In the banquet just now, there were shrewd and capable commander-level officers like Wang Jiuxuan and rich experience, there were also genius innate masters like Feng Mingyang, and even high-level officials of the Heaven and Earth Society such as Qin Rigang and Chen Jinhua, but they didn't see the true strategic intentions of the Mixed Yuan Sect.

Both the Qing court and its allies, including foreigners in Hong Kong and Shanghai, thought that the main purpose of the Northern Expedition of the Mixed Yuan Sect was Fuzhou, but they suffered a small loss in Putian, and then after conquering Fuzhou, they could not occupy it, so they retreated and seized the Dayuan, and finally used the attack on Ningbo as a bait to eliminate the Fujian sailors.

However, everyone did not expect that the strategy of the Mixed Yuan Sect from the very beginning was to seize Hangzhou and several nearby state capitals, and all the previous battles and campaigns were centered around this purpose.

For the vast majority of people, the battle for Hangzhou was just an inconspicuous move in the Northern Expedition of the Mixed Yuan Sect, after all, the Mixed Yuan Sect had occupied Fuzhou and Putian before, and also captured many coastal cities, and Hangzhou was just another city that was a little richer.

However, as far as the upper echelons of the Mixed Yuan Sect were concerned, Hangzhou was actually the key to capturing Jiangnan, and it was also the decisive factor in seizing the world in the future and maintaining a dominant position among the allies of the entire martial arts sect.

To explain the importance of Hangzhou, we must start with the current economic situation.

Before the Opium War, the total annual tax revenue of the Qing court was about 40 million taels, or 60 million silver dollars.

After the loss of Guangzhou and even the whole of Guangdong, the annual income of the Qing court was naturally affected to a certain extent, but the actual loss was far less than people imagined, and was still between 35 million taels and 38 million taels.

The reason for this is that no matter how much tax revenue Guangdong has, the population is limited after all, and the loss of this income will not have a great impact on the Qing court.

Of course, the Qing court had to use these revenues to pay war reparations to the British, and to increase military spending for counterinsurgency, and life would definitely be tighter than before.

As for the normal income of the rebel forces, the Mixed Yuan Sect and the Sanyuan Temple each had about 4 million yuan, and the three prefectures of Hainan and Yang Tianming's Qinzhou together amounted to about 2 million yuan, which was only 10 million silver dollars.

This may not seem like much, but it is already quite remarkable, and the income of Guangdong alone can reach about one-sixth of the entire national tax revenue, which is already a very outstanding achievement in this era.

However, when the war is fought in the back, it is necessary to fight money, food, and consumption, and the Huaxia army now has the upper hand mainly because of its advanced weapons and operational concepts, and once the Qing court reacts and begins to build up a large number of firearms armies, the victory or defeat may be reversed, and the Huaxia army is deeply worried about this.

For Li Xian, this is even more important, after all, he knows better than anyone who knows who is richer in the war in the capitalist era, let's say that in the American Civil War, there were so many talented generals in the south, and the north was miserable in the early stage, but it became weaker and weaker later, isn't it because the money and food can't be supported.

Therefore, Li Xian knew very early on that the key to unifying the Qing Dynasty was whether or not he could obtain stable and large financial resources, which was the real winner or loser of this war.

At the beginning, Zhuge Liang also said that the war should depend on the right time, place and people, for Li Xian, these views are too backward, and now this era is just to see who has more money, this is the truth of the capital era.

So, how can you make a lot of money?

Before the Northern Expedition, Li Xian's staff carefully analyzed the balance of forces between the enemy and us, and believed that his own army had strong combat effectiveness, but the number was too small, and it could only conquer and occupy a state in the north in the early stage.

So, from Fujian to Tianjin and even the three northeastern provinces, which state is the richest and most worthy of occupation, the answer is somewhat unexpected, but it is Hangzhou.

This point has to start from Shanghai.

Since the end of the Opium War, the Qing Dynasty lost Guangzhou and other places, but still opened ports such as Shanghai as promised to trade with the British.

Among them, the trade volume between Fuzhou and Xiamen is not large, and the total is less than one million yuan, which can be ignored.

Guangzhou and Hong Kong were very active in international trade, but unfortunately these were the affairs of the Huaxia Army and had nothing to do with the imperial court.

Against this background, Shanghai's trade volume began to flourish, and the export volume exceeded 10 million yuan in the past few years, and it was a surprise to pay more than 600,000 yuan in taxes to the Qing court.

Li Xian has memories of another world, and naturally understands that the current trade volume seems to be very high, reaching a peak, but in fact it is far from reaching its true potential, even if Guangzhou is still in the hands of the imperial court, Shanghai's export volume will quickly exceed 20 million, or even 30 million, exceeding Guangzhou's trade volume.

In this world, Guangzhou was occupied by the Huaxia Army, and the tea and other commodities that were originally exported through Guangzhou were exported from Shanghai, so the speed of Shanghai's rise will only be faster, and the height of its rise will only be higher.

According to this logic, the Mixed Yuan Sect should send troops to occupy Shanghai, but things are not so simple.

Among the commodities exported through Shanghai, the trade volume of raw silk accounts for more than 60% of the total, tea accounts for 30%, and the sum of other commodities is less than 10%.

Among them, the raw silk trade has developed rapidly and has been rolling upward, reaching more than 20,000 bales at present, with a total value of about 6 million yuan.

Li Xian also knew that the trade volume of raw silk would continue to increase at a terrifying rate, soon reaching the level of 50,000 bales, or even 100,000 bales.

Before the Opium War, the price of raw silk was about 400 yuan per pack, but now because of the large quantity, the price has dropped to only about 3 million yuan per pack, and if no one interferes, this price may continue to fall, reaching about 200 yuan per pack.

These lives and deaths are the native silk of the peasants' own silk reeling, and if they are made into so-called factory silk with a steam engine silk reeling machine, the price can be doubled or even tripled.

Where did all this raw silk come from in Shanghai?

Most of them are produced within a radius of 100 kilometers from Shanghai, that is to say, most of them are raw silk produced in Hangzhou, Jiading and Huzhou.

Moreover, the raw silk from these three prefectures has traditionally been supplied to the weaving mills in Suzhou and Nanjing, and to a small extent in Shanghai.

In short, according to the analysis of Li Xian and the General Staff, coupled with the assessment of the Ministry of Commerce, as long as the three states are occupied and the source of high-quality raw silk is controlled, it can bring 15 million to 20 million yuan of net income to the Mixed Yuan Sect every year, and suddenly close the gap with the Qing court in terms of financial income.