afterglow

Chapter 395: Private money; low-end version of amphibious warfare command ship
"what?!"

Zhu Lingjing, who was thinking about the problem, staggered two steps forward, but did not fall.

Zhou Changfeng, who was behind, hurriedly moved a few steps to the side, picked up the notes in his hand and said awkwardly: "Then... Your Majesty, I just looked down and didn't see it, and accidentally..."

"Accidentally?" Zhu Lingjing's eyebrows could be seen raised for a moment, but they immediately calmed down.

"Yeah, I don't dare to do it on purpose." Zhou Changfeng, who was about to cry without tears, replied.

"Really?" Zhu Lingjing sat on the chair in front of the imperial cabinet and said casually: "Isn't it possible?"

"Your Majesty, if you say that, then I can only cry out for injustice."

"Ah."

"Uh... How about... Your Majesty is busy first, and I take my leave first?"

"Why retreat? If you get into trouble, you want to run away? Stay."

Zhu Lingjing glanced at him, her tone and expression showed no emotion or joy, then she took out the hairpin, loosened her slightly crooked bun and tied it up again.

Later, two managers arrived.

The so-called "Jinglue" means planning, operation, and management. It was established in the Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties. This is a very high official position.

Of course, the current economic advisor is equivalent to an economic advisor, responsible for providing the emperor with advice and answers on economics, finance, and industrial and agricultural construction.

Because of its wide coverage and strong professionalism, this is also the largest group of consultants, usually four or five people.

"... This year's GDP is still expected to increase slightly, reaching 950 million yuan. However, the growth rate is slightly lower than last year. It can be seen that even in a war period, as long as regulation and management are in place, the economy will not decline."

"...According to a rough survey, the rapid expansion of the military industry has also driven the development of manufacturing industries such as metallurgy, food, and medicine. Its growth potential is currently considerable."

These people are actually Zhou Changfeng's colleagues. Everyone's duty rooms are adjacent to each other, and they have already gotten to know each other after such a long time.

The economic impact of the war on the Ming Dynasty was relatively obvious, and the output value of heavy industry increased significantly.

But looking at it from another perspective, this is a normal situation after switching the investment and income model. Although the Ming Dynasty's financial situation is sufficient to meet military expenditures and it has issued national bonds accordingly, it is still inevitable to suspend or suspend some aspects of people's livelihood. engineering construction.

So far, only part of the huge profits gained from Nanyang has been put into the economic cycle. Many of the powerful people who have made huge profits are still struggling and watching.

How to get these guys to take out their money and flow it into the market to enter the cycle?This is an important issue before the emperor and cabinet.

Otherwise, the purpose of using war to support war and using war to enrich the country will not be achieved.

After about a quarter of an hour of question and answer, the two of them excused themselves and left.

Seeing that Zhu Lingjing had not paid attention to his plan, Zhou Changfeng couldn't help but said helplessly: "Your Majesty, I still have a lot of work to do..."

The former said "Oh" and said, "Can't we do it at night?"

"..." Zhou Changfeng, who was speechless, simply stopped worrying. There was no way this woman would do anything to him anyway. At worst, he would just hang around here today.

After a short while, Fang Shujun's voice came from outside the door, and Zhu Lingjing directly called him in.

As the former head of the Princess's Palace, he was one of his own. Now, Fang Shujun was not only responsible for the properties formerly owned by the Princess's Palace, but also part-timed some of the palace's management affairs.

"Your Majesty, everything you told me a few days ago is in order."

"Okay." Zhu Lingjing nodded with a calm face, looked at Zhou Changfeng and said, "Father has rarely had excess expenses in recent years. The annual amount of internal funds [tǎng] is not large, and the savings are too thin."

Well?Why did the issue of the emperor's private money suddenly come up?

Seeing Zhou Changfeng's confusion, she continued to add: "I am considering forming a group of people. After the army goes on a campaign, we can follow the war zone to collect gold and silver to supplement our internal funds."

I can't help but laugh, it turns out this woman wants to make money for herself.

Zhou Changfeng couldn't help but feel a little amused when he thought that not only was he trying to make a fortune, but the emperor was also trying to make money for his own money.

"Your Majesty, this...it will be easy to get confused when the time comes, right? In what name does this team follow the footsteps of the army?"

Zhu Lingjing smiled slightly, but did not answer, obviously not wanting to answer in person.

Fang Shujun on the side replied on her behalf: "Special mineral research."

"Hmm..." Zhou Changfeng pondered for a moment and said seriously: "Your Majesty, I can fully cooperate, but I am not suitable to take the lead."

Since ancient times, it seems that few people who work as white gloves have a good ending?Anyway, Zhou is not happy to do this kind of thing.

Zhu Lingjing looked at him sideways and said calmly: "I didn't intend for you to host it. Just do what you should do."

"Ke Xing, there won't be too many people in this team. There are four or five tentative leaders at the moment, and we will recruit about 30 more reliable people in the future." Fang Shujun took out a pamphlet and handed it to him, "Obviously We will take care of everything we do, but after all, we are here to seize profits, so we will definitely not be welcomed, and we will have to send someone to cooperate when the time comes."

Zhou Changfeng nodded, "Nuclear weapons require special ore raw materials, which can be reasonably concealed from others."

Ming Dynasty's theoretical demonstration of the atomic bomb has reached the final stage. Now physicists and chemists are studying what kind of neutron source and raw material refining method to use.

Zhou estimated that they would be able to make a final decision in the fall and then start preparing subsequent construction plans.

Several people talked for a while, and after clarifying the situation, Fang Shujun, who had a lot of things to do, resigned.

"I know that His Majesty is still reluctant to let me make money." Zhou Changfeng couldn't help but sigh.

Zhu Lingjing, who was holding the teacup, shook her head slightly and said with a smile: "Oh, you think very highly of yourself."

"That's not to say, I..." Zhou Changfeng said seriously: "I just think that Your Majesty should be more... rational."

"You do know how to talk. No wonder you were so comfortable walking among the ladies back then."

"Ahem... I'm so impressed. I'm so impressed."

"Speaking of which, I'm quite curious. The flowers and plants you used to come into contact with are not comparable to those now. Why are you so peaceful now?" Zhu Lingjing poured a full cup of tea and raised her eyes to look at Zhou Changfeng, who was a few steps away.

The latter was speechless on the spot and quite embarrassed.

"Well, people change..."

"Really? I believe that one's nature is hard to change." Zhu Lingjing could tell at a glance that Zhou was guilty and wanted to talk about him.

Speaking of romance, this in itself is not a negative label. Celebrities since ancient times have never lacked for romance.And generally speaking, this is true nature that is hard to change. Very few people change it at any time, and many romantic people do the same when they reach middle age.

Therefore, she had always been curious and wanted to gossip about what happened to someone in Zhou Dynasty, but considering that it was an inappropriate private matter, she had not mentioned it before.

You can imagine how embarrassed Zhou Changfeng is now. It's so outrageous. How can this woman still have the time to gossip about such things?
He tried to answer seriously: "It is difficult to return, but it is not 100% impossible."

Seeing that he was being secretive and not telling the truth, Zhu Lingjing stopped asking further questions.

She said regretfully: "The [-] kilograms of gold that was in Singapore last time basically went to the imperial treasury. It's a pity."

Although it appears to be a dual monarchy constitution, the power structure of the Ming Dynasty was actually not so friendly to the emperor.

According to the constitution, the emperor has the power to appoint the prime minister, sign decrees, announce mobilization, declare war and peace, appoint imperial members, dissolve the cabinet, etc., and is also the nominal commander of the imperial army.

However, the emperor did not have the power to dissolve the Consultative Council, and he also had no financial power, because the annual budget was formulated by the Consultative Council, and the court could only question or reject it once.

It is conceivable that although such an emperor has real power, he lacks stamina and confidence.

What's more, since ancient times, Chinese dynasties have had situations in which they were granted and dismissed, and the emperor's imperial edicts were never required to be implemented, which is even more annoying.

Zhu Shiyan's more than 30 years in office have been uneventful because he is shrewd and diplomatic, and will not stick to the end when conflicts arise.

But this does not mean that the current institutional structure of the Ming Dynasty is perfect. At least for the monarch, it can only go well when the prestige is sufficient. Otherwise, both the court and the Consultative Council can obstruct the monarch.

Going to the most extreme scenario, the Consultative Council could theoretically pass a constitutional amendment that deprives the emperor of his main powers, but this would require some of the imperial members to rebel.

Because a constitutional amendment requires the approval of two-thirds of the members to vote, and there are 80 imperial members, if they all oppose it, the constitutional amendment cannot be passed.

Using the same extreme hypothesis, the emperor who was driven to panic could also declare martial law and order the army to surround the Consultative Yuan, triggering a constitutional crisis.

But this is only the worst case scenario after all. Normally, the monarch and his ministers have a tacit understanding and follow the normal rules of the game. Even if there is a conflict, it is a game overt and covert. It depends on who gives in first in the end, so as not to end in a difficult situation.

So this is why Zhu Lingjing is becoming more and more obsessed with making money - the dignified Chinese emperor is nominally wealthy, but in fact he can only rely on the money approved by the Consultative Yuan every year, which feels worse than what he had 300 years ago. Zhu Youjian.

Not for extravagant enjoyment, but for the expenses and unforeseen needs of political operations.

Take Luo Fu and Zhou Changfeng as examples. Luo Fu receives a sum of money as a subsidy every month, and additional gifts during holidays. Although Zhou did not receive the money, the maid sent to his house was. Specially hired.

Zhu Lingjing had to pay for such expenses, and they added up to a large sum.

"It's finally out."

Zhou Changfeng quickened his pace after leaving Zhaoren Hall, and he breathed a sigh of relief after walking quickly through the Qianqing Gate.

I'm a bit unlucky today. I'm embarrassed and gossiped about.

After returning to the duty room, he calmed down and immediately began to review the reports one after another as a routine.

After the Old Port and Balikpapan operations, the Ming Air Force became more and more interested in gunships and decided to continue development.

In order to overcome the vulnerability and low survivability of the gunship, the Air Force plans to simply and crudely thicken its armor so that it can withstand ground anti-aircraft firepower and fight forcefully.

At the beginning of last year, the Navy believed that the [-]-type seaplane was about to fall behind, so it issued a tender project for the next generation of large seaplanes.

In the first round of evaluation competition this year, the prototype designed and manufactured by Yanjing Uplink Aircraft Company was directly rejected because it was too bulky and the production cost was higher than the prototypes of several other companies.

The Navy doesn't like it, but the Air Force thinks it's good and has the potential to be transformed into a gunship.

于是他们正准备下18架的订单，为之额外加装8㎜或12㎜表面硬化钢板、50㎜防弹玻璃、双层自封油箱，安装一门陆军的三七式112㎜步兵炮、两座双联装12.8㎜航空机枪作为对地火力。

In addition, it also has a dorsal self-defense turret and a tail self-defense turret, both of which use twin 12.8mm aviation machine guns.

Zhou Changfeng muttered: "Okay, now it's really a flying tank."

If placed in the later stages of the war, such protective capabilities would still be insufficient, because by that time 20mm anti-aircraft guns and 40mm anti-aircraft guns had become popular.

But today, most of the light anti-aircraft firepower of the armies of the great powers is still dominated by anti-aircraft machine guns. Attacking such heavily equipped gunships with .30 or .50 caliber bullets is like scratching an itch.

At this time, he inevitably thought of a bad idea, and the corners of his mouth turned up involuntarily.

"Hey, Luo Fu, what is the width of the West Lake-class ship?"

"Twenty meters, maybe."

The Ming Navy had two classes of six seaplane carriers. The Dongting Lake class was modified from the Changle class freighter, while the West Lake class was a specially built seaplane carrier.

In this case, the West Lake class should be able to barely carry this heavy gunship.

At that time, we will directly take a few of them to Hawaii so that the Americans can experience the feeling of being unilaterally suppressed.

The U.S. military's M2HB anti-aircraft machine gun cannot effectively damage a heavily-armed gunship with this level of protection. The 28mm "Chicago Piano" anti-aircraft gun is not only small in number, but also has poor performance. The supporting Mk44 firing director has not yet been delivered for use.

The army aviation fighter jets stationed locally were also unable to cause effective damage. It would be useless if they ran out of bullets by then.

In addition to this sudden bad idea, Zhou Changfeng has also considered other issues in the past half month, working hard to enhance the Ming army's chances of winning the expedition to Hawaii.

The landing operation itself was very complicated and difficult, and the Ming army had to cross most of the Pacific Ocean for an expedition, which made it even more difficult.

The replacement of new weapons and equipment is an intuitive improvement, but the upgrade and iteration of the command and control system is not very eye-catching, but it is crucial.

Therefore, Zhou Changfeng came up with the idea of ​​building a dedicated amphibious combat command fleet to maximize the combat efficiency of the Ming army when it landed.

Historically, during the Great War, the U.S. military experimentally built the Appalachian-class command ship. The more famous command ship in later generations was the U.S. Navy's Blue Ridge-class command ship. The two Blue Ridge-class command ships were responsible for providing battlefield communications during amphibious operations. Relay, intelligence analysis, electronic countermeasures, command decision-making.

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To use a vivid metaphor, the addition of a professional command ship is like replacing the brain of an ordinary player with that of a professional player. The reaction speed, decision-making quality, and communication efficiency increase by leaps and bounds.

As for how to build a low-end version of the command ship under the existing technical conditions, we can probably only do our best to stuff a bunch of radio transceivers and excellent staff.

(End of this chapter)