I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 162 Fulfilling the Promise
Yang Tinghe stared at Zhu Houxun on the stage. Zhu Houxun's method today seemed familiar to him. Four years ago, Zhu Houxun made a lot of money in the capital by using this method. Although he still couldn't understand what Zhu Houxun wanted to do, the news that there were 4 million taels of silver in the Ming Royal Bank still made him think.
A curious official had already opened the gift, and saw that it contained 10 beautifully crafted silver coins neatly arranged inside.

"This King of Jing is quite interesting. He actually gave us coins. Is he bribing us?" Yang Yiqing said as he picked up a coin.

Yang Yiqing, who had served as the Minister of Revenue, actually wanted to say that the so-called Royal Bank of the Ming Dynasty did not have the power to mint coins, but he did not want to say much, because after all, it had the word "Royal" in its name, and in the Ming Dynasty, the boundary between the emperor's private property and official property was not so clear.

"One yuan is worth half a tael of silver, which is only 5 taels. This is actually the 'local specialty' of the Ming Royal Bank. Please accept it," Tian Cheng, who was in charge of entertaining senior officials, said hurriedly. Zhu Houxuan had already begun to train him and let him show up more often on important occasions.

"Hahaha." Tian Cheng's words caused laughter from the people around him.

Yang Yiqing did not ask any more questions.

The opening ceremony of the Ming Royal Bank has finally ended, and the events that took place at the ceremony will surely become a topic of conversation among the people of the capital for a long time.

After the opening ceremony, Zhu Houzhao curiously picked up the list of deposits of the kings.

It is understandable that Zhu Houxuan and Prince Ning deposited 500,000 yuan. One is good at business, and the other is an old vassal king who has accumulated wealth for hundreds of years.

But the amount of Prince Xing's deposit was a bit confusing to him.

"How did Uncle Prince Xing save so much?" Zhu Houzhao asked doubtfully. He knew very early that Zhu Houxuan wanted to borrow money from the princes, otherwise Zhu Houxuan would not have allowed the fourteen princes to gather in Qizhou. But he did not expect that he could borrow so much.

To be honest, Prince Xing was quite ruthless. He said at the beginning that he would only deposit 300,000 taels of silver, which was almost the limit for him. But later on, he somehow managed to collect another 100,000 taels.

Therefore, Prince Xing's deposits became extremely eye-catching among the other princes, and also aroused Zhu Houzhao's curiosity.

When Zhu Houxuan saw this as a good opportunity and Zhu Houzhao was in a good mood, he quickly explained the whole story.

Zhu Houzhao remained silent after hearing this. Zhu Houxuan knew that he was thinking about Empress Dowager Zhang, with whom he had a very bad relationship.

"Royal brother, why don't you just agree to Uncle Xing Wang's request? This is also an act of filial piety!" Zhu Houxuan advised.

"Brother, this matter is not as simple as you think. There is no precedent for letting the concubine leave the palace!" Zhu Houzhao began to feel embarrassed.

"I also want Uncle Xing to be reunited with Concubine Shao, but Concubine Shao was Emperor Xianzong's favorite concubine and she had to be buried in Maoling after her death!" Zhu Houzhao explained the reason.

Zhu Houxuan was silent for a moment. He also figured out the reason. It was because of the evil feudal ethics. Whether during her lifetime or after her death, Concubine Shao's body belonged to Emperor Xianzong. In comparison, Prince Xing's filial piety to Concubine Shao was only a minor filial piety. Letting Concubine Shao be buried in Maoling and reunited with Emperor Xianzong was a major filial piety.

"Brother, you are going to take up your three-foot sword, lead a million troops, and wipe out the Mongols. Why are you so pedantic about this matter? If you let Uncle Xing Wang get the favor, other princes will see it and will surely win the hearts of the princes all over the world. It will be much easier to borrow money from them in the future. Can't you tell which is more important, brother?" Zhu Houxuan continued to persuade.

"And we can also have the best of both worlds. We can first let the Concubine leave the palace and reunite with Uncle Xing, and then bury her ashes in Maoling after Concubine Shao dies. This will fulfill both the great filial piety and the minor filial piety. Isn't that wonderful?"

Zhu Houxuan had a very accurate grasp of Zhu Houzhao's character, and he also understood the pros and cons of the matter very well. "Brother is right! Let's do this."

The next day, Zhu Houzhao went to test the opinions of the court officials, but was surprised to find that the court officials did not care much about the matter. As for a concubine who had been completely marginalized for more than ten years, the court officials had long forgotten that there was such a person. So Zhu Houzhao took the opportunity to order the Prince Xing's Mansion to send someone to take Concubine Shao out of the palace.

Zhu Houxuan thus fulfilled his promise to Prince Xing. Although he did not like his son Zhu Houcong, he still helped with such good deeds whenever he could.

The speed at which the Ming Royal Bank attracted deposits was somewhat beyond Zhu Houxuan's expectations.

After opening his business, Zhu Houxuan sent envoys to various princely palaces in the north to solicit inheritance from them.

The northern kings had long heard about the fourteen kings gathering in Qizhou, but they regretted that they were too far away and could not attend, so they were very enthusiastic about Zhu Houxuan's envoys.

They are eager to attend a similar gathering in Beijing.

Zhu Houxuan naturally agreed to all the requests skillfully.

So Zhu Houxun quickly collected another 200 million taels of silver in savings from them.

Thanks to the leading role played by a number of princes, many nobles in the capital also deposited a lot of silver in the bank.

The actions of the nobles also encouraged the people to deposit money in banks. The people used various methods to test whether the Ming Royal Bank really paid interest, and the bank naturally withstood the test.

Among them, the bearer certificates of deposit played a huge role. The bearer method can attract a lot of funds of unknown origin.

The amount of silver deposits in the Ming Royal Bank exceeded six million taels.

Other industries of the Ming Royal Group were also listed at the headquarters.

The Ming Royal Group is directly divided into five major subsidiaries: finance, heavy industry, light industry, cultural publicity, and railways.

With so much silver in the bank, it had to be invested and developed. Zhu Houxuan also signed the first two loans, one to the heavy industry subsidiary, lending it 150 million taels of silver.

The railway company was given a loan of 100 million taels of silver, allowing them to explore areas suitable for building railways. The vast plains in the north would be easier to build railways than the hilly terrain in the south.

What Zhu Houxuan did not expect the most was that the people in the capital showed great interest in silver coins. Even before the first batch of Qizhou goods had been delivered to the capital, many people in the capital had already begun to exchange silver for silver coins.

The beautifully designed silver coins and sophisticated manufacturing technology made them very confident in this currency they had never seen before. Even if there was no commercial benefit of a 10% discount on Qizhou goods, they were willing to exchange for this currency.

The two million silver coins that Zhu Houxuan brought to Beijing were all exchanged within a month. The most ridiculous thing is that Zhu Houxuan had not seen many silver coins circulating in the market.

This made Zhu Houxuan very upset. In the end, he thought that the silver content was still a bit high, so he decided to adjust the silver content of the silver coin to 75%.
(End of this chapter)