Ci'an no longer dares to settle this account. Ci'an knows how much money the soldiers of the Sixth Japanese Training Xishan Camp spent!
To be honest, the financial situation of the Manchu Qing Dynasty has eased a lot in the past five years, and it is much better than the Tongzhi Dynasty in history!
After the war, various places resumed reconstruction. Taxes in Huguang, Jiangnan, and Guangxi were the first to recover, followed closely by the economies of Henan, Shanxi, and even Gansu.
The economy will naturally recover after the war, and more importantly, the new currency brought by Xiao Letian gave the court a sigh of relief!
Minting silver coins and gradually abolishing silver ingots will cut off the waste of the corrupt officials below. This large sum of money alone will save more than tens of millions of silver every year!
There is also the income from Beipiao. Although Beipiao is now experiencing severe inflation and its market acceptance is far less than that of Jiangnan's Nanqiao, it is the official legal tender after all. If the market currency supply is sufficient, business will naturally prosper!
Due to a certain amount of inflation and the increase in taxes brought about by business stimulation, the annual income of the imperial court has exceeded 13 million taels of silver every year in the past five years!
This is a huge amount of money that I could not even imagine before! During the war with Changmao, the imperial court couldn't even pay the poor bannermen. At the most ruthless moment, they actually gave the bannermen a 30% discount on their salary!
What do you do when you have money? The choices of Manchus and Chinese are completely different!
When Xiao Letian gets money, he will develop education, build infrastructure, invest in industry, and then raise a modern army, especially the Deep Blue Navy!
Now that the Manchus have money, the first thing to do is to replenish the pay of the bannermen, and then to reorganize the army!
The troops in various places need to make up for their pay. The Japs Sixth Training Xishan Camp has spent a lot of money. Hunchun outside the pass also needs money to train the army. But we can't forget the threat of the Rakshasa Ghost and the Far East Volunteer Army!
Ci'an knew very well that in the past five years, the 60,000 soldiers in Xishan had consumed 5 million taels of silver on the Ministry of War's books!
But this is all false. In order to prevent the imperial court from being criticized, Guiziliu split his training expenses into different projects and reimbursed them back and forth in the Sixth Department!
Even the Ministry of Internal Affairs has to pay an account!
The imperial military expenditure spent by the Xishan Camp should be at least between eight million and ten million taels of silver. This is Ci'an's calculation, and this amount is indeed the consensus of many people in the imperial court!
The 60,000 new troops spent a small military expenditure of 10 million. Isn't this enough? Do you need to change equipment from generation to generation? According to Zaichun, a modern army must use the most advanced weapons for a long time!
Whenever new tricks are developed, equipment must be purchased. If new weapons appear every year, how can this army maintain millions of silver taels every year?
The imperial court does nothing else but only raises the army?
"Stop talking, stop talking...my son, how can our court have so much money to support the army! We change equipment every year, when will this be enough!"
Ci'an suddenly reached out and stopped Zai Chun's mouth. He did not let the little emperor speak. Instead, he stared at Cai Bixia and asked, "General Cai... you have been abroad. The Ai family wants to hear your truth!"
"Long Live Master said to change equipment, do you think there is any good equipment worth changing now? How about opening the eyes of the Ai family?"
Cai Bixia nodded, "There is really a novel thing that I want to give to Long live. Since the Queen Mother wants to see it with her own eyes, that's fine... This is a new weapon recommended by our Chinese family to Long Live!"
A heroic female soldier ran from a distance, holding a kraft paper file bag and saluting, and respectfully handed the file to Cai Bixia.
"Your Majesty! The head of state and many capitalists in Bavaria jointly invested in a machinery factory. The factory is located in Munich... The head of state named this machinery factory BMW!"
"Nowadays, BMW's key project is Duke Zeppelin's war airship. This is a photo!"
Several black-and-white photos were pulled out from the archive, two of which were posed at a still moment, and the rest were all photos of Zeppelin patrols over the city of Paris.
"Your Majesty, look at this picture. This is what war reporters tried their best to capture... The Führer airship is throwing bombs at the bastion outside Paris!"
"The Zeppelin is different from ordinary hot air balloons. It is an aircraft with an independent power system. As long as the wind is not too strong, it will not affect its flight!"
"The current limit of the experiment has been challenged to 2,000 meters, and the entire pod has a load capacity of 7 tons. It can be used in small-scale conflicts..."
"The price given to His Majesty by the head of state is the friendship between master and apprentice... 450,000 silver dollars per vessel..."
"How much?" Ci'an immediately shouted, "Just this thing costs 450,000 silver dollars per ship?"
Cai Bixia smiled bitterly and said, "Yes, this is just the cost price... Daily maintenance requires a lot of money. If His Majesty wants an air force assault force, then it should be equipped with at least nine airships!"
"The three-three system... means that three ships can fight at any time, three ships are on standby at any time, and the remaining three ships are under maintenance... Over and over again, we always ensure that you have three ace ships that can be put into battle 24 hours a day!"
"Please rest assured, Your Majesty... As long as you are willing, the head of state can give you a weapon! The only buyer of the Qing Dynasty, no competitor can even dream of owning such a weapon..."
"The later stage includes training personnel, building an airship base, purchasing ammunition and parts... The head of state gave His Majesty a package plan!"
"Five million taels of silver from the Qing treasury, guaranteed to be handed over to His Majesty's combat force of nine airships within one and a half years!"
"No!" Ci'an shouted at that time, "What a black heart. Just nine hot air balloons, and you want me to get five million taels of silver from the Qing Dynasty? Are you treating me as a fool?"
Cai Bixia was not angry either: "Queen Mother, this is really a friendly price. If purchased from other countries, such a supporting contract would cost more than seven million taels of silver..."
"The master cherishes his apprentice, that's why he got the low price of five million!"
Cai Bixia looked at Zai Chun and smiled and said, "Your Majesty, you have seen a truly modern war. You know that at the critical moment when the two armies are in a stalemate, victory or defeat is sometimes just a hair's breadth away!"
"A surprising army can reverse the entire situation of the war, and the winner will naturally have various privileges..."
"War is always a high-risk, high-yield investment! Have you forgotten this basic skill?"
"The information... I will stay here. If we are not in a hurry, we can discuss this big business slowly. I have time!"
"Buy! Of course I will buy it! Such a good thing must not be let go!" Zai Chun shouted without Ci'an nodding.
"No! My kid, are you crazy? You just let them cheat you out of five million taels? Where can the Ministry of Finance allocate money to you? The Ministry of Finance is all empty..."
"Your Majesty, please don't stop me. The court has no money, so I have to pay for this airship unit myself!"
