Chapter 42: Cashing money

"Fake money." Even though he has been a slutty clerk for many years, Mr. Su was shocked by Zhang Song's bold idea. Forging money was a crime of being cut into pieces in all dynasties, not to mention that the direct target of fake money is ordinary people. Once discovered, it is enough to ruin the initiator.

"It's making real money." Zhang Song's words completely demonstrated the gap in the realm between corrupt officials and dirty officials. "There are both copper coins, and the materials are poor. Those with light weight are fake money. Those with enough materials are real, and even if they turn into copper lumps, the latter is more popular."

Afraid that the audience would not understand what they meant, he deliberately paused and then slowed down his tone and explained, "No matter how hard the copper is, it is not as hard as steel. No matter how complicated the money is, it is not as rich as the pattern on the plate armor made by Huaiyang. In the past, minting coins and turning copper into water was the most effort. It was also the biggest loss in addition to artificial tricks. If I, Huaiyang, if I, can directly carve the mold and forge it on the copper lead plate, there is no need to make juice at all. The scraps can also be collected and recasted. As long as the mold is not broken, the money we forged here will be evenly than the one in Bianliang and will definitely look better than the other. In the eyes of the people, our Huaiyang money is real, and his Bianliang money is fake. If the money made by Du Zundao cannot be spent, he will not be able to make money. If he cannot make money, he will not have money to raise soldiers and have no capital to have internal conflicts with Liu Futong!"

Since he gave Zhang Mingjian as a meeting gift to the Huai'an Army two years ago, he has always undertaken some shameful tasks in the Huaiyang General Administration. Although many major cases of suspected rebellion have been solved and hundreds of detailed works sent from various places have been arrested, and he has made great contributions, in the eyes of everyone and himself, they have always been cruel officials like Ningcheng and Lai Junchen. Once they lose their uses, they will end up being in a different way.

So today I have a rare opportunity to show it in front of Zhu Chongjiu. Zhang Song naturally had to show his strengths. In a few words, he explained his strengths. Every sentence fell into Zhu Chongjiu's most familiar range, which made the latter's eyes unconsciously reveal a little appreciation.

"I am not talented, and I am willing to take on the mint of money for my lord." Seeing the change in his lord's attitude, Zhang Song, the head of the Interior Department, was secretly happy, but the expression on his face became increasingly humble.

"Well, you are also familiar with forging." Zhu Chongjiu's brows jumped again, asking with a little surprise.

"I dare not say it is well-versed, but I just shoulder the heavy responsibility of preventing thieves. Naturally, I must understand what the thieves are thinking about the most." Zhang Song bowed again and responded very carefully.

When Zhu Chongjiu heard this, the person in his heart felt that this person was smarter. For several years, although he had been working hard to improve the income and status of craftsmen, and although the firearms made by the Baigongfang made the Huai'an army invincible, in the eyes of most officials and scholars of this era, industrial technology is still a miscellaneous study and can never be compared with the quotes of ancient sages and wise men. Few scholars and officials were willing to calm down and carefully ponder the essence of human culture contained behind the primary industrial technologies that brought great changes to Huaiyang.

Only Zhang Song, who was born in the old imperial examination and was busy with official business every day, still had the heart to take time to learn new things. This motivation alone deserves great rewards. Immediately, Zhu Chongjiu prepared the next order and entrusted Zhang Song with important tasks. Unexpectedly, before he could say anything, Lu Lu Zeng's angry scolding suddenly came from his ears, "Shameless little thief, don't bewitched your lord. As long as I live for a day, you can't succeed."

"Teacher." Zhu Chongjiu was startled and turned around and looked at Lu Luzeng who was running over panting. He had a little confusion in his eyes, "How did Master Zhang offend you? It made you so angry."

The second half of the sentence is already vaguely reproached, because in his opinion, Zhang Song's words just now are not wrong at all. Industrial production, even the most basic hydropower industrial production, has a controllable accuracy and efficiency that are far beyond the reach of manual work. With this advantage, even if Huaiyang loses equally to Bianliang in the process of making money, the unit cost will be far lower than that of the opponent. As long as the coins are put on the market, they will definitely be invincible in the end.

"Does the lord consider himself a minister of King Song? He still wants to become the laughing stock of heroes in the world." Lu Lu once snatched the crutch from Huang Laowai's hand and stood it under his arm. While breathing, he continued to roar loudly, "Making money, making money, no matter how good we make, it is Longfeng Tongbao. He also borrowed the power of Bianliang. Sooner or later, he will be found by others."

After a pause, he raised his right index finger and poked Zhang Song's nose viciously, "The ancients said that if you have something to do, you will have something to do. Such slander ministers are best at calculating the will of the holy people. Today, the lord focuses on the study of all crafts, and he will also focus on finding opportunities to come out from this. When the lord likes to kill and rob, he will immediately pull out a knife to cut other people's heads. He is always a good dog with a fox and a tiger's power. How can he see the long-term in his eyes?"

"My elder, even if the advice I have given before is negligent, it is out of public aspirations that I really can't stand being so harsh." Zhang Song, the head of the Inner Security Department, was scolded and took several steps back in succession before he escaped from the saliva of the old Jinshi Lu, bowed his hand and defended with aggrieved look on his face.

"You are so embarrassed to say that you are negligent. If you are not determined to commit to your lord's favor, how can you not see the hidden dangers of forging dragon and phoenix money?" Lu Lu Zeng glared at his eyes and continued to roar loudly.

"Don't blame me, I am indeed a little ignorant." I was afraid that this person would be furious and was misled by Lu Shuang'er. Zhang Song, the head of the Interior Department, dared not retort, but in his heart, he was 120 dissatisfied. The lord refused to participate in the Jinwei ceremony for King Song. How could he care about making fake money from Bianliang? Even if he made it openly, Du Zundao would have to deal with Liu Futong, so he would not have the courage to come to him on his own initiative.

However, Lu Lu's next words made all his dissatisfaction disappear. "The lord has always been open and upright in his work. Why did he have to do this dark method this time? Isn't it just that Du Zundao's money has no place to spend? The lord will make our own money now. As long as you use it directly before the Longfeng Tongbao is issued, all Du Zundao's plans will naturally fall into the empty space. Wouldn't it be better to wait for other people's new money to come out before going to war and take risks."

As the saying goes, the superior army attacks the plan. Since he knows Du Zundao’s plan, he should take action in advance, so that his plan will be still in the womb. There is no reason why he knows the other party’s plan and is still waiting for him to make a move before making a move. Smart people don’t need to think carefully at all. At first glance, they know that this plan has fallen into a bad situation.

Besides, it is also money. The people care about their quality and weight, and they don’t care about whose money text is printed on it. Just like in the Huaiyang market today, there are Yuanzhen Tongbao of the Yuan Dynasty, Shaoxing Tongbao of the Song Dynasty, and even Xu Shouhui’s Tianwan Tongbao are used in transactions. People have a set of customary exchange rules for various types of copper coins. No one is stupid enough to do it. One article is one article, no matter its true value.

As long as the new coins cast by Huaiyang are of good quality, sufficient weight, and can be supplied with open quantity, it will definitely defeat any copper coins on the market. Even if Han Lin'er and Xu Shouhui ordered that Huai coins be banned from circulation within their territory, the people will secretly use them in transactions because of their credit value, and they will not care about the empty texts of the government.

"Since the Song Dynasty, private money among the people has been repeatedly banned." Seeing that everyone was speechless by themselves, Lu Lu Zeng, old man Huai, paused on the ground with a copper crutch, and continued: "Lord doesn't want to be a foul of Xiao Ming Wang now. Just choose a monday text to cast it on my Huaiyang coins. The lord wants to stabilize prices and unify the chaotic currency value of my Huaiyang market back then. If the old minister doesn't believe it, what else can outsiders say?"

This is a typical example of treating people outside as blind people. However, compared with the previous suggestions Zhang Song offered, it is still much more open and upright. More importantly, Qian Wen’s choice shows that Huaiyang is completely independent of any red scarf system, and is only the last layer of window paper from the actual change of the country.

Those who can gain a foothold in the core of the Huaiyang General Administration are all smart enough. Immediately, someone took the lead and echoed: "What the elder said is very true, and what we have planned before is indeed short-short."

"The old man is right. Why use the other person's year name to mint money in Huaiyang?"

"I agree to ask the lord to make his own money."

"Yangzhou was born in Wu in ancient times, and the lord could choose Qian Wen, Wu Yuantongbao."

"Wu Yuantongbao is not as good as Wu Xing Tongbao, which means that my Huaiyang policy will prosper in the world in the future."

You and I, you talk all over the place. In the end, it sounded like he was helping Zhu Chongjiu come up with ideas to choose the right Qian Wen, but in fact, he was already encouraging him to establish a national name as soon as possible.

"Why do you have to be so troublesome? Just call Huaiyang, just call Huaxia Tongbao." Zhu Chongjiu was so quarrel that he waved his hand impatiently. Gangang was arbitrary and money had to be cast, but no matter what, he had to curb everyone's desire to build a country. No matter how bad Zhu Dapeng learned history, he still remembered the saying "Build high walls, accumulate grain, and slowly become king". He didn't need to wear the hat of the King of Wu that caused disasters and caused trouble now.

"Made according to the quality of the Tongbao of Kaiyuan in the Tang Dynasty, each one qian." After a little hesitation, Zhu Chongjiu quickly changed his mind, "Each 5 grams is round, the outside is square, and the inside is square, and the ten Tongbao has just been counted as fifty grams, and the two hundred Datongbao is exactly one kilogram. Zhang, you go to Dajiangyuan to find Jiao Yu, and then call Huang Zheng, the deputy director of the Industrial Bureau, and get the money model together, and write the words for Song Ke, and his words look grand."

As early as when he was working hard to unify Huaiyang's own weights and measures, Zhu Chongjiu had promised Huang Laowai and Jiao Yu that he would have the opportunity to mint money by himself. There was not much war this year, and he could just free up his energy to carry out this matter. On the one hand, it could block Du Zundao's opportunity to mint coins to make money, and on the other hand, it could also speed up the recognition of the new weights and measures among the people.

"I am afraid, I am afraid." Zhang Song, the head of the Interior Department, was surprised and happy, and quickly stepped forward to salute, "I am afraid, I am afraid, I am afraid, I am afraid, please tell me in detail."

"After saying that," Zhu Chongjiu nodded, smiled and encouraged, trying not to be disturbed by Lu Luzeng's anger on his face. He had his own opinions on employment, so although Zhang Song's character may not meet the standards of the scholar-officials of this era, as long as the latter is willing to work hard, he is still willing to give him enough room to display.

"I would like to add small coins to cast fine steel under the copper coins." The opportunity was rare, and Zhang Song seized it without hesitation. "So during the Song Dynasty, the imperial court minted hundreds of thousands of coins every year, but the people still had inferior iron coins. The reason was that the face value of copper coins was too large and the transaction was inconvenient, but the iron coins could be used as one in 10."

As the saying goes, being able to be a corrupt official requires talent. Zhang Song is indeed much deeper in his understanding of money than others here. He pointed out very implicitly that Zhu Chongjiu's previous orders were flawed and gave a practical and feasible improvement plan.

According to the internal standards of Huaiyang Baigongfang, a full-color Kaiyuan Tongbao weighs only more than three grams. If the General Administration issued a five-gram copper coin, it would inevitably lead to excessive face value and inconvenient change among the people. Using low-value steel to cast small coins can effectively make up for this defect. With Huaiyang's current steelmaking process, the texture of the steel coins also swept through the private cast small iron coins on the market, making the latter lose its effectiveness forever.

"Well, will you lose money if you use stainless steel to cast money?" Zhu Chongjiu thought for a while and understood Zhang Song's true meaning, nodded, and asked with a smile.

"Weichen is not sure about the cost of fine steel, so we need to ask the help of Chief Huang and Jiao Dajiang." Zhang Song knew how to grasp the degree and responded truthfully, "But as far as we know, in our Huaiyang Baigongfang, fine steel is also divided into many levels. Making money is not as hard as building armor. The texture of steel is not as hard as choosing the one with the smaller cost. Although some money may be sold at the beginning, as long as the people can circulate, it will still be beneficial to me and Huaiyang in the long run."

"What you are talking about is the credit value of money." Zhu Chongjiu quickly summarized an incisive answer based on his memory of another time and space, "Yes, it does have all benefits but no harm. This general manager is accurate, in addition."

Looking back at Lu Lu Zeng, Mr. Su and others with confusion, he added with a smile, "Above the copper coins, another silver coin is called Chinese silver dollars. It is imitated by the Persians, with a pattern on both sides. What is it? Let's discuss together, what is the weight? What is the price comparison of copper and silver on the market now."

"It costs about 2,100 yuan to exchange for one or two feet of silver, but according to our standards, the money on the market is a little more than two grams, and it costs four or four kilograms at most, and the quality is also different, four cents and six in copper, and even three cents and seven in copper, two and eight in copper." Zhang Song gave the answer very accurately as if he had prepared for a long time.

"Then make it according to the ratio of 200 yuan for a silver dollar. You can convert the weight of the silver dollar by yourself. As you said before, we can suffer a little loss. The key is to build the credit of Chinese money first." Zhu Chongjiu waved his hand vigorously again, full of enthusiasm.
Chapter completed!