Although it has been decided to let Shen Shiming be the prime minister, that kind of internal decision is only an intentional decision, and whether it can be done in the end depends on Li Yongji's personal interview again, that is, to engage in a so-called monarch and minister countermeasures, and then according to the other party's expression, it can finally be determined whether to make him the prime minister.

The place where he met with Shen Shiming was still the study of the Qingxin Hall of Yonghua Palace, Li Yongji also asked Shen Shiming to sit down as usual, poured him a cup of tea, and waited for the other party to take the tea, and then drank the tea carefully, and the atmosphere between the two sides was relatively harmonious, and then began to ask questions slowly.

This method of giving up the seat first and then giving tea was unintentional by Li Yongji at first, but now it is intentional, because he finds that after doing this as a buffer, the other party can often eliminate some tension, and only by eliminating the tension can he evaluate the other party more objectively.

If in the early days, Li Yongji didn't pay much attention to these small details, then today, he has begun to pay attention to these small places.

At the beginning of the questioning, Li Yongji did not directly say that you should be the prime minister, or what ambitions you have, but just recalled the past and told the opportunity to meet and know each other back then.

"Remember how we met?" Li Yongji asked.

"Hui Xià, of course I remember." Shen Shiming said respectfully, "At that time, the villain was just an unpopular little shopkeeper of the Shen family, running a half-dead small pawnshop, and later the Shen family packaged and sold the pawnshop to His Majesty. ”

"It's rare you remember it so clearly." Li Yongji smiled.

"His majesty's kindness to the promotion of the villain, the villain is unforgettable." Shen Shiming continued to reply respectfully.

"Well, it's best if you think so." Li Yongji nodded.

Indeed, this Shen Shiming is actually not the talent that Li Yongji is deliberately looking for. It was packaged and given away when I bought a pawnshop with Shen Jingbai.

That is to say, at that time, Shen Shiming was the shopkeeper of the Shen family's pawnshop, but at that time, Li Yongji only needed to have a shop as a platform to sell his own goods and make money, and he didn't need to be a shopkeeper at all.

However, he didn't expect that he picked up a treasure, when Li Yongji changed the pawnshop into a money village and let Shen Shiming take full responsibility, Shen Shiming not only managed the money village in an orderly manner. It didn't make Li Yongji worry about business management at all, and he also understood the market, and gave Li Yongji a lot of rationalization in the early stage to avoid Li Yongji from making mistakes when he was immature in the early stage.

For example, Li Yongji was pouring copper coins and silver at that time, if it weren't for Shen Shiming's reminder, Li Yongji might have collapsed the local financial market in Qingpu County in one go.

And later, the idea of minting silver dollars by himself was also the first thing he reminded himself, otherwise, Li Yongji would have a lot of opportunities at that time. He really couldn't really think of minting silver dollars, or even if he did, he could only think of printing paper money.

Later, Dai Mengde Jewelry and CITIC Money Bank put him in charge. He began to uphold Li Yongji's meaning, and while maximizing Li Yongji's purchase of gold and jadeite, he also promoted the local financial prosperity and made the flow of funds faster and faster. Everyone's income is getting higher and higher, and it is not because of Li Yongji's crazy plundering that there are problems.

In the financial sector, so to speak. In other words, in terms of playing with money, Li Yongji is just a supplier, Li Zhengxiang is at most a smart supervisor, and only Shen Shiming is the real helmsman.

Of course, Shen Shiming is an ancient man after all, he didn't learn so many complicated economics in later generations, but he has been apprenticed in a pawnshop since he was a child, step by step, and he is talented, likes to read, and is good at thinking, so he also has his own set of simple economics.

In Shen Shiming's view, money is not used to hide, but to make money. In other words, the more money you spend, the more you invest, the more you can earn.

When he was in charge of the Shen family's pawnshop, he played this game, but the pawnshop was too small, he spent money ruthlessly, and his own savings were small, so he naturally made a half-dead, but when he and Li Yongji began to master CITIC Money and Dai Mengde Jewelry, and had almost endless funds, then his good days came.

Qingpu County was able to rise so quickly as a small county town that was not very wealthy, and quickly formed a whirlpool of money-sucking, which was not unrelated to Shen Shiming's step-by-step spending.

At that time, Li Yongji was actually a situation of selling more and collecting less, because Li Yongji's cultured pearls and stainless steel products, as well as daily chemical products and brass, were all things in short supply in the market, and they were all high-value things, and the gold and jade jewelry and other things that Li Yongji bought were not of high value and had little stock, so if it was said to be trade, then Li Yongji's trading at that time was a big excess.

If you change to someone else, you may simply sell and buy, and then wait for the market to fluctuate on its own, and then attract surrounding funds to intervene, but then there will definitely be some losses in the middle.

But Shen Shiming is different, he was born and raised in Qingpu County, how many pawnshops and money shops there are in Qingpu County, how many jewelry stores there are, and how much money is usually spent here, he has a rough idea, so he knows where the critical point of Qingpu County's ability to bear the funds is.

It is precisely because he understands this that when Shen Shiming put money and sold things at that time, he mostly played limited sales, or hunger marketing, anyway, he released a little bit each time, so that there were enough funds in the market to quickly return to him.

And when he has money in his hand, in addition to using the most favorable price to buy gold, jade, mahogany, furniture and other things that Li Yongji wants, he also has his own use for the large amount of money that is still stored in his hand, that is, supportive money lending.

What is supportive money lending? In fact, to put it simply, it means the same as the bank giving supportive loans.

Specifically, Shen Shiming felt that the business circle in Qingpu County was too small, the water was too little, and his own volume was too large to be enjoyable, so he consciously lent money to those who operated jewelry or money banks.

There are a large number of people who are being loaned money, the amount of money they lend is not large, the interest rate is very low, and there are special requirements when lending money. For example, you have to sell something and buy something back.

The main purpose of this is to allow more people to participate in commercial circulation, and these supported objects were originally small businessmen with small households, after they got the funds and conditions released by Shen Shiming, they had the capital to go outside to buy gold and jadeite and other valuables, and at the same time to continue to sell copper, pearls and stainless steel outside to obtain greater profits.

In short, it is to invest in the field of commercial circulation, accelerate the speed of commercial circulation, so as to speed up the turnover of required materials and increase the volume of material transactions. So that Li Yongji can earn more in the shortest possible time.

Of course, to implement these strategies, Li Yongji must agree, and when he said this to Li Yongji nervously, Li Yongji was also overjoyed and immediately agreed to this plan.

Therefore, Qingpu County can become Li Yongji's small treasury in a short period of time, and it has achieved a business miracle, and the key is that Shen Shiming's strategy has worked.

It was he who was the first to start the supportive lending of modern banks. It was he who supported the circulation of luxury goods and turned Qingpu County, which was originally famous for its grain trading, into a new distribution center for jewelry and gold trading in a short period of time.

In comparison, the early Yongji Fund. Although it is an interest-free loan, the amount is too small, and it can only be used by the Li family and the Wang family, compared to what Shen Shiming did. The impact is too small.

However, Shen Shiming used the form of money lending to invest in the field of trade circulation, while Yongji Fund mainly invested in the production field and service industry. Moreover, Li Yongji also increased the number of Yongji funds in the later period, so the nature is different and cannot be generalized.

"Okay, let's not talk about it, Lao Shen, I called you over today, I guess you should be able to guess something, right?"

"Hui Majesty." Shen Shiming, who was forced to sit on the chair, couldn't kneel and kowtow, but he still bowed respectfully and hugged his fists, "If the villain's expectations are good, it should be about the prime minister's choice, right?" ”

"Yes, you have a heart." Li Yongji smiled again, "I like to talk to smart people, but it's those who hide and tuck in the most disgusting." Well, I'll be honest, I'm going to make you the prime minister, what do you think? Do you want to be it, can you be it? ”

"Back to Majesty, every qiē of the villain is given by Majesty, and whatever Majesty asks me to do, I will do it. Since His Majesty wants me to be the prime minister now, then I will do it! ”

"It's good, you don't even have a mother-in-law's excuse, which is quite commendable." Li Yongji nodded, "Okay, you are the prime minister now, and the official document will be sent to you when you go back, just wait at home." ”

Hearing Li Yongji say this, Shen Shiming stood up as soon as he could, and in Li Yongji's stunned kung fu, he quickly took a few steps back, knelt on the ground, kowtowed to Li Yongji, and then raised his head and said loudly: "Demeng Sheng's favor, Minister Shen Shiming, in the future, he will definitely be smeared with his liver and brain, and he will die!" ”

"Uh-huh." Li Yongji smiled and nodded, "Let's be flat." ”

"Thank you, Lord Ron!" Shen Shiming kowtowed three times again, then stood up again, and carefully stood aside and lowered his head, never going to sit on the chair again.

Seeing him like this, Li Yongji just wanted him to continue to sit and talk, but it seemed that sitting was more uncomfortable than standing, so he didn't ask for it anymore, but lay down on the back of the chair and continued to say to him: "Do you know everything about the new official system and the new system of the empire?" ”

"Back to His Majesty, the minister has only seen public notices, and knows a general outline." Shen Shiming replied cautiously, "But the specifics are not clear." ”

"Well, that's also simple, go back and send someone to you, let him explain to you in detail what the structure of our new government, uh, that is, the government."

"Yes, the minister will study hard and experience it carefully." Shen Shiming bowed his head again and replied with his fists clenched.

"Uh......" Hearing his appearance, Li Yongji didn't know what to say, "Old Shen, you didn't talk to me like this before, why are you so weird now?" ”

"In the past, the name was not divided, His Majesty was not a king, and Weichen was not a minister, and it was nothing to go a little over, but now that the name of the monarch and the minister is established, the rules between the monarch and the minister must be clearly distinguished, otherwise, it will be the same as before, and this program will often be chaotic."

"That's right." Li Yongji nodded, "Okay, you have to be happy that that's your business, anyway." In the future, you will be the prime minister, this position is completely different from before, with more power at the same time, there are also more responsibilities, I hope you can do it wholeheartedly, do not live up to my expectations! ”

"Wechen is terrified!" Shen Shiming actually knelt down again, and then replied loudly, "Your Majesty's love for the minister is incomparable, although the minister is only shallow in learning, but he can only bow and die." In this way, we can repay the emperor's kindness! ”

In this way, Shen Shiming became the second prime minister of the State Council of the Chinese Empire.

After letting Shen Shiming get up again, Li Yongji asked again: "By the way, although you are not familiar with the new official system, but since you have become the new prime minister of the State Council, I have to ask you, from your own point of view, what is the most important thing in our empire now?" ”

"Of course, it's all over the world." Shen Shiming immediately replied with a fist. "His Majesty is the Holy Son of Heaven blessed by God, and my Chinese Empire is also thriving, and of course we must have the domineering spirit to dominate the world, no. I'm sorry for the expectations of the people of the world, and I'm even more sorry for the favor of the sky. ”

"Of course I know to dominate the world." Li Yongji smiled, "But for the time being, you don't have to worry about these things." I'll just be in charge of the world. That is to say, when to dominate the world, how to dominate the world. That's all my business, as for you, your duty now is to help me take care of my country, help me watch the door, so that the place I fight down will not cause chaos, do you know what I mean? ”

"Yes, Wechen understands."

"Good." Li Yongji nodded and said, "In that case, then you can talk about it, how can you watch the door, how can you keep out of chaos in your own territory when I am wholeheartedly leading the troops to fight outside?" ”

"This ......" Shen Shiming thought for a while, and then said, "Your Majesty, in the shallow view of Wei Chen, if you want to keep the country out of chaos, it's just one word. ”

"One word? What word? ”

"Money!" Shen Shiming also laughed when he said this, and seemed to be a little confident, "The hustle and bustle of the world is all for profit, and the hustle and bustle of the world is for profit, the king of a thousand times, the prince of ten thousand families, and the king of a hundred rooms, are still suffering from poverty, and the people of the family are still poor." ”

"This is written in the "Historical Records", right?" Li Yongji asked uncertainly.

"Your Majesty!" Shen Shiming bowed and said, "This sentence is from the "Historical Records", and the meaning of this sentence is that from the princes and generals to the peddlers and pawns, they are all worried about poverty, and all of them have done everything in their lives to pursue wealth. And all morality, the state, is just revolving around a sharp word. ”

"It's a bit radical, but it's also a little interesting." Li Yongji nodded, "Then when it comes to managing the country, do you think that the country only needs to have money?" ”

"Of course, you can't just have money." Shen Shiming said, "The minister thinks that if a country wants to be stable, it must not only have sufficient money, but also invincible soldiers and horses in the world, and it must hold money in one hand and a knife in the other, so that it can be invincible, but fundamentally speaking, taking a knife is just to protect one's own money, so, in the final analysis, it is still one word, that is, for money!" ”

"I'm not going to discuss philosophy with you." Li Yongji saw that the other party seemed to want to continue, so he hurriedly interrupted him, "I just want to ask, if you become the prime minister of the government, what will you probably do?" ”

"Of course, it's the Empire's treasury that fills the Empire." Shen Shiming said, "Although the minister has never been an official, he has also seen a lot, in the minister's opinion, governing the country seems complicated, but it is actually very simple." It's nothing more than business trading, usually trying to make money to make yourself richer and richer, and then where there is a famine, you will use the money to relieve the disaster, and where there is a rebellion, you will use the money to send troops to suppress it. Ordinary families pay attention to having money in their hands and not panic in their hearts, and the same must be true for a country. ”

"Well, that's good, you're a mercantile idea." Li Yongji nodded, "It's okay for the time being." So then again, how do you think a country can make money? ”

"Back to your majesty." Shen Shiming said, "If the state wants to make money, it is basically just a matter of taxation, so if you want to make more money, you must collect more taxes." ”

"More taxes? You mean a tax increase? ”

"Tax hikes are just one of the methods, but there are too many hidden dangers in that method, and the wise do not take it." Shen Shiming smiled and said, "Don't hide it from Your Majesty, ministers usually like to think crankily alone, and sometimes they think about this problem." When the minister was reading the history books, he found that the taxes of the strong countries were not heavy, but the taxes of those weak countries were quite heavy.

In the end, the minister came to a conclusion, that is, raising taxes directly on the heads of the common people is fishing in the dry water. The truly effective way should be to start with the circulation link, that is, to let the state control the richest trades.

Therefore, if Weichen is allowed to be the prime minister, the minister hopes that the salt tea franchise can be restored and no longer open to private individuals, or in other words, except for the royal family and the imperial court, other private individuals are not allowed to operate salt tea privately, if you want to do it. You have to buy a quote with us, just like the salt quote and tea quote in the past. In this way, all production, circulation and prices are up to us, and the people will not be exploited by profiteers, and we can also profit from it, so why not? ”

"It's just continuing to engage in monopoly management." Li Yongji smiled. "You should know very well that it's hard to say anywhere else now, but at least in the entire Jiangnan region, salt, tea, grain, silk and other bulk materials here. Is it all my business doing? In other words, anyone who does all this for me can be regarded as a royal businessman in the royal family, and listening to what you mean, is it for me to let these things out? From the imperial number. Become a national brand? ”

"Of course Weichen doesn't dare." Shen Shiming said, "But Your Majesty, speaking of which." Please forgive Weichen for saying bluntly, you are now the king of a country, and the whole world is yours, so why bother to divide the imperial merchants and the national merchants? You see, although it is good that you are now engaged in imperial business, after all, you are a business, and without the support of the state's laws and regulations, you can't fully grasp it at all.

For example, your tea shop and silk shop, although the profit is considerable, it is impossible to catch all the goods on the market, and there are still many businesses that do not belong to the royal family to do this business.

Therefore, the emperor, you might as well directly make a law like the previous dynasty, and the common people are not allowed to operate, of course, your imperial merchants cannot be operated, and all of them are handed over to the imperial court to do.

In this way, you can use the money earned by the state as you like, but you don't have to do it yourself, and you don't have to bear the inevitable infamy because you do business yourself, which is equivalent to making more benefits, but not losing your reputation, why not? ”

"Hey, I'm glad I talked to you, otherwise if you really did this quietly, I'd be a little embarrassed." Li Yongji sighed, "Listen, let the state monopolize these things, don't even think about it, at least for the time being, as for why, I don't want to explain."

In short, my country is still a market economy of free trade, except for some special materials, such as grain and salt, all other free buying and selling, supply and demand are determined by the market, and even if it is grain and salt, the state only has the right to supervise, and cannot directly intervene in control, do you know what I mean? ”

"This ...... Yes, Your Majesty, Weichen understood. Shen Shiming quickly lowered his head.

Although Shen Shiming is a little smart, he can't escape the historical circle after all, or in other words, even if he has a little simple money to make money, and use loans to stimulate production and commerce, but after all, it is just a way to deal with Li Yongji's needs and expand his own interests, just like usury always wants more people to borrow money, and has not formed a system, or formed a so-called economic concept.

Therefore, Shen Shiming does not know the difference between state monopoly and monopoly capitalists, he may see it vaguely, but he is still far from understanding.

In fact, Shen Shiming said that there are some things that are still good, that is, the saying that the state monopoly is more efficient and not wasteful.

In fact, Shen Shiming's original intention meant that since the country is Li Yongji's final say, then don't engage in imperial business, and personally start to compete with others, simply the state formulates laws, and those tea, salt, grain, and iron and steel are all monopolized by the state, and private individuals are not allowed to operate, so that resources can be completely concentrated in the hands of the state, and all production and circulation links can be mastered, so as to control costs and profits more effectively.

This is completely the template of the planned economy, and this thing is not bad according to the theory, and the comparison is also a relatively effective system, especially in China, where the people's wisdom is generally not developed, and the planned economy can give full play to its manpower and material resources to a greater extent and concentrate its efforts on doing great things.

However, in order to carry out a planned economy, it is necessary to have an efficient and large bureaucracy, because you yourself have to personally control all links from production to circulation, which requires the placement of your own people in each link to prevent problems in operation.

However, in China today, there are simply not so many qualified and reliable bureaucrats, and if they are forcibly put on the job, it will inevitably lead to a new round of corruption, and these bureaucrats planted in various links will inevitably become parasites attached to their respective links to devour the wealth that should belong to the state under the state's monopoly management.

So. Li Yongji did not engage in a planned economy, but continued to play the market economy, because the market economy is the cheapest and most conducive to people like Li Yongji who have golden fingers.

Moreover, Li Yongji is now carrying out monetary reform, and wants to issue banknotes and silver dollars, which in a sense are credit money, and in order to make these banknotes and silver dollars formally establish credit, it is not enough to rely on administrative intervention alone. In other words, administrative intervention is counterproductive, but in an open market economy, the benefits of these currencies can be continuously reflected, so that the credit of the new currency can be slowly established.

Of course, there is a more important reason, that is, under the conditions of free trade, the world economy can effectively integrate with China's economy, which can attract more foreigners to invest and do business, and facilitate Li Yongji to dump materials and buy precious metals such as gold and silver.

As for whether this situation will cause damage to China's traditional smallholder economy. Anyway, the destruction is sooner or later, and the Chinese at this time do not have a high demand for Western products, if the card owner opium **, then the West is not really competitive at present.

On the contrary, it is Li Yongji's goods. Whether it is new medicine or high-grade silk, high-grade glass, high-grade porcelain, etc., which are made with modern machines, they are in short supply in the West. Therefore, the implementation of a free trade system is actually more beneficial to China, especially to the industries controlled by Li Yongji.

Of course. In the future, with the change of shape, it will definitely be necessary to formulate more cautious and conservative economic policies, but for the time being, it is clear that a free economy that runs aggressively and quickly is more reliable and cheaper.

"It's good to understand." Li Yongji said, "In this way, after you officially take office, listen more, watch more, and learn more, and call me directly if you have something." Well, know the internal phone, right? ”

"Yes." Shen Shiming nodded, "The minister also has a mobile phone, in order to facilitate contact with the Emperor, as His Majesty said, it should be this thing that can transmit sound for thousands of miles, right?" ”

"Yes, that's it, I'll give you my number when I go back, and if you can't make up your mind in the future, just call me directly and ask." Li Yongji said, "In short, after you become prime minister, don't change the policy indiscriminately, your predecessor, that is, my brother, has already formulated a set of established strategies with me, so after you come to power, you only need to follow the rules and follow the established strategy, and then help me maintain the State Council, don't let the State Council make mistakes."

To put it more simply, although you became the prime minister, you are just a front and have no real power, so once something is decided, call me first, I will make a decision, and then you will sign a formal order and issue it in the name of the prime minister of the State Council, and at other times you will study honestly and study hard, try not to make trouble for me, do you understand? ”

"Yes, Wechen obeys." Shen Shiming bowed again and saluted.

Seeing that his feelings suddenly fell, Li Yongji reminded him again: "Of course, you don't have to be discouraged, the reason why I asked you to ask me for big and small things is just because you have just started now, you don't understand anything, and you still need my support." Moreover, my predecessor, my brother, and I have long talked about many established plans, and each plan is important and cannot be destroyed.

In fact, I am still very optimistic about you, and I really want to promote you, otherwise you have done well before, why do I have to let you be the prime minister? It's because I value your abilities, and I want to use you more in the future.

Moreover, now that I am implementing the New Deal, the New Deal will inevitably have all kinds of repetitions, and it is inevitable that there will be a lot of criticisms.

In short, don't have any psychological burden, after you are familiar with the situation of the new policy and can keep up with my beat, the affairs of the State Council will eventually be handed over to you to be responsible, otherwise, I will simply give the order myself, why do you want to get a State Council in one fell swoop, why bother you to sign the official document and issue it?

In other words, I have to set the rules in advance, and in the future, the State Council will be responsible for what should be in charge of the State Council, and even if I am a cadre and make an arbitrary decision, certain things will have to go through your hands before they can become official orders. At most, what you do disagrees with me, I can replace you, but the rules can't be messed up. Well, so, now you see what I mean? ”

"Wechen understood." Shen Shiming bowed and said, "Please rest assured, as the prime minister, you must be clean, study modestly, be as low-key as possible, never make decisions privately, just focus on the implementation of national politics for Your Majesty, and ensure that the country does not go into chaos." ”

"Very well, it looks like you really get it." Li Yongji nodded with satisfaction, "Then I'll be relieved." (To be continued......)