1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 443 Problems arising from the expansion of the army

"I must remind everyone here, don't think that the existing thousands of troops are enough to protect our personal safety and interests. Our army is indeed stronger than its contemporary opponents in terms of combat effectiveness, but its shortcomings are also very obvious, that is, Troop size." Yan Chujie made a gesture, and the orderly immediately hung a new map on the wall, and it can be seen that the Military Commission has made quite sufficient preparations for today's meeting.

The scope of this newly hung map is even wider, covering almost all the areas that Haihan's ships can reach at present.

Pointing to the map, Yan Chujie continued to explain: "Look, everyone, besides Hainan Island, we are also actively expanding our forces to the northeast and south, and have achieved good results, but the land we occupy is not infinite. The land of the Lord must be guarded by armed forces. You may wish to think about it, can a company of the army be deployed in such a vast area as the Pearl River Estuary, can it really be controlled? In the south of the Indochina Peninsula, there are four The planned port areas are waiting to be developed. These port areas will be our overseas territories in the future. Is it okay not to send troops to garrison them? There is also a five-year plan formulated before our crossing. One of them is to realize the actual military control of Hainan Island. It is now the third year after crossing, and we are still far away from this goal. If we want to achieve actual control over the whole island, I think the size of the militia stationed on the island must be maintained at least two regiments , and we now only have two battalions."

Hearing this, everyone present at the meeting began to whisper to each other. After all, Yan Chujie's tone this time was different from the past, and he had clearly proposed the establishment of a regiment-level combat system.If calculated based on the most basic establishment, the size of the current militia army stationed on the island is to be expanded to the regiment level, and at least half of the number of soldiers must be increased. It is enough to double the scale.

In terms of ordinary militia soldiers, a year's salary, ordnance and uniforms, daily consumption, training expenses, etc. are added together, and each person needs an average of 200 yuan per year to maintain it. This does not include the wartime rewards for official combat , post-war pension awards and other expenses included.The current army's first battalion is a reinforced battalion with about 20 people, which means that at least [-] yuan in military expenditures can be used to increase the establishment of a battalion.This is only a very conservative estimate. If the cost of conscription, training, and soldiers eliminated during the training process is calculated, the actual military expenditure will increase by at least one tenth.In addition, in the establishment of the army, battalion-level units will also be equipped with artillery companies. Although artillery is a separate arm, adding an artillery company is also an expense that cannot be ignored.

What is the concept of 20 yuan?This is almost half of the annual output value of Shengli Port Saltworks Commune, and about one-thirtieth of Haihan's fiscal revenue last year. It is definitely not a small amount that is dispensable.The military's previous military expansion plans have always been based on companies, and this time it can be regarded as a lion's big mouth.

"Is it really necessary to directly expand to regiment-level combat units?" Gu Kai first questioned: "Now the even-level officers of the militia troops are basically our own. If they expand to the regiment level, then the company-level officers Is it possible to maintain the existing specifications?"

"If it expands to the regiment level, it will probably be necessary to promote some naturalized civilian officers. At least there will be a large number of naturalized civilian officers at the deputy company level. But I don't think this is a problem. We have gradually discovered and trained a group of qualified grassroots officers during our operations, and it is a necessary process for them to gradually take over the command of the front-line troops." Yan Chujie also gave an example Explained: "For example, low-level officers like Gao Qiaonan and Yu Tiezhu have no problem with their loyalty and personal ability. They can be promoted to be company commanders now. And we can also rise up and be promoted to the battalion. Headquarters, regiment, or enter the staff."

"No, no, I think you misunderstood me." Gu Kai shook his head and said, "I'm not worried about the career prospects of our people in the military system, but that after these naturalized civilian officers are promoted, can they They cannot reach the same or similar level of command. You must know that they don’t know how to play high-tech gadgets such as radios and walkie-talkies, and the command system they can understand and use should still be at the level of trumpeting and drumming.”

Yan Chujie said: "Don't underestimate the civilized military officers. These people have little education and limited knowledge, but as long as they have potential, they are basically selected into the officer training class for long-term training. Even They don't have radio walkie-talkie available, but we have all kinds of actual combat examples and battle-tested tactics that we have brought from hundreds of years later, and there are also maps, sand tables, and powerful weapons to assist them. I can guarantee that these will be naturalized The tactical level and awareness of civilian military officers must be far beyond that of their contemporary opponents. They are no more stupid than you and me, they just need a window to see the outside world."

"How to solve the expansion of military expenditure? This year's budget probably doesn't include this part?" Seeing that Yan Chujie couldn't argue with this point of view, Gu Kai had no choice but to question it in a different direction.

"It is true that it is not included in the budget, but this year's income in South Vietnam is also not included in the budget." Yan Chujie calmly argued: "We captured in Hue, plus the military expenses paid by the Rising Dragon Mansion after the war, less After deducting our combat expenses, there is still a considerable profit. Part of this has been used in the navy expansion plan in the first half of the year, but there is still some balance that can be used for the army expansion.”

At this point, Yan Chujie proudly stretched out two fingers and said, "At least the expansion of two battalions is enough."

"But the military expenditure is not a one-time investment. The expansion of two battalions this year means that next year's military expenditure will also increase by hundreds of thousands!" Gu Kai continued to question Yan Chujie's statement.

"This is normal! Will our fiscal revenue next year still remain at this year's level?" Yan Chujie spread his hands and said, "If that's the case, I think the object of your complaint should not be the military, but the leader of President Shi commercial and financial sector.”

Schneider smiled and said, "I haven't said a word, why did I lie down and get shot?"

"Who told you to take care of the money bag?" Yan Chujie teased.

"Okay, since we are talking about money, let me briefly talk about my personal opinion." Schneider put away his smile and said in a deep voice: "At present, we still maintain a relatively considerable surplus in import and export trade in Guangdong. , I am personally optimistic about the growth of trade income in the coming year, but considering that almost all of the ongoing construction projects are expensive and slow to yield results, and the expenditure on resettlement will increase year by year, I think the increase will increase next year. The military budget still needs to be prudent. Of course, I personally do not object to the military’s intention to expand its military, but I hope that the military will also consider the financial pressure that will be brought by the size of the military in the future.”

"You mean to say that military expansion is possible, but the increase in the military budget has to be figured out by the military?" Yan Chujie quickly figured out the clues from a series of official words by Schneider.

"At least you have to be mentally prepared." Schneider readily admitted Yan Chujie's guess: "After all, in the next two years, the Shilu project is our top priority. The total amount of funds required for this project will exceed The sum of all our colonization projects, in order to ensure that this project will not be delayed due to funding problems, we may have to exercise stricter control over other expenditure budgets, including military budgets, in the future."

"That is to say, in order to raise military expenses, we have to launch a new round of war again?" Yan Chujie shook his head again and again: "It is not impossible to support war with war, but we have not many opponents to choose from now. Recently, but we can’t fight. Annan is an ally, and the Portuguese are trading partners. It’s not easy for these two to fight casually. The Spaniards and the Dutch have no scruples, but the problem is that our navy is not strong enough, and now we can’t reach them at all. Moreover, there is no certainty of winning against these two at sea."

"It is not necessary to obtain income through war. You can think of other ways." Schneider extended the topic: "For example, the volume of arms trade can be increased, and the income from Haihan Military Industry's export of various weapons and military supplies, Your military is also involved, isn't it? For the arms trade, 20 yuan is nothing more than a few thousand guns, or one or two hundred artillery pieces. As long as we are willing to sell, the market demand is not a problem at all. Seriously , It is time for us to consider cooperating with Daming and selling weapons directly to the government. The demand and solvency of the Ming military are not comparable to Annan or Xu Xinsu."

When Schneider said this, his eyes turned to Tao Donglai. This kind of foreign policy adjustment must seek Tao Donglai's opinion.

Tao Donglai, who had been listening quietly all this time, saw that everyone's eyes began to focus on him, so he responded, "It's not impossible to cooperate with the Ming government, but the main thing is to look at the external conditions of the big environment. Simply put, it is Let’s see if Daming really needs external help like ours now. If we operate properly, we can certainly obtain huge economic benefits from the arms trade, and even reach some exchange conditions that are beneficial to our own development like in Annan. But if If the operation is not good, or the timing is not right, it is easy for Da Ming to regard us as a threat and generate unnecessary hostility."

"About the external environment...Ning Qi, what do you think?" Tao Donglai expressed his attitude, and then quickly kicked the ball to Ning Qi's feet.

As one of the very few members of the Executive Committee who are familiar with the historical environment, Ning Qi is also duty-bound. He cleared his throat and said, "The biggest thing in the first half of this year is probably that Emperor Chongzhen ordered Wei Zhongxian's case to be settled. Cui Chengxiu, Liu Zhixuan and others were sentenced to beheading, and then more than 100 accomplices were exiled into the army. In addition, some were sentenced to three years in prison and demoted to civilians. They were lucky enough to escape. In addition, there was a famine in Shaanxi, and there were peasant organizations among the people. The uprising, but it didn't create much momentum, and was soon suppressed by the troops led by Hong Chengchou."

"Is there anything related to us?" Bex asked.

Ning Qi nodded and said: "There is also one related thing. Because of the inaccurate calculation of the solar eclipse that will occur in May this year according to the old calendar, Xu Guangqi, Minister of the Ministry of Rites, wrote to Emperor Chongzhen, requesting to refer to the Western calendar. This article was approved by the emperor, and let Xu Guangqi is in charge of supervising the compilation of the new calendar, so when we communicate with the Ming court in the future, at least we will have something in common in this regard.”

"But it doesn't have any direct effect on what we just said." Yan Chujie also couldn't bear his temper and said: "Has there been any major military-related events? Especially on the northern battlefield."

"Big event?" Ning Qi thought for a while before nodding his head and replied, "A really big event happened this month. Yuan Chonghuan beheaded Mao Wenlong in Shuangdao. Isn't this a big event?"

There are different opinions in history about Yuan Chonghuan's coercive order to behead Mao Wenlong.Dong Qichang, Yuan Keli, Sun Chengzong and others all had relatively positive comments on Mao Wenlong's behavior of defending the frontier against the enemy, and there are two steles on Dalu Island that were erected in the sixth year of Tianqi and the first year of Chongzhen, one of which was engraved with Mao Wenlong's The oath to kill the enemy: "The whole Liao Dynasty will be restored in the near future, and the expression is like this. We serve the country with all our hearts, and our loyalty is based on this." This shows that this person still has a loyal and patriotic side.

The negative comments on him in history mostly pointed out that Mao Wenlong was arrogant, reckless, and deliberately exaggerated his military achievements, so as to ask the court for more military pay and supplies.However, Yuan Chonghuan recklessly ordered the twelve major crimes to kill Mao Wenlong, which directly led to the disenchantment of the local garrison, so that treason and defection to the enemy appeared later.

When Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong, he probably didn't expect that his behavior of ignoring the emperor's order would become one of his future reminders.Only half a year later, Yuan Chonghuan was sent to prison for poor command.In August of the following year, he was sentenced to Ling Chi for the two crimes of negotiating peace with the Qing army without authorization and killing Mao Wenlong without authorization, and his family was displaced for three thousand miles, and all his family property was confiscated.

The controversy over Yuan Chonghuan has lasted for hundreds of years in another time and space. Some people think that he is a national hero, while others think that he is a traitor who had an affair with the Qing Dynasty.However, Ning Qi didn't intend to start a debate here, but he just mentioned it and pointed to the point of the problem: "In the second half of this year, the Hou Jinhui troops will be divided into three deer groups, and they will enter the pass from Da'ankou, Longjing Pass, and Hongshan Pass. To the capital. Although they withdrew their troops at the end of the year, this entry still caused great damage and influence to Daming. If you want to reach a military cooperation with Daming, I suggest that you consider how to use this year Military movements in the north for half a year."

(End of this chapter)