After an in-depth conversation with Zhao Shun, Liu Jun realized that he was a little too naïve before. It is not so easy to set up an efficient and productive firearms workshop. Now it seems that it is not necessary to be self-sufficient in the short term.

After setting the direction of the workshop with Zhao Shun, Liu Jun returned to his public house and began to calculate the expenses with the account book. The previous salary was raised plus the help of the queen's urban and rural gentry, as well as the rewards from the above when the bandits were suppressed, and Li Chunjiang took out 10,000 taels of silver at the beginning, which added up to a lot, but it was spent quickly.

The settling-in allowance for the team members, the silver reward for the bandits, and even the silver reward for the usual training, plus food expenses, and the purchase of ordnance and equipment, it is really a silver mountain that can't afford to spend like this.

Now there are three thousand taels of silver on the books, and this money cannot be sustained for long. The nine-headed bird regiment of nearly 600 members has a salary of more than 1,000 taels in a month, and there are more than 200 horses.

Thankfully, there was also a windfall.

Wang Qian had already secretly gone to Qiting with the night team and quietly brought back the gold and silver antique calligraphy and paintings. With this gold and silver worth more than 30,000 yuan, Liu Jun had the courage to dare to expand his team in such a big way.

The father-in-law, Lu Weizhang, told him a few times that he could go directly to him with money, but Liu Jun was not ready to use the Lu family's money now. It's not that he's high, but he doesn't need it for the time being.

"Firearms workshops have to recruit skilled craftsmen, purchase drilling machines and other tools, but also buy fine iron and copper, etc., this aspect of the expenditure is not small, but can not be saved or broken, preliminary estimates, the early investment of silver to a few thousand taels."

Liu Jun secretly calculated in his heart, "The other nine Yuanzhai have also started, and they have to rush the construction period, and there is a lot of money for materials and labor." ”

The more Liu Jun calculated, the more he had a headache, the nine-headed bird group was completely unable to enter and exit now, and this was not a long-term thing.

"We have to purchase a batch of ordnance and equipment immediately, this can't wait, although the new team members are organized into groups, but there is no corresponding ordnance and equipment."

At present, there are more than 600 people in the regiment, including nearly 400 regular members of the first division, three bureaus and one military flag. Among them, there are more than 100 birds. Among them, the Cavalry Bureau has three banners and nine teams, each team has four bird guns, and the Cavalry Bureau has 36 bird guns. The Infantry Bureau has three flags and nine teams, each flag has two bird guns, each team has eleven bird guns, one flag has 22 birds, and the whole team has 66 birds.

In addition, the Chinese military flag is equipped with a lot of bird guns, and the most equipped among the official team members is the bird guns, about one-third of them are bird guns. And the last time he made a purchase, Mei Zhihuan gave him a hundred bird guns even from the sale, which was obviously not enough.

What's more, the reserve will also be equipped with a large number of bird guns for training, and the reserve will have one hundred and thirty-two bird guns in the two rounds of infantry.

The entire nine-headed bird regiment will have more than 200 bird guns.

He had to order at least another 300 bird guns, so that he could ensure that there were enough bird guns and could be replaced.

In addition, waist knives, two-handed blades, shields, boring palladium, hook guns, spears, bows and arrows, etc., also have to be procured. The price of these equipment is not low, he paid twenty taels of silver for a bird gun last time, and Liu Jun didn't want to spend so much money this time.

Since it is now an official army, then this price naturally has to be cheaper.

Early the next morning, Lu Jinxi came, Liu Jun originally wanted to go to the county, but he came first.

Lu Jinxi came to see the resettlement of those displaced people, and at the same time, he also wanted to see the situation of the nine-headed bird group training, but he had great expectations for Liu Jun.

Liu Jun did not disappoint him, and deliberately assembled all the nearly 600 team members, and invited Lu Jinxi and other officials and squires who came to review the separate queues of the team members.

I have to say that although there are a large number of recruits in this team, after a short period of intensive training, the recruits have not yet learned, but this pace is already good. When the nine-headed bird team members were all dressed in uniform and neat training uniforms, according to the flag of the division, one team after another neatly walked under their respective team flags, Lu Jinxi, these lay officials and squires were greatly satisfied.

In their opinion, the nine-headed bird regiment is very powerful, the uniform uniform, the neat pace, the loud slogan, the flaming red flags, especially the last performance of the bird gun team platoon three firing, and the salvo of the spear team, plus the salvo of the tiger squat cannon, it is simply earth-shaking, earth-shattering.

"Good, good, very good!" Lu Jinxi shook his head, which was still a little buzzing, and kept praising Liu Jun, in his opinion, needless to say, after three or five months of training, even if he was reviewed by Shangguan like this, he would be able to pass the test.

Liu Jun smiled all over his face, and he didn't say that what he did just now was just a show. He won't take the initiative to say it, in fact, the 'report performance' he arranged today was originally to shock Lu Jinxi, and then put forward his own requirements.

Liu Jun's requirements are very simple, first, he has now pulled up the group training, and the five hundred practice courage is only a lot more, and there is no indiscriminate filling. Therefore, now Lu Zhixian has to fulfill his promise, the county has to pay the salary and monthly rations of the Nine-Headed Bird Regiment, and second, the county has to pay for the equipment of the Nine-Headed Bird Regiment.

Although the imperial court levied millions of taels of training this time, this money was not for the county regiment training, but for the training of the governors and governors of the border towns.

Lu Jinxi also came prepared.

"Each Yong has a monthly salary of five cents, and a monthly ration of four buckets."

Liu Jun shook his head, this amount of money is too little, five dollars a month is only six taels a year, which is less than the archers, and the archers have seven taels a year.

Lu Jinxi was also a little helpless, in fact, he was also stuck in the middle. Originally, Lian Yong and archers are different, and the archers are on duty all year round, and Lian Yong is only an occasional exercise, so it is impossible to take the year's work and food. Five dollars of silver and four buckets of rice in a month are already good conditions for him.

But this condition does not satisfy Liu Jun.

"Sir, the nine-headed bird group practice is not just for the sake of appearance, not to cope with the review of the boss. You should see the situation around now, there are bandits and thieves everywhere, the nine-headed bird is stationed in Taiping Township, guarding outside the Hutou Pass, and also defending the surrounding passes. We are really guarding the northern border of Macheng, and the task is important. ”

Liu Jun's proposal is also very reasonable.

"How much do you think is appropriate?"

"Two taels of silver per person per month, plus six buckets of monthly rations." Liu Jun spoke.

Lu Jinxi kept shaking his head, "Too much, too much." "There are nearly 600 people in the Nine-headed Bird Regiment, and if each person has two taels of silver and six buckets of grain per month, then a month is nearly 1,200 taels of silver plus 360 stone grains, which is the expenditure of nearly 1,500 taels of silver in a month.

The county can't take out this money at all, and it has to be apportioned to the people and the squires, landlords, and rich businessmen, one thousand and five a month, and eighteen thousand a year. Macheng County has only a large population, and there are only tens of thousands of households.

No one will agree to pay for it.

"Sir, you can't let the horses run and not let the horses graze. Our regimental training is also to guard the township, if there is no pay and no food, how to guard the hometown? You must know that what we are facing now is not just some petty thieves, but some huge and fierce cowards who are sweeping the world everywhere. If they are allowed to flow into Macheng, presumably the consequences of the great master will also know that no one can be spared, and then everyone's property will not be guaranteed, but even their lives will be protected. ”

Lu Jinxi said in embarrassment, "That's the case, but you want too much, the number of Baosheng Castle is more than the nine-headed bird, and the strength is stronger than yours, but it is not as big as you." ”

Because Baosheng Fort is a joint army of squires and landlords, their mode of operation has always been to solve it by themselves, by holding a banquet to raise donations from those landlords, gentry and merchants, and do not need the county government to come forward. There is no mandatory requirement for each family to pledge a donation, but Baosheng Fort was originally jointly established by those big clans, so although they also spend a lot of money every year, they are not short of money.

Liu Jun now wants the county to fix the salary, which is different.

However, Liu Jun refused to let go, he did not have the prestige and favor of Mei Zhihuan and those people, and he couldn't respond to every call. The nine-headed bird had raised donations once before and received thousands of taels of silver, but it was just the faces of Mei Zhihuan and Li Changgeng, not his. If he wants to come out to raise donations, he will definitely not receive much money.

"One thousand taels!" Liu Jun stretched out a finger, "One thousand taels of silver per month." ”

This is his bottom limit, since Lu Jinxi wants them to change to the banner of group training, then he must give money. Without giving money, it is impossible. Macheng is a well-known rich county, with many gentry and wealthy landowners and wealthy businessmen, although the county pays very little tax every year, it does not mean that those people in the county have no money.

"One thousand taels of silver, I think it's worth it to get the effectiveness of six hundred practitioners."

"Think about it, Da Mazi is just a small pawn under the command of the thief Li Zicheng, who can set off a big storm in the county, not to mention looting Guanghuang Avenue for a long time, just say that the entire village of the Lin family is slaughtered, you can know how fierce these bandits are. If Lao Hui Hui Geliyan was allowed to wait for these big robbers to enter Macheng, maybe the entire Macheng County would be slaughtered at that time, and the thieves would slaughter the village and wipe out the village, which is not unusual. ”

Liu Jun is not scaring Lu Jinxi, who are Lao Huihui and others? Back then, they entered Fengyang, dug up the emperor's ancestral tombs, and killed all the rich people in Fengyang.

It can be said that maybe ordinary people don't have to be too afraid of bandits, those people have nothing to rob the thieves. But the rich are different, wherever the bandits go, they never show mercy to the rich, and they will not let go of all the robbers.

"I'll go back and contact the gentry to discuss this matter." Lu Jinxi didn't agree directly, but Liu Jun knew that the matter was almost done. Although the price of the nine-headed bird is high, it also has an excellent performance in suppressing bandits, and with today's performance, he believes that the gentry will think that the nine-headed bird can be worth the price.

"Okay, then let's talk about the equipment that the county promised to give the regiment training!" Liu Jun smiled slightly.