"What, going out of town? Why go outside the city? The person who raised this question was the prefect Wang Yongni, who had been very injured and scared recently.

The place where he is staying at the moment is the key customer room of the boutique department store, and the people in the room, in addition to himself, are Li Zhigao, Liu Runsheng, American businessman Marven, Yangtze River Admiral Cheng Yonghe, and Fan Xuming of Dangtu Zhi County.

Li Zhigao took the initiative to convene these people, saying that there were important matters to discuss, and a lot of things had happened recently, so these major shareholders gathered together and held the first shareholders' meeting of the boutique department store.

At this private shareholders' meeting, Li Zhigao first pretended to be sad and stated his previous losses, saying that although he had avoided some losses because he had taken a sum of money to buy goods, there was no doubt that Li Zhigao had only taken a small part of the money at that time, and there was still a large amount of money and goods in stock, and the money and goods were looted, and the losses were still huge, and the preliminary estimate of the loss was more than three million oceans.

Moreover, this matter can't be made public, if you want outsiders to know that a foreign company in a dignified city has been robbed of more than 3 million yuan smoothly, then won't the whole country be shocked? No, is it the world that shocks? When the time comes, if you don't talk about others, you will be the prefect of Wang Yongni, and the first one will not be able to escape the involvement!

Therefore, this loss can only be a dumb loss, even if people ask, they can only say a loss of hundreds of thousands at most, not too much. But that's all on the surface, in private, Li Zhigao insidiously let people spread the news a long time ago, saying that he had lost three million oceans of goods. This trick is obviously to make the other party dislike each other, after all, since those people are division of labor and cooperation, there is a gap between the people who rob the money and the other people involved in the feint, the person who robs the money may know the truth, and know that there are only less than 30,000 oceans and about 50,000 or 60,000 oceans worth of goods, but the people involved in the feint do not know the real amount, they must think that the amount of money is much more than this, and after he releases the news of the loss of more than 3 million in a timely manner, it will inevitably arouse the suspicion of insiders, as long as someone suspects, the internal rush is a matter of time.

After talking about the loss, Li Zhigao said hypocritically, although he can pay part of the loss by himself first, so that the business can continue, but the scale may be much smaller, and in fact, the last few dividends may not be paid on time, because even if you make money in the future, you have to pay the loss first, which still has to let the business open as soon as possible, and keep running smoothly, don't go wrong again.

Although it had been expected, everyone was still uncomfortable when they heard this result again, and then they scolded the gang of robbers and thieves again.

After that, when everyone's emotions were almost vented, Li Zhigao took the initiative to propose that in view of the fact that the city was no longer reliable, especially the officers and soldiers of the patrol battalion were no longer reliable, for the sake of safety, he wanted to temporarily suspend the boutique department store, change the main business, and move it outside the city to operate.

Of course, because there are bandits outside the city, so the regimental training and armed forces must also follow the past to garrison, so that when they go to the open land outside the city, as long as the camp is built to defend it strictly, I believe that there is a regimental training for protection, and the thieves will not be so easy to succeed, at least those officers and soldiers of the patrol battalion are not so easy to disguise themselves as thieves to fish in troubled waters. After all, the patrol battalion is an officer and soldier of the imperial court, and it is okay to pretend to be thieves in the city at night to fish in troubled waters, and blatantly go outside the city to attack a regimental training station, so unless they want to rebel, they have neither the courage nor the ability.

Here to mention, the patrol battalion is also called the patrol team, is a kind of local army establishment in the late Qing Dynasty, the source is to select the old green battalion and the brave battalion of the strong, and recruit the local troops formed by the people, the purpose is to defend the place, like the police security team, it belongs to the patrol battalion of a formation, under normal circumstances, the police security team is one or two posts of the patrol battalion.

Generally speaking, the establishment of the patrol battalion is divided into horse teams and infantry teams, and the whole battalion of horse teams has a total of 189 officers, soldiers, and husbands, and 135 horses, and each battalion is divided into three posts: "center", "left", and "right". The whole battalion of the infantry team has a total of 301 officers, ben and husband, and each battalion is also divided into three posts: "center", "left" and "right".

Among them, the regular soldiers who really fought the war, the infantry team was calculated according to each outpost eight sheds, each shed 9 people, and the horse team was halved, each outpost had four sheds, and each shed had 9 people. That is to say, there are only 216 people in the infantry team who can really fight, only 108 people in the horse team, and the rest are husbands, that is, auxiliary soldiers.

In this way, the patrol battalion stationed in Taiping Mansion does not have many troops, but since 1900, the imperial court has been unable to control the locality, so the patrol battalion belonging to the local soldiers is not very formal, and it will increase or decrease according to the situation. After all, Taiping Mansion is a big city, so the patrol battalion stationed in Taiping Mansion is also strong. Of course, the number of regular soldiers is stipulated by the imperial court and cannot be changed, but the number of auxiliary soldiers, that is, husbands, can be increased freely, and in some places, even a regular soldier is equipped with seven or eight husbands, and the number of people has swelled several times, and these so-called husbands are also armed with guns!

That is to say, the patrol battalion of Taiping Mansion has a total of 324 regular soldiers and 345 auxiliary soldiers, a total of 669 people, basically making a Hanyang in each person, and it is said that there are two 12-pounder mountain cannons installed in front, although they are old-fashioned goods, but they are also considered heavy firepower.

In this configuration, although it is true that the combat effectiveness is low, it is not something that Li Zhigao's newly established regimental training militia can resist, but the problem is that this unit has complex personnel, and it is impossible to blatantly pull out all of it to attack a regimental training arm, if this is the case, it is a rebellion!

In addition, even if all the officers and men of the patrol battalion really pulled out to attack Li Zhigao's men, it would not be possible.

Because first of all, the place where Li Zhigao was stationed was some distance away from the Taiping Mansion, and it took four or five hours to walk, and when the large army left the city, it would inevitably be impossible to hide the eyes and ears of Li Zhigao's regiment, and they would take precautions in advance, and it was obviously useless for a small group of troops to go out of the city, and the sudden and secret surnames of the attack did not exist.

Secondly, even if the patrol battalion really attacks Li Zhigao's regimental training, under the condition that there are fortifications outside the city and are generally equipped with British foreign guns, Li Zhigao's regimental training can resist the attack of those patrol battalions for at least one day, and at this time, whether it is the army in Wuhu or the army in Nanjing, they can rush over along the river to support, and even the foreign fleet in Wuhu may come to help, after all, the patrol battalion attacked Li Zhigao's foreign army, and there are also American Marven's shares in it, this is not just a rebellion. Or provoke the interests of foreigners in China!

So, on the whole, going out of the city is the safest, at least for Li Zhigao.

Also, even if the boutique department store moves out, but because the boutique department store has already become well-known, the things it operates are also unique, and there are no other ones at all, and it belongs to the kind of wine that is not afraid of deep alleys, so it is not afraid to change places, because no matter where you change, as long as you still want your goods, you have to follow, and you are not afraid of a little danger, after all, the profits are too great.

In the current situation, it is indeed safer to go out of the city to build a barracks as a regimental training station, and then do wholesale business in that heavily defended place, than in the city.

Of course, there are dangers in going out of the city, such as bandits everywhere, but although the British fast robbery used by the regiment is not suitable for street fighting in the city, it is most suitable for field battles, as long as the camp is built to defend, even if there are only three hundred British fast robbers in hand, at least near this Taiping Mansion, the bandits can be ignored at all.

But the question is, if all the regimental training soldiers are taken away, who will protect the prefect's yamen? After Wang Yongni passed this incident, he no longer believed the officers and soldiers of the patrol battalion, so when he heard that he was going to take away the regimental training, he subconsciously exclaimed, asking why he wanted to change the guard, but in fact, it was clear that he refused.

"Not all of them, of course." Li Zhigao, who understood Wang Yongni's thoughts, smiled, "It's still according to Lord Wang's original arrangement, and divide it into two batches." The 500 men you hired at your expense also guarded the prefect's yamen, and I took the 500 men out of the city, first find a place to build the barracks, and train the soldiers, and then let's think about it in the long run. ”

"If that's the case, when will the business reopen?" The one who asked was Cheng Yonghe, the commander of the Yangtze River Naval Division, after all, he didn't care about whether the regimental training was or not, what he cared about was money.

"Business, you say? Well, in view of the recent situation, let's stop for a while. Li Zhigao pretended to be helpless and said, "That kind of thing has happened, especially the merchants have died a lot, even if I do business again, I'm afraid the effect will not be good in a short time, so just close the door and shut down, let everyone take a slow, let's take this time to train the soldiers first, and when our soldiers are trained, there is force to rely on, and then it is not too late to do business." ”

"Well, if you don't do it, you won't do it." Cheng Yonghe sighed, "But this army training costs a lot of money, and now the business can't be done, and there is no income, so how can this usual salary come out?" ”

"That's still the same, of course." Marven hurriedly said in blunt Chinese, "According to the number of shares, since you have a share, you can't just eat the benefits, and you have to share the difficulties together." ”

"Well, of course, that's right." Cheng Yonghe looked at Marven, then turned his head to look at Wang Yongni, and said in a weird manner, "But we just said that we would raise 500 people and 300 guns, but Lord Wang took it upon himself to recruit another 500 people with treasury silver, and bought another 200 British quick robbers, hehe, how can this matter be calculated?" ”

"Hmph, this doesn't bother Lord Cheng." Wang Yongni glared at Cheng Yonghe, "I am responsible for the five hundred people I recruited, and I am responsible for the salary, this is all over, right?" In short, I won't be embarrassed by Lord Cheng. ”

"That's for sure, and I'm certainly not embarrassed." Cheng Yonghe smiled, "But the question is, Lord Wang, you privately use the treasury money to recruit private people's groups, do the people in the court know about this matter?" ”

"Cheng Yonghe!" Wang Yongni suddenly slapped the table, stood up and glared at Cheng Yonghe, "I haven't settled accounts with you yet, you just didn't save you when you saw death, and now you're starting to fall into the well again?" Okay, you go and sue me, just say that I have embezzled the treasury money in the house without permission, and see if you can sue me! Hmph, what's wrong with me using treasury silver? I still have a lot of deficit in my predecessor, I don't worry about this, and I'm afraid of embezzlement? It's a big deal, I'm going to go home! Hmph, it's you, you're not cleaner than me under your ass, are you? And you are a commander, unlike me as a civil official, when the time comes, hum! ”

"Lord Wang is angry." Seeing that the two of them began to lose their temper, Fan Zhixian, who had the most sense of existence, hurriedly smiled and played a round, "I believe that Lord Cheng didn't mean that, no one here will denounce the adult." After all, in these years, who hasn't embezzled treasury money without permission? If you don't embezzle the treasury silver, what do you eat and drink up and down? I'm not afraid of a deficit, anyway, I've always had a deficit, as long as I can pay a part of the taxes to the court on time in the end. ”

"yes." Cheng Yonghe also stepped down and said with a smile, "I'm also joking, no one here will denounce it, Lord Wang is angry, just when I can't speak, I'll pay for it!" Come, replace wine with tea, let's do it! ”

After speaking, Cheng Yonghe took the initiative to pick up a cup of tea and walked up to Wang Yongni, intending to clink glasses with Wang Yongni.

In fact, half of Wang Yongni's anger was pretended, and when he saw that the other party was soft, he just got off the donkey, after all, everyone was actually a grasshopper tied to a rope.

He embezzled the treasury money to recruit private regiments to practice, but Cheng Yonghe was no better, and his soldiers also had a lot of shady deeds.

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