I want to be emperor

In the spring of Chengshun's 19th year, in the past few months, the Great Chu Empire had no major events, the interior was peaceful and stable, there were no major disasters, and high-level politics tended to be stable.

In terms of the external situation, there are no medium and large-scale wars. As for small-scale armed conflicts, there are many of them, but they have little impact.

After all, those armed trading companies are fighting outside every day, especially after the Nanyang Trading Company and more than a dozen other armed trading companies involved in trade in India and West Asia reached a strategic cooperation agreement on collaborative market development and benefit sharing last year.

Whenever they had the opportunity, they went to the Indian peninsula to fight with the local indigenous kingdoms. One day, they made a market opening agreement, and tomorrow they forced the aboriginals to open their ports. In winter, they even set up a concession on the east coast of the Indian peninsula.

In addition, the Alliance of Armed Trading Companies also fights with European colonists such as the Dutch East India Company and the English East India Company every day, and various "pirate attacks" activities are very frequent.

There are too many of these things, and the scale of the war is also very small, and it is only limited to the level of the armed trading company, so the upper echelons of the empire generally don't pay much attention to it.

Relevant colonial affairs were basically entrusted to the governors of Nanyang and India.

Governor of India, this is a position established by the Great Chu Empire last year. Its full name is "in charge of civil affairs and vassal affairs in India, Burma, West Asia, etc."

This position can handle the civil affairs of the local overseas territories by itself, and also has diplomatic relations with the indigenous kingdoms in West Asia, India, Myanmar and other places; it can handle the diplomatic relations with European colonial companies by itself, and has the power to declare war, but it has not been mobilized yet. The power of the army and navy.

Not only does the governor of India have no authority to deploy troops, the governor of Nanyang does not have this authority either.

Governor of India and Governor of Nanyang, these are the governor positions of two overseas territories established by the Great Chu Empire, and they have broader powers than the domestic governors.

Basically, apart from the inability to directly mobilize troops, other powers are basically available.

This is because the overseas territories are too far away from Jinling, and they can only rely on sea traffic. It takes several months or even more than half a year to go back and forth. When the speed of information transmission is too slow, everything has to be done by Jinling. The decision is too slow.

However, in order to balance the power of governors of overseas territories, Luo Zhixue also strictly formulated the structure of military power in overseas territories.

The post of "Governor of Nanyang Army Military Affairs" was established. This post is concurrently held by the commander of the 22nd Army, usually a senior lieutenant general.

The post of Governor of the Nanyang Navy, who is the governor of the naval affairs of the various regions of the South China Sea, is established.

That is to say, taking the Nanyang region as an example, there are three systems in the local area, namely, the Nanyang governor in charge of all administrative and diplomatic affairs, the army Nanyang governor in charge of army affairs, and the navy Nanyang governor in charge of naval affairs.

There is also a similar set of teams in the Myanmar-India region.

Specifically, the Army still has garrison commanders in overseas territories. Currently, there are garrison commanders in Jiulongjiang, Bangkok, Malacca, Sumatra, Burma, Arakan, and India... umm , basically all the overseas territories directly ruled have established a garrison command organization and set up a corresponding commander. Of course, the size of the C-level garrison under its jurisdiction is different, and the rank of the commander is also different.

As strong as the garrison commander of Malacca, basically the garrison commander of a province in the country is similar, with a major general as the commander, while the garrison commander of Bangkok has only three to five hundred troops... the commander is only a major!

These are the C-level garrison troops, while the main force in the field is the combat-ready A-level division and the standing B-level division, which are under the jurisdiction of the field command.

For example, the command organization of the "Great Chu Empire Army No. 20 Second Army" established in Lion City, the strength of this army is not fixed deployment, but sent to garrison in turn in the country, maintaining a strength of about 3 troops all year round. Stationed in the Malay Peninsula, eastern Sumatra, Bangkok, Kowloon, Cam Ranh and other places.

In Dagon, Myanmar, there is the "Great Chu Empire Army Myanmar Expeditionary Army", which is also sent by domestic rotation to garrison, maintaining a total force of about 8000 people.

They are respectively stationed in Dagon, Chittagong, and several port cities in newly leased lands acquired in Myanmar. They are fully responsible for the combat affairs in Myanmar and the Bay of Bengal area. At the same time, they are also temporarily in charge of the defense of Union City on the east coast of India.

As for the navy, it followed the example of domestic fleets and set up local fleets, basically focusing on overseas territories. Each overseas territory will set up a local fleet for long-term garrison to carry out offshore patrols, port protection and other tasks.

For example, the Annan Fleet responsible for the defense of Annan and Cambodia's coastal waters;

The Siam Fleet responsible for the defense of the Gulf of Siam;

The Malacca Fleet responsible for the defense of the Strait of Malacca and the coast of Sumatra;

The Burmese Fleet is in charge of the north of the western end of the Strait of Malacca, that is, the Bay of Bengal, the coastal defenses of places such as Laijiafu, Myanmar, and the Arakan Khanate.

However, the size of the fleets in these places is actually very small, and the ships are basically offshore patrol vessels. A considerable part of the troops are coastal defense forces. The main tasks are offshore patrols, port protection, naval bases, coastal defense forts, etc.

The real main force of the navy is the Indian Ocean Fleet and the South Ocean Fleet, which are respectively responsible for major combat affairs such as ocean patrols, escorts, and mobile operations in their respective sea areas.

In addition, after the Nanyang Fleet went south to take charge of maritime affairs such as the South, the domestic maritime defense was basically handed over to the Beiyang Fleet. With the expansion of its jurisdiction, the Beiyang Fleet has actually been fully responsible for the entrance from Guangzhou to Heilongjiang, and by the way, including the Fusang waters The entire main force of the sea combat business has become a home fleet...

In addition, there is a "Great Chu Empire Navy Reserve Fleet" that is used for training and serves as a reserve force when necessary. The attached warships are mainly training ships. In addition, some retired capital ships are also handed over to them for management.

As for coastal patrols and coastal defense affairs, they are handed over to various coastal fleets, such as the North Sea Fleet (whale, Sea of ​​Japan) responsible for coastal affairs in the Tsushima Strait and the North Sea;
The Yellow Sea Fleet in charge of coastal affairs in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea;
The East China Sea Fleet responsible for the coastal defense of Jiangbei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and other places;
The South China Sea Fleet is responsible for the coastal defense of Fujian, Guangdong and other places.

Then we have to count several local river and lake fleets, namely the Yangtze River Fleet, the Heilongjiang Fleet, the Pearl River Fleet, the Yellow River Fleet, and there is also a small "Small Sea Fleet" on the side of Lake Baikal.

Xiaohai, this is the official name of the Great Chu Empire for Lake Baikal, and it is also the traditional name of the Central Plains Dynasty since the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

As for the North Sea, it was called the Sea of ​​Whales and the Sea of ​​Japan in the Great Chu Empire.

Therefore, the North Sea Fleet of the Great Chu Empire does not refer to the naval fleet active in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea, but specifically refers to the fleet active in the Sea of ​​Japan in the waters north of the Tsushima Strait.

After all, in terms of geography...the Sea of ​​Japan in later generations can be regarded as the North Sea for the Great Chu Empire...As for the Bohai Sea, it is the inland sea...

Of course, all the above-mentioned local fleets in the local coastal waters are actually not very good. The ships under their jurisdiction are basically offshore patrol ships, the kind with a displacement of two to three hundred tons, and some old frigates retired by the navy's ocean-going fleet. Wait for a cruiser or something.

In the naval system, on the one hand, it is used to train naval officers and soldiers, train the younger generation of officers, and then place some unlucky ones who have failed to compete for the main fleet position or failed in the struggle... It is almost the same concept as the garrison command in the army.

As long as you enter the local garrison fleet or the garrison troops in the army, the road to joining the army is basically over. Don't expect to be able to climb up in this life.

Therefore, for some middle and senior military officers who are young and in their prime, being kicked into the garrison is no different from being demoted and exiled. Except for a few people who bear the humiliation and hope to make a comeback, there are basically few other people In a few months, one or two more years, he applied for retirement.

Of course, there are still some people who come to retire. These are basically old, but they can’t be promoted in the main force. This kind of situation is very common in the rank of brigadier general. When many brigadier generals are about to retire, they will go to the defense In the army, he served as the garrison commander for two or three years, so as to get the rank of major general.

After all, the difference between retiring with the rank of major general and retiring with the rank of brigadier general is not small, and the difference in the pension annuity after retirement is quite big.

The Great Chu Empire has been established for nearly 20 years, and its various political structures have become very mature, especially in terms of military-political balance, which is Luo Zhixue's focus.

Whether it is good or not is another matter, but the balance of power is very good, at least there will be no local feudal officials who dominate the family, and there is even the possibility of rebellion.

At the same time, it is difficult for the generals who lead troops abroad to obtain the support of civilian officials. Even the generals who lead troops abroad are divided into garrison generals and generals of the main field force, and they do not belong to each other.

Then the army and the navy are still at odds with each other...

Generally speaking, Luo Zhixue's set of military-political balance, land-sea balance strategy initially guaranteed the internal stability of the Great Chu Empire.

This will also allow Luo Zhixue to have more time and energy to develop the domestic economy and people's livelihood.

In the spring and February of the 19th year of Chengshun, a small event happened in Jinling City.

The Jinling Stock Exchange was officially inaugurated and stock trading began.

There are five companies listed in the first batch, and the most eye-catching one is Lee's Iron and Steel Company!
After all, this company is already very famous, and it is also the company with the strongest strength, the most outstanding performance, and the most promising company among the first five listed companies.

Therefore, some industry insiders who heard the news snapped up the company's shares immediately.

It is worth noting that the stock exchange, a new thing, is still very unfamiliar to ordinary people. In fact, few ordinary people participated in stock trading on the first day, either financial institutions, that is, various funds, or Wealthy professionals who have traded small amounts of stocks before.

As for ordinary people, they don't even know what stock trading is, and they rarely get involved right away.

Because of the pursuit of investment institutions, the stock price of Lee's Steel Manufacturing Company soared by ten percent on the day of listing, triggering the daily limit mechanism.

In order to avoid sharp rises and falls, the stock exchange has a limit-up and limit-down mechanism, and the cap will be capped if it exceeds [-]%, so that investors can calm down and wait until the next day to trade.

The daily limit was set on the first day of listing, and the market value of Lee's Steel Manufacturing Co., Ltd. soared from more than 500 million Chu yuan before the listing to just over 600 million Chu yuan, and judging by this value, it will continue to rise in the future!
And the first person who bought the stock at the issue price on the exchange found that in just one day, the direct stock assets increased by [-]%... This money is earned faster than stealing money.

The news spread quickly, which not only attracted the attention of more investors, but even the shareholders of Lee's Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. regret it now!
This issue price is less, if I knew it earlier, I should have raised the issue price.

This time, the total market value of Lee's Iron & Steel Company was 6000 million shares, of which 300 million shares were issued at a price of 30 Chu Yuan per share, with a total value of [-] Chu Yuan.

The stock was underwritten by the Great Chu Empire Commercial Bank and sold to various investment institutions and powerful individual investors. This price has actually increased compared to before, because when the Guangzhou Iron and Steel Company made a strategic investment in the stock, the price per share was still low. It's less than one tenth of a Chu yuan.

But looking at the momentum of this price increase now, Lee's Iron and Steel Company feels that it has lost money, thinking that it might be able to raise the price even higher when it was released.

Pity!
As for the current stock price rise, it has little to do with Lee's Steel for the time being, because all the tradable shares have been issued and are now in the hands of various investors. Today's stock trading is actually conducted among these investors.

After the stock price has risen, Lee's Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. will not be able to get more money... Of course, it will definitely be beneficial to the shareholders. If the stock price rises, the price of the non-tradable shares in their hands will also increase. If the shares are transferred in the future It can also sell for more money.

However, it is also good for the follow-up financing of Lee's Steel Corporation, because according to Lee's Steel Corporation's plan, if the stock issuance goes well this time, another batch of tradable shares will be issued in a few months for further financing.

How much the second batch of issued shares can be worth and how much funds can be raised depends on the stock price.

The stock price of Lee's Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. rose by the limit as soon as it was listed, and the daily limit lasted for five full days... Even after the fifth day of listing, the stock price of Lee's Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. had reached 0.146 yuan per share.

One yuan of Chu Yuan is equal to ten jiao equals one thousand wen, and 0.146 Chu Yuan is 46 wen per jiao.

In just a few days, the market value of Lee's Iron and Steel Company soared from 600 million to 870 million Chu yuan.

Just crazy!
In terms of market capitalization alone, I am afraid that it will surpass other large companies in China.

Although the stock prices of the other four government-run enterprises have not risen so exaggeratedly, they have also risen gratifyingly.

The stock price went up, investors made money, and the business raised money.

This made the finance department more confident, and planned to strike while the iron was hot, and launch the second batch of listed companies. This time, it was also a combination of government-run enterprises and private enterprises, with a total of 23 enterprises.

Not to mention government-run enterprises, let alone Suqin Textile Company, the largest textile enterprise in China, among private enterprises.

Naturally, this kind of leading company has also been favored by the capital market. After listing, it has been trading daily for several days. Investors are as enthusiastic about Su Qin Textile Company as they are about Li's Steel Manufacturing.

The capital market's enthusiasm for these two companies is also related to the fact that they are both leading companies.

Lee's Steel Manufacturing is the largest private enterprise in China, and it has been able to enter the top five in multiple sub-sectors. The accumulation of the top five in multiple industries has led to the birth of the giant Lee's Steel Manufacturing .

As for Su Qin Textile Company, although their business is single and they only engage in the textile industry, their textile industry is big enough. Suppressed to death.

Especially in the field of wool spinning, with the rapid increase in the demand for various woolen materials in the domestic consumer market, and at the same time the export market is improving, Suqin Textile Co., Ltd.’s large investment many years ago has been rewarded. The various woolen textile products it produces Occupying a great advantage, it is the largest wool spinning enterprise in China.

This time, Suqin Textile Co., Ltd. went public to raise funds to raise a large sum of money and prepare to enter the silk spinning industry on a large scale.

For the time being, the silk spinning industry still belongs to the category of handicraft industry in the Great Chu Empire.

Although machine spinning and silk weaving have been introduced one after another, the overall scale is still not large, and because of the particularity of raw silk, the production mode is very different from traditional manual work, and it is difficult to directly imitate the mode of the cotton spinning industry.

Since a few years ago, Suqin Textile Co., Ltd. has successively invested heavily in research and development, and the layout is an advanced production mode that uses steam engines for production.

Su Qin Textile Company wants to bring the silk spinning industry from the mode of large handicraft workshop to the mode of industrialized production directly.

For this reason, they have invested heavily in the research and development of more advanced silk reeling and spinning processes, and have developed a steam reeling process, which uses steam engines to produce silk. It is not perfect enough, and the cost is also high.

They still need to invest a lot of money in research and development!
At the same time, we are also planning to build an experimental production line, set up a steam reeling factory and a steam weaving factory, and these all require massive funds.

In addition, Suqin Textile still needs to continue to invest funds to improve sheep pastures, establish a wool supply system, and build more wool spinning factories to continue to steadily expand its leading position in the wool spinning market.

All of these have led to Su Qin Textile Company needing a large amount of external capital investment, and the loan interest is also high. For strategic investment, it is difficult to find a ruthless person who dares to enter hundreds of thousands, not to mention that strategic investment can easily lead to controlling stakes. lost.

Unlike the Li family who laid down early and gave up their controlling rights, the Suzhou Qin family of Su Qin Textile Company has always firmly grasped the company's controlling rights, even though there have been several mergers and acquisitions and the introduction of strategic investors before. , but the Qin family still holds more than 70.00% of the shares of Su Qin Textile Company, occupying an absolute controlling stake.

So they are very cautious about introducing strategic investors... In the past, when raising funds, they would rather seek bank loans than strategic investors, but bank loan interest is also high.

In many cases, Su Qin Textile Company wants to go to the stock market to raise funds. Anyway, the shares of the tradable shares will be very scattered, and it will not have any impact on their holdings.

Other small shareholders are also happy to see the listing, and when the price rises, they will sell their shares to cash in and leave... The Qin family is too firm on controlling rights, and they don't listen to the opinions of small shareholders at all in terms of operation. Do whatever you want...

This made many small shareholders dissatisfied, and many of them wanted to cash out and leave.

Although the shares of these small shareholders are not tradable shares and they cannot be cashed out through the stock exchange, the stock price has risen and the market value has increased. It is also easier to find investment institutions outside to transfer shares, and the profits are also greater.

Under such circumstances, Su Qin Textile Co., Ltd. went public smoothly, and the stock price still skyrocketed after the listing!
With the listing of Suqin Textile Co., Ltd., the top two private enterprises in the country are also listed. In addition, all the listed government-run enterprises are also large enterprises. Therefore, these enterprises listed on the Jinling Stock Exchange are among the largest The Chu Empire is full of serious and large enterprises, which also ensured the smooth rollout of the stock exchange, and the corresponding stock trading system was also implemented smoothly, without causing any major troubles.

With the establishment of the stock exchange and the spread of stock trading, more professional investment institutions, that is, various funds have also emerged.

The financial industry of the Great Chu Empire has entered a new stage.

However, these have little to do with Suqin Textile Company. They took the money raised from the listing and turned around to expand the production capacity of wool spinning, and at the same time continued to spend money on steam to produce raw silk.

If they are allowed to succeed, then Suqin Textile Company will grow into a real leading company in the textile field, not only with a large comprehensive scale, but also occupy the leading position in the three major fields of cotton spinning, wool spinning and silk spinning status.

It is only in the characteristic textile industry and garment manufacturing industry that it lags behind Hantian Textile Company.

It is worth mentioning that Hantian Textile Company also has a mechanized garment manufacturing department that textile companies seldom operate these days. This is not to sell clothes to the private market, but to meet the needs of the military and the uniforms of workers in surrounding factories. need……

At present, the ready-made clothing market in the Great Chu Empire is basically concentrated in various uniforms, such as uniforms for military and police personnel such as military uniforms, patrol police, and tax patrol police, as well as worker uniforms in various enterprises.

Except for these uniform markets that require a high degree of uniformity, the market for ready-made garments in the ordinary private market is not large... No, to be precise, the market for ready-made garments produced industrially is not large.

There are actually private ready-to-wear markets, but they are all self-employed, scattered and out of scale... The ready-made clothes on the market are basically hand-sewn, either in general sizes, for bachelors, or advanced customization for high-end customers ready-to-wear.

The overall market is actually very small, because ordinary people don't buy ready-made clothes at all... they all buy cloth and then sew it themselves, regardless of whether they have money or not...

Even if it is a wealthy family, people still buy high-end fabrics, silk, etc., and then let the maid at home or find a professional senior tailor to sew the clothes.

Not to mention ordinary middle-class families or even low-level families. It is normal to directly buy fabrics and have them sewn by the family members. Buying ready-made clothes directly does not fit, and there is no money to find tailors outside...

The model of men farming and women weaving still exists in the society of the Great Chu Empire, not only in the countryside, but also in the cities... Even the daughters of wealthy families usually learn to be female celebrities, and then embroider wedding dresses for themselves of.

Why can a small sewing needle from Lee's Iron and Steel Company become their company's flagship product, earning as much as shipbuilding?

It is because sewing needles are essential household items these days, just like kitchen knives and bowls and chopsticks, which are indispensable to every family.

These have also led to the fact that the ready-made clothing market in the Great Chu Empire is not large, and they are basically uniforms. At the same time, even the ready-made uniforms produced by factories are actually not much cheaper than those stitched by housewives!

Because there are no industrial sewing machines these days, there are sewing machines, and they are small hand-operated sewing machines developed by Hantian Textile Company.

The cost of this thing is high, and the efficiency is not very good. Although the cost of garments produced by this small hand-operated sewing machine is not high...however, it is more expensive than buying cloth directly...

Therefore, even if the cost of ready-made clothing is only a little higher than that of cloth, the private market does not accept it... because in many families, they are idle anyway... How much money can be saved by sewing clothes in their spare time? It is also good.

Quite a few families in rural areas do not buy cloth, but directly buy cotton yarn to spin cloth themselves. Some farmers even grow cotton themselves, and then directly spin and weave cloth...not even buying cotton yarn!
In terms of production costs, it is definitely higher for farmers to grow cotton and weave cloth by themselves, but you must know that the time of many farmers in rural areas is worthless.

Especially during the slack season, there is nothing to do, and there is no chance to do odd jobs... Although it seems that the cost of spinning and weaving cotton seems to be high, it is actually costless!

Therefore, it is nonsense to talk about production efficiency and cost with farmers...

Unless you give it away for free, no one will buy it no matter how cheap you are!
The same is true of the cloth market, and the same is true of the ready-made clothing market!
Therefore, these days, very few companies set up a garment factory to produce garments. Although some large enterprises have a demand for worker uniforms, they often set up a small garment workshop in-house, and then recruit workers' wives to sew clothes on the spot. .

Or simply release the material directly, let the workers take it back and let the women at home sew it.

Hantian Textile Company is an exception... Although they are allowed to undertake the production task of a large number of military and police uniforms in the country, they have to do it if they don't do it.

Even in order to make it better, they even made a primitive hand-cranked sewing machine.

Now, seeing that they lost in the cotton and wool spinning markets, and the raw silk market was not easy to do, they began to shift their attention, trying to make a difference in the ready-made garment market.

They not only want to sell the ready-made clothes produced by the factory to the government and various factories as uniforms...they also want to spread the ready-made clothes directly on the market so that ordinary people can also buy them, to be precise, the middle-class group.

They have a certain purchasing power, but they are not to the extent that they can be customized by professional tailors... Although the female relatives of the family can also sew clothes, the female relatives of middle-class families are not the same as the female relatives of low-level families. A copper plate is sewn all day long...

If the style meets everyone's aesthetics, the quality is reliable, the clothes are comfortable to wear, and the ready-made clothes that fit well appear on the market, they can also buy the ready-made clothes directly.