Chapter 364: The Navy That Eats Money

"What's going on? Go and give orders. Seeing the hesitation of the staff officers one by one, Cheng Chuliang couldn't help urging.

"General, you'd better see for yourself." A staff officer pointed outside: "It's all like this, is it still necessary for the marines to land?" ”

"Huh? Damn, these bastards are playing with cannonballs as cannonballs, these losers, don't you want money for cannonballs? Cheng Chuliang raised the binoculars and looked out, but when he saw it, he suddenly became angry - it may be that he was despised by Liu Renliang before, and the depression in his heart has not been vented, or it has been drifting on the sea for a long time, and it is rare to let go of his hands and feet to play, or for some other reason, the gunners of the Quanzhou fleet really used the cannonballs as a cannon to play, and the shells bombarded out almost regardless of the cost, showing the enemy on the shore what is called carpet bombardment, what is called peach blossoms all over the ground- It's just that the flickering tail flame behind the butt of the cannonball looks quite beautiful, and the flames after the explosion are even more shocking, but the thought of the money spent on such a cannon makes Cheng Chuliang feel distressed and almost want to cry.

This group of little bastards doesn't know that firewood and rice are expensive, but Cheng Chuliang, as the actual person in charge of the Quanzhou fleet, rarely became a homemaker, and only then did he know how difficult it is to be in charge - because of the independence of the navy, their military expenses are the same as those of later generations, they are allocated in advance, as for how you use the money, the court will not care about you, provided that you don't embezzle and don't squander it, otherwise even his father can't save him.

As the governor of the Quanzhou fleet, Li Ji still did something for this fleet that nominally belonged to him, that is, on the grounds that the Quanzhou fleet was still young, he was stunned to let him have a first-class fleet and get the military expenses for strengthening the fleet, but even if he strengthened the fleet, the annual military expenditure was only three million taels of silver - this is the amount given by the princes of the imperial court after agreeing, even his father agreed, and Cheng Chuliang had no choice.

Three million taels of silver, this may seem like a lot, but it should be used for whom, how many people, and where it should be used. If this money is indeed too much for one person, but at this time, these three million taels are really a drop in the bucket for such a huge fleet. Not to mention anything else, let's just talk about the salary, a fleet of tens of thousands of people, the navy is famous for high wages and high benefits, this year's salary is a big number, which accounts for at least one-third and nearly one-half of military spending, in addition to a variety of other items, such as daily training, personnel welfare, miscellaneous input, weapons purchase and renewal, maintenance and maintenance of warships, new ship purchases, etc., which does not require a lot of money?

In particular, the purchase and renewal of weapons and the maintenance and maintenance of warships are even more money-hungry.

With the development of iron-smelting technology and science and technology, now Datang's weapons are very expensive, a good cold weapon needs hundreds of taels of silver, the price of thermal weapons is even more amazing, especially guns, cannons are a little better, one-time addition, as long as the maintenance is proper, it should be no problem to use it for three years and five years, the problem is that cannonballs, the consumption of cannonballs is a hurdle that cannot be bypassed, naval training needs to be artillery, and the enemy needs to be fired, and deterrence of local natives also needs to be artillery...... Which of these projects does not need to consume hundreds of shells at any time, and the price of shells is very expensive, and the cannon is ten thousand taels of gold, isn't it just said - didn't the arms dealers of later generations do it? Guns are worthless, they can even be sold at a discount, they make money purely on ammunition.

Now Datang's artillery shell technology has been updated, and the technical difficulty has decreased, but even so, the average price is about eight yuan, a third-class battleship has ninety cannons on two decks, according to the price of cannonballs, a salvo is seven hundred and twenty taels of silver, a fleet has thirty third-class battleships, in addition to dozens of fourth-level battleships and fifth-level battleships, if all the battleships are fired together, it doesn't take much, only seventy or eighty rounds, he Cheng Chuliang has to put on a beggar's suit and go to the gate of the palace to ask for food......

Not to mention that in the future, the fleet will be equipped with second-class or even first-class battleships, where the number of guns on it is even larger, and the number of any one can exceed 100.

Of course, battleships rarely fire salvos, because dozens of nearly 100 cannons fired a salvo together, and the recoil produced was very strong, and the structural damage to the battleship itself was too great. Unless the battleship is surrounded on all sides, it is generally fired in a single direction, and even in one direction, as long as the enemy is not strong, all the cannons will not be fired at the same time. But even so, the firing of artillery shells is still very expensive - after all, although a salvo is unlikely, the ammunition consumed by a year's training and combat will not be less than that of a salvo of seventy or eighty rounds.

In addition to the purchase of weapons, there is also a more expensive project, that is, battleship maintenance - don't look at the battleship is very expensive, but after all, it is a one-time thing, and it is generally equipped by the state, and basically you can get it at cost price. Battleships are not only cheap, but also very durable, as long as they are properly maintained on weekdays, it is not a problem to use them for more than 20 years, at most, the performance is backward and cannot keep up with the times, and even after the warship reaches the service age, it can also be converted from military to civilian, and the warship can be changed to civilian ships and sold to the civilian sector, and some of the money can be recovered.

The problem lies in this maintenance - the maintenance of the battleship is very frequent, the training comes back to maintenance, the patrol comes back still has to be maintained, these can only be regarded as small maintenance, as long as there is something, the navy itself can do it, the problem is that the ocean voyage back, this not only needs to be maintained, he also has to overhaul, the navy itself can't do it, you have to go back to the factory to let the shipyard people help.

And the money required for the overhaul of a battleship is not a small number, especially with so many warships, the price of a major overhaul is enough to add a few more third-class warships to the fleet...... However, Datang is in the stage of colonial development, and the number of ocean voyages in the future will definitely not be too small, especially at this time, Datang only has three fleets, and if you don't go out three or five times a year, you are embarrassed to say that this is Datang's fleet......

So at the beginning, Cheng Chuliang was still very happy to learn that he had won the military funds for strengthening the fleet for a class A fleet, but when he counted all the items that should be counted, he found that such a little money was not enough at all, if he followed the normal flowering method, he could only support it until October this year at most, and if there was no money in the remaining two months, they could only wait to starve to death......

(End of chapter)