Yuzhu was watching the artillery drills when he heard that Lao Qi had come to Dagukou in person.
Lao Qi came without saying hello. Obviously, he wanted to see what was going on in Dagu.
Since Yuzhu dares to do it, he is definitely not afraid of Lao Qi coming to see him.
So Lao Qi was invited into the new army's camp.
"Good brother, what do you want to do?"
Not telling secret words in front of Mingren, Lao Qi searched all over the capital but could not find Yuzhu.
Yuzhu smiled indifferently and said, "Brother Qi, I just want to save my life."
"Hey, why did you say that?" Lao Qi asked Yuzhu puzzled.
Yuzhu smiled slightly, picked up the tea cup, took a sip, and said softly: "Brother Qi, you deliberately didn't recruit Lao Shisi and Nian Gengyao back, why are you here?"
"This..." Lao Qi was speechless for a moment.
The time for the death of Emperor Daxing was not short.
If Lao Wu and Lao Qi deliberately wanted to recruit Lao Fourteen and Nian Gengyao, Nian Gengyao would have returned to Beijing long ago, and Lao Fourteen would have been on his way back to Beijing.
However, there has been no news from Lao Shishi and Nian Gengyao.
Obviously, someone needed them to send troops outside to deter Tong Jia Amo who was entrenched in Tianjin.
"Good brother, the capital still needs you to go back and take charge of the overall situation!" Lao Qi deliberately avoided sensitive topics and wanted to invite Yuzhu to return to the capital.
Yuzhu took another sip of tea and said with a smile: "I am self-aware, but I am naturally incapable of taking charge of the overall situation. I will just be a trumpeter for you, Fifth Brother and Seventh Brother!"
Hehe, this is so false!
However, there is a hint of truth within the falsehood.
The overall situation in the capital has always been presided over by Lao Wu and Lao Qi, and Yuzhu rarely speaks.
Even if Yuzhu goes back, he is really just a spectator.
Unless Lao Wu and Lao Qi give Yuzhu the title of regent.
However, if Yuzhu becomes the regent, what will happen?
Lao Qi said a lot of personal words in an attempt to move her emotionally.
As for Yuzhu, he insists that if Qingshan doesn't relax, it will be useless for him to go back. It's better to stay in Tianjin and be more carefree and happy.
Finally, Lao Qi was forced to have no choice but to bite the bullet and said: "The savings in the household department are running low. Can I borrow a few from Dagukou?"
Uh-huh, that’s right!
There are many troops in the northwest, and money flows out like water.
The court's land tax and commercial taxes are limited and cannot be doubled out of thin air.
In the past, when the old emperor was still alive, all the huge amounts of money earned from Dagukou went into the emperor's inner treasury.
However, the old emperor had just passed away, and all the money in Dagukou was intercepted by the jade pillar.
"Seventh brother, the savings in the Ministry of Finance were originally enough. However, someone secretly sent three months' salary to the northwest. Alas, how can that be possible?" Yuzhu was in Tianjin.
But he knew everything about the capital city.
Lao Qi was not too surprised. After all, the Bujun Yamen was in the hands of Sun Chengyun and Wu Sidao. How could Yuzhu not know about such a large sum of money being shipped out of the capital?
However, what is really strange to Lao Qi is that Yuzhu clearly knew that they were transporting military pay to the northwest, so why didn't he try every means to stop it?
Yuzhu could see Lao Qi's thoughts, but just pretended that he didn't see it.
Whether it is to occupy Tianjin or to expand the new army, Yuzhu does not cost the court a tael of silver.
Naturally, the imperial court had no idea how far Yuzhu had expanded his army.
Yuzhu is not an ordinary person, he is one of the eight important ministers of Tuogu.
With Yuzhu's status in the temple, as long as he does not openly raise the flag to rebel, if the court really wants to punish him, there must be a solid reason.
Of course, the fundamental problem is that the military power of the capital lies in Yuzhu's hands.
Even if you want to arrest him, you still have to see if the officers and soldiers of the New Army will agree to it?
"Haha, since it is Brother Qi who has spoken, I must give you your face." Yuzhu raised his chin and ordered loudly, "Come here, take one million taels of silver and bring it back to Brother Qi for urgent use."
Lao Qi, how are you? Is it interesting?
I know clearly that you are making small moves in secret and want to contain me. You are really short of money and you have to borrow money from me, right?
Lao Qiwan never expected that Yuzhu opened his mouth and gave him one million taels of silver.
How much money can Dagukou Pier make in one year?
Lao Qi's first thought was this question.
Seeing that Lao Qi was shocked, Yuzhu raised the corners of his mouth slightly, "You are still very young when it comes to playing with money!"
In fact, the net profit of Dagukou in one year is only a few million taels of silver, not much.
The real cornucopia of jade pillars is actually the cosmic ticket number.
Not to mention anything else, in Suzhou alone, the annual net profit of the Universe bank account exceeds 1.5 million taels of silver.
What about Hangzhou, Jiangning, Guangzhou, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Huguang?
In addition, Yuzhu took advantage of the information gap and asked Mrs. Zhen to issue five-year public bonds in various places in advance using the equity of the Universal Bank Bank as guarantee, raising more than 30 million taels of silver in one go.
In addition, twenty elders from Jiangnan donated eight million taels of silver.
When the old emperor was alive, the total fiscal revenue in the highest year was only 40 million taels of silver.
To be honest, the money Yuzhu has on hand has exceeded the total fiscal revenue of the imperial court for a year.
The imperial court's financial revenue also needs to support officials, Eight Banners soldiers and Green Camp soldiers all over the world.
The money in Yuzhu's hands is only needed to feed the new army.
To feed 50,000 new troops a year would cost you, at best, 14 million taels of silver.
Among them, military pay accounts for the bulk, which is less than 800,000 taels of silver per month and 9.6 million taels a year.
The import of weapons and equipment has been basically completed. The consumption of gunpowder does not cost much money. Anyway, the gunpowder, artillery and flintlock guns replenished from the UK are being continuously shipped from the sea.
In this era, Britain was eager to develop more in-depth and extensive free trade with the Qing Dynasty.
Yuzhu was the most powerful person in the Qing Dynasty. Not only did he value business, he also had a good reputation for cooperation and had never breached a contract.
Therefore, in addition to the blueprints and craftsmen for building super battleships, the supply of various British standard weapons and equipment is completely unrestricted.
The British always wanted Yuzhu, and Yuzhu offered silk, tea and porcelain in exchange for British guns.
To be honest, today's silk, tea and porcelain are super hard currencies in the UK and even in Europe.
As long as the British merchants transport these three treasures back, not many ships will capsize at sea, and the profit will be more than ten times, or even dozens of times, if they are resold.
Great mutual benefit, hehe, this kind of cooperation is unbreakable!
Firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, tea, fresh vegetables, meat, flour, etc., actually don’t account for a high proportion. They make up to 200,000 taels per month, right?
Yuzhu did not fight an unprepared battle, so he borrowed enough money in advance, hired hundreds of foreign merchant ships, and traveled all over the world to purchase daily military supplies.
To put it bluntly, Yuzhu has plenty of time and can spend it leisurely with the Manchu nobles.
It took half a year to form 50,000 new troops. It took one year to form 100,000 new troops!
Hey, what is the concept of a new army of 100,000 armed to the teeth?
Sweeping across the entire Asian continent invincibly!
Therefore, Yuzhu knew clearly that Lao Wu and Lao Qi secretly gave blood to Lao Fourteen and Nian Gengyao, but he just pretended not to see it.
Anyway, the longer it is delayed, the better it will be for Yuzhu.
Yuzhu casually smashed out a million taels of silver and knocked Lao Qi unconscious on the spot. He could no longer speak and asked Yuzhu to return to Beijing.
After sending away Lao Qi, Jiang Sheng came in, bowed and said, "Your Majesty, there are more than a dozen foreign ships arriving at the pier. Mrs. Alice sent someone to invite you over."
Yuzhu noticed that Jiang Sheng's title had undergone a surprising change, from Zhongtang to: Lord.
Uh-huh, there are so many twists and turns in the minds of educated people, how can the issue of address be such a small thing?
It’s clear, Jiang Sheng recognizes Yuzhu as his lord!
Surrounded by the guards, Yuzhu and Jiang Sheng rushed to the dock area in the same car.
Alice handed Yuzhu a list. When Yuzhu was studying the list attentively, Jiang Sheng looked over and was immediately dumbfounded. It was all in foreign language, which he couldn't understand at all.
Jiang Sheng glanced at Yuzhu secretly, and felt very strange in his heart. When did the Lord learn foreign languages?
Yuzhu was extremely happy to see that there were quite a few sleeve-type bayonets, as many as one hundred thousand.
According to Alice's introduction, these sleeve-type bayonets were originally ordered by the Prussian Army. However, when delivery was approaching, the Prussian Army actually did not want them.
The British arms manufacturers did not want to lose money in vain, so they simply shipped it to the Qing Dynasty to see if they wanted Yuzhu.
Because the bayonets imported by Yuzhu before were all sleeve-type bayonets. During marching and fighting, some wear and tear was inevitable.
In addition to sleeved bayonets, Belgian arms dealers also brought 3,000 of Belgium's latest inventions, flintlock lances.
This kind of lance is between a rifle and a pistol in length, about 50 centimeters, and has an effective range of 30 meters.
In today's era, the effective range of the flintlock smoothbore pistol is too short. It cannot shoot accurately at targets ten meters away. It is really useless for ordinary soldiers.
However, the rifle was too long, making it inconvenient to shoot while riding a horse.
Yuzhu picked up a sample gun casually. Well, the lance in his hand looked like a rifle with some barrels shortened. In other aspects, it was very similar to a rifle. It even had a rifle-style butt, but the length was shorter.
The rifle is much shorter.
Based on Yuzhu's knowledge, this kind of lance is very similar to a carbine.
The standard equipment of Yuzhu's guards is that each person has a rifle, a pistol, and a long knife.
If the pistol, which has an almost negligible range, is replaced by this kind of lance, Yuzhu's safety will be even more guaranteed.
"Tell them, I want both lances and bayonets. But, I want them all at a 50% discount." Yuzhu knew in his heart that the foreign arms dealers simply brought these weapons to the far east to try them.
Just luck.
After fierce bargaining, the deal was finally settled at a 40% discount.
Several foreign businessmen kept crying about their poverty and their huge losses.
Yuzhu just pretended not to hear, Damn, arms are the most profitable commodity, okay?