"Take Jiangnan? No, no, let's go to Jiangxi and Fujian this time. In this way, our Ming Dynasty will have the territory of five provinces, and we will have to spend a lot of effort to manage and organize it. Where to fight next depends on the Battle of the Central Plains.

Certainly."

On September 2, Zhu Jishi said this to a group of senior generals from the General Staff and the Army Department at the Daming Palace in Guangzhou.

"The Second Army and the Fourth Army will be stationed on site after completing the operations in Jiangxi and Fujian to stabilize the situation in the two provinces. At the same time, the Seventh Army will be expanded based on recruiting local armed forces in Fujian."

Shi Delin had already died in the battle at Wushi Mountain in Fuzhou City. Almost all the men of the Shi family died in the battle, which can be regarded as the reputation of the whole family as loyal and loyal. However, it did not arouse the fighting spirit of the Fujian gentry and people to resist the Ming Dynasty. One province in Fujian has already

Basically pacified. The only headache now is how to arrange and deploy the nearly 100,000 "civilian troops" who responded to the Ming Dynasty during the Fujian Campaign. It seems that this is not possible without spending a lot of money. As for Jiangxi, the situation is slightly better.

The Qing army basically fled, while the Ming army only successfully took over the place, without many raising troops to respond or resist.

"Your Majesty, we suffered a lot of casualties in the Battle of Fuzhou. There were 428 wounded and 582 martyrs, not including the casualties of the civilian army. Obviously, the Qing army's combat power is increasing.

If we don’t sweep across Jiangnan as soon as possible now, I’m afraid we will have to pay a higher price in the future.”

Deputy Chief of General Staff Zhong Ziliang stood in front of Zhu Jishi, leaning on a cane (his legs were not very flexible and he was still a bit lame). He frowned and expressed his worries, which immediately attracted many responses.

"As soon as possible? I want it too, but..."

Zhu Jishi shrugged and spread his hands.

"No money! Do you know how much we have spent and how much we have received in the past two years? If it were not for the support of HSBC, we would have been unable to issue military pay. Now we have to expand a Seventh Army, and there is also Fujian

, in the two provinces of Jiangxi, the taxes collected in the first year of the Restoration could not be collected at all... When the imperial examinations in these two provinces end next year, there will be 40,000 more civil servants and patrolmen. Just these two items, there will be more every year

The cost is more than 10 million..."

Zhu Jishi is like a shopkeeper, nagging and settling accounts for the generals below. Although it is a bit verbose, the accounts are true. Zhu Ming's European-style army and "a scholar becomes an official, and the government goes to the town" are quite expensive. As for

The issuance of banknotes that has been decided before has just begun, and the work of printing banknotes cannot be started immediately. You must first open a banknote printing factory, select special material paper, design and make templates, and various anti-counterfeiting measures... In addition,

How to issue and circulate the banknotes after they are printed is a big problem. Even with the full cooperation of the Thirteen Banks and the five major foreign banks (HSBC, Jishi, Nanyang, Lanfang, and Segur), it may fail!

After all, the reputation of banknotes in China is really not very good.

"Money is secondary, the battle in the north is the key. If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom really destroys the Manchu Qing Dynasty and Jiangnan is defeated, there will be no need to use weapons. Now the army must speed up troop training and be ready for the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains at any time!"

When everyone was complaining in their hearts about Zhu Jishi's conservative behavior, his words immediately made everyone feel that the situation was extremely high-spirited. The Northern Expedition to the Central Plains is the key to conquering the world! Since ancient times, those who conquer the Central Plains have conquered the world, and now the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

In a fight to the death, it is certain that both sides will suffer losses. When the time comes, Zhu Ming will take advantage of the opportunity to make the Northern Expedition and decide the world in one battle!

"The Ming Dynasty will be victorious!"

"Long live the king!"

The generals shouted in unison, and everyone's face was filled with joy and excitement, as if they were looking forward to the moment when the Ming Dynasty would dominate the world.

However, Zhu Jishi was not as excited as these generals. As a king, he was responsible for the overall situation. There were a lot of things that he had to take care of and layout. For example, Jiangnan, although it would be in his pocket sooner or later, he could

There is a lot to say about what kind of Jiangnan you get.

"Your Majesty, these are the treasures of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. They were obtained by spies from the Jinyiwei Police Factory from the Qing Dynasty Bank in Beijing."

As soon as the officers left, Wang Yunjiao sent over some poorly printed banknotes, which looked a bit like banknotes and were made of poor paper. The face values ​​of the banknotes were half a tael of silver and one tael of silver.

Five taels of silver and ten taels of silver.

"Jason, such treasure banknotes are easy to be counterfeited. You can find a printing factory to counterfeit them with a little effort. How can the Bank of Qing Dynasty do this? Isn't it afraid of counterfeit banknotes?"

Scopel William, General Manager of HSBC Bank and General Manager of Nanyang Bank, Rodriguez, Financial Advisor, and Military Advisor Luo Zenan were quickly summoned to the palace.

The person who asked this question was Scopel William. He arrived in Guangzhou only three months ago. Before that, he went to the United States. He went to the United States for the Jason Churchill Company to open a store in Richmond.

A large arsenal. This product includes Jason grenades, Hochisky grenades, Bessemer rifles and artillery of various calibers. It is mainly aimed at the American market, so after visiting Washington and Richmond, he also visited

Several big South American countries, so they missed their trip to China.

"It's just a piece of waste paper, who's happy to imitate it?" Zhu Jishi held a few treasure banknotes and looked at them over and over. Although he said so, he had been thinking about counterfeiting Qing Dynasty treasure banknotes for a long time. "

Scopel, can HSBC’s banknote printing factory be copied?”

Scopel William was startled and looked at Zhu Jishi, "Jason, making counterfeit banknotes is... a very dishonorable thing. If word gets out, it will affect the credibility of HSBC Bank."

Reputation is the life of a bank. If people know that HSBC is printing counterfeit banknotes, the brand that has been built so hard will be in trouble.

"That's right, we can't let HSBC get involved in this kind of thing." Zhu Jishi put down the banknotes in his hands and looked at Rodriguez: "Ricardo, what do you think? Do you want to make this counterfeit banknote?"

"Why not? HSBC can't participate, doesn't it mean that Ming Dynasty can't do it?" Rodriguez smiled, "Your Majesty the King, if we don't help the Qing Dynasty Bank to print more, where will Governor Lin Zexu of Liangjiang have the excuse to put this

Is Zhong Baoqian turned away?"

Jiangnan was still the territory of the Qing Dynasty, and Qing treasure banknotes could theoretically be circulated in Jiangnan. The Manchu and Qing court was likely to put pressure on Jiangnan's "Nanbang banknotes" and Yangzhou salt merchants, forcing them to accept the treasure banknotes in order to make money.

The wealth of Jiangnan.

Zhu Jishi nodded and relayed the contents of his conversation with Rodriguez and Scopel William to Luo Zenan and Wang Yunjiao in Chinese.

Rodriguez can speak fluent Chinese, but Scopel William has only arrived in China not long ago and has not mastered the complex Chinese language.

"Our soldiers will not go to Jiangnan for the time being, but the banknotes from HSBC must occupy the Jiangnan market. We cannot ask the Qing Bank to empty the pockets of Jiangnan people with treasure banknotes." Luo Zenan said after considering, "According to the news from the north

, now the Manchu Qing Dynasty allows people to use treasure banknotes to pay taxes, so these treasure banknotes are still somewhat useful. But... if we want to help the Manchu Qing Dynasty print it, we are afraid of ruining Lin Muweng's finances.

If the Qing Dynasty completely loses its financial resources in the south of the Yangtze River, how can it maintain the situation of competing with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom?"

"You can't be so defensive," Zhu Jishi smiled and waved his hand, "Jiangnan will always be our food. Now we are just not taking the land of Jiangnan for the time being. It does not mean that we don't want the benefits of Jiangnan. Among all the benefits, issuing banknotes and minting coins

The profit is the greatest, so the banknotes and gold, silver and copper coins from HSBC must occupy the Jiangnan market. And the Manchu banknotes and big money must be driven out!"

"Yes, printing treasure banknotes and minting big money is also a way to attack the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Why not let me take charge!" Rodriguez became excited, "If we print treasure banknotes with a face value of 30 million taels..."

Zhu Jishi looked at this guy's greedy look and laughed: "It's okay to leave it to you, but I can't give it to you for nothing. You give me two million silver dollars, and you have to promise to get the money out of Jiangnan within three months. I

I’ll just give you this job, and I don’t care how much you make from it.”

Two million, three months... Forging treasure banknotes is not difficult for Ming Dynasty. It is just to find someone to be rigid, but it will take three months to use the forged treasure banknotes to get more than two million and several hundred thousand silver dollars from the market.

Hard currency is hard to say. However, Rodriguez, a profiteer, has many methods, and this business is really profitable for him.

"Okay, two million, three months, I don't know if the Manchus can survive these three months."
Chapter completed!