The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 48 Logistical Issues
Song Yingxing took out a pen and paper at that time, preparing to add the boring machine to the next edition of "Tiangong Kaiwu".

He didn't give up until Zhu Linmi announced that the crucible steelmaking, hydraulic forging machines, and boring machines were all military secrets.

The old man was full of energy, absorbed all kinds of natural science knowledge from Zhu Linmi like a sponge, turned on the lights at night, and began to write the first set of systematic textbooks in the history of Ming Dynasty, sleeping only two or three hours a day.

Under Zhu Linmei's suggestion, this set of textbooks is temporarily divided into four parts: "Physics", "Chemistry", "Biology", and "Math and Geometry".

Of course, Song Yingxing also added to the compilation work of "Xin Tiangong Kaiwu" in private. The first page is the production method of Zhu Linming's bamboo fountain pen.Yesterday he even brought his two nephews from the same family to the Longwei Barracks to help with copying and other work.

At noon, Long Weijun's list of expenses for this month was presented to Zhu Linmi.

The bill made him frown greatly. Just buying meat and vegetables cost nearly 2000 taels of silver!
He remembered that Yu Xin once reported that the monthly food expenses of the entire army were 1600 taels.When he asked, he found out that the price of meat in Longnan had more than doubled in the past seven or eight days because of the hoarding by profiteers!

It seemed that the logistical supply problem had to be addressed.However, Zhu Linmi didn't have time to fight these profiteers. Even if he solved the profiteers in Longnan, he might still encounter similar problems after leaving Longnan.

His solution is very simple - to introduce the "military logistics commercial contract system" of later generations.

The selection of logistics suppliers still adopts the method of bidding. Right now, they still need to buy the soldiers' winter clothes and war horses, so they can just invite bids together.

Due to the good demonstration effect of Long Weijun's bidding and procurement last time, twelve merchants came to bid this time.Among them are even Huizhou merchants and merchants from Shaozhou, Guangdong.

The logistics department of the Dragon Guard Army newly formed by Zhu Linmei is in charge of the bidding.

In the logistics department, Ying Tianxiang is temporarily in charge of the supervisor, responsible for managing daily affairs.But the decision-making power is in the hands of the General Affairs Group of the Logistics Department composed of eight military officers, and all purchases of more than twelve taels must be approved by the General Affairs Group.As the interim team leader, Zhu Linmei has a veto power.

The logistics department will be responsible for the bidding work of all grain, grass and equipment procurement of the Longwei Army, and will manage and distribute logistics materials in a unified manner.

In the future, the logistics department will also set up multiple branch departments such as transportation, warehouse management, and maintenance to realize an integrated system for purchasing, storing, and repairing logistics materials.

The purchase of military logistics materials will no longer go through the hands of officers at all levels, thus greatly reducing the possibility of embezzling funds.The number of Dragon Guards is still small, coupled with Zhu Linmi's personal prestige, there has been no corruption for the time being.

But in the future, the logistics of the 10,000+ army will definitely not be under his control, and there will inevitably be people who see profit and forget justice.Therefore, using the system to minimize the possibility of corruption from the very beginning is his only choice.

In fact, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were still many Ming armies whose combat effectiveness was enough to fight the Qing army head-on, but it was often the poor logistical support capabilities that eventually dragged them down.

Not long ago, the tens of thousands of volunteers in Zhejiang were disbanded due to insufficient food and supplies.Similar examples are simply too numerous to enumerate.

Long Weijun's bidding efficiency is very high.On the day of the bidding meeting, in just one hour, several merchants won the bids for multiple procurement projects.

In total, the price of 5000 sets of cotton-padded clothes, coir raincoats, and quilts was 7700 taels. Liu Ji of Ganzhou Prefecture won the bid, and he also provided free sewing services when he was stationed in the camp.

2000 sets of military uniforms and 2000 pairs of leather boots were still won by the previous suppliers Ganzhou Fu Zhenjia and Longnan Xueji, and the price was [-]% lower than the previous batch.

The asking price for 1000 sets of knee-length cotton armor is 16000 taels, and the winning bidder is Zhangjia, a merchant from Huizhou.

To say that Huizhou merchants are really strong, although most of Anhui has been captured by the Qing army, the Zhang family's business in all parts of the country is still going on as usual.Especially for military embargoes like cotton armor, the Zhang family managed to transport them from the north of the Yangtze River to Ganzhou.

Finally, the highlight of this bidding, which is the bidding for the logistics supply of the Dragon Guards, began.

To be honest, at first these merchants were a little worried about this new concept—the bidding notice stated that the bidders should be fully responsible for the supply of grain, fodder, drinking water, medicinal materials and even fuel for the Dragon Guards.Merchants must prepare their own transportation vehicles, follow the army throughout the expedition, and deliver materials to the designated location of the Logistics Department at any time.

The risks in this are still very large.For example, when following the Dragon Guards, what Chinese people like to do most in war is to rob and burn food and grass, which means that if they are not careful, these supplies will be wiped out.

In addition, there were no roads in the Ming Dynasty, and the transportation cost was quite high, even several times higher than the price of grain and grass itself.

Until Zhu Linming stated that once the grain and grass hijacked and damaged by the enemy were verified, the Longwei Army would bear [-]% of the cost.The transportation cost is calculated according to the distance between the army and the grain-producing area. The farther you go, the higher the transportation cost, and the states and counties along the way will be notified to provide certain escorts.

The most important thing is that Long Weijun settles the logistics contractors in cash!The goods are delivered and the payment is made immediately.

You must know that according to the commercial transaction habits of the Ming Dynasty, such a large transaction usually takes three months to be paid, or even half a year is normal.

The cash can be returned quickly, and the cash can be used to invest and make money. This is undoubtedly very attractive to merchants.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty already had the "opening the Chinese law" - the imperial court asked merchants to store grain and grass in designated places in exchange for salt, and the merchants then sold the salt to make money.It's just that Zhu Linming's method is more thorough and more attractive to businessmen.

In the end, six merchants bid to contract the logistics of the Dragon Guards.The winning bidders were Zhao Ji from Shaozhou and Zhen's family from Ganzhou.

The reason for having two suppliers is to ensure that one supply can be replenished in time when there is a problem with the other, and secondly, the price can be regulated through multiple decentralized purchases.

Zhao Ji and Zhen's family quickly signed a contract with the Longwei Army Logistics Department.The two are respectively responsible for [-]% and [-]% of the logistics supply of Longwei Camp.

From now on, they must transport rice, vegetables, meat, medicine, carbon, etc. to within ten miles of the military camp according to the demand set by the logistics department, and the delivery time should not exceed one day. .

The food and grass of the Dragon Guards can only be purchased from the two of them.The price of grain and grass of the two companies can fluctuate according to the market price, but if it exceeds the market price too much, Long Weijun has the right to terminate the cooperation.

Of course, the quotations of the two companies are nearly [-]% more expensive than the grain and grass on the market, but this includes transportation costs.Even so, it is still much lower than the prices of vegetables and meat sold by profiteers in Longnan recently.

These professional merchants can transport supplies at a lower cost and with higher efficiency than the army maintaining a transport brigade by itself.

In addition, doing so can avoid the corruption of the officials who escorted the grain and grass, and most of the unexpected losses during the transportation will be borne by the merchants.

In fact, Long Weijun's current purchases of grain, grass, medicine, etc. are not a big deal for Zhao Ji and the Zhen family.

But what they fancy is long-term cooperation, and at the same time, they are betting that the scale of the Dragon Guard will continue to expand as the war progresses, and then they will be able to make a lot of money.

Later facts proved that they have a long-term vision.

　Thanks to the repatriated Africans for their generosity!
　　Thank you 185******29 for your generous reward!
　　Thank you very much for your support, you are my driving force to keep going!Thanks!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)