Chapter 138 Gossip

Liu Zheng thought for a while and asked: "Since the Qing army is so powerful now, then Brother Zhao, why did we lose the first Opium War?"

"I think it's the system. The rotten system can no longer adapt to a world full of bandits. It prides itself on being the emperor of China all day long. It doesn't look down on one thing or another."

This topic is actually a bit heavy. If we were drinking and chatting in another time and space, it would be fine; but now we are all in the late eighteenth century, and it makes us feel uncomfortable thinking about the backwardness and beating of our country in the future.

Liu Zheng was silent for a while and murmured: "What should we do?"

Zhao Xin smiled and comforted: "It's useless to think too far, we can only start from the bottom."

Chen Qingsong, who rarely smokes, also lit up a cigarette. The cigarette curled up and he whispered: "Isn't what we do every day now just for the future?"

Zhao Xin saw that everyone fell into silence and felt a little uncomfortable, so he laughed and said: "Do you know? It's not a big deal that the Qing army spent its own money to buy gunpowder bullets. They also "crowdfunded" to buy war horses!"

"Hey~~ tell me." Chen Qingsong raised his head and said with narrowed eyes.

"It is said that starting from the Kangxi period, the Manchu Qing Dynasty needed to maintain a huge number of war horses, but was financially unable to afford the huge cost of raising horses. So a sum of money, called 'Pengkou Yin', was deducted from the pay of all officers and soldiers as a reward.

Funding for purchasing and raising war horses.

The specific deduction method is: below the lieutenant general, and above the total, 2 silver cents will be deducted per month; cavalry will deduct 1 cent of silver; infantry will deduct 5 cents of silver; guards will deduct 3 cents of silver. This money is stored in the military camp and used as a purchase

Expenses for war horses.”

Wu Siyu asked: "Then if the money is not used up, will it be returned to the soldiers?"

"How could such a good thing happen?" Zhao Xin said disdainfully: "The remaining money every year will be reported to the Ministry of War for verification at the end of the year, and then sent to the Ministry of Household Affairs to be used as military pay. Moreover, if the war horses bought by soldiers' crowdfunding

If you die before the end of your life, you still have to deduct money from the soldier's salary to make compensation. This is called 'compensation money'.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty stipulated that the compensation period for war horses was three years in Jiangnan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Hubei, Hunan, Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces. After three years, compensation would be exempted. Within one year, the compensation would be 10 taels of silver, and two

Within one year, the compensation will be 9 taels of silver, and within three years, the compensation will be 8 taels of silver."

"Ah? Is this Green Camp still capable of fighting?" Wu Siyu asked in surprise.

Zhao Xin continued: "If you think this is all, you are wrong. The Qing Dynasty also has evil tricks! There are 13 months in a leap year in the lunar calendar, right? If there is a leap year, does the army have to pay 13 months?

salary?

During the Shunzhi period, some people in the court felt that giving soldiers 13 months' salary was too much of a disadvantage! But they had to give out salary money. What should we do?

The weird system of "Little Construction Bank" has been introduced! The Ministry of War deducts another "Small Construction Bank" from the monthly pay of officers and soldiers as the salary for the 13th month of a leap year. This is equivalent to the officers and soldiers paying themselves

One month's salary was paid. In this way, no matter it is an ordinary year or a leap year, the court will only pay 12 months' salary."

Everyone in the meeting was stunned after hearing what Zhao Xin said.

Chen Qingsong murmured after a while: "High, really high!"

The next day, the six-man security team who originally planned to test-fire the artillery was stopped by Chen Qingsong. Since the range of the Qing army's artillery was at least 1,000 meters, they could not test-fire the artillery until an area was completely cleared to avoid

Cause forest fires. If a forest fire breaks out in this era, there is no way to save it. We can only wait for rain to extinguish the fire.

Two days later, Zhao Xin asked Liji to count the output of wooden cigarette boxes. After counting, Liji said that 500 wooden cigarette boxes had been completed, and the number of barrel boxes was not large.

Taking into account the development of Ezo Land by Denzo Miwa and Murataya boss, the sugar that he had previously promised, and the Benzai ship of Shen and Huang, Zhao Xin decided to set off in a week.

When Zhao Xin notified the relevant personnel of the news, Shen Jingdan came to see him, this time about his concubine Luyun.

It is said that Director Liu Da finally used the B-ultrasound machine that Zhao Xin bought for her, so the first person to receive the B-ultrasound diagnosis was Lu Yun. When Shen Jingdan saw his child through the screen, he was so shocked that he could not speak. Come on!

Zhao Xin bought two machines in total, one for Liu Siting and one for Liu Zheng. People need to use them, as do horses and cattle.

After the examination, Liu Siting told Shen Jingdan that it would take another month to know whether the child was a boy or a girl. Moreover, Lu Yun's physical condition was not good. If she followed Shen Jingdan back to China this time, the child might miscarry.

"Boss Shen, you're going to come back in a while anyway. Why let Mrs. Shen go back and forth with you anymore?"

Liu Siting's words made Shen Jingdan think about it for a day. Finally, he was heartbroken and decided to talk to Zhao Xin.

"Master Zhao, I am here to ask you one thing, oh, no, two things."

"Boss Shen, you're welcome. If you have anything to ask, I'll help you if I can."

"That's right. Dr. Liu suggested that Zhuo Jing should be kept here and observed at any time. I would like to ask Mr. Zhao to find two Japanese women to help take care of it."

"This is a simple matter, I will arrange it as soon as possible. When the time comes, I will select the person and ask Boss Shen to take a look."

"Then I'd like to thank you, Mr. Zhao!" Shen Jingdan quickly stood up and thanked him.

"As for the second thing, it's my little girl."

Zhao Xin said "Ah" and asked, "Does Miss Shen want to go back too? If she leaves, my school will be even more short of manpower."

"This, this... I want my little girl to stay here for a while."

When Zhao Xin heard this, a stone fell in his heart.

"First, she can take care of Zhuo Jing, and second, her life experience, you know this, Mr. Zhao."

Zhao Xin nodded, thought for a moment and said, "Boss Shen, do you think this is okay? I will also arrange for two Japanese women to take care of Miss Shen. However, these people are farmers and may be clumsy."

"It's okay, it's okay." Shen Jingdan quickly handed over his hand and thanked him.

"But I want to ask you to tell Mrs. Shen and Miss Shen something. Don't be surprised. There are no servants here in Beihai Town. So these four women have to pay wages. I will help with the money. You're out."

Seeing that Shen Jingdan was about to speak, Zhao Xin raised his hand to stop him and continued: "In this case, I will ask someone to make arrangements. From tomorrow on, Mrs. Shen and Miss Shen will move to my white yacht on the beach. Dr. Liu The couple usually lives up there."

"Ah?! That's your yacht, sir? I thought it was a cargo ship!" Shen Jingdan couldn't see through Zhao Xin even more. He bowed respectfully and said, "Thank you for that." It’s time to pass Mr. Zhao.”

"Liu Zheng!"

Liu Zheng, who was inspecting a heavy draft horse, heard someone calling him, turned around and saw that it was Zhao Xin.

"Brother Zhao, you are such a rare visitor! Why do you have time to come to my place?"

"Liu Zheng, do you want to go with the boat to Sendai?" Zhao Xin looked at him with a smile.

"Brother Zhao, you have thought of me! To be honest, I have been suffocated for the past two months!"

"Okay! Let's go to Ezochi first, and then Sendai. If possible, we have to send Boss Shen and Fatty Huang to the sea outside Jiangsu."

"Great! I can finally go for a spin on the sea!"

Zhao Xin saw that Liu Zheng was in high spirits, so he continued to say with a smile: "Then you will move to the Thor tomorrow?"

"No problem! I'll familiarize myself with it in advance. Maybe I can help a little bit."

Zhao Xinxin said that a guest room was freed up.

In the workshop, Zhang Bo and Zhao Liang were working on the nine-knot 100-percent cannon. Everyone agreed that this large copper-cast cannon weighing nearly 800 kilograms and two meters long was melted with smelted copper ingots.

"Hey~~ where are you two busy?" Zhao Xin walked into the workshop with a smile.

"Mr. Zhao, when will my new factory be built? We two brothers are working in the open air all day now!" Zhao Liang straightened up and joked.

"Didn't Lao Chen say this? A steel structure will be built next month."

"Okay! I'm just waiting for your words. If I continue to use it like this, my equipment will grow hairy!"

"Brother, are you still used to living here?" Zhao Xin took out a cigarette and handed it to Zhao Liang and Zhang Bo.

"pretty good."

"Zhang Bo, where are you?"

"It's a bit of a struggle for me to go back and forth on the boat every day."

"Well, do you think this will work? I'll have someone build you a wooden house, and you can move here."

"Come on, why bother? Zhang Bo and I are alone now. My house is big, so he can just move in with me. What do you think?"

"Sure, then I'll move here tomorrow." Zhang Bo is an honest man and not so fussy, otherwise he wouldn't have let Zhao Xin be fooled into coming to the eighteenth century.

Come on! Two sets of guest rooms are done!

What Zhao Xin was thinking was that there were four cabins on the yacht. Director Liu Da and his wife now lived in one, so Luyun had one, Shen Xuan had one, and the middle one was left open for sound insulation. Perfect!

Immediately afterwards, Zhao Xin asked Li Ji to call Shino over and carefully explained the matter of finding a servant.

"Lord, don't worry! Leave this matter to me, and I will definitely find the right person!" Shino knelt on the floor and solemnly expressed his stance to Zhao Xin.

The problem is, Shino is not good at this either! This girl is only eighteen years old. But Rikichi rolled his eyes and whispered to Shino.

So the next day, Shino found Katayama Kanbei's wife, Tatsura. Tatsura was just the daughter of a low-level samurai in the Sendai Domain, and was nothing in the Sendai Domain; but she was regarded as one of the best among the refugee women in Hokkai Town.

"Don't worry about this! It's rare to be able to serve an adult, so leave this matter to me!"

It was normal to find a few servants, but the problem was that the two of them said this in the kitchen of the cafeteria, and Wan Zao's wife overheard it.

After all, if Wan Zao's wife knows about it, it means that all the women in the cafeteria know about it.

"I heard that the master is looking for a servant for the Shen family girl. Do you have a suitable introduction?"

"Who is the Shen girl?"

"Isn't she the beauty from the Qing Dynasty that my lord brought back from Nagasaki last time?"

"Oh. Do you think the master has fallen in love with her?"

"Hey, don't talk nonsense!"

…
To be continued...