In the early years of the Linde Machinery Factory, when the 1856 model Mini rifle was produced, the factory price of a complete set, including guns, bayonets, included bullets, maintenance accessories, etc., was about 20 taels of silver, and the current 1858 model Linde rifle, the factory price of a complete set was 42 silver yuan, about 30 taels of silver.

However, the Tianjin Machinery Bureau, the Hunan Machinery Bureau, and Lin Chengting's weapons workshops do not have the so-called ex-factory price, these are all government-run, the funds are directly paid by the government, and the ordnance products produced are directly delivered to the army. However, if calculated according to the allocated funds and the number of ordnance products delivered, then the flintlock pistols produced by the Tianjin Machinery Bureau would be nearly 14 taels, and the manufacturing costs of the Hunan Machinery Bureau and the Zhenhu Military Weapons Workshop would be even higher.

However, although self-made is not cheap, but imports are more expensive, and now the whole of China is at war, and arms dealers have always liked this environment the most, basically desperately raising prices. In the early years, an old fire-cap shot-smoothbore rifle was imported, such as an 1840 brown bass rifle and the like, and the price was about ten taels of silver at most, and after it was converted into a rifled Mini rifle, that is, the price of the 1851 Mini rifle purchased by Yu Shengjun in the early years was only sixteen taels.

But now, you can't buy these old smoothbore rifles without twenty taels of silver, as for the transformation of rifles, people don't care about you, either you transform yourself, or directly buy a new rifled rifle, that is to say, the 1853 Enfield rifle, there is an Indian version, a British domestic version, and even an American version, of course, the price is much more expensive, and the opening price of arms dealers basically starts at forty taels.

Don't be too expensive. Now the Far East is strained by the outbreak of the Chinese Civil War. Most of the time, money can't buy it.

As for breech-loading rifled rifles, you're willing to spend money on this thing. At the same time, you can wait for a year or two to arrive, and people can also take out the German breech-loading rifles for you.

However, it is a pity that Lin Chengting has no channels even if he wants to import ordnance, and Jiangxi is surrounded by the Chinese army on three sides, so it is impossible to obtain these ordnance from the outside.

So you can only rely on self-made!

Whether it is imported or self-made, the cost of arming a new army is quite high, not to mention the salary of weapons, just eating this is a very headache.

Lin Chengting has been in Jiangxi for more than two years. Only barely scraped together more than 20,000 new troops, but you look at the Chinese army, when the rebellion at the end of 1856, Yu Sheng's army was only more than 10,000, less than 20,000, but by the time of the westward expedition to Nanjing in early 1857, there were already 30,000 or 40,000.

Today, it has increased to more than 100,000 people!

This kind of army expansion speed is something that Lin Chengting can't catch up with!

The reason why the Chinese army has expanded so rapidly in the past two years is, on the one hand, the efficient recruitment of troops and the training of officers in its military training department, because the treatment of the Chinese army is generally higher than that of this era. The high salary and the ability to manage enough every day are enough to attract countless poor children to join the army.

And in terms of officers, the strong rise of the Chinese Empire. and the high political and social status that Lin Zhe gave to the military generals also attracted many students to apply for military schools, and now there are thirty or forty people with noble titles in the Chinese Empire. However, most of them were military generals, and a small number were relatives of the emperor. For example, Lin Lan. In the civil official system, only Bi Yutong and Song Guan have the title of nobility.

Moreover, the Chinese army is well paid, and it is not only for ordinary soldiers. The salaries of officers are also generally high, and after applying for the entrance examination to enter the military academy, when they have not yet graduated and received the warrant officer military academy, they can get a monthly subsidy of 20 yuan. After graduation, he entered the army and was awarded the rank of second lieutenant, and his basic salary was already thirty-five yuan.

A major's monthly basic salary is 100 yuan, which is 1,200 a year, which is about 400 pounds when converted into pounds, and 400 pounds is not to mention in China, even in the most developed area of London, England, which is a veritable middle class.

The colonel's annual salary is about 3,000 yen.

For example, the annual salary of a major general is as high as 5,000 yuan, while the basic annual salary of a lieutenant general is 8,000 yuan.

It is worth noting that the above salary is only the basic level salary, that is, there is it at this military rank, in addition to the position salary, and if you go to the front, there is also a combat allowance.

At present, the Chinese army is in the midst of a war, and basically both officers and soldiers can get the highest salary, for example, a major battalion commander basically gets about 150 yuan per month.

At the level of Shi Qingxuan, he can get a salary of about 10,000 yuan a year when he is on the front line and leads troops to fight.

Of course, Shi Qingxuan not only has the salary of a soldier, he also has the annual salary of the noble title, and at present, if he holds the title of marquis, he can receive a salary of 20,000 yuan per year. Then he won the battle, and Lin Zhe often rewarded him, such as war horses, mansions, calligraphy, paintings, antiques, and so on.

With Shi Qingxuan's current powerful position, even if he is not greedy for a dime, if he only relies on normal income, he can get more than forty or fifty thousand yuan a year.

This share is much more than that of the civil officials, and you must know that the number one civil official, that is, the prime minister of the cabinet, Bi Yutong, has a regular income of about 15,000 a year, while the ministers of various ministries and the top leaders of the provinces in various places, that is, the governors of the provinces, have an annual salary of about 10,000 yuan.

Therefore, in terms of income, politics and social status, the military personnel, especially the officers, in the Chinese Empire were significantly higher than the civilian officials.

And this situation is not a separate situation of the Chinese Empire, the founding period of the previous dynasties, the status of the generals will always be higher than the civil officials, only when the dynasty enters the middle of the period, the political status of the civil officials will gradually rise, and then slowly overwhelm the generals, resulting in the phenomenon of the noble and lowly, and whenever it comes to this time, it is not far from the fall of a dynasty.

The Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties basically followed this model.

The high social status of soldiers will naturally attract more students to join the military, and in the past two years, especially after 1858, many students have enthusiastically applied for the two military academies of the Navy and Army, which is also related to the reform of the education system of the Chinese Empire.

Although the current imperial examination is still called the name of the imperial examination, it is impossible for the scholars who will take the examination to ascend to the sky in one step as in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and directly become the county commander in charge of the party, often to sit up from the lowest level of the section members, and only a very small number of outstanding people will hold some positions such as deputy section chiefs.

And these positions were placed in the Ming and Qing dynasties, which was the so-called non-entry, at most it was only nine products.

The starting point is low, and it is not easy to take the imperial examination, so very students simply apply for the officer to join the army.

With a large number of soldiers and officers, the expansion of the Chinese army became fast and smooth, and of course, money and ordnance were the basis for supporting the expansion of the Chinese army.

In terms of finance, the Chinese army controlled the entire Jiangnan region, and then Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Anhui were in hand, plus the Chinese Empire implemented a new tax system, took back the financial power to the central government, and at the same time supported industry and commerce, so that the tax revenue of the Chinese Empire increased significantly, and the current Manchu Qing and Taiping Army, Zhenhu Army and Hunan Army and other forces all combined, its tax revenue is not half of the Chinese Empire.

In terms of ordnance, relying on the Linde Machinery Factory and the Jinling Arsenal, it has gradually become self-sufficient, and the workers in these two arsenals together are more than 20,000 people; if we include the Shanghai Shipyard that manufactures warships for the navy, the Jiangnan Mining Company that provides steel for the military industry, and other small and medium-sized enterprises that do supporting facilities, there are more than 20 direct and indirect manufacturers that provide ordnance services for the Chinese army, and there are more than 30,000 employees.

The development of ordnance, finance, and the military training department is the reason for the expansion of the Chinese army.

And this kind of convenience is incomparable to other forces in the country, especially Lin Chengting did not dare to hope for it, he almost swept Jiangxi up last year, but the annual tax revenue is less than 10 million taels, and many of them are taxes in kind, such as grain, cloth and the like.

Lin Chengting thought that he had to collect military funds everywhere in order to expand an infantry battalion of several hundred people, but the Chinese army was expanding one division after another, and he felt that the road ahead was bleak.

Now I heard that the Chinese army was attacking Hukou, no matter what prompted them to attack Hukou on the Chinese side, but their attack on Hukou represented peace, and the Chinese army had begun to advance westward, and the enemy they needed to face in the future was no longer the Taiping army, but the Chinese army.

But the new army, which is less than 30,000 under his command, can they stop the westward advance of the Chinese army?

In this regard, Lin Chengting maintained a rather pessimistic attitude!

But if you can't stop it, won't you stop it? No, absolutely not, Lin Chengting is also a person with his own pride, he has fought with Lin Zhe many times, although he was defeated every time, but he was not reconciled, but made a comeback again and again

No one can beat themselves, not even the Chinese army!

"Send someone to Changsha and tell them that the Chinese army has begun to advance westward, and let them watch it!" Lin Chengting shook his head and didn't think too much, and quickly made a decision to report the news to Zeng Guofan's side of the Hunan army first.

He believed that as long as Zeng Guofan was not stupid, he would know what to do, and the Hunan army would come to reinforce them, and they had to come to reinforce them.

Lin Chengting didn't have the confidence to block the westward advance of the Chinese army, could it be that he had a national domain, just kidding!

Now Lin Chengting and Zeng Guofan are in a cold relationship, he Lin Chengting is finished, and the next one to finish is Zeng Guofan, and this relationship doesn't even need to be explicitly stated, everyone knows it.

Otherwise, why did the Zhenhu army cooperate so tacitly with the Hunan army before, didn't they want to work together to kill the Taiping army entrenched in Jiujiang and Nanchang first, and then join forces to fight against the westward advance of the Chinese army!

Of course, Lin Chengting didn't put all his hopes on the reinforcements of the Hunan army, who knows if Zeng Guofan would be stupid, and even if the Hunan army comes, it will not be able to arrive in a short time, not to mention that it will take ten days and half a month to reach Jiujiang. (To be continued......)