In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 505 Money Mining and Economic Warfare
Just as Wang Hu and the others were escaping.

A group of cavalry supported a man in fine clothes wearing a fur cloak and appeared where Zhao Daniu was lying.

This man was Yelu Zhu, the second son of Yelu Chucai, the great Mongolian minister.

After Wokuotai's death and the regency of Tolegena, Yelu Chucai was marginalized and no longer reused. He originally died of grief and anger this year.

Now it's up to Zhao Yurui to save him. Tuo Ligena also became the regent, but he didn't have time to take care of Yelu Chucai. In addition, in order to compete with Meng Ge for the throne, Tuo Ligena and Guyu were both fighting for Yelu Chucai. support.

His second son, Yelvzhu, was therefore placed in great importance and was placed in the north of Yibohai by Turegona. He was specifically responsible for forging copper coins and smelting copper.

When Yelvzhu heard the news and found Song Jun, he was shocked and immediately brought people to check.

Next to Yelvzhu was a man from the Western Regions named Odula Heman, who was also looking at Zhao Daniu's body coldly.

This man was a businessman from the Western Regions during Wokuotai's time. He had been doing business for the Wokuotai family. He was highly valued by Wokuotai and Tolegena. Later, Wokuotai and Tolegena asked him to replace Yelu Chucai and specialize in Responsible for the wealth of the northern Han Dynasty, this guy immediately raised taxes after taking office, so Yelu Chucai was very dissatisfied and died of grief and anger.

Yelu Chucai was able to collect more than one million taels of silver each year in Han Dynasty, including taxes and supplies. Wo Kuotai felt that he was very powerful and could be used more seriously.

But in 1238, Odu Laheman told Ogedai that I could hand over million taels to the court every year. If I collect more, it will be mine, and if I collect less, I will pay it myself.

Batu and Turena were unhappy and said, why should we make fake money from the Song Dynasty? We make Mongolia’s own money ourselves, that is, look outside, the currencies of Champa, Abbasid, and the Sultanate of Rum are all different. If it works, why don’t we make our own coins.

The Song Dynasty people continuously sold sugar, silk, ceramics, and ironware in the Persian Gulf. Hundreds of Song Dynasty ships entered and exited the Persian Gulf every month, and there were countless ships from other countries. For all major dynasties, regardless of Whatever coins the Song Dynasty people accepted, they would accept them. If the Song Dynasty people did not accept them, they would definitely not accept them.

Batu and Tolegena saw the ability of Odu Laheman, so they had no choice but to give up making their own currency and began to imitate Song copper coins.

Because this area used to be the territory of Batu, and after Chagatai and Ogedai came, it was temporarily given to them. This copper mine belongs to Batu.

Batu and Tolegena didn't believe it at first, so they made their own copper coins of the Mongol Empire, which contained less copper than those of the Song Dynasty.

If the Mongols must use their currency, it is not impossible, that is, use it at a discount. After they take it back, they will re-smelt it, so they need to discount the loss. One hundred coins can only be used as sixty coins. In this way, pulling out Of course Du and Torrego were not happy.

But there is no way, now the biggest shipper here, the one with the most and richest products is the Song Dynasty.

This guy is quite smart. After the copper mine was discovered, he first expressed his intention to organize manpower to mine for Mongolia. How much copper coins he would hand over every year was equivalent to a contracting system.

Batu and Torregna asked, what can be done?
Odulahe simply said that by increasing the copper content, people in the Song Dynasty would see that it was profitable, and then they would recognize our fake Song Dynasty coins in the market. Otherwise, it would be difficult for our copper coins to be effectively circulated.

This is of the same nature as being contracted out by future generations. This Odurahe is a bit like a time traveler, he is very good at playing.

As a result, the Odurahe barbarians increased taxes wildly, and the people of the northern Han region were miserable and deeply exploited.

Now that Mongolia has lost all the northern Han lands, and Ogedei is dead, Odulaheman is still Turegona's favorite. He is responsible for the main Mongolian forces in the Ishim River and other places, including the Song Dynasty. People's business and the fake Song Dynasty money created by Yelu Zhu were all spent by him in the end.

So this guy brought it up again and said that the copper coins of the Song Dynasty are now very well-made, as well as the silver coins and gold coins, which cannot be imitated by us. If we want to fake the real ones and trade with the Song people, there is only one way.

Batu asked the Mongols to mine and mint their own money, and then trade with the Song people.

Torregona wanted to agree, but Batudu refused.

As a result, when it came to external use, the Song people refused to admit it at first, saying that it would be difficult to trade the copper coins elsewhere, and it would be useless for us to collect them, so it was better to barter them.

According to what Audura Heman said, as long as the copper content is increased, the people of the Song Dynasty will accept it and admit it when they see that it is profitable.

Then they traded with the nearby principalities such as Rus and Kiev, as well as the Abbas and Ayyubid dynasty and other merchants nearby. As expected, they did not recognize it, and they heard that the Song people did not want it, so they did not want it either.

Of course Wokuotai agreed upon hearing this. This was twice as much as Yelu Chucai, and he began to alienate Yelu Chucai from then on.

Odura is a barbarian. Today is different from the past. In the past, we occupied the Han land in the Central Plains and could forcibly promote it to the Han land and let the people accept it. Now we are temporarily living in the Ishim River, and not many people in the surrounding countries will recognize us. Currency, and as long as the Song people did not recognize it, other dynasties would certainly not recognize it.

Batu did not believe in evil and began to forge a batch of coins with a copper content similar to that of the Song Dynasty copper coins. However, because Mongolia is now short of lead and iron, the copper coins are still small.

Of course the Song people didn't admit it at first sight.

Finally, they made a relatively large copper coin with a high copper content. When placed together with the real and fake coins of the Song Dynasty, it was obvious that their fake coins were larger and they were fake at a glance.

But because of the high copper content, the Song people finally recognized their copper coins this time.

Odulaheman was very smart, and no one knew which dynasty he was originally from. He was very business-minded. He was the first to implement the contracting system in Mongolia, and also contracted the northern taxes of the Mongolian dynasty.

Now he is following Yelu Zhu. On the one hand, he helps Turenago supervise the task of casting copper coins. At the same time, he is fully responsible for handling and using the fake money they made.

Yelvzhu was squatting in front of Zhao Daniu and watching. Looking at Zhao Daniu's weathered face, his expression could not help but be slightly moved.

Yelu Zhu named himself White Lotus layman. Like his father Yelu Chucai, he yearned for and admired Han culture very much. He studied Confucian classics and wrote poetry under Li Wei since he was a child. He also disliked the life of nomads living in the grasslands.

What he likes is Han culture, and now seeing a young Song Jun die in front of him, he feels like a bastard of all kinds of flavors in his heart.

Judging from his own thoughts, he hoped that Mongolia and Song Dynasty could coexist peacefully.

He didn’t understand why the Emperor Zhao Yurui of the Song Dynasty was so aggressive. We all retreated to the Ishim River, which is only five or six thousand miles away from Mobei and nearly ten thousand miles away from the Central Plains. People like this, you are doing business with us, and you are also doing business with us. Send detailed work here?
"Aren't the people of the Song Dynasty doing business with us? Why are the sentries and knights doing this here?" Someone asked in a deep voice at this moment, and then stepped forward and kicked Zhao Daniu hard.

"Don't." Yelvzhu didn't want to insult Zhao Daniu, so he stretched out his hand to stop him: "Let him be buried properly." His subordinates disagreed, and someone shouted: "The Song army killed many of our herdsmen."

Yelu Zhu looked up at this person. The person was a little flustered and quickly lowered his head. After all, Yelu Zhu was the person in charge here.

"Take off his armor. Song people's armor is different from ours. You can study it carefully." Yelv Zhu looked through the cotton armor on Zhao Daniu's body with his hands.

This cotton armor was refined by the Song Army. In the current army of the Song Army, there are two types of cotton armor. One is the cotton armor used in winter. Cotton is stuffed into cloth, sewn into a jacket, and then sewn tightly with thick thread. Then it was soaked in water, and then taken out and spread on the ground. In the Ming Dynasty, it was dried with feet. In the Song Dynasty by Zhao Yurui, it was placed on a stone slab and rolled continuously with stone pillars and wooden machines. The use of machines saved manpower. Finally, it is sun-dried and molded. It is made of pure cotton and cloth. It is basically used in cold places, such as Liaodong, Haisamwei and other places for military garrison. It does not wear iron armor in normal times, but in wartime iron armor is embedded inside.

The other type is what Zhao Daniu is wearing now, also called cloth armor.

Cloth armor is made by first wetting the cotton, patting it repeatedly, and then making it into very thin cotton pieces. Then many such cotton pieces are embellished into two thick layers of cotton cloth, and iron armor pieces are embedded in the middle of the two layers of cotton cloth. Fix it with copper nails, which is considered a cotton-iron composite armor. Then depending on the weather conditions and combat conditions, you can cover it with a thick layer of cotton cloth to protect it from the cold, or embed steel sheets inside.

These two kinds of cotton armor have many advantages. As long as there is enough cotton, they are easy to make and convenient for mass production. They are light in weight, have good cold protection and warmth retention, and their defense is not much worse than Zha armor.

Yelu Zhu had long known that the Song Army's winter armor was very useful, but in previous battles with the Song Army, the opponent used flintlock rifles at long range. The Mongolian army could not get close. Even if they shot the Song Army to death, they would not get the Song Army's armor.

This was the first time they got Song Jun's complete cotton armor.

Audura Heman also seemed to see a business opportunity. The two squatted on the ground, took off the cotton armor and looked at it repeatedly. They found that there were steel pieces embedded in it. Afterwards, Yelvzhu and Audura Heman were shocked. The cotton armor was hung on the archery target, and the Mongolian army used heavy arrows to shoot through the parts of the cotton armor without steel within fifty steps.

It can penetrate the parts with steel plates within thirty steps, and its defensive power is quite astonishing, which shocked them greatly.

You must know that although this cotton armor weighs thirty or forty pounds, it does not use much iron material. This means that the cost is relatively low, but the defensive power is far superior to the mail armor they commonly use now.

The Mongolian army has now lost its two major bases of Haraholin and Qianzhou, and has also lost hundreds of thousands of craftsmen. It has also lost a large number of sources of minerals. If the iron materials can be reduced and replaced with other materials, it will be good for Mongolia. Very important.

Yelvzhu and Audura Heman quickly reported the Song Army's Mianjia incident to Batu, the regent Turegona, and Chagatai to study together.

But it was very unfortunate that Chagatai was not in good health at this time. He had lived a few years longer than in history. Because he had traveled long distances, fled everywhere, and fought with the Song army in the past few years, his body had been exercised and he lived longer. After a few years, but after arriving at the Ishim River, he began to drink and have fun again, and his body finally collapsed.

But Batu didn't care about this matter. Batu was concentrating on building his own royal city, Salai City, which has not been completed yet. He wanted to build the largest royal city within a radius of thousands of miles. He would have his own way to deal with the Song people. Taiwan and Torrego are dealt with.

Therefore, in February of the twelfth year of Yuanzhen (1244), the regent Turena Ge happily held a conference. Batu was not interested in attending this conference. Chagatai was seriously ill, and Meng Ge and Guyu were away fighting. .

Brother Turena became the protagonist.

The purpose of the meeting was to increase the purchase of cotton.

Yes, Yelu Chucai actually suggested that they plant cotton in Persia, but the Mongols were not good at this and planned to use the fake money they minted to buy it in large quantities.

"Cotton has been introduced to the Han Dynasty since the Northern and Southern Dynasties of Han Dynasty." Yelu Zhu was telling the history to the nobles at this time.

"However, it was only cultivated in some border areas at that time and was not promoted."

During the Tang Dynasty, the Tang army destroyed Gaochang (later Turpan) in the northwest, which was a cotton producing area. The Tang people introduced cotton technology to the Central Plains. By the Song Dynasty, it had been planted in a small number of places, but it was not vigorously promoted. It was originally going to During Lao Zhu's era in the Ming Dynasty, Lao Zhu ordered that every ten acres of land must have half an acre of cotton, and this was how it became popular.

"After Zhao Yurui came to power, he did several important things in agriculture. One was to innovate snow white sugar, and the other was to promote cotton. Especially after occupying the territory of King Tubo and Chagatai, cotton cultivation was fully promoted. Nowadays, most of the The cotton output of the Song Dynasty has far exceeded that of the Delhi Sultanate (India) and Persia.”

During the Song and Mongolia Era, cotton was not considered a precious item, and there were few cotton fabrics in transactions in various countries. However, ordinary people generally only had linen clothes. Only nobles and relatives of the emperor had the opportunity to wear cotton clothes.

After Zhao Yurui came to power, they continued to promote it, and more and more cotton clothes became available. Now not only ordinary people can wear them, but the army mainly uses cotton armor.

The original Zhajia was used to replace each one, and it was basically no longer produced and maintained.

Use scrap armor to melt in the furnace, and you can make many cotton armor.

"Our country now occupies Persia, and it can be planted and promoted on a large scale in the southern region of Persia."

Cotton requires relatively warm temperatures, and Yelu Zhu believes that it can be grown in large quantities in many places in Persia, thus saving the trouble of purchasing.

But the Mongols are not good at production, but good at destruction.

Auduraheman immediately rejected Yelvzhu's suggestion.

He loudly said: "After Zhao Yurui came to power to promote cotton, the price of cotton in Persia and the Delhi Sultanate was also reduced. There is no profit in growing cotton, and the people are unwilling to grow it."

"It's better to mint money and buy it faster."

The Song Army is now planting cotton and sugar cane in Borneo Province, which has directly hit the price of cotton in Southeast Asia, including the big country of Delhi Sultanate, which has been hit hard, and the price of cotton has dropped again and again.

Auduraheman thought that just buying it would be enough. What a waste, let's just mint more copper coins. Even if we don't use copper coins, how much cotton can a sheep and a horse be exchanged for? How easy is that?

The nobles at the scene felt that what Yelu Zhu said was reasonable at first, but after hearing it, they thought that what Odura Heman said was reasonable.

Brother Turena decided on the spot that he would no longer grow cotton, but would still spend money to buy it, or exchange it for cattle, sheep and horses, and then imitate the Song army's cotton armor as soon as possible.

Yelu Chucai and his son could only shake their heads after hearing this.

These Mongolians don't understand economics. If you have to buy in large quantities, the price of cotton will soon change.

(End of this chapter)