Although the situation is gradually improving, it is still unable to achieve the expected results in a short period of time, for example, the Second Group Army of the National Defense Force, which was formed by the Qi Family Army, is now facing serious funding problems. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The chaebol refused to pay money, the imperial court was in financial difficulties, and Qi Hongying's 100,000 army was now unable to equip even basic firearms, let alone pay for heavy artillery.

"Looking for Zheng Chenggong, Zheng Zhilong left a lot of money at the beginning, and Zheng Chenggong's Third Group Army must also need a lot of redressing." Li Hongfei hit Zheng Chenggong with the idea.

In addition to the 50,000 sailors, Zheng Chenggong also has 50,000 army, and the 50,000 army's firearms and equipment are enough to make Suzhou Heavy Industry make a lot of money.

"However, the sailor surnamed the country is already very powerful, if the army is redressed, aren't you afraid of ........." Wu Hao wanted to speak and stopped.

Zheng Zhilong's previous turmoil, ordinary people don't know the inside story, Wu Hao and other local officials, isn't it still clear?

Zhang Chao's army was stationed in Ningbo, not without the meaning of deterrence.

"It's okay, sell them old-style equipment, as long as the Fran guns and fixed ammunition are not sold, only flintlock pistols and Hongyi cannons will not pose a threat to our army, and I believe that Zheng Chenggong's personality will definitely not be like his father." Li Hongfei said with an oath.

The flintlock pistol did not have a fixed load, and its rate of fire was not much faster than that of the arquebus, and if it were not for the improvement of the flint ignition device by Bi Maokang, which greatly increased the ignition rate, the practical performance of the flintlock pistol would not have been as good as that of the arquebus.

The Hongyi cannon, a heavy artillery that does not have an absolute advantage in strength, is generally only suitable for coastal defense artillery or city defense artillery, just like when Azig was pursued, the bulky Hongyi cannon not only did not play much role, but became a burden to slow down the march, and was finally captured by Li Hongfei's coalition forces.

Therefore, what Li Hongfei needs to control now is the sale of the rear-mounted Fulong cannon, and for the Hongyi cannon, as long as there is money to be made, he would like to dump it as soon as possible.

"There is also Huang Degong, General Ma Shiying's Fourth Group Army, you can also find a way to pull some orders, in terms of firearms manufacturing, we in Suzhou have an absolute advantage, not afraid of competition but other government-run enterprises." Li Hongfei reminded again.

Weapons manufacturing industry, want to develop rapidly, in addition to the threat of war, the rest is the need for a strong competitive environment, a dominant situation, it is easy to make people become complacent, Suzhou Heavy Industry now to do, is to comprehensively suppress the rest of the Nanming Ordnance Bureau, so that the provincial Ordnance Bureau has a sense of crisis, and strive to catch up as soon as possible.

At the same time, in order to ensure the superiority of weapons, Suzhou Heavy Industry must also increase the speed of weapon research and development, instead of working behind closed doors and blindly arrogant.

As long as Zheng Chenggong and Huang Degong can purchase weapons from Suzhou Heavy Industry on a large scale, then Suzhou's economy will grow rapidly, and it will not be difficult to feed an army of 100,000 people with all kinds of novel products exported by Suzhou.

Li Hongfei finally scraped together enough military expenses through arms trafficking to ensure the smooth completion of the first group army's redress, but Qi Hongying's life was not easy, the Battle of Nanjing, Qi's army took the opportunity to take Tongzhou, Taizhou, Yangzhou and other places north of the Yangtze River, and the land occupied a large area, but these places were looted by the Qing army before, and many places even became empty cities, large tracts of land were uncultivated, and the people could not even maintain their basic lives, so where did they get the spare money to support Qi Hongying to build the army?

Under the pretext of contacting Chen Yuanyuan, Qi Hongying did not leave Li Hongfei's mansion, and insisted on asking Li Hongfei to help and come up with a solution.

"Spring ploughing is coming soon, but the common people don't even have rice seeds in their hands, and those who stay in Jiangbei are either refugees, or some old and young women and children who can't afford to run around, and the treasury and silver of the entire Jiangbei prefectures and counties are basically used for disaster relief, not to mention the purchase of weapons, and even government-run enterprises cannot be established." Qi Hongying cried aggrievedly.

The Qing army went south, killed a large number of rebels, and the remaining aborigines, in addition to the merchants who moved south with their families in the early days, the remaining capable ones also went north together when the Qing army retreated, only those old and weak women and children, after the Qing army robbed the finances, they were still in Jiangbei, leaving Nanming with a headache.

"Economically, it doesn't seem like you need to take care of it." Li Hongfei reminded.

Qi Hongying is only in charge of the military, and he can ask the imperial court for funding.

"Who knows when the appropriation of the imperial court will come down, and several borders with the Manchu Qing Dynasty have been repeatedly harassed by the cavalry of the Qing army, and the intelligence from the Jinyi Guard shows that the Manchu Qing Dynasty has expanded its army of 500,000 in half a year, if we don't seize the time to reorganize the army for war, when the Manchu Qing Dynasty goes south again, I am afraid that my army will not even be equipped with weapons and equipment." Qi Hongying said.

The Qing army occupies most of China, has a large population, and the speed of army expansion is naturally fast, and if the Southern Ming wants to compete with it, it must occupy an absolute advantage in weapons and equipment.

Moreover, there is intelligence that the Qing army has opened several additional ordnance bureaus and began to produce firearms on a large scale, and once the weapons and equipment are in place, it is believed that the Qing army will not give Nanming a chance to breathe.

Zhu Youzhen is now faced with two choices, either to compromise with the scholars and make every effort to expand the armament war, so that the previous reform will be invalidated, and the scholars will have pinched the life of the imperial court since then, and gradually grasped the right to speak, and even Zhu Youzhen himself may be hollowed out.

This is not alarmist, the Ming Dynasty has formed a bud of capitalism, the cabinet system is quite perfect, if it were not for the Qi family army and the Suzhou New Army to support Zhu Youzhen this time, Zhu Youzhen did not have such great power, and the role of the emperor in the late Ming Dynasty was really very limited.

And Zhu Youzhen's second choice is to persist in reform to the end, after all, there is a precedent in Suzhou, as long as it is used well, while reforming, it may not be impossible to produce several powerful troops.

At that time, as long as the army wins the battle, no one will be able to shake the authority of Zhu Youzhen.

"Last year, the merchant ship that went to the West has returned and brought artichoke seeds, and the agricultural officials in Suzhou have found through research that its yield is much higher than that of rice, which is suitable for large-scale planting, you can ask people to go to Wu Hao, borrow some artichoke seeds, and wait until the harvest is completed, and then return them to Wu Hao." Li Hongfei said slowly while sipping fragrant tea.

In this era when there are no pesticides and fertilizers, and hybrid rice, potatoes are far more adaptable and yield than ordinary grains.

Coupled with its easy-to-manage characteristics, even the elderly, women and children can be planted, which is undoubtedly a great blessing for areas with serious losses due to perennial military disasters.

If the Jiangbei region wants to develop, first of all, the local people must fill their stomachs, otherwise let alone expand the army, thank God that there will be no riots.

"Since you can borrow this kind of sub, then lend me a little bit of weapons and equipment, and when the time comes, I will pay you back when the court approves the funds." Qi Hongying hit the snake with the stick.

"Poof........."

Li Hongfei didn't swallow a sip of tea, but squirted out again, quickly put down the teacup, and after tidying up his clothes, he said: "How much are the artichoke seeds?" And it is the seed obtained by the government, and it is also appropriate to support Jiangbei. But how much does it cost to spend 100,000 people's weapons, you know better than me, Suzhou Heavy Industry said that it is a government-run enterprise, in fact, the government is only 20% of the shares, even if you have the heart to support, I am afraid that you don't have that ability, after all, Zhou Furen runs a heavy industry to make money, you don't have a cash transaction, he can't afford it. ”

In order to equip his army, Li Hongfei had already asked Zhou Furen to take away a large number of weapons on credit, if it weren't for the weapon deposits of Zheng Chenggong, Huang Degong and others, and Wu Hao's tax deduction from Suzhou Heavy Industry last year, Zhou Furen's factory, I'm afraid it would be difficult to maintain even basic operation, how could it be possible to continue to pay credit at this time.

At the beginning, the reason why Li Hongfei only let the government buy two percent of the shares was to let it maintain a high degree of independence, so as not to be regarded by the government as its own enterprise, not to mention it, and in the name of the imperial court, he would borrow on credit, resulting in the normal operation of the factory.

"Husband, you can find a way to help Sister Hongying." Chen Yuanyuan was on the side to help blow the wind on the pillow.

She didn't want to participate in these national affairs, but Qi Hongying kept holding on, since Qi Hongying asked Chen Yuanyuan to observe, it was not a secret to think about it.

And hearing that now, Chen Yuanyuan can be regarded as understanding, the area in charge of Qi Hongying is now very short of food and money, and this time he came to Li Hongfei for help, so at this critical time, Chen Yuanyuan felt the need to help say something.

"It's not that there is no way, but you need the consent of the local government, are you sure to convince them?" Li Hongfei said to Qi Hongying.

Now that Chen Yuanyuan has spoken, Li Hongfei is not good at continuing to handle it, and it is definitely not possible to use weapons on credit, but it is not difficult to help Jiangbei quickly revitalize the economy.

"You can rest assured, officials in Yangzhou and other places, worried that the Manchus will go south again, and they will actively cooperate with the matter of strengthening the army, as long as the method is feasible, they will definitely not object." Qi Hongying packed the ticket and said.

Yangzhou and other places are now at the forefront of the frontline, and the officials who serve here are all looking at the Qi family's army, after all, the stronger the Qi family's army, the safer their heads are.

This is also the reason why Qi Hongying personally inquired about Jiangbei's economy, local officials have no opinions, who cares if she doesn't worry?

"Didn't you say before that there is a serious loss of young people in Jiangbei, and a large amount of land is uncultivated? Let the local government recount the cultivated land, and if there is no land deed, it will be returned to the imperial court, whether these people flee south or north, and they don't even want their family business, then don't blame the local government, and wait for these lands to be recovered.........."

Li Hongfei began to give Qi Hongying advice, and roughly said three points.

First: Collect the ownerless arable land to the imperial court, and resell it to harvest cash to cope with the current economic crisis.

The locals of Jiangbei, mostly refugees, old and weak women and children, may not be able to afford to buy land, but don't forget that all parts of Jiangnan, especially the Suzhou area, which was the first to reform, have a large number of rich peasants.

Land has an unparalleled attraction for the Chinese, and the previous reforms in Suzhou have allowed many rich peasants to see opportunities, but most of the land in Suzhou has owners, and the only few pieces are in short supply.

As long as Jiangbei can sell land on a large scale, many people in other provinces who have savings will certainly not miss this opportunity.

As for the threat of the Manchus, in the eyes of ordinary people, there is no need to worry about it at all with the Qi family army guarding it.

The first is the sale of fields, and the second is the sale of minerals.

Because each household must not exceed 100 acres of land, the purchase demand of large landlords is seriously restricted, and even if all of them are sold, those who can come to Jiangbei are only rich peasants, and the economy of the government may soar for a short time, but it will not be long before it will return to its original shape.

But selling minerals is not the same, mining to make money, this is the truth that all rich businessmen understand, minerals are not a one-time sale, businessmen spend a lot of money to buy a mine, naturally have to mine.

As a result, it is necessary to hire a large number of miners, and even to build roads in the surrounding area in order to transport the ore out and sell it for money, and if it is done properly, the development of a mineral can eventually even lead to the creation of a city in the surrounding area.

Moreover, those who have the ability to open mines are all business tycoons, and their arrival will play a decisive role in revitalizing Jiangbei's economy.

The first two are the sale of local non-renewable resources in Jiangbei, in exchange for a large amount of money in a short period of time, a bit of a chicken to take the egg, after all, the future agricultural tax is very limited, and the mining tax, in the early one or two years, will not get much profit.

So Li Hongfei put forward the third article: to attract investment, so that Suzhou's profiteering enterprises can go to Jiangbei to open a branch.

Due to the lack of transportation nowadays, take Cao Hong's match factory as an example, a box of matches in Suzhou is only five wen (one tael of silver is worth about 1,000 wen) locally, but after arriving in other provinces, the lowest is ten wen, and in the Manchu-ruled areas, the highest is even 50 wen.

The most important thing in building a match factory is the technical problem, as long as there is this gunpowder formula, the plant can be built anywhere, so the benefits of building a factory nearby are reflected.

Moreover, Suzhou is not only a match factory, but also a food factory and a cigarette factory are used for export overseas, and the supply is in short supply.

Let these profiteering enterprises go to Yangzhou to open a branch factory, not to mention that a box of matches is so outrageous as selling for ten yuan, even if it is only sold for seven or eight yuan, it is more profitable than in Suzhou.

Reducing transportation costs, not only benefiting the people, but also allowing businessmen to invest to earn more money, this kind of win-win good thing, of course, Li Hongfei should vigorously promote.

The three major policies of selling land, selling mines, and attracting investment have not only ensured the economic rejuvenation of the Jiangbei region in a short period of time, but also achieved sustainable development, and as long as there is surplus money, Qi Hongying's Second Group Army can also be quickly reloaded.

PS: 4000 words, 2-in-1 today only this chapter.