Great Tang Southern Emperor

Nowadays, Datang’s artillery shell technology has been updated, and the technical difficulty has been reduced, but even so, the average price is about eight pennies. A third-tier battleship has ninety cannons on two decks. According to the price of shells, one time A salvo is 720 taels. A fleet has thirty third-tier warships, and dozens of fourth-tier warships and fifth-tier warships. If all the warships salvo together, it doesn’t need to be much, only seventy or eighty. In the next turn, he, Cheng Chuliang, had to put on beggar's clothes and go to the gate of the palace to beg for food...

Not to mention that the future fleet will be equipped with second-tier or even first-tier battleships, which will have more artillery, and the number of any one can exceed a hundred.

Of course, warships seldom fire salvos, because tens of hundreds of cannons salvo all together, the recoil generated is very strong, and the structural damage to the battleship itself is too great.Unless the battleship is surrounded by four sides, it usually fires in one direction, or even in one direction, as long as the enemy is not strong, all the cannons will not be fired at the same time.But even so, the firing of shells is still very costly - after all, although salvos are unlikely, the ammunition consumed in a year of training and combat will never be less than seventy or eighty rounds of salvos up.

In addition to the purchase of weapons, there is another item that is more expensive, that is, the maintenance of warships-although warships are expensive, they are one-off after all, and they are generally equipped by the country, basically only at cost price. get it.Warships are not only cheap, but also very durable. As long as they are properly maintained on weekdays, they can be used for more than [-] years. At most, the performance is behind and cannot keep up with the times. If the warship is converted into a civilian ship and sold to the people, part of the money can be recovered.

The problem lies in this maintenance - the maintenance of warships is very frequent. Maintenance is required after training, and maintenance is still required after patrolling. These can only be regarded as minor maintenance. As long as there is something, the navy can handle it by itself. When he came back, not only did he have to maintain it, but he also had to overhaul it. The navy couldn't handle it by himself, so he had to go back to the shipyard and ask the people in the shipyard to help.

The money needed for the overhaul of warships is not a small number, especially with so many warships, the price of one overhaul is enough to add a few more Tier [-] warships to the fleet... However, Datang is in the stage of colonization and development, and the number of ocean voyages in the future Absolutely not too few, especially at this time Datang only has three fleets, if you don’t go out three or five times a year, you will be ashamed to say that this is Datang’s fleet...

So at the beginning, Cheng Chuliang was very happy to learn that his first-class fleet had won the military expenses to strengthen the fleet, but after he calculated all the items that should be counted, he realized that such a small amount of money was not enough at all. Not enough, if he follows the normal way of spending, he can only last until October of this year at most, if there is no money for the remaining two months, they can only wait to starve to death...

Chapter 1007

Chapter 365 I'm Not Here

After figuring out that he might be eaten alive by the starving and crazy sailors, Cheng Chuliang didn't want to do it at that time, and just lay on the floor of the Holy Palace and didn't get up. It was useless to persuade anyone. Li Shimin couldn't speak well.On the contrary, when Li Zhen went, he gave him a little face and got up from the ground, but he still put forward a very tough request: either give him an additional military expenditure of 100 million yuan, or replace him, who is the governor of the Quanzhou Fleet? Whoever he likes to do it - it's not that he doesn't want to do it, it's really hard for a clever woman to make a living without rice, so he can't let him pour money into the army, right?Besides, he doesn't have that much money.

Fortunately, Li Zhen promised him at the end that the 300 million taels of silver would be used for the time being, and if it was really not enough, he would propose to the court to increase military expenditures—the court couldn’t just watch its troops starve to death, could it?

With Li Zhen's promise, Cheng Chuliang reluctantly went to the post with 300 million taels of silver. Even so, he still developed the habit of spending money carefully. He usually adheres to the principle of not spending money without spending money, and spending less The principle of spending less money is the principle of spending less money. Although he has not been in charge of the Quanzhou Fleet for a long time, the Navy has already given him a nickname in private-the iron rooster who does not pull a penny.

"Stop, let them stop for me." It was just a short while after he felt distressed, dozens of shells were fired, and Cheng Chuliang hurriedly ordered: "Are so many shells free of charge?" ? Our military expenditure this year is only so much. If we follow your prodigal methods, we will really have to beg for food. Also, this is Lilac Island, which is the main spice producing area of ​​our Tang Dynasty in the future. You are so unscrupulous Bombing, if something is damaged by the bombing, even if I sell you, I won’t be able to compensate you.”

"Yes!" A staff officer took the order and went down to convey the order. Soon the sound of artillery fire gradually became thinner, and finally gradually returned to silence—after the artillery fire stopped, the sea seemed extraordinarily quiet, and even the sound of the wind seemed Frightened by the shelling just now, he didn't dare to make too much noise.

"The shooting was good, why did it stop?" Just as the shelling stopped here, Li Daoyun came in over there: "I said what happened just now? I am learning how to fire a cannon. I just got a little way, and I am about to After some practice, why did it stop here? Did something happen?"

Seeing that even Li Daoyun was alarmed, Li Mingxin laughed immediately: "Nothing happened, it's just that our lord governor felt sorry for the little money in his pocket when he saw that the shells were too worn out."

"Wuliang Tianzun, what do I think it is?" Li Daoyun immediately recovered his previous calmness, and said with a light smile: "300 million taels of silver, to be honest, it will not be able to support the Quanzhou fleet until the end of the year, let alone the most expensive The two items in our fleet, with so many people in our fleet, the salary plus daily expenses alone is not a small amount, no matter how much you save, you won’t be able to save much.”

"You said it lightly, you are not the co-author, right?" Cheng Chuliang rolled his eyes angrily when he heard Li Daoyun say the same about himself: "Of course I know what you said. What can you do? By the way, big fool, please work harder this year, help me comfort the people below, and let them be more patient. Our Quanzhou Fleet has been established for less than a year, and it is inappropriate to ask for an increase in military expenditure, which makes us How expensive it is, you tell everyone that we will use the 200 million taels of silver to get through this year, and we will have a reason to ask the court for money after this year."

"Can't you make money if you don't have money?" Li Daoyun asked back: "How much money can you save just by saving money? It is important to save money, but saving money can only keep people from starving. Only open source can really make people full." method."

Cheng Chuliang became even more angry: "Nonsense, I also want to make money, but I am a soldier, how do I know how to make money?"

"You don't know, I know."

"bass!"

Cheng Chuliang immediately rushed to Li Daoyun's side: "Hurry up, hurry up, big fool, tell me quickly, what is the method?"

"Say! Why do you still call me a fool?" Seeing Cheng Chuliang's eagerness, Li Daoyun couldn't help but feel playful, turned around on purpose, and asked softly.

"Yes, yes, you are not called a big fool, you are a political commissar, a Taoist chief... Li Daochang, Li Daoye, I was purely a slip of the tongue before, I... eh, no... Why should I beg my grandfather like that?" You?" Cheng Chuliang was also frantic, and quickly changed his words following Li Daoyun's words, but he suddenly reacted in the middle of the sentence, and said confidently: "I don't make money for myself, I do it for our Quanzhou Fleet. For the sake of the public, why should I submit to you? You are also a member of the Quanzhou Fleet, and you should make suggestions for the survival of the Quanzhou Fleet. Otherwise, what do I want you to do as a political commissar?

Well, you Li Daoyun, you know how hard life is in our Quanzhou Fleet now, but now you have a way to avoid this predicament, but you don't say it... What are you so worried about?Are you still a member of our Quanzhou Fleet? "

"Fuck~" No one thought that things would have such a magical turn. Originally, they thought that Cheng Chuliang might bow to Li Daoyun this time, even Li Daoyun himself thought so. Cheng Chuliang suddenly reacted, pointing at Li Daoyun and scolding him, but what he said made sense, and the others really couldn't find a reason to refute it, so they could only let him reprimand Li Daoyun confidently.

"That's right, don't talk about it, I understand my mistake." At this point, Li Daoyun can only bow his head and admit his mistake. Well, ten Cheng Chuliang couldn't say anything about him, but there was really no need for it, and Li Daoyun was not the kind of serious person, not to mention that he was on the battlefield and the army was about to land soon, talking about those words was a waste of time.

"You know, why don't you tell me quickly?" Cheng Chuliang became more and more arrogant, and he was really happy in his heart-it seems that Xiao Cheng's verbal skills are still good, even Li Daoyun was persuaded by us, too I have a sense of accomplishment.But this trick can't be used in front of the old man, because if he doesn't reason with you at all, he will just use his mouth.

"You only looked at yourself, but didn't notice the Yuezhou Fleet."

"What's the point of mentioning them? It's just a bad mood." Cheng Chuliang interrupted Li Daoyun's words with disgust.

Chapter 1008 The way to make money

Chapter 366 The way to make money

"Listen to what I have to say." Interrupted by Cheng Chuliang, Li Daoyun was not annoyed, and remained calm and calm: "The military expenditure of the Yuezhou Fleet is not as much as ours, but you see that Liu Rengui is paying attention to the crown prince or His Majesty. cry poor?"

"...That's not true, you mean..." Li Daoyun's reminder, Cheng Chuliang also suddenly realized: "Our Quanzhou Fleet's military expenditure is mostly a special case, and their Yuezhou Fleet is directly based on the military expenditure of a Class A fleet... I am anxious It's like this, it stands to reason that Liu Rengui should be more anxious, there's no reason to be so calm-I know, this old bastard must have used the money allocated by the court to the Navy District to fill in the hole... That's right, it must be so, this bastard, there is still half of our money in it."

In addition to the military expenses of the fleet, the imperial court also allocated a sum of money to the Navy District. Although the military expenses were not directly allocated to the fleet, the amount was quite a lot. If Liu Rengui put this money into the Yuezhou Fleet, the more The state fleet really doesn't have to worry about starving to death, and can even have enough food-this is why Cheng Chuliang is angry, because since the money is given to the Navy District, it stands to reason that the two fleets under the Navy District should have Now Liu Rengui gave all of them to the Yuezhou Fleet, which would be unfair to everyone.

"You dare to think about it, but Liu Rengui must have the guts." Li Mingxin immediately turned back to Cheng Chuliang: "The money was specially approved for the establishment of the Lingnan Navy District. How could he have the guts to embezzle it without authorization? He has no foundation." It was already unstable, but now many people are staring at his position as the governor, how dare he make mistakes? I said if you don’t understand, don’t interrupt, let’s listen to the political commissar.”

Cheng Chuliang rubbed his nose, and said awkwardly, "Okay, political commissar, go ahead."

"Actually, this kind of thing is that we are just starting out when we are young, and it is normal for no one to tell us clearly, but after a long time, as long as we look more and pay more attention, we will always find it." Li Daoyun still looked normal, as if Mount Tai had collapsed before him. It can't make him change his face: "Before you joined the navy, you all had your own tasks, and you didn't pay attention to the navy. Naturally, you didn't notice these. On the contrary, Pindao meditates all day long. More, but I noticed Liu Rengui's profit-making method-in fact, as early as last year, or to be precise, as early as the establishment of the Yuezhou Fleet, Liu Rengui didn't need to ask His Royal Highness for money. Not only did he not want money, he You can also give back a lot of money to His Royal Highness..."

"How is this possible?" Cheng Chuliang yelled strangely: "The navy is a big eater. Except for the prince, no one in this world can support a fleet by himself... If Liu Rengui can have this ability, he He has been a wealthy person for a long time, so he won't be unknown until he is in his 30s, and was finally discovered by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

Li Daoyun corrected: "You misunderstood me. The feedback I said was not to make money for the prince, but to say that the prince gave him military expenses every year, and he meant to return the prince's surplus to the prince."

"That's impossible. His military expenditure is not as much as ours. Even if he knows how to do business, he can't make so much money... In other words, what kind of business does he do?"

"There are too many businesses that the navy can do." Li Daoyun said: "As far as I know, as long as it has something to do with the sea, the navy can do it, and it is even more profitable than the private sector - as far as I know As we know, Liu Rengui is involved in a lot of business on the sea, but there are two of them that are his most profitable, the first is shipping, and the second is escort. If you want to do it, I suggest you just do these two. OK."

Cheng Chuliang said suspiciously: "I thought you would talk about smuggling, or reselling souvenirs, but you actually talked about shipping and escorting? Can this really make money?"

"Of course I can make money. Not only can I make money, but I can also make a lot of money." Speaking of this matter, Li Daoyun finally put away his calm expression slightly, and said with a little seriousness: "Just talk about this sea freight." , that is, Liu Rengui uses a warship to help people transport goods, do you know how much he will charge for a trip?"

"How do I know this?"

"...Let me tell you this, but those who can be transported by warships are generally precious goods, such as rare woods from Nanyang, pearls, gems, spices and medicinal materials, etc. Because of the safety of warships, Liu Rengui is basically It’s not based on the quantity. He directly collects the commission. According to different items, the commission is charged in different proportions. The lowest ranges from [-]% to the highest [-]%. You must know that the boss of the business can ask the fleet to help deliver the goods. Yes, the value of these commodities can be imagined. Things that may be seen everywhere in the local area, once transported to the Central Plains, the profit will be dozens or even hundreds of times. The amount of each transaction is tens of millions of taels. According to Liu Rengui's Drawing method, how much money does he earn for a trip?

And because the navy is a military force, even the Shibo Division will not impose too high taxes on them, which has led to countless businessmen willing to pay for the navy to help them transport goods.However, this kind of thing is done by the navy by the way. It can only be regarded as extra money earned by the navy itself. Even the imperial court is not good at taking the money back. After a year like this, think about how much money Liu Rengui will make ? "

"Suck it up!" Cheng Chuliang sucked loudly, swallowed back the saliva that was about to flow out very uselessly, and asked eagerly, regardless of the strange eyes of the people looking at him: "I really didn't expect that there would be someone who helped to transport the goods." Such a big profit is really enviable, so we can also do this kind of thing?"

"Of course, I'm suggesting you do this."

"Then is there an escort? Isn't this a bit similar to the sea transportation you mentioned? Is there any difference? Can we do it too?" Cheng Chuliang asked quickly again. After all, only two feet can walk safely, and eggs can't Putting them in one basket, he understands all these principles.

"Of course it's different." This time without Li Daoyun's words, Li Mingxin took the initiative to explain: "Shipping is to pay for the navy to help transport the goods, which means that the goods are handed over to the navy. If there is a problem in the middle , The navy needs to pay compensation, so the navy's asking price is very high, and the status of the navy is equivalent to that of an escort agency.

The escort is different. Although the navy also needs to dispatch warships to escort, the ship that transports the goods is still the merchant's own. The main role of the navy is to protect the merchant ship from being attacked. However, if there is a storm that causes the merchant ship to sink and other natural disasters, the loss It can only be borne by the owner of the merchant ship. The navy does not need to pay compensation. Even if the warship is damaged or casualties occur during the escort, the owner of the merchant ship needs to pay a sum of money to the navy. The status of the navy here is equivalent to that of mercenaries.

But don't underestimate the escort business. Although the cost of escort is not too high, it can't support the large number of orders, and the navy doesn't need to be dispatched on a large scale like shipping. It only needs to send a few warships to basically deter it. All lawbreakers can take many orders at the same time, so it is even more profitable than sea freight on the whole-I should explain it this way, should it be correct? "

"That's right, that's what Pindao means." He looked at Li Mingxin approvingly, he was indeed a kind and understanding man, and he was born to be a consultant or deputy.

"You mean, we will follow the Yuezhou Fleet to do the same?" Cheng Chuliang's saliva flowed faster, but his good mood was quickly messed up by a question: "But there is another question, Liu Rengui occupied With the relationship between us, how could he distribute the business to us? Otherwise, we can do it from the beginning to the end by ourselves, from the procurement of goods to the sales. We can do it together. This will not only make more money, but also You don’t even need to declare taxes, just park the cargo ship in our base, and ship the goods from the base, I don’t believe that people from the Shipbuilding Department dare to come to check the tax.”

"Yes, yes, but there are a few problems you have to make sure you can solve." Looking at Cheng Chuliang, Li Mingxin did not directly refuse, but raised a few questions: "First, you want to do it yourself, but the purchase of goods Where is the capital? Overseas pioneering is a boom now, but there are also many people who die on the way to pioneering. According to statistics, at least two of every ten people who go to Borneo will die for various reasons. It can be said that there are many crises .Even if you are an official, it is impossible for the bank to lend you so much money.

In addition, don't tell me that you are going to use the 300 million taels of military expenditure as the principal. It is a felony to embezzle military expenditure without permission.Even if you can solve the problem of private use of military expenses, if we do business by ourselves, then this business is our own?Or is it the imperial court?If it is our own, both the principal and the tools to make money belong to the imperial court. We have put in nothing but a lot of effort, and we even need to rely on the imperial court's momentum to do business.

Then the second question also arises, this way of spending the court’s money, using the court’s ships, and relying on the power of the court, is the money earned in this way the court’s or ours?If it belongs to the imperial court, then we have done useless work, but if the money is assigned to our own use, what will the imperial court think?The things we used from the imperial court from the beginning to the end, I just made a little effort. If you have the shame to take this money, the imperial court will not do what you want. At most, it will give you a little hard-earned money. They took it.

The third question is that doing business is not so simple. If you want to do business, you must be transparent from top to bottom. Not only must there be a stable supply of goods at the top, but also suitable buyers at the bottom. To do long-term business, it is imperative to establish a chamber of commerce. The management of the chamber of commerce is much more troublesome than managing the fleet. Now that you haven’t even learned how to manage the fleet, you still want to manage the chamber of commerce?