Chapter 83: The Emperor's Outrageous Actions
The money in the treasury is the country's money. Although the emperor is the nominal master of the country, the emperor cannot use the money in the treasury at will. Once he uses the money in the treasury at will, he will be labeled as a tyrant and will be bullied by his ministers.
Generally speaking, the ministers would work together to teach the emperor how to spend the money in the national treasury and where to use it correctly.
The treasury is the emperor's private money and the private property of the royal family. It is the key to maintaining the dignity of the royal family and can be spent in any way.
If there is only a national treasury but no private treasury, then the emperor is not the ruler of the world and should be called a senior civil servant.
So not only ministers would be corrupt, but emperors would be corrupt as well. They would secretly transfer money that should have been deposited in the national treasury into the inner treasury, otherwise many things would become inconvenient to do.
Liu Hong had many ideas at the moment, such as building a nude swimming hall and holding one naked meeting after another to get through the hot summer. However, realizing these ideas would require money, a lot of money, and the money in the treasury was simply not enough, so he had to find a way to get the money.
Liu Hong asked again: "I'm asking you a question, why don't you say anything?"
Zhang Rang said helplessly, "Your Majesty, the money in the treasury is used to maintain the dignity of the royal family. How can such a large amount of money be sent all the way to Nanyang? Please think twice."
"This won't work, and that won't work either. Can't you say something nice?" Liu Hong said impatiently, "Then let the Chengjin Bank come to Luoyang as soon as possible!"
Zhang Rang prostrated himself on the ground again and said with a wry smile, "Your Majesty, no matter what, if the royal family's money is deposited in a private bank, it will cause controversy. It's not that I don't follow your wishes, but this matter is too absurd."
Liu Hong frowned, and suddenly a light bulb went off in his head, and he came up with an idea. He jumped up excitedly, clapped his hands and said, "Got it!"
"Ah?" Zhang Rang's eyes widened when he heard that, and his heart skipped a beat!
Liu Hong was a typical incompetent ruler who did not follow any conventional rules, but he had plenty of creativity.
He simulated a street market in the harem and asked his concubines and palace maids to dress up as various characters in the market.
Some dressed up as businessmen, some as customers, some as passers-by, and some as singers, monkey trainers, etc., with a full range of characters.
Liu Hong does business, quarrels, eats out, and has a lot of fun playing cosplay here.
Liu Hong also set up a special agency called "Xi Di" to sell official positions and provided a complete price list for various official positions.
The price is basically proportional to the annual salary of the official position.
The prices of various official positions vary depending on the official rank and region.
In order to increase sales, his charging model is very user-friendly, and you can even buy on credit first and then pay in installments.
At the same time, for some more sought-after positions, such as the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers, he likes to repeatedly cut the leeks. He will let you work for a year or two, and then find a reason to get rid of you, and then continue to sell the official position next time.
He also liked poetry and wrote many works, among which "Song of Recruiting Merchants" was included in "Han Poetry".
This alone makes him much better than an emperor who wrote more than 40,000 pieces of rubbish poems.
Among them, his Nude Swimming Hall is his masterpiece, and it is also a work he has been conceiving for a long time.
In order to realize his dream world, Liu Hong must get more money.
Zhang Rang repeatedly stopped him from depositing his money in Chengjin Money House. Liu Hong could understand this. After all, no emperor would give his money away as it would damage the dignity of the royal family... But since he couldn't deposit his money, he might as well open his own money house!
This was a good idea that came to Liu Hong in a flash of inspiration. He should open a money house like Cheng Jin Money House, pay out some interest, trick the wealthy families into depositing money in it, and then use the deposits to build a nude swimming hall, right?
This is simply a brilliant idea!
Liu Hong applauded his own idea.
Zhang Rang looked at the emperor who was dancing with excitement and asked nervously, "Your Majesty, what are you going to do?"
"I want to open a bank and let people deposit money in it." Liu Hong said with a smile: "I am not greedy, I just want to get 500 million or 1 billion. This will be enough for me to build various palaces and enjoy myself. By the way, I can also recruit soldiers to guard the palace!"
After hearing this, Zhang Rang opened his mouth wide. He really wanted to say that the money was the depositors' money and was either deposited in the money house or it was your money. You have to make this clear. You are not a money house at all.
"Your Majesty, if you do this, the reputation of the royal family will be greatly damaged." Zhang Rang hesitated for a while, but finally spoke.
"That's fine. I've thought about it before. I can just find an excuse to cover it up, saying that a fire dragon burned the warehouse or thieves robbed it. Anyway, the money is gone. Are they going to force me to pay it back?" Liu Hong said indifferently, "Do these methods look familiar to you? Can my subjects do it, but I can't?"
After hearing this, Zhang Rang was speechless, because it really made sense. It was indeed the truth. Those officials deceived their superiors and subordinates and engaged in all kinds of corruption. Couldn't the emperor learn from them?
Zhang Rang knew that he could no longer object. He nodded, thought for a moment and said, "But Your Majesty, if you really want these noble families to deposit money in the bank, you must think of a good reason to get them to deposit money. Otherwise, if you suddenly open a bank, those noble families will not be willing to deposit money in it."
"Isn't the interest enough?" Liu Hong frowned and thought for a moment without any clue. He asked, "Then how does Chengjin Bank do it?"
"What Chengjin Money House does is to absorb a certain amount of money each time and then lend it out as a loan. The remaining money is used to do business with Chengjin Chamber of Commerce to earn more profits." Zhang Rang thought for a while and said.
Liu Hong nodded and said, "This is easy. Since they are doing business, why don't we do business too? It's just a name. Think about it, what kind of business can attract these aristocratic families to deposit money willingly?"
Now that the idea was found, the next step was easy. Zhang Rang thought for a moment and said, "You can say that a large copper mine has been discovered in Jizhou and that large-scale mining is needed. With this as an excuse, you can open a bank to raise funds for mining. In this way, I believe those people will deposit money into it."
"That's a good idea." Liu Hong's eyes lit up, and he nodded and said, "We have to do the whole show. Now let the governor of Jizhou... I remember it was Li Shao, right? Let him report that a large copper mine has been discovered. It is very difficult to mine and requires a lot of money to invest..."
"My bank will be called the Royal Bank! Or the Heavenly Bank!" Liu Hong looked very excited.
Zhang Ran's face trembled, and he said quickly, "Your Majesty, you must not call it by this name. After all, we are not planning to do this business for a long time. This is not good."
"Well... you're right." Liu Hong nodded: "It's true that I can't use this name. I still have to change it. After all, I'm not one of those merchants who plans to do the money house business for a long time."
A few days later, a money house was opened in Luoyang, named Tiancheng Money House. This name was very grand and ordinary money houses would not dare to use this name.
Tiancheng Money House is the same as Chengjin Money House in Nanyang. It pays interest on deposits, and it is not low.
Not only did it completely copy the interest model of Chengjin Money House, even the process of depositing money was the same, almost a one-to-one replica.
This made the money shop owners in Luoyang very upset.
They have always been worried that Chengjin Money House would come to Luoyang to open a branch , and then their business would be completely gone.
However, Chengjin Money House has not opened yet, and a counterfeit money house has suddenly appeared in Luoyang!
How could they accept this? They were like chicken blood, and they would not stop until they killed Tiancheng Bank!
But before they could take any action, the soldiers surrounded their bank and began to make things difficult for them, conducting various searches. In a word, they were not allowed to open the bank during the days when Tiancheng Bank was open! Oh, unless someone came to withdraw money, then that was fine! After all, the money withdrawn could be deposited in Tiancheng Bank.
This confused the bank owners. Who is Tiancheng Bank and why does it have such great power?
