In an overly splendidly decorated hall in the West Prince's Mansion, several cups of tea were filled with the delicate and ever-changing aroma. Xiao Chaogui wore a wide-sleeved dragon robe embroidered with thirty-six dragons, without a hat, and had long hair. On your shoulders, sit leisurely and contentedly on your seat.
Luo Yaoguo wore a simple cotton red robe with an open collar, which was still a bit washed out. His long hair, which he had grown for several months, was tied into a bun with a wooden hairpin inserted into the top of his head. He sat down. Chatting and laughing with His Highness the King of the West next to Xiao Chaogui.
Hong Xuanjiao, the Queen of the West, wore a dragon robe embroidered with twenty-four dragons, similar in style to Xiao Chaogui's. She sat beside Su Sanniang, who was also wearing a red robe, and listened to the two grown men with smiles. He talks loudly there, and occasionally adds a word or two.
Su Sanniang seemed cautious and did not dare to say a word - in the system of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Xiao Chaogui, Hong Xuanjiao, and Luo Yaoguo were all gods, but she was just a mortal.
"Lao Ba, you are an angel of peace, a king of the same wing, and have reserved the title of King of Wu. According to the "True Imperial Edict" issued by the King of Heaven when he was in Changsha, you should wear the dragon robe of the twenty-four dragons like Lao Qi. How can you Are you wearing a plain red robe? It's made of cotton. This is too frugal. No wonder the guard chief here doesn't recognize me."
Xiao Chaogui seemed to have some objections to Luo Yaoguo's dressing style, pointing at the faded red robe and shaking his head.
Luo Yaoguo smiled and said: "I have a dragon robe, which I will wear when I go to court. When I am at home or out and about, I am still comfortable wearing ordinary robes."
He didn't like the overly exaggerated dragon robes of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. They were both expensive and eye-catching. He chose the best silk and satin and densely embroidered it with twenty dragons. The material and labor costs were not less than ten taels of silver. And he wore this dress. It’s so eye-catching that it can easily attract assassins!
Luo Yaoguo didn't dare to ride a horse when he wanted to wear it, and he didn't like riding in a sedan. So he simply used the most ordinary cotton plain red robe as his regular clothes to show his hard work and simplicity.
Hong Xuanjiao, the "good sister", blinked her eyes and said with a smile: "Eighth brother, you are not short of money, are you? How about my sister give you tens of thousands of taels? Your brother-in-law and I have collected hundreds of thousands in these two days. The gift of two pieces of silver... was given by Chang Dachun, the man who dedicated Jiangxia City, to the profiteers from Hankou and Jiangxia through matchmaking. This guy is indeed a corrupt official, and he knows how to make money best!"
As she spoke, Hong Xuanjiao chuckled and was not at all ashamed of accepting bribes.
Luo Yaoguo just frowned slightly, and had no intention of teaching Hong Xuanjiao to be honest and honest. After all, she and Xiao Chaogui are now the "vassal princes" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Wuchang Mansion and Hanyang Mansion are their territory.
Xiao Chaogui smiled and said to Luo Yaoguo: "Eighth brother, please accept it. Your sister knows that you are tight on money. Although you have received a lot of money, your expenses are also large. Your army pays military salary every month. , the smallest holy soldier is given one or two and a half taels of silver. There are also expenses for the Angel Mansion, the Lecturer Group, and the Secret Hall... If you don’t have 50,000 to 60,000 taels a month, it’s probably not enough.
Bar?"
Nowadays, among the twelve armies under the control of the generals of the upper, middle, front, rear, right, left, and upper six armies of the Taiping Army, only the upper and upper second armies under the command of Luo Yaoguo, the chief general of the upper army, have implemented a fixed military pay system.
The other armies do not have fixed military pay. They only give some money when they win a battle, especially when they capture a big city, so that the people below can have fun.
Of course, Luo Yaoguo didn't give much military pay. The lowest holy soldier was given one or two and a half taels of silver a month, and the highest military commander was given thirty taels of silver a month - Luo Yaoguo had only one military commander, Su Sanniang.
And he himself is an angel and a Biyi King. According to the backward system of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he can use the small holy treasury of the Angel Mansion as much as he wants. However, Luo Yaoguo still set a fixed salary for himself, which is thirty per month. Two, same as Su Sanniang.
The number of the first and second armies has expanded to 24,000 to 24,000, and the military pay for the two armies alone will cost 50,000 to 60,000 taels.
If you include military rations, uniforms, equipment, gunpowder, tents and other expenses, as well as military merit rewards, plus the expenses of Luo Yaoguo's three yamen, including the Angel Mansion, the Lecture Corps, and the Secret Hall, you can't even earn 100,000 yuan a month. live.
Fortunately, Luo Yaoguo is also very capable of making money!
At the beginning, the "distribution of floating wealth" in the division of land and land was a seven-thirds account. Worshiping God would get seven, and poor farmers could only get three. Of course, these "seven" can only be handed over to the angel's house. It's "Two or Three", and most of it is used to build the grassroots of chambers of commerce, farmers' associations, militia and God-worshiping associations.
However, after adding up, Angel Mansion also made five to six hundred thousand taels!
Later, Luo Yaoguo's military strength became stronger, and he was able to do a big business of arresting people, redeeming people, and "certifying loyal martyrs of the Qing Dynasty." It reached 170,000 taels.
This is another more than 500,000 taels, plus the 500,000 or 600,000 taels he got before, making a total of 1,100,000 taels. It was a lot, but he couldn't afford to pay monthly wages to his brothers. ah!
Therefore, there are currently less than 600,000 taels of silver left in the Angel Mansion's account... which should be enough to support the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to capture Nanjing. But Luo Yaoguo wanted to buy some good things recently, and he really didn't have much money.
If Xiao Chaogui and Hong Xuanjiao could borrow hundreds of thousands of taels, he would be happy to borrow them and never repay them.
Thinking of this, he nodded and said with a wry smile: "It's a bit tight... Last month I spent over one hundred thousand yuan! There won't be any big income in the next few months, and there will be a few big expenses."
"How much is the expenditure?" Hong Xuanjiao blinked her eyes and asked, "How much is still missing?"
"There are still hundreds of thousands taels missing!" Luo Yaoguo reported a number, and then looked at Xiao Chaogui and Hong Xuanjiao expectantly. "Pfft... so many? What are you going to do?"
When Luo Yaoguo reported this number, Xiao Chaogui was drinking tea, but he accidentally choked on a hot mouthful, which spurted out on the spot, and even earned an eye roll from Hong Xuanjiao next to him.
"Eighth brother, a few hundred thousand taels is a bit too much... Can you tell my sister what to do with them?" Hong Xuanjiao still loves Luo Yaoguo, his "half-brother" who is more than a hundred years younger. Yes, but hundreds of thousands of taels of silver is indeed a huge amount of money.
Even for the Xiwang Mansion, which occupies the two important commercial towns of Jiangxia and Hankou, it is not a small amount... However, Xiao Chaogui and Hong Xuanjiao now have requests from Luo Yaoguo.
Hong Xiuquan and King Hong Tian have already announced that they will send millions of troops to the south of the Yangtze River!
Where did these millions of soldiers come from? Aren't they targeting the hundreds of thousands of people in Jiangxia and Hankou? If they are taken away, Xiao Chaogui, Hong Xuanjiao and the others will suffer huge losses!
Although Luo Yaoguo took out the "Tongtian Mirror" and made an appointment with Ji Du in the sky, asking Ji Du to come down to earth to receive "advice". But Xiao Chaogui didn't know what reason to use to send Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing away... He and his generals these days Li Kaifang, Lin Fengxiang and others discussed it, and both of them thought Hong Xiuquan's idea was a good one.
After the Chinese New Year, a million-strong army will go to the south of the Yangtze River. It will be done within two or three months! Wait until next summer and another million-strong army will attack Yanyun, and they will go all the way to the north in time for the autumn harvest! Maybe they can take Xianfeng from Beijing. Scared him away... As long as he runs away, wouldn't it be the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom?
After hearing what they said, Xiao Chaogui didn't know what to say after "Ji Du came down to earth"? He had no choice but to invite Luo Yaoguo over to ask.
But I didn't expect that Luo Yaoguo would actually come up with a big mouth, and one mouth could cost hundreds of thousands of taels! Although the Holy Treasury of the West Prince's Mansion can get this amount of money, it still hurts after all!
"I'm going to Shanghai!"
The reason Luo Yaoguo gave made Xiao Chaogui and Hong Xuanjiao a little baffled. "Going to Shanghai?"
"What can you do in Shanghai to spend hundreds of thousands of taels of silver?" Xiao Chaogui and Hong Xuanjiao asked.
Going to Shanghai...of course I will become a "beach master"!
But being a "beach master" doesn't cost that much. Luo Yaoguo still has one very important thing to do when he goes to Shanghai. Luo Yaoguo said: "When I go to Shanghai...of course I will buy foreign guns and cannons from the foreign devils!"
Xiao Chaogui suddenly realized: "Oh, you are going to Shanghai to buy foreign guns and cannons from the foreign brothers!"
"No!" Luo Yaoguo said categorically, "Brother-in-law, there have never been any foreign brothers!" "No, there are no foreign brothers?" Xiao Chaogui was stunned.
Chapter completed!