Chongzhen pondered for a long time, and finally said, "Since Brother Qin thinks that one year of preparation is enough, then I might as well let Brother Qin give it a try." However, how much materials and manpower need to be consumed during this year, Brother Qin needs to give me a charter. ”

To put it bluntly, Chongzhen is still afraid of losing money and labor.

However, Qin Shuhuai breathed a sigh of relief, and this could be regarded as a disguised promise.

So he said, "The emperor can rest assured, the minister will take out the specific regulations within half a month." In short, the principle is that the cost is controllable, and the emperor will not be allowed to catch up with his old book. ”

Chongzhen smiled, "I don't have much old money, you give me careful calculations, otherwise I will have to blackmail you if I don't have money." ”

Although the Ming Dynasty now pays tens of millions of taels a year, and it may even reach 100 million taels this year, there are more and more places that need to be invested, and Chongzhen only now finds that the silver is still not enough.

Indeed, in the face of ambition, no amount of silver is enough to spend.

For example, starting this year, Chongzhen plans to set up 1,000 free academies across the country, and according to the design standard of 500 students in each academy, the initial investment of a college will be 3,000 taels, which is 3 million taels.

This is just an upfront investment, and then the cost of inviting Mr. to give lectures, the cost of textbooks, paper and pens, and the cost of food, drink, and lodging in the college are 1,500 taels per student per month, which is 1,500 taels, or 18,000 taels a year.

Good guys, a thousand is eighteen million taels.

Although this money can be donated by the squire and wealthy merchants, the bulk of the money must go back to the imperial court, and spending him 10 million taels of silver a year is the starting price.

He also thought about whether he could let the student's family pay for some of it, but after consulting with the people from the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Officials, and the Cabinet, he immediately dismissed this idea.

Why?

Almost everyone told him that if he had to pay to study, then reading would become a privilege for the rich again.

Don't look at the common people, they are very envious of readers, but how many people in Daming have a tradition of reading?

Most people think that they can live well without reading now, so why go to school?

The young man has to study for at least ten years as soon as he reads, and now every family has land and work to do, and he is too busy to be busy, so why put a good strong labor force in the academy, not to mention that it costs money?

It is true that you can be an official when you study, but with so many people studying, how many people can become officials?

Poor Xiucai is poor Xiucai, even if you are admitted to Xiucai or poor, if you can't even pass Xiucai, wouldn't it be more vain?

Therefore, if you have to pay for it, the children of ordinary people will not go to school.

Only by spending money can the resistance of the common people be counteracted. With the attitude of giving it a try, there must be many families who send their children to study.

But it doesn't have to be that way forever.

According to Qin Shuhuai's plan, in the future, the imperial court will give priority to recruiting people who have studied no matter what type of work they have studied - even the officials of the yamen.

In this way, an effect similar to the "graduation country package allocation" can be formed immediately, and I believe that this effect will explode immediately.

As long as you wait a few years, after those poor children change their fate through reading, the huge demonstration effect spreads, and everyone realizes the benefits of reading, it is very feasible to charge some fees for reading at that time - at least you can buy your own paper and pens for students, and you have to bear some for meals, right?

But all in all, all the expenses in the early stage have to be borne by the imperial court itself.

In addition to education, there are also bridges and roads.

Chongzhen agrees with Qin Shuhuai's slogan of "If you want to get rich, build roads first", can the roads be repaired to speed up trade with goods from all over the country, and the imperial court will not be able to collect more taxes?

But this thing doesn't cost money as slowly as it does to run a school.

So everywhere there are places to use money, and Chongzhen now doubts how he came over when the annual income of the imperial court was only millions of taels in the past.

Qin Shuhuai also calculated the accounts for Chongzhen, so he had to laugh.

"The minister knows, in short, the minister must be careful in his calculations. ”

Chongzhen also smiled, and said with emotion, "Brother Qin, you said that I spend such a large amount of silver every year, what will happen to Da Ming in ten years?"

The current Chongzhen has infinite longing for the future.

His current goal is no longer to ensure the peace of the country, but to become an emperor of the ages who will forever go down in history.

He wouldn't tell anyone about that goal, but he did think so.

Why?

Because his court can earn 100 million taels a year, or even more, which is unprecedented!

And with this money, he can abolish the agricultural tax, which has never been done for a lifetime!

He can let the world's scholars study for free, but it is conceivable that the number of talents that will emerge in his dynasty in the future will be unprecedented!

He can even come up with countless measures to benefit the people, overhaul rivers, pave bridges and roads, and build one prosperous city after another.

He looked forward to that day.

In his eyes, the future Daming will surpass the Tang Dynasty.

The rule of Chongzhen has been praised through the ages!

Every time he thought of this, he couldn't help himself with excitement.

For the king of a nation, there is no more uplifting goal.

Qin Shuhuai smiled at Chongzhen and said, "The minister can't think of it, but one thing the minister can be sure of is that the people of the Ming Dynasty in ten years will be proud, happy, and grateful for living in this country." ”

Chongzhen smiled again and looked out the window.

Spring is thick and flowers are blooming.

Suddenly, he pointed out the window and said loudly, "Brother Qin, look outside, this is the river and mountain we have cleaned up!"

......

Coming out of the Forbidden City, Qin Shuhuai went to the Ministry of Industry again.

Coincidentally, Xu Guangqi was also drinking tea with Zeng Qicheng, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry.

After Qin Shuhuai entered, Zeng Qicheng immediately stood up and said, "Grandpa Guo is here, and the lower officials are far away, forgive your sins." ”

But Xu Guangqi didn't move, just squinted at Qin Shuhuai with a teacup.

Qin Shuhuai smiled bitterly in his heart, hasn't this old guy been angry until now? Isn't he just a governor of Dongchang, as for letting you be like this?

Qin Shuhuai didn't know that Xu Guangqi was really angry now that he violated the etiquette system and took the position of governor as a non-eunuch, after all, the whole world has accepted this matter now, and what Qin Shuhuai did after he became the governor is in everyone's eyes, no one will think that he has anything out of line or unfavorable to the Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi also knows this.

Xu Guang is angry that this grandfather of the country is proud of his achievements and does not take him seriously.

Who was he arrested and put in prison in the first place? Isn't it because of Qin Shuhuai?

After he came out, did Qin Shuhuai say a word of appeasement?

Also, he was anxious to help him rush to work on the red-clothed cannons, as well as various armaments, so that Qin Shuhuai could break through the Tartars in one fell swoop and lay an immortal foundation, but did he ever say the word "thanks"?

No.

What does this mean? It shows that Qin Shuhuai remembers that we joined him in the first place!

In this case, as an elder and a former elder, how could he take the initiative to flatter?

You ignore me, and I ignore you, huh.

Others stammered you, but I Xu Guangqi wouldn't, I still have the backbone to read most of my life.

Qin Shuhuai exchanged a few words with Zeng Qicheng, and seeing that Xu Guangqi was very unkind to see him, he hurriedly arched his hand and said, "Yo, Lord Xu is also here, and the junior asked Lord Xu if he was okay." ”

Xu Guangqi's face looked better, but he still said painlessly, "Grandpa Guo is polite." ”

Then he got up and said to Zeng Qicheng, "Since there is a guest visiting, the old man will not chat with you." ”

As he spoke, he walked slowly outside the house.

Qin Shuhuai noticed that Xu Guangqi was on crutches and walked tremblingly.

He is already old, and he is clearly ill.

Only then did I remember that if I remember correctly, this great talent at the end of the Ming Dynasty seems to have died in Chongzhen for five or six years.

And now it has been seven years since Chongzhen, even if he has lived an extra year or two because of the martial arts world, he will not live much longer if he thinks about it.

Xindao, go back to the system to see if there are any life-prolonging medicines, and send them to him. This kind of talent, living a few more years is definitely good for Daming.

After Zeng Qicheng sent Xu Guangqi out of the door, he came back and said to Qin Shuhuai, "Grandpa Guo has been waiting for a long time. I don't know if Grandpa Guo is coming to the Ministry of Industry, do you have something important?"

Qin Shuhuai is very busy, and he is lazy, and he never goes to any yamen to hang out, so Zeng Qicheng asked.

Qin Shuhuai saw that there was no one else in the house, so he said, "Lord Zeng, my father wants to know, how many docks are capable of manufacturing large warships in our Ming Dynasty now?"

Zeng Qicheng smiled, "I don't know how big the large warship that Grandpa Guo said?"

After thinking about it, Qin Shuhuai said, "It is about more than thirty zhang long and more than ten zhang wide, and it requires two or three decks, and the side armor should be covered with stainless steel." ”

In his memory, the big ships used by the Dutch at this time, which were later classified as "battleships", seemed to be only so big.

Zeng Qicheng thought for a while and said, "What Grandpa Guo said is probably the size of the 'treasure ship' used by Lord Sanbao when he went to the West, right? ”

Qin Shuhuai said, "Hmm, what does Lord Zeng mean, isn't this ship big enough?"

"It's not big, there are at least 30 shipyards in the country that can do it. ”

"How much?" Qin Shuhuai was stunned.

"More than thirty. ”

Zeng Qicheng glanced at Qin Shuhuai strangely.

When Qin Shuhuai heard this number, he was stunned.

When did the shipbuilding industry in the Ming Dynasty become so developed? You must know that more than a year ago, there were only eight or nine large government-run shipyards in the whole country that could build large ships.

He asked, "Why is there so much more at once?"

Zeng Qicheng asked rhetorically, "Grandpa Guo, you really don't know?"

"Know what?"

"Now that we have opened the sea ban across the country, there are more maritime merchants all of a sudden. Not to mention the rich merchants along the coast, even the rich merchants in the inland are also forming a maritime merchant fleet. Last year alone, there were more than 90 docks registered in the country, and this year it is estimated that there will be 200. Among them, there are at least 50 large shipyards invested by wealthy businessmen from all over the country. The minister has been to know before, and many of the ships they have designed are bigger than yours. The ship is bigger, and the more goods it can carry!"

Qin Shuhuai was immediately happy after hearing this.

A merchant is indeed a merchant! This nose is a spirit!

How many years have these guys been suppressed by the imperial court's maritime ban policy, and with their ears and eyes, can they still know that those smuggling merchants in the past are making money every day?

Now that the Ming Dynasty has opened the sea ban, can they still make every effort to grab this cake?

If you want to go to sea, you have to have a ship, so the country immediately spontaneously built a large number of shipyards, so that the shipbuilding industry of Daming has been greatly improved, probably this is the superiority of the market economy, right?

That's enough!

The market economy, coupled with the government, oh no, the imperial court's guidance, made it almost impossible to build fifty large warships in a year.

There are more than 30 shipyards, and each one makes a little more than one on average!

Thinking of this, he immediately said, "Lord Zeng, you immediately organize experts in this area to design a big war ship of this size that my father wants." The artillery on the ship is mainly a three-thousand-pound red-coated cannon, and you can put as much as you can, and the armor should be at least two layers, and three layers of important parts, and covered with 100 steel, which is the kind of material used to make shields in my Jianghe Gang. By the way, this kind of ship will be called a 'battleship' in the future. ”

Zeng Qicheng's eyes widened, "All of them are equipped with red-clothed cannons, Grandpa Guo, so far, all our red-clothed cannons have added up, and they are only one hundred and fifty-eight." According to the lower officer, what you said, this battleship, one can be equipped with at least eighteen red-coated cannons, and at most it is only enough to assemble 10 ships. ”

"And what about another year?"

"At present, the annual output limit of redcoat cannons is 200 pieces, and another 10 ships can be installed in a year. ”

Qin Shuhuai thought about it and thought that this speed was still slow.

In the naval battles between Zheng Zhilong and the Dutch in history, the Netherlands only joined forces with Liu Xiang to invest a total of more than 100 warships, and there were only about 10 large warships.

But in this time and space, because the Ming Dynasty opened the sea ban and a large number of Ming merchant ships went to sea, the Dutch felt that their interests were threatened, so they transferred a large number of warships to maintain their hegemony on the golden route from the Eastern Domain to Java.

In addition, the Spanish and Portuguese also added some warships, although they may not be enemies with the Ming army, but the Ming army is determined to dominate the South Seas, and sooner or later a conflict will break out with them.

It is true that Zheng Zhilong has more than 800 warships in his hands, but most of them are small boats and warlord dual-purpose ships with only a few Furlong planes.

If a naval battle broke out, the role of small boats was very rare, and almost all of them were modified and turned into fireships to ignite enemy ships - Zheng Zhilong used this tactic during the naval battle of Liuluo Bay in Kinmen and won the Dutch.

However, in order to ignite the opponent's ship with a small boat, it is necessary to pay attention to various conditions such as wind direction, wind strength, and location, and to plan in advance, which is almost impossible to achieve in an encounter on the ocean.

If the Ming army wants to crush all opponents at sea, it must explode a wave of "battleships".

50 battleships, with more than 180 medium and large main warships in Zheng Zhilong's hands, plus about 200 small clippers, such a configuration can make Qin Shuhuai feel at ease.

But this is really a problem for the redcoat cannon, which has never been mass-produced, because the West has long been equipped with redcoat cannons and cannons of the same level as the redcoat cannons.

Qin Shuhuai thought to himself, if he really couldn't do it, he could only buy it with the Portuguese and Spaniards. But then again, if you want to find them to negotiate the price, pay a deposit, and then wait for them to go back to their hometown to place an order for production, and then pull it back, it is estimated that a year may not be enough.

Historically, the Dutch should have fought with the Ming army last year, and now although the conflict has been temporarily eased because of the Ming Dynasty's opening of the sea ban, this naval battle will break out sooner or later.

It is even likely to erupt within a year.

Why?

The Ming merchant ships went to sea one after another, and the interests of the Dutch were damaged, so they either collected the "road money" of the Ming maritime merchants at sea, or directly announced that the Ming maritime merchants were not allowed to pass through several important waterways, otherwise they would either rob or sink.

Under such sharp contradictions, will it be far from a large-scale naval battle?