We won't mention what happened that night, after all, we always have to save some face for Yan Shao, we just need to know that the next day, Yan Shao covered his chin and went to see Li Liang and them...

In the corridor of the mansion, Li Liang and the others were discussing a series of official matters, so they didn't notice the strange expressions of the people in the mansion, but walked directly into the conference room where they usually talked about business with Yan Shao.

It's just that Li Liang, who had just walked into the conference room, was about to greet Yan Shao, and they were taken aback by Yan Shao's current appearance. Especially Liang Shiyi, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang and others, these people have not been with Yan Shao for a long time, and they are surprised and unimaginable after seeing Yan Shao's current appearance.

"What the hell is going on!"

"Who is so bold!"

In their hearts, Liang Shiyi, Duan Qirui and others kept exclaiming.

After all, now Yan Shao is the supreme ruler of the entire country, and there is absolutely no one to compare with him in terms of power, but now Yan Shao is sitting there with a blue nose and a swollen face...

"Who the hell is so bold?"

Compared with the surprised Feng Guozhang and others, Li Liang or Fu Xiuming can more or less guess it. After all, when I was in Anhui in the past, this kind of thing didn't happen before, but since two or three years ago, the number of times has become very rare...

So after giving Duan Qirui some looks, Li Liang and the others didn't ask Yan Shao how the injury on his face came out. Li Liang didn't ask, and they also noticed their eyes, Duan Qirui and they had no choice but to swallow the doubts in their hearts. I found a chair and sat down and discussed today's business.

There were many things to do on this day, the most important of which were the tax reform and the reorganization of the local army, and the rest. Relatively speaking, it is a bit secondary.

Needless to say, the former of the two is extremely important in itself.

From Yan Shao to the present, during this period of time, Beiyang or Jiangxi and other provinces have reduced or exempted all agricultural taxes and miscellaneous taxes, including centigold, like Anhui. This not only makes people's lives easier, but also strongly supports the development of industry and commerce.

After all, if there are fewer taxes and miscellaneous taxes, the cost of merchants can be reduced, and the reason is very simple.

The common people are also extremely supportive of this policy of the national government. Although some tax collectors are very deep about the government's decision, this decision has cut off their financial routes. But it is useless for them to be reluctant to do so, for they are unable to compete with the Nationalist Government in terms of strength or other aspects.

Equally. In the past, the Ministry of Finance has also tried to distinguish between national and local taxes. Of course, the local officials are a little unaccustomed to this, but people are under the eaves and have to bow their heads...

However, this is limited to provinces that are already under substantial control of the Communist. In some other provinces. Local officials are not so talkative.

In this rectification, most of the warlords chose local officials who were parents, or parents for short. Only a few people, such as Cai Ye and Tang Jiyao, chose to continue to serve in the army.

The reason for this is simple: although the soldiers look imposing, they are subject to great suspicion. It is especially important that it is not easy to make money if you are a soldier, or if you are a soldier, the gray income is too small.

That's right. You can eat empty pay and drink soldiers' blood, but the question is how much money will you make even if you do this?

Conversely, if you are a local official. Three years of Qing Governor's Mansion, 100,000 snowflakes of silver, as the governor of a province, no matter how honest he is, he can make a lot of money, right?

Moreover, the government pursued high salaries and honest pensions, and with the strengthening of its supervisory ability, the salaries of officials at all levels have also been greatly increased. For example, an official at the level of a provincial governor has a monthly salary of 1,000 yuan, which is more than 10,000 yuan a year.

In addition, a year or two ago, although many people realized the importance of the barrel of a gun, it is not the same as it was two years ago. Now that it is under the national government, everyone knows this very well.

In this situation, even if you continue to hold the army in your hands, can you still compare with other people's twenty or thirty divisions? Don't be so naïve, it's better to pick a position and make some political achievements in office.

In this way, you may be able to enjoy your old age in this position, and if you do a good job, you may even be promoted to the next level.

It is precisely because of this idea that many governors, including Li Yuanhong and Yan Xishan, have changed their careers to become provincial governors, and only Cai Yi, Tang Jiyao and Ma Jia in the northwest are still the soldiers.

However...

What are the ways for local officials to make money? One of the most important points is the tax...

Although Yan Shao had already talked to them at the Political Consultative Conference about dividing taxes into national taxes and local taxes, they all nodded and agreed at that time, but when it came to this time, they were a little reluctant.

After all, if the tax is divided into such a part, their income will be much less, not to mention that when the local tax and the national tax are in conflict when the local tax and the national tax are distributed, the first thing to ensure is the national tax revenue, which is equivalent to making the local officials' financial resources one less piece...

For this reason, the Ministry of Finance has to come forward to constantly contact these guys, and it can even be said that at least a third of the work of the Ministry of Finance is now in contact with these people every day...

In fact, not only the eight provinces in the past, but also those provinces that originally supported Yan Shao, there are many people who are reluctant on this issue. Now, with the exception of Cai's Yunnan and Li Xiehe's Shanghai, other provinces are more or less resisting the officials sent by the Ministry of Finance.

It may not be all those who are now governors who resist, but it may also be local officials, after all, their monthly income is not as much as that of governors, and if they want to maintain their past lives, they can only scrape the land, and now the land is divided into two parts, which makes them scrape what to go...

It is precisely because of this negative attitude that the work of the Ministry of Finance on taxation is in a difficult position ...

“……… Although I had known for a long time that there would be some resistance to this in the local government, I never thought that it would come to this point. I'm afraid this year's finances and taxes are a bit choked, and it seems that we can only count on next year..."

Saying this, Li Liang also sighed.

"It doesn't matter. Don't worry. Although Yan Shao was also a little troubled, he still persuaded Li Liangdao. Take your time, it's not going to be easy, it's enough to solve this problem completely within two years..."

Yan Shaoke never thought that as soon as his domineering spirit came, everyone in the local area would listen to him, and the boycott was expected, after all, this time it can be said that it has cut off other people's financial routes. Therefore, for Yan Shao, as long as he can solve this problem within two years, it will be considered a success.

"There is also the issue of reorganizing the local army, and now we have started to send officers to various places to reorganize the troops, but just like the Ministry of Finance. There is also a certain resistance to the reorganization of the local army, so the progress is not very smooth, and I am afraid that it will take some time for these troops to have a certain combat capability..."

If we talk about reforming the tax system, we are just stealing money from the hands of local officials. Then the reorganization of the army is quite a snatch of power and status from the hands of the officers of the local army. Therefore, on the issue of reorganization, the resistance of the localities is even greater than that of the local officials.

It's not surprising ...

At this time, the establishment of the local government was that there was only one division in each province, and there were more than 18,000 people in each division, and at this time, many divisions in the local army had only about 8,000 people, and it was really rare for a division to be full of 10,000 people, so 18,000 people could almost meet the establishment of two infantry divisions, which seemed to be good in theory.

But in reality?

Despite the modest income, many provinces actually have a large establishment. Sichuan, for example, after the Xinhai Revolution, the Sichuan military government had almost five infantry divisions.

A province. Five infantry divisions ...

Although each infantry division is only about 10,000 people, the five add up to more than 50,000 people, and Yan Shao only gave them the establishment of an infantry division, which means that at least 30,000 out of 50,000 people will be unemployed...

If the soldiers are unemployed, the officers will also be unemployed, after all, the soldiers are gone, and there is no need for them to continue working.

After that, the question arises...

Just kicking people out of the army, how can these officers be willing?

Although not every province has the same strength as Sichuan, two or three are still relatively common, and one is very rare, and even the least one province has more than 10,000 officers and soldiers to be discharged.

"Take your time...", rubbing his temples, Yan Shao said.

At this time, he regretted a little that he didn't fight for anything in the first place. It's hard to say whether the war will end by July next year, but at least it won't be so much trouble...

To be honest, Yan Shao really had a headache in this matter.

"In addition..."Seeing Yan Shao's headache, Fu Xiuming smiled bitterly, but he still had to say it, because this was a requirement from the navy.

"In addition, the navy wants me to ask, I don't know when Lu Dao will be able to allocate some money to them, the navy has a comprehensive plan to restore strength, and I hope to get financial support..."

At this time, the Minister of the Navy was Sa Zhenbing...

Although Sa Zhenbing is a native of Fujian, that is, the so-called Fujian system, and at this time, the power of the Fujian system in the navy is very strong, which is a trouble that Yan Shao must deal with, but in the end Yan Shao still chose to let Sa Zhenbing be the Minister of the Navy...

Because in terms of seniority and prestige in the navy, Isaac is the highest.

Compared with it, although Gu Chengzhou, who was under Yan Shao, also served as the commander of the Anhui Naval Army, he was far worse than Sa Zhenbing.

But no matter what the department is, since Sa Zhenbing is the Minister of the Navy, he must think of a way for the development of the Navy. At present, the Chinese Navy is very difficult, the largest warship in the country is the 4,300-ton Haiqi ship, which can be described as pitiful compared with the Chinese Navy during the First Sino-Japanese Period—————— although the Chinese Navy during the First Sino-Japanese Period is not very good, but at least it is still a little large, isn't it?

At the same time, since the Nationalist government had just received a loan of 100 million pounds, and more importantly, he had a very rich president, so Sa Zhenbing quickly prepared a plan to restore the strength of the navy.

The first is to buy ten 3,000-ton and three 10,000-ton cruisers from Britain or the United States, and at the same time let the local shipyards do the same. Build some 1000-ton destroyers and try to build 3000-ton cruisers ...

Go both ways and get the Navy back to some strength as soon as possible...

According to Sa Zhenbing's idea. It is to let the Navy have its first battleship in 5 years, bring the Navy to one-third the size of the Japanese Navy in 10 years, equalize it in 20 years, and surpass it in 30 years...

Very pragmatic, if everything goes well ...

As the Minister of Defense, the Navy is also under Fu Xiuming's name, so although Fu Xiuming actually attaches more importance to the Army. But when the navy came to the door, he still nodded and agreed to Sa Zhenbing's request and conveyed his constitution to him.

But it's obvious. Yan Shao has his own plans, so Sa Zhenbing's idea can only be temporarily abandoned now.

"Forget about the purchase of warships, isn't the current fund for the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau already in place, let that side try to build some thousand-ton destroyers first. In addition, the shipyards in Anhui also followed. As for the 10,000-ton cruiser......... Let's wait and see..."

When he said this, Yan Shao pursed his lips and felt that his mouth was a little dry.

In fact, he originally planned to buy some warships from Britain and came back, and even asked the price according to Zhu Erdian—————— which is not surprising, after all, he is not short of money now, and it is very common to spend money to buy a few warships for the navy, and this can also quickly increase the strength of the navy.

For this reason, Zhu Erdian was very happy, and even solemnly recommended him a few battleships or something. and expressed his willingness to help him contact the shipyard on this, and let the shipyard discount as much as possible.

Just after looking at the treaties in question. Yan Shao could only break off his thoughts in this regard...

Because the treaty for the purchase of warships clearly stipulates that in the event of war, the British government will have the right to seize the ships under construction and compensate them at a mutually acceptable price.

A warship, not so easy to build ...

It was very easy to build itself, even if it was a dreadnought-class battleship, such as the historical Queen Elizabeth-class battleship, which started on October 22, 1912, and was launched on October 16, 1913, and the progress was very fast, and it didn't even take a year to complete.

However, the stage from launching to completion was not completed until January 1915. Because the warship is not just launched and over, there are many things to do such as outfitting and sea trials, which is not an easy task.

If Yan Shao orders warships from Britain now, of course this is no problem, but what about later?

When the war started, I am afraid that the first thing the British would do was to detain all these warships and then use them to fight the Germans to the death. Of course, they will definitely give Yan Shao some compensation, and it is even likely that they will resell it to Yan Shao at half price after the war—————— historically the British traded with the Chileans in this way, the battleships originally worth 2.5 million pounds were bought by the British, and then resold to the Chileans by the British for less than half price of 100 pounds in 1920.

The problem is that Yan Shao wants a warship that can help the Navy immediately, not a small bargain that can be bought at half price after a few years, and Yan Shao is not short of that money...

So Yan Shao didn't put his hope on the British at all, and of course, the Germans or the French were the same, after all, they were also belligerents.

As for the Americans...

The Americans' ship-building skills are said to be good, but there is probably a big gap between them and the British and Germans. In fact, the reason why the Americans were able to win the Argentine business in the first place was entirely because the Americans' prices were lower than those of the British, not because they had any advantages in technology...

What's more, if you buy a ship from the United States, it is impossible to directly pick a ready-made one, so you still have to wait for a long time, and when the war breaks out, who knows what will go wrong. Even if there is no problem, the shipbuilding of the United States will probably be busy helping the Americans build ships, and Yan Shao's ship may have to be delayed...

Well, if you want to strengthen the navy, you need to do it from another way...

Fortunately, Yan Shao has found this way...

————————————————————

Hearing Yan Shao say this, Fu Xiuming didn't say anything, but felt a little sorry for Sa Zhenbing in his heart, after all, this was an opportunity to enhance the strength of the navy.

However, since Yan Shao had already given the order, Fu Xiuming didn't want to say anything more.

On the other hand, gently tapping his fingers on the tabletop, Yan Shao was also thinking about whether the person he sent out had arrived now.

For Yan Shao, there is no better way to enhance his strength...

At the same time, on the distant South American continent, a passenger ship from China is slowly docking at the port of a Brazilian city.

On the deck of the passenger ship, Buzigao was looking out at the city in front of him.

Rio de janeiro...

It's a pity that Bugao seems to have come more than ten years earlier, otherwise, he would have been able to see a cross statue overlooking the entire city of Rio de Janeiro on the top of the 710-meter-high Corcovado (also known as Humpback Mountain or Jesus Mountain) in the Rio de Janeiro National Forest Park...

Because the statue was completed in 1931, almost 28 years ago, with a total height of 38 meters, a huge volume, weighing 1,145 tons, and the finger spacing of the left and right hands reached 23 meters.

"Rio de Janeiro..."

Pulling the collar, Buzigao glanced at the port city a little helplessly.

"It's really hot..."

This was the only reaction of Buzigao after arriving in Rio de Janeiro... (To be continued......)