When the eunuch who delivered the decree came, Yang Fan was drawing eyebrows on the ladies.
Yang Fan deliberately gave Mei Xiang a painted face like a little cat, with three whiskers on one cheek. Xiao Niangpi and Lin Yueru were so angry that they laughed. Seeing everyone laughing at her, Mei Xiang cried in anger.
Yang Fan tried his best to persuade Mei Xiang to get better.
Mei Xiang is usually the most well-behaved and doesn't have a strong sense of presence. Yang Fan deliberately teases her.
As a result, the family was making a fuss when the angel came. Yang Fan changed his clothes and went out to receive the order.
After a while, Yang Fan came back with the imperial edict. There was no expression on his face. Xiao Niangpi couldn't help but ask: "Master, is there anything good that His Majesty has done for you?"
Yang Fan smiled bitterly and said, "Why don't you come up with something good? Why don't you wipe your ass with me?"
Yang Fan threw the imperial edict on the table next to him and said: "Your Majesty is messing around and making a big deal. Zhang Shize bombarded Dong Jishu, and the Xuanwu army collapsed and fled into the south city. They broke up, looted and set fire. The north city was also in chaos.
I don’t know who is wrestling with them, but they are being hacked and killed every day, and some people are setting fires. His Majesty asked me to return to Beijing."
Lin Yueru said unhappily: "How can there be such a truth in the world? It is necessary for people to face forward, but there is no need to face backward. Don't you have dignity? Your Majesty is shouting around like this."
Xiao Niangpi also said angrily: "No, I'm still on sick leave to recuperate."
During this period of time, it is rare that the master is with me every day, and he is enjoying the family life that he has not seen for a long time. The court brought up this mess again, and asked the master to wipe their butts.
Yang Fan smiled bitterly and said: "You still have to go if you should, otherwise we will appear to be petty. Besides, what good will it do to us if the capital is in chaos? Zunhua is so close to the capital. We need stability."
Xiao Niangpi thought for a while and felt that what Yang Fan said was reasonable. Considering her own interests, the chaos in the capital would have a great impact. The Yang family's business in the capital generates huge income every year. Now the Yang family supports too many people.
The army is almost 150,000. The cavalry corps is 50,000, the infantry corps is 50,000, the engineering corps, the pontoon bridge regiment, three retainer regiments (Xinghe regiment training, cavalry training regiment, retainer cavalry regiment), female corps, and river boats
The fleet of boats, the fleet and marines of Jeju Island, and a large number of pirates.
There are nearly 50,000 people working in shipyards, various factories, and scientific research units. There are still 100,000 people building dams and reservoirs, which are expected to be completed by the end of this year. Large-scale railway and highway construction is also underway.
Last year, military expenditures were 11 million taels, which is a frightening figure. Financial expenditures were 7.8 million taels of silver, totaling nearly 20 million taels.
The military expenditure seems to be a lot. When divided equally among a soldier, it is only 73 taels of silver, less than 100 taels. This includes military uniforms, firearms, ammunition, transportation, injuries, pensions, military pay, weapons research and development and many other expenses.
The little girl had never managed such a big stall before, and she had no idea that raising an army was so expensive.
The Yang family's total income last year was just over 8 million taels. This also includes the million taels stolen by the pirate group.
Last year, the total fiscal deficit was as high as 10.8 million taels of silver. When the accounts were calculated at the end of the year, I was so scared that my hands and feet were numb.
But Yang Fan can always come up with money to fill the hole. Yang Fan also told Xiao Niangpi not to worry. He will take care of the money issue. I don’t know what the master is capable of, but he can always come up with boatloads of snow-white silver.
Actually, there's nothing strange about it.
In modern times, silver is plentiful and worthless due to the development of science and technology. One gram only costs five yuan.
According to statistics from scientists, before the Ming Dynasty, China mined and refined a total of 15,000 tons of silver. Through trade, it obtained 10,000 tons of silver from overseas.
By the peak of the Qing Dynasty, China had accumulated 45,000 tons of silver. Considering that the Qing Dynasty was closed to the country, the amount of silver imported was not high. In the late Ming Dynasty, the amount of silver in China was estimated to be around 40,000 tons.
According to a rough calculation, one tael contains 33 grams of pure silver. One ton is 30,000 taels of silver. The entire Ming Dynasty is estimated to have 1.2 billion taels. Excluding Liaodong and southwest minority areas, there are at least one billion taels of silver in the eighteen provinces.
It's just that all this silver has been hoarded by officials, wealthy businessmen, gentry, and landowners.
Because there was no banking system in this era, and the gap between the rich and the poor was huge, silver could only be buried and stored. The result was severe deflation in the Ming Dynasty. There was very little silver circulating on the market.
The price of silver was high, and the people had to pay taxes in silver, which made them miserable.
The imperial court could not collect taxes due to insufficient money on the market.
The poor are the main subjects of tax burden, but they don't have much silver in their hands. The gentry and officials have the vast majority of silver in their hands, and they don't pay taxes.
The shortage of money caused prices to rise and all industries to be depressed. In addition, wars continued between the north and the south, and military spending was like water. This led to the financial collapse of the imperial court.
Yang Fan knew that his large-scale development model must have huge silver payment capabilities. Making money from the Ming Dynasty was one way. In addition, he also had to transfer silver from modern times.
In 2022, the total global silver production was 31,250 tons. In 2021, China extracted 24,600 tons of silver from its huge industrial output such as electrolytic copper and electrolytic aluminum. China has a serious overproduction of silver.
There are no large-scale silver mines in China, but silver is associated with many mines. The total number of silver by-products is staggering. After modern silver was withdrawn from currency, it only had some industrial uses, causing silver to become the same metal material as copper and iron.
Last year, Yang Fan sold gold and made thousands of small profits. Within a year, he secretly purchased a total of 2,000 tons of silver from the international market using small orders, equivalent to 60 million taels.
All the silver was pressed into silver coins and kept at Yaoguang's place. They would be brought out when needed.
This is also the reason why Yang Fan dares to adopt an unconventional development route. He doesn't have to worry about not having enough money. Xinghe's silver coins are a hot commodity in the market. Everyone is willing to accept them.
This is a thousand pure silver worth one tael. The Yang family's silver coins are simply the conscience of the industry.
There are almost no money shops that do not take advantage of their customers.
As soon as the Yang family's silver coins came out, the Ming Dynasty gradually showed signs of abolishing the two coins and replacing them with the yuan. The quality of the silver coins was complex and difficult to cut. The smelting and purification required a lot of fire, and the exchange was prone to disputes. It was far less convenient than the silver coins.
Moreover, the banknotes issued by Yang Fan can be freely exchanged with silver. The soft sister coin practice coupons can be exchanged for one silver coin for one yuan.
As a result, many businessmen exchanged their silver for banknotes at the local Xinghe Bank, and then went to the local Xinghe Bank to exchange it back when they arrived in the target city.
This is easy to carry, very safe, and there are no remittance fees.
But soon, they discovered that these banknotes were more useful than silver coins.
There is a 30% discount for purchasing materials such as steel with banknotes, which is a net profit of 3%. This has led to the explosion of banknote credit, and it has begun to be widely used in North Zhili and South Zhili.
Last year, Yang Fan gave Xiao Niangpi 30 million silver coins. Eleven million were used to fill the fiscal deficit, and the remaining 19 million were used for this year's deficit reserves.
The silver coins spent by Yang Fan brought huge benefits to the people of Beizhili.
That is to make up for the severe deflation situation in the north. And all this money has been earned by the people who work, build railways, and build dams.
And when they have money, they spend more, creating a multiplier effect and feeding more people.
This silver entered the circulation area, instead of being taken away by the gentry and stored in hoards. Instead, the gentry officials purchased large quantities of luxury goods, causing a large amount of silver to flow into the Yang family, where it was purified and pressed into silver coins and re-entered the circulation area.
In the past two years, although the situation in the northern parts of the Ming Dynasty was worse than the previous year, Beizhili, especially the Gyeonggi region, maintained relative stability and prosperity. Even the imperial court received millions of taels more income every year because of this.
