The return to Shiquan was much earlier than Chen Wang expected, and in late May, he received an order to return to Hanzhong Mansion.

In mid-May, the war in northern Sichuan was calmed down, and Hong Chengchou led the army back to Shaanxi.

As a result, the punishment given to the officials and generals was withdrawn, and although the deducted money and benefits were not returned, they were basically reinstated.

In the two major battles of Mianzhou and Jiangyou, the military department has already sent people to verify and prepare to reward meritorious deeds.

Emperor Chongzhen issued an edict to praise Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting, encouraged the generals, and sent some rewards that were not painful or itchy, and there was no follow-up.

"Now in the basement there are two thousand one hundred and twenty taels of gold, and eighty-seven thousand five hundred and forty-two taels of silver."

In the official hall of the city of the right thousand households, Chen Wang sat in the position of the first seat, listening to Tang Shiping, who was standing at the bottom, reporting the situation in the center.

When I returned to the interior of Hanzhong Province, it was already the end of June, almost the beginning of July.

As soon as he arrived in the city, Chen Wang summoned Tang Shiping and Wang Yuankang to the official hall.

I have to sigh that the military industry and the construction of the city are really like flowing water, after Chongzhen defeated Zhang Yuan in the ninth year, a large number of gold and silver were seized from Zhang Yuan's hands at that time, and there were a total of 190,000 taels of silver after statistics, nearly 200,000 taels of balance.

But two years have passed, and a total of more than 100,000 taels of silver have been spent, and an average of about 50,000 taels a year has been spent.

Most of the expenses are spent on military salaries, from the ninth year of Chongzhen to the eleventh year of Chongzhen, Chen Wang has recruited a lot of soldiers, and now he has a total of six infantry and one cavalry, a total of 6,300 people.

However, the number of troops limited above was only 2,700 men, and one cavalry and two infantry were paid.

Therefore, the salaries of about 3,600 infantry in the remaining four divisions were all paid by Chen Wang with his own money.

In the first year, because the number of recruits was small, the military salary paid was also small, only 20,000 taels, but after the expansion of the second year, the military salary expenditure has now reached more than 40,000 taels, and the total expenditure in the two years is more than 65,000 taels.

The remaining expenses of more than 40,000 taels of silver were used to build cities and houses, buy livestock, build water conservancy, make ordnance, change armaments, and so on.

When you count it like this, it doesn't seem like much.

After all, building cities, building houses, building water conservancy, and buying livestock are basically one-shot transactions, and after this part of the money is drawn, there is basically no need to spend it again.

But the big head after that is not in these aspects, and the real big head is undoubtedly the Arsenal Bureau, which is working at full speed.

"Now in the Ordnance Bureau, there are 412 armor craftsmen and 273 armor craftsmen, a total of 685 people."

In two months, those craftsmen have all moved from Xi'an Siwei, and with the newly trained craftsmen, the Weapons Bureau of Han Zhongwei is now about to break through the 700 mark.

"According to the general's order, 1,000 guns will be sworn to make before October, so there are already 100 people in the armory workshop to concentrate on making guns, and the rest of the people are still following Mr. Bo to learn how to make guns."

"Hydraulic beds are being built in batches, and the total number of beds can reach 50 by the end of this month, and the reservoir needs to be expanded due to some problems of the site, so the total number can reach 100 by the end of next month."

Tang Shiping paused, thought for a while and said.

"The sea oath is expensive, and now the style is set, only one shot will cost nearly seven taels ......of silver, which is very expensive."

Counting the price of iron, the price of charcoal, the wages and food of craftsmen, and other expenses, the cost of a qualified bird gun is even about three to five taels.

Generally, most of the qualified bird guns are about six catties.

The weight of six catties does not seem to be much, after all, it is all iron, and it is only six catties.

But in fact, it is not calculated in this way, the iron needed for the bird is refined iron, and if forty catties of wool iron are to be refined, it can only be made into seven or eight catties of refined iron, so the cost will come up.

The Sea Oath Gun, the first flintlock pistol developed, was subject to the problem of reeds, so the cost was much higher.

The steel used in the reed is extremely demanding, and the material used is expensive, even accounting for most of the extra silver.

In addition, because there are more butts and straps for the oath, and the length is longer, the requirements and processes have become more numerous, and the cost of labor and wood is naturally not a small amount.

Tang Shiping really felt that it was a little expensive, he had been under Cao Wenzhao's account, and now he was used to the car camp in the north.

The cost of each cannon is only five to six taels of silver, and each of the hundred guns is only two taels of silver.

A chariot, equipped with a pair of flying cannons, each cannon is equipped with five guns, including the fare of the chariot, a total of only thirty taels of silver.

But now only one firearm costs seven taels of silver, and four firearms are about as expensive as a chariot, and it is false to say that you are not distressed when you watch the silver money be spent like flowing water.

"The armor is made, and the general requires extremely high specifications, so a pair of fine armor uses silver to use eleven taels, and after the use of water power, the labor has been reduced a lot, but for the time being, ten taels of silver must also be used."

"The general requires that all the armor and weapons be completed, and it is estimated that more than 12,000 taels of silver will be used, which is not counting the price of casting bronze cannons, nor the price of making guns and other equipment."

Tang Shiping put away the paperwork in his hand and handed the question to Chen Wang.

Before he reported it, Wang Yuankang had already reported the matter of the civil affairs department to Chen Wang.

At present, water conservancy projects are being built on a large scale in the two cities of 1,000 households, and one well after another is being drilled, many of which are deep wells, just to cope with the possible drought.

Dam after dam was built, and then along the canal through the hole in the water to the fields.

One after another Lanzhou waterwheels have risen from the ground, transporting Han water to remote fields.

At present, a large amount of infrastructure is being built in the two thousand-house houses in Shiquan and Xixiang, and once these infrastructure projects are completely completed, they will not be unable to resist in the face of famine.

The source of these silver coins can be regarded as a few times, and they are considered clean, many of them are used for the development of health centers in the name of confiscation by bandits, and of course there are more fake accounts, but not to embezzle money, but to not attract attention.

In addition, various localities are still digging deep holes, accumulating grain, and even building roads and bridges.

And all this is naturally Chen Wang's plan for the future, but the money and silver needed to do all this will undoubtedly be an astronomical amount in the end.

And not only the two thousand households under the control of Chen Wang, but also the two thousand households under the control of Guan Qilin and Du Wugang in Chuxian and Xing'an, are also constantly developing.

Of course, it is also indispensable to send money to support. ”

Chen Wang frowned slightly, there are still nearly 90,000 silver in the treasury, but according to this calculation, I am afraid that it can only be used until the beginning of next year.

The price of casting bronze cannons is much more expensive than casting iron cannons, and it is the largest of the big ones.

"What's the situation in Chuxian and Xing'an?"

Wang Yuankang was in charge of liaising with Chaxian and Xing'an.

can let Wang Yuankang manage civil affairs, naturally because Wang Yuankang is already a cronie.

From the time Wang Yuankang left the Acropolis of Hanzhong, there was actually no way to turn back.

Not only does Wang Yuankang now live in the city, but the entire Wang clan now lives in the right thousand households next to Shiquan.

"There are now more than 3,000 people in the county, and there are still 2,000 supernumerary Dingkou, and 800 regular troops are being trained."

When Chen Wang led his troops all the way from Luoyang to Chuxian, he collected about 3,000 displaced people along the way, and these homeless people were all resettled in Chuxian at that time.

Some of them entered the guard house as military households, and the other part stayed in the county as civilian households.

The so-called supernumerary Dingkou refers to the displaced people who did not join the health center in the first place.

"The situation of Xing'an guarding thousands of households is slightly better than that of Chu County, Du Wugang has collected the displaced people and opened up the cultivated land, and now there are more than 6,000 people in the institute, and 1,000 members of the army have been trained, and 510 hectares of cultivated land have been cultivated, and the expenditure has returned to the right since last year."

The fact that the Thousand Households in Xing'an is better than the Thousand Households in Chu County, Chen Wang had already expected.

The surroundings of Xing'an were basically broken by the Liukou, a large number of population losses, in the name of Sun Chuanting, Du Wugang collected a lot of fields and homeless people in a short period of time, and naturally it was able to develop.

However, the Qianhu Institute in Chuxian County has not yet been broken and established, and the development is naturally not comparable to Xing'an.

"As long as the number of soldiers in the two thousand-household offices in Chuxian and Xing'an is kept at about 1,000, there is no need to expand the recruitment."

Chen Wang knocked on the table and said.

"The existing fire cannons in the army, as well as the almost eliminated tiger squat guns and Franc machine guns, can be sent to Xing'an, so that Du Wugang can enrich the city defense."

The two thousand households in Chuxian and Xing'an are auxiliary in the plan, and they are used as places to enrich grain and grass in Tuntian.

Chen Wang didn't think about letting the two guards also participate in the battle, as long as they could undertake certain defensive tasks, so more than 1,000 regular troops were already useful.

During the period from the eleventh year of Chongzhen to the beginning of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, Xing'an in history did not encounter any great incursion.

There is no need to set up any defenses on the side of the county, and now that the north of Sichuan has been decided, Li Zicheng led a small number of elites to sneak into the deep mountains and giant valleys in Long'an Mansion.

Even if Li Zicheng starts again, if he wants to go to Hanzhong Mansion, he still needs to cross the two regions of Chengdu Mansion and Baoning Mansion, and it will not be too late to increase his troops at that time.

Now Hu Zhiyi is still leading his troops to guard Lüyang, and it is impossible for Liukou to enter Hanzhong Mansion from Cheng and Jie.

In other words, in the past two years, as long as there are no accidents, Hanzhong Mansion will be absolutely safe.

Sending obsolete artillery to Hung Yen is only a precautionary measure.

Now that Hanzhong Mansion has been in operation for two years, it can be said that it is close to impregnable in a sense.

"Have you explored the terrain of the key roads in various places?"

Chen Wang was silent for a while before he slowly asked.

"It has been explored, the location information is currently stored as a secret, and the workshop has come up with a construction plan."

At the mouth of the Chihe River, the only way from Shiquan to Hanyin, a fortress is now built enough to accommodate 2,000 people to defend it, and the entire mouth of the Chihe River can be completely sealed as long as the weapons are in place.

Chen Wang's plan was to wait until after October for him to lead his troops north, and then the weapons and artillery produced by the Ordnance Bureau would be limited to the Chihekou fortress to directly block the possible invasion from the east.

On the other side of the county, a group of fortresses centered on Dingjun Mountain and a network of forts are also being constructed.

The fortifications in these two places are under construction, but Chen Wang has set up more places in the plan than these two.

Chen Wang also sent people to investigate the two roads of Meridian Road and Baochuan Road, looking for places to build fortifications and fortresses, and now the location has been selected, and even the materials have been prepared secretly.

Once things change, they will immediately block the Meridian Road and the Bao Slope Road to enter Hanzhong.

At that time, as soon as Dingjun Mountain and Chihe estuary are closed again, the entire Hanzhong Basin will become a huge fortress that is impregnable.

Take Dingjun Mountain, Chihekou, Meridian Road, and Baochuan Road as the four main roads, and take the mountains on all sides as the stop, and use the advantages of guns and cannons to resist the enemy soldiers.

"Everything can be carried out according to the predetermined plan, and there is no need to worry about the money thing......"

The so-called making of perfumes, soaps, and brewing distilled spirits at high prices to make money by making glass is actually difficult to do at all.

If you don't specifically understand, how many people know how to make perfumes, soaps, and glass.

Not to mention distilled spirits, which have been distilled for a long time since tomorrow, and are not a rare item.

If you want to make money in this era, the easiest way is to use the power in your hands.

And in today's Hanzhong Mansion, the power in his hands is not an exaggeration to describe it as monstrous.

Instead of bothering to do things that don't necessarily work and are thankless, it's better to be simple and rude.

The most lucrative in this era was the sea trade, followed by the salt mines.

Now in Hanzhong Mansion, sea trade is naturally untouchable, and now all trade on the southeast coast is basically monopolized by Zheng Zhilong, and he can't intervene at all.

As for salt and mines, there is no official channel for salt, so it can only sell private salt, and now Chen Wang is already doing it.

The largest private salt in Hanzhong Mansion was sold by Chen Wang, and in addition to the caravans that entered Hanzhong Mansion, Chen Wang also collected a certain amount of taxes in private.

These things are unspoken rules, and Chen Wang did not ban them, after all, why not make money if they have money.

Which of these long-distance merchant caravans is not a small force behind them, otherwise they would have been eaten and wiped clean, and there would be no bones left.

Salt and sea trade are now out of reach, so the only thing that can open up a financial route is the mine.

Although the minerals in Hanzhong Province are less than those in some mineral-rich areas, if you can pocket most of them, it will be enough to make up for the expenditure, and there will be a surplus.

Chen Wang narrowed his eyes, and a hint of coldness flashed in his eyes.

I heard that there are still many remnants of the rogue in Ziyang and Xing'an.

As we all know, mining itself is a dangerous thing, and it is natural to encounter robbers.

(End of chapter)