At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 606: The Huns’ Railway Crisis and Stock Market Crash
The Egyptians, who were supposed to be the owners of this land, were all at the bottom of the country, except for a few who became noble monks. Of course, this was mainly the case in the Alexandria area, while the rest of the Upper Nile River basin was still controlled by local noble monks.

Zhang Pijiang didn't know what to say after knowing all this. With clear hierarchy, rigid social classes, feudal superstition, and foreign conquerors, he finally understood why there were so many weird things in Ptolemy.
No wonder everyone in this country, from the king to the nobles, does not care about the development of this country and is unwilling to carry out industrialization. If they really did that, after the Ptolemaic Empire became strong, it would probably drive away these invaders, and they would be digging their own graves.

Zhang Pijiang gained a lot. He recorded the situation of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and had people bring it back to the Han Dynasty. This can be considered a lesson. When a foreign colonist occupies a country, the country can no longer develop normally.

Just as Zhang Pijiang was taking notes in his study, Fan Kang suddenly barged in and said, "The Xiongnu Kingdom has experienced an economic crisis. The court asked you to go to the Xiongnu Kingdom as soon as possible. In exchange for helping them solve the economic crisis, they will agree to build a railway connecting the Western Regions."

Zhang Pijiang was surprised and said, "An economic crisis has broken out in the Xiongnu!"

But on second thought, Junchen had been developing industry in the Xiongnu Kingdom for more than 20 years, so it was normal for them to experience a crisis. It could even be said that this crisis came too late. The Han Dynasty had an emergency every ten years, while the Xiongnu had an emergency every twenty years, which was already very late.

On November 39, the 11th year of the Han calendar, Xiongnu Kingdom, Sha County, Quanzhou Port.

The first snow of the 39th year of the Han calendar had just fallen, making the bustling Quanzhou icy cold. There were almost no people on the streets, and even if there were people, they were walking hurriedly. The whole city seemed to be frozen. The coldest place in the city must be the Quanzhou Stock Exchange.

Although the exchange has installed a large number of new heating facilities to keep people inside warm, the hearts of the traders here are almost frozen. Since the end of September, when the crisis broke out, steel stocks first fell, leading to a decline in oil and textile stocks. All stocks in the Hun Kingdom have plummeted.

In the end, everyone realized that an unprecedented crisis had broken out, and all everyone had to do was sell, sell, and sell, and all traders were under tremendous pressure.

Those shareholders who held stocks lost everything they had. In the past few months, dozens of corpses were seen floating on the sea every day. From their clothes, it could be seen that they were once wealthy people, but now they could only be buried in the sea.

Quanzhou Port was not only the economic center of the Xiongnu Kingdom, but also their financial center. In the third year after Junchen returned to the Xiongnu Kingdom, in order to raise funds for industrial development, he set up a stock exchange in Quanzhou following the example of the Han Dynasty. The Xiongnu’s largest steel mills, textile mills, and even oil refineries all raised funds here to develop industry.

Since the establishment of the stock exchange in the Han Dynasty, there are now two stock exchanges in Chang'an and Kuaiji County. In the past few decades, merchants in the Han Dynasty have come up with many financial innovations that can be used to reap profits, but unfortunately they were blocked by the emperor.

Could they see more than Xu Fan? He directly banned high leverage, short selling, and other financial innovations, strictly checked accounts, and strictly controlled listed factories to bear unlimited joint and several liability for shareholders, and set high thresholds for shareholders. Although this could make some money, for those who wanted to get rich quickly, the money from the stock exchange of the Han Dynasty was too unsatisfactory. Almost every year, a large number of merchants complained to the Han Dynasty court that the court was too strict and hindered the development of listed factories.

But Xu Fan didn't care at all. The original purpose of stocks was to raise funds and develop industry. This was the most fundamental task of the stock exchange. It was already good enough to accomplish this task.

What's the point of having so many financial innovations? Turning the stock exchange into a casino and filling it with gamblers, swindlers, cheaters and other garbage? Then why open an exchange? Just open a casino directly.

Therefore, there are very few things that can be done on the Dahan Stock Exchange: listing, raising funds, dividends, and delisting. If a factory is really short of money, they generally won't think of listing. If the industry does not have huge expansion prospects, no factory will think of listing to raise funds. Even if the listed factory has completed the original accumulation, it will find a way to delist, so that it does not have to distribute the money it earns to these shareholders for nothing.

Even though the Han Dynasty's stock exchange has a history of thirty years, there are only about 600 listed factories on the two exchanges. There is not too much money flowing in them, and the trading funds are not much. Therefore, the Han Dynasty's several economic crises did not break out from the stock exchange. Instead, the Han Dynasty's industry and commerce always dragged down the Han Dynasty's stock exchange. Every time a financial crisis broke out in the Han Dynasty, it was also the most active period for the stock exchange, because during this era a large number of stocks would be sold at low levels.

After the Xiongnu Kingdom established the stock exchange, Junchen did not experience the harm of finance like Xu Fan. In addition, the Xiongnu Kingdom was among the followers. If he made the Xiongnu's stock exchange as strict as that of the Han Dynasty, how many people would be willing to invest money and come to the stock exchange in Quanzhou?

Junchen could only give up various restrictions on stock trading, raise the return rate of the Quanzhou Stock Exchange, and not restrict the insider information of the bankers or various financial innovations. Therefore, the sea merchants and wealthy people of the Han Dynasty preferred to come to the Xiongnu Stock Exchange. Here you can truly experience the thrill of skyrocketing and plummeting.

Of course, the benefits of such a low threshold are enormous. The Quanzhou Stock Exchange can bring more than one billion yuan to the Huns every year for industrial development. Before the crisis broke out, the Han Dynasty's maritime merchants invested 50 billion yuan a year in the Quanzhou Stock Exchange, and the project they invested in was the Huns' railway project.

After the Xiongnu annexed the Parthian Empire, the Han Dynasty changed its strategy towards them and taught the Xiongnu a lesson in the Dayuan area, and the old Chanyu died in the battlefield. Junchen understood that the Han Dynasty was afraid of the strength of the Xiongnu. He had no way to be an enemy of the Han Dynasty, so he could only limit the expansion of the Xiongnu.

However, the Xiongnu had been relying on the dividends brought by military expansion to bridge the contradictions between the upper and lower classes of the Xiongnu country for decades. If they could not expand, they would face great internal pressure. In order to resolve this contradiction, Junchen first asked his younger brother Yizhixie to bring people who were dissatisfied with the Xiongnu country to the northern border to open up and reduce the contradictions within the Xiongnu country. The second is to guide the Xiongnu nobles to transform from military nobles to industrial and commercial nobles, and let them use the Xiongnu stock exchange to open factories to make money. With more factories, there will be more jobs, and the people will have jobs, so there will naturally be fewer internal contradictions.

The industry that Junchen chose to promote the development of the Xiongnu Kingdom's industry was precisely the infrastructure industry, which was mainly based on railways. He knew very well that if he wanted to attract merchants from the Han Dynasty to invest in railways, his preferential treatment had to be better than that of the Han Dynasty, so that people would be willing to come to the Xiongnu Kingdom to build railways.

So he allowed private capital to dominate the operation of the Xiongnu's railways and even built private railways. The right to develop minerals within 5 miles along the railway was also granted by military officials to the merchants who built the railways. There were also various policy preferences, assistance in listing on the Quanzhou Stock Exchange, etc. Only in military matters had to obey the orders of the Xiongnu.

This made the merchants of the Han Dynasty very happy. The railway discounts from the Xiongnu Kingdom were too great. It was no longer just a matter of being a die-hard dealer, but selling the land to them.

Under this policy, the Xiongnu Kingdom's railways advanced at an unprecedented speed. In the first year of the policy's implementation, the Xiongnu Kingdom built 500 miles of railways. Coincidentally, a very high-quality copper mine appeared along the railway line, causing the stock of the established railway company to soar.

This marked a good start for the development of the Xiongnu Kingdom's railways. In the following years, the Xiongnu Kingdom's railways expanded at a speed of more than a thousand miles each year. Precious mineral resources such as oil, iron ore, manganese ore, and phosphate ore were also discovered in the Xiongnu Kingdom. Every time such minerals were discovered, it would trigger a new wave of investment in railways.

Before the crisis broke out, more than 30 railway companies were established in the Xiongnu Kingdom. In less than a year, the Xiongnu Kingdom built miles of railways, and in six years, it built more than miles of railways. Its development momentum was no less than that of the Han Dynasty.

At the same time, the railway promoted the rapid development of the steel and machinery industries in the Xiongnu Kingdom. Because the country did not have enough steel, it had to import rails, machinery and steelmaking equipment from the Han Dynasty. This in turn led to a surge in the Xiongnu Kingdom's foreign trade imports and exports, and explosive growth in shipping.

Represented by these industries, all walks of life in the Xiongnu Kingdom were developing rapidly, a large amount of Han capital flowed in, the economy grew rapidly, the market was prosperous, and the salaries of the Xiongnu Kingdom were also increasing rapidly. This golden age of rapid economic development allowed Junchen to quickly sit firmly on the throne of Chanyu, and his power was no less than that of his father.

However, the rapid development of the Xiongnu Kingdom was based on its extreme need for foreign investment. The 200-mile railway built by the Xiongnu Kingdom cost 50 billion yuan, and almost all of this money was invested by Han merchants. Just before the crisis broke out, the Xiongnu Kingdom’s Rulin Weekly published an article listing that the port of Quanzhou sold less than billion yuan worth of goods each year. Because the Xiongnu Kingdom’s railways were not connected to the Han railway network, most of the exports of goods could only be squeezed into Quanzhou.

The shipping volume of Quanzhou Port is limited, and the transportation fee earned from shipping from Quanzhou Port is only a few hundred million yuan. However, the investment of the Xiongnu Kingdom in railways in 39 exceeded 200 billion yuan, and the income-to-investment ratio of the railways exceeded 20%. The investment and construction cost of the Xiongnu railway network was hundreds of billions, but the total income of the Xiongnu Railway barely exceeded 4 billion yuan in a few years, and the profit was only million yuan. The income-to-investment ratio of the Xiongnu Railway was %, which was not a hardcore dealer, but simply a salt-alkali land.

The turmoil caused by this article was huge. On the second day, there was a sudden frenzy of selling railway company stocks in the Quanzhou stock market. Then it was out of control. The Quanzhou Stock Exchange was originally a place with many shell companies. Now this batch of articles punctured the bubble of the Quanzhou Stock Exchange, and the stock market crisis spread to the economic crisis of the Xiongnu Kingdom. The railway industry was the worst hit. Among the more than 30 railway companies, only 5 have barely survived. The ones that survived were saved by the Xiongnu Kingdom. All walks of life in the Xiongnu Kingdom received a huge blow. Countless bankrupts could only jump into the sea at Quanzhou Port. The entire Xiongnu Kingdom fell into turmoil.

Quanzhou Stock Exchange.

This was originally the richest area in the Xiongnu Kingdom, but now it was in a mess. There were notes everywhere on the ground, but no one cleaned it up because no one was paying the cleaners' salaries.

The exchange, which was once crowded with people, now has only a few people here and there. There are only a few traders and a few financial leeks like zombies who are holding on to their stocks and waiting for a miracle.

Trader Zhang Renjie sighed while looking at the blackboard at the exchange. He didn't know whether he was lucky or unlucky. He became a stock trader in Quanzhou a few days before the stock market crash. During the more than ten years when the Xiongnu stock market was booming, no one would have expected such a terrible financial disaster. Therefore, his predecessors were both traders and financial consumers.

What, how can such a thing be done, isn't this insider trading?
The stock exchange in our Xiongnu country is all about governing by doing nothing.

Under this model, you can make a lot of money when the stock market is booming, but a stock market crash is like the coming of death.

Zhang Renjie's predecessors were all trapped in the stock market crash. Those who had added leverage were even worse off. Not only did they lose all the money they had earned over the past decade, they were also unable to repay their debts. They could only jump into Quanzhou Port or jump off the stock exchange and be smashed into a pool of meat.

Zhang Renjie felt lucky that he had not had time to establish a mouse warehouse. Of course, he was now facing a problem. No one paid him a salary, so he had to find a new job for himself. There was no unemployment benefit in the Xiongnu Kingdom. At this time, a man came in and said to Zhang Renjie, "I want to buy shares of the Qufu Railway Company."

Zhang Renjie thought he was hallucinating and asked, "Is it the railway company's stock?"

The price of this thing has dropped to the point where it's worth less than paper, and there are still fools who want to buy this kind of junk stock?
But at this moment, a zombie suddenly stood up and said, "I have a thousand shares. I will sell them to you if you give me ten thousand dollars."

Before the stock market crash, the stock price of Qufu Railway Company was 200 coins per share. Now the price is one twentieth of the original price.

But the man said, "Okay, let's trade."

Then he directly took out Han coins worth ten thousand coins.

The man took out 1000 stocks from his chest and cried, "This is all my wealth, and now it's all gone."

The man went to get the stock and said, "You are a Xiongnu, Shan Yu will not ignore you. No matter what, you don't have to die like the others."

"But I am living a life worse than death now."

"It's better to die than live."

At this moment, another dozen people rushed in and said, "We want to buy the railway company's shares."

"What's going on?" Zhang Renjie asked in surprise.

And the Hun also hesitated, thinking something was wrong.

At this time, a man rushed into the stock exchange like a madman, and laughed wildly for a long time. The whole exchange was echoing with his laughter.

"The Han envoy has arrived in Quanzhou. The Xiongnu Kingdom is saved, and our stocks are saved too."

"This is true!" Everyone couldn't believe it.

"It's true. Zhang Pijiang, the Consul General of Daqinzhou, has already arrived in Quanzhou. The imperial court will not ignore us."

The Xiongnu man immediately grabbed his stock back to his chest and said, "I won't sell it."

"My dear brother, this is a bit immoral."

The Xiongnu said with a slightly crazy look: "You want to take away all my wealth with 5% of the price, and you still say that I am immoral."

More and more people flocked to the stock exchange, and it became crowded again. Countless people wanted to buy cheap stocks, but those who already had stocks did not want to trade at all, and those who wanted to buy stocks did not dare to buy stocks that were too expensive. After all, no one knew how the ambassador and the Chanyu would save the stock market crash. These people wanted to get a bargain, but they did not want to transfer the risk to themselves.

Quanzhou City, Taishou Mansion

"Ambassador, I'm sorry, you can only enter through the back door." A Hun official said with an apologetic look.

Zhang Pijiang asked: "Why?"

"The gate of the prefect's mansion has been blocked by the teacher. No one can pass through now."

Zhang Pijiang asked curiously, "How could such a thing happen?"

He remembered that a few years ago, when he came to Quanzhou, the then governor Jin Ridi was very proud of Sha County's education.

"Those teachers haven't received their salaries for half a year." The Xiongnu official said helplessly, "It's all because of this damn stock market crash, this damn financial crisis. It has disrupted the lives of us Xiongnu people and our prosperity."

Zhang Pijiang was surprised and asked, "Is it so serious?"

Confucius also held a ruling position in the Xiongnu Kingdom. The Xiongnu Kingdom's education relied on these people, which was the same as the monks in Daqinzhou. Even they had no salary, which shows how serious the financial crisis of the Xiongnu Kingdom was.

"Take me to see it."

The Xiongnu official could only helplessly say: "Yes!"

When we got closer to the prefectural government's mansion, there were indeed hundreds of people blocking the gate.

These scholars in Confucian robes shouted: "We want to eat, we want to live."

"Not paying salaries for half a year, the county magistrate is trying to steal money and kill people!"

The Huns' masters were the most martial people. They did not just shout to vent their anger. Instead, they kept throwing stones at the county governor's mansion. The fully armed soldiers who had entered the city outside the capital blocked the door with sandbags and isolated the masters with shields. At the same time, they used their own shields to block the stones.

At this time, a Xiongnu official in armor came out and shouted, "Fellow teachers, we are all scholars. We should teach and educate people. Give some experience. Don't use force like this. The prefect knows your difficulties, but there is no way. Now the Xiongnu country is facing a double blow of the stock market crash and the economic crisis. The prefecture has no money. You should find a way to hold on for a few more days. The prefect will find a way to get money."

But the teacher at the scene did not buy it and said, "You are lying here. You say you have no money. Why can your salary be paid on time and not reduced at all? We teach and educate people but have no money at all. You are the biggest responsible for the chaos in the Xiongnu Kingdom, but there is no punishment at all. Instead, we innocent people suffer from unprovoked disasters. Do you really think our Confucian guns are useless? You tell the county magistrate that we will wait for three days. After three days, if we still haven't received the salary we deserve, don't blame us for using Confucian guns to take it."

(End of this chapter)