Now in 1864, although the Chinese Empire was a nascent regime, it had been established for more than three years since the enthronement ceremony in 1860.

For more than three years, there has been basically no major turmoil in the country, peaceful development has become the mainstream, and because there is a lot of modern technology and a large amount of foreign capital from foreign trade, the speed of domestic development is a rocket-like leap and bound, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is changing with each passing day.

However, this kind of great development is based on the large-scale infrastructure construction, modern products, and modern crop cultivation carried out by Li Yongji, and it is an abnormal development with an unstable foundation, and most of the benefits are those royal industries that have mastered modern technology, modern equipment, and modern products.

Or it can be said that because of Li Yongji's golden finger and concentrated efforts, the Chinese Empire has changed from a completely agricultural society in the shortest possible time to a primary industrial country with a primary column of light industry and basic heavy industry, which can not only produce light industrial consumer goods such as unique and highly profitable special drugs, but also produce basic heavy industries such as steel, cement, electricity, and weapons, and the output of steel has jumped to the first place in the world!

That's right, it's the world's first, because it's about steel, or steel, not pig iron, if pig iron is the current world's first, the United Kingdom is still the first, and China's pig iron production ranks third.

The reason for this is that only the Chinese + Chinese empire has mastered the three high-end steelmaking methods of converter steelmaking, open-hearth steelmaking and electric furnace steelmaking, and the steel output of the empire is currently mainly concentrated in the large group of Ma'anshan Industrial Complex, which uses modern equipment and modern technology, so the unit output has completely exploded the steelmaking methods of all countries in the time and space.

As for foreign countries, because Li Yongji sent people to carry out assassination and sabotage in advance, even open-hearth steelmaking has not yet appeared, and it is still a crucible steelmaking method with very low output, although the quality is not bad. However, the output is not comparable to China's converter method at all, and even electric furnace steelmaking cannot be compared.

In the sixties of the nineteenth century, the price of steel was very high, although it cannot be said that the price was lower than gold, but it was slightly cheaper than silver of the same quality, so it was also a hard currency in the international market, usually used in some key components, and would not be turned into building materials such as steel bars in large quantities, or large road goods into the barrels of weapons.

In fact, even the most advanced in the United Kingdom. The material of their weapons, especially the barrel and barrel material, also uses a lot of cast iron, only some special cannons, such as the Armstrong cannon, use steel, but the steel is only a small part, only the inner diameter of the barrel, most of the place is still cast iron. So the Amster cannon is still very bulky.

In short, because of Li Yongji's early opening, the Chinese Empire was able to produce many high-priced hard currencies that the world urgently needed, such as various special drugs. Steel, munitions and other similar artificial pearls, fine crystal glass products, costume jewelry, aluminum products. stainless steel products, etc.

Relatively speaking, luxury, that is, like artificial pearls. Aluminum products, stainless steel products, etc., although the price is very high, but because the demand is not large, only the aristocracy or rich people can consume, and the whole world in this era is not rich, so at the beginning, it can bring huge profits to the empire, or to Li Yongji, but in the later period, these things are no longer the mainstream of trade goods, and medicine, steel, cement and munitions, these four materials, are the largest trade goods, and they are also the most worry-free things to sell.

This is like the oil of later generations, it has always been a seller's market, in this time and space, the demand for anti-inflammatory drugs, steel, cement and munitions has always been in a state of hunger and thirst, and it has never been worried about selling, almost to the point of how many are needed.

Then, mastering these large quantities of scarce materials has given the Chinese Empire a great trade initiative, but because the Chinese Empire itself is also engaged in infrastructure construction, steel and cement are also in short supply, so there are very few exports, and the main force of exports is basically concentrated on arms and special drugs.

Because of the export of a large number of special drugs and munitions, in less than three years, the empire has successively obtained more than 300 million Chinese yuan in foreign exchange, almost all of which is real money!

This is only the foreign exchange income of special drugs and arms, and the trade income of other traditional fields such as silk fabrics, porcelain, luxury goods, and tea is not counted, if all of them are added up, then in three years, the Chinese Empire relied on foreign trade alone, and received more than 500 million Chinese yuan (1 Chinese yuan contains 37 grams of silver, about equal to two US dollars) of precious metals, of which gold and silver are the mainstay.

The most terrible thing is that such a large trade volume, excluding various costs, actually earned a profit of more than 300 million Chinese yuan, which can be said to be the real daily gold rush, and the scale of this trade has a growing trend, so that the Chinese market has become the world's largest emerging trade area, and the whole of Europe has begun to sprout a second gold rush to the East.

However, almost ninety percent of these profits went into the pockets of the royal enterprises, and less than one percent of the national treasury benefited from them.

The reason why this is so is because many of these products are duty-free, that is, they do not need to pay customs duties and other taxes, so they do not need to flow into the treasury, and even many trade channels are carried out privately, so Shen Shiming can only watch dryly.

However, although ninety percent of the profits flowed into the royal industry, only sixty percent really flowed into Li Yongji's private hands, and the other thirty percent were divided up by others, which was regarded as a kind of internal friction or cost.

Obviously, although Li Yongji has the largest income, he also has a large expenditure, after all, whether it is the Praetorian Guard, the 110 Special Economic Zone, or the huge construction corps, all of which are raised by Li Yongji's personal private treasury, so although he collects a lot of money, it actually costs a lot, and in addition to various expenses, Li Yongji can actually save less than 20%.

Of course, the profit of these two percent is not bad, converted into jade agate and other materials, and then traded to modern society, it is dozens of times the profit, and if it becomes an industrial product, it can make a lot of money, so Li Yongji has never been short of money.

It is precisely because Li Yongji has never been short of money, and his private property is large enough and rich enough, that Li Yongji can happily go to the United States to play the intervention war. And don't worry about the problems of the domestic royal enterprises.

In any case, China CITIC Bank and other banks have a large amount of precious metals, can also print money, and have basic light industry and heavy industry, even if Li Yongji no longer pours daily necessities from modern society, he can still earn huge profits.

After making money, Li Yongji has a series of big projects, such as building railways, roads, immigration, etc., all of which require a lot of money. And the scale of the infrastructure army is getting bigger and bigger, and now it is just a construction corps, which has more than 5 million people, and the surrounding people who have benefited from it are more than 40 million!

Abundant food, abundant industrial goods, sufficient population, and sufficient money, the sum of these qiē qiē formed a virtuous circle, so that within the direct jurisdiction of the Chinese Empire. It directly became a big construction site, and if you go to a big city casually, there is dust everywhere, and there are crowds of people building roads and houses everywhere.

Many of the able-bodied laborers in the domestic territories are now either serving in the army. Either they participated in the construction corps and farmed in the fields, but they basically pressed on the old people and women, so from this point of view. This kind of large-scale production movement is no less than a national war.

However, although the expenditure of these large-scale campaigns is all carried out by Li Yongji's private treasury. However, with so many people engaged in construction, the pressure on the local government is not small. For example, recruiting local laborers, or counting the population, planning urban construction, etc., all require a large number of public servants, that is, the so-called grassroots officials, these officials are in need of money, and these money can not be smuggled into the treasury, but go to the national treasury!

To put it simply, the Construction Corps is more like a giant central enterprise, or an imperial enterprise, and the treatment is from the enterprise, but this era is not modern, and it does not mean that you can recruit people by sending an advertisement, and you must cooperate with local officials.

Only local grassroots officials can go door-to-door to recruit people, count people, issue household registration, etc., and also cooperate with the planning department to make urban construction plans, etc., in all aspects, it is necessary to use a lot of civil servants, these people, are officials, do not eat the salary of the construction corps, only eat the salary of the state treasury, slowly, the number of these people is more, and the money they need is more.

Anyway, to put it simply, the country has indeed developed and developed rapidly, the people's living standards have also been greatly improved, the military strength has also increased, industry and agriculture are developing healthily and vigorously, and even education and medical and health undertakings are also making great strides, in short, there has been great progress in almost all aspects.

However, while these great leaps and bounds have been made, the cost of official management has also been rising, but the revenue has not increased significantly, so the deficit has become so large that even the officials of the Ministry of Finance have been frightened into resigning.

It can be said that in the case of these huge deficits, Shen Shiming has been relying on the issuance of additional banknotes to pay for more and more administrative expenses, but he calculated a little, by 1864, the number of additional banknotes had exceeded ten times the revenue of precious metals from the treasury, which made Shen Shiming, who had not experienced a similar situation, also clean as a pins and needles, always afraid that one day this trick of issuing additional banknotes would not collapse, and finally let the imperial government fall into the sinister realm of bankruptcy.

If an ordinary firm goes bankrupt, it can sell its assets to pay off its debts, but if the government of a country goes bankrupt and cannot pay wages, then everyone will only use Shen Shiming as a punching bag, and if the emperor can't get it, he will be angry with the people, and then change someone to power.

In other words, in Shen Shiming's view, there is nothing wrong with the emperor being high above and controlling the army, even if the government is bankrupt and has no money, and if it can't send money, it won't be able to turn the sky upside down.

However, those officials who can't get money and can't live their lives will definitely find their own ways, such as embezzlement and bribery, such as suing the emperor, etc., anyway, if it continues, the administrative team will only get worse and worse, and then it will become his incompetence.

With Shen Shiming's knowledge, he can only see this, and he doesn't know at all, in fact, the issuance of ten times more banknotes will not cause any problems to the domestic financial system at all!

The reason is very simple, today's Huayuan has established basic credit, which is not just a precious metal currency, but a national currency with credit, which is tied to the overall credit of the Chinese Empire.

Nowadays, the entire Chinese empire is thriving in all aspects, from the common people to the officers and soldiers, all walks of life are full of hope for the future, and in this situation, what is needed in the market is more money to increase circulation, not monetary tightening.

Therefore. In the context of this great leap forward in all aspects, only ten times more banknotes were issued, and in Li Yongji's view, the small family was a little angry, and even some deflation had already appeared in many places, and more banknotes should be added according to Li Yongji's original intention.

However, later Li Yongji felt that after all, the common people still recognize precious metal currencies more, and many people exchange them for silver coins for silver dollars as soon as they get paper money. Instead of continuing to hold paper money, only those big businessmen use a lot of paper money for the convenience of trading, but many of them are also direct bank checks, and not many use paper money.

Because of this, Li Yongji agreed to Shen Shiming's cautious policy of issuing additional banknotes, that is, not to issue banknotes indiscriminately, so as not to cause unnecessary panic.

However, although there is no indiscriminate issuance of banknotes. However, because of the continuous import of precious metals from abroad, and the strong development of the entire economy, deflation has not appeared, and the country is still in a state of excitement.

Originally. Due to the great development of all walks of life and the increasing tax revenue of the country, normally speaking, Shen Shiming is not worried about income. However, due to the increasing maintenance costs of the defense forces, the number of use of troops is also increasing, after all, there are riots in many autonomous provinces. In addition, education expenditures and medical expenditures have begun to increase significantly, relying on the original tax revenue is completely insufficient, and some noble second generations have begun to compare with wealth, the impact is too bad, so Shen Shiming started the campaign to fight local tyrants, that is, to open the knife to the imperial property.

Although the operation to the imperial property was approved and supported by Li Yongji himself, after all, Li Yongji himself also felt that many of his related industries benefited too much, and he should indeed pay more money to the treasury.

After all, the scope of the state treasury is wider than Li Yongji's private treasury, not to mention the salaries of the national defense army and civil servants, such as education and medical construction, which also require increased investment from the government.

Although the education and medical construction of the Chinese Empire were all under the responsibility of the State Council, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health respectively, which were serious State Council agencies.

Because of Li Yongji's order, although the Chinese Empire was founded for a short time, it invested a lot in education and medical care, and even directly subsidized land revenue into these two departments, that is, used land taxes to support education and medical care.

In the beginning, because the education system and medical system had just begun to be built, there were no major problems, but after a long time, the demand for education and medical care was almost a bottomless pit, and as much money was invested in it, it was swallowed as much as it wanted, and in the end, even the land tax was not enough, and there were more and more reports from all over the country asking for funds to build schools and medical centers.

After a little investigation, it was found that there was a wide range of corruption in these two fields, and the sources of these corruption were all those who were involved with the imperial property.

In order to curb the breeding of corruption from the source, and also to increase the treasury and reverse the mistakes at the beginning, Li Yongji instructed Shen Shiming to attack those imperial relatives, and these imperial relatives are almost all relatives of the Li family and the Wang family, as well as relatives of these relatives.

It's a pity that Li Yongji's father, that is, the Emperor Li Zhengxiang, didn't appreciate it, and actually thought that these people were the cornerstone of the royal family, and thought that a little corruption would not hurt, or that even if you want to fight corruption and attack those imperial relatives, it should not be at this time, but after the regime is more stable and the Li family is already unbreakable.

However, Li Yongji didn't listen to his father, and still let Shen Shiming go under the knife, but as a result, Li Zhengxiang thought that it was not his son's fault, it was Shen Shiming's fault, and it was his daughter-in-law, that is, the queen's fault!

Because of all kinds of misunderstandings, coupled with some common mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflicts in the family, the increasingly sensitive Emperor Taishang went astray, and actually gathered a large number of imperial relatives and began to use various methods to confront the State Council, resist the so-called tax reform movement, and refuse to pay new taxes to the treasury!

There is no way, Li Zhengxiang can not say hello to his son, and play a scoundrel with his identity, so that the tax collectors are helpless, but Shen Shiming is different.

Shen Shiming wanted to collect more money, and he didn't want to sue the emperor for everything, so he simply had a choice, and for some people who were not so tough in the background and not so close to the emperor, he directly dispatched the police to forcibly collect taxes, and for those who were closer to the emperor, he postponed his move, anyway, he was fighting the weak and not the strong, and the flies were not fighting tigers.

After coming and going, the contradiction between the rear party and the pro-party became bigger and bigger, but the rear party and the pro-party both held back their strength and did not complain to the emperor Li Yongji, until there was a large-scale violent anti-French vicious incident, the army and the CIA began to intervene, and the matter could not be covered, Li Yongji personally called to ask, and they complained to Li Yongji respectively, each blaming each other, and also officially intensified the contradiction between the two parties! (To be continued......) R1292