On Tuesday, March 20, 1646, the fourth day of the second month of the second year of the Ming Empire, the spring equinox.

Today, the city of Guangzhou is particularly lively, and a large number of people in the city have flocked to the streets of the city's largest market to watch the opening ceremony of a large business.

A newly built large attic house-like shop proudly appeared in the most prosperous area of Guangzhou City. Right now, a huge plaque with fiery red satin was being carefully hung by seven or eight men from the eaves of the main entrance.

The red silk was lifted, several strings of firecrackers were lit, gongs and drums were heard, and four gilded characters "Guangfu Company" could be seen on the plaque in the midst of the fireworks.

Guangfu Bank, which was registered in Huamei Hong Kong, officially changed its name to Guangfu Company after the beginning of spring this year, and opened the Guangzhou City Headquarters Commercial Building.

Although the word "company" has long been used in China, this should be the second business name in Guangdong to be publicized in the name of the company. The first is Nanhai Firm, which was renamed two months earlier than Guangfu Bank, and now the latter's headquarters in Qiongzhou, Nanhai Restaurant, has hung a plaque of "Nanhai Company".

Nanhai Company is Guangdong's largest landlord and gentry consortium that has been operating for nearly 20 years, and although it was suppressed by the Governor's Office of Liangguang in the spring and summer of last year, it is still the hegemon of Guangdong's industrial and commercial circles, with shops all over Guangzhou, and there are many workshops in Qiongzhou.

Guangfu company is a rising star, the shareholders are mainly small and medium-sized maritime businessmen, there are few local squires, it was established only for a year, and there are only branches in a few counties under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou Prefecture, except for Gaozhou Coal Mine, Dongguan County Tea Factory and Xin'an County Yarn Factory, which does not have a few large-scale entity workshop industries.

However, Guangfu Company's supply and trade routes have expanded rapidly in the past year, especially relying on Luo Huide's own family and clan relationship in Wuzhou, Guangxi, which quickly squeezed out a considerable market share of Nanhai Company in the local area. It is said that in the spring of this year, Guangfu Company and Nanhai Company also shared the general agent qualification of Huamei in Daming area, and quickly showed growth potential that cannot be underestimated.

The headquarters commercial building was completed and opened, and Guangfu Company also publicly obtained the inscription plaque of Zhao Youheng, the governor of Guangdong, which aroused the envy of many Guangzhou merchants who were still watching before, and they wanted to join the joint venture.

A group of small and medium-sized businessmen in Guangzhou who were forced to unite at the beginning. Now everyone stood in front of the main gate as a member of the board of directors or shareholders of Guangfu Company, and bowed to the onlookers in Guangzhou.

"Yo, shopkeeper Chen, please inside, please inside!"

"Oh, it's the white shopkeeper, oops, thank you!"

Local businessmen of all sizes were invited to come as guests, and Luo Huide, who was in charge of the reception, was smiling and saluting frequently. A group of minority shareholders of the company followed up with chicken breasts or big bellies, and shouted hello to their peers who came to congratulate them in front of the store.

I'm busy. Luo Huide suddenly found that in the crowd of people opposite, a middle-aged man with a long beard dressed as a scholar was looking at him with a smile, and not far away, there was a gorgeous luxury carriage with a high status at a glance, but the windows and doors were closed, and he couldn't see who was inside.

"Please continue to greet distinguished guests, I will come as soon as I go!"

Quickly pushed away, Luo Huide squeezed through the crowd, and came to the long-bearded man out of breath. Directly bowed to the ground: "I didn't expect Mr. Zhao to come in person, Luo almost missed his eyes, it's really not polite!" ”

"Hehe, Mr. Luo is polite. I also came to Guangzhou to visit Governor Zhao for the 'Eastern Economic Forum' after the Dragon Boat Festival. This time, it coincided with the opening of your company's headquarters, and you should also come to congratulate you. ”

Zhao Mingchuan smiled slightly, and then turned his body away from the crowd. It's not going to be too high-profile.

"Mr. Zhao, although rest assured, I have invited friends from the two Guangxi industries, and I will definitely be there at the beginning of the forum." Luo Huide was even happier when he heard it. Hurriedly patted his chest and promised, "The Oriental Economic Forum held by the Oriental Union Group in Guangzhou this time, on the commodity road, it is really the blessing of my Guangdong gentry and people, and my Guangfu Company will definitely help!" ”

After speaking, he also secretly glanced at the carriage not far behind Zhao Mingchuan, revealing a hint of seeking advice.

"There is Mr. Lauro, I happened here today, I didn't bring a gift, and I will definitely make up for it later."

Zhao Mingchuan didn't notice the other party's gaze, only to see that the other party looked confident, knowing that the other party had been building momentum for a private business activity led by the Oriental Union Group for a long time, and Zhao Mingchuan's initial worries were also reduced by half. After a few small talks, he returned to the carriage and continued towards the governor's yamen.

Not long after, the celebration in front of the headquarters of Guangfu Company entered a climax, on both sides of the store door, a few guys guarded two baskets of copper coins to the onlookers desperately threw money, attracting bursts of crazy applause.

On the outskirts of Guangzhou, or even further afield, it was a different story, where the seemingly chaotic northern refugees were piled up in all kinds of grass huts, wilderness jungles, or on both sides of official roads, selling their sons and daughters to the locals for a few meals of hanging.

For only one or two taels of silver, a whole family of men, women, and children could be dragged out of the refugee pile, and then packed and sold to some large maritime merchant waiting in the city after a day or two.

……

……

Guangzhou City, Guangdong Governor Yamen.

In the backyard flower garden, two teas, a plate of pastries, on both sides of the table of eight immortals, two men, one old and one middle, were silent.

Slowly flipping through the letter in front of him, Zhao Youheng's expression became more and more ugly, perhaps mixed with some embarrassment, but in the end, he couldn't help but sigh: "Brother Zhao, it turns out that you came to collect debts this time!" ”

Zhao Mingchuan also felt a little uncomfortable in his heart, but his face still did not change, and he just saluted slightly: "Lord Governor, this time Mingchuan came with a letter from the Oriental Bank to collect money, and it was also a last resort. However, if the governor has any difficulty in making payments, Mingchuan can discuss with the directors of the Oriental Bank again, and it is okay to postpone it for a few days......

"Ben Fu risked being ginseng to allow you to wait for Huamei businessmen to enter and exit Guangzhou City, but the front foot only released the Tongwen, and you personally came to the door to ask for the account. Hey, the state of Huamei is also serious about business. ”

I don't know if it's helplessness or sarcasm, Zhao Youheng secretly complained in his heart when he saw the business reminder letter from Oriental Bank in front of him, which had been sent twice and had the same content every time.

It should be said that before today, or before Zhao Mingchuan entered the door, Zhao Youheng was still immersed in several happy events.

The first happy event was that Zhu Hengjia, the self-proclaimed "superintendent of the country," had been escorted to Shaoxing last year, and this internal strife scandal ended with the unrivaled combat effectiveness of Qionghai Town, the new army in Guangdong.

Even if the expanded Qionghai Town is slightly deficient in the internal run-in Shanghai, the opponent is purely the grade of the local chicken and the dog. The casualties in the counterinsurgency battle were negligible, and rebel property worth more than 100,000 taels of silver was secretly seized.

suppressed the Guangxi rebels who followed King Jingjiang to make trouble in Guilin, and rescued Qu Shiyun, the governor of Guangxi, but Qu Shiyun did not receive much affection.

Qu Shiyun neither recognized the court of the Lu King of Eastern Zhejiang, nor did he respond to the solicitation of Emperor Longwu of Fujian. always believes that only the current Guiwang Zhu Youlang is the orthodox heir of the Ming Dynasty, and he is not a person who Zhao Youheng can join forces with after all......

Zhu Youlang is still taking refuge in Yongzhou, which borders Guangxi, and like Zhu Yihai, the current king of Lu, Zhu Youlang's father and brother are sick and dead, and now he inherits King Gui, from the perspective of imperial blood kinship. He is the most qualified person to inherit the throne of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youlang's family fled from Hengyang to Yongzhou like a lost dog, and they were accompanied by some northern officials who had retreated south, and they are currently receiving political assistance from Qu Shiyun, the governor of Guangxi. No matter how bold Zhao Youheng himself is, he doesn't dare to take any action against the Gui Fan supported by Qu Shiyun for the time being.

In desperation, after looting some loot, Zhao Youheng ordered the Guangdong soldiers and horses to withdraw from Guilin and draw the line of military control in the area of Wuzhou, Guangxi.

Now Qionghai Town has been stationed in Wuzhou, guarding the key points of the Xijiang River on land and water. Controlling a large piece of territory between Zhaoqing and Wuzhou can be regarded as holding the entire Guangdong Province and a small number of Guangxi boundaries tightly in his hands.

But in doing so, it has also affected the social ties between the two provinces, especially the Qiongzhou Nanhai Company, whose commercial expansion has reached Guilin. This time, he also had to follow Zhao Youheng's political retreat and give up a considerable number of Guangxi trade routes.

After turning his face with Zheng Zhilong and choosing King Lu with Xiao Yifu, the former governor of Fujian, Zhao Youheng knew that he had no way out, because he had already made up his mind to maintain Guangdong's hard-won new industrial and commercial policy.

Although these are only in Qiongzhou at present, they have a certain meteorological scale. But in time, the whole of Guangdong will definitely usher in the prosperity and development after the fall of the two capitals, and prepare a revitalizing rear force for the few remaining fortunes of the Ming Dynasty.

The second happy event. It was Ding Chukui, the governor of Liangguang, who ran away, and suddenly ran to Fujian with his wife and concubine's wealth in the name of patrolling eastern Guangdong, and defected to Zheng Zhilong.

Ding Chukui ran in such a hurry that even the soldiers and horses sent by Zhao Youheng stopped a small boat that Ding Chukui was transporting his family wealth on the way, and found tens of thousands of taels of silver belonging to the Zhaoqing Mansion Treasury from it!

And the three Cantonese officials who are known for their reputation also escaped from the Longwu court controlled by Zheng Zhilong and returned to Guangdong.

They are Chen Zizhuang, Chen Bangyan and Zhang Jiayu. When the Manchu Qing Dynasty went south to Fujian and Guangdong, the three were among the few Ming Dynasty officials who fought to the death, and in later generations they were called Lingnan Sanzhong, and they all died heroically.

The butterfly wings of history are so wonderful, the dim and greedy Ding Chukui left Fujian, and the more practical Lingnan Sanjie returned to Guangdong.

When such a few outstanding people returned to Guangdong, Zhao Youheng naturally went to visit them non-stop.

"Rejuvenate the three industries of Guangdong Province, and help the king in the face of danger. Raise the Lingnan strong army, Kuang Fu Huang Ming has no ambition. ”

Zhao Youheng is a famous southeastern doer from the Chongzhen Dynasty to the Hongguang Dynasty, and he is older than the three of them. When they talked about the Northern Expedition with the power of a province, the three of them were boiling with tears in their eyes.

Zhao Youheng is from Shandong, but he has been in Guangdong longer than the three locals, and most of the children of the Zhao family are married to this province, and the three of them also regard Zhao Youheng as their hometown, and they are particularly cordial in their chat.

In any case, Liang Chen and Yiyi were both born in Guangdong, which has a strong business atmosphere. Although the three of them may not be able to fully accept Zhao Youheng's ideas on local governance, and they will need to get along with each other in the future, the well-informed Guangdong gentry are still greatly relieved, especially Zhao Youheng, who has always been worried about conflicts with the northern bureaucrats at the governance level.

The third happy event is that Zhao Youheng has recently obtained a new military town, which is currently being intensified.

In order to prepare for the second phase of the southward invasion that the Manchu Qing Dynasty was about to launch, and in order to consolidate the territory of Guangdong, Zhao Youheng screened out a group of soldiers from the Guangxi rebels who returned to Shun, and built a new Xijiang town mixed with a small number of backbones of Guangzhou Town and Qionghai Town, which will be stationed in Shaozhou in the future, responsible for the defense of Huguang and Jiangxi directions, and programmatically sent people to the small court of King Lu in eastern Zhejiang to ask for an order.

These three happy events have not yet been digested, and OUCC has issued three reminder letters in a month. Even this third time was brought by Zhao Mingchuan, who supported him the most.

At present, Guangdong nominally has three new armies, Qionghai Town, Guangzhou Town, and Xijiang Town. Each town had six battalions, three infantry battalions, one horse battalion, one artillery battalion, and one baggage battalion, totaling more than 12,000 men.

However, the horse battalions and artillery battalions of the three towns were now only on paper because of the serious lack of horses and artillery. However, the total number of officers and soldiers of the new army in the three towns is more than 36,000 officers and soldiers, not counting the cost of purchasing military supplies such as grain, grass, ordnance, and clothing, theoretically the annual salary and silver expenditure alone is 500,000 taels of silver!

The two capitals were destroyed, the hearts of the people were different, the surrender factions and resistance factions in various parts of the Jiangnan were mixed together, and the civil war and the foreign war were in chaos. Regardless of the small court. Nanming, as a legitimate regime, has essentially lost its normal functioning. In relatively stable Guangdong, Zhao Youheng stepped up the work of household registration and tax clearance, but because there were too few trustworthy people, the administrative progress was very slow, and it all relied on the running of his wife and brother Liu Yaoyu, and the Qiongzhou tyrants of the Nanhai Company were helping to maintain various military and political expenses.

But after all, the money of the merchants is not stolen and robbed, and who can afford the expenses of the government? After being beaten by the autumn wind of more than 100,000 taels of silver one after another, now even the Qiongzhou Nanhai Company no longer has a good face for the messenger sent by Zhao Youheng.

In order to feed the noble new army, as well as to provide relief to hundreds of thousands of refugees from the north to Guangdong. Zhao Youheng had almost exhausted all the silver grain he could find, and even sold a lot of his own property, so he was about to forcibly pay heavy taxes to the peasants in Guangdong.

In the end, Zhao Youheng had to borrow money from Huamei Oriental Union Group again with the help of the personal relationship between his brother-in-law Liu Yaoyu and Zhao Mingchuan. Moreover, it is also a special commercial loan of a huge amount, totaling 800,000 taels of silver, equivalent to 1.2 million Chinese dollars.

Strictly speaking, according to the authorized act of the American Congress in China. If the OUCC lends to the government of the sovereign state in the Far East, the maximum limit is only $1 million.

Zhao Youheng was only a representative of the local government of the Ming Dynasty, and there was no way for the sovereign state to lend. If the Oriental Union Group lent money to the Guangdong Governor Yamen represented by Zhao Youheng. Theoretically, it would be prohibited by the relevant legislation of the United States Congress of China.

In order to legally circumvent domestic laws and achieve procedural legitimacy, with the consent of the headquarters of the Oriental Union Group, and at the suggestion of Zhao Mingchuan, Zhao Youheng reached a secret assistance agreement with the Qiongzhou Nanhai Company and the Oriental Union Group last summer.

Zhao Youheng ostensibly stayed out of the matter, and his brother-in-law Liu Yaoyu made unlimited liability guarantees, and opened a loan account in the Hong Kong branch of Oriental Bank in his private name, and then the account received remittances of 1.2 million US dollars one after another.

But the money can only be stored at the account level, and cannot be withdrawn, and then Zhao Youheng will use it exclusively to purchase relatively cheap Nanyang grain and Huamei military equipment from Hong Kong.

The principal and interest of this special assistance loan amounted to $1.5 million. According to the secret aid agreement, Zhao Youheng, who enjoyed two months of interest-free treatment, had to repay the principal and interest in 30 months starting in January 1646, with an average monthly repayment of $50,000.

In order to repay the OUCC Group's recognition of his private credit a few years ago, Zhao Youheng allowed the OUCC Group to send business representatives to Guangzhou and Qiongzhou to freely go in and out of Guangzhou and Qiongzhou to engage in non-governmental economic and commercial activities. But now as soon as Zhao Mingchuan came, he collected debts from himself as the general manager of the Far East Branch of the Oriental Union Group, which hurt the self-esteem of the scholars and the officials of the Ming Dynasty.

The treasury of the Guangdong Governor's Yamen is about to run out of rats, not to mention repaying tens of thousands of taels of silver to the Oriental Union Group every month, and even the expenses to support the daily food and salary of the New Army in the Three Towns are almost unsustainable. And so far, the silver taels for the purchase of ordnance, chariots and horses needed by the new army in Xijiang Town have not yet been settled!

……

……

"Mr. Zhao, I can't hide it, now the situation is urgent, the Manchu Qing Dynasty is approaching south, the people of Guangdong are waiting for the day, and the food and salary are very expensive, and this silver will have to be delayed for a few more months before it can be repaid...... If you can't afford to procrastinate, then you see what valuable things are left in the old man's house, just carry them! ”

After a cup of tea, Zhao Youheng touched his beard and sighed slightly, and it was very difficult to justify the shyness in his bag.

The tragic incident of forcing the hero to death with a penny is about to come true in the yamen of the governor of Guangdong.

Strictly speaking, this is just a strategic investment in Guangdong by domestic capitalists led by the Oriental Union Group, and even if Zhao Youheng really can't afford it one day, the follow-up assistance will still not be interrupted.

Quietly looking at the governor of Guangdong, who had been a private friend for many years, the whiteness of the temples made Zhao Mingchuan feel a burst of indescribable sadness in his heart. However, these processes are probably also necessary, otherwise we will not be able to usher in the rebirth of the homeland of Daming, right?

"The governor has worked his own, shouldering the crisis, and Mingchuan is not as good as it. Don't hide it from the governor, Ming Chuan's visit this time, and the collection is secondary. Seeing that the time was almost up, Zhao Mingchuan finally took a long breath and took out a letter from his sleeve, "This is an official document from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China and the United States, as evidenced by the official seal of the national government. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State Government wants to have a formal talk with the Governor, and now that the person is outside the Governor, can Lord Zhao deign to see him? ”

Zhao Mingchuan's words can be regarded as a thunderbolt, so shocked that Zhao Youheng almost jumped up!

At present, there is no real official diplomacy between the Ming Dynasty and China and the United States, and it is all dependent on a group of landlords, squires or maritime merchants in Qiongzhou to make indirect contacts. Even the Oriental Union Group, which has long been famous on the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty, lent an astronomical amount of silver to Zhao Youheng, and Zhao Youheng only had dealings with Zhao Mingchuan in private.

The political bottom line is very important for a Ming bureaucrat, especially Zhao Youheng, who has a heart to do things but also cherishes his feathers. Without a justifiable political reason, Zhao Youheng would not touch it in person.

At the beginning, the Governor of Huamei Hong Kong wanted to negotiate the signing of the renewal of the Hong Kong Concession, but Zhao Mingchuan and Liu Yaoyu were also in the middle of the transfer, and the official personnel of Huamei really stepped into the door of the Guangdong government.

Could it be that the matter of not paying back the money he owes has reached the point where it is the turn of the Huamei official to come to the door to talk about things?

Zhao Youheng had mixed tastes at this time. (To be continued......)