Insufficient balance

  Chen Jingyun felt a little heartache. After bringing Luo Li to the Governor's Mansion, since he was not yet married, it was naturally improper for him to take her as his concubine first, so he couldn't give her a formal title either. Although everyone in the Governor's Mansion treated her as if she were going to be their future madam, technically speaking, she wasn't one yet. Chen Jingyun felt that this was somewhat unfair to her.

  "I'm not that delicate!" she said, seemingly also feeling that she hadn't done a good enough job: "Many people in my family embroider better than me!"

  Luō Liú wants to do something, Chén Jìngyún won't object, whatever she wants to do is fine. Anyway, Chén Jìngyún has been very busy lately. Although he brought Luō Liú back to the Dūzhī Fǔ (Governor's Mansion), during the day, Chén Jìngyún doesn't have time to accompany her. There are no other people in the Governor's Mansion either, unlike the old house where there were many maidservants to play with her. If she doesn't find something to do, she'll probably get bored out of her mind.

  "Let's go, Chen Cai said yesterday that the backyard has been cleaned up and many flowers have been planted. Let's go take a look!" Chen Jingyun accompanied her on the walk.

  Luó Liú immediately threw away the embroidery in her hand and laughed at the few maids behind her.

  However, good times are always short-lived. Chen Jingyun had just accompanied Luo Li for less than half an hour when Chen Cai came in. He walked up to Chen Jingyun and said in a low voice: "Director, Mr. Hengli has arrived!"

  Chen Jingyun heard the two words "Heng Li" and knew it was about military affairs, so he immediately said to Luo Rao: "I have something outside, I won't accompany you for now, let's come back here tomorrow and go drink on the cool pavilion!"

  Luohui knew he had something on his mind, although he was reluctant in his heart, but still said: "Uh-huh!"

  Soon, Chen Jingyun took Chen Cai and others to the main hall. Not long after, they saw Henry, a German arms dealer who was dressed in standard Western attire just like last time. When he saw Chen Jingyun enter, he bowed his head and said: "General!"

  After sitting down, Chen Jingyun asked about the most important thing: "Mr. Henry, you must have brought what I want this time you came to Fuzhou!"

  "Henry smiled and said: 'As you wish!'"

  He then pulled out a document and said, "The contract I signed with the general received strong support from headquarters, and through relevant public relations activities conducted domestically, my company was able to stock up on some military supplies in a short period of time!"

  At this time, he handed over the list and continued to say: "The first batch of contracts includes 1,000 brand new 1888 rifles, 4,000 refurbished 1888 rifles, 100 Ruger pistols, 200 Mauser C96 automatic pistols, 12 heavy machine guns, 24 light machine guns, 12 60mm light quick-firing mountain guns, 6 75mm field guns, 10,000 rounds of ammunition, and 5 million rounds of bullets..."

  Henry said again, Chen Jingyun was also looking, but the list only showed the model and numbers. Chen Jingyun wanted to see the actual item, after all, it was a second-hand goods, if someone cheated him, it wouldn't be good. So he closed the list: "Let's go, take a look at the actual item!"

  Henry also got up and went together, while Chen Jingyun also let people go to call Tang Hui-kang, the general manager of Fujian Arsenal, and Ouyang Tian, the chief of the Equipment Department. Not long ago, Chen Jingyun had ordered that Fujian Arsenal be changed to Fujian Military Engineering.

  Although this batch of military equipment is only the first batch, the quantity is not small. Henry put all the delivered military equipment in the warehouse of Lihe Yanghang. After arriving at the warehouse, without Chen Jingyun's instructions, Ouyang Tian and Tang Hui Kang took the lead with technical personnel to test and inspect.

  Chen Jingyun also picked up a refurbished 1888 rifle, looked it over and found that although it was somewhat old, the rifling inside and the exterior were still in good condition. Not to mention ninety percent new, but eighty percent new was still possible. With his interest piqued, he held the gun and walked to the warehouse door, where someone naturally handed him bullets. He took aim and pulled the trigger, a crisp "crack" rang out, and a tree stump tens of meters away had been shot through with a hole.

  "General, you're a great shot!" Henry complimented opportunely.

  "Great gun! Not much worse than a new Hanyang Arsenal!" In fact, he was still bragging a bit, even brand new Hanyang Arsenal couldn't compare to these refurbished 1888 rifles. After all, they were genuine German goods, and even second-hand ones were still usable.

  After putting down his rifle, he walked to the back of Ouyang Tian, saw him and several people fiddling with a 60mm light mountain cannon, and immediately asked: "General Ouyang, what do you think?"

  Ouyang Tian stood up and nodded: "Commander, I've roughly checked them out. Although the style is a bit outdated and some have obvious wear and tear, they're all good stuff. Especially that 75mm field gun, it's not much worse than the brand new 75mm field guns we bought this year!"

  The technical details are not understood by Chen Jingyun, since the technicians below said there was no problem, then there is no problem! Later, everyone came to a small conference room in the warehouse of Lihe Yanghang, and after serving tea to Chen Jingyun and others, Henry spoke up: "General, the goods are good, I dare say that this batch of goods will be placed in any place in China. Someone will rush to buy it!"

  Chen Jingyun was also satisfied: "Since the goods are fine, let's settle the deal! Mr. Henry, I will have the Ministry of Finance pay you the remaining payment for this batch of military equipment and the deposit for the next batch!"

  Henry listened with great joy: "It's a pleasure to cooperate with General! The first batch of contracts has been completed, and the second batch of goods is being loaded at William Port, including a large number of artillery pieces. I hope General will make preparations!"

  Henry knew Chen Jingyun didn't have much money on hand, so he reminded him that the second batch of goods would arrive soon and there were a lot of them, to get the money ready as soon as possible.

  Just now because of the arrival of military equipment, my mood suddenly turned bad again! No other reason, just lack of money! If there is a way to make Chen Jingyun earn tens of millions now, he will definitely do it without hesitation!

  "I never thought it would be so short of money!" Chen Jingyun sighed, since he discovered that after arriving in this era, his mind was full of thoughts on how to rebel, and then occupy a territory in this warlord-dominated era, becoming a wealthy and happy big warlord. In this situation, even if he wasn't a military enthusiast in his previous life, he still put all his thoughts on the army and weapons every day. Although he had thought that he might be short of money in the future, he hadn't expected it to be so severe.

  Firstly, the military government's operation and maintenance of the army's daily expenses are enough to give An Hualin a headache every month, not to mention that Chen Jingyun also plans to expand the army and purchase a large batch of ammunition. In addition to ammunition, Chen Jingyun even plans to purchase machinery to expand the arsenal.

  However, all of this requires money, and the current fiscal revenue is far from enough to cover expenses. The Ministry of Finance has managed to retain 3-4 million yuan only because it collected nearly 3 million yuan left over from the Qing dynasty and stored it away, and also confiscated a large amount of property from Manchu nobles, which was sold at low prices recently and yielded a significant amount. However, these two items are one-time revenues, meaning that once they are used up, there will be no more.

  Chen Jingyun, who was preoccupied with making money, bid farewell to Henry and took his men back. On the way, Tang Hui Kang whispered to Chen Jingyun: "Director, the 100,000 yuan in expenses taken from the arsenal last time has been used up. Without this expense, it's hard to purchase raw materials!"

  "So soon?" Chen Jingyun was somewhat surprised: "It's been less than half a month, right?"

  Tang Hui Kang saw Chen Jingyun's face full of doubts, and he was somewhat frightened: "Now it's day and night work, the required materials and labor costs are extremely high, usually around 4,000 yuan per day! Previously, in order to rectify the factory and restore production capacity, a lot of money was spent, so..."

  Chen Jingyun calculated in his heart, according to Tang Hui's number, the ordnance factory would get more than 100,000 yuan per month, which was equivalent to the expenses of a brigade. He immediately asked: "With an investment of over 100,000 yuan per month, what is the production volume and cost?"

  Tang Hui Kang said: "If we maintain the current day and night shifts, the monthly production of bullets is approximately 1.5 million rounds, 75mm shells are 3,000 rounds, 57mm is 1,000 rounds, and repaired guns are 1,000! As for the cost, because our factory is not as large as those in Hanyang, we have to purchase raw materials from outside, so the cost is slightly higher due to the low production volume!"

  "How much does it cost?" Chen Jingyun asked

  "About 15%!"

  Chen Jingyun felt that things weren't going well, but he also knew that there were too many drawbacks to state-run enterprises like this one nowadays. The fact that it was still running smoothly was a great credit to Tang Hui's efforts, but in the future they would have to think of ways to rectify things and get rid of those parasites. However, now wasn't the time yet.

  "Director Tang, I'm giving you a month's time. While maintaining production levels, lower the costs and adjust the ammunition production line at the ordnance factory to quickly replicate 60mm shells!"

  Tang Hui Kang said, "I understand, but Commander, the arsenal has been working day and night. If we want to produce 60mm shells, I'm afraid the production line for 57mm shells will have to be shut down!"

  Chen Jingyun said, "Then let's stop, our fifty-seven mountain cannons are only six, and they're old cannons from the Hanyang factory many years ago. Once we've fired off the several thousand rounds of ammunition in storage, it'll be time to retreat!"

  Tang Hui Kang said, "I'll go back and adjust the production!" After that, he took a look at Chen Jingyun's face and found that Chen Jingyun was in a good mood. He immediately said, "Governor, last time you mentioned expanding the arsenal, I've already made a list of what we need. Take a look!"

  "Uh-huh!" Chen Jingyun said: "Give me the list first, and I'll add equipment for you after I've raised the funds!"

  No one wants to expand the arsenal more than Chen Jingyun, but unfortunately there are too many places that need money now, and Fujian is a poor province. For this batch of military equipment, Chen Jingyun has already arranged for An Hualin to save wherever possible, first gather enough money for the military equipment and then talk about it later.

  With the list of equipment needed by the arsenal in hand, Chen Jingyun returned to the Governor's Mansion and directly found An Hualin.

  "Director An, what's our financial situation like now?" Chen Jingyun put down his teacup and handed the equipment list of Tang Hui Kang to An Hualin.

  An Hualin didn't answer, but instead took the list over and looked at it. The names of the equipment and their functions were naturally unclear to him, but the estimated total amount at the end of the list made his eyes widen in surprise.

  "380 million!" An Hualin was somewhat frightened: "Governor, what does Tang Hui Kang want to do with so much money? This over 300 million is enough to buy two divisions of military equipment!"