I want to be emperor

Chapter 188 Grain Storage Division: The Largest Grain Merchant
Grain is a large strategic material, and it is fine to transport it downstream, but if it is transported upstream or by land, the freight will be extremely high.

If the distance is longer, the freight will have to exceed the price of the grain itself.

In addition, the blockade of the Ming Dynasty had to be considered. Unlike saltpeter, iron and other high-value materials that were easily transported secretly, food was a large and heavy thing, and the most important thing was that the demand was extremely huge.

Think about it, how much food is needed by hundreds of thousands of people?

Large-scale outsourcing by the Rural Protection Army is of little use if it is sporadic, and if the quantity is large, no matter how greedy the officials of the Ming Dynasty are, it is impossible for you to let your densely packed grain fleet that almost covers the entire river pass by. Yicheng to Xiangyang!
Even if he wants to get money and let you go, he has to worry about whether he will be impeached by others as a collaborator.

Therefore, the rural protection army wanted to purchase grain from other places on a large scale, which was extremely costly and extremely difficult.

In this way, the importance of the grain produced by the Nanyang Basin itself and the large amount of grain seized and confiscated by the Rural Protection Army became even more apparent.

Huang Cheng said: "Because food is too important, we did not sell a large amount of surplus food on the spot, but put it under the overall management of the Finance Department."

"And according to your previous instructions, General, a special grain storage department has been set up to be responsible for the preservation, operation, and purchase of this batch of confiscated grain and subsequent taxed grain!"

After hearing this, Luo Zhixue nodded slightly: "Food is the foundation of people's livelihood. This person can have nothing else, but food is absolutely indispensable, so we must be more cautious about this issue of food!"

Luo Zhixue said: "Also, we have seized too much grain this time, and the grain storage department can't patronize to hoard the grain. Except for the rations of soldiers, administrators, workers, and other related personnel, the rest of the grain It should be sold appropriately according to the market situation, so as to avoid sharp fluctuations in food prices and make people's livelihood difficult."

Huang Chengxuan immediately said: "Don't worry, the general, the subordinates know the seriousness. At present, people from the grain storage department have been arranged to take over the confiscated grain stores and gradually release grain to the market!"

Chen Xingkai on the side also said: "The food operation of your financial department should be faster, the summer harvest is coming soon, and I will collect a large amount of food later, so much food can't be eaten by ourselves alone , The cost of this storage is also high!"

Huang Chengxuan chuckled: "It's natural. We have so few people, how can we eat so much food, and we won't hoard too much."

"Except for the necessary strategic grain reserves, we will release the rest of the grain to the market one after another."

"If so much grain is really eaten up by our own people, or hoarded and not sold, I'm afraid the folks will have to trade for food."

The amount of grain confiscated, seized, and taxed by the Rural Protection Army cannot be calculated in terms of catties or tons, but as a percentage of the total grain output of the Nanyang Basin...

It is conservatively estimated that the taxed grains currently controlled by the Rural Protection Army and will soon be controlled account for at least about 20.00% of the total annual grain output of the Nanyang Basin this year. If the summer harvest is included, this figure can rise to about 30.00%.

At least [-]% of the grain in the entire Nanyang Basin is controlled by the grain storage department of the Rural Protection Army.
If the Rural Protectors hold back the grain and don't sell it, or simply eat it all to death, then the Nanyang Basin may really starve to death...

However, Luo Zhixue also reminded Huang Chengxuan: "Food not only needs to be released to meet the needs of people everywhere, but also needs to be purchased at a stable price for a long time. To ensure market supply, we must also ensure stable food prices."

"It is absolutely impossible for farmers to have a bumper harvest, but their income will decrease!"

"In the future, the work of the Grain Storage Department, in addition to ensuring food supply, also needs to raise the work of stabilizing food prices to a more important level!"

Luo Zhixue is very clear that because the rural protection army collects the land mu tax directly, it mainly collects in kind, supplemented by cash. Therefore, when collecting taxes, it will collect a lot of various types of grain. These grains also need to be sold and sold for cash. Maintain the expenses of the various systems of the Rural Protection Army.

However, if such a large amount of grain is put directly on the market regardless, it will cause violent fluctuations in grain prices and make people's livelihood difficult.

That's 20.00% or even 30.00% of the total output of massive grain. Once the grain storage department opens up to sell grain, the price of grain will inevitably fluctuate violently.

So Luo Zhixue is still very concerned about this grain storage department!
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The issue of money and food is the core issue for the rural protection army to maintain the follow-up war, and Luo Zhixue has always attached great importance to it.

Fortunately, Chen Xingkai from the Taxation Department has a good means of making money, and Huang Chengxuan from the Finance Department also spends money safely, so even in recent months, the expenses of the Rural Protection Army have risen sharply.

However, according to the current income and expenditure of the Rural Protection Army, even considering that the follow-up Rural Protection Army will continue to maintain rapid expansion, then the Rural Protection Army's finances can be maintained for at least two years.

The reason why the Rural Protection Army's expenditures are so huge, and there will be a surplus after two years is naturally not how much tax the Rural Protection Army can collect from Nanyang Mansion and Xiangyang Mansion.

In fact, according to the estimation of the tax department, after the tax situation of Nanyang Prefecture and Xiangyang Prefecture is thoroughly rectified, the tax revenue of the above two places should be able to reach 50 taels a year.

Compared with the current huge expenditure of the rural protection army, it is not worth mentioning!
In May alone, the rural protection army’s expenditure reached more than 30 taels a month, and the expenditure in June reached a new high, including cash and various materials discount calculations, which are expected to exceed 50 taels.

In other words, the normal tax revenue of these two places can only maintain the operation of the Township Protection Army for one month...

But the reason why Chen Xingkai and Huang Chengxuan think that even after two years they will still have a surplus for the Township Protection Army...

It's purely robbing... Alas, too many copies have been confiscated!

Only the two vassals, King Chu and King Xiang, donated at least 500 million taels of cash and various materials or real estate to the Township Protection Army without counting the land.

In addition, a large amount of property was confiscated from the hands of officials and gentry.

The total value can reach tens of millions.

With so much money and food, even if the follow-up rural protection army has no income, it can still maintain the current super high expenditure for at least one and a half years.

Not to mention that the rural protection army will continue to expand in the future.

Chen Xingkai from the Taxation Department has long been counting on continuing to go south, because once the rural protection army goes south and takes Chengtian Mansion, Hanyang Mansion, Jingzhou Mansion and other places, at least they can steal several million taels of grain.

With so much money and food confiscated, even if the Township Protection Army continues to expand its army at a high speed and fight everywhere, it will not be spent in just two years.

After all, even if the rural protection army spends more money, there is a limit.

In May, the expenditure of the Township Protection Army reached 30 taels of silver, and it is expected that the expenditure in June will reach 50 taels of silver. The increase in expenditure in the past two months is due to the expansion of the army on the one hand, and the other is due to The Township Protection Army is doing a lot of factory construction.

In order to quickly build industrial bases in Xiangyang and Nanyang, the Rural Protection Army produced all kinds of military supplies on a large scale, but invested huge sums of money in building various factories, building equipment, training workers, and so on.

In the case of all speed, money and food flowed out like a flood that broke the embankment. Now Nanyang City and Xiangyang City combined, at least 5 people are working on the construction site, in order to be able to use the Xiangyang Arsenal as the core in the shortest possible time. All kinds of factories have been built.

However, these are one-time investments. If the production scale is not continued to be expanded in the future, then there is no need to maintain large-scale investments.

Long-term expenses are mainly military expenses and administrative expenses, and these will not suddenly skyrocket to more than several million taels of silver.

For example, in terms of military expenditures, based on the current military expenditures of the Township Protection Army, tens of thousands of main troops plus more than 1 surrendered troops would cost about 30 million taels of silver a month.

Among them, the salary, that is, the cash subsidy expenditure is not large, and the main expenses are food expenses and military supplies.

Speaking of food expenses, I have to mention the loudest slogan shouted when the Baoxiang Army recruited soldiers: Eat enough!

And if you want to be full, you need a lot of food. Even if the food that the soldiers of the rural protection army eat is all captured food, it has to be counted...

At the same time, the rural protection army also worked hard to supplement the soldiers with nutritious food such as meat and poultry eggs, and these meat and poultry eggs were not cheap!
If the consumed food and materials are converted into money, then more than 2 soldiers of the Rural Protection Army and tens of thousands of civilians who provide logistics, transportation and engineering construction for the military can eat all kinds of food worth 10 taels of silver a month.

There is also the consumption of ordnance and ammunition. On the face of it, it has nothing to do with military expenditures, because the military receives all military supplies from the Ministry of Industry for free without spending money.

However, in order to produce these military supplies, the Ministry of Industry needs to purchase raw materials, hire artisans, workers, build factories, build equipment, and so on.

When these costs are included, the consumption of military supplies is very huge.

Even after setting aside the one-time expenditures for building factories and equipment, the expenditures of the Ministry of Industry are horrific.

In May, the Ministry of Industry only spent more than 6 taels of silver for purchasing various raw materials, and it will be even more in June, mainly because saltpeter, sulfur, iron, copper, lead, etc. are directly related to the protection of the countryside. Strategic materials for military combat effectiveness.

The reason why so much money was spent was purely the materials purchased by the Township Protection Army. One of them was extremely sensitive and belonged to the absolute control of the imperial court.

If it was revealed that these commercial firms sold these strategic materials to the Rural Protection Army, how many people would lose their heads?

(End of this chapter)