After capturing Central Asia, the army needed to take a breath and suspend the Western Expeditionary Army's plan to continue crossing the Ural River and attack the Volga River.
He also called on the entire army to be self-reliant, cultivate land, raise pigs and cattle, and, among other things, at least be self-sufficient in their rations.
Self-reliance has always been a fine tradition of the Army. Since the end of the Unification War, military expenditures have dropped significantly, but the Army's troop strength has increased, forcing the Army to continuously carry out reforms.
Garrisoning troops and farming, raising pigs and cattle, etc. all started at that time.
The recruitment system became a compulsory military system, with reserve units, militia units, mobilization mechanisms, etc.
In fact, these are all plans that the Army was forced to make under this general environment.
If possible, the Army is actually more willing to maintain an active front-line combat-ready force of several million than to have only a few hundred thousand combat-ready troops, plus hundreds of thousands of second-line troops, plus several million
Reserve troops!
But that’s not a lack of money!
If the Tatars or other European countries knew that the Tang Army was crying for poverty, they would definitely be speechless.
The military expenditure of you Tang people is several times more than the total fiscal revenue of the entire Europe and the Tatars. What else do you want!
Nowadays, the income of the royal families in Europe is actually not much, no more than a few million Tang Yuan, if not a few hundred thousand or even hundreds of thousands.
A few years ago, on its way to America, a fleet from England was first hit by a storm, and then, unluckily, it was attacked by pirates, which eventually led to the annihilation of the entire fleet.
As the majority shareholder of the fleet, the English royal family directly lost about 100,000 Tang Yuan!
The English royal family almost went bankrupt!
Spain and Portugal were much better. They also provided continuous blood transfusions to their overseas colonies. At the same time, in order to support these two countries in resisting the Tatars, the Tang Dynasty simply acquiesced to the merger of the two.
A few years ago, the warlike and battlefield-loving King Sebastian I of Portugal led his troops to fight the Tatars on the French front line and died in battle. Because this unlucky king liked fighting and did not like life.
He had no children, so he could not leave any heirs.
Later, the throne was inherited by his uncle Enrique I, but this man was also a fool, the kind of bishop who could not have descendants.
As a result, after Enrique I also died last year, the Kingdom of Portugal was once in trouble without an heir, and there were several candidates.
The current King of Spain, Philip II, is a strong contender.
Although the diplomats of the Tang Dynasty in Europe still did not understand the weird inheritance system in Europe, considering that the Tang Empire still needed the Spanish and Portuguese to fight the Tatars, and if the Spanish annexed Portugal, they could also
It would be better to integrate the forces of the peninsula and the colonies to fight against the Tatars, so they acquiesced.
Therefore, although there is still the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Spain, they have actually been merged.
After the merger, the national power of Spain and Portugal increased a lot.
Nowadays, the entire Europe, Spain, Portugal, England, plus the Netherlands, Sweden, a group of states on the Italian peninsula, Austria, the Ottomans and other messy countries, their total fiscal revenue is estimated to be in the tens of millions.
Datang's military expenditure alone was more than 70 million, and there was no comparison between the two.
However, despite this, the military of the Tang Dynasty continued to complain about poverty.
There was no way, Datang's military expenditures were high, equipment was expensive, and combat costs were also expensive. Even if they did nothing but just eat, drink, and sleep, they would have to spend tens of millions a year.
Not to mention that the Army plans to undergo a large-scale change of equipment in the past two years, and the ammunition consumption of rear-loaded weapons is greater, and the combat costs are also getting higher and higher.
Even though the Army has taken the majority of military expenditures, it is still troubled by military expenditures.
Otherwise, the army would not farm and raise pigs by itself. It is really forced by military expenditures.
Fighting requires money, and the Western Expedition was a waste of money. No matter how frugal the Army was, it couldn't support it alone. It needed temporary war funds to launch a large-scale campaign.
Therefore, the army's top brass had no choice but to reduce expenditures and at the same time stop the costly Western Expedition. The troops would farm and raise pigs for a while, concentrate on replacing rifled weapons and count, and then save funds after the replacement was completed.
fight.
This made the soldiers in the Western Expedition very helpless and even dissatisfied.
However, there is no way to dissatisfaction. In the Tang Army, it is not popular for the subordinates to conquer the superiors. Since the top management has made a decision, the people below must abide by the orders, otherwise they will die miserably.
Therefore, large-scale battles cannot be fought in the past year and a half. At most, it is just a cover for the railway company to continue to build the railway.
With so many soldiers on the front line, it was impossible for them to be idle, so the garrison was asked to start farming and help the new immigrants build houses and dig canals.
The Western Expeditionary Army suspended its large-scale offensive, which also relieved the Tatars on the opposite side.
In the past few years, the Tatars have been losing ground in Central Asia, and there have been very few opportunities to take a breath. Now they finally have time to take a breath.
As a new immigrant, He Xihua naturally didn't know about the layout of these upper levels. He was currently busy opening up wasteland.
The land was already there, as were the seeds and tools. Now all he had to do was to cultivate the land and sow the seeds.
It's just that he came here alone. Although he had the help of horses obtained from low-interest loans, it was still very difficult.
The progress of its reclamation is far less than that of several surrounding neighbors.
Because the surrounding neighbors all immigrated here with their families.
It's just that this family includes old and young people, and not all of them are young and strong laborers. The area of land cultivated per person is actually not as much as Xihua can do alone.
Moreover, the cost of immigrating a family is not small.
The days passed, and He Xihua was busy in the fields every day. When he found time, he even sent a letter home.
There was a telegraph office in the city where he could send telegrams, but the high price scared him away.
Since the successful development of the telegraph, Datang Telegraph Company began to set up telegraph lines. The first long-distance telegraph line from Jinling to Shanghai has not yet been completed and has already been laid out across the country.
Among them, the northwest region was related to the war and was also a first-class priority project. Profit or loss was not considered at all. The government directly gave large financial subsidies to the telegraph company and organized banks to provide them with loans. This was the successful laying of this telegraph line.
Otherwise, relying solely on their telegraph company, it would take years and months to raise enough money to lay the groundwork. ァ新ヤ~8~1~中文网www.x~8~1zщ.com
However, such a high-cost telegraph line is naturally not affordable for ordinary people. The main users are the military and local governments, which are used to deliver urgent documents.
He Xihua couldn't afford to send a telegram, so he had to send a letter back.
Fortunately, these days letters are delivered quickly by railways and ships. Although it takes a little longer to send them back, it is better than nothing.
The letter he sent home was mainly to reassure his family and to persuade them to immigrate as well.
Not to mention anything else, these hundreds of hectares of land alone are enough.
No matter how nice your hometown is, if you don’t have enough fields and enough food, what’s the use? Why not come to Haidong Province and try your luck?
But I'm afraid my father still won't agree. After all, although their family's land is a little less, they still have land, but it's not like those shabby households don't have any land at all.
It's normal to have some hesitation.
He Xihua was busy opening up wasteland every day, and He Xihua took time to go to the city. He planned to buy some chickens to raise.
He had saved a little money in the past few years of working, and the Royal Bank also had special low-interest loans for new immigrants, so he was able to buy some livestock to raise.
The only problem was that he was alone and had too much to do.
But even if you are too busy, you still have to do it.
He has made inquiries in the past few days. Everything is in short supply in the city now, especially all kinds of food, and the prices are very high.
He just wanted to grow vegetables and raise chickens after farming, and then sell them in the city.
He didn't know that the current Kuli City was the base camp of the Western Expeditionary Army. At the same time, the newly established Haidong Province also established the Kuli Prefecture here and established its capital directly in Kuli City.
Many of the newly arrived officials, officers and their families have relatively high demands for daily necessities.
In addition, many daily necessities have to be transported from the mainland. The transportation cost is high, and it is difficult to eat fresh food. This has also caused the shortage of some living necessities here in Curry City.
He opened up wasteland, grew vegetables and raised chickens, and after a while he also raised a few pigs.
For this reason, he not only spent all his savings, but also owed a lot of money to the bank.
But there is no need to worry about food rations.
The Immigration and Reclamation Department generally provides low-priced food for new immigrants for one year. Although this food also costs money and the price is very low, the most important thing is that it can be paid on credit, and it will be gradually restored after one year.
return.
So there is no need to worry about these rations. You will never die of hunger. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many people choosing to immigrate to border provinces or simply go overseas.
In addition to free land allocation and necessary production tools and seeds, grain can also be owed on credit.
If immigrants want to expand production, raise pigs and chickens, etc., but have no capital, then there are also special immigration loans for immigrants.
It's just that these are purely commercial loans, which require interest, but the interest is very low.
He Xihua calculated that he had spent all his savings and signed a bank loan of more than 20 yuan, which made him feel even more pressure.
However, as for the pressure, looking at a large group of chickens and a few pigs that were slowly growing up, he felt relieved.
As long as nothing unexpected happens and you get through the first few months, you will be able to buy the chickens you have raised, which will reduce your debt pressure and allow you to further expand production.
Maybe after a year, I will not only be able to pay off my debts, but also earn a lot of money.