Jingshi, Luoyang, Cao Cao had a headache. Because of the drama Zhi, he calculated an account for him.

In addition to the military expenses of 50,000 yuan given to him above, there is a shortfall of 30,000 yuan in military expenses, mainly in terms of ammunition, consumption of weapons, and appropriate training expenses in terms of personnel salaries. This directly led to a deficit of 30,000 yuan.

"Everything else is okay, but if this money can't be solved in time, the problem will be very big." Xi Zhicai said.

"You know, we have a lot of money that we lack, and it's not just a matter of money, it's mainly about whether the army can go on completely. It's very difficult. Xi Zhicai said.

The biggest difference between cold weapons and *** is that their dependence on logistics supplies has been further strengthened. And it has increased to an impossible range, and in such a situation, it is basically impossible to accomplish such a thing.

"It's a big problem for us. Even we are unlikely to accomplish such a thing in many cases. Cao Cao looked at the huge deficit and said.

The increase in wealth in an agrarian society is extremely stable, which creates a fixed situation, that is, wars can only be carried out after more than ten years of accumulation, and if there is a protracted war, the accumulation time may be longer. The cycle between war and peace is relatively stable. If you want to fight a larger war, you have to have a larger scale of land and accumulate more wealth.

However, the firearms unit completely broke this rule, because the use of firearms troops not only consumes agricultural resources, but also consumes a lot of wealth, coupled with the reform of the military system, which leads to a further increase in the demand for military spending, Cao Cao's infantry battalion of only 800 people, needs to spend more than 200,000 yuan, which is still the result of reducing the investment in land, if the scale of the army is expanded again, the cost will be higher.

Cao Cao was powerless to expand at all, because the current situation already gave him a lot of headaches. The amount of money they need to spend has increased exponentially. This is simply not affordable for an army that is predominantly agrarian.

"The wealth that agriculture has added is too limited. Although firearms have reduced the cost of military training, but increased the cost of logistics personnel, the army not only cannot save military spending, on the contrary, because of the reform of the military system, a lot of military spending has increased; in the past, most of our soldiers were conscripted, soldiers are to serve in the military, we do not have to pay money, but after the reform of the military system, we have to pay military salaries. Xi Zhicai said. Cao Cao nodded.

In ancient times, the cost of military service was basically the lowest, and the imperial court may have to pay for the rations of the soldiers. Even military uniforms don't have to be considered. Some elite troops, soldiers also carry the burden of horses, armor, and even some weapons. In this way, the cost of the imperial court is the least, and the burden of each trooping family is the largest.

However, after the firearms are equipped, this original mode of warfare cannot be carried out. Yuan Shao's army was simply armed with military weapons on the basis of the old military system, and he did not dare to move at all about reforming the military system, because he knew very well that if the military system was moved, it would mean the cost, yes, the troops' enthusiasm for combat would indeed rise, and the combat effectiveness would indeed rise, but behind the rising combat effectiveness was the financial cost of geometric growth, and such an expense would be quite large, which was definitely not something that an agricultural society could afford.

In a word, the agrarian society simply cannot afford it, and if it wants to afford firearms warfare, it can only simply change military weapons, not the military system.

This is their progressiveness, Yuan Shao knows this too well, that's why he will do it. But Cao Cao will not do this, on the contrary, he thinks that many things cannot be done in this way, which will have a great impact on them. That's what they're going to notice.

"We get our income from taxes, but it's basically hard to sustain that. If we continue to maintain it, the worst thing is that we are, so to speak, in a very disadvantageous situation. Xi Zhicai said.

Cao Cao also saw that the use of an agrarian society to organize a new type of army had completely blocked the progress of society. Cao Cao knew that in order to solve the financial problem, this problem had to be solved.

"But the question is, how do we solve this dilemma. I don't have a good solution to such a problem. Cao Cao said.

"Look at this." Saying that, Xi Zhicai took out some newspapers, and he collected some of the practices of the Republican Army, although the information was very vague, and some were only brushed aside, but the keen Xi Zhicai cut them down, and took the note to make instructions, and Cao Cao quickly noticed what he should have noticed.

"Trade?" Cao Cao asked after reading it.

"Yes, it's trade, the Republican Army is constantly trading with some regions, and that's where they are smart, because I find that the agricultural output of the land alone can't meet their needs at all, and only large-scale trade, especially from various regions, can meet their big needs, plus they have their own factories, they have industry, they can reduce some production costs, which we can't do, but we can start with trade, in this way, for us, It is also a huge favorable situation. Xi Zhicai said.

Cao Cao suddenly understood. It is simply impossible to rely on traditional agricultural methods to provide military expenditure, and the time and cycle spent on the first are unbearable, and the wealth generated is also very limited. The last point is that the growth of military spending is becoming faster and faster, but it is unlikely that the agricultural society will be able to do so at once because it is limited to all aspects, and this will produce an extremely unfavorable situation, which will not be possible at all, and such a situation will directly lead to the emergence of the greatest unfavorable situation.

"But how can we improve? We can't build caravans specifically, and I don't know how to do business other than that. Cao Cao said.

"We can only recruit professionals to do this kind of thing." Xi Zhicai said.

This is where the trouble with the new army lies, because they are not going to do it in the same way as before, and in such a situation, it is natural that they need to make up for this new situation in other ways. From military reform to economic reform, this is Cao Cao's biggest intuitive demand. Because of the huge financial pressure caused, he had to do some things like this, otherwise, many things would not be able to continue.

Cao Cao and Xi Zhicai were discussing more related issues, but he needed more help from relevant professionals, without which he couldn't play at all.

Lijiazhuang. There are several farms, and smoke is billowing from their fields.

"Is it on fire?" Shang Wu asked Jia Xu.

"Hehe, you don't know. That's not fire, that's irrigation. A steam engine water pump was used. Jia Xu explained with a smile on the side.

"Steam engine water pump?" Shangwu asked.

"Yes, coal mines, and fields are used these things, although the machine is very big, the sound is very loud, but it is very convenient to irrigate, such a large piece of farmland, if there is no water, it is a very bad thing, once there is a drought, the problem is very big, although drilling a well can solve the problem, but still need people to pick ah." No, with this steam engine, this guy can drive more water to irrigate by eating coal, but it is much faster. Jia Xu explained.

"Let's go. Go over and take a look. "Shangwu can't wait.

The power of the steam engine still could not be increased to a large extent quickly, and although there were genius engineers who installed the steam engine on the rail car, in addition to making a screeching grinding sound, because the huge body still could not move more carriages. This makes it difficult for the steam engine to be practical, and many people are constantly improving, which requires the improvement of many parts to achieve this.

But this does not prevent him from playing some role in another aspect, other than agricultural irrigation.

It's really ashamed to say that the Republican Army still uses flood irrigation in winter, which leads to a very low utilization rate of water and a lot of waste of water resources, but this method cannot be changed all at once. Because this requires a large number of pipes, but the price of iron pipes is still relatively high. This is something that the farmer cannot afford, and the farmer has too much land, which is a huge expense if it is laid.

Flood irrigation is the only way, but flood irrigation requires more water, relying on manual water lifting, not at all, where there is a river, you can also use a water wheel, but where there is no water wheel, you can only use a steam engine. Fortunately, the steam engine could not drive the vehicle, but it was more than enough for irrigation, and many people were buying this huge machine because the way of irrigation was too simple. As long as there are enough pipes, and then the water is pumped on a large scale, the water will be irrigated naturally.

This is an important evidence of the progress of agriculture and the development of industry to provide a new technological equipment, which is of considerable significance. Shang Wu naturally valued this point, which was extremely beneficial to all people, and could even meet the agricultural needs of the Republican Army to the greatest extent.

Don't look at it as just an irrigation, but it's an important step.