Time flies, and the time soon came to June of the second year of Longwu (1645).

When Stephen's steam engine development made a decisive breakthrough, Wang Pu finally set off and returned to Nanjing from Jiande, accompanied by the first batch of 20,000 new rifles and 5 million copper-shelled bullets, which were enough to equip four musket battalions!

Now the Jiande Arsenal has established a complete rifle and bullet production line, with a monthly output of more than 3,000 rifles and more than 800,000 bullets! Moreover, the second phase of the Jiande Arsenal has already started, and after the second phase of the project is completed, the production rate of rifles and bullets will be several times higher than now, and the number of rifles produced per month may exceed 10,000!

The only thing that makes Wang Pu feel a little regretful is that the production line of the new cannon has not yet been built, so he can't equip a new artillery battalion, and Wang Pu is unwilling to spend more money to buy more Hongyi cannons and Furlong cannons from Europe, and now he has to rely on the only artillery battalion to fight the world.

The Battle of Huguang had ended a few months earlier, and Wang Pu knew the whole process.

With the help of the powerful Central Army, the victory of the entire Huguang Campaign can be described as uneventful, although Li Dingguo's amazing performance made the course of the war a little twist and turn, but there was a huge gap in strength between the thieves and the Central Army, and Li Dingguo's personal efforts were not enough to make up for this huge gap.

The final result was that the Dashun Army and the Daxi Army suffered a crushing defeat under Qingtong Pass, and were pursued and killed by the cavalry battalion of the Central Army on the way to retreat, and the 200,000 Dashun Army and nearly 80,000 Daxi Army suffered heavy losses, and only less than 100,000 people withdrew to Shaanxi and Sichuan, while the losses of the Central Army were minimal, and the production and life of the people in Huguang were not greatly affected.

[ps: Some people always say that the swordsman is dragging the play, so these civil war chapters are brushed aside, in fact, the swordsman also hates to write about the civil war, as for the confrontation between Liu Ru and Li Dingguo in the front, it is just to portray Li Dingguo's character, and it is definitely not to drag the play]

Wang Pu returned to Beijing, and Emperor Longwu personally led hundreds of civil and military officials to meet him outside the Taiping Gate.

As Zhang Zi'an said, the current government has been completely controlled by Wang Pu, and the major affairs in the world are completely decided by Wang Pu alone, although he is nominally the Ming Emperor, in fact, he is just a puppet in the hands of Wang Pu.

Although Emperor Longwu is unwilling, the only thing he can do now is to recognize the reality and be this puppet well, only in this way can he save his small life, and only by saving his small life can he have a chance to fight back, and only then can he have a chance to overthrow Wang Puzhen as the true master of the Ming Empire.

Therefore, Emperor Longwu held a very grand welcome ceremony, and held a feast in Fengtian Hall to wash the dust for Wang Pu.

At the banquet, Emperor Longwu read out the edict in front of hundreds of civil and military officials, officially canonizing Wang Pu as the king of Jingnan!

For the Ming Dynasty, this is a great grace, nearly three hundred years before and after the Ming Dynasty, and only when Emperor Hongwu opened the country, he canonized a few kings with different surnames, and since then he has not canonized any kings with different surnames, but Wang Pu did not have much joy in his heart, because the prince had no meaning to him.

After finally coping with the imperial feast, Wang Pu was able to return to Jingnan Wangfu to reunite with his family.

Xiao Wang Fa is already four years old, and he can already run around, but when he saw Wang Pu, he looked a little restrained and even scared, pulling Chen Yuanyuan's sleeves to hide behind his mother, and looking straight at him with a pair of big black eyes, he didn't dare to walk towards Wang Pu or shout Daddy.

Wang Pu couldn't help but have a wry smile on his face, this scene was originally expected by him.

At the end of the year, Wang Pu spent very little time in Nanjing, and even less time to stay at home with his children, and little Wang Fa had no impression of his father at all, but Wang Pu could only sigh secretly in his heart, he couldn't stop, he had too many things to do, not only for himself, but also for Wang Fa, for all the descendants of the Wang family.

Sun Chengzu is also one year old, and now he is a toddler, this little guy doesn't recognize life, Dong Xiaowan taught a few words and dared to hug Wang Pu's thigh and scream "Mom is afraid of Mom", but as soon as Sun Chuanting walked in, the little guy's attention immediately shifted to the old man.

Sun Chuanting opened his hand, Sun Chengzu immediately let go of Wang Pu's thighs, giggled and threw himself into Sun Chuanting's arms, the grandfather and grandson hugged each other and laughed, it can be seen that Sun Chengzu is still close to Sun Chuanting, although Wang Pu is his father, but who let Old Man Sun stay with Xiao Chengzu every day.

Looking at the happy appearance of Sun Chengzu and Sun Chuanting playing, Wang Pu was even a little surprised.

"Alright, alright." Wang Pu didn't have a good breath and said, "The child has to take a nap, Xiaowan, take the child away." ”

"What's the hurry, come, grandpa kisses one more."

Sun Chuanting responded unhappily, kissed and kissed Sun Chengzu's pink little face, and then reluctantly handed him over to Dong Xiaowan, Dong Xiaowan and Chen Yuanyuan took Wang Fa and Sun Chengzu very interestingly, leaving the space to Sun Chuanting, Wang Pu and his son, who had not seen each other for more than half a year, and the father and son had too many things to discuss in person.

Sun Chuanting said: "Son, there is something that my father has to ask you. ”

Wang Pudao: "Is it a matter of the Zhenhai Shipbuilding Bureau?" ”

Sun Chuanting nodded, frowned, and said: "It's only been less than half a year, and the household department has invested two million taels of silver in the Zhenhai Shipbuilding Bureau, but the ironclad ship you said hasn't even seen a shadow. ”

Wang Pudao: "It is normal for the government and the opposition to have discussions, as long as the situation does not get out of control." ”

"Not really." Sun Chuanting said, "Although the government and the opposition have discussed this, the situation is far from serious enough to get out of control, and my father is just worried that he will not be able to fill this bottomless pit and will eventually drag down the finances." ”

"That's right." Wang Pu suddenly said, "Speaking of finance, I forgot to ask, after the auction of official properties and workshops, did the imperial court's tax revenue decrease or increase?" What about customs taxes? ”

Sun Chuanting said: "After the government-run was converted to private, the source tax of various industries increased slightly compared with the Chongzhen Dynasty, but the customs tax is the majority!" According to the preliminary estimate of the Ministry of Households, since the establishment of the customs, the tariff tax collected in more than a year has been more than 10 million taels, especially in the first half of this year, the tariff has increased rapidly! ”

Wang Pu asked, "What about the income and expenditure of the imperial court?" ”

Sun Chuanting said: "There is a slight surplus. ”

Wang Pu smiled and said, "Dad, you must not have thought of it, right?" ”

"I really didn't expect it." Sun Chuanting nodded honestly and said, "Dad originally thought that after the government-run was converted to a private enterprise, there would be no improvement in tax revenue within at least five years, but he never expected that the balance would be achieved that year!" ”

"What's more, there were two big wars at the beginning and end of last year, and the expenditure on military salaries and silver rewards alone was as high as four or five million taels! At the same time, it also supported a series of major projects such as the research and development of steam engines, the construction of Jiande Arsenal, the construction of Zhenhai Shipbuilding Bureau, and the construction of Yangming University. ”

Wang Pu could imagine the surprise of Qian Qianyi and Lu Daqi at that time, but Wang Pu was not surprised at all in his heart.

In fact, all this was expected by Wang Pu, the Ming Dynasty pursued the national policy of hiding the wealth from the people, although the national finances were extremely tight, but the wealth of the people was considerable! According to some data, in the last few decades of the Ming Dynasty, three-quarters of the silver seized by Western countries from all continents flowed into the Ming Dynasty!

These silver as hard currency into the Ming Dynasty, although caused a certain decline in the price of silver and the rise in prices, but greatly promoted the development of trade and commodity economy, it is no exaggeration to say that from Jiajing to Chongzhen in the past hundred years, the commodity economy of the Ming Dynasty can be said to be explosive growth!

To paraphrase today's terminology, GDP growth was likely to be as high as 30% or more!

It can be seen from this that it is not surprising that the customs tariff revenue is tens of millions of taels, after all, the tariff rate set by Wang Pu is as high as 200%, which means that as long as the Ming Dynasty sells silk, tea and porcelain worth five million taels, it can obtain ten million taels of silver tariff revenue, in today's terms, this is simply predatory trade!

But at that time, Da Ming had such qualifications!

Even if a high tariff of 200% is levied, Western merchants can only import silk, tea, porcelain and other luxury goods from the Ming Dynasty, because the products produced in their own country are not only inferior in quality but also higher than the export prices of the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, until the end of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, China's silk, tea, porcelain and other commodities were in an absolutely dominant position, because the Western world could no longer find enough silver to exchange for Chinese goods, so they thought of opium, first exchanged opium for Chinese of silver, and then used silver to buy Chinese goods, so there were two opium wars, only the burning of the Old Summer Palace, and the First Sino-Japanese Naval War......

In other words, if the Manchu government was tough enough to resist the opium offensive of Western countries, it was entirely possible to establish a world trade system dominated by China, that is, the silver standard, with absolutely strong commodities, and then China's position would be equivalent to that of the United States today.

It is a pity that the Manchu rulers who were full of slave surnames did not regard themselves as Chinese at all, and they betrayed China and lost all the huge amount of silver that China had accumulated for more than 500 years since the middle of the Ming Dynasty to the foreigners in one go, which led to modern China falling into the abyss of poverty, and it is said that it has not been able to recover to this day......

As a time-traveler, Wang Pu certainly will not let such a historical tragedy repeat itself, in this era, the Ming Empire will still continue to export silk, tea, porcelain and other luxury goods to the Western world, and the opium trade may still appear, but the object will change.

The opium trade in this era could only be the dumping of opium by China to the West, not the dumping of opium by the West towards China.

Wang Pu smiled and said, "Dad, this is only more than 10 million tariffs to make you like this?" Well, it's just begun, you see, the customs tariffs will be doubled in less than two years! ”

"Flipping?" Sun Chuanting said in a speech, "You mean...... Twenty million taels? ”

"Huh." Wang Pu smiled and said, "What is 20 million taels, the annual income of the Ming Dynasty will be hundreds of millions in the future!" ”

"Hundreds of millions?" Sun Chuanting shook his head like a rattle, "You just blow it." ”

"Okay, then let's not talk about that."

Wang Pu didn't want to discuss too much with Sun Chuanting on this topic, Bu Chuanting was not a traverser after all, it was impossible for him to see the current trade map of the whole world, Wang Pu continued, "Dad, now let me tell you another thing, taking advantage of the good weather now, I want to send troops to recover Liaodong." ”

"Send troops to Liaodong?" Sun Chuanting was stunned and said, "Haven't you always advocated that if you go outside, you must first settle inside, and now Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and Wu Sangui have not yet settled." ”

"No, it's different now." Wang Pu waved his hand and said, "Although the current Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and Wu Sangui have not yet settled, they are already said to have not done much in Bo Xishan, and it is impossible to threaten the safety of the court, so we can free up our hands to clean up the Jiannu in Liaodong first." ”

Sun Chuanting was puzzled: "Is this a sacrifice for the near and far?" ”

"It's a last resort to go far." Wang Pu said, "Originally, the recovery of Liaodong could be delayed for a few years, and after Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and Wu Sangui were settled, they would come to clean up Jiannu, but now the Zhenhai Shipbuilding Bureau urgently needs wood from Liaodong to build a sailor, so it is ahead of schedule." ”

"Build a sailor?" Sun Chuanting said, "Guizhou and Yunnan also have good timber, why do you have to Liaodong?" ”

Wang Pudao: "The roads in Guizhou and Yunnan are dangerous, the transportation cost is too high, and the cycle is too long, but the timber in Liaodong can be transported by sea, which is extremely convenient. ”

"Okay." Sun Chuanting thought for a while, nodded and said, "Military matters have always been up to you, since you think that Liaodong should be recovered first, then recover Liaodong first, you don't have to worry about logistics at all, the current treasury is sufficient, and salaries and military rations are not a problem." ”

After pondering for a moment, Wang Pu asked again: "Dad, during the time that my son is not in the capital, the political situation in the DPRK and China is still stable, right?" ”

Sun Chuanting smiled: "What, are you still afraid that your father won't be able to control the scene?" ”

Wang Pu hurriedly said: "Of course I didn't mean that, I mean ......"

"Okay, Daddy knows." Sun Chuanting said with a smile, "The political situation in the DPRK and China is very stable, it is simply too stable to be more stable, since the abolition of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Kedao Yamen, the cabinet and the six ministries have no constraints, the efficiency of work has been greatly improved, the local administrative organs of the provinces have also been adjusted, the decrees of the cabinet can be effectively conveyed to the provinces, and the old man has been an official in the court for decades, and he has never seen such a good situation." ”

(To be continued)