On August 22, the seventh year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty (1634 AD), Huaxia Bank was officially opened.

Huaxia Bank is located at the junction of Ximen Street and Beimen Street, which is the center of Lanzhou City, separated by dozens of steps from the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Mansion, which is convenient for Guo Shijun to serve in the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Mansion and Huaxia Bank at the same time.

A two-entry courtyard of Huaxia Bank, sitting in the north and facing south, the main entrance is the same as the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Mansion, facing the North Gate Street, and the front row is a two-story attic, which is not only the office space, but also the north wall of the courtyard.

A row of blue brick houses in the back is the dormitory of Vice President Cui Wenxuan, Li Haonan, Jiang Yuze and others, and in the middle is the treasury of Huaxia Bank.

The sound of "crackling" firecrackers in the center of the street attracted countless pedestrians, most of whom were illiterate, and the literate people did not know what a "bank" was.

Fortunately, Guo Shijun has trained several employees before, and at various intersections along the street, they are explaining the past and present life of the bank to passers-by, but the people just remember one sentence: the bank is the former money bank!

What interested the people was not the smell of sulfur released when the firecrackers exploded in front of Huaxia Bank, nor the festive atmosphere deliberately created by Guo Shijun, but the words promoted by the bank staff.

Huaxia Bank accepts the deposits of the people, any people, can put the rich money in the family into it, according to the length of the deposit, the annual interest rate is two to five percent, that is to say, one or two silver deposited in the bank, there will be 20 to 50 Wen interest every year, the longer the deposit time, the higher the interest rate, the more interest.

Any ordinary person can also borrow from the bank, as long as the guarantee can be provided, the house deed, the title deed, etc., can be used as the subject of the guarantee, and the interest rate of the loan is higher, the annual interest rate is about one cent.

The people finally understood the meaning, and were not surprised, but they did not expect that the silver in the bank could still get interest, although this interest is not much, but it is better than being in the house in vain, but unfortunately, the vast majority of these people who watch the excitement are "proletariat"!

As for the bank's loan business, it has nothing to do with ordinary people, so what do they want to borrow money for? Not only will you have to pay it back in the future, but you will also have to pay interest...... However, some people realized that in the past, when there were major events in the family, such as marrying, building a house, getting sick, etc., and they urgently needed money, they generally had to pay very high interest, and even repaid it in several lifetimes, and if they borrowed money from the bank, the interest seemed to be even less......

The onlookers basically did not have idle money to save, and even if there was idle money, they did not dare to deposit it in Huaxia Bank for the time being, and on the first day of its opening, Huaxia Bank did not have any business.

Li Zicheng is not in a hurry, Huaxia Bank will eventually become the exclusive central bank, and some of the functions of the commercial banks that are now affiliated will be removed, and the reason why it now bears the functions of commercial banks is mainly to let the people know it, so at the beginning of the establishment of Huaxia Bank, it was to attract the attention of the people, as long as the ordinary people know the existence of the bank, the purpose has been achieved.

In the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Mansion, the first blue brick and blue tile house after entering the main gate is divided into two parts by the passage, the left side is a whole, and there are only wooden beams and columns in the room, which is a large conference room of the Governor's Mansion, and the right side was originally six rooms, which are divided into three major rooms, which are the offices of the Civil Division, the Military Affairs Division, and the Gold and Silver Division.

Li Zicheng and Guo Shijun were discussing paper money in the office of the Gold and Silver Division.

The banknotes to be issued, called "Huaxia Yuan", referred to as "Huayuan", there are three kinds, yuan, jiao, fen, corresponding to the corresponding silver and copper, one yuan is equivalent to one tael of silver, one cent is equivalent to one penny copper coin, because one tael of silver is equivalent to one thousand Wen, so between yuan, jiao, and fen, one yuan is equivalent to one hundred jiao, and one dime is equivalent to ten.

The center of the front of the one-yuan banknote is on the right, is Li Zicheng's avatar, which is indirectly used as a guarantee of his personality to ensure the credit of the banknote, the center is on the left, it is a big "one" word, and there is an Arabic numeral "1" in the lower left corner; On the back of the banknote, the center is a picture of the Yellow River Bridge in Lanzhou, the upper right corner is also an Arabic numeral "1", and the lower foot is the Kyushu military flag pattern of the Mandate of Heaven: nine stars evenly distributed!

Such a one-dollar banknote, once it comes out, will definitely shock the world, but I don't know if the people trust it.

Li Zicheng looked at the banknote designed by Guo Shijun himself, and said with a smile: "Shijun, will the people accept the banknote?" ”

"The issuance of banknotes must be secured by the gold and silver in stockpiles, and do we not have 120,000 silver now? Issue 120,000 yuan first, even if someone has bad intentions and deliberately runs on it, we are not afraid," Guo Shijun has already moved all the 120,000 taels of silver that the Heavenly Mandate Army has into Huaxia Bank, "Besides, in the territory of the Tianming Army, the prestige of the Metropolitan Governor is in full swing, as long as the Metropolitan Governor sits in Lanzhou, nothing will happen!" ”

Li Zicheng nodded, "Then pilot it in Lanzhou first, the paper money will be printed first, and all the money will not be put on the market for the time being, the soldiers stationed in Lanzhou will be paid first, and the salaries of Lanzhou officials will also be paid with paper money." ”

"The key is to widely publicize it among the people, otherwise the people and businesses may refuse to accept it!" Guo Shijun said: "The subordinates have already calculated, on the day the paper money is released, Lanzhou will be under full martial law, and all those who refuse to accept the paper money will be arrested into the barracks!" ”

"The people just don't understand paper money, and we can't embarrass them," Li Zicheng said with a smile: "Shijun must be prepared to prevent the people from using paper money to go to the bank to run, arrange more manpower, and we will exchange as many silver coins as there are banknotes...... Prepare some more change, in the hands of ordinary people, I am afraid it is still mainly horns and points! ”

"Don't worry, this subordinate has been prepared for a long time." Guo Shijun's eyes flashed with essence, and when he came to Daming, this was the most earth-shattering thing he had done, and it was also the most difficult thing to control.

In front of Li Zicheng, he said with confidence, but he understood that Li Zicheng wanted to issue banknotes, not only to increase the currency in circulation, but also to ensure that if there was a financial crisis in the future, it would be difficult to guarantee that he would not issue a large number of banknotes and pass on the crisis......

The issuance of currency depends on the sum of the value of all commodities produced in the territory of the Mandate of Heaven Army each year, and now in the territory of the Mandate of Heaven Army, there is a rare situation of national peace and security, and this sum will definitely grow rapidly, and the issuance of paper money will gradually increase, but the silver and red copper on the territory of the Mandate of Heaven will definitely not be able to keep up......

"Sejun, we seem to have missed a very important question," Li Zicheng stroked the side of his face with his hand, and gently tapped his temple with his index finger.

"Omission?" Guo Shijun was taken aback, "The Governor ...... Dadu"

"Anti-counterfeiting," Li Zicheng smiled faintly, he also just remembered, "Shijun, we can print banknotes, then others can also print them, in case someone secretly prints them, won't it disrupt the market?" ”

"The Metropolitan Governor is right," Guo Shijun was shocked into a cold sweat, he really didn't expect that during this time, in addition to shouldering the design of banknotes, he also had to consider the issuance of banknotes, the time was tight, the task was heavy, and there was really no more energy to think about the issue of anti-counterfeiting, "according to the Metropolitan Governor's view......"

In this era, it is impossible to add ten anti-counterfeiting measures, and it is not possible to stealth secrets, besides, Li Zicheng is not a technician, and he is not an expert in anti-counterfeiting.

However, he remembered that he had read in the novels of later generations, and the pawn tickets and silver tickets of the Jin merchants would leave dark flowers, such as, "The world is laughable, the way of heaven is the fairest, the evil is for personal gain, the conspiracy harms others, good and evil will be rewarded in the end, and the time will be clear", use these three crosses as a date on the 30th of the month, each word represents a date, can represent 1, laugh represents 2......

There will be a Chinese character on each pawn note and silver bill, representing the date of issuance of the bill, when each bill is issued, the money bank will have a record, only the date on the bill is consistent with the date recorded, the bill is real, outsiders do not know the password, and it is categorically impossible to forge.

Li Zicheng naturally would not plagiarize such poems, in case it was cracked by the Jin merchants, wouldn't the paper money be counterfeited in large quantities?

He remembered the Qing Dynasty poet Nalan Rongruo's "Picking Mulberries", "The bright moon should laugh at me and laugh at me now." Live up to the heart of spring, wander alone and chant alone. Recently, I'm afraid to talk about current events, and I'm all over the place. The moon is shallow and the light is deep, where to find the clouds in the dream? ”

This poem has a total of 44 words, in the 22 words of the upper que, the repeated words "laugh, me, alone, self" are eliminated, and there are 18 words, the first fifteen words are taken to represent 1-15, and the second 22 words are eliminated, and the repeated word "month" is eliminated, and there are 21 words, and the first fifteen words are taken to represent 16-30.

In the inconspicuous place on the banknote, printing a Chinese character, and then matching the Arabic numerals as a dark flower, can initially achieve the purpose of anti-counterfeiting.

"The scheming of the metropolitan governor, admired by his subordinates," Guo Shijun took a deep look, "If Nalan Rong is from the Qing Dynasty, he has not yet been born, in this era, it is impossible for others to know this poem, and it is more difficult to decipher the dark flower than to ascend to the sky!" ”

Li Zicheng smiled faintly, picked up the tea, took a sip, and said, "Shijun, are there any questions?" ”

"There should be no problem," Guo Shijun frowned, pondered for a moment, and said, "My subordinates will personally go to the city tomorrow to find the representatives of the merchants, and ask them to cooperate with the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Mansion to use paper money as much as possible, at least not to refuse to accept paper money, causing us unnecessary trouble!" ”

"Shijun," Li Zicheng pondered, "Are you worried that merchants will take the lead in boycotting paper money and even running Huaxia Bank?" ”

Guo Shijun said: "The Metropolitan Governor, the merchants in Lanzhou, although their strength is relatively scattered, their loyalty is ...... The subordinates are not sure! ”

"Just to test the merchants of Lanzhou," Li Zicheng said with a smile: "The treasure banknotes issued at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty may have hurt the trust of the world in paper money, since the run will happen sooner or later, just like chickenpox, the sooner it happens, the better we can control it!" ”

"The Metropolitan Governor ......" Guo Shijun suddenly understood Li Zicheng's thoughts, "What the Metropolitan Governor means, through the issuance of paper money, see which people sincerely support the Mandate of Heaven Army, then the subordinates don't need to visit them......"

"No," Li Zicheng said, "Shijun should still visit the heads of the business world, but this language is ......."

Guo Shijun arched his hand to Li Zicheng, his eyes were full of expectation, "Subordinate...... Subordinates understood! ”