In September of the second year of Guanghua, it was the golden autumn season. The agricultural tax-free rest and rest policy for two consecutive years was substantially reflected, and it will be another year of bumper harvest.

After experiencing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Rebellion, China's population was only about 200 million. Except for Liangjiang's densely populated areas and developed economies, other regions rely entirely on agriculture, animal husbandry to generate income. War and bureaucratic plunder made people in these places panic and could not farm and grazing with peace of mind, resulting in increasing poverty.

With the founding of New China, the war ended nationwide, and the people returned to their homes and recuperation became an inevitable means to stabilize society.

For this reason, when Li Weiguo ascended the throne, he was directly exempted from taxes such as agriculture and animal husbandry for three years, and was favored by all people.

For traditional agricultural countries like China, exempting agricultural and animal husbandry taxes for three years is a huge expense, because even if there are only 200 million people left and only 180 million people engaged in agriculture, it is also 20 million yuan in taxes every year, which is 60 million yuan in three years. This is a huge income, and it is exempted if you say it, and not every country dares to implement it.

Li Weiguo did this because he had various other means to make money.

The first thing that comes to mind is the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou Industrial Base. As the foundation for Li Weiguo's key operation, it now has the most complete range of industries, and it also has the only petrochemical, automobile and other industries in the world. It is also the cornerstone of New China.

If the Shanghai-Nanjing Hangzhou Industrial Base lost money and lost money from 1853 to 1860, Li Weiguo had to spend a lot of money to maintain normal operation. Then from 1860 to 1865, the Shanghai-Nanjing Hangzhou Industrial Base had basically achieved a balance of income and expenditure. Now, after the founding of New China, just one and a half years from the first year to the summer of the second year of Guanghua, the Shanghai-Nanjing Hangzhou Industrial Base achieved a huge income of nearly 60 million yuan.

This huge income mainly comes from the military industry, the Weiguo rifles, Gatling machine guns produced by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, various foreign trade versions of post-loaded artillery after castration, and a large number of supporting ammunition became the main force. Among them, the Prussian, French and American Davis government forces are major consumers and were slaughtered by Li Weiguo. In particular, the Gatling machine guns cost too much bullets and even use 12.7 mm special killer ammunition. Currently, only China can produce them, forcing Prussia, France and the United States to spend a lot of money to purchase a large amount of ammunition, otherwise it will not be able to fill the consumption on the battlefield. Prussia and France dare not imagine what the result would be if there was no Gatling machine gun on the battlefield. They all began to imitate Gatling machine guns in their own country, but it took time after all, and it took time to form large-scale production. Therefore, before that, Prussia and France knew that they were bleeding hard by China, but they could not do anything.

In addition, the US Northern Davis Government Army (Former South Korean Military Government) has mastered most of the industrial areas north of the 38th parallel of the United States. Some mines and some are money. Recently, the newly recruited 300,000 US military units are equipped with Chinese weapons and equipment. The first order alone is as high as 15 million yuan. Even the training will be handed over to the Chinese Shence Army officers to be responsible for training. The Davis government even set up a special Chinese military advisory group in the US military.

It can be said that the Davis administration was able to survive. It was Li Weiguo who sent the Chinese Shence Army to Washington in time to stop the Lincoln Army's Northern Expedition. Now half of the Davis administration officials are grateful to Li Weiguo. They have all seen the might of the Chinese Shence Army and forced Lincoln to seek peace. In addition, there were successful battles to defeat the British and French coalition forces before, which are already recognized by Americans as the world's strongest army. Therefore, these factors combined have led to the Davis government army fully adopting Chinese weapons and equipment and training methods.

As for the UK, although it also ordered a batch of military equipment including Gatling machine guns from the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau of China. However, the scale was not large. Li Weiguo knew that these weapons would be copied sooner or later, so he generously sold them to design drawings and authorized technology for one million pounds.

In addition, other European power countries have also imported weapons and equipment from the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau of China, and the total order volume hovers around 300,000 to 500,000 pounds. After all, they are not powerful countries like Britain, France and the public, and their strength is a little different.

The second major profit-making enterprise in the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou Industrial Base was the fertilizer factory. At first, it was necessary to seek the use of fertilizers in Liangjiang to increase the yield per mu. A few years later, farmers tasted the sweetness and gradually began to spend money to buy more fertilizers. Before Li Weiguo led his army to the Northern Expedition, fertilizers were widely used in various parts of the south.

With the unification of China, Li Weiguo implemented a policy of rest and recuperation. Without collecting agricultural taxes, farmers naturally happily opened up land and farmed everywhere, hoping to increase their grain income. In the past, only a small amount of fertilizer produced by the Jiangwan Fertilizer Plant flowed into the northern region. In addition to control, it was also because the Jiangwan Fertilizer Plant had been expanded for six phases, and fertilizer branches were set up in various provinces in Jiangnan, with an annual output of 2.5 million tons. However, this scale could only meet the farming and fertilization needs of the people in Jiangnan. Therefore, at that time, it was difficult to find a bag of chemical fertilizer in the north, and the price was high and beyond the bottom line for farmers to bear.

Now, Jiangwan Fertilizer Factory responded to the call of the imperial government and established fertilizer branches in various northern provinces as soon as possible. In less than a year, all provinces in the Central Plains in the northern region have a fertilizer factory, making fertilizer production proudly implemented in various parts of the north.

All of these have generated tens of millions of RMB in revenue for Jiangwan Fertilizer Plant every year, and paid annual taxes to the government as high as more than RMB 3 million.

The third place is the textile industry. A large number of mulberry silk and cheap labor in the south gather in the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou Industrial Zone, bringing a great profit era to China's textile industry.

In the past, when Chinese people wanted to import a set of textile machines, they had to spend a lot of money to buy machinery and equipment and hire foreign workers to install, debug and maintain, resulting in the cost of spindles as high as 24 spindles per £3.5, while similar Indians produced 24 spindles on average only £1.7. Even the spindles produced by the Japanese were cheaper than Shanghai, and they could not compete at all.

However, due to Li Weiguo's far-sighted vision, he gave priority to importing various precision lathes and production technologies when importing machinery and equipment, and actively developed large-tonnage hydraulic press section stapling equipment, which allowed China's own mechanical processing technology to continuously achieve qualitative leap and progress. Now Chinese people can not only produce advanced foreign machinery and equipment by themselves, but also continuously improve textile technology, further reducing the cost to an average of 24 spindles of RMB 1.2, strengthening their competitiveness.

The most interesting thing is printing and dyeing technology. Li Weiguo carried forward the color printing and dyeing technology he used to print micro banknotes. He converted some of the insensitive technologies into civil use and claimed that Li's printing and dyeing technology can print and dye fabrics of various colors, and will not fade after washing or mix colors.

As a result, China's textile printing and dyeing industry emerged, quickly crushing foreign competitors, and breaking the absolute monopoly of Europe and the United States in the textile printing and dyeing industry for a century, directly exported to Europe and the United States, and became very popular, creating a large amount of foreign exchange income for China.

As for other industries, such as salt making, gas, tap water, cement plants, etc., these are already indispensable things for urban residents, and profits are inevitable.

In addition, heavy industries such as the automobile industry, petrochemical industry, steel mills, etc. are temporarily given priority to the state and the army for large use, and the private use is very small, so the profit in money is very small, but for the country and the army, the benefits are huge and far from what money can measure.

These are all open gains, and the great powers of all countries see them. They will also secretly investigate and obtain detailed information, thereby evaluating the source of China's fiscal revenue and expenditure and the potential for war so that countries can make corresponding countermeasures.

But on the dark side, the great powers of various countries did not know that Li Weiguo had a larger source of income, and there were a large number of printed micro-moneys to cash out various countries with actual value and other military and civilian materials.

Today, the People's Bank of China is still the Imperial Bank, responsible for issuing and exchanging domestic and foreign currencies such as RMB. As the earliest bank in China, the AIIB has now handed over the printing and issuance rights of RMB to Imperial Bank, but it is still China's largest private bank with total assets of RMB 1.3 billion. Gold and silver reserves account for as much as 800 million yuan, and most of them are monetary reserves belonging to the state and the people, and have not been transferred to Imperial Bank for management. This is because Li Weiguo implemented a policy of rest and recuperation, and the huge fiscal expenditure of the Imperial government is supported by the AIIB. Unless the government pays off all the money in the future, then the 800 million yuan gold and silver reserves can be transferred to Imperial Bank.

Li Weiguo has only made a fuss to establish the AIIB in just over a decade, and has developed the AIIB into the world's largest private bank, attracting worldwide attention.

But only Li Weiguo himself knew in his heart that much of the AIIB's funds were obtained through printing illegal banknote channels. In more than ten years, he had obtained more than 300 million yuan from European and American countries such as Britain, France, the United States, Russia and other European countries. This is also one of the key factors for Li Weiguo to defeat the British and French coalition forces twice and unify China. Without this huge sum of money, it would take at least ten or twenty years or even more to Li Weiguo's development and growth.

Through the infiltration of money-related money into the powers of Europe and the United States, we can not only obtain sufficient funds necessary for national development in a short period of time, but also destroy the monetary and financial systems of the powers of Europe and the United States, cause their currency depreciation and disrupt their economy. It can be said that they kill two birds with one stone.

But this is risky, or to be precise, extremely dangerous, because once the great powers of European and American countries know about the violation of money, they will regard Li Weiguo and his empire as mortal enemies, and then a large-scale war breaks out.

Before, Li Weiguo was afraid that this situation would happen, so he was always very careful and would not place illegal money on a large scale into the market, so as not to be discovered by the powerful countries, and even used Chinese S.H.E.L.D. agents cut off their tails when necessary, thereby preventing the other party from tracing Li Weiguo.

But there is no airtight wall in this world. After more than ten years of secret follow-up investigation, the great powers of Britain, France and other countries finally found some clues.

In a British police undercover underground society in London, he climbed up step by step from the initial distributor of money violations. Five years later, he finally sat in the top position of a club and was exposed to the inside story of money violations transactions.

However, the illegal banknote dealers are also British. Because Li Weiguo did not use Asian people with yellow faces to do things from the beginning, S.H.I.E.L.D., at the beginning, used various means to coerce local British people to conduct transactions, and it would be resolved soon after the transaction. Later, S.H.E.L.D., adopted four or five years old orphans all over the world. More than ten years later, these orphans grew up and were directly trained as agents, and then worked for S.H.E.L.D., so European and American countries could not doubt Li Weiguo.

But this time, the British undercover police were very smart. Through several years of transactions, SHIELD agents gradually relaxed their vigilance. Then they followed the clues to remove a banknote distributor station in London, causing the death of several SHIELD agents, as well as some customs clearance documents and transportation documents, some from the Chinese Embassy in London.

Of course, the Chinese Embassy Counselor denied the matter. The British side did not point to China, so the incident came to an end.

However, there are still many people with keen minds in the British authorities. They soon discovered that China's RMB production technology is extremely high, far exceeding the printing and anti-counterfeiting levels of Europe and the United States. They did not think about China at the beginning, but now they have to connect the two.

Combined with the entire process of Li Weiguo's strong rise, as long as the British are not too stupid, they will always find some perfect "coincidences". For example, where did Li Weiguo get so much money from importing tens of millions of pounds of factory machinery and equipment from Europe and the United States, covering a wide range of areas and complete equipment, it is simply incomprehensible. Being able to counterfeit currency and deceive ordinary people is very powerful. If you don't carefully check the unique code of the currency and find duplicate currency, you can't find that one of them is a violation banknote, because the violation banknote is too exquisite and is no different from real banknotes. Being able to do this at least means that the illegal banknote manufacturer has the world's most advanced printing equipment. It is not something that an individual can do.

"It's a pity that we have no evidence, otherwise we could use the matter of disobeying money to call on the whole of Europe to start a war against China!"

British Prime Minister Derby sighed helplessly. Although he was angry, there was no evidence. If it were the Qing Empire that was backward before, then he would make public this matter without hesitation. Regardless of whether it is true or false, he would call on the entire European and American powers to start a war against China. Unfortunately, China is too powerful now. Even if the powers of European and American countries know that this is true, they may not have the ability and energy to expedition to China.

Faced with this reality, the British Prime Minister could only break his teeth and swallow his blood, and slowly restore the vitality of the British Army. Then gather the most powerful British Royal Navy and wait until the Suez Canal is opened to navigate, and then you can take revenge.

"The Army Department has sent experts to study the structure of the Gatling machine gun, and refer to the Gatling machine gun drawings sold to us by the Chinese government. It has mastered the relevant technology and can produce it on its own just after the Prime Minister's approval, but..."

"Just what?" Derby asked back when he heard Deputy Prime Minister Benjamin hesitate.

"Although the Gatling machine gun of the Chinese Shence Army is simple in technology and our engineers can also copy it, there are two problems that need to be solved urgently. One is the caliber problem. The Chinese Shence Army uses a point 50-inch bullet. There is currently no caliber in our country and we need to reopen the production line. You know, the integrated bullet must use a new caliber and must have a high-precision cutting machine. This requires a lot of money and time, and continuous experimentation can be carried out."

"This problem can be solved by Chinese people. I believe that the gunsmiths of the British Empire should be able to solve it, right? What about the second problem?"

"You are right!" Benjamin then said: "The second problem is the ammunition problem. The Chinese Shence Army standard point 50 caliber machine gun bullets we purchased were disassembled and studied. After discovering that the purifiers they used were very powerful, several times the purifiers we used were more than ten times the purifiers, and they were smokeless gunpowder. Although we don't know how they controlled the stability of smokeless gunpowder, we now do not have a smokeless gunpowder production line."

"Who is this Li Weiguo? Why did he surprise us every time when he appeared?" Derby was shocked. He expressed his shock last time because of the Weiguo rifle problem, but this time it was obviously even stronger.

Benjamin replied: "The last time Li Weiguo dared to sell us their most advanced rifle technology, obviously because he was prepared. He was not afraid that we would threaten them in turn after we prevented a lot. This time we suffered a great loss in equipment. The power of the Gatling machine gun is the key to the victory or defeat of this war. But now that our war has just ended, Li Weiguo dared to sell us the Gatling machine gun technology. What does this mean? It means that Li Weiguo is not afraid of us imitating and then dealing with him in turn."

"How is this possible? Is he God?" Derby was more shocked, and the more he thought about it, the more he made sense.

Benjamin said: "No matter whether he is a human or a ghost, I feel that we should not be led by him. We must change our strategy so that Li Weiguo cannot grasp our intentions and rhythms."

Derby's eyes lit up and he agreed: "You are right. If Li Weiguo deliberately gave us the Gatling machine gun and made a lot of it, maybe this is a dangerous situation he deliberately set up, deliberately misleading us and asking us to follow his ideas, then we would be too passive. But, do you have any good ideas?"

Benjamin thought for a while and said, "Do you think we will have a large-scale ground battle with the Chinese Shence Army in the next war?"

Derby said: "You mean Li Weiguo also expected that the next war would not happen on land but on sea?"

Benjamin nodded and agreed: "The weakest part of our British Empire is the population. It is impossible to defeat China with hundreds of millions of people on land. Even the troops mobilized by Li Weiguo will exceed the total population of the entire British Empire. Therefore, he is not afraid of us on land, so he will sell us the Gatling machine gun without any fear."

Derby thought for a while and frowned, "So is Li Weiguo ready to defeat us at sea?"

Benjamin agreed: "There are all signs that the Chinese Navy is becoming more and more powerful. They have built even a 10,000-ton ironclad ship. They are one step ahead of us. The next game is probably going to be a winner at sea."

Derby didn't believe it and asked back: "Do you think Li Weiguo can surpass the naval power of our British Empire for hundreds of years after developing his naval power?"

Benjamin replied: "Maybe Li Weiguo's purpose is to drive the Imperial Navy out of East Asia and Southeast Asia in steps first. This does not require facing all the Imperial Navy, but the Imperial Navy is scattered all over the world, and it is impossible to move all the main forces to the surrounding areas of China. This is Li Weiguo's local combat advantage and is not conducive to us."

Derby understood and agreed with Benjamin's analysis.

"Then let the army take its time and develop its navy with all its might. If it is as you expected, concentrate all the elites of the British Empire and completely eliminate the Chinese navy in one battle."
Chapter completed!