I want to be emperor

Chapter 932 Booty

The Chu army that landed in Britain was a mixed regiment with the core of the 30nd Infantry Regiment of the No. 142 Sixth Division newly transferred to Europe, supplemented by cavalry, artillery, logistics and other support units.

In addition to the thousands of core first-class main force, there are also thousands of regiments and a half of the third division of the Indian Army serving as servants, as well as a marine battalion of the navy.

The total strength of the troops totaled about [-], which was less than half the strength when they fought against France. However, the British who were still fighting were running away without having the courage to resist head-on.

This is mainly because the British national strength is not very good these days. It is not as good as France across the Taiwan Strait in terms of national strength and army strength. In addition, as an island country, it values ​​the navy more than the army, and its army strength is not large in the first place.

As for the navy, which they paid more attention to... before the Chu Empire's landing operation was launched, it had been wiped out by the Chu army in the port.

Before the landing operation, the Dachu Imperial Navy dispatched a fleet of multiple frigates and offshore patrol ships, which circled along the British coastline and carried out destructive bombardments on several major British military ports, directly destroying them. The British wooden sailing warships were destroyed in the harbor.

Fighting against this kind of wooden sail warship poses no pressure or challenge to the Dachu Empire Navy. Attacking the port is simpler than daily live-fire training.

After all, in daily live-fire training, various conditions are set within the navy. The imaginary enemies are often other naval ships that are comparable to one's own, and there are other more stringent conditions.

However, unless a civil war breaks out in the Chu Empire, it is possible to encounter these drill situations...

In actual combat, all we encountered were indigenous sail-made wooden warships, which were easier to fight than daily training.

The navy went out and circled around the English Islands, attacked many military ports, and destroyed at least hundreds of ships of all kinds, without even losing a single bit of paint on itself.

As it turned out, the Navy itself lacked interest. The two cruisers it sent simply returned home halfway through the battle and returned to the French port of Cherbourg to rest and prepare for the subsequent large-scale landing in the UK.

Because the Navy believes that a few frigates and offshore patrol ships can complete the task very well. Instead of spending big guys like cruisers, it is better to save more 150 mm ammunition and wait until the landing to cover the army's landing.

The British had invested many years in it, and the navy they paid more attention to was the same as the French navy. It did not play any role from beginning to end, and most of it was destroyed. Of course, it cannot be said that it had no effect at all. At least it consumed a lot of Chu army's ammunition. .

It cannot be said that they were all destroyed. Some of the ships escaped into the inland river, or were hidden relatively secretly, or were overseas, thus escaping the devastating blow of the Chu army.

But no matter what, they failed to play any practical role in this war.

In front of the steel battleships of the Da Chu Empire Navy, the ships of the sailing era have been reduced to nothing more than paper.

The combat effectiveness of a steel battleship composed of a steam engine, a steel hull, and a rifled gun was epoch-making. It was simply not something that a sail-powered battleship composed of a wooden hull and a smoothbore gun could withstand.

Not to mention sail warships, even the coastal defense batteries composed of smoothbore guns could not withstand the fierce bombardment of the Da Chu Empire Navy.

The absolute maritime power advantage allowed the Chu army to carefully examine the coastal geographical conditions of the UK, then choose a suitable landing site and land on a sunny and windy day.

The Chu army's three large-scale landing operations in Europe all chose to land calmly in good weather... and they did not worry at all about being vulnerable to enemy counterattacks in good weather.

This is absolute confidence in strength!

After landing, they fought all the way to London along the Thames River, and easily captured the city of London. Then the Chu army entered relocation mode.

Just like after they captured Paris, the Chu army once again carried out a city-wide seizure mode. Soldiers entered and exited many buildings in London in groups, especially some palaces and other building complexes, and then moved everything inside like moving houses. Evacuate and demolish some architectural artworks such as reliefs and statues.

These things were first loaded onto carriages and transported to the port, and then loaded into transport ships of several thousand tons.

Most of these items were official trophies or confiscated property, but a small portion were personal trophies of the soldiers.

In most overseas military operations, military generals do not prohibit it, and even create opportunities for soldiers to obtain some personal trophies as supplementary income.

For example, during combat, the trophies captured by soldiers on the battlefield, except for some special items, such as artillery, grain and other bulk supplies, can generally be retained as personal trophies. Even personally captured weapons can be retained upon application. Afterwards, reservations are made, and the officers above generally do not stop them.

In the large-scale confiscation operations after entering the city, because they are all collective actions, and all confiscations must be turned over to the national treasury, so at this time, you cannot hide anything.

However, after large-scale collective actions, the soldiers are usually arranged to take turns to take vacations... But in fact, the soldiers are given time to move around on their own to search for loot. As for the individual gains, it depends on luck.

Of course, this is a general situation, and there are some special situations, such as secretly hiding some small pieces of gold and silver jewelry during collective actions. Many times, the officers above often turn a blind eye!
There are even some soldiers who, under certain circumstances, secretly hide the gold and silver jewelry they find somewhere without reporting it... and then secretly take it back after the collective action, claiming it to be personal trophies they found during their vacation... In this case In fact, there are quite a few. The military will investigate this, but as long as you don't go too far, it usually won't be too harsh.

For example, if you blatantly bring back a lot of gold, silver and jewelry within a few days, the superiors will investigate the source of your trophies. Once you reveal your flaws in your words, you will naturally be punished.

But no matter what, the Chu Empire's overseas garrison, especially the soldiers who perform overseas combat missions, are basically not short of money... Even if you are fighting in Africa, you can get some ivory and animal skins from the local indigenous people. Gemstones and stuff like that.

And if you fight in Europe, the gains will be even greater.

I fought in Europe for a long time and participated in three consecutive wars in Portugal, Spain, and France. The three-year division included generals and ordinary soldiers. When they returned home, they all had a lot of money in their pockets.

No one knows exactly how much money these soldiers brought back home, but it is conceivable that the total of these personal trophies will definitely be a huge number.

The tax agency knows something about it, but as always refuses to disclose it to the public!
According to relevant charters and regulations, soldiers do not need to pay income tax on personal trophies obtained by soldiers during combat and approved by the military.

But just because you don’t need to pay taxes doesn’t mean you don’t need to declare it… If you don’t declare it, and you suddenly have so much extra money, the money-hungry tax officials at the tax agency won’t let it go easily!
After declaration, it is confirmed that it is a tax-free trophy, and then these legal income can be used openly.

In order to avoid future tax troubles, many military officers and even soldiers who have seized large amounts of money have made tax declarations on their trophy income that has been recognized by the military... It is only the trophy income that has been officially recognized by the military and has been tax declared. It's an extremely huge number.

Behind the scenes, many soldiers also have many so-called trophies that, strictly speaking, are not very compliant and have not been recognized by the military as trophies. As for how they obtained them, there are naturally various ways, but basically they cannot withstand scrutiny... It can easily trigger an internal investigation within the military.
However, a considerable part of these illegal trophies income, especially the relatively large amount, is still subject to tax declaration...but this part needs to be taxed.

In the Great Chu Empire, we are not afraid of you cheating or being corrupt, but we are afraid that you will not pay taxes...

Therefore, when a large amount of illegal income is obtained, most people will still choose to pay taxes if possible... This does not mean that these illegal incomes can be completely washed away after paying taxes, but at least the tax agencies will not come after you. trouble.

As for the patrol police or the law enforcement agencies within the military... It's not that people in the world underestimate their investigative abilities, but compared to the investigative abilities of tax agencies, they are really scum...

The taxation agency of the Dachu Empire, not to mention its own army, is actually not very helpful in investigating cases. The key thing is that the tax department is still the administrative agency with the largest number of employees in the Dachu Empire...

Today, when technology is not developed enough, human resources are still the most important resource, and the same is true for taxation.

The reason why the Da Chu Empire's tax agencies have such strong investigative capabilities and can collect so much tax revenue is inseparable from the fact that they have a large number of tax officers and tax police.

If there are only a few tax officers and tax police, don't expect to be able to collect taxes on a large scale. After all, you can't really count on people's awareness of paying taxes... Even after 40 years of tax education, the concept of paying taxes has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. But there are still many people who will go to great lengths to pay less or not pay taxes.

In order to collect taxes, tax agencies have made a lot of efforts, and even in order to collect more taxes, they will keep taxpayers' illegal income sources confidential. Their famous "other income" declaration category has always been refused to other law enforcement agencies. open.

This is also an important reason why many criminals, even corrupt officials, declare taxes on their illegal income without worrying about being exposed to thunder.

Everyone knows that the tax agencies of the Da Chu Empire only want money, and they want money to death... As long as the taxes are paid, they are very strict.

The tax agency has even formulated a series of tax confidentiality provisions specifically for this other income declaration item. If internal tax agency personnel disclose a taxpayer's other income declaration categories to the outside world, it will directly violate the tax confidentiality law, which is required. Sentenced!

Of course, if there is a clear purpose, that is, if Luo Zhixue explicitly ordered it, it would naturally not be within the scope of the restriction, but Luo Zhixue would never do this...even if it was to attack a senior official, knowing that he was corrupt, and even carried out In the case of illegal income tax declarations, these evidences will not be used directly, but additional evidence chains will be found to prove their corruption.

The Da Chu Empire has always been very serious about collecting taxes!

This has also caused other law enforcement agencies to be dissatisfied with the Tax Secrecy Law... But dissatisfaction is useless, but this Tax Secrecy Law was personally approved by Luo Zhixue, and it represents not only the will of the tax agency, but also the will of the empire. , Luo Zhixue’s will!

The tax secrecy law is also an important reason why soldiers stationed overseas will take the initiative to declare some of their shady trophy income. Paying tax will not cause trouble with the tax agencies.

As long as the tax agency is dealt with, everything else, including internal military investigations, is a trivial matter!
Therefore, the tax agency can more or less grasp the approximate figures of the trophy income of the more than 1 soldiers of the Third Division, but this is still limited to the declared figures... even if this figure is already an astronomical figure for ordinary people.

But in fact there are still quite a few, especially the small income of ordinary soldiers who will not be declared at all... Anyway, the amount is not large, and it is all cash income. As long as you don't stupidly deposit it directly into the bank, causing funds to appear in the account The unusual behavior triggered an investigation by the tax agency.

It’s not a big problem to just bring the cash back home and spend it directly!
Cash transactions have always been the hardest hit area for tax avoidance. Not to mention the Chu Empire in the 21th century, even in most countries in the [-]st century, it is still difficult to tax personal cash transactions. .

Therefore, no one can tell the final trophy income of the more than 1 soldiers of the Third Division.

But it is definitely a huge number!
This can be roughly seen from the fact that many soldiers of the Third Division returned to China and retired and suddenly became decent people, allowing themselves and their families to live a decent life.

As for some mid-level and high-level generals, on the surface, there doesn't seem to be much change, but secretly, there will be more or less large assets...

The generous income of the soldiers of the Third Division is not an isolated case, but a common situation for many soldiers stationed overseas and in frontiers in the past few decades.

Again, the top military officials actually encourage the practice of increasing the personal income of soldiers through battlefield seizures (any trophy income is legally passed through the military), and even illegal trophy income is often turned a blind eye. Close one eye, as long as you don't take it too far.

After all, border and overseas garrisoning is very hard, and there is also a lot of danger... Not to mention hard work, garrisoning and fighting are hard, and if it is dangerous, although the casualties of the Chu army on the frontal battlefield are very small, the casualties in sporadic small-scale battles are Yes, there are still some, and they all seem to have single-digit casualties, but they happen too frequently.

Moreover, there is another major threat to the Chu soldiers in overseas areas, and that is non-combat casualties, which are diseases caused by the harsh natural and sanitary conditions in overseas areas.

Although the medical level of the Great Chu Empire has improved a lot, there are still no good treatments for many diseases.

Non-combat attrition has always been a major threat to the Chu Empire's overseas troops, and is even greater than a simple indigenous threat.

Such hard and dangerous work naturally requires adequate compensation.

Although the treatment in the Chu army is very good, it is not outrageous. The treatment of ordinary soldiers is mainly reflected in food treatment. In these days, it is quite expensive to have food, drink, clothing and warmth, and the army gives ordinary soldiers Soldiers all covered!
In addition, there are benefits for job assignments after retirement, which are usually for non-staff personnel assigned to relatively good government-run enterprises or administrative agencies.

At the same time, you can also go to school for free in the army. After four years of service, if you have good learning ability, you can get a junior high school diploma.

These are the important demands of many ordinary soldiers joining the army!
As for cash income during service, it is not actually the main demand of soldiers...

Because the cash income of ordinary soldiers in the Chu army is only subsidized, the current subsidy standard is only one and a half yuan for third-class infantry soldiers, two yuan for second-class soldiers, two and a half yuan for first-class soldiers, and technical arms such as cavalry and artillery are higher.

Of course, the food, drink and clothing of the soldiers are all covered by the army, so this money can be saved without spending a penny.

Unlike ordinary workers, they seem to have a monthly income of thirty to four yuan, but they have to spend their own money for food, drink and clothing. In the last month, I still couldn't save one or two yuan.

Taken together, the income of ordinary soldiers is actually higher than that of ordinary workers... but the income is limited.

In the contemporary Chu society, no one would go to war and risk their lives for a mere few yuan monthly salary... It's not worth it!

As for career non-commissioned officers, their income is higher, but the treatment of low-level non-commissioned officers is still reflected in non-cash income, such as work arrangements after retirement, academic qualification improvement, professional skills training, etc.

The salary and allowance income of non-commissioned officers can reach between [-], [-] yuan to more than [-] yuan, depending on the military branch and military rank. Non-commissioned officers are also divided into five levels: corporal, sergeant, staff sergeant, sergeant major, and senior sergeant major.

No one is high above sergeant, ranging from the fourth or fifth Chu Yuan to the seventh or eighth Chu Yuan.

However, sergeants major and senior sergeant major are relatively tall. They are already senior professional soldiers. Most of them are married and have children. They are under great pressure to support their families. They not only expect to find a good job after retirement, but also rely on the income during their service to support their families.

Therefore, their income is higher. The monthly salary of a sergeant major can reach about ten Chu yuan, and the monthly income of a senior sergeant major can reach twelve Chu yuan. The cavalry and artillery are even higher. This income is already that of senior technical personnel. The annual salary is a few hundred yuan, which is considered a good income in China. He is a serious middle-class family.

However, there are very few sergeants and senior sergeants. Most of them are ordinary non-commissioned officers, corporals, and sergeants. The income of these people is between four to eight yuan, which is similar to that of ordinary technicians, low-level staff, and civilian staff. .

The above mentioned income is during peacetime. If you are transferred to a war zone to fight, you will also receive combat subsidies, and your income will increase a lot.

The income of officers is even higher. Even if they are military cadets, that is, with the rank of warrant officer, their monthly salary starts at twelve yuan!

After officially serving as a second lieutenant, the starting salary is fifteen Chu Yuan. With various subsidies, the comprehensive monthly salary can reach about twenty Chu Yuan.

At the level of major, the comprehensive monthly income can basically reach the level of one hundred Chu Yuan.

Brigadier General is even higher. After reaching the rank of General Officer, in addition to salary and subsidies, they will receive a royal reward issued in the name of the royal family every year. To put it bluntly, in addition to the normal income, Luo Zhixue will subsidize a part of their income privately. .

A brigadier general's normal salary, various allowances, and royal rewards add up to an annual income of at least [-] Chu Yuan. He is an absolute high-income group in the Great Chu Empire.

So joining the army in the Da Chu Empire was actually quite profitable... Well, it was so profitable that it made the military leaders feel heartbroken. Then the army has not expanded in size for decades, but has been reduced several times, and the number of officers and non-commissioned officers has been strictly controlled. quantity.

In the Da Chu Empire, after soldiers completed their four-year service, you could not stay in the team if you wanted to. You had to compete with others. The army only required the winners to stay in the team... In addition, it was basically a carrot and a pit, and you had to have a position. Only in order to stay in the team, for example, in a regular B and C infantry platoon, there are only four fixed positions with the rank of non-commissioned officer, namely the platoon leader and three squad leaders. They are only available in elite troops, that is, in A-class troops. The position of deputy squad leader is also assigned to a noncommissioned officer.

It is even harder to become an officer... Military academies only enroll a few hundred people every year, and once an officer is stuck in a certain military rank for many years and cannot be promoted, he will face the problem of retirement. It is not that you can stay in the army for the rest of your life if you want to... …

Controlling the number of soldiers is to control military expenditures.

How about growing vegetables and raising pigs to be self-sufficient and reduce food supply costs?

Then a large number of low-cost servant armies were created to undertake combat tasks.

So to a certain extent, the cost of raising troops for the Chu army is very high...but high, this is relative to the total military expenditure, and when it comes to personal income, especially for ordinary soldiers stationed and fighting overseas, in fact Not that high.

To put it bluntly, soldiers earn slightly more than ordinary workers and go overseas to fight with the indigenous people...

If this does not provide any other benefits, the soldiers deployed overseas, especially the grassroots soldiers and non-commissioned officers, will have some opinions.

I'm working hard overseas, and the price is almost the same as screwing, so I might as well just go to the factory to screw.

And the spoils of war are the additional benefits that the top military officials give to the soldiers stationed overseas, especially the grassroots soldiers!
At the same time, in the process of large-scale confiscation and seizure of loot, the military can share it with the cabinet and obtain a large amount of additional military expenditures.

This is why the Chu army is fighting overseas, and everyone from generals to third-class privates likes to raid homes everywhere... The top military leaders want extra military spending, and the soldiers want to make money to support their families, and that's all money!
And no one’s money is blown by the strong wind. If you don’t snatch it, who will give it to you obediently?

(End of this chapter)