In the second year of Jianxing, not long after the Spring Festival, Liaodong fell into a busy situation again, and a large number of materials began to be hoarded, although the war had not yet begun, but everyone in Liaodong seemed to feel the tension before the war.

There are indications that Shile will launch a military operation against Youzhou in the near future, and the whole of Liaodong does not dare to slack off, and is seizing all the time to raise materials and make preparations before the war.

With the county guard mansion running at full strength, the entire Liaodong seemed to become active like an animal waking up from hibernation.

Compared with the people in other places, under Wei Shuo's rule, there is actually no ordinary person in the true sense, and every Ding Zhuang must receive a certain amount of military training and live a militarized life for a long or short time. The Liao people were more disciplined than the people in other places, and Wei Shuo could organize them into reserve troops at any time if needed.

After a relatively relaxed Spring Festival, the military division under the Liaodong Captain's Mansion requisitioned and dispatched the infantry of the Shixiang Prefecture Army to guard the key places in Liaodong, and among them, there were 10,000 cavalry of the Prefecture Army ready to support various places at any time.

In addition to the troop adjustment, in the second half of the first month, Wei Shuo convened a joint meeting of the military and government of Liaodong in the county guard mansion, the purpose of which was to reach a compromise with all parties on the financial distribution for this year.

"Ladies and gentlemen, after the unremitting efforts of Lord Yang and officials at all levels of the tax Cao, after nearly a month of sorting out statistics, we have finally sorted out the annual financial revenue of Liaodong last year. Now, Lord Yang will report in detail to all of you, and then each department will propose the corresponding budget plan for this year according to its own needs. Don't blame Wei for not reminding you that if your own budget is not approved, then there will be no financial allocation for the department this year. ”

In the county guard's office, Wei Shuo was introducing the financial budget system to his subordinates with a serious face, and the implementation of the financial budget system was more conducive to the audit department's supervision of financial appropriations.

"In the first year of Jianxing, there was no large-scale war in the entire Liaodong. Various industrial and agricultural construction projects have been carried out smoothly, and Liaodong's tax revenue has increased greatly last year. Including traditional agriculture, plus emerging industries such as aquaculture, forestry, and fishery, the agricultural output value of eastern Liaoning was as high as 300,000 yuan last year. ”

Yang Tan, the director of the tax Cao, was very excited to share the good news of the substantial increase in Liaodong's finances with the colleagues present, and he naturally had reason to be happy about this matter, when he took over the post of the director of the tax Cao the year before last. Liaodong's finances are still beyond their means, and they basically rely on Laoshan and Xuzhou to provide assistance.

However, just over a year has passed, and judging from the results of the current financial statistics, perhaps Liaodong will be able to initially achieve a fiscal balance this year, and there is no longer any need for external funding support. As the chief tax officer, Yang Tan's credit is naturally the greatest.

"In addition to agricultural income, Liaodong has also achieved fruitful results in industry and commerce. In Liaodong alone, the industrial output value has soared from almost zero to as much as 100,000. Today, there are nearly 50 large and small workshops in Liaodong! ”

"Lord Yang, don't just talk about these nonsense. You can just say how much money you earned last year, and how much you can squander this year. ”

"Hahaha, it seems that someone can't wait, okay! There's no nonsense in the next place. Ladies and gentlemen, last year, Liaodong's industrial, agricultural, and commercial taxes totaled 500,000 yuan, and if we add 500,000 yuan of overseas trade revenue, our fiscal revenue can reach 1 million yuan. I believe that there will be a big explosion in finances next year. ”

"A million?! Good, very good. Wei Shuo was very satisfied. With this million yuan of income, it means that Liaodong's finances will be abundant this year.

"However, my lord, part of this million guan is grain and other in-kind income, and its value is about 200,000 guan."

In order to compete for more financial appropriations for their departments, the directors of the county guard and the school lieutenant spent several days negotiating with their subordinates. I finally came up with a financial grant application plan that I thought was perfect.

"My lord, the total number of professional soldiers in Liaodong has reached 36,000, which temporarily meets the current military needs. However, for the sake of the future, he suggested that the cavalry unit should continue to be recruited next year, and it was best to recruit more cavalry. Thus the number of cavalry of our army amounted to 30,000 men. In addition, the construction of the Army Officers' Academy and the Maritime Academy. Therefore, the military needs to allocate at least 500,000 yuan to cover the expenses everywhere. ”

Lu Chang, the director of the Military Affairs Department, first put forward a request for appropriation on behalf of the military, and as soon as he opened his mouth, he wanted to deduct most of the financial revenue, which suddenly attracted other people to frequently report anger at him, but Lu Chang was unmoved and insisted that Wei Shuo agree to the military's request.

Naturally, Wei Shuo could not fully allocate funds according to the budget proposed by the military, but in fact, as far as military expenditure is concerned, military salaries are still the biggest expense. For 36,000 professional soldiers, the annual expenditure on military salaries alone is as high as 360,000 yuan. This is still the standard set after Wei Shuo tried his best to stabilize the prices in Liaodong, otherwise the army's expenses would be higher.

"My lord, I oppose the conscription of the five-compartment cavalry again, otherwise the annual salary alone will cost 130,000 yuan, and if you add other equipment, horses, etc., I am afraid that it will not be able to form combat effectiveness without 300,000 yuan! But this is too much money-burning! ”

Seeing that the military lion opened his mouth, Shi Peiwei, the head of the county guard, stood up, he was not against the allocation of funds to the military, but he believed that Liaodong did not have the conditions for military expansion at present. Liaodong has a weak foundation, and all aspects need to be invested, and if the military invests too much, it will inevitably affect other aspects.

"My lord, Lord Pei, and all the colleagues here, they are not insisting on increasing the allocation of funds to the military, it is really forced by the situation! Don't forget, everyone. We are about to fight with Xiangguo Shile, and in the future, there will be the recovery of Changli and Liaoxi counties occupied by the Xianbei people, whether they are the Xianbei people or the Xianbei people, they have strong cavalry troops. If we don't have enough cavalry troops, what will we do against those Hu people in the future? ”

Lu Chang retorted confidently: "I haven't mentioned the development of the water division yet, the water division has been established for a long time, and it has never received strong financial support, if it is coupled with the development needs of the water division, the military only asked for 500,000 guan just now It is already very restrained to restrain itself, otherwise if we don't allocate 100,000 guan, we will never be able to meet the military's requirements." ”

Lu Chang's words suddenly made many military generals cheer warmly, but they also aroused fierce opposition from the military people present, and even Wei Shuo couldn't help but roll his eyes at Lu Chang a few times. Unexpectedly, after less than a year of following the army, Lu Chang completely became without a trace of literati.

"Lord Lu, it's too unauthentic for you to say that, yes, the water master didn't get much financial support, but don't forget, last year, the lord promised the water master to take a sum of income from overseas trade every year to use the water supplier. Although I don't know how much this money is at the moment, compared with previous experience, this income is at least 100,000 yuan. ”

"Alright, you guys don't fight." Wei Shuo stopped the argument of his subordinates, and said after a while, "In this way, this year's military expenditure will be set at 400,000 yuan, and if there is more, it will be gone, and the expansion of the cavalry will be put on hold for the time being, and then we will talk about it when the finances are relaxed in the future." ”

"Lord, this ......" Lu Chang and the others were in a hurry all of a sudden, but they didn't expect Wei Shuo to cut their budget by one-fifth.

"Alright, that's it. The strength of Liaodong is still very small, and we cannot patronize military development, and we must also increase investment in other areas, especially in agriculture, education, and industry. Only when agriculture and industry are developed will we have stronger economic strength, and then will the military have the opportunity to develop vigorously. ”

The others were relieved to see that Wei Shuo had only allocated 400,000 yuan to the military, although there was not much money left, but at least they still had a little thought.

"Let's learn from Lord Cao Huangfu first!"

When Huangfu heard the roll call and saw that the budget was generous, he hurriedly and secretly stuffed the bottom of a stack of reports to the top, got up and read the second set of plans he had prepared:

"My lord, Xue Cao plans to recruit another 700 masters from all over the country this year, plus the 300 masters recruited last year, and the total expenditure on wages alone is 10,000 yuan. In addition, Xuecao plans to enroll about 5,000 children between the ages of 15 and 6 to receive primary education this year. ”

"These 5,000 people need 80,000 yuan for food alone. In addition, in terms of the construction of the school, plus the cost of textbooks, tables and chairs, it will take about 100,000 yuan. Finally, with the funding of higher education halls, specialized science halls and research institutes, Xuecao needs a total of about 400,000 yuan this year. (To be continued.) )