Dahan first prince

Chapter 17 What does the prince come to do?
Sitting silently for a long time.

In the end, Xiao He tentatively asked, "How much money does the Shaofu have now, how much money is there?"

"If the gold and money are enough, I have no choice but to implore Your Majesty to use the internal funds to buy food in the market, so as to use it for the army to fight..."

Hearing Xiao He's words, Yang Chengyan's distressed expression suddenly became even more ugly.

"Now Shaofu has tens of thousands of gold, but most of it is used for sacrifices; more than one hundred thousand yuan, most of it is three baht..."

"As for Qin Banliang's money, the Shaofu's reserves are no more than tens of millions."

With that said, Yang Chengyan sighed again.

"Since His Majesty went his own way and cast money and three beads in the market, the price of grain in Guanzhong has skyrocketed, and it has reached [-] yuan!"

"What's more, most of the merchants sell goods and grains in the market, and most of them use Qin coins and half a pair; if they see three bahts of money, the merchants will close their doors and close their businesses immediately on the grounds that they are 'sold out', and they will not deliver food to the market for three to five days. ..."

"If you use half a tael of the money saved by the Shaofu to buy grain, you can only get one hundred thousand shi; and three baht, I'm afraid it's..."

"Ugh……"

Speaking of this, Yang Chengyan finally stopped talking, shook his head and sighed, and stopped talking.

Seeing this, Xiao He also stood up full of bitterness, and walked to the door of the living room with his hands behind his back, sighing deeply.

"Your Majesty, why don't you listen to persuasion..."

Xiao He knew very well in his heart: as long as Chen Xi raised the flag, the scale of this war would directly affect the Yan, Qi, Liang and other vassal states around Dai and Zhao, as well as Yunzhong, Shang, and Beidi counties to the west of Dai. !

If there is no accident, Chen Xi will inevitably learn from Han Wangxin who triggered the Han-Hung Pingcheng War back then, and cited the Huns as foreign aid.

Such a rebellion, if the Central Committee of the Han Dynasty did not gather an army of 30 to [-], it would be impossible to completely quell it within half a year!

Even if calculated according to the minimum standard of 20 troops summoned by the central government and settled within three months, Xiao He would have to scrape together at least 100 million shi of grain in order to barely make enough for this war!
However, based on the current market price of "100 shi for a stone" and the fact that most grain merchants only accept half a tael and not three baht, it will take at least 15 yuan to make up the [-] million shi of grain. ten thousand dollars...

Thinking of this, Xiao He quietly put the plan of 'buying food from the market' into the column of 'not feasible'.

——Nowadays, the Han Dynasty, not to mention 15 million and a half taels, even 15 million three baht coins, it is impossible to get them out!
Even if there is...

"Your Majesty will not agree..."

According to Yang Chengyan, there are about [-] million and a half taels of money in the Shaofu.

But Xiao He is very sure: Even with the tens of millions and a half taels, Liu Bang could not agree to give them all to buy grain in the market.

——Because one tael is equal to 24 baht; Qin Banliang money can also be called twelve baht money.

That is to say, in terms of weight alone, one and a half taels is worth four three baht coins!

As long as you melt one and a half coins into the mold without adding any impurities, you can directly get four three-baht coins!

However, the three baht coins that Shaofu is currently minting and issuing are not so much adding lead to copper, but rather adding a little copper to lead...

According to Xiao He's understanding, Shaofu can get about eight baht of copper for every one and a half taels melted.

And this eight baht copper can actually cast hundreds of three baht coins!

On average, ten coins with a total weight of thirty baht had a total copper content of no more than one baht!
Xiao He is not very clear about whether the proportion of "copper seven and lead three" in the half tael is reasonable.

But Xiao He is very sure: the ratio of "copper one to lead 99" of the three baht coins minted by the Shaofu is absolutely unreasonable.

——Copper coins, copper coins, at least have to shine a little bit, right?

Three baht coins are fine, they are said to be 'copper coins', and they are whiter than pearls in the hand, without the dark yellow luster unique to copper.

If it weren't for the emperor Liu Bang's order: no one can refuse three baht coins, this kind of "copper" coins with "ninety-nine thousand feet of lead" will be eliminated by the market on the day it is born!
But what makes Xiao He helpless is that Liu Bang, who has always been willing to listen to his subordinates' opinions and improve his plans, did not listen to the advice of others when it came to casting three baht coins!
Not only did they not listen to persuasion, but even canceled the ban on the private casting of copper coins!
This is just great;

The people looked at the half tael copper coin with a yellow luster on their left hand, and at the three baht lead coin with a silvery white luster on their right hand;

Looking up, it was the official announcement: The purchasing power of three baht coins is equivalent to half a tael, and there are emperor jade seals and prime minister gold seals at the end as evidence?
After thinking about it for a while, the people laughed and said, "If you Liu Bang did it, I can't do it?" ', then began a vigorous recasting career.

"After ten years of this, I'm afraid that the world will never see copper coins again..."

There was another long sigh, Xiao He could only shake his head and return to his seat with a sigh, with a slightly bitter expression on his face, he looked directly at Xiangyang Chengyan.

"The old man's intention: Your Majesty, I will suspend the payment of the salary for the autumn, August and autumn and September, so as to supplement the army rations!"

"After the autumn harvest is over, the taxes and taxes from all over the country will be sent to the national treasury, and then reissued."

Xiao He knew exactly how badly the "three baht coins", the first set of currency in the Han Dynasty, had dealt a severe blow to the money market.

But for this, Xiao He had no choice but to put it aside and settle the military ration issue first.

Today, the Han Dynasty only collects two taxes from the people: agricultural tax and oral tax.

The agricultural tax is one-fifteenth of the actual harvest of the people in the year, and it is not necessary and cannot be converted into money. It must be turned over to the grain harvested in their own fields, and finally turned over to the treasury under the control of the prime minister's mansion.

As for the oral tax, according to the standard of 120 yuan per household per year, copper coins are handed over, and finally belong to the internal funds of the Shaofu.

The money in the Shaofu is the emperor's private treasury, which is in principle only used for court expenses and rewards from the emperor and queen mother.

But now, there are [-] three baht lead coins that are not in circulation in the Shaofu, and [-] pieces of Qin Banliang that are about to be melted into three baht lead coins.

Three months later, the people all over the world will turn in tens of millions of lead coins and three beads as the "oral tax income" of the Shaofu this year.

In this case, even if Liu Bang is willing to open up internal funds, it will not help at all.

The Shaofu can't count on it, so Xiao He can only start with the treasury under his control.

In addition to being used for the daily expenses of the armies in various places, the grain stored in the treasury is also used as the salaries of officials.

——The war is imminent. In order to put down the Chen Xi rebellion, we can't withhold the rations of other local troops and use them as counter-rebellion rations for the central army, right?

Naturally, the only solution left is to temporarily delay the payment of officials' salaries.

"That's all it takes..."

After thinking for a long time, Yang Chengyan could only nod helplessly, stood up with a serious face, and gave Xiao He a little bow.

"Xiangguo can play it, but I should use the seal to attach it."

Seeing that Yang Chengyan had no intention of throwing blame at all, Xiao He also got up from his seat, and bowed his hands gratefully.

Just as he was about to send Yang Chengyan away, he saw a servant running into the living room, panting and cupping his hands at Xiao He.

"Reporting to Xiangguo, the prince's chariot has arrived outside the Xiangfu!"

　Paving the way for a transitional chapter, please be patient.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)