Time Travel to 1859: The Iron-Blooded Soldier King

In the following days, with Qingxue's help, Liu Ye felt very free and began to seriously think about his next path.

Guo Songtao was a little worried. When Liu Ye was drinking tea again, Guo Songtao walked over with a sad face.

"My dear brother, your plan is very good, but we have no money. If you cut taxes in Shandong, the income of the entire province will drop by more than half. It's hard to pay the salaries of the entire province, and we have to pay the money and food for the monk king. We can't do anything!"

Liu Ye looked at Guo Songtao and said with a smile, "Brother, you just need to see how much money we have to spend in total. As for not having money, you don't need to worry about it. I will find a way."

Guo Songtao said in a hoarse voice, "Brother, this is not a small amount. The armies of the Monk King and Lord Shengbao, plus the three garrisons in Shandong, total 60,000 troops. The cost of food, clothing, housing, and compensation for casualties will be at least two million taels a year. Add to that the salaries of officials at all levels in Shandong, and you will definitely need at least one million taels. Just these alone will cost three million taels. On top of that, we also have to provide relief to the victims and various other projects. In a year, we will definitely need more than four million taels!"

Liu Ye sucked his teeth. Damn it, he forgot about the monk king's military expenses. The country was in chaos now, the imperial treasury was empty, and there was no money to support the local wars. All the money had to be prepared by the provinces themselves, and then deducted from the finances that the provinces remitted to the central government. The court had promised to exempt Shandong from taxes for two years, but apart from the monk king's military pay for suppressing bandits, the annual taxes and fees paid to the court were not that much. He hadn't thought so far, and Prince Gong actually took advantage of such a big loophole!

Four million taels, in other years, Shandong Province's annual tax revenue could barely support it. After all, Shandong is considered a wealthy place, much better than Henan, Shaanxi and other places. But with the implementation of the tax reduction and exemption policy, how can it be enough? Not to mention the establishment of various factories and mines!

Guo Songtao looked at Liu Ye and said, "How is it? Are you worried now? Shandong is no longer as prosperous as it was during the reign of Emperor Yongzheng. There is only a small surplus every year. Without money, everything is empty talk!"

Liu Ye gritted his teeth and replied, "Okay, big brother, I told you, don't worry about the money. I will naturally find a way."

"any solution?"

Liu Ye whispered, "Brother, we are all close friends. I just told you the truth. Didn't the British and French forces loot the Summer Palace?"

Guo Songtao nodded and replied, "Yes, the British and French forces looted the Old Summer Palace completely. The imperial gardens that took over a hundred years to build were destroyed in an instant. But what does this have to do with us?"

Liu Ye smiled mysteriously and replied, "Hey, the British and French forces did rob a lot, but they weren't able to transport everything away. Didn't you hear that all their property was robbed?"

Guo Songtao was shocked. Of course he knew. The smoke of the war had not yet dissipated, and the British and French forces were about to transport the looted supplies away. As a result, on the broken road from Beijing to Zhangjiagang, they were robbed more than ten times by a group of bandits from Taihang. The British and French forces not only suffered heavy casualties, but also huge property losses. According to statistics from the embassy, ​​at least more than two million taels of materials, hundreds of thousands of taels of gold, and millions of taels of silver were all robbed!

Could it be that these things were not stolen by bandits, but!

Guo Songtao looked at Liu Ye in shock and asked, "Brother, you didn't kidnap the foreigner?"

Liu Ye smiled and said, "Of course. Are they allowed to rob China, but we Chinese are not allowed to rob them? However, what they robbed wasn't much, just over 200,000 taels of gold and over 2 million taels of silver. The rest were some precious antiques. However, this money is enough to support us for a while!"

Guo Songtao shook his head and replied, "Brother, we must invest this money in places where it can make money. We cannot use it to pay officials' salaries or military pay. Moreover, the source of this money is unknown. Such a huge amount of money will easily arouse suspicion from others."

Liu Ye nodded and replied, "You're right. My plan is to use this money to establish a bank, a Western-style bank. Over 200,000 taels of gold, plus over 2 million taels of silver, is enough! Then we can borrow money from the bank in the name of the Shandong Provincial Governor's Office and the Provincial Administration Office to establish factories and mines. This way, the government will have money to establish factories and mines, and this money will also have an outlet..."

Guo Songtao was cheered up. What a good idea! Kill two birds with one stone!

Guo Songtao's eyes dimmed again and he asked, "Just these two or three million taels of silver are still not enough. After all, this amount of money is not enough to cover so many matters..."

Liu Ye smiled and said, "Of course, these alone are not enough. However, this bank is my own. The capital of a bank itself is not the main thing, but how much deposits it can absorb. These are our priorities. Although Shandong is rich, its money houses are not that developed. The developed money houses are all in Shanxi. We have the support of the Governor's Office, and with my reputation, those people, as long as they are not stupid, will naturally know where to choose to store their real money. This is the main thing. As for the finances of Shandong Province, it doesn't matter. We can borrow from the bank in the name of the office, using the three years of taxes from Shandong Province as collateral. As long as Shandong Province is given three years, by then, factories, mines and private businesses will be flourishing everywhere. Are you still worried that Shandong can't pay it back?"

Guo Songtao closed his eyes and thought for a while, then replied, "These are barely enough, but what about the others? You forgot that you still have to build a seaport and commercial port, a naval port in Weihaiwei, and a navy in Shandong. These are the big ones..."

Damn, Liu Ye also scratched his head, gritted his teeth, and shouted: "Xiao Hai, Xiao Hai!"

Zhu Hai hurried in from outside and asked, "Sir, you called me?"

"Xiao Hai, immediately take 20 or 30 men, fully armed, and rush to Liaocheng. Then, take the canal to Huairou and pick up all our goods for me and transport them to Jinan. Remember, be quick and careful, and don't let anyone discover our loopholes!"

Zhu Hai was startled, and quickly nodded in agreement and ran down.

Liu Ye continued, "Brother, we still have a large number of antiques. I plan to mortgage them to foreigners at a discount and borrow a huge sum of money from them!"