Chapter 0086 Crazy enclosure
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On June 24, the third year of Xianfeng, the imperial envoys from the three routes met in Anqing to discuss the plan to attack Jinling.
Li Weiguo met Xiang Rong for the first time. Because Li Weiguo had spoken with Xiang Rong during Anqing before, Xiang Rong was very embarrassed. Now that the two met, Xiang Rong naturally would not give Li Weiguo a good face.
However, Li Weiguo was not afraid. He was now an imperial envoy all the way, so there was no need to look at Xiang Rong's face anymore.
Qishan is a peacemaker, Xiang Rong is a student of Qishan, and Qishan promoted him. Li Weiguo gave the credit for Jiujiang's main attack to Qishan, and also gained Qishan's favor. So Qishan was sandwiched in the middle, and the three of them were suddenly in a delicate state of balance.
After discussion, Xiang Rong led his army to set up a Jiangnan camp in Xiaolingwei to prevent the Taiping army from going south; Qishan set up a Jiangbei camp in Yangzhou to prevent the Taiping army from entering the Central Plains north, while Li Weiguo set up a Jiangdong camp in Xiaomaoshan, Zhenjiang Prefecture to prevent the Taiping army from advancing eastward, which was actually protecting his old nest, Su Songtai.
In this way, on the surface, the three of them each have their own duties and temporarily reach an agreement.
In fact, Qishan was an experienced master. He was in charge of the Jiangbei camp in Yangzhou, with an Yangtze River between them, which was convenient for defense.
Because Li Weiguo knew the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he was foresighted and knew that the Taiping Army would not advance east in a short period of time. Moreover, Li Weiguo secretly colluded with the Taiping Army, so the Taiping Army would not send troops to Li Weiguo easily, so he chose to guard Jiangdong and was at ease for the time being.
At the same time, Li Weiguo chose to set up a Jiangdong Camp in Zhenjiang for the purpose of expanding his territory. After all, he has now controlled the entire Susongtai two prefectures and one prefecture. Next to Susongtai are Changzhou Prefecture and Zhenjiang Prefecture. Li Weiguo put the camp in Zhenjiang Prefecture, which is equivalent to military control of Zhenjiang Prefecture. Changzhou Prefecture is sandwiched between Zhenjiang Prefecture and Susongtai, which is the thing in his pocket.
In this way, Li Weiguo's territory has actually expanded from the two prefectures and one prefectures of Susong Taichang Town to four prefectures and one prefectures of Susong Taichang Town, and the land of Jiangdong has been fully expanded in his hands.
Only Xiang Rong is the stupidest. He was born as a general and did not realize it. He chose to set up a Jiangnan camp in Xiaolingwei, which was too close to the Taiping Army's capital Tianjing. It was right at the door of someone else's house. Anyone would have killed Xiang Rong first.
Li Weiguo knew that the Taiping Army would go to the Northern Expedition and the Western Expedition soon, and then it would eliminate the two camps, Jiangnan and Jiangbei. Although there are more Jiangdong camps than in history, Li Weiguo believes that the Taiping Army would not easily attack Jiangdong camp unless necessary. Even if it attacked, it would be after the Jiangnan and Jiangbei camps were eliminated. This would take about two or three years, so Li Weiguo was not in a hurry and transferred his energy to managing his own territory.
Li Weiguo then prepared to return to Shanghai. Only a thousand defenders were left in the Jiangdong camp. Relying on the terrain of Xiaomaoshan, they built fortifications, three lines of defense, and arranged in a staging manner. In fact, they were just doing it for people to see. They received a secret order from Li Weiguo that if the Taiping Army came to attack, they could just withdraw the Dantu (Zhenjiang City), the Zhenjiang Prefecture Prefecture Capital.
In addition, Li Weiguo deployed 5,000 troops in the Dantu district of Zhenjiang Prefecture, and 1,000 troops were deployed in the three counties of Jintan, Danyang and Liyang. Their main task was to maintain the public security of the various counties of Zhenjiang Prefecture, collect taxes, and at the same time strengthen city defense, build forts and fortifications, and only resist the attack of the Taiping Army without counterattack. In addition, Zhenjiang Prefecture deployed 1,000 naval troops along the river, responsible for patroling along the river, blocking the waterways, and preventing the Taiping Army from raiding Su Songtai along the river, threatening the Li family army's rear.
Li Weiguo brought the remaining 20,000 troops back to Shanghai. After all, the army consumed huge amounts of money and food outside, which was a huge expense. Since the Taiping Army could not advance east in a short period of time, there was no need to spend that in vain.
Li Weiguo took his wife Fu Shanxiang back to Shanghai County to pay homage to his parents. At this time, Li Weiguo's parents had already moved from Jinling to Shanghai County and temporarily lived in the back house of Susong Taibing Preparatory Government.
Li's father and mother were naturally very happy to see Fu Shanxiang come back safely. Li's mother Yang even pulled Fu Shanxiang to whisper. The mother and daughter-in-law were inevitably talking about sexual intercourse and having children. Fu Shanxiang and Li Weiguo's reunion of the family naturally could not hide the fact that Yang was very happy. Yang was very happy and could not urge Li Weiguo and Fu Shanxiang to spend money for the Li family as soon as possible.
This is human nature, and Li Weiguo is also looking forward to it.
However, there was still a cold war between Li Weiguo and Li's father. Previously, it was because Li Weiguo and Chen Ziyan went to Shen's house to pay homage to Chen Wansan to the Shen family, but Chen Wansan was bombed out. Later, because the Taiping Army was approaching Jinling, Li's father still guarded his ancestral home and refused to move. As a result, Li Weiguo had no choice but to use force and sent someone to force his father to Shanghai. Although Li's father understood his son's painstaking efforts afterwards, he was very proud and refused to give up.
Li Weiguo was helpless in this regard and had to take his time.
When Fu Shanxiang returned, the Li family had a young wife, so there was a lively celebration.
But Li Weiguo has more important things to do. After leaving Shanghai for a few months, Wu Yong was responsible for all the affairs of Su Songtai's government offices, waiting to report to the work; Fu Xuexian brought back more than 400 ships of gold, silver, treasures and various materials from Jinling, waiting for Li Weiguo to make arrangements; Li family army returned to a great victory, and rewards and pension issues were signed by Li Weiguo to implement them in person; all shareholders of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Council heard that the Taiping Army captured Jinling, they were so scared that they wanted to evacuate Shanghai, and also waiting for Li Weiguo to appease them; the progress of various projects in the Jiangwan Town Industrial Zone was also what Li Weiguo wanted to know the most.
So many things were waiting for Li Weiguo to deal with, but he was busy.
Fortunately, over the past few months, Li Weiguo has gathered many staff members around him. Although they are not as talented as the world, they are still competent in handling some daily affairs. Li Weiguo only needs to nod or sign a letter. The specific details are subject to these staff members responsible for the execution, which has made Li Weiguo much easier.
As for the concerns of the shareholders of the AIIB, Li Weiguo promised that with him, Li Weiguo, the Taiping Army would never enter Shanghai, and let them feel relieved.
After working hard all day, Wu Yong and Fu Xuexian were left.
After Wu Yong sent someone to carefully count the more than 400 ships of supplies, the total value of which was as high as 34 million taels of silver, of which more than 10 million taels of real gold and silver were also unestimated.
Li Weiguo was in a very comfortable mood. He had known that Jinling was rich for a long time. Instead of giving the Taiping Army a free gift, it would be better for himself to use this huge sum of money to vigorously develop national industries and revitalize the Chinese economy in the future. It is a great thing for the country and the people, and it is much better than sponsoring the Taiping Army to fight a civil war.
Li Weiguo was very happy and rewarded Fu Xuexian with 10,000 taels of silver. Each of the officers and soldiers of the Li family who participated in the operation gave special allowances to reward them for their contributions.
Fu Xuexian was a talented person, otherwise he would not have become the future support of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Just by using the word "helping the sky", you will know Fu Xuexian's ability, not to mention that he was his own family, so Li Weiguo decided to give him important tasks.
Wu Yong saw what Li Weiguo meant and immediately proposed: "The Jiangwan Industrial Zone needs effective manpower to take charge of the command, so why not let Mr. Fu take on this burden!"
Li Weiguo turned to Fu Xuexian and asked, "How is it, do you have confidence?"
Fu Xuexian returned to Shanghai a while earlier than Li Weiguo, and had exchanges with Wu Yong. He also knew that Jiangwan Industrial Zone was one of the places that Li Weiguo valued the most. It was related to the future of the Li family and the economic foundation and foundation. People who are not trusted and direct descendants are not allowed to intervene, which shows its importance.
"Don't worry, brother-in-law, I will definitely do this job well?" Fu Xuexian immediately patted his chest and promised.
Li Weiguo nodded and said, "Jiangwan Industrial Zone is in the first phase of the construction period. Everything is just starting out, which is also a kind of experience for you. You must remember one thing, although the heads and technicians of each factory in the industrial zone are foreigners, we must be responsible for all our own people in the future. Your task is to select suitable workers and learn from each factory from operation, management to technology, and R&D as soon as possible. We own people master these factories and technologies, so we can save our future control by others. Do you understand?"
Fu Xuexian nodded and said, "I understand, teach the students to starve the master to death. I understand this principle. Brother-in-law, just take a look. I am doing this!"
"Very good! It's very thorough understanding!" Li Weiguo nodded with a smile, teaching the students to starve the master to death. These eight words are indeed enough to summarize Li Weiguo's entire meaning, and it also proves from the opposite side that Fu Xuexian is indeed a smart person and can be of great use.
Wu Yong nodded with satisfaction. He didn't mind Li Weiguo's appointment of relatives. The key is to use people properly. Through Wu Yong's observation over the past few days, he also felt that Fu Xuexian was a talent and could be a useful talent, so he took the initiative to recommend him to be responsible for the Jiangwan Industrial Zone.
"By the way!" Wu Yong suddenly thought: "The Jiangwan Industrial Zone is about to expand for the second time. The second batch of mechanical equipment purchased by the adults from Europe and the United States has arrived in Hong Kong and will arrive in Shanghai soon."
Li Weiguo asked: "I asked you to contact you to buy nearby land before, how did you do it?"
Wu Yong replied: "After the Battle of Baoshan, we got some land for free, but it was far from enough to meet the land required by the major factories we would build next. Some powerful people occupied good areas nearby, and they refused to sell it to us or asked for sky-high prices."
Li Weiguo looked at Fu Xuexian and asked with a smile: "How is it? What if it were you, what would you do?"
Fu Xuexian smiled and said, "The land sale is nothing more than a black and white game at the same time. We are officials now and can force the recruitment, but it has a bad impact on the reputation of our brother-in-law. We can hire rascals to make trouble and force the buyer to give up the land or sell it at a low price. I prefer the latter. This is the easiest and most effective method."
Wu Yong smiled and said, "I have proposed this method many times to the adults before, but he said that under his rule, the underworld forces will be completely eliminated in the future, so your second plan is not suitable."
Fu Xuexian didn't know what the underworld was. He soon heard Wu Yong's explanation and realized that he was referring to those organized gang forces.
"It is a wise move for brother-in-law to be determined to eliminate the underworld forces. Just imagine the Tiandihui. The Qing Dynasty has been established for more than two hundred years. The Tiandihui makes a big fuss every three years and every five years. The rebellion every ten years. The slogan of anti-Qing and restoring the Ming Dynasty is already a bullshit. In fact, selling dog meat on the head is just to satisfy personal rights and seek personal personal gain. It is a disaster for the country and the people. The brother-in-law does not want to repeat the mistakes of the Qing Dynasty. He has eliminated all the gang forces under his rule from the beginning. This is a brilliant strategy for long-term stability."
Li Weiguo and Wu Yong looked at each other, both smiled, and looked at Fu Xuexian's foresight and wisdom.
Li Weiguo thought for a while and said, "Why not do this? Aren't they not selling land? Then we will make a big fuss, saying that the Taiping Army is about to fight eastward, our army is defeated, and we will soon give up the entire Jiangdong. We should especially promote the Taiping Army's methods of massacring bannermen, powerful landlords, and looting wealthy families, and scare them as much as possible. In this way, these powerful and wealthy families will definitely be scared to death and will rush to sell their property and land. We can send people to secretly buy them at a low price."
Wu Yong smiled and said, "It's still wise. This trick is to remove the firewood from the cauldron. Guan Bao is obediently spitting out the good land!"
Fu Xuexian said: "It doesn't matter if the bannermen and the powerful landlords leave. They are a disaster, but if the wealthy businessmen also leave, it will have a great economic blow to Jiangdong."
Li Weiguo nodded and said, "It doesn't matter, the old ones don't go, the new ones don't come. These people have control over the economy of Jiangdong and have solidified their respective interests. Now that we are building Jiangwan Industrial Zone, we will inevitably impact their interests and fight against them in the future. It's better to scare them away now, so that we can dominate the economy of Jiangdong. If they want to come back in the future, they will have to bleed their faces."
Wu Yong and Fu Xuexian nodded in agreement.
Next, Li Weiguo and the two made detailed plans and left everything to Wu Yong to operate.
When the news spread, Shanghai shook, and it seemed like a major earthquake occurred in Jiangdong. The children of bannermen and powerful landlords from all over the country sold their homes and fled north. The merchants in the town also dumped the inventory of goods, then went out to exchange for shops and workshops, and transferred the funds to Jiangbei.
Li Weiguo, on behalf of the government, publicly demanded that these people not be allowed to flee and refused to issue road guides to them, which further exacerbated these people's determination to flee. So Li Weiguo secretly sent a large number of people to acquire good land suitable for building factories at ultra-low prices and good areas suitable for opening shops. The powerful landlords who plagued the expansion of Jiangwan Industrial Zone were also frightened by rumors, and eventually sold the land they occupied to Li Weiguo at a low price, and then fled with their family.
A rumor finally led to a large number of people fleeing in the four prefectures and one prefecture of Jiangdong, leaving behind a large number of unowned land. In the later period, Li Weiguo simply ordered that if he wanted to get the road guide of the government to be relocated from other places, he had to return all the land in his hands to the government. Even so, many people still handed over the land guarded by their generations to the government for the sake of road guide.
When these people want to come back a few years later, the land is no longer theirs. If they want to buy it back, it will cost several times or even dozens of times.
Li Weiguo named this operation the land enclosure operation. Within less than half a year of implementation, the predetermined results were achieved. All the good areas and good land that Li Weiguo wanted fell into his hands.
Chapter completed!