If you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are, Yi Feng now has a deep understanding of this sentence.

In the mansion of Wei Zheng in the inner city of Huaihuang, compared with Wei Zheng's current status in Wuzhou, the furnishings in his study are very simple, and even a little shabby, and they are not as luxurious as many Huaihuang generals decorate their mansions. A desk, a guqin, a chair, a bed, a screen and a bookcase, all the furniture are very ordinary things in the Huaihuang market, and the material is mostly elm birch, not sandalwood nanmu. If there is anything valuable, it is only the bookcase neatly filled with all kinds of book scrolls, in today's era when books are counted by the page, this large cabinet of books is worth a lot of money. On the desk, there are pencils and fountain pens resting in the pen holder. The bookcase and desk are not carved and are very frugal. Only the blank space on the screen, which was covered with pencil and some figures, did not seem to be an ornament in this room, but more like a memo notepad.

At this time, Wei Zheng was sitting upright on a chair next to the bookcase, and Yi Feng was sitting on the chair behind the bookcase. There were only two people in the study, and Wei Zheng told Yi Feng about the current situation.

"Since a certain man went north to Huaihuang, at the beginning there were only more than 1,000 people around him, and then he came to Huaihuang, integrated the Tiger League, defeated Bayegu, and defeated the Taoshan bandits, and then went north to attack, in less than a year, he fought repeatedly. The Huaihuang army has also continued to expand, with field soldiers, garrison soldiers, patrol soldiers, and patrol soldiers, until this triumph. In the entire Huai Famine, the three field armies and the three garrison armies in Fanwuzhou have increased to more than 120,000 people, which does not include the reserve militia such as township soldiers and archers in various places. And now the latest household statistics of Hu Cao. Even if you count all the accounts, there are only more than 113,000 households. In today's famine, it turns out that one household is for one soldier! The imperial court unified the four seas, with a population of more than 8 million households, and only raised 800,000 standing soldiers, which was only 10 households to raise one soldier. Ten households in the imperial court raised one soldier, which was already extremely expensive. And Huaihuang actually raised a soldier in one household, even during the Three Kingdoms melee in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, there was no such thing. ”

"Besides. Huaihuang lives outside the Saiwai and cannot provide for food at all, and now all the food is transported from outside, in case of food shortage, hundreds of thousands of people in Huaihuang will even have a problem eating. I always think about it. I can't sleep at night. ”

"The cost of raising these 120,000 soldiers and horses is even more bottomless." Wei Zheng said worriedly, "I have calculated an account, with the food and rewards for the soldiers and the pensions stipulated by the marshal today, as well as the equipment and training consumption of the soldiers, on average, it takes at least 100 yuan a year to raise a soldier." 120,000 soldiers and horses, at least 12 million yuan a year military expenditure. Nothing more, no less. Youzhou is an important town in the north of the imperial court, with 55,000 soldiers. There are 14,000 horses, the imperial court gives 1.26 million pieces of clothing every year, 500,000 stone of military rations, and half of the number of soldiers and horses in Youzhou, but the cost of the army is less than 11. Although the imperial court has 800,000 soldiers and horses, it has a large number of government soldiers. The border army suppressed soldiers and horses, and also hoarded more land for self-sufficiency, and spent very little. Looking at the world, the only way to raise soldiers is to raise soldiers, which costs a lot. ”

"I know that very well." Hearing this, Yi Feng silently calculated in his heart, what Wei Zheng said was the truth. There are many soldiers in Huaihuang, and there is nothing wrong with the high military expenses in Huaihuang. More than 110,000 households in Huaihuang raised more than 120,000 soldiers and horses, and the cost of raising soldiers for each soldier a year was as high as 100 yuan, which is not an exaggeration. But can Yi Feng reduce the troops, and can he reduce the treatment of the soldiers?

No!

The cost of raising troops in the imperial court is much less than that of Huaifamine, and the most important thing is that the military system of the imperial court is mainly based on government soldiers, supplemented by military suppression. The government and military system can get a batch of tax-exempt fields, they do not have to pay the field after they get these fields, the imperial court loses this tax, in exchange for these government soldiers for agriculture in their leisure time and wartime soldiers, and the imperial court no longer gives these soldiers monthly rations, nor does they need to buy equipment and weapons, only in wartime will some subsidies be issued, and responsible for the consumption of wartime grain, grass and equipment. Even the frontier garrison army also implemented the local army hoarding system, hoarding their own fields to solve the problem of military rations, and sometimes even more than enough grain from the fields to supply the army, they could take out a lot of it and hand it over to the imperial court.

The Huaihuang Army, on the other hand, is a complete standing army, except for training in battle, and will not cultivate and hoard fields. In addition, the treatment of the soldiers of the Huaihuang Army is also extremely high, not only with monthly salaries and monthly rations, but also various subsidies, rewards and pensions. The cost of raising troops is so huge, it seems that only the Song Dynasty is like this in history, the Song Dynasty has many soldiers, and they are all conscription system, standing military system, it is said that the annual military expenditure of the Northern Song Dynasty accounts for 80% of the imperial court expenditure.

The Huaihuang army is well-equipped, has high salaries, and has many benefits, and its military expenditure has also set a staggering annual cost of raising a soldier.

Compared with the very small military expenditure of the imperial court, there is a huge difference between the Huaihuang soldiers and the imperial court's military support.

Does Keyiwind have a choice? No. If Yi Feng hadn't expanded his army so desperately, Huaihuang wouldn't have a sense of security at all. If there is no such good treatment and welfare, where can so many excellent soldiers be recruited, and without these sophisticated equipment, how can the combat effectiveness of the Huaihuang Army be guaranteed. It is impossible for the Huaihuang army to implement the government military system, and there is no fertile land in Huaihuang, so can the soldiers be given some grassland and forests? And if you rely on Tuntian, it is difficult to be self-sufficient. The Huaihuang Army was able to expand to today's scale in a short period of time, and even repeatedly defeated strong opponents, which was precisely the role played by the Huaihuang Army's good treatment and welfare and sophisticated equipment, although it was not the whole role, but it was also the main guarantee of victory.

Money is not always everything, but most of the time, no money is impossible.

Yi Feng knows very well the role of money, if you have money, you can raise an army, and you can raise a lot of soldiers and horses, even if it is 10,000 soldiers. If you have money, you can also practice high welfare and high treatment, so that the morale of the army can be guaranteed, and if you have money, you can also build sophisticated equipment and improve the combat effectiveness of the army.

In the final analysis, nostalgia is not a place that can be measured by normal thinking.

This unique economic prosperity of Huaihuang is unreasonable and even somewhat deformed, and Huaihuang's army is even more unreasonable. But it is precisely because of this prosperous Huaihuang economy that the Huaihuang army has been able to continue to expand. And because of this increasingly powerful Huaihuang army, Huaihuang's economy can ensure continued prosperity. The economy of Huaihuang and the army of Huaihuang are like the legal code at both ends of the scale, and if either side is asymmetrical, it will not be able to stabilize the balance in the end.

Money alone and a strong army cannot protect the economy, and an army alone cannot sustain an army without money.

"Don't worry, Huaihuang's economy is very prosperous now, we can use the daily income to describe it, although the need to support the army is huge, but we can still support it. In any case, the army cannot be cut, and the treatment of soldiers cannot be reduced. When it comes to money and food, I'll find a way to guarantee it. Actually, you don't have to worry so much at all, you can think about opening some. Our dam salt business is getting better and better, not only the salt trade of the frontier generation has been monopolized by us, but even continues to expand southward. Nowadays, this salt-for-grain is getting better and better, and the grain produced in exchange for salt can fully meet the food needs of Huaifa, and there is even some surplus that can be reserved. At the steel mill, the output has also begun to rise, and in addition to supplying the needs of the armory, we also have surplus production, which can be used to produce some other civilian products such as agricultural tools to make money. In addition, now that our sugar, paper, and books have also gained popularity and developed the market, there will definitely be more profits in the future. ”

"But the cost of raising soldiers for a year is as high as 10 million!" When Wei Zheng thought of the number of tens of millions, he felt terrified. It is true that there are many soldiers in Huaifa, but once there is a problem with the military expenses provided, maybe these hundreds of thousands of horses will become a source of turmoil against the enemy.

"Don't worry, money is not an issue." Yi Feng said confidently.

For others, 10 million yuan is an unimaginable number, but for Yi Feng, it is just a relatively large number. He solved the food problem with salt, and the remaining military expenses were certainly not difficult. In fact, the army not only spends money, but also makes money. The Huaihuang army swept Yanshan and Yinshan cottages before, and harvested a large number of people and money and grain. Not to mention those captives, the 50,000 captured war horses alone are no less than 5 million in terms of value. What's more, he also received many prisoners of war, as well as a lot of miscellaneous animals, equipment, money, and food.

Those who can spend money will make money.

Yi Feng will spend money, but he will make more money. Not long ago, he also came up with the idea of cooperating with Yang Guang in the tea business, which is also a big business that can earn hundreds of thousands of millions of yuan every year.

What's more, Yi Feng doesn't have the cornucopia of Huaihuang Market in his hands.

Of course, Yi Feng is full of confidence not only because of these, he also has two killer features in his hands, that is, banking and brewing business. Now, the Northern Bank is on track and has begun to develop beyond Huaihuang, and the brewing business is also getting better and better. Just a few days ago, according to Yifeng's previous plan, the Huaihuang liquor industry has reached a new level and completed a new round of capacity upgrades, and now the entire Huaihuang liquor workshop has up to 10,000 workers. From Huaihuang to the winery workers below, they are already gearing up and preparing to do a great job.

Yi Feng is confident that the bank and the wine shop will become the money printing machine in the next stage. Banks and wineries, no matter which one is done, you don't have to worry about money in the future!

PS: Ask for tickets! (To be continued......)