As mentioned before, regarding the budget issue of the Imperial Court's Western Expedition, Gao Yingqing had calculated it before the war. The most pessimistic conclusion was that the cost of this Western Expedition must be enormous, and the Imperial Court would need to spend just before the army was dispatched. Tens of millions of taels of silver were spent on various preparations, which mainly included five major expenditures: food, clothing, housing, transportation, and consumption.
Eating is naturally the first priority, including human rations and feed for horses, mules and camels. The issue of human rations has been discussed enough before, and there is no need to go into detail. In short, even if a "segmented lump sum transportation system" is arranged pragmatically, it can only reduce a small part of the excess consumption. The most critical advantage of this system is actually efficiency, especially the improvement in transportation time.
Horses, mules and camels can be collectively referred to as livestock. Livestock are indispensable in expeditions, and their feed consumption is huge, far more than people eat - which is understandable, because they bear a lot of transportation. Weapons, armor, gunpowder, projectiles, artillery, repair equipment, core components of siege equipment (generally made of iron, because simple wooden parts can be improvised), as well as essential supplies such as tents, marching camps and even pots and pans, etc. wait.
Since the materials required are large and complex, the preparations required for marching need to be standardized. As for the marching rations of the Ming army, they are too complicated to go into details here. In summary, there are two main types, both of which fall into the category of "dry food". Basically, there is no chance to eat fresh rice.
These two types of dry food are usually divided into north and south. Marching in the north usually eats cakes, while marching in the south means eating. But why do we say it is dry food? Because the cake is a round cake made of flour that is grilled over charcoal fire to make it crispy and salty, with small holes poked in the middle and skewered with a rope, so that it is convenient for soldiers to carry and eat. It can be understood as the Ming Dynasty version of compressed biscuits.
It is also impossible to cook rice temporarily. Instead, it is made into several portions of dry rice per 1 stone of rice for transportation. When it is time to eat, the rice is soaked in hot water so that it can be eaten directly. This is called soaked rice. , can be said to be the Ming Dynasty version of instant noodles.
However, it is impossible for people to only eat staple food for a long time, but fresh vegetables and meat are not convenient to carry in the army. Therefore, the army will prepare various non-staple foods, such as various pickles and a small amount of dried meat, which are all very salty and heavy. salt food, which can reduce consumption.
Speaking of consumption, the most critical indicator, the "Records of Practical Administration" records the daily ration requirements of a large army: "The first thing to do when marching is to maintain strength, and to maintain strength is to have enough food. Maximize the rice consumption of each army per day. One liter, ten loaves. Ten thousand soldiers, one hundred shi of rice per day, and one hundred taels of silver for loaves. One horse, ten catties of grass per day, and three liters of beans. Ten thousand horses require one hundred thousand catties of grass, and three hundred peas. stone."
The Ming army dispatched troops this time, regardless of the local garrison, Liu Wei's headquarters was probably about 60,000. This requires 600 shi of rice and 600 taels of silver per day. One stone is 120 kilograms, and six hundred stones is seventy-two thousand kilograms. Six hundred taels are converted into silver, but flour cannot be bought at any time during the expedition, so it has to be converted back. Each cake weighs almost two taels, and ten cakes are two. Jin, 60,000 people is 120,000 Jin.
In other words, the daily ration consumption of Liu Wei's 60,000-strong army alone is more than 70,000 kilograms of rice and 120,000 kilograms of flour. This does not include non-staple food, nor does it include feed that consumes more. As for the ineffective loss during the expedition, it is known that it far exceeds the eaten part, so the overall transportation volume consumed is at least 800,000 kilograms per day (food, feed, losses).
From this, Gao Pragmatic made the most severe estimate before the war. If the war could not end smoothly and quickly, then the court would spend an extra six to seven million taels for every three months of delay.
Of course, this is the worst-case scenario, which is calculated based on high-intensity combat every day. It is very different from the current situation of "stationing troops in Hami and waiting for the beginning of spring." At present, the army is stationed in Hami, and the consumption is still greatly reduced. Therefore, a high and pragmatic estimate of the cost is more than two million taels more in half a year.
Why is there such a big difference? Firstly, it is because the consumption is greatly reduced when the army is immobile, and secondly, once the army is immobile, it can be resupplied in place. Although the grain output in the northwest region is average, local prices are not high, and there are a lot of relatively cheap meat supplements that the army can buy on the spot.
Here is something similar to the "exchange rate difference" in later generations. The value of Ming Dynasty coins, whether copper coins or silver taels, is much higher here than in the Central Plains, so it is very cost-effective for the army to buy food locally. Although this will lead to rising prices, and to some extent it is a disguised looting of local people's wealth, Gao Wuchen cannot control this now. Moreover, prices have the ability of the market to self-regulate. When the crowd stops gathering, prices will slowly recover after a period of time.
In any case, the extra expenditure of the imperial court this year is already large enough. Even with high pragmatic ability, it will be very difficult to increase the expenditure budget again. Now facing the emperor's question, Gao Pragmatic could no longer remain calm and could only smile bitterly and said: "Taicang is indeed powerless. Now we can only follow the story of the War of Yunnan and Burma and prepare to start selling war bonds."
During the War of Yunnan and Burma, Gao Pragmatic "created" the war bond thing. At that time, the imperial court used the money to support the war, and obtained some privileges in Burma after the war to repay the bond debt. The effect was very good - of course, for East Burma The Xu Dynasty's exploitation was particularly ruthless.
Now that Gao pragmatically mentioned war bonds again, Zhu Yijun had no objection, but he could not avoid being a little worried and asked: "War bonds are indeed useful, but the situation in the Western Region and Myanmar is different. Although Myanmar is remote, it is rich in jade, gold and silver, and As long as the imperial court pawns the output of all kinds of high-quality wood according to the time limit, there will naturally be people in the capital willing to buy it.
However, the Western Region is not only thousands of miles away from Beijing, but the transportation is more difficult than in Myanmar, and there are no high-priced outputs such as gold, silver, and jade that are easy to transport. So what are you going to use as a pawn to make people interested in buying it? "
This is indeed a big problem. After all, it's impossible for Gao Pragmatic to tell people "I'll pawn local wool", right? Woolen textiles were the strengths of Spain and England at this time. The Chinese had never taken this seriously due to a lack of raw materials.
Zhu Yijun's question went straight to the core. Gao Pragmatic could only answer based on the industrial advantages of the Western Regions: "In my opinion, the Western Regions are indeed too far away. If we use long-term income to attract bond buyers, I'm afraid it may not be a best-seller. We have to pawn some industrial privileges with low investment and quick results.”
"What are they?" Zhu Yijun asked directly.
Gao pragmatic pondered and said: "The uniqueness of the Western Regions is that in addition to cattle, sheep, camels and the like, there are also several things that I think can be profitable in the short term, such as carpets, grapes, snow lotus, and cotton. Among them, carpets, our Central Plains land It is not widely used, but I think it is suitable for promotion in conjunction with new buildings... I would like to set an example, and if the emperor is also willing, that would be even better."
"Oh?" Zhu Yijun nodded and said, "Is there a future?"
"There is a lot to be done." Gao Pragmatic said with certainty: "As long as the emperor is willing to use it and I set an example for this, it will definitely create a trend in the capital, Nanjing, Huaiyang and other places, and sales can be expected by then."
"Then I'm sure." Zhu Yijun immediately agreed: "How much is this thing worth?"
"It's very expensive." Gao pragmatically said: "But since it is for promotion, the first batch of product ministers in the palace will find a way to let Liu Wei do it without spending money."
Hearing that it is very expensive but can be done for free, Zhu Yijun immediately smiled and said: "That's good, that's good, I can rest assured that Rixin will do things." After a pause, he said again: "What do you think of Putao? This thing can't be Transported all the way to the Central Plains for sale, right?"
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PS: I did fall asleep last night, and the temperature dropped by more than ten degrees overnight. I woke up with a cold and had a cold. I went to get two bottles of intravenous drip in the morning... This chapter is just like what I said last night, and today’s update remains unchanged.
(End of chapter)
