In the sound of firecrackers, the twelve years of Chongzhen have finally passed.

In the New Year that just came, Liu Jun was still in Guangdong, not only did he stay in Guangdong, but the Chu army that went south was still in Guangdong. The seven battalions that had originally gone south had a lot more personnel in the past few months.

Now the Nine-Headed Bird has added a new fleet of the Beiyang Naval Division, with seven four-masted battleships, twelve brigs, thirty sloops, nine three-masted gunboats, twelve Daqingtou, thirty sand ships, and thirty sand ships.

This fleet, which has taken initial shape, has three sub-fleets, the Zhen'an, Anlan, and Fubo fleets, each fleet has two four-masted and 74-gun warships, three improved three-masted and 40-gun battleships, four two-masted and 20-gun warships, another 10 single-masted and 10-gun caravelets, and four eight-gun Daqingtou, 10 rushing ships and sand boats carrying troops and supplies, and a number of speedboats.

Each detachment had 50 large and small ships, 500 guns on board, and 3,000 soldiers, including 2,000 sailors and 1,000 marines.

The entire fleet of the Beiyang Naval Division has 10,000 horses, including both crew sailors from the Zheng clan and crew gunners from Europe, and about half of the team members are drawn from the nine-headed bird.

Now the crews of the ships of the fleet are in place, and the crew fighters have also run in for a long time and have the ability to fight independently. The rapid progress made Zheng Zhilong amazed after seeing the drill of the Beiyang Naval Division.

In addition to this 10,000-strong naval division, the Hydra also had a newly created artillery unit. An artillery brigade with eighteen artillery companies, three regiments under its jurisdiction, and 6,000 artillery men.

In addition to the naval division and artillery, Liu Jun's original seven battalions have also undergone some adjustments, and now they are one cavalry and one baggage, plus two infantry battalions and a training battalion, and have been changed to five battalions, with more than 15,000 people, plus 10,000 sailors. The artillery was 6,000 people, and the Nine-headed Bird in the south now has a scale of more than 30,000 people.

"The emperor has issued another decree to urge the Hou Ye to return to Huguang." Fu Shan walked upstairs and said to Liu Jun.

"It's not done yet, how can you leave right away."

"But the emperor has made several holy decrees, but he has not been able to do it, I'm afraid it's not good."

Liu Jun smiled, "The emperor hopes that I can return to Hubei as soon as possible, and then prepare for this summer's Eastern Crusade." In fact, they are so worried, of course I will do what I promised. I said that this summer will go east to Liaodong. Just go east to Liaodong, but it's not just the New Year. ”

"What are you waiting for, if it is a matter of trade with Xiyi, I think it is enough to hand it over to Governor Zhang, don't you have a high opinion of this Governor?"

Since the entrenchment was retracted, Liu Jun has been stationed at the mouth of the Pearl River, and several troops have been practicing non-stop every day. The fleet goes to sea every day, training on the one hand, and smuggling and pirates on the other. Crack down on maritime smuggling. And several armies were the same, attacking everywhere, and all those mountain thieves, mining thieves, and water thieves in the Guangdong area suffered.

Zhang Guowei is smiling every day. This marquis of Zhennan not only helped him to capture the bandits, but even took the time to help him reorganize the local army of Liangguang, and now Liangguang has basically organized two towns of soldiers and horses, each town has 25,000 people. Although the soldiers are still those soldiers. The generals are still those generals, but they have eliminated the old and weak and cleared the vacancies. Also checked the arsenal guns, updated the armor.

However, the expenses for the reorganization of the new army were taken out of the share given to the localities in the tax duties of the two Cantonese merchants. Since Liu Jun recovered Taiwan, Entrenchment, and sailors patrolled the sea, the newly established city and customs department had a rich income. There are more maritime merchants who come to register, and there are more goods submitted for approval in the customs warehouse, and the tariffs are more and more day by day.

Especially the entrenchment mirror, now here is more and more lively and prosperous than when the Portuguese controlled, Xiangshan Aoli ships are continuous, and the commercial goods from all over the country are continuously transported, and after passing through the customs, they are on the ship and out of the port, and transported to various places. In particular, it is mainly shipped to Taiwan, and in addition to commercial goods, there are also a large number of poor people in the Liangguang area, who are also recruited to Taiwan.

Now you can see many people from Taiwan who come to recruit people all over Guangdong, and they all claim to be people from the Taiwan Development Company, recruiting people to go to Taiwan, they don't need anything, they pay for your ferry tickets and meals, and even arrange accommodation for you when you get to the place.

When he arrived in Taiwan, he cultivated land for the development company, planted sugarcane or rice, or went to mining, and paid room and board every month, and gave one or two halves of silver. Such favorable conditions immediately attracted the hearts of countless poor people. However, this Taiwan development company has the guarantee of Zhennan Hou, Navy Admiral Zheng Zhilong, and Taiwan Governor He Tengjiao, and everyone who is willing to go can also get two months' salary in advance.

If there is a family willing to move over, the treatment is even better.

Zhang Guowei was worried about what kind of scam it was at first, and personally asked Liu Jun to know that Taiwan is now full of fertile land, but lacks population development. After learning the details, Zhang Guowei also began to take the initiative to support the matter, he asked the prefectures and counties of Liangguang to post notices, and even took the initiative to notify those poor families, telling them that they have a new home in Taiwan.

Although the population of the jurisdiction has always been an important indicator of political performance, at this time, it is not a good thing to have more people. The population is large and all are poor, without land or silver, and in the event of famine or rebellion, those who have no property are very easy to follow. Sending these people to Taiwan is actually to reduce the pressure on local law and order.

Even many people actually go to Taiwan as young people, and they work there, and the money they earn is also taken home to improve the situation of their families, which is actually a way to get rich.

The Chu army was busy training anti-smuggling and suppressing bandits, and helped reorganize the Liangguang New Army. Zhang Guowei reciprocated the favor and was busy mobilizing the poor young people under his rule to work in Taiwan to make money.

As for Liu Jun, in fact, on the surface, he was waiting for Xiyi in Nanyang to come to negotiate trade. In fact, he has been busy with Zheng Zhilong on the affairs of the Daming East India Company.

After this period of contact, Zheng Zhilong has contacted more than 300 wealthy businessmen, and they are all willing to invest in this new company, especially when they see that on the preparation list given to them by Zheng Zhilong, the name of Emperor Yizi Zhennanhou is impressively ranked first, and they are ready to invest five million silver dollars, everyone is more and more interested.

Look at the initiators of the company, Huguang Admiral Hubei Chief Military Officer Zhennan Hou Zhu Ciye, Navy Admiral Taiwan Chief Military Officer Zheng Zhilong, these two people alone are enough to make people understand that the future of this company is limitless.

And the minimum shareholding limit of 50,000 taels of silver not only did not scare away those rich businessmen, but made them more and more excited. Those under 50,000 are not allowed to come in to play. This shows that people are really not bad for money, they just want to play bigger.

After this period of preparation, the list of final shareholders has been determined, Liu Jun asked Zheng Zhilong to no longer recruit shareholders, all shareholders up to 365 people, and the final capital contribution of shareholders is 25 million taels of silver.

The shareholders deposited the silver into the Four Seas Bank, issued silver bills, and finally a total of 50 million yuan of capital converged, and the Ming East India Company was officially established. Liu Jun and Zheng Zhilong each invested 5 million silver dollars in cash, merchant ships, and shop real estate, each accounting for 10% of the shares.

"I've heard that many people say that the weather is abnormal this year. There will be great calamity. Liu Jun replied to Fu Shan that the donkey's head was not in the horse's mouth, "Master Qing, let our logistics department start purchasing food, we have to prepare early." ”

"Yes." Lord Fu Qing nodded.

Liu Jun shook off his cloak and walked back to the former governor's mansion, where he was now his temporary envoy. Today, however, this will be the place where the shareholders' meeting of the Daming East India Company will be held.

When Liu Jun arrived, the other 364 shareholders of the company had all arrived.

The banquet hall of the Governor's Palace, however, became the meeting hall of the General Meeting of Shareholders.

Liu Jun sat in the front row. The more than 300 richest people in front of him, although they were not the richest people in the Ming Dynasty, were all a group of people who occupied a very important position in maritime trade, including maritime merchant shipyards. There are also shipbuilders, weaving mills, sugar mills, boat dealers, car dealers and other people from all walks of life, most of whom are related to maritime trade.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. Today, the Daming East India Company will elect 19 members of the Board of Directors of the Company. ”

The election was actually very simple, with one vote for each of the 365 shareholders. Then write out their 19 directors candidates, put them in the ballot box, and finally count, the top 19 people with the most votes are board members.

The way is very simple, and Liu Jun doesn't want to make it too complicated.

The ballot papers are handed out, and each person begins to write their own list, then votes, and then counts the votes.

In less than an hour, a list of nineteen people had been selected. Not surprisingly, Liu Jun and Zhilong were both elected as directors, and the other seventeen elected directors were also quite powerful businessmen.

After the election of the directors, the newly elected directors held their first board of directors to elect the chairman, vice chairman and managing director.

Liu Jun was re-elected and was elected chairman with 18 votes in favor and one abstention.

Zheng Zhilong was elected vice chairman with 19 votes.

Dong Mingfu, a big businessman in Guangzhou, was elected as managing director. This Dong Mingfu is a wealthy businessman, he controls several large weaving mills, and tens of thousands of quintals of raw silk can be produced from him every year, and even has a strong relationship network with the upstream silkworm cocoon production channels.

And raw silk is the Ming Dynasty's foreign export commodities are extremely important, especially in the trade with Japan, raw silk occupies a huge share, this Dong Mingfu is the king of raw silk, and he also operates other textile industries, such as cotton and linen textiles.

In the end, Liu Jun appointed Zheng Zhilong as the general manager of the company, and Dong Mingfu as the executive deputy general manager, in addition to Liu Jun also appointed five vice presidents. It is impossible for him and Zheng Zhilong to actually manage the company's affairs, so there must be a special person in charge of management. Dong Mingfu is the leader of the company's daily management, but Liu Jun also appointed five other vice presidents, including Liu Jun's people and Zheng Zhilong's people, among which Liu Jun sent a representative of his father-in-law Lu Weizhang, and asked him to serve as the company's deputy general manager and manager of the finance department.

"The company's next first business is to monopolize trade with Japan, and set up branches in eight coastal ports, including Guangdong Pearl River Estuary Trench Mirror, Fujian Zhangzhou Yue Port, Zhejiang Ningbo Port and Hangzhou Port, as well as Dengzhou in Shandong Province and Tianjin in North and South Li, bringing together commercial goods from all over the country and transporting them to Taiwan Dayuan and Keelung Second Port, and setting up a branch in Hirado, Japan."

"We ship Daming's commercial goods to Taiwan, and then ship Japanese commercial goods from Japan to Taiwan back to Daming."

Zheng Zhilong, the general manager, said in high spirits, "Trade with Japan can only be exclusively operated by our Daming East India Company in the future, and any merchant ship that dares to cross our Taiwan branch and privately transport goods from the mainland to Japan, or from Japan to the mainland, will be captured by us." ”

"Directors, as long as you monopolize trade with Japan, you will be able to earn at least five million dollars a year!" Zheng Zhilong shouted, all the directors nodded frequently, with Liu Jun and Zheng Zhilong here, it is not impossible to monopolize trade with Japan.

Zheng Zhilong was ambitious, and wanted to take this opportunity to make the Daming East India Company bigger, and in the future, he would develop to the South Seas and compete for interests with the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company.

Liu Jun only said one thing at the board meeting, that in the future, the East India Company's financial settlement would use the silver dollars minted by the Four Seas Bank, and the large cash would use the silver bills of the Four Seas Bank.

The directors all know that Sihai Bank is the property of Zhennanhou, and it is not too much for Zhennanhou to make this request. And these businesses of Sihai Bank can indeed provide better makes, naturally no one opposes it, and they are in favor of it.

For the first time, the board met for most of the day and discussed a lot of things. In short, according to the rules and regulations set by the company, the company's major meetings must be discussed by the 19-member board of directors, and the company's major strategic decisions must also be decided by the company's 19-member board of directors.

The board of directors shall be convened at the suggestion of the chairman of the board of directors, and the directors may also request the meeting, and each director may authorize a personal representative to participate in the board of directors.

After the establishment of the company, it began to establish branches, local trading stations, offices, and recruit personnel. At the same time, it ordered the construction of merchant ships, the construction of frigates, and the recruitment of sailors, escorts, stewards, and treasurers. In addition, it is necessary to order various goods and so on.

These things are managed by the company's executive vice president and other vice presidents.

In short, the company officially opened, the company in the account of the Four Seas Bank, the real money is still lying more than 40 million silver dollars, with such a huge amount of funds, everything in the company will quickly step on the right track, this is a real predator.

Liu Jun's eyes at this time returned to the Four Seas Bank, the bank has opened hundreds of branches and sub-branches during this time, basically, every prefecture has a branch, every county has a branch, and the outlets have spread all over every place.

It's time to implement our silver dollar bills, Liu Jun looked at the bank's report, and said to the general manager of the bank with a smile, "Let's start printing silver dollar bills, the denominations are one yuan, two yuan, five yuan, ten yuan, twenty and fifty yuan, and one hundred yuan." Print 10 million yuan first, and then prepare it for me after printing. In addition, a batch of small coupons of one dime, two jiao and five jiao will be printed to increase the convenience of circulation. ”

Liu Jun was going to take these silver dollar coupons to the emperor. During this time, with the rapid laying of the network of Sihai Bank, the bonds also sold well, and the interest rate was not low, which made many people excited. Since Liu Jun did not publicly announce that these bonds were loans from the imperial court, but issued loans in the name of Sihai Bank, and Jiangnan Qianzhuang was used as a guarantee, it was only a commercial loan in the private sector, although it was said to be a credit loan, but with the spread of Sihai Bank and Jiangnan Qianzhuang throughout Daming, the bond sales accumulated a lot, and it was quickly sold for more than 5 million taels.

And the stamina is still very strong, Liu Jun does not plan to send the real money obtained from the sale of bonds to the emperor, but plans to print 10 million yuan of silver dollar coupons to send to the emperor.

Of course, Liu Jun did not want to fool and deceive the emperor, Liu Jun did not print treasure money, but silver dollar coupons that could be exchanged for silver dollars at any time.

On the surface, it seems that Liu Jun seems to take off his pants and fart a little more, but in fact, the water in it is deep. Minting silver coins, Liu Jun can make a lot of money, printing silver dollar coupons, and earning only more! (To be continued......)

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