Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2325 Second Liu

July 1697, 7, Chengdu, the Duke of Shu.Liu Zhonggui, Duke of Shu in Dashun and envoy of Jiedu in Sichuan, was talking with Liu Qi, his chief aide and Secretary of Jiedu.

"Commander, the town has been through many battles and has not recovered. I went down once and saw that the soldiers were exhausted, the people were poor, and the gentry were restless. In such a situation, the town should be calm, and no more swords should be used. "Sitting on an embroidered pier, Liu Qi persuaded earnestly.

"Haha, why did Ziyou say that?" Liu Zhonggui smiled when he heard the words, and replied, "I'm not an ignorant person. I know exactly what's going on in the town. I didn't come here to fight a war. Let’s relax. I just want to figure it out with you to see if I can squeeze out some money and build a few roads leading to the north.”

"This..." Liu Zhonggui smiled wryly when he heard the words, and didn't know how to answer.It is true that the Duke of Shu did not seek him to fight a war, but the people and financial resources spent on road construction may not be much less than fighting a war.

Although the shogunate occupied half of Yunnan, the rich Kunming and its surrounding areas were forced to be ceded to the imperial court, and only some tasteless land was given away.It may be beneficial in the long run, but in the short term, it will not be able to provide much food to the shogunate, and if it fails, it will have to be subsidized.In addition, although the battle against chieftains in southern Sichuan was coming to an end, it was still necessary to send troops to garrison, and the dead and injured United soldiers also had to be compensated.Tens of thousands of former Ming troops incorporated in Yunnan were scattered and resettled to these former chieftains. As a result, conflicts between natives and residents occurred frequently, and armed fights were staged every three days. That sounds like a lot of money.Although Chuanzhong has been rich since ancient times, it cannot withstand such a toss. The finances of the Chengdu Shogunate are now stretched to a dangerous level!

Of course, we must not forget the large number of enterprises established by the Sichuan shogunate in order to make money.Some of these enterprises are supervised by the government and run by merchants, and some are directly invested by the government, which costs a lot of money.Fortunately, central Sichuan has been rich since ancient times. Tea, salt, wood, medicinal materials, grain, brocade and other daily necessities have been sold to all parties since ancient times. The Sichuan shogunate still made a lot of money from these investments.And since these industries can make money, then Liu Zhonggui and Liu Qi have nothing to hesitate, just continue to spend money to expand the scale.No, a large amount of gold and silver seized from Kunming was quickly thrown into this bottomless pit, which can be described as resolute and decisive.

But there is no way.Modern warfare is really costly, so Liu Zhonggui couldn't help it.In fact, in ancient times, wars cost a lot of money, but it was far less expensive than it is today.At that time, if the generals were more ruthless, they would not need to pay military salaries at all, as long as there was food, it would be enough.As for the money, hehe, just go directly to the enemy to grab it!How cheap is it, isn't it?

But modern warfare cannot be fought like this.First of all, the combat effectiveness of this kind of locust army that only distributes rations is too low to be comparable to the modern army that has undergone rigorous training.Secondly, the consumption of gunpowder, shells, medicines, food, equipment, means of transportation and other materials in modern warfare has increased so much that it has reached an astonishing level, and it can be called a gold-swallowing behemoth.Take the Sichuan shogunate as an example. Even though they desperately produce their own products every year and receive a large amount of equipment and ammunition donated by the Changsha court, they still need to purchase more than 100 million taels of military supplies from the people on the east coast. The financial pressure is very huge. of.

The reason is actually very simple, that is, you are an agricultural country but you fight in the way of an industrial country, can you not feel strenuous?Let’s not talk about the East Coast Republic. Take the British in Europe as an example. Their army also has modern equipment and modern fighting methods, but their industrial production efficiency is high. The production costs of guns, ammunition, and equipment are cheaper than your agricultural country. How many times, at the same time, the society as a whole has a very strong ability to create wealth, and the country's tax revenue has risen, so naturally it is not as difficult as you.

It is indeed very difficult to play the war method of an industrial country with the material foundation of an agricultural country if there is no mine at home.Later generations of the Manchu and Qing dynasties used the power of the whole country, and only raised six towns and two mixed associations of the Beiyang Army. This is an example. How many troops can the same money support in Japan next door?The Japanese soldiers are no worse equipped than you, they train more diligently than you, and they spend a lot of money to import canning production lines from the United States. Ordinary soldiers can also eat canned sea fish, soybeans and beef. In the end, a single soldier spends less money than you, why?People's society has high industrial production capacity and strong ability to create wealth, so the effect of the same one tael of silver is very different.

The Sichuan shogunate is also in such a situation now.They desperately dumped second-hand or even third-hand equipment from the people on the east coast (the local area was eliminated to Denglai, and Denglai was eliminated to Chengdu), and established the Chengdu Manufacturing Bureau (including the Gun Bureau, Cannon Bureau, Pharmacy Bureau and Miscellaneous Bureau). In short supply of military equipment.However, the production cost is extremely high, and the production capacity is far from enough, so a large amount of money has to be spent on external purchases.

Of course Liu Zhonggui wanted to get rid of this embarrassing situation, but he had no choice.There are a lot of people in Chuanzhong who are familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, but there are very few talents engaged in industry, and they cannot support a large-scale military industry at all.In desperation, they had no choice but to rely on local advantages to build a series of light industrial workshops with the help of people from the east coast, exporting a large amount of silk, refined salt, medicinal materials, tea, and grain in exchange for precious gold and silver to make up for the annual purchase of equipment. Huge shortfall.

After defeating Yunnan this time, many were seized.Liu Zhonggui was overjoyed and asked Liu Qi to expand the scale of these industries.All the machines needed were sold by people from the East Coast, and they even sent [-] young children to study in Denglai, which cost a lot of money and showed their ambition at the same time.

What about today?Liu Zhonggui seems to have regretted it, and wants to embezzle part of the funds to build the road for combat preparation, but how is this possible?The money for ordering machines from the people on the east coast has been given out. They always pay by cash on delivery, and they will not refund the money if you don't want it.In addition, the resettlement costs spent on the old land of the southern chieftain cannot be saved!In recent years, Sichuan has been vigorously planting economic crops, developing sericulture for a while, and introducing cotton from the east coast for a while. In short, it is very busy, and the area of ​​grain planting has plummeted.It took a lot of effort to reclaim some fertile land in the south to grow food, how could they give up halfway?

"Marshal, the only thing that can be squeezed out now is the 'scumbag money' from a few houses in the south. But Marshal, this money can't be moved." After thinking for a while, Liu Qi still spoke out to dissuade him.

The so-called "scumbag money" is actually resettlement fees.In the past two years, the Chengdu shogunate has successively eliminated tens of thousands of soldiers from the Southern Ming Dynasty. At the same time, there are also a large number of local ethnic minorities liberated from the chieftains.For these people, Liu Qi has a long-term plan, that is, to choose a place to "reclaim wasteland, place scoundrels, and turn bad into good".To put it bluntly, it is to insert these unreliable people into the original chieftain area, select suitable places to reclaim wasteland, and establish a relatively stable ruling order in this way. It takes one or two generations, and almost completely It was digested and became a solid agricultural product base for the Sichuan shogunate.

It should be said that although Liu Qi has been working hard to manage industrial and commercial affairs, he still has some farming-oriented thoughts.He has read some books from people on the East Coast, and he has also received advice from his close friends on the East Coast. For example, Chen Ming, the former head of the Chengdu Commercial Station, said to him: "It is necessary to fundamentally reorganize the agricultural sector in order to provide for industrial development. To provide raw materials to feed the growing urban population and to provide a market for the increased products large enough to accommodate them. The commodity market in Sichuan is now limited by the low level of real needs in the countryside, where too many people are tied to the land due to the lack of technological advancement , which threatens the continued development of the Sichuan New Deal.”

Liu Qi took these suggestions well and vigorously promoted new agricultural technologies in Sichuan to increase the output of food and cash crops.For example, he once vigorously promoted "East Cotton", that is, imported cotton seeds from the East Bank and planted them in Sichuan.He believed that Dongmian "has high cotton clusters, luxuriant leaves, large flowers, rich cotton, thin and long velvet, white and bright color, and its output is twice as much as that of Huamian". It was already past the festival when it was planted, and the planting was too dense, and the sunlight was not enough. At the same time, the local climate and environment may also be unfavorable. Therefore, "there are too many cotton bolls to bloom", and the loss is not small.

Fortunately, Liu Zhonggui trusted him very much, thinking that everything is difficult at the beginning, and it is enough to continue to improve in the future, which moved Liu Qi very much.Therefore, after learning from the pain, he hired some agronomy experts with a lot of money from Ningbo, and opened an agricultural school in Chengdu, specializing in agronomy, horticulture, agrochemical, plants, sericulture, animal husbandry, aquatic products, soil, surveying, meteorology, agronomy, agriculture, etc. He also took more than a dozen courses in politics and other courses, and personally served as the head of the mountain. He approved and never vetoed the expenses required for various agricultural practice activities, purchasing new farm tools, printing agricultural books, and running the "Sichuan Agricultural Journal", which shows that he attaches great importance to it. degree.

After so many years, Sichuan's agricultural output has improved a lot (but there is still a big gap from Denglai), so Liu Qi founded Sichuan Quanyechang in Chongqing, displaying the grains, fruits, tea, hemp , oil, mulberry, lacquer, bamboo, wood, etc., mark the price and indicate the place of origin, for reference by foreign businessmen, including businessmen on the east coast, so as to increase the export of Sichuan agricultural products.

Of course, Liu Qi's most important thing is the cultivation of food.This has nothing to do with other things, but the instinct of traditional scholars.How many problems have been caused by famine in China since ancient times, Liu Qi is familiar with history books, so he is naturally clear.Therefore, he was a little worried after seeing the large increase in the sown area of ​​cash crops—ironically, the increase in the production of cash crops was driven by Mr. In the south, surrendered soldiers and liberated chieftain slaves were continuously resettled to expand the area of ​​food crops.This "scum money" is spent here, almost every year, and the amount is quite large. After all, it also undertakes the assimilation mission of "turning bad into good".

Today Liu Zhonggui asked him for money for road repairs, Liu Qi thought about it, and this was basically the only thing he could squeeze out.But he was very reluctant, thinking that it would be harmful to Sichuan in the long run and not worth it.However, he also knew that his lord's road building was for the Northern Expedition to Hanzhong and for Wang Tu's hegemony. The priority of this matter was obviously more important than the assimilation of immigrants.

There is no way, only part of it can be embezzled.Moreover, there is a high probability that the amount of "scum money" will be greatly reduced in the future.Gein's Northern Expedition to Hanzhong, the intensity of this battle is not to be underestimated. God knows how many years it will take, how much money it will cost, and how many masters will be requisitioned.

In this world, it is really difficult to recuperate and catch your breath!

(End of this chapter)