In the main hall, Li Guoyun was waiting anxiously, after all, it was a matter explained by Yuan Shikai, and he was not willing to mess it up.

How much status he has in Yuan Shikai's psychology, in fact, Li Guoyun himself is very clear. After all, he is only the leader of the Anhui constitutionalists, and there are at least a dozen or twenty similar leaders in China, and most of these leaders are willing to be Yuan Shikai as president. Among these dozen or twenty people, Li Guoyun is not very conspicuous.

Now that Yuan Shikai has finally explained one thing, how can he not do his best?

"Master, let's take a sip of tea..."Seeing Li Guoyun's anxious face, a subordinate next to him couldn't stand it anymore, so he hurriedly brought a cup of tea to persuade him.

Li Guoyun also felt that he seemed to be in a bad mood now, so he nodded after hearing the words of his subordinates. "It's okay..."

Just as Li Guoyun picked up the teacup, there was a sudden movement outside, and after a while, Xiaode walked in quickly from outside.

"Sir..."

Seeing that Xiaode was back, Li Guojun hurriedly stood up from the chair. "How's it going..."

"It's been delivered, this is that person's reply..."As he spoke, Xiaode took out a letter from his arms and handed it to Li Guoyun with his own hands.

Taking the envelope from Xiaode's hand, Li Guoyun couldn't wait to flip through it.

At the same time, looking at Li Guoyun who was flipping through the letterhead, Xiaode felt a lot of guilt in his heart.

Seriously, although Xiaode is just a subordinate here in Li Guoyun, Li Guoyun has not been bad to him in the past few years. He just sold Li Guoyun as soon as he went out just now, and it was impossible not to feel guilty.

It's just that Xiaode doesn't regret doing it at all. Because he knows very well what he is doing, and what Li Guojun is doing.

As once said, if it weren't for the poor family. Who would go to someone else's house to be a subordinate? Xiaode will come to Li Guoyun here is also a last resort.

And most importantly, Xiaode also has family members, and these family members are in more than 30 counties and towns where Yan Shao sent troops to arrest. From the letter from his family, Xiao Dezhi talked about the situation at home. Originally, because of the oppression of his family by the government and the local gentry, Xiaode planned to talk about it through Li Guoyun's relationship, Li Guoyun was also the leader of the constitutionalist faction and the deputy governor of the military government. Even if you just open your mouth, your family will be much more comfortable.

And Xiaode also believes that Li Guojun will never refuse his request.

It's just that before Xiaode found Li Guoyun, he put forward his request. Yan Shao had already sent troops to arrest the officials and gentry who oppressed the people. Hearing the news, Xiaode was naturally excited, but at this time, Li Guoyun ran out to speak for those officials and gentry...

In this case, the people from the Secret Service Bureau found Xiaode and hoped that he could help spy on Li Guoyun. Xiao De just thought about it a little and nodded in agreement—————— not to mention that the people from the Special Affairs Bureau directly gave him 100 yuan. You must know that Lu Dao Xiaode's annual income is only more than 60 yuan.

————————————————————

Just when Xiaode's heart was full of guilt, Li Guoyun had already finished reading Wang Zhuhuai's letter to him. It was written in the letter very clearly that we would meet tomorrow in a teahouse in the west of the city.

"Next, as long as you do the things that the palace guard explains..."

After reading the letter, Li Guoyun also breathed a sigh of relief.

At this time, he didn't know that this matter had been betrayed to the Special Affairs Bureau by the young man in front of him who he trusted a lot, so he just patted Xiaode on the shoulder and said. "You have done a good job in this matter, and you can go to the butler to get some reward later..."

"Xie Lu, Master Xie..."Xiao De showed his gratitude at the right time.

After signaling that Xiaode could retreat. Li Guojun also breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, I also thought about what I should say to Wang Zhuhuai next. After all, it is not easy to provoke a struggle between the League and the National Socialist Party.

"But the Bai Wenwei that Yuan Gongbao said on the telegram seems to be something that can be used..."Thinking of the Bai Wenwei mentioned by Yuan Shikai on the telegram, who has become the commander of the First Army of the Republic of China, the corners of Li Guoyun's mouth turned up slightly.

Just when Li Guoyun was thinking about what to say when he saw Wang Zhuhuai, in the conference room of the Governor's Mansion, Yan Shao was also pinching a special silver dollar with his index finger and thumb.

On the obverse of the silver dollar is the black dragon on the flag of the junta (please see the work for details), and naturally, it becomes a silver dragon when it rests on the silver dollar. In addition, directly above the dragon there are also words such as 'Construction Bank was built in the second year of liberation).

In fact, Yan Shao originally planned to put his own avatar on the front, just like Yuan Shikai's big head later, so that he could also increase some of his influence. It's just a silver dollar, after all, it's a little distorted, compared to the paper money is clearer, and the circulation is larger, so it was replaced with a head image printed on the banknote, and the silver dollar is a dragon...

On the back, in addition to some ornamentation, what remains is the denomination of a silver dollar.

For example, the silver dollar in Yan Shao's hand is 1 yuan, and the word "one yuan" is written on the back.

In addition, directly below the one circle, there are four Roman numerals of 1912.

The whole silver dollar weighs seven coins and two cents, and the so-called seven coins and two cents refer to the total weight of Kuping silver, which is 26.86 grams, which contains six coins and four cents of silver, and is minted in the way of silver and nine coppers.

In addition to one yuan, the silver dollar is also divided into four levels: five corners, two corners, and one corner, all of which have a total of four levels, and the other four levels of silver dollars are being placed on the table in front of Yan Shao. In addition, there is a nickel coin, five cents, five copper coins, two cents, one cent, five cents, two cents and one cent...

The silver coin in Yan Shao's hand was minted by a mint imported by China Construction Bank from Shanghai Ocean Bank some time ago. The reason for importing from Shanghai is also very simple, because there was no machine to mint silver dollars in Anhui at this time.

Historically, Anhui also had a 'silver dollar bureau', that is, a department specializing in minting silver dollars. But that was already in the twenty-second year of Guangxu (1896). Deng Huaxi, the governor of Anhui at the time, took office in July and then created the Anhui Silver Dollar Bureau in November.

Subsequently, the Silver Dollar Bureau borrowed Guangdong machines for trial casting in November of the 23rd year of Guangxu. And in March of the second year, it was officially cast, and it was stopped in June of the 25th year of Guangxu, and it was only one and a half years before and after. But in this short period of time. The Silver Dollar Bureau minted more than 600 silver dollars, with an average daily output of about 10,000 dollars. It can be seen that the scale of Anhui Silver Dollar Bureau was definitely not small.

However, in May of the 25th year of Guangxu (1899), the Qing court issued an edict, saying that "there are too many bureaus in various provinces, and it is inevitable that the quality of the two will be uneven, and it is inconvenient for civil use." And in vain. Hubei and Guangdong provinces have set up bureaus to mint silver dollars first, and if there is a need for silver dollars in each province, they will be merged into the two provinces for casting applications. There is no need to set up a separate bureau to save money. ”

There is no way, since the Qing court has issued an order, the local government can only abide by it.

At this time, there was no Gengzi incident. There is also no so-called Southeastern Mutual Protection Treaty. The orders of the Qing court were still somewhat influential at the local level.

In the twenty-eighth year of Guangxu (1902), the governor of Anhui Province, Nie Jizhen, changed the silver dollar bureau to the Anhui copper yuan bureau, which operated for 5 years before and after, and stopped casting in the thirty-third year of Guangxu (1907). In that year, the new governor of Anhui, Feng Xu, changed the Tongyuan Bureau to the Anhui Manufacturing Bureau, specializing in the manufacture of munitions and electric lights, etc., and since then there has been no coinage machine in Anhui.

"How, is the governor still satisfied?"

I saw Yan Shao staring at the silver coin there. Li Liang, who was sitting on the side, asked with a smile.

Now the post of Minister of Finance is held by Li Liang, so he is more or less responsible for this matter.

"Not bad." Yan Shao nodded. "When will this dollar be issued?"

Although Yan Shao is a layman. But it can also be seen that the fineness of this silver coin is very good, and I am naturally very satisfied.

"Anytime," Li Liang began. At present, with the minting machine imported from Shanghai, we can already mint more than 2,000 silver dollars a day, although the number is not much, but there are more than 60,000 in a month, if it is issued, it is barely enough, but because there is only one set of machines, it is better to mint only one silver dollar for the time being..."

In history, the Anhui Silver Dollar Bureau only had nearly 500 people and 20 machines, so although there was only one set of machines, the output was reasonable.

"I also know this..."Nodding, Yan Shao laughed. In that case, let's start casting, lest you always complain that the treasury of the Ministry of Finance is empty and can't even feed rats..."

Hearing Yan Shao say this, Li Liang also smiled. "Is that the case..."

Although the monthly tax paid by Yushi Group alone has reached tens of millions (since it is now its own home, it is not good to continue to evade taxes), it is not much worse than Anhui's fiscal and tax revenue in the past year. But compared to it, there will only be more places to spend money, endless railways and roads, and all kinds of other expenditures, plus Yan Shao has to pay back the money, basically the collected taxes have just entered the treasury, and they have been pulled out of the treasury and diverted for other purposes...

As for repaying Yan Shao's money or something, although Yan Shao is now the governor of the military government, after all, there is no reason to use private money to serve the public, cough, so when he took out the money, Yan Shao had already explained that he had borrowed it, and if he borrowed, he must have it back...

Even if it is Yan Shao, he can't abolish the public with his own interests

————————————————————

After feeling that he had almost seen it, Yan Shao looked at Li Liang again.

"By the way, how are things going about the bank?"

"It's almost done." When it comes to business, Li Liang doesn't laugh anymore. "At present, in addition to the headquarters in Anqing, the bank has also been set up in Dangtu, Wuhu, Tongling, Huizhou, Bengbu, Hefei, Suzhou, Lu'an and other cities and counties, and the training of employees is underway.

"I didn't encounter any obstacles..."

"Nope." Li Liang shook his head. "However, some time ago, because of the actions of the Ministry of Military Affairs, some local gentry had some resistance to the military government, and this sentiment more or less affected the construction of the bank..."

"That's..."Yan Shao nodded. Of course, he knew what the gentry were doing to resist the junta, just because the mood of the junta some time ago had harmed their interests, or threatened those who had a relationship with them.

"Don't worry..."The corners of Li Liang's mouth curled slightly. At least our Ministry of Finance is still very supportive of the junta's actions, not to mention that we are coming back with you from the United States. It's not to cooperate with those guys to oppress the common people..."

Hearing Li Liang say this, Yan Shao and the others in the conference room immediately laughed.

The meeting went smoothly, according to Li Liang. Now banks are training their staff so that they can mint and print money directly as long as money printing and minting machines imported from abroad arrive.

An independent currency would move the junta's finances up a notch, and if the printed money could be circulated in other provinces, it would be an opportunity to expand the junta's influence.

Naturally, there were not any problems during this period, such as the local gentry, who had developed a certain resistance to the junta. It is not to say that all the gentry were resistant to the junta. After all, the junta's actions this time are very moral, and no one can stand up and accuse Yan Shao, so at least most people are on Yan Shao's side.

"But I'm really tired..."The whole meeting lasted until 11 o'clock. It wasn't finished until it was almost lunch.

After leaving the conference room, Yan Shao went directly back to the bedroom, intending to sleep first, but he just opened the bedroom door. I saw Elaline lying on the bed open his eyes and look this way.

"How. Finished with the meeting? A pair of beautiful eyes stared at Yan Shao, and Elano stood up and asked softly.

She had just come back from the group headquarters and was about to take a break, when she heard Yan Shao's footsteps and the sound of the door opening.

"Yes, it's going well..."Taking off his coat, Yan Shao sat on the bed. That's right..."As if thinking of something, Yan Shao turned his head sideways to look at Elaline. "How's the preparation for gold?"

Banks operate on the gold standard, or bullion standard. That is, if you have banknotes printed by the bank. A certain amount of gold can be exchanged in the bank.

Naturally, since Yan Shaocai used the gold bar standard. It was not intended that people with banknotes would actually be able to exchange gold from banks. After all, if the frequency of exchange is too frequent, it will also have a certain impact on the bank itself, so Yan Shao set a limit on the amount of exchange, 10,000 yuan.

In other words, you must hold at least 10,000 yuan of paper money to exchange gold from the bank—————— at this time, the annual salary of ordinary workers is only 5 or 60 yuan, even the employees in the Yushi Group have less than 100 yuan, and 10,000 yuan is at least equivalent to their salary for 100 years.

Other professions, such as teachers, earn more than workers' salaries, but they also need almost 10 years of wages. This also limits the frequency of exchange, and naturally, the rich can always exchange, such as those merchants or large landowners. But since it has been stated that banknotes can be exchanged for gold, it is necessary to give people a little hope, so Yan Shao did not raise the exchange line to 100,000...

It's just that even if you don't plan to let people exchange it, since the gold bar standard has been proposed, you always have to have some gold to press the bottom of the box.

The original governor of Anhui, not to mention gold, did not even have much silver, and it was obviously impossible to establish a bank on the original foundation. Yan Shao, China is a silver standard country, although gold is also very valuable, but now the daily transactions are used in silver dollars or silver taels, the use of gold is very rare or even not at all, when the decision to set up a bank, the group has not even half a ton of gold, only one or two hundred kilograms, according to the exchange rate of this era is only equivalent to hundreds of thousands of silver dollars.

Such a little gold can't support a bank on the gold standard.

So after deciding to set up a bank, Yan Shao asked Elaline to find a way to buy more gold. Now that the bank's affairs have been almost prepared, Yan Shao naturally hopes to know how things are prepared on Elenor's side.

"Don't worry..."Hearing Yan Shao's words, Elaline turned sideways and faced Yan Shao, showing an almost perfect mature curve. Ever since you asked me to do this, I have ordered my men to do everything they can to buy gold, and although they didn't buy much because they still had a lot of time, they also bought about 10 tons of gold from England and the United States, which is enough for you to build a bank..."

"10 tons..."Thinking about the exchange rate of gold and silver dollars in this era, Yan Shao nodded slightly. If it's 10 tons, it's enough..."

In this era, a ton of gold is equivalent to about 1 million US dollars, and 10 tons is 10 million, which is more than 26 million silver dollars, and it may be higher, after all, unlike gold, silver dollars have been depreciating all the time...

(At that time, I don't know much about the exchange ratio between gold and dollars, I refer to the data of Kolchak's batch of gold after the end of the First World War, according to the information on the Internet, the 500 tons of gold that Kolchak brought that year was about 500 million US dollars, that is, more than 1.3 billion silver dollars, and if 500 tons was equivalent to 500 million US dollars, 10 tons was equivalent to 10 million US dollars.) If this data is true, then it should be like this... ）

10 tons of gold is equivalent to more than 26 million silver dollars, which is already more than the fiscal and tax revenue of a province in China at this time, and there is obviously enough gold as a reserve.

And when the scale of the bank becomes larger in the future, I believe that there will not be only so little gold in the bank.

Thinking of this, Yan Shao was overjoyed, and after hugging Elanon, he kissed Sakura directly on the lips. "Well done!"

Seeing Yan Shao so happy, leaning on his arms, Elaline was also happy. (To be continued......)