My father is Emperor Wu of Han, how can I be different from him?

Chapter 67 The Legendary Man
When Liu Che heard that he had accepted the property, his eyes darkened for a moment. He paused for a moment and asked in a colder tone, "Did the Prime Minister accept anything from the princes?"

No wonder Liu Che linked the two together.

There is indeed a precedent for this.

When Tian Fen was the prime minister, boxes of valuables presented by the princes were moved into his palace. There were hundreds of gold, jade articles, dogs and horses, and even beauties!

After the supplementary law is promulgated, such collusion can no longer be carried out openly, and if it exists, it can only be done in private.

What the emperor is asking now is whether Li Cai accepted the money privately.

"Nothing."

The man in embroidered clothes lowered his head and reported: "There is no money or goods exchanged between the princes and the ministers in the court, but there seems to be correspondence with the Zongzheng."

Zong Zheng?

Liu Che raised his eyebrows and thought for a while, "Keep an eye on the Prime Minister. As long as he doesn't get involved with the princes, don't worry about it for now."

No matter how wealthy the Zhuo family or the Kong family are, they are still businessmen after all.

In the eyes of the emperor, the princes who have money, connections, and occasionally the courage to build armor and rebel are the ones to be guarded against!
After asking about Chang'an, Liu Che asked again: "There is unrest in the local area too, right?"

"Yes."

The man in embroidered clothes responded.

The emperor guessed correctly, or rather, this was within his expectations...

He summoned the ministers to discuss salt, iron and coinage, and introduced Sang Hongyang to test the waters, in order to lure out the opponents hiding in the dark.

Like the iron smelting tycoons mentioned earlier, the Zhuo, Cheng, and Kong families are merely representatives of one industry.

Iron, unlike salt and coinage.

As for the former, the imperial court attached importance to it because in the era of cold weapons, iron could be used to make weapons, which would threaten its rule.

If the imperial court wanted to take it back, relatively speaking, there would not be many vested interests that would be targeted.

In order to smelt iron, one needs a mine, and iron ore is not available everywhere, so those who become rich overnight are destined to be concentrated in just a few families, such as Zhuo and Cheng in Linqiong.

But the latter two.

Salt is not the same as coinage.

Everyone needs to eat salt, and they have to eat it every day. There are many sources of salt. You can boil salt near the sea. As for minting coins, if there is no copper mine, you can rub copper powder from existing copper coins.

Second casting!
Where do you think the large amount of bad money in the private sector comes from?
Salt and coinage can generate huge and sustainable wealth, and the source is uncontrollable. In today's world, it is not something that can be unilaterally monopolized by one or a few people.

So everyone divided the spoils according to their own abilities.

In the vassal states, it is definitely the princes who control the salt industry and coinage. In the counties, there are also powerful families who control the country and make a fortune in silence.

To use a quote from history books, it would be:

"Only the rich can realize its benefits!"

Talking about wealthy people, there are so many of them. Which county in the world doesn't have wealthy people? If the imperial court wants to take back their financial resources, how can the local government not react?
Destroying someone's wealth is like killing one's parents.

The reaction was huge!

As the imperial court has been very powerful in recent years, there has not been any chaos with a single call for help and smoke of war. They dare not play tricks in secret, and at worst they can just do it openly.

"Recently, the number of merchants rushing to Chang'an has increased significantly. Their sources are diverse, and they come from all over Guanzhong and Guandong. Merchants frequently go in and out of the homes of officials, and many of them are connected!"

The man in embroidered clothes was half a body length behind the emperor and said in a calm tone: "Among them, the ministers and nobles were the most enthusiastic in catering to the emperor's wishes."

Listen.

Liu Che actually laughed, but it was just a sneer, "Ha, ha! Don't worry about it, let them collude, let them jump, I want to see..."

"Who jumps higher?"

As if to confirm this statement, the emperor added two more fuel to the fire in the following period of time.

first.

During the spring sacrifices to the ancestral temple, each vassal state and marquisate had to pay tribute according to population, four ounces of gold for every thousand people, which was the old custom.

But the current emperor has added a new rule - no matter whether he is a prince or a marquis, the gold he pays must be backed by "white paper money".

The second one.

It is the issuance of platinum coins.

The Minister of the Imperial Household carried out the order of His Majesty intact, and made platinum with silver and tin. The round seal with a dragon pattern was worth three thousand coins, the square seal with a horse pattern was worth five hundred coins, and the oblong seal with a tortoise pattern was worth three hundred coins.

This exchange rate can no longer be said to be inflated, it is sky-high!
As soon as it came out.

The phenomenon of privately minting platinum coins immediately appeared among the people!
That’s right, the powerful families in the Han Dynasty are so clever. The imperial court wants to make money from this, so is it okay for me to get a share of the profits?
You can cast coins yourself with silver and tin, or you can buy the "turtle coins" issued by the court and recast them into "dragon coins" to make money.

It’s no loss at all!

At one time, "the number of officials and civilians who forged platinum was innumerable."

It is said that three thousand coins can make them follow the trend, and "white paper money" worth four hundred thousand coins can make them crazy.

however.

This kind of currency was not privately minted. Firstly, "white paper money" was used exclusively by princes and nobles at specific times, and could not be used even if it was privately minted.

Secondly, I don’t have the technology to mint it privately.

Nowadays, papermaking technology is either controlled by the Shaofu or the Prince's Palace, and no one can get it...

But the 'Platinum Coins' alone are enough for the clever ghosts to have fun for a while.

It was at this time.

The emperor's next move has arrived. To be precise, it is the man who has not appeared in the world for a long time but whose legends are everywhere in the world who has made his move again!

Great meeting.

In front of all the officials, under the watchful eyes of the people, Imperial Censor Zhang Tang brazenly submitted a memorial: "It is strictly forbidden for the people to privately mint coins. Anyone who counterfeit coins shall be punished by death!"

This requires an explanation.

Private coinage by the people is strictly prohibited, but it is still allowed in counties and states.

To put it simply, Zhang Tang did not kill the local officials with one slap. He allowed the local officials to continue setting fires, but prohibited the local officials from lighting lamps.

This move was also to narrow the scope of the enemy, excluding princes and local officials and targeting only the powerful families.

but.

This move still led to a fierce counterattack!
At the court meeting, all officials resolutely resisted, and their words revolved around two points: ancestral system and competing with the people for profit.

Some of those who opposed it did so in response to the instructions of their fellow villagers, some because it was closely related to their own interests, and others because they saw some bad signs!
do not forget.

The idea of ​​taking back the right to mint coins and the salt and iron monopoly came from Sang Hongyang. If the imperial court was allowed to use the "white gold coin" incident to prohibit private coin minting,

In the near future, will the salt and iron monopoly be far behind?

It’s time to say it or not.

They guessed right, it was indeed not far away.

Of course, this is a later story. The current situation is still - passionate exchanges of insults and war of words!

But the one who stepped forward this time was no longer the small attendant Sang Hongyang, but the Imperial Censor, Zhang Tang, one of the Three Dukes!

This man rose from a minor official to the position of Nine Ministers and then to one of the Three Dukes. He had rich experience and many subordinates who were promoted with him.

He is not afraid of competing in numbers.

He is not afraid of competing for an official position.

Sang Hongyang's defeat did not happen to Zhang Tang. The battle was fierce, with each side holding their own opinions and the fight was very tense!
The quarrel started from the court meeting to the end of the court, and then moved from the front hall of Weiyang Palace to their respective offices.

At last.

The quarrel spread from the government to the people.

At this time, the resentment of the princes and nobles who had been cheated before began to surface, whether on their own initiative or because they were instigated.

If the entire Chang'an, and even the Han Dynasty, were compared to a pot of soup, then at this moment the pot would already be bubbling.

And the emperor.

It's like a diner standing by the pot, fanning with one hand to make the fire bigger, and holding chopsticks with the other hand, staring at the boiling soup, waiting for a piece of meat to float up so he can feast on it!

But the emperor would not have expected it.

The first person to come to the surface was his beloved...

(End of this chapter)