The Lanfang, a fourth-class warship of the Ming Navy flying the French tricolor flag, was sailing through the Taiwan Strait all the way north in the midst of the wind and waves. The Taiwan Strait has always had big storms, but for Rodriguez, a former trader who has been adrift at sea all year round, these waves are really nothing.

With him, the chief executive of HSBC, Daban Skoper. Although William's face was a little pale, he was still in his cabin, looking at Rodriguez's financial strategy, and did not take a quill pen to scribble on it. Rodriguez is nothing more than a speculator and adventurer who knows little about finance. He did a run on the two rivers of money and suffocated Jiangnan Finance's plan to suffocate the banker Skopel. In William's opinion, it is just a child's plan, and it has to be revised well to achieve good results.

But then again, he was quite surprised by the laissez-faire and ignorance of the financial industry in the Oriental world. In the West, a country's finance has long been regarded as a major matter related to the fortunes of the country, and there is absolutely no reason for it to be monopolized and controlled by other countries or even enemy countries. However, HSBC is now not only the de facto central bank of Jiangnan, the economic center of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but also the central bank of Japan, which is closed to the rest of the country. Recently, it has also cooperated with the Kingdom of Siam to obtain a concession to issue the official currency "Baht Won" in Siam for a period of 100 years, at the cost of 500,000 silver dollar seigniorage, which is also among the Japanese countries...... If you count the Grand Duchy of Lanfang and the Kingdom of Daming, there is a strange scene in East Asia where five countries share a central bank, and two of them are still at war!

It's like during the Napoleonic Wars, when control of the Bank of England was in the hands of the Napoleonic Emperor! With the help of the Bank of England, it would have been easy for Napoleon to defeat the British, right?

The door rang softly. Who else could knock on the door but Rodriguez? He shouted, "Ricardo." Just push the door in. What are you knocking on? ”

The hatch was pushed open, and Rodriguez walked in with a bottle of unique wine with Coine and two glasses, and went straight to a chair to sit on, and then gave himself and Skopel. William poured a glass of wine and said with a smile: "Kospel, first make a toast for the King and His Majesty the Queen (not referring to Zhu Jishi and Luo Xiangmei)." ”

Cospel. William shook his head and said with a wry smile: "I won't be for Queen Ricardo, did I tell you that I am an American now?" As he spoke, he took a long sip from his glass.

"Beauty...... United States? Rodriguez frowned. Is the situation in Europe really so bad? ”

Cospel. William's face was very solemn: "Not only is Europe bad, but the situation in the United States is not much better." The Yankees clamed for the abolition of slavery every day, and almost all the northern states voted against the war with the Mexicans, and now, seeing that the war was won, they wanted to stretch their claws to the west to grab the spoils...... If this continues, sooner or later, the United States will be the same as China! ”

The Mexican-American War is actually over, in which the United States seized 2.3 million square kilometers of land! It can be said that a big vote was issued. However, the free states and slave states of the United States launched a new round of struggle over this newly acquired land. Both sides wanted to establish new states in new lands in order to expand the power of slavery or abolitionism. And Cospel. William's family was a large estate owner in the American South, and naturally sided with slavery.

"That's why you opened a large arsenal in Richmond, right?" Rodriguez asked as if he had no intention of it.

Cospel. William raised his eyes and looked at Rodriguez coldly for a while before nodding heavily: "Ricardo, in fact, I am not in favor of slavery. But did the workers of Manchester really live better than the slaves? Slave owners don't let their slaves starve to death, and factory owners don't care if their workers live or die. The workers starved to death, and they could be hired again! The Yankees were just trying to drive the slaves from the farms into the factories......"

Speaking of this, he let out another long sigh: "Okay, let's not talk about that, Ricardo, I've seen your plan." There are two biggest loopholes in it, first, the silver in our hands is still not enough, not enough to suffocate Jiangnan Finance, so we must sacrifice Lixin Money; Second, no one knows what is going on in Beijing, and there is no way for us to completely cut off Beijing's communication with Shanghai. ”

He looked at Rodriguez seriously: "The key to the financial war in Shanghai is to take advantage of people's panic, if there is good news from Beijing, we will fall short, and even invite Lin Zexu's retaliation." Relying on the 44 cannons on this Lanfang, he can't beat his tens of thousands of troops! ”

……

At this time, in the conference hall of the Ming Palace in Guangzhou, Zhu Jishi was convening the civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty to discuss the matter of sending troops to Sichuan and Jiangnan. Although Jiangnan has made a plan for peaceful recovery, it does not mean that it will not make military preparations. General Zhu Jishi will personally take command of the expedition to Jiangnan, and Su Yuniang's Jinyi Guards and Liu Jiong's Fourth Army will participate in the Jiangnan Raid. In case Lin Zexu refuses to return to the Ming Dynasty peacefully, an army of 60,000 will be launched from the border of Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Zhejiang, first taking Zhejiang, then Shanghai, and then Nanjing. For Huaiyong, the main force of the Liangjiang training army, Zhu Jishi was ready to adopt the strategy of encircling but not fighting, urging him to return to obedience.

"Your Majesty, the key to the Jiangnan issue is still Beijing, and if Beijing's news is not available, Jiangnan will definitely be panicked. When the time comes, when the news is released that the Manchu Qing Dynasty is dead, Lin Muweng will definitely be disheartened, either to join the Ming Dynasty or to go north to Shandong. ”

Zuo Zongtang stroked his beard and analyzed it for Zhu Jishi: "Your Majesty thinks that the current situation in Beijing is nothing more than three kinds, one is the siege of the Taiping army; the second is that Emperor Daoguang abandoned the city; Third, the horse team of the Taiping Army was inserted between Beijing and Tianjin, cutting off the communication, so that the news from Beijing could not reach Tianjin. In either case, communication between Beijing and Shanghai will be difficult to restore. If the news is not clear, the military salary is not good, and my Ming Xiong soldiers are pressing, his subordinates are still confident to persuade Lin Muweng not to embarrass the king. ”

"It's okay not to embarrass me," Zhu Jishi smiled and said, "It is a great achievement to preserve the vitality of Jiangnan for the country, he just wants to be a relict of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and I will allow him, and his descendants will vote for me in the Ming Dynasty, and they will not lose the position of prince." ”

This kind of Shilin leader always has to give enough face, Zhu Jishi doesn't remember what Lin Zexu's performance was in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement in history, it is estimated that he died of illness, right? They are all people who are going to die, what do you have to do with him? As long as you can hand over Jiangnan to yourself.

"As for Sichuan...... Zuo Xiang, military advisor, do you have any suggestions? Zhu Jishi asked again.

Luo Zenan shook the paper fan and said with a smile: "Sichuan is easy to do, didn't Xiang Rong, the former governor of Sichuan in the Manchu Dynasty, take refuge anyway?" also brought a large number of generals from the Sichuan Green Camp by the way, with them leading the way, we are still afraid that we will not be able to take Sichuan? Now there is a lack of a governor who can appease the Sichuan gentry, who do you think is more suitable? ”

"It's better for you to come by the military advisor." Zhu Jishi thought about it for a while, and found that there didn't seem to be many people in his court who were suitable to be feudal officials. Chang Dachun became the governor of Hubei, Ye Mingchen was released as the governor of Jiangxi, Gao Yinglong was released as the governor of Fujian, and Lu Siyuan became the governor of Hunan - a total of four governors, two from Guangdong, one from Hubei, and one from Hunan...... From the perspective of balancing the Guangdong faction and the Xianghu faction, the governor of Sichuan should let the Hunan people do it.

"Your Majesty Xie Wang is wrong to love, but the minister's head is not to govern the place, and it is really difficult to be qualified for the position of governor of Sichuan." Luo Zenan got up and waved at Zhu Jishi and resigned from the governor's appointment.

"Then who should take the post of governor of Sichuan?" Zhu Jishi frowned.

"Your Majesty, the ministers nominate one person." Zuo Zongtang took over the topic and said: "Liu Mengrong, a co-organizer of the university, is diligent and can be of great use, and he will definitely be able to pacify the land of Bashu for the king." ”

"Liu Mengrong?" Zhu Jishi has a deep impression of this person, this person is also a scholar of Xianghu, his name is Liu Rong, Meng Rong is his character, and Luo Zenan introduced him to Zhu Jishi. However, what this person is learning does not seem to be the study of the world, but the ancient writer of the Tongcheng faction, so he sent an errand to help Lu Peifang manage the imperial examination. During this time, he was placed in Hunan to handle the Hunan imperial examination in the second year of the liberation.

"Okay, let's appoint Liu Rong as the governor of Sichuan, and take the military affairs of Sichuan as the fourth governor of Han, and take the troops to collect Sichuan." Zhu Jishi thought about it, but still agreed to Zuo Zongtang's proposal. (To be continued......)