Chapter 373 Spend money! Try to develop the navy!

December 30th, New Year's Eve.

Early in the morning, Zhang Zhun rode back to Aoshan City. The main internal staff of Shengxia Zong were all working here. Although it was New Year's Eve today, they still had to work during the day. Each of them had a lot of things to do, and if they didn't hurry up, they would definitely not be able to handle it.

"grown ups!"

"grown ups!"

"grown ups!"

After receiving the news of Zhang Zhun's arrival, Wang Mingyu, Liu Hang, Yang Liren, Liu Baoyu, Hou Shanping and others came out to greet him. They were all happy, with smiles on their faces, and even Hou Shanping, who was as thin as a man, smiled as if he was Maitreya Buddha.

Of course, there is a reason for their joy. Zhang Zhun’s trip to Jiangnan was so rich that he was really unexpected! In half a month, he recovered 300,000 taels of silver and a large amount of other supplies. Even they thought, should they often encourage Zhang Zhun to go to Jiangnan to rob in the future - it would be really quick to get money!

"Thank you all for your hard work."

Zhang Zhun greeted him concisely.

After saying that, he took everyone into the White House's chamber and was busy.

In addition to wishing everyone a happy New Year in advance, Zhang Zhun’s primary task is naturally to review the statistical reports of the past year and to arrange work plans for the next year. Originally, these things should have been done immediately after returning from Jiangnan, but they were suddenly disturbed by Sun Ronglu, which ended up delaying on New Year’s Eve.

In the past year, the actual population of Aoshanwei has increased to more than 70,000 people. The actual population of Lingshanwei has increased to more than 50,000 people. The total population of the two guards has exceeded 120,000 people. These are all registered numbers, and some migrant populations, such as foreign merchants, are not registered. The total population should exceed 130,000.

The land area that Aoshanwei has reclaimed is more than 600,000 mu. The land area that Lingshanwei has reclaimed is more than 500,000 mu. Together, the two bathrooms have a total of 1.1 million mu of arable land. Last year, the two bathrooms had less than 500,000 mu of land. More than doubled. At present, they are still organizing manpower to continuously reclaim new arable land.

As of late December, the commercial taxes Wang Mingyu and the others received were about 1,300 taels of silver. These silvers were of course not worth mentioning compared to Zhang Zhun's extra money. However, they all felt that this was a good start. As more and more shops fell within the control of the Hu Ben Army, the commercial tax they received would continue to rise. The most optimistic estimate is that the commercial tax next year may exceed 10,000 taels.

In terms of agricultural tax, the rice tax in Fushancheng in October is only about 2 million kilograms in total. More agricultural taxes will have to wait until the winter wheat harvest in June next year. In terms of agriculture, the most worth mentioning is corn, sweet potato, potato, pepper, tomato and other foreign crops, which are gradually being promoted. Corn, sweet potato and potato are indeed very adaptable to the soil. Farmers from all over the country have put these crops on the edge of the mountain, and they actually grow well.

With labor, arable land, food, and silver, the development next year should be quite smooth. Therefore, the internal policy formulated by Zhang Zhun is actually very simple. The development next year will mainly focus on three major parts: population, land and finance.

The current population of 120,000 is obviously not enough, and we need to find ways to attract more people. There is no problem with Aoshanwei and Lingshanwei to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people, and it has not reached the saturation level yet. As for the land, the land area of ​​Aoshanwei and Lingshanwei is more than 4,000 square kilometers, which is converted into more than 6 million mu. One million mu of arable land is obviously not yet reached the upper limit.

In terms of business, we should continue to encourage and attract more businesses to settle down and open shops in the two bathrooms. At the same time, in terms of industry, we are also preparing to implement some special policies to encourage merchants to actively carry out textile, porcelain, civil shipbuilding, wood, construction and other industries in the two bathrooms to accelerate the development of the two bathrooms. Especially wood and civil shipbuilding, this is closely related to military development. Zhang Zhun cannot rely on military shipyards to manufacture all civil ships. Military uses are military, and civil uses are civil, so it is best to separate them.

After setting the main development direction for next year, Zhang Zhun discussed some specific matters with them, mainly the allocation of extra money for this trip to Jiangnan.

During this trip to Jiangnan, Zhang Zhun caught a large amount of supplies, including silver, medicinal materials, cotton, tea, silk and other goods, as well as some rare supplies, such as ivory, agate, pearls, jade, etc. Of course, all of the medicinal materials such as Panax notoginseng were sent to Shuiyue Temple to continue to refine Yunnan Baiyao. Of course, Zhang Zhun stayed some of the precious medicinal materials such as ginseng. Other supplies were stored in the warehouse of Shengxia Zong and used when needed.

As for silver, it is of course necessary.

Zhang Zhun never thought that there would be much money left to keep the warehouse. The money was earned and put in the warehouse, and it would have no effect. The most popular thing in the Ming Dynasty was to store the money in the cellar. When Emperor Chongzhen shouted that he had no money, the powerful people in Beijing hid a lot of money and did not lose a penny. As a result, when Li Zicheng's army came, all of these people were finished.

Later generations even said that Li Zicheng found a total of 70 million taels of silver, not gold and other jewelry. Such a huge amount is indeed exaggerated, and experts cannot believe too much. However, even if he gave a discount, there would be seven million taels, which is basically equivalent to two years of revenue from the warehouse. If he took it out and equipped Chongzhen with the army, they would not have been destroyed.

The rich people in Jiangnan were also. The southeastern half of the late Ming Dynasty concentrated most of the wealth of the Ming Dynasty, and the total assets were at least hundreds of millions of taels of silver. They were also stingy and were unwilling to share the worries of the country at all. As a result, when the Qing army headed south, all their belongings fell into the hands of the Qing army, and naturally there was no head. If they turned the silver into weapons and army in advance, they might have struggled for a longer time. It would not be impossible to rule by digging the river.

After such a lesson, Zhang Zhun would never be a local rich man. In the fine salt and glass business, he had a stable income and could maintain daily military expenditures. Therefore, the 300,000 taels of silver that he had plundered from Jiangnan this time were all scattered in one breath.

The first silver, totaling 100,000 taels, was first allocated to Xue Zhidie's shipyard.

The related silver was actually allocated when the ship was transformed. However, that was an additional expenditure, which was specifically used to transform two floating turrets. The 100,000 taels of silver were mainly used to build ships. To be precise, it was the construction of Cangshan Ship and Jianya Ship.

From a strategic perspective, Zhang Zhun's territory is quite special, with a relatively small land area and a very large ocean area. In fact, the total area of ​​Shandong Province in the Ming Dynasty was only 160,000 square kilometers. Judging from the national map, the area is actually very small. Among the thirteen provinces, it is basically the smallest. The land area of ​​the Shandong Peninsula, including Laizhou Prefecture and Dengzhou Prefecture, was only 50,000 square kilometers.

With a small land area, there is only room for development toward the ocean. The Shandong Peninsula is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and there is some ocean space. Therefore, ships, fleets, sailors, and seafarers are the key points for Zhang Zhun's future development. Among them, the most critical point at present is to increase the number of ships. The cultivation of talents requires step by step. However, as long as there is enough manpower, material resources and financial resources, ships can be mass-produced. When the Yuan Dynasty was founded, thousands of large ships were produced in just one year, which shows that China's shipbuilding industry is definitely at the forefront of the world.

In this era, in the East Asian continent, no one has snatched off the ocean space with you. It seems that Jeju Island has no fixed population at all, only exiled North Korean prisoners, Ryukyu and other places, and there are only sporadic indigenous people named. Even Taiwan has no idea. Even the Zheng Zhilong Pirate Group has a far less profound understanding of marine interests than Zhang Zhun. Zheng Zhilong is actually still living in Fujian and has not yet made a large-scale attack on Taiwan.

Although the land area of ​​the Shandong Peninsula is small, the area of ​​the ocean that can be controlled is very large. From the north to the Liaodong Peninsula, the east to the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, Japan, and Taiwan Island, they are all controlled oceans. If the navy becomes stronger in the future, the Sea of ​​Japan, Ryukyu Islands, and the Pacific Ocean are all controlled areas of the navy. Going south to the Indian Ocean, across the Atlantic Ocean, and going to Europe, without a powerful fleet, it is absolutely impossible.

From a tactical perspective, to improve the combat effectiveness of the navy to the greatest extent possible, it is also to meet the needs of survival and development. This time, Zhang Zhun went to Jiangnan, made Jiangnan turmoil and bombarded Nanjing City. Although Zhang Zhun finally patted his butt and left, the officers and soldiers did not even catch his tail. However, the sequelae of this matter was very serious. This was an open challenge to the authority of the court and the emperor, and the nature was similar to that of Li Zicheng and others. Emperor Chongzhen would definitely be furious when he learned about this. The civil servant group of the Ming Empire could not tolerate Zhang Zhun's lawlessness. Therefore, the counterattack of the court army was imperative.

Zheng Zhilong's fleet was just the first wave of the imperial court's counterattack. In the future, the imperial court will definitely send more military forces to put him Zhang Zhun to death. Shandong is too close to Northern Zhili. If it occupied Jinan Prefecture, it could directly threaten the capital. Why is the court so nervous every time the Wenxiang Sect makes trouble in Shandong? It is because of the special geographical location in Shandong. How can others snore on the side of the bed?

Moreover, there is a very deadly place in Shandong, that is, the canal. The canal is the lifeline that connects the north and south of the Ming Empire. At present, most of the supplies of the capital and the army on the nine sides must be transported by the canal. If the canal is cut off... within a maximum of three months, the north of the Ming Empire will be paralyzed.

The canal starts from Weishan Lake in the south and reaches the Yellow River in the north, and it runs through Shandong and stretches for thousands of miles. Since the rebels in Shaanxi have entered Henan, most of the transportation on the road was cut off. Therefore, if Zhang Zhun cut off the canal, it would basically be like dividing the Ming Empire in two. Such terrible consequences were of course unacceptable. Therefore, they would try their best to kill Zhang Zhun as much as possible.

The Ming Empire is now full of fireheads. The Ming army in the Central Plains and the Ming army in the Nine Borders have their own strategic tasks. Their main force cannot be transferred to deal with Zhang Zhun. However, beside Zhang Zhun, there is a Dongjiang Town. The Ming army in Dongjiang Town has tens of thousands of troops. They are the most likely to be transferred to attack Zhang Zhun. Zhang Zhun is also quite interested in the territory of Dongjiang Town. This is destined that the conflict between the two armies will soon occur.

The geographical location of Dongjiang Town mainly includes the estuary of the Bohai Sea today and the southeast of Liaoning Province. From the map, this is the lower abdomen of the Tatars, a very fragile lower abdomen. The main forces of the Tatars are in western Liaoning and Chenyang, in Jinzhouwei (now Jin County, Liaoning), Fuzhouwei (now Fu County, Liaoning), Gaizhouwei (now Gai County, Liaoning) and Dingliao Right Guard (also known as Phoenix City, Liaoning) and Fengcheng, Liaoning). They do not have much force.

If Zhang Zhun controlled Dongjiang Town, accumulates strength here, and then hits it with a fierce uppercut, the Tartars would definitely be beaten to vomit blood. If the Tartars counterattack fiercely, Zhang Zhun could quickly retract his fist. The Tartars had no navy and could not reach it. When the Tartars came up, Zhang Zhun found the right opportunity and punched the Tartars hard. If this repeated, the Tartars would definitely not be able to withstand it, so they could only retreat.

However, it is not easy to do this. The current control scope of Dongjiang Town is mainly some remaining islands, including Dachangshan Island, Xiaochangshan Island, Guanglu Island, Wangjiashan Island, Ocean Island, etc. It turns out that the Pi Island, which Mao Wenlong has already attached to the Tartars, asked the Ming army to withdraw from Pi Island through diplomatic channels, but the Ming army obediently evacuated. While the Ming army gave up Pi Island, it also gave up Zhanzidao at the mouth of the Yalu River.

From a military geography, if Zhang Zhun wants to set foot on the land of Liaodong, he must cross the Bohai Sea. All personnel and materials need to be transported by sea. Given the strength of the Tartar cavalry, the landing Tiger Ben Army would not be able to resist the counterattack of the Tartars without three or four thousand people. The Tartars would definitely not sit idly by and watch Zhang Zhun appear. Three or four thousand people went ashore to fight, which had very high logistics requirements. Therefore, it would be impossible without a powerful naval fleet and a powerful logistics transport fleet.
Chapter completed!