Dashun Yongchang

Governor Lu, did you weave the silk robe you wear by yourself?Did you make the soap boots you wear yourself?Are so many servants around you supported by the money and food you earned?None of the porridge and meals you eat are grown by yourself. Aren’t you a thief?

I heard that there was a pirate named Zheng Guang in the Southern Song Dynasty. After he was recruited by the court, his colleagues disliked him so much, so at a reception, everyone asked him to compose a poem, so Zheng Guang said: Zheng Guang has a poem for all the officials. Civil and military affairs seem to be average.The officials are officials but they are thieves, and Zheng Guang is a thief but an official.

Governor Lu, you said that we are thieves, but what you officials and gentlemen wear, what you eat, and what you serve at home, doesn't that come from the hard work of us?And what have you done for this country?Speaking of this, who is the thief of Ming Dynasty? "

Lu Zhenfei was pondering for a while, thinking about how to refute the other party, he came to Xuzhou to make achievements, not to engage in verbal disputes, so it was not his plan to offend Li Zicheng too much.Now that Li Zicheng was willing to reason with him, at least he couldn't rely on verbal abuse to solve the problem. Apart from forcing the other party to use force, it wouldn't bring him any benefit. Dead people couldn't defend Daming.

But Wang Xie beside him couldn't bear it any longer. The beating at the gate of the city made him feel that the possibility of him giving birth to Xuzhou was greatly reduced. Those gangsters died silently, which was too humiliating for him.

"Rebel, don't try to confuse our minds with nonsense. The heaven and the earth are divided at the beginning, and the pure air rises, and the turbid air sinks. Also, how can there be heaven and earth if there is no dignity? If you offend the superiors and persecute the ruler and father, this is treason and immorality, how can you say that you are not a thief?"

Qiu Lei at the side turned pale with shock, and took another step back, looking like a follower of the two in front.But Lu Zhenfei turned his head and glanced at Wang Xie speechlessly, and began to reflect on why the people selected by the Ming Dynasty's imperial examination system were either shameless people like Ma Shiying, or elm-headed people like Shi Kefa and Wang Xie. problem.

Standing on the steps, Li Zicheng stared at Wang Xie, who didn't want to talk to him at first. This guy didn't even let his teacher Lu Bizhou go. Walking around, he dared not enter the territory of Shandong. From this point of view, this is a dog that guards the household.With his master behind him, he is not afraid of anything. After losing his master, he has no courage.

Li Zicheng turned his gaze from Wang Xie to Lu Zhenfei again. Obviously this is Wang Xie's courage. In this way, he will have to express more radical revolutionary ideas. If the soldiers of the Shun Army believe it The order of dignity and inferiority is the great way of heaven and earth, so wouldn't Zhu Cihong really want to revive Daming, then where will he, the Emperor of Yongchang, be placed?

Thinking of this, Li Zicheng could only sigh helplessly in his heart, then organized the thoughts in his mind and said: "I have read few books, but I still have basic common sense.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng said: The heaven and the earth are like a chicken, and the earth is like the yolk in an egg. More than 120 years ago, the European Portuguese Magellan led an expedition fleet to sail westward. It took nearly three years for the world to return to Europe, proving that the earth is round.

At about the same time, the Polish Copernicus proposed the heliocentric theory.That is: there is no common center for all celestial orbits or celestial bodies; the earth is only the gravitational center and the center of the moon’s orbit, not the center of the universe; all celestial bodies revolve around the sun, and the center of the universe is near the sun; the distance from the earth to the sun Insignificant in relation to the height of the sky; any motion seen in the sky is due to the motion of the earth;

All the phenomena of the sun's motion seen in the sky are not caused by its own motion, but caused by the motion of the earth, which is undergoing several motions at the same time; the forward and backward motion of the planets seen by people is due to the motion of the earth caused.The motion of the earth is sufficient to explain all kinds of phenomena that people see in the sky.

Therefore, it is wrong to say that the heaven and the earth are opened, that the clear air rises to form the sky, and the dirty air sinks to form the earth.The earth we live in is a sphere, a sphere that revolves around the sun, and there are many spheres similar to the earth in the universe, so we are not the only ones.

Secondly, the "Book of Rites" says: "The way of the great way is also, the world is for the public, select the virtuous and capable, and build trust and harmony."The old man is not alone in kissing his relatives, not only in his sons, so that the old will be able to die, the strong will be useful, the young will be strong, and the widows, lonely, disabled and sick will all be supported, men will have a share, and women will return.The evil of goods is abandoned on the ground, so there is no need to hide it in oneself; the evil of power does not come from the body, so there is no need to do it for oneself.That's why they don't prosper when they seek closure, and they don't commit thieves and thieves, so they don't shut down outsiders.It means Datong.

When did Confucius say that the journey of the great way is the selfishness of the world?Is it respectful or humble?Is it that the old have no end, the strong have no use, and the young have no growth?So that men have no points and women no return?Is it to exploit the world by knocking bones and sucking marrow to serve one person?

The rituals and music of the Zhou Gong system do not distinguish between superiority and inferiority, but are the duties of the ruler and his ministers.Therefore, when the king has no way and the people of the country riot, Zhou called for a republic to replace the monarch.It is not Zhou Gong and Zhao Gong who do not know the dignity, but the Li Wang who has lost his position as king.

I heard again: If you hear the Tao in the morning, you can die in the evening.Unheard of: Honor and inferiority are determined, and death in the evening is possible.It can be seen from this that respecting and humble lun is very moral.Therefore, there is no respect first and then heaven and earth, but selfishness first and then respect and inferiority.

As for the following offenses to persecute the emperor's father, it is even more ridiculous.The common people should be protected by the state after paying taxes and performing labor services. If the state cannot protect the people, then isn’t the tax and labor labor collected by the state from the common people an act of theft?

It is the country that first abandons its responsibilities before the people rise up to defend their own interests. This is the ultimate principle of heaven and earth.The king, officials, and people are the sun, the earth, and the moon. The three should follow their own orbits and move forward. Anyone who violates this objective law should naturally be punished by the objective law.

As Governor Lu said just now, Dashun and Ming Dynasty are not a dispute between two countries, and I agree.The war between Dashun and Ming Dynasty was actually a rebellion launched by an oppressed and exploited working class against a gentry class who had been oppressing and exploiting itself.

The working class can no longer survive, so should we continue to feed you thieves?I don't read much, but it's not enough to not understand one of the most basic common sense: where there is oppression, there is resistance.Governor Lu, what do you think? "

Lu Zhenfei really didn't know what else he could say. He felt that Li Zicheng should really go to study. Just relying on this set of theories, he could be compared with Li Zhi who advocated that "dressing and eating are human relations and physics".In this way, Daming can get rid of a big thief, but with one more scholar, the latter's harm is much less.

Wang Xie, who was beside Lu Zhenfei, couldn't think of how to refute Li Zicheng's words. Although he was a Jinshi, he really didn't read as many books as Li Zicheng. really do not know.As a scholar, he couldn't help being ashamed and angry when he was hit by the thief like this, but he still refused to accept it.

He glared at Li Zicheng on the steps and said, "Even though you speak eloquently, it's all about your words. Why are the people of Kaifeng dying so badly? Could it be that they oppressed you too?"

Li Zicheng's heart was suffocated. He still had memories of the three attacks on Kaifeng. It must be said that this was an extremely tragic siege battle, whether it was the people of Kaifeng or the peasant army outside the city.Only then did he take a serious look at the other party and asked, "Were you in Kaifeng at that time?"

Wang Xie gritted his teeth and said: "A certain day when I knew Xiangfu County, the past events are vivid in my memory, and I dare not forget them a little bit. You wait for these bandits to say: Open the city gate to welcome the King Chuang, and the King Chuang will not pay the food when he comes. .But after occupying the city, they tortured officials, gentry and common people, talking like farting. Even if a certain dies here today, he will not be convinced."

It was the third time that the city was closed and the city could not go down, so Li Zicheng began to rectify military discipline, and did not allow the rebels from all walks of life to loot again, so he could not say that Wang Xie was talking nonsense.The early rebel army was a group of hungry people who gathered together to eat big families, and then resisted the encirclement and suppression of the imperial court to gradually form an army. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are a group of thieves.Therefore, those who can live a decent life in the local area are resolutely opposed to the rebel army to liberate themselves.

Only in the later period, when natural disasters continued and the military discipline of officers and soldiers became worse and worse, did the northern people gradually turn to the rebels.If Wang Xie had defended Kaifeng, Li Zicheng could understand his current attitude of being at odds with his own. It is true that attacking Kaifeng is not a commendable event.

However, he quickly changed his mind and asked Wang Xie, "Since you were in Kaifeng at the time, was it our army who dug the Yellow River embankment? Was it the official army?"

Now Wang Xie became tongue-tied, and simply turned his head aside, expressing his disdain to answer this question.Qiu Lei looked at Wang Xie with some contempt. It turned out that the officers and soldiers dug the Yellow River embankment by themselves, and they just plausibly framed the Shun army. It was a bit shameless.But what's even more shameful is that as a scholar, he can't argue against a thief who doesn't study?

At this moment, Lu Zhenfei finally figured out a clue, so he took up the conversation calmly and said: "We went north this time just to pay homage to Emperor Daxing, not to argue with His Majesty about morality. The usual way of discussing the Tao. If Your Majesty wants to settle accounts, please let me wait until after paying homage to Emperor Daxing..."

Chapter 113 Kill or not kill

Li Zicheng looked at Lu Zhenfei, but actually thought in his heart, should he just kill this guy.Compared with the Wang Xie next to him, this old guy is really dangerous.

In fact, on the way to the south, he had studied why the Shun Army failed to open the passage to the south of the Yangtze River in one go, and all the information he collected showed that the reason why the Shun Army could not cross Huai'an was blocked by the Governor of Water Transport up.

When the Shun army besieged the city of Beijing, the whole north was actually ready to change to a new dynasty. People in the Huaiyang area were also in panic. Everyone didn't know what to do, but almost no one mentioned going north to rescue the capital. However, Shi Kefa, Minister of the Ministry of War in the Southern Capital, has always refused to cross the Yangtze River, and he doesn't know what to do in Nanjing.

Under such a dangerous situation, Lu Zhenfei, the governor of water transport, stepped forward to win over the army while suppressing the gentry, and forcibly built a line of defense in Huai'an, which not only stabilized the situation in Huainan, but also lured Lu Bizhou to go south He took the opportunity to capture him, and then took all the Huai'an gentry to shoot and kill the official who went south to appease Dashun, thus further tying the Huai'an gentry to his chariot.

What is even more surprising is that, as a channel for north-south communication, Lu Zhenfei clearly had the opportunity to support a new monarch before Nandu, but he missed this opportunity in order to maintain the authority of Nandu, the backup government of the Ming Dynasty.It can be said that if Shi Kefa had some tricks and the Donglin Party members were a little more tolerant of other political forces, the South would probably have formed a stable new regime long before he went south.

Has means, has a big picture, and is cruel to the peasant army. Isn't this the elite of the landlord class?Seeing such a person, someone vaguely remembered the former "sage".Once this kind of person is given a chance, he will become the mortal enemy of the peasant army just like Hong Chengchou.

Li Zicheng's silence made Lu Zhenfei very surprised. In his opinion, if Li Zicheng was not a reckless man, he would not be able to kill himself, because it is more beneficial for Li Zicheng that he is alive.He didn't know what went wrong for a moment, which made him frown slightly.

At this moment, a young voice came from behind him, "Your Majesty, I have something to report."

Li Zicheng's gaze finally moved away from Lu Zhenfei's body, he glanced behind him, then waved his hand and said, "Let Cihong come in."

Zhu Cihong, who hurried over from Hubu Mountain outside the city, took a few deep breaths, and then walked into the Yimen of the Marshal's Mansion through the passage made by the guards, then walked through the courtyard paved with gravel, and passed by Lu Zhenfei He didn't stop when he was waiting for the people, but went straight to the steps, cupped his hands to Li Zicheng and said, "Return to Your Majesty, the 800 simplified characters used for the soldiers' literacy in the army have been sorted out, please have a look at your Majesty."

Li Zicheng signaled Zhu Cihong to go up the steps and hand over the document in his hand, then he opened it and glanced at it briefly, then said with a smile: "The efficiency of Wenhua Palace is still good, I wonder how far the pinyin and phonetic notation have been completed?"

Zhu Cilang wiped the sweat from his forehead with his hand and said: "The scholars and editors have discussed Matteo Ricci's "The Miracle of Western Characters", Jin Nige's "Xi Ru Er Mu Zi" and the Latin phonetic alphabet proposed by His Majesty, but they I feel that the intonations in these schemes are not consistent, and it is necessary to learn an additional set of letter pronunciations when using the Latin alphabet, so I advocate using strokes for pronunciation..."

Li Zicheng was speechless about this, and how could he understand the pronunciation with strokes, so he shook his head and said: "It must be pronounced in Latin letters, is the pitch correct, or use a Beijing accent instead of Nanjing Mandarin, it sounds too loud Rap."

Zhu Cihong said with some embarrassment: "Most of the bachelors are from Shandong. It may take more time for them to learn the Beijing accent."

Li Zicheng sighed and said, "Then use a Texas accent. In short, within three months, I will see a set of feasible pinyin schemes. If the common language with standard pronunciation is not popularized, it is difficult for the soldiers in the army to use it from one place. Is it? Officials from all over the country go to the local government, and they have to hire an interpreter if they don’t understand the language?”

"Yes, I will discuss with the scholars again when I go back." Zhu Cihong could only nod his head in agreement, but then he straightened his clothes and bowed deeply to Li Zicheng: "I heard that Governor Lu, Wang Daotai and others offended His Majesty, I would like to intercede with His Majesty on their behalf."

Li Zicheng glanced at Zhu Cihong, pondered for a while and asked, "Did you want to come, or did someone else want you to come?"

After pondering for a few breaths, Zhu Cihong replied honestly: "Mr. Li and Mr. Chen said that although Governor Lu resisted the Shun army in Huai'an, he is quite famous in Huaiyang. He must be beneficial to Your Majesty, so let me help you." I beg Your Majesty."

When Li Zicheng was frowning, one of the civil government officials standing behind him suddenly stood up and said to him: "Your Majesty, the road governor may be killed, but the most important thing right now is the food supply of the southern provinces." Ah. If one person is released, millions of souls in Huaiyang will belong to me, and it is obviously more beneficial to me not to kill them."

Li Zicheng glanced at it, and it turned out to be Zhou Lianggong, and then he let out a long breath and said, "Since Cihong, you want to plead for them, then let these two people be under your care. If they get lost, you have to replace them." He was punished. As for the general soldier from Shandong, Deputy Superintendent Zhou, take him back to record a resume, and then talk about it."

After Zhu Cihong thanked him again, Li Zicheng waved his hand and said: "Then let's go, Jiang Chen, you stay here for a while, I still have something to tell you."

Seeing Li Zicheng turn around and walk back to the second hall, Zhu Cihong also heaved a sigh of relief.Compared with his own father, Li Zicheng seemed to be more tolerant, but somehow he was more in awe of Li Zicheng.This is not to say that the relationship is far or near, but a feeling.He wasn't the only one who felt this way. Some scholars in the Wenhua Palace also felt the same way. Although Li Zicheng claimed that he didn't study, but in terms of knowledge, there were very few people who could answer the question.This not only made these civil servants feel ashamed, but also made them feel a little awed.

Walking down the steps, Zhu Cihong glanced at Lu Zhenfei and Wang Xie, both of them bowed to him, and Qiu Lei on the other side also bowed deeply to the prince.If they had some doubts about the authenticity of the prince before they came to Xuzhou, then this doubt completely disappeared at this moment.Because if it was a fake prince, it would be impossible for Li Zicheng to let him show his face in this way. As long as he met someone who was familiar with the prince, he would expose the deception.

What's more, Zhou Lianggong and others behind Li Zicheng were both respectful and distant towards Zhu Cihong, which further confirmed the authenticity of the prince.Respect is due to the status of the prince, and alienation is also due to the status of the prince.

Among the three, Qiu Lei is a warrior, and he was able to obtain the position of Shandong General Army thanks to the help of his friend Zuo Liangyu, but when he arrived in Huai'an, he found that Shandong was already panicked. Guo Wenxiang and the admiral Guanliao Tongjin Huaihaijiang Town Navy took advantage of Huang Fei, and almost moved 4 Denglai Navy and Army to Haizhou, Huai'an Prefecture. At this time, Shandong was full of rebels who were inclined to Dashun and their minds were uncertain. This made him dare to enter Shandong under the banner of Nandu.

Going north with Lu Zhenfei and Wang Xie was just a matter of luck, otherwise he would risk entering Shandong alone.However, judging from the scene just now, Qiu Lei felt that whether it was an inappropriate Shandong general, whether he voted for the crown prince or the Yongchang emperor, he was much more promising than the Nanjing court who didn't know what to do.

Zhu Cilang helped the three of them and said: "You don't need to be too polite, since the three of you are here to pay homage to Emperor Daxing in Xuzhou, then I'll take you to wash up first, and then go to the Temple of the City God. Father and Queen Mother The Zi Palace is right there. Deputy Superintendent Zhou, I will take Mr. Qiu to pay respects first, is it okay?"

Zhou Shigui bowed to him and said: "It happens that I have nothing to do now, so I can accompany His Highness for a while."

Returning to the second hall with Jiang Chen, Li Zicheng asked someone to exchange two new cups of tea, and then invited the other party to sit on the chair opposite him and said, "Mr. Jiang, please come here, I just want to talk to you about the issue of banknotes." .”

Jiang Chen immediately leaned towards Li Zicheng with some joy, and then said: "I have already made a comprehensive plan on how to reissue the treasure notes..."

Li Zicheng patiently listened to Jiang Chen's new plan. This was not the first time the two sat together to discuss the issue of issuing banknotes. It was too simplistic, and basically only considered the issue of issuance but not withdrawal, so he rejected the other party and asked him to implement a supply roll in the army for a period of time.

Although Li Zicheng took back all the gold and silver from the soldiers at Shanhaiguan, it was impossible for the soldiers not to spend money during the war, especially after the Battle of Tianjin suppressed the pursuit of the Qing army, the soldiers on the march hoped to take part of the money to improve own food, or to buy other necessities of life.

In fact, what soldiers need is stored in the army, but it will not be issued until wartime.Li Zicheng didn't want these soldiers to have too much contact with the common people. Most of the soldiers wanted to leave the barracks for two purposes - looking for food and finding women.Even when marching during war, it is difficult to avoid those veterans and officers sneaking out.

And such a chaotic march can easily collapse after being attacked, so it is actually the safest for the army to restrain the officers and soldiers in the barracks or marching troops as much as possible.In order to put an end to the excuses of these officers and soldiers, Li Zicheng asked Jiang Chen to issue a supply roll. These supply rolls can be used in the canteens opened by the army, but not many people outside the barracks accept them.

Except for a small number of officers and soldiers who are dissatisfied, most officers and soldiers are still satisfied with the commissary, because there are all the necessities they want in life, except that there are no women.And Jiang Chen also realized how many loopholes in his past plan through the release of the supply roll this time.Therefore, this time, his plan for Li Zicheng was almost completely new, which made Li Zicheng listen with great interest.

Chapter 114 On Gold and Silver Reserves

The summer in Xuzhou is obviously hotter than in Shaanxi, but the tall buildings with all-wood structure are more suitable for air flow, and the trees planted outside the windows are nearly 20 years old, and the shade covers most of the sunlight. When the breeze blows, not only the leaves shake and make a pleasant sound, but it also makes the hall extremely cool.

Li Zicheng was naturally relaxed talking with Jiang Chen in such an environment, and this time he was no longer silent, and put forward some opinions on Jiang Chen's plan, "From this road, the military and civilians use supply rolls to distribute materials. Judging from the current situation, the issuance of banknotes is obviously feasible.

But this kind of feasibility is based on the confidence of the military and civilians in the supply rolls. The soldiers believe that the supply rolls are valuable because they have deposited the silver with us, and the common people believe that the supply rolls are because the supplies are in our military hands.

Therefore, in order to allow supply volumes, or banknotes to circulate, there must be two material bases, gold and silver reserves and materials.Let’s talk about the gold and silver reserves first. During the Ming Dynasty, the annual income was about 400 million taels of silver, of which 120 taels of gold flowers and silver were used. This money was mainly used for rewards from the emperor in addition to the monthly salary of military officers. .The salt tax and business tax add up to nearly 300 million taels, making a total of 400 million taels. This is cash.The rest are collected in kind, worth about 2500-3000 million shi of rice.

Although Jinhuayin is cash, it is still white grain when it is levied, but Jiangnan uses silver to convert grain, and every 4 shi is one tael to reduce the cost of freight and grain.People in Jiangnan are willing to accept it, but other places are crying about this taxation method of exchanging grain with silver.It can be seen from this point that most of the gold and silver in the world are actually hidden in the south of the Yangtze River.

The population of the entire eight prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River is about 2000 million. Before the apocalypse, the annual food consumption per capita was 3.6 shi, which was roughly 3.3 shi of rice and 0.3 shi of wheat. The rice is about 6600 million taels. According to the calculation that one farmer in Jiangnan can support 1 people, that is to say, at least half of the people in Jiangnan need to buy grain from the market. This is a market of 12 million taels.

The annual output of Jiangnan is about 6 dan of silk, about 4 dan of silk, and more than 3000 million pieces of cotton cloth. Including other commercial output value, the annual market transaction value is 1500-2000 million taels.The value created by commerce and handicrafts coincides with the total value of the grain market in Jiangnan, so it is basically certain that the silver circulating in the Jiangnan market will not be less than 1500 million taels, and at least 2-300 million taels of gold and silver have been hoarded stand up.

江南八府的经济总量占大明的四分之一应当是不为过的，所以大明一年市面上流通的白银不会少于6000万两。从洪武23年开始到正德15年，大明每年对白银的课税额度都是113万两，光是这130年大明就生产了1.3亿两白银。

Even if the previous dynasty is not included, the cumulative silver produced by this dynasty has more than doubled the amount of silver in circulation on the market.In addition to the accumulation of silver from the previous dynasty and foreign trade imports, it is impossible for the silver reserves of this dynasty to be less than 5 million taels.In other words, at least 4 million taels of silver were hoarded.

但是现在陕西、山西等地白银还能维持在1两兑换800文的水准，河北、山东大约是1两兑换1000文左右，可是江南地区却要2400文兑换1两白银。由此可知，白银都被豪门大户窖藏了起来。

I heard that Maoxiang spent three thousand pieces of gold in order to accept Dong Xiaowan, a famous Qinhuai courtesan.The Mao family is just an official family, not a wealthy family in Jiangnan, and Mao Xiang is just a scholar who has not become an official. He can mobilize so much silver at will, so we can know how much silver is hidden by the rich and famous families in Jiangnan.

So why did the Jiangnan giants hide their silver taels? I think there are two reasons.One is that in the Jiangnan market, the price of grain above stone and above cloth is priced in silver, but the daily wages of craftsmen and long-term workers are settled in copper coins, so the more copper coins exchanged for silver, the richer these merchants and tyrants will be , and the poorer the working class.

The second is that the rich and powerful households converted their taxes in silver, and the higher the price of silver, the smaller their burden.Even when there is a deficit in the imperial court's finances, they can make another fortune through the conversion of silver and real objects.

From these two points, we can see that Ming’s currency pricing power has been monopolized by the gentry. If we can’t take back the control over the currency from them, then no matter how we formulate taxes or issue banknotes, we will be destroyed or kidnapped by these gentry. , causing domestic economic and social turmoil.

To regain the pricing power of currency, it is necessary to issue banknotes with gold and silver as reserves, and use materials to recover these banknotes, so as to form a circulation process of currency circulation.As for the silver reserve, even if we copied the properties of the gentry in Hebei, we only got 500 million taels of silver.

Therefore, starting from Huai'an, we have to collect silver in another way, such as asking them to store silver in the imperial court. We recognize their ownership of silver, but we can issue imperial banknotes through these deposits of silver, so as to maintain the demand for banknotes in the market. Confidence.As long as there is confidence in the paper money in the market, paper money will replace silver as the currency in circulation. Once silver withdraws from the circulation market, it will naturally depreciate, and no one will hoard it. "

Jiang Chen admired Li Zicheng's views, but he quickly realized a problem, "But if silver withdraws from the circulation market and begins to depreciate, then wouldn't the banknotes we issue also depreciate? It's depreciated."

Li Zicheng nodded and said: "You are right. Therefore, banknotes can be exchanged for silver, but banknotes should not be priced based on silver. The ratio of gold and silver in my country is 15:[-] in the inland and [-]:[-] in the coast. Two golds have to be exchanged for more than [-] taels of silver.

It can be seen that the reserves of gold and silver in the world are more silver and less gold.Therefore, we must increase the domestic gold-silver ratio to 1:15, and then use gold as the price for banknotes.In this way, we can use the silver obtained from the gentry to buy gold on the market, and then depreciate the silver to convert it into currency, and the value of the silver in the hands of the gentry has shrunk by more than one-third.

There are two advantages of pricing currency with gold, which makes it easier for us to exchange currency when we conduct overseas trade. The second is that the labor remuneration of the working class can remain stable and will not be affected by the violent fluctuations of silver and copper coins.

Of course, just establishing a paper currency system with a gold standard system is not enough to bring the economy of the entire country into a stage of orderly development.Because if paper money cannot buy materials, it will cause prices to rise, which will also cause passive depreciation of paper money.

People's needs are nothing more than food, clothing, housing and transportation. Most of the food and clothing are related to land output, but now the north is in chaos, and the land in the south of the Yangtze River is basically concentrated in the hands of rich and powerful families.I heard that the big households in the Susong area can earn 8 to 9 taels a year for the first class, and 1 to 5 taels for the second-class ones, and there are hundreds of thousands of taels of small landlords in every village.

Before our army fails to stabilize the situation in the north, it may be difficult to push forward this farmland restructuring, so we can only consider starting from reducing the burden on tenants and self-cultivating farmers, and developing handicraft industry.To reduce the burden on tenants and self-cultivating farmers, we should start with fixing fire consumption and land rent. In addition, the poll tax should be abolished. The poll tax should be apportioned to the fields and let the landlords pay. This should become a kind of property tax.

The second is to develop the handicraft industry. The handicraft industry most suitable for development at present is the cotton cloth and food processing industries.After the rise of cotton cloth, fabrics such as silk and linen could no longer compete with the high-quality and cheap cotton cloth.It's just that the current cotton planting and cotton weaving are all in the Susong area, and the development of other areas is very slow.

But in fact, cotton planting can be extended to the Yellow River, and the textile industry can be built along the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River.The yield of grain planted in the north is low, but changing to cotton planting can increase the income of farmers, and the many plains in the north are more conducive to planting cotton on a large scale, and then the cotton in the north is transported to the south of the Yangtze River for weaving, and then the cloth is transported to the north Or sales on the grassland, then a large amount of banknotes will be needed for circulation, and this is another basis for the banknote system. "

Jiang Chen was thoughtful after listening to it, and it took him a long time to understand and said: "Your Majesty's words are indeed reasonable. Therefore, we should first control the Lianghuai Salt Farm, and use the salt sales of Lianghuai to establish a small-scale Then seek to control the Yangtze River and the canal waterway, and control the transportation of products along the Yangtze River and in the south of the Yangtze River, so that banknotes can follow the grain and cloth trade to spread to the prefectures along the Yangtze River. Looking at it this way, Chen’s There is still much room for improvement in the plan.”

Discussing things with someone like Jiang Chen who is willing to learn and do things, Li Zicheng was relatively relaxed. He said casually: "Don't worry, when our army takes Huai'an and Yangzhou, there will be more talents and craftsmen. You can Slowly revise the plan.

However, the most important thing at present is to urge the Academy of Astronomical Sciences to measure the new weights and measures and the density of gold, silver, copper, iron and other metal objects.The minted currency cannot precisely measure the density of the metal and unify weights and measures, this monetary system is bound to collapse..."

When Li Zicheng and Jiang Chen were talking earnestly, Zhu Cihong also took Lu Zhenfei, Wang Xie, Zhou Shigui, and Qiu Lei, who had paid homage, to bid farewell outside the City God Temple, and then led them to the south gate and went out to the Ministry of Household Affairs. Mountain.

Since Li Zicheng ordered that the sick, the elderly, women and children were not allowed to take the sedan chair, so Zhu Cihong always rode a docile mare when he went to and from the city.But after going south, horses became more valuable, so except for the crown prince and generals, everyone else could only ride mules or donkeys. Lu Zhenfei and Wang Xie could only ride a mule and a donkey to keep up with the crown prince.

However, the two of them were not dissatisfied, because among the dozen or so guards guarding Zhu Cihong, there were only four or five horses, and it was quite good to give them a mule and a donkey.The Wenhua Hall is located in the Sanyi Temple, because Guan Yu was canonized as emperor in the 22nd year of Wanli, so the Sanyi Temple built is also called the Guandi Temple, and it has been built for nearly 80 years.

The whole building is well maintained, and the place is not small. In addition to the main hall, there are small gardens, pavilions and other buildings behind it.However, compared to the hundreds of scholars affiliated to the Cultural Palace, this place is still a bit narrow.Lu Zhenfei, who stepped into the stele and entered the main entrance, saw a crowd of scholars in the temple, and couldn't help feeling for a moment: "It's been a long time since Guochao has seen such a grand cultural and educational event. The Jiangnan Cultural Association is really hard to compare with."

Zhu Cihong was a little proud. After all, he felt that this was his own world, so he still suppressed his emotions and said to Lu Zhenfei: "I'll go see Master Li, the two gentlemen will wait for a while."

Wang Xie looked at the prince's back, and then quietly said to Lu Zhenfei: "Judging from the literature, Li Zicheng's ambition is not small."

Lu Zhenfei said calmly without turning his head: "If his ambition is small, why would you and I appear here?"

Chapter 115 Settings

Yuan Zongdi arrived in Xuzhou on the afternoon of August 8, and Li Zicheng personally went to the gate of the Marshal's Mansion to greet him. Yuan Zongdi, in his early thirties, looked handsome, like a white-faced scholar. He was talking to Wu Ruyi beside him. When he walked into the alley, he saw Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin and others standing outside the gate, and immediately rolled off the saddle in surprise.

Yuan Zongdi stepped forward quickly, and when he was about to bow his knees to salute Li Zicheng, Li Zicheng stepped forward to support him and said, "No, my brother doesn't need to be so polite. I haven't seen you for more than a year. Brother Yuan I really lost a lot of weight. I wonder how brother Baiwang is doing? I told him to shrink the line of defense and stick around Xiangyang, so he didn’t complain about me, right?”

Yuan Zongdi hurriedly shook his head and said, "Your Majesty really lost a lot of weight. Even if we backed up, Zuo Liangyu wouldn't dare to cross the river. It's just to teach some local thieves a lesson during the march. It's no big deal. Your Majesty's trip to the south this time is really dangerous, but those Jian slaves were burned away by His Majesty after all, which is also His Majesty's great blessing."

Li Zicheng laughed, then grabbed Yuan Zongdi's arm and said, "Go, go, go in and talk. The Military Council is about to listen to the analysis of the General Staff Headquarters on the trend of establishing slaves in the second half of the year. You came just in time. Let's all listen together." Listen, and then discuss the battle plan for the second half of the year..."

Although Yuan Zongdi had heard many new words invented by Emperor Yongchang on the way to Xuzhou, he still didn't understand what these new words had to do with the army.However, as the remaining leader of the Fifth Gezuo Battalion, he knew that obeying Li Zicheng was the most important thing, not only because Li Zicheng was the cleanest among the leaders of the rebel army, but also because the leaders of each family did not have the same ambitions as Li Zicheng.

Since Chongzhen three years ago, natural disasters and man-made disasters have continued, and the entire north has almost fallen into hell. No matter how ruthless the warriors are, after more than 10 years of war, they all have the idea of ​​​​wanting to end the war. Anyone can do it.However, those rebel leaders and officers seemed to be enjoying the joy of plundering other people's wealth and women, without thinking about tomorrow at all. It was under such circumstances that Yuan Zongdi turned to the ambitious Li Zicheng.

In front of Li Zicheng, he always remained humble, but when he walked into the meeting room in the west wing, he couldn't help being a little surprised, because there was a huge sand table in the middle of the hall.

For those of them who have fought for so many years, the sand table is not uncommon. After all, General Fubo of the Eastern Han Dynasty had already invented this thing, but this technology has been hidden in the family of generals since then, and it is rare for the people to see it.But after so many years of fighting, it is very common for everyone to make a rough topographic map to illustrate the positions of the armies before fighting.

But the sand table placed in front of Yuan Zongdi is beyond his imagination. It’s nothing more than making fine mountains and rivers with beeswax, and it’s nothing more than drawing sand tables with proportional distances. But for the first time, he knew that The world is so big, the two capitals and 13 provinces are just a corner on this map, not even a fifth of the continent.