People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 386 Confrontation between Liao and Song Dynasty, issuing banknotes

Two days later, the midwinter snowflakes fell quickly and the earth turned white in a short time.

After the Song army set up camp, it turned out that they could no longer dig soil.

Because in order to dig trenches, so much snow must be cleared first, but snow in the north seeps into the ground and quickly freezes the ground, making excavation work difficult.

Therefore, the Song people encountered considerable trouble in their civil engineering work, and in the end they could only repair the camp temporarily before making other worries.

During this period, what Fan Zhongyan read the most were the letters sent to them by many wealthy families in Yanyun.

Among the four Yan families, except for the Changping Liu family, the other three families tried to contact the Song army to varying degrees, and some family members even secretly came over to surrender.

This is very similar to the scene before the Battle of Guandu between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.

The difference is that Cao Cao finally won. The wealthy families in Xu Du who secretly contacted Yuan Shao did not change their families and join Yuan Shao's army. Even the captured letters were burned by Cao Cao.

But now Fan Zhongyan could not give the Liao army a chance to burn his food and grass - the Liao army could not even get out of the city, let alone the food and grass, and could not touch the sides of the camp.

After all, in addition to relying on the Suwei Army and the Pishi Army, which had a total strength of two to three hundred thousand, the Liao Army also relied on troops from other ethnic groups.

This is much safer than sending the news directly from Xijin Mansion.

But in contrast, as time goes by, the number of Liao troops is also increasing.

However, Fan Zhongyan did not fully trust these messages, because the messages themselves were fraudulent and non-timely. Some of them were even deliberately released by the Liao army, and it was difficult to distinguish whether they were true or false.

Liu Siduan would travel between Xijin and Tanzhou every time in the name of escorting grain and grass, and then secretly spread the news to the Song camp in other ways.

Therefore, this battle was even more disparate than the Battle of Guandu in history, and it naturally frightened the Yanyun family.

In this confrontation, time passed day by day.

The soldiers and horses that Di Qing blocked at Yuguan included more than 100,000 soldiers and horses from other ethnic groups, including Nüzhi, Bohai, Shiwei and other ethnic groups. After Yuguan was cut off, they were forced to enter the pass through Xifengkou. After all, they were Arrived at Xijin.

Yelu Zongzhen had actually noticed the problem of floating hearts, so after discussing with Zhang Jian and other close ministers, he made certain military adjustments.

Coupled with the Mongols who came from Zhangjiakou in the north, the Liao army gathered about 400,000 troops two months after the war began.

Under such circumstances, the movements and military arrangements of the Liao army seemed to be transparent to Fan Zhongyan, with no secrets at all.

Moreover, even the Song army in Yunzhou was already fighting with the Liao army in Datong. The offensives on both sides were in full swing and the progress was very rapid.

They will help whoever wins, this is a principle that has not changed since ancient times.

For this reason, Fan Zhongyan mainly focused on encroaching step by step, constantly harassing the surrounding Liao territories. At least for now, the entire south of Xijin Prefecture was occupied by the Song army.

When Yelu Zongzhen chose to go to war, in order to prevent the Song people from discovering the clues, he immediately chose to have his troops rush to Xijin Mansion first, and then mobilize the teams of other ethnic groups.

The weather in December was even colder. Due to the heavy snow, it was difficult for the Song Army to dig trenches. Although they were still working, the workload was much less.

After all, the Xijin Mansion at this time was subject to very strict inspections based on the principles of the war bureaucracy. Except for the movements between brothers Liu Siduan and Liu Liufu, which would not easily arouse suspicion, other ministers would often be traced if they made any changes.

Therefore, Fan Zhongyan often needs to screen these messages and make his own judgment by combining them with the intelligence detected by the Song Army's own scouts.

Ordinary family officials are completely unaware of this confidential information.

Liu Liufu was an exception. Although he was beaten by Yelu Zongzhen, Zhang Jian still admired his abilities, so he was always qualified to participate in the Supreme Council and knew many military secrets.

Liu Liufu just happened to be the first person to eat crabs. He informed Liu Siduan of the current situation of the Liao army in Xijinfu, Yuhe, Wanping and many surrounding counties.

Most of them were stationed in Guihua, Khan, Shunzhou, Tanzhou, Jingzhou, Jizhou and other prefectures and counties behind Xijin Prefecture, almost from Zhangjiakou in later generations to Changping, Huairou, Miyun, Sanhe and other areas in Beijing, around Xijin zone.

Therefore, at this moment, the Liao army has an unprecedented number of troops, but the corresponding pressure on food and grass is also very high. Grain and grass from Liaodong have been unable to be transported, and the result is a rapid decrease in food.

If there was no way to go to Zhangjiakou, and the Liao people could drive cattle and sheep from the Mongolian grasslands in the north, I am afraid that there would have been a food shortage in Xijin by this time.

However, the number of Liao troops increased dramatically, and the Song army also increased its troops.

In early October, the Song army defeated Xixia and invaded the Zhuoluo and Nan areas of Xixia. Li Yuanhao cowered in Xingqing Mansion and did not dare to take the lead.

The Northwest Army immediately began to mobilize on a large scale. Together with the Central Army, there were more than 600,000 imperial troops in the Song Dynasty. Almost half of them were gathered in Yanyun. Fan Zhongyan alone had more than 200,000 in his hands, and the remaining 780,000 or so were in Hedong. Road, is storming Datong.

The more people on both sides, the scale of the war will naturally escalate. Although formal large-scale fighting has not yet begun, small-scale wars continue to break out, and dozens of Song troops often chase hundreds of Liao troops.

Just because of the weather, the Liao people did not fail to successfully ambush the Song army. Taking advantage of the Song army's unpreparedness, they first attacked with bows and crossbows, and then suddenly rushed out, killing the Song army by surprise.

But in general, the Liao people suffered greater losses, and the battle loss ratio once reached fourteen to one. Fourteen Liao people had to be killed or injured in order to exchange for the death of one Song army.

This disparity in battle damage ratio is still due to the fact that the Liao people had hand grenades. Since Yanyun and other places were not fully developed at that time, with a population of about 300,000 households, almost 1.5 million, the damage to the natural environment was not great. It was considered serious, so there were many forests in the Yanyun area at that time.

The Liao people often hid in the forest, first luring the Song army's scouts to chase them, waiting until they got close, and then attacking with grenades or crossbows, and then suddenly burst out while the Song army was in chaos, so that they could barely win a small-scale victory.

But most of the time, the Liao people were still very far away and were shot down by the Song people, so they couldn't get close at all. Therefore, many Liao people were afraid of Song firearms. Once the scouts from both sides met, they were often far away and the Liao people would turn their horses and run away, leaving no time for the Song people to pursue them.

In this way, the scouts from both sides fought for a long time, and slowly the time came to late December in the sixth year of Qingli.

During this period of time, battle reports were continuously sent back to Bianliang. The newspapers in Bianliang updated the battle situation every day, which not only cheered up the people of the Song Dynasty, but also filled the civil and military officials of the dynasty with excitement. December 20 is approaching the new year, but the Constitutional Yuan has been very busy recently.

Because the end of each year is the time to summarize the work of the previous ten months, including this year's policy, this year's reports of various departments, the development of various sectors, fiscal expenditure surplus, etc., all must be summarized.

At midnight this morning, many prime ministers in the Political Academy were in full swing after the morning dynasty. A total of eleven prime ministers, Zhao Jun, Yan Shu, Cai Qi, Song Shou, Li Di, Jia Changchao, Jiang Tang, Zhang Shixun, Xia Song, Zheng Jian, and Du Yan, were at work.

A large number of officials from the Constitutional Yuan came in and out of the room, constantly sending official documents recently reported by various departments. Basically, they were reports on the government affairs of each department this year and various financial expenditures, etc.

This kind of work efficiency is actually very low. After all, a country has a lot of affairs, big and small. Even if the Constitutional Yuan's current government affairs processing scope is only ministries and roads, state and county levels are often handled by various departments, but The size of a country lies here.

There are so many things piled up, big and small, plus the need to summarize the work for the whole year at the end of the year, it is obviously not such a simple thing.

"I have read the official documents from the Ministry of Railways. This year's railway tasks have been completed quite smoothly. It has been built to Ye County and is expected to be built to Xiangyang by the end of next year or the year after that."

After Yan Shu read the work reported by the newly established Ministry of Railways this year, he raised his head and looked at Zhao Jun, and said with a smile: "We are building at a speed of more than 20 kilometers every month. In my lifetime, I may be able to sit in one Take the train.”

Zhao Jun also smiled and said: "Everything will develop much faster after entering the industrial society. This is just the beginning. When the second industrial revolution is completed, you will know what miraculous speed is like flying."

Yan Shu may be able to experience a train in his later years, but Zhao Jun feels that he may not even be able to experience an airplane in his later years. As long as the Song Dynasty develops fast enough, and as long as he lives long enough, such as living to be 120 years old, maybe In his later years, he could still dream about the twenty-first century.

After all, the total time from the first industrial revolution to the third industrial revolution is less than two hundred years. If it is operated properly and you are lucky enough, shortening the time by a hundred years and entering the information age early may not be a dream.

"There is also good news. The Ministry of Finance and GDP statistics for the first ten months of this year have calculated the fiscal revenue and gross national product. The fiscal revenue is more than 1.00921 million yuan more than last year. Now there are still November and December. The monthly tax has not yet been calculated. Last year it was 1.1 million yuan. This year it will exceed million yuan. "

Xia Song, who is in charge of finance, has just finished the work of his headquarters. Because he has been keeping an eye on financial matters, almost every month's expenditures and income have to be summarized, so the originally cumbersome finances are sorted out first. Obviously, this year's Growth is still pretty good.

Judging from the central fiscal revenue of a minimum of 1.1 million yuan, it is at least an increase of 9% over last year. This is still the central government's fiscal revenue. If you include the fiscal revenue retained by local governments, I am afraid that the total revenue this year will exceed 1.5 million yuan.

"Well, the effect is still very obvious, but I guess it won't be optimistic in the first half of next year."

Yan Shu tapped the writing brush in his hand lightly on the table with the end of the penholder and said: "In the past, the five trade routes we formulated, the trade volume increased every year. But starting from the second half of this year, the trade between Xixia and Liao Kingdom was cut off. If two items are passed, foreign trade revenue is expected to be greatly affected.”

"This should not shake the foundation. Now businesses are opening brick and cement factories everywhere. More than 300 companies have been registered in Gyeonggi-ro this year. Once the money is used, the economy will accelerate and it is estimated that domestic business will be more prosperous."

Zhao Jun said: "The real growth rate has not yet been put on the agenda. Once heavy industry, light industry, construction and other industries develop and get on the right track, then the growth rate will be as fast as fast. It is normal to grow by twenty or thirty points every year. But at that moment, if there is no external blood transfusion, the internal consumption will only become more and more depleted. "

As he was talking, he suddenly remembered something, slapped his forehead and said: "By the way, now that the first industrial revolution has occurred, it's almost time to start paper currency. We need to start improving the currency system and determining the value of currency, otherwise we just rely on Copper coins and jiaozi still hinder the development of business. "

"Indeed, although people still mainly use copper coins in daily life, only when large-scale transactions occur, Jiaozi guaranteed by Jiaozipu will be used as trading items, but for medium transactions of dozens or even hundreds of coins, , but there is a huge demand in the market now, but it is still very inconvenient to carry dozens or hundreds of strings with you.”

Xia Song once sent servants around him to do business, so he was very experienced in commercial activities. What's more, he had worked in the former Third Division for many years and now in the Ministry of Finance for many years, so he naturally understood these principles.

Zhao Jun said: "In this case, let the director of Jiaoziwu draw up a banknote plan, and I will make modifications at that time."

He intended to formally issue banknotes.

But it's not small-denomination banknotes, but the kind worth five or ten guan.

Because the positioning is different.

Jiaozi said it was paper money, but in essence it was a bank note or a large-value check.

The deposit amount of each Jiaozi must be at least 500 yuan, and each application is usually a commodity transaction, which is not popular among the people.

With the commercial development of the Song Dynasty for more than ten years, the prosperity of commerce has reached a higher level, and small and medium-sized trade has become increasingly frequent. However, there is a lack of something as convenient as Jiaozi in such transactions.

A transaction of one or two hundred guan would definitely not be done with Jiaozi, but 1400 guan was close to copper coins and weighed about kilograms, so the transaction had to be carried in a car.

Therefore, it is very important to develop a currency system that can handle small and medium-sized transactions.

According to Zhao Jun's idea, now that there is an inflow of Japanese gold and silver, he can take back as much gold as possible to make anchors, and use the silver to mint silver coins, and let the School of Chemistry synthesize a synthetic silver similar to Yuan Datou, with a nominal value of Always money.

At the same time, cotton, linen, silk and other items are used to make exquisite banknotes, with values ​​of five guan and ten guan.

In this way, copper coins are still the main currency for daily transactions of less than one guan of money, and silver coins can be used for small transactions between one guan of money and fifty guan of money. For medium-value transactions between fifty guan and five hundred guan, banknotes can be used.

As long as it is ensured that medium-denomination banknotes are not issued indiscriminately, taxes can be collected, and anti-counterfeiting measures are taken care of, then the problem of small and medium-sized trade with increasing demand can be solved.

This is related to the economic development of the Song Dynasty and cannot be careless.

"Yes, I will send someone to the sub-committee later to tell them and ask them to hand over the plan before the Chinese New Year."

Xia Song responded.

Then came various official exchanges.

For example, this year's education results, the road construction status of major infrastructure in various places, and this year's agriculture, transportation, science and technology development, etc.

The most gratifying thing is that a few days ago, the steamship finally succeeded and is about to start trial operation.

Obviously, the Song Dynasty will reach a new level.

(End of this chapter)