Top Scholar

Chapter 635 Your Master is Still Your Master

Li Dongyang followed Huang E through the hanging flower gate and into the inner courtyard. There, he saw a pretty maidservant tending a clay stove to brew medicine. The bitter smell of the medicine overpowered the fragrance of flowers and filled the courtyard.

Upon lifting the curtain and entering the study, the room was filled with an even stronger smell of medicine. Su Lu lay on the bed, pale and listless, looking as if he wouldn't live much longer...

Li Dongyang was taken aback and quickly stepped forward: "Oh dear, Hongzhi, how did you become so ill?"

Hearing the sound, Su Lu tried to get up, but he coughed violently as soon as he moved, his voice hoarse, "Grandmaster, cough cough... Your grand-disciple is useless; my health has become like yours. I was just a little overworked the other day, and a gust of wind made me like this, cough cough..."

"Has this been caused by an evil wind entering the lungs?!" Li Dongyang quickly pressed him down to prevent him from getting up, his deeply wrinkled face full of worry.

“Yes,” Su Lu coughed, his eyes reddening, and he tugged at Li Dongyang’s sleeve, choking back tears, “Master, I’m afraid I’m beyond help…”

"Pah, pah, you're so young, don't talk such jinxes." Li Dongyang held his hand tenderly, feeling its icy coldness, and couldn't help but say sadly:

"Why do you think the court allowed newly appointed Hanlin scholars to rest and recuperate in the Imperial Academy for a few years? It was to prevent you from wasting ten years of hard study and to give you time to recover. But you, once you entered officialdom, are working even harder than when you were studying. How can that be acceptable? Your position belongs to the court, but your health is your own. Do you really intend to dedicate yourself to the country? Listen to your master, and be sure to take it easy from now on..."

Upon hearing this, Su Lu burst into tears, sobbing, "I had no choice... This is the first time I've been on official business, and I've offended so many nobles and court officials. I'm all alone and powerless, and every single matter requires so much effort and worry. I simply can't handle it..."

"Now you know how hard it is to do things, right?" Li Dongyang sighed. "Doing things has always been the hardest part. Those who do nothing will never be held accountable; it is the ones who suffer and toil that are doing the work, and in the end, it is also the ones who suffer the most and bear the blame."

"Yes, so in the end, we men all end up looking disheveled and pleasing no one," Su Lu said sadly, not forgetting to cover his mouth and cough softly twice.

"You're nothing yet," Li Dongyang chuckled, shaking his head. "How badly has my master been insulted all these years? He's almost been expelled from the purist class and is now sitting at the same table as Grand Secretary Jiao."

He patted him on the shoulder and comforted him, saying, "It's nothing for those nobles to scold you. As long as you don't offend the Qingliu faction, or more precisely, the leader of the Qingliu faction, nothing serious will happen. You are a top scholar with six titles, so you must have some confidence."

He paused, his gaze towards Su Lu filled with affection, and said, "Child, from now on, whatever happens, don't always bear it all alone. Don't forget, you still have your grandmaster. Your grandmaster will always be your strongest support!"

"Yes, Master!" Su Lu nodded gratefully, almost bursting into tears on the spot.
"Speaking of which, there is indeed something I need to trouble you with..."

"..." Upon hearing this, Li Dongyang's expression changed, and he thought to himself that retribution was coming.

Then she smiled kindly and said, "Go ahead."

Upon hearing this, Su Lu sighed inwardly, realizing he had been a bit too hasty. He quickly covered his face with his sleeve and coughed twice, as if to say, "Don't take it to heart with a sick person." Only then did he speak:

"His Majesty wishes to test the issuance of Zhengde silver coins in Shuntian Prefecture and has ordered me to draft a supporting 'money law draft.' I would like to ask Your Majesty to take a look and see if there are any problems."

After saying that, he instructed Ru Hua, who was serving him, "Bring that black clip from the table."

Ru Hua quickly retrieved it, and Su Lu took the clip, opened it, and presented it to his master with both hands.

"Please take a look, sir."

"Hmm." Li Dongyang took it, then took out the amulet from his sleeve, put it on, and examined it closely.

That draft was the one Su Lu had originally reported to Zhu Houzhao. It contained roughly three points: First, within the territory of Shuntian Prefecture, silver dollars could circulate freely without hindrance, and no official or civilian was allowed to refuse to accept them, nor to melt or destroy them; violators would be considered to have committed a great disrespect.

Second, the tael was abolished and replaced with the yuan. Third, it was clearly stipulated that during the pilot period, one Zhengde silver dollar could be exchanged for one tael of pure silver or one thousand copper coins.

~~
The draft was only three pages long, but Li Dongyang read it for the entire time it takes to burn an incense stick.

Su Lu waited patiently for him, coughing occasionally to remind him.

After a long while, Li Dongyang finally raised his head, looked at him with a wry smile, and said:

"Hongzhi, you're trying to abolish the tael and change the era name, shaking the very foundation of the nation's monetary system that has stood the test of time for a century! Why do you always like to seek out thrills?"

Su Lu coughed twice and asked in return, "Master, when did the Ming Dynasty ever explicitly stipulate that 'silver' was legal tender?"

Upon hearing this, Li Dongyang sighed: "Why nitpick over the wording? Since the Xuande era, the revenue and expenditure of the imperial granary, military pay and land taxes, and large-scale transactions among the people have all been accounted for in 'silver.' This established custom is more effective than the emperor's edicts!"

As he spoke, he looked at Su Lu with concern: "If you want to touch it, you have to think carefully about the many risks involved." "Please enlighten me, Master." Su Lu sat up straight.

Li Dongyang shook the draft in his hand and asked clearly and logically:

"Firstly, the financial accounting of the imperial court, provinces, prefectures, counties, and border towns is all based on 'taels'. If it is suddenly changed to 'yuan', the accounts will definitely be in chaos, giving many people the opportunity to cover up their accounts?"

"Secondly, isn't it too harsh to convict someone of serious disrespect for refusing silver dollars? How many families will be ruined because of your words?" Li Dongyang said earnestly, "Hongzhi, you must be extremely cautious."

"Yes, Master." Su Lu accepted the instruction solemnly.

Li Dongyang nodded, then raised a question: "Thirdly, the exchange rate between silver and currency fluctuates with the year's harvest and prices, but you are fixing the exchange rate. Won't this increase the burden on the people and give unscrupulous merchants room to profit from arbitrage?"

"Fourth, the rural people are used to using broken silver coins all their lives and don't recognize new silver dollars. If you don't know how to use currency, you might become a tool for exploitation by the local government."

He paused, then said in a deep voice, "Fifthly, and this is what I'm most worried about—your silver coin contains seven mace and two candareens of silver, yet it's valued at one tael. Can the common people accept that? It's one thing for ordinary people to have only a few taels of silver, but the vast amounts of silver ingots and silver melons hoarded in the homes of princes, ministers, gentry, and wealthy merchants are genuine hard currency. With this new monetary law, their value is forcibly depreciated by 20%. Can they accept that? Won't this price difference lead to rampant illegal minting?"

After listening, Su Lu looked at Li Dongyang with immense admiration. His master was indeed a top-notch technocrat; every question he asked hit the nail on the head.

He had to answer carefully, otherwise he wouldn't be able to gain the other party's support at all...

At the same time, he coughed softly twice before earnestly saying, "Master, the reason I insist on making this cut is not to be unconventional, but because this old rule, which has been in place for hundreds of years, has reached the point where if it is not changed, it will cause great chaos!"

“I’ve thought through every risk my master mentioned repeatedly, and they all do exist, but the benefits of making changes outweigh the drawbacks.”

"You say that the 'tael' is the foundation of the dynasty's monetary system, but when has the Ming Dynasty ever had a unified 'tael'? The capital tael, the treasury tael, the canal tael, each county had its own standard weight! When the people paid taxes to buy things, the officials and merchants would say the standard weight was insufficient, or that the purity was insufficient. The extra losses and deductions would ultimately fall on the people—this old rule of the 'tael' was the knife they used most conveniently to exploit the people!"

"You said that changing from 'liang' to 'yuan' would cause chaos in the accounts. But liang is yuan, and yuan is liang; the transition can be smooth in terms of accounts," Su Lu continued in a deep voice.
"Moreover, you've managed the Ministry of Revenue for half your life, so you must know better than I how much manpower and resources are wasted on reconciling accounts in Taicang every year. The silver sent from various places is of different weights and qualities, and just verifying, melting, and writing it off takes more than half a year. The losses and embezzlement in the process are countless."

“Indeed.” Li Dongyang nodded in agreement. “Several million taels of silver would keep the Ministry of Revenue busy for more than half a year.”

"This is a problem of revenue, but the problem of expenditure is even more serious! For example, the military pay for border towns is distributed by the imperial court at one tael, but the generals embezzle the amount, and it's considered good if eight qian (a unit of weight) reaches the soldiers. When the soldiers use that eight qian to buy grain, they are then ripped off by unscrupulous grain merchants. Isn't this how the morale of the army deteriorated after the collapse of the grain distribution system?"

Li Dongyang looked at Su Lu in surprise, not expecting this kid to have done his homework so thoroughly. This money method really wasn't something he came up with on a whim…

He continued, “His Majesty abolished the tael and changed it to the yuan. After unifying the tael, the national treasury’s accounts will be clear at a glance! When the military pay is issued, one yuan will be a single coin, and no one will be able to blatantly embezzle it! This is not to disrupt the finances, but to rectify the finances and stabilize the morale of the army!”

Li Dongyang remained silent for a long time, then nodded and said, "Okay, you've convinced me on this point. Now let's move on to the second one."

"Secondly, the issue of sentencing. I don't think that violating monetary laws warrants a heavy sentence. Currency is the foundation of a country's finances, and daring to refuse currency issued by the imperial court is a serious crime!" Su Lu said firmly.

"What about the paper money?" Li Dongyang countered. "I just received a stack of paper money today. Could you exchange it all for silver dollars at face value?"

"That won't do." Su Lu chuckled awkwardly, then said seriously, "Why did the paper money fail? It's because the court only issued it without collecting it, preventing the people from paying taxes with paper money. Isn't that blatant robbery?"

"So this legislation is mainly used to restrain the government and make it dare not refuse to accept silver dollars—as long as the government accepts them, the people will definitely accept them!" Su Lu said firmly again.

To persuade others, you must first be firm in your tone. If you yourself are hesitant, no one will believe what you say.

"Alright, let's forget about this one. Let's talk about the third issue, the price comparison." Li Dongyang nodded with a smile.

Su Lu also perked up. This was the first time he had encountered such a high-level technical discussion, completely free of any self-interest. He felt completely energized.

"I believe that constantly changing exchange rates will only confuse the people and give corrupt officials and unscrupulous merchants an opportunity to profit from it. We have compiled statistics on past exchange rates and found that the 'silver is more expensive than copper coins' situation has worsened year after year. Ten years ago, one tael of silver could be exchanged for 800 copper coins, but now it can be exchanged for 1,200 copper coins!"

"However, what ordinary people earn from farming is mainly copper coins. They rarely come into contact with silver in their daily lives, so they naturally suffer greatly from it and constantly bear the losses caused by the devaluation of copper coins!"

"Moreover, the more expensive silver becomes, the more rampant the hoarding of silver by wealthy families will become, leading to a tightening of the silver supply and a depressed market!" He said loudly, "Why not fix it? No one can play tricks on us then. This will not only relieve the suffering of the common people but also allow silver to return to the market, which will benefit both the country and the people!"

Li Dongyang nodded in agreement, then smiled and said, "It seems you're just like your master; you forget you're sick when you get excited."

(End of this chapter)