: The soldiers are sent to Liaodong

Time flies, and it soon came to June of the second year of Longwu (1645).

When Stephen's steam engine development made a decisive breakthrough, Wang Pu finally set off and returned to Nanjing from Jiande. The first batch of 20,000 new rifles and five million copper-shelled bullets arrived in Nanjing with Wang Pu. These weapons were enough to equip four musket battalions!

The current Jiande Arsenal has established a complete production line of rifles and bullets, with a monthly production of more than 3,000 rifles and more than 800,000 bullets! Moreover, the second phase of Jiande Arsenal has started construction. After the second phase of the project is completed, the production speed of rifles and bullets will be several times higher than now. By then, the number of rifles produced per month may exceed 10,000!

The only thing that made Wang Pu feel a little regretful was that the production line of the new cannons had not been completed yet, so he could not equip a new cannon battalion. Wang Pu was unwilling to spend more money to buy more Red Cannons and Francs from Europe, so he had to rely on the only cannon battalion to conquer the world.

The Battle of Huguang ended a few months ago, and Wang Pu also knew the whole process.

With the help of the powerful Central Army, the victory of the entire Huguang Battle was calm. Although Li Dingguo's amazing performance caused some small twists and turns in the course of the war, there was a huge gap in strength between the bandits and the Central Army, and Li Dingguo's personal efforts were not enough to make up for this huge gap.

The final result was that the Dashun Army and the Daxi Army were defeated under Qingtong Pass, and were hunted down by the Central Army Cavalry Battalion on the way to retreat. The 200,000 Dashun Army and nearly 80,000 Daxi Army suffered heavy losses, with less than 100,000 people retreating to Shaanxi and Sichuan, while the Central Army suffered minimal losses, and the production and life of the people of Huguang were not greatly affected.

When Wang Pu returned to Beijing, Emperor Longwu personally led all civil and military officials to the outside of Taiping Gate to greet him.

Now that the matter has come, Emperor Longwu has already realized the reality. The so-called arm cannot twist his thighs. As Zhang Zi'an said, the current government has been completely controlled by Wang Pu, and the major affairs in the world are completely decided by Wang Pu. Although Emperor Longwu is nominally the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he is actually just a puppet in Wang Pu's hands.

Although Emperor Longwu was unwilling to give up, the only thing he could do now was to recognize the reality and be this puppet. Only in this way could he save his life. Only by saving his life would he have the opportunity to counterattack and have the opportunity to overthrow Wang Puzhen as the true master of the Ming Empire.

Therefore, Emperor Longwu organized the welcome ceremony very grandly and held a banquet in Fengtian Hall to welcome Wang Pu.

At the banquet, Emperor Longwu read the edict in front of all civil and military officials and formally appointed King Pu as King Jingnan!

For the Ming Dynasty, this was an extraordinary favor. For nearly three hundred years, the Ming Dynasty only enthroned a few kings of different surnames when Emperor Hongwu founded. Since then, no kings of different surnames have been enthroned. However, Wang Pu did not feel much joy in his heart, because the title of king had no meaning to him.

After finally dealing with the imperial banquet, Wang Pu was able to return to the Jingnan Palace to reunite with his family.

Xiao Wangfa is four years old and can run around, but when he sees Wang Pu, he looks a little restrained and even scared. He pulls Chen Yuanyuan's sleeve and hides behind his mother, looking straight with his big black eyes, and even dares not walk towards Wang Pu and call him dad.

A wry smile appeared on Wang Pu's face. This scene was originally within his expectations.

Throughout the year, Wang Pu stayed in Nanjing for very little time, and he stayed at home to spend less time with his children. Xiao Wangfa had no impression of his father at all, but Wang Pu could only sigh in his heart. He couldn't stop. He had too many things to do, not only for himself, but also for Wang Fa, and for all the descendants of the Wang family.

Sun Chengzu is already one year old and is now learning to walk. This little guy doesn't recognize his child. After teaching a few words, Dong Xiaowan dared to hold Wang Pu's thighs and scream "Mom is afraid of her mother" in a slight voice. However, as soon as Sun Chuanting walked in, the little guy's attention immediately shifted to the old man.

Sun Chuanting opened his hand, and Sun Chengzu immediately let go of Wang Pu's thighs, giggled and threw himself into Sun Chuanting's arms. The grandparents and grandsons hugged each other and laughed. It can be seen that Sun Chengzu still had a kiss with Sun Chuanting. Although Wang Pu is his biological father, who made Old Man Sun stay with Xiao Chengzu every day?

Looking at the happy appearance of Sun Chengzu and Sun Chuanting playing, Wang Pu even felt a little chewy.

"Okay, okay." Wang Pu said angrily, "The child needs to take a nap, Xiaowan, take the child away quickly."

"What's the hurry? Come on, grandpa kiss another one."

Sun Chuanting responded unhappily, kissed Sun Chengzu's pink little face and then reluctantly handed him over to Dong Xiaowan. Dong Xiaowan and Chen Yuanyuan took Wang Fa and Sun Chengzu away very tactfully, leaving the space for Sun Chuanting. Wang Pu and his son have not seen each other for more than half a year. The father and son have too many things to discuss in person.

Sun Chuanting said: "Son, there is something that my father has to ask you."

Wang Pu said: "Is it the matter between Zhenhai Shipbuilding Bureau?"

Sun Chuanting nodded and frowned: "In less than half a year, the Ministry of Revenue has invested 2 million taels of silver in Zhenhai Shipbuilding Bureau, but the iron-clad ship you mentioned has not even seen the shadow. Recently, the government and the opposition have been talking a lot. Although there are no censors and censors in the Censorate, it is probably not a solution to keep going like this."

Wang Pu said: "It is normal for the government and the public to discuss, as long as the situation has not lost control."

"This won't happen." Sun Chuanting said, "Although the government and the public are talking about this, the situation is far from serious enough to lose control. My father is just worried that he will not be able to fill this bottomless pit and will eventually drag down the finances."

"By the way," Wang Pu suddenly said, "When it comes to finance, I forgot to ask, after the auction of official industries and workshops, did the taxes of the court decrease or increase? So what about the taxes of the customs?"

Sun Chuanting said: "After the official business has been converted to private business, the source taxes of various industries have increased slightly compared with those during the Chongzhen Dynasty, but customs tax revenue is the big deal! According to preliminary estimates by the Ministry of Revenue, since the establishment of the customs, the tariff tax collected in more than one hundred million taels in more than a year, especially in the first half of this year, the tariff growth has been rapid!"

Wang Pu asked: "What about the income and expenditure of the imperial court?"

Sun Chuanting said: "There is a slight surplus."

Wang Pu smiled and said, "Dad, you must have never expected it?"

"I didn't expect it." Sun Chuanting nodded honestly, "Dad thought that after the official business was transferred to private business, there would be no improvement in tax revenue within at least five years, but he never expected that he would achieve a balance of income and expenditure that year!"

"What's more, there were two major battles at the beginning of last year and the end of the year. The military pay alone cost the silver rewards to be as high as four or five million taels! It also supported a series of major projects such as the research and development of steam engines, the construction of Jiande Arsenal, the construction of Zhenhai Shipbuilding Bureau, and the construction of Yangming University. It is indeed not easy to achieve balance of income and expenditure under such circumstances. When the Ministry of Revenue reported the accounts to the cabinet, Qian Qianyi and Lu Daqi could not believe it."

Wang Pu could imagine how surprised Qian Qianyi and Lu Daqi were at that time, but Wang Pu was not surprised at all.

In fact, all this was long as Wang Pu expected. The Ming Dynasty pursued a national policy of hiding wealth from the people. Although the country's finances were extremely tight, the wealth among the people was quite considerable! Some data show that in the decades of the late Ming Dynasty, three-quarters of the silver collected by Western countries from various continents flowed into the Ming Dynasty!

These silver flowed into the Ming Dynasty as hard currency. Although it caused a certain decline in silver prices and rising prices, it greatly promoted the development of trade and commodity economy. It is no exaggeration to say that the Ming Dynasty's commodity economy can be said to be explosive growth in the more than a hundred years from Jiajing to Chongzhen!

To apply the current terminology, the growth rate of GDP at that time was likely to be as high as more than 30%!

From this we can see that it is not surprising that the customs tariff revenue is as huge as tens of millions of taels. After all, the tariff rate set by Wang Pu is as high as 200%. That is to say, as long as the Ming Dynasty sells silk, tea and porcelain worth five millions of taels, it can obtain tariff revenue of tens of millions of taels of silver. In current terms, this is simply a plundering trade!

But the Ming Dynasty at that time had such qualifications!

Even if the high tariffs of 200% are imposed, Western merchants can only import silk, tea, porcelain and other luxury goods from the Ming Dynasty, because the products they produce are not only of inferior quality but also at a higher price than the export traders in the Ming Dynasty. From ancient times to the present, Chinese products have unparalleled advantages!

In fact, until the end of the Qing Dynasty, China's silk, tea, porcelain and other commodities were in an absolute dominant position. Because the Western world could no longer find enough silver to exchange Chinese goods, it thought of opium. It first exchanged opium for the Chinese silver, and then used silver to buy Chinese goods. Therefore, there were two Opium Wars, the burning of the Old Summer Palace, and the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895...

In other words, if the Qing government was tough enough to block the opium offensive of Western countries, it could have established a world trade system dominated by China, that is, a silver-based trading system, if it was absolutely strong, with the exception of the United States today.

Unfortunately, the servile Qing rulers did not regard themselves as Chinese at all. They betrayed China and paid all the massive amount of silver that China had accumulated since the middle of the Ming Dynasty to foreigners in one go, which led to the modern China falling into the abyss of poverty and not being able to recover its vitality to this day...

As a time traveler, Wang Pu certainly would not let such a historical tragedy happen again. In this era, the Ming Empire would continue to export luxury goods such as silk, tea, porcelain, and opium trade to the Western world, perhaps still appear, but the object will change.

The opium trade in this era can only be dumping opium into the West, rather than dumping opium into the West.

Wang Pu smiled and said, "Dad, the tariff of only more than 10 million yuan has made you happy like this? Good days have just begun. Look, you can't get the customs tariffs in two years!"

"Flip it?" Sun Chuanting said with a sniff, "You mean... 20 million taels?"

"Haha." Wang Pu smiled and said, "What's the point of 20 million taels? The annual income of the Ming Dynasty will be hundreds of millions in the future!"

"Hundreds of millions?" Sun Chuanting shook his head like a rattle, "Just blow it."

"Okay, then I won't talk about this."

Wang Pu didn't want to do too much discussion with Sun Chuanting on this topic. After all, Bu Chuanting is not a time traveler, so it is impossible for him to see the current trade map of the entire world. Wang Pu continued, "Dad, let me tell you another thing now. Taking advantage of the good weather now, I want to send troops to regain Liaodong."

"Send troops to Liaodong?" Sun Chuanting said in surprise, "Didn't you always advocate that you must first settle the country when fighting foreign countries? Now Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and Wu Sangui have not settled it yet."

"No, the situation is different now." Wang Pu waved his hand and said, "Although Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and Wu Sangui have not settled it yet, they are already weak and have not done much, and it is even more impossible to threaten the safety of the court. So we can free up our hands to deal with Jiannu in Liaodong first."

Sun Chuanting said in confusion: "Is this a far cry from the near future?"

"It is a forced choice to go far away." Wang Pu said, "Originally, it would have been delayed to recover Liaodong for a few years. After Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and Wu Sangui were settled first, they would come to clean up the Jiannu. But now Zhenhai Shipbuilding Bureau urgently needs the wood from Liaodong to build a navy, so they cleaned up the Jiannu in advance."

"Build a navy?" Sun Chuanting said, "Guizhou and Yunnan also have excellent wood, why do you have to Liaodong?"

Wang Pu said: "The roads in Guizhou and Yunnan are dangerous and obstructive, the transportation cost is too high and the cycle is too long. However, the timber from Liaodong can be transported by sea, which is extremely convenient."

"Okay." Sun Chuanting thought for a while and nodded, "You have always decided on military matters. Since you think you should recover Liaodong first, then you should recover Liaodong first. You don't have to worry about logistics. The current national treasury is sufficient, and both the money and military rations are not a problem."

After pondering for a while, Wang Pu asked again: "Dad, during the time my son was not in the capital, the political situation in the court is still stable, right?"

Sun Chuanting smiled and said, "Why, are you still afraid that your father will not be able to suppress the situation?"

Wang Pu hurriedly said: "Of course I don't mean that, I mean..."
Chapter completed!