1635 Han style rises again

On August 1676, 7, Xiangjiang (now Rockhampton, Australia).

Seeing the carriage approaching to pick up the people, Min Zhenlun stepped forward, opened the door courteously, and invited the two quartermaster officers to get into the carriage with a smile on his face.

"Min shopkeeper, since the order is delivered to you, you must deliver it on time according to the time specified by our military." An officer of the General Logistics Department, Lieutenant Xuanjie (major) solemnly explained with a serious expression on his face. , "If the time is delayed, don't blame our military for turning their faces and denying people!"

"Mr. Liu, look at what you said." Min Zhenlun said with a smile: "In my country of Qi, when it comes to the output of beef, our Xiangjiang Prefecture is the most. But when it comes to the output of canned beef, it must belong to me." Min Kee's food factory. This military purchase, thanks to your military care, I, Min, will do my best, and my four factories will definitely complete the delivery of this order on time and satisfactorily."

As he spoke, he held a hundred-yuan gold coupon in his right hand, and stuffed it into the opponent's hand in a subtle way.

The lieutenant Xuanjie gave Min Zhenlun a meaningful look, and didn't refuse. He stuffed the gold coupon into his pocket, exchanged greetings with Min Zhenlun, and boarded the carriage with his companions.

It wasn't until the carriage drove away that Min Zhenlun withdrew his gaze, with a relieved expression on his face.

50 pieces of canned beef will be delivered within 20 days after the deadline. After this order is completed, after excluding various costs and expenses, the profit will be at least 5 to [-] yuan.At that time, the canned food produced will be transported to Weihai by train along with a large number of other military supplies, and then loaded on a ship and sailed to Jianye City to join the expedition fleet.

That's right, after two years, the Qi State once again assembled the army and navy on a large scale, and established a huge expeditionary fleet, preparing to launch a war against the Mughal Empire.

The disputes over cotton fabrics that have been entangled for many years, the ever-increasing trade restrictions, and the increasingly aggressive trade bans have made the whole country of Qi lose their patience, to the point of intolerability.

Until March of this year, the Mughal Empire blatantly canceled all the preferential trade privileges that had been granted to the Qi State, and comprehensively raised the import commodity tax on Qi State’s products, and even imposed discrimination on Qi State’s commercial stations and merchants in the Mughal Empire Sexual transaction tax completely ignited the anger of domestic businessmen.

Nima, the Dutch, the British, the French, the Arabs, the Ottomans, and even the sparsely populated Danes enjoy various trade privileges within the Mughal Empire, not to mention that their commodity import taxes are almost zero. , that is, there was no transaction tax that the Mughals only levied on their own merchants.

Comparing this box, it is not only more harmful to the merchants and products of the Qi State, but also extremely insulting.

In terms of highly competitive cotton fabrics, the Mughal Empire has increased tariffs from zero at the beginning to 60%-80% and set quotas.Among the other products in Qi State, apart from iron and steel and armaments, there is no import commodity tax, sugar, tea, porcelain, clocks, machinery, perfume, soap (soap), leather goods, oil, food cans... etc., more than a dozen categories , Hundreds of commodities, when entering the Mughal territory, all import taxes of varying amounts are levied.

Under such circumstances, the government of the Mughal Empire can collect taxes as high as 600 million rupees per year, which is equivalent to nearly 200 million Hanzhou silver dollars, only from imported goods from Qi.

Why? !
The 200 million Hanzhou silver dollars should have been the profit earned by our Qi merchants, but they were taken away by the Mughal Empire for nothing.

In this world, almost 80.00% of disputes and conflicts, whether between countries or between people, come from economic interests.

In order to conquer the entire Indian region, Emperor Aurangzeb of the Mughal Empire wanted to expand his empire's territory to the natural border, achieving his unprecedented hegemony in the history of the empire.

For this reason, Aurangzeb launched countless wars. In the northwest region, he fought endlessly with rebellious local tribes; The Japur Sultan Kingdom and the Kokanda Sultan Kingdom have always been in a state of high pressure, and they want to swallow them quickly; All merged into the Governor-General of Bangladesh.

All of this has almost exhausted the treasury of the Mughal Empire, so that the empire's finances are already beyond their means.

Everyone knows that the Mughal Empire is very short of money. The government has begun to increase the poll tax of non-true believers in the country, and even confiscated and demolished dozens of Hindu temples to supplement the weak finances of the empire. income.

But using the method of searching for money on Qi State, forcing the largest trading partner of the Mughal Empire to retreat again and again, this is too ugly!
As the saying goes, when pinching persimmons, pick the soft ones, and when bullying people, pick the honest ones.But the Mughal Empire was good. They slaughtered people, picked up the big ones, picked the fat ones, and caught our Qi State and masturbated hard.

You know, in the entire Indian Ocean region, if our country's sea power ranks second, no one dares to be the first.Do you Mughal Empire really think that Qi is easy to mess with?

Originally, two or three years ago, Qi State formulated a series of attack plans against the Mughal Empire, preparing to launch a limited-scale military strike against it, forcing it to lift various trade discrimination bans on Qi State products and expand market opening degree.

But by coincidence, the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate created the "Fukuyama" incident in Osaka, which aroused the anger of His Majesty the Emperor, and then ordered a punitive war against Japan.

Now, two years have passed, and Qi finally has his hands free to deal with the Mughal Empire seriously.

However, it is strange to say that when it came to war with the Mughal Empire, compared with the prudence of the cabinet government and the military, His Majesty the Emperor appeared to be more "confident and self-confident", and even showed a little contempt for the Mughals.According to unconfirmed news from the Taichu Palace, His Majesty seemed to look down on the Mughals extremely, and jokingly called them "A San".

Although I don't know what "Ah San" means, His Majesty's "blindly optimistic" attitude really made the cabinet and the military feel an inexplicable pressure.

You know, the Mughal Empire is a world power with a population of hundreds of millions, and the number of troops is also in the millions.Although Qi State is extremely powerful at sea and its army is invincible, if a country with a population of more than 700 million invades such an empire with a huge population, and it is a long-distance expedition across thousands of miles of sea, it will still be quite stressful .

However, the domestic business circles are raging, and they unanimously demand that the Mughal Empire be beaten and killed, and that it be given a severe military blow, so that the other party can correct its unreasonable foreign trade policy. Oh, no, it should be unreasonable trade with our country. policy.And His Majesty the Emperor showed such contempt for the Mughal Empire. If the cabinet and the military performed poorly in this upcoming war, it would definitely embarrass His Majesty and disappoint the people in the country.

Therefore, in order to ensure the smooth progress of the war against the Mughal Empire, in addition to appropriating 500 million war funds, the cabinet also specially issued 500 million three-year special national bonds in the country, making up 1000 million Hanzhou silver dollars. Including the nearly 300 million Hanzhou silver dollars "sponsored" by the Bangladeshi Trading Company, the Indian Trading Company, and the Persian Trading Company, the total cost of the war will be as high as 300 million.This cost is more than double the amount spent during the war against Japan, the highest in the 40-year history of Qi.

In terms of the navy, in addition to recruiting more than 42 warships from the Indian fleet, it also mobilized [-] warships from the local fleet and the Weiyuan fleet, plus the accompanying armed transport ships and supply ships. It is estimated that there will be [-] operational warships.Of course, according to the development of the war and the needs of the battlefield, many civilian armed merchant ships active in India, Persia, Arabia, and the Red Sea region will also be requisitioned by the expeditionary fleet at any time to participate in the battle against the Mughal Empire.

As for the army, fourteen marine battalions, three artillery battalions, two cavalry battalions, and more than 2 officers and soldiers were mobilized.In addition, more than [-] troops were recruited from the six vassal states of Weiguo, Luzon, Sulu, Shunguo, Champa, and Haxian, as well as Mataran, Yogyakarta, Madura, Brambang, and Vanuatu. There are more than [-] servant troops of Dan, Zhanbei and other Nanyang people protecting the land, with a total of more than [-] landing combat troops.

If the local armed guards of the Bangladeshi trading company and the Indian trading company are added, as well as the servants of the three Indian states of Cochin, Qiulong, and Kozhikode under the control of the Qi State, the total force may exceed 3, a record high. The Qi State dispatched the most troops in the wars over the years.

Of course, Qi mobilized such a large army not to fight a war to conquer the Mughal Empire, let alone destroy the South Asian overlord with a huge population in one fell swoop, but to let the other party realize that in the entire Indian Ocean region, Who is the real speaker and who is the leader of the regional order.

Although, your Mughal Empire is in the limelight at this time. Under the leadership of the emperor Aurangzeb, the empire's territory has been expanded to the extreme, far surpassing the emperors of all dynasties, and it can be called a great emperor.

However, your Mughal Empire has always had trouble with my country Qi in terms of trade, and has always made things difficult for our merchants and commodities. Various trade bans and measures have also appeared extremely insulting and provocative.

That being the case, it is no wonder that the Great Qi Empire launched a tough and violent comprehensive revenge based on this.

In order to deal with this war, the military's purchase of tens of millions of war supplies has also caused a violent shock in the domestic business community. Countless factories and trading companies, staring at bloodthirsty eyes, crazily competed for various military supplies orders .Arms, clothing, medicines, armor, alcohol, canned food, boats..., as well as various raw materials, packaging, assembly and transportation extending upstream and downstream, it seems that the booming industry and commerce in the whole country have been fueled again, violently "Burn" up.

Looking at the rumbling machines in the factory, the busy workers, the countless manufactured products off the assembly line, and the incoming Hanzhou silver dollars, many factory owners even maliciously look forward to , The war between the Qi State and the Mughal Empire should preferably last for three to five years. In this way, the continuous government and military orders will make everyone eat a lot.

Oh, will my Qi Congress be defeated?

That is impossible!

I think it has been 40 years since the establishment of the Qi State, and almost every year there are various wars, large and small, with European barbarians, or with the Tubang kingdoms in Southeast Asia, or with the Qing captives on the mainland, or even two years ago. Even if there were occasional small setbacks during the war against Japan, our Qi country could win the final victory.

As for the Mughal Empire that is going to be attacked this time, although it is a little bigger and has a larger population and army, no one in the country doubts that the Qi army will suffer a serious defeat, and they are all full of positive optimism Attitude.

The domestic business class and citizens are looking forward to the return of this war.Fighting a small country like Japan, the battlefield "seized" plus compensation, the government received tens of millions of Hanzhou silver dollars.

And the Mughal Empire has always been famous for its wealth and wealth. After this battle, if our country of Qi can't get back the 5000 million Hanzhou silver dollars in the end, it can definitely be said to be a loss-making "business"!
The enthusiasm of the domestic people for this war can be seen from the hot sales of the 500 million special treasury bonds issued by the government.The government bonds were sold in early May, and they were sold out by the domestic public in just half a month.After all, the [-]% bond interest rate is one point higher than the three-year bank deposit interest rate, and the liquidity is also more convenient, which naturally wins the favor of many businessmen and citizens.

Whether it is literati and scholars from the mainland of China, officials and envoys of the Central Plains court, or even adventurers and colonial businessmen from European countries, Qi has frequently launched foreign wars for decades, but it has never caused a huge impact on the domestic economy and people's livelihood. Destruction and loss, are very puzzled.

You know, from ancient times to the present, wars have never stopped.But no matter in ancient times or in this period, war is a waste of money and people.There are many examples of countries being dragged down because of wars, such as Ming Dynasty, Spain in Europe, oh, and the Netherlands that has been beaten to death.

Therefore, in Chinese culture, there is a very famous epigram, "No matter how big a country is, it will die if it is warlike."

But Qi State is a special case. From the time it landed in Hanzhou and first established its foundation, it has frequently launched wars or been involved in wars.Up to now, Qi State has participated in or initiated dozens of wars, large and small. It is not even an exaggeration to say that Qi State has been in a state of war since its establishment.

Why do wars in other countries waste people and money, but Qi becomes stronger and richer as it fights?

Gein, except for the Spanish invasion and the first Han-Dutch war where Qi was forced to get involved, all other wars initiated by Qi have always adhered to a principle, that is, not to fight uncertain and unprofitable wars.

Whether it was the Second Han-Dutch War, the Battle of Suez, and the many annexation wars against the Nanyang kingdoms, or even participating in the mainland's intervention war against the Qing captives, Qi was actually profitable.Although during the war, Qi State consumed a lot of manpower and material resources, but the benefits that can be obtained in the end are doubled.

Mineral resources, strategic location, immigration resources, free trade rights, commercial interests, etc., are all the rich benefits that Qi has obtained.Therefore, Qi will become richer and richer as it fights.

In addition, the reason why Qi has such a powerful combat power and has become the maritime hegemony in the Southeast Asia and even the Indian Ocean is actually due to the large-scale well-developed military enterprises in China.To survive, military enterprises in Qi State must obtain sufficient military orders.Qi's uninterrupted war is actually a way to stimulate the economy.War will inevitably consume weapons and ammunition, and the Qi army promotes the development of its own military enterprises by continuously purchasing various equipment, weapons and ammunition.

Military industry enterprises are one of the pillar industries in Qi State. The development of military industry enterprises not only solves many livelihood and employment problems for Qi State, but also greatly promotes the progress of Qi State's industrial technology and the development of related departments upstream and downstream of the military industry system.Therefore, Qi's frequent wars can also be said to be a mode of supporting wars through wars.

Frequent wars can also promote the continuous update and iteration of Qi's weapons and equipment.The most intuitive and easiest way to test whether a weapon is practical and advanced is to put it into actual combat.Sniper rifles (Mini guns), flower bombs, rockets, various light land artillery, heavy siege artillery and howitzers... etc., are verified and continuously improved in each battle.

At some point, the war can also promote the explosive growth of Qi's economy in a short period of time.Before the soldiers and horses go, the food and grass move first.To launch a war requires the production and preparation of a large amount of military materials, prompting the country to invest heavily in the military industry and driving the development of related industries.

Therefore, in the face of the war, although the millions of people and all walks of life in Qi State could not be said to be fanatical, their high enthusiasm was obvious.