open sea

Chapter 419 Financial Power
From different perspectives, people see the whole picture of war differently.

The war Lin Manjue saw was different from Chen Lin, and the war Chen Lin saw with his own eyes was also different from Chen Mu.

"Why not demolish and rebuild?"

This is the first sentence that Gao Gong asked when the Chihai ship docked in Manila Bay when he saw the castle with a plaque hanging from the government office of the Nanyang Military Government.

During this trip, although Chen Mu felt that Mr. Gao was trying his best to listen more and talk less, but the intuitive feeling that was implemented in Sailugong was that the person who was on the same boat with him was definitely not the governor of the Nanyang Military Mansion, even if it was not the chief assistant Gao Xinzheng. , that is also Mr. Gao Ge.

Although it is really embarrassing for Gao Gong to go all the way to Guangdong.

Chen Mu on the sea road was so angry that his teeth itched when he heard about it.

Not to mention Minister Wang's case, Zhang Juzheng has no personal grievances with Gao Gong, but other people have too many personal grievances with Gao Gong. If Zhang Juzheng hadn't let go in the end, others would have killed Gao Gong.

Since the Empress Dowager ordered Gao Gong to be expelled, the old man left Beijing in a bullock cart that day, Feng Bao still sent people to follow behind, robbing two sets of gift money to cover the road expenses, in order to make him go as miserable as possible.

Feng Bao and Gao Gong had a big feud, and no one in Shuntian Mansion knew about it.

Since ancient times, it has never been so miserable for ministers to go to the country.

Immediately after he arrived in Xinzheng, an edict came before he entered the house, ordering him to be the governor of the Nanyang Military Mansion—this appointment was like nonsense, but he also gave a reason.

The Northern Royal Tatar has meritorious service.

In other words, Gao Gong's journey from Beijing to Xinzheng was the status of a criminal minister who was deposed. Those who offended in the past took advantage of this opportunity to beat the dog in the water, and then returned to the status of a military officer as the governor.

Others didn't know, because Chen Mu knew that Gao Gong would be exiled sooner or later, so he knew that Gao Gong would be exiled to Nanyang.
It shows that Shen Zhongnian has long planned to find a nest for Gao Gong. Obviously, the humiliating journey was intentional by Shen Zhongnian.

What was the reason? Chen Mu didn't know. Regardless of what he thought in his heart, Mr. Gao boarded the ship from Weigang. Chen Mu didn't complain about it, and he didn't mention anything about his dismissal.

But when he thought of Gao Gong's respected status when he was in the country, and the humiliation Gao Gong suffered when he came to the country, Chen Mu thought-it was useless for him to think, he could only ask the cook in the government office to invite Gao Gong to have a good meal.

It's not bad if you can save your life.

"It's too expensive to demolish and rebuild. The Nanyang Military Mansion employs a lot of people, and it will cost 400 taels of silver to rebuild one." Chen Mu felt amused when he said this, and smiled self-deprecatingly, and said: "Enough soldiers in Guam Eat for three days."

Gao Gong had a casual expression on his face, and he believed in his heart that Chen Mu liked the appearance of this Shicheng military stronghold, and asked: "Chen Shuai gives the imperial court a million dollars a year, even if you do whatever you want overseas There will be people in charge, but they only pay 400 taels for the Xiufu Yamen."

Gao Gong has seen Chen Mu’s method of getting money before. If nothing else, it’s all handed over to the briquette coal furnace in the imperial treasury, which is more than one hundred thousand taels a year. If he doesn’t want it, he doesn’t want it. Tianjin Wei handed over 200 million taels of silver to the imperial court, but now he is reluctant to say the 400 taels.

Who will believe it?
"Master Gao Ge thinks the younger generation is rich?"

Standing in the castle of the Nanyang Army Mansion in the royal city of Manila, Chen Mu turned his head and glanced at Gao Gong, and nodded while asking himself: "On the opening day of the kiln in Mindoro, 300 taels of gold and more than a thousand catties of coal were withdrawn; on the opening day of the kiln in Luzon Island, Take a hundred taels of gold, more than a thousand catties of copper and iron each; there are also merchant ships at sea, trade in sulfur, nitrate, lime, giant trees, pearls, jibei, and cotton cloth. The Nanyang military government is very rich in silver taels.”

"But it also costs a lot. In the past few months, Zhong Haigong, Zhao Changji and others in the military mansion have often quarreled over the cost of money. Mr. Ge came at the right time, and governing the world is still like a fish in water, not to mention the financial affairs of the military mansion. "

Recently, Chen Mu has also been troubled by the money matters of the military government, not because of lack of money, but because of the employment of people.

He is in charge of all powers, but he mainly controls the most important logistics. He can't do this alone, which makes Zhao Shizhen, who is in charge of Hai Rui, unhappy. Mr. Hai always thinks that Zhao Shizhen is a fool when he settles accounts, spending money like water.

Let Hai Rui take care of the money, that's petty, even Chen Mu Yongyin ordered a batch of short swords rewarding military merits at the Nanyang Guard Armaments Bureau, and he scolded him for a long time, and he said every sentence clearly.

Some people are stingy because they don’t want to spend money on themselves, and some people don’t like to spend money on others. Mr. Hai really doesn’t like to spend money on anyone. In his eyes, the money should be reserved for the imperial court. use.

Now that Gao Gong is here, the days to come should be comfortable.

Gao Gong was noncommittal, neither refusing nor agreeing, he stretched out his hand to signal Chen Mu to enter the government office, and said: "Old man, let's see how much the Nanyang military mansion enters and exits in a year."

Entering the mansion, Chen Mu directly led Gao Gong up to the second floor. Along the way, the military officers and civil servants who worked in the mansion heard that Chen Mu led Gao Gong into the mansion. Rui took a few new Jinshi to the designated prefectures and counties. The familiar place is not there, or the two Niubi may have to quarrel again.

Gao Gong used Hai Rui to attack Xu Jie. Now that Hai Rui sees Gao Gong in distress, among other things, he must be very happy. Although Mr. Hai will not take people who have sinned against him to death like Feng Bao, he will never sneer at him face to face. fear.

"Accounted for one year, 270 million taels is strange?"

When the ledger was placed in front of Gao Gong's eyes, he opened the ledger, and then forgot to close his eyes and mouth.

Gao Gong always thought that it would be good if Chen Mu’s Nanyang Military Mansion plucked out the one million taels from the household registration department, and it would be good to have a balance of 30 million taels. Who knew that the Nanyang Military Mansion’s leftovers were more than the national treasury. ——Why did Chen Mu dare to let him see this account?
Zhao Shizhen stood cautiously at the side, nodded and said: "Last year last year, there were a million taels of cargo on the ships of Xiyi, which is far less than this at ordinary times. It will be almost the same at the end of the year.”

Gao Gong flipped through the ledger quickly. In the Nanyang military expenditure, the cost of soldiers is not much. Although there are more than 30 registered soldiers, only a little over [-] are really needed by Chen Mu to support them.

Although this is much higher than the cost of the Northern Xinjiang military, which is calculated separately for military rations and salaries, it is not much compared to the gains of the Nanyang military government. However, the maintenance of warships and artillery costs 5 to [-] taels a year, which is even more frightening.

Of course, the cost of building ships and artillery is also indispensable.

Gao Gong pondered for a long time, and finally asked what he wanted to ask. He looked at Chen Mu and said, "Shuai Chen, what about the remaining money?"

It is clearly written in the account book that the balance in two years totaled 70 taels. Isn't this bullying people who don't know how to count?
After asking, Gao Gong saw a line of small characters on the account book, with flamboyant handwriting, which was written by Zhao Shizhen's handwriting, "the remaining money was embezzled by Chen Shuai"-an average of 80 taels of silver a year, so embezzled?

"spent."

Chen Mu replied that it was very reasonable, and said: "Sponsoring the Ministry of Industry to develop new ordnance and new equipment, they are greedy for ink, 10 taels for two years; the two arms bureaus of Nanyang and Xuanfu are 40 taels for two years; encourage Guangdong merchants 40 taels for two years to increase production, farmers to increase food production, and craftsmen to create new tools; there are also military lecture halls and navy lecture halls, 20 taels for two years to encourage innovation in tactics and military equipment, 20 taels for two years, It’s all doomed.”

"The rest of the money is used for repairs and daily supplies of Luzeyuan, Nursing Home, and Huimin Pharmacy in various places, as well as for the repair of clan schools in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian counties, to send some meat to teachers, and to support some orphans. poor youngsters to go to school." Chen Mu scratched his nose and said, "This money is not counted, and all places are ordered to report it to the Nanyang military government. Except for the 10 taels that are kept every year for disaster relief, all that should be used is used. How much is approved for the students."

"I took too much care of these things, so I didn't record them in the account."

Chen Mu's small movements increased significantly while he was talking, and he was a little embarrassed.

Gao Gong was dumbfounded, and paused for a moment before frowning and asking in doubt: "You, why are you doing this?"

"Emperor Mengxian's great kindness and love from his cabinet ministers gave me great power. I have all the promotions and fortunes that others want. There is not much better life in the world than me, so I have to pursue it!"

"Everyone thinks that Chen is a belligerent, and there are many officials in the country who use this to impeach Chen, but the juniors don't think that there are too many people in the country, and they will send thousands of young people in their prime to Nanyang to die. Getting money from the land is not the goal, in the final analysis, these means are not just for the sake of the state of the parents, to protect the world from poverty, and to bless the future generations.”

"Regardless of greed or not, there are few really stupid officials in the local government. They are all talented, but it is really not easy to manage the place well. They can do great things for five to ten years, but even if they want to, they can't do it. Don’t dare to think about the century-old policy.”

Chen Mu patted his chest.

He said, "I'll come."

(End of this chapter)