Since the accident of the Hindenburg, the airships have suddenly declined, and all airships have ceased commercial sailing. The Count Zeppelin, which had made its first flight across the Atlantic and made a round-the-world flight, was not allowed to be confined to a huge airship hangar until 40 years later, when the fat man ordered it to be dismantled and its aluminum keel extracted to build an airplane, ending its 12-year glorious life.

"If you buy it, the Germans will probably agree, and the price will not be too high. When the time comes, buy it and try to see if the base has a response, and if there is no reaction, it is not too late to sell it. Even if it can't be sold, according to its 60-ton lift surplus wealth, the center will sort it out and use it as a freight shipment. ”

Meng Xiang made up his mind and was about to negotiate with the Germans to buy the airship that had been silent for most of the year. But I saw Rat Er looking for him.

"The battle in Taierzhuang is over!"

At this time, the pointer of history has pointed to April 17 of the 38th year, which is a full ten days later than the original history.

But the outcome does not seem to have changed, and the Central Army still won.

This time, the army was a joint attack of the 10th Division and the 108th Division, and although it was knocked out a lot by the vanguard army, it combined with nearly five wings. Together with other puppet army vassals and reading troops, there are more than 30,000 people in total. It seems that his own strength is stronger, but with the continuous assistance of weapons and ammunition from the vanguard army, the Central Army seems to have flattened this gap all of a sudden. In particular, the support of more than 50 75 mountain guns and 10 105 howitzers with incidental gunners reduced the artillery superiority of the Japanese army by half at once. The Devil's air force was also contained, and at least half of the aircraft attack was intercepted by the aircraft of the Vanguard Army halfway. Even if the remaining planes came, they were blocked by more than twenty 40-mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns, and they didn't make much money.

With the attack of the infantry alone, the elite of the Central Army was no worse than the devils. Although there are few elites, the Central Army is only near Taierzhuang, and this time it invested more than 100,000 people. Use the advantage of numbers to directly reduce the attack of the devil.

The cloth bag of Taierzhuang has been formed, and Lao Jiang saw the hope of victory, and constantly added descendants to it, and even the invitation of the vanguard army to fight could be ignored.

The increasing reinforcements of the Central Army made Ryosuke Isoya see the danger, and after being wounded by the Pioneer Army, he became much more alert, and Zhang Lingfu's southward attack made him realize that the Pioneer Army was not acting well. On the basis of seeing the attempt of the Central Army and the lack of other reinforcements, he resolutely abandoned Taierzhuang and prepared to retreat.

But it seemed to be a little late, and the troops that had been pestering near Taierzhuang were dragged by the counterattacking Central Army. On the 13th, several encircled troops quickly intervened and began an all-out attack on them.

The fierce battle lasted for 4 days, and Meng Xiang had been watching the battle as well. However, according to the situation on the spot, the battle situation has been decided, and the vanguard army cannot intervene much. Meng Xiang had the heart to see the newly built airship.

Although nearly 100,000 troops of the Central Army participated in the attack, Ryosuke Isoya and Kuma Shimoto, who were red-eyed, still highlighted the encirclement of the Central Army. But only more than 20,000 escaped, and more than 9,000 remained in that land forever.

"Great victory! Great victory! Taierzhuang victory! Destroy more than 30,000 enemies! This kind of propaganda spread everywhere, and for a time it spread all over the country, and it was even more exaggerated than the propaganda of the achievements of the vanguard army.

"Even if all the escapees are injured, there are only enough more than 30,000 people, right?" Meng Xiang is still a little uninterested in the propaganda of this era.

"If there are fewer results, how can the credit be enough? It's the morale boost that's all that's important. "Pharmacist Tang is also a little helpless about Meng Xiang's real results every time.

"This descendant will naturally show his bottom when he is sophisticated!" Meng Xiang sighed and thought of the various arguments of later generations.

"The things that are said in the Ming Dynasty are said to be good and bad, at this time, the Chinese people still don't know what the future of China will be, how can they have the energy to consider the elegance of future generations!" Tang Yaoshi was moved, but Meng Xiang was moved when he heard it, the mentality of the Chinese people was still unstable at this time, except for the extremists, most people were in hesitation.

"The hearts of the people are available!" Meng Xiang muttered, but then thought of half a bottle of soy sauce this time, and his heart was also a little unhappy.

If it was according to Meng Xiang's plan to attack Taierzhuang together, the two divisions of the devil would not have to run. But at this time, they retreated to Zaozhuang. The Central Army of Linyi also gained a firm foothold, and after the Fifth Division and the 114th Division were bombarded by the vanguard army, they lost most of their artillery, and the offensive was sharply reduced.

Meng Xiang felt breathless when he thought of Shi Yousan, who was blocking the vanguard army passing by, the devils on both sides could already pick fruits, but they couldn't move. If Shi Yousan is not instructed by others behind him, Meng Xiang himself doesn't believe it.

"We can't wait until the Central Army retreats. The Central Army retreated, and the pressure on the vanguard army would be even greater. Meng Xiang thought about it, and directly told Rat Erdao: "Tell the staff to formulate an attack plan first, and target Zaozhuang and Linyi." ”

"You can wait for a while, after the victory of Taierzhuang, I am afraid that the confidence of the central government will increase greatly, and Xuzhou will not be easily abandoned. The central government has recently increased its troops, and I am afraid that this will have to confront each other for a while, so I can look for a better time. We can accumulate more strength first. Pharmacist Tang hurriedly spoke.

Meng Xiang lowered his head and thought for a while, the current situation seems to have become more complicated, and he really needs to wait and see for a while, the army of the Central Army is gathering more and more, and it has become his target.

He waved his hand lightly at Rat Er and said, "Then let's slow down for a while!" First, let the people in the staff set a few more sets of plans for the goal. to respond at any time. ”

After Rat Er left, only Meng Xiang and Tang Yaoshi were left in the room.

"Regarding the question of the financing of the railway, the general can try to borrow!" After many reminders from Meng Xiang, when Tang Yaoshi called Meng Xiang, he also began to use the title of general.

"Borrowing?" Meng Xiang suddenly thought of one unequal treaty after another, which was different from his loans to Citigroup and HSBC, and most of the loans related to road construction had other conditions.

"The central government has just borrowed 30 million from the French for the construction of railways in the southwest! We can borrow from the Germans! "The Germans now seem to have a good relationship with the Vanguard, and they are sure to be happy to borrow money, as long as they mortgage the railway. But there are many aspects involved, and Zhou Bai is not unexpected, but he does not dare to touch this high-voltage line. Matters involving the right of way are very sensitive. If this matter is not approved by the central government, it will be even more troublesome. If you go through the central procedure, I'm afraid that you won't be able to get through.

"I'll think about this!" Meng Xiang pondered for a moment.

Pharmacist Tang didn't say much about this, but turned to something else: "In the Special Economic Zone, the activities of other forces are becoming more and more frequent. Even in the army, there are people who privately encourage soldiers to buy and sell arms! ”

The vanguard army is known for its advanced and excellent weapons, and people from all forces have come to make up their minds, some rely on relatives and friends, and some rely on money, and they all want to dig meat from the vanguard army.

Meng Xiang's eyes turned sharply, and he said directly: "But anyone who resells arms without permission, if you find one, you will deal with one seriously!" ”

Many such examples have been discovered, and those involved in the resale of firearms have been dealt with directly by military law. It's just that there are some things that are difficult to deal with, such as many veterans who are greedy for cheap and don't dare to buy guns, but bullets are rich, which makes them choose the way of reselling bullets. Of the 100 training bombs that were issued, you can sell 10 or 8 in exchange for pocket money.

"This situation is easy to deal with. Tell the soldiers that the number of bullets for each training is a certain amount, and as long as the training meets the standard, the remaining bullets can be retained and converted into corresponding money as a reward, and it is strictly forbidden to sell them to the outside world without permission. The converted amount is compared with the price of the bullets we sell to the outside world, and by the way, the standard of training standards is raised a little higher. "There are many situations that can't be stopped, so it's better to be channeled. Although there are clones in the vanguard army, the problems of those veteran oilers cannot be corrected. The military has the advantage that it can speak with data, and if it fails to meet the standard, it can only force itself to practice. This reward method is definitely more effective than the persecution of instructors, but the serious surname of the army may be affected a little, leaving some hidden dangers.

"It seems that all the soldiers need to go into the training camp and re-smelt! It's time for a tweak. "The rehabilitation of a large number of veterans into the vanguard army, in addition to bringing in battlefield experience, also brings many bad habits. No matter how strict the military regulations are, there are also omissions.

However, during the war, many problems could not be solved directly, and could only be slowly weakened and changed.

Even if there are strict magistrates of the clones, as the number of troops increases, the leading role of the backbone is weakened a lot as soon as the clones are diluted.

"200,000 troops, which is already considered the limit, no matter how much, it will be troublesome to control! And the ideology needs to be strengthened! At this time, the ideological education strengthened in the vanguard army was the duty of patriotic and modern soldiers, but in the face of the infection of many ideas in society, such a general education could not tightly win over the soldiers.

Now the soldiers' salaries are stable, and not too small, which is the cornerstone of the stability of the vanguard army now. Sometimes, however, the soldiers' salaries alone cannot pull the soldiers, and if the land and relatives and friends are placed on one side of the scale, the muzzles of the soldiers' guns will immediately turn. The solution of social problems is the cornerstone of the stability of the armed forces. The activities of other forces in the base area are clearly shaking the stability of this cornerstone.

If you want not to be knocked out of the cornerstone, you can only take the initiative to change.

"But it's hard to reform society!" Meng Xiang sighed in his heart.

...... "Commander! Although Yang Yi no longer holds a military position, he still has a standard military salute for Meng Xiang.

"Taxes for the first quarter have been sorted out?" Meng Xiang didn't need to be polite to Yang Yi, and asked directly.

Yang Yi carried a thick stack of materials, and on it was a general introduction.

"Only more than two million? So little? Meng Xiang was a little disappointed, this number was far from what he imagined in his mind. You must know that Shandong has always been a big fat meat, from Yuan Shikai to Han Fuyu raised more than 100,000 soldiers, and never shouted about lack of money, and the oil and water in it will naturally not be less.

"That's not a small amount!" Then Zhou Bai, who followed closely, explained with a smile:

"The central tax is divided into two parts: central and local. The central taxes include unified tax, customs duty, salt tax, stamp duty, mining tax, tobacco and alcohol tax, income tax, etc., while Shandong mainly relies on land tax, deed tax, business tax, slaughter tax, oil tax, tooth tax, cattle tax, etc. ”

Meng Xiang couldn't help but smile when he heard the cow tax. In these years, ploughing cattle were the main force in ploughing the fields, and according to the law of pervasive taxation, these cattle were all licensed.

Zhou Bai didn't care, and continued:

"According to the agreement between us and the central government, the taxes of the SAR can be temporarily withheld for the purpose of the anti-Japanese war, but the tax of 3 million yuan must be paid annually and handed over to the central tax agency in the SAR for processing, and the military salary of 50,000 yuan per month will be withheld." Speaking of which, the central government can't help it. At that time, Han Fuyu was able to take over the Lu tax authorities, and at this time, the devils invaded, and the strength of controlling the vanguard army was weaker. Since the vanguard army proposed an annual guaranteed tax, the higher authorities agreed, but for the sake of the authority of the central government, the central tax authorities could not withdraw, and the tax was only handed over and supervised.

"As a result of the invasion, the tariffs have ceased to exist in name only. However, in the past, tariffs accounted for the most important part of the tax revenue, and the tax revenue of Qingdao Port alone last year was more than 20 million yuan. Not to mention Yantai, Longkou, Weihai and other places. This is still under the premise that he is crazy about smuggling, and he only has more than 2 million yuan of private goods from Dalian every month, and this tax loss is very large.

Of course, now that the ports have fallen into the hands of the Kou, and the Kou has completely blockaded us, the central government does not expect us to collect the tariffs.

In the past, there were three main types of taxes, except for customs duties, which were salt taxes.

The salt tax can account for 20% of the total budget of the central government, second only to the tariff. Shandong has a long coastal coastline and many salt-producing areas. For many years, it has ranked first in the country's salt production, and it has been the key place to collect salt taxes since ancient times.

In recent years, the salt tax has been increasing. However, after I occupied the coastline, the central government transferred this fee to us. But the area around Laizhou Bay is indeed a good place for salt production, according to the output of the past month. If this year goes well, our salt industry revenue will definitely exceed 10 million. ”

Zhou Bai said as he looked at Meng Xiang.

Meng Xiang also saw that most of Shouguang and other places still use the soil method to dry salt, so he specially sorted out some of the methods in his memory of later generations. In later generations, he visited the big salt works there, and he still remembers the general process. Some processes are simple, but they have been explored for decades. The salt fields used in the vanguard army increased their production greatly, and the proportion of refined salt produced also greatly increased.

With the financial resources of the vanguard army, four large salt farms were built directly around Laizhou Bay, and the output of these four salt farms alone may be worth half of the previous output of Shandong, plus some scattered salt farms. A year's production can make the financial pockets of the vanguard army bulge.

You must know that Lao Han will add a salt tax to the proportion of 2/5 of the central tax, and he can collect two or three million yuan a year. Coupled with the positive tax thrown out by the central government, the salt tax alone is a surprising number. Shandong once set a staggering figure of nearly 30 million yuan in annual salt tax.

"Since the central government abolished the unified tax on gold in 1928, it should be simplified to the unified tax on goods. For cigarettes, matches, beer, flour, cotton yarn, cement, lavender and other mechanical goods with large production volumes, the factory tax shall be levied at one time on the place of origin, and no other taxes will be levied in the future.

In the first quarter, cigarettes received 100,000 yuan this quarter, which is not less.

Because of our relief consumption, wheat flour was only collected less than 60,000 yuan.

Because of the war, the cotton yarn factory did not start much, and the 80,000 spindles shipped from Qingdao and other places have not yet been put into production, which can be ignored.

The match tax was levied at 300,000. ”

"Is the match tax so high?" Meng Xiang was also taken aback, a small match had such a high tax. What he didn't know was that Huaxia had to import a large number of matches from Sweden and Yuben every year, and the money for importing matches every year was in the tens of millions. Although match factories such as Zhenye were affected by the relocation, they soon resumed work with the support of the vanguard army, with stable output, and the tax of 500,000 yuan was not a lot. You must know that last year, the tax collection of matches in Shandong reached more than 3 million.

"The more people who use it, the more taxes will be collected!" Zhou Bai told the truth.

"The amount of cement and beer is too small, not to mention, the time for smoking is not enough, but when the time comes, the tobacco production areas are all within our special zone, and this year we can at least have more than one million income. Because Han Fuyu is very strict with the management of stamp duty, so we collect taxes much easier, although there is the impact of the war, but the transaction has also increased greatly, collecting more than 50,000 yuan. ”

"This year's mining tax has increased by more than 60,000 yuan due to the increase in mining volume. Other business taxes, deed taxes, tooth taxes, slaughter taxes, etc., add up to more than 400,000. More than two million in such a quarter is not less. ”

"That's less than 10 million a year?"

"General, you ordered the exemption of the field tax for half a year, and you also lost a large piece of income." Meng Xiang saw the hardships of the common people on the ground, so he waved his pen to exempt this year's agricultural tax, but Tang Yaoshi blocked it at that time, and it was only exempted for half a year. After Tang Yaoshi's explanation, Meng Xiang knew that the local finance below relied on Tian Fu to get by. Once it is completely exempted, it can touch the honeycomb. And this piece of pressure is also very high. In the name of resistance, it is almost the same as half a year.

"But the burden of the common people has not been reduced at all, and the land rent has not been reduced at all." Meng Xiang pinched his chin and said in a low voice, "If the internal foundation is not stable, it is easy to be shaken, it seems that these rules will not work if they do not change!" ”