Xinshun 1730

Chapter 514

This was part of the plan to build a navy back then. After Li Gan saw it, he was overwhelmed and thought it was wonderful.

But after many years, some things that he didn't feel at the beginning caused some uneasiness in his heart.

Looking again at this memento, which was so amazing after reading it back then, Li Gan tried to think about the things inside, bypassing the thinking laid down by Liu Yu.

The content of the memorial itself does not seem to be a big problem.

At that time, the construction of a navy was not approved by the majority in the court. Li Gan decided to give it a try after hearing Liu Yu's theory of the threat in the Southeast China Sea.

Later, Liu Yu compiled and trained the Qingzhou Army, replacing arguments with victories, and the winners always seem to be justified.In addition, the First World War solved the northern border troubles, and the navy was still built.

Now the battle against Japan is like a reenactment of Liu Yu's fearful prophecy, using the whole of Japan as a stage to show what he said at the beginning-the navy's mobility is looking for opportunities to fight, ten thousand can be regarded as one hundred thousand, and It is always more and less.

It's just that Li Gan looked through this memorial today, not to lament Liu Yu's foresight, but to focus on a seemingly trivial matter inside.

That is the military obligation of the trading company and the sailor training system.

Basically a two-way arrangement.

Trading companies build soft sailing ships to help the imperial court train sailors, and they can directly recruit those registered sailors during a war.

Retired soldiers and officers of the navy went to trading companies to make a living.Relying on the skills they learned in Jinghai Palace, the means of maneuvering ships and controlling guns trained in the army, they made a living, and by the way, asked the trading company to help the court solve the problem of resettlement of the retired navy.

Encourage the children of maritime merchants to learn practical knowledge, enter the navy, and become officers.

The Navy took part of the money and invested in trading companies as an annuity for retired soldiers in the future.

At that time, it seemed that there was no problem, and it could be said to serve multiple purposes.

It not only solves the problem of soldiers, but also solves the retreat of the retired navy. By the way, the court does not need to spend much money, so that the retired soldiers of the navy can get part of the money from the profits of the sea trade as the guarantee for the old queen.

It's just that the times are different, and Li Gan couldn't help laughing again when he read this memorial again at this time.

"It's really a dog who can't change eating shit. It's better to force the court to do it."

Looking at the time and date in the memorial, it is definitely after the Western Regions were pacified and Liu Yu was beaten not to "force the imperial court to change" and "force the imperial court's policies".

At that time, Li Gan was really worried about the threat of Westerners, and he was also worried about Liu Yu's saying that if there is sea but no defense, sea transportation will be convenient if ten thousand is worth one hundred thousand.

The DPRK and China disagreed, and Li Gan didn't have much internal money, so no matter how the navy was built, money and people couldn't be avoided.At that time, I thought it was very good, saving money and having people.

Interpreting the memorials many years ago under the current situation, Li Gan has a different taste.

The situation now is very different from before.

This is not a discussion about whether Dashun wants to build a navy, but after defeating Japan, if Dashun does not continue to build a navy, then we have to worry that Japan will use its own way to punish itself and create a navy to take revenge .

And Liu Yu staged the strategic role of the navy in Japan, and it was a "live broadcast" for the vassals and Western countries. It was simply telling the Westerners that if they fight Dashun in the future, they will fight like this.Concentrate troops, mobilize the army, dodge when assembled, fight when alone, occupy the city to build momentum, and run when you come to attack.

So this forced Dashun to the point where it had to continue to maintain a navy.

At this point, in the view of the core decision-makers of Dashun, there is no need to discuss whether to continue to retain or build a navy.

However, the Navy spends money.It costs money to keep it.If there are civil uprisings in Shaanxi, Henan and other places, the navy cannot sail there by land.

The war against Japan pointed out a way for Dashun to support war with war, support the navy with war, and support the navy with trade.

However, some of the policies in this memorial seemed to be the policy of doing more with less money at the time. From the perspective of this moment, Li Gan felt that Liu Yu was still trying to force the imperial court under the rug.

This memorandum forced several things.

The great construction of the navy was not forced by this memorandum, but by the war against the Japanese. If you don’t build it, you will face the curse of "you start with this, and you must end with it".

On the basis of this, in Li Gan's opinion, Liu Yu has done at least three things in this memorial written several years ago.

The imperial court was forced to maintain the stability of the joint-stock dividend distribution attempt, the imperial court had to continue to try to get businessmen to cooperate with the imperial court's policies, and the imperial court had to continue to expand abroad, at least to Nanyang.

This is related to the interests of a large number of naval soldiers and officers, as well as their retirement annuities in the future.

This caused the court to dare not act rashly. Dashun knew very well what the consequences would be if he did not pay the soldiers.

But now they have been forced to continue to build up the navy. The navy has more and more manpower. The court can't afford any pension, annuity and other benefits, so it can only go down this route.

If we go down this route, we have to allow more social funds to flow.For example, the development of Ezo, etc., only in this way can the pension annuity of retired soldiers be maintained in an acceptable range in the future.

If the excessive flow of capital in the society is not allowed, this money, according to the previous situation where the land tax and salt tax are the bulk of the tax revenue, will not be available at all. This forces the court to find a way to use warships to solve the navy's military pay .

In the battle against the Japanese, what the court obtained financially, if it did not encourage the continued development of industry and commerce, and encouraged industry and commerce to find ways to make money, in fact, it was only 100 million a year for monopoly rights.

Is this money enough to support a navy against Japanese revenge?Is it enough to support a navy to prevent the invasion of Westerners from the southeast?

Obviously not enough.

However, if industry and commerce are encouraged and the "buying and rushing" system is encouraged, at least in Ezo, the imperial court will be able to spend tens of thousands of taels of silver a year.

Including the taxes levied on shipbuilding and textiles, as well as the ex-factory tax levied according to the volume of new handicrafts such as glass before leaving the workshop, the more they sell, the higher the court's income will be.

And even so, the money is still not much, and it is not enough to support a navy that can make the court feel at ease, don't have to worry about Japan's revenge, and don't have to worry about Westerners harassing the southeast coast.

Then you can only go to Nanyang and expand in the direction of Nanyang.After the expansion, the development of industry and commerce must be encouraged. Otherwise, in the future, not only Japan's revenge, but also the Netherlands' revenge will be worried, and more money will be spent to raise more navies, which will lead to deeper ties between the navy and overseas trade.

I'm afraid that in the future... whoever supports foreign expansion will be the wise king in the eyes of the navy, industry and commerce.

Where there is support, there is opposition, and those who oppose expansion must regard those who support expansion as thorns in their eyes and thorns in their flesh.

This is what Li Gan was worried about. There is no history to learn from, and it is more unpredictable than the old and new party struggles in the Song Dynasty. The sign that the world will be completely divided.

The old and new parties are fighting for the court.And this new situation may blossom both inside and outside the court.

Although at this time it was only a small sign that could not be any smaller, even Li Gan thought that he could completely control the situation.

But it's just the navy.

What about other new things?

Will other new things bring changes that are difficult to control?
If it was the old days, Li Gan would send someone to call Liu Yu overnight, learn Chinese from Jia Sheng and talk about it, turning some fear of the unknown into questions seeking answers one by one.

But this time, since Li Gan had the idea of ​​asking Liu Yu to leave for a while to see if there were any problems with these new things, he didn't think about calling Liu Yu.

Vaguely, he felt as if he had called Liu Yu, and Liu Yu would give answers to these questions, but the answers were definitely all good news and not bad news, at most they were caught in some small problems, but in the face of huge benefits, these small problems Questions are not worth thinking about.

Putting down the old notes, Li Gan took off his tortoiseshell glasses, rubbed his sore eyes, and looked around.

Tortoiseshell is the most suitable frame material for glasses at this time.If Liu Yu was here at this time, even the chime clock next to him would not be as good as this glasses would give Liu Yu a sense of space-time disorder, as if the standard tortoiseshell presbyopic reading glasses of later generations had traveled to the emperor's table.

At this time, Li Gan also felt a special sense of trance.

The glass on the window is not a new thing. The officials in Guangdong paid tribute many years ago, but it was just transported to the capital. It was too expensive, and only a few pieces were installed in the Forbidden City.

But now, there are already too many glass windows in the capital, and this is a completely new atmosphere.

Matches began to be used in the palace, so in the gloomy and closed palace, the first palace official who committed suicide by swallowing a matchhead appeared in the past few years. The standard method of death in the past was to throw a well.

The special whale oil lamps tribute from the glass factory on the table have replaced traditional candles in some places where lighting is needed.Every year around Whale Sea, whale oil is presented as a tribute, and even a set of huge whale skeletons are presented as a tribute, so that those in the palace who have read that there is a fish in the North Dark and its name is Kun, can see the unimaginable for the first time. huge animal.

Some moisturizing skin care powder called glycerin appeared in the palace, as well as soap made from walrus and sea lions hunted from the remote northern whale sea.

The guards of the Forbidden City began to change into flintlock guns with bayonets, and still wore the bright armor of the Imperial Guards.The walls of the Forbidden City began external renovation, adding protective slopes and protruding corners.

From time to time, there are hot air balloons flying into the sky outside the city. The rich and noble children try to realize their dream of flying into the sky, and they don't exclaim and panic when they see something flying in the sky more than ten years ago.

Everything is changing quietly.Perhaps, 20 years ago, if the eunuch from the previous dynasty was reborn, he only needed to ask about the year name and dynasty, and he would be able to adapt to all the life in the palace that day; but now, he may have to ask this and that to ensure what he was looking for. what exactly is it.

This trance feeling gave Li Gan an indescribable feeling in his heart.Everything seems to be taken for granted, and everything is too taken for granted. Even if you ask a female official or eunuch at this time, they can tell clearly where the whale sea is, where the whale oil is produced, walrus sea lion fat, soap, glycerin, etc., and even know where it is. There are Raksha people in the north, and I know that the black Raksha who is an idle official in the court comes from far away Africa.

After being in a trance for a while, the sound of the chiming bell brought him back to reality from this trance.The eunuch whispered: "Your Majesty, it's time for Duke Qi to enter the palace to discuss the Rakshasa matter."

Li Gan nodded, looked around again, and suddenly asked: "You are also an old man in the palace. These years, whether it is glass, whale oil or other things, it is more and more different from before. What do you think?"

The eunuch hurriedly laughed and said, "My maidservant thought that the Weiyang Palace when Bowang Houtong first dug the Western Regions, and the Daming Palace when the Four Towns of Anxi were in their heyday were all like this? Cucumbers from the Weiyang Palace in the Han Dynasty, and the muskets with bayonets of the imperial guards today, From the perspective of the servants, there is no difference."

(End of this chapter)