After finishing the conversation with Wang Xuecheng, seeing that it was almost time, Ye Mingsheng came to the Zhongyong Hall of the Governor's Mansion. This place was a newly established meeting place by Ye Mingsheng in the Governor's Mansion, specifically to hold the highest military and political meeting of the Fengwu Army. Meeting····················
Although the war in Hebei and Yu is over, the aftermath has just begun. In order to summarize the war in Hebei and arrange the aftermath, Ye Mingsheng decided to convene the highest military and political meeting of the Fengwu Army seven days ago to discuss the next steps of the Fengwu Army. direction, and the focus of future work.
The reason why Wang Xuecheng was summoned to listen to his report just now was entirely because Ye Mingsheng wanted to understand the results of this battle before the meeting started. Originally, this matter should have been done three days ago, but because Ye Mingsheng had recently My schedule is already full, and I still have some personal matters to deal with, so I can only listen to this report before the meeting.
Although Ye Mingsheng had arrived at Zhongyong Hall about a quarter of an hour in advance, all the people in the room who were qualified to participate in this meeting had already arrived. They were Cui Shao, the Chief Envoy of Youyan, and Fengwu Army Chief. Chief of Staff He Jingyun, Youyan Deputy Chief Envoy Gu Zhongshi, Director of the Foreign Affairs Department Gu Sansi, Financial Secretary Zhang Juning, Director of the Coordination Office Huo San, Director of the First Manufacturing Bureau Zhang Dehui, Director of the Second Manufacturing Bureau Su Junjie, and Ye Hongsheng, the shopkeeper of Dongsheng Company.
Although the number of people attending the meeting was small, only eight people, these eight people were all responsible for the Fengwu Army. Among the top leaders were Yuan Song, the commander of the First Army, Lin Huaiwu, the commander of the Second Army, and Murong Yu, the chief military officer of Liaoyang. Liang was absent from this important meeting because he was on one side...
Seeing Ye Mingsheng's arrival, everyone stood up to salute. Seeing that everyone had arrived, Ye Mingsheng announced the start of the meeting. The first item on the agenda of the meeting was for He Jingyun to introduce the situation of the war in Hebei and Yu, and the casualties of the Fengwu Army. How many people and how many enemy soldiers were captured? Compared with the previous estimate given to Ye Mingsheng, the situation introduced by He Jingyun this time is more accurate due to careful statistics. However, it is different from the estimate given to Ye Mingsheng. Not very big.
After introducing these situations, He Jingyun also said the most critical things clearly.
"This time our army captured Hebei Province, our army's casualties were not small. The total number of casualties was close to 30,000, of which 8,700 were killed. According to our army's regulations, we need to pay a pension of 158,600 taels of silver and another 21,000 taels. Among the 300 people, 3,300 were disabled and could not return to the army. According to regulations, the subsidy given to them was 68,000 taels of silver. The remaining 18,000 soldiers will also receive a total of 100,000 taels of silver. subsidies!”
Listening to He Jingyun's tens of thousands, Cui Shao, Gu Zhongshi, Gu Sansi, who represented the government, and Zhang Juning's expressions suddenly became serious. Among them, Zhang Juning, who was in charge of finance, frowned, clenched his fists, and looked as if The posture of facing a powerful enemy.
They all knew that the most important thing in today's meeting was to share the fruits of victory in the Jiyu War. Although they had expected that the military would require a lot of money this time, the pension alone would cost close to 330,000 taels of silver. It was still beyond their imagination·····················
According to past experience, the amount of money for casualty compensation is only a small part, and the real big part is the final silver reward!
Under the watchful eyes of these four civil servants, He Jingyun, the military representative, once again praised the Fengwu Army's performance in the Hebei-Henan Campaign. After some preparation, he revealed the number of the silver reward!
"Eight hundred and fifty thousand taels!"
As soon as He Jingyun finished speaking, before Ye Mingsheng could speak, Zhang Juning, the God of Wealth of the Fengwu Army, stood up and said:
"No! Absolutely not!"
As Zhang Juning fired the first shot, both the civil and military sides immediately started a war of words. Although Cui Shao and Gu Zhongshi were not usually very good at dealing with the civil officials, they were still in a difficult situation when it came to dividing money. On the same front, He Jingyun and Guo Zhiping also argued with each other and told about the hardships and sacrifices of the Fengwu Army soldiers in the Hebei-Henan War.
Ye Mingsheng did not participate in the debate between the two sides, but quietly listened to the reasons of both sides. After half an hour, seeing that both sides had almost reached their point, Ye Mingsheng made the final decision, allocating the total to the military. Nine hundred thousand taels of silver.
Although at first the military represented by He Jingyun asked for 330,000 taels of casualty pension subsidies and a reward of 850,000 taels of silver, for a total of 1,180,000 taels of silver, this was actually due to the past conflicts with civilian officials. They had experience in bargaining for a long time, so this figure was reasonable, and the 900,000 taels of silver approved by Ye Mingsheng basically met their expectations, so He Jingyun fought for it again, and saw that Ye Mingsheng was unfazed. I moved and accepted the plan...
For the civilian officials, although it was very painful to have the military take away 900,000 taels of silver at once, compared with the 1,180,000 taels of silver that the military initially requested, the 900,000 taels of silver was undoubtedly less. A lot, although they also accepted Ye Mingsheng's plan.
After meeting the needs of the military, Cui Shao, Gu Zhongshi, and Gu Sansi came up with the "Guiding Opinions on the Revitalization of Hebei and Henan" that they jointly formulated
Although the Fengwu Army captured Jiyu, the current situation in Jiyu due to natural and man-made disasters earlier is already in dire straits, and there is an urgent need to restore normal production and living order, and this "Guiding Opinion" is Set the blueprint of the plan under the Yip Ming Sing Plan.
Cui Shao, Gu Zhongshi, and Gu Sansi planned to dispatch one hundred tested Fengwu Army officials from the Fengwu Army regime in Youyan and Liaoyang into Hebei and Henan to help restore order in the area. In terms of money and food, , then invested 1.3 million taels of silver and 800,000 shi of grain into Hebei and Henan to use work as relief, and led the people in Hebei and Henan to repair local infrastructure.
Regarding the natural disasters that have occurred in Hebei and Henan for many years, the three of them believe that there are indeed reasons for natural disasters, but this is not the main reason. The main reason is that in the past few decades, the local magistrates in Hebei and Henan have been addicted to flattery. Bad official habits such as bribery and failure to do practical things for the people have resulted in local infrastructure such as dams, canals, and roads in Hebei and Henan being very old. As long as there is a heavy rain, the dams will collapse and the canals will be blocked... ···············
Roads are also an important factor restricting the development of Hebei and Henan. They prevent the food crops that many people have grown hard to transport and circulate in the market, resulting in a shortage of supply, leading to an imbalance between supply and demand in the market, and high prices. If it remains high, it will lead to continued social instability and a series of problems such as acute class conflicts.
In addition to repairing infrastructure, the three men also planned in the "Guidance Opinions" to establish two manufacturing bureaus, open branches in Hebei and Henan, and then sell the produced products to the wealthy Jiangnan region to develop financial resources and improve fiscal revenue.
Finally, based on the current battlefield situation, the "Guidance Opinions" also proposed to build some fortifications on the Fengqiu line to prepare for Xu Zhaojie's possible move north.
After reading all the "Guidance Opinions" very carefully, Ye Mingsheng asked Cui Shao:
"One million three hundred thousand taels? Isn't this too much?"
Facing Ye Mingsheng's inquiry, Cui Shao smiled bitterly and asked Ye Mingsheng:
"Commander, does he know the population of Hebei and Yu?"
Regarding Cui Shao's question, Ye Mingsheng was a little speechless. He knew that Jiyu, as the hinterland of the Central Plains, was the province with the largest population in the Zhou Dynasty. The total population was probably several million, but he did not know the specific total. .
Seeing that Ye Mingsheng was silent, Cui Shao said directly:
"According to statistics from the Hebei and Henan government three years ago, there are almost 2.7 million households in Hebei and Henan, with a population of about 11.3 million. However, in the past three years, Hebei and Henan have experienced constant natural and man-made disasters, and many people have They all went to the south to escape famine. No one knows the number of people lost, but according to our estimates, the loss is about 10% to 20%. If calculated as 15%, the current population of Hebei and Henan is nearly 9.6 million people. ·················”
"Based on this population, we need a financial budget of 1.3 million taels, which is already very low. On average, only one hundred people can get more than one tael. There is no way to get any less!"
Looking at Cui Shao and Chen Chen's expression, Ye Mingsheng was also very entangled in his heart. He tried his best to plunder more than 2.8 million taels of silver from the squires and nobles like Ji Yu. He thought it was just a huge sum of money. , enough to alleviate the current financial difficulties of the Fengwu Army, but I never thought that before the money was warmed up, almost all of it would be spent!
Seeing Ye Mingsheng's silence, Gu Sansi also warned:
"Commander, let me add that among the 1.3 million taels of silver, we plan to purchase a large number of livestock from the grasslands and our pastures in Liaoyang and Youyan to improve work efficiency. In addition, we also The plan is to purchase a large amount of coal from our army's coal mines in Liaoyang to ensure that the people of Hebei and Henan survive the winter. When spring comes next year, we will use this money to purchase fertilizers and farm tools from Dadongsheng Company!"
"A considerable part of the 1.3 million taels of the fiscal budget will flow back into our military's finances. As long as our plan can be implemented smoothly, Jiyu will be able to achieve success in as little as two years or as long as three years. It can get back on track and become the most important financial source for our army!"
"The situation in Hebei and Yu is very bad now. People are freezing to death or starving to death every hour. If our plan can be implemented earlier, it will save more people's lives and put Hebei and Yu on the right track earlier." ···················"
Gu Sansi's story made Ye Mingsheng sigh slightly in his heart. Population is wealth if used properly, and it is a burden if not used properly. It seems that the 1.3 million taels of silver must be spent. Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng directed Cui Shao and Gu Sansi The others nodded and said:
"I agree with your plan in principle, but the specific implementation needs to be strictly controlled, and every tael of silver must be spent wisely!"
"Currently, Hebei and Henan are not at peace. Many of the firearms produced by the First Manufacturing Bureau are key technologies and are not very safe in Hebei and Henan. This matter needs to be discussed in the long term!" At this point, Ye Mingsheng set his sights and stood. Finally, Su Junjie, director of the Second Manufacturing Bureau, asked:
"What do you, the director, think of opening a branch factory in Hebei and Yu?"
Su Junjie said respectfully after hearing this:
"There is no problem with this matter. Dadongsheng Company sells the products we produce very well, and the market is in short supply. We are preparing to expand our production capacity!"
After Su Junjie finished speaking, Ye Hongsheng, the shopkeeper of Dadongsheng, also stood up at the right time and said:
"Let me tell you, the Jiangnan area is a vast market. Our company tried to open up the market in Jiangnan half a year ago. We cooperated with some local companies there and put some products in. The sales volume is very good. If we can sell it in Hebei and Henan, Setting up a factory will reduce a lot of costs and transportation pressure, and will be more conducive to us expanding the market in Jiangnan..."
After hearing the feedback from these two people, Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly and said:
"In that case, it's settled. As for which branch to open, you will discuss it with the Chief Secretary yourself!"
"yes!"
As most of the financial budget was divided up, the meeting gradually began to discuss some detailed issues, including appropriating 100,000 taels of silver to the First Manufacturing Bureau to purchase more firearms. Self-sufficient in profits and losses, it has become the financial backbone of the Fengwu Army, providing hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to the Fengwu Army every year. Different from the First Manufacturing Bureau, which is the main source of Fengwu's weapons and weapons, it cannot create economic benefits and requires Fengwu's military finances. Continuous investment.
In the Battle of Hebei and Yu, a lot of the firearms equipped by the Fengwu Army were damaged, and new ones were urgently needed. In addition, the First Manufacturing Bureau's research and development of new firearms has also reached a critical stage, requiring a large amount of money to be invested. .
By the time most of the issues were discussed, Zhang Juning, who was in charge of finance, had a bleak look on his face. This battle in Hebei and Yu had already involved all the veterans of the Fengwu Army. I originally thought that this battle had been won, and the finances could He became rich, but after careful calculation, he found that there were more than 2.8 million taels of silver in cash, and in the end there were only more than 300,000 taels of silver left, which was almost the same as before the Fengwu Army attacked Jiyu.
Reporting this situation to Ye Mingsheng, Ye Mingsheng was also a little bit dumbfounded. He could only comfort Zhang Juning and said:
"Jiyu's 50,000 taels of gold will be delivered soon, as well as some seized jewelry, toys, calligraphy and paintings, which can also be sold for a lot of silver. This battle will be fruitful after all... ··············”
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