"Brother Xian, how about we return it to them?" Luo Jian said with a smile.

"Xinghua, don't be angry with me, I ignore them." Shi Kefa said with some grievances.

Luo Jian didn't care about this either, just joking with Shi Kefa.

Shi Kefa really went to Shaanxi four or five days later with a large number of selected government officials and a large number of materials prepared, leaving Luo Jian almost "alone" in Nanjing.

As soon as Shi Kefa left, Luo Jian was entangled in the whole affair, and the documents that needed to be processed every day were piled up in the office.

Ordinary official documents are not easy to deal with, but a report by Zhang Youyu of the Ministry of Finance has aroused Luo Jian's great attention, saying that if the Nanjing government does not take any more measures, there will be a fiscal deficit.

This report surprised Luo Jian, in his impression, since the Nanjing government issued the Chinese dollar, the finances have been relatively rich, why is it less than half a year, and it has reached the situation of running a deficit.

Luo Jian began to carefully study Zhang Youyu's report, there are not many textual things in the report, most of them are numbers, and after reading the whole report, Luo Jian finally understood why.

Half a year later, the biggest expenditure of the Nanjing government was, of course, war expenditure, the so-called "one cannon sounds, ten thousand taels of gold." The large-scale war in the past six months has consumed 50 percent of the Nanjing government's financial revenue, and this kind of war of reconquest of lost territory is not the same as a war of aggression, and an aggressive war always has a return, and this kind of domestic war is still a drain in addition to consumption.

This is still a situation in which Luo Jian is trying his best to control the size of the army, and the garrison troops in various localities will be borne by the local government, and if the garrison troops in various localities are returned to the Nanjing government, they will be uniformly burdened. It may be that there is already a fiscal deficit for a long time.

See here. Luo Jian smiled a little wryly. It seems that it is really not possible to use a semi-feudal economy to support a modern army, but fortunately, the great war has basically been fought, and the rest are local small-scale wars.

Luo Jian looked carefully, and found that the war consumption also included the food supply for prisoners and relief refugees, and due to the large number of prisoners and refugees, it was also a large expense for the Nanjing government.

Seeing this, Luo Jian's heart relaxed a little. The supply of captives was always short-lived, and when these captives were settled, they would become peasants, they would become factory workers, so that they would create wealth, not just consume, and the situation of refugees would be similar.

The next huge expense made Luo Jian frown. This large expenditure was spent by Shi Kefa to promote the new crops to the newly recovered areas.

The reason why Luo Jian frowned was that Shi Kefa provided sweet potatoes, corn, potatoes and other seeds for these areas were all free, and these crops were now highly produced in the south, and there was no shortage of seeds, and the unit price was not too expensive. But the place is huge, and the number is also very large. Coupled with a large number of personnel expenses, it is really not a small amount.

After reading the report, except for these two sudden increases in major expenditures, everything else is normal, although the education funds are slowly increasing, but the increase is not too large, Luo Jian feels that it is necessary to increase investment in education, but now with the financial capacity of the Nanjing government, I am afraid it will be difficult to do it in a short period of time.

The financial constraints made Luo Jian's heart a little blocked, and he was a little depressed when he went home for dinner at night.

"Xinghua, what's wrong with you? Who upset you? Liu Lan asked strangely, she was most sensitive to the changes in Luo Jian's mood.

"Alas, Liu Lan, you said that I have to be a soldier to engage in economic construction, is it too difficult for me?" Luo Jian said to Liu Lan as if he was complaining.

"Xinghua, didn't I say you, when Ming Taizu was a monk who laid down the world, he could govern the world in an orderly manner, and you only regarded yourself as a soldier with a modern higher education? It doesn't matter, we can learn. Liu Lan said with a smile.

Luo Jian smiled and shook his head, it was easy to say, but it was too difficult to do.

"I've also heard that the government's finances are a little tight, and the fiscal problem is ultimately a matter of open source and throttling, and you have to find a way from these two aspects." Liu Lan reminded that she knew the reason why Luo Jian was worried.

Liu Lan's words were to the point, and Luo Jian put down his chopsticks and fell into thought.

The problem of throttling Luo Jian felt that he couldn't think about it now, and the future expenses would gradually increase, which was inevitable, especially the education funds, Luo Jian felt that he had to at least double it on the current basis.

Of course, military spending will gradually decrease as the war subsides, but the new equipment does not fully equip the troops, Luo Jian feels that it is really necessary to wait for military spending to begin to decline, I am afraid that it will not be possible until all the troops are reequipped.

If we want to immediately alleviate the financial problem in a short period of time, it is certainly not possible to rely on this, unless we raise taxes, which will inevitably curb the development of industry and commerce, and in the long run, this will increase the financial difficulties even more.

In order to obtain a large amount of money in a short period of time, it seems that the only way to obtain it is to rely on overseas trade.

Liu Lan saw that Luo Jian was thinking hard, so she didn't bother him, but just asked Zhang Cheng to bring a few dishes down and heat them up, and sat at the table to accompany him.

Thinking of overseas trade, the trade between Japan and Southeast Asia has basically reached a kind of saturation after the development of the past few years, that is, if more goods enter these countries and regions, I am afraid it will be difficult to sell them in exchange for silver.

The United States is now Zhu Yujiao and they are here, and they still have to support the Nanjing government, and the return is basically nothing, which can only be regarded as an expense.

Luo Jian's eyes turned to Arab countries and Europe, and in the past few years, the Nanjing government's foreign trade has not opened up these trade routes, and private merchants do not dare to go to these places without the escort of warships.

"European trade routes must be opened as soon as possible!" Luo Jian said to himself.

"That's right! If you want to talk about the whole world, I am afraid that only Europe has begun the germination of capitalism, so who will we make if we don't make their money? Liu Lan heard Luo Jian's words, took over the topic and said.

"That's right. Hing wah. In a few years, I will go to the Persian Gulf to buy land. Liu Lan said.

"Do you know the exact location?" Luo Jian knew that Liu Lan wanted to buy an oil field. These places are basically deserts now, and it doesn't cost much to buy them, and the key is whether people sell them or not.

Luo Jian didn't know much about the history of the world during this period, only that the Ottoman Empire was still strong during this period, but its encroachment on Europe began to slow down, and the Arab countries were basically under the rule of the Ottoman Empire at this time.

After a hurried dinner, Luo Jian went to the study, turned on the computer, and began to inquire about the history of the world during this time.

The content is both numerous and varied. Luo Jian kept seeing it at one o'clock in the evening.

As soon as he arrived at the office early the next morning, he asked his secretary to inform Zheng Zhilong, Lu Wei and Zheng Chenggong that he wanted to see them.

Zheng Zhilong and Lu Wei are now in Nanjing, but Zheng Chenggong and the fleet are now in Zhenjiang, and it will be tomorrow to see him, but fortunately, there is now a telegram between Nanjing and Zhenjiang, which is specially prepared for the operation of the train.

Early in the morning of the third day, when Luo Jian came to the office after breakfast, Zheng Zhilong, Lu Wei, and Zheng Chenggong were already waiting in the reception room outside the office.

"You're so early!" Luo Jian greeted the three of them with a smile.

"The majority of the governors recruit each other, how dare we slack off?" Zheng Zhilong said with a smile.

"Why bother to see the outside like that. Sit down and talk. Luo Jian beckoned the secretary to make tea for the three of them, and then sat down.

"Minister Zheng. Does your Admiralty have any plans to build another warship this year? Luo Jian and the other three waited for a while, and then asked Zheng Zhilong.

"Governor, do you want to build warships? Our current fleet is invincible at sea! Zheng Zhilong asked in surprise.

"I've told you clearly, I want to open up new sea trade routes, can the navy protect me?" Luo Jian asked bluntly.

"This..."Zheng Zhilong looked at his son Zheng Chenggong.

"Metropolitan Governor, our current warships have not yet returned except for the escort of the 'Qi Jiguang' and 'Huo Quai' to North America, and the 'Yue Fei' and 'Ran Min' are anchored in Zhenjiang, where are the new routes that the Metropolitan Governor is going to open up?"

Zheng Chenggong reported the whereabouts of several warships to Luo Jian, but Zheng Chenggong was far less restrained than his father about Luo Jian, and Zheng Zhilong shook his head when he saw it, and said in his heart that this kid would have to teach him again when he went back, and it was not okay to be so casual in front of the Grand Governor.

"No, it's too small. What we want to open up this time is the route between the Ottoman Empire and Europa, these countries are countries with a large number of warships, although the combat effectiveness of these warships cannot be compared with our warships, but the so-called 'ants bite elephants to death', we can't take this risk. ”

Luo Jian found a lot of information last night, which showed that at this time, the Ottoman Empire still had a strong naval force in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, and the number of its warships was nearly 1,000, and the sea power of traditional maritime powers such as Spain and the British Empire at the same time should not be underestimated.

"Metropolitan Governor, I think you are too careful, their warships are not only slow, but also the range of their guns is not good, they use solid bullets, we have 'Yue Fei' and 'Ran Min' enough to run rampant on the sea." Zheng Chenggong said indifferently.

"Da Mu, you must know that our fleet is mainly to escort our merchant ships, your two warships went to fight others, and the merchant ships were beaten by others, what kind of voyage do you protect?" Luo Jian said.

"Governor, the merchant ships of our ocean trading company are equipped with artillery, and although they still use black shells, they are not without self-preservation." Lu Wei said beside him.

"Oh? I really forgot about it. Luo Jian regarded the merchant ship as an unarmed merchant ship in another time and space, thinking that at that time, Somali pirates could hijack a large cargo ship of tens of thousands of tons with a small ship and a dozen pirates.

"Da Mu, Wei Sheng, do you think that if you are surrounded by hundreds of their warships, you can still win or get out smoothly?"

Luo Jian is not a bull, he is not a front-line commander, and he does not understand naval operations at all, for the layman, he always hopes that he can not only surpass his opponent in terms of quality, but also cannot be less than the other party in terms of quantity.

"Governor, fighting at sea is quite different from on land, our warships and merchant ships are far faster than each other, and it is impossible for them to surround us at sea. Our battleships are equipped with armor, and now solid shells with black gunpowder cannot pose a threat to us at all. Dadu Governor, if you really want to open up a new trade route, I, Zheng Sen, can give Dadu Governor a military order, escorted by 'Yue Fei' and 'Ran Min', which can ensure that the merchant ships are safe. ”

Zheng Chenggong saw that Luo Jian was still worried, stood up and saluted Luo Jian and said. (To be continued.) )