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Chapter 458 Soldiers are also productive

"... I am very hungry at the moment... Well, this beef and cabbage dish tastes very good. The whole army must rely on His Majesty's grace to have such a good taste."

Before he finished speaking, Fang Congzhe stepped forward, grabbed the chopsticks, picked up a handful and put it into his mouth. As he chewed more and more, his facial expression gradually relaxed, as if he had no taste. He picked another piece of meat and put it in his mouth to chew slowly.

"Beef! Let me try it...no, no, this meat is fishy and fatty, it should be pigs that have not been castrated." When he heard that beef was given to the soldiers, Zhao Shiqing felt a little liver-ache, so he grabbed the chopsticks and took a piece of it. The meat was put into his mouth and he tasted it carefully, and then he came to a completely different conclusion than Fang Congzhe.

"There is a bit of fishy smell, but the taste is clearly beef!" Fang Congzhe stared at Zhao Shiqing like a fool and insisted on his judgment.

"Both beef and pork are expensive. Governor Li, I wonder how many times a month the army eats meat?" Zhao Shiqing looked down on the conduct of the cabinet bachelor, so he simply refused to get involved and turned to ask Li Ruzhang.

"Referring to the standards in the navy, under 1 households in the army are required to have three meals a day during non-war times, with two dishes and one soup per meal, enough dry food, and meat dishes on Mondays and Fridays." This time Li Ruzhang did not wait for the emperor to act as a shield, but he also Instead of taking the responsibility completely independently, the responsibility was partly delegated to the Navy.

"There are actually as many as 6 times! Your Majesty, I really can't agree with the army's extravagance!" I thought that it would be very good for a soldier to eat one or two meals of meat every month, but I didn't expect it to be several times more. Three dry meals a day, Jin Yiwei probably wouldn't be treated like this.

"Hey, Li Aiqing, please be patient. It's okay to eat meat, but this meat is not that meat. Governor Li, please speak completely and don't wait for me to break it down!"

Hong Tao can understand the fierce attitude of the Minister of Household Affairs. Currently, pork on the market in Beijing sells for 20 cents per catty, and the daily income of a handyman is only about 20 cents. Ordinary people are reluctant to eat meat once a month. It is really ahead of the times to use it to feed soldiers.

"The meat used by the army is neither pork nor beef, but whale meat. The navy kills whales and can get tens of thousands of kilograms of meat from each head. It is worthless except for transportation. There is still dried meat in the camp, Xianguan I have ordered people to prepare it, please take it back and try it."

Li Ruzhang didn't want to go into such detail, but the emperor didn't intend to keep it a secret, so he didn't bother to cover it up. The navy has been hunting whales since it was established as an army. This idea is said to have been the emperor's. In the beginning, it was not for food, but to exchange money to subsidize military expenses.

Whale oil can be sold to machinery factories, isinglass is a must-have for shipyards, fish skin can be made into leather armor and ammunition pouches, and fish bones are calcined and ground into powder for as many sugar factories as you want. Anyway, whales are full of treasures, but their meat is of little use, so they become a meal for naval officers and soldiers and some factory workers.

Now that the Army is newly established, the Navy Governor Yuan Keli directly doubled the number of whales to show his support. The extra whale meat was sent to the Tongzhou Camp along the canal. The quantity is sufficient. You can eat it as you like. If you can't finish it, put it on it. Salt dried meat.

It is said that the Navy is planning to build a cannery and plans to use whale meat to make cans. Once the trial production is successful, the number of whales will be doubled. By then I will probably not be able to finish eating meat every day, and I will end up vomiting it sooner or later.

Whales can also be counted as one of the heroes why the Army recruits so smoothly. There is no limit to eating three dry meals a day, which is considered a good job for 80% of people in this era. You can also eat meaty movies every now and then, so it must be worth signing up for. If we can still pay wages on time and according to the amount, we have to squeeze a lot of money.

The reality is indeed like this. If the recruitment standards set by the emperor were not a bit weird, which did not require height, weight, appearance, or martial arts, but gave priority to literacy, the quota of 30,000 people could be filled in less than half a year.

"Your Majesty, whales are spiritual creatures in the sea, gathering the essence of heaven and earth. Indiscriminate killing seems to be ominous." The six ministers and nine ministers must have never eaten whale meat, but they don't seem to be interested. Gao Panlong, the minister of Dali Temple, also raised some concerns .

"It's not an indiscriminate killing. Whale bones can be used to make glue, which is not only strong but also waterproof when used to glue wood together. It is a must-have for shipbuilding. Okay, let's skip the military meals for now. Let's go to the armory first. , wait until the soldiers and generals have eaten before we start the drill."

Hong Tao was too lazy to argue with the ministers about whether whales should be killed or not, and what was the use. If there is no problem with the food, then go check the weapons and equipment, and finally check if the queue is in order.

"Governor Li, what's the use of the pergola on the east side?" Xu Honggang, the censor of Zuodu, was unwilling to settle the food issue after spending a long time trying to figure it out. On the way to the armory, he found five or six huge awnings, with many soldiers sitting inside, and some people talking about something, much like a storyteller scene in a teahouse.

So the problem comes again! It can be said that eating meat for the army is like fish caught in the sea that is not valuable, but it is difficult to explain it to the soldiers. They are not here to serve as soldiers, they are just kids from rich families going shopping.

"This is a school, and there are instructors responsible for teaching the recruits literacy and numeracy. It is not a profound knowledge, as long as you can recognize a hundred crosses and can simply calculate time and distance. In the future, I plan to ask you to teach the soldiers how to read. If you read these sages’ books, you will not be able to kill just by knowing how to fight. If you listen more to the sages’ teachings, you will definitely be able to kill more enemies on the battlefield.”

Seeing the doubts on the faces of the ministers, Hong Tao simply didn't wait for them to ask questions and decided first. Don’t you all like to rely on the books of sages for everything? Well, let’s rely on them together and see who dares to say something wrong.

Since ancient times, the Han people have not been afraid of war or death. The reason why they have always been harassed by northern nomads and have been robbed of their leadership position is that besides the lack of horses, the most critical problem is not their health, but their interests.

The living environment and culture of the nomads make their daily activities similar to marching and fighting. Not only is it not hard work to go south to fight the Han people, but you can also grab a lot of valuables, so you are more motivated.

The Han people don't know when they started to regard being a soldier as lowly. As long as the family has food and drink, they are not willing to join the army. Winning or losing has little to do with the soldiers. There is nothing to grab in the north, and they have no desire to fight in their bones.

Based on Hong Tao's experience in the Song Dynasty, as long as the soldiers can be fed and clothed, they are likely to contribute to the generals. As long as they can be paid enough, they will be willing to risk their lives for the court.

If, in addition to being well fed, clothed and fully paid, it also allows them to gain social status and protect future generations, soldiers will willingly sacrifice their lives for the country. Even if he knows he is defeated, he will still shout that twenty years later he will still be a good man and fight the enemy to the death.

Is it that simple to build a strong army? Yes, it's that simple. But why didn’t all previous dynasties do this? Was there something wrong with the minds of ancient emperors and officials?

Judging from Hong Tao's experience, ancient emperors and officials were not stupid at all. They knew almost everything they knew, but there was only one reason why they didn't do it. The productivity level was too low to support their ideas.

In the traditional concept, warriors are synonymous with vulgarity and untrustworthiness. When there are no foreign enemies, armed groups will often disregard etiquette and law and drive troops into chaos, trapping the country in military disasters, which are often more tragic than foreign invasions.

Why is this so? The reason is very simple. Most warriors are uneducated and do not have many ideas in their minds. They are accustomed to using force to solve problems. They often fight because of their displeasure, which is quite destructive to social stability. Therefore, from ancient times to the present, countries around the world have been seeking ways to control military affairs with culture.

Then can warriors also receive education? Without time-travelers to rapidly increase productivity levels, the answer is impossible. Learning is basically off-the-job, and few people can study continuously while working in the fields.

And people who have spent many years and money studying are not willing to serve as soldiers. The price/performance ratio is too low. It is impossible to learn while serving as a soldier. Just training various cold weapon combat skills can exhaust people to death every day, so there is no energy left to study.

Therefore, if we want to enable soldiers to study, we must first improve productivity. The use of thermal weapons in combat is also a manifestation of increased productivity. Compared with cold weapons, the amount of training for hot weapons is not that high, and you can definitely take time to study.

The more you read, the more you know the truth, and your horizons broaden. In addition to avoiding being used as a weapon by some people with ulterior motives, you can also find a way out for yourself. Not only will he not be a burden after he retires from the army, but he will also become the backbone of his family.

Without worries, serving as a soldier will become a choice for more young people; with more people choosing and better treatment, soldiers will naturally no longer be synonymous with lowliness, and they will have a higher pursuit, which is the so-called spirit. force.

In addition, it was very difficult for the ancients to raise a standing army. Tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of young men were not produced or consumed all day long, which was an extremely heavy burden for any court. But they are unable to use the military to make profits. The only way to reduce the burden is to suppress military personnel and lower their salaries.

However, with the improvement of productivity, Hong Tao has a way to use the army to obtain profits. When fighting is no longer a waste of money, but a tool for getting rich, no one needs to teach you. The ancients all knew how to do it and were willing to do it. Immediately, the profitable army became popular, and the status and treatment of soldiers would also rise.

Of course, these principles are useless just by talking about them. They must be demonstrated to the ancients. Once, not twice, and probably no more than three times, they will wake up. But before that, I could only endure the humiliation and endure the tremendous pressure amid opposition.

(End of this chapter)