Chapter 567

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

"Everyone, sit." Chen Zhongguo nodded with dignity, then turned to Chen Yi with a smile: "Was the trip smooth? Heard you were delayed a few days?"

"A minor matter, already resolved." Chen Yi also greeted Committee Member Sima and Committee Member Tang Yuan.

Both their expressions were perfectly normal.

Gao Qiu secretly rejoiced at the opening, while the other bank senior management secretly lamented; if not for the vast disparity in status between the two sides, they would surely have spoken up first to block the door right now.

Sure enough, Chen Zhongguo swept his gaze around the circle and spoke: "The reason I've asked everyone here today concerns the matter of establishing a West Continent bank."

West Continent — widely circulated among China's upper echelons, an open secret — the several people present showed surprise, then quickly composed themselves.

"Financial business demand on the West Continent is growing more and more; there must be banks and insurance institutions. Our preliminary consideration is to use the method of self-application followed by approval. In addition, after the existing policy banks enter the West Continent, their functions will change." The speaker was Committee Member Tang Yuan; he specifically oversaw directions like financial reform, and half the people below counted as his subordinates.

Policy banks are precisely the Central Bank and Development Bank and so on; Construction Bank of China and Jiangning Bank belong to commercial banks of different scales.

Fan Bailu of the People's Bank grew anxious upon hearing this and hurriedly asked: "How will the functions change?"

They exercise the Central Bank's functions; even a momentary change would be extremely uncomfortable for them.

Tang Yuan didn't want to spark dispute, smiled and said: "The formal documents haven't come down yet; this is just a sounding meeting, and we'll also adopt opinions from various departments. You can write up a proposal and submit it."

Fan Bailu wore a helpless expression; he often said this kind of thing in meetings too — whoever actually wrote a proposal and submitted it, aside from making a deep impression on the company commander, nine times out of ten it wouldn't be adopted.

The targets of the sounding and the targets of the consultation are completely different.

After a pause, Committee Member Sima stepped forward: "The West Continent's situation is special; currently there's only one Shuangtong Bank. Operated by Mr. Chen Yi himself — it seems it doesn't have a license, does it?"

He asked with a smile.

Chen Yi returned a smile, did not answer.

Fan Bailu secretly cursed the grandstanding, but aloud smiled: "Leave the license to us to handle."

"Then trouble you, President Fan." Chen Yi was merely being polite.

"No trouble at all; just have your bank prepare the materials, I'll send someone to collect them." Fan Bailu spoke insincerely.

Committee Member Sima cleared his throat, continued: "Shuangtong Bank's main business is gold bonds; on this aspect, all banks have a certain understanding by now. As it stands, only the issue of bank discounting cannot be resolved — everyone speak freely, discuss."

Before they'd even finished listening, each house began shaking their heads vigorously.

Fan Bailu thought, cannot concede further, so he seized the initiative: "Our bank has very few outlets, and we haven't trained frontline staff in bond identification either; doing this specifically would be very difficult. The matter of discounting gold bonds — we won't participate."

"Current frontline staff numbers are too large; organizing a training session isn't easy. My meaning is, still let Jiangning Bank undertake the exchange business; we'll just cooperate." Wei Yan dragged his feet and obstructed, having prepared two fallback plans.

Wan Geng and the rest need not be mentioned. Getting them to agree to something isn't easy; opposing is much simpler.

Discounting is the realization of a draft or check, equivalent to acknowledging that gold bonds have at least value equal to a check; when a situation requiring other currencies arises, people need only take gold bonds to a bank to exchange — this will inevitably strengthen their monetary nature. Furthermore, if Chen Yi fires up the printing press to mass-produce gold bonds, the banks would still have to pay out — more troublesome than a certain country's single currency.

Therefore, allowing discounting is no small matter. In fact, even now, big banks unwilling to discount small banks' drafts is a common occurrence.

Asking them to discount gold bonds — Fan Bailu would rather resign than do it; hence his resolute attitude.

Committee Member Sima persuaded a couple more sentences, finally left a meaningful look, then stopped.

Chen Yi watched their performance, found it quite interesting. If they truly wanted to persuade the banks to discount gold bonds, it should be Committee Member Tang Yuan speaking, not Committee Member Sima.

A few sentences exchanged, Tang Yuan and Committee Member Sima departed; the bank crowd also quietly vanished.

Only Chen Yi and Grandpa Chen Zhongguo remained in the conference hall; the latter watched the door close, blinked and smiled: "Didn't figure it out, did you?"

"No." Chen Yi spoke truthfully.

"Seized a temporary opportunity. The Sima Family wants a one-time 100,000 tons of channel tonnage, and 8,000 tons monthly — I've already agreed in advance. Tang Yuan wants our support on several aspects, plus a guarantee that Shuangtong Bank complies with Central Bank policy — I agreed to that too." Chen Zhongguo exhaled; only when facing this grandson did he ever feel so relaxed.

On the political stage there is no general equivalent; therefore the opportunity cost and time cost of exchange are considerably high. Not all valuable political resources are suitable for exchange; the higher the level, the more so.

Chen Zhongguo's concessions to both families were within the range the clan had discussed earlier; the Chen Family paid very little and gained a great deal — a very good deal indeed.

Chen Yi's understanding of political transactions stopped at the surface; he couldn't be bothered to ask details, nodded in agreement. What's 100,000 tons of channel tonnage — just the capacity of three to five large cargo ships; if he personally acted, 10-plus minutes would settle it. Other Divine Art Knight laborers would be slower, but that's just one or two hours.

8,000 tons of supplies monthly is relatively more troublesome, because it's even more than what the Zheng Family — the largest recipient in the Chen Clan — gets. However, considering Committee Member Sima's status, the Zheng Family and the rest of the Chen Clan should be able to understand.

The West Continent has plenty of sardines; introducing one or two catfish does no harm.

Exited the door, just in time to hear the bank leaders getting into cars.

At least three people got into the same car.

Chen Yi secretly laughed.

They're surely thinking of squeezing the gold bonds out; unfortunately, after the early danger passed, gold bonds backed by nearly 10,000 tons of gold reserves are no longer so easy to deal with.

Naked Bear had been staring from outside the courtyard; seeing Chen Yi come out, he hurriedly asked: "My Lord, where to now?"

"Find a place to eat." Chen Yi threw up his hands, leaned back against the chair back.

Little Lizard grumbled discontentedly, started up: "I want to eat too."

"A portion of Mercury-Brass Set Meal then." Chen Yi said, tossing large amounts of mercury and brass from his ring; they had just hit the floor when Phantom Dragon absorbed them.

"Not enough."

"None left." Chen Yi shrugged, picked up the phone, called Uncle Chen Guoliang.

On the chair back in front, a pair of eyes suddenly appeared, staring unblinkingly at Chen Yi's mobile phone — an obviously greedy look.

"Not afraid of being poisoned." Chen Yi invited Uncle to eat, hung up, then decisively tossed the phone to Little Lizard to eat. He had all phone numbers memorized; aside from the most basic calling function, the phone really had no great use — he could just swap for another when he got back.

Little Lizard ate with relish, wheels spinning rapidly: "I love circuits best, a spicy tingly feeling."

Chen Yi shrugged, genuinely not wanting to discuss its bizarre recipes with a gluttonous monster.

Sat a while in a famous shop claiming to be "West Capital First Fishery," then saw Chen Guoliang arrive with his son Chen Ye.

Chen Yi stood to welcome them, smiled: "Came to Xijing in a rush, went to see Grandpa first."

"Is the old master well?" Though both in Xijing, Chen Guoliang hadn't seen his father once a week.

"Everything's fine, today I also met Committee Member Sima and Committee Member Tang Yuan." Chen Yi reported the day's events in a tone of casual conversation.

Chen Guoliang popped a peanut into his mouth, listening while eating, pondering carefully.

Until the hot dishes were served, he still hadn't finished that peanut—the peanut, knowing in the netherworld, should examine itself, seeing how many sins it committed in its past life to deserve this cruel torture of being devoured by ten thousand.

After Chen Guoliang heard him finish, he finally sighed: "Looks like the Gold Bonds are finally on the right track!"

"Looks like it."

That day, when he got over a thousand tons of gold and detained the Xijing representative, the whole family opposed it.

But now he could freely print Gold Bonds as he pleased.

If before he still relied on family blessings, then starting from Gold Bonds, it was all Chen Yi's own struggle and hard work.

Composing himself, Chen Yi smiled and asked: "Uncle, when do you plan to set off and return to Jiangning?"

"Within this month, in another week I can finish handing over affairs."

Chen Guoliang had been reappointed as Commander of the Southeast Military Region; after taking office, it was equivalent to holding most of the Southeast in his grasp, except for the Southeast Fleet.

This was also one reason they disliked the Navy. The Chinese Navy had always been independent and consumed a lot; the tradition of the Navy not listening had long existed; the New China Navy was originally built on the foundation of the surrendered Republic of China Navy; besides winning great battles, the Chinese Navy basically experienced learning various maritime problems, including how to shift responsibility.

"Do you have plans to bring subordinates back?" This was the real purpose of Chen Yi's invitation.

Chen Guoliang nodded and said: "There are a few field officers I know well. What, do you have recommendations?"

"I want to ask you for some people incidentally."

"Oh?"

"Logistics types. West Continent Supplies are increasing day by day, and factory-style management can't keep up." Chen Yi said with a smile: "Now it's increased to 800,000 tons per month, truly a bit hard to bear."

800,000 tons of supplies need to be loaded onto over a hundred spaceships, all must finish loading within one to two weeks, and must also consider shelf life, unloading difficulty, and other issues. Besides transportation, purchasing these supplies is also a big headache; if the West River Association buys whatever and whatever is expensive, then no matter how profitable the West Continent is, it will ultimately lose money.

Chen Guoliang didn't care, took a sip of water, and smiled: "Do you have someone in mind, or do you want me to recruit on the spot? How many?"

"Around 500."

"You want to set up a general rear?" Chen Guoliang coughed hard, and Chen Ye quickly helped pat him.

"More or less." Chen Yi laughed outright.

Chen Guoliang shook his head and said: "Where can I find so many?"

"I have benefits." Chen Yi put down a bottle of Knowledge Solvent.

Chen Guoliang had also tried this thing before; that day he praised it highly. Now upon seeing it, he instead frowned: "Isn't this too wasteful?"

Something so magical, in his opinion, must be extremely precious.

Chen Yi didn't explain, smiling: "Whoever is willing to come can get 1 kilogram, and there will be more distributed later. My meaning: don't take students or such, just take officers who can be used on the front lines."

"You're poaching people." Chen Guoliang finished praising, then suddenly said: "I'll poach Chen Guaizi's people for you. This old bastard has swindled people his whole life; it's time he tasted having his own subordinates swindled."

He laughed heartily, making Chen Ye feel embarrassed.

... (Unfinished. If you like this work, welcome to come to Qidian (qidian. com) to vote for Recommendation Tickets and Monthly Tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)