My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 353: Gold-eating beast!

Chapter 353: Gold-eating beast!
"Cheng Bushi again?"

When the news came out, the officials in the court, the nobles and relatives, and the common people all had the same reaction.

Is it Cheng Buzhi again?
Let him get such a big advantage again?
How come you, Tian Zirong, don’t have any other decent confidants?
Do you have to catch this idiot Cheng Buzhi and promote him without thinking?

No matter how great my contribution to Qiandi Zonglong is, you can't play it like this, right?
——This is true both inside and outside the court, where people are judging others by their own mean standards.

There is no doubt that Han Tuidang was appointed as the commander of the first pure cavalry army of the Han Dynasty: the Shuofang Commandery Commander - in the current Han Dynasty, apart from Han Tuidang, there is hardly any other general who can command a cavalry group.

It can also be seen from the reactions of the outer court that no matter whether everyone accepts or not the appointment of Han Tuidian as the newly appointed Commander of Shuofang, no one is willing to fight for it.

However, there are still some people inside and outside the court who can serve as generals in Cheng Bushi's Hexi Commandery, which is a comprehensive combat force including all arms, just like the Feihu Army and the Xiuli Camp in the past.

To be precise, any decent general, such as Luan Bu and Li Ji, could serve as the commander-in-chief of this army.

As for Cheng Buzhi?
They are young, but fighting is really not fun;

If it simply doesn't look good, then that's not a big deal - the military has always been the most realistic and efficiency-conscious place in the world.

As long as you can win, no one cares too much about whether the battle is fought beautifully or not.

But the key to the problem is: the reason why you fought the battle so badly is that you, Cheng Buzhi, are too conservative and lack ambition and drive!
Yes, it is true that the soldiers led by you, Cheng Buzhi, will not lose the battle;
But in all these years, I haven’t seen you, Cheng Buzhi, win a great victory?
Listen—Hexi Commander!
It is not difficult to guess from the unit number alone: ​​the most sacred and arduous mission of this unit is to prepare for the future battle of Hexi!
The Battle of Hexi, like the Hetao Campaign which just ended, was undoubtedly a war initiated by the Han Dynasty and aimed at seizing the Hexi region in order to further expand its territory.

Cheng Buzhi, can he fight this kind of war of proactive attack and expansion of territory?

He doesn't have the ability to know...

After Liu Rong roughly let out the news and implicitly stated that "it has been decided at this time", almost everyone had the same reaction.

Even those friends who had a good personal relationship with Cheng Buzhi could not help but sigh and say with worry: Marquis Bowang~
Is it possible...

Liu Rong didn't explain too much.

Liu Rong doesn't need to give too much explanation.

The reason is simple;
The Shuofang Duwei and the Hexi Duwei were two standing field armies. The former was composed of five supernumerary colonels and a total of 10,000 people, and all the soldiers were cavalry.

Whether according to the custom on the grassland or the construction standards of the Han cavalry, these 10,000 cavalrymen would require a full 30,000 war horses alone!

This is just the basics.

In addition to the 30,000 war horses required for three horses for each man, there are also various other military weapons, such as bows and crossbows, arrows, swords, spears, light and heavy armor, and the most critical high maintenance cost.

It is no exaggeration to say that just to form this cavalry captain, it would cost at least one hundred million yuan!
This does not include war horses!
If one calculates based on the market price of a war horse, it could easily be tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of coins - even if one calculates it at an average of 200,000 coins per horse, the value of 30,000 war horses would be close to 600 million coins!

It is obvious that such a cavalry captain was almost entirely built up with money.

Thirty thousand war horses worth six hundred million coins, plus nearly one hundred million coins worth of standard weapons, are just the starting capital.

After the construction of this army is completed, the annual maintenance cost - including food and wages for the soldiers, horse feed and medicine and various logistical supplies - will require three to four hundred million yuan.

This is Han Tuidang, the commander of Shuofang.

As for Cheng Bushi's Hexi Commandery, it was not as "expensive" as the Shuofang Commandery, but it was definitely a considerable expense.

——The Hexi Commandery, which copied the Feihu Army’s eight schools and had each school exceed its establishment by 2,000 men, would now have a full establishment of 16,000 men.

Although unlike the Shuofang Duwei, who needed 30,000 war horses worth 600 million coins to equip his troops, the light cavalry lieutenant and archer cavalry lieutenant in the eight schools of the whole army, totaling 4,000 people, still required a full 12,000 war horses.

These twelve thousand horses alone are worth more than two hundred and fifty million coins!

In addition, there are all kinds of weapons such as giant shields, armor, swords, spears, bows and crossbows required by each type of soldier.
After all, the number of staff is as high as 16,000. Compared with the cost of military equipment and supplies of "less than 100 million" for the 10,000 soldiers of the Shuofang Duwei, the cost of military equipment that the Hexi Duwei needs to equip will be as high as 1.5 billion coins.

All together, it is 400 million coins in start-up capital, plus maintenance costs of no less than 200 million coins per year.

With this calculation, it is no wonder that there is a saying in later generations: A cannon shot is worth a fortune.

——The Shuofang commander has 10,000 cavalrymen, and the Hexi commander has 16,000 soldiers of various types!
——There are only 26,000 soldiers in total, but the construction cost is as high as 1.1 billion yuan!

The subsequent maintenance costs will be as high as more than 500 million yuan per year!

You must know that in the Han Dynasty today, there are more than 7 million households and nearly 30 million people, and the annual per capita tax income of the Shaofu treasury is only 1.2 billion coins!

Even if the agricultural taxes from the prime minister's treasury were added, the fiscal revenue of the Chang'an court for the entire year would never exceed 400 million coins!

The Han Dynasty - a unified feudal dynasty in China, the central fiscal revenue for an entire year was not even enough to form a cavalry of 10,000 people!

Of course, among the factors that led to the high price of horses were the Han Dynasty's light taxes, halving the agricultural tax and reducing the head tax by two-thirds, as well as the shortage of horses.

But from a realistic perspective, it is not difficult to see that these two standing field armies, whether from their initial formation or their subsequent maintenance and support, have nothing to do with the prime minister's treasury - and the court.

The starting capital of 1.1 billion yuan would require the prime minister's treasury to take out nearly four years of agricultural tax revenue!

The subsequent annual support costs of more than 500 million coins would make the prime minister's mansion cry out in dreams: We can't afford it, we can't afford it at all!
In fact, it was precisely because of this reason that Emperor Taizu Gaozu only set up one Feihu Army instead of three, four, five, six, seven or eight standing field armies.

——In the feudal era, the cost of supporting full-time professional soldiers in an agricultural civilization was not simply "how many civilians correspond to one soldier."

Take the Feihu Commandery, which has existed since the Han Dynasty, as an example.

When the Feihu Commandery was formed, Emperor Taizu Gao sent 10,000 war horses captured on the battlefield, which were almost all the war horses that the Han Dynasty could provide. As for weapons and military equipment, they were all selected as good as possible to arm the only standing field army on the border wall to the teeth.

We have war horses and weapons and armaments, and what remains is the subsequent maintenance cost - that is, logistical supplies.

Regarding war horses, Emperor Taizu Gao retained the straw tax in the Qin Law;
That is, all the people of the Han Dynasty, in addition to paying one-fifteenth of the grain harvest as agricultural tax and one hundred and twenty coins per person per year as head tax, also had to pay a fodder tax based on the area of ​​arable land.

The tax rate for hay and straw was three shi of hay and straw per hectare of land, that is, three shi of hay and straw for every hundred acres.

In this way, the central government of Chang'an would not have to worry about the cost of war horse feed;
The remaining food and salaries - grain was allocated by the prime minister's treasury from the agricultural taxes collected as military rations, and military salaries were allocated by the Shaofu treasury from the head tax collected as salary.

With the combined efforts of the prime minister's treasury, the junior government's internal treasury, and a tax on fodder, the Han dynasty was able to shoulder the financial burden of supporting the eight Feihu schools, 16,000 soldiers, and tens of thousands of war horses.

To this day, the prime minister's treasury still has to allocate 400,000 shi of military rations with a total value of 15 million coins, as well as millions of shi of hay and straw, plus various beans and even eggs and salt, with a total value of more than 50 million coins, from the prime minister's treasury every year to supply the Feihu Army.

At the same time, the Shaofu treasury had to set aside 80 million yuan every year as basic subsidies for Feihu soldiers.

——On average, 5,000 coins per person per year, or more than 400 coins per month, can buy about ten stones of millet, which is just enough to feed a family of three or five people.

All in all, the money, food and supplies allocated from the Prime Minister's Treasury and the Ministry of Finance to the Feihu Army every year were worth about 150 million coins.

But a Feihu Army is supported by the combined efforts of the Prime Minister's Treasury and the Ministry of Finance!
Even now, the treasury of the Prime Minister's Office and the internal treasury of the Ministry of Finance are no longer as poor as they were when the country was founded, but at least the financial situation of the Prime Minister's Office Treasury is still stretched to the limit.

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When the country was founded, there was no money in the national treasury or the private treasury, so it was natural to save as much as possible;

Later, when I became rich, I was able to save money in the treasury.

But the money in the national treasury - that is, the annual agricultural tax revenue, let alone saving or storing a little bit, it would be a blessing from God if we can avoid owing foreign debts at the end of the year!

There is no other way. Compared with the responsibility of the Shaofu Treasury to "support the two palaces", the Xiangfu Treasury has to bear the salaries of officials, the operation of the government, and all trivial public expenditures.

What road repair?
Dig a canal!
Even in Shangguanli, the construction of a mansion for a newly-appointed marquis had to be funded by the prime minister's treasury.

To this day, the annual income from agricultural taxes to the treasury of the prime minister's office is tens of millions of shi of grain and millions of shi of straw, which is worth less than 300 million coins.
The 65 million of the Feihu Army alone would consume more than 2% of the Prime Minister's fiscal revenue.

Let the national treasury squeeze out another 2% to support Cheng Buzhi's Hexi Commandery - or even squeeze out 5% every year to support Han Tuidang's Shuofang Cavalry Commandery?
If Liu Rong dared to say this, the Prime Minister would die on the spot in front of Liu Rong!
Therefore, it is obvious that the two standing field armies of Shuofang Duwei and Hexi Duwei, whether it is the start-up capital of 1.1 billion coins or the subsequent maintenance cost of more than 500 million coins per year, are all borne by Liu Rong's personal wallet - the Shaofu Neiku.

For the Shaofu treasury, this expenditure was indeed huge;
But it's not to the point of being 'unable to afford'.

Thanks to Emperor Taizong Xiaowen and Emperor Taizong Xiaojing - the reign of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, which was a little missing from the original history - Liu Rong was left with a deposit of more than 20 million yuan, and countless kinds of food and supplies to fill his family fortune.

Of course, if there were only these 20 million yuan and countless supplies, even if the current Shaofu Shi Fen was a punching bag, it would be impossible for him to let Liu Rong take out more than half of the treasury's savings to assemble these two standing field armies.

The fact is: since the third year of Emperor Xiaojing's reign, when Crown Prince Liu Rong became regent, the deposits in the Shaofu treasury have been skyrocketing at an incredible speed.

——First, the grain was government-run!
Although Liu Rong had set the general tone of "eat grain, don't speculate" early on, and repeatedly stated that the government-run grain business was for the people's livelihood rather than for profit, the slight margin of error left by the Shaofu to ensure no losses still allowed the Shaofu treasury to make a lot of profits over the years.

There are nearly two million households and more than ten million people in Guanzhong!
The annual grain consumption is over 200 million shi!

Even if he could earn one cent per stone, the Shaofu treasury could earn 200 million cents!

In addition, Liu Rong's wheat made a profit of no less than thirty coins for every stone of wheat that the Shaofu had stored at a low price earlier...

After taking all factors into account, the current deposit of the Shaofu treasury - copper coins may be only 300 million;
But all other supplies, whether it is millet and wheat storage, or various supplies and weapons...

It is no exaggeration to say that the construction cost of 1.1 billion coins is nothing more than a punch in the face for the current Shaofu.

What do you mean?
I was a little dazed and a little painful, but it was definitely not a serious injury.

The most important thing is that this one hundred and ten million coins does not mean that the Shaofu needs to take out so much cash directly, but it is only worth one hundred and ten million coins.

The biggest ones include: 30,000 war horses for the Shuofang Commandery and 12,000 war horses for the Hexi Commandery - horses with a total value of 850 million coins, and the Shaofu doesn't have to pay for them at all!

Although the war horses, cattle, sheep and livestock seized by the Han army in last year's Hetao Campaign are still kept in Hetao, their ownership had long been assigned by Liu Rong to the Shaofu Treasury.

There is no need for the Shaofu to go to great lengths to arrange it - just issue a certificate and let Han Tuidang and Cheng Bushi go to the nearby Hetao to collect it!

The remaining 2.5 billion coins were all various military equipment and supplies.

The Shaofu lacked everything except supplies - especially military equipment.

Just pick out a batch of better weapons from the inventory and give them out.

As for the subsequent food, salaries and feed - there is no doubt that the feed will have to be mostly made from the straw collected from the national treasury, and the Shaofu will add some beans, eggs, salt, etc.

The cost for the Shaofu part will not be too high.

As for food and pay, the army used wheat flour as rations. Anyway, Liu Rong said: wheat flour doesn't last long, so you can make more.
As for the salary, according to the standard of Feihu Army, each person would receive 5,000 coins per year. The Shuofang Commandery and the Hexi Commandery had 26,000 troops, which only amounted to 130 million coins per year.

The Shaofu can afford this amount of money!
What's more, this 30 million yuan does not necessarily have to be paid in cash.

——Can we replace it with food?

——Would you like the farm tools produced by Shaofu?
In a word, in short, even this 130 million coins can be replaced by "materials worth this much money" by the Shaofu.

And the cost of the materials worth 130 million coins would probably be less than half of what the Shaofu would have to spend...

(End of this chapter)

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