Royal Gold Medal County Magistrate

"That sounds reasonable, but the reason isn't strong enough. Since you're cooperating with Father, it seems like you could put the silver vault in the palace. It's safe enough, and no one would question it," Li Yuanzhao said.

Fang Zheng waved his hand in denial, saying with a righteous expression, "Absolutely not! The officials in court are like wolves and tigers. If so much silver is placed in the palace, it will be targeted sooner or later. The reputation would be terrible, as if His Majesty is trying to seize money. This is the people's wealth, and I absolutely will not allow such a thing to happen!"

"Our bank is cooperating with His Majesty, but essentially, it's cooperating with the court. To prevent chaos and interference from various powers, it's necessary to operate it independently."

The silver vault must be located in Taoyuan County.

Otherwise, it would be troublesome for him to get money for his affairs in the future!

Although it's for promoting commercial development, he still has 'selfish motives'.

He's opening his own bank, so how could he not misappropriate silver? If he didn't misappropriate the shiny silver sitting there, would he even be human!

In his conscience, Fang Zheng didn't feel guilty at all.

The bank naturally needs to strictly ensure the operation of its rules and regulations, but that doesn't mean he has to abide by them.

The development of the Great Jing to its current state has all been leveraged by him with silver!

Watt improved the steam engine, but it took forty years for the locomotive to appear. It's not that technological development was slow, but that people were feeling their way across the river by touching stones, and no one knew where the target was.

He's different. His steps land perfectly on the right nodes.

Concentrating and mobilizing resources, with everyone working towards a precise goal, greatly compresses the development process.

Although he has a lot of money now, he can't help but think that there will be even more things to do in the future.

Later, when undertaking super-large projects, there might come a day when the silver isn't enough.

Going through the approval process takes too much time!

With a bank, this problem will be much smaller....

This is strategic misappropriation! A stroke of great importance in future history books!

So, the silver vault must be located in Taoyuan County!

After listening, Li Yuanzhao smacked his lips, "Tsk, every time you show that expression, I always feel like something's not right."

Fang Zheng's face stiffened, and he quickly changed the subject, "What's not right? Your Highness, you can't slander me... By the way, the face of the silver note has to use His Majesty's likeness. But there are other denominations of silver notes. Would Your Highness like one? I'll put your face on it?"

Li Yuanzhao's eyes lit up, "Hey, that's interesting. Tell me more..."

.......

The production of silver notes is extremely elaborate.

Currently, the silver notes circulating on the market are about one chi tall and six cun wide, not small in area.

The reason for making them so large is mainly for anti-counterfeiting purposes. Due to substandard technology, many pieces of information must be left on them for verification.

The bank's silver notes are not designed to be so large.

Instead, they use the size of paper money from later generations.

In terms of papermaking technology, Taoyuan County is also top-notch! The toilet paper that Director Fang uses is the best of the best.

Making a batch of paper that is resistant to rubbing, waterproof, and with all other indicators exceeding market standards didn't take much effort, only the cost was a bit higher.

After that, they began to create the printing plates.

The maximum denomination of the silver note was set at one hundred taels, and the minimum was one tael.

On this day, when the printing plates were ready, Fang Zheng and Li Yuanzhao came to the Taoyuan County workshop together, accompanied by Ao Chen.

As soon as he entered the workshop, Li Yuanzhao's gaze was immediately attracted by the printing plates.

He stepped forward, picked up a printing plate, and praised, "Exquisite, truly exquisite, the painting of Father is lifelike."

"Don't think Father is old, he's very flamboyant at heart!"

Fang Zheng wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and also picked up a printing plate to examine it carefully.

He had taken the time to have someone make a sketch of Emperor Jing, and the image on the painting was undeniably majestic and dignified.

Emperor Jing was wearing a dragon robe, with a crown, and a solemn expression looking forward.

His left hand was slightly raised, and his right hand was resting on a precious sword, with a five-clawed golden dragon coiled behind him.

This dragon was naturally added by Fang Zheng privately.

When it hadn't been added yet, Fang Zheng's silver tongue made Emperor Jing blush.

Although he felt a little shameless, he finally stammered and hinted that Fang Zheng should add it.

Li Yuanzhao put down the printing plate and licked his lips expectantly, "Father's is done, what about mine?"

He had also left a painting long ago, so the effect should be good too.

Fang Zheng turned his head and asked the craftsman, "Where are the other printing plates? Bring them all over."

The craftsman turned to get the printing plates, and soon returned with a stack of them, placing them in front of Fang Zheng.

The second printing plate was Li Yuanzhao's face.

On the printing plate, Li Yuanzhao was sideways, intently bending over to observe the image under a microscope.

The next one was still him, holding a wrench in his hand, standing in front of a locomotive, with a kind smile on his face.

After that, they were no longer images, but landscape paintings.

Until the last plate, the smallest denomination of one or two taels, was the majestic front gate of the East Suburb University, with the fountain that was only turned on once a year, its moment of spraying water frozen on the printing plate.

Below it was a line of small characters [In the morning a peasant, in the evening sits in the emperor's hall].

For the sake of publicity, Fang Zheng used every means possible, turning the most frequently used silver note in the future into the strongest recruitment advertisement in history...

Li Yuanzhao looked at it and sighed, "Good, but I didn't expect Father's to be so outstanding. My two seem a bit unremarkable."

"You're wrong, Your Highness! Your two are truly outstanding. Although His Majesty's is majestic, I guarantee that in the future, your two paintings will surely be passed down as a good story among the people!" Fang Zheng thumped his chest and guaranteed, secretly despising him in his heart.

Shameless thing, still want to ride on your dad's head?

Li Yuanzhao grinned foolishly, "Really? Do you have any finished products printed out for me to see? I can't just look at these copper plates, can I?"

Fang Zheng gestured to the craftsman and asked in a low voice, "Have you finished what I asked you to do before?"

The craftsman pointed to a corner of the workshop and said, "Master, it's been done a long time ago, it's over there."

In the direction he pointed, a large wooden box about the height of a person was placed against the wall.

The shape of this wooden box was a bit strange, somewhat like a street arcade game machine in an arcade.

The wooden box was painted silver, and there was a small hollow horizontal bar in the middle, the purpose of which was unknown.

Fang Zheng pulled Li Yuanzhao to the wooden box and knocked on the side twice.

"Huh? This is a door? Why put a door on this strange box? What is this thing for?" Li Yuanzhao was confused.

The side of the box was actually a small door, and when the small door was pulled open, you could see a small stool inside.

Without saying a word, Fang Zheng pushed Li Yuanzhao into the box, closed the door, and said, "Your Highness, how does it feel inside?"

In the darkness, Li Yuanzhao frowned, "No, Lao Fang, what exactly are you trying to do? It's dark and stuffy in here."

"Your Highness, be patient. See if there's anything on your left hand side," Fang Zheng stood in front of the box and gave Ao Chen a look.

Ao Chen understood and took out a pen and notebook from his arms. The cover of the notebook said 'Taoyuan County Annals'.

Groping in the darkness, Li Yuanzhao quickly found a piece of paper.

He rubbed it a few times with his hand and smelled it. It seemed to be a silver note?

Fang Zheng coughed lightly and knocked on the outside of the box, "Ahem, withdraw one hundred taels of silver!"

"What, silver note? Is it this?" Li Yuanzhao was greatly puzzled, took the object that looked like a silver note in his hand, and stuffed it out of the crack.

Watching the silver note being pushed out of the crack, Fang Zheng quickly pulled it out, not forgetting to remind him, "Record it quickly!"

Ao Chen looked serious, lowered his head, and began to write quickly in the county annals. The time and place had already been written, and he only added a line at the end.

[Marquis Jianye, Fang Zheng, invented the automatic teller machine in Taoyuan County.]