On July 25, Zhaojiabao had returned to peace.

Five infantry brigades have been transferred to the south long ago.

Since early July, five infantry brigades have successively disguised as armed police forces and mobilized to Zhejiang Province on a small scale. Sixty thousand troops were divided into twelve teams and transferred to Jiangshan County, Quzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang.

Quzhou Prefecture is the territory of Longyou Business Group. Zhao Yan sent a large-scale army to Quzhou. Longyou Business Group learned more or less through local relations channels.

However, these Shandong troops were hidden in the mountains and forests and set up a martial law area. Therefore, although the Longyou Merchants knew that Shandong had sent troops, they did not know how many of them were sent.

Many people only think that the number of people may be only five or six thousand, because many times people only see a team of armed police, so they don’t make a fuss.

Longyou businessmen who do business in various places know that now there are soldiers from the "Salt Inspection Department" in various provinces in the Ming Dynasty collecting taxes everywhere.

Since the First Division is hiding during the day and leaving at night, it often marches at night. One night, it will go to the predetermined location and then rest and be alert, and no one is allowed to approach.

Therefore, when they arrived at a hidden place outside Jiangshan County, no one in Zhejiang knew that 60,000 soldiers had arrived in Zhejiang.

In addition to these 60,000, there were 20,000 self-heavy troops, who also disguised themselves as caravans and transported their supplies to Jiangshan County. Zheng Zhilong, who was far away in Shijing, southern Fujian, had no idea about the abnormal movements in Quzhou.

In contrast, Zheng Zhilong faces much greater pressure on the sea.

Wen Bangliang ignored the feelings of his old acquaintance and investigated the passing merchant ships in the Taiwan Strait. In just a few months, there was no trace of the merchant ships in the Taiwan Strait.

The entire Fujian's maritime trade system has been completely paralyzed.

Except for some who are not afraid of death, they dare to go overseas, many other merchant ships have already taken over the name of sea trade and ran to Shandong. In order not to be angry with Zheng Zhilong, some even took away the whole family.

Chongzhen was not sure that the five infantry brigades of the First Division went south, but thought that Zhao Yan had sent several armed police forces and that the main force of the Shandong Army was still in Shandong.

Therefore, Chongzhen has been much more at peace recently and dared not instigate anything in the Royal Daily newspaper, for fear that Zhao Yan would lead his troops north.

After all, Zhao Yan's main force had returned to Shandong. Before the new army could succeed, Chongzhen was still worried about the Shandong army's impoverishment, so the two sides entered a relatively peaceful period in the struggle between public opinion.

Under Xue Qing's leadership, the American Infantry Brigade headed south on a troop transport ship and arrived in Taichung at the end of July. Wen Bangliang received the combat plan early and concentrated the warships and frigates in his hands.

The attack on the Minjiangkou is about to break out!

In order to cooperate with the Minjiang River estuary, Wen Bangliang formulated a plan to attack the east and the west, and sent five frigates from Tainan to harass Kinmen.

Most of Zheng Zhilong's main sea forces are concentrated in southern Fujian, and they are relatively neglected to northern Fujian.

After all, Zheng Zhilong is just a pirate. Although he is well versed in the rules of sea, he is a little confused about the rules of land warfare. Although his defense against the coast is not relaxed, his defense strength is not high.

According to common sense, they are the overlords of the southeast coast, so who dares to come to the coast to disturb them?

The Penghu Battle not long ago completely woke Zheng Zhilong up, but Zheng Zhilong hadn't reacted yet, and at the same time he didn't expect Zhao Yan to attack him so soon.

The staggering sky-high taxes and fines have been silent recently.

Since Zhao Yan issued an ultimatum in the "Da Ming Dynasty" and Zheng Zhilong did not respond, Zhao Yan has not made any comments on the matter in the newspaper.

Many people think that Zhao Yan is just a threat, and Zheng Zhilong thinks so, but at the same time, he also put a big shit pot on him.

Having this shit pot on your head made Zheng Zhilong feel a little restless and always felt something was wrong. If Zhao Yan flipped the account one day, it would be the time for the two armies to confront each other.

It is certain that he turned against each other. Zheng Zhilong was just worried that Zhao Yan would get angry before he was ready, so he urged the new army to train.

When purchasing military supplies everywhere, Chongzhen provided him with 75mm artillery manufacturing technology, but it will take some time to put it into production.

Zheng Zhilong feels that what he needs most is the time.

...After the marriage, Zhao Yan's life in Zhaojiabao was very comfortable. Basically, in addition to handling official duties every day, he went around to inspect and guide his work.

The so-called guidance work is not about walking around and talking clichés, but about putting forward specific business plans for departments and factories. After all, Zhao Yan came from the 21st century and had seen many kinds of things, had a broad vision, and had more things to guide.

Zhao Yan guides his work everywhere in order to create a more sophisticated system.

Mint!

The machine was running rumbling, and with the sound of "clang" and "clang", silver dollars were sent to the bottom of the stamping machine along the conveyor belt, with patterns on them.

Just stamp it, print the patterns on both sides of the upper and lower sides, and a silver dollar was cast out.

In another workshop not far away, the black smoke from the steam engine was also emitting, and the machine was stamping the copper coins. Under the stamping of the copper plates, the copper plates transported from the smelting plant were formed.

In Zhaojiabao, this kind of silver dollar quickly entered circulation.

Also entering the circulation are silver horns and copper coins.

These currencies were welcomed by the people as soon as they entered the market. Silver dollars and silver horns were so easy to use. Although they were not of sufficient quality, they were popular because of their size and composition.

A piece of silver dollar can be exchanged for one or two feet in the market, and sometimes even more.

Copper coins made of brass are more popular. The copper coins issued by banks are better in color, harder and exquisitely made, which quickly overwhelmed other types of copper coins.

Currently, the exchange rate of brass and silver dollars is 1:800, and if brass copper coins are exchanged for pure copper coins, one cent can be exchanged for 1.2 months.

The silver and pure copper that were brought on the market were immediately sent to the smelter for smelting and then sent to the Mint for processing.

During Zhao Yan's inspection, the officials of the Mint Bureau reported the production situation, "A day can be processed with 100,000 taels of silver dollars, 10,000 taels of silver horns, and 5,000 taels of copper coins."

"Expand production capacity again." Zhao Yan instructed, "It must be able to produce 300,000 silver dollars and 50,000 taels of copper coins every day, and the silver horns can be appropriately used."

The Mint immediately recorded Zhao Yan's instructions.

With 300,000 silver dollars a day, 109.5 million silver dollars can be produced a year, which can create a profit of 5 million taels.

In terms of copper coins, a one-day manufacturing denomination of 50,000 taels can be made about 18 million taels of copper coins a year. Based on the current brass reserves worth 10 million taels and a profit of 2/3 can be calculated to create more than 6.6 million taels. The other eight million taels can be calculated to create four million taels based on 1/2 of the profit, and the profit exceeds 10 million taels. After deducting the cost, there are five or six million taels.

These two items can generate a net income of thousands of taels in a year when they reach the set coin rate. There is no requirement for silver ounces. The amount of income this thing depends on the market's ability to bear. Once there are too many silver ounces in the market, they will still run back to the bank.

The market can accept as much silver liquor as the market can issue as much as it can. Generally speaking, five or six million taels should be fine.

cabinet!

A proposal was voted on that morning to recognize the legal status of silver coins, silver jars and copper coins minted in Shandong, and to prohibit the second party from privately minting coins.

This proposal was strongly opposed by eunuchs such as Cao Huachun, Wang Chengen, and the royalists also strongly opposed it, although the proposal was finally passed.

However, a few days later, Chen Zhongsheng voted for a new proposal.

Chongzhen is allowed to mint coins in the bill, but the coins minted must have the same surname as Shandong silver coins, silver horns, and copper coins, must have the same composition and the same specifications. At the same time, they must be minted under the supervision of the cabinet.

When Chongzhen saw that Shandong began to mint coins, he also began to plan the minting of coins.

However, the level of coin minting in Shandong is not something that Chongzhen can imitate, but once the currency components and specifications are reached, there is basically no big problem.

The silver coins minted by Zhao Yan were silver nine and copper zero eight, and the plan decided by Chongzhen was silver eight and copper one two, with a difference of 4%.

Chongzhen's coins were very fast, after all, they were hand-made by craftsmen. Soon Chongzhen's silver coins came out, and the cabinet soon set the exchange rate. A silver coins minted by Zhao Yan were worth 4 points more than the silver coins minted by Chongzhen.

Seeing that it was profitable to mint coins, Chongzhen also asked the royal merchants to preside over minting coins, but the cabinet also sent personnel to supervise them. Any silver coins with different components and sizes shall not flow into the market.

When Chongzhen's Mint made silver coins on a large scale, he encountered three problems.

First: The cost is too high. They use manual casting, which is naturally incomparable to Shandong's steam engines. Shandong uses steam engines, and 5 workers are responsible for a production line. 12 workers can make 14,000 silver coins a day, which is more than one in three seconds on average. In contrast, Chongzhen used craftsmen to produce, and one craftsman can only cast about 200 yuan, and 5 craftsmen only have more than 1,000 silver coins a day.

Second: Not worth it, the people refused to exchange it. The silver dollars produced by Zhao Yan was 4 cents more than the ones made by Chongzhen. Of course, this is not the main thing. The main thing is that the silver dollars issued by Chongzhen was not worth it to the extreme. Although the silver dollars issued by Zhao Yan was the same, Chongzhen did not open a bank for special exchange. At the same time, Zhao Yan's Denglai Bank refused to accept the silver dollars issued by Chongzhen. In addition, Shandong merchants refused to accept the currency issued by Chongzhen because it was too troublesome to exchange. The currency issued by Chongzhen was not only not as beautiful as Shandong, but also not of the same value.

Third: Influence is insufficient. Zhao Yan has opened the Denglai Bank all over the north and is constantly expanding to the south. The Mint in Huang County is fully powered. The silver coins produced every day are transported to branches and then issued to various places. Chongzhen did not. The result is that the currency issued by Zhao Yan is smooth and can be used anywhere. When Chongzhen takes out the currency, it is not clear what the ingredients are, so it is inconvenient to replace it.

The Mint established by Chongzhen went bankrupt shortly after. That is, there was not much profit and no market, so Chongzhen's Mint was really difficult to maintain.

As a result, the cabinet also asked Chongzhen to take back the invaluable silver horns and spit out as much as he ate it. The recycling project was handed over to Denglai Bank to preside over the money exchanged, and Chongzhen had to recognize the money he had to do.

Chongzhen was so angry that he couldn't understand why the currency issued by Zhao Yan had a market, but his didn't.

Of course, the fundamental reason is that Chongzhen did not use a steam engine, and the silver 92 and copper 08 set by Zhao Yan could not bear it at all because it would be profitable.

Montage is actually an occupation of social resources. After all, smelting requires more manpower, so issuing paper money is considered a saving behavior for social resources.

This is also why Zhao Yan did not mint silver coins before the steam engine appeared. Japan and European countries used silver coins because they imposed a higher seine tax.

Of course, Japan also annoyed Zhao Yan because the forced coin tax was collected on Zhao Yan's head. Zhao Yan now uses steam engines to mint coins, which occupies less social resources and has a high profit. At the same time, it can also regulate market transactions and unify the use of currency, making commercial trade more convenient.

Although the newly revised cabinet proposal allowed Chongzhen to mint coins, Chongzhen suffered a crushing defeat!

The bill stipulates that any tax is levied in various places, and silver coins and silver horns can be used. Any fire consumption shall not be levied on those who use silver dollars and silver horns, and the levy shall be dismissed.

The passage of this proposal is equivalent to taking over the whole world of fire and consumption. At the same time, the silver coins in the hands of the people still have the original purchasing power. However, if the local government does not comply, there is no way, so it has to be supervised. Zhao Yan has five or six hundred spies in each province. Whoever does not comply will directly dismiss him.

...The whole summer was very calm. Except for Lu Xiangsheng's massacre in Tufan, which was considered a hot topic, the other thing was the issue of Shandong's unified currency.

The military conflicts in the Ming Dynasty basically did not break out, but the armed police forces were swiftly suppressing bandits in various provinces, and the immigration scale of Shandong recruitment bureau also became larger and larger. By the end of the summer, a stronghold was established on two islands in Dingdong Province (Sakhalin Island and Hokkaido), each of which reached more than 5,000 households. 50,000 households were immigrated in the southern part of the desert, 10,000 households were immigrated in the northern part of the desert, and 5,000 households were immigrated in the western part of the desert.

Liaodong and North Korea are the main areas of immigration. Liaodong has immigrated 230,000 households and 150,000 households to North Korea. Since a large number of Fujian merchant ships came to Shandong, most of these Fujian merchant ships were requisitioned by the recruitment bureau, and their maritime transportation capacity increased significantly. During the requisition period, silver will be given. Generally, merchant ships with a displacement of 1,000 tons will be given five hundred taels of silver once, which is a labor fee.

You can get a chance to trade to Japan by transporting three times in the Bohai Bay. The Bohai Bay is not too big, and it takes more than half a month to travel three times.

When I arrived in Sakhalin Island and Hokkaido, I went to get a chance to trade in Japan. After the Fujian merchant ship headed north, I realized that Shandong was not so easy to get along, but if I didn’t get along here, where could I go? Fujian would definitely not be able to stay.

Just as the summer ended, a sudden news came from the unprepared news.

The Shandong Army has attacked Fujian!

August 23rd, sunny!

After Wen Bangliang continued to harass Kinmen for nearly half a month, although he did not successfully mobilize the maritime power of the Zheng Group, he also attracted the attention of the Zheng Group to southern Fujian.

At this time, Wen Bangliang, with twenty warships from the First Fleet, twenty frigates, and eighteen troop transport ships, suddenly attacked the Minjiang River Estuary.

The Fujian Navy had no time to react, and the fort was destroyed by the First Fleet. Twenty frigates protected the eighteen troop transport ships and rushed into the Minjiang River, while the other twenty warships were on guard at the mouth of the Minjiang River.

Soon, the American Infantry Brigade, which entered the Minjiang River estuary, landed in Mawei Port. As soon as it landed, the American Infantry Brigade launched an attack on Fuzhou.
To be continued...