The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 675

It sounds like the silver I got last year was one hundred and thirteen taels, which is quite a lot.

But the payout is also terrible.

There are 5000 soldiers and horses, plus officials, craftsmen, teachers, doctors, etc. (including fort chiefs, village chiefs, town chiefs, etc., who receive pay), a total of 70 people, and the expenditure and training consumption is [-] about ten thousand.

This does not include all kinds of Lumi blunderbuss, flintlock guns, artillery, armor, war horses and other military supplies sent from Lushun. These are all counted in Dengzhou.

They used sugar, copper ore to exchange for purchase and silver to buy, and combined the two methods to buy guns from Macau, and spent another nearly [-] cash in silver.

In order to save money, Ding Yi used the copper ore and sugar plus silver that Macau needed to buy guns from Macau, but the copper ore had to be shipped from Japan, which was also a huge expense.

But over the past few years, the senior officer has already had more than 100 cannons made with the help of Macau, and they are all large and heavy cannons, saving him the trouble of making the cannons himself and transporting them from Lushun.

All kinds of labor throughout the year, including collecting wood, building shipyards, building warehouses, building castles and forts, building docks and ports, expanding commercial streets, building houses and other houses, cost more than 40 taels. (Most of this has been completed, and silver will be used less and less starting this year.)
In addition, there are nearly 20 regular workers in sugar factories, iron pot factories, iron ore factories, shipyards, etc., with a salary of [-].

For other farmland construction, although there are a large number of cattle, tools, and seeds, which are all exchanged for sugar, there are also some that need to be bought with money, and the expenditure is about 10 taels.

Another fee of [-] yuan a year was given to Zheng Zhilongqi.

In this way, the annual expenditure of last year reached 1406 million taels.

Still a blood loss of 33 taels.

After everyone listened, Qi Qi breathed a sigh of relief.

From the first year of blood loss of 80 million, then 50 million, to now 10,000+, they are making progress step by step.

In fact, when Ding Yi counted income and expenditures, many details were not counted. Some were spent by Dengzhou, some were spent by Lushun, and shipbuilding was not counted. In the end, Mr. Ding paid the bill anyway. .

He can't and doesn't need to calculate clearly like later generations, he only needs to know the approximate income and expenditure.

Now the income and expenditure here have come out, negative 33.

Then Ding Yi can estimate, plus the ordnance materials, war horses and gunpowder that Lushun supports here, last year, Lushun’s total investment in senior personnel should be around 60.

Apparently, the boss is still negative.

But it doesn't matter, now his three bases in Lushun, Jeju, and Denglai can all make money.

Now there is absolutely no problem in raising a senior member in three places.

"Last year, my total investment in Dayuan was about 60 yuan." Ding Yi said with a smile at this time: "Very good, as long as the investment is within one million taels, we can afford it."

"From now to next year, there are two main tasks, one is to increase troops, and the other is to build roads. These two things are still very expensive, and it will be another year of blood loss."

From this year to next year, Ding Yi plans to build roads.

Because Mito produced the asphalt, the road construction is relatively fast. The Xingang City and Tainan City will be repaired first, and then repaired in the distance. In the future, their four-wheeled carts will be able to pass smoothly and increase their speed.

In some places that are convenient for your own attack, you must level the road, and for your own defense, you must dig ditches and build forts.

"I want to raise Yunnan horses myself." Ding Yi said again: "We already have rich experience in raising horses in Jeju, and this year we will start to let merchants bring high-quality Yunnan horses in exchange for white sugar."

"Dian horses are very good at walking on mountain roads and mountainous areas, and can carry heavy loads. We will need them in the future. We will build a new horse farm for raising horses."

Everyone nodded.

Now Dayuan's plain area is basically three-quarters occupied by them, with most of the mountains behind.

In many mountainous areas, their 6-pound guns cannot enter.

Lushun's 6-pound gun is not big, but it is strong enough for two people to lift it. Of course, it is easier for four people to lift it.

In this way, many places where students live cannot enter.

The key is not the problem of guns, you have to bring a lot of shells and gunpowder, the Ming army wore heavy armor, and they were tired from climbing mountains, how to carry it.

Therefore, after the Yunnan horse comes out, it can greatly reduce their load and transportation capacity.

Soon, there was a demand for Yunnan horses in the reward column outside.

"In addition, I brought four ships of iron and copper materials this time. Starting this year, you will try to make your own cannons and Lumi guns."

Ding Yi smelted iron ore and copper ore in Lushun into iron and copper materials, and then brought them here for convenience.

Of course, they are also digging mines and refining materials, but the output is far less than that of Lushun, and Ding Yi needs to support him from Lushun.

"How is the mine here?" Ding Yi asked again.

Iron ore and copper mines have been found here, but there was not a lot of manpower invested in the early stage. The main reason is that there are no cannons here, and more iron pots are used to make them.

A lot of workers were used to build the Xingang City and the shipyard here. Now that the important projects of the city and the shipyard are almost completed, the mining of iron ore and copper mines can be accelerated in the future.

Song Qiwen from the Mining Department stated that they have found mines in the central and northern parts of Dayuan, but they can’t go to the northern part now. They mainly operate the mines in the central part. This year, after the construction of Xingang City and the completion of the shipyard, thousands of workers can be freed up to expand the mine factory.

In this way, at this time next year, Ding Yi and Ruan Siqing will not need to transport a large amount of iron and copper materials from Lushun.

In addition to iron and copper, Dayuan is rich in minerals, and many other minerals have been found here, and the successors will start to move. The mining department of the governor's yamen is also collecting experts from all over the place.

After a large amount of mines can be produced here, it is estimated that after the next year, it will be able to operate by itself without the need to transport important materials from Lushun.

But Ding Yi reckoned that it would not be something that could be accomplished in the last two or three years if the senior officials completely broke away from Lushun's support.

After the meeting, Ding Yi decided to meet the Italian Priel.

Prior has been waiting for Ding Yi for several days.

In October of the ninth year of Chongzhen (1636), Purcell and Ding Yi agreed to exchange 2 taels of gold for rubber tree seeds.

At that time, Ding Yi sent two people to the American continent with Prior.

If it is already January of the 13th year of Chongzhen, more than three years have passed.

Many people who knew about this incident privately thought that Prier would not come, and ran away with the 1000 taels of gold deposit Ding Yi gave him, but they didn't expect that Prier actually came back.

After not seeing Prier for more than three years, Ding Yi almost couldn't recognize him when he saw Prier again.

"General Ding." More than three years ago, Priel couldn't even speak a word of Chinese characters, but now he can speak fluent Chinese when we meet each other.

His face was yellow, thin, and haggard. He was obviously a white man, but he was as dark as a black man. The moment he saw Ding Yi, he suddenly couldn't hold back. Wow, he burst into tears, and the tears flowed out. Show your true feelings.

The officers and generals looked at each other, not understanding why this foreigner had so much affection for Mr. Ding.

Ding Yi sighed for a while, and quickly supported him: "Plier, you have worked hard."

"Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..." plier cried for a while, out of breath, maybe he also thought that in today's world, no one understands his hard work better than ding yi.

It took him more than three years to go to the American continent. He had gone through untold hardships and narrowly escaped death.

When he went there, he had three ships, two of his own, and one sent by Ding Yi. Ding Yi sent two officers from the intelligence department and a few sailors, and hired some personnel for him.

The fleet has a total of 88 people, and finally returned to Dayuan, with only one boat and six people.

Both of the Intelligence Division also died on the way.

"I'm sorry, General Ding, but I couldn't bring Gao and Fu back."

"That's what they left for the general."

Prior took out a few pieces of parchment and handed it to Ding Yi carefully, and Ding Yi took it solemnly.

Prior took a deep look at him, and couldn't help but go back to the scene when Fu Zhenglong gave him the parchment.

In April last year, Fu Zhenglong became seriously ill and was about to die.

Mr. Gao died a year ago. When they landed in a certain area of ​​America, they were accidentally shot to death by arrows. Fu contracted some kind of disease in America. There were pus holes all over his body and he had fever every day.

Priel was still a little happy at the time, Mingren was dead, so no one knew what he had done here, so he could fool Ding Yi when he went back.

Unexpectedly, that night when Fu felt that he was not good enough, he called Prior.

"Fu, what do you have to explain?" Priel looked very sad. In fact, he was a little sad. We have been together for more than three years, and he has also learned Chinese. It is impossible to say that he has no feelings.

Trembling, Fu took out a few pieces of parchment, and said to him in a low voice: "Since we went to sea, we will record it on it every once in a while, or when there are major events."

"If you can return to the officer, please hand over this logbook to our Lord Ding."

Prior nodded quickly, but his eyes flickered, he thought, if there is anything wrong in this diary, I won't give it.

Fu seemed to have sensed something, and smiled wryly: "We have an appointment with Master Ding, either you don't go back, or if you go back and you don't see the journal, Master Ding will behead you."

"Hiss." Prey suddenly sucked in a cold breath.

Fu Youdao: "When we went to sea, Mr. Ding told us that if we can't go back, please bring our ashes back."

"Don't delete the diary, don't say that the handwriting is different, and how to end and start, we have a secret code with Mr. Ding, if the diary is incomplete, Mr. Ding must read it, and your head will be chopped off."

"Master Ding said, although you are cunning, you keep your promises, and we Ming people are the best at keeping your promises. 2 taels of gold will definitely not miss you."

"I hope you go back successfully, get your wealth, and enjoy the rest of your life."

Priel was startled and frightened, but Ding Yi had no idea that Ding Yi would be calculating every step of the way. Unless he didn't want the 2 taels of gold, he would have to follow suit.

After Fu's death, Purcell looked at the diary. Fu and Gao drew the continents they encountered along the way and their general directions. They also wrote down the things they encountered on each continent and the novelties they discovered.

What's more, Priel and them exchanged iron tools for eighteen seeds of that strange white sap tree.

Porcelain needs to be exchanged for dozens of pieces of gold in a certain place.

In short, all kinds of things that happened along the way were recorded on several large parchment papers.

Fu Yi used a thin iron needle to burn red with a candle, and then wrote on the sheepskin, leaving marks that could not be washed off with water, and were clear.

Priel had no choice but to delete or modify it.

(End of this chapter)