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Chapter 495 Such a fleet, give me two first
Li Huan opened his mouth to ask for 300 million taels of silver from the household department, and it seemed that it was only used to weed out the old and the weak and recruit new soldiers. Cheng Yuan, the left servant of the household department, got up almost reflexively and said: , 300 million taels to weed out the old and the weak is simply impossible, the Ministry of Households has no money..."

In the past, the imperial court paid 300 million taels to Jiubian every year, which was quite good, but now Li Huan asked for 300 million taels directly. Cheng Yuan reacted fiercely, and opened his mouth to refuse.

How much money do you really want in the Ministry of Accounts?

Many officials also frowned. In their opinion, it was too much investment for Li Huan to spend so much money to weed out the old and weak in the border town.

Li Huan just said indifferently: "Everyone, I have a total of more than 51 soldiers and horses on the Nine Frontiers of the Ming Dynasty. Leaving aside the part of them who are paid for nothing, the actual number is at least 35 to 40. Even if it is based on [-]% Counting the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled, there are more than [-] soldiers who will be eliminated from the Nine Sides this time."

Listening to Li Huan's words, many officials frowned wildly. Although they knew that there were many soldiers on the Nine Sides, no one cared about how many troops there were on the Nine Sides.

Listening to Li Huan's calculation now, it naturally shocked everyone.

Then I heard Li Huan continue: "More than one hundred thousand soldiers, let alone more, sending one away, and sending out 20 taels of silver is not too much! In this way, two or three million taels will be needed. Or should you say that the adults will eliminate the soldiers?" I won’t give out any money from Ming soldiers?”

Many people were speechless when they heard Li Huan's calculation.

Weeding out the old and the weak will naturally cost money, otherwise, would it really be so easy to talk to those soldiers?If there is forced elimination without compensation, who knows what these soldiers who retreated from the border town will do.

So no matter what, if you want to reorganize the border town, then this sum of money must be paid.

Looking at Cheng Yuan and the others, Li Huan smiled lightly and said, "My lords still think that Li asked the Ministry of Households to allocate 300 million taels to weed out the old and the weak and recruit new recruits, and it will cost a lot?"

Zhu Houzhao also looked at Wang Yangming and other civil servants.

Under the watchful eyes of the Son of Heaven, Wang Yangming nodded and said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty, the court has paid the money!"

Zhu Houzhao nodded with a smile, "That's very good!"

Zhu Houzhao pondered for a while and said, "Afterwards, repairing the defenses of the border towns and building armors will inevitably require money, and you will have to worry about this matter."

Compared with eliminating the old and the weak, repairing the defenses of border towns, and building armors, I am afraid that more money will be spent, but with the emperor and Li Huan watching, no matter what the court officials think, this sum of money must be spent. out.

In the past, that's all. They could justify the lack of money in the national treasury, but now that the treasury is filled like never before, they have no reason to object even if they want to.

With a light cough, Zhu Hou looked at Li Huan, and said with some curiosity: "Li Qing, you said earlier that you would spend tens of millions of taels to rebuild our Daming Sea Fleet in the past. Isn't this too expensive? Suddenly, I understand why the Second Patriarch Renxuan gave up such a huge fleet."

Obviously, this was Zhu Houzhao's subconscious emotion when he learned that Li Huan was going to invest so much money in that fleet.

After all, before Li Huan implemented the tax reform, among the tax revenue of the imperial court over the years, apart from grain and fodder, the real tax revenue was actually only four to five million taels.

It can be imagined that under this kind of tax revenue, even if the imperial court wants to support Kaihai, I am afraid that there is not such a large amount of money to support the reconstruction of the fleet.

After all, according to what Li Huan said, opening his mouth is an investment of tens of millions of taels, which emperor can bear it.

Even though the former Li Huan confiscated hundreds of millions of money from Jiangnan, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but be moved by it.

Seeing the Son of Heaven expressing emotion, a minister beside him smiled and said: "Your Majesty, since rebuilding the Daming Fleet is costly, it is better not to build it or to reduce the size of the fleet. After all, our Daming Navy is not useless now."

But before this person finished speaking, Li Huan sneered and said: "Master Zhou really thinks that I, the Great Ming Navy, can be used?"

Zhou Ling couldn't help frowning, he was just a civil servant, so naturally he didn't know the situation of the court navy, so when faced with Li Huan's questioning, in the past, he would naturally refute it, but now he dare not speak recklessly.

At this moment, Zhu Fu, the Duke of Cheng, coughed lightly and stepped forward, saying: "At the time of Taizu, the Great Ming Navy, it was said to be at its peak, with thousands of warships, and even Emperor Wenzong, the three treasure eunuchs made seven voyages to the Western Seas, dispatching ships of all sizes at every turn. There are hundreds of them. It can be said that the strength of our navy at that time was the highest in all dynasties. However, the years have passed. After a hundred years, our Ming navy has rarely replenished ships, and many of the ships used were built decades ago. , no matter in terms of scale or strength, it cannot be compared with the past. If we open the sea, our Daming navy alone may protect the safety of our Daming caravan in the near sea, but the sea is worrying, and it is necessary to build a new ship In order to enhance the combat power of the navy."

When Zhu Fu opened his mouth, Zhu Houzhao glanced at everyone in the imperial study room, nodded slightly and said, "What Cheng Guogong said is very true."

At this time, Li Huan explained: "Your Majesty, I have checked historical data. According to historical data, during the Yongle period in the past, Zheng Gong, the eunuch of the Three Treasures, made seven voyages to the West and built countless ships, many of which are still in use today. Especially the Daming Treasure Ship, the cost of just one ship is nearly ten thousand taels."

Zhu Houzhao obviously didn't know these things in detail, and even Zhu Houzhao couldn't help being a little surprised when he heard that a ship was worth tens of thousands of taels.

Don't look at the hundreds of thousands or millions of money and food involved when they discussed politics, but in the Ming Dynasty, the value of silver was quite important.

A folk family of four spends no more than ten taels a year. This shows that the cost of a treasure ship alone requires nearly ten thousand taels, which shows how expensive it is.

Li Huan saw the reaction of the emperor's expression in his eyes, and a detailed introduction about the treasure ship among the ships of the Ming Dynasty emerged in his mind.

I only heard Li Huan said with emotion: "Your Majesty, you know that the largest of my Ming Dynasty ships is more than forty feet long and nearly twenty feet wide. It is four stories high and has nine masts. It weighs more than a thousand catties, and two or three hundred people are needed just to drive the treasure ship. The ship is loaded with tens of hundreds of cannons and nearly a thousand soldiers, which is completely a sea fortress."

To be honest, when Li Huan consulted the records about the Daming Treasure Ship, he really marveled at the size of the Daming Treasure Ship. If its data is converted into modern data, it is more than 140 meters long, more than [-] meters wide, and the displacement is nearly [-] meters. A giant of ten thousand tons.

Compared with the Columbus fleet a hundred years later, the displacement of the largest flagship, the Santa Maria, was only a few hundred tons. In terms of displacement alone, the treasure ship of the Ming Dynasty was almost a hundred times that.

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but opened his eyes wide, and said in astonishment: "My Daming has such a huge ship?"

Thanks to the Ming Dynasty’s policy of banning the sea, it can be said that the officials above the court pay little attention to the Daming navy, even Zhu Houzhao, who is the emperor, has never been in contact with these, so that the dignified emperor has nothing to do with his own navy. known.Not to mention the size and number of ships owned by the Navy.

Cheng Guogong Zhu Fu, who was a veteran of several dynasties, could not help stepping forward after hearing the emperor's emotion: "Your Majesty, you know how large the scale of the Sanbao eunuch's voyages to the West was in the past. There are dozens of such treasure ships alone. There are many, and the rest of the auxiliary ships are as large as two or three hundred, and the number of soldiers and other personnel can reach more than [-] at the time."

Zhu Fu said with a look of fascination: "You must know that our dynasty's military achievements reached its peak in the Yongle Dynasty, and other things aside, Shan Chen listened to what my father said. At the peak of the Yongle Dynasty, our dynasty had 3800 ships. Among them are 1350 patrol ships, more than 1400 warships, and 400 large ships and 400 grain transport ships stationed at the Xinjiangkou base in Nanjing, of which 250 are ocean-going treasure ships. Order ship."

While speaking, Zhu Fu said with a bit of pride: "And the famous Zheng He fleet is actually just a sea fleet of my navy. As for the maritime combat fleet, if I am willing, I can even arm three or four fleets at the same time."

After Zhu Fu's words fell, everyone in the imperial study showed horror.

If this is what other people said, they must think that the other party is blowing their minds, but don't forget that Cheng Guogong Zhu Fu has gone through several dynasties, and when he remembers things, it is only a dozen or 20 years away from the Yongle Dynasty, so Speaking of many things about the Yongle Dynasty, Zhu Fu's words have extremely high credibility.

Besides, if you really want to investigate such things, it is really not difficult to be honest. After all, it has only been nearly a hundred years in the past, and it is completely possible to find out the exact size of the Daming Navy back then.

Li Huan took a deep breath and bowed to the emperor: "Your Majesty, if the ancestors can have such courage, let alone we wait!"

Zhu Houzhao's blood boiled for a while, and he said excitedly: "Build, it must be built. I want to build an invincible sea fleet that can cross the sea and run amok."

To be honest, Zhu Houzhao was really stimulated, and it’s fine if he doesn’t understand, but now that Zhu Houzhao has learned how glorious the Daming Navy was in the past, how could he, the emperor, be indifferent.

If it is really limited by the financial problems of the court, then that's fine, but now that the court has abundant finances, if he doesn't have the heart to build a naval fleet, it's too inconsistent with Zhu Houzhao's temperament of liking military affairs .

Seeing Zhu Hou looking at Li Huan, he said with some expectations: "Li Qing, tell me how many ships you want to build, and whether they can surpass the heyday of Emperor Wenzong's dynasty."

Li Huan took a deep breath and said: "Your Majesty, according to my estimates, if a great Ming ship is built, a ship will be equipped with artillery, gunpowder, gunpowder, and even the armor and other weapons required by the soldiers. A ship will need personnel, weapons, etc. It consumes as much as 4 taels of silver."

Li Huan said again: "A fleet needs dozens of treasure ships, and then supplemented by hundreds of other large and small ships such as supply ships, troop carriers, and reconnaissance ships. The money required is by no means a small amount."

Hearing what Li Huan said, Zhu Houzhao breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Based on this calculation, building a fleet will cost several million taels, which is not expensive."

A group of civil servants on the side couldn't help grinning when they heard the words. A fleet cost millions of taels. If this is not expensive, then what is expensive?

The emperor didn't even think about it, if it was in the past, almost half of next year's taxes would be spent in order to build a fleet, it would be strange if they could agree.

But thinking about the nearly 2000 million taels of gold and silver that Li Huan now holds in his hands, and comparing it with the money spent on building a fleet, it doesn't seem so scary.

As soon as a thought arose in their hearts, many people quickly shook their heads to drive out the weird thoughts that arose in their hearts.What the hell, when did they feel that the cost of millions of taels was not much.

Seeing a flash of light in the eyes of the emperor, he waved his big hand and said: "In this case, let's build two fleets first, and I want the sea area of ​​​​Daming to be safe from now on."

In the sixth year of Zhengde in Ming Dynasty, after the new year, the people of Ming Dynasty clearly felt the difference of this year.

Especially the people in prefectural capitals adjacent to the Yellow River, Huaihe River and other big rivers looked at the notice posted by the imperial court to recruit laborers with money. For the first time, they found out that the imperial court would send them money and food when they served for the imperial court. Never before.

In addition to these places, the local governments also took advantage of the slack season to start recruiting people to repair water conservancy facilities with the money allocated from above.

The water conservancy facilities, official roads and other infrastructure in many places can be said to have been abandoned for more than ten or twenty years, and they have become decorations, but this time the court has clearly made up its mind, not only sending hundreds of inspectors , and even dispatched Jinyiwei to inspect the localities, and fully supervised whether the officials in various places were lazy in governing, corrupt and accepting bribes.

On almost half of the land of the Ming Dynasty, countless people began to carry out infrastructure construction such as water conservancy and official road repairs. At the same time, the nine municipal bureaus set up by the imperial court in Ningbo, Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Huating, which are adjacent to the coastal areas, also began to fulfill their duties. its duties.

Among them, Ningbo, Guangzhou, Quanzhou and other cities once set up city ship divisions. Although they were dismissed later, they had a foundation after all, so they completed the resettlement of city ship divisions in a very short period of time. As for Huating, Qingdao, etc. Several municipal bureaus are building their offices while building institutions.

Following the order of the imperial court to open the sea and promote maritime trade, the southeast coast was shaken.

March of the sixth year of Zhengde
Li Huan led dozens of officials from the Ministry of Industry and master craftsmen transferred from the Ministry of Industry and the Royal House of Internal Affairs to Nanjing by boat.

On the ferry, dozens of nobles and officials from Nanjing, including Wei Guogong Xu Chu, Nanjing left-behind eunuch Feng Tai, appeared on the pier to greet them.

[Those who have a monthly pass will smash the monthly pass. 】

(End of this chapter)