Nanming Yiming

Chapter 203 All For Money

When the Ming and Qing dynasties were at war under the city of Wuchang and were about to fight, the pier outside the city of Nanjing was empty, and a huge warship was docked beside the pier.

The several-story-high hull and huge sails make it a huge mobile fortress on water.

This is also the first sailing battleship built by Haining Shipyard. Although its full-load displacement is 1280 tons, which is less than 108% of that of England's "Sea King", it is equipped with 12 [-]-pound cannons, and its firepower is not inferior to its opponents.

Qian Mo re-improved the hull and layout with the vision of later generations, making the battleship faster.

This battleship can be said to be the most powerful presence in East Asia. Even the Dutch flagship in Batavia is not its opponent.

In addition to the "Jianwen" sailing battleship, six light cruisers with a displacement of 6 tons and equipped with 600 42-pound cannons have also been launched. These seven battleships have greatly enhanced the strength of the Daming Navy.

Admiral Zeng Jiahui of the Daming Navy said excitedly: "Now our Haining Shipyard has 12 large docks, 4 of which are super-large docks that can build sailing battleships over 1000 tons. Among them, the sister ship Yongle of Jianwen will have more than one month to go." You can go into the water too."

"There are also two enhanced sail battleships, with a design displacement of up to 2 tons. They will be equipped with the latest 1800-pound smoothbore guns, and their firepower will greatly surpass that of England's King of the Seas. It's just that the construction period is too long, and there will be 15 at the fastest You can go into the water after a month."

Qian Mo nodded in satisfaction. The construction period of the warship is very long. Although the governor's office has invested a lot of manpower and material resources, it took nearly 10 months for the Jianwen to be launched, and the construction period of the next two battleships needs 2 more than a year.

This is the result of Qian Mo spending a high price to recruit a large number of European shipbuilding craftsmen. If Daming's own craftsman level is used, the construction period will be extended by at least half.

Qian Buer on the side said in embarrassment: "This warship is good, but the cost is too expensive. Jianwen needs hundreds of guns alone, and the ship and guns plus the craftsman's salary is a full 30 taels." silver."

Song Yingxing also said: "The Navy's demand for artillery is too great. At present, 9% of the artillery we have manufactured is used to equip the Navy. The Army has recruited a lot of new troops, but it has not purchased many artillery."

Then he took out a brand-new breech-loading rifle and said, "Xiao Ni has already made this breech-loading rifle according to Wang Ye's suggestion, and it is equipped with mini bombs."

Qian Mo took the gun, then skillfully pushed a bullet into the gun chamber from behind, and fired a shot towards the distance.

Apparently the gun has an effective range of more than 180 paces.Of course, the most frightening thing about rear-loading guns is that the efficiency of firing is greatly improved. The Minie bullets are already close to modern bullets, instead of using traditional spherical lead bullets, their lethality will also be greatly improved.

The emergence of this breech-loading rifle basically declared that the cavalry could withdraw from the stage of history.

During the Second Opium War, 3 Mongolian cavalry led by Zeng Gelinqin faced 8000 British and French allied forces at Bali Bridge in Tongzhou.

There are still disputes about the number of British and French casualties in later generations. One said it was 5 people and the other said it was 12 people.

Qian Mo directly named this gun "Yongli 1649".

However, the manufacturing process of this gun is not much more complicated than the original rifled gun, because the most time-consuming thing is the rifled barrel. This process is basically the same, but the structure of the gun has been greatly changed.

In addition, the cost of Minie bullets is much more expensive than the original lead bullets.

Qian Buer said with a mournful face: "If this 'Yongli 1649' is to be fully mass-produced, at least 100 million taels of silver will be allocated."

"Previously, 100 million taels of silver was allocated for the repair of Nanjing Palace City, and 200 million taels of silver was allocated for the construction of the Longjiang Shipyard in Nanjing. Now the monthly military salary and the cost of manufacturing weapons are more than 120 million taels."

"The silver deposits in the treasury have bottomed out."

Qian Mo finally understood that Song Yingxing and Qian Buer were singing a double reed to himself, one was asking for money, and the other spread his hands to say that he had no money.Are they trying to use their own money?
Qian Mo understands that although the scale of maritime trade is gradually expanding, the tax revenue of the Shibo Department is also constantly hitting new highs.But business tax is a long-term thing after all. You can increase a lot at once from scratch, but it takes a process of accumulation from less to more.

Now the monthly routine expenses of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Governor's Mansion are close to 200 million taels of silver, and now the rich state capital has been almost occupied by him, and the rest are some poor villages, and the income from seizures is very limited.

In these poor places, when they slowly resume production, I don’t know how long it will take to collect taxes, and you have to invest a sum of construction funds first.

It seems that we still have to find a way to get money.

Qian Mo said: "Ask the imperial court for the 100 million taels of silver for the repair of the Nanjing Palace City? Stop working for me now. When will the imperial court allocate the silver and resume work?"

"In addition, since we are going to change to 'Yongli 1649', I will find a way to sell all the early Lumi guns. Now there are at least tens of thousands of rods in stock. Even if I sell them cheaper for 100 taels, I can still recycle them. Several million taels of silver."

"With this money, don't you have the money to make guns, cannons, and ships?"

Seeing Qian Buer's pensive look, Qian Mo said: "Uncle Jiashan, as the king's 'money bag', you should use your brain more, don't worry about the king's inner money all the time."

"There are many ways to make money, and the fastest way is to make 'war money'. You see, Huang Sanpang sold 1000 Lumi guns to Li Guoying for 20 taels of silver not long ago. This kind of business is done several times a month. Aren't they all here?"

"We need to take a long-term view. Those outdated weapons should be disposed of quickly and replaced with silver to make new ones. Rifled flintlock guns are not allowed to be sold for the time being. I will find a way to sell all the Type 1 and Type 2 Lumi guns. So what if these things are in the hands of the enemy?"

"Isn't the Qing court already making a copycat version of the Lumi blunderbuss? Whether it's Wu Sangui, Sun Kewang, the Mongols or Li Chengdong, Jiang Xiang, Li Guo, Li Dingguo, Du Yinxi, whoever pays will sell them. That's what Hong Chengchou thinks Buy and we sell, don’t get stuck with money, of course, the worse the relationship, the more expensive it is to sell, I just say ‘can’t sell cheap’.”

Originally, Qian Mo planned to send troops from Anqing to directly capture Huangzhou and make dumplings for all the 7 Qing troops in Wuchang. But thinking about it this way, wouldn't the Battle of Wuchang end too soon? How could he sell weapons?

So he didn't send troops at all, and let the Ming and Qing sides toss about themselves.Since the Qing army in Wuchang was equipped with thousands of counterfeit Lumi guns, the Ming army's offensive was not smooth, and the Battle of Wuchang soon became a stalemate.

So Qian Ning's Jiangxi Army showed the superiority of Lumi guns to everyone, and he sent 1000 fire guns to provide long-range fire cover for the siege troops.

After all, the genuine Lumi blunderbuss was still much better than the Qing army's counterfeit products, and the situation of the battle quickly improved.

Among the princes of Ming Dynasty, Li Chengdong is the richest, and Li Yuanyin is a well-off rich second generation, and has a good relationship with Qian Mo.Although Qian Mo probably wouldn't make a move knowing this kind of killer weapon, he still expressed his willingness to pay a sky-high price to buy it.

In the end, Qian Mo sold 150 Lumi guns to Li Yuanyin at a price of 2000 taels, and said that he could continue to provide "paid after-sales" such as changing the barrels.

Afterwards, the news that Li Yuanyin bought the Lumi gun from Qian Mo spread like wildfire, and everyone else also asked Qian Mo for purchases.Although they are not as rich as Li Yuanyin, most of these people were originally rogues, who were responsible for disasters, and they still have some family background after so many years of plundering.

Soon Qian Mo sold another 3000 Lumi guns at the same price to Li Guo, Li Dingguo, Du Yinxi, Ma Jinzhong, Hao Yaoqi, Chen Youlong and others.

Now the firepower of the Ming army completely suppressed the Qing army in Wuchang, but after all, Qian Mo didn't sell them mortars.Although the casualties of the Qing army were not small, they still relied on Wuchang's solid city walls, towers and enemy towers to resist.

After all, the siege still requires hand-to-hand combat, and it is impossible to attack the city with firecrackers.Although the Ming army succeeded in killing the top of the city several times, they were all beaten back by the Qing army.

After all, the composition of the Ming army was too complicated, and when attacking the city, each family held back somewhat. Although they took the initiative, they still couldn't take Wuchang City for a while.

At this time, the Yongli court also received news from Nanjing that the Jiangsu-Zhejiang governor's office was unable to continue to undertake the repair of Nanjing's palace city due to the shortage of military expenditures, so it had to stop work.It is hoped that the Ministry of Industry can allocate funds to allow them to restore the palace as soon as possible.

This incident soon reached Yongli's ears.Yongli's reaction was the same as everyone else's, how could my good brother-in-law Qian Mo have no money?
Qian Qianyi said: "According to what I know, the 500 million taels of silver earned by the King of Guangling County in Nanjing has long since sunk in the Yangtze River; all these years, the Governor's Mansion has relied on the seizure of the property of those traitors and the private property of the King of Guangling County. Subsidies, the imperial court has not allocated funds to them."

"Although the Wang family of Guangling County is well-off, and he is good at business and financial management; however, no matter how much his personal property is, it will always be used up. In addition, under his rule, he has always adopted the policy of light labor and light labor, recuperating and recuperating, and taxes are not collected. It’s not high, and it’s still being cleaned up to make ends meet.”

Qu Shixuan said: "The Jiangnan and Zhejiang provinces occupied by the King of Guangling County are the most affluent state capitals in the world. Since the tax was not high before, it is enough to increase the tax. How can this delay your Majesty's important event of returning the capital to Nanjing?"

Although Qu Shixu said so, he was very happy in his heart. He wished that the Nanjing Palace City would never be repaired, so that the imperial court would not move to Nanjing.

Yongli also said: "Since the king of Guangling County can't afford military expenses, can the imperial court directly take over the taxes of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and let the imperial court be responsible for raising soldiers?"

Qian Qianyi was taken aback by Yongli's words, thinking that His Majesty is really not in charge of the family and doesn't know Chai Migui?

Qian Qianyi said: "There are 18 land and water officers and soldiers registered in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Governor's Mansions, and the monthly salary of the soldiers for a year is no less than 600 million taels. Including various expenses, the annual cost is no less than 1500 million taels."

"The imperial court can't afford the mess of the King of Guangling."

Qian Qianyi's words stunned the officials. They had heard about the high military pay in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Governor's Mansions, but they didn't expect that there were so many other expenses.

1500 million taels. We must know that when the Chongzhen Dynasty was the poorest, its annual income was only 400 million taels of silver. Although there were other materials, they definitely could not reach this amount, not to mention that this was only the expenditure of two provinces.

At this time, Wu Zhenyu, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, also said: "The Ministry of Household Affairs has also analyzed the expenditures of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Governor's Office. Its annual expenditure on the books is indeed 1500 million taels. The Jiangsu and Zhejiang Governor's Office does not need to pay taxes, so there is no need for them to fake it. .”

After listening to Wu Zhenyu's words, Yongli also felt that he was hasty, so he said: "The king of Guangling County has his own way of making money. Let him take care of the taxes of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces."

However, the matter of repairing the Nanjing palace still needs to be advanced. Qian Qianyi said: "I heard that the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Governor's Office is selling Lumi guns, and the imperial court is forming a new Imperial Forest Army. I believe that the imperial court can purchase a batch of Lumi guns, which can be regarded as supporting the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Governor's Office. As for the matter of Miyagi, I will definitely convince the King of Guangling County!"

In the end, the Yongli court spent 25 taels of silver to buy Qian Mo's 2500 Lumi guns.

Although Qian Mo got 100 million taels of silver through the Lumi Gun, this amount of money is really not enough.

Soon many lottery outlets appeared on the streets of Hangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Yangzhou, selling instant lottery tickets.I saw the lottery ticket placed on wooden boxes one by one, and the boxes were full of silver, which looked extraordinarily dazzling under the sunlight.

I only heard a scholar read aloud: "Instant lottery tickets, each one tael, of which the first prize will be 1 taels, the second prize will be 5 taels, the third prize will be 1 taels, the fourth prize will be 100 taels, and the fifth prize will be [-] taels." The prize is ten taels, the sixth prize is five taels, the seventh prize is one tael, and the last prize is one hundred taels."

There were a lot of onlookers, but everyone just looked at it and didn't buy it. Although the lottery ticket was endorsed by the governor's office, everyone didn't know what to do.

But soon the first person to eat crabs appeared.Li San has been unlucky recently and lost a lot of money in the gambling house.Today he stole the gold hairpin from his wife’s dowry and went to the pawnshop to exchange for two taels of silver. He wanted to go to the gambling shop to make money. Two silver coins bought two lottery tickets.

He excitedly tore open the first lottery ticket, only to see three animals: pig, dog and chicken printed on it.According to the rules, three different animals are the last prizes, and Li San soon proposed a hundred articles.

At this time, Li San was ridiculed by the people nearby, and exchanged one tael of silver for one hundred wen, isn't he a fool?

So Li San was furious and carefully tore open the second sheet. The first animal was a snake; soon he moved his hand away slowly with excitement, and found that the second animal was another snake.

Two snakes, according to the regulations, two identical animals are at least the seventh prize, at least they can keep their capital.

At this time, he was already extremely nervous, his hands began to tremble unconsciously, and he silently recited "Bodhisattva blesses" in his heart.The surrounding people who eat melons also shouted together: "Snake, snake, snake". The moment the snake finally appeared, Li San burst into tears of joy.Everyone also looked at the notice board. Three snakes are the third prize, 1000 taels! ! !

Li San has never seen so much money in his life.Soon he bought another 100 lottery tickets with 100 taels, and the 100 taels were exchanged for 45 taels of silver.

Qian Mo set the reward rate for this lottery at 6%.In fact, it is quite high. On average, if you buy 100 taels, you can win 60 taels. The minimum prize of 100 coins is set for fear that these people will not be able to accept the "thank you for your patronage" from future generations!
Soon this kind of instant lottery became popular in major cities, after all, there are many people around who got rich overnight.But smart people soon discovered the law, that is, the more you change, the less you change, and in the end you will have almost nothing left to lose!But there are always people who don't believe in evil, and lose in the end and go bankrupt.

Although the lottery has improved somewhat, it is still far from what Qian Mo expected.

Therefore, in order to promote this kind of lottery, all major restaurants, brothels, and shops under the control of the governor's government have launched a lottery gift for consumption. You only need to spend 10 taels of silver at a time to get 1 lottery ticket, and the more you spend, the more you get.

Someone actually won 5000 taels of silver directly through the lottery after a night of fun on the Qinhuai River. This hot news spread immediately, causing other shopkeepers to follow suit!

This marketing method was quickly promoted, and the sales of lottery tickets continued to increase, which also stimulated the growth of consumption.

Qian Buer said with a smile: "The king of Guangling County is really a genius. This lottery has brought an income of 50 taels of silver to the governor's office in one month; the lottery has also led to an increase in people's consumption, and even local taxes have also increased. 3%."

Qian Mo said: "The lottery is a disguised form of plundering the wealth of the people after all, and it cannot be issued without limit. The governor's government determines the maximum lottery circulation according to the taxes of various places. In addition, it will engage in 'hunger marketing'. The lottery points are only open every month. 10 days is enough, you don’t need to open it every day.”

However, public opinion that was unfavorable to the lottery soon appeared in the market, saying that it was used by the government to exploit the people, and there were even counterfeit lottery tickets.Fortunately, when Qian Mo designed the lottery tickets, there were corresponding anti-counterfeiting measures. The paper of these lottery tickets was specially customized, and Roman numerals were used for double insurance.

Not long after, the intelligence department solved the case. It turned out that many casinos had suffered from poor business due to the rise of the lottery industry.
The Jiangsu and Zhejiang Governor's Office basically said "kill" to those who opposed them, and soon a large number of criminals involved in defaming lottery tickets and counterfeiting lottery tickets were arrested.

Qian Mo beheaded 48 heads directly in Nanjing's West Market.More than 3000 people involved in this case were sent to reform through labor.

These people set up gambling houses on weekdays, doing evil things, and they have done a lot of outrageous activities. Their beheading naturally attracted the praise of the people.

The intelligence department even tracked down several spies from the Qing army, so Qian Mo simply made a fuss about gambling houses "collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country and disrupting the market".Immediately shut down all the casinos under the rule, implement a strict "gambling ban", and offenders will be killed without mercy.

In this way, there are no public places for gambling, and if you want to try your luck, you can only buy lottery tickets. The lottery industry will soon win its golden age!

Qian Mo first launched this kind of instant lottery, which is highly recognized by everyone, and then after everyone believed in the credit of the Governor's Office and the lottery, he launched a digital lottery with a prize pool similar to later generations.After all, instant gambling has a larger component, and Mark Six is ​​suitable for all ages.

Soon, Qian Buer ran over and said, "This time the family property of these casino owners was confiscated, and there is actually more than 100 million taels of silver. We have made an additional 250 million taels in the past month or so." Two silver coins, now all projects can continue!"

At this moment, Liu Yichen said: "The intelligence department has received news that the Kong family in Qufu has sent Kong Yinyue to the south, probably to give us money."

Hearing the words "Qufu Confucius", Qian Mo couldn't help feeling sick.These descendants of Confucius were officially canonized as Yan Shenggong in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the result was that they had no integrity at all when they saw who surrendered.

Jin, Mongolia, Ming, Shun, and Qing, they never refused to come, they surrendered to whomever they saw, and they surrendered voluntarily, often before they reached Qufu, Yanshenggong Kong’s family sent their surrender form, That's why he got the title of "Shixiu lowered the table".

Daming treated Yan Shenggong's family quite preferentially, ranking them as the second grade, ranking second after the prime minister in the imperial court, and ranking first among civil servants after the abolition of the prime minister system.

The descendants of Kong's crimes are also forgiven.During the Chenghua period, Yansheng Gong Kong Hongxu killed four people indiscriminately, raped more than 40 women, and was only dismissed as a civilian.

However, the Yanshenggong family could not stand up to Long En of the Ming Dynasty.

In particular, the value of Kong Yin, the last generation of Yanshenggong, has gone through the three dynasties of Ming, Shun and Qing Dynasties, and was jokingly called "Yanshenggong with three surnames".

In 1644, Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself on Meishan Mountain. Yansheng Gong Kong Yin, who was 1100 miles away, had good eyes and ears, and directly announced the enshrinement of the dragon throne of Emperor Yongchang of Dashun Kingdom, offering horses and silver, and kneeling to accept the seal.

After Li Zicheng was kicked out of Beijing, Kong Yinzhi judged the situation again. Shunzhi didn't even sit on his buttocks, so he quickly published the "First Entry Biaowen" to express his loyalty to the Qing Dynasty, praising the Qing court for "the mountains and rivers and the sun and the moon are shining, and the country Zuo is the same as Qiankun and eternal".

Then, in response to the hair-shaving order issued by the Qing government, Gong Yinzhi of the three surnames held a grand hair-shaving ceremony, "respectfully set up an incense table and read the holy edict" to order the tribe to shave their heads.At this time, the people of Ming Dynasty in Jiangyin, Jiading and other places, under the teaching of Confucius, were fighting desperately against the Manchus to straighten my Chinese clothes.

The behavior of the Kong family is simply not a bit of etiquette, justice and shame, not as good as animals.

It's a pity that this Kong Yinzhi died last year, otherwise Qian Mo would have to skin him alive, come to "peel the real grass", and put this human skin specimen in the Confucian Temple alongside Confucius.

Qian Mo said to Liu Yichen: "I don't think it's necessary to send money, but I'm afraid it's indispensable to send a surrender form."

Although Qian Mo hated the Confucian family in Qufu, their Confucian family was a disaster in Shandong, and they were a local disaster. If they didn't take a good deal of money from the Confucian family, they would really feel sorry for the people of Daming.

So Qian Mo said with a smirk: "Go to Quzhou quickly, and invite the descendants of Nankong to Nanjing. This time, I want him to bleed out of the Confucius family in Qufu!"

Ask for recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, follow-up, comments, and rewards for support!

　Thank you for your subscription support, the book friend group has been created, you can add it.0 new chapter recommendation packages will be sent on time at 10:200 today.Thank you for your recommendations, follow-ups, comments, monthly tickets, rewards, and the little hearts of the characters. I wish everyone can grab the bag!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)