Chapter 539 This Is a War!

Everyone here knows Chen Ming's temper. If he really makes up his mind, no one can change it.

Fortunately, "Your Highness should still be hesitant now." The military expenditure of ten million silver dollars a year is too high, "So this is our opportunity." Block out part of the plan.

"His Highness has great ambitions. As great Han officials, we cannot stand in the way. I am afraid that going too far is not enough..." Taking too big a step can easily lead to trouble. Wouldn't it be better to take it step by step? For example, if we get rid of the mules and horses, the military expenditure will be reduced all of a sudden. There are also some coastal defense batteries that do not need to be built immediately, and there is no need for all the garrison troops to replace their guns...

Peng Zhongrui did not speak directly, but his meaning was expressed clearly. It's not that I oppose the imperial court's plan to reorganize the army, but that I want to slow down the pace a little bit. Slowing things down will make things better.

This is not just the idea of ​​Peng Zhongrui alone, but also the ideas of everyone present.

The financial budget of the Ministry of Finance was submitted to Chen Ming two months ago, leaving a gap of 10 million for the army. The total military expenditure was set at 50 million. However, the group of people in the Governor's Mansion actually slapped them. A slap from the Ministry of Finance, ten million, ten million. Double it!

After the fiscal budget was released, although the Metropolitan Governor's Office kept complaining that it was not enough, Chen Cong left them another 10 million, but the difference between 60 million and 10 million should not be too much.

To be honest, Chen Cong, who was stroking his beard, was very dissatisfied with the people in the Governor's Office on this matter. Wouldn't you say hello before the budget is released? Chen Congqian felt that he had been tricked by the Governor's Office.

Looking at Chen Cong waving his arms, Shen Guozhen and Yue Wenhai also fell silent. The big five fingers were like five mountain peaks pressing on their hearts. Although they were not ministers of the Ministry of Finance, they were also Alexanders. Forty to fifty million, let’s see how many things can be done?

With this extra money, the entire finances will be relaxed. And if this money is missing, all government departments will be embarrassed.

"Twelve main divisions, I thought eight would be enough." There were seven main divisions of the Fuhan Army before. Now the teaching divisions have been assigned to the Imperial Guards and have just been renamed as honorary divisions. They started last year Begin to become a mule. Then there are only six original main division troops left, and now they will be given two more.

"The cavalry cannot be reduced. It is needed in the northwest, northeast and Outer Mongolia. But the navy can still be reduced a lot." Chen Cong had this idea. In his opinion, in Nanyang On this visible one-third of an acre, Chen Han's current naval forces are fully capable of handling any war. Compared with the army, the navy is not an imminent key.

"Having said that, everyone knows that His Highness attaches great importance to the development of the navy." The prince seemed to have a stubborn will in his heart, allowing Chen Ming to continue to expand the navy.

"It's not easy to get stuck with the navy's money..." Peng Zhongrui looked at Chen Cong and sighed.

Since the Fuhan Army began to build up the navy, the amount of money invested in the latter has been increasing year by year. Especially the current Western-style sail warships, which are much more expensive than the old-fashioned bird boats, sailing boats, and thundering boats. They are launched one after another. What Chen Ming means is: It is better to let the boat wait for the people than to let the people wait for the boat.

"But no matter what, this matter must be stopped. Otherwise, if the military becomes arrogant, how will my cabinet handle itself? While the Governor's Office is busy with the military parade, we must seize the time." Chen Cong clenched his fists. He is going to be the first and assistant minister of the cabinet in the coming year. In the first year, he will give 10 million silver dollars to the military. The governor's office should not let it go to the cabinet.

…

There was a sudden commotion in the city of Nanjing, and the news was quickly reported to Chen Ming. The civil servants started to communicate with each other, "divide this information to the Governor's Office." They would solve the troubles they caused by themselves. And the military expenditure of 10 million is indeed a bit too much. Even if a lot of it can be spent with land, the remaining amount is an astronomical figure, otherwise Chen Ming would not have sunk until now.

After Chen Ming heard the news, he 'solved' the matter with just one sentence. Yes, in his eyes, this matter has been solved. The people in the administrative system have just celebrated the New Year and have not even finished their holidays. The elites of various departments have automatically organized themselves to review the plan, trying to find faults in the eggs. Son, squeeze out the water in this plan little by little. Naturally, the military has to move around and stop staring at the military parade.

This lawsuit is going to be formally brought before Chen Ming, so both sides should prepare their own weapons first. This is a war.

It's already the first month of the year, and February is coming soon. He is about to ascend the throne, and Chen Ming is waiting for the general reorganization to be implemented immediately. In the blink of an eye, it has been ten years since he came to this world.

Ten years ago, Chen Ming was just a young rich man in Lushan. Ten years later, he will ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor, ruling the world. There must be many more civil and military disputes and financial battles in his future life. But Chen Ming, who had a smile on his face, didn't know that Lingnan was in Lingnan at this time, and Guangzhou was at this time. The Guangzhou City Pier is bustling with people, but scenes of joys and sorrows are being staged one after another. His empire was far from being filled with happiness everywhere.

Where there is wealth there is poverty, where there is happiness there is sadness. What he sees is not all of society!

After falling under the rule of Chen Han, the Guangzhou Merchants Group suffered a serious purge, and many wealthy merchants were now dead. However, the Guangzhou Merchants Group, which had sufficient resources, quickly restored its strength in foreign trade by taking advantage of the more relaxed trade policy, and actively explored Shanghai and Nanyang. Especially Nanyang!

Guangzhou merchants with surplus wealth formed reclamation companies, obtained licenses from the Nanyang Reclamation Bureau in Guangzhou, and then plunged into West Borneo.

Speaking of which, this is still because of a legend passed down by the old, a story that has been circulating for many years along the coast of Fujian and Guangdong. Borneo, which is poor in mineral resources in the eyes of many people in later generations, has a very high name in the eyes of the people of Fujian and Guangdong at this time-Gold Mountain.

Yes, Borneo was called Gold Mountain by many people in Fujian and Guangdong at this time.

Because many Chinese living here make a living by mining gold. Unlike the Chinese in Java, Sumatra or Luzon, the Chinese in West Borneo are also engaged in agricultural planting, such as growing pepper. But these people are only a relatively small part of the latter. Their main labor force, male labor, is still engaged in mining.

After gaining a foothold, Chen Ming conducted a survey of Chinese people in various parts of Southeast Asia. Compared with the Chinese in Luzon, Java, Sumatra and other places who are mainly engaged in agriculture and commerce, the number of Chinese in Borneo is as high as 70,000 to 80,000, but nearly half of them are engaged in mining.

It is said that this tradition is because most of the Chinese who landed in West Borneo in the early days were local leaders (such as Sudan) who mined gold. Because the Chinese workers are hardworking and skilled, some of them have the skill of gold panning in China, and they are honest and reliable, so they are deeply trusted by local leaders. Local Sudans generally like to recruit Chinese workers to mine, and they reap the profits from the mining. So this has become a tradition of Chinese people in Borneo.

Many gold mines and some gem mines in West Borneo were developed in this way. There are generally dozens of Chinese workers in a mine. The old people there recalled that thirty or forty years ago, there were 11 diamond mines operated by Chinese in Landa alone, with an average of 20 to 30 Chinese workers in each mine, and each person could dig one buq of diamonds per year (requiring 200 to 300 small ores, worth 20-24 rupees). The income was quite lucrative.

The Chinese who mined here were mostly from Fujian and Guangdong provinces, first of all, people from Chaozhou Prefecture in Guangdong, including Chaoyang, Jieyang, Haifeng and Lufeng, followed by people from Jiaying Prefecture and Huizhou. These gold diggers were like the Zhangzhou and Quanzhou armed struggles in Taiwan, with obvious regional relationships, and also a tight internal organization, and the authority of the "big brother" could not be challenged by anyone.

Therefore, when the Fu Han Army came into contact with Borneo, the dark camp took all the people of Huang Guibo from Chaozhou Prefecture and Chen Lanbo from Jiaying Prefecture into its pocket. The Chinese in the entire West Borneo did not have to spend any effort, and were taken in by the Fu Han Army.

Speaking of the Southeast clan relations that Chen Han regarded as a thorn in his side, they greatly helped the Dark Camp in Borneo.

Afterwards, the Dark Camp of the Fu Han Army kept transferring weapons, iron blocks, etc. to various Chinese forces in Borneo. When Guangzhou and Fuzhou were captured by the Fu Han Army, the entire West Borneo was almost controlled by the Chinese.

The local natives were no match for the Chinese miners. In ancient society, whether you are willing to admit it or not, the organization and combat effectiveness of miners are much stronger than farmers. Especially lazy farmers!

There are 30,000 to 40,000 Chinese miners in the whole West Borneo. After receiving support and hints from the country, once they started fighting, the lazy natives in the local area could only kneel down, even if several sultans in West Borneo recruited each other. The Chinese weapons are very simple, but the fighting spirit of the natives is even worse. Even though the Spanish and Dutch secretly sent muskets to the natives on the island, the Chinese also had the support of the Fu Han Army behind them. The proportion of muskets in their hands was not high, but the number was not small, and there were also cannons.

So one-third of the land in Borneo was controlled by the Chinese, and the gold mines on the land naturally belonged to the Chinese completely. There was no need to pay taxes to the Sudan, and agricultural planting industries such as pepper, rice, sugarcane, sago, and dried coconuts also developed rapidly.

The dark camp comprehensively counted the annual gold production in Borneo. It was not too high, but there were still 20,000 to 30,000 taels.

Especially those famous gold producing areas, one of which was Mojiayin, where the 13 Chinese companies made a fortune by panning for gold. It was dug into a large lake of hundreds of acres; the second was the deep stone cracks. It was said that if the miners' clothes were stained with mud, each piece could be washed out of several cents; the third was Sanqian, which had a very strange name. It was said that it was named after several Chinese who had just arrived here and won 3,000 taels of gold! The production was quite good.

In addition, because the immigration and mining here are all organized by the people spontaneously, even though 20,000 to 30,000 taels of gold a year is not much, after hundreds of years, all the Chinese who came to Borneo have gold in their hands, so Borneo is either a gold mountain or a gold mountain.

In the past two years, the foundation of the Fu Han Army in Southeast Asia has become more and more solid. Taking Borneo as an example, the natives of Central Borneo have rarely attacked West Borneo. On the contrary, Sarawak was taken down by the Chinese in West Borneo.

The Chen Han official has not yet entered West Borneo in name, and the organizational structure and model of the "government" here are already "companies". But everyone knows that the people who now hold the power of these companies are no longer the original leaders, but those sent from the mainland.

Every year, a large number of immigrants from Fujian and Guangdong arrive in West Borneo, as well as a large number of Chinese from Java, Sumatra and Luzon. The agricultural development in West Borneo changes year by year, and mining development has also entered a smooth high-speed track.

The Chinese people here regard Chen Han as the "court", because Chen Han's support and leadership behind the scenes make their lives much better than before, and I don't know how many Nanyang Chinese and original Borneo Chinese have won the hearts of him. In two words, that is support!

He is well-known all over the world, and everyone obeys him; his orders are smooth, and no one dares not to obey.

When countless people's hearts turn to Chen Han, Chen Han's rule under the shadow of West Borneo has become deeply rooted.

However, generally speaking, West Borneo, which is one-third the size of Borneo, cannot be filled by a few hundred thousand people. Even if this number is multiplied by ten, Borneo can still bear it. Therefore, in the past two or three years, ships going to Southeast Asia have been traveling back and forth between the mainland of Guangdong and the ports of Borneo.

They brought ships of Chinese people to Borneo, and continuously transported ships of people's daily life and production to Borneo. At the same time, they continuously brought back agricultural products such as pepper, rice, sugarcane, sago, and dried coconut produced in Borneo, as well as gold and a large amount of wood. This is the single most valuable thing and the largest commodity in Borneo. At the beginning, there were gold shops opened by locals, but with the intervention of the banking sector, the increasing gold production in West Borneo all went into the bank. And wood, Borneo seems to never be short of it.

From cloth, ironware, hardware, to salt, sugar, and medicine, China supplies everything that hundreds of thousands of Chinese in Borneo need for life.

Many Chinese families in Luzon, Java, and Sumatra who migrated to West Borneo also saw unlimited business opportunities. Relying on their original background, they also began to get involved in low-tech industries such as Tangliao, hardware workshops, and textiles, but they still had a long way to go if they wanted to truly develop their own handicrafts.

Because unknowingly, the relationship between West Borneo and the mainland had already evolved into a standard colonial economy.

West Borneo became a production base for supplying raw materials, and at the same time they completely opened up the market and became a dumping ground for products from Fujian and Guangdong merchants. This "equal" economic model has no problems in the short term, but over time, especially with the awakening of the handicraft industry in West Borneo, bilateral contradictions are bound to arise. If the price of agricultural products in West Borneo falls sharply in a certain year, the bilateral economic contradictions will become more acute.

Just after the Chinese New Year, the first batch of ships heading south with the winter wind was about to leave Guangzhou. In the previous month, more than a thousand people signed up to go to Nanyang. After signing their names and getting the money for selling themselves, they had to live in a fixed place for a month. After being determined to have no disease problems, they would board the ship to Nanyang. Most of them went to live in Sulu and West Borneo, and only a few went to Singapore.

"A Shui, you must find your uncle when you get there. Take care of each other and come back safely." Cao Chen held her youngest son's hand, tears streaming down her face. If it wasn't for the difficulties at home, how could she bear to let her son go to Southeast Asia?

No one is safe in the mines, and this is in Southeast Asia. If something happens, the family can't help even if they want to. But going to Southeast Asia is safer than going to the army, and the military service is long, and it takes at least five years to be discharged. And going to Southeast Asia, the shortest period of work is only one year, and there are doctors in the mines. There are no guns or cannons, and it is not as dangerous as being a soldier.

Of course, it must be said that being a soldier now is not the same as before. Originally, you could be a soldier just by signing up, but now you need to take various assessments. Many people who want to be soldiers have been rejected.

"Mom, don't worry. The government is different now than it was in the Tartar era. There are written documents. Officials dare not do anything reckless, and the mines dare not do anything reckless either." If he was sick, even if he wanted to go to the mine, the team leader would not agree. "Don't worry."

"Brother, take good care of Mom. When I come back from Nanyang, I must see my nephew." Ah Shui called to his eldest brother Ah Shan, his eyes also full of tears.

"Liang Ah Shui, Liang Ah Shui, where are you? Come back to the team quickly, we're counting the number of people."

The familiar shout of the captain came from behind. Liang Ah Shui's face tightened, "Mom, brother, you guys should come back quickly. Our team is counting the number of people, I'm going..."

Just less than a month after Chen Ming ascended the throne, just five days after the New Year, ships carrying hundreds of poor people from the coastal areas left the Guangzhou docks, looking south, and headed for the warm, humid and rainy Nanyang.