"Chairman, this is last year's revised fiscal revenue." In an elegantly decorated office in the administrative building of the executive committee of Dongfang County in the capital, Liao Xiaoyao, chairman of the executive committee, is carefully reviewing a report sent by the secretary.

The report is on the financial aspects of the state, and it is relatively detailed, with more than 20 pages in total. Liao Xiaoyao took a cursory look at it, and then fixed his eyes on page 18, because this page stated the revised total income of the whole country for the latest complete fiscal year (fiscal year 1681-1682): 30,838,400 yuan.

"It is more than the sum of the annual monetary and in-kind taxes in the pre-Ming era of Chinese mainland (about 20 million to 30 million taels of silver after the physical conversion is included), and there were 100 million people in the Ming Dynasty that year, and we only counted more than 5 million non-national laborers, which is 20 times their production efficiency." Liao Xiaoyao asked the secretary to bring a cup of milk tea and said with a chuckle.

Liao's tone was full of sighs, but more of a sense of pride: the financial revenue of 30 million yuan has surpassed that of France on this planet, and is only inferior to the United Provinces - well, maybe the income of the Mughal emperor of India may not be lower than that of the east coast, but this is not the case - indeed they have enough reason to be proud.

Of course, 30 million yuan is just a "revised fiscal revenue", and it is not true that the central government has received so much money. The meaning of this amendment refers to the sum of the fiscal revenues of local governments and the central government, and the funds that can really be at the disposal of the central government are actually far from so much, and they are only about 15 million yuan. The reason for this is that at the latest plenary session of the founders held at the end of last year (1682), a new round of revenue division between the central and local governments was established, and the income from land sales was theoretically all included in the local fiscal and taxation system, and the state-owned enterprises also distributed profits in strict accordance with the shares (some enterprises and local governments also held shares), and the total tax revenue of more than 1,880 yuan was also redistributed. to encourage them to be more productive in their place-building, which may be more efficient.

In this case, it may not be so obvious that the local governments of the old continent also have a lot of chaotic revenues (many of which are pledged by wealthy businessmen or landlords), and ordinary construction under normal circumstances does not require the central government to pay for ordinary construction, and at best their revenues are not so stable, and they are not as much as the local governments on the east coast.

However, even the so-called 15 million yuan of central fiscal revenue is enough to do a lot of things, especially after they get rid of a lot of educational and medical burdens (the construction and maintenance of primary schools, the coverage of basic medical care, in the future, mainly rely on local government investment), they can concentrate on investing in some large projects and projects, such as infrastructure construction, scientific research investment, military spending, and so on.

"Then bring me the documents related to military spending from the Joint Staff Headquarters." After sighing for a while, as if he had thought of something, Liao Xiaoyao asked the secretary to bring him a series of reports submitted by the military department a while ago. As the chairman of the executive committee, he is also the chief of the general staff of the national armed forces - the chief of the general staff of the military department, this is the first time in the history of the east coast, and probably the last time, because the civilian clique has long been very dissatisfied, if he is not the most suitable among the living traversers, this situation will not occur at all - he has always been very concerned about army building, and he will carefully study every resolution on the navy and army in the past few years and write his own opinions.

After the tone of the tax-sharing reform was set at the end of last year and it was formally implemented, many items and departmental expenses that are now spent by the central government need to be reconsidered, and military spending is undoubtedly an important item among them. Since the beginning of this year, the Joint Staff Headquarters has been preparing a series of new budgets, which are then submitted to the executive committee leaders for review. As the highest commander of the military department, Liao Xiaoyao naturally got the report as soon as possible, and even many parts of it were written under his instructions.

"The Navy's voice this time is very high, and Lao Sang also greeted me several times, asking for an appropriate increase in the Navy's military spending, at least the mothballed ships should be re-commissioned and the demobilized personnel should be recruited again, this is only the first step." Bringing the milk tea in the cup that was just right cold to his mouth, Liao Xiaoyao said helplessly.

The "old Sang" he just said was named Sang Kai, one of the only remaining veterans of the navy, and he is currently serving as the head of the navy, and he has always been a staunch "big navy faction"; he has always been angry about the "fall" of the post of chief of the general staff of the military department to the army in his hands, and has been competing with the army system for various resources and military expenses in the ministry for several years, and Liao Xiaoyao also has a headache for him.

This time, with the changes in the situation in Europe and the gradual increase in national strength, the navy put forward a plan to increase military spending, and to be honest, it was approved by many founders in the parliament, especially those who were about 40 years old and the second-generation members of the Young Zhuang faction. Therefore, even if Liao Xiaoyao is the chairman of the executive committee, he has to seriously consider their voices, and intends to meet some of the requirements of the navy in essence.

According to the new round of "five-year construction plan" proposed by the Navy, by the end of 1688, the three major fleets of the Navy as a whole will have 5-6 "Executive Committee" class three-deck battleships, 24-30 "Tsurotto" class frigate gunboats, 50-60 "Star" class light cruisers, in addition to a number of undecommissioned "August 10" class and other old ships or logistics supply ships, the total number of ships should be 90-120 ships, from the number of close to the naval powers of England, United Provinces, France, But the tonnage and mass should be completely exploded.

For a navy of this scale, the personnel alone is close to 30,000 (including the officers and men of the domestic coastal defense batteries), and the annual maintenance cost alone is more than 5 million yuan, which is very staggering. Of course, considering that in peacetime, the navy cannot be fully staffed, and it will be like France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, mothballing some warships and dismissing some personnel (only retaining officers and professional backbones) to save expenses, but no matter how much it is saved, the cost of 3.5 million to 4 million yuan a year is definitely indispensable, and this is still an extremely heavy burden.

And that's just for the navy, and the army is spending a lot of money too! At present, the East Coast Army has 12 mixed battalions, 2 independent cavalry battalions, 1 independent field artillery battalion, 1 independent engineering battalion, 2 independent baggage companies, plus some other scattered personnel, and the full strength is almost 20,000 people. In addition, the army has been relatively ghostly in recent years, and Mo Dashuai, who also served as the minister of the army a few years ago, has been taking advantage of various incidents to make small moves, and the non-full battalions, which account for more than half of the maximum number of battalions, have been filled with strength, although they have been strongly protested by the Government Council, but so far there are nine mixed battalions that are fully staffed, and the annual maintenance cost will also be 2.5 million to 3 million yuan, which is very much.

In this way, the navy and army will have to pay 7 million to 8 million yuan a year for maintenance costs in the future, accounting for almost half of the central financial revenue. You must know that although the central and local governments have reached an agreement on "sharing the spoils" and thrown off the two huge pits of education and medical care, this does not mean that the central government has fewer places to spend money! Regardless of military expenditures, the annual funds allocated to the Science Spring Program exceed 600,000 yuan, and if you include the investment in other scientific research and supporting factory construction, machine design, and personnel training projects, this expenditure will by no means be less than one million yuan.

Investment in scientific research is only one of the huge expenditures of the central government, and so on and so on as well as the investment in infrastructure projects that can be called a gold-swallowing monster - the third-class national highway and below are now the responsibility of the local government, yes, but the construction and repair of the first-class national highway and part of the second-class national highway is borne by the central government, not to mention the construction and maintenance of railways and trunk canals (branch canals are also responsible for the local government), these are very expensive projects, even if there is a traffic lottery income as a supplement, but it is still far from enough, A steady stream of central funding is needed.

Therefore, taking into account all these factors, it is indeed difficult to make the determination of the central government to spend almost half of its annual income to maintain the salaries, logistical supply, and daily training of the navy and army. Their ideal situation is still to spend 5 million to 6 million yuan a year on military spending, supplemented by some subsidies for war booty, to maintain the troops without reducing their combat effectiveness too much, but how is this possible, unless the army is willing to accept disarmament and shrink the number of full battalion heads back to more than ten years ago.

"The Navy has a very good reason to ask for money, and many congressmen are leaning towards them now, so it's not easy to do." After Liao Xiaoyao looked at the documents for a while, he put down his glasses and said with a wry smile: "This year, to put it mildly, who is not linked to overseas trade?" When it comes to naval construction, these people are a hundred supporters, but when it comes to the army, they all take care of him, and they actually want to take advantage of the country's interests and let the powerful navy help them carry out overseas trade more smoothly. ”

The secretary smiled bitterly when he heard this, but didn't say anything. He knew that his "boss" was from the army, and his feelings for the army were very deep, and Mo Dashuai, the founder of the new army on the east coast, personally handed over the army to him, so he would take more care of the army in a reasonable way. But the question is, in this day and age, why should the army compete with the navy for resources? As Chairman Liao himself said just now, among the ruling class of the country, which one has not turned a corner in the maritime trade business? And since most of those in power are already more or less involved in overseas trade, it is natural that the navy will have a greater say in power. In this case, the army has not been completely marginalized, and it is already their ability to fight.

"Okay, okay, since everyone wants to build a decent big navy, then I naturally don't want to ignore everyone's opinions, let's increase investment if we increase investment." Liao Xiaoyao drank all the milk tea in the cup, sighed and said, "Young people now, they are all ambitious. But that's fine, because our older generation laid the foundation, leaving them a well-functioning country and a relatively rich material foundation. In their generation, it is time to use this country and this material base to do something beneficial to future generations. And without a relatively strong navy, it is true that many things cannot be done, and I understand this, and I am not ready to stop them, so be it. ”

"By the way, I'll have the Admiralty send someone to me tomorrow. These reports are too crudely done, and I will call them all back and rewrite them, and I don't know how much it will cost to build so many warships. It's enough to report to me that it's so badly written. Liao Xiaoyao picked up the pen and said "gritting his teeth" while writing opinions on several reports.

He knew that if the navy really completed the so-called "five-year shipbuilding plan" and had six "executive committee" class battleships, 30 "throttle" class frigates, 60 "star" light cruisers (this kind of ship is still a relatively good warship in the Indian Ocean and the Far East, and it can also break diplomatic relations and anti-smuggle in the Atlantic, and is in great demand) and other miscellaneous ships, then it will inevitably overwhelm the army, and in the future the two sides are likely to no longer be on an equal footing, but who will dominate the relationship. The question of who is subordinate too. Such a cognition will of course make Liao Xiaoyao, an old army, very unhappy, but he is helpless, after all, the general trend is inviolable!

Of the 6 three-deck warships, the Second and Third Fleets may each get one as a flagship - in fact, Liao Xiaoyao doesn't like this kind of overly ostentatious battleship, because the cost performance is not high enough - the remaining 4 will definitely be deployed in the First Fleet. Similarly, most of the 30 "Tsavage" class warships will be assigned to the First Fleet, forming the backbone of the fleet's battle line decisive battles and playing a mainstay role in naval battles.

In this way, the strength of the First Fleet will be unprecedentedly strong, and if the main force is gathered, it will indeed be able to do a lot of things. Even if it encounters the fleets of the three maritime powers, Britain, the Netherlands, and France, as long as it is not a decisive battle with the main force, it should not be a big problem, or it can be won in a steady battle, and this is enough.

And such a radical construction of the East Coast Navy will probably scare these Europeans a lot! Since the battle with the Portuguese, they have been very low-key for many years, decommissioning some old ships, entering service with some new ships, and even mothballing many warships because of excessive expenses, which is also low-key. At the same time, European countries have developed their navies, Britain and the Netherlands, a pair of old enemies that are inextricably rival, naturally needless to talk about, and even the Kingdom of France, which has always been a backward country, has also implemented the construction plan of "65 heavy warships in five years", and these three countries have caught up with or surpassed the east coast in terms of the number of ships, which undoubtedly makes the east coast navy more annoyed, but helpless.

Fortunately, now they can finally raise their eyebrows! The East Coast is about to carry out its own version of the "65 heavy warships" construction plan in five years, and once it is officially formed and drilled, it will surely become the sharpest sword in the hands of the Executive Committee.