Chapter 633 Zhongyong Hall Meeting!
After finishing the conversation with Wang Xuecheng, seeing that it was almost noon, Ye Mingsheng came to the Loyalty and Bravery Hall of the Governor-General’s Mansion. This was a new meeting place set up by Ye Mingsheng in the Governor-General’s Mansion, specifically for convening the highest military and political meetings of the Fengwu Army...

Although the war in Hebei and Henan was over, the post-war work had just begun. In order to summarize the war in Hebei and Henan and arrange the post-war work, Ye Mingsheng decided to convene the highest military and political meeting of the Fengwu Army seven days ago to discuss the future direction of the Fengwu Army and the future work priorities.

The reason why he summoned Wang Xuecheng to listen to his report was because Ye Mingsheng wanted to understand the gains of this battle before the meeting began. Originally, this matter should have been done three days ago, but because Ye Mingsheng's schedule was already full recently and he had some personal matters to deal with, he could only move the report to before the meeting.

Although Ye Mingsheng had arrived at the Loyalty and Bravery Hall about a quarter of an hour in advance, all the people who were qualified to attend the meeting were already present in the room. They were Cui Shao, the governor of Youyan, He Jingyun, the chief of staff of the Fengwu Army, Gu Zhongshi, the deputy governor of Youyan, Gu Sansi, the director of the Foreign Affairs Department, Zhang Juning, the director of the Finance Department, Huo San, the director of the Coordination Office, Zhang Dehui, the director of the First Manufacturing Bureau, Su Junjie, the director of the Second Manufacturing Bureau, and Ye Hongsheng, the owner of the Dadongsheng Company.

Although there were not many participants, only eight people, but these eight people were all independent figures in the Fengwu Army. Among the top leaders, only the First Army Commander Yuan Song, the Second Army Commander Lin Huaiwu, and Liaoyang Governor Murong Yuliang were absent from this important meeting because they were in charge of one side...
Seeing Ye Mingsheng's arrival, everyone stood up to greet him. Seeing that everyone was present, Ye Mingsheng announced the start of the meeting. The first item on the agenda was for He Jingyun to introduce the situation of the war in Hebei and Henan, and how many casualties the Fengwu Army had suffered and how many enemy soldiers had been captured. Compared with the previous estimate given to Ye Mingsheng, the situation introduced by He Jingyun this time was more accurate because of the careful statistics. However, the difference between this and the estimated figure given to Ye Mingsheng was not very large.

After introducing these situations, He Jingyun finally revealed his true colors and told the most crucial thing.

"During our attack on Hebei and Henan, our army suffered heavy casualties, totaling nearly 30,000 people, of which 8,700 died in action. According to our army regulations, we need to provide them with 158,600 taels of silver in compensation. Of the other 21,300 soldiers, 3,300 were disabled and could not return to the army. According to regulations, the subsidy they will receive is 68,000 taels of silver. The remaining 18,000 soldiers will also receive a total of 100,000 taels of silver in subsidies!"

Hearing He Jingyun's tens of thousands, Cui Shao, Gu Zhongshi, Gu Sansi and Zhang Juning, who represented the government, suddenly became serious. Among them, Zhang Juning, who was in charge of finance, frowned and clenched his fists, as if facing a powerful enemy.

They all knew very well that the most important thing in today’s meeting was to divide the fruits of victory in the Hebei-Henan War. Although they had long expected that the military would ask for a lot of silver this time, the compensation alone would be close to 330,000 taels of silver, which was beyond their imagination...

According to past experience, the money for casualty compensation is only a small part of the total, the real big part is the final reward!

Under the gaze of these four civilian officials, He Jingyun, as the military representative, once again praised the Fengwu Army's performance in the Hebei-Henan Campaign. After some preparation, he announced the amount of the reward!
"Eight hundred and fifty thousand taels!"

As soon as He Jingyun finished speaking, before Ye Mingsheng could speak, Zhang Juning, the God of Wealth of the Fengwu Army, stood up and said:

"No! Absolutely not!"

As Zhang Juning fired the first shot, the civil and military sides immediately started a war of words. Although Cui Shao and Gu Zhongshi, the civil officials, did not get along well with each other on weekdays, they were still on the same front when it came to the issue of dividing the silver. He Jingyun and Guo Zhiping also argued with reason, recounting the hardships and sacrifices of the Fengwu Army soldiers in this battle between Hebei and Henan.

Ye Mingsheng did not participate in the argument between the two parties, but listened quietly to the reasons of both sides. Half an hour later, seeing that both sides had said almost everything, Ye Mingsheng made the final decision and gave a total of 900,000 taels of silver to the military.

Although at the beginning the military represented by He Jingyun asked for 330,000 taels of silver in compensation for casualties and 850,000 taels of silver in reward, totaling 1.18 million taels of silver, but in fact, this number was inflated due to past bargaining experiences with civil officials, and the 900,000 taels of silver approved by Ye Mingsheng basically met their expectations, so He Jingyun fought for it again, and seeing that Ye Mingsheng was unmoved, he accepted this plan...
For the civil officials, although it was painful that the military took away 900,000 taels of silver at once, it was undoubtedly much less than the 1.18 million taels of silver that the military initially requested, although they also accepted Ye Mingsheng's plan.

After meeting the needs of the military, Cui Shao, Gu Zhongshi, and Gu Sansi took out the "Guiding Opinions on the Revitalization of Hebei and Henan" they jointly formulated.

Although the Fengwu Army took over Hebei and Henan, the current Hebei and Henan were in a state of disrepair due to the natural disasters and man-made disasters earlier, and they urgently needed to restore the normal production and living order. This "Guiding Opinions" set up a plan blueprint under Ye Mingsheng's plan.

Cui Shao, Gu Zhongshi and Gu Sansi planned to select 100 experienced Fengwu Army officials from the Fengwu Army regimes in Youyan and Liaoyang to go to Hebei and Henan to help restore order. As for money and grain, they invested 1.3 million taels of silver and 800,000 shi of grain in Hebei and Henan to provide work-for-relief and attract the people of Hebei and Henan to repair the local infrastructure.

Regarding the successive natural disasters in Hebei and Henan, the three of them believed that natural disasters were indeed the cause, but that was not the main reason. The main reason was that in the past few decades, local officials in Hebei and Henan had been addicted to official malpractices such as currying favor and bribery, and had done nothing for the people. As a result, the local infrastructure such as dams, canals, and roads in Hebei and Henan were very old. As long as it rained heavily, the dams would collapse and the canals would be blocked...

Roads are also a major factor restricting the development of Hebei and Henan. They prevent many people from transporting the grain crops they have worked hard to grow and circulate them in the market, causing a shortage of supply, leading to an imbalance between supply and demand in the market and high prices, which has led to a series of problems such as continued social instability and acute class contradictions.

In addition to repairing infrastructure, the three men also planned in the "Guiding Opinions" to establish two manufacturing bureaus, open branches in Hebei and Henan, and then sell the products produced to the wealthy Jiangnan region in order to open up financial resources and improve fiscal revenue.

Finally, based on the current battlefield situation, the "Guiding Opinions" also proposed to build some fortifications on the Fengqiu front line to prepare for Xu Zhaojie's possible march north.

After reading the entire "Guidance Opinions" very carefully, Ye Mingsheng asked Cui Shao:

"One million three hundred thousand taels? Isn't that too much?" Facing Ye Mingsheng's question, Cui Shao smiled bitterly and asked Ye Mingsheng:

"Does the Marshal know how many people there are in Hebei and Henan?"

Ye Mingsheng was somewhat speechless about Cui Shao's question. He knew that Hebei and Henan, as the heartland of the Central Plains, were the most populous provinces in the Great Zhou Dynasty, with a total population of probably several million, but he did not know the exact total.

Seeing that Ye Mingsheng didn't say anything, Cui Shao said directly:

"According to statistics from the Hebei and Henan government three years ago, there are about 2.7 million households in Hebei and Henan, with a population of about 11.3 million. However, in the past three years, Hebei and Henan have been hit by natural disasters and man-made disasters. Many people have fled to the south to escape famine. No one knows the exact number of people who have left, but according to our estimates, about 10% to 20% have left. If we calculate it at 15%, the current population of Hebei and Henan is nearly 9.6 million..."

"Based on this population, we need a fiscal budget of 1.3 million taels, which is already very low. On average, every hundred people can get just over 1 tael of silver. There is no way to get any lower!"

Looking at Cui Shao's earnest expression, Ye Mingsheng was also very conflicted. He had gone to great lengths to extort more than 2.8 million taels of silver from the gentry and aristocratic families in Hebei and Henan. He thought it was a huge sum of money, enough to alleviate the current financial difficulties of the Fengwu Army. However, he never expected that the money would be almost all spent before he could even warm it up in his hands!

Seeing Ye Mingsheng remain silent, Gu Sansi also advised:

"Marshal, let me add one thing. We plan to use this 1.3 million taels of silver to buy a large number of livestock from the grasslands and our ranches in Liaoyang and Youyan to improve work efficiency. In addition, we also plan to buy a large amount of coal from our army's coal mines in Liaoyang to ensure that the people of Hebei and Henan can survive the winter. When the spring of next year comes, we will also use this money to buy fertilizers and farm tools from the Dadongsheng Company!"

"A considerable portion of this 1.3 million taels of fiscal budget will flow back into our army's finances. As long as our plan can be implemented smoothly, in two years at most, or three years at most, Jiyu will be back on track and become the most important source of finance for our army!"

“The situation in Hebei and Henan is very bad now. People are freezing to death or starving to death every hour. If our plan can be implemented earlier, more lives will be saved and Hebei and Henan will get back on the right track sooner…”

Gu Sansi's story made Ye Mingsheng sigh slightly in his heart. If the population is used properly, it is wealth, otherwise it is a burden. It seems that the 1.3 million taels of silver must be spent. Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng nodded to Cui Shao, Gu Sansi and others and said:
"I agree with your plan in principle, but you need to strictly control its implementation and make sure every penny counts!"

"At present, Hebei and Henan are still not peaceful. Many of the firearms produced by the First Manufacturing Bureau are key technologies. It is not very safe to keep them in Hebei and Henan. This matter still needs to be considered in the long run!" At this point, Ye Mingsheng set his sights on Su Junjie, the director of the Second Manufacturing Bureau, who was standing at the back, and asked:
"As the director, what do you think about opening a branch factory in Hebei and Henan?"

Su Junjie said respectfully upon hearing this:
"There is nothing wrong with this matter. The products we produce are selling very well in Dadongsheng Company. The market is in short supply and we are preparing to expand our production capacity!"

After Su Junjie finished speaking, Ye Hongsheng, the shopkeeper of Dadongsheng, also stood up and said:
“Reporting to the commander-in-chief, the Jiangnan region is a vast market. Our company tried to expand the Jiangnan market half a year ago. We cooperated with some local businesses there and put some products into the market. The sales are very good. If we can set up a factory in Hebei and Henan, it will reduce a lot of costs and transportation pressure, and it will be more conducive to our expansion of the Jiangnan market...”

After hearing the feedback from the two people, Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly and instructed:
"If that's the case, then it's settled. As for which branch to open, you guys can discuss it with the Governor!"

"Yes!"

As most of the fiscal budget had been divided up, the meeting gradually began to discuss some minor issues, including allocating 100,000 taels of silver to the First Manufacturing Bureau to purchase more firearms. Unlike the Second Manufacturing Bureau, which was not only self-sufficient but had become the financial pillar of the Fengwu Army and provided the Fengwu Army with hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every year, the First Manufacturing Bureau was the main source of firearms for the Fengwu Army and could not generate economic benefits, requiring continuous financial investment from the Fengwu Army.

In the Battle of Hebei and Henan, many of the firearms equipped by the Fengwu Army were damaged and urgently needed to be replenished. In addition, the research and development of new firearms by the First Manufacturing Bureau had also reached a critical stage and required a large amount of silver investment.

By the time most of the topics had been discussed, Zhang Juning, who was in charge of finance, had a gloomy face. The battle between Hebei and Henan had already cost the Fengwu Army all its resources. It had been thought that if the battle was won, the finances would be enriched, but after a careful calculation, it was found that of the more than 2.8 million taels of silver, only more than 300,000 taels of silver were left, which was almost the same as before the Fengwu Army fought against Hebei and Henan.

Reporting this situation to Ye Mingsheng, Ye Mingsheng was also somewhat amused and could only comfort Zhang Juning:
"The 50,000 taels of gold from Ji and Yu will be delivered soon, as well as some confiscated jewelry, cultural relics, calligraphy and paintings. These can also be sold for a lot of silver. This battle will definitely be rewarding..."

(End of this chapter)