Chapter 92
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After a deep conversation with Zhao Shun, Liu Jun realized that he was a little too naive before. It was not so easy to build an efficient and high-yield firearm workshop. Now it seems that you won’t think of self-sufficient in a short period of time.
After deciding on the development direction of the workshop with Zhao Shun, Liu Jun returned to his public housing and began to calculate expenses with the account book. Previously, the funds raised, the help of the queen urban and rural gentry, and the rewards from the bandit suppression. In addition, Li Chunjiang first took out 10,000 taels of silver to account, which added up a lot, but it was spent very quickly.
The settlement fee for the team members, the rewards for the bandit suppression, and even the rewards for the usual training plus food expenses, and the purchase of military equipment, can't stand such a spending.
There are still 3,000 taels of silver on the books, and this amount of money can't last long. The Nine-Headed Bird Group of nearly 600 team members has a salary of over 1,000 taels per month, and there are more than 200 horses. People and horses can earn hundreds of taels per month, not to mention that they consume a lot of training every day.
Fortunately, there was a fortune.
Wang Qian had already taken Ye Busuo team to Qiting secretly and brought back the antique gold, silver and calligraphy. With this gold, silver worth more than 30,000 yuan, Liu Jun had the courage to expand his team in such a large scale.
My father-in-law Lu Weizhang told him several times that he could use money to find him directly, but Liu Jun is not planning to use the Lu family's money yet. It's not that he is noble, but that he doesn't need it for the time being.
"The firearm workshops need to recruit skilled craftsmen to purchase tools such as drilling machines, and also purchase fine iron and copper materials. The expenses are quite large, but they cannot be saved or cut. Initial estimates, the initial investment will be several thousand taels of silver."
Liu Jun thought in his mind, "The other nine Yuanzhai have already started construction, and the construction period has to be rushed, and the materials and labor are also a lot of money."
The more Liu Jun counts, the more trouble he has, the more he has. The Nine-Headed Bird Group is now completely in and out, and this is not a long-term thing.
"I have to purchase a batch of military equipment immediately. This cannot be waited. Although the new team members are organized into groups, they do not have the corresponding military equipment."
There are more than 600 people in the regiment, including nearly 400 formal team members, one department, three bureaus and one central military flag. Among them, there are more than 100 bird gunners alone. Among them, there are three flags and nine teams of the Cavalry Bureau, each team has four bird gunners, and the Cavalry Bureau has thirty-six bird gunners. The Infantry Bureau, each flag has two bird gunners, each team has eleven bird gunners, and one flag has twenty-two gunners, and the overall situation is sixty-six bird gunners.
In addition, the Central Army Flag is equipped with many bird guns, and the one with the most equipment among the official team members is the bird gun, about one-third of which are bird gunners. Last time, Mei Zhihuan sold him a belt and gave him a hundred bird guns, which was obviously not enough.
What's more, the reserve team will also be equipped with a large number of bird gun training. The infantry in the reserve team will have 132 bird gunners in two games.
There will be more than 200 bird gunners in the entire Nine-Headed Bird Group.
He had to order at least three hundred more bird guns to ensure that the bird guns were sufficient and could be replaced.
In addition, there are also many waist knives, double-handed blades, shields, palladium boring, hook guns, spears, bows and arrows, etc. The price of these equipment is not low. He paid twenty taels of silver for a bird gun last time, and Liu Jun didn't want to spend so much money this time.
Since it is now an official army, the price is naturally cheaper.
The next morning, Lu Jinxi came. Liu Jun was about to go to the county, but he came first.
Lu Jinxi was looking at the resettlement of those refugees, and also came to see the situation of the Jiutou Bird Group training. He had great expectations for Liu Jun.
Liu Jun did not disappoint him, so he deliberately assembled all the nearly 600 team members and invited Lu Jinxi and his gentry to review the team members' demarcation queues.
It has to be said that although there are a large number of new recruits in this team, after a short training camp, the recruits have not learned anything else, but the pace is already well-arranged. When the Nine-Headed Birds team members are all wearing uniform training uniforms, following the department flag team, one by one, one by one, and one by one, Lu Jinxi and other lay officials and gentry were greatly satisfied.
In their opinion, the Nine-Headed Bird Group is very powerful. The unified military uniform, neat steps, loud slogans, and the fiery red flags, especially the last performance of the bird gun team, the three-stage fire of the gun team, and the volley of the tiger squatting cannon, which was simply a shaking movement of the earth and earth.
"Okay, okay, very good!" Lu Jinxi shook his head, which was still buzzing, and kept praising Liu Jun. In his opinion, it was necessary to train for three or five months, even if he was under Shangguan's inspection in this way, he could pass the test.
Liu Jun smiled and did not say that those who were just good things just now were just good things. He would not take the initiative to say that, in fact, the "report performance" he arranged today was originally intended to shock Lu Jinxi and then make his own request.
Liu Jun’s request was very simple. First, he had already raised the group training now. Five hundred training courage was only a good deal, and there was no one who could just fill the gap. Therefore, now Lu Magistrate has to fulfill his promise. The county has to pay the salary and monthly food for the Jiutou Bird Group. Second, the county has to pay the equipment for the Jiutou Bird Group.
The nine-headed bird belongs to the county troupe training. Although the court imposed a few million taels of salary this time, the money was not for the county troupe training, but for the governors and generals of the border towns. The salary for the county troupe training must be raised by the county local governments themselves. To put it bluntly, it still has to rely on the additional fee and raise funds from the landlords and wealthy businessmen.
Lu Jinxi was also prepared for it.
"Every month's salary is five cents and four dou of food per month."
Liu Jun shook his head. This amount of money is too small. Five cents a month are only six taels a year. It sounds less than archers. There are seven taels a year when archers are still there.
Lu Jinxi was also a little helpless, but in fact he was stuck in the middle and was in a dilemma. Originally, Jian Yong was different from archers. The archers and soldiers were on duty all year round, while Jian Yong was only occasionally practiced, so it was impossible to get the annual food and food silver. Five cents of silver and four dou of rice per month were already a good condition for him to offer.
But this condition cannot meet Liu Jun.
"Master, the Jiutou Bird Group is not just a good product, not to deal with the inspection by the boss. You should see the current situation around you, with bandits everywhere. Jiutou Bird is stationed in Taiping Township, guarding Hutou Pass, and defending the surrounding barriers. We are truly guarding the northern border of Macheng, and the mission is important."
What Liu Jun proposed is also very suitable.
"How much do you think is appropriate?"
"Each person pays two taels of silver per month, plus six dou of monthly food." Liu Jun spoke.
Lu Jinxi kept shook his head, "Too many, too many." There were nearly 600 people in the Nine-Headed Bird Group. If each person had two taels of silver plus six dou of grain per month, then one month would be nearly 1,200 taels of silver plus three hundred and sixty stones of grain, which would be calculated as a total of nearly 1,500 taels of silver per month.
The county cannot take out this money at all, and it has to be distributed to the people, the gentry, landlords and wealthy businessmen. One thousand five months a month, that is 18,000 yuan a year. Macheng County has only a population of tens of thousands of households.
No one would agree to pay the money.
"Master, you can't both want the horse to run and not let the horse eat grass. Our group training is also guarding the village. If there is no salary or food, how can we guard our hometown? You must know that what we are facing now is not just some small thieves, but some giant bandits sweeping around the world. If they are allowed to flow into Macheng, I believe the consequences will be that no one will be spared. At that time, everyone's property will not only be protected, but also their lives will be protected."
Lu Jinxi said in embarrassment, "That's the case, but you want too much. Baosheng Castle is more numerous than the Nine-Headed Birds and is stronger than you, but he is not as big as you."
Because Baosheng Fort is a joint armed force of gentry and landlords, their operation methods have always been solved by themselves. By holding a salary and banquet, they raise funds from the landlords and gentry shops, and there is no need for the county government to come forward. The number of donations of each company is not mandatory. However, Baosheng Fort was established by those big families, so although they consume a lot every year, they are not short of money.
Liu Jun now wants the county to pay a fixed salary, which is different.
However, Liu Jun refused to let go. He did not have the prestige and favors of Mei Zhihuan and others, and could not respond to it. Jiutou had raised funds once before and received thousands of taels of silver, but that was just the face of Mei Zhihuan and Li Changgeng, not his. If he wanted to come out to raise funds, he would definitely not receive much money.
"One thousand taels!" Liu Jun stretched out a finger, "One thousand taels of silver per month."
This is his bottom line. Since Lu Jinxi wants them to change to the banner of group training, he must give money. It is impossible not to give money. Macheng is a famous rich county, with many gentry, landlords and wealthy businessmen. Although the county pays very little taxes every year, it does not mean that the people in the county have no money.
"I think it's worth it if you can get the help of 600 brave men for one thousand taels of silver."
"Think about it, Da Mazi is just a small pawn under the command of the thief Li Zicheng, and can cause a big storm in the county. Not to mention robbing Guang Huangdao for a long time, just by slaughtering the entire Linjia Village, you can know how fierce these bandits are. If the old Hui Hui Ge Liyan waits for these big bandits to enter Macheng, then maybe the entire Macheng County will be slaughtered, and it is not uncommon for the bandits to slaughter the village and destroy the village."
Didn’t Liu Jun scare Lu Jinxi? Who were Lao Huihui and others? They rushed into Fengyang, dug up the emperor’s ancestral tomb, and killed all the rich people in Fengyang.
It can be said that maybe ordinary people don’t have to be too afraid of bandits. Those people have nothing to be worthy of bandits. But the rich are different. Whenever bandits go to a place, they never show mercy to the rich, and they will kill all of them and will not let go.
"I'll go back to contact the gentry and discuss this matter." Lu Jinxi did not agree directly, but Liu Jun knew that the matter was almost done. Although the price of the Nine-Headed Bird is high, it also has excellent performance in bandit suppression. With today's performance, he believes that the gentry will think that the Nine-Headed Bird can be worth the price.
"Okay, let's talk about the equipment that the county promised to train for the group!" Liu Jun said with a smile.
Chapter completed!