The training of the new army is in full swing, but the silver is also flowing out like flowing water, although gold mining and coinage can alleviate part of the military expenditure, but it cannot be solved at all, military spending is still Li Liangzuo's most headache problem, especially now to expand the training of war horses, as well as the production of bicycles and armor-piercing bows, so that the originally small military expenditure is even more stretched.
After Li Liangzuo left Jincheng and returned to the grain city, he began to think about new sources of military spending, and after thinking about it, Li Liangzuo found that the resources that he could use in his hands could be said to be very few, and for Li Liangzuo, there were two things that could bring a lot of wealth in a short period of time, the first was war horses, and the second was Qingbai salt.
There is no doubt that war horses are impossible to sell as an important strategic resource, so the only thing left is Qingbai salt, in the northern edge of the Mu Us Desert in the Western Xia and the northwest of the grain city, there are large and small salt ponds, these salt ponds produce a high-quality terrestrial salt, and Qingbai salt.
Qingbai salt can be said to be an inexhaustible resource for Li Liangzuo, in the era of Xia Taizu Li Jiqian, the party members once smuggled a large amount of Qingbai salt to the Great Song Dynasty in exchange for necessities of life, and now Li Liangzuo plans to repeat the old trick and use Qingbai salt in exchange for enough military spending.
Compared with sea salt, Qingbai salt is a very high-quality salt, which is a necessity for human life, and officially because of this reason, Li Liangzuo had the idea of smuggling Qingbai salt in exchange for military spending, but this time Li Liangzuo did not plan to smuggle only to the Great Song Dynasty, the Liao State in the north, the Xizhou Uighurs in the west, and the Tubo Gulo regime in the south were Li Liangzuo's smuggling targets.
For Li Liangzuo, salt is easy to solve, the key is the problem of people, Li Liangzuo must find someone who can be loyal to him and has business acumen, after all, smuggling is not a glorious thing, this kind of thing can only be carried out in secret.
Soon a person fell into the eyes of Li Liangzuo, this person is called Zhou Shengcai, who is the head of the new army, responsible for the money and food of the new army; Li Liangzuo's ability to hand over 20 million taels of silver to him shows his trust in him, and this person is also very good at governance, and he is a rare talent.
"Weichen Zhou Shengcai see Your Majesty, long live my emperor, long live, long live."
Zhou Shengcai bowed to Li Liangzuo.
Li Liangzuo sat on the handsome chair and said to Zhou Shengcai: "Aiqing, don't be courteous, how much is left of the military budget now?"
Zhou Shengcai immediately reported to Li Liangzuo and said, "Your Majesty, there are still seven million of the 20 million silver of the education minister, and the rest of the expenses are recorded here. ” "Aiqing, this money is being spent too quickly," Li Liangzuo complained.
Zhou Shengcai said to Li Liangzuo: "Your Majesty, this is also no way, the reconstruction of the Grain City, coupled with the construction of the Golden City, as well as the Hexi Military Horse Farm, and the training of the new army, these courses are all gold-swallowing giant beasts, and it is good to have seven million taels left; However, the cost will be much less in the future. ” "Even if you spend less, this money is not enough," Li Liangzuo said with a frown; "Aiqing can have any way to make money."
"Weichen is stupid, there is no good way."
Zhou Shengcai said humbly to Li Liangzuo.
Li Liangzuo glanced at Zhou Shengcai and said: "I don't care if you know it or not, I now give you an important task, that is, to raise military salaries for the new army, the method I have already thought of for you, what you have to do is to implement it." ” "Wechen would like to hear about it."
Zhou Shengcai saluted and said.
Li Liangzuo looked at Zhou Shengcai with sharp eyes and said: "Smuggling, I asked you to smuggle to the Great Song Dynasty in the east, the Liao Kingdom in the north, the Tubo in the south, and the Uighurs in Xizhou in the west. ” "Your Majesty, this smuggling will affect the commercial tax revenue of the imperial court," Zhou Shengcai said to Li Liangzuo.
"I give privileges, all goods are exempt from taxes, but you have to be secretive when you do it, if it's too public, I can only sacrifice your head, understand" Li Liangzuo said majestically.
"Yes, Wechen understands."
Zhou Shengcai immediately replied.
Li Liangzuo took a deep breath and said: "I can issue an order to make you an anti-smuggling captain to raise military funds for the new army, and I will give you 500,000 taels of silver as start-up funds. ” "Yes, Wechen understands."
Zhou Shengcai replied.
Since then, a huge smuggling group belonging to Li Liangzuo was officially born, and this smuggling group formed by Zhou Shengcai was whitewashed a few years later, but in addition to legitimate business, there are many shady businesses, and after the whitewashing, Li Liangzuo named Longtai Commercial Bank.
In addition to doing business, Longtai Commercial Bank is also the secret contact point of Yipintang, which has played an important role in Li Liangzuo's spying on the intelligence of various countries.
Under the instruction of Li Liangzuo, Zhou Shengcai wantonly bribed officials from the Song and Liao countries to escort the smuggling caravans in Western Xia, and the smuggling caravans brought hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to Li Liangzuo in just one month, and the problem of military spending for the new army was finally completely solved.
With a stable source of military spending, Li Liangzuo not only increased investment in the new army, but also began to set up Yipintang, Yipintang is an intelligence organization directly under the control of the emperor, in addition to collecting intelligence from various countries, but also to monitor the ministers of the court, the power is very huge, in order to prevent the power of Yipintang from being too large, since the establishment of Li Liangzuo will be divided into two parts, the left and right, the two departments contain each other, so as not to make one side bigger.
Of course, the responsibilities of the two departments are also different, the left department is mainly responsible for the domestic department, and the right department is mainly responsible for foreign departments; The left Li Liangzuo was handed over to Xiao Fuzi to be in charge, and the right part was handed over to Xiao Zhuozi, both of whom have followed Li Liangzuo since childhood, but Xiao Zhuozi does not have Xiao Fuzi to speak, so there is no Xiao Fuzi to be favored.
The two have been opponents from the beginning, which is also an important reason why Li Liangzuo let the two of them take charge of the left and right departments; Compared with Xiao Fuzi, Xiao Zhuozi is more sensitive to intelligence, which is also an important reason why Li Liangzuo values him.
From military training, from stable financial income to the formation of intelligence organizations, a new military force began to rise in Western Xia, and everything was on the right track at this time, and now the only thing Li Liangzuo needs is time, every day Li Liangzuo accompanies the soldiers to train and teach them the art of war.
In the hearts of the soldiers of the new army, Li Liangzuo is no longer a human being, but a high god; The New Army has a fanatical worship of Li Liangzuo, if you use an analogy, the New Army's worship of Li Liangzuo has surpassed the worship of Nazi Germany to Hitler; Under this cult is the rapid growth of the combat power of the new army.
The first year and a half of the new army was basic training, and the originally scrawny soldiers have now become sturdy elite soldiers; In the second and a half years to the third and a half years, the new army began to equip itself with new types of weapons and carried out intensive training in various tactics.
The last half of the year was for cavalry training, and all of them had to learn to ride horses, as well as all kinds of kung fu on horses, which was not difficult for the new army, because most of them would ride horses before joining the army
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