Chapter 124 Military Expenditure

Author: Use your soul to aim

Chapter 124 Military Expenditure

In order to ensure the smooth progress of the Hetao strategy, Zhang Zongxian also adjusted the curriculum for the academy’s disciples.

Two hours of military training were added to them every day.

And they were directly organized into a cavalry regiment, and the organization and equipment should be on par with the Qingshui Camp Cavalry Brigade.

Zhang Zongxian concurrently served as the regiment commander, and then he was appointed as the battalion commander according to his personal inheritance. The inner disciples served as officers, the outer disciples served as squad leaders, and the registered disciples were ordinary soldiers.

The entire college also turned to militarized management.

Not only that, the new youth camp in Qingshui Camp has also been expanded. Children who have not been admitted to the academy in Jiazhou can also come to the youth camp.

Even the poor young men in other military forts in Yanshou Town learned that they could have enough to eat after entering the camp.

People came to join the youth camp one after another. Within a month of its establishment, the number of people in the entire youth camp exceeded 1,000.

Moreover, there are teenagers from remote areas who are still on their way here. As the saying goes, a half-grown man will kill me, and most of them are the second sons of the family.

You can't inherit the family business, you can only go out and make a living.

Children entering the youth camp do not receive military pay, but they will be provided with corresponding daily necessities.

During the day, in addition to daily training, these children are also responsible for taking care of the horses and cleaning weapons.

In the evening, after dinner, there was a literacy class, where intern outer disciples taught them literacy and told them history.

The outstanding ones among them can also enter the academy for further study after passing the assessment, and then directly become outer disciples.

Although the youth camp disciples do not need military pay, so many off-duty personnel need to be supported, causing military expenditures to rise sharply.

As of mid-June, including the youth camp, Zhang Zongxian's military strength directly controlled nearly 10,000 people.

The military forces currently controlled by Zhang Zongxian are divided into:

First, each county recruited troops. Each county had a reinforced company of line infantry and an artillery company equipped with six five-pound cannons.

In addition, it is planned to reserve 3,000 flintlock muskets and 12 five-pound cannons in military camps in various counties.

The young men in each county will conduct training in batches during the slack period. When necessary, each county can pull out a line infantry brigade.

At present, only Qingjian County has completed the training.

Changsheng Fort in Qingjian County also has a complete line infantry battalion.

Not counting equipment costs, the military salary expenses for a month are 7,000 taels plus 2,000 taels for food.

Half of the expenses are borne by the counties, and the rest is subsidized by Zhang Zongxian. That is 4,000 taels.

Then there is the strength of a regiment composed of college disciples. It has not yet formed a combat effectiveness.

The disciples of the academy have no military pay but only living expenses, and they use Zhang Zongxian's private account.

Finally, there are the cavalry brigades and youth battalions that are being formed in Qingshui Camp and Huangpu Chuanbao. At present, the cavalry brigade has completed the formation of a cavalry regiment and a teaching regiment.

There is also a cavalry battalion under the name of the escort agency, which rotates with the cavalry regiment of Qingshui battalion to protect the caravan.

Because of Boren's objection, he believed that this would affect the training of the cavalry brigade, so the cavalry battalion would later return to Qingshui Camp, and Changsheng Fort organized another cavalry company to protect the caravan.

Coupled with the shortage of officers, the original plan to hide a cavalry brigade in the escort was abandoned.

After the formation of the cavalry brigade is completed, the monthly salary expenditure for the entire cavalry brigade will be 19,000 taels.

Including that one horse is equivalent to the food cost of three infantrymen, the food cost for a month is 12,500 taels.

The youth camp does not require military pay. Just to take care of the meals requires 800 taels per month.

The current purchase price of a long flintlock gun is 4 taels of silver, a five-pound bronze cannon is 350 taels, and a ten-pound bronze cannon is 800 taels.

A soldier's full equipment costs 5 taels of silver.

Just to support the army for a few months without monthly expenses would cost 40,000 taels of silver.

Fortunately, Zhang Zongxian's business territory is constantly expanding.

The horse market, which created huge profits in the early days, is still growing rapidly every month.

With the increase in production, the price of spirits has dropped to two taels of silver. If you sell five kilograms of wine on the grassland, you can still get a horse.

The caravan from the horse market has already gone to Hami, transporting not only spirits, but also tea and silk business.

Many merchants from the south came to the horse market and directly exchanged porcelain, tea, sugar, silk, and cotton for horses, spirits, and wool.

The caravans below the horse market took iron pots, tea, cotton cloth, spirits, and salt to the grassland to exchange for horses, cattle, sheep, and furs.

Moreover, Ma Shi had the Qingshui Camp under the control of Zhang Zongxian to break out of the border wall, which prevented him from being exploited by the border army generals.

It is less than six hundred miles from Qingshuiying to Guihua City. A caravan affiliated with Ma Shi even has a store in Guihua City.

This makes it impossible for the smugglers who originally monopolized this area to compete in the horse market, and even underhanded tactics cannot defeat the caravans with flintlock guns.

The master behind the scenes had nothing to do with Zhang Zongxian, and the border troops did not dare to provoke the horse market's caravan.

The horse market provides Zhang Zongxian with a profit of no less than 200,000 taels of silver every month, but there is very little cash and most of it is goods.

These goods are provided to major workshops.

Just down from the horse market is the woolen workshop. After the new workshop using large animal-powered spinning wheels was built, the supply of wool could not keep up with the production speed of the workshop.

The wool workshop currently has hundreds of large animal-powered spinning wheels and produces four thousand kilograms of wool per day.

The price of wool has naturally dropped. Currently, a pound of wool has dropped to eight cents. This is due to insufficient wool supply.

If we continue to add more machines, the price of wool can continue to drop.

When some businessmen saw that a large animal-powered spinning wheel could produce hundreds of kilograms of yarn per day, they immediately purchased their own large spinning wheel and started spinning cotton thread.

XCMG is receiving continuous orders and its workshop is constantly expanding.

The entire wool workshop produces 120,000 kilograms of wool per month, with a profit of 70,000 taels per month.

After Zhang Zongxian promoted coal briquettes, the demand for coal increased, and more and more people began to use briquettes.

A coal mining boom has spread throughout northern Shaanxi, and in Jiazhou, with the support of the state government, new mines are being excavated every day.

Not only coal mines, but also iron mines. The main revenue in this area comes from the monopoly of briquettes and the withheld mineral taxes.

The monopoly on selling briquettes mainly cooperates with local people, and the profit is not high. It is still summer, and the current focus is on opening up trade routes.

Currently, more than 10,000 taels of tax can be withheld every month, and it is still growing rapidly.

Another surprise for Zhang Zongxian was the profits from the insurance industry. Insurance was originally established to provide protection for miners.

It also makes the boss of the mine value the lives of miners.

With the boom in mining, the number of people engaged in mining has increased to more than 10,000, and the insurance money collected by major mines has exceeded 10,000 taels.

After the Xiazhou Chamber of Commerce was established, Zhang Zongxian mentioned the benefits of insurance to the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce considered that paying insurance was similar to paying protection fees to Zhang Zongxian.

Soon the insurance money deposited in Taiping increased to 30,000 taels, and it was thought that the number of workers who were now out of work reached 30,000.

It cannot be said that Zhang Zongxian separated the insurance business from Taiping and handed it over to Xiaoxue to manage. Anyway, with Zhang Zongxian's guidance, there is no need to worry about anything happening.

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