After the camp was set up, Meng Gong and others were about to prepare for a big fight and train the new army, when an unexpected situation occurred, which only put Meng Gong and others into a dilemma and they lost their minds.
It turned out that it was Song Ci, the Secretary-General of the Rear Administrative Department, who had sent them the military pay for the 50,000-strong army, which amounted to more than 133,000 guan. This was two months' military pay for the 50,000-strong army and officers at all levels, not a penny less.
Of course, having money is a good thing, and it is a good thing that everyone wants, but now Meng Gong and others are in trouble when they look at these hundreds of thousands of dollars.
There is no other reason than that of the 133,000 guan, only 33,000 guan are copper coins, and the remaining 100,000 guan are all Jiaozi.
Jiaozi is also money and can be spent as copper coins. However, nowadays, Jiaozi has been greatly depreciated due to its excessive distribution. In the past, it could be exchanged in equal amounts like copper coins. But now, Jiaozi, which is always money, can only be exchanged for 700 copper coins at most. It has depreciated.
Thirty percent!
And now Jiaozi is still depreciating, because everyone is afraid that Jiaozi will continue to depreciate, so no one dares to use it, and no one dares to use it, which naturally makes Jiaozi fall into a vicious cycle of continued depreciation.
Not only that, but another reason is that the face value of Jiaozi is very large. The minimum face value is 500 yuan, and this kind of face value is still very rare. Most of them are the common five-guan, and the larger face value is one hundred-guan, one-thousand yuan.
All over.
And ordinary people buy some scraps, but they only cost three to five pennies. They can't use such a large face value, and ordinary hawkers can't find them, so even if ordinary people want to use them, they have nowhere to use them.
Meng Gong and others found Song Ci. Meng Gong raised his hand and said: "Song Envoy, can these friends be exchanged for copper coins? It doesn't matter even if they are sent a few days later."
How could Song Ci not know what Meng Gong and the others meant? He smiled bitterly and said: "The general understands what the general meant. When the Hubu was withdrawing money, he saw that most of them were Jiaozi and interceded for them. However, the Hubu
It is said that there is no money in the treasury, and if they can allocate 30,000 copper coins, they have done their best, and if they withdraw the copper coins, they will be disappointed."
When Cao You heard that he had a bad temper, he said loudly: "They are all Jiaozi. If they don't buy land or houses, how can you ask the soldiers to spend their money? You can't even drink a jar of wine."
"Why."
Song Ci sighed helplessly, raised his hand and said: "Generals, please don't embarrass your subordinates. Your subordinates are responsible for withdrawing and distributing money, and they can't help with other matters. It's getting late, so we've asked several generals to gather their troops. I'm going to send you some help."
People are paid."
"It's better to wait for a few days."
Meng Gong stopped the payment of pay, and said to Song Ci: "Please wait a few days. If you use Jiaozi to pay it, I'm afraid the soldiers will complain. It won't be too late to deal with it after I meet with the officials."
"
Song Ci nodded and then left.
Later, Meng Gong rode to Lin'an, entered the palace, met Zhao Yun, and told the story.
Zhao Yun was surprised, "What, this happened?"
Meng Gong nodded and said: "Your Majesty, this matter is of great importance. The new army is still training now. If the military pay is not as good as before, I am afraid that the morale of the army will be unstable. It will be extremely difficult to win people's hearts. If you lose it, it will be even more difficult to regain it.
It is extremely difficult, so please be careful, Your Majesty."
How could Zhao Yun not know the importance of military pay, "I know, you go back first, I will handle this matter."
"Yes, Your Majesty, I will take my leave."
After Meng Gong left, Zhao Yun said to Gao Shi, "Pass on Cheng Jue."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Gao Shi knew Zhao Yun was anxious, so he jogged to summon Cheng Ju.
"I have met Your Majesty. I wonder what you have to say when Your Majesty summons me?"
Cheng Jue looked normal, but Zhao Yun still carefully noticed that Cheng Jue's words had a vibrato. Zhao Yun thought to himself that he was still pretending to me, thinking I was easy to fool?
Zhao Yun looked at Cheng Jue, exerted pressure, and said: "Today the new army received one hundred thousand yuan as military pay, what's going on?"
Cheng Jue was obviously well prepared. He said: "Your Majesty, Jiaozi is a currency recognized by our court. It is normal for it to be used for military pay. I wonder what your Majesty thinks is wrong?"
Zhao Yun was speechless for a moment.
The reason for Jiaozi was that it was inconvenient to use copper coins for large transactions, so several large businessmen secretly printed and distributed paper, filled in the amount, and used it for private transactions between small circles, and named it Jiaozi. If they needed to exchange Jiaozi for copper coins
, you only need to pay a storage fee of 30 yuan each time.
This convenient transaction method was quickly accepted by more and more merchants, and circulation became widespread.
Later, the Song Dynasty court believed that this move would be beneficial to raising money, so it also wanted a share of the pie. So it recognized Jiaozi's currency status, and then monopolized the power of printing and issuance of Jiaozi. It no longer allowed private printing and issuance by the private sector.
Printed and issued by the imperial court.
At first, the imperial court only issued Jiaozi with a face value of 1.26 million guan, and also prepared 300,000 guan copper coins for exchange at any time. The initial effect was not bad.
But writing a few words on paper can be used as money. Who can resist such a good thing?
So later on, when the imperial court ran out of money, it printed Jiaozi. As a result, Jiaozi eventually printed more than 20 million yuan.
Moreover, there were no copper coins ready to be exchanged at this time, which meant that the Jiaozi court would not care about sending them out.
Now that Jiaozi is being used on himself, Zhao Yun, as the emperor, cannot reprimand Cheng Jue on the grounds that Jiaozi cannot be used, because Jiaozi was issued by the imperial court. Can you say that it cannot be used?
Zhao Yun was also very angry. "Literati don't use swords to kill people."
Suddenly, Zhao Yun remembered what Han Hong had said to him, and suddenly understood that Cheng Ju was still unwilling to pay for the new army. Now he was using Jiaozi to choke him, in order to force him to disband the new army.
Or he could use his own money to raise new troops.
Zhao Yun closed his eyes but clenched his fists, "I understand, please go down to Qing's house."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Seeing that Zhao Yun had nothing to say, Cheng Ju felt proud and left Funing Palace.
"Gao Shi, take one hundred thousand copper coins from my private treasury and send them to the New Army."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Cheng Jui blocked Zhao Yun's neck in a reasonable and legal manner. Zhao Yun had nowhere to vent his anger, and his military pay could not wait, so he could only temporarily advance the money himself.
"Here comes the envoy from Cangbu."
After Gao Shi left, Zhao Yun quickly ordered someone to summon Zhao Miao, the warehouse envoy who managed the treasury.
At the same time, Cheng Jue returned to the political hall, where the right prime minister Qiao Xingjian was already waiting.
When Cheng Ju came, Qiao Xingjian hurriedly stepped forward and asked, "Your Majesty, what do the officials say? Are you furious?"
Qiao Xingjian looked uneasy and a little scared.
Cheng Jue looked relaxed and said: "Don't worry, there is nothing wrong with the officials. We are paying military pay with the government's own payment. What reason can the officials have to be angry?"
Qiao Xingjian felt at ease now and said: "It's okay, it's okay, finally the officials are reasonable."