Hai Shuzu vacated a manor outside the city for Shou Xu, which served as his residence during his time in Hainan.

The deployment of Zeng Ying's reorganized army has begun, and 5,000 people from all over the province have gathered on the school grounds of Hainan Wei, with Zhang Shijie in charge of the reorganization.

Shou Xuan transferred 40 soldiers from the port garrison of the Sanya Company, and assigned half to Hai Shuzu. He gathered a hundred people and took the children of his family to Jonesy to take office. The father-in-law took out 20,000 yuan in cash, and was ready to sell most of the acres of land in Qiongbei to raise money to colonize in Qiongxi. Shou Zhi knows that it is entirely because of himself. The Hai family has no worries now, money and other things, the Hai family has other industries in Taiwan and Nanyang, although most of them are now in the investment stage, not to mention profitable, but those plantations and mines will explode in a few years, which will bring a lot of wealth.

Shou Xiang drew 100 people from the 130-man guard, and combined them with 20 people from Sanya to form the Dongshui Port Garrison. Resources are limited, and at this stage, we can only rely on ourselves and the strength of Sanya Company. The 20 men drawn from the Sanya garrison were all from Qiongzhou, which helped the soldiers gain a foothold on Hainan Island.

After the local area stabilized, many old brothers quit their front-line posts, and many of them retired directly. The commander of the garrison of the East Water Port was Andreosi, an old pirate from Tortuga. Andreosi left the Navy after returning to China at the beginning of the year, and after enjoying himself at home for a while, he found that he still couldn't be idle, so he found Shou Xian and asked to be transferred to the Sanya company. The requirements of the old Caribbean brothers will basically be met, and this time they brought him to Hainan.

Orderly: "Andrey, I give you a strength of 250 people, and you double the size of the garrison." ”

Andrey: "Yes, Your Excellency. What about the facilities at the port? ”

Shou Order: "I'm afraid you can only build it yourself." The dock trestle crane is not in a hurry, and the fort is repaired first. ”

André was involved in the construction of the pigeon cages of the Quadrangular Fortress in Tortuga, where there were not many slaves and the fort was built by the pirates almost entirely brick by brick.

A smile tugged at the corner of Andre's mouth, "Let those recruits start by digging holes, and if anyone doesn't do a good job, I'll let whoever regrets giving birth, ah, no, it's to open them." ”

Pirates from Tortuga were always like this, proficient in all kinds of torture.

"Don't kill anyone, this is not our territory."

"Yes, training recruits is indispensable to fight. I'll control the scale. ”

There is no way to improve the combat effectiveness of the army, and the only way to improve the combat effectiveness of the army is to train and fight. Military training in this era is a cruel thing.

The average Dutch soldier in the East Indies was paid 240 guilders a year, which fluctuated around 80 taels of silver according to the exchange rate. Of course, half of this could only be obtained by the soldiers when they returned to Europe, and if the soldiers died in battle, the East India Company would send the money to their homes. Soldiers' daily clothing, food and other expenses are also deducted from this military salary.

European soldiers came all the way to the East Indies and the mortality rate was extremely high, so the Dutch paid their salaries. The federal pay does not have to be up to the standards of the Dutch, and conscripts are now very cheap. Recruits are 1 peso a month, less than 1 tael of official silver, and a private is 2 pesos a month.

The most expensive are professional soldiers, and the lowest rank and upper class soldier in the army professional soldiers retained are 3 taels of silver a month, and food and military uniforms are provided by the state, which is about the same as the military salary of Dutch soldiers in Asia.

The objects that need to be compared are the Ming army and the Jianzhou.

Now the soldiers of Nanming are divided into regular soldiers and volunteers, regular soldiers are paid 20 taels a year, and volunteers are paid 12 taels a year, of course, this is only theoretical, Nanming can not pay military salaries on time, and the army has no combat effectiveness.

Jianzhou's military salary for the green battalion soldiers is 2 taels per month for horse soldiers, 1.5 taels per month for soldiers, and 1 tael for guards. Like the Eight Banners, the cavalry soldiers and guards are not soldiers, but only rank treatment, and the horsemen are not necessarily cavalry, and the soldiers are not necessarily cavalry.

Jianzhou controlled most of the country, with an annual fiscal revenue of about 25 million taels, and the annual tax revenue of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty was about 41 million. In addition to Shandong, Jianzhou eliminated most of the guards, turned the guards into prefectures and counties, and vacated the places that were originally supplied to the guards to save silver and grain to relieve Beijing.

Dolgon partially reduced the three salaries, but in most parts of the country, the three salaries were considered part of the regular tax on the fields and were not reduced. On the whole, the tax burden of the state is slightly lighter than that of the Ming Dynasty. Relying on local government to retain money and disarm Beijing, Jianlu can basically pay enough military salaries.

All the institutions of Jianzhou were inherited from the Ming Dynasty. The treatment of the green battalion soldiers was the same as that of the Ming Dynasty before the collapse, which was divided into line grain and sitting grain. Sitting grain is the salary that is graded according to the treatment of horses and guards when guarding the flood land in peacetime, and the staple food supplied by the state is deducted from it. The military uniforms and some weapons and equipment of the troops, including gowns, shoes and socks, pot tents, flags, arquebuses, etc., and some expenses must be deducted from this ration.

It is unreliable to expect to support the family on food, and the green battalion soldiers generally have some way to make extra money, learn a craftsman's trade or do a small business or something. The rations are different, the rations are the salaries of the soldiers after they are drawn from the flood land, and the green battalion soldiers all rely on the rations to live. First of all, the traditional flood land left by the Ming army must have a fee for pulling out, and then it will be pulled out after getting the silver. After leaving the flood land, the daily military salary of the guest army was doubled. When you go to the battlefield, you must have a battle silver when you go out to see the battle. After the fight, if you are injured, there will be a silver bounty. If there is a war merit, there is another reward.

As the saying goes, when the cannon goes off, there are 10,000 taels of gold, and the treatment of the green battalion soldiers in wartime is not low, and it is normal to open 7,80 taels of silver a year. At this time, Jianzhou can meet most of the normal military salary expenses of the green battalion soldiers, and there are arrears but not much, and the arrears will not be long. Rewards are sometimes given, and the alternative is to loot and slaughter the city.

The concept of order is very simple, and there is no good thing in war. The military salary of the Federation is definitely higher than that of the Green Battalion, and the conscripts are only guarding their homes for the time being, and they still have to rely on mobile field battalions if they really want to fight. The annual salary of the senior soldiers in the field battalion is 36 taels, which is one and a half times that of the green battalion soldiers, and the soldiers do not have to take care of the expenses such as food and military uniforms.

The garrisons in Qiongzhou and Taipei are paid according to the salaries of the high-class soldiers, and only the recruits on probation are paid according to the compulsory soldiers, and they do not have to be responsible for their own food, and the treatment is actually higher than that of the green battalion. Only higher pay and harsher training can create a strong army.

The first phase of the Oriental Fort project is a round fort with a large battery group, and it is temporarily impossible to build a fortress. The period given to Andrei by the order was 1 year, with soldiers, and some civilians to complete the construction of the fortress.

Including Dongfang Fort, the Qiongzhou defense line was heavily scheming. The strait defense line starts from the inspection department of Puqian in Wenchang County, and goes to the Qianhu Office of Haikou Houqianhu, Dongfang Fort, Shiqi Port, Chengmai County, Chengmai Inspection Division, Natuo Inspection Division, Lingao County, Danzhou Prefecture City, and Danzhou Prefecture City, which is also the Danzhou Shouyu Thousand Households, a total of 9 fortresses are planned.

As the core of the defense, Haikou invested the most resources, and Zeng Ying planned to build a new fortress on the other side of the Nandu River while strengthening the castle and building additional forts and half-moon forts.

The three cities of Chengmai, Danzhou and Lingao have been strengthened according to the standards of Haikou. Shiqi Port and the inspection divisions were expanded into a group of forts, and the beacon piers of the guards facing the Qiongzhou Strait were repaired. The original cities of the Ming Dynasty and the site selection of defense facilities such as the Inspection Department and the Fengsui basically covered the entire Qiongzhou Strait, and most of the ports with infrastructure. The enemy army can land in other places, but then heavy weapons such as artillery and war horses will not be able to take ashore at the first time of landing.

Zeng Ying's work this year revolved around the Qiongzhou defense line, and for this reason, he often went in and out of the governor's yamen, and almost became his staff officer. Shou Xu transferred several surveying and engineering personnel from the Sanya Company to help the Ming army improve the fort construction plan.

The length of the defense line is about 150 kilometers, and in addition to building a fortress, it is necessary to renovate the official road in northern Qiongbei. This was for the deployment of reserve maneuvers behind the defensive line. The amount of work on the entire defense line was quite large, and it was about to be the busy farming season, so Zeng Ying could only mobilize very cautiously. In order not to affect agricultural production, Zeng Ying first put the assembled army into the defense line project, and then carried out persuasion donations among families above the rich peasant level in the three prefectures.

Qiongzhou, as the fundamental place, is not fierce, in Leizhou and Lianzhou in Haibei, he is almost killing chickens and eggs, and fishing with all his might. The local soldiers could not be trusted, and the donation work was carried out by the Jiangxi soldiers led by his eldest son, Zeng Wende.

Zeng Zhi and the three sons of the Zeng family brought more than 300 Jiangxi soldiers and their families to Suixi County last year with Cai Yuanding, and these soldiers are now in great use. Zeng Ying's Governor Yamen now has a strong team of Chinese troops, and the main field forces are composed of the Fubiao Right Battalion, which originally belonged to Zhang Shijie, and the Fubiao Left Battalion of Zeng Wende. Zeng Ying's current deployment is to bomb Qiongzhou with the right battalion, and the second prefecture with the left battalion to suppress Haibei.

In order to gather the resources in the jurisdiction, Zeng Ying handed over the work of Hainan to Zhang Shijie, Wu Yanliang, the prefect of Qiongzhou, and Dai Wenwei, the same governor. This Dai Wenwei is not small, although he is only from Engong, he is Yang Sichang's person. followed Yang Sichang to fight on the front line of the peasant army for a long time, and had some combat exploits. After Yang Sichang's death, he was kicked to western Guangdong by the bigwigs of the imperial court, and then became an official in the four mansions of western Guangdong. Zeng Ying didn't care about his origin, after Yang Sichang's death, Dai Wenwei had no backer, Zeng Ying took a fancy to Dai Wenwei's actual combat experience, which is very rare among Hainan officials.

Zeng Ying finished the deployment work, landed in Haibei again, and walked with him in Order, and the two of them took the Orderly's battleship Excellence. did not stop at Xuwen, and sailed directly along the coastline to Haikang County, the capital city of Leizhou. According to Zeng Ying's order, the main officials of the second government of Haibei gathered in Haikang County at this time.

No matter what kind of battle is fought, grain and grass must go first. The first day of the military conference in western Guangdong was to take stock of fiscal revenues, which was the business of civilian officials.

Shou Xu and Zeng Ying walked into the vacant Haibei Branch Shoudao Yamen, Lianzhou Governor Lin Zhuanheng, Qinzhou Governor Zhou Jin, Leizhou Mansion Tongzhi Wu Tiaoyang, Li Zizhang, Lianzhou Tongzhi Zhang Tongju, Cao Xubai, Lianzhou Governor Zhang Xiaoqi, Haikang County Ling Yu Cuiqing, Suixi County Ling Zeng Zhi, Xu Wenzhi County Yang Wenxin, Lianzhou Governor Hu Jiwu of Hepu County, Lingshan County Zhao Zhongyan.

Regardless of the ability and character of these officials, Zeng Ying must rely on them to control power, and he has no other channel.

"Zhang Xiaoqi," Zeng Ying first pointed out the name of the official in Lianzhou.

"Zhongcheng." A somewhat young officer stood up.

"The Ministry recommended you to be the governor of Haibei Province, and Fujing's appointment has come down."

The officials present looked at Zhang Xiaoqi with envious expressions on their faces. The patrol press and the official are both seven grades, but the power of affairs is completely incomparable. Becoming a patrol means stepping on the thoroughfare of promotion, and the prospects are better than those of these state and county officials.

Even a dying dynasty has never lacked officials who are eager to progress in their careers. It's inertia and instinct.

Among the officials of Haibei, Zeng Ying admired Zhang Xiaoqi the most, but he couldn't be promoted too quickly, which would destroy the balance of personnel. The position of the inspector is just right, the official quality is low, not as high as the prefect's fellow intellectuals, and he has enough power to give full play to his ability.

Zhang Xiaoqi saluted and said, "Thank you Zhongcheng for your next post." ”

"Thank you, you don't have to." Zeng Ying's tone was flat, "Zhang Xiaoqi, the purpose of letting you do the Haibei patrol is to supervise the collection of this year's food and salary." You don't care about other small things, just stare at the money and grain collection. ”

"Yes, Zhongcheng."

If during the Chengping period, the governor was directly responsible to the emperor according to the imperial history, it was meant to restrain the governor. But now it is a troubled time, and whoever has soldiers is powerful. Zeng Ying is the most senior civil official, and he is not worried about Zhang Xiaoqi's constraints at all.

Zeng Ying arched his hand to the north and clenched his fist, "The Son of Heaven ordered the official to shepherd the side, such as today's bandang, it is the time for my generation to serve, and the official has decided to train the army to go to King Qin, Fujian." Military training is based on military salaries as the first priority, and it is up to you, ladies and gentlemen, whether the Qinwang soldiers can make the trip or not. ”

The officials in the hall stood up and saluted, "Zhongcheng rest assured, we dare not to die." ”

After the scene was finished, Zeng Ying began to arrange specific tasks, persuasion is only a temporary measure, and the most important thing is to pay taxes, starting with Leizhou.

The prefect of Leizhou ran away, and now it is Wu Tiaoyang, the same knowledge, who is presiding over the civil affairs of Leizhou.

"Zhongcheng, our government is endowed with more than 46,869 stones in the summer and autumn every year, and more than 1,000 taels of miscellaneous commercial taxes. Counting the three salaries and additional distributions, the total tax amount of the true color is 773.34 million. ”

Zeng Ying nodded, and the three salaries were shared equally per mu, which was roughly 65% of the positive endowment.

"How much arable land do you have in your territory?"

Seeing that Zeng Ying was not named, Suixi County Ling Zeng Zhi stood up first and replied, "Zhongcheng, there are 413,644 acres of cultivated land in Xianxian County. Summer and autumn are endowed with 13,564 stones. ”

Although it was his own brother, Zeng Ying didn't say much, just nodded lightly.

This is followed by Haikang County and Xuwen County.

Leizhou Mansion is a grain exporting province, second only to Qiongzhou in terms of wealth in western Guangdong, and there are more than 11,300 hectares of cultivated land in Hongwu 24 years, which is 1.13 million mu. Subsequently, the people of Leizhou built 22,490 zhang, 190 sluices in the north and south of the seawall, newly reclaimed thousands of hectares of foreign fields, to the end of the Ming Dynasty, the number is higher, the cultivated land is close to 1.5 times that of the beginning of the Ming Dynasty.

Zeng Ying said to the officials of Leizhou Prefecture: "Borrow part of next year's taxes from the people in advance, and you will collect 120,000 stones this year." ”

Wu Tiaoyang's face was like earth, "Zhongcheng, this is really difficult for the lower official committee to do." ”

Zeng Ying brought some murderous aura, "Wu Tongzhi, if you can't do it, don't be this official, go to the construction site to build a wall." ”

The temperament of people who have fought is different, and Wu Tiaoyang immediately did not dare to say anything.

Advance borrowing tax grain is a common problem today, Emperor Longwu in Fujian to the tax to Longwu 3 years, Zeng Ying only 1 year of the positive endowment is considered a thin endowment.

"Hoarding 150,000 quintals of sugar."

Wu Tiaoyang was shocked, "Zhongcheng, there are many sugars in Zhaoqing's business. ”

Zhaoqing is the residence of Ding Kuichu, the governor of Liangguang, and Wu Tiaoyang said something that should not be stabbed.

Zeng Ying sneered, "Ding Kuichu is not something you should worry about, you only need to be responsible for hoarding sugar, and I will be responsible for other things." ”

Ding Kuichu is the same year as Zeng Ying, and he is also a Jinshi in the 44th year of Wanli, and Zeng Ying are both from the second class, and the governor of Guangxi, Qu Shiyun, is slightly lower than them, and the top three. Although the governor's status was lower than that of the governor, Zeng Ying was not afraid of him at all. Ding Kuichu was appointed by Ma Shiying as the governor of Liangguang, and he had not long been in Guangdong, but his roots were not deep. Zeng Ying heard that he mixed sugar with the sea trade business, and he made a fortune in the past two years.

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Thanks to Emperor Chint. I won't note this chapter, and then it's a paper, and the numbers are generally true.