After the reconstruction, the Jinyiwei intelligence network spread quickly across the mainland!
But it has little to do with Zhou Tianxu, the commander!
To be honest, Zhou Tianxu is not bad in ability, otherwise even if Zhu Hongyu trusted him again, he would not always let him be the commander of the Ming Dynasty's imperial guards.
Zhu Hongyu knows better than anyone how important intelligence is to a country!
He would never allow the Ming Dynasty's Jinyiwei commander to be a waste!
However, Zhou Tianxu's ability can be considered excellent at best.
It is absolutely impossible to do it. Counting from the first Northern Expedition of the Liberation Army, it only took nearly a year to spread the intelligence network to the entire continent!
The most fundamental reason why Jin Yiwei's intelligence network can spread so quickly is actually the people's hearts!
Although I dare not say that it is 100% of the common people and gentry under the Qing court, at least 90% of them are committed to the Ming Dynasty.
In other words, when conducting intelligence work in the Ming Dynasty, basically everywhere we go, there are "fellows" who are willing to provide help for free.
Under such circumstances, it is not difficult to understand that the intelligence network can be spread quickly!
Zhu Hongyu fell into deep thought, since the Qing court, the Dutch and the British were colluding together.
Shang Kexi wanted to keep his Pingnan Palace business, but he no longer had to keep the Macau Commercial Port, the stronghold of the Ming army on the mainland.
Shang Kexi can transfer Macau to the Dutch or the real British after conquering it, and the two parties will continue to do business.
If this happens, Macau will really be in danger!
Zhu Hongyu nodded slightly to show that he understood, and was about to call the generals of the Liberation Army to discuss the matter when he turned around.
Then he continued to ask.
"Apart from that, is there anything else?"
Zhou Tianxu then spoke.
"The Qing government and the Dutch asked for a group of Western shipwrights, and also recruited shipwrights from all over the country to start building warships at the Longjiang Shipyard."
"Also, our people in Jiangnan are already making preparations to rescue the victims of the Ming Dynasty and invite a group of Jiangnan scholars to Luzon."
Zhu Hongyu nodded slightly when he heard this, and a trace of envy for the Qing court flashed deep in his eyes.
When it comes to building a ship, you have to build a ship. There is no need to worry about craftsmen and wood at all!
Needless to say about craftsmen, the Qing government's vast territory and abundant resources are not just exaggerated, and they can easily recruit many shipwrights.
Coupled with the attraction of shipwrights sent by the Dutch to the Qing court, shipbuilding will not be a problem!
There is no big problem with the wood!
Shipbuilding wood does need to be shade-dried before it can be used, but the Qing court had no shortage of shade-dried wood.
Of course, this is not because the Qing government prepared shade-dried wood in advance for shipbuilding!
It's because, in addition to shipbuilding, the wood for making coffins also needs to be dried in the shade...
Chinese people's custom in funerals is that once a person gets older, they will start to prepare good wood in advance and put it on the wall of their yard to dry in the shade.
When I die, I will use this wood that has been dried for several years in advance to make coffin boards!
As long as the Qing government could show off its dignity and order the coffin boards of the people to be robbed, there would be no shortage of wood for shipbuilding.
So, the question is, can the Qing court be willing to show off its face?
The answer is yes!
When will I, the Qing Dynasty, show my face?!
Zhu Hongyu took a deep breath, narrowed his eyes and said.
"It seems like this year is not going to be a good one!"
"Send an order to summon the generals of the Liberation Army for a meeting!"
Wang Ruxian went to deliver the order, and Zhu Hongyu also took Zhou Tianxu to the conference room.
…
Zhu Hongyu didn't have to wait long before all the generals of the Liberation Army gathered in Zhenyuan City.
The generals outside Zhenyuan City are also on their way!
Zhu Hongyu's matter Zhou Tianxu explained the matter to everyone, and everyone looked worried.
Next, the generals of the Liberation Army gradually arrived outside Zhenyuan City!
When Zhu Hongyu saw that everyone was gathered, he opened his mouth to announce the meeting.
"Everyone must know what happened in Macau. The old thief Shang Kexishang is moving his troops, and the target is most likely Macau!"
"Since our army regained Macau at the beginning of this year, for more than half a year, the island of Macau has provided our army with a profit of less than two million silver dollars."
This is despite sharing Macau’s tax revenue equally with Zheng Jun!
Of course, the Guangfu Army's income of less than two million silver dollars in most half a year was not only tax revenue, the bulk was also trade income!
If a tax of two million silver dollars is collected in a small Macao for most of the year, then it is really killing the goose to get rid of the eggs, and depleting the fish!
In terms of tax revenue alone, after dividing it equally with Zheng Jun, the Guangfu Army probably still had more than 200,000 silver dollars in its account.
Not an exaggeration, but not a lot!
"Now Shang Kexi Shang is an old thief who wants to take away my Ming Dynasty's Macau. Tell me, can you agree?!"
Everyone spoke one after another, filled with indignation.
"No, I will never agree!"
“Macau is my Ming Dynasty’s Macau!”
"Macau must not fall into the hands of the Qing Dynasty!"
"..."
The Liberation Army's finances are currently very strong, even if we don't count taxes in kind such as food.
There can also be an income of three to four million silver dollars every year!
If it were the case in the past, such a small amount of tax every year would definitely not be enough.
But the current Liberation Army only has two territories, Luzon and Qiongzhou!
At most, there is one Hong Kong, one Macau, and a fortress on the Leizhou Peninsula, and then there is the rebel army on the Zhoushan Islands.
The smaller the stall, the lower the cost of maintaining the stall.
Even at present, Zhu Hongyu is raising troops with high salaries, improving the treatment of officials, rapidly expanding the number of officials in order to decentralize power to the town level, carrying out large-scale construction on his own territory... and other large-scale spending.
The financial situation of the Liberation Army is still quite comfortable!
The main reason why we are so wealthy is the income from industrial and commercial development and trade.
In the foreign trade of the Liberation Army, Macao, the port facing the mainland, was definitely the top priority.
Because, even though it became dilapidated in the wars between the Ming and Qing Dynasties, China under the Qing Dynasty was still the largest consumer market in the world.
The Guangfu Army developed industry and commerce, and most of the goods produced were sold to the mainland!
When doing trade with Westerners, the bulk of it is actually luxury goods such as silk, porcelain, tea, sugar, etc. There are not many ordinary industrial products.
Because the distance between east and west is too far, the probability of something happening along the way is too high!
Storms, pirates, epidemics... all kinds of accidents can kill people!
In this era, due to the technical limitations of shipbuilding and navigation, if ten ships set out together, only two or three might come back, and no more than half would come back.
With such a crash rate, a Western businessman traveling to the East would be in trouble trying to bring back a shipload of cloth.
If you want to make money, you can only do luxury goods business!
All in all, the Liberation Army cannot lose the port of Macau.
If Macao's annual income of two million silver dollars were suddenly eliminated, the entire system of the Liberation Army might have problems.
Without the large market in the Central Plains, many goods produced by the Liberation Army would have no place to sell, and the development of industry and commerce would be a joke.
For this reason, Zhu Hongyu even made up his mind to fight a decisive battle for the sake of Macau fellow Shang Kexi.