Dragon Sea Empire

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Qianzhuang had become a prototype of a bank, not only operating exchange, but also lending money, providing the convenience of issuing posts and withdrawing money, and the meeting bills remitted by joint accounts in the two places also became a credit circulation tool in the nature of banknotes or checks issued by the Qianzhuang. In addition, A number of small-scale money exchange shops, money rice shops, etc., are quite active in various rural areas.

There is usually no big difference between Qianzhuang and Yinhao. Traditionally, North China and Northeast China are often called Yinhao, while the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Southeast China have both names. The name "Qianhao" is different from others.

In the areas controlled by the Ming Dynasty government in mainland China, the Zhonghua Qianhao-Huaxing Qianhao operates the most traditional Chinese money exchange and lending business; in overseas places, the Zhonghua Qianhao also has the same functions as the central bank, the most important thing is to issue currency Therefore, most of the gold and silver stored in Taiwan's general treasury should be used as currency reserves.

At the end of November, after the initial statistics of this year's overseas trade volume, the tax situation of various places was also fed back to Taiwan's Hong Kong City. , immigrant villages, and plantations were unable to pay taxes, so they had to rely on the township government and Chinese business halls for relief. Customs revenue was almost lost due to the war, and the price rose due to the tight supply of goods, and trade profits increased. However, in terms of trade volume fell sharply.

Yin Feng did not intend to destroy the formal financial industry in the area under his rule, so Yin Feng categorically rejected the suggestion to use the reserve funds of the money account to alleviate the company's deficit.

Yin Feng turned around and said to everyone: "At present, our currency has just begun to circulate in various places and is on the right track. There are too many places where money is used everywhere. Therefore, in order to deal with the current financial crisis, don't be suspicious of Qianhao and Eastern Bank. What a hope, well, everyone has seen enough of the gold, silver and treasures, and tomorrow we will hold a meeting in the chamber of the palace, and all members of the board of directors, major military officers, and officials from various ministries should participate, oh, this is called an enlarged meeting, right?"

The crowd poured out of the basement and came to the lobby of the main number in seven turns. Lin Tianping, the captain of Yin Feng's personal guard, stepped forward and reported: "Jiangnan Manager Chen urgently reports,"

In his study, Yin Feng opened Chen Zhongji's report again on the west wall, and then found the location of Chongming Island on the map of the Ming Dynasty hanging in the study, and then moved westward along the Yangtze River with his fingers, and finally stopped at Wuchang.

Chen Zhongji said in his report: The infantry of the Chinese Army divided into four groups within a few days, and captured most of the three prefectures under the control of the Ming army, Suzhou, Changzhou, and Zhenjiang within ten days. The South Road was approaching Huzhou and Jiaxing, and the Middle Road After crossing the canal and breaking through Danyang, the North Road Infantry Army and the Navy Fleet occupied Zhenjiang together, and are now approaching Jinling along the river.

Due to the upstream and the wind, the naval fleet was traveling at a slow speed, but there was no obstacle along the way. It had passed Jinling City and reached the Taipingfu River. A hidden post from the Military Intelligence Bureau came to report: Wuhu has gathered a large number of Ming army warships, including nearly a thousand warships. A fire boat, and all private ships along the Yangtze River along the boundary between Huguang and Liangjiang, have been looted.

Before Yin Feng launched the Jiangnan offensive, he sent a letter to Chen Zhongji and others, asking them to pay attention to the fire boat tactics of the Ming army. They have never been able to win a battle with this tactic at sea, but on the narrow Yangtze River, large sailing ships have limited room for maneuver, and they still need to make preparations for the fireboat attack that is going downwind and down the river.

Chen Zhongji also mentioned in this report that before the Yangtze River Task Force set off from Chongming Island, it had installed a circle of long bamboo poles with iron caps around the hulls of all major warships. Umbrella support poles are spread around the ship, which can block the impact of the fire ship. At the same time, Mai Dahai, the commander of the Taiwanese fleet, has also hurriedly produced a batch of hand-rowed speedboats in the south of the Yangtze River. The bows are all covered with iron sheets. Row to ram the fireship.

Yin Feng was still a little worried about this, and wrote a letter again, asking Chen Zhongji and Mai Dahai to be careful and not to underestimate the enemy. In any case, the fleet must march westward in unison, with the ultimate goal of reaching Wuchang.

Regarding the final combat goal of the infantry, most of the staff members of the Chinese Army Operations Department believed that the goal should be to break Jinling City again.

There used to be 7000 garrison troops in Jinling City, but now the defeated troops of the Ming Dynasty from all over the surrounding areas have retreated into the city one after another. It is estimated that there are over 12000 Ming troops in the city. The army, including the Jiangnan militia, is less than [-] people. It is possible to open the gate of Nanjing with heavy artillery, but the Ming army, which is already familiar with the Chinese army's firearms tactics, will it still be like the last war against the sea ban? The officers and soldiers of the Ming army were so frightened by the heavy artillery fire and hot air balloons of the Chinese army that the entire army collapsed after only one city gate was breached.

Yin Feng is not a military strategist. When he founded the Chinese Army, the goal he followed was the level of weapons and tactics in the Napoleon era, and he himself did not have the art of war of Napoleon. Therefore, his soldiers were trained to be very elite. Obey discipline, fight according to the rules, rarely play tricks, use surprise soldiers, rely on too many technical advantages over the opponent, and rush to find the enemy for a decisive battle; Rushing forward to deal with the opponents, people like Yan Siqi and Zheng Zhilong who can take risks belong to the relatively small number of alternative elements in the Chinese army.

However, Yin Feng still knew the principle of "not being limited to the gains and losses of one city and one place" in combat, so he rejected the suggestion of attacking Nanjing, and only asked the Jiangnan Chinese Army to capture all the surrounding areas of Yingtianfu to form a defense against Jinling City. Loosely encircle and attract the Ming army in the city to come out of the city for rescue, and strive to annihilate the Ming army in the field battle that the Chinese army is best at.

The next day, the conference hall of the Zhonghua Company headquarters was crowded with people early in the morning. This conference hall was newly built according to Yin Feng's intention. It has a half-moon-shaped hall structure, and the chairman's position is surrounded by rows of seats. This kind of seat arrangement is very novel and interesting to everyone, but they all think it is just the personal hobby of the owner of the ship.

The number of people attending the meeting was far beyond everyone's imagination, including all the directors of the board of directors on Taiwan Island, all school-level military officers without combat missions, chief officials at all levels of government affairs departments, and heads of various departments of the Chinese company, various branches, There were also many storekeepers present.

Everyone has heard that this is a meeting held by the shipowner king to determine the policy direction for a long period of time in the future. Moreover, this meeting will officially announce the official system and local administrative system of the King of China's jurisdiction, and will adjust the war policy established years ago. Plan - that is, the next year's plan.

Xu Hongji, Zeng Shan and others, including Zeng Jingshan, the guardian envoy of Luzon who rushed back from Luzon, did not understand why Yin Feng called so many people for a meeting. I could see what was wrong, so I kept silent.

No one has ever held such a meeting. Only Yin Feng often interviewed various government and enterprise meetings before crossing, so he is familiar with various meeting procedures. Under his chairmanship, he basically completely controlled the entire meeting, but he did not engage In Cheng Yitang, director Li Jin reported this year's overseas trade income, domestic trade income and the taxation situation of each colony, and then the war expenses consumed by the two wars last year and this year, as well as resettlement and farmland development in various places , munitions production, mineral development, etc... Yin Feng tried his best to promote the spirit of speaking with data in his business and government affairs team, and now, this is a comprehensive data demonstration.

"...In this way, the region under the jurisdiction of the King of China has had a financial shortfall of nearly 3000 million taels. Fortunately, with enough working capital accumulated in the past few years, these shortfalls can still be made up. However, right now Jiangnan is at war again, the Liaodong Jurchen barbarians have not yet been pacified, and the reconstruction and repair of various parts of Nanyang also need a lot of money... In other words, before the end of next year, our budget in any aspect will be very tight of,"

The Chinese company and the area ruled by the King of China have the budget system implemented by Yin Feng, and implement the financial principle of combining "living within one's means" and "living within one's means". It does not simply require a balance of revenue and expenditure. Without the initial financial system and perfect currency system established in the Ming Dynasty, the Ming court could not use financial leverage to mediate fiscal revenue and expenditure. The main source of fiscal revenue was too single (agricultural tax), so the ability to deal with emergencies was extremely poor.

However, this time the cost of the war is too much over budget, and neither Yin Feng nor the members of the board of directors want the company's financial situation to deteriorate. Therefore, Yin Feng's proposal to "suspend the expansion of the war and digest the existing occupied areas" proposed by the board of directors, With the consent of most people, he also hung up a schematic diagram of the entire coastal area of ​​Daming and the Nanyang region, marking the areas under the complete control of the Chinese Army in green, marking the areas where the Chinese Army needs to be appeased by force in yellow, and marking the hostile areas in red , everyone can see very clearly: the green areas that are completely in the hands of the Chinese army are only in Taiwan Island, Hainan Island, and the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula. ** domain, and the rest are dotted in the yellow and red encircled areas.

"Therefore, the most important task for us in the next step is to connect all these green fields into one piece," Yin Feng announced.

Yin Feng asked Li Lihua to announce the "Five-Year Economic Plan", announcing the plan to temporarily stop expansion and focus on internal affairs construction. Except for the military representatives, most of the participants agreed. In order to appease the military personnel, Yin Feng also It was announced that the first batch of general conferring ceremonies would be held during the Chinese New Year. At the same time, it was announced that the newly occupied Liaodong area would be designated as a military settlement area, and soldiers and officers in the army could have priority in occupying it.

At the same time, he announced that he would formally establish a country next year and formally stand against the Ming court. Then, he said to everyone: "The above is my opinion. If you have different opinions, please speak out here."

Looking around, everyone whispered to each other, Yin Feng knew that no one would jump out and openly oppose him at this time.

Therefore, he announced next: the five-year plan will be implemented from next year.

Xu Hongji was seated in the first row under the rostrum, and whispered to Zeng Shan next to him: "The owner of the ship has a lot of meaning in this move, so that we have public opinion, at least within the company and the Chinese army, there will be no No more objections,"