Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

That day Wu Shigong was playing with the children in the inner house, suddenly Deng Qifan, Yuan Xingshan, Zhang Xuebin and other important staff came to look for Wu Shigong in a panic. Seeing that something seemed wrong, Wu Shigong hurriedly welcomed them into his study.

After taking his seat, Yuan Xingshan first told Wu Shigong one thing.A few days ago, Sihai Commercial Bank and Sihai Bank jointly delivered a batch of goods and silver to Luoyang City.Halfway to the road, they met a group of rioters who robbed the road.

After a bloody battle, except for more than a dozen members of the line who were killed or injured, the rest of the personnel were lucky enough to escape back.That is, all the goods and silver were taken away.The total loss reached more than 5000 taels.

Of course, after the incident, Shanchuan Division also found out the names of the gang of rioters and robbers. Xue Yong's Department of Internal Affairs will also jointly organize a militia and the Runing Army to retaliate.

And speaking of this, Wu Shigong nodded.Although the loss this time is a bit big, it is still within the acceptable range.Moreover, the handling of each department can be regarded as effective, it is nothing more than the length of time for retaliation.

But if this is the case, at most Yuan Xingshan will report to himself, and there is no need for Deng Qifan and the others to come to him seriously, then there must be other troubles.

Sure enough, Yuan Xingshan then reported: This time, the business with the Four Seas Commercial Bank and the Four Seas Bank is a commercial firm with a background in the Fuwang Mansion.Therefore, the responsibility for breach of contract is particularly heavy, and it is difficult to go back on it.And a few days ago, because the escort was too smooth, Sihai Commercial Bank and Sihai Bank relaxed their vigilance a little. In the contract drawn up with Fuwang's commercial firm, the compensation for liquidated damages was also very heavy.

With Wu Shigong's small arms now, of course he dare not twist the thigh of Prince Fu's Mansion!So in the end, Sihai Commercial Bank and Sihai Bank paid out the liquidated damages in full.But in this way, the problem arises.

The great expansion of Sihai Commercial Bank and Sihai Bank had already caused a shortage of working capital, but now that there were these two losses, it would immediately be difficult for them to turn around.So Yuan Xingshan proposed to temporarily borrow a sum of money from the inner study.As a turnover bank, the business can roll smoothly.

Then the chain reaction started.The Four Seas Commercial Bank and the Four Seas Bank must not fail, otherwise, the food stamps will lose their credibility, and the financial foundation of the Runing Army will collapse in an instant.Therefore, the inner study temporarily borrowed 1 taels of silver from Sihai Commercial Bank and Sihai Bank.

Then Deng Qifan introduced to Wu Shigong the current overall financial situation of the Runing Army.In the past, although the Runing army had always lived a tight life, because of the small plate, they were able to move around and move around.

And because of Wu Shigong's large-scale army expansion, the power of the Runing Army was extremely concentrated and expanded, so the budget could not keep up.Moreover, due to the lack of personnel who manage financial affairs and accounting in large political groups, it was not until the funds were turned over.Only to find that the funds of the Runing Army have been tightened.

Let's talk about military spending first.Needless to say, normal military pay, food, horse feed and equipment costs.To make matters worse, the great victory in Ruzhou.The full ranks of the Runing Army and the Guide Army added 6000 soldiers, their military pay and equipment, food, grass and horses.The loss and replenishment of weapons during the battle in Ruzhou, the double salary of combat soldiers, the silver reward for the great victory in Ruzhou, and the pension for disabled soldiers, etc.A total of more than [-] taels of military expenditure was spent.

And the harvest of Ruzhou's great victory is only 4000 taels of silver.And some other pots and pans can't be converted into living money at all, and they are all distributed as household items for resettling refugees.So the total loss in and out was more than 2000 taels of silver.Therefore, the great victory in Ruzhou is a disastrous defeat for the Runing Army's finances.

Then there is the civil administration system laid down throughout Runing Prefecture.Although the salaries of those civil affairs officials are not the highest.But because Wu Shigong wanted to form a united front at that time, the children recommended by officials, officials and gentry were always welcome.So the staff is quite cystic.The total salary expenditure also greatly exceeded the budget.

The resettlement of refugees is another expense.A few days ago, the second batch of young adults captured by Li Lu and Zhou Xun were sent back to Runing Mansion.What's more, because it is still in the period of spring plowing, the rations for a large number of resettled refugees have to be paid by the Runing Army. Even Zhang Chunyu and Tang Liu saw the embarrassment of the Runing Army and temporarily borrowed 200 yuan from the Runing Army. two denarii of grain.

But Deng Qifan also told Wu Shigong a piece of good news.Because of the good weather this year, the abandoned land where the refugees were housed has been artificially fallowed for several years.So this year's grain output is expected to be bumper.But no matter what, we have to wait until the autumn harvest.

Although the profit of Sihai Commercial Bank has greatly increased, due to the rapid expansion of the market, the liquidity has become more tense in a short period of time.But even with the loss of being robbed by the rioters this time, by the end of this year.It is also possible to hand over a large amount of funds to the Runing Army.

The situation of the Four Seas Bank is also the same.In order to encourage investment, a large amount of silver and food stamps were loaned out, and the payback period of these loans was also concentrated at the end of the year, and there was not much silver in the near future.

In addition, it is a salt business.The spring salt shipments have already arrived from the salt fields in Yangzhou and Dengzhou, but it will take some time for the funds from these salt shipments to return.However, because Wu Shigong gave part of the shares of those two salt farms to his father Wu Weizhong, and because the Lu family and the Guo family in Yangzhou were also financially stressed in order to open a new salt farm, and the Wu family in the capital was urging to send the dividends of the salt farm in spring, Therefore, this time the salt goods have to be traded in cash, and even part of the salt goods cannot be credited.

The private iron mines and workshops stopped all civilian iron production because they wanted to protect the large-scale expansion of the Runing Army.On the contrary, the batch of weapons sold to Li Lu made a small profit, so they barely maintained a balance of payments.

And the death of Madam Gongshun, Wu Shigong's funeral, mine supervisor Ye Zhong's iron ore dividends, and routine expenses in official circles.All of this is extra overhead.

In a word, as long as we survive until the end of the year, all the industries of the Runing Army will come alive.And if they can't survive now, Runing Army will go bankrupt immediately.For turnover, at least 4 to [-] taels of silver must be prepared.

So Wu Shigong asked Deng Qifan: "Mr. Deng, how about selling the remaining shares of our workshop?"

Deng Qifan shook his head and refused again.He explained to Wu Shigong: Now Runing Army's behavior of selling workshop shares has aroused doubts from the outside world.If Runing Army himself is worried about his real estate, why would the outside world come to buy shares?How could the outside world come to invest in the establishment of workshops and commercial firms?After all, Runing Mansion is too close to the war zone.Therefore, those remaining shares must not be moved in a short period of time, just to calm people's hearts.

Really desperate?Wu Shigong had no choice but to end the negotiation first, and carefully consider where to borrow the three or forty thousand taels of silver.

Wu Shigong first thought of the money in his inner house and the private money of his wives.But as soon as he returned to the inner house, he saw Zhao Ruya greeted him with a smile.Thinking of the sharp claws that this elegant feline was about to reveal, Wu Shigong couldn't help but shudder, and immediately dismissed the idea of ​​making plans from his wives.

In the evening, Wu Shigong couldn't help laughing at himself and thought: "I have trained a strong army with untold hardships, won so many victories, occupied two prefectures, and have hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land. Many workshops, commercial firms and private mines squeezed into the most profitable salt industry. It can be said that the army is strong, the money is making money every day, and the situation is good. Then...then I am about to play myself to death."

At this time, Wu Shigong vaguely felt that with the expansion of the political group Runing Army, it had reached the point of balanced development.Wealth, army, people, things, power, etc. are all indispensable.

This time, after Wu Shigong returned from the Denglai Rebellion, he saw the battle of the strongest army of the Ming Dynasty, and another Wu Sangui appeared, so he was stimulated to expand the army to the extreme.

After that, Xue Yongli recklessly fought against the coalition forces of Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai during the Ruzhou Great Victory, his father Wu Weizhong's greed when he returned to the capital, and the implementation of the three laws, etc., were like shovels digging into the foundation of the Runing army's finances.And the robbery of Sihai Commercial Bank and Sihai Bank this time finally brought the conflict to a total outbreak.

But the problem has to be solved, right?The first thing Wu Shigong thought of was his father-in-law Xue Lian.But this time when Wu Shigong returned to the capital, he knew that his father-in-law Xue Lian had spent a lot of money for himself these years, and had spent all the savings of the Yangwuhou Mansion for many years.

Wu Shigong knew that if he opened his mouth, his father-in-law Xue Lian would go to Xungui's house in the capital to borrow money with his old face.But how could Wu Shigong open his mouth like this?

As for his father Wu Weizhong, Wu Shigong just thought about it.

But following this line of thought, Wu Shigong immediately thought of the forty or so letters his father-in-law Xue Lian had given him.Most of those letters were addressed to nobles in Nanjing.Then, with these letters, I went to Nanjing City to ask for help from more than 2000 noble families in Nanjing City, and it didn’t take much. If a noble family borrowed one or two thousand taels, wouldn’t I be able to tide over the difficulties in front of me?

Wu Shigong suddenly became excited.Just do it.First of all, Wu Shigong finally endured the eyes of his wives, and embezzled 3000 taels of silver from the inner house and handed it to the inner study.

Then Wu Shigong arranged for Zhang Xuebin and Yuan Xingshan to borrow nearly 1 taels of silver at high interest rates from acquainted commercial firms, money houses, and gentry families, first to support the immediate three months.

On April [-]nd of the seventh year of Chongzhen, Wu Shigong left the Runing Mansion with Tao Xin and other [-] soldiers, and took the letters with him to Nanjing, the most prosperous city in the south of the Ming Dynasty.

And at the same time that Wu Shigong was leaving, a group of people also rushed from Fujian to Nanjing City, led by Zheng Zhibao, the fourth brother of Zheng Zhilong, a big merchant, great pirate and Fujian guerrilla. (To be continued..)