At the Temple of Heaven Square.
"Nine Continent Cauldrons, combine!"
Following Ouyang Shuo's command, the nine cauldrons rose into the air and formed a circle in mid-air, rotating at a high speed. Above the square, a strong gust of wind blew, causing Ouyang Shuo's cloak to flutter.
The Nine Continent Cauldrons rotated faster and faster, until they could no longer see the cauldrons clearly, only shadows.
At this moment, the Xia Cauldron, which was originally placed in the center of the Temple of Heaven, was pulled by a strong suction force and rose into the air, turning into a black ray and appearing in the center of the circle.
The nine Nine Continent Cauldrons revolved around the Xia Cauldron, it was a spectacular sight.
About half an hour later, the nine cauldrons turned into green, black, white, red, yellow, purple, and other colors, all of which were cast towards the Xia Cauldron in the center.
With this light, the Xia Cauldron shone brightly, illuminating the surroundings.
Immediately after, the Xia Cauldron underwent many strange changes. The cauldron's handle, abdomen, and feet became more and more majestic. On the body of the cauldron, mountains, rivers, trees, birds, beasts, insects, and fish appeared one by one, projecting into the air like a mirage.
Upon closer inspection, the mountains and rivers, as well as the various birds and beasts, all of them belonged to Great Xia. In an instant, it reflected the mountains of Great Xia, including all the birds, beasts, insects, and fishes that lived within the borders of Great Xia. It was truly the means of a deity.
Ouyang Shuo was shocked when he saw it.
Such a scene only appeared in myths and legends, it was impossible for mortals to see it.
After a while, all the strange phenomena disappeared, and the Xia Cauldron, which had changed completely, turned into a black ray again and stopped precisely in the center of the Temple of Heaven, as if nothing had happened.
However, Ouyang Shuo knew that everything was different.
[Nine Continent Royal Cauldron]: Secret treasure of the Jin Nation, exclusive to the Great Xia. It can control the destiny of a nation, open up the world, reopen the boundary of the Nine Continent, and define a new territory of the Nine Continent.
The description was simple, but it was difficult to understand.
Apart from knowing that it was a secret treasure of the Jin Nation, Ouyang Shuo did not understand what 'reopening the Nine Continent' meant. Was it opening up a new space, or redefining the boundary of the Nine Continent in the game world?
Everything was left to be explored in the future.
With the matter of the Nine Continent Cauldrons settled, there was only one condition left for Great Xia to be promoted to an empire, which was to occupy more than one-third of the Huaxia region's territory.
Ouyang Shuo roughly estimated that with the addition of Hedong Province, Zhongyuan Province, Wannan Province, and Jiangnan Province to Great Xia, it was already very close to one-third of the total territory.
In other words, there was no need to conquer Tubo. As long as Grand Xia could conquer one more province, it would be able to meet the conditions and smoothly become the Grand Xia Empire.
The path before Ouyang Shuo was already a smooth one.
Without any hesitation, Ouyang Shuo ordered the cabinet and the Chamberlain of Dependencies to begin preparations for the dynasty's promotion ceremony. The time was set to be the first day of the first month in the seventh year of Gaia, signifying a new year and a new atmosphere.
It was now the 6th of October, and there were still three months of preparation time. There was more than enough time.
…
October 8th, Shanhai City.
Ouyang Shuo rode his Ferghana Horse and walked out of Royal City under the protection of a team of Divine Martial Guards. When the commoners saw them, they consciously moved to the sides of the street. Some even bowed to greet them.
In the eyes of the Great Xia commoners, Emperor Xia, Ouyang Shuo, was an eternal emperor who was deeply loved by the people.
Especially in Shanhai City, some of the commoners came to Shanhai City when they were still in the village and witnessed the growth of the dynasty. Now, their children had grown up and became the second generation of Shanhai City.
Shanhai City was indeed worthy of the name of the headquarters.
Ouyang Shuo's trip this time was to make a trip to the Bank of the Four Seas headquarters to witness a historic signing. The Bank of the Four Seas headquarters was located in the southwest corner of Royal City. Surrounding the bank, there was already a financial street.
Just as he reached the corner of the street, he saw the manager of the Bank of the Four Seas, Meng Zhida, leading his men to welcome him.
"Welcome, Your Majesty!"
Ouyang Shuo nodded and got off the horse. He passed the reins to a Divine Martial Guard and asked, "Is everyone here?"
"Yes, they are all waiting in the guest room."
"You are all early." Ouyang Shuo smiled. Very quickly, he arrived at the Bank of the Four Seas headquarters. He entered the main hall, passed through the corner tower, and arrived at the guest room in the backyard.
In the guest room, there were Bloody Romance, Xie Siyun, Bright Moon Illuminating the River, and other leaders of the Front Guild, the current generals of the Yulin Royal Guards. There was also Love Thread Link, the legendary existence who changed from a guild leader to a famous merchant in Great Xia. There were also Feng Qiuhuang, Siege Lion, and Tao Wu, the former lords, and the current feudal officials.
There was even a Dragon Seeking Acupuncture Point. This down-and-out man sat in the corner of the room in silence.
No matter what their status was, the reason they were invited to the Bank of the Four Seas headquarters today was because they had a common identity. They were the shareholders of the Bank of the Four Seas.
After the large-scale military expansion, the financial burden of the imperial court increased. As Emperor Xia, Ouyang Shuo had to think of ways to increase the financial income of the imperial court.
The first thing that came to his mind was the Bank of the Four Seas.
After five years of development, the Bank of the Four Seas was now a giant. It had accumulated more than three hundred million gold coins. Not only was it the largest bank in Huaxia, it was also the largest bank in the world.
Until now, no other bank could shake the Bank of the Four Seas' position as the overlord.
With the gradual decline of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the Huitong Bank, which had been able to compete with the Bank of the Four Seas three years ago, had long since declined. It was on a completely different level from the Bank of the Four Seas.
Ouyang Shuo's idea of the Bank of the Four Seas was not stupid. He wanted to use the bank's funds to pay the army. That was a classic example of drinking poison to quench thirst. Only a fool would do that.
He wanted to use the foundation of the Bank of the Four Seas to establish the Great Xia Bank.
Every country had its own central bank. The Bank of the Four Seas was responsible for this responsibility. The problem was that the Bank of the Four Seas was not only the central bank, but also a commercial bank. Its responsibilities were messy and too complicated.
There were even private investors who did not distinguish between public and private interests.
Because of this, after Meng Zhida's suggestion, Ouyang Shuo agreed. He decided to buy back all the shares of the Bank of the Four Seas. After writing them off, the Bank of the Four Seas would be split and reorganized.
This time, Blood Romance and the others had been gathered to sign the share transfer agreement. Because this was an important matter, Ouyang Shuo took the time to personally come to the Bank of the Four Seas' headquarters to witness this historic signing ceremony.
From now on, the Bank of the Four Seas would become a thing of the past.
Three years ago, when Blood Romance and the others invested in the Bank of the Four Seas, they valued 1% of the shares at 200,000 gold. The highest they could buy was no more than 5%.
In these three years, as the Bank of the Four Seas continued to expand, the shares held by Blood Romance and the others were diluted. From the highest 5%, they were diluted to the current 0.05%.
Even so, these shares were still worth tens of thousands of gold.
Apart from the Dragon Seeking Acupuncture Point and the Love Thread, everyone here held positions in the Great Xia. They could be considered his people, but Ouyang Shuo couldn't let them suffer a loss. After weighing the pros and cons, he gave them a reasonable buyback price.
Because the Bank of the Four Seas wasn't listed, there was no stock price. Ouyang Shuo made the decision and set a standard. Based on how much they had invested in the beginning, if they withdrew now, they would receive five times the amount they had invested.
For example, if they had invested one million, they would receive five million now.
Taking into account the inflation of the past three years, as well as the expected reasonable returns, this multiple was quite reasonable. Although the Great Xia's financial revenue increased by a lot every year, because the game used gold as the standard currency, the inflation rate wasn't high, and the value of gold had always been stable.
With this withdrawal, Blood Romance and the others could all make a huge profit.
As for those who didn't want to withdraw, no one present dared to be so insensible.
Even the Dragon Seeking Acupuncture Point, who had a grudge against Ouyang Shuo, didn't dare to rely on their status as shareholders to refuse to withdraw. With the current power of the Great Xia, Meng Zhida could make the Dragon Seeking Acupuncture Point yield without Ouyang Shuo's presence.
Fortunately, the Dragon Seeking Acupuncture Point wasn't so insensible.
Following the Sui Dynasty's surrender to the Great Xia, the Dragon Seeking Acupuncture Point, which had been living in Quanzhou, was now considered a citizen of the Great Xia.
Ouyang Shuo had long forgotten about the unhappiness of the past. Although he wouldn't reactivate the Dragon Seeking Acupuncture Point, he wouldn't take the initiative to find trouble with the Dragon Seeking Acupuncture Point either. He could continue living in the Great Xia with peace of mind.
This could be considered as' forgetting each other in the pugilistic world '.
At ten in the morning, under Ouyang Shuo's witness, all the shareholders signed the share transfer agreement. For this, the Bank of the Four Seas had to fork out 35,000,000 gold and silver in one go.
Fortunately, this sum of money came from the Bank of the Four Seas' account. Otherwise, the finance department wouldn't be able to afford it.
After signing the agreement and receiving a generous sum of money, Blood Romance and the others took their leave. This sum of money wasn't their private property. It had to be distributed to the members of the guild. Otherwise, they would be considered rich.
Ouyang Shuo stayed behind to discuss with Meng Zhida about the following matters.
The basic principle was to transform the Bank of the Four Seas' headquarters into the Great Xia Bank, which would be the central bank of the dynasty. It would be in charge of issuing currency and other matters. It would no longer carry out banking services such as savings and loans.
Speaking of which, Great Xia had long printed paper money, but it hadn't been well implemented. This time, Ouyang Shuo had made up his mind to make use of the Great Xia Bank to promote the Great Xia Coins.
The Bank of the Four Seas' branches were split into two commercial banks, the Great Xia Commercial Bank and the Great Xia Agricultural Bank. One would focus on industry and commerce, while the other would support the dynasty's agricultural development.
This way, not only would the authority of the central bank be guaranteed, but it would also further promote the dynasty's financial industry. It was a great way to improve the dynasty's finances.
Due to the massive size of the Bank of the Four Seas, the work of splitting the branches would be extremely complicated. Ouyang Shuo's order to Meng Zhida was to complete the splitting before the ceremony.
After the splitting, Meng Zhida would become the first president of the Great Xia Bank.
Apart from this, Ouyang Shuo also ordered the government department to use the opportunity of splitting the Bank of the Four Seas to recruit financial talents from the player community to work in the three big banks.
The China region was filled with talents and had a developed financial industry. There was no lack of such talents.
Now that Great Xia had taken the initiative to loosen its restrictions and open its doors, Ouyang Shuo believed that a large number of players who weren't doing well in the adventurer community would return to their original profession and work in the three big banks.
And this would definitely become a symbol, a symbol that the adventurer players were about to usher in another division of labor and would no longer be a single entity.
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