The Chinese civilization, as its influence expanded, inevitably came into contact with other cultures from all directions. The deep foundation of its own clan cultural system has gained a firm foothold in this mutual influence and integration change, and even has a strong ability to transform foreign cultures, which is one of the unique characteristics of Chinese civilization for thousands of years.

The spread of Buddhism from India in the land of China in the East inevitably reached a compromise with the local Chinese culture, and even evolved and improved. The son of the Wheel Saint King cultivated to become Guanyin Bodhisattva, but when he arrived in Middle-earth, it didn't take long for this great man in Indian Buddhism to transform into a goddess of great compassion.

This is not enough, as one of the four great bodhisattvas, Guanyin should naturally integrate into the social life and cultural needs of the Chinese nation from many aspects and perspectives. So in addition to her profession as a merciful savior, she began to work part-time as a banker, a military strategist, a medical scientist, and an agronomist......

Zhusheng Guanyin, or Guanyin, has become a pious object for the Chinese people to pray for the safety of mothers and children and the prosperity of their descendants, and from her, people will get hope and a future.

On the first day of November, a second wave of more than 300 Ming immigrants arrived at the docks in the outer islands of Manchuria, and the last Azorean trading fleet of the year departed.

In order to prevent the risk of last year's winter navigation, the three merchant ships in this batch are all clippers of the state-owned import and export group, which can strive to return to the mainland by December, while the other ships are responsible for transporting Ming immigrants to and from Bermuda. Even the ships of COSCO International Trading Company, which was appointed as Changle, received a contract for the transportation of goods and people on Bermuda Island.

And in the conference hall of the government office area. A discussion on the formulation of the new year's financial budget is underway, and it will take more than 10 hours to start. It's almost early in the morning, and the lights in the conference room are still on, except for some female ministers who can't resist the fatigue of working overtime and go home early, a few old men are still holding cigarettes in the conference room.

Drawing lessons from last year's budget rejection by the Diet, the new fiscal year's budget formulation method will require more rigorousness.

It is forbidden to completely let go of the reins and add or remove them at will, which requires the heads of each department to be carefully calculated. Rather than proposing a budget based on your own feelings.

According to the latest statistics from Finance Minister Liu Xin, as of the end of October, this year's state fiscal revenue has exceeded the $7 million mark. That's one and a half times that of $2.8 million last year. Of course, this also includes more than $2.4 million in booty seized from Bermuda. For a small country with a population of just over 7,000 people, this is already an extremely staggering economic figure.

It's commendable. Of the $7 million in fiscal revenue, the tax revenue related to the domestic market has exceeded $50,000, accounting for only 0.7% of the overall revenue.

The expansion of the living and working population, the high price consumption, and the high income troika go hand in hand, which is certainly the main reason for stimulating the sharp increase in consumption tax revenue in the domestic demand market this year. But this phenomenon also shows an optimistic tendency, that is, the native European immigrants have gradually begun to adapt to the life of goods production and consumption, rather than simply saving money. As long as money circulates quickly and benignly, the internal blood circulation of the entire country's economy can continue to develop.

The only thing to worry about is whether the Ming Dynasty immigrants, who have gradually increased since this year, will be able to change their living habits. Integrating into this consumer environment is the key to the future. Otherwise, one of the troika will lag behind, and that qiē will be in vain. Of course, these need to be supported by more economic numbers to come up with answers.

This year's government budget expenditure is also strictly overstated, mainly due to the Ming Dynasty immigration and the upgrading of the construction plan of Shuangwan City. The $2.5 million budget for the first fiscal year was also unprofessional. He also led the Congress and the government to tear down the east wall to make up for the west wall, and shit luck to get a lot of war revenues, and invested another $3.3 million to survive the year. …,

Next year's budget will obviously include the ongoing Ming Dynasty immigration affairs. After preliminary discussions in the Cabinet, in view of the benign growth of imports and exports to Europe, which is still optimistic for now, and the imminent opening of a new trade window for Bermuda to the Caribbean and Central and South America. In 1623, the total budget was raised to $6,000,000.

With the exception of Qian Weichang, the governor of the central bank, a small white-collar worker who had worked in a foreign bank, in the absence of a systematic analysis by more professional financial experts, the economic managers with two knives can only cautiously manage the country's money bags with the attitude of crossing the river by feeling the stones. In addition to the budget for the new fiscal year, a small part of the national treasury surplus is still retained.

Considering that Yan Xiaosong and Su Zining have signed a new contract with the Portuguese for the transportation of migrants, the result of the bargaining has slightly reduced the cost of conglomerate freight for migrants, and the contract has also been approved in Congress, so the government's special budget for immigration has been set at 2 million this time.

It is difficult to predict how much reaction the military and government would provoke from the annexation of Bermuda, but when the news of the establishment of the Dutch West India Company reached home, the "grievances" of the army and navy were quickly revealed. The national defense budget submitted by Zheng Quan reached $1.6 million this time, an increase of nearly seventy percent from $950,000 in 1622!

The increase in population will inevitably bring the need for urban infrastructure expansion, and the first phase of the construction plan for the biogas project and the industrial zone power station has been approved by the National Assembly, so the $700,000 arrangement must be acceptable to everyone.

The establishment of a secondary vocational school with integrated technical disciplines, the expansion of the medical research institute and the establishment of a state-owned pharmaceutical group have spent the budget for health and education and research this year. The three-year primary compulsory education will also be implemented in 1623, the first stage of the national health and epidemic prevention system is imminent, the core technology research and development support funds of various industries can not be delayed, and the budget for health and education and scientific research in the new year can only be high and not low, and 500,000 US dollars cannot run.

The expansion of the production capacity of several major state-owned enterprise groups also requires the state to continue to inject a certain amount of support funds, and 300,000 US dollars can only be regarded as meaningful.

Homeland Security, Intelligence, and Foreign Diplomacy Budgets. No one can say exactly how good this weird budget item is, and in the eyes of many people, it can be taken for granted that it can be high or low, so be $200,000!

The pressure of the new year of the Ministry of Civil Affairs is greater, and the arrival of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty will inevitably bring many expenditure items, and it is necessary to establish a budget of 400,000 US dollars independently.

The administrative overhead of other branches of government is simpler. If you don't build a luxury office building, it's only $300,000 if it's full.

In this way, the budget of $6 million was spent. But there are still a lot of details that the sub-project is not working on at all. Therefore, this budget-making meeting is more like a trouble-making seminar, or a grievance meeting, which just lays out the problems one by one. Let everyone be mentally prepared in advance.

Well, since it's a problem, then naturally everyone is welcome, regardless of whether it is practical or not, a series of proposals that need to be added or stripped out of the budget are gushing out. In any case, these are all passionate attitudes towards the future of the country, even if there are any ridiculous opinions in the middle, Premier Qi Jianjun still listens attentively, and he can only endure the idea of beating people in his heart.

"I said everyone, those people sent by Yan Siqi. I'm currently living in the Outer Islands, and I promised to support them when I was in Macau, so we have to give that a kick-out! ”

Yan Xiaosong, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, watched with a blank eye that the share of 6 million US dollars was divided up one by one, and hurriedly tapped the table with a pen to remind everyone.

"Just spend it from the budget of your Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Don't do it alone! Finance Minister Liu Xin very decisively rejected Yan Xiaosong's proposal. …,

"This matter is related to the layout of the entire Far East in the next ten years, and it is not a trivial matter, and it can be compared with the Thirty Years' War in Europe." Su Zining drew on his form, raised his head, and said with a smile, "About this." I think the Diet will also fully support it, so let's raise your hand, right? ”

"Holding chicken feathers as an arrow" is the most annoying! Including Prime Minister Qi Jianjun, the faces of the men and women in the room twitched slightly.

Looking at Yan Xiaosong beside him, the other party just spread his hands and made a strange expression, and Su Zining made a victory gesture under the table with his hand.

Zhou Yi, the Minister of Construction and Mayor of Manchurian, who has been working hard to do arithmetic problems, finally took a long breath, sorted out his form, and handed it to Prime Minister Qi Jianjun: "Prime Minister, I have calculated, the foundation of many preliminary projects is already there, and the national infrastructure budget can be reduced a little next year, and 650,000 yuan should be enough." ”

"Well, Xiao Zhou's way of working is very good! Look, isn't this just a saving of 50,000 at once? Qi Jianjun was very satisfied with Zhou Yi's work attitude, turned his head, and squeezed out a smile at Zheng Quan, the silent Minister of Defense across from him, "Old Zheng, are you ...... there?"

"No way!" Zheng Quan's face darkened when he heard this, and his head shook like a rattle, "This year's navy ships sail very frequently, and they must reach the stage of annual overhaul, and the cost of the new shipbuilding plan has risen by a large margin. The coastal defense fortress and naval base projects that are owed for the year can't just be dragged out, right? ”

After pouring bitter water, Zheng Quan drew circles one after another on his notepad with a pen without a good voice, looking embarrassed.

"Every department hopes to make good results and make big achievements, I understand, but national construction needs to be coordinated and synchronized with each other, and everyone will carefully see if their annual plan can be adjusted, and strive to cut out the remaining project budget share that has not yet been implemented!"

Qi Jianjun also showed fatigue, but he still boosted the morale of every government minister present.

"Qian Weichang, the government can continue to issue treasury bonds. At the end of this year, each company will distribute share dividends, and I estimate that everyone can share tens of thousands of yuan. Su Zining, who had always felt that there was nothing to do, just waiting for others to squeeze money for him, was muttering in the corner at this time.

Qian Weichang, the most famous "capitalist angry youth" in Zhongli, was stunned, his brows furrowed, he drew on the paper for a while, and sighed helplessly: "There is no problem with national credit, theoretically it can continue to issue more than 1 million." But at present, it is better not to do it, because sooner or later the central bank will have to carry out restructuring, and it cannot take care of the business that originally belonged to commercial banks, lest the tail be too big. After our commercial bank and 'UnionPay' are established. It's easy to do it all. ”

Su Zining, who smeared finance, could only nod obediently, and Yan Xiaosong, the vice minister of foreign affairs who was sitting next to him, fell asleep with a extinguished cigarette at the corner of his mouth.

I don't know how long it took, Su Zining woke up his friend, Yan Xiaosong opened his eyes sleepily, and the cigarette fell on his thigh.

"What? Got it all? How much do you get? Yan Xiaosong looked at the table below, it was almost 3 o'clock in the morning.

"Hmm. The Ministry of Defense moved 20,000 yuan, the state-owned group support fund was also reduced by 30,000 yuan, and our Ministry of Foreign Affairs cut 20,000 yuan. The Ministry of Construction took the initiative to let 50,000, and there are ...... Together, 150,000 were squeezed out. It's settled. Su Zining pulled his tie and spread his hands, "Now, what we can do is to wait for Qi Jianjun to fight the Confucianism in the Congress next time!" ”

Three days later, Friday, November 4th. In 1623, the Diet of the Government and Budget was convened.

The arrival of immigrants in the Ming Dynasty made many members of Congress happy, and it seemed that all grievances and troubles were swept away, and a bright future was within reach. What made Su Zining "disappointed" was. The next year's budget review meeting was unexpectedly very harmonious, and even though questions were still being asked about the greatly increased military spending and the sudden increase in the diplomatic budget, the budget plan was carefully calculated and allocated this time. It was still approved by the majority of parliamentarians. …,

There was a slight controversy over the appropriation of the Far East, but the basic attitude was the same, that is, it was necessary to establish and maintain the existence of the Chinese American Republic in the Far East, and some people even proposed a larger-scale Far East layout plan.

The budget review meeting began to digress. Inspired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' plan for the Far East, all kinds of unreliable ideas emerged in the Congress, and the government ministers below Prime Minister Qi Jianjun listened attentively, even if some opinions made people feel the urge to hit people, Qi Jianjun still smiled humbly and nodded frequently.

A full two hours passed like this, and under the reminder of the gavel of the speaker of the House of Representatives, Li Ping, everyone returned to the voting procedure. The vote went smoothly, with only a few negative votes, except for a few abstentions, as usual. The final examination of the Senate was also announced, and the gavel of the President of the Senate, Liu Lao, announced the announcement of the 1623 government budget.

Walking out of the conference hall of the National Assembly, Su Zining caught up with Yan Xiaosong's footsteps in a few steps, and handed a copy of the document he had prepared a long time ago to the other party's hand.

"Once the appropriation bill is cleared, then we can arrange for a 'pick-up'. Those people from the Yan family probably can't wait, right? Su Zining took out a cigarette and lit it, looking at the direction of the outer island from a distance, "Look at what I wrote, if there is any problem." ”

Flipping through the content of the article, which was only two pages, Yan Xiaosong nodded slightly, and the smile on his face grew: "I don't think it's a problem, now it's almost a plan code!" ”

After speaking, Yan Xiaosong took out a pencil with a spoofed expression and wrote a line of words on Wen Jiàn's head: "Zhusheng Niangniang Plan".

Monday, November 7, the beginning of winter in the lunar calendar, light snow.

The outer shooting range of the recruit training camp in the outer islands of Manchester City seems to have stopped daily training today, and several large wooden boxes are stacked on the edge of the empty field, and there is a large object covered with canvas on one side that cannot be seen, and there are five army soldiers standing next to the big thing.

In addition, another squad of Army officers and soldiers stood in a row in the center of the field, each with an old 21B1 flintlock rifle on his shoulder. Mochi, who has been promoted to sergeant, is leading a squad of soldiers preparing to demonstrate the shooting effect of flintlock rifles to a group of Chinese guests.

The shooting range was silent, and tiny snow slag like fluff fluttered down, and quickly dissolved at the slightest touch. The soldiers who stood upright, except for the white air brought out by their breath, everyone silently stared at the shooting target nearly 100 meters in front of them.

More than a dozen bald men with cloth scarves were standing on the side of the Chinese and American soldiers, talking quietly to each other, pointing at the flintlock rifles behind each other's backs. On Dahan's side, Su Zining and Yan Xiaosong smoked cigarettes with smiles and did not participate in each other's discussions.

It has been almost half a month since I arrived in China and the United States, and this country of the remnants of the Great Song Dynasty is not only very different from the Ming Dynasty, but also obedient to the people everywhere. The men of the Yan family, who had long been deeply shocked by this strange and somewhat familiar foreign life, finally ushered in what they had been waiting for for a long time.

"It's well-made, it's like it's turned out of a mold. I think it's even the divine machine battalion of the imperial court. It may not be possible to come up with such a neatly made firecracker! See, those targets are more than sixty paces away! A middle-aged man kept nodding with an admiring look.

"If our Yan family can obtain such a batch of firearms, those Fanyi and Japanese thieves will not be able to compare with us!" Another much younger child of the Yan family is even more eager to try.

"Let's get started, Mochi."

Seeing that the atmosphere was almost brewing, Su Zining walked to the side of the infantry lined up and nodded slightly at Li Xiang's brother-in-law.

"All of them, guns up!" After Mochi yelled. The whole squad unhooked their flintlock rifles from their shoulders and pointed them at the distant target in unison. …,

"Aim!"

More than a dozen men of the Yan family held their breath, and without blinking their eyes, they looked at the one-person-high wooden target in the distance.

"Shoot!"

Moqi their demo shot this time. Smokeless gunpowder was not used, but the smoke effect of black powder looked more powerful. Nine pillars of snow-white smoke erupted, and the wooden targets in the distance were pierced and shattered. A total of five shots were hit.

That's more than 60 steps away, more than 50% of hits! In addition to the soldiers who demonstrated shooting, the crowd at the scene was full of admiration.

"Mr. Su, Mr. Yan, this time the big boss only let us bring 40,000 taels of silver, I don't know how much such a fire gun costs?" The middle-aged man in the lead hurriedly asked softly to the two Huamei officials beside him, and the expression on his face looked excited.

"Hehe, don't worry, look at our gorgeous cannons again." Su Zining glanced at Li Xiang's brother-in-law again.

The soldiers, with flintlock rifles on their backs, began to run out of the field. And outside the venue. The big thing covered with canvas, the soldier waiting next to him uncovered the canvas.

The moment the canvas was removed, more than a dozen men of the Yan family were all surprised.

Good fellow, a Hongyi cannon with a thick muzzle and a six-foot-long cannon on a four-wheeled base! Moreover, from the perspective of the workmanship of the barrel and the cannon body, it is ten times more refined than those Hongyi cannons of the Macao Francos and the imperial court.

Modeled after the famous Napoleonic 12-pounder front-loading smoothbore gun. The use of cast iron materials, water-cooled inner molds and the bore process of steam machine tools is a 12-pound front-loading smoothbore cannon launched by NORINCO for export. It can be used as a naval gun, or it can be equipped with a large ship to become an army gun.

A few months earlier, 32 of these cannons had been transported to Europe via the Atlantic, their first customers. It was the fleet and the Dutch under the command of the Duke of Bragança of Portugal.

After pushing the cannon to the designated place, the soldiers of the artillery crew began to reload the fixed black powder, and then a cylindrical shell like a thin iron canister was stuffed into the chamber.

"Fire!"

In the midst of the anticipatory gaze, the commander of the artillery crew gave the order to open the cannon. The muzzle of the oil-black cannon burst into flames and plumes of smoke in an instant.

The remaining dozen or so wooden targets 100 meters ahead were instantly swept away, all of which turned into flying wood chips. The power of a grenade shot brought the arms demonstration to an end.

"Two gentlemen, these are also sold to us?" The middle-aged man could already imagine how the Yan family's big ships loaded with this gorgeous cannon that was several times better than the Hongyi cannon were showing off their might.

"Well, Yan Da is in charge of making a living for the people of Daming, and my government should show real good things to express our gratitude."

Yan Xiaosong walked over and said to the Yan family's "delivery staff" with a smile, his expression was full of sincerity and confidence.

"Good stuff is good stuff, but the price is ...... Don't hide it from the two of you, how many of these guns and gorgeous cannons can you buy for 40,000 taels of silver? The middle-aged man greedily glanced at the cannon in the center of the field, which was still slightly emitting green smoke, and finally lowered his voice with a worried face.

"21 Type B flintlock rifle, 90 dollars, equivalent to sixty taels of silver; 22 Type A cannon, 4,200 US dollars, equivalent to about 2,800 taels of silver. Seeing that Su Zining stepped aside to smoke by himself, Yan Xiaosong could only temporarily act as an arms dealer, and as for whether the price was right or not, he didn't bother to calculate it so accurately.

These 21B1 flintlock rifles cost less than $20 to procure, and they are all old goods that have been redressed and eliminated by the army, and there are still at least 1,200 of them in the warehouse. Since there is no actual combat wear and tear except for daily training, it can basically be regarded as ninety percent new, and it is better in quality than the 21B model exported to Europe.

The purchase cost of the Type 22A 12-pounder breech-mounted cannon by the state-owned import and export group is only 700 US dollars, and God knows how low the real cost of NORINCO will be. However, based on the historical manufacturing cost of British iron cannons, the manufacturing cost of this Huamei brand would not exceed $200 at most. …,

The price spread, and there was another uproar. You must know that at this time, the Ming Imperial Court Shenji Battalion built an arquebus, and the water was only six or seven taels of silver, and this gorgeous firebolt was ten times the price. The price of the cannon is relatively reliable, more than double the price sold by the Macau Franco. However, the kind sold in Macao is a three-pound cannon, this kind of gorgeous cannon, no matter how you look at it, it is at least a nine-pound heavy cannon!

The price offered by Yan Xiaosong was completely aimed at the price of Europeans, so it set off a wave of turmoil among the pirates from the Ming Dynasty.

"In this way, I can only choose a few things...... "The middle-aged man in the Yan family was a little speechless at this time, and even felt a strong disappointment that the big boss sent him all the way to this overseas China and the United States.

"Don't worry, I promised you to be in charge and do everything we can to ensure your interests in the Daming Sea! That is the open sea of our compatriots, Yan Da is a great hero of my Han family's sons and daughters to protect the people on the sea, if our government still cares about these small profits, it will be too sorry for the compatriots. ”

Yan Xiaosong laughed, took out a piece of paper from his pocket, and stuffed it directly into the hands of the middle-aged man, while he took out a cigarette and followed Su Zining to the side to pretend to be forced.

"1,200 self-generated guns, 30 gorgeous 9-pound cannons, 500 glass and silver mirrors, 50 sets of crystal glass wine vessels, 20 boxes of matches, 10 boxes of cigarettes, 20 boxes of Xihai Dragon grease soap......"

Reading and reading, a group of children of the Yan family who were looking at the list around the middle-aged man turned pale, the number of goods in this list, no matter how it is calculated, is worth more than one million taels of silver!

It didn't matter if the face was pale, the last line of the list made everyone's head congested again, and their faces turned red.

"All of the above goods are given to Yan Da Dang! Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United States of America. ”

As soon as the words fell, the air at the scene seemed to stagnate.

"The big boss and the fourth master really have a vision, this Huamei after the Great Song Dynasty understands the righteousness, not only is the armament excellent, Fanyi is fearful, and the people who surrender to naturalization are also a very rich place, which is worthy of my Han family's overseas Penglai!"

All the representatives of the Yan family were a little incoherent at this time.

The two young men who had shrunk aside early to smoke and fart looked at the group of men in a daze in the distance with a playful smile, and clapped each other's hands.

Because this batch of goods is exactly the arms and trade commodities that Yan Siqi is intended to use to support Yan Siqi in the "Zhusheng Niangniang Plan", the domestic purchase price entrusted to the state-owned import and export group is only 120,000 US dollars, and the remaining 30,000 US dollars in the plan will be used to pay for the contract for hiring Portuguese ships to transport to Macao, as well as a big gift to the Macao Council.

"Okay, it's time for me to go and report to Qi Jianjun, I hope Yan Siqi and them can rely on these for a few years. You are here to receive their respect! Su Zining stood up and patted his buttocks, and walked towards the outside of the shooting range first. (Your support is my biggest motivation.) )