There were many shipwrecks in a short period of time, resulting in huge losses. The relevant situation had been reported to Tianjin Prefecture long ago. Zhou Keshan was under heavy pressure from Guo Ning, so he threatened Zhang Liangpeng with force.
In September last year, Guo Ning was enthroned in Kaifeng surrounded by his subordinates. He founded the Great Zhou Dynasty and named it Longwu. On the emperor's way back from Kaifeng to Zhongdu, more than 100,000 elite soldiers who had destroyed the Kaifeng court returned victoriously. The armies followed one after another for hundreds of miles. They cheered and surrounded the emperor's chariot along the way, with a momentum that shook the heaven and earth.
However, other than that, the process of founding a country is very simple, even shabby.
This is not to highlight the true nature of the military regime, because Zhou Dynasty's finances are not rich.
After taking over the Kaifeng court, Zhou's territory more than doubled, but his income did not increase at the same rate.
Under the rule of the Kaifeng court, the south and north roads of Henan were the hardest-hit areas that were massacred by the Mongolian army from the south in the early years. The land on Qinlong Fourth Road is barren and has been a bottomless pit for money investment for hundreds of years. Although Nanjing Road is richer, it is still not what it used to be. Not to mention the huge losses caused by the flooding of the Yellow River. How many victims were displaced east of Kaifeng. After the establishment of the new dynasty, was it too embarrassing not to provide relief?
The Jurchens maintained this position gnashing their teeth for two years. They could not afford to have both an army and people's livelihood. In the end, they had to rob the Southern Song Dynasty. Now this problem has been transferred to the hands of the Zhou court.
In comparison, Dazhou's direct expenditure on military construction was actually limited.
Rewarding merit by allocating land requires less expenditure than giving money, and it can also ensure the loyalty and combat effectiveness of soldiers. However, as the scale of war continues to expand, after a war, land granting and adjustment work are intricate and interlocking, and still require continued investment.
To take the simplest example, if a soldier is rewarded for his meritorious service, he can directly allocate the local wasteland and give it to him. But in an entire army, everyone is rewarded for their meritorious service, plus necessary pensions, and hundreds or even thousands of hectares of land need to be distributed at every turn. Therefore, it must be accompanied by large-scale adjustments in the military villages. Some areas are expanded, some are relocated, some are merged, and some are split.
Everyone has selfish desires, and soldiers are not saints. During the adjustment, some people are satisfied and others are dissatisfied, which will inevitably lead to conflicts, which will not only affect farming, but also affect the unity of the army. Therefore, reliable manpower is needed to review, investigate, punish, and mediate. To this end, it is necessary to expand the military law department and recruit a large number of retired soldiers as officials.
After all, every job must be supported by money.
When the land allocation for grassroots soldiers is completed, the rewards for so many middle- and high-level civil and military subordinates cannot be delayed. Last year, the title system of the Great Zhou Dynasty was not yet complete. After the change of Yuan Dynasty, so many people were counting their merits and deeds on their fingers, waiting to be rewarded at the New Year's Day meeting.
Guo Ning's rise was rapid. No matter in the military or government system, there was no such complicated and complex giant figure who had to be rewarded to win over him. But precisely because of his rapid rise, the family fortunes of the ministers in the new dynasty were generally still poor, and they were all waiting for the big rewards after the founding of the country.
It is not necessarily possible for the soldiers to work hard to support Zhou Guogong to become the emperor, and then carry forward their own customs and continue to live by drinking the northwest wind.
Is the farm house luxurious or not? Can slaves be driven? Are the tax and fief specifications similar to those of the previous dynasty? Has the level of officialdom overwhelmed my old enemy? What is the scope and number of years of exemption from corvee? Is there any iron certificate for sealing a wife's shadow or elixir book?
Various contents have been repeatedly considered by the ministers, and five or six true and false plans have been circulated. Some plans are generally in line with Ding Haijun's simple style, while others are simply nonsense. If this idea is implemented, the people of the world will immediately be eaten by ferocious beasts and have no way to survive.
Guo Ning knew this very well, and he knew even more clearly that the reward could not be delayed or withheld. In this regard, he and Yelu Chucai reviewed the accounts many times and formulated two principles.
One line is called "Respect martial arts, merits and demerits are not equal." It is about describing meritorious service and rewarding soldiers. It refers to the nine-level nobility system of the Jin Dynasty. It does not care about fame and status, but it cannot easily create powerful people who are above the rules.
The other one is even more crucial, it is called "Sharing of benefits, equal share of nobility and shares". It means that after the merits and rewards are stated, households are not sealed or cannibalized according to the tradition of past dynasties. Guo Ning would follow the example of merchants from the Southern Dynasties in raising funds for sea trade and transfer the part of the Shanghai business that belonged to Dazhou
Take it out and distribute the rewards.
In the third year of Da'an, the dynasty changed in Zhongdu. The new emperor came to power in a coup and massacred the clan. Guo Ning took the opportunity to seize the resources that no one noticed at the time but were actually extremely huge, namely the fleet and smugglers controlled by the Jurchen clan.
In the following years, he continued to expand maritime trade and was able to draw hundreds of thousands of huge sums of money from it every year. When the situation of coexistence between the north and the south was settled, Guo Ning relied on the huge market and material output in the north, combined his own fleet with the Song people of the Southern Dynasties, and formed a trading company that could be called a giant.
All the soldiers knew that the Shanghai trip was different from ordinary guilds. Internally, the Zhou and Song dynasties each had strict organizational systems to ensure nearly 10 million yuan of business and millions of yuan in profits each year. Moreover, since this year, the trade routes in the south have been smooth, and the fleet can go directly to Guangzhou in the Southern Dynasties, and trade directly with the legendary countries in the South China Sea, and the profits are even higher.
In a normal year, the grain output of a hundred acres of land in Hebei and Zhongdu is only fifty or sixty tons, which is completely different from the huge profits at sea. It is impossible to say that the soldiers are not envious of the interests of the sea.
But everyone also understands that His Majesty the Emperor himself is willing to use the income from sea trade to subsidize the national finance. This is the emperor's noble character. But after all, the royal purse does not allow outsiders to interfere at will. Even thinking about it is arrogance.
When Guo Ning released the news that he would share equity with the heroes, most of the officers who felt they were qualified to be included were overjoyed.
Of course, it is inevitable that some people value land and feel that commercial gains are illusory and not practical enough. This has been human nature for thousands of years, and there are quite a few such people.
Guo Ning and Yelu Chucai then summoned the officers several times to answer questions and describe the specific situation of maritime profits.
On this day, he returned to Tianjin Mansion from Zhongdu and summoned the senior local officers of Tianjin Mansion, as well as some generals who had suffered a slight loss in the title of knight because they had joined late.
When everyone met the emperor, there was naturally more red tape than in the past. Fortunately, Guo Ning didn't put on airs and still asked everyone for help. If you meet someone who has had official business dealings in the past few days, give them a few personal instructions. If you come across someone who has done something wrong recently, as long as they have not made a big mistake, you can also pull them to a corner of the meeting hall and give them a few words to prevent them from making the same mistake again and again.
After dozens of people were seated, Guo Ning asked someone to hang a huge banner in the meeting hall and narrated it all in person.
The shares of the entire Shanghai Bank are divided into half by the Great Zhou Dynasty and half by the Great Song Dynasty, and the profit distribution is also the same. But this is a political divide, not a purely commercial calculation. In fact, the two companies rely on their own territories, fleets and land-based commercial channels. Except for cross-border trade that must be jointly promoted, other operations are independent.
This time Guo Ning plans to gradually release this part of the equity in his name. The first phase targets civil and military officials who have received honors from the new dynasty. This covers almost all officers above the rank and civil servants with key positions. There are nearly a thousand people in total, of which more than 90% are military personnel. Releasing 30% of the equity to them represents an income of more than 500,000 yuan that year.
According to this plan, an ordinary man from Jianguo County of Dazhou could get more than 200 yuan in dividends from the trading company every year, which was enough to be worth a handful of big landowners in ordinary villages. If you really want land, with this money, it will be easy for your family to buy land. The newly opened silt fields near Zhongdu are only two or three acres per acre.
After hearing this, many officers showed smiles as expected, and the meeting hall was buzzing with people. Two officers who were close to each other discussed on the spot where they wanted to buy land, and continued to live together as neighbors. They also agreed that it would be best to become in-laws for their children.
Just as the two of them were talking about this, Shi Tianni interrupted and said, I heard that the sons of the old Wang family are very naughty and can't do anything as men and women. The daughter of the old Cheng family might as well marry my brother Shi Tianze. If you despise my younger brother, you can marry me as a continuation of your marriage. I can call you father-in-law right now.
As soon as this man spoke, the warriors burst into laughter. Some made witty remarks to congratulate the new son-in-law, and some laughed at Shi Tianni for being shameless. In the blink of an eye, the hall became more and more noisy.
If the two armies are fighting and the Chinese army is in such chaos, Guo Ning will have to send law enforcement officers to chop off a few heads. With his majesty in the army, a slight cough at this moment can make the soldiers feel solemn immediately.
.
But he knew very well that warriors fought for wealth in the final analysis. There is no war now, a lot of wealth is right in front of us, everyone is happy, why bother to impose rules? To a certain extent, these northern warriors were willing to say some witticisms in front of the emperor as a way of showing kindness.
At the moment, he just smiled and listened, motioning to Li Yun to continue the story.
What Li Yun said is actually very critical. It turns out that except for royal decrees, once the equity of a trading company is allocated to an individual, it cannot be transferred again, and violators will be severely punished. Unless the owner is deprived of his title, he will always receive dividends from his equity.
However, after the death of the person who owned the equity, the equity would return to the royal family if his descendants had no shadow. These shares are currently under the control of Li Yun. In the future, when the government affairs are sorted out and Li Yun has accumulated enough qualifications, he will be promoted to Shaofu Qing and take charge of the royal family's finances.
After General Li Yun finished speaking, Zhao Bin, who was sitting at the back of the team, came out and asked if it would be okay if he took the money and instead of buying land, he would buy his own ship, recruit people, and set up his own trading company to do business.
Before Li Yun could answer the question, Guo Ning left the throne, hugged Zhao Bin and asked, "You guys, aren't you thinking about taking care of yourself in old age? Why are you so excited all of a sudden?"
Zhao Bin's rough and dark face showed a little bit of embarrassment.
Although he is old and disabled, he is already a founding county man due to his military exploits and hard work at sea. So at the end of last year, he became the sweetheart in the eyes of countless matchmakers. Now he not only has a wife and a concubine, but the concubine also brought him two cheap sons and three cheap daughters, all of whom changed their surnames to Zhao.
With a large family, the income from the fields alone was enough to cover the expenses, but it was a bit difficult. Zhao Bin originally went to sea because he could not adapt to the boring life after retirement, but after seeing the scenery at sea, although he was old, he became more and more unruly and wanted to start his own business.
Guo Ning laughed loudly at that moment: "If you want to do something, of course you can, as long as you don't mix it with military-controlled materials and don't poach officials."
Zhao Bin agreed repeatedly.
Guo Ning asked again: "I won't mention the sea-going ships we trial-built at home. They are expensive and not easy to use. A while ago, your old partner Zhou Keshan ordered dozens of sea-going ships worth 400 materials in Fuzhou. Each boat costs a thousand guan. Do you have enough savings to buy a boat? If not, I can lend it to you."
Just as he was talking about this, an urgent letter came from the messenger outside.
Guo Ning opened it and frowned.
The noisy warriors fell silent for a moment, everyone returned to their respective positions, and the hall was completely silent.
Guo Ning stood in the hall, looked around at everyone, and suddenly smiled to himself: "I am in a very good mood today. I just spoke to everyone and made a wish. Seeing everyone happy makes me even more happy. But I was humiliated on the spot. My face is all swollen."
After hearing this, Shi Tianni was the first to come out. He held up his sword and raised his head, and said loudly: "Excuse me, Your Majesty, what happened? I have heard that the Lord is worried about the humiliation of his subjects, and the subjects who humiliate him will die. Whoever dares to humiliate Your Majesty will be the enemy of hundreds of thousands of our Zhou Dynasty soldiers." sworn enemy!"
After he finished speaking, Yeluke stepped out of the queue and clasped his fists: "Me too!"
Li Shouzheng immediately came out and said: "Who dares to be rude, please let your Majesty know. I am willing to take his life with my sword!"
Guo Ning sighed: "It's really embarrassing to say this. I can't help you guys. I really don't know how to say it."
After repeated requests from the generals, Guo Ning revealed the reason.
"On the seas in the Guangnan area of the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty, pirates suddenly became rampant and attacked and robbed our fleet many times. Zhou Keshan made statistics and found that there were more than 20 ships missing in two months. The total loss was about two One million strings."
Most of the soldiers attached to Beijing Road have been stationed in the eastern part of the grassland for generations, and their leaders are also from powerful backgrounds in this area. Previously, Shi Tianying's black army followed Li Ting to open up Qinlong, while the rest of the troops still stayed in the local area.
After following Guo Ning, these people had quite a lot of experience in crossing the sea by boat or running long distances, but when they first heard about the Song Dynasty, Guangnan, sea, and pirates, they still felt trembling in their hearts. After shaking it off, they were all shocked when they heard that they had lost two million yuan. Anyone with a quick mind immediately calculated that the loss of two million guan would be borne by Da Zhou, which is 1 million guan, which is expected to be red this year.
More than 60% of the profit!
In other words, everyone had been having fun for a long time and had already thought about many places to go. All of a sudden, their money was reduced by 60%! The fields, houses, golden jewels and even the beautiful lady that had been imagined had become reality, and they all flew away! This... this loss is really heavy!
Everyone was furious and their eyes were red. Many people were breathing heavily and clenching their fists, just like wild beasts fighting for food on the grassland, with ferocious expressions.
Just at this moment, Li Yun beside him sighed: "This is the loss in the first year, and there may not be that much in the future. If we prepare some resources, make good friends with the pirates, and reduce the loss to 30% or 20%, we can always Right?"
After hearing this, everyone was out of breath. What does this mean? Why should the benefits that the gentlemen gained from fighting in mountains of corpses and seas of blood be given to pirates? The loss of 20% or 30% every year will accumulate over 20 or 30 years. Isn’t this figure scary?
Some people were so angry that they wanted to argue with Li Yun on the spot.
But he saw Li Yun holding the military report, reading it at a glance to the end, and said, "Huh? Zhou Keshan said that he had found out the details of the pirates, and wanted to ask your Majesty to dispatch hundreds of elite soldiers to secretly go south. Sweeping the pirates' nest in one go... just in time to steal the pirates' accumulated assets to make up for the losses?"
Hearing this, Guo Ning also looked over and said casually: "Are you kidding? It's so easy to mobilize troops to fight thousands of miles away? How can the soldiers be happy? How can I give up? Besides, , I have to go through a set of troop deployment procedures when I get back to China, it will take ten days and a half, no matter how late it is... yo!"
Guo Ning was suddenly speechless: "Is what he wrote true? Are the pirates so rich?"
In addition to Shi Tianni and others, more than a dozen military generals came out, shaking the room: "Your Majesty, the troops are too slow to mobilize back home, and the movement is too loud. I'm afraid the pirates are on guard! We are willing to go south. , mop them up!"
