Thief Emperor

Chapter 395: The Second Transformation of Jiangdong Army

In the official system of the Great Zhou Dynasty, an official's term of office usually lasted three years.

Since Li Yun started to serve as an official, each term was not very long. The longest term he served was as Sima of Yuezhou, which lasted for almost a whole year.

Although there were objective conditions for each promotion, in reality it was because there were major problems in the operation of the court system.

For example, he served as the Sima of Yuezhou a few years ago. Because of his military merits in quelling the rebellion in Wuzhou, he was promoted to the governor of Wuzhou by the court. If the court system was sound at that time, even if he would still be promoted, he would not be promoted immediately. Instead, the officials in the Ministry of Personnel would make a note for him in the notebook, and only when his three-year term as Sima expired and he was transferred to Wuzhou next time, would he be allowed to serve as Sima.

Of course, if you have connections in the imperial court, that’s a different matter.

But even if he had connections in the imperial court, at most he would be transferred to Wuzhou and given temporary charge of Wuzhou affairs.

In other words, under normal circumstances, Li Yun should still be serving as the Sima of Yuezhou, and only after completing this term would he have the opportunity to be promoted.

But now, Li Yun has actually started his own business, so his official position cannot be judged by common sense. Even though he was promoted to the rank of Recruiting Envoy three times two months ago, it does not prevent the court from promoting him on the spot.

After all, at this time, the imperial court had nothing else to offer except official positions.

However, Li Yun is no longer concerned about these official positions. After all, these things can only sound good when said to others. The most important things for him now are to expand his territory and to strengthen his army as quickly as possible.

"Compared to an official position in the imperial court."

Li Yun took a box from the side, put it on the table, and said to Du Qian with a smile: "I care more about this thing now."

Du Qian opened the box and took a look. There was a model in the box. It looked newly made. He was just stunned and whispered, "Qian Fan."

"Ah."

Li Yun said, "I asked someone to spend a lot of effort to get it."

Du Qian took the model out of the box and looked at the engraving on it.

"It's still Xiande Tongbao."

"There is no way."

Li Yun said helplessly: "Although the era has changed, the court should not have started minting new coins, and there are no new coins on the market. I don't know how long it will take to wait for the court's new coins. It's okay to use this."

The current reign title is Zhaoding. According to the rules, after the court changes the reign title, His Majesty the Emperor will order the minting of new coins.

However, after the current emperor ascended the throne, he was unlucky. Before his father's funeral was even over, the rebels had already entered Guanzhong. The entire court fled the capital in a panic, and even some royal family members were not able to be taken with them, let alone minting new coins.

Originally, it was not uncommon for some local military governors to mint new coins. Some veteran military governors would do so. The Zhou family father and son in Qingzhou had long set their eyes on the Yian Copper Mine in Xuanzhou, and their purpose was probably the same.

Now, Li Yun's territory is already quite large. He owns both salt fields and copper mines. There is no problem in minting coins at this time.

Du Qian thought about it, then nodded and said, "Erlang has the Yi'an Copper Mine, so it's about time."

"But this matter must be kept secret if it can be kept secret. Otherwise, even if the court remains indifferent, rumors may spread among the people. If we don't use this new money, who will Erlang entrust to take charge of this matter?"

"I have a good candidate."

Li Yun chuckled and said, "Meng Chong."

Du Qian was startled, then nodded again: "Yes, he has an old grudge against the Great Zhou court, and he is grateful to Erlang, so he is indeed suitable to do this kind of thing."

Li Yun stood up, stretched his muscles, and continued, "We have a copper mine, so we can mint coins ourselves, which will reduce the pressure on money and grain. But it's useless to just mint coins."

He looked at Du Qian and said, "After all, the output under our rule is limited, and now, even the money minted by the court is getting cheaper and cheaper."

"We need to find a way to use this new money to exchange for supplies from the outside world, so that this money will be meaningful."

At this point, Li Yun paused and continued, "Also, from now on, the salt produced by our Jiangdong salt fields must be exchanged for grain. If you want to buy salt, the salt merchants must use the grain to exchange for salt permits at the Jinling Recruiting Envoy Office, and then use the salt permits to go to the salt fields to pick up salt."

Mr. Li paused, looked at Du Qian, and continued, "In this way, the salt from Jiangdong will be truly worth its price."

Whether it is gold, silver or copper coins, they do not have much value in essence, so their value is basically anchored on the national credit.

Once the social system collapses, the value of the currency itself will drop rapidly.

Especially when there is not enough food to eat, gold, silver and copper will even lose their value as metals and become worthless.

Therefore, once the world is in chaos, crazy inflation begins.

In another world, after the Anshi Rebellion, a rat in Chang'an could be sold for thousands of coins.

At this time, Li Yun controlled the salt fields in Jiangdong, and thus controlled a kind of hard currency that was valuable in any situation.

It is not appropriate to sell it for money. It can only be used for barter, such as exchanging for food, or... cotton yarn, cloth, ironware, etc.

After Du Qian heard this, he was startled at first, then he clapped his hands and said, "That's how it should be, that's how it should be." He said softly, "Money is worthless now."

Li Yun lowered his head to drink tea and continued, "In fact, if we were not still serving as officials in the Great Zhou, we could mint our own coins, such as Jinling Tongbao. We could only use Jinling Tongbao to buy salt, so that the coins we mint would always be valuable."

With an anchor, the currency will not depreciate further.

However, Du Qian just thought about it and shook his head slightly, saying, "No, if we do this, it won't take long before others will mint our Jinling Tongbao coins, which will be useless."

Li Yun had not thought of this. He was stunned for a moment, then he smiled dumbly: "Indeed, it seems that without sufficient power, you can't become rich by minting coins."

Without the sole right to mint coins, there is little point in minting your own currency.

When it comes to domestic affairs, Li Yun is not as good as Du Qian, but in some economic concepts, he is slightly better than Du Qian. The two chatted in the lobby for more than an hour. Li Yun told Du Qian some concepts about inflation, and the two discussed many measures regarding domestic affairs.

It was not until Du Qian felt a little tired that Li Yun stood up and saw him off.

After seeing Du Qian off, the energetic Li Yun did not return to Li Garden to rest, but rode to the newly built recruit camp outside the city and found Zhou Liang in the camp.

After seeing Li Yun, Zhou Liang quickly bowed his head and said, "Envoy!"

Li Yun shook his head, indicating that there was no need for courtesy. Then he pulled Zhou Liang to the big tent and sat down. After both of them sat down, Li Yun looked at Zhou Liang and said, "Third Uncle, I have sent Skinny Monkey out to pacify the prefectures and counties south of Jiangnan East Road."

"I have also sent a letter to General Su, asking him to recruit more new soldiers. The same is true for you."

Li Yun whispered, "Third Uncle, start recruiting soldiers in Jinling and the prefectures and counties near Jinling. You need to recruit 10,000 new soldiers before the New Year."

"any questions?"

Zhou Liang just lowered his head and thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement. After a pause, he asked again: "Sir, your subordinate..."

"Can we go back to Xuanzhou to recruit soldiers?"

He looked at Li Yun and said, "We are all from Xuanzhou. There will be no problem in raising an army in Xuanzhou."

Li Yun thought about it for a moment and nodded in agreement.

In this era, fellow townsmen still had great importance, and even "factions" would be formed in the imperial court.

Li Yun and other initial founding members are all from Xuanzhou, so it would indeed be easier to recruit a group of Xuanzhou soldiers.

After he nodded, he looked at Zhou Liang and continued, "Uncle San, this time the conscription is a little different from the previous ones."

Zhou Liang nodded and said with a smile: "I have heard something."

“The treatment is not as good as before.”

He looked at Li Yun and said, "Don't worry, sir. This is a common occurrence. If we continue to spend like before, we won't be able to support it even with mountains of gold and silver."

Li Yun reached out and knocked on the table, saying, "Let me tell you what I'm thinking now."

"I still think the same as before about the food in our army. When we are not fighting, we may not have meat, but we must eat enough. It is best to have some meat every few days."

"If a real fight breaks out, it depends on the specific conditions. In some places, there is really no hot food, so there is nothing we can do."

"What really needs to be moved is the salary."

Li Yun took a deep breath and said slowly: "My current idea is to divide it into three levels."

"The first level will remain the same as before, with a monthly salary of two strings of silver coins."

"Second level, one kan of money."

"Third level and new recruits, 500 coins a month."

Li Yun looked at Zhou Liang and said slowly: "The classification is based on the overall training performance and the performance on the battlefield."

"The pension is twenty strings of cash, regardless of grade."

"This is what I think at the moment. What do you think, Uncle San?"

Zhou Liang nodded slowly, but still asked: "Sir, who will do the grading?"

"Of course, that's..."

Li Yun answered without hesitation.

"I'll divide it."

(End of this chapter)