I handed in the sand sculpture through the book system

At the regular short meeting at 05:30 in the evening, Bei Yan reported what he had learned from conducting social investigations with Du Heng in the past few days.Although this kind of investigation is still quite superficial, it can clearly see the effect of many days of self-cultivation: With the unlimited supply of food, the people gradually got rid of the kind of life that was purely struggling on the edge of hunger. , Sculpture and other sideline jobs.In the peaceful daily life, even the shadow of foreign trade can be vaguely seen.

For his own point of view, Bei Yan took out a little yellowish powder from the sample bag and showed it to everyone present.This is the koji he bought at Widow Yang's house in exchange for two bolts of linen. According to Liu Ming's judgment, it is wheat koji fermented from wheat, and the brewed rice wine has a special flavor.However, there is no wheat planted near Jiangling City, so it could only be imported by merchants from other places.

"Of course, the specific source is Widow Yang's business secrets, and it's not convenient for me to inquire about it." He blew off the koji powder with a whimper: "The key is the thing behind this piece of koji—the tenacity of the ancient people is obviously far behind. Far beyond our estimation, so far, the overall economic activities have shown signs of recovery. Of course, if no reasonable measures are taken to intervene, this natural recovery will be quite slow, and it is prone to unexpected deviations... ..."

Bei Yan put away the sample bag and looked around the modern people:

"Therefore, I solemnly propose to the General Assembly: This barbaric economic model must be ended as soon as possible and a reasonable order must be established. As a top priority in establishing the economic order, the first step is to issue a reliable currency."

The room was quiet for a while, and everyone seemed to be shocked by the news.After all, more than ten days ago, everyone was still a law-abiding citizen in modern society, and now they have to make their own money as soon as they open their mouths, which is still... pretty exciting.

Of course, after a short period of discomfort, everyone here immediately realized the correctness of this suggestion-after all, everyone has at least received higher education and fully understands the great significance of money to the economy.As a result, the coinage bill was unanimously passed, and the topic immediately shifted to the material of the currency.

This question is not complicated, excluding banknotes (Wang Zhi: "There are still 600 years before Jiaozi in the Northern Song Dynasty!"), copper coins (Liu Heng: "Do you know how much copper is lacking in China? Are you still so rambunctious?"), After iron coins (Wang Zhi: "The reputation of this kind of money is almost as bad as silver dollar coupons, who do you think will use it?"), considering the materials and casting techniques in the hands of the crossing team, there is only one option left. : steel coin.

So far, the discussion has basically ended, and after a vote, Bei Yan has obtained a new appointment to be responsible for developing a viable economic and commercial system for the newly issued steel coins.

Before the meal, Xiang Liang received everyone's work reports and letter gifts - the systematically arranged phone call with the modern society is only a few days away, and he needs to pass it on for him.

·

In the early morning of the next day, the people who received the porridge in front of the government office lined up as usual.At three o'clock, the door of the mansion opened as usual, and a group of women with white cloth covering their faces poured out from inside, bringing out the aroma of porridge and rice in the hall of the mansion.The spirits of the people who shrank from the cold lifted their spirits, and they couldn't help looking up into the dark mansion.

According to the habit of the past few days, after everyone has lined up, they should distribute wooden bowls to receive the porridge, but those women who covered their faces came in and out without a bowl in their hands.Everyone looked around for a moment, couldn't help but look at each other, and started talking in low voices.

But the discussion didn't last long, and the government quickly rolled out several wooden wheeled carts with torches tied on them. However, a white cloth under the torches covered the carts tightly, and it was impossible to see what was underneath.Behind the woman pushing the cart, a black figure came slowly, but it was Bei Yan who was fully armed.

He went under the torch, dipped a Maza into it, and cleared his throat into the air.The hundreds of people who lined up were already terrified, and there was no sound for a moment.

Bei Yan looked around, feeling that he was being watched firmly by hundreds of pairs of eyes, and couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive.He tried hard to recall the vigor of the village officials he had seen when he went to the grassroots level, and opened his mouth to let go of the volume:

"Everyone has been busy for a few days, thank you!"

There was silence, his voice echoing in the empty streets.Then the hundreds of people in the dark did not move, but they still stared blankly at Bei Yan under the torch.

Bei Yan was a little flustered for a moment.He raised his eyes and glanced down, but what he saw was the blank eyes on the black and thin faces.Bei Yan was taken aback for a moment, and then realized—even if he had turned on the dialect skill, he still spoke the vernacular of thousands of years later, these people might not understand it at all!

He was so embarrassed that he could only wave to Du Heng.Du Heng trotted over to follow, opened his throat and repeated Bei Yan's explanation: first, His Royal Highness King Hengyang sent Mr. Bei to greet everyone; People have a share.

This time it was still silent.Of course, it wasn't that Du Heng said something wrong and everyone didn't understand it—everyone present understood it, but it was precisely because they understood it that everyone was dumbfounded.

——It is a matter of course for ordinary people to eat wool and practice soil, pay taxes and do hard labor.King Hengyang gave a bowl of thick porridge to drink, and he was already an earth-shattering sage and good man, enough for the people of Jiangling to hang a longevity tablet for a lifetime.Talking about getting paid now doesn't spark a new wave of gratitude, but dazedness, even fear: too good, too good to be true.

Fortunately, Bei Yan had seen these routines in the countryside, so he had already prepared for them.He thought for a while, then lowered his voice to remind: "You guys roll your name first, come one by one."

Du Heng understood, and immediately opened his throat: "Liu Xiaoyi, come up!"

There was a slight commotion in the crowd, and a thin and small man stood out from the end of the line tremblingly, and moved carefully in front of the two of them.He bowed his head and tied his hands and tried to stand upright, shaking from his heels to his hair.Du Heng turned sideways slightly, and lifted the white cloth behind him.

In an instant, the light shone, and it turned out that the wooden cart was divided into two halves, the left half was a hill like shining coins, and the right half was separated by a wooden plank, but it was all crystal clear snow-white particles.Du Heng bent down and took out two sheets of oiled paper from under the car, scooped up a pack of white particles from the upper and lower wooden grids, and grabbed [-] coins from the right half, took them together, and handed them to Liu Xiaoyi, who was dumbfounded. .

Liu Xiaoyi took it tremblingly, but saw some particles standing on the oiled paper.He instinctively stretched out his hand to pick it up, put it in his mouth, and then widened his eyes—it was an extremely strange, soft, gentle taste that made his whole tongue tremble from top to bottom—

Liu Xiaoyi tried his best to search, and finally found this strange taste in his long-term memory... It was the wonderful taste that he and his younger brother found in the wild beehive on the locust tree when he was eight years old. This is—— sweetness!

Humans' instinctive desire for sweeteners made Liu Xiaoyi tremble all over.He stuffed his thick black fingers into his mouth almost subconsciously, desperately sucking every bit of sweetness left on it, tasting the luxurious taste that he was hardly qualified to experience in the past twenty years... This instinct was so urgent that he almost ignored it. The words of the nobleman.

Du Heng cleared his throat, raised his voice again, and recited the lines explained by Bei Yan:

"His Royal Highness, Yuan Yuan, is willing to reward you greatly. For those who worked yesterday, each person received [-] coins, a bag of refined sugar, and a bag of refined salt! There are too many people in the family, and it doesn't matter if the refined salt and sugar are not enough. This wood Wheelbarrows are placed here every day, but anyone who wants to buy, two coins for a bag of salt, three coins for a bag of sugar, there is no second price!"

After he finished speaking, there was a commotion in the crowd—few people present knew how to count, and they couldn't figure out how much refined saccharin and refined salt was thirty coins, but they vaguely felt that it was probably a lot.However, people don’t have much real understanding of sugar—with the productivity of the Middle Ages, the people in Jiangling City have never even tasted caramel a few times in their lives, let alone this unprecedented “refined sugar”—but they talked about the so-called “refined salt” ".

Over the past decade or so, the imperial court has been in chaos and wars, and the tax on official salt has become heavier and heavier. One tael of salt can be worth ten catties of grain.The poor in the city can't support them, so they can only eat rough and bitter mineral salt, and they often die of poisoning.What's more, they can't even afford the mineral salt, so they can only scrape the old urine stains... Now that they are rewarded with salt, it's like a reward for life-saving medicine!

When Liu Xiaoyi heard this sentence, his whole body trembled and his hands trembled, and he quickly stretched out his hand to uncover the oil paper.But after uncovering it, he was stunned for a moment: the particles inside were crystal clear and white and shimmered slightly, which was completely different from the blue-black mineral salt he ate in the past... Not to mention mineral salt, even if he had eaten official salt a few times by chance, that was also true. Turning blue and black, how can it be so white?

Liu Xiaoyi was dubious, shook his hands and dipped some grains into his mouth, and the pure salty taste came to the tip of his tongue in an instant, without even the slightest bit of bitterness!

"It's salt, it's salt!"

When he exclaimed so forgetfully, there was an uproar in the back, and he almost couldn't help running forward.Du Heng struck while the iron was hot, and quickly waved to the women next to him to push the carts one by one, and began to distribute coins and supplies in order.The crowd rushed forward, squeezing each other and forming a long line of seven or eight.

Bei Yan breathed a long sigh beside him, and finally let go of his heart.At this point, the economic system he roughly planned is completed-putting currency with daily wages, recovering currency with sugar and salt, and maintaining the general order of this fragile economy.

Don’t look at only these two steps, but he has carefully considered and consulted repeatedly for each step: people in the Middle Ages were struggling on the verge of abject poverty, their desire for consumption was almost suppressed to the minimum, and it was impossible to return money with ordinary industrial products.But salty and sweet tastes are the most fundamental needs of human beings, and they are the most suitable anchors for currency credit.Of course, after the consumption desire gradually recovers, you can consider increasing the money supply and investing in new commodities such as cloth, farm tools, and snacks...

Bei Yan thought to himself, thinking that the establishment of a central bank should be put on the agenda.He turned his head and made a move, and another person walked out in the dark, but it was Yi Cheng with a face full of astonishment.Yi Cheng stretched out his hand and pulled it back, pulling out a flat wooden sign with three large characters on it:

"Complete"

——This is the plaque mentioned by the King of Hengyang.I have to say that the skills of the system are indeed genuine.The brush calligraphy in this hand is upright, beautiful and rigorous, compared with a bunch of calligraphy masters in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, it is actually not bad.

Bei Yan stared at the wooden sign, then turned to smile at Yi Cheng:

"how?"

Yi Cheng hurriedly bowed his head: "I admire you so much. Every time the imperial court introduces new money, they have to impose severe punishments and various means before the lower ones can comply. Never, never have I seen such an enthusiastic..."

He said these two sentences with sincerity: the money law has been corrupted for decades, and every time a new money is replaced, a layer of skin is peeled off.Li Shu hated coins so much that he would rather cut off commerce than spend money.To be able to be as happy as you are now is simply a scene that you can't even imagine in your dreams.

Hearing the sincerity, Bei Yan couldn't help being a little proud, he waved his hand: "It's nothing, it's just a matter of learning from the wisdom of the predecessors. I think our old seniors fought in the southeast in those days, and the world would be overwhelmed within a hundred days. It is an unparalleled method. I just copied a little bit..."

Yi Cheng was in a daze when he heard it, completely unable to understand what kind of slang it was.But after hesitating for a moment, he still dared to persuade:

"Although the money method is good, the boy has a doubt. Just now the boy looked carefully, and the money seems to be made of steel?"

Bei Yan nodded: "Not bad."

Yi Cheng hesitated even more.Mr. Bei is so smart and keen, how could he not detect such a big mistake?

"Boy, kid, I heard that the price of steel is so high now, good steel can be exchanged for silver of equal weight..."

Bei Yan nodded again, thinking that Consultant Wang really knows the past and the present, and the price of the steel he gave is almost the same.

Yi Cheng was very puzzled, and finally blurted out:

"But, but—in this way, the money is more important than the object, and there will be a lot of harm—if the people resell the steel money, there will be a hundred times the profit immediately! It is also a great profit! The five baht copper coin in the Han Dynasty, the disadvantage lies in this—”

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Yi Cheng regretted greatly, realizing that his impulsive words were too rude, but now that he couldn't swallow his tongue, he could only shut up quickly and bowed his head to apologize.

However, the situation was far beyond his expectation. After hearing this extraordinary speech, Bei Yan was not shocked and annoyed at all, but instead smiled, as if quite relieved.

"The idea is really good, and the insights are also good." Bei Yan said slowly: "You said a lot, the value of physical currency and commodities are inverted, and there will indeed be situations of reselling and selling, but—"

The words of Duan Ke and Duan Gong flashed through his mind, and the senior engineer assured him that as long as Mr. Mu's material channels were unblocked, they would be able to transfer Tangshan's excess steel production capacity immediately.As for Tangshan's excess steel production capacity, what is the scale...

"—Don't worry, we have already dealt with it."

·

After inscribing the three big characters of the commissary, Mu Chen and Xiang Liang entered the government office garden and screened away outsiders.

In the previous confrontation with the system, Mu Chen seized the loophole in exchange for a chance to talk to the real world, while Xiang Liang went a step further and identified the caller as a certain leader of the central government.

Then, Xiang Liang pointed out a small procedural problem-according to the regulations of the leadership office, if you want to meet him for a conversation, you must make an appointment at least 36 hours in advance.Of course, the technology of the system doesn't have to care about any human rules at all.But Xiang Liang made another small suggestion: before Huyou Muchen crossed over, the system had made a promise that it was willing to abide by the order of human society as much as possible while respecting the wishes of the host, and not actively create chaos.

"So, does breaking the leader's meeting rules count as obeying order?"

This shameful loophole has almost short-circuited the system.However, after flickering frantically for a moment, it still had no choice but to swallow the logic-fed shit, and promised to arrange a separate communication with Hyundai for Xiang Liang and Mu Chen, so that they could "make an appointment".

As for the person to make an appointment...of course it is Li Ziwen who stayed behind.

Because it was an informal communication that was earned for nothing, both parties were in a hurry to meet this time.Xiang Liang passed on the greetings from the Hyundai team to his family, and accepted Li Ziwen's suggestions on the situation and route.Then Mu Chen opened his mouth, and after chatting for a few words, asked by the way whether there had been any changes in the modern world in the past few days.

"There is no big problem." Li Ziwen wiped off a little sweat: "The Jingshi University is low-key organizing the Lanting Collection Seminar, the Ministry of Energy and the like have organized a few groups, and nothing else... but the international situation has changed drastically. , but also in the dark."

Mu Chen frowned: "International situation?"

"That's right." Li Ziwen gave a wry smile: "Our commotion back then was too big, and it was banned and radio interference. Other countries must be able to detect the problem, and they can touch you, Mr. Mu, by following the vine. Not before Dare to speak out because of scruples. Now I probably feel that the danger is not as great as I imagined, so I am naturally active. A few days ago, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received more than a dozen private representations, protesting that our country restricts your personal freedom, Mr. Mu, and requesting to talk to you Meet now and defend your human rights..."

"—Isn't this pure nonsense?"

"This is all good." Li Ziwen sighed: "Do you know what is the most outrageous thing? I just found out yesterday that some countries even jumped out and said that the surname Mu is similar to Park, so it must be Park." It evolved. Therefore, Mr. Mu must have their blood, and asked our country to immediately release Mu Chen, a citizen of their country..."

Mu Chen was stunned for a moment, and finally came to his senses.

"What?! I'm not Han——!"