Xu Jingcheng asked curiously, "What can you do?" I heard that you collect money from foreigners at Yingkou Port, do you want to use this money to build a navy? ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "In fact, the construction of our navy can make money, and many people don't see this."

Xu Jingcheng asked: "Can naval construction still make money?" How to make money? ”

Without waiting for Lin Yuan to speak, a person ran in outside and said, "Lord Xu, it's not good, the movers outside are preparing to jointly write a letter against the construction of the navy!" ”

Xu Jingcheng couldn't help but panic when he heard this, and said: "Lord Lin, I have to go and see, tomorrow the Holy Lord will summon me and Lord Weng Tongyi in the south study to discuss the affairs of the navy, Lord Lin will also go, and then you will personally persuade the Holy Lord." ”

After Xu Jingcheng finished speaking, he hurriedly ran out of the palace, Lin Yuan came to the palace, handed over Li Hongzhang's recital, and the next day, Lin Yuan came to the palace, as soon as he arrived at the south study, the little eunuch at the door greeted him and said: "Say hello to Lord Lin, why did Lord Lin come alone?" ”

Lin Yuan never went out with pomp, so the little eunuch asked like this, Lin Yuan smiled and said: "It's okay, I'm used to it, are Lord Weng and Lord Xu here?" ”

The little eunuch smiled: "I've been here for a while, I'm talking inside, Lord Lin, do you want to go in, I'll inform you." ”

Lin Yuan said: "There is no need to report, I will go up and listen to what they say." After Lin Yuan finished speaking, he stuffed a small piece of broken silver into the little eunuch's hand.

Lin Yuan approached the door, and heard Weng Tongyi laugh and said: "Lord Xu, today the Holy Lord has just received a joint letter from the people, everyone said that building a navy is a waste of money and labor, it seems that the Holy Lord does not plan to build a navy." ”

Xu Jingcheng said: "Yesterday I met Lord Lin, and Lord Lin said that building a navy can make money, so after building a navy, the household department will not worry about running out of money." ”

Weng Tongyi smiled and said: "Lord Lin must be joking with you, I have already calculated for you yesterday, the daily cost of naval construction is a thousand dollars, how can Lord Lin say that naval construction can make money?" ”

Xu Jingcheng said: "Lord Lin has the talent to go through the heavens and latitudes, and what he said must have his truth. ”

Weng Tongyi smiled and said, "Through the heavens and the earth? Under the fame, it is actually difficult to deserve! Then the two of them found some gossip to say, Lin Yuan saw that there was nothing to hear, so he whispered to the little eunuch: "You report it." ”

The little eunuch shouted at the top of his voice: "Lord Lin Yuanlin, the governor of the three northeastern provinces, has arrived!" Then he stretched out his hand to Lin Yuan and pushed the door open, Weng Tongyi and Xu Jingcheng inside hurriedly got up to greet each other, and the three of them greeted each other for a while, and some eunuchs shouted: "The emperor has arrived." ”

Before the words fell, I saw Emperor Guangxu rush into the house, and he didn't care about any etiquette, and said directly: "Let's talk about things." As he spoke, he took a long notebook from the hand of the little eunuch on the side, and said: "This is the letter I received from the people yesterday, saying that the construction of the navy is a waste of money and labor, and the gains outweigh the losses!" ”

After Emperor Guangxu finished speaking, he took out another notebook, glanced at Lin Yuan, and said: "This is the notebook that Lin Aiqing handed over to me, and it was also given to me by Li Aiqing when he was dying, and he urged him to build a navy." As soon as he mentioned the deceased Li Hongzhang, everyone was sad.

After a while, Xu Jingcheng raised his head to look at Lin Yuan, and thought, "Didn't you say that naval construction can make money?" Why don't you speak at this time? ”

Lin Yuan glanced at Xu Jingcheng, and then said: "In fact, building a navy can make money, and those people can't see this, so they will jointly sign such a document." ”

Weng Tongyi asked with a smile: "If we want to build a fleet of ten warships, we will have to spend nearly 20 million taels of silver just to buy warships, weapons and ammunition, and our annual financial income in the Qing Dynasty is only more than 80 million taels, how can we make money?" ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "Of course we can't make money by buying warships from abroad, but what if we build warships ourselves?" ”

Xu Jingcheng couldn't help but laugh dumbly after hearing this, and said in disappointment: "Lord Lin, the method you said about building a navy to make money turned out to be this!" No, the battleship is too complicated for us to build. ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "What's so complicated about the battleship, I can tell you clearly, we will definitely be able to build the battleship, and it will be better than the British and Germans!" ”

Weng Tongyi nodded and said, "Okay, even if you can build a battleship, then what?" How to make money? Isn't it possible that you are going to sell the battleship to foreigners? ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "My lord has been in charge of the household department for many years, you should know where the money of the household department of the Dao Dao is earned, right?" ”

Weng Tongyi said with a smile: "Of course, I know that the annual income of my Qing treasury is mostly in the three items of land, gold, and foreign taxes, which together account for more than sixty percent of the annual income, in addition to salt taxes, regular customs duties, etc., which are also major items, which can account for about one percent, and the rest of the grain discounts, consumption and other items are too small to be worth mentioning." ”

Lin Yuan nodded and said, "Has Lord Weng ever thought about the nature of these incomes? ”

Weng Tongyi asked, "Essence?" What can be the essence of these incomes? ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "The land tax is the land tax and the population tax, and the root of the tax is in land and agriculture; In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, it was founded at the time of the Taiping rebellion, and it was a commercial tax levied on merchants; Foreign tax is also a commercial tax, but it is collected from Chinese and foreign merchants at the customs port; Don't you see the common essence of the salt tax, which is a tax levied on the production and sale of salt? ”

Weng Tongyi shook his head blankly, looking at Lin Yuan, Lin Yuan continued: "If the country only has land, and there are no farmers to cultivate, then how to collect the land tax?" If there are no people and no traders, no one to trade in the port, how can the commercial tax be collected? If no one produces and sells salt, how is the salt tax collected? So, the essence of all income is—"

When Lin Yuan said this, he stared at Weng Tongyi tightly, and said: "The essence of this is - you have to let people have something to do, only when people in the country have something to do, can the country collect taxes and have money, the more people can do, the more income they will have, I don't know if Lord Lu Dao Weng understands?" ”

Weng Tongyi nodded and said, "I understand a little, but what does this have to do with the navy?" ”

Lin Yuan smiled and said, "Does Lord Weng know the navy?" ”

Weng Tongyi is a Confucian who reads, he has only been exposed to various documents and classics in his life, and he knows nothing about science and technology, let alone the navy, Lin Yuan looked at him blankly, and then said: "There are many things that the navy uses, such as building warships, building warships requires steel, where does steel come from?" ”

"Steel comes from ore, and steelmaking and ironmaking require a lot of coal, and these coals and ores are in the mountains, and they need people to mine them, and they need people to transport them to the steel mills, and these people have to eat, clothe, and shelter, and someone must provide them with these things, so that money will not flow? At that time, there will be more places to collect taxes, and the country's revenue will also increase. ”

"So I said that there is money to be made in building a navy, and in the process of building warships, steel is only a small part of it, and there are many more projects such as timber and electricity that can generate revenue, you understand?"