Insufficient balance

  December 10th, representatives from various southern provinces have basically all arrived in Nanjing to prepare for the first meeting. Although Huang Xing said that they would form a Northern Expeditionary Army to launch a northern expedition, those who are slightly familiar with the inside story know that the current Northern Expeditionary Army is still stationed near Nanjing and has not shown any signs of launching an expedition at all. As for the various militia forces that have been gathering in Nanjing over the past few days, although they are numerous, most of them are a motley crew, including bandits and hoodlums, and are no different from the militia forces in Guangzhou.

  Tens of thousands of militia gathered in Guangzhou have brought disaster to the city, making Hu Hanmin's heart hate and scold his mother. Similarly, the militia from Nanjing also made Huang Xing and others extremely headache. These militiamen were undisciplined, burning, killing, looting, and causing trouble every day. In the past, Huang Xing was always leading the revolution with hot-blooded men, even in Wuchang, he only commanded battles, and logistics supplies were handled by Li Yuanhong and others from the Wuchang Military Government. He had never encountered such a situation before, after searching Nanjing thoroughly and finding a lot of money, Huang Xing had already distributed these goods to the soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Army in order to win them over, where would he find surplus grain for those militiamen?

  So he can only be gloomy and depressed all day, and doesn't even want to be the commander-in-chief anymore. Anyway, he has already won over the main force of the Southern Allied Army and turned it into the Northern Expeditionary Army. With 200,000 soldiers in his hands, this commander-in-chief has fulfilled its mission.

  It so happened that Li Yuanhong, in order to contend for the moral high ground, mobilized representatives from several provinces to re-discuss the election of the Grand Marshal. Huang Xing and Li Yuanhong secretly negotiated, with the latter agreeing to send 500,000 yuan to Nanjing, after which Huang Xing yielded the title of Grand Marshal to Li Yuanhong and became Deputy Grand Marshal himself.

  This farcical position swap, seen from an outsider's perspective, is naturally laughable. Even Chen Jingyun was stunned when he heard the news: Huang Xing has only been in this position for a few days, and now he's already switched with Li Yuanhong?

  "I think this temporary government in Nanjing is nothing but that!" An Hualin said while drinking tea.

  Gao Zeyan, who was also flushed with excitement, chimed in: "It's true that things are a bit chaotic on the Nanjing side! Let's not talk about Nanjing for now. Among the provinces in the south that have been recovered, there are only a few that are truly peaceful, and the rest are all in a state of turmoil!"

  An Hualin smiled and said, "Not to mention the neighboring Guangdong and Jiangxi, now even a unified government does not exist, and Zhejiang's Zhu Rui only controls Hangzhou Prefecture, what he says is not listened to by many people. Looking at several provinces in the south, only our Fujian and Cai E's Yunnan are slightly more stable!"

  Anhua Lin has a sentence that hasn't been said, which is that the chaos in Guangdong and Zhejiang has something to do with Chen Jingyun. As for Zhejiang, it's not necessary to mention that Ma Cheng's first division has arrived in Shaoxing, and the fifth division is advancing towards Yiwu in central Zhejiang. In the southern coastal areas of Ningbo and Taizhou, there are two garrison brigades. It can be said that from a military perspective, the National Army has already controlled half of Zhejiang. If it weren't for the fact that the provinces in the south are currently in a delicate state of unity, Chen Jingyun would have taken over the local governments of various counties in southern Zhejiang long ago.

  In Guangdong, Chaozhou had already been taken over by the National Army, and even officials were appointed by Fuzhou. Earlier, Hu Hanmin had sent someone to request that the National Army continue southward to Guangzhou. Chen Jingyun also knew a bit about Hu Hanmin's intentions, which was to use his National Army to put pressure on Long Jiguang, forcing him to take action and clear out the militia in the vicinity of Guangzhou.

  This toil without any benefit, Chen Jingyun naturally did not do it. Moreover, even if he wanted to continue south to Guangzhou, there was only one third brigade in the south, and Long Jiguang had more than 10,000 men and dozens of large cannons. So Chen Jingyun continued to shirk Hu Hanmin's request.

  Chen Jingyun looked at An Hualin and Gao ZeYan, saying that he also felt a sense of pride in his heart. Chen Jingyun asked himself that since the uprising in Fuzhou, he had made every effort not to disturb the people. Although the initial provincial war had brought harm to some civilians, after the National Army cleared up the province, it was connected to the clearing of bandits and vagrants, and the expansion of the army did not put pressure on the people's finances, but instead adopted a borrowing approach. In this way, although Chen Jingyun dared not say that Fujian was completely peaceful and the people were living in happiness, he asked himself that the lives of the people in Fujian were not much worse than they were during the Qing Dynasty.

  Looking at the other provinces in the south, the people are already suffering and can't bear it. Some even say that the Republic of China is not as good as the Qing dynasty, and republicanism is not as good as imperial rule. The root cause is still the turmoil and constant war between warlords. This is why people in a chaotic world are not as good off as pigs and dogs.

  The policy of the Fujian Military Government at the beginning was just one word: stability!

  So far so good.

  "It's all thanks to your efforts, Commander!" Gao Ze Yan flattered Chen Jing Yun.

  Chen Jingyun naturally would not just accept it so readily, but modestly said: "This is all the credit of the military government officials, I'm just pulling a head!"

  "Haha, Governor, you're too modest!" An Hualin said: "In these few months, what the governor has achieved is obvious to everyone. Not only have the people within the territory lived a worry-free life, but also expanded the army by tens of thousands without disturbing the civilians. Such means are unmatched in the entire southern region! In places like Jiangxi and Hunan, I heard they've already collected taxes for three years ahead just to expand their military!"

  Chen Jingyun also shook his head when he heard this. He didn't increase taxes on the people, but in order to expand the military, he had to mortgage the salt administration and borrow money from the Japanese. In the eyes of some radical people, this was an act of treason.

  After laughing and chatting, Chen Jingyun changed the subject: "An Gong, how's your recent financial situation?"

  An Hualin heard Chen Jingyun's question about finance and immediately put away the previous playful expression, saying: "Governor, rest assured, our financial situation is running smoothly now!"

  "Oh?" Although it was just a simple "oh", An Hualin heard the inquiring tone behind it and carefully replied: "It's been over a month since the tax reform, and we can already see some initial results. Taxes from various regions are coming in, and we expect this year's revenue to reach around 10 million. The loan provided by the Japanese has also arrived, and after deducting the 30% payment for military equipment, we allocated 2 million to the munitions factory. The remaining funds are set aside, and if we add everything up, there's still around 11 million left in the Ministry of Finance's accounts. By the end of the year, when taxes from various regions come in, we expect to get around 20 million. However, this is just an accounting figure, and many payments have already been made before they were even recorded. If we actually have 7 or 8 million in storage, that would be quite good."

  "So can next year's finances be sustained?" Chen Jingyun asked a very critical question. Although the current financial situation looks relaxed, it is because the Japanese loan has been received, but next year there will be no more, and how to sustain the finances at that time is a big problem.

  According to our financial department's estimates, next year the military government's administrative expenses and other miscellaneous expenditures will require approximately 6 million to operate smoothly. The ordnance factory has also undergone reforms, and their daily operating expenses will be self-funded through the sale of military products, no longer included in the military government's administrative costs. As a result, the ordnance factory's monthly expenses will be calculated into the military expenditure budget. Based on the estimates submitted by the General Staff's Logistics Department and Equipment Department, with the current army scale, the personnel salary expenditures for the National Army next year will reach 10 million. Additionally, there are also ammunition consumption and equipment procurement costs that have not been clearly quantified, but this part is estimated to be at least 5 million.

  An Hualin had not finished speaking when Chen Jingyun's face turned gloomy. Everyone knows that maintaining an army costs money, but only the head of the household has no idea how much it costs to maintain a large army.

  But he didn't interrupt An Hualin's words, instead gesturing for him to continue speaking.

  An Hualin saw that Chen Jingyun's face didn't look good, and he also understood why: "According to the current military scale, next year's predictable income will be calculated, and the deficit will be around tens of millions!" An Hualin felt it was necessary to remind Chen Jingyun: "Governor, for now we can still hold on, and even by the beginning of next year there won't be too big of a financial problem, but by the second half of next year, there might not be enough money to pay the army's wages!"

  Chen Jingyun's face was solemn, and his mind was thinking about how to solve the current dilemma.

  According to the current scale of the National Army, there are already six full-strength mixed brigades, two full-strength artillery regiments, one guard brigade, and about six local defense battalions. If only the number of people is calculated, the National Army also has more than 50,000 people, which is more than the total number of three divisions in Beiyang. However, Chen Jingyun was uncertain about how many of these 50,000-odd people could actually fight. According to Chen Jingyun's estimate, if the National Army and Beiyang were to go to war in Zhejiang Province, they would probably be able to mobilize four brigades to go to Zhejiang to fight. If these troops could defend against the attack of two divisions from Beiyang, or defeat one division from Beiyang in an offensive battle, Chen Jingyun would already be secretly pleased.

  Chen Jiongming's expansion plan has always been based on this goal, with the core plan being six mixed brigades and more importantly, heavy firepower. To this end, Chen Jiongming not only purchased a regiment of artillery from Germany but also three regiments of artillery from Japan. The purpose was to ensure that in future wars, they would not fall behind the Beiyang Army in terms of heavy firepower.

  However, such a way of building an army is expensive. The 50,000-strong troops have spent tens of millions of dollars in the past and will be a bottomless pit in the future. Relying solely on Fujian Province is impossible to fill.

  The current financial revenue of Fujian is only around 130 million, but the annual military salary alone is nearly 10 million, not to mention other equipment purchases and ammunition consumption. It can be said that the current Fujian finance can barely support one division, let alone three or four divisions.

  Chen Jingyun said to Gao ZeYan after a while: "How's that Fuding Tobacco Company of yours doing?"

  Funing Company was a company set up by Gao Ze-yuan under the orders of Chen Jingyun, specializing in opium trade. In order to better collect taxes, the Fujian Military Government had already ordered that, except for Funing Company, no other individuals or organizations were allowed to plant opium within the province, and imposed high taxes on opium. At the same time, a special anti-smuggling agency was established to crack down on various smuggling activities. Taking advantage of the military government's prestige, Gao Ze-yuan made Funing Company prosperous, expanding it throughout Fujian Province in just one month.

  Facing Chen Jingyun's inquiry, Gao Ze Yan said: "The current business situation is good!"

  Chen Jingyun didn't want to know too many details, he only needed to know how much fiscal revenue this opium cultivation company, which he had set up with a guilty conscience, could bring in for himself.

  "By the end of the year, how much related income can be expected!"

  New book period August has passed, sent more than 200,000 words, maintaining about two chapters and 7,000 words per day, Rain thinks this should be quite a lot!

  Since you're all boasting about yourselves, it's only fair that I ask for votes now. Hmm... as usual, please vote for me...