Daming: I, Yang Xian, really govern Yang!

Chapter 197 The way to salvation lies in the world map (4k)

After reading Yang Xian's memorial, Zhu Biao got on the express train to Yangzhou with a solemn expression.

He has rarely seen Yang Xian use such serious words, not even during the previous tax reform.

Zhu Biao realized the seriousness of the matter.

As soon as he arrived in Yangzhou, Zhu Biao went directly to Shenhou Mansion.

"Yang Qing, what's the situation now?" Zhu Biao asked.

Yang Xian said solemnly: "Has Your Highness never used treasure money to buy anything?"

Zhu Biao nodded. As the prince, he naturally did not need to take care of all the food and clothing expenses himself.

It was precisely because of this that he did not notice that the treasure banknotes had depreciated to such an extent.

"Now one hundred copper coins can only buy goods worth thirty copper coins." Yang Xian said.

After hearing Yang Xian's words, Zhu Biao looked shocked.

How many years has it been since the Ming Dynasty banknotes were issued?

Now the value is not even one-third. If it continues, it will become a pile of waste paper in the end.

"How could this be so?" Zhu Biao murmured, with an expression of disbelief still on his face.

Yang Xian let out a long sigh and said: "I have tried to dissuade the emperor from printing more treasure banknotes before, but he obviously didn't listen to it. He treats the imperial court as a money printing machine, and every time he just wants to be the treasury When things get difficult, we start printing more treasure banknotes.”

"I heard that the imperial court is about to prepare to conquer Yunnan again. Is the emperor planning to print more treasure banknotes again?" Yang Xian asked.

Zhu Biao had an embarrassed look on his face.

Because they are not preparing to print more money, the Baochao Lifting Department is already printing money at this moment.

"When the Northern Expedition conquered Beiyuan, didn't they bring back a lot of gold, silver and jewelry?" Yang Xian asked.

Zhu Biao said: "Most of them have been awarded. Whether it is your Duke's Mansion in the capital or the Prince's Mansion newly built by Lao Si, a lot of money is needed. There are other meritorious soldiers who also need to be rewarded based on their merits. Besides"

Yang Xian looked at Zhu Biao's expression and understood.

Also, after tasting the sweetness of Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes several times, how could Zhu Yuanzhang give up so easily.

Even if you have money, it's not as good as having sex for free, not to mention that you are still in a tight situation today.

Yang Xian reached out and rubbed his temples, feeling a little headache.

"Your Highness, why do you think people are willing to use Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes?"

Zhu Biao thought for a while and said: "Because of convenience, copper coins are heavy and difficult to carry."

This is indeed part of the reason.

No matter what the original intention of the issuance of Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes was, it actually facilitated the economic circulation among the people, enabled the people to abandon heavy copper coins, and allowed the Ming Dynasty's economy to operate at a high speed.

This was originally a good hand, but it turned out to be a bad hand in Zhu Yuanzhang's hands.

Yang Xian nodded and said, "Of course there are reasons for this, but the biggest and most important reason is because the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes are issued by the imperial court."

"Therefore, although Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes are paper, the credibility of the court gives them value. The reason why the people of Ming Dynasty are willing to use them is not because they believe in this piece of paper."

"It's because the people believe in our Ming Dynasty!"

Yang Xian's words shocked Zhu Biao.

Zhu Biao's eyes widened, and it was only at this moment that he understood the reason.

Yes, why are ordinary people willing to exchange all their worth for pieces of paper?

Isn’t it because the people believe in the imperial court? !
Now people are increasingly reluctant to use Ming Dynasty banknotes, which means
Zhu Biao followed this train of thought and thought, and his face suddenly turned pale.

No wonder Yang Qing spoke so fiercely in the memorial, believing that this would be the greatest crisis for the Ming Dynasty.

Yang Xian then explained: "So, Your Highness, the essence of currency is actually the general equivalent."

"It is something that everyone in the world has agreed upon and can be exchanged for any item."

"So, the reason why money is valuable is not that the money itself is valuable, but the reputation that the money itself represents is valuable."

Yang Xian looked at Zhu Biao and said: "But as the emperor continues to print more Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes, the entire Ming Dynasty's overall goods resources are limited. The treasure banknotes will become less and less valuable as they are now. "

You must know that at the beginning of the issuance, the actual value of the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes was almost the same as that of copper coins. However, as Lao Zhu carried out large-scale additional issuances three times in a row, the value of the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes has begun to shrink significantly.

"Your Highness, now a hundred cash notes can be exchanged for thirty cash coins. How about that?"

"When a hundred copper banknotes can only be exchanged for one copper coin, or even when the usual treasure banknotes cannot be exchanged for even one copper coin, the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes will truly become waste paper, and the people will choose to discard them. This is the so-called complete bankruptcy of currency and credit. Once a currency loses its credit, the only outcome will definitely be to withdraw from market circulation!"

Anyone who has studied modern financial knowledge knows that the issuance of currency requires sufficient margin.

In other words, the imperial court's own reserves of gold, silver, and copper must be satisfied with the currency it issues.

Even in ancient times, it was not that no one was aware of this problem.

Take the Yuan Dynasty as an example. When Kublai Khan issued the paper currency "Zhongtong Banknote", he also used the national silver reserves as reserves.

In the early days of its release, it achieved certain results.

It was only later that due to huge military expenditures, the imperial court began to engage in various frivolous operations, such as "currency exchange" reforms, etc., that it completely collapsed.

The Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes collapsed as soon as they came out.

You must know that this is only the sixth year of Hongwu.

Emperor Hongwu was undoubtedly a great emperor, and even in the long history of Chinese emperors shining with stars, he was still a dazzling blazing sun.

But he also has many obvious shortcomings.

After all, Lao Zhu was just a humble boy. He had not received formal education since he was a child, and he did not have much cultural knowledge in his mind.

In addition, at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, all kinds of wastes were prosperous, and there were too many places where money was used in the world, which resulted in the proliferation of Ming treasure notes.

Zhu Yuanzhang knew his own shortcomings, so he respected the literati advisers when he was conquering the world. Whether it was Li Shanchang or the four masters in eastern Zhejiang, he respected them very much.

No matter how great a feudal emperor is, he will have his limitations.

Whether it is Zhu Chongba or Li Erfeng.

After Zhu Biao listened to Yang Xian's words, dense beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.

The smarter Zhu Biao was, the more fear he felt after listening to Yang Xian's words.When that day comes, the world may be in danger of overthrowing.

"Yang Qing, how do you think the court should be saved now?" Zhu Biao looked at Yang Xian and asked.

Now Yang Xian is the only life-saving straw he can grasp.

Yang Xian looked at Zhu Biao, his expression became solemn, and he said in a deep voice: "To treat a serious illness, strong medicine must be administered."

"If His Highness really wants to save the Ming Dynasty's treasure banknotes, then he will have no choice but to set up a national bank to collect the treasure banknotes."

"Recycle Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes?" Zhu Biao showed a shocked expression.

"If paper money is to have credibility, people must be allowed to use paper money to exchange gold and silver with the country." Yang Xian nodded, and then said. "If the court of a country dares not even collect the banknotes it issues, how can it make the people trust the court."

The current policy of only sending money but not taking it back is essentially a form of exploitation.

It can be said that this is an alternative kind of creation out of nothing, but nothing in the world can be created out of nothing. Due to the excessive issuance of treasure banknotes, prices began to rise crazily. Although the issuance of treasure banknotes was controlled by the Ming Dynasty, the people's resources were in their own hands.

"Yes, yes" Zhu Biao admitted that what Yang Xian said made sense, but the problem was that the court could not exchange so much gold, silver and copper coins for the people.

Zhu Biao looked troubled and said: "To be honest with Yang Qing, the national treasury really cannot provide so much gold and silver for the people to exchange."

Moreover, over the years, even Zhu Biao did not know how many Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes the imperial court had printed.

But one thing Zhu Biao is sure of is that even if the entire palace is evacuated, the hole will not be filled.

Yang Xian smiled and said: "In fact, I personally taught the emperor the real remedy a few days ago."

Zhu Biao frowned, wondering what it was.

Finally, he had a flash of inspiration and said, "Is Yang Qing talking about that world map?"

Yang Xian nodded and said, "Yes, that's it. According to the records in my teacher Magellan's voyage diary, there is a huge silver mine in Izumo Country, Japan Island."

Zhu Biao got it right and said, "Does Yang Qing want the Ming Dynasty to send troops to occupy that silver mine?"

"Yes, this is the only way to solve today's treasure banknote crisis. After the silver is used to recycle the existing Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes, the court needs to issue new currencies based on the court's silver and gold reserves."

Yang Xian took out a Ming Dynasty treasure banknote that is currently in circulation on the market, and then said: "The new Ming Dynasty treasure banknote needs to be redesigned. Today's Ming Dynasty treasure banknote is too rough and easy to be counterfeited. Another important thing about issuing currency The point is, it’s not easy to be faked.”

If Yang Xian remembers correctly, there were several major cases of counterfeiting treasure banknotes in the Ming Dynasty.

"What the imperial court can do now is to stop issuing treasure banknotes before occupying the silver mine, so that the exchange rate between treasure banknotes and copper coins can be stabilized at the current range, and it will not collapse. This time, the emperor cannot be allowed to be willful. ”

After listening to Yang Xian's words, Zhu Biao looked solemn and nodded.

Before leaving, Zhu Biao also asked about his views on the expedition to Yunnan.

Yang Xian smiled and said: "General Mu Ying and His Highness the Third Prince will definitely succeed immediately."

After listening to Yang Xian's words, Zhu Biao also smiled.

Throughout the afternoon, I finally heard some good news.

In Yang Xian's view, the remaining Beiyuan forces in Yunnan are not enough to defeat the Ming Dynasty today, and any capable general sent to lead the team can win.

Beijing.

Royal Palace.

After listening to Zhu Biao's words, Zhu Yuanzhang turned pale.

He never expected that Daming would almost fall into a desperate situation because of him. This was the most unacceptable thing for him.

When he heard Zhu Biao repeating Yang Xian's solution, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately became interested, with an excited look on his face. He pulled Zhu Biao towards the desk. He pointed at the world map on the desk and smiled. : "On this point, that guy Yang Xian and I have the same ideas."

After studying for several days, Zhu Yuanzhang came to the conclusion that attacking Japan was one of the good choices.

In fact, as early as the period of Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty, he went to Japan twice.

It's a pity that they all ended in failure.

The first expedition went smoothly, but a typhoon saved Japan.

The arrival of this typhoon directly turned the tide of the war and destroyed the Yuan army's warships to pieces.You must know that most of the Yuan army cannot swim. They have no ability to escape from such a natural disaster. Many soldiers drowned on the spot.

On the Japanese side, seeing this, their morale increased greatly, and they launched a clarion call of resistance while chanting the slogan "Kamikaze Help".

In the end, the Yuan army had no choice but to order its troops to withdraw.

On his second expedition, Kublai Khan was more prepared this time.

But in the end, they were defeated by Typhoon.

It’s just that what they said about the so-called defeat by Tianshi actually only exposed the Yuan army’s lack of knowledge in climate, ocean conditions and other aspects.Kublai Khan sent troops twice during the typhoon season, and the ocean conditions were very unstable.In addition, it was a bit unlucky to encounter two typhoons.

Now that Yang Xian is here, this situation will certainly not happen again.

"Just because we have to fight across the sea, we need to prepare a lot more things." When Zhu Yuanzhang talked about military issues, he seemed to have returned to the time when he was conquering the world, pulling Zhu Biao to talk.

But as he talked, Zhu Yuanzhang's voice gradually became lower.

Zhu Biao also noticed Zhu Yuanzhang's abnormality and asked, "Father, why don't you continue."

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed and said: "It costs money to build warships, it costs money to build new firearms and equipment, and it costs money to transport supplies."

"In the past, this matter could have been solved by printing treasure banknotes, but now it has become an unsolvable problem."

If you want to attack Japan, you need to build warship weapons, and building battlefield weapons requires money.

The attack on Japan was originally used to solve the problem of treasure banknotes, but now we cannot attack Japan without continuing to print more treasure banknotes.

Zhu Yuanzhang was the leader of the two. He looked at Zhu Biao and said, "Boss, how about we continue to print more treasure banknotes this time. Didn't Yang Xian say that as long as we conquer Japan and occupy the silver mine, we can completely solve the problem of treasure banknotes?" Is there a problem with the banknotes? It’s not too late to print more this time.”

"No!" Zhu Biao flatly refused.

Zhu Biao looked at Zhu Yuanzhang and said: "The printing of treasure banknotes must not continue. I have already been to the treasure banknote raising office before coming here."

Zhu Biao rarely showed such a tough attitude, but whenever he showed this attitude, it meant that he was absolutely serious about this matter.

Zhu Yuanzhang curled his lips, knowing that even if he continued to speak, Zhu Biao would not agree.

Moreover, Zhu Yuanzhang also knew that he was unreasonable in this matter.

But if we don’t continue to print money, where will this money come from?

(End of this chapter)