Zhao Wenji was speechless for a while, and the plan proposed today was something he had thought of early on, and in the long-term conception, Zhao Wenji continued to check and fill in the gaps, and he thought that his idea was impeccable, but it was such an impeccable idea, Li Zhaoji immediately found the shortcomings, and made this problem acute.

For the Ming Dynasty, or for Shen Youlong, it makes no difference whether Wu Sangui surrendered to the Manchus or Dashun, and it was even better to surrender to the Manchus.

After all, in the eyes of the scholars, Dashun, who occupied the capital and forced Chongzhen to death, was already a more hateful party than the Manchus, the Manchus were Yidi, and Dashun was a traitor.

Moreover, Dashun is stronger. Of course, in the short term, the military strength of the Manchu Qing was stronger, and if it were not for Li Zhaoji to provide all kinds of early warnings and stir up the situation in Liaodong, Dashun would not be an opponent.

As long as Dashun is given two or three years, Li Zicheng can digest the hundreds of thousands of Qing troops who surrendered to Dashun and establish his own firearms troops, which must be the strongest military force among the Ming, Qing, and Shun.

If Wu Sangui surrendered to Dashun, he would bring with him a wealth of experience in dealing with the Manchus, which would lead Dashun to attack the Ming after stabilizing the border walls.

But this problem is not a problem for Li Zhaoji, there is no doubt that he would prefer Wu Sangui to surrender to Dashun rather than become a lackey of the Manchus, a shameless traitor, and an enemy of the nation.

Li Zhaoji saw that Zhao Wenhe was silent for a long time, and smiled: "Sir, don't be annoyed. You can continue to think about this question after you go back, and I am willing to listen to Lord Shen on this issue.

This order is given by Lord Shen, but please also tell Lord Shen that the merits and demerits are all in the hearts of the people, and what will be said in the history books in the future will not be up to him.

I, Li Zhaoji, only do things, I am not greedy for merit, and I don't carry the black pot for him. ”

"Oh...... All right. Zhao Wenji said helplessly, Li Zhaoji did not force his will, which was already very rare for Shen Youlong's side.

Zhao Wenji chose to go back to ask Shen Youlong, while Li Zhaoji lived a boring but happy life, and during this time, he did one thing - counting money.

When the Oriental Brigade went north, he took all the savings of the trading company and took out a loan from the bank, which caused a lot of chain reactions within the trading company for the Ming Dynasty's war, but with the arrival of one payment after another, all suspicion and resentment disappeared.

After arriving in the north, the first money the trading company received was the money from Dashun and Wu Sangui.

Dashun promised to give 400,000 taels, and Wu Sangui gave it according to the standard of 5,500 troops of the Eastern Brigade and 30 taels per person.

Although neither side gave the full amount at the time of the landing, but with the landing of the Eastern Brigade and the successive battles with the Qing army, these payments were paid one after another, and in addition to the 10% kickback to Song Xiance, the trading company still received a total of 520,000 taels of military expenses.

Immediately after the Battle of Qinghe, he asked Dashun and Wu Sangui for rewards.

According to the reward agreed at the beginning, Dashun wanted to give 1 million taels, and Wu Sangui wanted to give 150,000 taels, although things were repeated, Li Zhaoji got what he wanted. Because of something else, Wu Sangui finally gave 200,000 taels, and Dashun's 1 million taels also arrived one after another.

After that, Li Zhaoji sold a batch of captured materials to Dashun, all of which were cold weapons, with a total price of 70,000 taels, but he also undertook all the material supplies of the Shun army during the war, which was equivalent to offsetting, so it was not counted.

After landing, the Dongfang Brigade swept the entire area from Gaizhou to Haicheng, and participated in the clearing of the south of Gaizhou, Liaoyang and Shengjing.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty plundered the Guannai all the year round, and the local silver deposit was extremely large, and only the gold, silver, and copper coins seized were equivalent to about 420,000 taels, which was also recently counted, but it is undeniable that many of the soldiers of the Eastern Brigade who participated in the war had private hiding behavior, and Li Zhaoji severely punished those who were found, but he would not take the initiative to investigate.

The Han clan made peace with the Oriental Travelers, and gave 500,000 taels of silver in three batches.

During the siege of Shengjing, in order to delay time and protect the family property, the Manchu high-level gave 400,000 taels of ransom, and through Ban Zhifu and other white gloves, they traded prisoners and materials with the Manchu parties, and obtained 140,000 taels of silver.

And this is all the harvest of the Oriental Brigade's northern expedition, plus the income from doing business in Juehua Island, Tianjin, and Shandong, the miscellaneous and miscellaneous calculations add up to a total of 3.4 million taels.

It's just that the losses and consumption of this northern expedition are very large, and the expenses are also very large, so it cannot be regarded as a net profit of 3.4 million taels.

When the Oriental Brigade was established in Hong Kong and Tamsui, it had a total of 4,500 personnel, and all the equipment, salaries, and miscellaneous miscellaneous items cost a total of 250,000 taels of silver. In addition, 500,000 taels of silver were prepared for this army as war expenses, and for this reason, the trading company was forced to borrow 200,000 taels from the Guangdong Commerce Bank.

As it turned out, 750,000 taels of silver was not enough at all.

First of all, after arriving on Juehua Island, the Oriental Brigade carried out a large-scale expansion. The original Dongfang Brigade had two regiments, four infantry battalions, and 2,400 soldiers, as well as 500 men from the Forward Battalion, 200 cavalrymen recruited from Guangdong Province, and two artillery companies totaling 240 men, and the rest were battalions of baggage and engineers.

After arriving at Juehua Island, a large-scale purchase of war horses, first for the artillery company to supplement, and then rushed into the cavalry unit and personal guards, and expanded the cavalry battalion, two reserve battalions were also completely expanded, after the Qinghe battle, five infantry battalions were formed, one of which was scattered to replenish the losses, the hussar battalion was also established, and the jumping battalion.

The Eastern Brigade, which had only 4,500 men when it went north and 5,500 men when it landed, doubled in size after two rounds of expansion and replenishment, approaching the size of 10,000 men, and the navy that accompanied it also expanded the strength of the Marine Corps and the like.

From the very beginning of the landing, the four infantry battalions and one artillery company of the Guangdong Army were incorporated into Li Zhaoji's command system, and Li Zhaoji undertook all the work of paying the army, replenishing materials, and providing pensions, and all of them were carried out in accordance with the standards of the Eastern Brigade.

In addition, the trading company built and renovated two fortresses, which cost a lot of money.

After the landing, it successively experienced more than 10 battles, large and small, such as the siege of Gaizhou, the outpost battle, the battle of Wuxiangshan, the battle of Qinghe, the battle of Shengjing, and the battle of the crossing of the Hunhe River, and the remains of more than 760 soldiers and officers were collected in battle, more than 1,800 people were wounded, and more than 140 people were missing, fled, or died in battle.

These people need bereavement pensions and subsidies, and those who have made meritorious deeds also need to be rewarded.

In addition, after the Battle of Qinghe, the ammunition originally prepared was also insufficient, and Li Zhaoji ordered ammunition worth 150,000 taels.

After the removal of these losses and inevitable expenditures, there are still about 1.8 million taels left of 3.4 million taels.

Even if it is 1,800,000 taels, it is a huge amount of money for a trading company, even after getting Sado Treasure Island, this is equivalent to 1.5 times Chongzhen's income in 17 years, and if you count the net profit, it is equivalent to at least three years, or even more.

All the accounts must be detailed and clear, and the money obtained must also be put into the public treasury of the trading company, and only a few people, including Tang Mu, know that there is a sum of money that is not reflected in the accounts, that is, the 300,000 taels that are still good for the interception.

The money was sent to Tamsui's home by Li Zhaoji and counted as his personal income. In the future, Lee Zhaoji has a lot to do, and not all of them can go through the public accounts of the trading company.

"Big treasurer, the ship is ready, it's all in Lushun. Some of the booty, money, and your personal belongings have also been prepared. Changshui is in charge of the Fort Arthur and can return to Tamsui as long as you give the order. Tang Mu came to Li Zhaoji and replied seriously.

Li Zhaoji nodded: "You are personally responsible for this trip, remember, it is not necessary, it is not allowed to stop anywhere, go directly to Tamsui." It must be signed by Liu Mingde in person, you have to see the warehousing with your own eyes, and the handover procedures are not allowed to be sloppy. ”

"Okay, I'll do it." Tang Mu said immediately.

Li Zhaoji waved his hand: "Don't worry, is the box I asked you to prepare ready?" ”

"Uh-oh, ready." Tang Mu said, he ran out of the yard, shouted twice, and saw four boxes of different sizes and styles carried in by his relatives.

"This is a standard box, the big shopkeeper." Tang Mu watched Li Zhaoji walk to the largest box and immediately said.

The box is about one meter high, one meter five long, and one meter wide, and it is a standard cargo box designed by Li Zhaoji. It is mainly suitable for the freight carriages of Tamsui and other cities, the specifications of those flat carriages are 1.5 meters wide and 4 meters long, which can transport four boxes side by side, if stacked, they can transport eight or 12 as many as 12, but the weight cannot exceed 1.5 tons.

And the baggage vehicles of the Eastern Brigade were also transformed according to this.

The box has no hinges, it is made of solid wood boards, only the box weighs fifty pounds, and there is space at both ends to facilitate lifting, and the design is quite reasonable. When it was full, it was to be nailed down and sealed.

In addition to this box, there are also semi-standard boxes, which are the same height and width and are half the length. A quarter of a standard container, and a quarter of a natural space.

Finally, there is a leather suitcase, which is hand-held and resembles the size of a later courtesy box.

"Listen, each of them has a moisture-proof felt cloth, grass or cotton wool to prevent bumping, and so on, and the soldiers can do without it, but they must have it.

The officer escorting the goods must sign each seal, and the manifest and the cargo cannot be placed in the same fleet as the mail ship delivering the letter. Li Zhaoji instructed carefully.

Tang Mu smiled: "You are really thoughtful, I will arrange someone to handle this matter." ”

According to Li Zhaoji's request, each soldier was given a standard box to transport his personal belongings to his home, and there was no doubt that many of them were stolen loot, but Li Zhaoji did not pursue them at all.

The wounded, meritorious personnel and non-commissioned officers will be added an additional semi-standard box.

All officers were given an extra quarter-standard suitcase to carry with them when they retreated, and high-ranking officers above the battalion level had a suitcase.

Of course, there are two standard boxes above the battalion level, and three for officers above the battalion level, and some people Li Zhaoji will give them special treatment, or a few more boxes, or directly designate a piece of space on the ship.

Obviously, the box will contain the trophies of the Northern Expedition and some items purchased by the soldiers in the battlefield, of course, all items will be defined as purchases.

Furs, cloths, precious medicinal herbs, weapons, and souvenirs of all kinds will become the main contents of the box.

The Northern Expedition was a victory for Li Zhaoji, and it was a victory for the trading company, Li Zhaoji returned with a full load, and those who participated in the war also deserved this treatment, but Li Zhaoji liked standardized and formalized things, so he had these boxes.

After Tang Mu recorded Li Zhaoji's request in the notebook, he asked with a smile: "Big shopkeeper, how did the two girls Li and Bian arrange and how many boxes were given to them, it seems that they also have some courtesy, mainly books and music." ”

Li Zhaoji nodded: "If you don't say this, I forgot about it." You don't have to worry about the two of them, but I've found out what happened to our soldiers and some of the local women during my stay. There are even women who are already pregnant.

You tell the battalion commanders that if they are willing to marry and marry, these people can move south as the soldiers' dependents, but only the soldiers' wives and the wife's immediate family members, such as the kind of brothers who worship the sons and the adopted sons, etc., do not count. ”

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