With the sound of firecrackers, the twelve years of Chongzhen finally passed.●⌒,

In the new year that just arrived, Liu Jun was still in Guangdong. Not only did he stay in Guangdong, but the Chu army heading south was still in Guangdong. After several months, many more people were added.

Now Jiutou has added a new Beiyang Navy fleet, with seven four-masted warships, twelve double-masted fast sailboats, thirty sloop light-masted ships, nine three-masted gunships, twelve big Qingtou, thirty rushing ships, and thirty sand ships.

This fleet, which has been initially formed, has three squadrons, Zhen'an, Anlan and Fubo three-squadrons, each with two four-masted seventy-four gun warships, three improved three-masted forty gun warships, four two-masted twenty-squadron warships, and another ten single-masted ten-scratch light sailboats, plus four eight-scratch big greenheads, ten rushing ships and sand ships carrying soldiers and supplies, and several speedboats.

Each squadron has fifty ships of all sizes, five hundred ships, and three thousand soldiers, including two thousand sailors and one thousand Marines.

The entire Beiyang Navy fleet has 10,000 people, including crew sailors from Zheng's family and crew gunners from Europe. About half of the team members were drawn from the nine-headed birds.

Now that the fleet ships and crew members are in place, the crew soldiers have been working for a long time and have the ability to fight independently. Their rapid progress made Zheng Zhilong amazed after seeing the Beiyang Navy's drill.

In addition to this 10,000 naval division, Jiutiao also has a newly established artillery unit. The artillery brigade with eighteen artillery companies is under its command, with three regiments and 6,000 artillery personnel.

In addition to the navy and artillery, Liu Jun's original seventh battalion also underwent some adjustments. Now it is a cavalry, one baggage, two infantry battalions and one teaching battalion. It has been changed to five battalions, with more than 15,000 people, plus 10,000 naval troops and 6,000 artillery soldiers. The nine-headed bird in the south now has a scale of more than 30,000 people.

"The emperor issued another order to urge the marquis to return to Huguang." Fu Shan walked upstairs and said to Liu Jun.

"The matter is not finished yet, how can I leave immediately."

"But the emperor has been placing several imperial edicts in a row, so I'm afraid it's not good."

Liu Jun smiled. "The emperor hopes that I can return to Hubei earlier and prepare for the Eastern Expedition this summer. In fact, they are so worried. Of course, what I promised will do. I said that I will go east to Liaodong this summer, and I will go east to Liaodong. But now I have just celebrated the Chinese New Year."

"What are the marquis waiting for? If it is a matter of communicating with the Western Barbarians, I think it is enough to hand it over to Mr. Zhang. Don't you have a high opinion of this Governor?"

Since retrieving the trench mirror, Liu Jun has been stationed at the estuary of the Pearl River. Several troops are training every day. The fleet goes out to sea every day, training while fighting against smuggling and smuggling maritime merchants. The same is true for several armies, attacking everywhere. All the bandits, mines, water thieves in Guangdong have suffered.

Zhang Guowei smiled happily every day. The Marquis of Zhennan not only helped him to seize the bandits, but also took the time to help him reorganize the local army in Guangdong and Guangxi. Now Guangdong and Guangxi have basically reorganized the two towns of troops, each of which is 25,000. Although the soldiers are still those soldiers and generals are still those generals, the old and weak have been cut off, the vacant quota has been cleared, the arsenal guns and cannons have been checked, and the armor has been updated.

However, the expenses for reorganizing the new army were taken out of the transactions given to the local governments in the Guangdong-Guangzhou commercial tax tariffs. Since Liu Jun recovered Taiwan, the magnificent and naval forces patrolled the sea, the newly established Maritime Bureau and Customs had abundant incomes. There were more maritime merchants coming to register. There were more goods submitted for approval in the customs warehouse, and the tariffs were even more and more every day.

Especially the treasury, it is now more lively and prosperous than when the Portuguese controlled it. There are constant ships in Xiangshan Aoli, and merchants and goods from all over the country are transported continuously. After passing through customs, they are on board and out of the port and transported to various places. Especially mainly to Taiwan, in addition to commercial goods, there are also a large number of poor people from Guangdong and Guangxi, who are also recruited to Taiwan.

Nowadays, many people who come to recruit people in Taiwan can be seen everywhere in Guangdong. They all claim to be people from Taiwan development companies. They recruit people to Taiwan without anything. They will bear your tickets and food, and even arrange accommodation for you after they arrive at the local area.

When I went to Taiwan, I reclaimed the fields, planted sugarcane or rice, or went to mining, and provided food and accommodation every month, and gave me one or two taels of silver. Such superior conditions immediately attracted countless poor people. However, this Taiwanese development company had guarantees from Zhennanhou, Navy Admiral Zheng Zhilong and Taiwan Governor He Tengjiao. Everyone who was willing to go could get a two-month advance salary.

If anyone is willing to move the whole family, the treatment will be better.

At first, Zhang Guowei was worried about what a scam it was, so he personally asked Liu Jun that he knew that Taiwan is now full of fertile land, but lacks population development. After learning the details, Zhang Guowei also began to actively support the matter. He asked the prefectures and counties in Guangdong and Guangxi to post notices, and even took the initiative to notify those poor families, telling them that they have a new home in Taiwan.

Although the population in the jurisdiction has always been an important indicator of political achievements, it is not a good thing to have a large population at this time. People with a large population and are poor, without land or silver. When encountering famine or rebellion, those proletarians are very likely to follow. Sending these people to Taiwan is actually to reduce the pressure on local public security.

Many people are actually just young and strong people who go to Taiwan. They work there and take money back home after making money to improve their home conditions. This is actually a way to a wealthy place.

The Chu army was busy training anti-smuggling bandits and helping to reorganize the Guangdong and Guangxi New Army. Zhang Guowei was busy mobilizing the poor young and strong under his command to work in Taiwan to make money.

As for Liu Jun, on the surface, he was waiting for the Western Barbarians in Southeast Asia to negotiate business. In fact, he had been busy with the Ming Dynasty East India Company with Zheng Zhilong.

After this period of contact, Zheng Zhilong had contacted more than 300 wealthy businessmen, who were all willing to invest in this new company, especially when they saw that the emperor's adopted son Zhen Nanhou was ranked first on the preparatory list given to them by Zheng Zhilong, and they were ready to invest five million silver dollars, everyone became more and more interested.

Look at the company's initiator, Huguang Admiral Hubei General Zhu Ciye, and Navy General Zheng Zhilong, the Navy Admiral Taiwan General Zheng Zhilong. These two of them alone are enough to make people understand that the company's future is bright.

The minimum investment limit of 50,000 taels of silver not only did not scare away the rich rich businessmen, but instead made them more and more moved. Those under 50,000 were not allowed to come in to play, which shows that they are really not short of money, just want to play bigger.

After this period of preparation, the final list of shareholders has been determined. Liu Jun asked Zheng Zhilong to no longer recruit shareholders. All shareholders were 365 people, and the total amount of shareholders was 25 million taels of silver.

The shareholders all deposited the money into Sihai Bank. They issued silver notes, and finally a total of 50 million yuan of capital gathered to formally establish the Ming East India Company. Liu Jun and Zheng Zhilong each invested in cash, merchant ships, shops, real estate, etc., equivalent to 5 million yuan in silver dollars, each accounting for 10% of the shares.

"I heard that many people say that the weather is abnormal this year and there will be a major disaster." Liu Jun replied to Fu Shan with a bad word. "Lord Qing, let our logistics department start purchasing grain, we have to prepare early."

"Yes." Fu Qingzhu nodded.

Liu Jun shook his cloak and walked back to the former Governor's Office. It is now his temporary imperial envoy. However, today, this will be the place where the shareholders' meeting of the Ming East India Company will be held.

When Liu Jun arrived, all the other 364 shareholders of the company had arrived.

It turned out that the banquet hall of the Governor's Office had now become the meeting hall of the shareholders' meeting.

Liu Jun sat in the front row. Although the more than 300 rich people in front of him were not the richest people in the Ming Dynasty, they were all a group of people who occupied a very important position in maritime trade, including maritime merchant shipyards, shipbuilders, weaving shops, and people from all walks of life, most of whom are related to maritime trade.

"I am very happy to meet you. Today, the Ming East India Company will elect the company's nineteen-member board directors."

The election is actually very simple. Each of the 365 shareholders has a vote, and then write down their own 19 candidates for directors. Put them in the ballot box, and finally counting, the top 19 people who received the most votes are both members of the board of directors.

The method is very simple. Liu Jun doesn't want to make it too complicated.

When the vote is issued, each person starts to write his own list, then votes, and then counts votes to vote.

In less than an hour, the list of 19 people was selected. Without surprise, both Liu Jun and Zhuo Zhilong were elected as directors. The other seventeen elected directors were also very powerful businessmen.

After the directors were elected, the newly elected directors held their first board of directors and began to elect three members of the chairman, vice chairman and executive director.

Liu Jun was re-elected and was elected chairman with one vote of 18 in favor and one vote abstaining from a high vote.

Zheng Zhilong was elected as vice chairman with 19 votes.

Dong Mingfu, a big businessman in Guangzhou, was elected as the managing director. Dong Mingfu is a wealthy businessman who controls several large weaving workshops and can produce tens of thousands of dans of silk from him every year, and even has a strong relationship with the upstream cocoon production channels.

Raw silk is the most important thing in the Ming Dynasty's exports, especially in the trade with Japan, where raw silk occupies a huge share. Dong Mingfu is considered the king of raw silk. At the same time, he also operates other textile industries, such as cotton and linen textiles.

Finally, Liu Jun appointed Zheng Zhilong as the general manager of the company and Dong Mingfu as the executive deputy general manager. In addition, Liu Jun also appointed five deputy general managers. He and Zheng Zhilong were not able to actually manage the company's big and small affairs, so there must be a dedicated person in charge of the management. Dong Mingfu is the company's daily management leader, but Liu Jun also appointed five other deputy general managers. These five deputy general managers include Liu Jun's people and Zheng Zhilong's people. Among them, the representative sent by Liu Jun was his father-in-law Lu Weizhang, who asked him to serve as the company's deputy general manager and financial department manager.

"The company's first business next was to monopolize trade with Japan, establishing branches in eight coastal ports including Haojing, Guangdong Zhujiangkou, Yuegang, Fujian Zhangzhou, Ningbo Port and Hangzhou Port, Zhejiang Ningbo Port and Hangzhou Port, Nanjing, Shandong Dengzhou, and Tianjin, which are affiliated to the north and south. It brings together commercial goods from all over the country and transports them to Taiwan's senior officials and Keelung Port II, and also sets branches in Hirado, Japan."

"We shipped the merchant freight from the Ming Dynasty to Taiwan, and then shipped the Japanese merchant freight from Japan to Taiwan back to the Ming Dynasty."

General Manager Zheng Zhilong said with great enthusiasm, "The trade with Japan can only be exclusively operated by our Ming East India Company in the future. Any merchant ship that dares to cross our Taiwan branch and transport goods from mainland China to Japan privately, or transport goods from Japan to mainland China will be captured by us."

"Dear directors, as long as they monopolize trade with Japan, they can get at least more than five million yuan a year!" Zheng Zhilong shouted, and the directors nodded frequently. With Liu Jun and Zheng Zhilong, it is not impossible to monopolize trade with Japan.

Zheng Zhilong is ambitious and wants to take this opportunity to expand the Ming East India Company and develop in the future to compete for interests with the Dutch East India Company, the British East India Company, etc.

Liu Jun only said one thing at the board of directors: In the future, the East India Company's financial settlement will uniformly use silver dollars minted by Sihai Bank, and large amounts of cash will use silver notes from Sihai Bank.

The directors all know that Sihai Bank is the industry of Zhennanhou, and Zhennanhou’s request is not excessive. Moreover, these businesses of Sihai Bank can indeed provide better, so naturally no one objected and agreed to them.

This first board of directors held for most of the day and discussed many things. In short, according to the rules and regulations set by the company, major meetings of the company must be discussed by the board of directors of nineteen people, and major strategic decisions of the company must also be decided by the company's board of directors of nineteen people.

The board of directors is proposed by the chairman, and the directors may also request the convening. Moreover, if the directors cannot withdraw their bodies, they may authorize private representatives to attend the board of directors.

After the company was established, it began to establish branches, commercial stations, offices in various places, and recruit personnel. At the same time, it ordered to build merchant ships, build frigates, recruit crew members, sailors, managers, shopkeepers, etc. In addition, it also had to order various goods, etc.

These matters are left to the company's executive vice president and other vice presidents to manage.

In short, the company has officially opened. In the account of Sihai Bank, there are more than 40 million silver dollars. With such a huge amount of funds, everything in the company will quickly get on track. This is a real big tycoon.

At this time, Liu Jun's eyes returned to Sihai Bank. The bank has opened hundreds of branches and branches during this period. Basically, each prefecture has a branch, every county has a branch, and every branch has a branch, and the outlets have been spread all over every place.

It's time to promote our silver dollar coupons. Liu Jun looked at the bank's report and smiled at the bank's general manager, "Start print silver dollar coupons, the denomination is one yuan, two yuan, five yuan, ten yuan, twenty and fifty yuan and one hundred yuan. Print one hundred yuan first, and prepare it for me after printing it. In addition, print a batch of small coupons of one cent, two cent and five cents to increase circulation convenience."

Liu Jun was preparing to take these silver coupons to the emperor. During this period, with Sihai Bank's rapid website, the bonds were sold well, and the high interest rate made many people excited. Since Liu Jun did not publicly announce that these bonds were borrowed by the court, but were issued loans in the name of Sihai Bank, and with Jiangnan Money Bank as a guarantee, this is just a commercial loan among the private sector. Although it is a credit loan, with Sihai Bank and Jiangnan Money Bank spreading across the Ming Dynasty, the bond sales accumulated to a large extent, and it was sold quickly for more than 5 million taels.

Moreover, his stamina was very strong. Liu Jun did not intend to give the real money and silver obtained from selling bonds to the emperor, but planned to print 10 million yuan silver coupons to the emperor.

Of course, Liu Jun was not trying to fool the emperor. What Liu Jun printed was not a treasure banknote, but a silver dollar coupon that could be exchanged for silver dollars one to one at any time.

On the surface, Liu Jun seems to be a little too farting when taking off his pants, but in fact, the water here is deep. If Liu Jun can make a big profit, and print silver coupons, he will only make more money! (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!