I was the richest man in Da Song

Chapter 104 Anti-Counterfeiting
He Shao has seen it many times. Pingshan is an open-pit coal mine. Even if the ground is frozen, it can be mined directly by digging out the top layer of shallow soil.

Today's emperor has just returned to Kaifeng Mansion from Chanzhou, and Zhang Qixian's memorial has also been replied, only four words are cheap and decisive.

This is also Zhao Heng's trust in Zhang Qixian, and he has the right to make any choice for the court.

Ling dug the first shovel against the cold wind.

He Shao only makes decisions on major issues, but Ji Zai is the one who implements them. First, it is a bank and now it is a coal mine. Ji Zai is so busy that he is dizzy.

Reluctantly, he had no choice but to recruit two more people from Kaifeng City. The people who had been volunteering for school had now become the pillars of He Shao's subordinates.

Both Zhang Jin and Fan Cheng have met He Shao, although they are young, they are shrewd and able to read and write and know how to keep accounts. The most important thing is loyalty.

From the beginning of begging on the street, the volunteers entered and exited the general's mansion step by step. These people all knew that it was He Shao's kindness for rebuilding.

After the two came to Hedong Road, the first thing they did was to buy ironware, and then recruited workers aggressively.

Hedong Road is not as prosperous as Kaifeng City, and the daily salary of [-] Wen is considered very high.

Almost all the strong laborers in Nanwa'ao joined in, and even many people from Taiyuan Prefecture also came here admiringly.

The safest method of mining in coal mines is the open pit. On an auspicious day, Zhang Qixian came to the site in person, and the nearly 70-year-old dug the first shovel.

Zhang Qixian looked at nearly a hundred people wielding picks and hoes on Pingshan. Although it was cold winter, everyone was working hard.

The people in the countryside are simple and honest, whoever’s field can’t be planted before the farming season will take the initiative to help, and the reward is just a meal. This is the first time they know that they can actually earn money by working!

Everyone was working hard, and Zhang Qixian didn't know whether there was coal in the ground. Only He Shao himself was very sure, and the coal reserves in the open-pit coal mine were absolutely terrifying.

"It's the first time I've seen the people on Hedong Road so enthusiastic"

"What enthusiasm is so high, it's not all motivated by my money"

The daily expenses of these few days are not a small sum, I just hope that it is not a waste of effort.

"Coal out"

"I dug here too"

When the coal came out, the whole Pingshan burst into cheers. Even Zhang Qixian hurried over to have a look with the support of his servants. When he came back, he was holding a piece of black coal in his hand, smiling from ear to ear. .

"Yes, Feng Lang, there really is!"

"Fan Cheng, build a coal stove according to the drawings I sent to Lao Ji, and then notify every household in Nanwa'ao to get one, and then must inform them of the precautions"

Coal will be the most important fuel for the next 1000 years, but this is also a double-edged sword, especially in this era of large-scale mining.

Many people put coal directly into the basin to burn, and stayed beside the charcoal basin to keep warm. It was warm, but many people fell asleep without waking up.

"It's the young master"

Fuel is extremely scarce in Kaifeng City, and once coal is transported to Kaifeng City, it will definitely sell for a good price.

From Fan Cheng's point of view, giving them daily start-up wages is considered a special treatment, and it is really kind of the young master to let them use it for free.

Open-pit coal mines are not so difficult to mine, and there will be no accidents in the mine, which makes He Shao worry a lot.

With the help of He Shao, Zhang Qixian promulgated a decree on carbonaceous coal. If any people on Hedong Road found a coal mine pit, they had to pay [-] yuan to buy the mining right, and set the tax at one thousand yuan and one hundred yuan.

Originally, He Shao wanted to sell the mining right to [-] guan, but Zhang Qixian was afraid of scaring those wealthy businessmen, so he lowered it to [-] guan.

In the short 50 years since the founding of the Song Dynasty, Kaifeng City has a million people, although there are very few people, but there are countless people with hundreds of thousands. In addition to the prosperous business, a more important reason is that the tax is too low.

Coal is a violent industry, and He Shao can predict that the place where the most millionaires will be born in the Song Dynasty in the future will be the East Road, even if the tax of [-]% is not high.

He Shao habitually acted as the hands-off shopkeeper, and Zhang Jin was responsible for handling the batch of supplies he bought during the war, many of which were armor leather and so on.

The leather and the complete clothes and shoes Zhang Jin sent to various grass markets in Taiyuan Prefecture. The low price and good quality immediately caused a rush, and they were sold out soon.

All those pig iron armor He Shao were handed over to Zhang Qixian. There was a Yamen Liguojian specializing in iron smelting at the foot of Hedong Road, and there were six to seventy smelters.

Originally, the fuel used by Li Guojian was charcoal, but now it has all been changed to coal, and pig iron is directly cast into a coal furnace.

Taiyuan Mansion was originally a pool of stagnant water, but with He Shao's investment of hundreds of thousands of guan, it has some firepower. Once the money is circulated, it will continue to generate value.

In addition to coal accident, his second thing to do is also imminent, especially banknotes!

The birth of banknotes is based on a strong reputation. Zhang Qixian is highly respected in Hedong Lu, and Yang Yanzhao is very prestigious in the army.

The people in the army used the tickets issued by He Shao to exchange them in the money bank without exception, and tens of thousands of people have realized that this small piece of paper can indeed replace real money.

He Shao originally wanted to strike while the iron was hot to promote bank notes, but the biggest trouble he encountered was anti-counterfeiting!
Among dozens of kinds of paper, He Shao selected the most suitable paper for banknotes, chupi paper. This kind of paper is expensive and looks no different from ordinary paper, but it feels thicker and tougher to the touch.

According to the current technology, it is impossible to make anti-counterfeiting threads and watermarks in banknotes, so we can only think of other ways.

He Shao remembers that there are various very fine patterns and patterns on the bank notes, most of which are hand-carved, including the Eight Immortals, 24 filial piety, flowers and plants, mountain scenery, or paintings by famous artists, and the composition is very complicated. Techniques are engraved on printing plates and then printed on vellum paper.

He Shao thought that it would not be difficult to get out the bank notes according to his knowledge far beyond this era, but now he found that no matter what he did, he still needed the emperor's strong support in the end.

Firstly, the chu vellum paper used to make banknotes was widely circulated. Sooner or later, someone would produce banknotes, so he needed an order from the emperor to prohibit the use of folk chu vellum paper.

Second, if you want to scale complex paintings or long texts on the template through micro-carving, you need the best craftsmen, and the best craftsmen in the entire Song Dynasty are working as supervisors.

Third, if you want to circulate bank notes, you must crack down on counterfeiting most severely.

The laws of the Song Dynasty were relatively loose. In the Qing Dynasty, a single execution was a life. In the Song Dynasty, all criminals who were sentenced to death for betrayal had to go through the state government's second-instance review to prevent their enemies from being wrongly jailed.

The crime of counterfeiting banknotes must be heavy. Since the emergence of banknotes, forgery of banknotes has been among the most unforgivable crimes in that dynasty, and both master and slave counterfeiters will be executed!
To achieve such a goal, the resolution of the emperor and the prime minister is also required to be passed.

(End of this chapter)