Everyone nodded, and Yang Yandi said: "Who will preside over the war against the Philippines, and will the big shopkeeper go in person?" ”

Li Zhaoji shook his head slightly, at this moment, Yang Yandi's eyes flashed with some pride, in his opinion, if Li Zhaoji didn't go in person, then this matter would probably fall into his own hands.

But Li Zhaoji's personnel arrangements disappointed Yang Yandi: "I plan to let Tang Mu preside over the affairs of the Philippines." Sixth brother and Yandi, you have more important tasks. ”

The conquest of the Philippines was to take advantage of the Dutch, Spain's strength was lost, and with God's help, this war was easy to win. So up and down want to be a part of it.

Relatively speaking, the key was not to win on the battlefield, but to conduct diplomacy between the Netherlands and Spain, which had more political significance than military significance.

Therefore, Li Zhaoji needs an all-rounder, and Tang Mu is the person he has been cultivating.

"Tang Mu, what do you think about the conquest of the Philippines?" Lee asked.

Tang Mu said: "Whether or not we want to conquer the Philippines depends on whether the navy can win, and we can make preparations and land for conquest after the navy wins."

If you do this, I don't think it will be difficult to win, and there are three key points: first, how to save money. Second, how to make a profit. Third, how to balance the situation in the South Seas. ”

Li Zhaoji nodded slightly, obviously very satisfied with the point he had made. Looking at the others, Chen Liuzi watched Tang Mu's performance with great interest, while Yang Yandi and Liu Shun were thoughtful.

The two are also favorable contenders for the main general, but the previous ideas of the two were completely based on how to conquer San Diego after the landing, how to occupy Manila and the entire Luzon Island, and all they thought about was military plans and arrangements, but they never thought that in Tang Mu, it was not difficult to win, and it was summarized.

On the contrary, the two of them did not think about the point of view put forward by Tang Mu, and they didn't even understand it.

Although the trading company occupied the right time and place in the conquest of the Philippines, it has to be admitted that this was a last resort.

If it weren't for the Dutch's insistence on going to war, Li Zhaoji would have taken action against the Spaniards in five years or even a few years later, and even wanted to unite with the Spaniards against the Dutch, and clean up the Netherlands and then clean up the Spaniards in the Philippines.

Even if it is a move, it should gain a firm foothold in Longtou Bay to ensure that silver from the Americas can flow steadily into the East.

One of the problems posed by the forced intervention is that the Tamsui-Manila-Americas trade route will be disrupted for some time to come. The requisition of the Philippines is likely to be a money-losing deal.

Therefore, it is impossible for a trading company to take large-scale military action, let alone engage in a continuous war.

"Actually, the first two key points are a problem, cost and output. I'm not going to give you much military spending....... Today is a high-level meeting, and I will also explain that the reason why Liuzi or Yandi are not allowed to go to the Philippines is because they want to prepare for war next year or the year after. Li Zhaoji said.

"Are you really going to conquer the court, are you fresh?" Yang Yandi looked at the people around him, Chen Liuzi was a little surprised like himself, but Liu Mingde looked like he was in the chest, obviously Li Zhaoji had discussed this matter with him, and it was Tang Mu who had the same expression as Liu Mingde.

Liu Mingde said with a smile: "We have a large amount of money in the public treasury, and since the beginning of the Northern Expedition, gold and silver have been increasing. ”

Obviously, Liu Mingde still won't tell everyone how much silver is in the public treasury, which is a top secret.

By the time of the second year of Hongguang, the trading company had completely replaced the Zheng family and became the overlord of the China Sea, and everything had entered the formality.

Together with the gold and silver obtained from the plundering of the Spanish galleons, as well as the savings of the past two years, the trading company's public treasury stored 12,000,000,000 taels of precious metals. This is a huge amount of money, and the capital chain of the trading company is gradually improving.

Among the many revenues of the trading companies, very few taxes were collected on the ruling areas. For example, Tamsui, there are less than 100,000 people inside and outside the city, and about 150,000 including the conquered indigenous villages. Because of the policy of attracting the people of the Ming Dynasty to settle down, land development and population growth did not bring tax revenue at all.

Although the Ryukyus were a trading company's sphere of influence, they did not rule directly, and the 200,000 people did not bring in taxes. With a population of more than 100,000, Sado is a tax-mature area, but it has responsibilities such as mining management and military defense, and its income tax revenue is not enough to pay for local finances, and it needs to be subsidized with fresh water every year.

Although trade was booming in Ezo and the Outer Northeast, development was also booming, and Lee allowed them to withhold the proceeds for three years to open up more territory and conquer more tribes.

As a result, traditional taxation is not worth mentioning in the fiscal revenue of trading companies.

There are three main types of income for trading companies, which are Sado gold and silver mining, commercial profits, and customs taxes.

Gold and silver mining is mainly in Sado Island and Taiwan's Jinguashi gold mines, in the last year, Sado Island's production capacity reached its peak, with a large number of animal machinery input, so that gold and silver mining efficiency has improved, the annual production of gold and silver is steadily increasing.

The same is true for Jinguashi, which is expected to bring 1.3 million taels worth of gold and silver to trading companies this year, and may reach 1.5 million taels in the next two years.

Commercial profits refer to the trade carried out by the trading company directly or authorized by other merchants, mainly the monopoly trade with Dashun, through the smuggling of Ma Fan and Sado Island to Japan, the purchase and sale contract signed with the Dutch and British two East India companies, and the capital contribution of the trading company, and the ocean-going trade initiated by some Ming merchants, mainly to India, the Portuguese colonies and some countries along the coast of the ocean, and the farthest trade is to the Portuguese mainland in Europe.

At present, the trade with Dashun is the main profit point. It has been growing in size every year, and its main purchases are textiles, porcelain, food and weapons. For this alone, trading companies can make millions of profits every year, and relatively speaking, trade with Toindo and Todo companies is more like a continuation of politics, and profits are low.

However, ocean trade is still in the exploratory stage, and the amount and profit are not high, but the profit margin is very high, and it is the main growth point of the profit of the trading company in the future.

The above can be counted as the efforts of Lee and the trading company, but the last and most important one, the customs tax, was taken over from the Cheng Maritime Group.

Although it is in the name of customs revenue, the main profit is the interest income from loans funded and sold abroad, and only the issued Xingshui tokens are barely regarded as customs taxes. Last year and this year, due to the outbreak of the Jose War, the route to Manila was disrupted, which affected the revenue, but the trade with Japan and the South Sea countries was rapidly expanding, and the profit from customs revenue reached 3.2 million.

This is the main annual income of the trading company, which is about 5.5 million taels in total, but the trading company has a large amount of expenses.

Maintaining the rule of Sado Island, investing in the Qiongzhou Iron and Steel Company, subsidizing the reclamation of both sides of the Tamsui River, investing in large projects such as dams, and the two bottomless pits of the navy and army, especially the expansion of the navy.

The exploration and pioneering activities in the Americas and Australia were the private support of Lee Zhaoji and the secret ledger of the trading company.

But even so, the trading company can still get a part of the surplus every year, for example, the Qiongzhou Iron and Steel Company has begun to pay back its capital, although the development land on both sides of the Tamsui River does not bring land tax, but it is planted with cash crops such as sugarcane, pepper, and mulberry, which promotes trade and customs revenue.

In addition, the financial situation of trading companies has also entered a bottleneck period, and ocean trade is the only profit point for trading companies to expand rapidly, and there are two main directions for the future income growth of trading companies, that is, the Americas and Australia.

The Golden State's gold mines, if developed, would be a huge amount of money, at least million-dollar revenue. And to gain a firm foothold in Longtou Bay and engage in smuggling trade with the Spanish colonies, the income will also be in the scale of millions.

The trading company is not short of money at present, as evidenced by the 12 million taels of silver in the public treasury, and what the trading company lacks is people.

Tamsui wants to develop into a military industry and shipping center, it can't be done without a population of 300,000, and if you want to smash the gold mines in the Golden State, you also need tens of thousands or even 100,000 people, and the Americas are a place that can only be returned once a year, and not many people are willing to immigrate there.

There is also the Borneo company, where people are also needed for the gold mines and the plantations that are being developed.

At present, only the Ming Dynasty can provide people for trading companies, but with the stabilization of the situation in the Ming Dynasty and the deliberate restrictions, the population import has been decreasing.

The only way to want people is war, war will cause displaced people, and victory will bring captives, and these people are the flesh and blood that make the machinery of the trading house work.

"It doesn't have to be Chao Xian, we need to study it and see which one is more suitable, Chao, Xian or Japan." Li Zhaoji said to Chen Liuzi.

"I think it's .........." Yang Yandi immediately expressed his opinion, but was stopped by Li Zhaoji raising his hand.

"That's not the topic of today's meeting. Tang Mu, you continue, from now on, no one will interrupt you again. Li Zhaoji said.

Tang Mu continued: "As I said before, it is not difficult to win, the key is to reduce costs and create benefits after winning.

For example, we need to avoid falling into guerrilla warfare, where we cannot make up for the loss of a soldier or the food that we have robbed of a village.

So my idea was to admit the Spaniards and Catholics in the Philippines and establish a more inclusive rule, and we had to create a reasonable goal for the war, and we didn't think it was necessary to occupy all the Spanish colonies, or even to occupy the whole of Luzon, we just needed Manila and a few areas around it.

Keeping the Governor of the Philippines, it would be better to let the Dutch continue the war with the Spaniards. ”