My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 405: Public opinion is boiling?

Even Prime Minister Liu She, who came from the Taohou family and was a "lucky minister" who had been favored by the emperor for generations, felt under tremendous pressure because of Liu Rong's ambition, not to mention the court officials outside the court who already had their own positions.

Let’s not talk about anything else—just talk about Dou Ying.

As a relative of the emperor, whose power and status were derived from the imperial power, he should have unconditionally obeyed the personal will of Liu Rong, the Han emperor.

But after Liu Rong proposed more than a dozen reform plans on personnel, positions, and even the system in just half a year, even Dou Ying, a relative who was highly dependent on the imperial power, became a little restless.

What on earth does Your Majesty want to do?
During this year, the word that appeared most frequently in Chang'an was this: What does Liu Rong want to do?
A small-scale reshuffle of the Three Dukes, a large-scale reform of the Nine Ministers, and a reorganization of the imperial guards and military system;
In addition, the reform of the military merit approval system has been gradually implemented in recent years.

There is also the military organization system, as well as training and combat methods, weapons and military equipment, military food supply system, and even currency, salt, iron and food...

Etc., etc.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Han Dynasty today is no match for the Emperor Taizu Gao, Empress Dowager Lü, or Emperor Taizong Xiaowen of decades ago;
Even Emperor Xiaojing, who had passed away only three years ago, would have exclaimed in surprise when he saw this: What the hell is this for?

Is this still ‘domestic’?

Liu She's identity as a 'lucky minister' was naturally well known inside and outside the court of Chang'an. Therefore, no one expected Liu She to really stand up and persuade Liu Rong to be more stable.

Naturally, the Vice Prime Minister, the Imperial Censor, and most likely the next Prime Minister: Weiqi Hou Dou Ying, became the "representative" that the entire outer court expected.

From the perspective of academic content, Dou Ying was a great scholar of his time;
From the perspective of a foreign minister, Dou Ying had the required ability and military merits, and met all the requirements for the status of a "dignified foreign minister."

With the added bonus of being a relative by marriage and the support of the Empress Dowager of the Eastern Palace, Dou Ying almost became the most impeccable "hexagonal warrior" in the Han Dynasty's political arena since the founding of the Han Dynasty.

Thus, within just a few days, countless meritorious nobles, officials, and ministers climbed the gate of Weiqihou's mansion.

The purpose is nothing more than this: I hope Wei Qihou will put the ancestral temple and the country first, lead all officials as the second prime minister, and give advice and remonstrance to Your Majesty.

To put it more bluntly, it was to let Dou Ying take up the banner that should have been borne by the prime minister but was never taken up due to Liu She's status as a "lucky minister", and put pressure on Emperor Liu Rong.

The specific scope of pressure almost covers every aspect of the reform and restructuring that Liu Rong is about to carry out.

——The nobles and relatives who were idle at home and had no official positions were mainly concerned about the salt and iron, grain monopolies, and the reform of the currency system.

Salt, iron, grain and salaries, the nobles wanted a piece of the pie - to make money together;

As for grain, the nobles who enjoyed the fiefdoms of marquisates were themselves upstream producers. Naturally, they hoped that the state-run grain business promoted by Liu Rong would leave some room for maneuver.

Specifically, in the past, there was no lower limit or upper limit for grain prices - the most expensive grain could be 10,000 coins per stone, and the lowest grain could be in the single digits;

After Liu Rong became the official grain producer, the staple food of the Han Dynasty, whether it was millet or wheat, was priced at a fixed level: 35 coins per stone of millet, 45 coins per stone of wheat, and 60 coins per stone of processed wheat flour.

This means that the original unlimited operating space was shrunk overnight to no operating space at all.

In this matter, the demands of the meritorious officials are that it is okay to have government-run grain and rice, and it is also okay to limit the scope of operation;

But don't take a one-size-fits-all approach and don't set the price of grain at a certain point, but give it a slight range.

For example: limiting the grain price to 30 to 40 coins per dan, or allowing it to fluctuate within a larger range, leaving room for meritorious officials to buy low and sell high, and to resell for profit.

As for coins, it is more complicated.

——Regarding the Wuzhu coins that Liu Rong was about to promote, the nobles and relatives had basically figured out the situation.

Nowadays, all kinds of coins are circulating in the world, and a considerable number of them are hoarded in the hands of meritorious officials and nobles. Their final destination is nothing more than the word "exchange".

That is, the holders of coins, including meritorious officials and nobles, exchanged the various miscellaneous coins in their hands for Wuzhu coins from the Shaofu at a certain ratio.

How do we determine this ratio?
According to what Liu Rong said and his usual style, it can be basically confirmed that the copper content of the coin is used as the core standard for the exchange rate.

For example, the three-zhu 'Han Ban Liang' minted during the reign of Emperor Taizu Gao weighed three zhu;
Excluding those lead coins, the copper content of the slightly more normal Taizu Sanzhu coins generally does not exceed 20%.

In other words, it takes five normal-quality Taizu Sanzhu coins to smelt three-zhu copper.
What a coincidence - the copper content of the Wuzhu coin that Liu Rong is about to launch is just slightly lower than that of the Qin Banliang (70%), but it does not affect the appearance and quality of the 60%.

After a brief calculation, it is not difficult to conclude that a new five-zhu coin contains three zhu of copper.

In other words, the copper content of just one of the new five-zhu coins that are about to be launched is equal to the copper content of five Taizu three-zhu coins.

According to the worst-case scenario prediction: the exchange rate between the two coins is likely to be set at a staggering five to one based on their respective copper content, that is, five three-zhu coins for one five-zhu coin.

Another example is Empress Lü’s eight zhu.

The copper content is slightly better than Taizu Sanzhu, at 30%.

The coin weighs eight zhu and contains 30% copper - about two and a half zhu of copper;

In this case, the exchange rate between Empress Lü's eight baht and the new five baht would be approximately six to five, that is, six eight baht coins for five five baht coins.

The most ideal situation is that the exchange rate is one to one.

As for Taizong's four zhu, it is even more exaggerated.

——In fact, the four-zhu coin that Emperor Taizong originally wanted to promote required a copper content of more than half;
But later, King Wu Liu Bi seized the market first and drove out good money with bad money, forcing Emperor Taizong to close the door and let Deng Tong go in a "real man battle" with King Wu Liu Bi and "use magic to defeat magic."

This results in the fact that the majority of Taizong Sizhu coins popular in the world today have a pitiful copper content of less than 30%.

The coin weighs four zhu and contains less than 30% copper - that is, each four-zhu coin contains basically only about one zhu of copper.

This means that the exchange ratio between four-zhu coins and five-zhu coins will reach a staggering three to one.

This is an exaggeration.

This is really exaggerated.

——Taizu's three-zhu coin has a face value of three-fifths of the five-zhu coin, but its exchange value is only one-fifth of the five-zhu coin!

The face value of Empress Lü's Eight Zhu coin is 1.6 times that of the Five Zhu coin, but its exchange value is not higher than that of the Five Zhu coin, and is even lower!

Taizong's Four Zhu coin was the worst - its face value was clearly four-fifths of the Five Zhu coin, but its exchange value was only one-third of the Five Zhu coin... No one was unaware of what this meant.

——In the past few decades, the currency settlement model in market operations, both in the private and official circles of the Han Dynasty, has been based on face value.

That is, if a certain item is worth 200 three-zhu coins, it will also be worth 150 four-zhu coins, 75 eight-zhu coins, or 50 Qin half-liang (12-zhu) coins.

In short, as long as the face value is multiplied by the quantity, the final result is consistent.

As for the color and copper content - according to the regulations of Empress Dowager Lu in the "Golden Cloth Law", as long as the coin is roughly copper in color and has no direct breaks, no one will go into details.

This means that the vast majority of nobles and wealthy families - that is, all those who have the ability to melt and mint coins on a large scale - can pursue extremely stable and lucrative legal interests by minting coins without any effort.

For example, a Qin Banliang weighs 8.4 zhu and contains % copper, which can be smelted to produce nearly zhu of copper! ( zhu)
The copper content of Taizu Sanzhu is only a pitiful 0.6%, which is a little more than half a zhu; ( zhu)
The copper melted from one Qin Banliang can be used to cast fourteen Taizu Sanzhu coins!
However, with a simple melting and casting process, the Qin Banliang, which originally had a face value of twelve zhu, became the "Han Banliang" with a total face value of forty-two zhu - a profit margin of up to 250%!

One dollar can easily turn into three dollars and fifty cents!
Is there any better business than this?

Is there any business that is more attractive than "money making money"?

As a result, Liu Rong took back the coinage rights and added a new coin, Wuzhu, which directly cut off everyone's source of income.

Liu Rong did not even need to take back the coinage power to the central court;
Once the new five-zhu coin, whose copper content is as high as 60%, that is, each coin contains three zhu of copper, becomes the legal tender recognized by all the people in the world, it will no longer matter whether it is melted or not.

——You mint it privately, and you need three zhu of copper to make one five zhu coin;

If you go to the Shaofu to exchange it, you can get a five-zhu coin for every old coin containing three zhu of copper.

Why would this be so time-consuming and laborious to smelt?
It's better to just give it to the Shaofu to do something that doesn't bring any benefits.

Therefore, on the issue of currency, the outer court mainly used Empress Dowager Lu's "Golden Cloth Law" as a shield to persuade Liu Rong not to try to challenge their ancestors - especially a special ancestor like Empress Dowager Lu.

The state-run salt and iron and grain industries, as well as the currency reform, were the main concerns of the nobles.

As for the outer court, more attention was paid to the reform of the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers, as well as the Chang'an Imperial Guard system.

It is easy to understand why the outside court opposed the reform at the level of the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers - no one likes change.

Especially when the necessity is not sufficient, what bureaucrats resist most is always the word "change".

Because the word "change" means a huge administrative workload, a long administrative adaptation period, and unknown results.

To put it bluntly: it's laborious to make changes, extremely frustrating to adapt to, and in the end it may not be better than the original.

Therefore, unless it comes to a critical moment where problems will arise if no changes are made, and big problems at that, the bureaucracy's attitude towards the word "change" is generally to procrastinate.

In addition to the instinctive resistance of the entire bureaucratic group at the macro level, different individuals also have different focuses at the specific micro level.

For example, the officials of the Nei Shi Ya, who worked in the Nei Shi Ya, the head of the Nine Ministers, always looked down on others and thought they were superior to others.
As a result, Liu Rong had a disagreement and wanted to dismantle and downgrade the Nei Shi, and finally turned it into the agricultural department: Da Nong?

——Why!
I am an official in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a rising star with one foot halfway to the Qianshi line. How could I go back to the time before liberation overnight and work as an agricultural assistant official?
Before I became an official, I was just a farmer!
A poor peasant who first studied hard and then made great achievements on the battlefield;

I worked so hard to climb to this position, and now you want me to be a farmer with a job?

Then what are the points of all my efforts over the years?
Am I funny?

For example, although the officials of the Shaofu generally do not have much room for advancement, due to the independence and uniqueness of the Shaofu, their welfare benefits have always been the envy of the entire court.

What about the wine, meat, cloth and silk for festivals?
Things like defective farm tools that should have been destroyed but were given out as rewards.

In a word: Being an official in the Shaofu may not make you rich, but you will never starve to death.

But if the Shaofu was finally dismantled and restructured according to Liu Rong's ideas, then the good days of the Shaofu would be over.

From now on, the Shaofu, whose power has been stripped away by nearly half, will be no different from the other nine government offices - they will all punch in and out, and receive a day's salary for a day's work.

——Why!
Do you know how many connections I had to use and how many favors I had to obtain to become an official in the Shaofu?

Before coming to Shaofu, I was just a grassroots nuclear-powered donkey!

A petty official with no power or influence and no background, who had used almost all his tricks, finally managed to get promoted to the position of Shaofu.

And now you want me to be a seemingly respectable nuclear-powered donkey in the Shaofu?
Then what is the meaning of my coming to Shaofu?
Before I came to Shaofu, I was a nuclear-powered donkey;
After coming to Shaofu, I am still a nuclear-powered donkey!
Then this young master, I came here for nothing...

There are many similar situations.

——All the officials below, whose yamen are involved in restructuring or dismantling, do not want to be dismantled;

The higher-level officials also did not want to lose their original political priority because of the reform.

For example, Han Anguo, the Internal Secretary, has recently been asking around: Will he fall from the head of the Nine Ministers to an ordinary one of the Nine Ministers because of the change of the Internal Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture?
Another example is Shaofuqing Shi Fen, who was such an honest and upright person. Recently, he has become even more honest and upright, and he is much kinder in dealing with people.

The reason for this is that Shi Fen, a workhorse, was afraid that he would be bullied by other colleagues after his position was downgraded due to the dismantling of the Shaofu.

The situation is like this among the Nine Ministers, and it is even more intense among the Three Dukes.

The Imperial Censorate was divided into two factions;

The "censors" and "prosecutors" controlled by the Chief Censor believed that they deserved such a promotion and should have received such treatment long ago!

The other party, that is, the rest of those who will be assigned to the office of the Grand Censor, believe that the faction of the Chief Censor who will be separated has no qualifications to form its own office!
They should honestly review the files of officials and verify their identities, so that they can travel around the world at their own leisure on public funds, under the euphemism of "collecting folk songs";

Instead of being independent as it is now, with the Imperial Censor attached to the yamen, he became a "pen-and-paper clerk" responsible for reviewing the finances of the prime minister's treasury...

In short, no one is satisfied!

Or it should be said that Liu Rong could have chosen: either to satisfy Person A or Person B;

But Liu Rong knew that he couldn't satisfy everyone, so he finally decided to make everyone equally dissatisfied...

(End of this chapter)