Zhao Yu knew that Meng Yuan's expeditionary force seemed to be destroyed by the storm, and from the perspective of a ship engineer, it should actually be said that it was destroyed by the ship itself. Kublai Khan ordered www.biquge.info mobilization to attack Japan, giving only one year to prepare. In just one year, more than 4,000 ships were built, and for the ancient craftsmen who had not yet developed the technology of mass production at that time, no matter how clever the shipbuilding technology was, there was no possibility of achieving the goal.

In order to achieve the number, it had to be shoddy, or even indiscriminate. Shoddy construction is to sacrifice accuracy for the sake of progress, mainly because the installation position of the main mast is inaccurate and the fatal defect of unreliable fixing. Such a ship is inherently unbalanced, and as long as there is a little wind and waves, it will keep rocking. The indiscriminate filling is to take the inland river boat to fill the number, and the flat-bottomed river boat cannot withstand the waves in the sea, and it is easy to capsize.

From the Battle of Xiangyang to the Battle of Yashan, the Yuan army captured more than 6,000 Southern Song Dynasty warships, and from the surrendered Southern Song Dynasty naval army, the Yuan army also took over many warships. Even though many of these ships were damaged or sunk, the number of warships captured and taken over from the Southern Song Dynasty was still large by the time of the Second Expedition to Japan. At that time, the main battles of the Southern Song Dynasty naval army were inland rivers and coastal waters, and the Southern Song Dynasty naval divisions were familiar with river warfare but did not understand naval warfare, so most of the equipment of the Southern Song Dynasty naval army was flat-bottomed boats.

This type of ship was invented around the Tang Dynasty and was widely adopted after the Song Dynasty. The structure of the ship is convenient for compartment division, which is conducive to the management and loading and unloading of munitions by the army during the voyage, but the deck structure replaces the process of adding ribs, simplifies the main structure, and leads to the weakening of the overall lateral strength of the ship. Inland rivers are well equipped with gentle waves on the waterways, but in the vast sea, they are not so strong.

In addition, all the warships used by the Goryeo army on the expedition were self-built, and the Goryeo country was small and poor, and had to undertake the task of building more than 900 warships, which was an extremely heavy burden for them. Coupled with the tight construction schedule, it is inevitable to cut corners when building a ship, and it is said that even scrapped old ships are used to repair and repair the number, and the quality of these ships can be imagined.

Therefore, among the large transport ships and medium-sized warships in the current expedition to Japan, some of them were newly built warships as ocean-going ships, ships collected from maritime forces, merchant ships seized from the civilian sector, and seagoing ships taken over from the former Southern Song Dynasty Navy, which could still be used for long-sea operations. However, the small warships and landing boats were taken over by the Song Navy with shallow drafts and weak wind resistance, and the number was huge, reaching more than 3,000. When a hurricane hits, this kind of warship, which does not have a deep draft and does not have the ability to break the waves, seems to have only one ending of capsizing. This may have caused the large fleet of the Jiangnan Army assembled on Eagle Island to be wiped out overnight, and its use is likely to be one of the root causes.

Of course, Kublai Khan was not without mistakes in strategy and tactics, first of all, it was a failure to choose Fan Wenhu as the general, this kid was originally the commander of the Southern Song Dynasty, the son-in-law of Xiangfan guard general Lu Wende, first in the rescue of Xiangyang in the battle of fear of the enemy, "light boat first escape"; Later, when defending Anqing, where the city was strong and full of food, the Yuan general Boyan came to attack, and Fan Wenhu immediately surrendered the city, and became the governor of the two Zhejiang provinces of the Yuan Dynasty and the right man of the eastern province. climbed to a high position by nepotism, and the timid straw bag who won the battle to the death, but he didn't know how to get into his eyes.

In addition, Kublai Khan underestimated the difficulties he faced, and it is said that the Mongol warriors at that time were invincible, and they could survive by eating raw horse meat and drinking horse blood when necessary. The Mongols were the first to be mobile in battle, generally carrying very little provisions, and the problem of food and clothing for soldiers was mainly solved by plundering civilians in the war zone. However, in this war, the Mongols were unable to give full play to their strengths, they have not been able to break into the residential areas of the interior, and there is no civilian for them to plunder, so that the Jiangnan army arrived more than ten days late, and the Western Route Army that arrived first was about to run out of food.

In addition, Kublai Khan was too light on the enemy, he did not learn the lesson of the last failure, thinking that he could send 200,000 troops this time to fight down, and even loaded a large number of farm tools and seeds in the warships of the Yuan army, which was determined to win, in order to solve the thorny problem of a large number of Song Dynasty troops, because they could not afford to raise. Let's dismiss, and I'm afraid that these hundreds of thousands of troops will make trouble. The conquest of Japan and the stationing of this large number of Southern Song Dynasty troops in Tun Japan not only solved the problem of surrendering troops, but also turned Japan into a part of the Yuan Empire with the help of garrison troops and immigrants.

Of course, there are also the weapons of the Yuan army that are not as good as the Japanese army, and the lack of war horses for the sake of baggage problems makes it difficult for the Yuan army to exert its combat effectiveness, and there are also low combat effectiveness of the troops, etc., but Zhao Yu thinks that this is not an important reason, you must know that Kublai Khan mobilized 200,000 troops when he conquered Jiangnan. If it weren't for the strategic mistakes, it would not be impossible for the Yuan army to land at another time and destroy Japan. And Kublai Khan was not a traverser after all, and there was no chance to start over, and this battle also became a turning point in the history of the Yuan Dynasty, and Kublai Khan's pace of conquering overseas finally stopped.

However, Zhao Yu also benefited from it, and the great loss of the Yuan army's Jiangnan troops reduced the pressure on Qiongzhou on the one hand; On the other hand, it made him understand that if a small country wants to maintain its independence in the face of the threat of a strong country, it does not have to defeat a strong country, but only needs to make the strong country realize that the invasion of itself does not outweigh the losses. At present, he wants to restore the country, not to occupy a large area of land as the main purpose, but to annihilate the living forces of the Mengyuan, weaken their economic strength, and make the speed of their troop replenishment unable to keep up with the speed of consumption, and finally win the victory of the restoration war......

"Director Zheng, is there any news over there?" Zhao Yu summoned Zheng Huchen, Zhuang Shilin and Zhou Xiang into the palace today to ask about things, and after seeing that the ceremony was over, he asked Zheng Huchen first.

"Your Majesty, Fan Huchen has been beheaded in most of the capitals, all his family assets have been fired, and his family members are all enslaved!" Zheng Huchen replied.

"If it's not that, I'm asking about the merchants!" Zhao Hao waved his hand and said, Zheng Huchen's fate had already been decided when he abandoned the army and left.

"Oh, Your Majesty is asking about it!" Zheng Huchen said with some embarrassment, "Your Majesty, those merchants who have been in a hurry since the departure of the Japanese army, and they are even more mournful after learning that their entire army has been wiped out, and now that the trade season is approaching, they have sent people to contact us many times. Your Majesty has an edict first, so his subordinates have not replied to them! ”

"Well, what do you think of the farmer's affairs?" Zhao Yu nodded, turned to Zhuang Shilin and asked.

"Your Majesty, your subordinates think that the time is ripe, even if the asking price is higher, they can accept it!" Zhuang Shilin said.

"I want to lower the price a little, as long as their tariffs are good!" Zhao Hao smiled.

"Your Majesty, I finally waited for the opportunity, but why didn't you add it?" Zhuang Shilin was also stunned when he looked at the other two, and he asked in surprise.

"Your Majesty, this is a rare opportunity, we can't let it go!" Zhou Xiang also knew that His Majesty was a money string head, but today he let go of this opportunity to make a fortune and made him feel that it was not a mistake to say such things today.

"Your Majesty must have a reason for this, so don't think about it!" Zheng Huchen saw that the two of them were chattering endlessly, and he spoke.

"This ...... What do you call it, do you know how much silver this craftsman consumes every day, it is like running water, all relying on the inner library to fill, I feel distressed when I look at it, don't you say that the master of the village? Zhou Xiang stood up and said dissatisfied.

"Your Majesty, the preparation for the establishment of a new army and the supply of firearms workshops will cost a huge amount of three million yuan for these two items alone, and if you don't fill them, I'm afraid there will be a deficit." Zhuang Shilin, as the financial manager of the little emperor, naturally knows the financial situation of the inner treasury, and the little emperor doesn't look at the buckle and rope on weekdays, but if he spends a lot of money on things without blinking, he also has to think about His Majesty. Now he finally has a way to make money, but he regrets it again, so how can he not be in a hurry.

"It will be better when this year's salt tax and customs duties are allocated, and I should be enough, and when the new army is transferred to the management of the military department next year, I can save some expenses." Zhao Yu said. He also knew that this year's expenses were large, and most of the profits payable by the Secretariat were used to form and strengthen the smuggling team and support Mrs. Xu's cottage, and he didn't have much left, and the two of them were not in a hurry.

"Your Majesty, according to the imperial court law, the income of the city shipping division is all into the inner treasury, but the expenses of the municipal shipping division are also very large, the first two years are all subsidized by the inner treasury, and this year it has only improved a little, but the income is only three or four hundred thousand yuan!" Zhuang Shilin said with a bitter smile on his face with a look of complaint.

"You're right, but have you ever found someone in the city who is corrupt and extorts traders?" Zhao Hao smiled.

"Is this really unfounded?" Zhuang Shilin looked at His Majesty, and then at Zheng Huchen and said.

"That's it, the corruption of officials in the Great Song Dynasty used to be the most serious in the city, Pu Shougeng controlled the Quanzhou City Bureau for more than ten years, and his family was rich and rivaled the country, where did his money come from, it was just a fake public and private money, embezzling public funds, and the court knew that it was so but helpless!" Zhao Yu said.

"Your Majesty is right!" Zhuang Shilin nodded and said, of course he knew what the former city department was like, from the promotion, down to the officials who inspected, and even the soldiers who loaded and unloaded all reached out to ask for money, but these things are extremely rare in the city departments of Qiongzhou, and the officials are very honest.

"That's it, as long as we tie up the hole of corruption, we will gain more in the future, and we must also learn to cast a long line to catch big fish!" Zhao Hao said with a smile. He knows that corruption is an incurable disease of traditional Chinese politics, and that there have been non-corrupt officials in history, but there is no non-corrupt yamen. However, he had heard of one in his previous life - Wanqing Customs, and it was difficult to find a second one.

Nowadays, everyone knows that in the Qing Dynasty, corruption was commonplace, and in the Qing Dynasty for three years, 100,000 snowflakes of silver were by no means a joke. After the Second Opium War, the Qing court agreed to let the British take charge of China's customs, and wrote the "Treaty of Commerce and Reform: Customs Tariff Rules" signed with Britain and the United States and other countries, in this environment, the late Qing Chinese customs under the control of the British Hurd basically eliminated corruption, which is considered "one of the miracles in the history of world administration".

The supreme head of the Qing Dynasty customs was called the "General Department of Taxation", and in fact had full responsibility for the management of customs affairs. Faced with the problem of corruption in customs, Hurd did not want to use the anti-corruption storm to change customs. What he wants to do is to completely update the system and take a break from corruption. He advocated the elimination of traditional Chinese old-fashioned inventories and the establishment of a "rigorous, detailed, and infallible" accounting system. The new system has records for the payment and retention of customs revenues that are easy to inquire.

In line with the accounting system, HD has also established a new auditing system. He set up a special department for auditing accounts and taxation as an independent body to supervise the financial accounting of all customs departments, and visited each port at least once a year to inspect the books and accounts, and to conduct spot checks. Because the customs department does not know what to inspect and what not to inspect, his inspection makes everything more careful. The Inspector of Revenue has a great deal of power and has the power to suspend any Revenue Division or Customs Officer from his or her duties if irregularities are discovered.

In line with the above-mentioned system reforms, HD also carried out wage system reform. He believes that in order for customs reform to be effective, it is necessary to pay high salaries and maintain low salaries. But the premise is to be open and transparent, and to expose the income of customs officers to the sun. Although the salary of the predominantly Chinese was lower than that of foreigners, it was almost twice as high as that of other administrative organs in China at that time. In addition to the basic annual salary, customs officers are entitled to an annual bonus and welfare allowance. The longer they work at customs, the higher their salaries, which increases the cost of their involvement in corruption.

A side effect of high salaries is a significant increase in customs spending. Before Hurd, the Guangdong Customs only spent more than 10,000 taels of silver a year, but after he took over, the annual expenditure amounted to more than 3 million taels. Hurd's reasoning was that they could not be expected to remain clean without adequate funding. But the officials thought the funds were well spent: under Hurd's management, customs revenues rose rapidly, and customs revenues rose from more than 4.9 million taels at the beginning to more than 11 million taels ten years later. By the time of Hurd's departure, it had reached more than 32 million taels, more than six times the original number. At the same time, customs revenue increased from less than 10 percent to 40 percent of the Qing government's fiscal revenue.

Of course, Zhao Yu knew that Hurd was not a good person, and he also benefited a lot from it. But the value of this incident lies in the fact that it tells us that corruption is not an incurable disease, and that it is possible to succeed in the fight against corruption in China, and the key is to build institutions. It is not difficult to build a system – there are all the successful experiences that can be used for reference in ancient and modern times, but the difficulty is whether we have the sincerity to formulate a scientific anti-corruption system and the mechanism to implement the system. The reason for this is that, in the final analysis, it is not difficult to know but difficult to do.

Zhao Yu also learned to try it out in the city, and the effect was really good. On the other hand, the seemingly loss-making business was not all a loss, and the Qing government relied on this money for more than ten years. At the moment, when I talked about this digression, I was telling a few cronies to settle big accounts, not to be blinded by the small profits in front of them, what they wanted to calculate was the great cause of restoring the country, and those merchants who got rid of it would lose more than just money......