Feng Yu put the letter of appointment aside, opened the notice and took a few glances. It turned out that Thomas, the younger brother of Malor, the commander of the Apennine Fleet, wanted to take his legion to garrison on the coast of the Messina Strait in Sicily. And it was not under the Sicily province to directly dispatch it. This clearly meant to check and balance himself.

However, Feng Yu had expected this and did not take it seriously at all. He had even prepared for not being appointed as the acting governor of Sicily as usual. Feng Yu knew that there must be a lot of controversy in the convention hall of the Roman Palace for his appointment and the establishment of such an alien army on Sicily. He put the notice aside with a few disdainful smiles on his face.

Finally, Feng Yu opened the private message Alexander gave him, and frowned as he looked. Seeing this, Simmons couldn't help but ask curiously: "General, what did Alexander say in his letter."

Feng Yu said truthfully: "They finally took the lead-cast water pipes seriously. Unfortunately, they couldn't raise so much money to rebuild the water supply system in Rome and other large and medium-sized towns. So the letter asked me what a good idea was. Although it was the way to ask, it was obvious that they wanted me to find a way to raise this huge amount of money."

Feng Yu said this and looked left and right, and found that there were no local generals from Rome such as Douglas, so he said directly in Chinese: "Although the treasury of Liang State is rich, I cannot withdraw such a large amount of funds from the treasury of Liang State to subsidize Rome. Don't say that I am just the acting governor of a province in Rome and the administrator of the great army. Even if I am sitting in the position of Alexander, it is unreasonable to do so. What's more, although we have seized most of the Sicilian wealth plundered by the Hannibal army, and the part that should be paid is also used as the reconstruction fee allocated to the Sicilian province by the consul, and there is no need to pay it back. But this money is still a small matter for the reconstruction of the entire Sicilian province, and there is a big gap. In other words, I am short of money now, so how can I solve the problem of their funds for the transformation of the water supply system?"

Although Gan Ning, who was standing by, didn't know what the lead water pipe was going on, he understood that it seemed that the Roman court was asking Feng Yu for money. He said with a hot temper: "Then just reply to Alexander and say directly that there was no money."

Feng Yu shook his head and said, "It's not appropriate to refuse like this." He walked around the house while pondering. Suddenly his eyes lit up, and he said something, and then ordered someone to take ink, write at his desk, and send Alexander a letter of thousands of words.

Simmons asked with his head tilted, "General, you have rejected the other party, but your words are a little tactful, right?"

Feng Yu smiled and shook his head and said, "No. I have thought of helping Alexander solve this funding problem, but we did not pay the money. We did not ask him to plunder it from the common people."

Dian Qing asked, "What can I do? Can this money fall from the sky?"

Feng Yu replied: "Of course, there will be no money left in heaven. In fact, Rome still paid for it himself, but it comes from the future. My way is to ask them to borrow money and issue government bonds to raise funds."

"Borrowing debts? Treasury bonds?" In the lobby, except for Dian Qing, Simmons, Gan Ning and others, the other two or three generals also exclaimed. Bringing debts from the people in the name of the court or the country. In this era, most people dare not imagine whether in the East or the West.

In fact, in ancient Greece, Rome hundreds of years ago, and even the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, there were examples of state borrowing from private lenders. King Nan of Zhou borrowed debts to defeat Qin, and the idiom "debt is high" was the most famous example.

However, Feng Yu told Alexander in his letter that the method was different from these cases. He wanted to openly borrow money from the public in the form of bond bearers and raise funds, rather than borrowing money from specific private individuals. In order to make people feel at ease to buy bonds, solve their concerns about their long-term creditworthiness, and Feng Yu also suggested establishing a bond exchange in the city of Rome.

After Feng Yu gave a brief explanation to everyone in the hall, a small number of people seemed to understand, but Dian Qing and Gan Ning and a few big and rough guys shook their heads and said, "General, there is a saying that is not right or wrong. Your method probably won't work. Who would use your real money to buy you a few pieces of paper? These pieces of paper take more than ten, twenty years to cash in principal and interest. At that time, the gold content in the Roman gold coins will become. If the depreciation of the gold coins, maybe they will lose the principal and interest. Anyway, I wouldn't buy it!"

Feng Yu smiled confidently and said, "You won't buy it, but the Romans will."

...

In the Roman Palace, Alexander was discussing business with his mother Amyas. At this time, a servant hurried into the temple and said to him: "Your Majesty, Feng Hu, the governor of the Sicily province, returned a letter to you." He said as he presented the letter with both hands.

Alexander said in surprise: "It's only been a few days and he's replying so quickly. It seems that there must be a way to help me raise that headache-inducing fund."

As he said that, he took the letter and opened it in a few seconds and started to read it quickly. Amyas looked at his expression, slowly turning from joy to worry, and then from worry to doubt. She knew that things were not as smooth as Alexander imagined, and asked, "Why, Feng Hu said in the letter that he had no choice?"

Alexander threw the letter on the table and sighed heavily, "He gave a solution, but I think this method is too whimsical and not reliable at all."

As he spoke, Amyas had picked up the letter from the table and read it. Alexander continued: "He suggested that we use white paper to make things called bonds, and then use these things to borrow from the public. In fact, it was to sell these papers to the public and make the consuls promise the public a certain period of time in the name of the empire, for example, ten or twenty years later, at a price higher than their original price, that is, the face value recorded on the paper, and then buy it back. The higher part of the price is considered interest."

Amyas didn't say anything, and he was still reading Feng Yu's letter intently. Alexander continued to say with a bitter face: "Now, if you ask me to make a note and follow my emperor's seal, you can't borrow money from those Roman nobles who are rich and wealthy countries! Can you get money by using some blank paper that you remember the face value and promised to be recycled twenty years later? Alas, Feng Hu has imagination and has a set of war, but his IQ may not be as high as I had imagined before."
Chapter completed!