After nightfall, Huang Jinnian also rushed to Lin Xuwen's house and met with Lin Mengde and Zhou Guangnan.
"The war in southern Zhejiang has just ended, and Kuaiji has won another great victory. It's really a relief..." Huang Jinnian passed through the corridor to transfer the house, and saw Lin Mengde and Zhou Guangnan, laughing loudly and looking very excited.
Zhang Xie was the late emperor's favored minister, and he also shouldered the heavy responsibility of staying behind. He surrendered to the captives without fighting. No matter how much integrity those Confucian Qingliu had, they regarded Zhang Xie as a great shame for scholars in their jokes. His son Zhang Xitong eventually died.
If they were able to escape being killed by offering wine and poison, officials of the Chu Party would naturally suffer a heavy blow.
Although Yue Lengqiu, Huang Jinnian, Liu Yefei and other former Chu Party cadres did not bring charges against the new emperor, from time to time officials would come forward to bring up old matters and expose their scars - Huang Jinnian was often impeached by officials in Jiangning during this period.
, was also quite embarrassed. Although Emperor Yongxing did not pursue the old matter, he allowed his officials to hand over impeachment accusations, which meant that he was conniving.
The Huaidong Army won another victory in Kuaiji. The news was reported to Jiangning. The day before yesterday, some officials brought up the old matter again and impeached Huang Jinnian, but Emperor Yongxing reprimanded him on the spot.
There are too many things involved behind the scenes, but after all, Huaidong is behind him and he is confident. No wonder Huang Jinnian was so happy when he saw Lin Mengde and Zhou Guangnan coming from Chongzhou today.
"The situation in Kuaiji is very tense. If we fight another battle, the situation on the southern front will be clear. Can Huaidong be completely sure?" Huang Jinnian asked.
Lin Mengde smiled and said: "I'm afraid it's hard to have a big war, but it's hard to say..."
"Kuiji is a land of plenty. Fighting in a stalemate will prevent the She family from receiving the benefits of Kuaiji's grain and taxation. It will be a great victory for Huaidong." Huang Jinnian was quite puzzled when he heard Lin Mengde's judgment that there would be no major war in eastern Zhejiang in the near future.
, said, "If the situation continues like this, the She family will collapse sooner or later... The She family is really willing to lose Kuaiji?"
There are many mountains in the hinterland of Zhejiang and Fujian, and most of the land suitable for farming is concentrated in the coastal valleys and plains; Eastern Fujian has been frequently harassed by Huaidong Shuiying, and has shown its fatigue. Since two months, Shejia has lost Yongjia, Taizhou and other coastal counties.
, this time the Huaidong Army occupied Kuaiji City, turning the sacred land between Cao'e River and Puyang River into a war zone. The She family's already overburdened finances will only worsen.
This is also the strategy Lin Fu formulated after his attack on eastern Zhejiang last year: even if he cannot directly defeat the She family, he must also bring down the She family.
Today, the Zhejiang and Fujian armies still have about 120,000 to 30,000 soldiers and horses in various parts of Zhejiang County. During the war, the generals have to fill their stomachs, and in addition to the requisition of civilians, as well as the food and transportation consumption of mules and horses, the She family has to say at least from
Zhejiang County raised one million stones of grain.
After Yongjia and the coastal counties of Taizhou fell, Kuaiji became a war zone again. The only major grain-producing area controlled by the She family in Zhejiang County was the Guyuan in central Zhejiang with Quzhou Prefecture as the core. Where could they raise such grain?
Once Zhejiang County has a large shortage of grain, it will have to be transferred from Jin'an, Quanzhou, Jian'an and other places and transported through Xianxia Ridge Road. The cost of the journey is huge, and it is not something that the She family can afford at this time.
What's more, when leading an army in a battle, it's not over until the soldiers are well fed. Shoes, clothes, armor, arrows, wounds, medicine, tents, ordnance, and mules and horses are all items that don't require money to be invested in. The more frequent the wars, the greater the consumption.
Huang Jinnian had been working in the Ministry of Household Affairs for a long time, and he had made extremely accurate calculations. He knew that if the situation in eastern Zhejiang continued like this, for a year and a half, the She family would be unable to sustain it, and would shrink its main force to the hinterland of East Fujian.
Once the She family gave up Zhejiang County and retracted their troops to the hinterland of Eastern Fujian, Jin'an, Quanzhou and other offshore counties were within the attack range of the Huaidong Water Camp, and they could not escape the end of destruction.
It was precisely because of this idea that Huang Jinnian judged that there would be a war in Kuaiji in the near future - the sacred land of Kuaiji was too important to the She family.
Most people in Jiangning believe that the She family will not give up on Kuaiji easily and will inevitably gather a large army to fight Huaidong in Kuaiji, which also makes many people's minds extremely complicated - the situation in eastern Zhejiang is directly related to the safety of Jiangning's periphery, so naturally no one wants to
Huaidong was defeated miserably, but no one like Yue Lengqiu, Chen Xiyan, Yu Xinyuan, Zhang Yan, and even the new emperor Yuan Jianwu expected the Huaidong Army to win a big victory easily.
Among the generals leading the army at Jiang Ning, no one was more famous than Lin Fu at this time.
Regarding Huang Jinnian's doubts, Lin Mengde explained: "According to your judgment, after the Huaidong Army captured Kuaiji City, we will have a firm advantage in eastern Zhejiang, while the Zhejiang and Fujian Army have gathered heavy troops in Shanyin and Xiaoshan.
There is no need to seize the city by force. An actual attack will be extremely difficult, and the casualties will be unimaginable. The Zhejiang and Fujian armies were defeated hastily in this battle, and it is no longer possible to gather more troops in eastern Zhejiang in a short period of time. This is a luxury.
The brothers in Shanyin and Xiaoshan have assembled a total of 60,000 elite troops. The Huaidong Army crossed the Cao'e River and entered the west bank, with nearly 50,000 soldiers and horses. If the Zhejiang and Fujian Army really wants to forcibly retake Kuaiji, this is what adults expect, but the reality is very low.
It’s hard to do that…”
"If the She family can't fight on the Eastern Front, will they fight on the Western Front?" Sun Wenbing asked his guess.
"This is very possible," Lin Mengde said, "but the brains are in other people's heads. What the She family will do next, we can only wait and see what happens - I am worried that the She family will collapse.
Huaidong itself will be unable to sustain it first. Do you know how much military resources Huaidong invested in the southern front in half a year?"
"How much?" Huang Jinnian asked.
"Nearly 1.4 million taels of silver," Lin Mengde reported a figure. Looking at Lin Xuwen, Huang Jinnian was quite surprised. He laughed and said, "This is the figure after deducting casualty pensions and local donations. Otherwise,
It would be scarier."
Huang Jinnian was born in the household department, and he knew that when the war broke out, money would be spent like running water, and he could not cover it with his hand. Huaidong was under the rule of Lin Fu, and his official history was clean and corrupt. According to Huaidong's situation on the southern front
Given the scale of the garrison and the war, such an expense was reasonable, but Lin Mengde was still shocked when he reported it himself.
"Even if the battle in Kuaiji does not continue, the Huaidong Military Division's expenses this year should be at least three million taels of silver, right?" Huang Jinnian asked.
"We still have to leave a margin for Huai Si. We have to raise a total of 3.6 million taels of silver this year, and we have to hope that the She family will stop fighting in Kuaiji," Lin Mengde said, "When we were making plans at the end of last year,
This year we only plan to spend 2.6 million taels of silver. As a result, there is a big hole left... Guangnan and I will try our best to fill this hole."
"Is there still one million taels left?" Huang Jinnian asked.
"It's not that much worse; if we can raise more, we can leave some margin for next year," Lin Mengde said. "Who knows how the war will be fought and how long it will last?"
"It's a blessing that there are adults in charge of Huaidong, otherwise how could the situation in Jianghuai be sustained?" Huang Jinnian said with emotion.
Hailing, Huai'an and Mingzhou, the three prefectures can normally pay less than one million taels of tax and grain to the treasury every year. However, Lin Fu can use the land of these three prefectures to support three to four million taels of food every year.
Yin's military expenditure - If Lin Fu hadn't managed politics well and used the land of the three prefectures to generate nearly two million taels of silver every year, how could he have used troops on the Eastern Front and hit the She family one after another? How could he have used Huaiyang to do so?
As the center of gravity, build a solid defense line in Huaisi?
Now that there is still a shortage of military resources, the simplest and most direct way is to borrow from Huaidong Bank - but Huaidong Bank is also a chicken that can lay eggs without eating food.
As of today, Huaidong Bank has raised more than six million taels of principal, a huge amount that Zhou Guangnan and others could not have imagined when it was founded - but this number seems huge, but in fact it cannot help but spend lavishly. Only
Lin Fu borrowed two million taels of silver from the bank in the name of Huaidong Military Division, and Lin Fu instructed the bank to vigorously support the construction of factories in Huaidong, such as supporting various mining companies in Haidong.
Just invested seven to eight hundred thousand taels of silver, and Huaidong Bank's money was also very tight.
The best way for a bank to expand its financial resources and accumulate capital is to open branches in Jiangning, Weiyang and other places where wealthy people gather. Jiangning is the newly established imperial capital, where officials and gentry gather, needless to say; Weiyang is home to salt merchants, and even more
It is to accumulate huge wealth.
However, if Huaidong Bank wants to expand to areas outside Huaidong, it does not mean simply sending shopkeepers and clerks there. Even if it does not get the support of the local government, it must have a name of justice. Only in this way, if something happens in the future
If something went wrong, Huaidong would have excuses to intervene through various means.
Jiangning and Weiyang, neither Wang Xueshan nor Shen Rong were friendly to Huaidong, so Lin Mengde and Zhou Guangnan came here to directly obtain the imperial approval of Emperor Yongxing or the official approval of the Ministry of Revenue through Lin Xuwen and Huang Jinnian.
We can directly bypass Wang Xueshan, Shen Rong and other officials who are not good to Huaidong.
"Of course, this is still on the surface," Lin Mengde said, "To take the original words of the adults: You can't just think about using force to control more places. In fact, to control an area, other means of penetration will be more effective.
Force is only the last resort... Originally, Huaidong could not directly collect taxes from Weiyang and Jiangning, but in fact, Huaidong only dumped taxes from Weiyang and Jiangning last year.
Cotton yarn and cotton cloth can be exchanged for 400,000 taels of silver. Even not counting the profits of the factories under the jurisdiction of the Huaidong Army Division, the Huaidong Army Division also directly received nearly 40,000 taels of silver from the dumping of cotton yarn and cotton cloth.
In addition, nowadays, almost all of Jiangning's iron smelting workshops are controlled for the production of ordnance. However, when Jiangning was first established as the imperial capital, the dignitaries were busy building luxurious houses. The consumption of iron and wood was very high, and inferior iron was also priced in copper. Huaidong
In the first five months of this year alone, the Metallurgical Supervision Bureau under the direct jurisdiction of the Military Department dumped one million kilograms of iron materials, worth 140,000 taels of silver, to Jiangning, Weiyang and other places.
Contributions made…”
"So many?" Huang Jinnian asked in surprise. He was still quite unfamiliar with Huaidong's operating model, and the path pioneered by Lin Fu suddenly broadened his horizons.
think.
"Without this income, how could we support your generosity?" Lin Mengde said.
"That's right," Huang Jinnian smiled and said, "Huaidong's military expenditure this year will reach 3.6 million taels of silver. Will it not get 5 million taels of silver next year? The military resources allocated by Jiangning,
On the surface, it is a bit more than this, but in actual use, I am afraid there is not even five million taels of silver! Regardless of the military achievements, just looking at the use of silver, Huaidong is evenly matched with Jiangning..."
"...Uncle Mengde is still complaining here. If it weren't for these methods of Lao Qi, where would Huaidong raise the money?" Lin Xuwen responded with a smile and said, "There is also the matter of the bank, which can be used as a sharp weapon.
——Not to mention that there are still many people in Jiangning City who have the guts to criticize Huaidong, but I heard from Wen Bing that many people heard that depositing money in a bank can earn interest, which is better than buying land and collecting rent.
It was still convenient, but the conversation began to change...In Weiyang, Jiang Ning took advantage of the situation, and in eastern Zhejiang to bring down the She family, it was the best way to defeat the enemy without fighting!"
At present, there is no possibility for Huaidong to directly control Weiyang, Pingjiang, Danyang, Hangzhou, Huzhou, Jiaxing and other places. The strategy that can be adopted is to weaken the military power of these places and then penetrate and control them through soft means such as trade and banks.
To do these things, we must ultimately achieve the goal that even if Huaidong cannot directly send troops to garrison these areas, these areas must be economically reduced to Huaidong's vassals, so that Huaidong can continuously extract money from these areas through soft means such as trade.
Money, food and resources were even used to win over these places and support a group of local forces that identified with Huaidong.