The meeting of the Council was held in a hall of the Luzon Branch-Luzon Governor's House. At the beginning, Yin Feng declared to a group of representatives of landowners, manor owners, and big businessmen: Anyone who speaks in this venue is not guilty, and everyone People can speak freely; the purpose of this meeting is to let everyone discuss preparation measures for the Spanish; at the same time, due to the increase in purchase costs due to the sea ban, as well as the expenditure on the development of Luzon, and the military expenditure of the Nanyang Expeditionary Force, the Chinese United Company Lu Song Branch is short of money now.
Most of the participants at the meeting were people who had read books for several years. They spoke in a graceful manner at the beginning, but soon they started to argue over the issue of apportioning military expenditures and the construction of fortifications: No one wanted to have their families pay more, and no one wanted to have more money for their families. May your own land turn into a battlefield, with everyone scrambling to shirk responsibility.
After a day, the meeting became a place for a group of businessmen and landowners who had financial disputes and life feuds to attack each other.
Zeng Jingshan looked at the venue and asked Yin Feng in confusion: "What can these people negotiate? They are just short-sighted people..."
Yin Feng suddenly understood something: these representatives of the major business gangs in the country have the spirit to enter the world, but they do not have the corresponding vision and tolerance. Discussing with them how to solve the problem is completely arrogant. These wealthy businessmen are already the same as the scribes. , contaminated by the ominous spirit that pervaded everywhere in the Ming Dynasty, and suddenly without the coercion of the government, they did not know how to deal with their positions. In fact, under the rule of the Luzon Governor's Office, they were members of the highest class, The bureau actually provides them with a channel to participate in political power; but their reactions are completely the same. No one realizes that they are actually deciding their own affairs now. Moreover, what Yin Feng cannot understand is: these people grew up in Legend has it that in the atmosphere of traditional culture that pays attention to moderation, blending, and excess, there is a nation that proposed the concept of "Tai Chi". However, when they debate various issues, they are completely in the spirit of "black or white" and "either/or". Acting on the principle of "I am the one without the other", it seems that officials at all levels in the imperial court enjoy the party struggle that pits the same party against those who are different, which can be regarded as a manifestation of the mainstream culture.
"It seems that I was wrong. There is no point in trying to encourage growth," Yin Feng said to Li Lihua in bed at night: "Give them power, they won't use it at all, there is no time to waste,..."
Li Lihua didn't quite understand what he was talking about, and said softly: "We can defeat the Spaniards without their help, so why bother about them,"
Yin Feng sighed: "It seems that I am still too idealistic and too advanced... But they don't contribute any effort or money. Where can I get some cash? The company is short of money now, and there is a maritime ban in the country. , a large amount of money has not been recovered on the mainland; this South Sea expedition has spent another million taels of military expenses, and the merchant ships that went to sea at the beginning of the year have not returned to Hong Kong. I am short of money."
Although the Chinese company had rudimentary financial institutions - bank accounts and banks, they mainly operated in the mainland. At that time, the capital turnover period for overseas trade was very long, with the shortest being one year and the longest taking three to five years to recover all the money.
"What are you talking about? I heard that kings in Europe borrowed money from wealthy businessmen. You can give it a try,"
"God, how could I forget this?" Yin Feng turned over and pressed Li Lihua's soft body, smiling and saying in Spanish: "I'm saying, you are my goddess of wisdom..."
To be fair, among the three wives and concubines, Yin Feng still likes Li Lihua's body more: the Western court education of riding horses and dancing since childhood gave Li Lihua a perfectly developed body.
After a night of hard work, Yin Feng walked out of the door feeling refreshed in the morning and came to the meeting bureau conference hall.
Without waiting for the wealthy businessmen and landlords to start arguing, Yin Feng announced a series of policies: Anyone who lends temporary military funds to the China Company, the China Company will enter into a loan agreement with them and make it public at the gate of the Luzon garrison, and one point will be added after the war. The interest will be returned and can be converted into shares of the China United Company: any landowner who voluntarily transfers land to the company to build military facilities will be calculated by the company as a debt and will be returned with an equal amount of land after the war, plus one cent of interest.
Everyone looked at each other, at a loss. Yin Feng waved his hand to Zeng Jingshan, and Zeng Shan handed out the details of the loan agreement he had drawn up early in the morning.
Yin Feng's move was greatly beyond the expectations of those businessmen and landlords: they strongly opposed the Chinese company's apportionment of military expenditures and occupation of their land for construction of fortifications. In fact, it also meant blackmail. The Ming court also used the "Open China Law" to indirectly Merchants borrow money to transport grain, but they never use business regulations, credit contracts and other business rules to manage merchants.
In fact, the Ming Dynasty's "Kaizhong Law" was only limited to the border areas. Merchants transported grain to the frontiers in exchange for salt. The imperial government granted a patent for selling salt. However, the salt was a symbol of the court's monopoly on salt and was completely beyond the control of the merchants. and the royal family, eunuchs, nobles, and bureaucrats saw that holding salt Yin was profitable, so they all sued for salt Yin, resold it to salt merchants, and made profits from it. This phenomenon was called "occupying nests", and this phenomenon became more and more intense. It destroyed the Kaizhong system and seriously affected the government's fiscal revenue. It was imperative to reform the Salt Law to supplement the country's fiscal revenue. During the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty, the old system was changed to allow merchants to exchange silver for rice and pay it to the Transportation Secretary. When they arrived in Taicang, they distributed it to various parties. Each time the salt was imported, the amount of silver varied from three to four yuan. As a result, the amount of silver in Taicang increased to more than one million. The country's fiscal revenue increased sharply, and every link gave officials the opportunity to obtain money through corruption. , making salt merchants unprofitable, so most of the salt merchants in the border areas moved their families inland, the merchant villages were rapidly destroyed, and the food reserves of the border army were greatly reduced.
However, Zhonghua Company is a trading house, a very large-scale company, and credit is the life of business. Therefore, in comparison, the businessmen present believe in Zhonghua Company. Therefore, Zhonghua Company’s temporary financial crisis, as well as its conflicts with landlords and large manor owners everywhere, , the conflicts between wealthy businessmen were basically resolved.
While Ye Hua's fleet was victorious in the Cirebon Sea Battle, war preparations in various parts of the Philippines also entered a climax.
The four major fortification systems in the east, west, north, and south were quickly established outside Manila. Although they were civil structure fortifications, they were built entirely in accordance with the multi-angular fort model of the firearms era. The Cebu Castle was reinforced and raised, and the forts were built with new concrete. On Corregidor Island at the mouth of Manila Bay, now renamed War Island, the fort has been reinforced, with three new 64-pound cannons and a sky-blasting cannon with the largest caliber currently available in the Chinese army built by the Chinese Company: a diameter of three A foot (1 meter) heavy cannon used to bombard enemy troops trying to land on the island.
The Cavite Shipyard was completely surrounded by walls and became a fortress town. Now, except for military ships, the construction of other ships in the shipyard has stopped. A large number of sloops for offshore defense have been built, each carrying two guns. ;At the same time, a large number of fishing boats and small merchant ships were converted into fire ships.
The demand for cannons from Chinese companies has soared. However, due to the imperial court's maritime ban on cannon foundries in Taiwan and Luzon, it has become extremely risky to transport iron, copper and other raw materials out to sea - after all, the places where iron and copper minerals are produced are in the imperial court. Under the control, the development of mineral resources in Taiwan and Luzon has just started, and it is simply unable to meet the needs of the China United Company for building large quantities of cannons, manufacturing flintlock muskets, artillery shells, bullets and other arms production needs.
As a result, Yin Feng, who had received loan money from merchants, purchased ballast, iron blocks, copper blocks and even stones from foreign ships anchored in Manila at high prices to use as cannonballs. At the same time, Siam, Pattani, Portugal, Britain, France, Merchant ships such as the Netherlands are more or less always equipped with some cannons for protection. Yin Feng ordered people to buy cannons from them at high prices, no matter how big or small they were, good or bad.
The strength of the First Brigade of the Chinese Army has been expanded to 8,000 people. It has two regiments, each regiment has four battalions, and each battalion has four sentries, plus a professional artillery battalion, a logistics battalion, and a supply battalion. There are two sentry teams directly under the brigade, and there is also an artillery sentry team directly under the brigade, and several sentry teams directly under the jurisdiction of the brigade for life arrest, reconnaissance, and medical care. The regimental commander is Zhao Tie, and the deputy commander is Mai De.
At the same time, the cavalry regiment has been transferred from Taiwan to Luzon Island. Due to the acquisition of a large number of horses from Jeju Island, North Korea, the cavalry regiment has expanded to more than 300 people, one hundred of whom are riding Andalusian horses and wearing heavy armor. The elite heavy-armored cavalry stole the show in the Battle of Kyushu Satsuma. Its leader is Major Andre, an old Dutch mercenary. The remaining more than 200 cavalry can only be regarded as rudimentary mounted infantry - they use muskets to fight. Riding on Mongolian horses collected from Jeju Island and various places during the Ming Dynasty.
Li Kuiqi's artillery battalion has been expanded into an artillery regiment, with more than 1,200 people, ten artillery sentries with more than 100 cannons of various calibers, and a baggage sentry team specialized in transporting gunpowder and shells. Young Li Kuiqi has been in Ryukyu Satsuma since four years ago After the battle, he had not been able to participate in any big battles. He had long been exhausted. He trained his troops desperately, firing hard every day at the training ground in the south of Manila for live ammunition training, no matter the cost, he fired live ammunition. The firing of artillery made Yin Feng feel a little sad about his own military expenses. He called Li Kuiqi and tried to persuade him to save ammunition. However, Li Kuiqi used Yin Feng's own words to block the problem: "Sir, shipowner, you said in the military academy: In peacetime, Sweat more, fight and bleed less, I am strengthening my training,"
Yin Feng nodded helplessly: "Okay, in this case, I will ask the Taiwanese side to transport some of the artillery shells and gunpowder in stock.
The Ming Dynasty is not what it used to be, and its control over all strata of society has become weaker and weaker. Although the sea ban policy was announced, it made a lot of noise but little rain. In addition to increasing the purchase cost of the Chinese company, it basically had no control over the main business of the Chinese company. Business - Overseas trade has too many impacts, so the possibility of direct conflict with the imperial court has been greatly reduced. Therefore, Taiwan and other places began to mobilize manpower, weapons and equipment to support the Philippines.
At the end of the year, a battalion of infantry sent by Zhao Xuanming of the fourth regiment dispersed in Nanyang arrived in Manila on the returning Ye Hua fleet. At this time, not including the paramilitary organizations scattered throughout Luzon - the Zhuang Ding team and the indigenous auxiliary troops. , the Chinese army has assembled 11,000 infantry on Luzon Island, and there are also 2,000 sailor musketeers that can be mobilized from the fleet. There are five main warships moored in the Manila port, excluding the aircraft repaired in Batavia. Four ships, the Leopard and the Feizi, plus the Manila, which is stationed in Luzon.
Now, everyone is waiting for the Spaniards to come, and is almost eager for them to come. The Chinese army is full of confidence and high in fighting spirit.