On the eighth day of the sixth lunar month, in the second hall of Tianjin's Duke's Mansion, there were all the civil and military officials under Li Zhi's command.
Li Zhi summoned his subordinates to discuss financial issues.
Nowadays, Li Zhi's capital consumption is extremely large. He has repeatedly recruited new soldiers, increased his troops from 20,000 to 60,000, and continued to expand the navy's ships and artillery. Li Zhi's deficit has reached an astonishing 7 million taels a year.
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Later, as the income from various industrial products increased, and public land in Shandong was gradually reclaimed, land rent income increased. Li Zhi's financial situation improved, but now the annual deficit is still four million taels a year.
At the same time, a large amount of Li Zhi's money was consumed by the land reclamation expenses of 600,000 Liao people. After obtaining the vast black land of the three northeastern provinces, it is unjustifiable not to reclaim land. After the land reclamation is completed, the future income will be considerable, but the fund consumption in the land reclamation stage is also staggering.
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There were 600,000 Liao people who opened up wasteland. Excluding women, children, old and young, there were about 300,000 laborers. Each laborer earned one or two or five yuan a month and three meals a day. Although the treatment of these Liao people was much lower than that of the Huben army,
But the number of hundreds of thousands of people is too huge. Daily expenses alone cost Li Zhi 16 million taels per year. This does not include camp construction, tools and other expenses for the land reclamation team.
Li Zhi has recently started the construction of the road network in Liaodong Province. Not only does Li Zhi want to build a 1,500-mile railway in Liaodong, he is also preparing to build "town-to-town" cement roads in Liaodong.
The construction of these road networks is of course useful. According to Li Zhi's plan, after the Liaodong road network is completed, the cost of grain transportation can be reduced to 10% of the current cost. If Liaodong plans to have 40 million acres of dry land in the future, an annual output of 2
If tens of millions of tons of grain are sold to the mainland, the transportation cost without a road network would be about six million taels a year. But with railways and roads, more than five million taels can be saved a year in freight.
From a long-term and overall perspective, road construction is very cost-effective. In the future, the operation of the railway is expected to be profitable and part of the construction cost can be recovered. However, from a short-term and financial perspective, the cost of railway and highway construction is very heavy. Li Zhi's
The 1,500-mile railway is entirely funded by the government, and its construction cost is estimated at 6 million taels. The "Zhenzhentong" road is longer, and its construction cost is estimated at 5 million taels.
Li Zhi obtained 10 million taels of silver by attacking Japan, 20 million taels of silver by raiding the "defeating Li" gentry in Shandong, 27 million taels of silver by raiding Shanxi merchants, and confiscated 1,000 taels of silver by going south to kill the Jiangnan gentry who stabbed him in the back.
Five million taels, plus several million taels obtained from selling Jurchen slaves, Li Zhi originally had more than 70 million taels in savings.
But over the past two years, the ever-expanding Tiger Ben Division and the sudden appearance of the land reclamation team have consumed more than 20 million taels of Li Zhi's more than 70 million taels of silver. And in the next year, the land reclamation team and Huben Division will be in deficit
Continuing, it is estimated that it will cost more than 20 million taels. The construction of railways and highways will require 10 million taels.
In other words, even taking into account the future profits of the steam engine industry, the increase in patent fee income and the land rent income from public lands in Liaodong, in two years, or at most three years, Li Zhi will have earned 70 million taels of silver from his military campaigns in the north and south in these years.
It will all be consumed. At that time, the heavy deficit will be completely unsustainable, and the land reclamation team and even part of the army must be disbanded.
This is on the premise that Li Zhi does not expand his army.
Many Shandong officials have recently put forward proposals to build a railway and highway network in Shandong. The proposers believe that the current transportation between Shandong and Tianjin often takes several days, which is not conducive to communication and management between the two places.
Li Zhi appreciated this suggestion, but the finances were simply unable to support it.
Li Zhi urgently needs to open up new financial resources.
Everyone sat in the second hall, and no one spoke for a long time. Financial matters were really a problem, and no one could suddenly produce tens of millions of taels of silver.
Seeing that everyone was silent for a long time, Li Zhi suddenly asked: "What is the population of North Korea?"
After hearing Li Zhi's words, everyone's eyes lit up and they became lively. Zhong Feng and Li Xing were whispering to each other, and even Li Laosi, who had always been relatively steady, talked to Hong Chengchou and seemed to have some ideas.
Finally, Hong Chengchou stood up and said: "My lord, no one knows the exact number of North Korea's population. Based on the General Staff Office's understanding of North Korea, it is estimated that North Korea's population is between nine million and twelve million. North Korea's original population
The land is barren. However, the two classes of nobles in North Korea have continuously reclaimed wasteland over the years, which has greatly expanded the number of fields in North Korea, which is why so many people have been born."
Li Xing patted the armrest of the chair, stood up, and said loudly: "Brother! Over the years, North Korea has taken refuge in the Tatars to help the Tatars. Not only did they pay tribute to the Tatars, they also exported a large amount of grain to the agriculturally backward Tatars, and even directly sent troops to assist the Tatars.
The Qing Dynasty invaded and plundered the Ming Dynasty. In the battle of Jinzhou, North Korea sent tens of thousands of troops!"
"If there were not more than 10,000 soldiers and horses from North Korea, how much less blood would our Ming Dynasty warriors shed in the Jinzhou War? This hatred and hatred must not be ignored!"
Li Xing waved his sleeves and said: "I propose that we write a stern letter to the King of Korea and ask him to compensate us in Tianjin as a price for assisting the Tatars!"
After hearing Li Xing's words, everyone became even more excited and started talking among themselves.
If a sum of money could be obtained from North Korea, everyone would be happy. In the Battle of Jinzhou, the Ming army suffered heavy casualties, and this was due to the "contribution" of North Korean soldiers and horses. Not to mention that it was North Korea's food that helped the Tatars support themselves.
The most basic social order, otherwise the Tatar Qing would not be able to mobilize in the Battle of Jinzhou.
Hong Chengchou took a breath and said: "Although North Korea surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in the ninth year of Chongzhen, it returned to paying tribute to the Ming Dynasty after the Jinzhou War in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen. Last year, the emperor had forgiven North Korea and canonized King Li Zhu of North Korea as the Lord of North Korea.
, so now North Korea is already a vassal state of our Ming Dynasty."
"Although the Duke of Guo actually fought against the Manchus on his own, he said he had the right to pursue North Korea, which had colluded with the Manchus. But now that North Korea has become a vassal again, we, as ministers of the Ming Dynasty, seem to have no position to attack him."
When Li Xing heard this, he became angry and said: "North Korea has two sides! The surrender of the Manchus to the Qing Dynasty is not over yet! Even if the emperor lets him go, our town in Tianjin will not let him go!"
Everyone discussed in whispers for a while, and finally looked at Li Zhi. Whether or not to do such a big thing as conquering North Korea depends on the idea of Duke Jin.
Li Zhi looked at the platform outside the second hall and said slowly: "North Korea helps the tyrants and must not go unpunished. Hong Chengchou! You write a message to the King of North Korea on my behalf. In the name of the Ming Dynasty's Northern General, I am fully responsible for the north of the Ming Dynasty.
The military affairs and diplomacy. I ask North Korea to hand over fifteen million taels of silver as atonement. Otherwise, if our Tianjin army moves, everything will be destroyed, and the whole country of North Korea will regret it."
