Xinshun 1730

Chapter 151
Looking at the [-] students selected from the staff class, Liu Yu breathed a sigh of relief.Six hellish months of physical and mental exhaustion were finally over.

In the past six months, I have been the company commander in the morning and the teacher in the afternoon, teaching the content of the infantry drills little by little.

It is also fortunate that these people are all from Wude Palace, and have received military education in camp schools since childhood, otherwise they would have collapsed even more.

There is a saying that if you want to destroy it, you must first praise it.

Since Liu Yu thought about destroying the privileged class of Liangjiazi, he would naturally find a way to put it into practice.

This is a long process, and now these young people are full of energy, just like the rising sun, he still has to teach it well.

Still fellow travelers for the time being.

Now, the matter of the army's new army has to be put aside for the time being, and Liu Yu has to prepare for the next big event.

"Young Master, I've already inquired clearly. This year's ripening, the price of grain in Liaodong is very low. Beans are only seven renminbi, and wheat is only five renminbi. The grain in Jiaodong is also considered a bumper harvest, but most of them are spring wheat and autumn corn, and the price of corn is not high. "

Kang Buxiu went out to play for a few months, and not long after he came back, he was sent to Penglai by Liu Yu for a tour, and asked about the price of grain in Liaodong.

This year, the price of soybeans in Liaodong is falling, and the price of soybeans in Liaodong is falling. As soon as the new grain comes out, it must be sold quickly to pay taxes.

The common people have no money in their hands, and they are short of money. They all know that if they save it for a while, they can sell more.

If you don't sell it, how do you pay various land taxes, dingkou silver, and repay usury?
Over the years, the population in Liaodong has grown and immigrated continuously, along the Liaohe Plain all the way to the north, and the climate of the Little Ice Age has come to an end. There is a scene of soy and sorghum everywhere.

There are also more and more ships transporting grain along the sea. A few days ago, there was a ship transporting soybeans to Shanghai, passing through Liugong Island.

Kang Buxi knew that Liu Yu was not planning to engage in grain trade, and what he revealed earlier seemed to be to buy a pile of grain and store it up.

As a diner, Kang Bulan felt that it was necessary to persuade Liu Yu.

"Young master, soldiers eat imperial rations. After recruiting soldiers, each soldier receives three buckets of rice to support his family. These are all from the granary."

"Wendeng Prefecture used to have Changping warehouses, which stored [-] shi of grain. Now, for Qingzhou soldiers, several large warehouses have been built near Weihai. In the future, this batch will try to transport rice by sea. In the future, the grain and rice for recruits will be They all come out of warehouses. Grain is prone to mildew, flammability, and beetles, so it is unwise to hoard grain.”

He knew that Liu Yu now had a lot of money in his hands, totaling more than 40 taels.

The emperor asked Liu Yu to organize a battalion, that is, an army of 500 people, and pay according to the recruiting money of four or two people.In addition to the ordnance money, Liu Yu didn't want armour, matchlock guns and spears, etc., so he gave another 20 taels, which included the cost of expanding the barracks.

It is equivalent to using the money to let Liu Yu create a new army, and let the navy have a certain size. As for how to do it, the emperor really doesn’t care if he says it doesn’t matter, as long as he doesn’t compete with the people for profit and plunder. .

It was a good deal for the emperor, with low cost and high return.

Not counting the military salary, four to five million taels of silver can be used to train a new army that can be compared with the Beijing camp, which is equivalent to no money for the emperor.

Anyway, Liu Yu gambled his life, the emperor still trusted him a lot, and it might not be true what he said, but Liu Yu hadn't asked about not recruiting a single soldier so far.

Of course, money is required for recruiting soldiers, and the future military pay is not counted. For the first recruitment, you have to give a few taels of security money, and arrange for wives and children.

Ordnance also costs money, of course.

I don't know how many people in the court are jealous of the several 10 taels of silver in Liu Yu's hands, and they all want to hold it in their hands for nothing, embezzle it, and then loan it out. How much is the annual interest?

Kang Bushao also knew that the imperial court wanted Liu Yu's money to generate money, so as long as he didn't compete with the people for profit, he wouldn't be jointly impeached, so he turned a blind eye.

But even if money makes money, it is very unwise to engage in grain trade.This year, the north and the south are ripe, and the price of grain in various places is not high, so the soybeans in Liaodong can be sold to Songjiang and other places, earning hard money.

If it is grain storage, everyone knows that this year's grain price is so low, next year it is impossible to be lower than this year's.However... How much is a tael of silver for you to take out on a loan for interest a year?If the grain is stored for a year and the loss and loss are counted, what price can this be more than the profit from lending?

After a few times of persuasion, Liu Yu thought about it for a long time, but finally he didn't have a single explanation, he just said: "Zhongxian, don't persuade me any more about this matter. I have made up my mind, I will go to withdraw money later, and store more food."

Kang Buxio knew how to advance and retreat, and also knew that Liu Yu would talk to him about everything and ask him to advise him, but since he didn't want to explain this matter, he didn't want to ask any more questions, just do it.

Liu Yu didn't want to be a magic stick, but this time there was really no other way.

The Japanese like fireworks, which are beautiful and ephemeral. Tokyo has a very famous Fireworks Festival on the Sumida River in later generations. The tradition of this fireworks show is to commemorate an upcoming catastrophe.

This famine, which may come next year or the year after, has caused a great impact. It gave the shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune the title of "General Rice", and also made Japan completely tighten its trade policy, trying to reduce the outflow of precious metals. The number of trade licenses issued has also declined sharply.

The Sumida River Fireworks Festival in Tokyo is still very famous, and many people know about it.

The reason is to commemorate this great famine.

It is said that millions of farmers in Japan have starved to death, especially in the Xikaido area, and the grain output is only 20.00% of previous years.

Liu Yu knew about this and had heard about the Sumida River Fireworks Festival, but he didn't know that the Great Famine was more terrifying than what he knew.

The cold summer caused by the Kuroshio warm current and the Kuroshima cold current does not only affect Japan.

Perhaps there were too many great famines in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and this one was not considered cannibalism, and it was not well-known, at least Liu Yu didn't know about it.

But in fact, from Feicheng, Shandong, to Jiaodong, it has been seriously affected.

There was a great famine in Feicheng, and the dead were lying on each other; in Wendeng, Juxian, and Zhaoyuan, there were many people fleeing famine.

In the following two years, it spread to Jiangsu, and even Shanghai and Jiaxing, the land of fish and rice.

Liu Yu didn't know there was going to be a catastrophe in Shandong, but he originally wanted to take advantage of the disaster year to immigrate and recruit soldiers, so food must be prepared.

Anyway, in the old days, there was a famine every year, and people ate each other once every two years on average. The famine was only a matter of size, and it didn't even need to be considered.

Especially Shandong, Henan, Anhui... These places, since Sanyi Huihe destroyed the hinterland of the Huanghuai River, don't ask which years these places have suffered from disasters, but ask which years these places have not had disasters.

So Liu Yu wanted to stockpile food, but he just regarded the disaster in the Central Plains as a normal situation, and regarded the disaster in Japan as an opportunity.

In addition to preparing low-priced food for recruiting the victims of the disaster, Liu Yu also took advantage of this opportunity to seize a little more of Japan's trade share. When the famine was at its worst, he would "send charcoal in the snow" and "a cloth with water" in exchange for a few trade tickets. license.

Relying on Japanese money to build a fleet capable of blocking Japan and forcing Japan to only trade freely with China, he can sell horses, samurai riding and archery skills, military books, horns, and even grain.

The emperor and the court didn't understand how much a navy would cost. If Liu Yu reported the real price, it would frighten the Tianyou Temple and the six governments to object collectively. They thought it would be better to squat at home and pretend that they didn't know about Westerners. Just staring at the side.

I gave myself 2 taels of internal money and 50 taels of start-up capital, thinking that I could train a new army and a navy, which was no different from a dream.

However, the 50 taels is already the limit. The 100 million that the emperor promised to give at the beginning was to be divided into five years. Now it seems that this is the follow-up military salary.

In Liu Yu's eyes, the army's new army was raised by his stepmother, but it was just for the emperor to see. The navy is the real heart and soul, and it is also a gold-swallowing behemoth.

The price of the battleship is very fixed. According to Lord Niu's calculation after the reform of the currency system, a ton of a battleship is about 25 pounds.One pound and three taels of silver.

Cannon decorations, etc., are on average [-]% to [-]% of the overall tonnage cost of the warship. Of course, if the rich and powerful insist on using copper cannons instead of iron cannons, the price may be higher.

Perhaps the local Fuchuan wooden ship can be converted into a warship, or there may be a miracle of the [-]-ton Zheng He treasure ship, but Liu Yu can't do it, and the miracle of prayer is not as realistic as it is.

Thirty years ago, the Dutch and the Spaniards bombarded each other in the Manila Sea for an afternoon. The shells and gunpowder on both sides were wiped out, and no one sank.If it is changed to Fuchuan, it is estimated that it will be strong enough to withstand the shelling for an afternoon.

Liu Yu thinks it's better to follow the path of the Westerners, there is no shame in learning from others.

For the time being, in places like East Asia and Southeast Asia, where the navies are pecking each other, there is no need for too large warships, but five-tier ships of seven to eight hundred tons are needed.

Tier [-] ships are weak, with less and smaller artillery than Tier [-] ships, and much slower speed than Tier [-] ships.

Calculated based on the price of about 150 taels for a ton of warships reserved for French profits, two fifth-tier ships would cost 20 taels, not including follow-up training.

Two fifth-tier ships, in the eyes of naval powers, are not eligible to participate in line-to-line confrontation.

Poor people are not qualified to play navy.

Dashun's naive policy of open ports and true free trade is not qualified to build a navy.

It can only be said that "thanks" to Japan's policy of sequestering the country and the new order of Zhengde, which makes trade not free at all. You can only trade if you get a trade letter. Otherwise, the Dutch who have shops in Guangdong and can buy and sell freely will crowd out Chinese maritime merchants. None of them survived.

In view of this special situation, as well as the upcoming Japan's big famine, Liu Yu saw an opportunity to seize a trade license.

One piece of war horse, one piece of medicine, one piece of buffalo horn, one piece of arched horse warrior, if we can take advantage of the great famine in Japan to transport food to "send charcoal in the snow", then we may change two more. open.

In this way, one fifth-tier ship can be purchased in one year.In about five to eight years, you can try to turn your back on Japan and force Japan to free trade.

Japan's special trade policy determines that trade with Japan is not about navigation or trade goods, but whether it can lick a trade license.

He wanted to use a batch of grain to lick the silver of a battleship.Capitalize on the enemy with food.

(End of this chapter)