Chapter 448 Military Expenditures and Military Harvests
“…As for the military, we currently have 7,200 registered soldiers and officers, 6,300 registered skitarii, and 12,800 registered reserve skitarii.
Among the registered soldiers, there are about 3,210 holy ones and 3,450 holy sergeants (breathing method). The total extraordinary rate is 63%.
The monthly salary paid to the registered soldiers is 4,814 gold pounds, non-combat. The hourly salary is 2,500 gold pounds, and 13,628 gold pounds have been spent. This year’s soldier salary expenditure is estimated to be 25,942 gold pounds.
The current military equipment is divided into three categories, melee weapons, armor and holy guns.
There are two holy gun workshops: the holy gun workshop in Qiumu Island can produce 120 guns per month, and the holy gun workshop in Gray Hearth Town can produce 300 guns per month.
An armor workshop: 80-100 sets per month.
Currently, a total of 1,500 holy guns cost 2,250 gold pounds, 400 sets of armor cost 3,330 gold pounds, supporting melee weapons, clothing and other miscellaneous items cost 5,500 gold pounds, and training costs 920 gold pounds.
More than 25,620 gold pounds have been spent so far, and the annual expenditure is expected to be more than 37,940 gold pounds. Fortunately, it has not exceeded the budget of 40,000 gold pounds. ”
An almost pure infantry army with less than 10,000 people, no no, it should cost close to 40,000 gold pounds in 8 months.
Catherine was a little stunned by this financial report. It was not that she had never bought mercenaries. You must know that the weekly salary of an ordinary infantry mercenary from the empire was 5 dinars.
She had previously hired a mercenary infantry regiment of 2,000 people, and her annual expenditure was less than 3,000 gold pounds, because the 3,000 gold pounds she spent did not include food expenses and weapons and equipment.
Even when they were not fighting but just stationed, Catherine could use the excuse not to pay her salary or only pay her a low salary. Even the old mercenary leader could not find fault with it.
If we go by the price of mercenaries, Horn's expenditure should be less than 12,000 gold pounds for 8,000 people a year, but the actual expenditure is more than three times as much.
At this moment, Catherine suddenly felt that it was not so unreasonable for the Salvation Army to defeat the Command Company.
Different from Catherine's exclamation, sitting in the main seat, Horn held his forehead and slowly started to rub it. When the holy gun went off, it was ten thousand pounds of gold.
Horn initially plundered nearly 100,000 gold pounds of property in Kush, of which nearly 40,000 were invested in infrastructure construction and urban reconstruction, and issued a large number of orders to maintain Joan of Arc. Fort's economy is not bankrupt.
During this period, there was also investment in farmland and the Holy Hoe and Holy Scythe Monastery, as well as a large amount of housing allocated to retired veterans, the Invalides Hospital, and various administrative facilities.
After collecting funds through jihad bonds, there are currently about 30,000 gold pounds of liquidity in the holy treasury.
But Horn plans to expand the Guards Corps to 8 to form a Guards Regiment in the second half of the year, which will undoubtedly increase military expenditures again.
But if the army is not expanded, if Prince Kong Dai comes over with the remaining five edicts, the consequences will be disastrous.
You must know that although Horn has led the Salvation Army to defeat the Command Company twice, this does not mean that the Salvation Army has completely suppressed the Command Company.
The first time he was a fledgling, he relied on the terrain and weather advantages and his super morale regardless of life and death to defeat his opponents, resulting in extremely heavy casualties.
In the second battle of Rapid City, relying on the trained war monks and the Red Dragon's Breath Fireball Technique, the Order Company was defeated at a relatively small cost, but now there are less than twenty Red Dragon's Breath. .
And Horn and the others are currently facing local guards and country knights. Prince Condai has two of the most elite mercenary groups in the Kingdom of Leia - the Death Group and the Eagle Group.
As an elite army whose salary is almost the same as that of the Salvation Army, they have many domestic servants and great swordsmen.
These people are not as easy to fight as ordinary guards. After analysis by Hakuto and Jeshka, the current winning rate of the two sides is about 30 to 70.
And that 70% winning rate is still someone else’s.
Now that Prince Condé has withdrawn to Hotam County, although the local church army is still besieging the city of Gaobao, the second phase of the Thousand Valley Uprising has entered a trough, and no matter which side it is, it will continue to lick its wounds. .
Horn must expand his strength as much as possible during this rare period of peace, and increase the strength of the army to at least 50:50.
"How much of the devil's wealth has been confiscated by the Salvation Army this time?"
The Salvation Army has a unified internal voice regarding the seizure of monasteries and castles, not calling it plundering, but calling it the collection of the devil's ill-gotten gains.
“Currently, a total of 25,920 gold pounds have been obtained from the seizure of castles and monasteries in Ibe Township.
The Kush knights in Jinhe Township turned over 18,888 pounds after confiscating the castles, churches and monasteries in the territory. A total of 15,000 gold pounds were confiscated in Gouhu Township, plus 8,800 gold pounds in spoils and ransoms obtained by the knights in the two battles, totaling more than 68,000 gold pounds.”
This time, 68,000 gold pounds were produced in one go. At least the budget for next year's military expenditure was copied out
If it were not to prevent the reaction of the monastic system, there would be more.
The religious order system is different from the centralized power of the Holy See. It is an attitude of decentralization. There are different religious orders in various places, and most of them are sympathetic to the incident of blue-blooded orphans.
Although the purpose may be to oppose the Holy See, they are friendly forces after all, and Horn did not eat them up like he did in the Kush Territory.
So the Salvation Army released many reputable monasteries in the territory, but required them to go to Castle Joan to register their property, land and number of people. At present, the gold pounds that are about to enter the holy treasury and have been deposited in the holy treasury have increased to about 100,000 gold pounds.
This is the reason why Fort Joan of Arc is quite prosperous even though it is economically blocked. The money that was originally buried in the ground in various parts of the Nanqian River Valley was taken out by Horn from all directions.
And Horn did not hide, but invested in the local market in Langsand County, resulting in a booming market in the construction industry and service industry.
One order for military uniforms alone is enough to feed more than a dozen textile workshops and tailor shops, not to mention the terrifying jihad bonds to raise funds.
Hotels and pubs in the service industry are basically occupied by the high-paid war monks. There are small courtyards built by the war monks everywhere outside the Castle of Joan of Arc and on Qiumu Island.
Of course, when such a large amount of money is invested in the market for consumption, but there are not so many goods produced locally, there is more money and less stuff, which will inevitably lead to skyrocketing prices.
In order to maintain price stability, Horn imposed high consumption taxes on luxury goods, such as alcohol, sugar, and high-end furniture, imposed price regulations on daily necessities, and asked the Cheka to crack down on speculation.
Then the people, especially the veterans, will have money that they cannot spend, and Horn will encourage them not to invest their money in casinos and technical institutes, but in the workshop industry.
As for some funds that are neither small enough to be saved nor large enough to start a business, the Papal State can rely on issuing jihad bonds to recover idle funds and invest them in state-run workshops.
The wartime system does not last long. Horn cannot always rely on robbing others to replace production. The right way is to use this hot money to invest in production.
This is also the main reason why Horn wants to transform Fort Joan of Arc, develop Autumn Island and sign an agreement with the French.
At that time, European countries relied on borrowing money from the people, plundering and absorbing wealth from various colonies outside the ocean, and transporting it back to the country, so that they had enough funds to complete early industrialization.
Horn's current behavior is to rely on borrowing money from the people to attack the upper class wealthy groups in the Thousand River Valley to plunder wealth, transport it back to Langsand County, and try to complete early industrialization.
You must know that industry is an asset-heavy business. Who can do it without a lot of money?
"Put aside 50,000 gold pounds as next year's army budget, and the rest will continue to be invested in the market." Horn put down the hand rubbing his head.
"Of which 20,000 gold pounds will be raised with jihad bonds?" Busak raised his head and asked, "Otherwise, next year's infrastructure plan will be a bit stretched."
"Spend less and we will see when the time comes." Horn Scratching his scalp in distress, "Everyone, it's not me who said that we can't always rely on fighting. Just distribution without production is not enough." Five years is too late." Grandpowen couldn't help but smile bitterly.
"Your Majesty, regarding this point, I have a small suggestion." Catherine, who had been sitting and listening for a long time, suddenly raised her hand and said.
Horn turned his head and was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said: "Just tell me, it's okay."
"Jihad bonds are a kind of war bond. If you want to get people to switch their interest from war back to industry, you can't just use this kind of bond, because that will make people dependent and fanatical.
But under the long-term victory, a small defeat in the war will cause the collapse of market confidence, followed by the collapse of this tightrope system.
To put it simply, eggs cannot be put in one basket. Here, it is unreasonable to have only one bond structure.
The nature of such high-interest jihad bonds is high returns given by high risks, so another type of industrial bonds and treasury bonds should be issued.
The former is guaranteed by the income of state-owned workshops, and the latter is guaranteed by national tax revenue. Compound investment is safer for the people and the country
At present, I suggest the introduction of industrial coupons, specifically for the workshop industry, with lower interest rates, longer cycles, and higher single purchase limits.
If available, I personally would like to subscribe for 5,000 gold pounds. "
As soon as he said that he was willing to subscribe for 5,000 gold pounds, several cardinals present were stunned, and then they couldn't help but sit up straight.
You must know that the largest one in Joan of Arc is currently None of the merchant families had assets of 5,000 gold pounds, let alone liquid funds. The assets of each cardinal present were only 200-300 gold pounds.
How could this new cardinal subscribe for 5,000 gold pounds as soon as he came up?
"This is a good motion." Horn thought for a long time and said slowly, "Let's go back and write a motion and a related plan and submit them at the regular meeting. We will discuss it then. ."
"Okay." Catherine nodded.
After Madelan finished reading the specific situation report and everyone present reported their work one by one, this regular meeting came to an end.
Before the meeting ended, Horn finally asked: "Has the tax plan been formulated?"
"There are only some details left, which will be announced along with the bureaucratic reform, scheduled to be held on September 9 At the beginning of the month.”
"Okay, I will go to Qiumu Island in the meantime. When I come back, I will summon the heads of hundreds of households to hold a meeting."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
< br>(End of this chapter)