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Over the next period, Fufeng County also became busy.

First and foremost was the crucial task of cement production and Railway Train construction. The artisans gathered by Ji Qingyan, after receiving the blueprints from Lin Ze, began to study and understand them, then started to imitate and produce the finished products.

During this time, Lin Ze returned to Fengping County and selected thirty teenagers from the families and relatives of his personal guards, placing them in the factory as apprentices to learn these techniques alongside the artisans.

Once the replication was successful, the next step was to recruit more people for large-scale production.

This task wasn't too difficult, as the production of cement and the creation of basic Railway Trains and steam trains weren't particularly high-barrier endeavors. However, achieving the goal required a significant amount of time.

On another front, while the cement factory and railway company were being prepared, a trading market was established outside the South Gate Pass of Fufeng County.

This trading market purchased various mountain delicacies, furs, and minerals produced in the Hengduan Mountains, and also sold daily necessities such as grain, salt, and cloth. All transactions were conducted at market prices, without exploiting the mountain people's poverty by raising prices to bleed them dry.

Similar to the role of the North Sea Pass grassland trade market, the main purpose was to attract the mountain people to come down from the mountains.

Initially, naturally, no one came to this trading market.

The mountain people of the Hengduan Mountains had been at odds with the Great Zhou Dynasty for more than just a year or two, and the level of trust between the two sides was almost zero.

However, Ji Qingyan played a clever game of cutting off the water supply at the source. First, she cut off the trading caravans that used to enter the mountains, forbidding them from secretly supplying materials to the mountains. Then, she sent people to inform them that they could trade materials outside the South Gate Pass in the future.

The Hengduan Mountains had scarce resources to begin with. Without trading caravans entering the mountains to purchase their mountain delicacies and furs and bring them the supplies they needed, their already impoverished lives would only worsen over time.

Conversely, if they traded down the mountain and the other party kept their word, they would still have a way out.

The choice was clear.

Thus, some daring individuals began to try bringing the mountain delicacies and furs stored in their homes to the South Gate Pass market for trade.

Then, they were surprised to find that although these Great Zhou troops patrolled around the market to maintain order, they did not attack or kill them.

In addition, their mountain delicacies and furs were sold at prices several times higher than in the past, while the prices of the materials they purchased were several times lower. The profit, back and forth, was enormous.

Even after deducting the increased labor costs due to the long distance, it was still more profitable.

At this time, the mountain people of the Hengduan Mountains realized just how much money those merchants, whom they had previously praised as helping them live better lives, had actually been earning from them.

As a result, some quick-witted individuals began to return to the mountains to purchase materials from other, less informed mountain people and transport them out of the mountains for sale.

However, this situation only lasted for a short time. News of the market spread among the various mountain people groups in the Hengduan Mountains, and people no longer foolishly sold their surplus materials to middlemen. Instead, they chose to go out of the mountains themselves to transport and sell materials at the market.

Under these circumstances, the popularity of the South Gate Pass market suddenly surged.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Ji Qingyan began the second step of her plan. She instructed her stewards to take action and begin recruiting these mountain people to build railways.

Although the rails, concrete materials, and trains needed to build the railway were not yet ready, some of the preliminary road leveling work could begin in advance.

On the South Gate Pass tower, Lin Ze and Ji Qingyan stood side by side, watching the lively scene in the market below the city gate.

Many mountain people, carrying their families, carried the furs and mountain delicacies they had accumulated on weekdays, weighed and sold them at the Princess Manor's steward, and then used the money they received to purchase the rice, flour, salt, and other daily necessities they needed.

Back and forth, profits were generated.

"It really is like spending money like water."

At this time, Ji Qingyan said with emotion.

The opening of the market can also earn a lot of money, because it is a monopoly business, it can stably earn three thousand taels of Silver every day.

However, the investment is also astonishing.

The cement plant and the railway company are frantically consuming funds. Although the market is making money, it is also squeezing working capital at the moment. Ji Qingyan has basically put all the working capital in her hands into it, and only has some silver left for daily cultivation.

In fact, if fertilizer hadn't brought about an increase in grain production, which could feed the increased population in the Hengduan Mountains, Ji Qingyan's market, which can earn nearly 100,000 taels of silver a month, would not be able to operate.

"I'll lend you 10 billion copper coins, with an annual interest rate of only 5%. You can pay with gold and silver after one year."

"I am investing in the construction of this railway into the Hengduan Mountains myself, but after a while, I will take your imperial brother's railway order. Building railways across the country requires huge start-up capital. It won't work without money."

At this time, Lin Ze naturally spoke up to expand his business.

One hundred billion copper coins is ten million taels of silver.

Lin Ze's Copper Coins Factory has been operating for more than four months now, producing copper coins at a rapid rate of 120 million coins per day. As of now, the total output has exceeded 15 billion coins.

Although Lin Ze has been flowing copper coins into the Great Zhou Dynasty market by paying salaries to employees of his industries and exchanging them at the Gold Bank, there are still many copper coins left. If Ji Qingyan wants to borrow money, Lin Ze can immediately take out these copper coins.

And Ji Qingyan is also a very good business target. Her status as a princess is a credit guarantee, so there is no need to worry about her running away with the money. Secondly, once Lin Ze and her cooperate in business, the funds in her hands will increase crazily.

Her repayment ability is very guaranteed.

Of course, the most important thing is that Lin Ze is not afraid that she will not repay the money.

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"Okay."

Ji Qingyan glanced at Lin Ze and nodded in agreement.

Lin Ze only charges an annual interest rate of 5%, which is extremely conscientious compared to the Nine Out of Thirteen Return loan. Under normal circumstances, Ji Qingyan would not be able to get such a low interest rate if she borrowed money, at least 10% annual interest rate.

She really needs money. With this huge start-up capital, even if she needs to pay 500,000 taels of silver in interest a year, she can earn more in return.

"Okay, here's the voucher. Go to Fengping County to withdraw the money yourself."

Lin Ze took out a stack of Zhi Yuan Gold Bank exchange vouchers, a total of one hundred vouchers, each worth one hundred million copper coins.

Of course, Lin Ze could actually send the money directly to Ji Qingyan, but he found it troublesome.

Opening a Gates to Heavens to send 10 billion, 50,000 tons of copper coins to Fufeng County is not difficult. It only consumes a little Luck and the mental power to use Personal Space to transport these copper coins. These costs must also be borne when transporting copper coins from the Main World.

However, once the money arrives, another problem is counting it.

This process will be very troublesome, and even counting by weight will take a lot of time and energy.

So Lin Ze chose to send these copper coins to his money vault in Fengping County and leave the trouble to his subordinates.

"Are you Truth Sect privately minting copper coins?"

At this time, Ji Qingyan took the exchange voucher, wrote an IOU for Lin Ze and stamped it, and then asked a soul-searching question.

According to the Great Zhou Dynasty Law, private individuals are not allowed to mint currency.

In fact, the reason why the Great Zhou Dynasty uses gold and silver as currency is largely because there are not enough copper coins. Adding up the copper coins minted by the Great Zhou Dynasty over the years and the copper coins minted by many previous dynasties, after deducting the damaged parts, there are probably only 500 billion copper coins left.

Considering that many copper coins were buried by some landlords, powerful families, and clans, the actual amount of currency circulating in the market may not even be 100 billion copper coins.

Lin Ze here often spends hundreds of billions of copper coins at a time. Ji Qingyan remembered that the 100 million copper coins she received last time were all brand new, so she immediately guessed that Lin Ze was privately minting currency.

"Well, gold and silver are important industrial materials, scarce in production and difficult to mine, while copper production is relatively high. Although using it to make copper coins doesn't generate profit, it can be used to gather the world's gold and silver."

"In fact, the reason for borrowing one hundred million Copper Coins this time, exposing my ability to mint Copper Coins, rather than borrowing ten million taels of Silver, is to take this opportunity to reach a cooperation with the Great Zhou Imperial Family."

"I hope that all the Copper Coins produced on my side in the future can be sold to your Great Zhou Imperial Family at the price of one thousand coins for one tael of Silver, and ten thousand coins for one tael of Gold."

"This cooperation has two benefits. First, your Great Zhou Imperial Family can save on the cost of fire consumption for minting currency. It is estimated that this part alone can save tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of taels of Silver each year. The second point is that the increase in money circulating in the market is conducive to your tax collection."

"Collecting taxes directly in the form of grain and cloth is still very troublesome after all. It's better to collect money directly. Furthermore, for many corvée labors and poll taxes, people can simply pay the taxes directly if they have money in hand."

"Maybe next year, your Great Zhou's fiscal revenue can increase by tens of millions of taels of Silver."

Lin Ze directly nodded in agreement. This kind of thing cannot be concealed. Forcibly pretending to be ignorant is simply insulting people's intelligence.

If it were before, Lin Ze would have pretended a bit, only mixing the Copper Coins he made into small transactions flowing into the market.

But since he comprehended Within Reach Horizon, and his self-preservation ability was maxed out, he became too lazy to pretend.

With sufficient self-preservation ability, Lin Ze was not afraid of the other party using force against him. At this time, proposing a cooperative request that was beneficial to both parties could further dispel the other party's resistance to being infringed upon, and eliminate possible disputes.

In this case, taking big strides forward, the development speed directly began to snowball.

Ji Qingyan slightly digested Lin Ze's words, and then asked in confirmation, "Can Copper Coins be exchanged for Gold and Silver at a fixed rate? Are they all the same quality as the Copper Coins I got from you before?"

Lin Ze nodded.

His Copper Coins were more real than the real ones, completely unadulterated.

It was nothing more than using the efficient production of industry to save costs, and then using the difference in the exchange ratio of Gold and Silver to make profits. For the Great Zhou Dynasty, there was no real loss.

This was also why Ji Qingyan's question was, are you privately minting Copper Coins? rather than, are you minting counterfeit money?

"Saving the fire consumption of minting coins, increasing the money circulating in the market, and being able to collect more taxes, the only price to pay is that the denomination is too large, and Gold and Silver, which are not very convenient to circulate."

"If this continues for a long time, all the Gold and Silver in the market will disappear, but at that time, apart from making Gold and Silver jewelry being slightly troublesome, it seems that there is no harm."

Ji Qingyan thought about it, but couldn't find any drawbacks.

Copper Coins are different from paper money. This is a currency with value in itself. The copper of the Copper Coins itself is the basic guarantee of its value. It can still be used after the change of dynasties. It does not mean that it is worthless without official endorsement.

For Lin Ze, Gold and Silver have the advantage of exchange rates, and he can make money in the Main World.

But for the Other World, Gold and Silver are nothing more than a kind of precious metal currency and decorations, and there is no great practical significance.

"I will mention this matter to my Imperial Brother."

Ji Qingyan said so in the end, but she did not directly agree, she did not have this right.

Lin Ze didn't care either.

If Ji Yuan agreed to cooperate, then he could plunder the Gold and Silver from World No. 2 faster and return to the Main World. If the other party did not agree to cooperate, it would just be slower.

Anyway, he was going to do this all the time. The Gold and Silver trade between the two worlds was currently his most profitable industry.

The conversation between the two ended here, and Ji Qingyan went to report the situation to her brother.

Lin Ze then began to cultivate.

After multiple verifications, Lin Ze has confirmed that there are no problems with the Zhou Tian Divine Skill he learned from Ji Kan and Ji Qingyan.

At this moment, Lin Ze officially began to cultivate this peerless divine skill.

He held his sword, adopted a stance, and began to practice according to the instructions of the skill.

After practicing for a short while, Lin Ze discovered the difference between this peerless divine skill and the previous cultivation methods.

Within the meridians and acupoints, the Inner Breath was flowing at high speed, and the flesh, bones, organs, and viscera of the whole body were mobilized at this time, with Qi and blood circulating throughout the body.

Lin Ze could clearly feel the food he had eaten being rapidly digested, his physique constantly becoming stronger, and the Inner Breath within his meridians and acupoints refining essence into Qi at a speed visible to the naked eye, accumulating more power.

"Externally, it accelerates the consumption of food, improving the body's ability to obtain external energy. Internally, it efficiently mobilizes the Qi and blood throughout the body to strengthen the origin."

"This complete peerless divine skill cultivates so quickly! It's more than ten times faster than Superior Martial Arts. If I continue to cultivate at this speed, it shouldn't be long before I can break through to the Spirit Accumulation realm."

Lin Ze sensed his state and felt a surge of amazement in his heart.

Just as Lin Ze wanted to continue his efforts in cultivation, he suddenly felt something was wrong.

"Hmm?"