"It's not as simple as you think, is it?" Zhang Tao looked at Jiang Tian gloatingly: "Do you know if you haven't calculated accurately?" ”

In the eyes of outsiders, this visit not only completed the task of exchanging credentials, but also earned funds for several destroyers for the navy by the way, which can be regarded as a complete success. What's more, after the fleet returned to Hong Kong, Jiang Tian took the initiative to declare customs and pay taxes, which became a beautiful talk for a while. So why didn't it achieve the desired effect?

The reason is very simple, in Jiang Tian's view, since Tokugawa Iemitsu is no longer able to lock down the country, then in order to suppress the opposition, it is inevitable that he will purchase weapons on a large scale, and after seeing the combat effectiveness of the Chinese fleet, it should also be logical to develop the navy. The anti-Tokugawa daimyo should buy, buy, buy! However, the reality is more helpless, after seeing the level of Japan's economy with his own eyes, Jiang Tian knows that the opposition does want to strengthen the military, but the financial resources are not as good as the Tokugawa family, and he is quite petty when he buys things.

The Tokugawa family has the money to buy, but at present, its military strength is enough to sweep away the opponent, and their desire to expand is not very strong, in fact, the lesson of the Toyotomi monkey makes the Japanese dare not provoke China in a short period of time, and because of internal instability, Tokugawa Iemitsu has no energy to expand externally, so this Tokugawa family's order is completely out of the consideration of replenishing the armament and giving Jiang Tian a little face to the envoy, there is no need to improve the military strength at all, and there is no enthusiasm for buying, fortunately, Jiang Tian's other purpose has been achieved, as an island country, The Japanese seafaring enthusiasm was ignited by the Chinese fleet, and the various Japanese princes from top to bottom believed that the coastal defense should be strengthened, and the Yasukai was able to retreat under heavy siege in the Seto Inland Sea as if it were no one, and this achievement also stimulated the top of the Tokugawa shogunate, if the Satsuma domain also had this kind of warship, then could the sea fortress of Edo Bay still be safe?

The conclusion is obvious, so not only did the fallen ones want ships, but the Tokugawa family also wanted ships, but what was sold to them was not even as good as standard destroyers. In the contract currently negotiated, Jiang Tian only listed the improved combat Fubune as the highest-class ship, which is a traditional Fukubune with a lengthened aspect ratio and structural reinforcement in some key parts, and ten broadside gun windows under the second deck, with a standard displacement of no more than 600 tons, and a maximum of 20 bronze guns, which is the level of a medium warship in Europe, but it is the most powerful warship that Japan has so far. One such warship can beat Atakaku Maru into a sieve from a distance of five hundred meters, and the other side will not be able to fight back.

It was precisely because of its considerable power that it had an overwhelming advantage even when encountering the most common Dutch armed merchant ships in the Far East, so the Satsuma clan ordered three in one go, and the Tokugawa family also bought two to assist the Ataka Maru. If these five ships could be used together, the Dutch East India Company would not be able to get close to the coast of Japan, but unfortunately these five ships were born for infighting. However, the ship orders also show the focus on navigation in Japan. In addition to buying two combat ships, the Tokugawa family did not have any decent orders, and in addition to buying warships, the Tokugawa faction also ordered a number of improved ocean-going merchant ships, mainly for ocean-going trade, which can be seen as the other party's emphasis on economy and trade, but it also means that the other party knows more about navigation than the Tokugawa family. Because the fleet, without auxiliary vessels, at best, can defend in the near seas, and is not capable of conducting offensive operations at all.

In the face of Zhang Tao's questioning, although Jiang Tian thought a lot, but for the purpose of letting the leader show off his knowledge, he still shook his head and said that he didn't know what the problem was, and Zhang Tao naturally showed an expression that he knew you didn't understand: "You can be regarded as having taught political classes, this economic foundation determines the superstructure, with the economic level of Japan's unification, it is impossible to support a pure firearms war, which I have deeply experienced during the Northern Expedition." If we can't support it, we won't buy firearms on a large scale, unless we support one side, but this is not in the interests of our country now, if you want to sell arms to Japan, you can only make these warlords rich first! ”

"So warships and steel ingots are best sold because these things are dual-use and can bring wealth immediately?" Jiang Tian asked knowingly and patted his ass.

Zhang Tao said with an expression that you have finally enlightened: "It is precisely because Japan cannot threaten our country in a short period of time, but it is possible to rely on trade with us to maintain the balance of payments for a certain period of time, so I don't care about Japan, you let them toss by themselves, and when they are exhausted from the uneven distribution of spoils, we will support the puppet of the emperor as an arbiter." ”

His Majesty the Emperor said that his eyebrows were flying, but Jiang Tian had to pour a basin of cold water on him: "Although it is ...... Japan does not have any nationalist problems at the moment, but it cannot be ruled out that after allowing it to develop, especially after long-term contact with our country, a group of reverence factions will soon pop up, and if we do not control the situation at the first time, they will soon unify their thinking and eliminate the interference of external forces, and even if we can bombard Edo, what will we do? Unless there is a large-scale landing operation, we do not want to acquire Japanese copper and silver. ”

In Jiang Tian's prediction, if possible, it would be best to kill the emperor's entire family in the midst of the chaos, so as to ensure that the spiritual pillar that maintained the unity of the Japanese nation would completely disappear and that China would control this nation, but this must not be said in the mouth, because the state's policy toward Japan may change. Zhang Tao thought about it seriously, but still insisted on his own decision: "Even so, we still have to adhere to the route of first going north and then east and then south, the threat from the north is real, and it must be faced as soon as possible, I can't put my hope on driving the tiger and devouring the wolf, and the Russians are more ambitious than the Mongols." Besides, because of our intervention, there may be a chain reaction in Europe, and God knows if the Cossacks in the north will have a chance to sweep through Siberia. ”

Jiang Tian knew that he could not convince Zhang Tao, not only because Emperor Zhang was a Continental Armyist, but also because of the attachment of later generations of Chinese to Siberia, not to mention the vast forests and countless oil and coal, only one Baikal Lake is enough to lack water in northern China to become a land of fish and rice.

Therefore, Jiang Tian could only retreat and said: "In this case, then the first occupation of Hokkaido and other outer islands of Japan must not be carried out at all, right?" If their hopes of attacking the mainland are dashed, they turn to overseas expansion, and then they will be in a big position. ”

"You!" Zhang Tao shook his head: "You are doing everything possible to find some work for the navy, and I don't know if those people in the navy know your hard work." ”

The navy naturally does not understand the purpose of doing this, don't look at these people are also sailors, but after all, China's mainlandism has been deeply rooted, which is fundamentally different from the Europeans who are not easy to survive in a small area, and desperately hope to expand outward to find living space. It's as if Americans, who are also predominantly Anglo-Saxons, also gave birth to isolationism at a specific historical period. As a result, the Chinese officials all believed that the importance of the land was higher than that of the sea, so they also believed that Emperor Zhang's consideration was correct for the disagreement between Jiang Tian and the emperor.

This is also the reason why Zhang Tao is not afraid that Jiang Tian has a very close relationship with the navy, and the current Chinese navy does not understand why Jiang Tian wants to find so much work for himself, in their opinion, the role of the navy is nothing more than patrolling and arresting thieves, and if there is an attack by hostile forces, they only need to fight back, as for the work of ocean escort, overseas protection, colony development, and competition for sea supremacy, they don't even have a concept, and they are quite complaining about Jiang Tian's approach of finding fault for nothing.

However, the navy did not dare to have any dissatisfaction with this, you must know that the current emperor is not from the navy, even if he has publicly stated many times that he wants to vigorously develop the navy, but in fact, the status and equipment of the navy have not improved before Jiang Tian appeared, and the annual budget obtained is only enough to maintain the existing fleet from disbanding, so that if it is not for Zheng Chenggong and the emperor to have a secret agreement, the southeast coast will not be calm. Until Jiang Tian made his debut, the official listing of the Naval Research Institute, which made the navy with an embarrassing position almost turn over overnight, and the unexpected Seto Inland naval battle made all those who complained about the warship too expensive to shut up, you must know that the encounter did not have the high mobility of the flying clipper ship type and only relied on the new artillery at most to lose both, it doesn't matter if you lose a battle, but the students on the ship will definitely have casualties, and the face of the Chinese Celestial Empire will not be saved. As soon as things rise to national honor, even the most sinister trolls have to shut up.

This ensured the allocation of the more powerful Dinghai, and there was a great victory over the Zheng family and the total annihilation of the Dutch fleet. The glorious achievements of promoting the political unification of China, no one dares to say that the navy is useless at this time, but if the navy itself also thinks that it can put swords and guns into the warehouse and put the horses in Nanshan, then it will inevitably repeat the mistakes of Zheng He's fleet in a few decades, then a hundred years later, there will be no fleet that is proud of the world, and the Europeans will divide up the maritime interests, and the generals of the navy have also discovered this problem, even if they can't find it, they will be forcibly instilled by Jiang Tian, but even if they understand the problem, they can't find a solution. So he could only painfully and happily let Jiang Tian arrange the work.

Many people in the court have become accustomed to the emperor representing the army, and Jiang Tian representing the navy quarreling with each other over the division of military expenditures and the order of research and development of new weapons, but every time the emperor can still use his privileges to give the army all kinds of preferential treatment after the quarrel fails, this situation only changed after King Ji invested in a shipyard and became a direct beneficiary of naval expansion. However, no one could understand the significance of this quarrel, let alone why Jiang Tian was disobedient to the imperial power, perhaps just seeing it as Lord Jiang currying favor with the navy and finding a military foreign aid for himself among the faction-ridden ministers.

It can be said that Zhang Tao and Jiang Tian created a precedent for the competition for military spending between the branches of the Chinese army, and also laid the foundation for the descendants of Xiao Gui Cao Sui, but the side effects are also obvious, since then the high-level generals of the Chinese army began to look at the whole world greedily, as much as possible to hype some small things into serious events of national peril, just to raise their own value to fight for more budget, and then seek opportunities for a group of interest groups behind them, in a traditional saying is to raise a thief to respect himself, if there is no thief, shape a thief out.

Ignoring these issues for now, it was precisely because Jiang Tian's visit did not achieve the expected results that the battle between sea and land ended in a temporary victory for the army. The country's military reserves began to tilt towards the army, almost without any cover-up, all people could see that the country would launch a northern expedition, but ordinary people did not know the scale and duration of the war, according to the habits of the previous dynasties, this is probably a long war that lasted for a hundred years, until one day the hostile Hu people in the north perished the country and exterminated the species, such as: Han, Tang. Or a large-scale battle was lost, and the Central Plains no longer had the power of the Northern Expedition, such as: Song and Ming. Otherwise, there will be no end to this war, for ordinary Chinese people, this has little impact on their lives, but for many hot-blooded young people, it has come to the great era of abandoning literature and martial arts, fighting swords to find the marquis, how many young people in the second middle school who yearn for the desert and the wolf have been looking forward to the arrival of this day, especially the sand scene of "fleeing at night, snowy bow and knife", it is simply the G-spot in the hearts of many people, as for whether they have the ability to live to see all this, and a leisurely improvised poem, It's hard to say.

It is precisely because the general trend is unstoppable that almost no one at the DPRK meeting opposed it, and a five-year strategy for sweeping the north was formulated, which actually only put forward a war goal, that is, to strive to completely remove the destabilizing factors around the existing borders within five years, and to make strategic preparations for a larger-scale expedition to the north in the future. From Qin Shi Huang to the early Ming Dynasty, the dynasties of the Central Plains would formulate similar plans as long as they had the ability, and there were many large-scale northern expeditions to solve the hidden dangers on the border. However, the strategic threat to northern China has never been lifted, and in the eyes of many "people of insight", this nascent Chinese dynasty is just repeating yesterday's story. Therefore, no one will realize that the real threat to the country has passed from the grassland to the ocean, and Jiang Tian, who cannot be understood, has to once again set his sights on those relatives who are not deeply rooted in the army, such as Wu Yuanjia.

"Sir......" The fake prince thought for a moment: "This national policy has been decided, and there are too many people who want to take food from the mouth of the army and offend!" ”

Jiang Tian sat on his Taishi chair and took a sip of tea: "We don't necessarily start from the existing budget, we can find some sponsorship." ”

Song Yi, Wu Yuan, Tian Xuhai and Liu Baokai made eye contact, Lord Jiang has always played cards according to common sense, and today they just came to pick up the wind and dust for the teacher's triumphant visit. As a result, I saw Lord Jiang's thinking in the open sky again.

Tian Xuhai, who is very sensitive to the budget issue, said first: "Mr. is talking about unplanned funds? I once heard my father mention that although the Ministry of Finance has this money, the new examination and approval system is very strict, and even if it is a joint application by the big officials of the DPRK and China, it will have to be deliberated in public at the grand court meeting, and there will be opposition at that time, and it will definitely be difficult to withdraw it smoothly. ”

When it comes to the new budget approval system, all the people in the DPRK and China have a headache, because in the past, they only had to apply for funds, and after the cabinet approved them, they could go to the household ministry to collect the money. As for the plucking of the geese by the household department and the yamen of various roads, or the use of funds, theoretically there are supervision of the imperial history for review, and there are also bills for archiving, but in fact, because of the collusion of officials, they are in a state of no supervision. Now this is not possible, every expenditure must have a voucher, any link if you want to intercept special funds are well documented, the payment of funds is to have details, after the completion of the work there are special people to audit, this set of modern accounting system has made a lot of people who rely on the treasury to make a fortune for a long time to study, and finally came to the conclusion that the original means can not bypass the government's review.

In fact, it is not that there is no way to exploit loopholes, any traverser has a variety of ways to evade supervision, the reason why people feel that they cannot avoid censorship, is only because the country is just established, the people's minds are stable, and officials do not dare to blatantly use power for personal gain under the high-pressure rule of the founding king, which shows that the so-called excellent system is just a relatively high cost of crime.

After putting down the teacup, Jiang Tian looked at these people and said: "I still participated in the formulation of this set of fund approval processes, of course I know how difficult it is to withdraw expenses from unplanned funds, so I can only find a way to open sources and reduce expenditure." ”

Song Yi has almost become the pillar of the Academy of Sciences now, and he immediately thought of science: "Mr. Mo has a new invention, and he can sell it for money immediately." ”

Jiang Tian shook his head: "Invention is not a problem, but there is no amount of money that can be exchanged for money or feed the navy immediately, and no matter how much my invention sells, it is my own money, and it has nothing to do with the navy!" ”

Song Yi's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he wanted to know how many hard goods Jiang Tian still had in his stomach, but his curiosity could not match other people's enthusiasm for making money. I saw Wu Yuan interjecting on the side: "I don't understand when Mr. says this, you don't want the army to do business, so what other sources of money do you have?" ”

"It's very simple, in the sequence of equipment of the Navy, what is common to the sea and land and the army does not have yet? Under the patent system, if the army wants to equip the same thing, it must pay a patent fee, or buy the finished product of the navy, so that it is equivalent to taking military funds from the army! ”

"But......" Tian Xuhai hesitated and said, "Wouldn't Your Majesty still be able to forcibly transfer the navy at a parity in this way?" ”

"No!" Wu Yuan said with certainty: "The Patent Law is decreed by His Majesty, and he will never go back on his word, but even if it is so profitable, it is not very profitable, how can it strengthen the navy?" ”