After completing the expansion of the cavalry, Chen Xian began a new round of conscription, and he expanded the six infantry brigades, expanding the original three regiments and the 12,000-strong brigade into four regiments and a full brigade of 16,000 people.

In this way, Chen Xian's army expanded into six infantry brigades, nearly 100,000 people, two horse infantry brigades with 32,000 people, one chassar brigade with 16,000 people, and two assault cavalry brigades with 13,000 people, with a total number of nearly 160,000 people!

In addition to the local garrison in Shandong, Chen Xian also stationed three infantry regiments, three horse infantry regiments, three chasseur regiments, and three assault cavalry regiments on the Liaodong Peninsula. That's nearly 40,000 again.

This is not all, in the past two years, Chen Xian has made every effort to develop the fleet, and at this time he already has more than 100 large and small warships, sailors, and sailors more than 40,000 people!

Such a huge number of troops is undoubtedly too large compared to the total population of less than 3 million on the East Shandong Road, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a reckless force.

In this era, Chen Xian was able to use a population of 3 million to support more than 200,000 soldiers.

And it is not cannon fodder called Hanako, but elite professional soldiers.

In recent years, the development of industry and commerce in Chen Xian's territory has far surpassed the level of this era.

For example, traffic.

As early as when Chen Xian had just occupied Shandong East Road, in order to control the place, he began to build the road on a large scale.

Because of the existence of cement, Chen Xianxiu's road is far better than the so-called official road quality of this era.

Of course, he can't use cement to harden the pavement, but he can use cement to repair the drainage canals on both sides of the road.

With cement, Chen Xian can first use cement and stones to build berm ditches on both sides of the road, and then use clay and sand to fill in the berm layer by layer to form a smooth road surface.

With berms and drainage canals and sand and gravel on the upper floors, the roads do not become muddy on rainy days, and under the protection of slope protection, they do not collapse quickly and can be maintained for a long time, and together with a specially established road maintenance department, a high-level transportation network can be maintained.

Chen Xian has been vigorously propagandizing on the right side of the road over the years...... and other basic traffic rules, the establishment of traffic mounted police patrols, on the one hand to maintain traffic safety, on the other hand to maintain traffic order, the formation of some conventional traffic rules, and greatly improve the utilization rate of the road.

In addition to the development of land transportation, there is also water transportation, Shandong East Road lacks high-quality inland waterways, but has a unique sea traffic around the peninsula, Chen Xian through the road, the seaport and inland connection, greatly reducing the cost of transportation.

The four-wheeled carriage with steering mechanism invented by Chen Xian is also an important reason for the rapid development of traffic in the East Shandong Road area.

An old-style two-wheeled cart can pull three or four hundred pounds of goods at a time, which is already the limit.

And a four-horse-drawn four-wheeled carriage with a steering mechanism can pull one and a half tons of goods when fully loaded, that is, nearly three thousand catties, even if it is seven or eight hundred catties on average, it saves nearly one reserve of animal power than a two-wheeled cart, and can also save three times the manpower.

The improvement of the road further improved the load capacity of the four-wheeled carriage.

On the soft road paved with loess, a four-horse-drawn four-wheeled carriage can only pull one and a half tons of goods, but when there are cement slopes on both sides, the bottom is a compacted soil layer, and the sand and gravel are paved on a relatively hard road, the same four-horse-drawn four-wheeled carriage can pull two tons of goods.

In short, the improvement of these conditions and technologies has increased the efficiency of Shandong's commodity transshipment by several times, while the price has been reduced by several percent, and this change has naturally promoted the circulation of commodities.

……

The development of maritime trade has also brought rich taxes to Chen Xian.

In the past, Shandong maritime merchants went to sea, and their trade routes were: Mizhou (empty ships) - Mingzhou (purchasing silk and porcelain) - Mizhou (resting, shipping in small quantities) - North Korea (selling silk porcelain, purchasing ginseng, pine nuts, paper skin, white paper, sesame oil, folding fans and other goods) - Japan (selling silk and porcelain, buying golden sand, raw copper, Japanese swords, etc. with copper coins), it is not difficult to see that in this trade route, Mizhou, as the mainland, is just a harbor for rest, and it is not important.

But now, when Shandong maritime merchants go to sea, the business route has become, Shandong (at present, Shandong merchants go to sea, is no longer limited to Mizhou, an export, Chen Xian built and developed seven or eight ports along the coast of Shandong, Shandong maritime merchants are no longer limited to Mizhou, the number has also increased significantly; Procurement of ironware, soap, glass and other goods) - Mingju (sale of ironware, soap, glass and other goods, procurement of silk and porcelain) - Shandong (sale of part of silk, porcelain, purchase of ironware, soap, glass) - Goryeo (sale of silk, porcelain, ironware, soap, glass, purchase of ginseng, folding fans and other local products on the return voyage) - Japan (sale of silk, porcelain, ironware, soap, glass, purchase of sand, raw copper) - Shandong ......

It is not difficult to see from the two trade routes before and after that the merchant efficiency of Shandong merchants has almost doubled.

This change not only greatly increased the profits of the maritime merchants, but also allowed Chen Xian to receive more tax revenue at the port.

In addition to the improvement of efficiency, with the support of Chen Xian, the number and strength of Shandong maritime merchants have also been greatly improved.

On the one hand, because Chen Xian did not allow the private sale of land, the merchants in Shandong could not buy the land as before after making money, and could only invest the money in the business again.

On the other hand, Chen Xian invested a lot of warships to maintain the safety of shipping routes, and also provided a large number of weapons such as flying sand cannons and arquebuses to maritime merchants to improve the safety of maritime merchants.

Chen Xian also sent people to set up ports at some key locations on the trade routes, and stationed warships and troops to provide convenience for maritime merchants.

This has indirectly improved the safety and efficiency of maritime merchants, increased profits, and attracted more wealthy people to join the maritime team.

All these have greatly increased Chen Xian's business tax income.

……

After years of exploration, Chen Xian's tax system has been relatively perfect, and in terms of commercial taxation, it has been done more meticulously and fairly.

Chen Xian spared no effort to develop transportation, create a safe business environment, and provide various protections and guarantees for business activities through the law, these are all places where businessmen praise Chen Xian, and the only thing that makes businessmen criticize is that Chen Xian is absolutely unsparing no effort in collecting taxes, and his crackdown on tax evasion and tax evasion can be called extremely murderous.

The merchants of Shandong are more afraid of the tax bureau and their tax mounted police than tigers!

In order to avoid taxes, some businessmen fled to Hebei with their families, but Chen Xian sent troops to go hundreds of miles into the enemy's territory, captured a stockade, and arrested the whole family of the tax-evading businessman and executed him.

Chen Xian even said directly that those who do business in Shandong and do not pay taxes to him are his father-killing enemies!

Through this incident and Chen Xian's cruel words, the businessmen in Shandong fully understood Chen Xian's determination to collect taxes, and since then, tax evasion has rarely occurred.

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