Ministers, you look at me and I look at you, but I always feel that I have no idea where to start.
If you want to maintain trade, you need a navy.
These ministers know very well how expensive the navy is.
A 500-ton warship, including soldiers, armaments and labor, costs at least 30,000 taels.
When the officials from top to bottom reach out their hands, it can soar to 100,000 taels.
If there is some kind of bright spot below, and the artillery is in full bloom, we will have to rush for 150,000 taels.
The Ming Dynasty could defeat the British Far East Fleet. If the Manchus wanted to contain the Ming Dynasty, they could not launch fewer ships than the British Far East Fleet.
In the end, Liu Yong handed over his hand and said: "Your Majesty, now we can only train the navy. It's just that it costs..."
Liu Yong didn't say anything further, but the meaning was obvious. It would definitely cost a lot.
"How much military pay is needed? The national treasury is not enough, I can make up part of it."
Jiaqing is willing to go all out. As long as he can keep the thirteen lines, he can make money and die, and he can't bear to let his children trap the wolf.
Academician Lebao pinched his beard and did some mental calculations, and finally gave a number that shocked everyone.
300 million taels of silver.
"How much? I didn't hear you clearly just now, please say it again!"
Emperor Jiaqing lifted up the quilt and sat up, with disbelief written all over his face.
He looked at the Manchu man with the red flag and confirmed again.
"What I'm talking about is, if there was no corruption from top to bottom, how much would be needed?"
Le Bao had no choice but to answer again: "Your Majesty, to implement the 300 million taels of silver, the court needs to allocate at least 500 million taels!"
Jiaqing was stunned. He was going to fill in all the property stolen from Heshen. Wasn't my work in vain?
He couldn't help but ask: "Do you really need so much money?"
With Lebao's explanation, Jiaqing gradually understood where the huge expenditure was.
Artillery and ammunition!
Taking a first-class sailing battleship as an example, it requires approximately 144 shipboard guns.
These cannons were huge, larger and heavier than army cannons, and it cost 30,000 taels of silver to make one.
Therefore, the base price of a first-class sailing battleship will not be less than 5 million taels.
A fleet of more than twenty first-class sailing battleships, coupled with one to two hundred warships of various classes, plus the need to build ports to support the fleet, and a large amount of ammunition to be stored.
300 million taels is already the bottom line.
Just this, it may not be able to defeat the Ming Navy.
Didn't the British Far East Fleet previously consist of more than 20 main warships and 600 warships of all levels, but they were all annihilated by the Ming Navy.
The bottom line for building a fleet with 300 million taels is not to destroy the Ming Dynasty navy, but to maintain an east-west route in hand so that trade routes will not be cut off.
After hearing this, Emperor Jiaqing sat back on the bed blankly.
The treasury has no money, and the internal funds cannot be used to make money...
At this time, Liu Yong, who had been silent for a long time and had recovered his breath, thought of a vicious method.
"Your Majesty, I heard that a few months ago, Xu Zhaochun, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, sold 300,000 young laborers to the Spaniards, and as soon as these laborers changed hands, they became subjects of the Ming Dynasty."
After Liu Yong said this, he stopped talking.
We are all human beings. If we mention this matter at this time, it will be obvious that Emperor Jiaqing will confiscate his house.
Some ministers looked around and saw that something bad was going on, and immediately showed their awareness of serving the country and the people.
"Your Majesty, that day Xu Zhaochun came to reminisce with me, an old classmate, and gave Wei Chen some gifts. Wei Chen politely declined, but he couldn't resist Xu Zhaochun's friendship.
Since the court is short of money, I am willing to donate half of my family property. I wish your Majesty to build a warship as soon as possible and wipe out the remnants of the previous dynasty! "
"Your Majesty, I am also willing to donate my family property..."
"I donate two hundred thousand taels!"
"The same goes for me, too."
Emperor Jiaqing looked around and found that except for a few veterans, everyone else had received bribes from Xu Zhaochun. These bribes may have started decades ago.
But it doesn't matter, as long as these ministers can donate, Emperor Jiaqing doesn't mind letting them go temporarily.
During this time, Emperor Jiaqing was amazed by the methods of these ministers after sorting out the files and learning the information from the stick.
Emperor Jiaqing accepted all the life-buying money as ordered.
But after counting, his face darkened again.
The ministers donated a full 3 million taels.
Is this a lot of money?
There are many, and they are used in the army. Each person can pull hundreds of thousands of people with a spear.
But that is the past tense. Now we have to compete with Ming Dynasty's powerful ships and cannons. Throwing these 3 million taels away will only fill the gap between our teeth.
“Forget it, if you donate tens of millions or hundreds of millions of taels, I will kill you today!
Dear friends, if you add it all together, besides Xu Zhaochun, who else is there? "
I'm afraid it's not enough to copy Xu Zhaochun's family. He is not a powerful official like He Shen, and he is not a popular person in the eyes of the emperor. The money he makes may not be as good as He Shen.
The property copied out will definitely not be as high as that of He Shen.
Therefore, Jiaqing started thinking about other people.
He discovered that confiscating homes was so satisfying. Not only could he fix loopholes, but he could also make some private money. He could also make a wise man out of publicity, so he achieved multiple things with one stone.
The ministers thought hard and finally spit out a few names with uncertainty.
When Emperor Jiaqing heard this, he said, "Hey guys, aren't these the heads of the Thirteenth Industry?"
"My dear friends, copying Xu Zhaochun can install a transparent bandit and provide a young and strong excuse for the false Ming.
What excuses can Wu Bingjun and the others have to convince the public? "
"Of course they are selling opium privately!"
"Your Majesty, this thing is very harmful and the people of Guangdong and Guangxi are suffering from it. Please take a closer look at it."
The minister took the word "privately" very seriously.
Emperor Jiaqing also heard what he meant.
Qianlong tacitly allowed the Thirteen Banks to sell opium to the people to make money. Everyone from the emperor to local officials could not escape responsibility. Someone had to take the blame.
Qianlong died without any evidence, although no one dared to ask him for evidence.
The words of more than a dozen monarchs and ministers quickly determined the life and death of a group of people.
Except for Jiaqing and these dozen ministers, everyone who knew the secret was on the death list.
Including the renovation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there will also be a bloody storm.
After dealing with the late emperor's scapegoat.
Everyone turned their attention to the newspaper again.
After all, it is not possible to defeat the Ming army with money.
From the Ming Dynasty newspaper, it can be seen that the Ming Dynasty's military equipment is extremely advanced.
With these broadswords, spears and a few broken muskets from the Qing Dynasty, fighting against the Ming army would mean death.
At this time, Jiaqing thought of the batch of tributes sent by the East India Company on Qianlong's 80th birthday.
Is there a possibility, if Qianlong could pay attention to it at that time, that the Manchu Qing Dynasty had already carried out the first industrial revolution for 10 years?
But after much thought, Emperor Jiaqing felt that this matter was unreliable.
If there is an industrial revolution, it will inevitably require a large number of people to be liberated from complicated agricultural activities and the knowledge level of workers will need to be improved.
What are the consequences of this?
That is the growth of capitalism and the awakening of the working class.
No matter which point it is, it is a weakening of the imperial power and the weakening of the royal family under the centralized rule of the East.
At that time, will there still be peace between the people, the emperor, and the Manchus and Han people?
You know, Louis XIV's head was chopped off just a few years ago.
Now it seems that Qianlong did not understand the benefits of industrialization, but was afraid of it.
He was afraid that the power of the royal family would be weakened, and he was afraid that the bad things he had done would be liquidated.
His family knew his own affairs, and after thinking about this, Jiaqing looked a little unhappy, and his desire to develop industry cooled down.
Without the development of industry, advanced weapons cannot be produced, but Jiaqing does not want to open this hole.
After some discussion, we finally came to the cliché conclusion of preparing the army for war and building armaments.
I have 400,000,000 people in the Qing Dynasty, and I can kill you with just a bunch of people.
Jiaqing doesn't believe it. With 10,000 to 28,000 musketeers and hundreds of thousands of cannon fodder, it still can't stop Ming Dynasty?
After the ministers left, Emperor Jiaqing flipped through the thirteen-line "Medicine Box" account book and looked at the huge amount of money stained with the blood and tears of the people, and his heart seemed to become alive.
