Chapter five hundred and fifty first casting money
In Chen Qing's official room in the Jinglue Mansion, a group of officials gathered around a big table. The Money and Goods Department ordered Li Yao to take out a dollar and a silver coin and put them on the table. He smiled at everyone and said, "This is the famous Xuanhe money."
Hezhenghe Yinqian, this is the back of Shaanxi, with Shaanxi Road casting on the back. At that time, one piece of money could be exchanged for one hundred coins, and one piece of silver money could be exchanged for one hundred cents. Now money has increased ten times, and silver money has increased five times."
Chen Qing picked up the money, looked at it and asked, "I haven't seen this kind of money in the market!"
"The manager didn't know that there wasn't much minted at that time. As soon as it came out, it was snatched up by the rich. It was collected and almost never circulated in the market. Most people have never seen it. We were just lucky.
Several hundred pieces were found in the official treasury in Lanzhou."
"What about ours?" Chen Qing asked again.
Li Yao took out two more gold and silver coins from the box, put them on the table, and said with a smile: "These are the gold and silver coins we minted. Please take a look at them."
Everyone was very interested. Chen Qing looked at the money and handed it to Jiang Yanxian. Jiang Yan looked at it carefully and found that it was exactly the same as Xuanhe's money. He asked curiously: "Where did you get the mother's money?"
Chen Qing smiled and said, "I know this. When we captured Xianyang, we found a set of ten mother's coins in the official treasury of Xianyang."
Zhang Xiao added on the side: "The economic officer is absolutely right. The coin mint on Shaanxi Road was in Xianyang. It stopped minting money in the fifth year of Xuanhe. The mother coin box was stored in the official treasury, and there is no
People touched it and it was almost forgotten. At that time, I was working as a staff member of Qiangu in Xianyang County. I also considered using it to cast money, so I applied to Bianliang for cast iron money, but there was no reply at all."
“How much gold, silver and refined copper do we have now?”
"Reporting to the envoy, the 100,000 jins of crude silver from the Guichuan Silver Mine have been completely refined, yielding about 80,000 jins of refined silver. After refining the Zhangye blister copper, 900,000 jins of copper ingots have been obtained. In addition, there is also refined copper produced by ourselves.
Three hundred thousand jins, the total inventory is 1.2 million jins, and there are also 200,000 taels of gold and 300,000 guans of copper coins in the warehouse. In this victory alone, we captured 200,000 guans of copper coins and 400,000 pieces of cloth."
Jiang Yanxian sighed and said, "It sounds like a lot, but when you think about the monthly salary, it's far from enough."
The monthly military salary of ordinary soldiers is two guan, which may not seem like much, but it cannot support the huge army! The total strength of the Xihe Road Army has reached 150,000, and the annual tax revenue is only tens of thousands of guan.
Silk Road trade can make some profit, but now it has just begun, and it has only made more than 10,000 yuan.
This is why after the Battle of Fuping, the Song army quickly expanded to hundreds of thousands, and then quickly shrunk to tens of thousands, and it simply couldn't afford it...
What's even worse is that if the monthly military salary of 300,000 yuan flows into the market, the price of goods on Xihe Road will skyrocket, and there will simply not be that much material supply.
Before that, the Song army used land to pay their salaries, but now there is no land on both sides of the Wei River, leaving only the Tao River Valley and the Hehuang Valley. The soldiers may not like the land there, so starting from this month, they
To pay military salary seriously, one would have to pay 300,000 guan a month, which frightened the officials just thinking about it.
Lu Wei said worriedly: "The army had a day off a few days ago. As a result, nearly 100,000 people poured into Chengji County and drank all the wine and meat in Chengji County. We had to urgently buy sheep and wine from Liangzhou.
It hasn't come yet, and the people in the city are complaining, saying that the soldiers are too edible, and now everyone is afraid that the soldiers will have another holiday."
Chen Qing nodded and said: "I understand what everyone means. It cannot affect the payment of military salaries in any way, but it can allow the soldiers to store their salaries. So that's why I asked for silver coins to be minted. Four silver coins a month."
, and then preach to the soldiers that this kind of silver coin is rare. In the Central Plains and Jiangnan, one silver coin can be exchanged for a lot of money, so the soldiers will naturally be reluctant to use it and store it."
"But this won't work for a long time!" Jiang Yan said first.
"Only a few months!"
Chen Qing said to everyone: "I have received definite news that the Emperor of the Jin Kingdom will die soon, and the Jin Kingdom will face another fierce power struggle within the country. This will be an opportunity for us to expand eastward. I have ordered the scout battalion to send out all the
Intelligence scouts rushed to all the major counties on Shaanxi Road to find out the information first. In addition, we have begun to transport food and supplies to Pingliang City to prepare for war in advance."
In the afternoon, Chen Qing returned to the mansion. As usual, he first went to the study.
As soon as Chen Qing sat down, his wife Lu Xiu came in with tea.
"Husband, why haven't you taken off your coat yet?"
"I forgot!"
Chen Qing stood up and took off his coat. Lu Xiu stepped forward to untie her husband's belt at the back and said with a smile: "Just now, the little guy insisted on coming to your study to play. I didn't let him come, so he cried.
"I will accompany him sometimes later."
Lu Xiu hesitated and whispered: "Husband, I may be pregnant again."
"ah!"
Chen Qing was taken aback, quickly turned around and held his wife's arms, and asked in surprise: "When was it confirmed?"
"This morning, two doctors came to see me, and they unanimously confirmed that it was a happy pulse. I didn't have menstruation last month, and I haven't had it this month either. I can already feel fetal movement. It is estimated that I am almost three months pregnant.
"
"Great, let's have a baby girl this time."
Lu Xiu smiled and said: "It's not up to you and me, but the reaction this time is really not big, much better than last time. They said it might be a daughter."
Chen Qing's heart was full of joy. He really wanted to have a daughter now. Jiang Yanxian's granddaughter was only two years old. She was very lively and cute, which really made him envious.
"Then just rest! If there is anything in the house, you can let Yu Lian and Yu Ying do it. They are not young anymore and can take care of themselves."
Lu Xiu glanced at her husband, and it turned out that her husband also knew that the two young ladies were not young.
"Husband, let these two little ladies move to the outside room to sleep! I wake up more at night now, which is really inconvenient. I need someone to help."
"What should I do with Ji'er?"
"Let him sleep with the wet nurse, no problem, they are all in the same yard anyway."
Chen Qing didn't think too much and nodded, "I have no objection, you can make the arrangements!!"
Lu Xiu smiled again and said, "There is one more thing I need to discuss with my husband."
"What did you say?"
Lu Xiu smiled sweetly, "Next month is my master's fiftieth birthday. I want to celebrate his birthday in a lively way and invite more than a dozen of her female disciples to the mansion."
Chen Qing thought for a while and said with a smile: "It's better to stay in the teahouse! Just book the teahouse when the time comes. You are too tired at home, so what can you do?"
Lu Xiuyou felt that what her husband said was reasonable, so she readily agreed.
Back in his dormitory, Lu Xiu found Yu Ying and Yu Lian, smiled at them and said, "Clean up the outside, you can move in tonight!"
Yu Lian's pretty eyes lit up and she asked in a low voice: "Does the master agree to let us move here?"
"Of course he agreed. I promised you last time, and now I'll give you the opportunity."
Women all have scheming ideas, and Lu Xiu is no exception. She is pregnant again, which means that she cannot have sex with her husband for most of the year. She knows her husband is very energetic, and she does not want him to raise a housewife outside during this period.
.
Especially after what happened to her second brother and Li Mei, Lu Xiu became even more vigilant. Her husband had become the master of Xihe Road at such a young age, and countless women were staring at him. During her pregnancy, she was most likely to give other women a chance.
Anyway, the Yu sisters have been their husband's concubines sooner or later, and they have followed him for many years and are loyal to him. More importantly, they are all orphans. They are favored at most, but they will not have their natal family as a backer to threaten their status.
During her pregnancy, she asked her sisters to serve her husband. As for whether her husband was willing or not, it was up to them.
Lu Xiu estimated that Yu Ying would be a bit thin-skinned, but Yu Lian had absolutely no problem. That little lady was born to be a vixen who seduced men.
That night, the Yu sisters moved to the outside room again.