly promoted to deputy battalion commander of 500 people.
The jump in status is jaw-dropping.
It was precisely because of thinking about his future that Batya was satisfied and didn't care about the boring career of a guard.
Jia Daishan was talking to himself, then turned a corner and came to a side room.
This is the place where the imperial guards nod their heads, but it is full of people at this time.
Everyone lined up and received their things happily.
Batya was stunned: "What are you doing?"
"You don't have enough information. You need to inquire more during the rotation." Jia Daishan shook his head.
"Isn't it said that people in the palace should be careful about what they say and do, and don't ask for information?" Batya asked in confusion.
"I'm too lazy to tell you in detail!" Jia Daishan explained helplessly: "Today is the Queen's birthday, let's get an extra month's salary."
"Because he is a royal guard, in addition to a pair of leather boots, he also has an extra piece of silk."
While explaining here, it was soon the turn of the two of them.
The money is very simple, just a gold circle.
Jia Daishan chose a suitable pair of leather boots, and then touched the silk: "These boots are made of sheepskin, which is okay to wear. The silk is Tianmen silk from Hubei, and one piece is worth two to three yuan!"
"It's okay to wear. It's perfect for summer. Summer will start in two months. You can just use it to make summer clothes."
With that said, the silk cloth was thrown to Batya.
"This is three dollars!" Batya exclaimed in surprise.
The silky touch and warm coolness made Battelle fall in love with it, and he also realized the reason why it was expensive.
"Three yuan?" Jia Daishan smiled: "This kind of silk is the most indispensable thing in my family?"
"Did you know? The best silk is cloud silk. A piece of silk is worth more than ten yuan. It can even be used to paint. It is the favorite canvas of painters."
"It's not easy to live in the capital. This silk is meant to treat you to a drink. When you get rich in the future, just don't forget me!"
The two walked side by side, holding two batches of silk. Although Batya felt embarrassed, her heart felt warm.
What is unclear about the residence of Marquis Jia Daishan?
Although this young master is frivolous in daily life, he is really a good person.
After leaving the imperial city, Jia Daishan boarded the carriage directly, said goodbye gracefully and left.
Batya walked more than three hundred steps and arrived at Anju's courtyard.
At this time, several people in the yard had returned long ago, trying on leather boots one by one, and discussing today's rewards.
After exchanging a few words and laughing, Batya returned to the room.
No one doubted that he returned with two pieces of silk in his arms.
As an imperial guard, no one would ruin their future for a mere piece of silk.
As soon as I took a break to drink some water, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in!"
At this time, a burly man walked in, his round face revealing his Mongolian identity:
"Batya, I'm going back to Chahar!"
"What?" Batya was quite puzzled by the departure of his friend.
"My father, Bu, is dead. I have to go home first to inherit the title of Taiji."