(Let's get a ticket!) ）

In December in Dengzhou, the whistling cold wind drilled into every crevice in his clothes, and the cold made him want to shrink his neck into the collar. There are still countless ships to rely on at the wharf in Dengju, and a large number of ships in the port take advantage of the winter monsoon to go to the Bohai Sea, Silla, and Dongying, and also go southward with the wind. But there were also some caravans from the south, relying on the developed sailing skills at this time, and went north against the wind to Dengzhou. The closer we get to the end of the year and the New Year, the more ships there are in the port of Dengzhou.

There were no city walls on the periphery of Xindengzhou City, but eight new city gates were built, and at each gate, a number of new fortresses and other military strongholds were built.

The New Year is approaching, and countless convoys and people are coming and going, a busy scene.

This port city, handicraft city, cultural center and economic center of the East, the military, civilian, and worker population has exceeded one million. It has become the undoubted handicraft commodity manufacturing center and consumption center of Datang Oriental at this time, whether it is food or various necessities of life, or even various luxury goods, the demand of Dengzhou City is extremely amazing.

Compared with the hot consumption in Dengzhou, Dengzhou's handicraft manufacturing industry is more developed, from the simplest sewing needle, to cloth, and even horse-drawn carriages, boats, etc., Dengzhou has a complete and huge scale of commodity production.

For most of the fifth year of Qianfu, because Huangchao first burned down Guangzhou, and then destroyed Jiangling, he later occupied Jiangxi, attacked Jianghuai, and the four towns of Hebei rebelled.

It dealt a heavy blow to the development of commerce and trade in Dengzhou, especially the trade of domestic commodities of the Zhenguo Army. The North-South Canal, the Huai River, the Yangtze River, and the Yellow River, which transport Dengzhou's goods, are all under great threat.

In the third quarter of the fifth year of Qianfu, all workshops in Dengzhou were greatly impacted. Even many shipments could not be sent. Resulting in a backlog of products. Unable to recover the payment, the capital chain is in danger of being interrupted.

However, at this critical time, Li Jing defeated Goguryeo, and did not immediately lead his troops to return to Guannai to participate in the war, but began a huge round of development of the Northeast.

At the beginning of the Northeast Development Plan, a large number of Goguryeo people from Northeast China were relocated back to the Central Plains, and these people were resettled in the interior, which made the construction, real estate and other industries pick up first. Then it led to a thaw in the building materials market. Subsequently, the yarn mills, dyeing mills, clothing and hosiery shops, clothing and hat shops, as well as furniture stores, furniture stores and other workshops and shops related to various daily necessities also improved.

Then there are money banks, farms, etc., which also benefit.

The large-scale relocation of millions of people, Li Jing invested a lot of government finance, and a large number of workshops and shops received government orders.

Later, the Goguryeo Hu people who sold their property in Liaodong began to rebuild their homes, and everything started anew, and everyone needed houses, daily necessities, production tools, and so on.

Finally, the arrival of these people facilitated the workshops and mines, etc., and had a large number of new laborers.

And that's just the tip of the ice. What really made Dengzhou's industrial and commercial circles prosper again was the development of Northeast China. Countless new immigrants went to the northeast, built roads, paved bridges, built cities, built military cities, fortresses, etc. There was also the rise of a large number of new villages and towns, and these infrastructure projects alone completely enabled more workshops and mines to obtain a large number of government orders.

According to Li Jing's words, since the sale of commodities was affected by the civil strife in the Tang Dynasty, it was simply necessary to develop the Northeast to carry out a large amount of infrastructure construction and expand domestic demand. At the same time, Li Jing and Li Rang and others also tried their best to make Dengzhou's commerce and trade ocean-going trade, and through the Maritime Silk Rebellion, more goods were sold to South Asia, East Africa, the Arab world, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and other more distant Western worlds.

Using the profits from these trades, he turned around and supported the construction of the northeast, accelerated the reclamation and hoarding of land in the Liaohe Plain in the northeast, and expanded grain production.

As long as the internal stability of the Zhenguo army is stable, there is no war, no disaster and famine. Everyone has a job, and the food is enough to feed and clothe the people in the governance, so Li Jing's rule will only become richer and stronger.

As a result, hundreds of projects were started in the entire Northeast Province, six towns, 21 prefectures, and 100 counties, ranging from one town to one prefecture and county.

Fortunately, although there are many of these projects, Li Jing has already made plans, so he is not messy and independent, and he starts it indiscriminately. To this end, Li Jing has set up an audit department. This audit department is like the three divisions in the late Tang Dynasty and Northern Song Dynasty, and it is also like the development and Reform Commission of later generations, with huge powers, not only in charge of finance, but also everything related to finance. From the military to the civilian population, and even the local state and county finances can also be managed, although it is only a temporary institution, but it is just as amazing.

Li Rang is the director of the Audit Department and is in full charge of all this.

The entire resettlement, resettlement, and development of Northeast China are all in charge of the Audit Department, and they are in charge of road construction, city construction, water conservancy, military and other projects in various prefectures and counties, from project approval to examination and approval to fund allocation to supervision.

As many as 100 officials have been transferred to the Audit Division Committee to coordinate this work, preventing confusion in affairs and ensuring the smooth progress of the entire huge resettlement and northeast development plan.

Because of this audit department, the power of the local prefectures and counties was greatly reduced compared with other prefectures and counties in the Tang Dynasty, especially the subordinate prefectures. Not only did he lose most of the military power in the feudal town, as well as the judicial power, but now he also lost the financial power.

Every day, clerks from 16 prefectures and 100 counties in Dengzhou are stationed here to report for approval and to obtain funds.

The Marshal's Mansion has money, but it has to maintain huge military expenditures on the one hand, and on the other hand, it has to support this huge resettlement and northeast development plan, so naturally it is impossible for all prefectures and counties to be treated equally. In this way, the competition for funds makes the Yamen of the Audit Department a battlefield every day.

To this end, after Li Jing and Li Rang discussed several times, the original bank was changed to the Oriental Bank, and the Northeast local bonds were issued for the first time.

After Li Jing and Li Rang carefully explained this kind of thing, Li Rang, who is good at business, immediately turned red. In the end, for Li Jing's conservatism, the first tranche of Northeast bonds issued a quota of 30 million yuan, which is a five-year registered bond with an annual interest rate of 5 percent. Five years after the 30 million bonds, Li Jing will have to pay 7.5 million yuan in interest.

Although this interest is not light. But Li Jing thinks it's still feasible. After all. The national debt was a form of finance that was used in later generations.

Set the figure of 30 million. Li Jing also thought about it for a long time. When the Tang Dynasty was rich, the imperial court's annual income from two taxes was only 30 million yuan, and of course, tens of millions of stone millet was not counted.

In fact, the Tang Dynasty also borrowed this kind of debt, but it was not to issue bonds, but when the imperial court had no money, it directly borrowed money from the rich family, and the central government of the Tang Dynasty forcibly borrowed money from the rich families in the Chang'an area several times, all of which were one-tenth of the property. Some resemble a type of property tax. However, this kind of move by the imperial court is unpopular, and often provokes anger and resentment.

Li Jing engaged in bonds, so naturally he couldn't come like this.

His Northeast bonds are voluntarily purchased, and there is a 5% annual interest rate for buying bonds, and at the same time, Li Jing also provides some tax incentives to the wealthy who buy them, giving them a certain amount of deductions.

Of course, the most tempting thing about Coco Li is not interest rates and tax cuts.

The innermost city of Dengzhou City, the original East Street of the Old City.

Today's Dengzhou City has been expanded again and again. The oldest Dengzhou City has also been comprehensively planned and rebuilt. After the newly renovated old town, it has completely become an aristocratic district where every inch of land is valuable. There are some of the most luxurious high-ranking residences. There are also huge businessmen with a fortune of 100,000 millions. Several streets here are even commercial pedestrian streets where horse-drawn carriages and other passages are prohibited.

The best goods in the entire Tohoku Province are found in this old town, and all kinds of goods are available here, and almost all of them are famous brand stores.

In this aristocratic district, the eastern district is the residential area where the high-ranking officials of the Tohoku Province are concentrated, while the western district is the residential area where the big merchants are located. Most of these merchants were maritime merchants, and they were all extremely wealthy. Among them, Liu's house occupies a very wide area in the western district, and the owner of the house, Liu Shouye, is also a very famous sea merchant in Dengzhou. He had a fleet of more than 100 ocean-going vessels, which specialized in traveling to the Mediterranean countries of Rab and Flin (Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium) and Persia.

He made a lot of money by selling Dengzhou's glass, liquor, perfume, cotton, rock sugar, white sugar, and tea, silk, and porcelain from the south, and then bringing back all kinds of goods to the West. In particular, since Dengzhou invented the compass and clairvoyance for use at sea and improved the watertight cabin technology, and then Dengzhou produced these canned vegetables and fruits, the risk of going to sea has been greatly reduced, and the profits have become even higher.

Liu Shouye, who is in his fifties, is very well maintained, and now he no longer runs with the boat, and his sons take turns to run the sea instead of him, and are responsible for buying and selling goods. After running at sea for most of his life, the old man now completely stops to recuperate, and the old man enjoys this life very much.

Although it was almost the end of the year, and the cold wind was blowing outside, there was a fire kang in the old man's room, and the room was very warm.

Liu Shouye wore a well-cut cotton robe, half-lying on a soft couch, listening to the voice of his twelve-year-old eldest grandson, Qinglang, reading the newspaper for him.

Liu Shouye was not very literate, he was born poor in his early years, he was a beggar at first, and then he was an apprentice, and then slowly went from an apprentice to a steward of the fleet and an owner. He also knew a few words, but not much. In this life, what he admired and respected the most was a literate reader. It's a pity that although he sent several sons to study and hired a husband with a lot of money, none of them were successful. Now, several grandchildren have started to go to school and entered the academy in Dengzhou, with his expectations and hopes.

Liu Shouye, who listened to his grandson reading the newspaper with his eyes closed, was very satisfied, although this eldest grandson did not have his kind of temperament as his sons, he was a little weak. But the book is a good read, at least the newspaper is a good read.

was about to praise a few times, but Liu Shouye suddenly heard his grandson read a piece of content. I was a little stunned, the king of Andong actually wanted to issue bonds? What is a bond, is it the same as a banknote?

Liu Shouye's vision is very old-fashioned, he came to Dengzhou from Guangzhou and moved his business focus to Dengzhou, and it turns out that his original decision has more than doubled the Liu family's family business. When he first came to Dengzhou, he was very interested in Dengzhou's banknotes. Under the rule of the king, the monetary system here was completely different from the rest of the imperial court.

He has been in business for many years and has seen the finances of the central and local governments of the imperial court, which can be described as a chaos. Money shortage, price chaos, fake money, and even people bartering, etc. But Dengzhou is completely different, gold, silver and copper coins circulate together, and silk is also passed, and what is more important is that they use paper to make money, but this should be a more chaotic situation, but it did not happen here in Dengzhou. In these two dozen states, the currency is unified and prices are stable. If you don't look at anything else, just looking at the price of a grain stable at five cents a pound is enough to shock people. Dengzhou is five dollars per pound of rice, but out of Dengzhou, almost all of them are six hundred dollars a bucket, which is equivalent to one hundred dollars a catty, which is 20 times the price of rice in Dengzhou.

My thoughts were developing, but I heard my grandson continue to read.

"The ten people who buy the most Northeast bonds this time will be awarded the Order of Benevolence by King Andong himself!"

Hearing this, Liu Shouye's eyes suddenly widened, and his eyes were full of brilliance. Previously, the king of Andong awarded medals to the soldiers, and all those who received the meritorious medals became nobles, more than 100 knights, and more than 300 honors. Could it be that this time, regardless of the status of a farmer and a businessman, as long as the ten people who bought the most money, they could be honored and become nobles?

Liu Shouye is an orphan, although he started in business, his family fortune is tens of millions. But although he has money, he has no status.

In the past, he didn't think there was anything wrong with this, after all, businessmen have always been the lowest. But in the past few years in Dengzhou, he found that the status of businessmen in Dengzhou is actually not low. In particular, Li Jing, the king of Andong County, has a different attitude towards businessmen than other high-ranking people in the world.

And now, a businessman has the opportunity to become a nobleman.

Liu Shouye couldn't help but feel his heart pounding, and his chest breathed rapidly.

Learn and excel!

Even if he is an ordinary farmer, if he has the conditions, he can let Lianming's children study. If you read well, you can become an official. As soon as you become an official eunuch, then the status of the entire family will change from then on.

But businessmen can't do it, once they get into business, many times they don't even have the opportunity to jump over the dragon gate of the imperial examination. No matter how rich a businessman is, he is also regarded as inferior. Doing business is even more cheap.

Liu Shouye has achieved great success in business at this point, and he also thinks that he hopes to change the fate of the Liu family one day.

But this step from business to official is too difficult, and it is even more difficult than the step from farmer to soldier.

But now, Li Jing is willing to give ten honorary places in order to issue bonds, which means that for Liu Shouye, this is a huge opportunity, an opportunity that cannot be missed, maybe the opportunity to come again, and an opportunity to change the fate of the descendants of the Liu family.

Liu Shouye breathed heavily and stood up, startling his grandson, who was reading the newspaper.

"Liu An, prepare the car immediately and go to the Oriental Bank!" He remembered that when his grandson read the newspaper just now, he read that this bond was issued at the Oriental Bank! (To be continued......)