Regarding Zhu Jinsong's casual designation of the Foolish Hawk version of the Bauhinia flower, officials like Zeng Cheng did not find anything inappropriate. Instead, they all appeared to take it for granted – regardless of whether the Foolish Hawk was willing or not, as long as the Great Ming needed it, the Foolish Hawk must have a piglet transportation center.
However, the piglet trade could only solve the Great Ming's urgent labor shortage. The Great Ming court still faced the problem of migrating citizens to Louisiana. After all, the area of Louisiana was there, and with the first batch of 100,000 migrants distributed across the entire territory, it would likely result in another scene of vast land and sparse population.
This meant that these 100,000 people had to be concentrated in a few key points in Louisiana.
So, the question arose.
Migrating 100,000 people from the Great Ming was not a difficult task. After all, the Foolish Hawk had gold mines, and this news was enough to attract hundreds of thousands of people to the Foolish Hawk's territory.
But ordinary citizens were not the army. Even if a large portion of them were young and strong individuals who had undergone formal military training, they could not be as disciplined as the army. Their strategic and tactical capabilities were far inferior.
If the Foolish Hawk was truly pushed into a corner, how could the safety of these 100,000 people be guaranteed?
Although Zhu Jinsong felt that the Foolish Hawk should not have the courage to turn desperate, this matter was precisely about fearing the "what if." Back then, the old woman of Xi Na even dared to declare war on eleven great powers of the small broken ball. Moreover, the Foolish Hawk was not like the Great Qing in that it wouldn't falter.
Therefore, based on the principle of at least deterring the thief if not guarding against them for a thousand days, Zhu Jinsong finally decided to play it safe.
After thinking for a moment, Zhu Jinsong instructed Shen Yongfu, the head of the Ministry of War, "Later, compile a list of officers and soldiers who have retired in recent years and see if any are willing to go to Louisiana. In addition to the treatment given to ordinary citizens migrating, allocate them a batch of military equipment."
Upon hearing Zhu Jinsong's words, the eyes of Zeng Cheng, Zhu Erdan, and other high-ranking officials immediately lit up.
According to the Great Ming's current military system, all soldiers who reached their service limit and retired were automatically transferred to a five-year reserve. In times of war, they had to obey conscription unconditionally. If the reserves were still insufficient, older soldiers who had retired for more than five years would be conscripted.
Migrating 100,000 retired soldiers to Louisiana naturally did not involve the issue of five or ten years, nor the urgent conscription in times of war.
However, there were at least 300,000 to 500,000 soldiers who had retired from the Great Ming in the last five years. If the previous retired soldiers were also counted, it would be easy to gather one to two million.
Moreover, Zeng Cheng, Zhu Erdan, and other high-ranking officials were all certain that even though these old soldiers had retired from the army, as long as they were equipped, they would become a formidable fighting force!
More importantly, these 100,000 retired old soldiers were far superior to conscripting 100,000 trained militiamen. Regardless of whether they had been on the battlefield, the military skills and discipline acquired by veteran soldiers in the army far surpassed those of militiamen who trained only during their off-seasons!
And Zeng Cheng had a more far-reaching consideration.
Ten thousand retired soldiers meant ten thousand families behind them!
Ten thousand families, even if each family was an ordinary three-person household, would amount to 300,000 people.
This meant that in addition to stationing 100,000 troops in Louisiana, the Great Ming had also gathered the settlers for land reclamation!
It was killing two birds with one stone.
Upon realizing that a previously troublesome issue had been resolved so simply, Zeng Cheng, Liu Huaiwen, and other high-ranking officials could not help but show a hint of joy.
Liu Huaiwen even said with a smile, "When His Majesty established the rule that old soldiers would retire after serving a certain period, many of us opposed it, believing that old soldiers were treasures of the army, and letting them retire meant a loss of the army's combat effectiveness."
"But now it seems that the rule of retiring soldiers after a certain period of service actually allows the Great Ming to have hundreds of thousands of reserve forces each year."
"His Majesty's foresight is truly beyond our reach."
Zhu Jinsong chuckled and said, "When did Uncle Huaiwen learn to flatter? Unfortunately, I don't fall for that. My private treasury is also empty. What should be allocated by the national treasury must still be allocated by the national treasury."
The flattery on Liu Huaiwen's face disappeared at a speed visible to the naked eye.
As Zhu Jinsong said, Liu Huaiwen had no good intentions when he flattered Zhu Jinsong from the beginning. He intended to use the national treasury's mice to cry poverty again, so as to squeeze some money from Zhu Jinsong's private treasury.
As for the benefits of soldiers retiring after a certain period of service... were there any fools among those who reached the highest positions in the imperial court who couldn't see it?
Seeing that his plan to get money from the private treasury had failed, Liu Huaiwen grumbled, "It's because the national treasury is empty. Your Majesty, think about it. Although Louis XVI reported a low price, it was still over 30 million acres, which amounts to 30 million taels of silver."
"In addition to the construction of the railway and road networks, the national treasury now has a large new item for buying piglets, as well as the expenditure for migrating people to Louisiana. If another 30 million taels of silver are disbursed at once, wouldn't this drain the national treasury dry?"
Zhu Jinsong glanced at Liu Huaiwen and asked, "Does Uncle Huaiwen also want to say that the national treasury is so empty that mice run in it or can starve mice?"
Being told this by Zhu Jinsong, Liu Huaiwen was instantly rendered speechless.
As the saying goes, one knows their own affairs best. Only Liu Huaiwen, among all the high officials in the Great Ming, knew the exact amount of money in the national treasury. Many of the national treasury's warehouses were filled with gold and silver, but not a single grain of rice, so of course, the mice would starve!
As for food... in addition to the always-plentiful granaries in all prefectures and counties and the reserve granaries in each township, each provincial administration division also had several large granaries. These combined were enough to feed the people of the Great Ming for three years if they stayed home, and could likely kill a considerable number of mice!
And the matter of spending 30 million taels of silver to purchase Louisiana posed no pressure on the national treasury.
Not to mention that the Great Ming's national treasury could always draw out 300 million taels of silver. Even if the national treasury was truly unable to draw out a single cent, it would not affect the land transaction for Louisiana.
This was because Louis XVI still owed the Great Ming ten billion dragon dollars, which converted to one hundred million taels of silver. And Louis XVI, that ungrateful fellow, for some unknown reason, had been consistently repaying his debts and then consistently borrowing money, always maintaining a state of indebtedness.
In other words, the 30 million taels of silver that the Great Ming owed to Louis XVI could be deducted from this one hundred million taels of silver. After the deduction, Louis XVI would still owe the Great Ming seventy million taels of silver.
With this in mind, Liu Huaiwen grumbled and turned the topic back to Louis XVI, saying, "I wonder what Louis XVI is doing? After all, it's a transaction of thirty million taels of silver, and this fellow isn't in a hurry at all?"
Zhu Jinsong chuckled and thought to himself that this old miser Liu's method of changing the subject was truly clumsy.
However, Zhu Jinsong was indeed curious about what Louis XVI was up to. After all, this fellow had rushed to the Great Ming wanting to join forces with them to poke the Foolish Hawk's lungs. Now that the Foolish Hawk's lungs had been severely poked by the Great Ming, Louis XVI should be relieved, right?
Just as Zhu Jinsong and the others were discussing Louis XVI, Louis XVI was comfortably reprimanding Jefferson, the third-generation leader of the Foolish Hawk.