The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 586: Check the Family Assets
Teng Yuzao smiled bitterly and shook his head, saying, "The Yangtze River does need a river defense fleet, but now is not the right time. We have to wait until the Russo-Japanese War is over."

Seeing Teng Yuzhao's hesitant attitude, Yang Shiqi thought for a moment and realized that Teng Yuzhao was worried that the river defense fleet would fall into the hands of others.

Yang Shiqi also knew that Jiang Guiti, the former wing commander of Yuan Shikai's Wuwei Right Army, was recommended by Yuan Shikai to form a river defense army in Pukou. However, Jiang Guiti now had only dozens of large and small wooden boats and not a single iron-hulled ship, let alone gunboats.

How can a river defense army without gunboats defend the river and shoulder the heavy responsibility of river defense?

If a river defense fleet suddenly appeared on the Yangtze River at this time, Yuan Shikai would immediately take notice of it and would certainly find ways to get the court to assign the fleet to Jiang Guiti. Teng Yuzhao would also have absolutely no reason not to hand over the fleet to Jiang Guiti.

In this way, Yuan Shikai now had a fleet.

Although such a river defense fleet may not be of much use, it is still invincible on the Yangtze River for the coastal provinces.

Yang Shiqi seemed to have thought of this long ago, and said with a smile, "Marshal, you can directly hand over the river defense fleet you have formed to Liangjiang."

"The coast of Liangjiang is not far from Taiwan. These old ships eliminated by the Beiyang Fleet will not only be used for river defense in Liangjiang, but also for coastal defense. If necessary, they can also enter the Yangtze River and reach Hankou and Wuchang directly."

"Marshal, our Beiyang Steamship Company often has fleets sailing back and forth on the Yangtze River, between Tianjin, Hankou and Wuchang. If something happens, they can also serve as escort. If there are important materials to be transported to Shanghai, this fleet can also escort along the coast."

Teng Yuzao understood what Yang Shiqi said. If he had this river defense fleet, or the coastal fleet, he could control the coastal ports and even go up the river and drive directly to Wuchang and Hankou, which would help him quickly control the inland situation.

However, Teng Yuzhao believed that it was far from that time yet, and the most important thing at the moment was to fight well in the battle outside the Great Wall.

As for deploying them to Liangjiang and Mawei in Fujian, it is not appropriate either, as they are too close to Taiwan occupied by Japan. Once the Japanese army launches an attack, these old warships will become targets of the enemy.

There is another point that Teng Yuzhao is very clear about. It is Cixi who is planning and deploying the situation now. The local governors will be adjusted. The Southeast Mutual Protection has made Cixi see the true face of these governors. He will never be at ease to hand over these wealthy provinces in the south to these people.

Zhou Fu, the governor-general of Liangjiang who rose from Zhili, could not stay in Shanghai for long. Liangjiang was the richest and most important region among the southern provinces. How could Cixi safely hand it over to Zhou Fu, who had the imprint of the Beiyang government?

Zhou Fu also needs to be adjusted, so it would be better to wait until Zhou Fu is settled in his new position before making any arrangements.

"inappropriate."

Teng Yuzhao took a deep breath and still shook his head in objection.

"Although the old ships cannot follow the fleet out to sea due to their speed, they can be left in the harbor as floating artillery batteries to cooperate with the shore artillery defense, which is also useful."

Teng Yuzao then said to Ye Zugui and Sa Zhenbing, "Our fleet will be composed of new ships in the future. The fleet's sailing speed will definitely become faster and faster, and the final speed will be around 30 knots. More and more warships will be eliminated."

"In order not to drag down the main fleet, these old ships must be eliminated. You must be prepared for this. You can consider it now. After we take back the Northeast, we can start to place them."

Afterwards, Liang Dunyan talked about the grain reserves in Zhili and Shandong, Zhou Shoushen talked about the operations of the shipping company, and Ning Xingpu talked about the situation of the trading company.

Teng Yuzao was not very clear about these things. After all, he had too many things to take care of. Especially in the past year, the army expansion and training, as well as all the major and minor matters of the Ordnance Department, Teng Yuzao kept a close eye on them all and even personally intervened in many matters. He was so busy that he almost had no time to rest.

The two provinces have sufficient food. Not only are there sufficient reserves, but this year's winter wheat is also growing very well. There will be no problem with food this year, and it can fully guarantee the military supplies of the troops.

The shipping company managed by Zhou Shoushen and the Aurora Trading Company chaired by Ning Xingpu were also doing very well.

The shipping company's passenger and cargo ships are so busy that no ship is idle. Now, there are not only fixed routes to domestic coastal provinces, but also routes along the Yangtze River, which can go directly to Wuchang and Hankou, and as far as Yichang.

There were also routes to Japan, Korea, Ryukyu, South, as well as Germany and the United States. Due to the continuous increase in Zhili's trade volume, the original passenger and cargo ships were not only small in tonnage but also few in number, and had long been insufficient.

As a last resort, they ordered new ships from American shipyards while purchasing more than a dozen second-hand ocean-going passenger and cargo ships in the United States and the United Kingdom. They now have nearly 100 ships of various sizes with a total tonnage of nearly 300,000 tons.

The trading company's business was also extremely prosperous. It not only exported tung oil, tea and raw silk from Sichuan, Hunan and Hubei to coastal provinces, but also directly exported them abroad. It also transported rubber and copper mines from Southeast Asia back to Zhili.

As for the routes to Germany and the United States, they are even busier. Not only are machinery and equipment shipped back from these two countries, but also large quantities of corporate products, mainly from the Aurora Industrial Development Company, are shipped to the United States and Germany. The goods shipped to Germany will then be distributed to various European countries through branches established by the Aurora Trading Company.

Therefore, the profits of both the shipping company and the Aurora Trading Company were extremely considerable, and the profit figures have increased significantly every month over the past year or so.

In a word, these two companies have developed extremely prosperously under the leadership of Zhou Shoushen and Ning Xingpu.

After the two men introduced the situation of their respective companies, Teng Yuzao encouraged them with a smile on his face before looking at Xi Ligong.

Although Teng Yuzhao would see the financial statements of Aurora Bank given to him by Xi Ligong every quarter, he had not seen the latest report yet because he had been out inspecting the various units of the Zhi army for more than two months.

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "Yucheng, if our Zhi army is involved in a war outside the Great Wall this time, money will be the most important thing. Please explain the situation so that everyone can have a general idea."

Xi Ligong smiled and nodded, without taking out any notebook or anything like that, he just spoke directly.

"Marshal, and all the gentlemen, I will now talk about the situation of our Aurora Bank."

"Since the Aurora Bank opened in Tianjin, we have branches in all provinces except XZ, XJ, Kulun in Mongolia, and the three northeastern provinces. Some provinces even have more than one branch. For example, Zhejiang has branches not only in Shanghai and Hangzhou, but also in Suzhou, Ningbo, and Hangzhou. Shandong and our Zhili also have more than two branches."

"Due to the large number of merchants in Zhili and the large amount of trade, the silver and money flow in our Aurora Bank is extremely large. In addition to silver dollars, foreign currencies and silver, all the silver that passes through our hands must be minted into silver dollars. In the past two years, we have minted more than 200 million silver dollars."

In fact, the figure of 200 million was from more than half a year ago. Teng Yuzao knew that Xi Ligong was deliberately concealing it. According to his estimation, the figure was likely to be close to 400 million.

After all, such a huge number is too shocking. It is normal that Xi Ligong does not want outsiders to know about it.

"All the foreign currency earned from Jizhi was used to buy machinery and equipment and some raw materials, and the rest was also exchanged for gold, including using some silver to buy gold from foreign banks in Tianjin, Shanghai, Hong Kong and other places." "We even used silver to buy some gold in Nanyang. In Nanyang, there were some hot-selling products of the Aurora Industrial Development Company. By using the method of using gold to purchase them first, we exchanged a lot of gold from India. All this gold was minted into gold coins and issued."

"As of today, the Aurora Bank has issued a total of 9 million gold coins and recovered nearly 8 million silver dollars issued by our Aurora Bank, making a net profit of more than 1.1 million. It is estimated that by the end of the year, this money will be around 6 million."

Xi Ligong seemed very satisfied with the benefits of gold coin minting. When talking about the income from gold coins, his face was full of smiles.

Yang Shixiang couldn't help but interrupt with a smile, "Yucheng, don't forget that you still have to pay taxes!"

According to the agreement, half of the profits from the gold coins and silver dollars minted by the Aurora Bank had to be paid to the Governor's Office. All this silver would eventually go into the treasury under the jurisdiction of Yang Shixiang, the governor, and all expenditures would be unified here, including military spending.

Xi Ligong smiled and said, "Master Yang, please rest assured. According to the Marshal's request, the Aurora Bank will not take a penny of the proceeds from minting gold coins. It will all be given to Master Yang."

Regarding what Xi Ligong said, not only Teng Yuzao, but everyone present, except Zhou Shoushen, Tang Shaoyi, and Liang Dunyan, were somewhat surprised. No one else was surprised. They all knew that there had been more than one similar incident in recent years.

Xi Ligong said with some regret, "It's just that it's still a little difficult to exchange gold in large quantities now. We can only buy it in small batches from various places. This makes it impossible for us to fully utilize our gold coin casting capacity."

Xi Ligong smiled bitterly and said, "Besides, our gold coins are rarely circulated in the market. It will probably take at least a few more years before we can see them regularly in the market."

Tang Shaoyi couldn't help being a little surprised and asked in confusion.

"I have seen our gold coins. They are very finely minted and are on par with British pound gold coins. How come they are not in circulation?"

Xi Ligong smiled and said, "It's not because of the casting, but because our people are keen on collecting gold. As soon as each batch of our gold coins is issued, they will be snapped up in a short period of time and then taken back and collected."

"The gold coins we issue are now being exchanged for a premium of eight dollars in the market, but this still cannot stop the trend of collecting."

"So, our gold coins can't circulate in the market. For this reason, I have raised the price several times. The latest price increase three days ago has reached 1:8.2."

"now."

Xi Ligong went on to say, "The stock exchange is also very popular. Since the number of stocks listed and traded on our exchange has exceeded 230, which is much more than the exchange run by Shanghai Yangren, the stamp duty collected is also much higher than theirs."

"Especially for the companies listed here, we supervise them very strictly, and they are all very profitable, especially the public and private enterprises supervised by Jizhi, they are all profitable, so the stamp duty collected is also higher."

"People who come here to trade stocks are not just from the big cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuchang, and Hankou. People from almost every province come here, and there are also many foreigners. In addition to those who invest in stocks individually, all foreign banks are involved."

"HSBC told me that according to their estimate, the scale of our Beiyang Stock Exchange has surpassed that of Tokyo, Japan, becoming the largest in Asia."

"The stamp tax was just over 10 million last year. I estimate it will exceed 16 million this year."

"Now our bank has sufficient capital. The 120 million taels of silver that we falsely reported in order to fight back against Yixin two years ago have now been reached. Now our Aurora Bank is truly the largest bank in Asia."

Xi Ligong's last sentence surprised everyone, but Teng Yuzao knew clearly that Xi Ligong was thinking about laundering the gold and silver from Tianjin and Beijing, including the money obtained from robbing foreign banks and businesses in Tianjin Concession.

"In a word, not only do we have sufficient capital now, but we also have a huge cash flow. Although the bank holds 20% of the shares of Jizhi Foreign Affairs Factory, which occupies a large amount of funds, those stocks are very profitable and have almost been rising. We have made tens of millions with just this one piece. If the Marshal needs it, the bank can mobilize at least 100 million oceans."

"besides."

Xi Ligong continued speaking, ignoring the surprised crowd.

"Our banknotes are ready. We can issue them immediately after the Marshal's approval."

"According to the practice of the great powers, when issuing banknotes, the ratio of reserves to banknotes can reach 1:2.5, which means that if we have 40 million in reserves, we can issue 100 million in banknotes."

Xi Ligong's account of the Aurora Bank made everyone present excited.

If we really want to fight a war outside the Great Wall, the military funds will be provided.

Seeing that Xi Ligong was very good at taking advantage of every opportunity and had laundered some money, Teng Yuzhao was not happy at all, but he still couldn't help but give Xi Ligong some advice.

Mainly, banks only lend large amounts of money to people who open foreign-style factories. They do not lend for any other reason, especially for speculative business.

Business loans are also acceptable as long as there is collateral.

Except for mortgages, although the new city of Tianjin has not been fully built yet, housing prices have risen sharply, and even rental prices have risen rapidly. Many wealthy people in the capital not only buy houses in other cities, but also rush to buy houses here.

However, the residential area built by Yixin in the outer city of Beijing has not been selling well due to various environmental reasons.

Zhou Xuexi's introduction of the situation of Aurora Industrial Development Company made everyone even more excited.

Most of their products would be bought back to their own country by foreign merchants, who would not only make more money, but also earn more in pounds, dollars and marks.

Although all the profits here belong to Teng Yuzhao personally, these people know that these enterprises not only brought a large amount of tax revenue to Zhili, but also Teng Yuzhao would not hesitate to give out the company's profits as long as necessary.

This means that the military expenditure for war will increase significantly.

"Although the imperial court wants to remain neutral, there is no guarantee that the Russians and the Japanese will not expand the war. Now, let Ningbo talk about the preparations for war."

(End of this chapter)