Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 428 Funds and Share Offering

Claude, there's really no other way, spending money like running water. As Lieutenant General of the Kingdom and Viscount Emeritus, his annual salary and welfare allowance, among other things, can add up to around 300 to 400 gold kroner. All generals in the theatre, even General Bolognick, are ranked Lieutenant General, but earn only half of his income. Since General Bolognick is not an honorary nobleman of the Kingdom, an annual noble annuity income of 200 gold kroner is missing in this regard.

It's just that these salaries, annuities, welfare subsidies, everything goes to Kevin, and Claude, as an active soldier, eating and lodging houses are free in the Corps, and there's very little opportunity to spend money. This is not to say that Claude is bronchitis or anything, his wages are paid to his wife, but his outskirts are faster than his wages, such as he led the Legion of Thunder to victory in the Third Colonial War, and his share of the spoils was almost 2,000 gold kroner when the spoils were paid, all deposited in another National Bank account and kept by Claude himself.

Don't forget the hidden Hicks' military expenses worth more than 350,000 gold kroner and the profits from selling them to the Legion to throw bombs, as well as the proceeds from the transfer of licenses for the production of projectiles and revolvers, which culminated in a bonus of more than 10,000 gold kroner to Bok Al's management of the bison merchant Claude. Simply put, Claude had over half a million gold kroner in cash...

But Claude was also quick to spend money, buying her sister Anna a a ranch and building her ranch, which cost her a fortune of $10,000, which was still a small sum, with a large sum of KK 100,000 allocated to her sister Anna and Lady Sonia to improve the equipment of the lab and purchase various test materials. Lady Sonia would not have built a new rifle so quickly in just two years, even if Claude had a clear idea and direction, without the huge amount of money that would have given them both the strength to waste in the lab.

In addition, Claude adopted more than one hundred and sixty teenage orphans for the Fields family and set up a small nation and nation on the ranch to develop them into talents that will help the family in the future. Money spent in this area is not a small amount, and about 10,000 gold kroner a year is needed. Orphans don't spend a lot of money eating and wearing, they hire talented instructors to teach them, and teaching equipment and so on...

Mr. Claude and Mr. Viberon's iron ore workshop is divided into three parts. The first part is to excavate iron ore for refining into fine iron, or to forge alloy steel with other metals. This portion of the profits is modest and can only sustain and continue to expand the size of iron ore slowly.

The second part is the production of projectiles, from which Claude derives 10,000 gold kroner. But there is no war now, and the theatre cannot be drained of dropping bombs. Purchased projectiles allow soldiers to train live ammunition for a long time to consume, and in a short period of time there is no expectation of further large-scale purchases of projectiles in theatre.

The third part is the power mechanical workshop, which is to manufacture the power machines of fire engines and steam engines. But Claude has promised Mr. Viberon that all the gains from this power plant over the past three years will go into expanding the workshop and refining the fire and steam engines. This is the third year, and one more year will have to wait to receive dividends in this regard.

The next step was to open this firearms manufacturing workshop, although Bok Al provided this set of firearms manufacturing machinery in the Kingdom of Hicks almost free of charge. But Claude asked Master Byrd and his daughters to choose the workshop address, buy land and the right to exploit the black firestone, and search for the hiring of direct jurisdictional robots and wild magicians. Hydro-mechanical transformation into firepower and mechanical power, construction of buildings such as workshop infrastructure and field accommodation, training of workers and conversion of the firearms manufacturing machinery and equipment used to manufacture the firerope gun into a mechanical production line for the production of new rifles, as well as a supporting production line for copper shell bullets and mechanical equipment. Claude invested a total of 278 million gold kroner to own this firearms manufacturing workshop that produces new rifles.

Master Byrd is the head of the nominal firearms factory and is actually responsible for the execution of Mrs. Sonia. After careful calculations, they told Claude that the firearm factory now has over a thousand workers and technicians, and that it produces just over 3,000 new rifles a year, plus more than four million rounds of copper-shell rifle ammunition. In terms of revenues, this state of production would still incur a certain loss, at most, that is, no loss, because the cost of maintaining the entire firearms manufacturing plant each year, including the cost of production, would be around 30,000 gold kroner.

Ideally, workers should continue to be hired for training, bringing the number of skilled workers in the workshop to 2,000, thus raising the annual maintenance cost to 50,000 gold kroner. But the annual production of new rifles reaches 10,000, with 10 million rounds of copper shell rifle bullets. The cost of producing new rifles and copper-shell rifle bullets was already included in the maintenance provision, so that even if the new rifles were sold for eight gold kroner, there would still be two to three gold kroner per new rifle.

But Claude is now surrounded by more than 100,000 gold kroner in reserve funds, and he needs to allocate test funds to his sister Anna and Mrs. Sonia, followed by the testing of cartridges and mortars, and also try to convert the light infantry field artillery equipped by the troops into barrel-launched explosive shells, rather than only for the firing of solid bullets and shotguns, which is indispensable.

And Master Byrd's research has shifted from guns to power machines, and Claude needs to fund some of his experiments. In that sense, Claude seemed to have a lot of wealth around him, but he didn't do much. To put it badly, he can't even afford to maintain this firearm factory for two years. He therefore hoped that the war zone would guarantee him a million gold kroner in loans from the Overseas Minsheng Bank in order to defuse his urgent needs.

As for General Bolognick's fears that the overseas Minsheng Bank banknote voucher would be boycotted by immigrants from the various jurisdictions, Claude was not at all concerned. First, there is the reputation of the war zone to guarantee banknote vouchers, which can be exchanged for real gold and solid silver. If you fill up a silver tower, you can go to Minsheng Bank overseas to exchange a large silver coin for a silver tower.

Second, taxes can be paid using banknote voucher rolls, which guarantee the paper value represented by banknotes and enable them to circulate on the market. At the same time, increased market surveillance will result in fines and disqualification of any trader who refuses to accept banknote vouchers.

Third, all units in theatre, whether two regiments or locally armed soldiers, will be paid a salary and welfare subsidy in accordance with the principle of a banknote voucher roll for all units below Silver Tall. In a matter of time, the residents of the kingdom will discover the benefits of a banknote voucher roll, at least they won't need to go out with a big bag of copper coins with a drum bag to attract the attention of others and thieves...

General Bolognick finally nodded: "If you insist on a loan, the war zone can guarantee you. But I want you to think about it again, Claude, this is no joke. If the banknote roll is boycotted and becomes scrap paper, you lend a million gold kroons, and you actually receive only half of the gold, you lose half a million gold kroons first. ”

“Wait,” General Scully said, "I don't understand, Claude, why do you insist on a loan and a million more? In fact, you can totally share the risk with others. If you're willing to take out a small fraction of the shares in this gun factory, I'm sure there will be a lot of wealthy people in the direct jurisdiction willing to invest in buying shares, they'll buy them at a premium, and you can easily get a lot of wealth..."

Claude shook his head: “My loan of one million gold kroner is a need for more weapon testing to study the weapons developments and changes needed for future wars. Like a bomb thrower, it was supposed to be an offensive weapon, but according to the thrower equipped with the smuggler of the Kingdom of Nasseri, although very clumsy and inconvenient to move, it could well be placed in a defensive position, which could be thrown further than the thrower equipped by our forces. If such enemies are encountered in the future, they will pose an even greater threat to the soldiers we are attacking.

So I need to experiment with the manufacture of updated weapons and equipment to ensure that the enemy is thrown behind in terms of weapons and equipment, such as converting light infantry field artillery into artillery shells that can fire explosions. Obviously, if I were to sell my shares in this firearm factory, these new shareholders, even if they had very few shares, would still be able to contest the funds I had invested in the experiment, and I would need to make all the books public. I'm too lazy to peel with them, and more shareholders have a very negative impact on the secrecy of new weapons, which is why I don't sell shares. ”

Claude is well aware that General Skerry's suggestion was also made out of good intentions, except that his explanation left the generals present a little speechless. Investments by all require returns and returns. But if Claude were to invest all his money in this bottomless hole in experimenting with new weapons, then it is clear that no one would be willing to do so.

“That's guaranteed by our war zone, so you can borrow a million gold kroner from the Overseas Minsheng Bank.” General Bolognick made the decision.

If banknote vouchers were to circulate within the direct jurisdiction of the theatre, Claude's firearm factory would produce 10,000 new rifles and 10 million rounds of copper shell rifle ammunition per year, which would only take five years to repay the loan. Of course, the loan is interest-free and can be repaid only if the war zone allocates 200,000 gold kroner per year in military expenditure. And what Claude wanted to make sure was that he could produce so many new rifles and bullets every year to supply troops in theatre, and no one cared what new weapons he was going to test for the rest of the money.

Now that the war zone is willing to provide loan guarantees to Claude, the matter is nailed on the board. Claudette said, “Go to my office, there's a promising business I'd like to talk to you about, and maybe you'd like to join it. ”

The generals were surprised that Claude was reluctant to sell his shares in the firearms factory, but said that there was a promising business. Was it better than the firearms factory? The only regret is that the firearm factory has manufactured new rifles that surpass all fireline guns is that the equipment is too expensive. Expensive enough not to fully remodel the two regiments, can only use Claude's suggestion to make small, fussy updates by paying off loans every year to acquire new rifles and copper shell rifle bullets produced by the firearms manufacturing factory...

In the office, Claude took out a roll of drawings and put them on the table for everyone to see. The drawing depicts a black iron guy with a horizontal cylinder with a prominent chimney on top and a rectangle on the bottom, a row of steel wheels on both sides of the rectangle with long iron axles attached to the wheels. Behind the cylinder, a small room resembling a carriage is arranged above the rectangle.

There is an effect map depicting this black iron guy spraying white smoke with a dozen long trunks of steel wheels on either side behind him, driving on the plain. It is noteworthy that the ground is not the kind of flat road the wagon drives, or the road that is flattened with crushed stones, but rather that there are two parallel tracks, underneath which is a chunky pillow.

“What is this, a car?” General Bitchicklin asked curiously.

Claude nodded: "Yes, this is the train, and the road below is the railroad. The most important thing about this train is the front locomotive, which uses a steam engine to drive the steel wheels underneath forward, and eventually tows a dozen cars behind it to fly on the railroad. Master Byrd has confirmed that this locomotive can be manufactured and has now begun the experiment with initial success.

The locomotives he manufactured led ten trucks filled with black stones around three laps of nearly 1,500 metres on the temporarily paved railroad tracks, eventually causing the locomotives to leak due to the passing of the casting materials. He promised, however, to resolve the casting problem within three months and to refine and streamline the internal structure of the entire locomotive.

Our Overseas Territories battlefield is too large, and it will take a month's ride from Port Vibato in the north to Arturas in the southernmost part. And it would take more than 20 days to get on a boat, but the risks at sea are high, although offshore, and no one can guarantee against shipwrecks and pirate attacks.

And if you take the train, it will only take seven days and seven nights, no more than ten days, at a speed of 30 kilometres an hour, from Port Vibato to Arturas. The reason is simple: for horseback riding to ensure rest and strength, the boat needs to be parked in a safe place at night. Trains can travel day and night, and passengers can simply sit in the trunk and lie down to sleep until they wake up and their destination is close to hand.

Militarily speaking, trains and railways can ensure that our troops do not have to march long distances, just sit in the trunk and send our soldiers to the front line, enabling us to mobilize our troops for support. For civilian use, trains can transport large quantities of goods, making it easy for people to travel. And all it takes is the burning of the black flint and the steam of the water... "

In fact, Claude simply needs to describe the function of the train without describing its effects, and the generals present are naturally able to judge the changes that the train has made to the direct jurisdiction of the theatre. What they say to Claude is beyond doubt, and it is indeed a good business that, with a little share in it, can bring a tremendous amount of inheritable wealth to one's family.

“How do you want us to participate?” General Bolognick asked.

“Ten thousand gold kroner for each of you, and I give you two percent shares for each of you, and the four of you together make up eight percent. Twelve percent of myself, plus your money, is 100 grand. Master Byrd and his daughters and their technical team make the locomotives account for 10 percent of the total. The remaining seventy percent of the shares I'm going to take out to raise money, 20,000 gold kroner a share, and that one and a half million gold kroner will be used to build railways and run railway companies.” Claude had long intended to give a clear answer to the four generals in front of him.

“There is a Dollinibala River between Belingana and Robisto..." General Albert said.

“Two programmes," Claude lifted two fingers: "First, the railway was built to the banks of the Dolinibara River, with trains on both sides, and passengers disembarked across the river before boarding. The second option is the construction of a railway bridge on the Dolinibara River, which will fully unite the two jurisdictions. However, this method is expensive, technical difficulty is high, I don't know if it is feasible. Perhaps we need to dilute your share capital and raise funds to build this railway bridge again..."