Chapter 443 Problems caused by military expansion

"I must remind you here not to think that the existing thousands of troops are enough to protect our personal safety and interests. Our military is indeed stronger than its contemporary opponents in terms of combat effectiveness, but its shortcomings are also very obvious, that is

Troop size." Yan Chujie made a gesture, and the orderly immediately hung a new map on the wall. It could be seen that the Military Commission had made quite sufficient preparations for today's meeting.

This newly hung map covers a wider area, covering almost all areas currently accessible to Haihan ships.

Yan Chujie pointed to the map and continued to explain: "Please see, in addition to Hainan Island, we are currently actively expanding our power to the northeast and south, and have achieved very good results, but the land we occupy is not unreachable.

The main land must be protected by armed forces. You may wish to think about it, can a company of the army really be deployed in an area as vast as the Pearl River Estuary to achieve actual control? There are four more in the Indochina Peninsula in the south.

The planned port areas are waiting to be developed. These port areas will become our overseas territories in the future. Why not send troops to garrison them? There are also five-year plans formulated before we crossed over. One of them is to achieve actual military control of Hainan Island.

It is now the third year after time travel, and we are still quite far away from this goal. If we want to achieve actual control of the entire island, I think the number of militia groups stationed on the island must be maintained at least two regiments.

, and we only have two battalions now."

When everyone at the meeting heard this, they began to whisper among themselves. After all, Yan Chujie's tone this time was different from before. He had clearly proposed the establishment of a regiment-level combat system. If calculated based on the most basic establishment, the current militia army stationed on the island

If the scale is to be expanded to the regiment level, at least half of the troops must be added. If it is the "enhanced" establishment that the military has been pursuing, it will have to double the existing scale.

For ordinary militia soldiers, one year's salary, ordnance and uniforms, daily consumption, training expenses, etc. are added together, and each person needs an average of 200 yuan per year to maintain them. This does not include wartime rewards for official operations.

, post-war pensions, rewards, etc. are included. The current establishment of an army battalion is a reinforced battalion of about a thousand people, which means that it requires at least 200,000 yuan in military expenditures to increase the establishment of a battalion. This is only

It's just a very conservative estimate. If you calculate the costs of recruitment, training, and the elimination of soldiers during the training process, the actual military expenditure will increase by at least one-tenth. In addition, in the army's establishment, battalion-level units still have

It will be equipped with an artillery company. Although artillery is a separately organized unit, adding an artillery company is also an expense that cannot be ignored.

What is the concept of two hundred thousand yuan? This is almost half of the annual output value of the Shengli Port Saltworks Commune, and about one-thirtieth of Haihan's fiscal revenue last year. It is definitely not a dispensable amount. And the military had previously

The army expansion plan has always been based on company units, but this time it can be regarded as a lion's opening.

"Is it really necessary to directly expand to regiment-level combat units?" Gu Kai first questioned: "Now the company-level officers of the militia are basically our own people. If it is expanded to the regiment level, then company-level officers

Can we still maintain the current specifications?”

"If it is expanded to the regiment level, it will probably be necessary to promote some naturalized civilian officers. At least there will be a large number of naturalized civilian officers at the deputy company level. But I don't think this is a problem. We have

In the battles, a group of qualified grassroots officers have been gradually discovered and trained, allowing them to gradually take over the command of front-line troops. This is also a necessary process." In order to show that his views are well-founded, Yan Chujie also gave examples.

Explained: "For example, grassroots officers like Gao Qiaonan and Yu Tiezhu, whose loyalty and personal abilities are no problem, can be promoted to company commanders now. And our own people can also be promoted to the battalion level as the tide goes up.

Department, regiment headquarters, or serve in the staff department."

"No, no, no, I think you have misunderstood me." Gu Kai shook his head and said: "I am not worried about the career prospects of our people in the military system, but what can these naturalized civilian officers do after they are promoted?

They cannot reach the same or similar level of command. You must know that they do not know how to play with high-tech gadgets such as radios and walkie-talkies. The command system they can understand and use should still be at the level of flags, gongs and drums."

Yan Chujie said: "Don't underestimate the naturalized civilian officers. These people don't have much education and their knowledge is very limited. But as long as they have potential, they are basically selected into the officer training class to receive long-term training. Even so.

They don’t have walkie-talkies to use, but they have various actual combat examples and battle-tested tactics that we brought from hundreds of years later. They also have maps, sandboxes and powerful weapons to assist them. I can guarantee that these will be naturalized.

The tactical level and consciousness of the civilian officers are definitely far beyond those of their contemporary opponents. They are not stupider than you and me, they just need a window to see the outside world."

"How to solve the problem of expanding military spending? This year's budget probably doesn't include this part, right?" Seeing that Yan Chujie couldn't argue from this angle, Gu Kai had to change his question in another direction.

"It is true that it is not included in the budget, but this year's revenue in South Vietnam is also not included in the budget." Yan Chujie argued calmly: "Our seizures in Hue, plus the military expenses paid by Thang Long after the war, reduced

After deducting our operational expenses, there are still considerable benefits. Part of this has been used for the naval expansion plan in the first half of the year, but there is still some balance that can be used for the expansion of the army."

When Yan Chujie said this, he proudly stretched out his two fingers and shook his head: "At least it is enough to expand the establishment of two battalions."

"But military spending is not a one-time investment. The expansion of two battalions this year means that next year's military spending will also increase by hundreds of thousands!" Gu Kai continued to question Yan Chujie's statement.

"This is normal! Will our fiscal revenue next year stay at this year's level?" Yan Chujie spread his hands and said: "In that case, I think the target of your complaint should not be the military, but General Manager Shi

Department of Commerce and Finance.”

Schneider smiled and answered: "I didn't say a word, so why did I have to lie down and get shot?"

"Who asked you to take care of the money bag?" Yan Chujie teased.

"Well, since we are talking about money, let me briefly share my personal views." Schneider put away his smile and said in a deep voice: "Currently, we still maintain a considerable surplus in the import and export trade with Guangdong.

, I am personally optimistic about the growth of trade income in the coming year. However, considering that most of the construction projects currently in progress are expensive and slow to produce results, and the expenditure on resettlement will increase year by year, I think the increase next year will

The military budget still needs to be cautious. Of course, I personally do not object to the military’s intention to expand the military. I just hope that when expanding the military, the military will also consider the financial pressure that the size of the military will bring in the future.”

"Are you saying that it is okay to expand the military, but the military budget increase will have to be figured out by the military itself?" Yan Chujie quickly figured out the clues from Schneider's series of official words.

"At least we must be mentally prepared." Schneider readily admitted Yan Chujie's guess: "After all, the Shilu project will be our top priority this year and next. The total amount of funds required for this project will exceed

The sum total of all our colonization projects, in order to ensure that this project will not be delayed due to funding problems, in the future we may have to exercise stricter control over other expenditure budgets, including the military budget."

"That means that in order to raise military expenditures, we must launch a new round of war?" Yan Chujie shook his head repeatedly: "It is not impossible to support war with war, but we don't have many opponents to choose from now. The Ming Dynasty is far away.

Recently, we cannot fight. Annan is an ally and the Portuguese are trading partners. It is not easy for these two companies to do anything casually. The Spanish and Dutch have no scruples, but the problem is that our naval power is not enough, and now we simply cannot reach them.

Moreover, there is no guarantee of victory in a sea battle with these two families."

"It is not necessary to obtain profits through war. You can think of other ways." Schneider expanded the topic: "For example, you can increase the volume of arms trade. Haihan Military Industry's profits from exporting various weapons and military supplies.

Your military also has a share, doesn't it? For the arms trade, two hundred thousand yuan is nothing more than a few thousand muskets, or one or two hundred artillery pieces. As long as we are willing to sell, market demand is not a problem at all. To be honest,

Yes, it’s time for us to consider cooperating with the Ming Dynasty and selling weapons directly to the government. The demand and solvency of the Ming Dynasty’s military are not comparable to those of Annan or Xu Xinsu.”

When Schneider said this, his eyes turned to Tao Donglai. This kind of foreign policy adjustment would definitely require Tao Donglai's opinion.

Tao Donglai, who had been listening quietly, saw that everyone's eyes began to focus on him, so he responded: "It is not impossible to cooperate with the Ming government, but the main thing is to look at the external conditions of the environment. To put it simply, that is

Let’s see if Ming Dynasty really needs external help like us now. If we operate it properly, we can certainly obtain huge economic benefits from the arms trade, and even reach some exchange conditions that are beneficial to our own development like in Annan. But if

If the operation is not done well, or the timing is inappropriate, it can easily make Ming regard us as a threat and generate unnecessary hostility."

"About the external environment... Ning Qi, what do you think?" Tao Donglai expressed his attitude, and then quickly kicked the ball to Ning Qi's feet.

As one of the very few people in the executive committee who is familiar with the historical environment, Ning Qi is shouldering his responsibility. He cleared his throat and said: "The biggest thing in the first half of this year is probably that Emperor Chongzhen issued an order to finalize Wei Zhongxian's case. Cui Chengxiu,

Liu Zhixuan and others were sentenced to beheading, and then more than a hundred accomplices were sent to the army. Others were sentenced to three years in prison and were reduced to civilian jobs. They were lucky enough to escape. In addition, there was a famine in Shaanxi, and there were peasants among the people.

An uprising was organized, but it did not create much momentum and was quickly suppressed by Hong Chengchou's troops."

"Is there anything related to us?" Bai Kesi asked.

Ning Qi nodded and said: "There is one related thing. Xu Guangqi, the Minister of Rites, because the old calendar calculated the solar eclipse in May this year was inaccurate, he wrote to Emperor Chongzhen, asking to refer to the Western calendar. This was approved by the emperor, and he asked

Xu Guangqi is responsible for supervising the compilation and revision of the new calendar, so when communicating with the Ming court in the future, at least there will be common ground in this regard."

"But it has no direct effect on what we just said." Yan Chujie also said a little impatiently: "Are there any major events related to the military? Especially on the northern battlefield."

"A big event?" Ning Qi thought for a while before nodding and responded: "A big event really happened this month. Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong in Shuangdao. Is this considered a big event?"

There are different historical accounts of Yuan Chonghuan's false imperial edict to kill Mao Wenlong. Dong Qichang, Yuan Keli, Sun Chengzong and others all have relatively positive comments on Mao Wenlong's behavior of guarding the border and resisting the enemy. Moreover, there are also people on Dalu Island who were established in the sixth year of Tianqi and Chongzhen.

One of the two stone tablets in the first year is engraved with Mao Wenlong's oath to kill the enemy: "The whole Liao will be restored soon, and the look is budding. We will serve the country with our hearts, and our loyalty will be based on this." This shows that this person still has something.

The loyal and patriotic side.

Negative comments on him in history mostly pointed out that Mao Wenlong was arrogant, acted recklessly, and deliberately exaggerated his military achievements in order to ask for more military pay and supplies from the court. However, Yuan Chonghuan recklessly ordered Mao Wenlong to be killed according to the twelve deadly sins.

, but it directly caused the local garrison to become disheartened, so that they later turned traitor and surrendered to the enemy.

When Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong, he probably did not expect that his behavior of ignoring the emperor's orders would become one of his talismans in the future. Only half a year later, Yuan Chonghuan was imprisoned for poor command. In August of the next year,

Because he negotiated a peace with the Qing army without authorization and killed Mao Wenlong without authorization, he was sentenced to Lingchi. In addition, his family moved three thousand miles away and all their property was confiscated. It can be said that the family was ruined.

The debate about Yuan Chonghuan has lasted for hundreds of years in another time and space. Some people think that he is a national hero, while others think that he is a traitor who had an affair with the Manchu Qing Dynasty. However, Ning Qi has no intention of provoking a debate here, but just mentioned it in one sentence.

, pointing directly to the focus of the problem: "In the second half of this year, Houjin's troops were divided into Sanlu, and they invaded the pass from Da'an Pass, Longjing Pass, and Hongshan Pass, all the way to the capital. Although they still retreated at the end of the year, this time they entered

Guan Ye still caused great losses and influence to the Ming Dynasty. If we want to achieve military cooperation with the Ming Dynasty, I suggest that we consider how to take advantage of the military trends in the north in the second half of this year."
Chapter completed!