Late Tang

Li Jing calculated an account carefully. If the ratio of copper, six lead, [-]% tin, and [-]% tin is used to cast coins, the material cost can be reduced to [-] coins per coin.For the remaining labor costs of craftsmen, Li Jing also has a process improvement, and the new coins will be made by metal smelting and casting.According to the design style in advance, it is made by hand-made molds, sand foundry in batches, and polished; with the new sand casting process, the production capacity of mint craftsmen has nearly tripled, and an average of one day can produce consistent coins.

In this way, the material cost of Tongguanqian is [-] Wen, the wages of craftsmen are about [-] Wen, plus other expenses such as charcoal, the cost of Tongguanqian is controlled below [-] Wen, and the cost of Tongguanqian is at least [-] Wen.

"If this is really possible, the cost will actually be less than [-] cash." Du Zhongwu raised his eyebrows and said excitedly: "We don't need any money for mining now, and we don't have to pay any taxes. All we need is the labor money for mining. "

Zhang Hong also became active all of a sudden: "The charcoal money can also be saved by half. This time, we have explored several coal mines. We can use coal instead of charcoal, and we can save a lot."

"If this is the case, then there is still some money to be made." Li Zhen also laughed at the side.

"Then build a hundred money casting furnaces first!" Li Jing said directly, since it is going to be done, it should be bigger.Originally, a coin casting furnace could produce 100 guan coins a year, but now with the new technology, the annual output can reach [-] guan.One hundred money casting furnaces can cast one million coins a year.If copper, lead and tin are self-mined, plus coal is used instead of charcoal, and the labor output is increased, then the labor cost of mining and coin casting is removed, and the cost of materials will not be spent at all.Calculated in this way, the integration of mining and coin casting can earn nearly a million coins a year.

"Where can we find so many mining workers?" Guo Chengan asked.

According to the new technology standard, the price of a furnace is 8000 guan, a full 400 catties, and more than 160 catties of copper, 90 catties of lead, and [-] catties of tin.For one hundred furnaces, nearly [-] million catties of copper, more than [-] million catties of lead, and more than [-] catties of tin are needed.This is not a small number. The mining technology at this time is not high, and so much copper, tin and lead are needed, so the number of mining workers required will also be a huge number.

In addition, coal mines need to be mined, and Li Jing previously proposed to mine iron ore, all of which require a lot of manpower.If you add the sulfur mining plan, the oil mining plan and the limestone mining plan, it will require a lot of manpower.

"Use refugees!" After Li Jing thought about it, if all these mining plans were activated, [-] workers could be accommodated.And the use of refugees is also the result of Li Jing's consideration for several days.These days, Dengzhou's work-for-relief is making a big fuss, and the surrounding Laizhou and Qingzhou are also aware of it, and even the farther Haizhou, Mizhou, and Weizhou are also aware of it.

Because Dengzhou has a port, although the people were affected by the disaster, the situation is still much better than that of some people in the interior.People in Dengzhou can't live anymore, and the situation in other places is even more serious.

In recent days, the governor of Dengzhou, Li Jing, borrowed rain from the Dragon King, and the Dragon King bestowed favors, and Li Jing opened a warehouse to release grain, and used work as relief. I can have food to eat, and my eyes are already red.In addition, the local government and wealthy households are also afraid of these more and more hungry people. At this time, they also took the opportunity to spread the benefits of Dengzhou, saying that Dengzhou seems to be the last piece of pure land in the world.

As a result, the hungry people all believed that as long as they arrived in Dengzhou, they would no longer have to worry about having nothing to eat.

The starving people in several nearby states are now dragging their families with them, and they are heading towards Dengzhou one after another. Those who are close to each other have already entered the territory of Dengzhou.Now the official documents of the magistrates of Huang County and Dongmou County have been sent desperately.Thousands of hungry people rushed in all of a sudden, making them a little overwhelmed.To help them, there is also a lot of food in Dengzhou.It doesn't seem good if there is no relief, so in the end, I had to push all this difficult problem to Li Jing.

Li Jing is worried about this problem now. Dengzhou uses work as relief, not only to relieve the people, but also to prepare for the resumption of production next year.Now that these outsiders are pouring in, it is not appropriate to let them also repair water conservancy projects.

It's not okay to see death without saving, but how to help is also a problem.

Now, these hungry people are just recruited to mine. In this way, not only the people are relieved, but also the labor problem of mining is solved, and even the cost can be reduced because they are hungry people.

Guo Chengan said with some worry: "I'm afraid that if this case is opened, disaster victims from all over the world will flood in, and we won't be able to bear it."

Now Moudong County in Huang County is on the border with Laizhou, because they have not received a reply from Li Jing, they have set up wooden fences on the border roads, and two battalions are stationed at the border to intercept the victims.

Li Jing pondered for a moment, Guo Chengan's worry was not unreasonable, if the hungry people came upon hearing the news, it would indeed be a big problem.But after thinking about it, Li Jing still said: "We are on the coast of the East China Sea. Right now we only have borders with Laizhou, and the other three sides are the sea. Even if the hungry people want to come, it is not so easy. Besides, we are preparing to open mines right now. Even if the refugees come, there is no need to worry too much. Most of them can be sent to mines to mine, and some fishermen can be selected to go fishing. Now we still have a lot of food, and the sales of various commodities are also very optimistic I am not afraid of raising some refugees. If there are too many people, we can move them to Liaodong to stock up on land for development. There is a severe drought in Henan and Shandong, but Liaodong is not droughty. Right now it is just enough to plant a season of soybeans. Plant a kind of winter wheat."

Seeing that Li Jing already had an idea, the others thought about it carefully, and felt that such an arrangement was still possible.The current famine can just take advantage of this opportunity to get a group of people.Population can sometimes seem like a liability, but population is also a sign of a town's strength.Especially in Liaodong, the land occupied by Qingni City and Beisha City is almost two Dengzhou large, but there is not much land reclaimed.It just so happened that a group of people were relocated to hoard fields or graze, so don't be afraid even if you don't see any income within a year or two.

The matter was settled like this, Li Jing personally took people to the border road between Huang County and Laizhou, and set up a recruitment list.It was announced that the mines in Dengzhou were recruiting workers, and those who were willing to work not only had three meals a day, but also a wage of [-] Wen a day, plus five buckets of grain per month.As soon as this condition was announced, the eyes of those starving people who were gathering at the border and were prevented from entering Dengzhou because of the blocking of the Zhendong Army before, all their eyes lit up.

These days, the Zhendong Army did not allow them to enter Dengzhou, but at any rate they still served porridge every day, and each person could drink two bowls of porridge a day.But how can two bowls of porridge be enough?Now there are such good conditions. Although many people know that the mine is hard work, they have to go for the five buckets of grain per month, not to mention three meals a day, plus fifty cents.If you work harder like this, not only will you be able to eat enough for yourself, but even if your family goes with you and can't do anything, you can save some wild vegetables and get through.

"I'm going!"

"I go!"

"Count me in!"

Immediately, countless people signed up one after another, some even children in their teens rushed to sign up.Li Jing asked people to register their names, and then directly asked the foremen of the newly arranged mines to lead them.Those who are strong and young are selected first, and then their families can take them together. When there are 1000 people, the foremen will immediately take them back to the mine.After a whole day, more than 1 strong workers were picked away, and along with their families, 6 to [-] people were taken away.

But there were still tens of thousands of people left, and Li Jing couldn't help sighing when he saw it. Apart from these people, there were also groups of hungry people coming in a steady stream.Those who were too weak, Li Jing didn't arrange for them to go to the mines, it was useless to go, so he arranged to go to the construction sites and workshops in various counties, and arranged to do whatever they could.The rest of those who are in better condition, those with families and children, are going to be sent to Liaodong to let them hoard the land.The government first lent them tools and rations to let them cultivate wasteland.

After staying at the Laizhou border for ten days, Li Jing returned to Dengzhou.In ten days, more than 30 miners have been recruited from more than 5 mines, including their families, as many as 5 to 20 hungry people have been resettled in the mines.In addition, there were tens of thousands of weak and hungry people who stayed in Dengzhou, and there were as many as [-] or [-] people from Liaodong who were sent to reclamation.Together, as many as [-] hungry people flooded into Dengzhou this time.

Right now, this wave of refugees has just entered, and at least half of the hungry people from the nearby states have poured into Dengzhou.Li Jing knew that after a few days, there would definitely be more refugees pouring in.

However, with the influx of these 20 refugees, more than 30 mines in Dengzhou and Liaodong have officially started mining. In addition, 1 newly built coin casting furnaces have also been cast, and more than [-] newly recruited craftsmen have officially started casting coins. money.One hundred coin casting furnaces began to mint coins, and the daily consumption of copper, lead, tin, and coal was huge, but copper coins also flowed out day and night.

Every day, nearly three thousand coins can be produced, as many as several million!With the money coming out, Li Jing ordered the bank to expand. In the counties of Dengzhou and the control area of ​​Liaodong, ten new banks were built, and the printing factory there also began to print a new batch of money. Banknotes are issued within the jurisdiction of Zhendong Army.This time, Li Jing issued 100 million banknotes directly because there were 200 million coins minted in one year.

One hundred money casting furnaces of Dengzhou Mint are casting Kaiyuan Tongbao day and night, while the banknote printing factory on Shamen Island is printing banknotes day and night.With the expansion of the bank and the expansion of the issuance of banknotes, the salaries of all officials and soldiers in Dengzhou, Liaodong Qingni City and Beishan City under the Zhendong Army are all [-]% food, [-]% banknotes, [-]% silk and [-]%. For copper coins, Li Jing specially stipulated that banknotes must be used for transactions of more than ten pennies. Copper coins are prohibited, and private trading of large copper wares is prohibited. Once discovered, the property will be confiscated immediately.It is even more forbidden to privately cast copper coins. It is found that privately minted copper coins will not only confiscate family property, but also be sent to Liaodong labor camp.

In addition, it is specially stipulated that, except for the Kaiyuan Tongbao newly minted and issued by the Zhendong Army, all other copper coins will be exchanged for new coins within one month from the Bank of the World.Ordinary people are not allowed to deposit more than [-] copper coins in their homes, that is, they are not allowed to deposit more than [-] guan of copper coins, and merchants are not allowed to deposit more than [-] guan of copper coins.Violators, once investigated and dealt with, will be confiscated and fined twice the amount of copper coins exceeding the amount.

As soon as these regulations came out, the copper coins and large pieces of bronze utensils in the hands of the people in Dengzhou had to be handed over to the Four Seas Bank and exchanged for banknotes.Even for those merchants, if the savings in the shop reach a certain amount, they have to go to the bank to change it into banknotes.

The Four Seas Bank melted all the collected old money and private money, as well as large pieces of copperware, and minted them into new coins.Because there is a town character on the back of the new money, it is called Zhenjun money by the people.

Due to Li Jing's various strict methods, the Zhendong Army mainly uses banknotes, supplemented by Zhenjun money and silk.Moreover, the price of grain in Dengzhou has also remained at the price of [-] yuan per bucket of rice, which has even dropped compared to the beginning of the year.

(To be continued)