Although these merchants are still waiting and watching the opening of banks, they are very concerned about the opening scope of Denglai Bank.

As for the current scope of opening, it will only be limited to Denglai, Handan, Yingzhou, Jinan Prefecture, Yangzhou Prefecture, Fengyang Prefecture, Lianghuai, Northern Zhili, and Southern Zhili within one year.

Yangzhou Prefecture, Fengyang Prefecture, and Lianghuai are the places where Zhu Dadian governors were taken care of, so they are also listed on the list.

In other places, we have to wait until the bank staff is trained enough before expanding. At the same time, the various places are mixed together, and it is still difficult to enter before we gain the authority we feel.

The businessmen feel that being able to open banks to these areas within one year has made the businessmen feel very good, so they all opened an account in the bank, which is also a supporter.

...The banquet was set up for five thousand tables at noon, and all the soldiers participated in the war were all in the table. In addition, there were civil servants in Denglai, etc., which cost no less than 50,000 taels of silver. However, most of this money was pieced together by the officers and soldiers, and 10,000 taels were paid for public expenses. The celebration banquet of Denglai Army has always been like this. The officers and soldiers who received the silver rewards were organized together, plus a small part of the public expenses.

Take this celebration banquet for example. Although it cost more than 50,000 taels of silver, each soldier paid less than one tael of silver, which was a drop in the bucket for the generous salary.

All of this money is spent locally, and there is almost no outflow of funds. It will only stimulate the production of Denglai. It will stimulate the economy with wars, and it will be a spending money anyway.

Such a huge banquet scale also made the guests attending the banquet stammering.

The soldiers wore their medals and hung their swords to attend the banquet. In this battle for the king, all the soldiers received medals.

However, medals are divided into third-class medals. The third-class medal represents participation in this battle, while the first two-class medals were awarded only after making merits.

There are relatively few Zhongzheng Swords, but almost all the senior generals and officials participating in this battle were awarded Zhongzheng Swords, and several scouts with a higher number of killing enemies were awarded.

The banquet was larger, but there was nothing surprising about it, but the atmosphere was warmer, and the soldiers were drinking fine wine and talking loudly.

Governor Yan Jizu was relatively silent during the banquet, but other officials had a happy chat with Zhao Yan. The newly appointed Laizhou prefect Zhou Fenglin also obviously saw that the governor was in trouble and expressed his firm support for Shandong's reforms to Zhao Yan during the banquet.

"Mr. Military Master, you have to help you with the reform in Shandong. I respect you with a cup." Seeing that the general situation was settled, Zhao Yan nodded from the court, so he began to convey goodwill to Yan Jizu. After all, there is only the variable of Yan Jizu left in the reform in Shandong.

There is no problem with the officials in the court. After all, Shandong Taoist officials and several prefects jointly requested reforms, and Shandong officials in the court cooperated with each other, so they were sure of it.

"How dare you to toast General?" Yan Jizu said in a hard voice, obviously with a strong resentment, and then picked up the wine glass and raised his head and drank it.

"The military governor will definitely consider the people. This reform will benefit the country and the people, and will naturally help you." Wang Zhenyi said with a smile.

"The reform plan is acceptable, but can the tax be paid in truth?" Yan Jizu asked Zhao Yan. If the reform is implemented, the land will be in the hands of Zhao Yan.

"The matter of measuring the land can be carried out by the lower officials and the governor's office. When paying the land tax, the official will be given to the governor's office. The deductions of the middle officials can be avoided." Zhao Yan was very calm when he saw Yan Jizu's attitude relaxed.

"How do officials from all walks of life in Shandong?" Yan Jizu frowned and asked. Zhao Yan's tax payment method almost cut off all the corruption methods of officials. Generally, officials collect land taxes, and then most of the corruption is paid to the court. In poorer prefectures and counties, the taxes are even embezzled to zero.

"The subordinate officials are willing to pay 500,000 taels of silver for the purpose of maintaining integrity." Zhao Yan had already figured out the solution in this regard. According to the reform plan, all the personnel under each yamen were cut down, leaving only the magistrates, the prefects, the magistrates, the clerks and other small officials.

Five hundred thousand taels of silver are obviously not enough to share, but this news has not been revealed to those small officials. When the reform is launched, those who can no longer help but let them down.

But now we cannot reveal the details to those small officials, only those Taoist officials know the details.

"So, you think this is the way! I will cooperate." Although Yan Jizu felt uncomfortable, Zhao Yan was already so righteous, so he couldn't interfere.

Since then, the upper-level officials in Shandong have unified their opinions and agreed with Zhao Yan's reform. After the banquet, Zhao Yan took out a passbook with 50,000 taels of silver and stuffed it into Yan Jizu's hands, and smiled and said, "Mr. Military Sect, this is a little care from the officials. I am considering thanking the Military Sect for their contributions to the people of Shandong. The password is..."

Yan Jizu glanced at the passbook, nodded lightly, put it into his sleeves calmly, then got on the carriage and left Zhaojiabao.

Zhao Yan looked at Yan Jizu's departure and smiled bitterly twice. This is the late Ming Dynasty! Even an official with a relatively good style, accepting bribes is a very common thing. Even Lu Xiangsheng cannot be said to be absolutely honest.

Of course, we cannot view this phenomenon in extreme terms and derogate them to nothing. We can only say that this is a common phenomenon in the officialdom. If we do not follow this model, we will inevitably be rejected by other officials, because those officials will instinctively regard honest officials as a threat.

The guests left one after another, but the merchants were still there, and Zhao Yan still had to discuss a plan to make a fortune with them. The merchants of all sizes were in the guild hall. After Zhao Yan sent the other guests away, he arrived at the guild hall.

"Everyone is a member of our Shandong business gang. I have always been rich and everyone makes money together. This time I will discuss some major plans to make money with you." Zhao Yan said straight to the point: "Let's talk about the maritime trade first!"

"Please speak, General."

These merchants looked at Zhao Yan eagerly, and Zhao Yan said: "We are the only ones to check and balance in the sea boats. We do not have enough ships, so we cannot engage in more overseas trade."

"So today I invite you to discuss the matters on shipbuilding. If you invest in a shipyard, I will provide the technology. If you build sea ships, you will be purchased at a high price, and you will definitely not let everyone do a loss-making business." Zhao Yan said that the speed of shipbuilding this year is not optimistic, and it is expected that you can only launch twenty 1,000-ton fly-slippers by the end of the year.

"There is no wood in Shandong! It may be difficult to build a ship." Zheng Shilian shook his head and said.

"There is no need to worry about this. At the latest, the Denglai Army will capture a place in Liaodong at the end of next summer. The shipbuilding wood in Liaodong is inexhaustible. At that time, a sea ship with 300 materials will be at most 10,000 taels. The official will acquire 12,000 taels. If the capital is not enough, you can get a loan from the bank and the monthly interest will be better." Before Zhao Yan captured Liaodong, he had already begun planning to enter the shipbuilding industry after Liaodong.

This is indeed early planning and good luck.

It is obviously not enough to rely on individuals in the shipbuilding industry. First of all, the single official shipyard may not be much less efficient in shipbuilding, but it is obviously not too high in terms of vitality and innovation.

One hundred shipyards may have a hundred innovations.

"If the general conquers Liaodong, the shipyard is feasible, it's just about sea trade?" Zheng Shilian asked Zhao Yan. The profits of sea trade were very envious.

"There is not even a ship yet, so let's talk about sea trade later! But sea trade will definitely be open to everyone in the future." Zhao Yan promised that it was still a little too early to open sea trade for these merchants.

"In addition to building ships, there are also ways to raise cattle, horses, and mules. As long as these things are raised, the official will acquire them." Zhao Yan continued.

"The general is joking, how can these things make money!" a businessman smiled embarrassedly.

"Everyone will know if you follow me to see it." Zhao Yan said.

"Okay, then follow the general to have a look."

Zhao Yan took them to the Breeding College of Denglai University. Denglai University is located not far from Zhaojiabao and specially set aside more than 2,000 acres of land as the school land.

The first-built Denglai University is relatively simple and many facilities are still under construction.

Zhao Yan defined Denglai University as a university that studies the nature of the subject, so there are no disciplines such as literature and art in Denglai University, and these disciplines are at the right place.

Currently, there are few students in other subjects in Denglai University, and they all start from scratch, while there are more people in the agricultural department, specializing in agriculture.

The Department of Agriculture is relatively rapid in research, mainly because it has advanced theories, such as hybridization, grafting, etc.

At the same time, it was developed in breeding and planting relatively early. Shortly after Zhao Yan traveled to this era, he began to make people summarize his experience in this area.

"This college specializes in cultivating talents in breeding. The students trained are all the best breeding experts. They use the most reasonable breeding methods at present. If students graduated here are hired, the benefits of raising horses are more than twice as good as those who are proficient in horse breeding." Zhao Yan introduced to them while taking them to visit the things in the academy.

After three years of continuous experience absorption and improvement, the breeding technology has indeed reached the peak of this era and is still developing.

At this time, Zhao Yan brought them to a large pond, which was filled with chopped corn, and the students from the college were transporting it outside.

When these corn stalks and corn were shoveled out, they had a strong grassy smell, which looked very moist and a little sour.

"What is this for?"

The merchants looked at the scene in confusion, and Zhao Yan explained: "This is feed silage technology, which can keep the feed for a long time. After silage, livestock not only prefer to eat it, but also the nutrients of the feed will increase, which means that the livestock will grow faster after eating it."

"With this technology, you don't have to worry about not having feed in winter, and livestock will still gain weight in winter. If this technology is not available, livestock will gain weight in summer and lose weight in winter. With this technology, if others lose weight, yours will gain weight. The benefits will be great if you increase or decrease." Zhao Yan introduced.

The businessmen were amazed when they heard this and exchanged their opinions.

Silage is a feed storage technology that uses microorganisms. It was only used after liberation in China. In Egypt, it appeared BC. Westerners also mastered silage technology one or two hundred years ago.

The feed after silage has a taste of fragrance, sweetness, softness, and sourness. Livestock prefer to eat it. At the same time, the feed for silage is very little nutritionally lost, and trace elements and crude protein will increase.

"Just talking about raising horses, if other people's mares are not well raised, they can only have seven or eight fetuses. If these graduates are asked to raise them, it is no problem to have a dozen fetuses. Moreover, the breeding is strictly controlled, and with strict feeding methods, it is very easy to raise horses."

Raising horses is a technical job. The breeding of horses is very slow, and only one child is born, and it takes more than 300 days to give birth to a foal. The mare's estrus period is only about one month, and it almost gets pregnant again shortly after birth. If a mare is not well-raised, it will be infertile if it gives birth to seven or eight fetuses.

"Yeah! Not bad."

These merchants couldn't help but nodded repeatedly and were very moved to the farm. They naturally knew that Zhao Yan's acquisition of horses was strong. As long as there were any, they would acquire them. The better the quality of the horse, the greater the profit.

(To be continued)
Chapter completed!