Napoleon II Reborn

Chapter 197: People's will

After Eke left, Xiao Jie went crazy. 1 billion francs? How many troops should be equipped! In this era of constant wars, force is the guarantee of everything, so when he has money, Xiao Jie will basically look to the troops. It's just that he has enough troops now, if there are more troops, it will probably arouse the suspicion of others. The current 88th Army has expanded to 4 divisions, and the total number has reached a terrifying 150,000. Of course, the 3rd and 4th Divisions have just been recruited to full strength, and they have not had time to undergo systematic training, and their equipment is also lacking. Not yet, so there is no fighting power. In addition, the cavalry corps also belonged to one of his troops. Due to the huge losses in the war, Xiao Jie also issued an order for them to replenish immediately after the war. There are also 4 Spanish divisions with a total of more than 60,000 people. Therefore, throughout Iberia, the total number of troops led by Xiao Jie reached more than 230,000. It is equivalent to one of three people in the total strength of the French domestic army. Not to mention that he plans to develop the navy and other arms, so his army can only maintain its current size for a period of time. Of course, Xiao Jie didn't intend to spend the 1 billion casually, after all, the days ahead were still long, and he had to make some plans for the future.

But in addition to the 1 billion, there are still 2 billion left. Forbeck wants 500 million, which is still a lot, so why not give him all the money from the first two installments, anyway, sooner or later. . In addition, the remaining 1 billion Xiao Jie also has new uses. Originally, Xiao Jie planned to take money from the Andresi Group to rebuild an arsenal, but now that he has this huge sum of money, it seems that there is no need to waste it. It's been a long time. Therefore, 300 million francs were directly allocated from the remaining 1 billion francs to prepare to build a large arsenal in Talavera, Madrid. After completion, it is expected that it will be able to fully meet the weapons and ammunition needs of Xiao Jie's army. In addition, he plans to use the money to build a shipyard in Valencia, directly spending 200 million francs, which is enough to build a world-class shipyard. As for the remaining 500 million, naturally all of them were handed over to the national treasury. The current treasury is still relatively empty, so that he still has many new policies that have not been implemented because there is not enough handwriting support.

Next, it was time to arrange the cultivated land. Xiao Jie couldn't imagine how much 15 million hectares of cultivated land would be converted into cash. However, although he was very jealous, he never thought of taking these cultivated lands as his own. He had new uses for all these cultivated lands.

France has been involved in Iberia for a relatively short period of time. Although it has won the final victory through tough military means, this is only superficial. Do the Iberians think this is France's aggression against Iberia? (In fact, this is what happened in the first place), so Xiao Jie must find a way to get those ordinary people to support his rule, and the land is a very good sugar-coated projectile. In all of Iberia, farmers accounted for 80 percent, but they only owned 30 percent of the total cultivated land. Many people do not have their own land at all, and can only live by farming the land of the landlords and nobles, but they have to pay heavy rent for this. When the weather is good, you can still fill your stomach in front of you, but in a bad year, you will starve to death. And those high-ranking nobles would not care about the life and death of these poor people at all, and Xiao Jie planned to use these cultivated lands as the cornerstone for the majority of farmers to support and maintain his rule.

As for how to distribute the land to those farmers, Xiao Jie has not yet figured it out, but he certainly cannot divide the land into small pieces and sell them to those farmers like during the French Revolution. Because their lives are relatively poor all year round, how can they have the money to buy land? Forcibly implementing this policy will only burden them with heavy debts. In the long run, this is not conducive to economic development. In the end, Xiao Jie still plans to distribute the land to those farmers who have no land or little land. Of course, due to the current financial constraints, policies such as the exemption of agricultural taxes cannot be implemented for the time being, but Xiao Jie is not prepared. No matter how much you charge, five percent is enough. The living standards of these farmers should be able to improve soon, and then they have money, which will inevitably promote the development of business, so as to form a virtuous circle. In that case, fiscal revenue will also be significantly improved, and many policies can be implemented by then, including compulsory education policies. Throughout Europe, the literacy rate is still very low. Most people are illiterate. Except for the children of nobles and merchants, most people can't afford to go to school. The level of education of the people of a country determines the development of the country to a large extent. Therefore, in order to make one's "territory" stronger, this policy must be effectively implemented.

Thinking of this, Xiao Jie felt more and more that this matter could not be dragged on, so he immediately asked someone to find Forbeck and let him carry out the matter of land distribution. Of course, in order to avoid the situation where someone uses power for personal gain, Xiao Jie also plans to recruit some soldiers to participate in it.

After a while, Forbeck hurried over. "His Royal Highness, I wonder why you are looking for me so urgently?" Forbeck said out of breath.

"Of course it's a good thing." Xiao Jie laughed. "I have already raised the money you want, and, in order to speed up the plan, I plan to start the first phase and the second phase together."

"Well, Your Royal Highness, if the two phases are started at the same time, it will cost 1 billion francs. You also know that our treasury is a sleeper?" Forbeck asked.

"Of course, but do you think that since I insist on doing that, would I be unprepared?" After speaking, Xiao Jie laughed again, the feeling of being rich is really **** good, no wonder those rich people in later generations are getting better and better Awesome.

Forbeck rolled his eyes, apparently thinking of something, and asked, "His Royal Highness, have the properties of those rebels been counted? How much?"

Xiao Jie nodded, admiring in his heart: This old guy is really shrewd. He said with a smile: "The statistics are out. After valuation, there are 2 billion francs in total, and another 15 million hectares of arable land."

Hearing this number, Forbeck only felt a little bit of thought in his heart, obviously he didn't expect those nobles to have so much money, but then he also laughed, of course having a lot of money is not a bad thing. "His Royal Highness, since there are 2 billion, then just give us all the funds needed for the entire plan." Forbeck laughed.

"Don't be greedy, 1 billion is enough. I have other uses for the other money." Xiao Jie said, he was not angry, because from Forbeck's tone, he could tell that the other party was just joking.

Forbeck chuckled, instead of entangled with Xiao Jie on this issue, he asked instead: "His Royal Highness, what are you going to do with so much arable land?"

Xiao Jie told Forbeck his series of ideas about distributing cultivated land to landless and land-poor farmers free of charge.

After listening, Forbeck applauded loudly: "His Royal Highness, I thank you on behalf of all the Iberian people."

"Where? Now they are all my subjects, and they should do this." Xiao Jie said with a noble face. This greatly changed Forbeck's opinion of him, and made Forbeck secretly make up his mind to govern Iberia well in order to repay Xiao Jie's kindness to the Iberian people. I just don't know what kind of expression he will have when he knows that Xiao Jie has "embezzled" 1 billion francs before.

Next, a vigorous land reform was carried out throughout Iberia, and a large number of landless and landless poor peasants were allocated the land they dreamed of, which made them fight against the French army, to be more precise, against Xiao Jie's troops. impression has been greatly improved. No matter which country's peasants, they always have an inseparable feeling for the land. Xiao Jie's approach, although the loss was relatively large, won him a lot of popular support, making his rule in Iberia even stronger. more and more stable. When the Andresi Group and the Jewish consortium entered Iberia, the economy here developed rapidly and the living standards of the people also improved significantly. Five years later, the per capita living standard here has reached the highest level in Europe, and Xiao Jie has been loved by the people~lightnovelpub.net~ and more and more people have recognized his dominance , I believe that even if the Spanish Bourbon royal family and the Portuguese royal family return to Iberia, they will no longer be able to rule here because they have lost their ruling foundation.

On the other hand, through Xiao Jie's deliberate propaganda, the Iberian people realized that their interests have been closely linked with Xiao Jie. If Xiao Jie fails, then what they have gained will be lost immediately. Therefore, in the future, a large number of Iberian men will spontaneously join Xiao Jie's army to fight for him, and there will be their figures in all parts of Europe, including Africa, America and Asia.

From a long-term perspective, Xiao Jie's decision today will bring him huge benefits in the near future, compared to what he will lose today.

In mid-March, the 3rd and 4th Divisions of the 88th Army Corps had all entered Iberia and started systematic training, but the weapons and equipment were not enough. In France, Napoleon was also actively preparing for war. Therefore, the weapons produced by the arsenal were all bought by the Ministry of the Army. If the two divisions of Xiao Jie wanted to be fully equipped, they might have to wait until the arsenal in Iberia was completed and put into production.

(To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to .FU., more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)