readx; Eventually, donations of nearly six million silver dollars were raised in the provinces of the empire, and almost all of them demanded the construction of a splendid palace. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The construction funds of the palace have become extremely sufficient, in addition to sufficient funds, those rare treasures are a lot, Zhao Yan copied so many Jin merchants, Zheng Group was copied by him to almost fine, not to mention other landlords and tyrants, just in overseas trade obtained a lot of rare treasures, these treasures have always been kept without hand.

With so much funding, the design of the palace was replanned.

The garden covers an area of 800 acres from the original plan of 200 acres, and the palace will establish a brilliant 'imperial palace', and the architectural style will adopt a new architectural style, that is, the kind of post-modern architecture with oriental characteristics that is currently popular in Zhaojiabao.

The building materials are mainly marble, which is atmospheric and good.

Inside the palace is a huge hall with excellent light, which was used by the emperor to receive ministers and foreign envoys, as well as to hold state banquets.

On the left side of the imperial palace is the Wenhua Palace, which is the emperor's study and the place where the emperor receives his subjects in private.

To the right of the imperial palace is the Qianqing Palace, where the emperor lived.

In front is the Imperial Forum, with marble floors and steps, and behind it is a huge royal garden.

…… At the end of the first year of the empire, the governors of the provinces and the generals of the navy and the army returned to the Ming Dynasty one after another, except for the exiles in the Americas and Africa who had not yet returned, most of the others had returned to Zhaojiabao, Shandong Province to report to Zhao Yan.

For the governors who did not want to serve outside, Zhao Yan gave full respect to their intentions, transferred them back to the mainland, and sent another governor to be released.

After the debriefing, it was rewarded, and Zhao Yan handed down the reward issued on the day of his accession to the throne.

The end of the year is also the time when fiscal revenues are accounted for.

In terms of last year's budget, military expenditures were relatively large, and although no large-scale wars were waged, nearly 20 million yuan was needed for the refitting of the armed forces.

However, this is already in last year's budget, and on the whole, this year's military expenditure is more than 500,000 yuan less than last year's budget.

In other respects, some are overdrafted, and some are thrifty. The biggest overdraft is still education funds, and this year another 3 million yuan has been overdrawn.

Overall, it is still an overdraft, and the amount of the overdraft adds up to nearly 5 million yuan.

And this year's fiscal revenue, customs tax soared to 26 million silver dollars, the net profit of the Imperial Ministry of Commerce reached 60.2 million silver dollars, and the funds that could be withdrawn were 36 million silver dollars.

The total profits paid by the colonies were 52 million silver dollars, most of which were from the mining of precious metals, as well as taxes from the colonies and the export of raw materials.

In addition to the precious metal mining in the colony, the total profit of the local precious metal mining is 6 million silver dollars, plus the total value of the precious metal mining in the colony, reaching more than 6,000 silver dollars, the total value does not represent the total profit, and the total profit is calculated separately between the colony and the mainland.

The local agricultural tax revenue is only 7 million silver dollars, although the low-level tax-free population is relatively large, but the land annexation of the Ming Dynasty is very serious, so the agricultural tax is considerable, but it is definitely not high, compared with the Ming court, the agricultural tax is pitiful.

In terms of commercial tax, there has been a significant increase, from 8 million silver dollars last year all the way to 28 million silver dollars, mainly because of the opening of maritime trade, so that all factories are running at full capacity, and then many factories have passed the tax holiday, and the scale of commercial tax collection has been expanded to the whole of China, and the completion of the railway, so that business has entered the era of take-off.

In terms of coinage, a total of 31 million silver dollars were made this year, and a large amount of silver was cashed out to the Denglai Mint for smelting and minting, and only 12 million silver dollars were made in this regard. This year, the Ministry of Finance issued 21 million silver dollars in change, and these changes were quickly digested by the vast territory and huge population.

Under the frenzied mining of precious metals, as well as the total revenues of seigniorage, commerce, agriculture, colonial revenues, overseas trade, and customs, the fiscal revenue of the first year of the empire increased to 180 million silver dollars.

This year's fiscal revenue is the same as in previous years, and most of the revenue is obtained from overseas, but this year's share of the increase in revenue through wars and home raids is much smaller.

The Empire's budget was also launched, and there were many goals to be accomplished in the second year of the Empire.

Zhao Yan first set a five-year goal of universal education, and the empire must achieve universal primary education within five years and secondary education within ten years.

In terms of infrastructure, in the next five years, the main railway lines of the imperial provinces will be built, and as for places like Tibetan provinces, that is another story, but at least one road will have to be built. In terms of highways, all states and counties should be covered within five years.

In the next two years, the telegraph network should be completely set up, and it must be in Yanjing to be able to remotely control the administration of the American continent and the Australian continent.

In terms of scientific research, we will strive to complete the electric revolution within 10 years.

In the second year of the empire, the army should advance another five hundred miles in Siberia and the Western Regions, and in the south it must conquer Indochina and all the countries of the islands of the South Sea.

The navy will have to take control of the entire Indian Ocean next year and expel Europeans to monopolize trade with India, while digging the Suez Canal in the Middle East to shorten the sea distance between Asia and Europe. In the Americas, deterrence must be expanded in order to gain a foothold in Central America.

In terms of expansion, I don't plan to continue to expand my territory in the Americas next year, the territory of the Americas is already very large, so big that I don't have time to digest it, the east coast of the Americas is an ideal agricultural area, but now the empire has no shortage of agricultural areas, the silver mines in the Americas have been controlled in hand, and there is no big need to expand.

But this does not mean that there will be no expansion at all, there will still be some expansion on the east coast, but it is an expansion aimed at a specific goal, for example, there is a huge profit in a certain place, so it is natural to grab it without hesitation, rather than that kind of pure territorial expansion.

In terms of budget, only 40 million silver dollars were allocated for the army and navy's military expenditure, including 30 million taels of silver for the army and 10 million taels for the navy.

The army's expenditures are still high, and in terms of current combat effectiveness, it can be completely disarmed, but those professional soldiers are not easy to cut, and conscripts cannot be cut. At the same time, the territory of the empire is now so large, how can it be organized without troops to garrison?

With such a high military expenditure, the military salary of professional soldiers does not account for much, most of which is still needed for redressing and equipment maintenance, as well as for the food, drink and Lazar of men and horses.

On the contrary, the military expenditure of the navy is inferior to that of the army, which is a consistent phenomenon, but it is not a phenomenon that should be in view of the empire's intention to expand in the world in the future.

Of course, this is the era of wooden sailing ships, and even if it is the plan for maritime supremacy formulated now, it is estimated that it will last for twenty years at most, and at the latest twenty years, the navy will inevitably be replaced with ironclad ships. However, the investment of the Ocean Overlord Program can have a return for twenty years, and it is also a good investment project. And such an investment is enough, after all, there is no national navy that can threaten the empire's maritime hegemony on the ocean.

In terms of reducing the army's investment, Zhao Yan naturally has a way.

The reason why military spending is so high is that the people and horses need to be funded by the empire for food, drink, and Lazar, and the standard is still very high. Of course, it is not possible to lower the standards, and it is the consistent style of the empire to give preferential treatment to soldiers.

Zhao Yan's way is to follow Zhu Yuanzhang's approach, but it is different from Zhu Yuanzhang's approach. That is, the conscripts will be organized into a production corps, and they will produce while stationing and learning culture at the same time.

This kind of production does not require much profit, as long as it can offset the consumption of the soldiers, so it is not to treat the soldiers as oxen, but to give them a small amount of production every month.

The conscripts retired and went home after three years in the production corps, unlike Zhu Yuanzhang's guard system, which is not only lifelong, but also hereditary, which is really disgusting.

Conscripts in the production corps also do not require high combat effectiveness, they only need to master certain military skills, and the most important thing is to learn culture.

Although the combat effectiveness of soldiers is not high, they are equipped with excellent officers and professional and technical arms, which does not affect combat effectiveness.

Like the armies of European countries in World War I and World War II, many of them were in this way, and the Soviet Union was even more extreme, and soldiers were basically put into the battlefield without much training.

The strength of an army's combat effectiveness depends first of all on the merits of its commanders, equipment, and technical arms, while the quality requirements for non-technical arms are not high.

At the same time, the beginning of the empire was also a special stage.

At this time, illiteracy was widespread in China, and many young people had no education at all, and it was unreliable to rely on school literacy.

Many people reach a certain age, but they don't learn anything at all in school, and their thinking is not so completely transformed.

The management of schools is less mandatory than that of the military. However, the management of the army is compulsory, and the ideological transformation is more vigorous.

Those young people have reached the age of entering society, and many of them have even given birth, and there is an urgent need to reform their minds.

At this time, the military strength of the countries of the world could not be compared with the empire at all, and the emperor [***] team had advanced equipment, even if it accompanied a pig-like commander and second-rate soldiers, it could win the war. But the commander of the empire is not a pig, and there are also certain professional soldiers.

Conscripts only need to be stationed to suppress aliens and turmoil within the territory, and the combat effectiveness of the enemy they face is even lower, so the requirements for the combat effectiveness of conscripts are not high, so the emphasis is on cultural education and ideological indoctrination.

This model of conscription production corps also solves the problem of not being able to support conscripts, so that the entire empire can be conscripted into the army when they reach the legal age and pass the physical test (the requirements are very low).

According to Zhao Yan's assumption, the military department calculated that if the system of producing corps was implemented, the army's military expenditure would be reduced by at least half, and the soldiers would still enjoy the original treatment.

A farmer works hard in the field, one person's output can feed seven or eight people, with advanced production methods or even higher, a soldier only needs to pay one-seventh or eighth of the degree of labor, can completely offset personal consumption, of course, the soldier's food treatment is better, so the consumption is higher, but Zhao Yan does not require every soldier to completely offset their consumption, after all, there is still time for them to train and learn culture.

If you let go of your hands and let the soldiers produce to the death, then it is equivalent to millions of people working as free laborers for the empire, which can create a good profit every year, but these profits are still not eye-catching.

If this model is implemented, no matter how large the scale of the conscripts is, they do not need to spend a few dollars, and the main thing is the investment in equipment.

If you only equip rifles and infantry guns, then the cost is even less. And some equipment can even be used for more than ten years, which is not a problem at all. Investing in large-caliber artillery and the like is basically not necessary.

However, Liu Heng was even more absolute, and he also added a suggestion. That is, if each production corps is equipped with a number of alien laborers, it can completely offset the consumption, and may even have a surplus.

As for where do the laborers come from?

This is even simpler, transport the conscripts to the colony to cultivate! Just capture the aliens around the colony, and don't replenish them from other places.

(To be continued)