In fact, Shi Dakai also had serious doubts about why he used the expeditionary force to attack Japan, instead of using the Wehrmacht or the Praetorian Guard.

For this reason, when he received the task, he called Zhou Shengjun, the head of the security department of the Eastern Group, many times to ask for instructions, but it was always the secretary of the secretary office of the security department who answered the phone.

Because he couldn't get an accurate answer, Shi Dakai simply issued an order to send troops, but did not explain the reason in detail, it was not that he was selling Guanzi, but that he himself did not know the inside story.

Fortunately, the people under him didn't seem to be interested in the cause or anything, but were more interested in the fact that there was a war to fight, and even the issue of machine guns.

After all, if the war evolves into a situation where I can only bully you, but it is difficult for you to hurt me, then the soldiers will want to fight, not to mention that after a period of study, especially after learning the colonial history of the great powers, they also understand a truth, that is, the attack of a strong country on a weak country is usually a good thing for fame and fortune.

However, no matter what the people below think, as the boss of the expeditionary force, Shi Dakai still has some concerns about this, after all, as the high-level military commander of the group, he is one of the very few insiders who knows part of the details of the Eastern Group.

For example, Shi Dakai guessed, no, that he was convinced that the Eastern Group, which was nominally a private joint-stock company, was actually controlled by the imperial government and was adhering to the will of the imperial family, or more directly, the will of the emperor.

Why do you say that, you can guess from the composition of the Eastern bloc.

You must know that although the expeditionary force is nominally a private fund-raising to establish the Eastern Bloc, it is said that there are even shares of foreigners in it. For example, Karlsson, who changed his name to Li Ansong, and Wall, it is said that they sold all their net worth and exchanged all of them for shares in the Oriental Group, and Jardine Matheson, Swire & Co., etc. have also invested in the Oriental Group and bought a lot of shares.

However, the expeditionary force is nothing more than the Eastern Bloc's sustenance, but how to act, or how to transfer troops, is not to obey the Eastern Bloc's board of directors. Rather, it is subordinate to the Department of Safety and Security, a department directly under the presidency of the President of the Oriental Group.

Here, a few words about the composition of the Eastern Bloc.

As a royal enterprise (the largest shareholder is China CITIC Bank, which accounts for 51 percent of the shares), the Oriental Group is a restricted company that is open to private fund-raising and does not even prohibit foreign investment, and it is indeed obliged to explain its situation to the major shareholders.

However, because it is a company limited by shares. According to the provisions of the Company Law of the Chinese Empire, after a shareholder invests in a company, all the property invested by the shareholder is at the disposal and operation of the company, and the shareholder has no right to interfere with the specific operation of the company. Only a limited number of questions.

In other words, although the Eastern Group is obliged to explain its operations to the major shareholders, according to the limited principle, the account is only for the scale of investment up to a certain amount. A major shareholder with a minimum investment of 20 million Chinese dollars (equivalent to 20 million taels of silver, about more than 40 million US dollars at the current exchange rate). That is, permanent directors of the board of directors.

Moreover, the explanation of major shareholders is limited to the income ratio and the number of dividends, as for the specific investment operation of the group, especially some more private investment activities, such as overseas colonial activities, are all decided by the president of the group, you can not make a specific explanation to the board of directors, the president only needs to report the company's annual profit and loss to the permanent shareholders of the board of directors at the annual summary of each year, and according to the amount of share investment, regularly dividends to everyone.

In other words, the shares issued by the Oriental Group to the public are an investment variety, you buy the shares of the Oriental Group, even if you buy a large number of shares, become the majority shareholder of the board of directors, nominally have a certain ownership and right to speak, but you cannot manage the specific operation of the company, at most you can question the company's earnings, and freely choose whether to withdraw or not, and other powers are not at all.

In other words, the minority shareholders of the Oriental Group only have the benefit of investment dividends and stock investment income, and if they become permanent shareholders of the board of directors, they can enjoy special benefits within the company while having these dividends.

For example, in the purchase of trade goods operated within the group, such as special drugs, aluminum products, stainless steel products, weapons, high-grade silk and other materials, major shareholders enjoy certain internal preferential prices, and this is also the reason why Jardine Matheson and other large ocean banks know that the power of major shareholders is limited, but they are still willing to invest in them.

In fact, in order to obtain China's cheap special trade goods, coupled with the high expectation of returns for the Oriental Group, not only the earliest foreign banks in the East, such as Jardine Matheson and Swire, but also some large foreign groups such as the Bank of France, the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Bank of Prussia, and even the Russian banks, have begun to contact the Oriental Group, hoping to buy some shares and become the permanent majority shareholders of the board of directors.

In view of this, the proposal of the Oriental Group to issue additional shares is underway, and if there is no accident, it is estimated that it will not be long before the Oriental Group will carry out a new round of capital increase and share expansion.

In short, the owner of the Oriental Group seems to be all shareholders, but the president has the final say on the specific implementation, and the president of the group, only the chairman has the right to appoint or dismiss, and the board of directors has no right to interfere, at most it can question the group's earnings. But the problem is that the chairman of the Oriental Group is called Li Yuanzheng, which is Li Yongji's pseudonym, so this is a big circle, and in the end Li Yongji has the final say.

Although there is a big circle, but because the chairman can always be hidden behind the scenes, Li Yongji does not have to come forward, even if it is a board meeting, the chairman can not appear, and only let the agent come forward.

In this way, although many people wonder who this Li Yuanzheng is, whether he has anything to do with the royal family, and some people even directly suspect that this Li Yuanzheng is Li Yongji, but after all, there is an extra veil and fig leaf.

Don't underestimate this fig leaf, many times the nature of having a fig leaf is completely different from that of not, especially when it comes to sensitive matters such as overseas colonization.

That is, the internal situation in the Eastern Bloc can be summed up in this simple way:

The chairman is mysterious and the most powerful, the actual owner of the company as well as the decision-maker.

The permanent directors of the board of directors may challenge the group's investment returns. They are able to freely buy and sell their own shares, receive regular dividends, and obtain the internal prices of the group's own products, but they are not responsible for the specific operation of the group.

The president of the group is the highest decision-maker responsible for the specific operation of the group, only the chairman of the board of directors can appoint or dismiss, and the board of directors has no right to interfere with the specific appointment and implementation of the president. Only the chairman has the final say.

To put it bluntly, such a company with limited shares, or a system similar to enlightened autocracy, the chairman with the most power is still the biggest boss, everything has the final say, and everyone else is under the chairman's hands to supervise and restrain each other's subordinates, and they also share fertilizer together.

The Ministry of Security, as the violent executive body of the Eastern Bloc, only obeys the orders of the President of the Group. But in the final analysis, you still have to follow Li Yongji's orders.

The current president of the Oriental Group is Li Yongji's brother-in-law, Lin Guangyao, a slightly capable and at the same time very obedient royal relative. The minister of the Ministry of Security is Zhou Shengjun, and he is also the head of the Operations Division of the General Staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which can be regarded as a favored minister.

In such a large company as the Eastern Group, the people in charge are either relatives or favored ministers. The truth was already coming out, so Shi Dakai concluded that the Oriental Group was Li Yongji's company, just like other CITIC banks and the like.

As a matter of fact. It is an open secret that the Oriental Group is a royal company, and this is one of the reasons why everyone is enthusiastic about investing, after all, investing in royal enterprises is a sure way to make money and not lose money, and there have been too many verifications before, such as the core enterprises of the four major families such as CITIC Bank.

It's a pity that the core enterprises of the four families never offer shares to the public, so that everyone has no opportunity to participate in the distribution of fertilizer.

According to many people, after this village, there will be no such store, and if even the Oriental Group stops raising shares in the future, then there will be no chance.

Having said that, so far, the Ministry of Security has a total of three armed forces under its control, namely the Jingwu Dart Bureau, the White Dawn International Column, and the Expeditionary Volunteer Army.

Among them, the Jingwu Dart Bureau and the White Dawn International Column are both old brands, and the Expeditionary Volunteer Army is newly established, although the focus is slightly different, but the nature is the same, they are all relatively independent mercenary armed groups.

Take the Jingwu Dart Bureau as an example, this Jingwu Dart Bureau was originally made by Wang Sanwu's father, Li Yongji's grandfather Wang Tianzhong, and the original purpose was to maintain the armed escort of his own business and find a job for the idle personnel of the Wang family, but later the Manchu Dynasty perished, and the situation of the Jingwu Dart Bureau was a little embarrassing.

Because after the establishment of the empire, the public security of the provinces directly under the central government has improved rapidly, coupled with the financial reform, the demand for armed escort has become smaller, and the scale of the Jingwu Dart Bureau has become larger and larger, and there are more and more personnel, but it does not belong to the national army and does not eat the state finance.

Later, the Jingwu Dart Bureau simply carried out reforms, turned into a joint-stock limited liability company, and began to raise funds from the public, but unfortunately there were few applicants, after all, not many people were interested in a big dart board with low income and even continuous losses, even if this dart board was contaminated with the word royal.

Later, Li Yongji couldn't wipe off his grandfather's face, and at the request of his mother, he began to intervene in the Jingwu Dart Bureau, but his method was to inject capital and split and reorganize.

To put it simply, Jingwu Dart Bureau is still a joint-stock limited liability company, but it was fully acquired by the newly established Oriental Group and became a holding subsidiary of Oriental Group.

After the acquisition of Jingwu Dart Bureau by Oriental Group, Jingwu Dart Bureau was split and rectified, and it was directly divided into two companies, namely Jingwu International Logistics Company and Jingwu Dart Bureau.

Among them, Jingwu International Logistics Company is a joint-stock limited liability company, Oriental Group accounts for 51 percent of the shares, and the other 49 percent of the shares can be raised through public offering to the public. The company's main business scope is the transportation industry, such as land transportation and shipping, and its business scope includes inland transportation and sea transportation.

Unlike the upper echelons of the Oriental Group, the board members of this logistics company can intervene in the operation of the group, and the power is relatively greater than that of the board of directors of the Oriental Group, the purpose is naturally to increase the enthusiasm of the board members and make them willing to spend more money on shares.

As for the Jingwu Dart Bureau, it is a private offering to the public. The president or governor of the company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Oriental Group, is appointed by the Oriental Group's Safety and Security Department, and then the president has full authority to manage the Jingwu Dart Bureau.

In this way, in terms of command and management, the order of the Eastern Bloc Security Department is the highest order and has the highest priority, and in the absence of a formal order from the Security Department, the president of the Jingwu Dart Bureau can also take on private work after obtaining the consent of the Security Department.

The relationship between Jingwu Dart Bureau and the Eastern Bloc. Similar to the relationship between tenant farmers and landlords, the company belongs to the Oriental Group, but the Eastern Group does not pay salaries to the people of the Jingwu Dart Bureau, and the Jingwu Dart Bureau has to make its own money to support itself, and the proceeds are divided into 55 percent.

In other words, the Eastern Group only provides weapons and equipment, low-interest loans, political shelter and related work to the president of the Jingwu Dart Bureau, and then the president himself can use this batch of weapons and equipment to pull up a team to take over the job, take the job, and have money. It is divided into 55 and 5, half of which goes to the Eastern Bloc and the other half to himself.

In other words, the Jingwu Dart Bureau is a self-financing unit. It's a bit like the privateering license issued by the British to pirates back then, the only difference is that although it is a fifty-fifty split, it is even the part of the Jingwu Dart Bureau's own retention. The division is also strictly in accordance with the rules.

To put it simply, the president of the Jingwu Dart Bureau can't monopolize half of the income by himself, he is just a decision-maker and executor. He does not have the right to withhold funds privately, but the people of the Eastern Bloc Security Department divide them according to the size of their positions and the number of meritorious deeds of the members of the Jingwu Dart Bureau, which is actually no different from the army.

However, since most of the members of the Jingwu Dart Bureau are distant relatives of the Wang family, the business they take over is somewhat related to the four families, and they can also be regarded as the gold medal private fighters of the four families.

At present, in addition to providing bodyguards for large families, the main business of the Jingwu Dart Bureau is to provide private armed protection and local repression for the autonomous provinces and dependent countries in the country, such as the northwest, northeast and North Korea, which are relatively chaotic in law and order, but have a certain economic value, in other words, they can be employed not only by private individuals, but also by the State Department.

Just like now, one of the biggest business projects of the Jingwu Dart Bureau is to be employed by the State Council and invest a lot of manpower and material resources to go to the northeast and North Korea to maintain the security of trade routes between the local area and the provinces directly under the central government, and if necessary, at the request of the local garrison, to help the local defense force stabilize local law and order.

In this way, not only can the State Council reduce the local garrison and save the State Council's garrison costs, but also if the private mercenaries do anything out of the ordinary in the local area, such as the looting is more ruthless, it can also reduce some moral losses for the state.

The White Dawn International Column is an all-white force, originally an independent foreign mercenary army, a private mercenary owned only by Li Yongji.

However, after Li Yongji ascended the throne and became the emperor, it was inevitable to teach the truth if he did this, so he reorganized the White Dawn International Column after the Jingwu Dart Bureau and became a private security company affiliated with the Eastern Group, and the president was still Karlsson.

In terms of nature, the White Dawn International Column, like the situation of the Jingwu Dart Bureau, is also under the full management of the Ministry of Security, and the division is five or five, and they can keep half of it, and the income of the members is divided strictly according to their own positions and merits, not according to the personal preferences of the column commander.

At present, the main business of the White Dawn International Column is to provide ocean escort, especially the maritime escort operations from China to Los Angeles, that is to say, the fleet of the Chinese who immigrated to Los Angeles before is basically protected by the escort of the White Dawn International Column.

Therefore, the current White Dawn International Column is not so much an army as a naval force with a large number of ocean-going ships, in addition to escorting ships, it also plays a cameo role as pirates in peacetime, and carries out raids in the waters of the South China Sea such as the Philippines, Vietnam, and Singapore, and the targets of robbery are usually smuggling ships.

How do you know if it's a smuggling ship? Quite simply, the smuggling ship does not have a license issued by the Chinese Customs, and the customs license is watermarked and anti-counterfeiting, which is difficult for ordinary people to imitate, so they usually do not admit mistakes.

That is, they usually change the pirate flag first, approaching a ship, if there is a permit. Just let it go, if you don't, just snatch the goods, and the people stay, but if you resist, then come hard.

Speaking of which, China's recent maritime smuggling activities have become more and more rampant, and it is not enough to rely on the customs alone, so I thought of letting the White Dawn International Column make a cameo in the piracy business. Anyway, they are all white, and they use the clippers commonly used in Europe. At most, the artillery is a Chinese-made Hua 2 naval gun, and no one knows whose man it is if it is a pirate skeleton flag.

The Hua 2 naval gun, which is a navy front-loading rifled gun with an increased caliber of 120 mm and a hydraulic brake, uses a pointed flowering blasting projectile, which is not sold to the outside world, and completely explodes the naval guns of other powers in terms of power.

It is precisely because China's maritime smuggling is becoming more and more rampant that the White Dawn International Column has been getting more and more moisturized recently. In terms of revenue, it has surpassed the Jingwu Dart Bureau, and is the most profitable of the security companies under the Eastern Group.

Finally, there is the newly formed Expeditionary Volunteer Army.

Since the purpose of the expeditionary volunteers was to intervene in the American Civil War, as well as in the Mexican War. Therefore, it is slightly different from the other two security companies, and it is likely that it will not be effective in the short term, so it implements a more conservative management plan.

Specifically, the combatants of the Expeditionary Volunteer Army recruit volunteers directly from the army. Implement a salary system that combines basic salary and bonus.

In other words, even if there is no income for the time being, all combat members also have a basic salary, bonuses and perfect disability insurance. Moreover, the qualifications and meritorious services during the war will be recorded, and if you do not work in the expeditionary force in the future, this resume can also be counted, and you only need to make a small change and restore your military status, so that you can not only join the regular army and continue to be a professional army, but also go to the local government to become an official according to the treatment of demobilized cadres in the regular army.

However, it is precisely because of the basic salary that the expeditionary force's share is a little less, according to 37 cents, that is to say, the expeditionary force has to hand over 70 percent of the income earned by plundering or operating overseas colonies to the Eastern Bloc, and they can only keep 30 percent, which will be distributed to the officers and men of the army in accordance with the pattern of bonuses.

In this way, since they do not have to be self-financed, the expeditionary force is a little more disciplined, much better than the first two mercenaries, and can be treated as a regular army.

Therefore, the expeditionary force is the overseas intervention force that truly represents the interests of the Chinese empire, especially the political interests, and the other two forces are the private mercenaries who really aim at commercial interests.

As for why the expeditionary force is also counted in the Eastern Bloc and turned into mercenaries, the reason is naturally very simple, that is, it can raise funds from the society in the name of the Eastern Bloc, and then use the money of civil society to do overseas colonization and trade, seek benefits for the imperial government, and save the imperial finances to the greatest extent while avoiding many unnecessary international disputes.

Shi Dakai is a more serious person, so after he gave the order, he went back and kept calling the security department of the Eastern Group, and finally the effort paid off, and in the evening, he finally connected the phone of the minister of the security department, that is, the top person in charge, Zhou Shengjun.

"The Yoshidaya incident was indeed an accident, not something we led it ourselves." Zhou Shengjun replied, "In fact, His Majesty does have a heart for Japan, but for now, His Majesty's focus is in the direction of the United States and Mexico, and Japan is at the doorstep anyway, but it is not the main goal of His Majesty at present." However, since the Japanese took the initiative to send a pretext for war, there is no reason not to do a vote, at least knock on Japan first, earn some pocket money, and by the way, it is also good to train your expeditionary force. ”

"Then why don't you use the Wehrmacht and the Praetorian Guard, but us?" Shi Dakai said, "The Wehrmacht is enough, but the Praetorian Guard is stronger than us, right?" ”

"For your reasons, it's naturally to save money." Zhou Shengjun said.

"Save money? No, as far as I know, our soldiers are treated like the Praetorian Guard. Shi Da opened the way.

"No, no, no, you only know one thing, you don't know the other." Zhou Shengjun said, "Your comparative treatment is the treatment during the war, and it can be compared with the basic salary of the Praetorian Guards in peacetime." That is to say, when you go to Japan, your salary is paid according to the basic daily salary of the Praetorian Guard. But what you don't know is that the basic salary of the Praetorian Guards is actually not high, they are high in allowances, subsidies and bonuses. ”

"Perks, subsidies and bonuses?" Shi Dakai was stunned.

Shi Dakai has also commanded the Praetorian Guard before, such as during the raid on Seoul in North Korea, but he is only responsible for commanding the operation, and he is not responsible for the salary, and the Praetorian Guard has regulations that prohibit the announcement of personal income, so he is also vague about the specific income of the Praetorian Guard. Just know what the basic monthly salary is.

"That's right." Zhou Shengjun said, "What you see is the public monthly salary, the monthly salary of the Praetorian Guard is five yuan, which is equivalent to about five taels of silver a month, which seems to be a lot, but in fact, compared to subsidies and allowances, it is a small thing."

Do you know, the five yuan of the Praetorian Guards were earned for nothing, because food, drink, and shelter were provided by the army. They don't have to spend their own money, and the Praetorian Guards also have nutritional subsidies, almost every meal has meat, and the money they spend on food and drink every month is almost the standard of three yuan per person, which is richer than a well-off family.

In addition, if you go to war, the Praetorian Guard also has a war allowance, which ranges from two yuan to five yuan, so it is calculated. If they are all counted as money a month, a person's income will be more than ten yuan a month!

Of course, that's all there is to it, if you add a share. You can get up to seven or eight yuan a month, which is not much different, but the problem is that people's settlement expenses. Well, that's military insurance, that's not the same as you.

The settling-in expenses of the Praetorian Guards are high. If an ordinary soldier of the Praetorian Guard is disabled or killed, the minimum settling-in allowance is 100 yuan, and if he dies, he can get a settling-in allowance of up to 1,000 yuan.

If it is an officer, for example, a corporal of the Praetorian Guard is killed, the settling-in allowance starts at 2,000 yuan, and 200 yuan for each higher level of military rank, and when it comes to a lieutenant, on the basis of the highest settling-in allowance for non-commissioned officers, 400 yuan for each higher level of military rank, and 800 yuan for each higher level of military rank for a colonel, and 2,000 yuan for each higher level on the basis of the maximum amount of school officers.

What about you, the soldier's settling-in allowance is only 30 yuan, the officer's settling-in allowance is also 100 yuan, and the military rank is increased by 20 yuan, there is no ladder treatment, the price difference is so obvious, do you say use you or use them? ”

"This, how can it be so high?" Shi Dakai was dumbfounded, "The Praetorian Guards are treated so well? ”

"How else to say that the Praetorian Guard is the pro-army of the Son of Heaven." Zhou Shengjun said, "But you don't look at the level of the Praetorian Guard, the Janissary Guard's settlement fee is high, but according to their equipment, it is difficult to damage lightly, so the Praetorian Guard will not be dispatched unless it is absolutely necessary." ”

"What about the Wehrmacht?" Shi Dakai said, "If the Praetorian Guard is expensive, then the Wehrmacht should be cheaper than us, right?" ”

"First of all, the Wehrmacht is a national army, and moral issues are more sensitive." Zhou Shengjun said, "Secondly, the National Defense Force has not stopped recently, and there are many things in the country that the National Defense Force has to do."

For example, if you want to participate in the large-scale suppression of bandits in southwest Lu, exterminate those disobedient twisters, and there are still rebellions in the northwest and Yunnan, you must also send a large army to the expedition, and the scale of the expedition is not small.

I will not hide it from you, because of the different nature of the Hui rebellion, in order to carry out the Prime Minister's order to cut down the grass and eradicate the roots, it is initially estimated that the total number of national defense forces dispatched in the northwest and Yunnan may reach the scale of 500,000 people, which is a big move, and it is said that it will be ...... Ahem, in short, it costs a lot of money.

Oh, by the way, there is also Taiwan, Taiwan has also rebelled recently, it is a troublemaker named Dai Chaochun, and the National Defense Force will also send troops to conscript, although the scale of the troops is only 5,000, but it is also elite, all of them are professional soldiers.

Tell me, almost all of the tasks that the Wehrmacht can fight now have tasks, and the rest are recruits, who else can be used, and it is okay to defend the family, but it is not good to go abroad to conquer, and if you don't need to fight Japan, who else can you use? ”

"I see." Shi Dakai was silent, not for anything else, but to be suppressed by the military strength exposed by the empire.

"Moreover, the main purpose of using you is to train the troops, after you finish fighting Japan, it is estimated that you will go to Mexico, so, do a good job, fight well, not to mention the marquis, it is not a dream to re-crown the king, you know, overseas colonies can be crowned kings, don't forget."

"Re-crowned? The adults laughed. Shi Dakai smiled freely, "It's good to give us poor people who only know how to fight a way out, and I don't dare to think about it anymore." ”

"You don't have to be presumptuous." Zhou Shengjun said, "Your Majesty once said to me privately that Shi Dakai can bend and stretch, has a strong personality, and if he is tempered, he will have a great achievement in the future." Hehe, His Majesty said so, which means that you Jane is in the emperor's heart, do it well, and there may not be a day when you will be crowned king in the future. Master Shi, the world is very big, you have to take a long-term view, and your ambition is indelible. ”

"In this way, thank you for your kindness." Shi Dakai squinted, "The minister should do his best to fulfill his duties in order to repay His Majesty's trust." (To be continued......)