A few days later, businessmen from various countries who came to invest after hearing the news. Li Weiguo followed the principle that more people would get better and refused to accept them. However, in order to give the merchants who had joined before, Li Weiguo no longer treated the founding members of the later generations, but only treated them with common shareholders. Despite this, these latecomers were still very happy to participate, so Li Weiguo quickly raised the initial funds for the establishment of a bank.

Before and after, Li Weiguo signed a contract with 300 merchants, raising a total of 3 million pounds, equivalent to 12 million taels of Kupingyin, which is far beyond the minimum capital injection standard of commercial banks at ordinary urban levels abroad, and even meets the establishment standards of national-level large banks.

You should know that the China Merchants Bank, a self-run bank in the late Qing Dynasty, was founded by Sheng Xuanhuai. It was established in Shanghai on May 27, 1897. The initial capital was only 5 million taels of silver. The exchange rate at that time was only half of the current one, which shows how huge the funds Li Weiguo had.

The domestic environment at that time was also different. When the Tongshang Bank was established, imperialist countries such as Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan had opened up as many as 20 banks in China. They had operated for more than 30 years, monopolizing China's international exchange business and domestic financial markets. Through a large amount of loans, they gradually controlled the finance and taxation of the Qing government, becoming a bridgehead for their economic aggression against China.

Now Li Weiguo has established a bank more than 30 years in advance, and before the great powers legally opened banks in China, if they operate properly, China's international exchange business and domestic financial markets will be monopolized by Li Weiguo's banks, and may also replace the great power banks controlling the Qing government's finances and taxes.

This is a big game that will affect the entire future pattern of China, and even the world pattern. Li Weiguo grinned and said that in the future, his fake-money empire failed. Now that he has been back, he has enough confidence to create a stronger fake-money empire, become the maker and decision-maker of global money rules, and make the whole world surrender to his financial knife.

Next is to convene a board of directors to determine the name, address, and appointment of bank management personnel. As the legal representative and chairman, there is no doubt that other board members are helpless even if they have any opinions. After all, the Qing government does not allow foreigners to set up banks and issue currencies in China. Except for Li Wei, they cannot find any other candidates to replace, so they can only agree to his harsh conditions.

The name of the bank was studied by everyone on the board of directors, and finally Li Weiguo decided to name the Asian Investment Bank, referred to as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank for short.

Of course, this is just Li Weiguo's bad taste. Fortunately, other board members and shareholders did not object, so they were approved.

Regarding the address issue, because except for Li Weiguo, all the members of the board of directors were foreign merchants from all over the world, British merchants wanted to be located in the British Concession, while French merchants wanted to be located in the French Concession, the United States, Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands and other countries also planned to be located in their concession area. However, in the end, Li Weiguo resolutely and directly chose the Shanghai County Town, opposite the Drum Tower in the center of Zheng Street. The reason was that if it was located in the foreign Concession, the Qing government would not admit it, or even allow it, and everyone had no choice but to agree.

As for the assignment of the management staff of Asian Investment Banks, each board member insisted that he had to install a "person" to work in the bank. They were afraid that Li Weiguo would embezzle their money and lose money. Li Weiguo made concessions to this, because he currently has no one around him who knows bank operations and wants the Asian Investment Bank to operate as soon as possible. These foreigners have advanced management experience, so they are the only candidates. However, Li Weiguo also kept a backup plan. He ordered Butler Yang to hire some people who had managed the money shop and let them join various departments of the bank as interns. In response, the board members opposed it, but Li Weiguo blocked their mouths: "The people who deal with you in the future will be Chinese!"

With the finalization of the management staff of the Asian Investment Bank, the bank's shelves were set up. Li Weiguo then went to the Shanghai County Government and paid a deposit of 100,000 taels of silver. He successfully registered the Asian Investment Bank in his name.

Then Li Weiguo spent about 20,000 taels of silver to purchase several shops and houses opposite the Drum Tower in the center of Zheng Street, covering an area of ​​about ten acres. The board members hired a US construction team from the US concession to strip and rebuild these shops and houses.

Of course, Li Weiguo took the money himself. After all, he occupied 25% of the bank's shares and became the bank's president. If he didn't pay a penny, it would be a bit unreasonable.

As for the construction style of the Asian Investment Bank headquarters, the board members also argued fiercely and finally reached an agreement to build an eight-story building that combines Chinese and Western styles. The exterior is Gothic steeple, and the interior is changed to a Chinese decoration style to cater to the preferences of Chinese customers.

Looking at the entire Qing Empire, there was no eight-story building. Li Weiguo successfully convinced all board members to persuade the Asian Investment Bank to let all Qing citizens know about it and that building the tallest building of the Qing Empire was the best advertisement. The board members all thought it made sense, so they agreed.

Just as the Asian Investment Bank building was under construction, Li Weiguo also received a letter from his family, and the appointment document from the Ministry of Personnel in Beijing had been issued to Jiangning.

"Lu Jianying's movements are so fast!"

Li Weiguo sighed, what should come is still coming. He originally planned to wait for Bao Ling to help pressure the Qing government after he came back from Hong Kong and replace him with the magistrate of Shanghai. Now it seems that Lu Jianying is afraid that he can't wait to let Li Weiguo take office in Chongming County as soon as possible.

"Young Master, you can't go to Chongming County!" Butler Yang was responsible for inquiring about the situation in Chongming County, knowing what was going on, and was worried that Li Weiguo would fall into Lu Jianying's trap.

"It's okay, just be careful!" Li Weiguo said calmly. If he didn't take office, Lu Jianying would definitely make a big fuss to deal with him.

Li Weiguo had already planned this move when he took the game. The ultimate goal was to get the Shanghai County Magistrate. He worked step by step, one by one, and moved towards the ultimate goal of occupying Shanghai. Now that he is about to succeed, he cannot give up.

When he returned to the Li family in Jiangning, he visited his parents. Li Weiguo proposed that his whole family go to Shanghai to settle down, but Li Yanming refused. He still played the same tune again and couldn't bear to leave every tree and grass in his hometown.

Logically speaking, Hong Xiuquan had already rebelled at this time, so why hasn't Jiangning received any news yet?

Li Weiguo was puzzled. He needed a reason that his father could not refuse, and this reason was that the Taiping Army was about to fight. But there was no news about the Taiping Army until now, which made him feel a strong sense of uneasiness.

Family, nothing can happen to the family in this life. It is too dangerous to stay in Jiangning. Taiping Army is not a good man and a trustworthy woman.

"Send someone to ask around Yong'an, Guangxi. I want to know the movements of the rebels there at any time!"

"In addition, select some strong servants from the mansion and follow me to Chongming to take up their posts."

"Select a hundred people. If the mansion is not enough, recruit some. Remember to choose the honest and strong person who is good at not being too bad."

"Here, I'll do it now." Butler Yang accepted the order and went down to make arrangements.

When he returned to his room, Li Weiguo opened the official letter box, which contained a letter of appointment of Chongming County Magistrate and an exclusive official seal.

"Nine-grade level 18, from now on, I'm a serious and high-ranking official!"

Li Weiguo laughed. Although he went to Chongming County this time with conspiracy and danger, he was not afraid, maintained an optimistic and sunny attitude, and was full of confidence in the cause he was going to strive for.

Just as Li Weiguo was having fun secretly, Yong'an in the south was staged in a cruel war, and the largest peasant armed aggression in modern Chinese history officially kicked off.

In fact, as early as January of the first year of Xianfeng, Hong Xiuquan had already launched an ambush in Jintian, Guangxi, and established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. However, the scale was very small, and local Qing government officials concealed the truth and lied that it was a riot. It was not until September that the Taiping Army captured the important town of Yong'an that the Qing court was paying attention and sent the army of two and the vast number of troops to encircle and suppress it.

After Li Weiguo and Su Sanlang, the leader of the Tiandihui Fire Hall, became sworn brothers, he handed Su Sanlang a batch of British firearms and ammunition. A month later, the Tiandihui members led by Su Sanlang arrived in Guangxi with the help of British merchant ships. During this period, Su Sanlang and other Tiandihui members received the help and training of British officers and mastered the use of these firearms. After they met with Hong Xiuquan, they immediately attracted Hong Xiuquan's high attention. In the subsequent battle against Yong'an, the Tiandihui Musket Team commanded by Su Sanlang easily broke through the city and was directly named the Fiery Fire by Hong Xiuquan and appointed as the military commander. Their status and power were second only to the wing king Shi Dakai.

However, all these news were strictly blocked by the Qing army, so Li Weiguo, who was far away in Jiangning, could not get the news for a long time. It was not until the person Yang sent to inquire about the news that Li Weiguo learned about the situation there.

"Have you arrived in Yong'an? It seems I have to hurry up and prepare." Li Weiguo frowned. His attitude towards the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has always been objective. It was just a large-scale rebellion in which a group of unsuccessful ambitious people incited the ignorant working people to rebel and seek personal gain. The result was that most of China was trapped in a fourteen-year war. Both sides slaughtered each other bloody slaughtered each other, and the Taiping Army massacred the Qing army. Wherever they went, the bannermen and wealthy families were all slaughtered.

The Qing army counterattacked and retaliated, massacred the Taiping Army. Every time they occupied a city and a land, they would rather kill 3,000 people by mistake than let one person go. The final result was that the national population was 430 million on the eve of the outbreak of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. After the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the population was only 230 million, which was not counted as the natural population growth rate. This catastrophe caused China to lose 200 million people, of which 82 million died directly in the war. How cruel it is!

Li Weiguo hated this kind of war because it caused too many innocent people to die and severely damaged China's economic strength. The entire war caused China's direct economic losses of up to 2 billion taels of silver, which was twice the total foreign indemnity payments in the late Qing Dynasty. It directly reduced China's GDP from 43% of the world's first to 6%. The national strength was gone and the inability to build national defense was another important reason for the failure of the Second ** War.

Of course, there were many beneficiaries in this war. The Han armed forces broke away from the control of the bannermen. The rise of Han tyrants such as Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, Zuo Zongtang changed the pattern of the Qing Empire that the bannermen had always been in the world, especially south of the Yangtze River. The bannermen were killed by the Taiping Army. From then on, they were the Han people's world, laying the foundation for the Han revolutionary movement to overthrow the Qing Dynasty in the future.

This is the only remarkable place. Li Weiguo cannot deny that this is also the path he is going to take now, but he is different from Zeng, Li and others because he will not be a slave to the Qing Dynasty.

Three days later, Li Weiguo set out to Chongming County, with only Zhang Xiaoliu and 100 newly recruited guards. Butler Yang left to take care of Li Weiguo's parents. As for how to persuade them to leave Jiangning, he could only think of another solution. Fortunately, the Taiping Army would only capture Jiangning a year later, so there was still time.

The only thing that made Li Weiguo regretful was that there was still no news about Fu Shanxiang so far, but he did not give up and still sent a large number of people to search.

Li Weiguo and his group all rode horses and arrived in Shanghai soon.

The construction of the Asian Investment Bank Building was very fast, but the foreign merchants on the board of directors could not wait, so Li Weiguo proposed to rent shops nearby as temporary office space, citing it as: "listing trial business".

Since the people do not know Asian investment banks yet, Li Weiguo suggested conducting large-scale publicity to let people understand that Asian investment banks are the best money houses, the most trustworthy money houses, and the most favorable money houses for the people.

It took time for people to accept and trust Asian investment banks, so Li Weiguo was not in a hurry. He found John and bought him a hundred long muskets and three-base ammunition to arm his guards.
Chapter completed!