Take the warehouse back to the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 248
When Dou Tong brought 1000 taels of silver coins borrowed from Daming Bank to Suzhou to sell silk, not only did his silver coins not be disapproved, but he even won unanimous praise from those silk merchants.

The fineness of this silver coin is good and the pattern is exquisite. When these southeast merchants saw it for the first time, they had already fallen in love with this silver coin.

Not only did he like it, these silk merchants even gave him a lot cheaper because of the silver coin.

A silver coin weighing one or two can even buy goods that were originally one, two, two, and three, which made him another windfall.

When the silver coin was popularized, the imagined resistance did not appear, and it aroused the love of many people in an instant.

Ordinary people may not need these silver coins on weekdays, but for those businessmen, silver coins are a very good thing.

The specifications of the silver coins are uniform and the style is exquisite. A silver coin weighs one tael. When trading, the number of silver coins is directly counted, and there is no need to carry a steelyard.

Moreover, the fineness of these silver coins is very good, and there is no need to look at the fineness of the silver when trading, and there is no need to be afraid of being deceived because of the fineness of the silver.

Another is that these silver coins are very easy to carry. Although there may be no change in weight, because of the shape, this silver coin is much easier to carry than ordinary silver.

Almost half a month later, when Zhao Wen got the feedback report of the silver coins, he was quite relieved.

Sitting in the study room, Zhao Wen put the documents delivered a few days ago on the table, and said slowly: "I didn't expect these people to accept this silver coin so quickly, I thought it would take a lot of time. .”

"grown ups."

At this moment, Zhang Helang walked into the study anxiously with a cloth bag in his hand.

Zhao Wen looked at Zhang Helang who walked in, and asked suspiciously: "What happened, why are you so panicked?"

Zhang Helang stood in front of Zhao Wen's desk, and put the cloth bag in his hand on the table.

"My lord, it's not a big deal, it's just a trivial matter, but this trivial matter is related to our silver coins, so I came to my lord and asked him to make a decision."

As Zhang Helang said, he opened the cloth bag on the table and took out a few broken silver coins from it.

Zhao Wen looked at the silver coin in his hand and immediately figured out what was going on.

"My lord, we can't just mint silver coins, we also need to mint copper coins. Otherwise, more silver coins we issue will be broken."

In ancient times, those who could use silver were those with very good family conditions.But this does not mean that these silver coins can just meet the daily use of these people.

It is impossible for people to buy certain things as integers, and in most cases they are half numbers.

And silver coins are one tael, so in this way, there is no way to satisfy numbers like five cents and seven cents.

In order to pay the money, these people will cut the silver coins.

If you are lucky, you can cut the exact amount at one time, but if you are unlucky, you will not be able to cut the silver coins accurately many times.

In this way, the silver coins will become more scattered, and the fragmented silver coins are not conducive to circulation, and if they are returned to the bank, it will take a lot of energy to recast them.

Zhao Wen took the broken silver coin from Zhang Helang and examined it carefully.

"My lord, it has only been half a month since the silver coin was issued, and this situation has already occurred now. If this happens in the future, it is estimated that this situation will increase again.

My lord, there are thousands of fragments of silver coins reflowed in the bank. These broken silver coins need to be remelted. If we don't care, it will be troublesome just to remelt them later. Zhang Helang looked at Zhao Wen with a worried look on his face.

Zhao Wen squeezed his chin and said slowly: "It seems that it is not enough to just manufacture this kind of silver coin. We also need to manufacture all the specifications that the people need."

Just like later generations, there are hundreds of yuan bills in later generations, and there are also denominations such as 50 yuan, 20 yuan, and [-] yuan.

In the early days, there was even a denomination of one or two cents.

Zhao Wen put these fragments on the table, waved his hand to Zhang Helang, and said, "You go down first, I already have a plan in my heart."

Zhang Helang cupped his hands at Zhao Wengong, and then walked out with the cloth bag containing broken silver coins on the table.

After Zhang Helang left, Zhao Wen took a piece of rice paper and spread it on the table, then took out a charcoal pencil and drew on the rice paper.

What Zhao Wen painted were some coins, including five cents, two cents and one cent.

These three specifications can be composed of silver coins of any denomination, from one cent to one tael.

There is not much difference in appearance between these three specifications and one or two silver coins, but they can be smaller and thinner than one or two silver coins.

Except for the block letters marking the weight on the front and the pattern on the back, there is no difference between the others and one or two.

The patterns on the back of the five-cent silver coin are orchids, the two-cent silver coins are plum blossoms, and the smallest denomination one-cent coin has nothing on it.After all, the face value of one penny is really too small, and the area is relatively small, and the patterns on the money fan are not easy to make.

In addition to these few, Zhao Wen also designed a set of copper coins.

Zhao Wen's copper coins are different from those of this era. The copper coins of this era are round on the outside and square on the inside, with the year number on them.

During the Chongzhen period, there were four types of copper coins: Xiaoping, Danger, Dangwu, and Dangshishi.

There are only three types of coins in circulation in the market: Xiaoping, Danger and Dangwu. As for the largest and heaviest Dangshi coins, there are very few coins in circulation on the market.

Among them, the smallest Xiaoping coin has a diameter of 2.45 centimeters, and the diameter of Dangwu coins is 3.3 centimeters.

In addition to these types, there are almost seven kinds of coins flooding the market.

Of course, there is still a lot of private money minted by the people.

Historically, the end of the Ming Dynasty was the most chaotic time for copper coins in the entire Ming Dynasty.

There is an endless stream of private money in the market, which cannot be stopped at all.

All in all, the coin market in the late Ming Dynasty can only be described as chaotic.

In this way, the burden on the common people will be increased.

The Ming Dynasty rebelled continuously, and part of the reason was because of these copper coins.

After Zhao Wen finished drawing these three kinds of silver coins, he started to draw copper coins.

The specifications of copper coins are similar to those of silver coins, and the density of copper is not much different from that of silver, so Zhao Wen drew copper coins according to the specifications of silver coins.

During the reign of Chongzhen, one tael of silver was equal to about one thousand Xiaoping copper coins.

The average weight of Xiaoping copper coins is about four grams. Calculated according to four grams, that one tael of silver is equal to four kilograms of copper coins. Converted into the weight unit of Ming Dynasty, it is about eight catties.

In ancient times, one catty was equal to 16 taels, so one tael of silver was equal to 120 eight taels of copper coins.

The largest face value copper coin drawn by Zhao Wen also weighs one tael, and its overall style is similar to the one tael silver coin. Except for the different materials, everything else is exactly the same.

In addition to one or two heavy copper coins, Zhao Wen also drew five cents, two cents and one cent copper coins.

The specifications of these copper coins and silver coins are also exactly the same.

In order to avoid confusion, Zhao Wen set the conversion between silver coins and copper coins as one or two silver coins equal to one hundred one or two copper coins.

When all these things were drawn, the sky was gradually getting dark.

Zhao Wen put the drawn drawings on the table, then stretched and headed towards the backyard.

Walking in the backyard, looking at the moon in the sky, Zhao Wen murmured involuntarily: "It's been several months, why is there no movement in their stomachs?"

Like many men, when Zhao Wen got married, Zhao Wen's biggest wish was to hug a big fat boy.

"I've been taking tonics recently, but why hasn't there been any movement? It's so strange!"

Zhao Wen walked towards the backyard with a depressed expression on his face.

……

When the sun rose the next day, after breakfast, Zhao Wen took the drawings drawn yesterday and headed towards the ironworks, asking the ironworks to make Qian Fan who made these things.

After all, the physical properties of copper and silver are different, so the choice of Qian Fan is also different.

Zhao Wen also planned to produce these copper coins by stamping. After all, stamping is the fastest and cheapest method.

When Zhao Wen copied Shanxi merchants, he also confiscated a lot of copper coins, so the source of the copper coins and copper materials is not lacking.

After Zhao Wen finished all this, he called Liu Wenzhong into the study.

"Sir, are you looking for me?"

Liu Wenzhong stood in Zhao Wen's study, looked at Zhao Wen who was sitting on the chair, arched his hands at him, and asked slowly.

Zhao Wen responded, then stood up, and took out the book of fish scales drawn in the Gyeonggi area from the nearby bookshelf.

"I have been busy with the ironworks and mint before, and now it is time to occupy the land of Gyeonggi.

This is the Yulin book that I drew when I was in the capital last time. Take a look and get a charter out as soon as possible. "

Zhao Wen handed the Yulin book to Liu Wenzhong, and said slowly.

Liu Wenzhong took the Yulin book, casually flipped through a few pages, and then asked, "What does your lord mean?"

Zhao Wendao: "You can handle these things yourself. I don't have any opinions. After all, I'm not very good at this kind of thing."

"Obey!" Liu Wenzhong cupped his hands at Zhao Wengong, and then walked out with the Yulin book.

At the same time, the three brothers of the Zhou family who were far away in Pingyang Mansion, Shanxi were sitting in a room discussing matters.

When Liu Changfu's uncle Liu Wenqing returned to Pingyang Mansion, Zhao Wen sent the three Zhou family brothers to Pingyang Mansion.

Their main purpose is to collect the people who fled from Shaanxi, and then send the gathered people to Xuanzhen.

Originally, Li Zicheng, Gao Yingxiang and other rogues were only fleeing in Shaanxi, but under the pressure of Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides, they fled Shaanxi, crossed the Yellow River east, and came towards Shanxi.

Because Gao Yingxiang crossed the Yellow River east earlier, and the officials in Shanxi were extremely corrupt, when these thieves rushed into Shanxi, their first thought was not how to resist, but to write a letter to impeach Hong Chengchou, saying that he Ineffective in suppressing bandits, they deliberately drove these bandits to Shanxi.

In this way, the thieves have an opportunity to develop in Shanxi.

All of a sudden, the entire Shanxi territory was turbulent, and Gao Yingxiang's momentum became even more powerful.

After Gao Yingxiang developed, Li Zicheng crossed the Yellow River eastward and headed towards Gao Yingxiang.

Not only Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng, but also the thieves from the 36th Battalion headed by Wang Ziyong also crossed the Yellow River and wreaked havoc in Shanxi.

This has greatly increased the pressure on Shanxi, and Zhou Laoliu's recruiting base in Pingyang Mansion is almost full every day.

Because Zhou Laoliu set up the gathering base relatively early, it has a relatively loud reputation in the land of Shanxi.

Officials in Shanxi longed for the appearance of recruiting refugees, so instead of stopping them, they even made a name for Zhou Laoliu and the others.

Now these refugees from Shaanxi and Shanxi are all coming towards Pingyang Mansion, and for a while the whole Pingyang Mansion is full of refugees.

If it hadn't been for the prefect of Pingyang Prefecture to succumb to them under Zhou Laoliu's coercion and lure, otherwise, the prefect of Pingyang Prefecture would have driven these refugees out long ago.

But Zhou Laoliu only had more than a thousand soldiers at full strength, and he couldn't cope with this situation at all.

"Lao Qi Lao Ba, why don't we report to the adults for help." Zhou Lao Liu looked at the two people in the room and said slowly.

Zhou Laoqi patted the table and said in a deep voice, "Ask for help? This is a good idea, but have you ever thought about it? Doesn't it make us appear incompetent?

The three of us were the first group of people to follow the Lord. When we were in Longmen Fort, we were the first to join the Lord.

Now among the three of us, only Brother Six has a thousand households. Although Brother Six has more than 400 56 and a half, more than 50 40 fire and Type 56 light machine guns, he is still only a thousand households after all.

Let’s look at Zhang He and Wang Chong again, how much later they followed the adults than us, but they are now participating all the way, if we ask the adults for help at this time, what will the adults think?Doesn't this make us seem particularly incompetent? "

Zhou Laoliu looked at Zhou Laoqi with a melancholy face, took a deep breath, and said slowly: "Old Qi, we are not brats now, there are some things you should think about.

Why did the adults put us in this Pingyang Mansion, and gave us more than 400 strokes of 56 and a half?There are even five mortars.

It is estimated that these equipments can only be compared with the personal guard battalion of adults.

Haven't you ever wondered why adults can give us all these things?Isn't it because we are all old people and loyal to adults?

Although Zhang He, Wang Chong and the others have joined the generals all the way, in the heart of the adults, they are still close to us.

Otherwise, how could the adults trust us with these things. "

Zhou Laoliu looked at the two of them, and said again: "I think I don't need to tell you what these populations mean to adults, so we must report this matter to adults in time, so that adults can send more people over. At the same time, send more food over.

Today, there is only less than ten days' worth of food left in our army. If the number of refugees continues to increase, the food in our hands will be consumed at a faster rate. "

Zhou Lao Liu looked at the two people in the room, made a decision, and then asked the general's counselor to come over.

The three brothers of the Zhou family were native peasants and could not read a single word, so these counselors had to write the report for help.

(End of this chapter)