If Yong State is just high mountains and poverty, then Cao State is desolate and poor.
This place has been a deserted place since ancient times. It is located in the southeast of Kashmir.
With the Kunlun Mountains to the north, the Himalayas to the south, and the Kashmir Valley to the southwest, the entire territory is on the roof of the world.
The huge Cao State, with a total population of only about 200,000, faced attacks from local kings from the Kashmir region at any time, and the people suffered greatly.
Looking at Taoqiu, the capital of the country, which is like a Tucheng, Cao Guo felt a little desperate: "If we talk about poverty, no one can compare with Taoqiu, right?"
Even though he brought more than ten thousand vassals, Cao's country was still half-dead.
The pressure brought by the Mughal Empire next to him made him quite angry.
"Your Highness, don't worry, the stuff is on the way. It will arrive in three to five days!"
The middle-aged man on the side smiled and said: "The guns and artillery are guaranteed to be complete, and we can easily deal with some barbarians!"
King Cao glanced at him and breathed a sigh of relief: "It would be nice if the interest rate was lower."
"Your Highness, we live on interest rates!" the man said with a grimace.
King Cao felt quite awkward.
The man in front of me was the manager of Pacific Bank. When I was in the capital, I had a good chat with him, and then we got a loan.
The money given by the imperial court and the Ministry of Internal Affairs was only 1.8 million, which happened to be enough to establish Cao Guo, with more than enough self-preservation but not enough expansion.
Other kingdoms can still make money by developing immigrants, but Cao has nothing because not many immigrants come because of the terrain.
This was unacceptable to King Cao, who was ambitious and wanted to expand his territory and restructure his country.
I wanted to borrow money from the emperor, but the emperor politely refused.
Because the son borrowed money from me, it was impossible to repay it, and the old emperor did not dare to open the door. With so many sons, it would not be enough to empty the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Therefore, he could only borrow 500,000 from the Pacific Bank opened by the emperor, with an annual interest rate of 5%.
The money was used by him to buy muskets, artillery, armor and horses, etc., and he is now on his way.
More than a thousand Mongolian elite cavalry as the core, two thousand musketry battalions, and seven thousand native soldiers constituted the main force of Cao State.
These were the main forces of his conquest against the Kingdom of Kashmir.
The Shangcao Kingdom on the plateau is too barren. The only way out for the Cao Kingdom is to conquer the Kashmir Kingdom to the south.
"You said, how should we face the Mughals if we take over Kashmir?"
King Cao was uneasy.
"Your Highness, you have forgotten that hundreds of miles away to the northwest, the former Badak Mountains are already the Xing Kingdom, and further north is the Liao Kingdom. They are your brothers and legitimate allies!"
"That's right!" King Cao nodded.
The man continued: "The people of Kashmir are very rich. Everyone wears gold and silver. The palaces are full of gold, and the Buddha statues are covered with gold foil!"
"As long as we capture Kashmir, we can pay off the half million just by capturing it."
"I heard that there are millions of people in Kashmir!" King Cao remained rational.
"But they have no firearms. They are just uncivilized savages. No matter how many people there are, it will not work. Besides, these millions of people will be the people under your rule from now on!"
"Hahaha, that's right -" King Cao thought about it and felt happy immediately.
…
Jiangxi, Jiujiang Prefecture.
"You play the drums, I beat the gongs, and I sing with the gongs and drums in hand. I don't want to sing any other songs. I just want to sing about a good life——"
"You have no money, you are exhausted, your wife and children are trembling with hunger, why not immigrate overseas, divide the fields and raise cattle, cattle and sheep, and live a wonderful life!"
On the threshing floor, a stage was set up at some point. The villagers sat around, and the children stared at the stage with their eyes wide open.
In their busy and poor lives, the usual spiritual entertainment is nothing more than weddings and funerals. Where have you ever heard of such a good show?
I saw men playing gongs and women playing drums, singing and singing together, going back and forth.
"Let me ask you, what country do you have?" the man asked with a smile.
"You can't make this difficult for me!" The woman beat the drum and twisted her waist and sang: "There is Qin State in the south of Lingnan. It has three meals a year and is hungry!"
"On the side of the South China Sea lies the State of Qi, which has three crops a year and endless mountains of gold and silver to mine—"
"There is also a Yue country in the northeast, which divides fields and dogs. It is better to eat more meat than rice..."
Listening to this local emphasis on Fengyang flower drum, the villagers listened to it in their minds and hearts, and turned it over and over again.
Although they are always said to be ignorant, when it comes to how to survive, they are extremely shrewd and know how to weigh the pros and cons.
They always remember things that are related to the future very clearly.
Soon after the flower drum opera ended, another storyteller came up and took a photo of the Gael:
"Let's say that Zhang San lost his eldest (father) and mother when he was young, and he depended on his father (grandfather) for life. He finally married a daughter-in-law, but his father passed away. Little did he know that the rich man was thinking about the three children of his family.
Mu water irrigates the land..."
"He suddenly sold his land and moved his family to Qi. Guess what? As soon as he landed, there were a hundred acres of irrigated land waiting for him..."
"Teacher, your performance in this opera is extraordinary!"
The village chief smoked a dry cigarette and stared at the stage. For him, such spiritual entertainment was rare.
Not to mention, this group of people is much better than the grass-roots team in the countryside.
That girl is so juicy, tenderer than tofu!
"It's okay, we just make a living!" the class leader said with a smile: "We receive food and salary from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to educate the people on behalf of the emperor."
The old village chief was shocked. The Ministry of Internal Affairs was shocked when he heard this. He bent his waist a few inches unconsciously and smiled: "That's it, that's it."
"It's just that, you sing about immigration, that's all..."
Unlike ordinary farmers, the village chief is knowledgeable and immediately realized that the troupe was encouraging people to immigrate, which was serious.
In rural areas, competition for land and water relies on labor force.
The number of people is the decisive condition.
"This is the arrangement of the imperial court!" the class leader said casually: "Besides, I took a look and found that your village has a population of about 400. Although we don't charge a small fee now, we can't live like this!"
"How many oligarchs are there in the village?"
"Twenty or so!" The village chief put down his cigarette and sighed: "These cowards know how to give away more children to men than to women..."
"I've heard that if you immigrate to an overseas vassal country, you'll be given one dollar per person!" the class leader came over and whispered.
"For whom?"
"You!"
"I?"
"Yes, but it can't be you. You have to persuade those humble men to move away to make money!"
"It's my fault!" the village chief said through gritted teeth: "I can do whatever it takes to get these humble men to marry a pot cook. I'll tell you right now!"
"Don't worry, it's not too late to go after the singing!" The class leader grabbed him and said with a smile: "We will only stay in the village for two hours. We have to go to the countryside to sing later, but it will not be so easy to listen!"
As he spoke, he took out a pocket watch from his arms and took a look at the time.
"this?"
"Pocket watches are priceless but not marketable!" the class leader showed off: "Isn't this what we are doing to teach? The superior officer rewarded me with one piece when he saw our efforts. We can get hundreds of pieces on the market!"
The village chief's eyes widened.
When the song ended, a group of people gathered around and asked questions, especially about the treatment and benefits of immigrants from the feudal country.
"There are pots for cooking, there are also cows, and there are countless fields. If you want to go, just go to the dock. There are people there to collect them..."
After dealing with this group of people, the troupe continued on their way.
Halfway through, a young man named Li Huowang came over and wanted to give him a ride, which was fine.
Seeing that the young man was lonely, with scars all over his body, he didn't know what to ask, and his spirit was a little abnormal. The class leader felt pity, and then he shook his head and said: "That's it, you can follow our team from now on. What skills do you know?"
"Me?" Li Huowang said confusedly: "Does dancing as a master count?"
"also!"
The class leader nodded and said: "If you encounter a dead person, you can still make a living..."
In Jiujiang Fucheng, with the arrival of the New Year, many opera troupes have gathered one after another.
For weddings, births, and birthdays, the favorite thing for wealthy families is to invite a theater troupe, which is lively and decent.
The theater troupes gathered in Jiujiang because the Ministry of Internal Affairs rewarded and punished the theater troupes for visiting villages and towns in the past year.
Although the troupes do not receive money from the Ministry of Internal Affairs on weekdays, as long as they hang out with the Ministry of Internal Affairs when they are wandering around, their safety is greatly guaranteed. This cannot be exchanged.
Making money while preaching education and collecting information is an easy task for the troupe.
The reason why it is located in Jiujiang instead of the provincial capital Nanchang is because Jiujiang Prefecture is close to the Yangtze River and has the largest number of imperial merchants here.
"Twelve troupes visited forty-two counties last year, covering most of Jiangxi..."
Chen Zixiao, the director of Jiangxi Province at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, muttered, watching the troupe collect a large pile of information and analyzing the key points.
Although Jinyiwei has hundreds of offices in various prefectures, they can only collect superficial articles, and they are bribed and guarded by officials.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs is different. It goes directly to the countryside and can better understand the actual situation.
"The gentry of Jinxian County, Nanchang Prefecture, filled in part of Qinglan Lake and acquired 18,000 acres of land..."
"There are water bandits in Raozhou Prefecture, and they rob several villages in Tongzidu. The local government is unable to suppress the bandits..."
"Several teams of the Poyang Lake Navy are marrying concubines and buying a lot of land by force. It seems they haven't gone to the county government to pay the deed tax yet——"
"If you didn't pay the deed tax? Isn't that a white deed?"
He shook his head and smiled, and then his smile solidified: "Where did the money come from? There happened to be water bandits hundreds of miles away..."
He stood up quickly, immediately wrote down the news, and then sent someone to investigate the navy's transfer records.
When he learned that he had gone out privately to deal with the water bandits robbing the village, he was overjoyed.
Three circles were drawn on the envelope, evidence was attached, and someone was immediately ordered to deliver it to the capital.
The army pretended to be water bandits to steal money. This was a shocking event.
For the officialdom, it can be described as a big earthquake.
Chen Zixiao didn't know if there was any news about Jin Yiwei, but this was indeed an opportunity for the Ministry of Internal Affairs to prove its strength, and it was also his opportunity.
When he thought that his name would be heard directly by the Holy Spirit, he was trembling with excitement.
The Minister of the Interior, Duan Mengshu, noticed a key sensitive point: military power.
The navy was dispatched for no reason, and the navy plundered the people.
Comparing the two, the latter naturally seems important, but the former is even more critical.
He did not dare to neglect and hurriedly went to the palace to deliver the news.
As expected, the emperor fell into deep thought after reading it.
"I understand, get down!"
"Yes!" Duan Mengshu knew the emperor very well. He immediately knew that the old emperor had accumulated anger in his heart and was about to vent it.
Soon, Gongsun Qize, the commander of the Jin Yiwei, left the capital in a state of embarrassment and disappeared without a trace.
Immediately afterwards, the Poyang Lake Navy guerrillas were dismissed.
A group of patrol censors from the Inspectorate rushed towards the south in a menacing manner.
The entire Yangtze River Navy ushered in a major overhaul.
At the same time, the entire inland water division ushered in rectification.
The Naval Division was renamed the Naval Division.
It has jurisdiction over the Bohai Sea Navy, East Sea Navy, Nanyang Navy, Nanyang Navy, Yellow River Navy, and Yangtze River Navy.
Among them, the Yellow River Navy governs the navies in the north, and the Yangtze River Navy governs the navies in the south.
A battalion is set up for large lakes and big rivers, under the direct control of the Navy Department; small lakes and small rivers are organized into a team, under local inspection and management.
Completely separate permissions.
After all these efforts, the Navy had a thorough investigation, and its scale had actually exceeded 50,000, and its military expenditures consumed in a year reached 5 million yuan, which greatly shocked the Beijing camp.