Chapter 132
Although it has been more than three months since the bank was established, in fact, there are not many people in southern Liaoning and the whole world who have dealt with the bank.
Zhang Chen took one of her servants with her. Women are women. In the environment of the late Ming Dynasty, there were still too many inconveniences. This servant girl of Zhang Chen family is called Hao Wuniang, and her maiden name is Yanzhi. She is a ruthless character with lives on her hands.
Hao Wuniang was originally the fifth daughter of Hao Huandong, the commander of the Laizhou Guard, and she was married to Gan Yanshou, the commander of the Weihai Guard.
In future generations, this Gan Yanshou would be a complete scumbag and a scumbag. After the marriage, she would punch and kick Hao Wuniang if she was not satisfied at all. Hao Wuniang accepted it, but the problem was that Gan Yanshou was such a scumbag. In order to get promoted and make a fortune, he gave his wife to his immediate boss, the pervert Zhou Kui. .
This pervert Zhou Kui has a lot of fun. He doesn't like ordinary promiscuous women, nor does he like yellow-flowered girls. He just likes Cao Cao and is a good wife. Hao Wuniang, who had just married Gan Yanshou, became his target. He used some tricks on Gan Yanshou, and Gan Yanshou understood.
In order to force Hao Wuniang to obey, Gan Yanshou personally made Hao Wuniang drunk with wine. However, Gan Yanshou did not know his wife. Hao Wuniang had drank a lot since she was a child. For her, that little wine was just a gargle.
At this time, Hao Wuniang broke out. At night, with a silver sword, she killed Weihai Guard commander Zhou Kui, four of his soldiers, her husband Gan Yanshou, her eldest brother Gan Yannian, and Gan's family servants, a total of eleven people. After killing these eleven people, Hao Wuniang was rescued by Feng Sanniang in order not to cause trouble to her natal family. Later, she learned that she was already two months pregnant.
In this way, she followed Feng Sanniang and gave birth to her daughter. When Feng Sanniang came to Liaonan pretending to be Mrs. Cheng, she also followed Feng Sanniang and pretended to be Feng Sanniang's servant.
But the problem is that Feng Sanniang is a fake wife. Although she has no worries about eating and drinking in the backyard of Ning Haijun Military Mansion, the problem is that Cheng Shijie did not give Feng Sanniang living expenses, and Hao Wuniang naturally has no money. After giving birth to her daughter, Hao Wuniang had no milk. In order to make a living, she had to become Zhang Chen's bodyguard.
When arriving at this three-story cement building, Hao Wuniang was stunned. As the most distinguished person in southern Liaoning, Hao Wuniang had lived in Cheng Shijie's family for more than two months, and Hao Wuniang was well-informed. She never imagined that compared with this bank, Ning Haijun's headquarters was like a beggar competing with the Dragon King.
There is absolutely no comparison.
At the main entrance of the bank, there is a huge square with two rows of carriage parking areas that can park more than a hundred vehicles at the same time. There are also two rooms where wealthy people can rest temporarily. There are sofas with backrests in the rooms. , even in Cheng Shijie’s General Military Mansion, they are rare.
Especially the exterior wall of the three-story building is actually covered with a layer of gold bricks. Each brick is yellow and as hard as iron. When thrown on the ground, it makes a sound of metal clashing. When the sun shines through, the entire wall glows with thousands of dots. Golden light, extremely gorgeous.
Entering the lobby of the bank, the floor is also paved with gold bricks, which is extremely smooth. Silver-plated chandeliers hang on the ceiling, like blooming lotus flowers. The silver light flows and is dazzling. These few handicrafts alone are worth a lot of money. .
By the way, there is also a fireplace installed inside. If you light a fire, no matter how cold the weather is, it will be warm inside. It will be warmer than hiding in the kang. There is no need to burn the fireplace now, but the candles on the ceiling are still burning in broad daylight. Even in such a large lobby, it does not look dark at all.
Here stood a row of bank staff wearing long gowns and Xiaoyao scarves. In the Ming Dynasty, there were strict regulations on what kind of clothes people of different classes should wear.
Zhang Chen nodded secretly. This Liaodong Bank was strong enough, with more than a hundred scholars serving here.
Speaking of scholars, these scholars are different from the scholars in Jiangnan, but they are indeed qualified to wear Confucian shirts because they have worshiped Confucius and Mencius and read the books of sages.
"Dear Madam, how can I help you?"
Mrs. Zhang Chen nodded: "I want a loan!"
Before borrowing money, Zhang Chen had inquired about Liaodong Bank, which was also the former Liaonan Bank. The owners behind it were Liaodong Economic Envoy, Zuo Dudu, General Zhenglu, Liaodong Dudu Commander Sidu Commander, Ning Haijun The chief military officer, Cheng Shijie, controlled the Dongjiang Army.
Sure enough, in Zhang Chen's mind, only Cheng Shijie would be so kind to the people. Not only would everyone save money and get interest, but they could also borrow money from here if they were short of money. The interest rate was quite low. It's much more fair than asking landlords or underground banks or pawnshops for loan sharking.
Since there were not many people in the lending area, Zhang Chen quickly came to the counter.
Arriving at the counter, Mrs. Zhang Chen was slightly stunned.
Because the shopkeeper (actually, she should be a loan officer) sitting in front of the counter is actually a woman. Although this woman is wearing a Xiaoyao scarf and the same Confucian shirt as the scholars outside, she has a confident and gentle smile on her face. God's will: "Ma'am, how can I help you?"
"I want a loan!"
"First of all, let me introduce to you the lending rules in our bank. We need collateral. Do you have anything that can be pledged?"
"I have!"
Zhang Chen casually took out the house deed, store deed and land deed that had been prepared.
The loan officer reached out and respectfully took the three contracts. As loan officers, they did not need to do appraisals, but handed them over to specialized appraisers.
Because their contracts, whether early or late, were originally issued by the Military Affairs Administration and belonged to the same family. In other words, even after the Management Committee was established, it took over this matter.
They can easily get the number of the original file from the management committee. It is a sixteen-digit number. It is the same as the ID number of later generations. The ID number is a regular combination of numbers, and the number of house deeds and land deeds is regular. Yes, it is not easy to crack. It is very easy to check the authenticity through the digital number of the house deed. This is one certificate, one number.
Very quickly, the professional appraiser quickly gave the pledge reference value of Zhang Chen’s assets. The most valuable property of Zhang Chen’s is actually her shop, because of its good business prospects, good location, and good operating conditions. The appraiser gave an appraisal of two thousand taels of silver, the property was valued at 160 taels of silver, and the one hundred acres of land was valued at 800 taels of silver.
Although the wasteland in southern Liaoning is worthless, there is very little land in private hands. Ning's navy officers can be divided into more than fifty military fields, which can only be obtained by martyrs and military merit. Even if Cheng Shijie's original intention was to pay one tael of silver per acre of land, in fact, the land in southern Liaoning now costs eight taels of silver, but no one is willing to sell it.
The reference value of this land price is the value of the land sold by the Liaonan Administrative Committee to private factories. This is industrial land, and industrial land in Liaonan can only be found in alkali wasteland, gravel land or mountainous areas with no agricultural value. If you want to open a factory, the first step is to buy land, buy industrial land that cannot be used to grow crops, level the land in your own way, and build factories...
"Dear Madam, our professional appraisers have evaluated the value of your pledge. The total value of your pledge is two thousand nine hundred and sixty taels of silver. Do you have any objection to this?"
Zhang Chen was slightly surprised, because the value was far higher than she expected. Her house and shop were built earlier, and workers in southern Liaoning were worth even less at that time. Therefore, her principal was actually only ten taels of silver, and seven taels of silver. In many months, with a principal of ten taels of silver, I earned 2,960 taels. How many times did this increase?
Zhang Chen’s head was a bit exhausted: “No!”
"Madam, according to the regulations, you can only borrow half of the value of the collateral, which is one thousand four hundred and eighty taels of silver. However, considering that you are a martyr's family, this standard does not apply to you. All military families and martyrs' families, Marshal Cheng will Provide guarantee, so you can borrow up to three thousand taels of silver!"
Mrs. Zhang Chen nodded and said, "Then I'll borrow three thousand taels of silver!"
"Our bank needs to charge a certain amount of interest. Do you understand this?"
"I can understand that!"
"Our loan interest rate is two cents. If they borrow ten taels of silver here, the monthly interest will be two hundred cents. In one year, it will be two taels and four cents of silver, and in three years, it will be seven taels and two cents. That is to say After three years, you must return seventeen taels of silver to our bank."
The loan officer continued: "Considering that you are a martyr, if you borrow money from our bank, the interest will be halved as appropriate. That is to say, if you borrow three thousand taels of silver, you will need to pay our bank's interest of thirty taels of silver every month. You Is that acceptable?"
"Shuai Cheng is a good man!"
Mrs. Zhang Chen smiled and said, "I'll borrow it!"
The loan officer collected Zhang Chen's house deed, store deed and land deed, and then asked Zhang Chen to sign and fingerprint. After the loan contract was signed, the contract was made in two copies. One was kept in the bank and the other was handed over. Save it for Zhang Chen.
Subsequently, the loan officer operates the transfer. If you need to withdraw money, you need a password, personal seal and signature (if you are illiterate, the operator can sign on your behalf, but the fingerprint must be printed on it.
After discussing with Zheng Jian and others, Yang Yuniang and others adopted Cheng Shijie's method combined with the original bank's method. The seals, handwriting, and fingerprints must be exactly the same, otherwise they will not get the money. This completely eliminates the possibility of manipulation by either party. .
It took Zhang Chen less than half an hour to get the loan from review and evaluation. Of course, she does not need to withdraw the money immediately because her business expansion also takes time.
While Zhang Chen was handling the loan business, a woman came with her maid to handle the deposit business. This woman was Miss Xu Si. Although the Xu family was well off, the problem was that her money was about to run out. As a Fourth Miss, if there are four big brothers above, it will be very easy.
Martina wrote a letter to one of her four brothers. The letter was very simple: her sister (sister) had no money, and her eldest brother came to help.
So, Xu Ji's five sons sent money to the fourth lady one after another. It may have been agreed upon by the five brothers. Each of them gave one thousand taels of silver, which is five thousand taels of silver.
Originally, these servants brought money, and Maldina wanted to take it directly to Zhenhai City, but she heard that Liaodong Bank does not charge fees for depositing money and returns interest.
Ten taels of silver has an interest rate of thirty cents per month. The five thousand taels of silver earns fifteen taels of interest per month. This means that she does not need to spend a penny on these five thousand taels of silver. She only eats the interest. It can make her live a very nourishing life.
In fact, this is indeed the case. In the entire southern Liaoning, ordinary people's living expenses are about five or six hundred yuan a month. Even people like Zhang Chen who have fish and meat every day can have a higher living standard than her in southern Liaoning. Not much. Her main expense is to replenish her son's health, which costs four to five taels of silver in a month.
This also includes the expenses of her servant Hao Wuniang, her daughter, maids, and five people.
Zhang Chen found that when facing customers, whether they were borrowing money or depositing money, the female clerk who was responsible for handling the procedures always had a warm smile. There were many procedures that needed to be done. Feel more at ease and comfortable.
Zhang Chen didn't know that these female employees had received nearly three months of training before taking up their posts. The most difficult thing they practiced was smiling, which made their faces freeze...
The teacher responsible for training them was Wang Wei, a famous prostitute who was as famous as Liu Rushi in Jiangnan.
Qian Qianyi said: "Today's poems and prose are declining, and the light and air between Kuibi is dim. The Taoist in Cao Yi and my family, Lord Hedong, have clear and beautiful poems, showing off between the six bridges in Xiling."
Huang Zongxi also said: "At that time, there were willows like this in Yushan Mountain and Wang Xiuwei in the clouds. They all sang and followed the wind and were heard all over the world."
Caoyi Taoist is Wang Wei's nickname, and Wang Xiuwei is Wang Wei's nickname.
The apprentices taught by Wang Wei, let alone ordinary guests, even if they are romantic talents, they are very familiar with the job and are very handy.
…
As Liaodong Bank started lending, it immediately aroused heated discussion among everyone. Commercial loans come second, and those who are most excited are actually the families of Ning Navy officers and martyrs in southern Liaoning.
Because they are the only class in southern Liaoning that own their own farmland. Due to their number, many people's land has not been cultivated. If there are cattle, horses, or more farming tools, wouldn't it be...
Chen Dayong is the supervisor of Ninghai Navy. According to his military position, he has 300 acres of land. In addition to the military merits of previous beheadings, Chen Laosan relied on his son Chen Dayong to own more than 860 acres of land.
Chen Laosan was a very thief. When the refugees flocked to southern Liaoning, he took the opportunity to take fifty-three concubines to his son Chen Dayong. The oldest of these concubines was thirty-seven or eighteen years old, and the youngest was twelve years old. Three years old, some with sons and daughters,
In Chen Laosan's eyes, age is not important, and appearance is not important. The most important thing is that with these fifty-three concubines and a dozen adopted grandchildren, their family's More than 860 acres of land are ready for farming.
Chen Laosan took his fifty-three daughters-in-law, seventeen or eight adopted grandchildren, and seventy or eighty people to work together, plus temporary hired laborers. After exhausting work, he finally managed to cultivate 860 acres of land. Most of them were planted.
Due to the fertile land in southern Liaoning and timely irrigation, these crops grow very well. In Chen Laosan's view, if the land cannot produce two stones of grain per acre, he will tear his eyes out.
Seeing that the weather is getting warmer and people around him are building new houses, Chen Laosan has a headache. Chen Dayong does have military pay. In the army, he eats and drinks from Cheng Shijie without spending any money. Every month's military pay was given to Chen Laosan.
But the problem is that the fifty-three concubines are easy to use, but the problem is that they are expensive to maintain. Chen Laosan looked at his nine adobe houses, and there were five or six people crammed into each room.
It was okay when it was cold, but it is very inconvenient now. Every day, these daughters-in-law would wait until they fell asleep before they would get up and wash themselves...
It's really inconvenient.
But when the grain is harvested after autumn, Chen Laosan will definitely have money to build a house. But the problem is that after autumn, the weather will get colder, and it may be too late to build a house by then.
Chen Laosan spent five buckets of grain and invited Wu Banxian from Dengzhou Weizuo Qianhu to show him the house. If a house with three rooms and fifty-nine rooms was built, future generations would surely be high-ranking officials.
This was Wu Banxian's nonsense, but Chen Laosan kept it in mind. If these fifty-nine rooms were built, they would cost hundreds of taels of silver.
Because there are so many people building houses, the construction engineering team is overwhelmed. If you want to build a house now, you can only add money. If you use good building materials, one hundred taels of silver is not enough.
Chen Laosan held a family meeting for his fifty-three daughters-in-law.
There must not be enough room to sit in the house, so the meeting can only be held in the courtyard. Chen Laosan said: "I thought about it and borrowed money from the bank to build a house..."
The oldest daughter-in-law is called Luo Shi, who is thirty-seven or eighteen years old this year. Her original husband's family borrowed three taels of silver from the landlord because her father-in-law was suffering from gas disease.
In the end, everyone was gone and all the money was spent. The money they owed rose to more than 150 taels in less than two years with interest. In less than two years, their family was ruined. In order to escape the debt, the whole family ran away overnight. Covering their escape, the landlord caught up and beat him to death.
"Dad, you must not take out a loan. Otherwise, we can build our own house. We can do the work that men can do!"
She could become Chen Dayong's concubine, even if it was only in name, Chen Dayong had never touched her, or even said a few words to her, but the problem was that Luo was too satisfied with the Chen family.
With 860 acres of land, a pond of your own, and a three-acre homestead, what else can you think of?
Since entering the Chen family, although Luo Shi has done a lot of work, he has never been beaten or hungry. What else can he beg for?
Chen Laosan also knew that these daughters-in-law were poor people, and some of them had been ruined by loan sharks. He knocked on the table: "Let me just say one thing, this bank is owned by a handsome man."
"A handsome one?"
"Yes, when our Chen family didn't hang out with the commander-in-chief, we always had a lot of trouble. Dayong became a soldier for the commander-in-chief, and later he was promoted. Our family's 860 acres of land are all The commander-in-chief rewards us. The commander-in-chief is willing to lend us money. We can just collect the grain and return it to the commander-in-chief. The commander-in-chief is also considerate of his subordinates. There are many people like Dayong who have no money to build a house at home. I will lend the commander-in-chief ten taels of silver. The interest is only one or two dollars a year!"
Chen Laosan smiled and said: "We are still two months away from the end of autumn. In two months, our family will have a mountain of harvested grain, and there will be no place to store it at home. This house must be built, and we must borrow money to build it." , not only build a house, but also buy cattle and horses!"
You can understand buying cattle. If there are cattle this year, spring plowing will be much easier.
"Why do you want to buy a horse?"
"Dayong is already an official of the imperial court. If he goes out to ride in a donkey cart again, he will be laughed at!"
Chen Laosan pointed at his face and said: "I don't have to have this old face, but Dayong can't embarrass the commander-in-chief. If others see this, they will say that the commander-in-chief treats his subordinates harshly. We must add to this face!" "
Chen Laosan used his 860 acres of land as a mortgage, borrowed 420 taels of silver from the bank, and planned to spend 200 taels of silver to build a new house. After all, the Chen family has a large population now.
Then he bought sixteen cows for the price of eight taels of silver per cow, and two good horses...
There are many people like Chen Laosan in southern Liaoning. They can't wait to build new houses and buy cattle or horses, which greatly stimulates the livestock industry in southern Liaoning.
Regarding making money, some people joke that if you stand on the wind, a pig can fly.
This sentence is also applicable to southern Liaoning. Zhang Chen, a widow, succeeded because she was courageous and dared to think and do. In just six months, her net worth exceeded 3,000 taels.
Regardless of the fact that the asset appraisal given by the bank is 2,980 taels of silver, the problem is that the bank's appraisal is falsely low. If it is falsely high, once the borrower has no money to repay the money, the bank will have no choice but to admit it. Unlucky?
Will banks do business at a loss?
Definitely not, even if it is a 100% loan, there is still a certain profit margin.
If Zhang and Chen really went bankrupt, these assets would be enough to make the banks happy.
This is the cruel reality.
Even though the annual salary of many people in Liaonan exceeds twelve taels of silver, it does not mean that these people are worth twelve taels of silver.
Because the value of twelve taels of silver was given by Cheng Shijie to ordinary people in southern Liaoning.
In order to ensure the basic living security of the people in southern Liaoning, the Management Committee began to promulgate the "Liaodong Workers Protection Law". Article 1 of this protection law stipulates that any enterprise, factory, or store that employs employees is not allowed to withhold wages from employees.
Workers have the obligation to work and the right to receive wages. This is not charity.
Ordinary workers in Liaonan enjoy a minimum wage of one tael of silver, and food is included. If any accident occurs during work, whether it is a worker's operating error or an equipment accident, resulting in a work-related death or injury, the business owner must be responsible to the end. .
The introduction of this protection law made businessmen in southern Liaoning lament.
If you violate this protection law, it is actually very simple. It can range from a fine to a serious penalty of bankruptcy.
Farming in the Central Plains is likely to go bankrupt. In a disaster year, the tragedy is unimaginable. Not to mention the crops, the bark of the trees has been eaten away. Apart from people, there is no living thing left in the entire village, including cats and dogs. Everything was eaten, even big livestock like cows and horses were not spared. People also knew that eating cows and horses would make farming more difficult in the future. But when people were hungry, they had no choice. Even their children could be replaced. I don't care about eating, livestock or anything else.
Even if they are not eaten by humans, animals will starve to death.
There is no such worry here in Liaonan. Even if the crops really fail and there is no food, you can dig wild vegetables, go into the sea to catch fish, or fish for kelp.
Cheng Shijie not only opened four salt factories in southern Liaoning, but also had a production scale of 300,000 pieces of rock salt per year. You must know that these salts are already in demand by tens of millions of people.
Cheng Shijie was also stunned when he received the report from the salt factory.
Unknowingly, so much salt was produced. Even though a lot of salt was used to pickle horse meat in the spring, and now salt is used to pickle salted fish, there is still too much salt in stock.
Cheng Shijie looked at these numbers with emotion.
He was thinking about dumping salt to Jiangnan and the Central Plains?
Of course, this salt market is for Jiangsu and Zhejiang salt merchants. They use the sun-dried salt in Liaonan for their own use. They have no objection. The original Liaonan market does not exist in the eyes of Jiangsu and Zhejiang salt merchants.
This consumer market was cultivated by Cheng Shijie and naturally belonged to Cheng Shijie. They had no objection.
It's useless to have opinions, because Cheng Shijie is a general with a heavy army. What can they do with Cheng Shijie?
Reasonable?
Cheng Shijie definitely regarded their words as farts.
Giving gifts and giving bribes...
Cheng Shijie didn't notice their three melons and two dates.
Assassination?
Come and bury one, come and bury a pair.
Cheng Shijie would not be polite to them.
Cheng Shijie summoned Yang Chen, who was in charge of the salt factory business. Yang Chen was a senior salt worker. He started working as a salt worker in Nanyang, Henan Province at the age of thirteen and had been working for more than thirty years. Although he didn't say it clearly, Cheng Shijie guessed that it should be in Wugang later, which is the only city named after a company.
Wugang Group created Wugang City.
"Meet the Marshal!"
Although Cheng Shijie has been promoted to Liaodong Economic and Strategic Envoy, the problem is that many people or craftsmen do not understand the official system of the imperial court. They cannot distinguish whether Cheng Shijie is a general or an economic envoy.
Anyway, the commander's name was so smooth that Cheng Shijie didn't pay attention. He would call himself the commander more often.
"No gift!"
Cheng Shijie smiled and said, "On this report, you have your fingerprint. Does that mean this report was not written by you?"
"The villain can't read!"
Yang Chen said somewhat submissively: "This is written by my daughter-in-law!"
"Ha ha!"
Cheng Shijie understood that the people of Liaodong still respected literate people very much. When choosing a wife, one looked like a fairy but was blind and illiterate, and the other was ugly. When choosing a wife, the first choice was still Cultured woman.
Cheng Shijie pointed at the report and said: "There are too many lies in this. I only want to ask you two questions! First, is the 300,000 rock salt estimated production capacity or has it been produced?"
Yang Chen smacked his lips and said: "By August or September, there should be 300,000 rock salt, but now there is none, only 120,000 to 30,000 rock salt!"
"very good!"
Cheng Shijie said: "Second question, how much does it cost to produce one rock salt? What is the cost? I made a mistake. These are two questions. Let me ask one more question. Jiangsu and Zhejiang salt merchants, how much does it cost to produce one rock salt? How much silver, do you know??”
Cheng Shijie has now made a decision. If he has the strength, he will overturn the table and smash the pot of Jiangsu and Zhejiang salt merchants.
(End of chapter)
