Prince Li You of the Great Tang Dynasty begs the noble families to their deaths!

Chao Yang said, "Okay, I'll go write it right away."

"In addition, a comparison of simplified and traditional Chinese characters can be included to help spread simplified Chinese and make it more widely used. The usage of punctuation marks can also be printed together."

"Okay, I can start those right away."

And so, Chao Yang began his work of writing, editing, and printing books.

Although his poems were not very good, his articles criticizing aristocratic families were incredibly eloquent and inspired.

Everyone has their own preferred writing topics.

In his spare time, he also made sure to keep in touch with the Liu family of Huangzhou.

To please this woman, he even changed the aforementioned poem, "Seven Quatrains on Strolling Alone by the Riverbank in Search of Flowers," into "A Gift to Lady Liu," and wrote it on the first page of the book.

The phrase "Huang Si Niang's house is full of flowers" should be changed to "Liu Si Niang's house is full of flowers".

The young widow, surnamed Liu, who had many suitors, was astonished by the beauty of the collected works.

The scales in this woman's heart began to tip in favor of Chao Yang...

……

The first day of the fifth month in the nineteenth year of Zhenguan was the day Huimin Bank officially opened.

Yin Shaokang, as the actual person in charge of this bank, was both nervous and somewhat uneasy at this moment.

Huang Chao's army poured in a full 240,000 strings of copper coins, and in the first phase, they opened eight branches.

Chang'an, Luoyang, Yizhou, Yangzhou, Hangzhou, Jinling, Bianzhou, Qizhou.

Yin Shaokang personally oversaw the Luoyang branch, using the alias "Wei Kang" at the time.

At the same time as Huimin Bank, "Huitong Currency Operation" also opened.

The freight organization and the bank are interdependent, but their operations are separate.

The employees of each company were unaware that the owners of both businesses were the same person.

In order to attract customers to save and borrow money, and at the same time avoid giving the government any reason to criticize them, Li You, Yin Shaokang, Yin Hongzhi, Dou Jun and others discussed and finally decided to set the interest rate for Huimin Bank's savings at 3% and the interest rate for loans at 5%.

The "five percent" loan interest rate was 5% per month, which was also the highest interest rate for the money exchange industry stipulated by the government.

Huang Chao's army setting such an interest rate was, given the circumstances at the time, a very benevolent act, even somewhat merciful.

The Tang Dynasty government's lending offices set the interest rate at eight percent per month.

In other words, the interest rates set by the government itself are illegal.

But they were the government of the Tang Dynasty, which provided them with excellent conditions to break the law, and no one would care if they did.

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Or perhaps, no relevant law enforcement agency was ever established at the time.

The renowned official Chu Suiliang once submitted a memorial exposing that "those who borrow money from the government borrow more than fifty strings of cash and pay four thousand cash in interest every month, which nearly doubles in a year."

Compared to government lending, private lending rates were far more outrageous, typically reaching 10% per month.

The most outrageous private money market funds can offer monthly interest rates as high as 20%, which is utterly insane.

Even so, private lending is still very common, especially lending between businessmen.

For itinerant merchants, encountering a good business opportunity but lacking the funds to invest is a very frustrating situation. Therefore, sometimes they have no choice but to borrow money, which is unavoidable.

Besides the preferential interest rates, Huimin Bank's "copper coin withdrawal service" is not only a major innovation, but also a true hallmark of the bank.

If it weren't for this business, Huang Chaojun would never have needed to open eight branches at the same time.

The establishment of Huitong Freight Forwarding Company was also to meet the needs of copper coin escort and circulation that arose from this business.

In order to achieve a successful start, Yin Shaokang selected four places—Chang'an, Luoyang, Yizhou, and Yangzhou—to launch a propaganda offensive.

Among them, Yin Shaokang visited almost all the prominent merchants in Luoyang.

Businesspeople, especially successful business tycoons, are all shrewd and calculating.

Initially, some businessmen also saw the terrifying prospects of the "Huimin Bank" project and considered investing in it.

But when it comes to actually investing real money, most of them back down.

Only one or two merchants, out of consideration for their past business dealings with the "Wei family," symbolically contributed a few thousand strings of cash.

But now, as the Wei family announces to the entire Luoyang business community that Huimin Bank is about to open, the wealthy merchants in Luoyang have a different feeling.

They all sent people to inquire about the details, resulting in the Wei residence being packed with distinguished guests every day.

I learned from the young master of "Weikang" that the Wei family received a large amount of help from a mysterious benefactor in the south. In the end, they spent 240,000 guan to open eight large branches across the country, specializing in "copper coin withdrawal" business.

Upon hearing the details, some of the wealthy merchants in Luoyang were envious, while others were jealous.

There weren't many haters, because the Wei family had a very good reputation and a very good name in the industry.

Whether it was envy, jealousy, or hatred, everyone used the word "arrogant" to describe it, and they all speculated about who the mysterious benefactor the Wei family had found this time was. Was it the Dou family of Yangzhou, the Luo family of Jiangxi, or one of those old money families from Jiangnan who had been out of the public eye for a long time?

This inexplicable sense of mystery can be a very effective catalyst in business activities.

Weikang announced that merchants who come to support the opening will have "priority" for further cooperation.

It seems they have great confidence in this business.

Many Luoyang merchants who genuinely faced the "pain point" of transporting large quantities of copper coins were closely following news from the Wei family.

Compared to the bustling scene in Luoyang, the publicity efforts in Chang'an, Yizhou, and Yangzhou were somewhat disappointing.

Yin Hongzhi's network of relationships over the years is mainly in Luoyang.

Therefore, it is understandable that the publicity efforts for Chang'an, Yizhou, and Yangzhou were not very effective.

Once Luoyang can open up the market and copper coins can circulate in various places, merchants can take their drafts to the branches in their destinations to actually withdraw the money, and the entire banking system will be completely revitalized.

When the Luoyang branch opened, many businessmen rushed to the scene.

"Young Master, congratulations!"

"Young Master, I have a business deal that urgently needs to be done in Bianzhou. Could you please let me be prioritized?"

"Young Master, I'd like to deposit two thousand strings of cash to try it out. I've heard that you can earn interest by depositing money?"

"Young Master, I need to borrow some money for temporary relief. Is it true that you offer 5% interest on loans here? What's the maximum amount I can lend?"

Yin Shaokang knew almost all of the first batch of customers; they were all acquaintances, so communication was very smooth.

However, most of them came to watch the spectacle, and only two or three actually needed to use copper coins in other places.

These two or three customers were also the most important people on the bank's first day of operation.

Once the first few deals are done, things will be much easier afterward.

After exchanging pleasantries with everyone, Yin Shaokang led the important clients aside and chatted with them in detail.

"Manager Sun and Manager Wu are going to Bianzhou, and Manager Miao is going to Mianzhou. We have a branch in Bianzhou. After depositing the copper coins, signing the business contract, and obtaining the bank draft, we can go directly to Bianzhou and withdraw the corresponding copper coins with the draft."

"We also have a branch in Yizhou. Manager Miao can withdraw money in Yizhou and then transport it to Mianzhou. If Manager Miao trusts our bank, we also have a partnership with Huitong Freight Forwarding. You can also consider using this freight forwarding company to assist with the transshipment."

"As Huimin Bank continues to grow, we will have branches in every state across the country. At that time, merchants like Manager Miao will not have to go through the trouble they have today."

Upon hearing Wei Kang's ambitious words, the shopkeepers were filled with awe.