On August 20, 1702, under the clear sky of Gdansk, a "Solar" class escort gunboat escorted two Dutch merchant ships slowly into the port.

On the deck of the ship, Army Lieutenant Colonel Yang Chengdong was still scolding a subordinate company commander: "You said you are a pig's brain! Sheng Dehong's order is also implemented. Who is he? Civilian officials! He is really messing around!"

In fact, Yang Chengdong's words are somewhat unreasonable. Although Sheng Dehong is a civil servant, he is the most serious commander of the European garrison appointed by the Executive Committee. Although it is only nominal, the fact is the fact. He commands and mobilizes various troops including the Fourth Mixed Regiment, the Sixth Mixed Regiment, the Haji Garrison, the Danji Garrison, and the Ceuta Garrison. It is completely legal in terms of procedurally and has no problems.

Of course, in actual operations, it is generally discussed by the envoy who is fully authorized and the chief officer of the army. The envoy himself rarely acts arbitrary. In addition to controlling the army's logistics and finance, he is completely unable to interfere in personnel and affairs, nor can he check the "black accounts" of each army (such as how to deal with spoils). The army has a very high independence. Therefore, this is also the reason why Lieutenant Colonel Yang Chengdong was so angry after sending an infantry company to Amsterdam at the "Surprise" Wolf Knot Base.

However, no matter how angry he is, since Sheng Dehong has given the order, and the remaining deputy commander of the Fourth Mixed Regiment also sent an infantryman from a company to the Netherlands to "request for instructions", then this matter must continue, and it is not easy to openly refute Sheng's face. Besides, this matter itself is beneficial to them. Didn't Yang Chengdong be idle long ago and complain that there is no chance to fight? Now that the opportunity is here, you must seize it!

So, after learning the news, Yang Chengdong had to hurry to Amsterdam to meet with the infantry companies coming. Then, he sent people to Portugal on a boat and ordered the entire army to mobilize immediately and set off for the Baltic Sea. Sheng Dehong had even helped contact the Portuguese in Lisbon. They would organize a group of merchant ships to help transport, and the two naval warships stationed in the Port of Ceuta will also set sail and go to Lisbon to escort the army.

Some people may say that it is only necessary to mobilize the entire regiment to mobilize the troops? Hehe, at this time, our regiment Yang will teach you the secret of the army's failure. First of all, as the saying goes, a cannon fired, a group of 5,000 taels of gold, and a regiment will be launched in large quantities. According to the standards of the East Coast people, it will cost a lot of money. Moreover, the commander of the army will often ask for more materials and money. For example, Sheng Dehong directly signed a check of 500,000 yuan of legal tender from the East Coast Agricultural Bank. As the first batch of funds, how to use this money is very particular - the gold coupon is now very popular in Europe. After the Fourth Mixed Group arrives in Gdansk, as long as you send people to Riga or Wendao, you can withdraw the money and then purchase supplies nearby, which is much more convenient than purchasing and transporting them in Lisbon.

Secondly, once the troops are dispatched, they may obtain spoils once they fight. According to the East Coast tradition, the handling of these spoils is the army's own affairs and others cannot argue with them. There are too many gains in this regard. For example, if the enemy towns resist fiercely, the East Coast people will generally ask for redemption of city expenses after winning. If a city does not want to be attacked by the East Coast Army, and the city can be fought or not in the East Coast people, then there will be redemption of city expenses. In addition, the military materials seized on the battlefield can be kept accordingly, according to regulations, which can be used, but they need to be registered and registered so that the logistics supply department can adjust the supplies distributed to the department accordingly. But in fact, the accounts here are in chaos, and the military police have many obstacles to check, and in the end they can be left alone. Therefore, this area has always been a traditional private place of the army, and no one dares to argue with them.

So now you know why the Army is so passionate about fighting. The reason is that it can greatly enrich the small treasury of its headquarters, so that everyone's welfare can be improved. For example, who dies in battle or dies of illness can be added on the basis of the state's pension to make their families live a better life; for example, the cost of decoctions can be increased by a large amount in the national standard. In addition, if anyone has a difficult situation, they can basically apply for a report. After the troops send people to verify, they will issue some subsidies as appropriate. In short, this money is very important in maintaining the morale and combat effectiveness of the troops, and is also one of the important authoritative sources of army leaders of all sizes.

"Fuck you're ready to get off the boat! The gun is good and the ammunition is loaded. The situation here is quite complicated. I don't want any unexpected situations." Yang Chengdong pulled out a pistol loaded with ammunition and said. It's been a novel experience for him for many years that it's really a novel experience for him to get him, a senior officer, to take the pistol to fight with a pistol.

This time, only one infantry company followed Yang Chengdong, and controlled a city like Gdansk, which was a big city. To be honest, the power was a bit weak. Think about it, tens of thousands of local residents with unknown attitudes - because Poland was caught in war, many refugees have recently fled. Many people suspect that the population of the entire city has exceeded 100,000 - hundreds of Polish paramilitary personnel who hated people on the East Coast, and stubborn priests who were brainwashed by religion. What a complex situation! It is simply a delusion to control the entire city with just 240 rifles and a naval warship.

Fortunately, the Swedes are more advanced! Because they launched a war against Poland, they had already sent troops to occupy the only port city that Poland could use, and left a thousand infantry regiments here to maintain order. The commander of this regiment has received an order not to evacuate for the time being and assisted the East Coast people to stabilize the situation in the city until they can deal with various emergencies from the inside or outside alone. By the way, the maintenance costs of this fully organized infantry regiment (about 1,250 people) can be asked to the Principality of Kurland, and they have agreed to pay the fee.

Here is an additional note: Little Transparent Duchy of Kurland in Livornia. Historically, during the Great Northern War, it was easily occupied by Charles XII's troops and suffered great losses. Now there are East Coast people and the Dutch people jointly promised to provide protection, and this country avoided the misfortune of the country. Moreover, not only that, the only pure land in the war, the Duchy of Kurland, also attracted a large number of refugees and funds from Livornia and northern Poland. The population of the entire country surged and the bank liquidity was very abundant. In addition, the existence of a large amount of re-export trade, the Duchy of Kurland actually made a fortune in this war, which is magical!

Now, at the strong request of East Coast consultants, the Kurrans used a large amount of cheap labor that poured into the country to build a large number of roads, improved the water supply and drainage facilities in nearly ten cities, built two new modern hospitals, and carried out in-depth reconstruction and renovation of Wendao Port, greatly improving cargo throughput and efficiency.

Of course, the Grand Duke did not forget to expand his palace and resort manor. The palace is located in the capital Mitao, which was built at a huge expense during his father's reign. Now his son spends a lot of money to expand and repair. In terms of scale, model and artistic perspective, it is far beyond the vast majority of royal palaces in the Baltic Sea. Even the most popular Swedes are not as good as the completion of the Swedes. The resort manor is located in Kurdiga, the hinterland of the country. It covers an area of ​​several square kilometers, including manors, forests, horse farms and other facilities. It is very luxurious and costs hundreds of thousands of yuan in total.

The East Coast Consultant was originally strongly opposed to the extravagance and waste of the office, but His Excellency Da Gong insisted. Considering that he had recently cooperated with the various suggestions and policies of the East Coast, his extravagance was greatly curbed and a large amount of funds were used for domestic construction. After discussion, the advisory group finally agreed to the Da Gong's request to expand the palace and build a new manor. However, they also pointed out that the funds required for normal construction cannot be squeezed out. Therefore, in the end, the Da Gong still took a loan, following the opening of the newly established Baltic International Bank, with a ten-year period of 6% annual interest rate, and the general contractor for the project was an East Coast enterprise.

The Baltic International Bank is currently located in Riga, and will move its headquarters to Gdansk Free City in a while. The shareholders of this bank are relatively complex, with the East Coast Ministry of Finance holding 20% ​​of the shares and is the largest shareholder. The Danze County (Gdansk Free City) government, which will be established in the future, holds 10% of the shares, the East Coast Agricultural Bank of China holding 10%, United Industrial Credit Bank holding 10% of the shares, and the South China Sea Transportation Company holding 5%. The remaining 45% of the shares are also very interesting, 7% is sold to the Government of the Principality of Kurland, 7%

Sold to the Swedish government, 7% of the shares are subscribed by Dutch merchants or enterprises, 7% of the shares are subscribed by English merchants or enterprises, 5% of the shares are sold to the Russian government, 3% of the shares are subscribed by Polish merchants or enterprises, 2% of the shares are sold to Brandenburg-Prussian government, and the last 7% of the shares are publicly sold to investors in all countries. Anyone can buy them from Qingdao Port on the east coast, Wendao Port in Kurland, Riga Port in Sweden, Gdansk Free City and Amsterdam Port in the Netherlands.

From this we can also see that Baltic International Bank is a very national financial institution. East Coast Capital is in a simple majority controlling position, but it absorbs a large number of regional shareholders to achieve the ability to reduce resistance and quickly expand its business. After all, everyone knows that eating alone is not good, and countries like Midi in the future dare not do so incredible - whoever controls the finance of a region will gain the greatest influence of the region.

First there was the Free City of Gdansk, then the Baltic International Bank, and a Duchy of Kurland government, which had long been controlled by the East Coast people. The East Coast Republic of China was accelerating its pace of making moves in the Baltic Sea. This was also a blessing from the European War. Various countries were killed and killed. They really didn’t have the energy and were not so willing to prevent the East Coast government from infiltrating into this rich area. The only thing they had the ability to stop was the Kingdom of England, which was very dependent on East Coast machines and parts. But in today’s environment, they could only express their dissatisfaction verbally, that’s all - whoever controls the Mediterranean and the Baltic Sea controls most of Europe’s wealth. This is a very clear thing!
Chapter completed!