Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 848 Financial Crisis
"Sanhe, I heard that you went to Yinzhou to join the rebel army some time ago?" Mrs. Zhong picked up the hot tea made by Yaya, glanced at Zhong Sanhe who was standing next to him, and said with a look of relief: "Yes, it is worthy of being I am the son of the Zhong family, His Majesty has said, 'Everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of the country!' No matter how you rank in the list of good people, you are the hero of our Zhong family!"

Zhong Sanhe put on an honest look, nodding at what the old man said: "Yeah!"

Mrs. Zhong is a senior citizen, all over 50 years old, and has three sons. The eldest son was admitted to Xiangfu College half a year ago and studied there.The second son is a platoon leader from the ninth rank in the army.The third son is in business.He came to find Zhong Sanhe today because he expected that the court's reward for Zhong Sanhe must be a military officer, and at least a company commander from the eighth rank.The old man is making contacts with his second son in advance, and the relationship is here.

Old man Zhong was a county lieutenant. One of his eldest sons was admitted to Xiangfu College.Therefore, I usually have high spirits, but now I want to take the initiative to cultivate relationships with the younger generation, and I can't save my face. Besides, when Zhong Sanhe's family was in the most difficult years, he never helped anything, and he felt ashamed in his heart, so he simply put on an old face , pose as an elder.

"Sanhe! If you have made a lot of contributions to the court this time, maybe the court will grant you an official position. I am also a person who has been in the officialdom. If there is anything you don't understand, feel free to ask me. "

Zhong Sanhe smiled when he heard the words, bowed and said: "Thank you for your concern, old man. If Sanhe doesn't understand anything, he will definitely go to the old man for advice."

"Hmm!" Mr. Zhong drew a long nasal voice, lowered his head, took a sip of tea, and organized his words.

"The so-called, everything is inferior, only reading is high, Sanhe! If you are lucky enough to get an official this time, you have to study more, so that you may go further in the army."

"My son, Zhong Maocai, is admitted to Xiangfu College, which is equivalent to the original Imperial College. As long as he graduates successfully, he must be a civil servant of high grade. Maybe he will stay in Xiajing directly as a court official. The prime minister can talk." The old man put down his teacup and said earnestly.

"This military officer, after all, is incomparable to a civilian officer."

Mrs. Zhong talked for a long time, obviously wanting to flaunt his family's power, connections and development prospects first.From this matter alone, it can be seen that he is indeed very snobbish!

"The old man is right!" Zhong Sanhe replied with a smile, but he thought to himself: If in the Song Dynasty, civil servants would naturally have a higher status than military generals, but in Xiangfu Kingdom, that might not be the case.

Mrs. Zhong nodded again, and continued to say earnestly: "Three Rivers. You are very good, but..."

Before he could finish speaking, there were exclamations from the villagers outside the house, and then there was the sound of hooves of a troop of cavalry walking.Immediately afterwards, Mrs. Zhong heard a very familiar voice, the voice of the county magistrate.

Not long after, Li Minghe, the county magistrate of Ping'an County, walked in with a troop of cavalry, surrounded by an angel from Xia Jing.

"Zhong Sanhe accepts the order!"

The teacup in Mrs. Zhong's hand fell to the ground, and the room jumped up and down, and they all ran out and knelt on the ground.

"Your Majesty has a decree. Zhong Sanhe, Zhongjia Village, Ping'an County, Longzhou, was brave and good at fighting. He was so brave that he beheaded 790 four people by himself in the battle with the Liao army, and captured Xiao Dage, the commander of the Liao army. Unparalleled achievements, specially bestowed as a military officer of the seventh rank, Xuan Zhong Sanhe will immediately go to Beijing to have an audience. Hereby!"

"Zhong Sanhe thanked the Lord for his kindness." Zhong Sanhe said respectfully, imitating the words he learned from watching the theater, and then got up to accept the imperial edict.

Afterwards, Old Master Zhong’s intestines turned green with regret, he only knew that Zhong Sanhe was ranked in the top ten, but how could Zhong Sanhe behead so many people, and even captured Xiao Dage, the king of the South Court of Liao Kingdom alive.Otherwise, he definitely wouldn't have put on airs just now.

But Zhong Sanhe's father, wife and children had already fallen into ecstasy.

Li Minghe, the magistrate of Taiping County, stepped forward with a smile at this time, cupped his hands to Zhong Sanhe and said, "Congratulations, brother Zhong! It is really an honor for me to have such a heroic figure as Brother Zhong in Taiping County! When I have time, I will hold a banquet for Brother Zhong in the Feihe Tower in the city to celebrate."

Zhong Sanhe was hesitating whether to agree or not, when a man who looked like a housekeeper came in from outside, bowed to everyone in the yard, and said: "Master Zhong Sanhe, the villain, was ordered by Master Huang of Zhizhou to come to give to Master Zhong Invitation sent."

Lord Zhizhou?Old Mr. Zhong shuddered again this time.

...

...

Ten days have passed since the great victory in Shipeng Valley, and the summary of the battle in the army and the evaluation of merit and awards are proceeding in an orderly manner.Right Prime Minister Han Xizai personally took the Ministry of Households and local prefectures and counties to verify the beheading, harassment and other military achievements of the rebel army during the war, calculate the rewards and the points of the list of good people, and strive to announce all of them before New Year's Day, and distribute the rewards in place before the seventh day of next year .

Only the senior officials of Xiangfu Kingdom knew that Xiangfu Kingdom was financially strained in a short period of time due to a great war, and they were unable to pay the rewards for the participating troops and rebels.And the latest sum of gold and silver from the Wa country is expected to be delivered to the Northwest in the spring of the next year.That's why the rewards were postponed until the next year in the name of calculating military achievements.And these Tianxiangfu monarchs and ministers are having a headache for raising this reward of up to 300 million taels of silver.

Speaking of this, I have to say that the "Xiangfu News" and "Xiajing Express" that Han Xizai and Ma Wentao are respectively responsible for have each made a profit of more than 30 taels in just half a year. It is a little urgent, but after the money was allocated to Yinzhou and Fuzhou for post-war reconstruction, there is not much left.

...

...

Xiajing Government Affairs Hall, Xiaochaohui.

With a tired face, Jia Xian left the shift and said, "Your Majesty, the minimum repayment period for the money borrowed by Xiangfu Bank is one year. The current financial crisis cannot wait."

Half a year ago, under the instruction of Ye Chen, the Ministry of Households opened a state-owned bank named Xiangfu Bank, backed by the treasury, in the eyes of the common people, the amount of money was naturally innumerable, and it was mentioned in the newspaper propaganda that His Majesty wanted to encourage business. , decided to lend the money from the treasury to merchants for turnover. As long as merchants in need, they can take things to mortgage.Because it was started by the imperial court and was guaranteed by Ye Chen's good reputation, merchants mortgaged their loans one after another.According to the latest statistics and calculation results of the Ministry of Households, in the past six months, the interest of Xiangfu Bank alone has made a net profit of 300 million taels of silver.You know it's only half a year, and it's just begun.

This is precisely the main reason for the current financial crisis of Xiangfu country, apart from the cost of the war with the Liao army for more than a month. Just imagine, the interest alone made a net profit of 300 million taels of silver, and how much was borrowed.This is because Xiangfu Kingdom itself issued copper coins, silver coins, and gold coins. On average, for every tael of silver issued, the actual silver required was only about three taels.Otherwise, even Xiangfu Qianzhuang will be difficult to support.But the problem is that the repayment period of the borrowed money is basically one year, and it is not yet time to repay the principal.

Ye Chen frowned and said, "What countermeasures does the household department have?"

Jia Xian immediately said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, the minister led the household department to think of various ways to raise up to 100 million taels of silver in just a few days, and 300 million taels of silver is too difficult except for the minting and issuance of coins."

Ye Chen came from later generations, so how can he not understand the principles of inflation and currency devaluation? He told Jia Xian as early as half a year ago when the Mint was able to mint silver coins, that according to the market currency circulation speed and price level, as well as the national Factors such as population controlled the issuance of copper, silver, and gold coins.At that time, Jia Xian and other officials from the household department could be said to have half-understood, but because Ye Chen said it, they strictly followed it.

Ye Chen shook his head, and said without hesitation: "No, currency cannot be issued at will. And this is an example. In the future, the court will issue currency whenever it is short of money, and the consequences will be disastrous."

After the words were settled, no one responded for a long time. A small number of people were thoughtful, or hesitated to speak. Ye Chen was so resolute and said something so serious that the officials didn't really understand it.Looking across the audience, Ye Chen knew that the ministers did not understand what he meant.

In the end, it was Ma Wentao who took the lead and said, "Your Majesty is so stupid, please ask your majesty to clarify."

Ye Chen thought for a while, organized the language to ensure that everyone could understand, and then said: "Before explaining this truth, I will lead the ministers to analyze the origin of currency. As we all know, since ancient times, no one can be completely self-sufficient." To be self-sufficient, you must use your excess property to exchange for what you don’t have enough, that is, barter. If you lose more than you have, you can make up for what you don’t. Commonly, the daily necessities at home are mostly exchanged. It can be said that it is not uncommon to exchange eggs for rice, surplus grain for salt, meat for cloth, etc.

"However, in bartering, not everyone can find a suitable exchange partner. For example, what I lack is salt, and the excess is meat. What you lack is wood, and the excess is grain. There is no way for two people to exchange. Perhaps An exchange between three people, or even a multi-person exchange, may be able to achieve the goal. But in this way, it often fails because the value of the goods in the hands of the opponents cannot be agreed. The more people involved, the more likely it is to reach an agreement Small. It’s like an iron chain, if only one link in the middle is broken, then the whole chain is useless.”

"Therefore, in order to make the more complicated exchange complete smoothly, there is a special commodity money, as an intermediate link, it is enough to exchange goods for money, and then exchange money for goods. Therefore, money can also be called a general equivalent , also known as weighing goods, goods that measure the price of goods."

(End of this chapter)