Shi Kefa's eyes were full of expectations and asked, "He San Ce, please tell me in detail."

Li Mingxun said: "The three strategies are naturally money, food, and army!"

Shi Kefa's body was involuntarily leaning forward. Although the court's ministers discussed the alliance to pacify the enemy, they all knew that Nanjing was unable to go north now. The so-called alliance to pacify the enemy was more of aspiring to use the Qing Dynasty to eliminate the Shun Army, and then take back the Central Plains through negotiations and other means. This plan is full of wishful thinking. It was not only blinded by the slogan of avenging Chongzhen by the Qing Dynasty, but also wanted to give the troops that surrendered to the Qing Dynasty a step forward. Shi Kefa was very clear that success was fine, but failure meant to defend the Jianghuai Army, and the army of money and food was also in short supply.

"Let me talk about the money first. Now the United Bank deposits reached 4.2 million taels. The rice and grain loans provided to silk cotton farmers have generated huge profits. More than half of the Chongming Dam is built, and more and more gentry of Jiangnan has invested more and more. It is not impossible to reach tens of millions of taels. As long as Lord Shi persuades two-thirds of the shareholders of the shares, he can borrow from United Bank. Because the association also controls some shares, only half of the adults need to convince half of the Jiangnan gentry." Li Mingxun said.

Shi Kefa looked embarrassed and it would be so simple to convince so many gentry in Jiangnan. If they were loyal to the country, how could the situation in the Ming Dynasty end up with this land? Besides, in what name should the bank loan be used to borrow? The court? That is unprecedented. The loan must always be mortgaged. What should be used as mortgage? Although the Emperor Hongguang is as huge as his father, Lao Fu, how much money is worth in a piece of rotten flesh? Since it is a loan, there must be interest. Who can tell me how much interest is required to lend the court?

After thinking for a long time, Shi Kefa coughed lightly: "I will do my best to do this. Please tell me two other strategies."

Li Mingxun nodded slightly. He just said that the United Bank loan was not agreed, because he knew that the iron roosters would not agree. The reason why they did this was to make a gesture and tell the people of the world that Li Mingxun and Tenglong Trading Company supported the imperial captives and could not afford the money was because the gentry in Jiangnan did not care about the life or death of the country.

"The second strategy is food and society, now it has lifted the threat of Western routes. Food is coming in a steady stream. It requires a lot of rice and grain loans or resettlement of immigrants. At present, I don't know if there is any left. When October comes, there will be a result, but I can now promise to leave a share of 200,000 stones to the court." Li Mingxun said.

Shi Kefa asked: "Is this a free gift?"

Li Mingxun shook his head: "No, the community needs money everywhere, where can I get money to send food to others, but the price is absolutely fair, so I will sell it at the market price of autumn grain in Jiangnan. How about it?"

Shi Kefa nodded slightly. The listing of autumn grain was the lowest price of COFCO in the year, but it was also limited. After all, the imperial court has lost Huguang now. Last year, the autumn grain was launched, and brown rice was priced at one liang and eight cents. This year, the Qing Dynasty entered the pass and wars broke out, which was definitely higher.

"What about the third strategy? Dongfan is willing to send troops to help our dynasty? If so, please send a navy to help the battle and defend the Jianghuai River. What about?" Shi Kefa said impatiently.

Li Mingxun shook his head slightly, and Shi Kefa hurriedly said: "This time is different from the last time when Denglai's imperial captives, so our dynasty must have paid a lot of money!"

Seeing Shi Kefa’s sincerity, Li Mingxun explained: “Mr. Shi did not make any intentional embarrassment. It is because the community naval warships are not suitable for inland river combat. The community has heavy gunboats and can be drifted at 100 feet. The frigate uses a sharp bottom and has a very deep draft. It has no power except sails. The Yangtze River has many dangerous shoals and dark hills, so it dares not go deeper, and the Huai River is even more unsuitable.

Not only that, the community and navy were extremely expensive to fight. This time, the southern expedition to Luzon, only in April, the more than ten ships were expended, which cost nearly one million military pay. I am afraid that the court will not be able to do anything to the effort."

Shi Kefa still had to say something, and Li Mingxun said: "Please listen to it next."

"The court was not without naval troops. Now there are still four towns of naval troops in Denglai, with tens of thousands of soldiers. When the warships came forward, General Huang Fei was brave and arduous. This is where the defense of the Ming Dynasty Jianghuai relied on." Li Mingxun said.

Shi Kefa asked: "But now that these warships are trapped in Denglai, the Donglu will definitely not let it go. I heard that the Donglu has sent a large army into Shandong. How bad is the Dengzhou Navy?

Li Mingxun immediately said: "No, first, the main enemy of the Qing Dynasty was Li Chuang. Now Li Chuang retreated to Shaanxi and plagued the Central Plains. He still had hundreds of thousands of troops under his command. The Qing Dynasty should do his best. Second, the community has prepared money and food and will go north to rescue soon. The third strategy mentioned below is to rescue the navy in the four towns of Denglai to return to the south of the Yangtze River and stabilize the river defense."

"Mr. Li is really sure?" Shi Kefa asked.

Li Mingxun nodded without hesitation. In history, the Donglu who attacked Shandong was attracted by the main force of the rebellion army that rebelled against the Central Plains. Huang Fei himself supported the north wind and had his own help. Not only could he escape back, but he could also bring more ships. Of course, the club could also get close to collecting a group of refugees.

"There is a certainty, but I also hope to get help from Lord Shi. After all, such a large-scale action, it is impossible to calm people's hearts without a high-ranking official like the governor... Lord Zeng Ying is already in Denglai, and I think he is the most suitable..." Li Mingxun briefly explained his attitude.

Shi Kefa has no objection to this. Now the Nanjing court has used some officials who surrendered and rebelled. Zeng Ying, who was wronged and wronged, is naturally more qualified. Even if everyone has objections, as long as they can bring back thousands of warships and tens of thousands of soldiers, what if they give Zeng Ying an official position?

"Since that's the case, everything has been removed from Mr. Li, and the court will definitely not treat Mr. Wang unfairly." Shi Kefa said eagerly.

Li Mingxun shook his head slightly and said, "What I do with the community is just to be ashamed of. History and the people will always give reasonable evaluations."

The two discussed some details. Li Mingxun waved to the old clerk. The man came over and placed the records of the conversation on the table. Shi Kefa picked it up and looked at it. He found that the principles of the club's changes in the mainland had been summarized.

If you don’t have a vassal, you won’t have a minister, you won’t have a fight!

Trusted, supportable, and alliance!

Simply put, the society will not become a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, nor will it be subject to entrusted or surrendered, nor will it overestimate its ability to put that little force into the mainland battlefield. However, on the issue of imperial captives, the society is the most trusted partner of the Ming Dynasty. It will provide assistance to the best of its ability and is willing to provide assistance to the Ming Dynasty at cost prices or low profits on issues such as weapons, rice and grain, and ships. If the Nanjing court is willing, the society will also be willing to form an alliance with the Ming Dynasty on equal terms.

Shi Kefa had no objection to these principles, but he modified some of the words, mainly to make the court look less embarrassed and powerless. When the meeting minutes were drafted, Li Mingxun gave Shi Kefa a memorandum of the Elderly Council meeting.

The document is a joint community strategic discussion between the Senate and the Navy and the Army. It mainly analyzes the resource allocation. It can be said that the strength of the community is clearly understood. The final result is that even if the community goes all out, it will be difficult for the community to come up with a force that changes the situation in the mainland. If it is not able to change the situation in the mainland, it will lead to the collapse of the Nanyang direction, which means the decline of Hong Kong and the loss of food sources. Therefore, the main task of the community is in the Nanyang direction. To be precise, the Philippines will give advantages to ensure the safety of Western routes. With the low-priced rice and grain in South China, it will expand the strength of the community, resettle refugees, and aid the Ming Dynasty.

The documents are not very much, but the data is detailed and the argument is clear. In addition to several necessary financial situations, the strength of the club is listed one by one, which can be said to be full of sincerity.

After Shi Kefa saw it, Li Mingxun took the document and lit it on the oil lamp. He said: "Mr. Shi, today's minutes of talks and the documents you see will be delivered to all parties by my personal guards, including Guangdong, Guangxi, Denglai, North Korea and other places, and of course, various strongholds of the community, but this document will be burned after reading it."

"I know your sincerity in my heart, and I will also talk about your interests in the court." Shi Kefa nodded slightly and then left.

Li Mingxun bowed his head and saw his shaking and twisted face in the green tea soup. He was stunned. Until now, he didn't know whether he was doing it right. He knew that whenever he saw displaced refugees and heard the tragic and desolate stories, he would regret his choice today, but reason and facts told him that it was right to do so.

"Sir, since you think Jiangnan cannot be defended, why should you support the court? All the money and food are going to be wasted." Xu Changxing walked in and asked.

Li Mingxun glanced at him and said, "When the nation is in a dilemma, you and I, as descendants of China, have to do something, and both public and private, it is beneficial. For public, if the Nanjing court resists one more day, the community can get one more day of development. For an organization like us, every day is precious. For private..., it can be regarded as satisfying my little selfishness. I don't hope that a hundred years later, the history books say that I will drive away the tiger and swallow the wolf, and I will never save it when I die!"

Xu Changxing looked at Li Mingxun in surprise. He had never thought of such a long-term thing. Li Mingxun pushed the teacup in front of him aside and said, "Forget it, don't mention these things. What the club has to do is to focus on the present and do its own good. Let's discuss the United Bank's affairs. Before Jiangnan really falls, we will make the United Bank's scale bigger, think about ways, dig out the cellar of the silver winter melon and stuff it into the bank's trunk."

When talking about this, Xu Changxing had a plan. He said: "I have thought about it. First of all, the sale of land is a profitable transaction. But one thing is that this has also affected the interests of many gentry. Even the party dispute between Donglin and Ma Ruan was involved. Many gentry are timid, but the land is different. This is the lifeblood of the gentry.

Funded by United Bank, Chongming County launched a total of 120,000 people to build dams. Now more than half of them have been built, especially the previous dams of Nansha and the island have been completed. This means that Chongming Island will never break and sink again. The only breeding of land has exceeded 120,000 mu, but they are all new fields. However, we can tie these fields with the fertile land that will be reclaimed in the future. According to the proportional share, we will first sell the land and recover the cost. As long as the gentry gets the land, it will attract more people.

The second is to lower the threshold for investment, and reduce the single-person investment of 100,000 taels to 10,000. Small shareholders do not have the power to make decisions and vote, but they can participate in land distribution and normal dividends to attract more small landlords and gentry to participate.

Finally, I suggest opening up Taiwan and Yongning administrative regions to United Bank, and investing in United Bank to reclaim land in these two places, and also selling them to shareholders who invest in the bank."

Li Mingxun nodded slightly. He had long wanted to do the matter of borrowing chickens to lay eggs. After all, Taiwan and Yongning City are in their own hands. As long as the land is reclaimed, no matter who belongs, they have to pay taxes to the community. But one thing is, when Jiangnan is still confident in the Jianghuai defense line, are they interested in Taiwan's land?

"Sir, these people are not very interested in Taiwan and Yongning, but they are interested in the clubs. They are more confident in the strength of the clubs. Let's change the perspective and let the clubs use their industries in Taiwan and Yongning as collateral to borrow large-scale loans from United Banks. In the eyes of those guys, those plantations, mines and workshops are all roosters that lay eggs, and they are all very jealous." Xu Changxing's eyes were shining.

Li Mingxun stood up, walked back and forth in the room for a long time, and finally said, "Okay! Just do it like this. Since you have to do it, you must do the best. Mortgage the gold and silver mines and plantations and lend them to United Bank!"

Xu Changxing was shocked and then shouted: "Gold and Silver Mine! Oh my God, these old guys from Jiangnan will definitely go crazy."

"How much does it take to get a loan?" Xu Changxing asked.

Li Mingxun smiled: "Starting at two million taels, no cap is allowed, so you can borrow as much as you can!"

But in his heart, Li Mingxun said: "Anyway, I don't plan to repay it. When Jiangnan falls, I will beat you greedy idiots into traitors and confiscate your shares. It depends on who you are looking for. If you have the ability, let your Qing masters beat me!"

Xu Changxing made a simple calculation. The club now has 700,000 acres of plantations in Taiwan. With the addition of Golden Gourd Stone and Humaer Gold Mine, it is easy to get a loan of 2 million yuan. Li Mingxun only has one requirement. The loan will be at least two years, so it will be extended as much as possible. As for the interest, it will be casual, and I am not ready to pay it back anyway.

After discussing this matter with Xu Changxing, Li Mingxun took a schooner to Denglai. Now the Ming Dynasty has changed. In fact, what the community can do for the people of the world is to retain the elite army as much as possible for them. Even though Li Mingxun knew that these armies would be lost in the future, what the people of the world and the Nanjing court need now is hope.
Chapter completed!