diymy #450 - Military expenditures and military gains
#450 - Military expenditures and military gains
"......Regarding the army, we currently have 7,200 registered soldiers and officers, 6,300 registered Guardian Soldiers, and 12,800 registered reserve Guardian Soldiers.
Among the registered soldiers, approximately 3,210 are Blessed, and approximately 3,450 are Holy Knights (breathing technique), with an overall transcendence rate of 63%.
The monthly salary expenditure for registered soldiers is 4,814 gold pounds, and the non-wartime salary is 2,500 gold pounds. Currently, 13,628 gold pounds have been spent, and the estimated expenditure for soldier salaries this year is 25,942 gold pounds.
Currently, the army's equipment is divided into three categories: melee weapons, armor, and holy rifles.
Two holy rifle workshops: Autumn Dusk Island Holy Rifle Workshop can produce 120 rifles per month, and Grey Furnace Town Holy Rifle Workshop can produce 300 rifles per month.
One armor workshop: 80-100 sets per month.
Currently, the production of 1,500 holy rifles cost 2,250 gold pounds, 400 sets of armor cost 3,330 gold pounds, supporting melee weapons, clothing, and other sundries cost 5,500 gold pounds, and training expenses cost 920 gold pounds.
Currently, over 25,620 gold pounds have been spent, and the annual estimated expenditure is over 37,940 gold pounds, fortunately not exceeding the budget of 40,000 gold pounds."
An army that is almost entirely infantry, less than ten thousand people, no, it should be said that it costs nearly 40,000 gold pounds every 8 months.
Catherine was a little dazed by this financial report. It's not like she hasn't hired mercenaries before. You know, the weekly salary of an ordinary infantryman in an imperial mercenary group is 5 dinars.
She previously hired a mercenary infantry regiment of 2,000 people, and the annual expenditure was less than 3,000 gold pounds, because the 3,000 gold pounds she spent did not include food and weapons.
Even when not fighting and only stationed, Catherine could make excuses not to pay salaries or only pay low salaries, and even veteran mercenary leaders couldn't find fault with it.
If calculated according to mercenary prices, Hoen's 8,000 people would cost less than 12,000 gold pounds a year, but the actual expenditure is more than three times that amount.
In that instant, Catherine suddenly felt that it was not so unreasonable for the Salvation Army to defeat the Edict Legion.
Different from Catherine's exclamation and emotion, Hoen, sitting in the main seat, supported his forehead and slowly rubbed it. Every shot of the holy rifle costs ten thousand pounds of gold.
Initially, Hoen seized nearly 100,000 gold pounds of wealth from Kush Territory, nearly 40,000 of which were invested in infrastructure construction and urban reconstruction, and a large number of orders were issued to maintain the economic stability of Jeanne d'Arc Fort.
During this period, there were also investments in land distribution and the Holy Plow and Holy Scythe Monastery, as well as a large sum allocated to retired veterans for housing and veterans' hospitals, plus various administrative facilities.
After raising funds through Holy War Bonds, there are currently about 30,000 gold pounds of liquid funds in the Holy Treasury.
However, Hoen plans to expand the Imperial Guard Corps to 8 legions in the second half of the year to form the Imperial Guard Battle Group, which will undoubtedly increase military expenditure again.
But if the army is not expanded, if Prince Condé leads the remaining 5 Edict Legions to attack, the consequences would be disastrous.
It should be known that although Hoen has led the Salvation Army to defeat the Edict Legion twice, this does not mean that the Salvation Army has completely suppressed the Edict Legion.
The first time he was a novice, he relied on terrain, weather advantages, and an extremely strong morale that disregarded life and death to defeat his opponent, with extremely heavy casualties.
In the Battle of Rapid Current City, he relied on trained war monks and Red Dragon Breath Fireball to defeat the Edict Legion at a smaller cost, but now there are less than twenty Red Dragon Breaths left.
Moreover, Hoen and the others are currently facing local guards and rural knights. Prince Condé has the two most elite mercenary regiments in the Kingdom of Leia by his side—the Death Squad and the Eagle Squad.
As elite armies whose salaries are almost equal to the Salvation Army, there are many Homeland Servants and Greatswordsmen among them.
These people are not as easy to deal with as ordinary guards. According to Hakuto and Jeshka's analysis, the current odds of winning are about 30-70.
And that 70% chance of winning is on their side.
Now that Prince Condé has withdrawn to Hotam County, although the local Church Army is still besieging High Fort City, the second phase of the Thousand River Valley Uprising has entered a low ebb. Both sides need to continue to lick their wounds.
Hoen must take advantage of this rare period of peace to expand his strength as much as possible and increase the army's strength to at least 50-50.
"How much wealth did the Salvation Army seize from the devil this time?"
Regarding the seizure of monasteries and castles, the Salvation Army has a unified position. It is not called looting, but confiscating 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 of Golden River Township handed over a total of 18,888 gold pounds after seizing castles, churches, and monasteries in their territory.
Dog Fox Township seized 15,000 gold pounds, plus 8,800 gold pounds from the spoils and ransoms obtained by the knights in two battles, totaling more than 68,000 gold pounds."
This time, 68,000 gold pounds were obtained in one go, which at least covered the military expenditure budget for next year.
If it weren't to prevent a reaction from the monastic system, there should have been more.
The monastic system is different from the centralized power of the Papal Court. It has a decentralized attitude, with different monasteries in different regions, most of which are sympathetic to the Blueblood Orphan incident.
Although the purpose may be to oppose the Papal Court, they are still allies after all. Hoen did not eat them clean like he did in Kush Territory.
Therefore, the Salvation Army spared many monasteries with good reputations in the territory, but required them to register their property, land, and number of people in Jeanne d'Arc Fort.
Currently, the gold pounds about to enter the Holy Treasury and already deposited in the Holy Treasury have increased to about 100,000 gold pounds.
The reason why Jeanne d'Arc Fort is so prosperous despite being economically blockaded is that Hoen has extracted the money originally buried underground from all directions in the Southern Thousand River Valley.
Moreover, Hoen did not hide it, but invested it all in the local market of Langsand County, leading to a hot construction and service industry market.
The order for military uniforms alone is enough for a dozen or twenty textile workshops and tailor shops to be full, not to mention the terrible Holy War Bonds to raise funds.
The hotels and taverns in the service industry are basically monopolized by the war monks with high wages. Small courtyards newly built by war monks can be found everywhere on the outskirts of Jeanne d'Arc Fort and Autumn Dusk Island.
Of course, such a large sum of money invested in the market for consumption, but the local area cannot produce so many goods. More money and less goods will inevitably lead to soaring prices.
In order to maintain price stability, Hoen levies high consumption taxes on luxury goods, such as alcohol, sugar, and high-end furniture, and forcibly regulates the prices of necessities and orders the Cheka to severely crack down on speculation and profiteering.
Then the people, especially the veterans, will find that they have money to spend. Hoen will encourage them not to invest money in casinos and brothels, but to invest in workshops and industries.
As for some funds that are neither small enough to be saved nor large enough to start a business, the Papal State can use Holy War Bonds to recover idle funds and invest them in state-owned workshops.
The wartime system is not long-lasting. Hoen can't always rely on plundering others to replace production. Investing this hot money in the production end is the right way.
This is also the main reason why Hoen wants to transform Jeanne d'Arc Fort, develop Autumn Dusk Island, and sign an agreement with the Franks.
The European countries of that year relied on borrowing from the people, plundering and extracting wealth from various colonies overseas, and transporting it back to the country to have enough funds to complete early industrialization.
Hoen's current behavior is to rely on borrowing from the people, cracking down on the upper wealthy groups in the Thousand River Valley to plunder wealth, transporting it back to Langsand County, and trying to complete early industrialization.
It should be known that industry is a capital-intensive business. Who can afford to play without a lot of money?
"Withdraw 50,000 gold pounds as the military budget for next year, and continue to invest the rest in the market." Hoen put down his hand rubbing his head.
"Use 20,000 gold pounds to raise Holy War Bonds?" Boussac looked up and said, "Otherwise, the infrastructure plan for next year will be a bit stretched."
"Release less, we'll see later." Hoen scratched his scalp in distress. "Everyone, I'm not saying this, but we can't always rely on fighting wars. We can't just distribute without producing."
"It takes at least three to five years for a workshop to develop to the point of recovering costs and generating profits. It's a bit too late." Grampun couldn't help but smile wryly.
"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.
Hoen turned his head, first stunned, then smiled and said: "Speak, it's okay."
"Holy War Bonds are a type of war bond. If you want to shift the people's interest from war back to industry, you can't just use this one type of bond, because that will make the people dependent and fanatical.
But under long-term victory, a small setback in a war will cause the collapse of market confidence, and the collapse of this tightrope walking system will follow.
Simply put, you can't put all your eggs in one basket. It's unreasonable to have only one bond structure.
The essence of this high-interest Holy War Bond is the high return given by high risk, so you should also issue an industrial bond and a national debt.
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 both the people and the country.
Currently, I suggest launching industrial bonds, specifically for the workshop industry, with lower interest rates, longer cycles, and higher single purchase amounts.
If there is one, I personally would like to subscribe for 5,000 gold pounds."
The statement that she personally would like to subscribe for 5,000 gold pounds stunned the cardinals present, and they couldn't help but sit up straight.
It should be known that even the largest merchant family in Jeanne d'Arc Fort does not have 5,000 gold pounds in assets, let alone liquid funds. The assets of each cardinal present are only 200-300 gold pounds.
How could this new cardinal subscribe for 5,000 gold pounds as soon as she came up?
"This is a good motion." Hoen thought for a long time, then slowly said, "How about this, you write a motion and a related plan, submit it at the regular meeting, and we will discuss it then."
"Okay." Catherine nodded.
After Madelaine finished reading the specific report, and everyone present reported their work one by one, the regular meeting was coming to an end.
Before the meeting adjourned, Hoen finally asked: "Have the tax plans been formulated?"
"Only some minor details are left, which will be announced together with the bureaucratic reform, scheduled for early September."
"That's good. I'll just take a trip to Autumn Dusk Island in the meantime. When I come back, I'll call those centurions together and hold a conference."
"Yes, Your Majesty."