The Indian tribes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains had never been in contact with foreign civilizations before they met Lucci and others. In addition, unlike the Indian empires in South and Central America, their understanding of gold was limited to its beauty, and they did not realize its value at all.
You must know that the currency used by these indigenous people is not gold and silver, but shell coins. So in these days, whether an Indian was rich or not was judged by the number of shells hanging on his necklace.
Luqi and the others wandered around Coloma for two days. After returning to the Nisennan village, he negotiated with the Nisennan chief with the help of Bai Bai and Su Ke to purchase a five-kilometer radius of Coloma. land.
Buying land from the Indians these days requires fate. It's easy to talk about anything you like, but just play with it if you don't. After holding a meeting and discussing with the elders of the tribe, the chief offered a price for twenty pairs of scissors, five hand saws, and two golden thermal blankets.
Rucci was very happy, but due to poor language communication and ignorance of Indian customs, he did not know at this time that, including the previous seventy square kilometers, the Indians were not so much "selling land". It is better to say that it is lending land.
In their view, it is normal for outsiders to borrow land that they cannot use temporarily for survival. However, once your own ethnic group has experienced several generations of development and population expansion has led to insufficient land, it is only natural to take it back. In addition, even if the land use rights are temporarily transferred, one's own people still have the right to hunt there.
When the expedition team returned to the Golden Gate Fortress with a full load, it was already mid-January 1794.
Before returning to the fortress, Lu Qi had a special talk with the officers and soldiers in the expedition team, telling them that all the gold they had found before would be turned over, and that he would distribute bonuses at a ratio of one to ten, and the money would go directly into their respective allowances. account. As for the discovery of gold, it must be kept strictly confidential and must not be spread to outsiders. Violators will be deported.
None of the thirty team members disapproved of this order. Although this trip was hard, everyone gained a lot, far exceeding expectations. Under today's currency system in Beihai Town, private transactions of precious metals, including gold and silver ingots, are strictly prohibited and must be exchanged for Beihai dollars at a Beihai bank or savings bank. Once the public security police discover the private transaction of gold and silver in the form of metal, both parties to the transaction will not only be fined twice the transaction amount, but will also be sentenced to three to six months of hard labor.
After returning to the fortress, Rucci immediately sent a telegram to Zhao Xin, and then went to San Jose de Guadalupe for an inspection. In the telegram, he informed that everything was going well and the location of one of the three target areas had been found and the next step could be taken. In addition, he also asked one thing in the telegram, that is, whether in this time and space or another time and space, the New Year is coming soon. When Boss Zhao comes to pick him up, he will bring you some New Year's goods by the way.
At this time, Zhao Xin is about to embark on his annual pick-up trip again. In fact, this is also an important moment for him to inspect local areas and dispatch troops abroad. For those officers and soldiers fighting abroad, in addition to returning home to reunite with their relatives, what could be more inspiring than having their commander-in-chief travel thousands of miles to express condolences with letters and gifts from his family?
In the big study room of Zhao Xin's house, Li Ji took the tea from A Miao with a smile. As soon as his butt touched the chair, he heard Zhao Xin say: "Have you collected all the family letters and gifts from the garrison troops in various places? ?」
Li Ji stood up in a hurry, without having time to put down the bowl in his hand. He held it with both hands and replied, "The Logistics Command has checked the roster one by one. I asked them to check again yesterday to ensure that there are no mistakes."
Zhao Xin nodded slightly and said, "We have to check it carefully. If we put Zhang San's belongings into the package for Li Si like last year, the soldiers won't say anything, but they will scold me in their hearts."
Li Ji could only laugh after hearing this. The North Korean Navy currently has as many as 60,000 troops stationed abroad. In terms of communications alone, there are tens of thousands of letters and parcels every month, and even more during the New Year. In the past, counting was done manually, and errors were inevitable. However, this year the Logistics Command established a specialized agency responsible for military mail and used a barcode system to reduce the chance of error to one in a million.
Nowadays, the territory of Beihai Town is getting larger and larger, and there are more and more newly established institutions. With the continuous introduction of corresponding systems, the resulting system costs are also rising.
Taking 1792 as an example, the entire
The annual fiscal revenue of Beihai Town is 71.44 million Beihai yuan, almost all of which comes from taxation. Among them, the tariff revenue of various ports accounted for 35.5%, including the three ports of Chiyan City, Anping Port and Whale Port; the goods transaction turnover tax accounted for 24.9%, and the others included stamp duty, currency arbitrage, seigniorage, and confiscated part of the karst. The Maharaja and temple properties together accounted for 39.6%.
In terms of expenditures, the North Korean Navy’s military expenditures are more than 41 million, and civil affairs expenditures including transportation, medical care, and transportation are 33 million, close to 75 million. This does not include the cost of shipbuilding and railways. The cost of building the railway from Heilongjiang City to Yaksa alone is 170 million.
Zhao Xin alone and the output of several gold mines can no longer bear such a large amount of expenditure. In view of this, Chen Qingsong began to plan the issuance of public bonds of 200 million Beihai dollars a year ago, equivalent to 50 million taels of silver, for sale to Beihai Town and Manchu Qing rule, with a coupon rate of 3.5% for ten years.
After half a year of advance planning, the Intelligence Bureau has confirmed that salt merchants, Shanxi merchants and the Thirteenth Bank of China under the Manchu Qing Dynasty can subscribe for 50%; while the Manchu and Qing officials, gentry and dignitaries can subscribe for 30%, leaving the remaining 20%. For sale inside Beihai Town.
Within the Manchu Qing Dynasty, everyone from officials to businessmen thought that paying real money to buy the public bonds of Beihai Town was like buying a "ship ticket" to save Zhang's life. Even Heshen even told Liu Quan that he wanted to buy it after learning about it. Three hundred thousand taels.
With the sales channel guaranteed, the approval of the 29-member Beihai Town Committee is just a formality. After all, everyone knows what the revenue and expenditure structure has been over the years.
Zhao Xin took a sip of tea and asked, "What do people say about the issuance of public bonds next year?"
"Everyone has no objection." Li Ji thought for a while and said with a sincere face: "My Lord, you are the God of Beihai Town. Without you, we would not be where we are today. Now that the money in your hands is not enough, even if you ask everyone to donate, I won’t say anything, so why bother paying back the principal with interest?”
Zhao Xin's smiling expression just now gradually subsided, and he stared at Li Ji and said, "Didn't you go to the public debt study class yesterday?"
Liji said quietly: "No... Xiaochun had a fever yesterday, so I, I didn't go."
Zhao Xin frowned and said with concern: "Oh? Then let A Miao go over and take a look. The child was born prematurely and is too weak."
Koharu is the youngest daughter of Rikichi and Shino. In the first few years, after Wu Xianning prescribed medicine for conditioning, Zhinao's dampness-heat and blood stasis gradually improved, and pregnancy and childbirth became a matter of course. The two now have a son and a daughter. Because of his well-known relationship with Li Ji and his wife, the two children were named by Zhao Xin. The son was named Zhao Qi, who was three years old, and the daughter was named Xiaochun, who was less than one year old.
While the two were chatting, A Miao opened the door and walked in. She frowned and said to Zhao Xin, "That woman is here again. See you?"
Zhao Xin knew who she was talking about. The other party has asked to see her twice this month, but he ignored her on the excuse that she was too busy. However, considering the other party's status, it would be inappropriate not to see her again, so he said, "Invite her to sit in the flower hall for a while. I will be there in a minute."
When Li Ji saw that Zhao Xin was in trouble, he was about to resign. Zhao Xin stopped him, stood up and motioned to go out together. As he walked, he asked, "Things in Kyoto need to be stepped up. Jia He and the others have been there for almost a year, right?"
Li Ji whispered: "One of our people has sneaked into Xianyuan Gong's house to work as a cook. After the completion of the new palace, that person has rarely shown his face. If we want to lure him out, we must make Xianyuan Gong seriously ill. So I can take advantage of the opportunity to visit the doctor."
Li Ji deliberately emphasized the word "serious illness", and Zhao Xin nodded silently, patted the other party's shoulder and said: "Tell Jia He and the others not to worry too much, I am not a person who will die from the dog's death. "
"Yes Yes!"
The two of them walked along the corridor to the door of the flower hall, and Li Ji went out through the side door. Zhao Xin thought for a while, then opened the door curtain and entered the warm spring flower hall. When he walked around the screen, he saw Shen Xuan and A Miao talking to a white woman with silver hair. The woman sat opposite A Miao, her face painted with light white powder, and her two blue eyes were particularly conspicuous. She wore a gray sea otter skin hat, a simple black European-style satin skirt, a cross hanging around her neck, a snow-white fox fur draped over her shoulders, and a pair of black pointed high heels exposed under the skirt. waist skin
boots.
Zhao Xin said with a smile: "Hello, madam."
Seeing Zhao Xin's arrival, the woman slowly stood up, performed a European-style court ceremony, and said in somewhat jerky Mandarin: "Your Highness, it's not easy to meet you."
Zhao Xin made a sign of pain, shook his head and said with a smile: "Too busy, too busy! As you know, I am currently presiding over border negotiations with neighboring countries. This matter is of great importance and cannot be careless."
Shen Xuan pretended to turn her head to talk to A Miao, curling the corners of her mouth slightly. A Miao also pretended to listen and nodded heavily.
The woman stared at Zhao Xin with her blue eyes. Seeing that the other party was looking at her, her pretty face turned red and said: "Your Highness, please don't forget our agreement. I took the liberty to visit today because I want to know about the progress of the war in India. How's it going?"
The person who came was Louis XVI's sister, Louis Charles's aunt, Lady Elizabeth. It is said that Lady Elizabeth and brother Louis, who have sworn never to marry, have been in Beihai Town for more than a year. When they first arrived, Zhao Xin placed the three of them in a yard two kilometers away from his home; it was originally Liu Zheng's residence, but since Liu Zheng took his two wives to Kulun, the house became vacant .
In the first two months, the three people who accompanied Louis Charles every day, in addition to Deguine and his son, were ten people who were originally given to Zhao Xin by Tipu Sultan, but were left in Pazaya by Deng Fei. Lai's Indian maid. Thanks to these beautiful Indian girls who are good at singing and dancing and can also speak a few words in French, the life of the three of them was not so boring at first.
In addition, the people from the Intelligence Bureau escorted the three of them out for a day of relaxation every week. Zhao Xin also gave them his carriage, as long as they did not run into the Condorcet family, the four Ra gods and their families.
Once, Mrs. Elizabeth brought Louis Charles and Charlotte to Zhao Xin's house for a visit. The two children saw the yard full of cats and screamed with excitement. They also played with Zhao Xin's son Momo for an afternoon before leaving. He also took away two of Duofu's offspring.
To be honest, Zhao Xin has ten thousand ways to make Louis Charles and his sister happy in Beihai Town. Just the toys he sends over every now and then can make the two children addicted to them.
But Lady Elizabeth is different. She shoulders the great trust of her brothers Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. It is her mission to restore the French Bourbon dynasty. After being dazzled, the woman quickly calmed down and began to think about the future.
As a result, Degene's father, Degene Sr., became the tutor of his two children. Jiao Xun, who was busy preparing for the Higher Polytechnic Institute with several La Shen, was also invited by Deguigne to become the Chinese teacher of the two children and Mrs. Elizabeth, giving classes three days a week for two hours each time.
Before Zhao Xin went to Bacheng to command the operation, he and Mrs. Elizabeth initially reached a memorandum of agreement.
After the Northern Navy intervenes in local governance and the war with the British, it will assist Governor Leclerc, who is loyal to the king, to regain control of the French Indian colony, clean up the republicans, and use it as a base to counterattack the First French Republic. In addition, the Northern Navy will provide military training and weapons assistance to the French colonial forces, so that Louis Charles can personally control an army loyal to him. Once all the above conditions are met, Louis Charles and the three of them can go to the local area for governance.
In exchange, Louis Charles had to obtain the support of Beihai Town on the condition of transferring French Louisiana; as for the total price for Beihai Town to acquire Louisiana, it was 40 million Beihai dollars. And if converted into francs, it would be 66.6666 million francs, which is really smooth!
Of course, the military aid supplies provided by Beihai Town will be deducted from the more than 60 million francs. As for the fact that Zhao Xin and the others rushed into the Temple Tower to save people and brought the three people back to Asia from Europe, they didn't charge any money. It was regarded as a friendly gift.
The reason why the agreement between the two was in the form of a memorandum was first of all because Louis Charles was only eight years old this year and he had not yet been recognized by the royal families of various European countries. In particular, he needed the allegiance of his uncle, the royalist leader Count Artois.
Next is Louisiana - the area west of the Mississippi River is still in Spanish hands. When the "Seven Years' War" was about to end, Louis XVI was about to lose. In order to retain his territory in North America, he secretly signed the "Treaty of Fontainebleau" with Spain, giving the Louisiana area to Bourbon.
Family of Spanish Kings. Now if you want to get it back from Spain, you must sign another secret agreement, and the troublemaker Britain cannot interfere with it.
Ever since Beihai Town's war in India started, Lady Elizabeth, who accidentally learned about it from Jiao Xun, was stunned. Jiao Xun felt sorry for this woman, so he tried his best to help her find out.
But how much does Jiao Xun know about South Asia, he can only make blind inquiries. By December, as she received less and less news from Jiao Xun, the anxious Lady Elizabeth could no longer hold back, so she went directly to Zhao Xinwen several times in the name of a visit.
The problem is that the two people have been having an affair since they were in Bacheng. It is not clear whether it is clear or not. Shen Xuan also faintly heard the news, and the boss was not happy.
Zhao Xin knew that he was in the wrong, and because he was busy negotiating with Li Chao and was more important at the moment, he kept saying that he had no time. But now that Leclerc has returned to the position of governor, it's time to let the other party know.
