His Royal Highness the King of Chu is only responsible for the general direction. The general framework has been finalized. As for the specific terms, naturally someone will negotiate with them.
In the next few days, Zeng Tai led provincial government officials to conduct arduous negotiations with the Suzhou Weaving and Dyeing Bureau on the long-term lease of 300,000 hectares of official land.
Don't look at Gu Yuanchen and others, who behaved generously and eager for justice in front of the King of Chu, but when they really talked about business with these people, they showed another attitude that they only wanted to take advantage and did not want to suffer losses.
.
With His Highness the King of Chu as the backing, ordinary officials would not argue with them and would just give in if they gave in.
But unexpectedly, I met Zeng Tai, who was tougher in the background, and he was also a good bully. Now both parties were going back and forth, not giving in an inch.
The two sides have disputes on almost all terms, but the biggest differences lie in two points.
One is the 300,000 hectares of farmland. The Weaving and Dyeing Bureau hopes to concentrate it as much as possible and divide it into three or five pieces at most, so that it is easier to assign people to manage it.
Zeng Tai said how could it be possible? The source of the 300,000 hectares of land was confiscated hidden fields, which were scattered in every county in the province. There must be hundreds of them. How could they be concentrated into three to five areas?
When the matter came to Lao Liu, His Highness the King of Chu would reconcile them and ask both parties to take a step back. The weaving and dyeing bureau should not be so demanding; Jiangxi Province should not just try to save trouble. It must be replaced when it needs to be replaced.
At least it is necessary to ensure that the official fields in each county are concentrated together. It would be better if the official fields in neighboring counties can be connected as much as possible.
This is finally settled.
~~
Another more troublesome point is the payment method. Jiangxi Province only wants copper coins, not treasure notes!
The provincial government dared to refuse the treasure banknotes issued by the imperial court, which was completely outrageous. Naturally, the Weaving and Dyeing Bureau would not tolerate them, and took the complaint to Lao Liu.
"Zeng Tai! You have gone too far! The Chief Secretary of Jiangxi Province is not a government official of the Ming Dynasty, but he dares to refuse the Ming Dynasty's treasure money!" Lao Liu was also very angry after hearing this. He called Zeng Tai and cursed him.
Zeng Tai waited for His Highness to finish scolding, then explained with a grimace: "Your Highness, if this money is given to the official, I will definitely not say anything, but the problem is that this money is used to purchase resettlement materials and pay directly to the immigrants.
,Those people won’t tolerate us.”
"What, will they refuse to accept it?" Zhu Zhen said with a dark face.
"It's not that I refuse to accept it, but I am definitely unwilling to accept it." Zeng Tai smiled bitterly and said: "And it will definitely have to be discounted. At the current market price in Jiangxi, a regular banknote can only be exchanged for 800 copper coins. This discount is 20%.
It’s such a shame.”
"That's because His Highness helped with the patching and persuaded the Emperor to implement free banknotes, which stabilized the value of the banknotes." Gu Yuanchen seized every opportunity to flatter Lao Liu. "No one knows the art of banknotes better than His Highness.
The value of the treasure will soon rise back."
"Don't dare to say this nonsense." Zhu Zhen rolled his eyes at Gu Yuanchen.
Although the people had no choice but to use banknotes due to deflation. However, after the collapse of the banknote system at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, ordinary people were always wary of treasure banknotes. They used them but were unwilling to save them. Instead, they tried every means to exchange the treasure banknotes for copper coins.
, exists at home.
There is a professional term for this in later generations. It seems to be called ‘mooncake expels cold skin’?
Therefore, in the long run, it is still a general trend that money is expensive and banknotes are cheap.
And what drives Zhu Zhen the most is that the stingy character of the old thief is simply the natural enemy of Baochao. Although Boss Zhu has issued an order to announce free banknotes, on the other hand, he does not want Baochao Bureau to invest too much.
The new banknotes are given to the bank’s treasury...
Because Boss Zhu discovered that as soon as free banknotes were announced, people flocked in with their precious banknotes. Many intact banknotes that were obviously only slightly stained and wrinkled, but did not affect their use at all, were exchanged for new ones.
In an instant, the banknotes in the bank's bank account were completely replaced. The cost of printing banknotes was so high that Boss Zhu was reluctant to part with it, so he stipulated that any banknotes with "clear lines and all four corners" would not be considered faint.
No free money transfer is allowed.
But there are policies from above and countermeasures from below, so the common people will crush the treasure banknotes that do not meet the conditions until they meet the standards and then exchange them...
Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that he thought this was malicious counterfeiting, so he had to strictly control the number of counterfeited banknotes, so that there would be a long queue in front of the bank every day. He felt that those people who had "new" banknotes in their hands,
I will find it too troublesome and give up pouring money...
For this reason, Lao Zhu still complained a little bit about Lao Liu, feeling that this boy was not a good man and did not know how expensive firewood and rice were, so he gave himself a bad idea.
In fact, in Zhu Zhen's view, this was just a normal manifestation of the people's lack of confidence in the court. They didn't know how long this free money transfer would last, so they flocked to it. They gave peace of mind first.
As long as the imperial court insists on "exchanging all the banknotes" for a period of time, up to a year and a half, the people will know that they can change banknotes at any time, so they will not be in a hurry to change them, and they will not worry about receiving old banknotes. This is the peak period of this wave of banknote exchanges.
It's over.
As now, by controlling the number of new banknotes in the bank's banknotes to slow down people's money dumping, it will only intensify people's distrust of treasured banknotes and greatly reduce the effect of free banknotes...
~~
The current treasure money situation is such a disgusting one. What's more, the transaction amount between the two parties is so huge. There is a price difference of seven to eight million yuan between the two parties, and no one can do it.
It is understandable that Zeng Tai is unwilling to accept treasure money.
In fact, the reason why the Weaving and Dyeing Bureau insists on using treasure banknotes to pay is for the same reason.
"I don't understand. Just like His Highness said, how dare you, a provincial government, to refuse to accept precious money?" Gu Yuanchen flattered the horse's leg and quickly changed his target.
"If it's really like what you said, why do you insist on giving me money but not paying?" Zeng Tai said arrogantly.
"Because they're all the same, I'll pay whatever I want!" Gu Yuanchen argued.
"Then we want whatever we want!" Zeng Tai confronted him again...
"Okay, okay, shut up!" Seeing that the two sides were arguing again in front of him, Lao Liu was furious. He really wanted to say that you should pay with food stamps. Unfortunately, they are here in Jiangxi.
, not to mention not recognizing the small ticket he issued, Lao Liu was just thinking about Taozi.
"Let's do this." Lao Liu finally gave them an idea angrily: "The weaving and dyeing bureau will pay with half copper coins and half treasure notes."
"Your Highness, there is no way to reconcile this kind of thing!" Zeng Tai was not satisfied, because then they would still have to break three to four million yuan.
"His Highness has taken care of you enough, and you are not satisfied yet?" Gu Yuanchen said angrily, obviously not satisfied either.
"Why are you so anxious? Listen to what I have to say!" Zhu Zhen glared and said:
"Most of the money received by the Chief Secretary has to be spent! Whether it is buying seeds, farm tools, cattle, rations, etc., these businesses can be given priority to the inspection team!"
"Ah ha, your highness has such a good idea." Zeng Tai immediately cheered up and smiled at Gu Yuanchen: "Since you said there is nothing wrong with the treasure banknotes, then I will use treasure banknotes to pay you!"
"You!" Gu Yuanchen felt depressed for a while, but couldn't refute. If he said there was something wrong with the treasure notes, how could he explain his insistence on paying the treasure notes before? But if he just agreed like this, he would be scolded by the people below him later.
However, a veteran like him has always been quick-witted. After mumbling for a long time, he choked out: "We want food stamps!"
"Food stamps?" Zeng Tai had heard about this thing, but he had never seen it before.
"Okay." Lao Liu's face was so realistic. How could treasure money be as important as his food stamps?
"Okay, as long as you promise to collect as much as you can, you can use part of the food stamps instead." Zeng Tai still trusted the King of Chu, and believed that with him around, these Suzhou guys wouldn't dare to play any tricks.
