After arranging this matter, Li Qingyuan returned to his house to study the question of how much salary should be paid, and Li Qingyuan came to this era to know that it turned out that a miner could get more than one tael a month, an experienced blacksmith could earn more than two taels, and a green battalion soldier was generally paid two taels plus one stone.

This is still a remote and impoverished area, and it is said that the monthly money of the soldiers in Beijing is four taels of japonica rice and one stone, of course, after removing the deductions, each soldier can still get more than one or two and one stone of miscellaneous grain.

Therefore, Li Qingyuan wants to give a resounding to the rebel army, so at least two taels of silver per month, and now with the three hundred people of the Heavenly Council, two or three hundred Freemasons and recently recruited people, the size of Li Qingyuan's rebel army has exceeded four thousand.

A monthly salary of 8,000 taels of silver, a year of 100,000 taels, it doesn't look like much, but raising the army has always been weapons, equipment, food, etc., which accounts for the majority, take the firecracker as an example, the ten-person team produces ten guns a month, and the labor cost alone costs three taels for a musket, as well as the consumption of iron, wood, coal, etc., and a gun costs about five taels of silver.

In fact, this production efficiency has been substantially improved with the production of bird guns in the Qing Dynasty, but because the gun structure made by Li Qingyuan is more complex and rifling, it is the same as the Qing army, which only makes one shot per person per month.

This is equivalent to Li Qingyuan reducing the manufacturing cost of the new type of firecracker to almost the same level as the bird's gun, which cannot be said to be not a progress, if it is taken out and sold, the bird's gun can be sold for ten taels, then Li Qingyuan's new gun can be sold for twenty taels or even thirty taels.

But this premise is to take it out and sell it, if you can't sell it, the cost can't be recovered, and if you want to train a qualified musketeer, you have to let the soldiers put the gun and practice, not to mention much, a soldier practice fifty guns, then you can scrap a barrel, so the guns alone cost ten taels of silver per person.

This is still the cost price, if a gun costs fifty or sixty taels at the market price, and then the clothing, clothing, gunpowder, lead bullet, and some other materials are consumed, then a soldier needs at least fifty taels or more to achieve combat effectiveness from three months to half a year from being a soldier to training.

Therefore, Li Qingyuan estimated that if he paid the military salary now, it was likely that the troops would go bankrupt before they had finished training, and the soldiers were all ringing, it made no sense, and the logistics personnel had nothing, right? You also have to buy all kinds of substances, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar look very small, but when you multiply it by 10,000, it's a great thing.

Therefore, Li Qingyuan does not make any big moves, and wants to rely on this kind of petty fight to raise the army, which is simply a lot of pressure, and Li Qingyuan also plans to develop Freemasonry and recruit more people, so if these two or three hundred thousand taels of silver are opened, it will really not be enough for a few months.

At first, everyone was afraid of retaliation from the imperial court, afraid of the Qing soldiers chasing and suppressing, and they could unite as one, but when that fear passed, everyone found that the blockade around them was not severe, and the Qing court did not find them.

These people are expected to have other ideas, whether some people want to slip away, whether some people want to be obedient, whether some people want to go home, these situations are not possible but definitely there are.

Although money can't envelop everyone, most people will still stabilize when they see that their wages will be stabilized, and what Li Qingyuan lacks is not eight thousand taels that month, so it's a big deal to send troops to grab it if he doesn't have money.

Now is not the time to save money, Li Qingyuan feels that now he should try his best to turn the resources in his hands into combat effectiveness, only with guns will he have money, and the money spent on these people, these people can help him earn the money back.

So in the end, Li Qingyuan simply no longer wanted to give or not, but considered what kind of distribution mechanism to formulate, which should at least be considered fair by most people.

It's a pity that Wu Sanniang is no longer there, Li Qingyuan didn't even have anyone to discuss, and in the end, Li Qingyuan reluctantly formulated a distribution plan that he thought was suitable, and wanted to discuss it with everyone at the first day of next month.

Because he had promised Meng Can that he would assign a batch of firearms to each detachment of the Heavenly Council starting next month, Li Qingyuan planned to select a group of firearms fighters, and this time he selected 300 soldiers with the best training results from each battalion to set up a special firearms battalion.

The battalion commander is Li Yi's battalion among the ten battalions, and his original battalion is scattered and supplemented by other battalions, Li Yi is the battalion commander promoted by Li Qingyuan step by step from small soldiers, and he is very grateful to Li Qingyuan, and the training is also hard and serious After this time, one-third of their battalion was selected, and it is the battalion with the best training performance.

Therefore, Li Qingyuan chose him as the battalion commander of the musket battalion, and the original large battalion of 1,000 people was limited by the production of firearms, so it could only be established under the three-three system, with 10 people in a squad, 33 people in a platoon, 120 people in a company, and 400 people in a battalion.

Of course, the main thing that is lacking is some auxiliary positions, such as orderly scouts, etc., which will be gradually completed when fighting alone in the future, and the output of firearms will exceed 500 next month, and there will be more places to be allocated at that time.

The first is that the Tianli Council needs to change its outfit, and the second is that the promise made by the Shandong side to at least 100 guns per month will also be fulfilled, and the Tianli Council over there will also need to reload some muskets, so it is likely that Li Qingyuan will only be able to reload one battalion next month.

In total, Li Qingyuan really wants to directly occupy the mining town, as long as he is given a three-month buffer time, his costume change will be completed quickly, but he is afraid that the Qing court will not give him three months.

Think about Wang Lun's uprising, from the beginning to the siege of Linqing, it only took a month, and Qianlong transferred 30,000 or 40,000 troops to encircle and suppress, Handan is about the same distance from the capital as Linqing, so if Li Qingyuan makes a big move, it is estimated that there will only be a month's buffer time.

Therefore, Li Qingyuan planned to develop westward after the year, first control the Taihang Mountain, and then develop westward to Luliang, where Luliang is the border area between Shanxi and Shaanxi, and then go south into the Qinling Mountains, where it will be much safer to do things.

But the premise is that there must be a certain foundation on one's side, at least the people sent out are trained, and there must be a continuous supply of weapons, anyway, it is to take the route of encircling the cities from the countryside.

But now the enemy Li Qingyuan is facing is not Jiang Guangtou, he not only had external troubles at that time, but also warlords internally, so that most of his troops were contained, but although Qianlong is also at war now, there is no strong enemy externally, and it is stable internally, so the pressure is even greater.