I rode and slashed unparalleled in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 946: Money from all directions, military merit grants shares (joint chapter)

"Oh my god, this is outrageous! This is too outrageous!"

The Ministry of Personnel Office.

When the Minister of Personnel Huang Wan saw the Assistant Minister Chen Qun coming over noisily, he was puzzled. Then he saw Chen Qun clapped his hands and put a document on the table:

"Minister Huang, take a look. The stock exchange has only been open for a few days, and the share price of the Western Region Development Company has already risen to ten strings of cash per share!"

"Ten strings of cash?!"

The brush in Huang Wan's hand fell onto the table with a plop.

With trembling fingers, he flipped through the document, which recorded in detail the daily market conditions of the exchange - from three and a half strings of coins on the first day, to breaking through five strings of coins on the third day, and then directly reaching the ten string mark at the opening today.

The stock price of this Western Region Development Company hits the daily limit almost every day. What is even more shocking is that although the stock price hits the daily limit, the trading volume still doubles every day.

"This is simply..." Huang Wan's Adam's apple gurgled up and down, "Has all the money in Luoyang City grown legs and run into the stock exchange?"

Chen Qun smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Not just Luoyang. I just received news that the nobles in Jizhou, Xuzhou, Jingzhou and even Jiangdong are rushing to transport money to Luoyang."

"I heard that last night, the Lu family's convoy in Linhuai brought in 200,000 strings of cash in one go!"

"Linhuai Lu family?" Huang Wan was surprised.

Chen Qun explained: "They are the relatives of Lu Zijing, who was brought back from Huainan by the general last time. Although they are not from aristocratic families, they are wealthy locals."

Since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Qi State has been famous for its emphasis on commerce and education, and the wealth of the Qi and Lu regions was therefore the best in the world.

After the Qin Dynasty unified China, the Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system and placed emphasis on agriculture, but the Qi tradition of emphasizing commerce was not lost. The local Mi and Lu families were both wealthy families with assets exceeding 100 million.

This time Su Yao was engaged in financial securities in the capital, and the wealthy merchants in Qi soon heard the news and took action.

As the local money houses had not yet been established, the funds of their children in Beijing soon ran out. They immediately thought of the money house's lending business, and while borrowing large sums of money using their family's reputation and property as collateral to buy shares, they also spent a lot of money to hire people, use water and transportation, and rushed to the capital with cartloads of wealth.

Huang Wan took a deep breath and suddenly thought of something: "Wait, if these foreign nobles come to Beijing to buy up shares, then the local noble families in Zhongyuan will..."

"exactly."

Chen Qun nodded meaningfully:
"Now, almost everyone with a bit of money in Luoyang has invested in the stock exchange. Aristocratic families in the Central Plains, such as the Yuan family of Runan, the Wei family of Hedong, the Sima family of Henei, and the Xun family of Yingchuan, have also invested heavily in the stock exchange. Even the most aloof students of the Imperial College have started to pawn their books and gather in groups to pool money to buy stocks."

Huang Wan suddenly slammed the table and stood up: "Ridiculous! Imperial students do not read the books of sages, but instead learn to speculate like merchants. How shameless!"

Chen Qun spread his hands helplessly: "Mr. Huang, you don't know, there is a saying circulating in the Imperial College now - 'It is better to buy a share early than to read ten thousand books'. It is said that there was a poor student who pawned his ancestral jade pendant to buy the original shares when the Western Region Development Company just started to raise funds. Now he has earned ten times the money and has become a star in the Imperial College."

"Nonsense!" Huang Wan was so angry that his beard trembled when he heard this: "The rituals and music are in chaos, this is simply the rituals and music are in chaos!"

Just as the two were talking, a clerk ran in in a panic: "Report - there's trouble at the stock exchange again! Someone was caught forging banknotes, and now there's a huge commotion!"

"What?!" Huang Wan stood up suddenly, "Quick, prepare the sedan chair, I want to go and see it myself!"

When Huang Wan and Chen Qun arrived at the exchange, they were stunned by the scene before them.

There were huge crowds of people in front of the exchange, and several yamen runners were dragging a man with a bloody face out. Instead of dispersing, the crowd around them squeezed into the exchange even more frantically, shouting "buy" and "sell" in a deafening voice.

Huang Wan was about to step forward to ask when he suddenly saw a familiar figure squeeze out from the crowd - it was his nephew Huang She!
"Uncle!" Huang She also saw Huang Wan and hurried forward to salute.

Huang Wan asked sullenly, "Why are you here when you're not studying at the Imperial College?"

Huang She hesitated: "Nephew, nephew just came to see the world"

Chen Qun was sharp-eyed and noticed a dime in Huang She's sleeve. He immediately understood: "Mr. Huang is here to buy stocks too?"

Huang She realized that he couldn't hide it anymore, so he confessed: "To be honest, uncle, I mortgaged the manuscript of the Spring and Autumn Annals you gave me to a money shop and exchanged some money to buy stocks. Now the price has risen to."

"Rebellious son!" Huang Wan was so angry that she was shaking all over. She raised her hand to hit him, but was stopped by Chen Qun.

"Minister Huang, calm down." Chen Qun whispered, "This is not an isolated case. The most urgent thing is to report it to the King of Tang as soon as possible."

Huang Wan suppressed her anger and glared at her nephew fiercely: "I'll deal with you when I get back!"

When Huang Wan and Chen Qun hurried to Prince Tang's mansion, they learned that Prince Tang had not returned for three days and had been living in the palace for the past few days.

Then the two of them rushed into the palace again and finally found the real culprit in the Government Affairs Hall.

Even Lu Zhi, Zhu Jun, Yuan Shao, Jia Xu and others were here. It was obvious that they were discussing important matters, and they were related to what they wanted to report.

"Crazy, all crazy!"

In the hall, Zhu Jun didn't notice the two people at the door, and shouted while swinging the book in his hand:
"The first batch of one million shares was sold out in less than three days. The bank has attracted more than three million guan of deposits in the past ten days, and the loans it has issued alone have exceeded one million guan!"

"Three million strings?!"

Huang Wan took a breath of cold air after entering the room and paying his respects.

You should know that during the period when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was making a lot of money, the court's annual income was only 93 billion coins, or million strings of cash.

Although the annual revenue of the Later Han Dynasty once exceeded 10 billion yuan during its heyday, the court deployed military forces everywhere and built water conservancy projects, which resulted in more local spending. Later, the court declined, and local governments continued to conceal and withhold funds, resulting in a sharp decline in revenue year by year.

Although the imperial court has recovered somewhat in the past two years, its annual income is only 8 or 9 million strings of cash.

They had been shocked once when they raised one million strings of cash through public offering, but they did not expect that Qianhang's ability to raise money would be even more astonishing.

“What’s even scarier is that almost all of this money flowed into the exchanges.”

Imperial Censor Wang Yun frowned and reported the information obtained by the Supervisory Council:
"Now in Luoyang, the price of a dou of rice has risen from ten coins to thirty coins, and the price of silk cloth has risen even more."

"Prices are skyrocketing?" Lu Zhi's face was solemn. "Isn't this exactly the same as the chaos that occurred when Wang Mang reformed the system?"

Upon hearing Lu Zhi's words, the faces of the ministers suddenly changed.

Su Yao just took a sip of tea, with a faint smile on his face: "Master, you worry too much."

Su Yao stood up, walked to the window, and looked in the direction of the stock exchange in the distance: "This is not the chaos during Wang Mang's time, but a manifestation of economic vitality."

"Vitality?" Huang Wan couldn't help but take a step forward. "Tang Wang, please be wise. Nowadays, students are pawning books, farmers are abandoning their fields, and merchants are hoarding goods. How can this be called vitality? It is clearly..."

"It's clear that wealth is flowing." Su Yao turned around, his eyes sharp, "Minister Huang, do you know how much of these three million strings of cash were dug out from the cellar? How much is the wealth hidden by the aristocratic families for many years?"

Jia Xu's eyes gleamed: "The King of Tang is saying."

"That's right." Su Yao nodded. "Originally, this money was buried underground and hidden in the walls. It was of no benefit to the court. Now it has flowed into the money banks and entered the market. The court can not only collect transaction taxes, but also regulate the economy through the money banks."

He picked up a document from the table and said, "Pass my order and have the Ministry of Personnel issue a notice. Starting tomorrow, the Bank of China will raise the deposit interest rate to 3% per annum and the loan interest rate to 6%. At the same time, investors who trade stocks within six months will be charged an additional 1% stamp duty, while those who hold stocks for more than one year will be charged half the tax. At the same time, the dividend tax will be halved to encourage long-term investment."

"This..." Zhu Jun's eyes widened, "In this case, aren't these people who recently borrowed money to buy stocks..."

"I just want to calm down those blind speculators." Su Yao sneered:

"In addition, the exchange immediately implemented a 'circuit breaker mechanism' - for stocks that have been trading at the daily limit for no reason, if the daily price fluctuation exceeds 10%, trading will be suspended for one hour; if the stock price rises to the daily limit again, the market will be closed and trading will be suspended for three days."

"What? This."

Yuan Shao was immediately shocked.

For Yuan Shao now, raising taxes and fees would not make a difference.

After all, the stock market is rising by 20% every day, so a one or two percentage point tax is just a drop in the bucket.

But a trading suspension is different.

You should know that the Luoyang Stock Exchange and the imperial court have the same days off, that is, they both rest once every ten days.

During the last holiday, everyone from the rich and powerful to the common people were as anxious as ants on the hot pan, just looking forward to the opening of the market.

Once the market is suspended, everyone's enthusiasm will die down, and if people start to spread unfavorable news, I'm afraid we will be in real trouble.

And this is, of course, the original intention of the "circuit breaker mechanism" proposed by Su Yao, which is to put a rein on the current frenzied stock market.

Although the stock surge is very beneficial to his reputation and subsequent share issuance.

But as the saying goes, there is no market that only goes up and never goes down. Now, those who are new to stock trading buy stocks with full enthusiasm and almost rely on faith. If there is no control, it is only a matter of time before the stock price soars.

By then, if there is another event like the Dutch tulip bubble or the British South Sea bubble, the market will turn from extremely hot to extremely cold overnight.

The tulip bubble in the Netherlands directly shattered its hegemony in global maritime trade, and the Sea Coachman declined and was gradually taken over by the British Empire.

The South Sea Bubble in the UK was equally terrible. After this incident, people's confidence in stocks collapsed, and the British Empire did not issue a single stock for a full hundred years.

For Su Yao, who is the ruler of a country and designed all of this personally, it is impossible for him to step into the pit even though he knows there is a pit ahead.

So, when he saw that things were about to get out of control, Su Yao immediately intervened to prevent any disaster from happening.

Su Yao looked around at everyone and gave an order: "First, immediately mobilize the Jinyiwei and the Metropolitan Procuratorate to conduct a joint operation to thoroughly investigate the counterfeiting of banknotes. Once confirmed, they will be severely punished to serve as a warning to others. Merchants who maliciously raise prices will also be dealt with according to the law to stabilize the prices of daily necessities."

Then he glanced at Huang Wan, "As for the students, the Imperial College chief can guide them. I have a set of booklets that specifically explain finance and the stock market. They can learn from them and understand the way of finance, which is not just speculation."

Huang Wan was slightly stunned and secretly admired Su Yao's methods.

The situation that was originally chaotic and seemed to be out of control seemed to gradually have a clear solution under Su Yao's orders.

Lu Zhi twisted his beard, his brows still furrowed: "Tang Wang, I have another concern. Now a lot of money is pouring into the exchange, but production in various places has not increased. If this continues..."

"Taifu is right." Su Yao nodded, "So the Western Expedition must begin as soon as possible."

He unfolded the huge world map: "Once the trade route to the Western Regions is opened, the export of silk, porcelain, and tea will increase exponentially. And we will need more workshops, more craftsmen, and more raw materials."

"In this way, funds will naturally flow into industry." Jia Xu suddenly realized.

"Yes."

Su Yao took out another small notebook with the three characters "Company Law" written on it and handed it to everyone:

"Nowadays, people are enthusiastic about investing, but the stock exchange only has one product supply, the West Region Development Company. This is obviously one of the reasons why the stock price has soared and the supply has not met the demand."

"Therefore, we can take advantage of this opportunity to continue to launch supply, allow private self-operated companies to go public and raise funds, and then have the court and coastal states jointly invest in setting up the Nanyang Development Company and increase issuance efforts."

"At the same time, it's time for the Western Region Development Company to start its first round of additional issuance. Tomorrow, we can put up a notice announcing that the Western Region Development Company will issue another million shares, with each share priced at five strings of cash."

"What?! Only five kan?!"

Yuan Shao stood up suddenly, and the teacup fell on the table: "Tang Wang, the market price is now ten strings of cash, why is the additional issue price so low? Isn't this..."

"Wouldn't that make the shareholders who entered the market first suffer?" Su Yao took over the conversation with a half-smile, "Mr. Yuan is worrying too much. The first batch of shareholders subscribed for only one guan, and now they have made a profit of ten times. The price of this additional issue is set at five guan, which can not only allow more people to share the dividends of the Western Expedition, but also avoid an inflated stock price."

Jia Xu suddenly clapped his hands and laughed: "Great! This way, not only can we attract more funds for the Western Expedition, but we can also stabilize the stock price. What's even better is--" He glanced at Yuan Shao meaningfully, "Those who hoard goods will probably have trouble sleeping and eating."

Yuan Shao's face changed slightly, and he said calmly, "The king of Tang has foresight, and I admire him. But... the sudden issuance of so many shares may affect the reputation of the Western Region Development Company, trigger turmoil in the stock exchange, and cause the stock price to plummet."

Su Yao laughed when he heard this: "Mr. Yuan, you worry too much. The Western Region Development Company has the trust of the imperial court behind it. As long as the Western Expedition goes smoothly, the company's future will be worry-free. Why should we worry about the stock price?"

Then Su Yao turned to everyone and said seriously:

"Pass the order down. A swearing-in ceremony will be held outside the Nangong Gate in three days. The issuance registration will be carried out on the same day. All soldiers who participated in the Western Expedition will have the right to subscribe for the company's shares first."

"At the same time, the court will also provide another 5% of the shares as equity incentives to meritorious soldiers in the future. In addition to the regular rewards, all those who have made military achievements will also be eligible for shares based on their merits!"

"what?!"

"Shares awarded for military merit?!"

As soon as Su Yao said this, there was an uproar in the government hall.

Cao Cao stood up suddenly, his eyes gleaming, "The Tang king's plan is to combine the way of business with the system of military merit and nobility into one!"

Jia Xu quickly calculated in his head: "If we calculate it at 5 guan per share, the total share capital of the Western Region Development Company will be as high as 10 million guan. 5% is 500,000 guan." He looked up at Su Yao and asked, "Is the King of Tang going to create a system of granting land based on military merit?"

"That's right." Su Yao unfolded the "Regulations on Granting Shares for Military Merit". "In the past, Shang Yang reformed the Qin people by granting them land for military merit. But there is always a limit to land. Soon after the founding of the Han Dynasty, the military merit land grant collapsed because there was no land to grant."

"Although the Western Regions look vast, the land available for cultivation is far less than that in the Central Plains. If the old system is implemented again, the court will have to spend a lot of money on rewards."

"Therefore, today I will grant shares based on military merit, which will not only save the national treasury expenditure, but also make the soldiers understand--"

Su Yao tapped his fingers heavily on the map: "Every inch of land in the future Western Region is closely related to their vital interests!"

hiss--

Lu Zhi took a deep breath and looked at Su Yao with a moving look in his eyes: "This old minister finally understands! The King of Tang wants to gather troops by profit, support the war by business, and make the expansion of territory an achievement that everyone strives to be the first!"

In the government hall, all the important officials looked at each other and suddenly knelt down on the ground in unison: "King Tang is wise!"

Therefore, as Su Yao released a series of interlocking policies, the capital city of Luoyang once again experienced a huge shock, and the atmosphere for the Western Expedition became increasingly strong.

Before the army set out, the empire's military morality soared.

The martial spirit was prevalent in the government and the country. Even children playing in the streets often imitated military battles and took pride in expanding territory.

The fact that everyone talked openly about the future of the Western Regions obviously frightened the Hu merchants, Qiang people and others in Luoyang City.

When they saw the notice board saying that the imperial court was going to hold a rally to swear in the Western Expedition, their faces immediately changed. They no longer cared about the rise and fall of their stocks and hurriedly sent out fast horses to report back to their hometowns.
(End of this chapter)