Late Tang

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In Dengzhou in December, the whistling cold wind pierced through every crevice in his clothes, so cold that he wished to tuck his neck into his collar.There are still countless ships relying on the wharf in Dengzhou. A large number of ships in the port take the winter monsoon to the Bohai Sea, Silla, and Dongying, and they also go south with the wind.However, there were also some caravans from the south, relying on the advanced sailing technology at this time, to head north to Dengzhou against the wind.The closer to the end of the year and the New Year, the more ships in the port of Dengzhou.

There are no city walls on the periphery of Xindengzhou City, but eight new city gates have been built. At each gate, a number of military strongholds such as bastions have been newly built.

The end of the new year is approaching, and countless motorcades and people come in and out, creating a busy scene.

In this port city, handicraft city, cultural center, and economic center of the East, the number of soldiers, civilians, and workers has exceeded one million.It has become the undoubted manufacturing center and consumption center of handcrafted goods in Datang Dongfang at this time. Whether it is food, various necessities of life, or even various luxury goods, the demand of Dengzhou City is extremely amazing.

Compared with the hot consumption in Dengzhou, the handicraft manufacturing industry in Dengzhou is more developed. From the simplest sewing needles, to fabrics, even carriages, ships, etc., Dengzhou already has a complete and huge commodity production scale. .

In the first half of the fifth year of Qianfu, because Huang Chao first burned Guangzhou, then destroyed Jiangling, finally occupied Jiangxi, invaded Jianghuai, and the four towns in Hebei rebelled.

It dealt a heavy blow to the commercial development of Dengzhou, especially the trade of domestic commodities in the town [***].The North-South Canal, the Huaihe River, the Yangtze River, and the Yellow River, the water transportation lines that transport Dengzhou's commodities, are all under great threat.

In the third quarter of the fifth year of Qianfu, all workshops in Dengzhou were hit hard, and many goods were even unable to be delivered, resulting in a backlog of products, unable to recover the payment, and the capital chain was in danger of being interrupted.

However, at this dangerous Guanjian time, Li Jing attacked Goguryeo and did not immediately lead his troops to turn around and return to the pass to join the war. Instead, he started a huge round of Northeast development.

At the beginning of the Northeast Development Plan, a large number of Goguryeo people in Northeast China were relocated back to the Central Plains. These people were resettled in the interior, which firstly made the construction and real estate industries pick up, and then led to the thawing of the construction material market.Subsequently, the spinning mills, cloth dyeing workshops, clothing and hosiery stores, cloakroom stores, furniture stores, furniture stores and other workshops and shops related to various daily necessities also improved.

Then banks, farms, etc. also benefited.

For the large-scale relocation of millions of people, Li Jing invested a lot of government finances for this, and a large number of workshops and shops received government orders.

Then those Goguryeo Hu people who sold their property in Liaodong began to rebuild their homes, and everything started anew. Everyone needed houses, daily necessities, production tools, etc.

In the end, the arrival of these people has facilitated various workshops and mines, etc., and has a large number of new laborers.

And this is just the tip of the ice water. It is the development of the Northeast that really makes Dengzhou's industrial and commercial circles prosperous again.Countless new immigrants went to the northeast, built roads, laid bridges, built cities, built military fortresses, etc., and a large number of new villages and towns were built. These basic constructions alone have completely made more workshops, shops and mines A large number of government ax orders.

According to Li Jing's words, since the sale of goods was affected due to the civil turmoil in the Tang Dynasty, the Northeast should be developed simply to carry out a large amount of infrastructure construction and expand domestic demand.At the same time, Li Jing, Li Rang and others also tried their best to conduct Dengzhou's business as ocean trade, and through the Maritime Silk Rebellion, more goods were sold to South Asia, East Africa, the Arab world, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, etc. of the Western world.

Using the profits from these trades, they turned around and supported the construction of the Northeast, accelerating the reclamation of wasteland and hoarding land in the Liaohe Plain in the Northeast, and expanding food production.

As long as the town [***] is stable, there will be no wars, disasters and famines.Everyone has a job, and the food is enough to feed the people in the government. Then Li Jing's rule will only become richer and stronger.

As a result, hundreds of projects were started in 21 counties of [-] prefectures in Xiasix Township, Northeast Road, as large as one town and as small as prefectures and counties.

Fortunately, although there are many projects, Li Jing has already planned them, so it's not a mess of doing their own thing and launching them indiscriminately.For this reason, Li Jing specially set up an audit department.This audit department is like the third department in the late Tang and Northern Song Dynasties, and it is also modeled after the Development and Reform Commission of later generations. It has huge power, not only in charge of finance, but also in everything related to finance.From the military to the civilian population, and even local state and county finances can also be managed. Although it is only a temporary institution, it is still amazing.

Li Rang is the director of the audit department and is in charge of all of this.

The entire resettlement, resettlement, and development of the Northeast are all in charge of the audit department, and they are in charge of road construction, city building, water conservancy, military and other projects in all states and counties, from project establishment to review, allocation of funds, and supervision.

The Audit Committee transferred as many as hundreds of officials to coordinate this work, preventing the chaos of affairs and ensuring the smooth progress of the entire huge resettlement and Northeast development plan.

Because of this audit department, compared with other states and counties in the Tang Dynasty, the power of the local states and counties, especially the subordinate states, was greatly reduced.Not only lost most of the military power and judicial power in the feudal town, but now it has lost financial power.

In Dengzhou's Audit Office, clerks from [-] counties in [-] prefectures guard here every day, reporting projects for approval and striving for funds.

The Marshal's Mansion has money, but on the one hand, it has to maintain a huge military expenditure, and on the other hand, it has to support the huge resettlement and Northeast development plan. Naturally, it is impossible for all states and counties to be treated equally.In this way, the audit department's office is like a battlefield every day when it comes to fighting for funds.

For this reason, after several discussions between Li Jing and Li Rang, the original bank was finally changed to the Eastern Bank, and the Northeast local bonds were issued for the first time.

After Li Jing and Li Rang explained things like bonds carefully, Li Rang, who is good at business, immediately turned his eyes red.In the end, Li Jing was conservative. The first phase of Northeast bonds was issued with an amount of 3000 million yuan, a five-year registered bond, and an annual interest rate of 5.00%. Five years after the 3000 million bond, Li Jing will have to pay 750 million in interest.

Although this interest is not light, Li Jing thinks it is still feasible.After all, national debt is a financial method that is common in later generations.

Li Jing also considered for a long time to set the figure of 3000 million.When the Tang Dynasty was rich, the court’s annual tax revenue was only 3000 million guan, and of course there were tens of millions of shi of millet not counted.

The Tang Dynasty actually borrowed this kind of debt, but instead of issuing bonds, when the court had no money, it directly forcibly borrowed money from the rich. One, somewhat akin to a 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 do it like this.

His Northeast bonds are voluntary purchases, and there is an annual interest rate of 5.00% when buying bonds. At the same time, Li Jing also provides some tax incentives to the wealthy households who buy them, and gives a certain amount of relief.

Of course, the most attractive thing Li Jing launched is not interest rates and tax cuts.

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

Today's Dengzhou City has been expanded repeatedly, and the oldest Dengzhou City has also undergone comprehensive planning and reconstruction.The newly rebuilt old city has completely become an aristocratic area where every inch of land is expensive.There are the most luxurious high-ranking official mansions here, as well as giant businessmen with fortunes of hundreds of millions.Several streets here are even commercial pedestrian streets where horse-drawn carriages are prohibited.

The best products in the entire Northeast Road are in this old town, and there are all kinds of products here, and almost all of them are those famous brand stores.

In this aristocratic district, the East District is the concentrated residential area for high-ranking officials from the Northeast Province, while the West District is the residential area for those giant businessmen.Most of these businessmen are maritime merchants, and all of them are extremely rich.Among them, Liu's house occupies a very large area in the west district, and the owner of the house, Liu Shouye, is a well-known big merchant in Dengzhou.He has an ocean-going fleet of more than [-] ships, which specially travel to Dengzhou to the Mediterranean countries such as Arabia and Fulin (Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium) and Persia.

He made a lot of money by selling glass, liquor, perfume, cotton cloth, rock sugar, and white sugar from Dengzhou, as well as tea, silk, and porcelain from the south to the West, and then bringing back various commodities from the West.Especially since Dengzhou invented the compass and telescope used at sea and improved the technology of watertight cabins, and the canned vegetables and fruits produced in Dengzhou greatly reduced the risk of oceangoing and made the profits even higher.

Liu Shouye, who is in his fifties, is well maintained, and now he no longer travels with boats. His sons take turns to replace him and take charge of purchasing and selling commodities.After running on the sea for most of his life, now he has completely stopped to take care of himself. The old man enjoys this kind of life very much.

Although it was approaching the end of the new year and the wind was blowing outside, the old man's room was built with a kang, and the room was very warm.

Liu Shouye was wearing a well-tailored cotton robe, half lying on the soft couch, listening to the voice of the 12-year-old grandson Qinglang reading the newspaper for him.

Liu Shouye was not very literate. He was born in poverty in his early years. He was a beggar at first, and later he was an apprentice for others, and then he gradually became the steward and owner of the fleet from an apprentice.He also knew a few words, but not much.In this life, what he admired and respected most were educated scholars.It's a pity that although he sent several sons to study and paid a lot of money to hire a husband, none of them became successful in the end.Now, several grandsons have started to go to school and entered the academy in Dengzhou to study, carrying his expectations and hopes.

Liu Shouye, who closed his eyes and listened to his grandson reading the newspaper, was very satisfied. Although this eldest grandson was not as strong as his sons, he was a little weaker.But the book is good, at least the newspaper is good.

Just about to praise a few times, Liu Shouye suddenly heard his grandson read a piece of content.I was a little taken aback for a moment, the King of Andong actually wants to issue bonds?What are bonds, are they the same as banknotes?

Liu Shouye's vision is very sharp. When he came to Dengzhou from Guangzhou, he shifted his business focus to Dengzhou. Facts have proved that his original decision more than doubled the Liu family's family business.When he first came to Dengzhou, he was very interested in the banknotes of Dengzhou.Under the rule of the county king, the currency system here is completely different from the rest of the court.

He has been in business for many years and has seen the central and local finances of the imperial court. It can be said that it is a chaos.Money shortage, price confusion, fake money, and even people bartering and so on.But Dengzhou is completely different. Gold, silver and copper coins are circulated together, and silk is also used. What's more important is that they use paper to make money. However, this situation that should have been more chaotic has not happened here in Dengzhou.In these two dozen states, the currency is unified and prices are stable.Don't look at other things, just seeing a food price stabilized at five cents a catty is enough to shock people.A catty of rice in Dengzhou costs five Wen, but outside Dengzhou, it is almost [-] Wen a bucket, which is equivalent to a hundred Wen per catty, which is twenty times the price of rice in Dengzhou.

Thoughts were developing, but I heard my grandson continue reading.

"The ten people who bought the most Northeast bonds this time will be awarded the Medal of Love by King Andong himself!"

Hearing this, Liu Shouye's eyes widened all of a sudden, and his eyes were full of splendor.Previously, the king of Andong County awarded medals to the soldiers, and all those who received the medals became nobles, more than 100 knights, and more than 300 knights.Could it be that this time, regardless of their status as scholars, farmers, businessmen, as long as they are the ten people who buy the most, they will be awarded honors and become nobles?

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

In the past, he didn't think there was anything wrong with this, after all, businessmen had always been in the lowest position.But in the past few years in Dengzhou, he discovered that the status of businessmen in Dengzhou is not low.In particular, Li Jing's attitude towards merchants is different from that of other high-ranking people in the world.

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

Liu Shouye's heart skipped a beat, and his chest began to breathe rapidly.

If you learn well, you will become an official!

Even an ordinary farmer can let Lianming's children study if conditions permit.If you read well, you can be an official.As soon as you become an official and become a family of officials, the status of the entire family will change from then on.

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

At this point, Liu Shouye has already achieved great success in business. He also thought that he hoped that one day he could change the fate of the Liu family.

But the step from businessman to official is too difficult, even more difficult than the step from farmer to scholar.

But now, Li Jing is actually willing to offer ten honorary places for the purpose of issuing bonds. This means that for Liu Shouye, this is a huge opportunity, an opportunity that must not be missed, and perhaps an opportunity that will never come again. Chance of fate.

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

"Liu An, prepare the car right away and go to the Eastern Bank!" He remembered that his grandson had read in the newspaper just now that this bond was issued by the Eastern Bank! (To be continued.)