Qi Xuanhao looked at Lin Zhe a little nervously, for fear that he would be dissatisfied with his plan, after all, in the traditional history of China, the imperial court officials have never held any state banquets or the like for wealthy businessmen, let alone use high-level government officials as escorts.

Chinese tradition is very contemptuous of the merchant community, even if the wealthy merchant has no fame on his head, his social status is not high, and any county official can exterminate the rich businessman.

But now in the plan put forward by the Ministry of Finance, these rich businessmen are treated as gods of wealth, and they take the initiative to invite them to the state banquet, all they ask is to let them buy some national bonds.

After half a ring, I heard Lin Zhe put down the plan in his hand, and then said: "If you follow the plan, how many treasury bonds do you expect to be able to sell?" ”

Qi Xuanhao said: "If everything goes well, we expect to invite about 100 wealthy merchants and local gentry to participate in the banquet, according to the minimum of 10,000 yuan per person, it is expected to be able to sell more than 1 million, this is only our most conservative number, because the people who come to the banquet are the top local rich businessmen, these people are worth tens of millions, especially the salt merchants in Yangzhou, the Jin merchants in the financial industry, the raw silk merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, etc., these are the rich businessmen, if one person buys more than 50,000 treasury bonds, Then we would be able to sell five million.

Our finance department estimates that we should be able to sell between three million and five million on the whole, but this kind of thing is unprecedented, and the specific effect is unknown! ”

Lin Zhe frowned slightly when he heard this.

Seeing Lin Zhe frowning, Qi Xuanhao hurriedly said, "Although it is not too much to expect. But in this current situation, this extra three to five million can also greatly alleviate the current financial pressure! ”

Qi Xuanhao's words mean this. It's less money, but it's better than nothing!

Lin Zhe said: "Now that you already have a charter. Then let's do it, the situation of this banquet has also changed, it is not realistic to want them to pay for a simple meal, you make preparations, change it to the situation of the cocktail party, well, learn from the diplomatic cocktail party of those foreigners, and let those local buns open their eyes! ”

Speaking of this, he thought for a while and said, "Don't put the venue in the finance department. When I go to the palace, I will go and see it! ”

Hearing this, Qi Xuanhao's face changed slightly, he never said in his plan to let Lin Zhe attend, it was not that he didn't want to, but he didn't dare.

What kind of person is Lin Zhe, he is the emperor of the empire, how can the holy face of the Son of Heaven be seen by anyone, in the current empire. Except for senior provincial officials and cabinet ministers, who have the opportunity to meet Lin Zhe, even provincial officials may not be able to meet Lin Zhe at the beginning of their tenure, and most of the time they are met by cabinet ministers.

As for ordinary people, well. That is, those gentry and wealthy businessmen were fortunate to see Lin Zhe, and it was also in 1856 that a few people saw Lin Zhe from a distance.

Now Lin Zhe is going to attend the cocktail party. This suddenly raised the specifications of the fundraising reception countless times, how could this not make Qi Xuanhao frightened!

Immediately, Qi Xuanhao said: "Your Majesty's move is very good!" ”

Lin Zhe didn't care. Isn't it just a drinking party and then attending the scene, although some people will say that this move is an obstacle to Shengwei. But now that the financial situation is so tight, he Lin Zhe can't take care of it much.

After getting Lin Zhe's approval, Qi Xuanhao acted quickly, and Lin Zhe also issued a holy edict, asking the military and cabinet departments to actively cooperate with the work of the Ministry of Finance, and at the same time specially instructed the palace affairs department to prepare for a cocktail party.

In order to reduce the cost of holding this cocktail party, which already has the nature of a state banquet, the palace affairs department directly used a lot of manpower and materials in the palace.

In this process, as a representative of the stubborn conservatives in the cabinet, Jiang Daoquan, Minister of Education, as always, played his conservative role, and criticized the Ministry of Finance's attempt to hold a cocktail party.

There has never been, just Nima now that you Qi Xuanhao have made this first time, do you want to make the Son of Heaven lose face for tens of millions of years?

However, Jiang Daoquan's opposition obviously could not stop the progress of this matter!

Seeing that the opposition was not working, Jiang Daoquan began to set up obstacles from other aspects, such as the selection of people to participate in the drinking party, the Ministry of Education required that the people who came to the drinking party must be innocent families, must have meritorious reputations, etc., in short, they did not want to see the appearance of dirt buns or people covered with copper stench.

There is a lot of discussion on this matter in the cabinet, but there is even more discussion in the people about it!

Since the official announcement that a state banquet would be held and hundreds of gentry were invited to the reception, many people were stunned, what is the rhythm?

They really don't understand, this kind of thing can be said to be beyond the imagination of any ordinary Chinese people in this era, but they are shocked and worried and excited.

In the past thousands of years, how many people have been fortunate enough to sit at the same table with the Son of Heaven? Not to mention the same table, how many people have seen Shengyan?

Many wealthy merchant groups who had a great affection for the Chinese Empire, such as raw silk merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, were the first to enthusiastically ask how to attend the state banquet, whether they wanted to be famous, whether they wanted to donate money?

What, just buy a few treasury bonds, it's not simple, Lao Tzu has a lot of money, 10,000 yuan of treasury bonds? Too little, not enough to show the financial power of our raw silk merchants.

As soon as the members of the Shanghai Raw Silk Chamber of Commerce discussed, they felt that this was a good time to expand the influence of the raw silk business in the imperial political arena and strive for more policy support, so they immediately decided to strive for as many members as possible to attend the state banquet.

This kind of thing is originally one and there are two, and the raw silk industry has developed surging because of the support of the Chinese Empire in recent years, so they have a great good impression of the empire itself, which is very interested in continuing to expand the influence of the raw silk industry in the imperial political arena. But the rich businessmen in other industries are not blind, and they also saw that this state banquet was not as simple as making money.

You want to. At that time, in addition to Lin Zhe, the emperor, who attended the banquet, there were also the heads of the cabinet and the military. It is not easy for these people to meet on weekdays, but if you can meet them and communicate directly with them, raise some difficulties in the industry, and strive for policy support, there is great hope.

As a result, although some businessmen are afraid that this is an attempt by the top of the empire to kill pigs and make money, there are also a considerable number of people who think that this is a great opportunity, and being able to meet the holy face is on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is to expand the political influence of the industry in the empire, so as to strive for more policy support.

And although there are not many wealthy merchants and gentry who want to come to the state banquet, there are not many in the whole group. But the key is that there are many Chinese, and there are so many gentry and wealthy businessmen in several provinces, and there are many people who can spend tens of thousands of yuan to attend the state banquet.

This move also made the finance department as the organizer extremely excited, which means that most of their fundraising plan has been successfully completed, and the next work is to sell as many treasury bonds as possible.

Then the invitation letter is issued, which is issued directly by the Ministry of Finance, and private individuals cannot ask for it themselves, but before sending the invitation letter, you have to buy treasury bonds. The Ministry of Finance also does not stipulate a specific amount, 10,000 yuan is not too much, 100,000 yuan is not too little, and you can buy as many treasury bonds as you have with sincerity.

And in order to hide this full copper smell. Naturally, these conditions will not be announced, and generally speaking, after you have sold the treasury bonds, the Ministry of Finance will put you on the list of candidates. Then pass a special review, and after passing, you will get a copy made by the palace affairs department. A royal invitation marked with a five-clawed golden dragon.

In order to get as many invitations as possible, the Shanghai Raw Silk Chamber of Commerce has a lot of money. Directly organized members to purchase a total of more than 3 million treasury bonds, and applied for invitations for more than 20 members of the chamber of commerce.

Other wealthy businessmen or chambers of commerce heard that the Shanghai Raw Silk Chamber of Commerce did this, one by one is not to be outdone, for example, the Shanghai Money Industry Association, that is, those financial institutions such as money banks are not short of money, after hearing that more than 20 members of the Raw Silk Chamber of Commerce will go to the state banquet, they are also actively mobilizing their members, and then more than 2.5 million national bonds, for its eighteen members to get invitations.

The top-level wealthy businessmen from all walks of life in other walks of life also dare not lag behind, although they cannot be compared with the two wealthy business associations of raw silk and money industry, but they have three or five or simply subscribe for them on their own.

In less than half a month, all the gilded invitations carefully prepared by the palace affairs department have been distributed, and a total of ninety-nine gentry and wealthy businessmen have been invited.

These 99 gentry and wealthy businessmen bought a total of more than 8 million treasury bonds, accounting for 80 percent of the total treasury bonds issued since the beginning of the year.

In addition, some of the people who bought the government bonds but did not get the invitation letter also contributed nearly 2 million government bonds.

In other words, just one invitation to a state banquet brought more than 10 million yuan of national debt income to the empire!

This move shocked Qi Xuanhao's confidence, and his waist was much straighter when he went to the cabinet meeting on weekdays, and even Jiang Daoquan, who had always sent it right, saw the figure of 10 million yuan, especially when he got Qi Xuanhao's assurance, saying that he would allocate 300,000 yuan of education funds to the Ministry of Education next month, although he would complain in private, but he no longer said anything against it in public.

But the mind is busy, what are you busy with? Naturally, it is necessary to prepare various etiquette regulations!

If it's just a group of high-level civil and military officials, it's nothing, but the problem is that Lin Zhe will also attend in person at that time, so it will inevitably cause some etiquette problems, such as how Lin Zhe will enter the venue at that time? When those rich businessmen saw Lin Zhe, should they bow down, or just bow like ordinary officials, and then how those rich businessmen should dress, how they should address the emperor when they see him, and even the arrangement of standing and seating for everyone is exquisite.

It is not an easy task to let those rich businessmen who have paid money to open their eyes return satisfied, and to ensure the majesty of the Son of Heaven to the greatest extent.

And these messy things related to etiquette have always been the responsibility of the Ministry of Education, so now Jiang Daoquan doesn't have time and mind to quarrel with Qi Xuanhao about anything, but has done it with all his heart. (To be continued......)