If the business of Fenghe Trading Company and Baoxiang Army was exposed, the two principals, the uncle and nephew of the Li family, would be confiscated and exterminated. There was a high probability that other shopkeepers and clerks in the trading bank would also die.
And the many local officials whom Fenghe Commercial Bank bribed in order to open up channels will most likely be punished by being dismissed from office, imprisoned, exiled, or even beheaded in serious cases!
Even the eldest son of the Li family is expected to be implicated. Of course, with the status of the eldest son of the Li family, even if he is implicated, he can still operate to protect himself, but there will still be a huge political price to pay.
Considering the fact that the security thieves have taken over the Nanyang Basin, it is estimated that the Ming court will be shaken when the news reaches the capital in the short term, shouting that the harm of the security thieves is worse than the Eastern capture...
In this case, all kinds of strategic materials were sold to the thieves. The principal's house confiscated and genocide was only a minimum treatment. Other relevant personnel basically could not escape dismissal, imprisonment, exile, beheading, confiscation and genocide, etc., depending on their level of participation or their status. .
The risk cost is very high, which also leads to the very high cost of transportation channels.
Under such circumstances, if the Baoxiang Army did not raise the price to a certain level, no one would sell these gadgets to the Baoxiang Army at the risk of having their homes confiscated and exterminated!
This is the same as Fenghe Commercial Bank. If it is not supported by high profits, they cannot bear such a big risk to do business with the Baoxiang Army.
And without high profits, they would not be able to maintain the same high channel costs!
In this regard, Luo Zhixue also knows very well that even if Fenghe Commercial Bank does not want profits, channel costs cannot be saved...
Without a high price, this material will not come in!
This led to the companies represented by Fenghe Commercial Bank secretly transporting the materials and selling them directly to Baoxiang at double or even several times the price in order to spread the cost and to make high profits to offset their huge risks. military.
This cannot be said to be too evil, but the risk is too great. If it is leaked, it will basically result in the confiscation of the family and the extermination of the clan...
At the same time, the channel cost of transporting these sensitive materials to Xiangyang is also very high.
Without feeding the relevant officials along the way, even Fenghe Trading Company with a profound background cannot expect to be able to transport these sensitive materials to Xiangyang!
This also led to a very interesting imagination. As the Baoxiang Army continued to purchase various high-priced strategic materials, the relevant Ming Dynasty officials were also full of money.
The real big boss of Fenghe Trading Company, Mr. Li, has already started spending money to work in the capital. If the operation is successful, it may be a little short of getting a left minister, but the right minister is still qualified.
The prefect of Hanyang Prefecture, who controls the main channel of the Han River in and out of the Yangtze River, has sent two groups of people back to his hometown to purchase land with a large amount of money in just one month...
These circumstances led to extremely high prices for the materials purchased by the Ministry of Industry, but they had to bear it. Who said that there was not even an iron mine under the rule of the Baoxiang Army... let alone saltpeter and sulfur.
In order to reduce the cost of raw materials, the Ministry of Industry has begun to produce nitrate by itself through various indigenous methods.
Among the three major costs of the Ministry of Industry, one is construction costs, the other is raw material procurement costs, and the last one is personnel expenses.
The expenses for technicians and ordinary workers in various factories are also very high.
Among them, the technical personnel, that is, the craftsmen, are generally better paid according to their positions. After all, they have skills and it is difficult to train them.
A formal salary system is adopted. The monthly salary of junior technical personnel is more than five or six taels of silver, while the monthly salary of senior technical personnel can reach more than ten taels or even more than twenty taels of silver.
However, there are relatively few technical personnel, and the expenditure per person is large, but in fact the total amount is not large.
The really large personnel expenses are actually tens of thousands of ordinary workers. Even if the treatment of ordinary workers is very poor, they cannot support the large number.
All factories affiliated to the Ministry of Industry adopt assembly line production in a narrow sense. The requirements for ordinary workers are not high. Most of the process operations can be mastered by just a few days of personal training...
Therefore, when the Ministry of Industry recruits workers, it does not recruit ordinary people, but mainly recruits refugees and extremely poor children.
And the system adopted is similar to the recruitment system, that is, no formal salary is paid, and food and accommodation are included, plus a small amount of pocket allowance.
It is better to say that it is inviting workers than to provide relief through work. Since it is a relief through work model, then don't expect the treatment to be very good. It is good to be able to support yourself.
In later generations, this operation would be considered a typical black-hearted capitalist, but in this era, it can help tens of thousands of homeless people and poor children survive.
However, the factories under the Ministry of Industry, like the Baoxiang Army, are in a state of large-scale expansion, and the demand for various types of technical personnel is endless.
As for the technical personnel in the factories under the Ministry of Industry, in addition to being converted from various traditional craftsmen, most of them are actually trained by themselves from ordinary workers.
For ordinary workers, as long as they have a flexible mind and are good at learning, it is easy to get ahead. I dare not say how high they will be, but it is still possible to become a junior technician, so that they can get a formal salary.
The huge various expenditures of the Ministry of Industry must be regarded as military expenses to a certain extent. Therefore, the monthly military expenditure at this stage can reach about 300,000 taels, and will increase as the scale of the rural protection army continues to expand. .
The reason why the military expenditures of the Baoxiang Army are so high is that they continue to fight wars. The expenditures during wars are much higher than the expenditures on maintaining the army in normal times.
When the cannon is fired, there is no ambiguity about the gold worth ten thousand taels.
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After the money and food meeting was over and he learned that the financial system was operating normally and there was no financial pressure in a short period of time, Luo Zhixue sent Chen Xingkai and Huang Chengxuan away.
Next, an industrial and commercial meeting was held. The participants were mainly Industry Minister Yuan Gaofeng, Minister of Commerce and Trade Shi Wenbin, Li Qingdian Arsenal Supervisor Ding Gangyi and other related personnel, a total of more than ten people.
At the beginning of the meeting, Minister of Industry Yuan Gaofeng began to introduce to Luo Zhixue the recent construction and production status of various factories.
"Currently, the Xiangyang Arsenal has begun small-scale trial production. However, due to the very tight schedule for construction and training of workers, although trial production has begun, there are still many problems."
"But now the ordnance production tasks are heavy and tense. Therefore, the Xiangyang Arsenal will enter the emergency mass production stage on June 15th. It will continue to solve various problems while mass production. During this period, there will be certain problems with the small amount of ordnance produced. Quality issues."
When Luo Zhixue heard that there would be quality problems, he immediately said: "Will it affect normal use? It won't work if the gun will explode."
Yuan Gaofeng said: "That's not possible. No matter how arrogant we are, we will not send guns that can explode to the front line. The main reason is that the life of the barrel and barrel will be lower than the standard. The Xiangyang Arsenal is expected to produce The first batch of artillery had a barrel life of only about 250 rounds, which was not as good as the 350 rounds from the Li Qingdian Arsenal."
Luo Zhixue frowned slightly when he heard this: "Two hundred and fifty rounds, a little less, if we really fight, several large-scale battles will be scrapped!"
Artillery also has a service life. When firing artillery shells, the barrel needs to withstand high temperature, high pressure, and corrosion caused by gunpowder burning. These will cause the barrel to become more and more fragile. After a certain number of shells are fired, the barrel will continue to If it continues to be used, there will be a huge risk of explosion.
For safety reasons, scrapping is required.
If you really don't want to scrap it, you must reduce the charge and reduce the risk of explosion by reducing the power.
The cast-iron artillery in the Baoxiang Army has a very average lifespan!
There is no way, the smelting technology is not good enough, the materials are just so watery...
The long-barreled iron-cast artillery can still be used. This is the result of the Baoxiang Army using large-scale water-powered equipment to process it with higher precision.
It would be even more uncomfortable if the life span of this already average body was cut off again.
When Luo Zhixue said that the barrel life was a little short, Ding Gangyi, the supervisor of the Liqingdian Arsenal on the side, said: "The barrel life of the iron cannon is still too poor, and it is too difficult to improve. Our factory has organized manpower to cast one before. A bronze cannon."
"Although the cost of the bronze cannon is higher, its performance is superior, especially the barrel life will be longer, which can reach at least 800 rounds."
"And the processing of bronze cannons is also easier. We can use the existing large-scale hydraulic equipment for rapid processing to increase production!"
Luo Zhixue naturally knew that bronze cannons were better.
Especially given the current limited technical level, the advantages of bronze artillery over cast-iron artillery are not generally great.
But bronze cannons are all good, but there is one disadvantage: they are expensive!
The price of copper materials and the price of iron materials are not at the same level!
Casting a 600-pound bronze cannon costs at least several hundred taels of silver.
As for the current 600-pound iron cannon, the cost of a full cannon is only one or two hundred taels.
This is several times more expensive.
Before, Luo Zhixue still hoped that this iron cannon technology would achieve a breakthrough, but now, Luo Zhixue knew not to expect it in the short term, and he would still use bronze cannons.
He immediately said: "Now that the bronze cannon has been trial-produced, there is no need to hesitate. Change to casting the bronze cannon as soon as possible. After a smooth transition, the plan to cast the 600-pound long cannon in iron will be cancelled!"
"You can't let the artillery unit have to replace its artillery after fighting a few battles on the front line."
Hearing what Luo Zhixue said, Ding Gangyi, the supervisor of the Liqingdian Arsenal on the side, also breathed a sigh of relief. He took charge of the development and casting of a 600-pound bronze long-barreled artillery. This was the first major thing he did after taking office as the supervisor of the factory.
Now that the Bronze Cannon has been recognized by Luo Zhixue, he is expected to be promoted in the future!
Luo Zhixue was thinking in his mind: What currently limits the quantity of artillery equipment for the Taobao Army is not the procurement cost, but the limited production capacity of the arsenal.
One hundred liang of artillery or one thousand liang of artillery. In fact, the Baoxiang Army can now afford it. Anyway, the biggest expense in maintaining the artillery force is not the purchase cost of the artillery itself, but the maintenance cost of the artillery and the mules and horses that pull the artillery, as well as combat operations. The cost of ammunition at the time.
When the artillery production capacity of the arsenal is limited, Luo Zhixue naturally hopes to obtain better artillery within the limited production capacity.
The barrel life of this bronze cannon is more than two or three times longer than that of iron cannons, and if the cannon is cast in bronze, the production capacity can be further increased because it is easier to process.
Adding the two together is equivalent to increasing artillery production capacity by at least three or four times.
Of course, there is another important reason that made Luo Zhixue decisively decide to switch to bronze cannons: the Baoxiang Army is not short of money!
Have money and be willful!
