When the group of candidate female officials selected by Li Yuan, the chief of the Fu Division of Jinling Town of Longyiwei, arrived in Kaifeng, the two sages were not in Daliang, but in Tianbaofu.
And in the foreseeable long period of time, Shengjia may not move back to Kaifeng.
Originally, Fang Yizhi, who was responsible for teaching the female officials in Jiangnan, hoped that these female officials would stay in Kaifeng to take classes until the Second Saint returned to Kaifeng Mansion, and then send them to the palace as servants.
But at this time, because Li Guo's condition deteriorated sharply while he was worshiping his ancestors in Mizhi, the Tao Mute tribe heard the news and invaded the border. Sun Kewang, the Western invader who was entrenched in Qin and Shu, was also ready to move north to invade. Li Laiheng had no choice but to stay in the north temporarily.
, he used Yulin and Ningxia as bases, mobilized soldiers and horses from all directions, sent General Liu Fangliang out to search for traps and attack the Mongolian Tumote tribe, and sent Guo Junzhen to take up residence in Fuping to resist the Western Ming army.
The military situation in the north was tense, and Li Laiheng had to deal with more and more daily government affairs. Under the repeated urging of the Supervisor, Niu Quan, the governor of Henan Province, had no other choice but to let Fang Yizhi stop teaching first, and would soon arrive in Kaifeng.
The first batch of female officers selected from Jiangnan were sent to the north as errands.
At that time, Hebei was in ruins, and Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces were facing attacks from the Mongols and Sun Kewang, making them very unsafe. Many female officials panicked when they heard that they were going to Yan'an, which was far away on the border, and even ran away halfway.
people.
Only Lin Maomao didn't take it seriously. She persuaded all the female officials: "In the first year of Guangzhong, the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Southern Ming Dynasty was defeated by Wang Shi in Xuzhou. In a short time, the army spread all over the south of the Yangtze River. Like Liu Liang and others, they slaughtered people everywhere and burned and looted places.
No matter how turbulent the north is today, it will not be more chaotic than the south of the Yangtze River last year."
She believed that with the military discipline and combat effectiveness of the Dashun Army, there would be no safety concerns when selecting female officers to go all the way to Yan'an. After they went to Yan'an to serve as officials, they would follow the supervisory country, and there would be no danger there.
Lin Maomao's performance and words and deeds when everyone set out left a deep impression on Fang Yizhi, who presided over Hongwen Academy. Later, Fang Yizhi mentioned Lin Maomao emphatically in a letter to his cousin Fang Yiren, thinking that
She is "worthy of writing".
Before leaving Kaifeng, Lin Maomao used the money that Fang Yizhi gave to everyone to buy winter clothes in the market. She noticed that not only did the money that Fang Yizhi gave her have a special shape, but even the currency used by the shops in Kaifeng's outer market was different.
Very unique.
After asking the merchants, I found out that since the opening of Dashun Dingding, the first used by the Shun army in buying and selling was "Yongchang money" cast in Xiangyang, that is, the four characters "Yongchang Tongbao" were inscribed on the front and "Yongchang Tongbao" on the back.
A copper coin with the four characters "Shun Tian Ying Ren".
However, due to the mediocre money-making technology of the Shun Army at that time, this kind of money-making could not even compete with the money-making of the Ming Dynasty, resulting in low acceptance in the market, so that ordinary Shun soldiers could only directly use broken silver to purchase military supplies.
Last year, after the Jianguo pacified the eastern captives in the pass, he sent Baijiuhe to supervise the creation of a new type of money making to solve this problem.
The new type of money making is called "Guangzhong Tongbao", and it has two types: silver coins and copper coins.
There are no holes in the middle of the copper coins. Each coin weighs two coins. On the back, there are the words "Several coins for one silver dollar." The new coins are made by Suizhou hydraulic forging hammer mechanism. The workmanship is better than that of Yongchang Tongbao, and the materials used are much better than those in the Ming Dynasty.
Chongzhen money is mainly used as a auxiliary currency.
However, since this year, the military situation between the north and the south has become tense again. The Supervisory State has ordered several times to suspend the casting of Guangzhong coins and use copper materials to cast artillery. Therefore, the circulation of Guangzhong copper coins in the market is not yet widespread.
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What Fang Yizhi gave to the female official, as well as the new money Lin Maomao saw in the Kaifeng store, were mainly Guangzhong silver dollars.
On the front of the Guangzhong Silver Dollar are the words "Guangzhong Silver Dollar" and "Shuntian Yingren", on the back are the four characters "Jitian Liji", with the word "Tian" in the middle on the upper layer, and the three characters "Jiliji" on the lower layer.
Since the one-whip law was implemented in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, more silver was levied in taxes and turned over to the state treasury. Since the Ming Dynasty did not have standard silver coins with small denominations, most of the silver coins used by the people were broken silver. When taxing, the broken silver paid by the people needed to be melted down and remade.
Cast into silver ingots for surrender.
In this process, the consumption caused by melting the broken silver is called "fire consumption", which is actually a major malpractice in the Ming Dynasty, and there are many hidden links of corruption and perversion of the law.
When officials collect taxes, the additional "fire consumption" levied is greater than the actual "fire consumption", and the difference goes to the officials. Fire consumption has become an important income for officials and officials. In general, the amount of fire consumption in prefectures and counties is as much as two or three yuan per two.
Even four or five yuan. In remote states and counties, taxes are low, and fire consumption is several times that of regular taxes.
Li Laiheng sent Baijiuhe to supervise the production of standard silver coins, which fundamentally put an end to the evil policy of fire consumption. Moreover, Guangzhong silver coins were well made and had a small face value, which was also conducive to promoting the development of the commodity economy.
We must know that Dorgon had previously issued an order to shave his hair in the north, using this as a pretext to plunder the property of the northern gentry, and was able to amass a huge wealth of tens of millions of taels.
Later, before Daishan evacuated Beijing, he launched a large-scale plunder and obtained tens of millions of gold and silver.
When the Dashun Army defeated Dorgon in Xuzhou, they had already seized a huge amount of silver. Later, when Liu Fangliang pursued Daishan, he also seized a large amount of gold and silver.
Therefore, the cash silver in Li Laiheng's hands was no less than 70 to 80 million taels. Such a huge silver savings made it very convenient for him to implement the standard silver coin and abolish the Kuping silver policy.
In addition, the promotion of standard silver coins is also conducive to promoting fiscal monetization, eliminating a lot of complicated units that have been called "two bundles of stones and horses" since the Song and Ming Dynasties, and reducing corruption and perversion in the accounting process.
After Dashun adopted the camp system and roughly controlled Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangning, Susong, and Zhejiang in the second year of Guangzhong, the summer and autumn grain received this year has reached 90 million shi.
So many.
Therefore, it would not be a big problem if Li Laiheng relied on the grain in his hands and directly issued grain-based banknotes. However, in that case, the development of the commodity economy would still be hindered, and the remaining capital would only continue to flow to the land, which would conflict with his blueprint.
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Therefore, he gave up the more secure grain standard and further promoted the circulation of silver currency by issuing standard silver coins and casting cannons for military needs to restrict the circulation of copper coins.
Naturally, Lin Maomao couldn't understand the various thoughts hidden behind the "Silver Dollar in Light". She mainly felt that the silver dollar was exquisitely made and much easier to use than ordinary broken silver.
The materials and actual weight of the Guangzhong silver dollar are actually lower than its official face value. This is mainly to prevent unscrupulous traders from knocking off the silver around the edge of the silver coin for profit, and it also allows the court to make money in the process of issuing standard silver coins.
Get a certain amount of seigniorage.
Its value mainly comes from its exquisite workmanship. Even Li Laiheng considered whether to directly issue alloy coins to further reduce the silver material used. Finally, it was decided that the Guangzhong Silver Dollar would still use silver as the main material, taking into account the market acceptance.