I want to be emperor

Chapter 344 Li Yuankui's Voting Certificate

Regarding the process of the rise of the Great Chu Empire, among the high-ranking members of the Ming court, no one knew better than Li Yuankui.

Because before Luo Zhixue proclaimed himself emperor and founded the country, when the Chu army was still entrenched in Funiu Mountain, and it was still called the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Camp, Fenghe Trading Company had already established business contacts with Luo Zhixue and others.

By the time Luo Zhixue led his army out of Lushan County in the east, and then went south to Nanzhao County in Nanyang Prefecture, that is, when the "General Baoxiang Mansion" was established, the cooperation between Fenghe Commercial Bank and the Xiangbao Army had reached the level of strategic cooperation.

Fenghe Commercial Bank provided the rural protection army at that time with extremely valuable strategic materials such as various iron materials, finished gunpowder, saltpeter and sulfur, which are raw materials for gunpowder.

At the same time, since that time, Fenghe Commercial Bank has also become the main channel for the rural protection army to sell various seized materials to the outside world.

When the Township Protection Army first went south to Nanyang Mansion, the trade volume between the two parties had already reached the scale of 10,000+ taels of silver.

Later, as the rural protection army gradually went south, when they captured Nanyang Mansion and even Xiangyang Mansion, Fenghe Trading Company was on the one hand because it was difficult to get off, and on the other hand, it was indeed optimistic about the combat effectiveness of the rural protection army, and even more optimistic about Luo Zhixue's personal ability.

Therefore, it began to adopt a comprehensive strategic cooperation with the Township Protection Army, and the scale of trade rose sharply to the scale of one million taels of silver.

In order for the rural protection army to obtain enough various strategic weapons, especially the gunpowder raw materials such as saltpeter and sulfur, Fenghe Commercial Bank used the power and connections of the Li family itself, that is, Li Yuankui, to forcibly open the Yangtze River route, directly from the coast The raw materials of saltpeter and sulfur are purchased from those sea merchants in China.

In this process, Fenghe Commercial Bank has actually not made much money by itself.

After Luo Zhixue proclaimed himself emperor and founded the country, Fenghe Trading Co., Ltd. continued to cooperate with the Great Chu Empire, but at that time it was not really a cooperation, but that the Great Chu Empire was doing business.

The Ministry of Commerce and Trade and even the Department of Military Intelligence sent people to Jinling City to set up a secret stronghold early on. On the one hand, it was to continuously collect various information from the Ming court, but more importantly, it was to communicate with the Li family to ensure The supply of gunpowder raw materials for the Great Chu Empire.

From that time on, even the main managers of Fenghe Commercial Bank had secretly taken up official positions under the Ministry of Commerce and Trade of the Great Chu Empire.

Li Siyuan, the treasurer of Fenghe Commercial Firm, is now a fourth-rank official of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade of the Great Chu Empire, and the director of the Jiangnan Trade Department.

The current Fenghe Commercial Firm is said to be the firm of the Li family, but it is more like a caravan under the Ministry of Commerce.

This also means that the Li family has completely tied the Great Chu Empire together, and as the head of the Li family, Li Yuankui naturally cannot avoid it.

Well, it goes without saying avoid the word.

Because the cooperation between Fenghe Commercial Bank and the Great Chu Empire, especially the cooperation in the middle and late stages, was also approved and promoted by Li Yuankui.

Without Li Yuankui's personal efforts to open up the relationship, how could Fenghe Commercial Bank have opened up the Yangtze River waterway. In the past year or so, it has purchased and transported various strategic materials worth more than 200 million taels for the Great Chu Empire.

In order to open up and maintain this strategic material transportation line, Li Yuankui personally killed a fourth-rank magistrate and a dozen other officials who got in the way.

During this process, Li Yuankui was also able to understand many aspects of the Great Chu Empire through Fenghe Commercial Bank.

And has a very full understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Chu army.

With the fighting power of the Chu army, the Ming army will definitely not be an opponent, no matter whether it is the battalion sentry or the new standard army that has been tossing around in the past year, they will definitely not be the opponent of the Chu army.

Li Yuankui didn't even think that he would be the opponent of the Chu army.

Li Yuankui is not a civil servant who knows soldiers, let alone a general, he doesn't know much about the army.

But he knows that the current military expenditure of the Chu army will cost more than 2000 million yuan a year!
Not to mention other things, just from this year to now, that is, in the past ten months, the Great Chu Empire has purchased more than 160 million taels of saltpeter, sulfur, copper, lead, cotton, etc. strategic materials.

And this is just one of the procurement channels of the Great Chu Empire.

Although Fenghe Commercial Bank is the most important channel supplier and the largest channel supplier in the Great Chu Empire, there are many other channels for the purchase of various strategic materials in the Great Chu Empire.

For example, this year the Great Chu Empire successively opened up the procurement channels for saltpeter and even sulfur in Sichuan and Northwest China.

What is there in Sichuan?This place is currently the largest saltpeter producing area in China, and the saltpeter it produces is called Chuanyan, which is quite famous.

In addition to Sichuan, there are currently several other major production areas of saltpeter in China, one is Shandong, the other is Shanxi, and the last is the Northwest region.

Unfortunately, none of these places are currently under the control of the Great Chu Empire!
This is also why the Great Chu Empire tried its best to open up various channels to purchase saltpeter and sulfur from these places.

Although the Great Chu Empire also tried to promote the folk method of making saltpeter, that is, making saltpeter from places such as the corner of the toilet wall, but the technology was backward, and at the same time, the consumption of gunpowder in the Great Chu Empire was too large, and the amount of saltpeter produced by the local method was very limited. And the quality is poor.

If saltpeter can solve part of it by itself, then sulfur is even more troublesome

In the huge Huaxia region, natural sulfur production areas are extremely rare. Only relatively large-scale natural sulfur production areas are in the Western Regions, and the rest are fragmentary production areas with very low production areas, mainly in Shanxi.

But in fact, the production of sulfur in Shanxi is also very limited, and it is strictly controlled by the Ming court. It is difficult for the Chu army to purchase on a large scale through secret channels.

Therefore, the Chu Army’s procurement of sulfur is also diversified. The Northwest, Shanxi, and the coast are looking for maritime merchants, etc., where sulfur can be obtained, then the spies of the Commerce Department of the Great Chu Empire can be seen.

Li Yuankui didn't know whether the soldiers of the Chu army could fight, but he did know that the Chu army had used a large amount of various strategic materials in the past year.

The amount of gunpowder used alone is more than the sum of the Eastern captives and the Ming army, and it is much more!

Huge material consumption, more than 2000 million taels of military expenditure a year, and this figure is still real military expenditure, there is no drift, no embezzlement, and more than 2000 million taels are all spent on guns and soldiers.

Such a huge military expenditure cannot be matched by the Ming army and the Eastern captives combined.

With so much money thrown down, the Ming army could be killed just by throwing money at it.

Even if Li Yuankui is not a military general, he also knows that in a war, you can't just rely on the bravery of the soldiers, you must have food, grass and ammunition.

Based on the huge military expenditures for the Chu army, Li Yuankui has more trust in the combat effectiveness of the Chu army than many of the Chu army's own generals.

Based on his trust in the fighting power of the Chu army, Li Yuankui also firmly believed that after the Chu army occupied Huguang, it would inevitably continue to expand. As long as there were no major accidents and expanded step by step, the world would be Luo sooner or later.

But Li Yuankui did not expect that the eastward advance of the Great Chu Empire would come so quickly, and after the army moved eastward, it forcibly smashed the Jiujiang defense line that Shi Kefa had painstakingly managed, and then swept all the way eastward, with almost no Ming army along the way. The power of resistance.

It is a foregone conclusion that Great Chu will rule China!

This is Li Yuankui's judgment!

Once the Chu army occupies Jiangnan, with the style of the Great Chu Empire, it will inevitably integrate Jiangnan in a short period of time and use the population, money and grain of Jiangnan.

And after getting the money and food of the Jiangnan population, the Great Chu Empire will sweep the world, which is a high probability event.

Under such a big situation, Li Yuankui is naturally unwilling to be a spectator, and even less willing to let the Li family be an imperial merchant in the future.

Money is not worth mentioning in front of power.

Therefore, he will not allow Fenghe Commercial Bank to make money from the trade with the Great Chu Empire Commercial Office, so that it can continue to operate without paying back. All strategic materials are sold to the Great Chu Empire at cost prices.

What Li Yuankui did was to be able to ascend to a high position in the newly born Great Chu Empire.

On Ming Ting's side, Li Yuankui had no hope.

Last year, he had hoped to be transferred to the capital, but he was not given as much money as others, and his connections were not as strong as others. As a result, he was dismissed and only got a consoling right servant from the Nanjing Ministry of Industry.

This kind of job is a typical old-age job, and unless the sky steps on it, he has no hope of going any further.

But he is not reconciled!
Ming Ting couldn't get along here anymore, so he naturally aimed at the Great Chu Empire!
On the side of the Great Chu Empire, there are many opportunities. As long as you have the ability and a correct attitude, you are not afraid that you will not be able to climb up.

As long as you do a good job, it is not impossible to become a minister of counselors and a real person under one person and above ten thousand people.

However, it is not easy to achieve this goal. At least after the vote, if you want to get a relatively high starting position of real power, the right servant of the Ministry of Commerce is very suitable.

However, if he wanted to obtain such a high position of real power, he could not just rely on Fenghe Commercial Bank. He, Li Yuankui, had to come up with a real nomination certificate.

Therefore, when some of the vanguard cavalry of the Chu army outside the city appeared outside the city, Li Yuankui also secretly met with some colleagues who he had observed for a long time.

During the conversation, naturally, he didn't directly say anything about throwing a thief, but conducted a language test.

After some testing, Li Yuankui also gained some confidence.

But this is not enough, he also needs real strength support, that is the garrison in the city.

Ever since, he made contact with many parties, and finally, with the cooperation of the Military Intelligence Department, he met with several military generals who were originally interested.

And most of these few people who were able to appear and meet Li Yuankui also had the intention of surrendering, but these generals did not expect it either.

Li Yuankui, who was aloof in their eyes, also had the intention of voting for Chu, and judging by his acquaintance with the leaders of the Military Intelligence Department, this person might have already voted for Chu.

In addition, with such a high-ranking civil servant taking the lead, the uprising will be easier.

And looking at the expressions of these generals, and thinking of the attitudes of the colleagues he had contacted before, Li Yuankui was determined!

This time, he planned to play a big game: directly dedicate Jinling City as a vote certificate to the emperor Luo Zhixue!

Done well, it will be a splash of wealth!

And when Li Yuankui was in the name of discussing city defense and how to retreat from the enemy, he was running around meeting people and contacting other civil officials or generals who wanted to vote for Chu.

A few people also walked into a tea house in the city. These people looked like masters and servants. The leader was a middle-aged man, dressed in rich and noble clothes, followed by two long followers.

After the three entered the teahouse, they quickly entered one of the private rooms.

But after waiting for a while, one of them tapped rhythmically on a wall in the private room several times. After a while, a huge landscape painting hanging on the wall was lifted, and then the wooden wall behind It was opened directly.

Impressively, this is a secret door.

After the secret door was opened, a figure protruded from inside, looked left and right, then nodded slightly.

At this time, the middle-aged wealthy businessman also got up and entered the secret door and closed it. The two well-dressed young people outside put down the paintings on the wall and returned to the chairs to continue eating.

After the middle-aged wealthy businessman entered the secret passage, he entered a secret passageway, and after walking for more than ten meters, he finally arrived at a room.

Entering the room, I looked up and saw three people already sitting inside.

Seeing this scene, the man dressed as a middle-aged wealthy businessman smiled lightly: "I didn't expect that I was the last one to arrive!"

At this time, a 30-year-old man dressed as a scholar in the room complained: "Every time we have a meeting, the people from your military intelligence department are the most arrogant and the last to come."

A man dressed as a young man in his 20s chuckled: "The Military Intelligence Department is busy with business, so it's understandable to be late!"

The last person who was also dressed as a middle-aged man but an old man snorted coldly: "Your military intelligence department is not doing very well, but your ability to procrastinate is improving every day!"

Military Intelligence Department, you can know this middle-aged wealthy businessman just by hearing the name: a member of the Military Intelligence Department of the Great Chu Empire.

Because now on the land of China, the Great Chu Empire, the Ming Court, the Eastern Captives, and even the Tatars on the grasslands and even other forces in the Western Regions are counted. There is only one organization with the special title of the Military Intelligence Department: the Great Chu Empire Staff Department Military Intelligence Division.

"Military Intelligence Department" for short, even the Ming court knew that there was a similar factory guard organization "Military Intelligence Department" in the Great Chu Empire, and the spies in this department were extremely cruel.

The Military Intelligence Department was the first to be established in the Great Chu Empire, and it is currently the largest intelligence agency in the empire. It is currently in charge of all kinds of intelligence from the Ming court and other surrounding enemies, especially the spying on military intelligence. It is also responsible for assassination and bribery. Win over civil and military officials of the Ming court and other business.

The reason why the Military Intelligence Department is said to be the largest intelligence agency, not the only one, is because there are four other intelligence agencies in the Great Chu Empire.

Among them, the intelligence agency whose scale is second only to the Military Intelligence Division, and which can be said to have the largest power and law enforcement powers, is naturally the Internal Affairs Division of the Hanlin Academy, also known as the "Hanwu Division". Spy, monitoring officials and other internal intelligence services.

However, this organization is very special, because the business scope of this department is very wide, and there is no clear boundary. As long as it is a matter that threatens Luo Zhixue's rule, they can theoretically intervene... Besides, although the Great Chu Empire has not yet Capture Jinling City, but Jinling City is also a part of Huaxia, it is not too much for them to send people over in advance from the Hanwu Division to fight in advance...

Then, naturally, there will be conflicts with the Military Intelligence Division, which is responsible for foreign intelligence affairs, and the conflicts are not small.

After all, from the perspective of the Military Intelligence Department, the Hanwu Division has overstepped the bounds.

In addition, the intelligence agencies in the Great Chu Empire and the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade.

However, the investigation department of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade is relatively small in scale, and its business scope is also relatively small. Its biggest task is to cover and protect the external strategic material procurement channels of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade. The spies are protecting.

Because of external activities, I will also collect some other intelligence materials by the way, but because of my own business tendencies, I collect more economic intelligence, at most, I just collect some official trends in the Ming court and the like. of.

Finally, there is the Naval Intelligence Department, an intelligence agency under the Navy, which is also small in scale and specializes in the intelligence collection of the Navy itself. A lot of spies.

As for the Anti-Corruption Bureau of the Inspectorate, which also assumed the functions of supervising officials earlier, it can barely be regarded as an intelligence agency. Now it has been directly made public and has become a formal administrative agency. Naturally, it is impossible to send people to Jinling City.

Therefore, there are currently only four official intelligence agencies in the Great Chu Empire, the Military Intelligence Division of the General Staff, the Naval Intelligence Division, the Internal Affairs Division of the Imperial Academy, and the Investigation Division of the Ministry of Commerce.

Although these four intelligence agencies have different business scopes and different focuses, because of the particularity of Jinling City, they basically set up intelligence stations here early on.

Today, the heads of these four intelligence agencies are gathered together in the private house behind this humble restaurant.

(End of this chapter)