126: Chapter 126 Are they reluctant to spend more money on military equipment? Are they saving the money for reparations?

Qin An looked at the big shots who had arrived at the Great Qin Empire Bank.

He felt very nervous.

However, he tried his best to calm his emotions.

He spoke up, "Our bank's deposit services are divided into demand deposits, lump-sum deposits and withdrawals, installment deposits and lump-sum withdrawals, lump-sum deposits and installment withdrawals, and principal deposits with interest withdrawals."

"A demand deposit is a type of deposit with no fixed term. Cash can be deposited or withdrawn at any time through our counters during business hours using a bank card and a preset password."

"The interest rate for demand deposits is 0.15%."

"Lump-sum deposits and withdrawals are a type of fixed-term savings. It refers to a savings method where the term is agreed upon in advance, the principal is deposited all at once, and the principal and interest are withdrawn upon maturity."

"The interest rate varies according to the length of the storage period."

"The rate for three months is 1.05%."

"Six months is 1.25%."

"One year is 1.35%."

"Two years is 1.45%."

"Three years is 1.75%."

"Five years is 1.8%."

As Qin An spoke, he handed out flyers to the nobles present.

To give the nobles a visual of the numbers, they even wrote calculation formulas on the flyers: a fixed deposit of one hundred gold would earn nearly one gold in interest after five years.

This immediately tempted many of the nobles.

Vast amounts of money were piled up in their treasuries.

The primary currency used in the Qin Dynasty was the banliang coin, which was mostly made of bronze.

Bronze turns green and develops green mold when exposed to air for long periods, eventually becoming ruined and causing huge losses.

If they could deposit their money in a bank, not only would it not go bad, but they could also earn interest.

This was a good thing for the nobles.

However, when it came to money, who wasn't cautious?

The Great Qin Empire Bank was easy to talk to when depositing money.

But would the Great Qin Empire Bank be just as easy to deal with when they wanted to withdraw it?

Would the Great Qin Empire Bank be willing to return the money to them?

Since the Great Qin Empire Bank had not yet established its reputation, all the nobles were wary.

"This old man will deposit one thousand gold!"

Feng Jie was the first to step forward and state his position.

"This old man will also deposit one thousand gold!"

General Wang Jian followed suit.

Qin An was overjoyed to hear this. With Feng Jie and General Wang Jian taking the lead, it would undoubtedly encourage other nobles to deposit their money.

"This old man will deposit one hundred gold," Li Si said.

It wasn't that Li Si was unwilling to give more, but when Zhao Fusu entered Guanzhong, Li Si had given him one thousand gold and was now out of money.

This one hundred gold was only saved up after selling grain following the summer harvest.

"This old man will also deposit one hundred gold."

Chunyu Yue's situation was similar to Li Si's.

In order to give the Legalists a chance to rise, he had also given Zhao Fusu one thousand gold.

The one hundred gold he could produce now was pooled together by the Confucian officials after they sold their summer harvest grain.

They all knew that the Great Qin Empire Bank was Zhao Fusu's industry.

If the Confucians wanted to thrive in Great Qin, they had to curry favor with Zhao Fusu.

If Zhao Fusu found that the Confucians hadn't deposited any money in the Great Qin Empire Bank while checking the accounts, what would he think of them? Would he target them again?

If the Confucians wanted to make progress, they had to look for the reasons within themselves.

They couldn't wait until they were alienated by Zhao Fusu to start complaining.

The civil and military officials also began to deposit money one after another.

Their leaders had followed suit; if they didn't, what would their leaders think of them?

"Everyone, please line up."

"Don't push!"

"Don't push!"

Looking at the enthusiastic nobles depositing money, Qin An was excited, but he also did his best to maintain order.

That evening,

After tallying the total amount deposited by the nobles, Qin An reported it to Zhao Fusu.

Over ten billion!

Zhao Fusu looked at the deposit amount with a face full of surprise.

He hadn't expected these nobles to be so supportive and deposit so much money in his bank.

Most of them had deposited for five years.

This gave Zhao Fusu a lot of time.

As long as he could beat the Xiongnu people into submission and obtain wool and milk from them, he could turn those into commodities for sale.

Zhao Fusu believed that wool sweaters and milk would surely earn him a fortune.

That way, he could repay the principal and interest to the nobles who had deposited in his bank.

Zhao Fusu invested a large sum of money into the military industry.

In half a month, Zhao Fusu invested several billion and gathered a full thirty thousand soldiers to engage in military production.

The steel plant had been completed and put into operation.

Sulfuric acid production lines, nitric acid production lines, nitro-hemp production lines, and mercury fulminate production lines were built in large numbers, springing up like bamboo shoots after rain.

The production of mercury fulminate was constantly increasing, from 26 kilograms to 118 kilograms.

The production of smokeless powder grew from 760 kilograms to 10,000 kilograms!

Zhao Fusu had the military personnel use the smokeless powder to produce a large number of explosive packs.

Zhao Fusu also ordered Old Yang, the Vice President of the Defense Academy of the Great Qin Empire Academy of Sciences, to mass-produce steam machine tools based on the one he had obtained from his check-in.

From the army, he selected a group of soldiers with strong hands-on abilities to come to the military factory and learn how to manufacture revolvers and striker shotguns.

In half a month, one thousand revolvers were produced, along with five hundred striker shotguns.

This quantity was still far from enough.

To speed up the production of revolvers, Zhao Fusu improved the process.

The most time-consuming part of making a revolver was the frame.

He no longer used the cutting tools on the steam lathe for carving, but instead used stamping technology.

Red-hot iron blocks were directly pressed into the shape of the frame using a molding press. Afterward, files and polishers were used for finishing.

After the revolver frame was polished, it was heated in boiling hot salt and then quenched in cold water.

This method solved the defect of insufficient frame strength under hot forging conditions.

As for the barrels, they still used the cold forging process, using the drill bits on the steam lathe to bore them out.

Production of the Iron Pagoda barding was extremely fast, and three thousand sets had already been produced.

Next, the workers would produce buren armor.

Zhao Fusu wanted to equip all frontline combat units with buren armor.

In other words, at least three hundred thousand sets of buren armor had to be forged!

This required Zhao Fusu to invest a massive amount of money.

But war was essentially a contest of money. If he wanted the troops to have combat effectiveness, he had to be willing to invest in armaments.

If one was reluctant to put money into armaments, were they saving it for indemnities, or for some birthday banquet?

Taking history as a mirror, Zhao Fusu was not only willing to spend money on armaments, but the materials used were also the best.