On October 20th, Shi Kefa, who was training in Nanchang Prefecture, welcomed a special guest.
Shi Kefa is very busy these days. Now he is the top commander of the Jiangbei Army. On the one hand, he has to send letters to officials and gentry all over the world, calling on the world's scholars to donate money to support the Jiangbei Army. On the other hand, he has to manage the expansion of the Jiangbei Army and recruit troops.
, as well as the expansion of Jiangbei Army's garrison in Nanchang Prefecture and the expropriation of wasteland.
He also asked blacksmiths to build the Jiangbei Army's armor. The initial plan was to equip 40,000 heavy armored infantry. When the Jiangbei Army encountered Li Zhi's Tiger Army, they would charge quickly with the heavy armored soldiers as the vanguard. Regardless of Li Zhi's rifles
No matter how far it can hit, it can't penetrate the two layers of heavy armor of a heavy armored soldier fifty steps away.
But to make so many armors, it would take at least several thousand blacksmiths to be recruited. There were not so many blacksmiths in the entire Nanchang Prefecture. Shi Kefa had been working hard in the past few months, recruiting craftsmen from all over Jiangxi Province, and finally gathered the manpower.
Civil officials from various places heard that the Jiangbei Army was recruiting blacksmiths and craftsmen, so they all forced the craftsmen to go to Nanchang Prefecture without saying a word. Now that the emperor is increasingly favoring Li Zhi, the gentry in the world can only save themselves. And the Jiangbei Army is the gentry saving themselves.
The greatest hope. On the issue of Jiangbei Army’s armaments, not a single civilian official made the slightest move to make things difficult.
The so-called united will is nothing more than this.
Jiangbei's army expanded from 80,000 to 160,000, consuming tens of thousands of silver, wages and food every day. Shi Kefa was extremely busy and exhausted.
But today I heard that Ruan Dacheng was here, so Shi Kefa still specially received him.
Ruan Dacheng was originally a cadre of the Donglin Party. When Wei Zhongxian rose, he betrayed the Donglin Party due to the internal fighting of the Donglin Party and briefly defected to Wei Zhongxian. As soon as Zhu Youjian, the emperor of the Chongzhen Dynasty, came to the throne, he launched a "campaign" to overthrow the stinking eunuch Party.
"Reverse case", so Ruan Dacheng was notorious in the Chongzhen Dynasty.
But Ruan Dacheng is really talented. More than a dozen operas written by him have been sung all over the country and are well-known in the north and south of the Yangtze River. Although the Donglin Party suppressed Ruan Dacheng and refused to let him come back, Ruan Dacheng has lived in Nanjing and traveled extensively in recent years.
friend.
Shi Kefa, the Minister of War in Nanjing, was a frequent visitor to Ruan Dacheng's house. It can be said that he had a close personal relationship with him.
Ruan Dacheng came to see Shi Kefa this time because he was planning to join the Jiangbei Army.
Ruan Dacheng was very interested in fame and fortune. When Li Zhi was in Nanjing in March this year, Ruan Dacheng secretly went to join Li Zhi with a "heavy gift". He wanted to get an official position in Li Zhi's camp, and then he became famous. However, who knew that Li Zhi
Zhi disliked Ruan Dacheng's character and did not even grant Ruan Dacheng the title of magistrate.
Ruan Dacheng waited at home for half a year, but did not receive a letter from Li Zhi, nor did he hear any news about Li Zhi's promotion of him. He was furious.
As the saying goes, if there is no light in the east, there will be light in the west. Historically, Ruan Dacheng was a character that even the Qing army could seek refuge with. How could he hang on to a big tree like Li Zhi? After waiting for half a year, Ruan Dacheng decisively decided to seek refuge with Shi Kefa.
Although Ruan Dacheng did not become an official in these years, he was always concerned about world affairs. He had been collecting "Shandong Daily" for a long time to understand Li Zhi's situation. This time he came to Shi Kefa with a clever trick as a meeting gift.
"Does this soldier know the banknotes of Tianjin?"
Ruan Dacheng didn't even say polite words to Shi Kefa, and went straight to the topic as soon as the conversation started.
Shi Kefa stroked his beard and said: "I heard a little bit, it seems to be banknotes issued by Thief Li to replace silver."
Ruan Dacheng heard that Shi Kefa had only heard a little about it, so he explained: "My lord, Thief Li's banknotes are now the main currency in circulation in Tianjin, Shandong and Liaodong, and have completely replaced silver. People can exchange their silver for silver.
Give out banknotes of equal value and use them. When you need money, you can get it at any time with the banknotes."
"Nowadays, the common people under the leadership of Li Thief have a few taels of banknotes as spare money for every household. Some merchants even exchange large amounts of banknotes for daily transactions."
After Ruan Dacheng said this, he took out a few Jinqi Bank notes from his arms and placed them in front of Shi Kefa.
"My lord, please take a look."
Shi Kefa held up a "one tael" silver note and looked at it carefully. The paper quality of the bank note was excellent. The banknote was overprinted in six colors. There was a pattern of an ironclad ship printed on the front, and a bearer on the back.
The farmer with a hoe looks very beautiful.
Shi Kefa raised the banknote towards the window and found that there was a watermark in the middle of the banknote.
Shi Kefa nodded and said: "Thief Li's banknotes are very beautifully made, and they are indeed his handiwork!"
Although he hated Li Zhi, Shi Kefa still admired Li Zhi's methods. It can be said that the production of this banknote is far more sophisticated than that of the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes. Moreover, after the banknotes are printed, they are guaranteed to be exchanged for silver, and their credibility is very high. In just one year,
So he put all the heavy money into the cellar of Jinqi Bank.
Ruan Dacheng laughed loudly, raised a one-money note and said, "Shi Gong saw Li Thief's handiwork, but I saw Li Thief's flaws!"
Shi Kefa looked at Ruan Dacheng and was silent.
Ruan Dacheng said: "The people under Li Zhi's rule believe in Li Zhi's credibility and support Li Zhi 100%, so they have no doubt about the banknotes issued by Li Zhi. However, my lord, if we imitate Li Zhi's banknotes and print thousands of
What would it be like to put 10,000 banknotes into Li Thief’s Tianjin and Shandong, and then take these banknotes to Li Thief’s bank to exchange for silver!”
Shi Kefa pondered and said: "In this case, Thief Li's money will definitely be redeemed by counterfeit banknotes. In order not to lose real money, Li Zhi will definitely stop the exchange of banknotes and silver."
Ruan Dacheng laughed loudly and said: "Of course, my lord, I have a great opinion. Once Thief Li's banknotes stop being exchanged for silver, the market value of such banknotes will drop rapidly and eventually become a piece of waste paper."
"The credit Li Zhi has accumulated for more than ten years will collapse in one day. The banknotes regarded as wealth by the common people are all worthless. What will the people of Tianjin, Shandong and Liaodong think of Li Zhi? When the public is so angry,
When the time comes, we will send some more agents to Shandong to agitate the people, which may cause Li Zhi's position to be thrown into chaos."
Shi Kefa put the banknotes in his hand on the coffee table and thought for a long time.
Finally, Shi Kefa praised: "This is a truly poisonous plan!"
Ruan Dacheng smiled and said: "No poison, no husband! I know all kinds of talents in the printing industry best. As long as I allocate 20,000 taels of silver as funding, I guarantee that within half a month there will be enough to make the real thing
Counterfeit banknotes poured into Shandong, bankrupting Li Thief's bank."
Shi Kefa looked at Ruan Dacheng, thought about it again, and finally nodded and said: "Shan, if this matter is feasible, leave it to Ji Zhi."
"If this matter can be accomplished, I guarantee that Ji will be able to become an official in Nanjing. A civil servant will not be able to escape."
Ruan Dacheng's eyes seemed to shine for an instant, he looked at Shi Kefa with joy and burst out laughing.
