Elegy of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 271 One generation of versions and one generation of gods

In the quiet night, camels one after another walked on the vast sandy ground. This caravan, which was mainly composed of camels, was very large, with no less than two thousand camels, but it moved furtively and quietly at night.

They deliberately reduced the width of the queue to no more than two camels per row. He also tied up the bells that were supposed to be hung on the camels, trying not to make any unwanted noises.

call out!

Suddenly, a harsh sonic boom came from the front of the team!

A loud arrow shot into the sky, and the scream broke the silence of the night.

An army appeared in front of the caravan. The uniforms and armor could not be seen clearly under the night, but the densely packed torches showed that there were definitely many people coming, and they were all cavalry. At least the scale is larger than that of a caravan!

People at the front of the caravan could occasionally hear the sound of armor scraping and horses snorting, and everyone was frightened.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

The desolate horn sounded, and the commander of the cavalry on the opposite side had no intention of communicating with the caravan. Under the noise of the horn, this cavalry rushed into the caravan like a torrent, killing everyone on sight, clean and neat!

The clever people in the caravan threw all the goods on the camels into the sand, turned around and ran away. However, these cavalry didn't seem to care about the goods on the ground at all, and they pursued the people in the caravan with all their strength.

After more than an hour of fierce fighting, this large caravan from the Western Region was completely wiped out without leaving a single person alive.

On a small sand hill next to the road not far away, Hexi Jiedu envoy Fang Chongyong was crossing his arms, looking coldly at the Chishui Army cavalry and Silver Spear Xiaojie soldiers who were raising torches to clear the battlefield. He said nothing, his face was expressionless and his attitude was extremely indifferent.

"Jie Shuai, everyone has been killed. The number is the same as An's provided, 1,542 people. The cargo brothers haven't had time to count them yet."

He Changqi said to Fang Zhongyong, cupping his fists and saluting. The tone sounded like he had killed more than a thousand pigs instead of more than a thousand people.

"Clean the battlefield quickly and withdraw all troops to the Chishui Army station tomorrow. Leave the bodies here as a warning."

Fang Chongyong waved his hand calmly and said.

"After receiving the order, General Mo will go and deliver the order."

He Changqi took the order and left.

"I set the rules back then. Do you think that by giving An a few small coins, you can swagger through Liangzhou and then unload the goods in Lanzhou?

Is it too beautiful to think about?

If my new rules are not established, you will no longer abide by the old rules. Who gave you the courage?

When these uncontrolled valuables from the Western Regions arrive in Chang'an, they will only engage in price wars. If the rules are broken, it will be difficult to establish them again. I have no choice but to use you to scare the monkeys.

In this section, the commander will use your corpses to tell the merchants in Hexi and the Western Regions that someone from our side is back. This time, a certain person is already the governor of Hexi Province, and is no longer the governor of Shazhou who always looks at people's faces. "

Fang Chongyong sighed softly, turned around and took a few soldiers to the 3,500 cavalry brought out this time.

After briefly emphasizing to Wang Nan and others who participated in the operation how to distribute the spoils, Fang Chongyong left 500 people to clean up the battlefield. The others followed him and went to Baiting Fort, where the Baiting Army was stationed, and the surrounding lake shore to repair tonight.

Let’s take a look at the stolen goods. What should be returned to the public should be returned to the public, and what should be distributed should be distributed.

Riding on his horse, Fang Chongyong looked back and saw the battlefield where people had just been shouting to kill Zhentian, but now there were dead people on the ground, and it was so quiet and strange, and he felt very sad.

Fang Chongyong couldn't feel any sense of pride or accomplishment in this one-sided massacre of the caravan, but it was a very important part of his plan.

When Fang Chongyong came to Hexi for the first time, he saw people from the Baiting Army killing monks and seizing gold-threaded cassocks. At that time, he even attacked Xin Yunjing because of this incident.

His posture is very similar to that of a dragon-slaying warrior who draws his sword to kill the gods when the road is rough.

However, a few years later, the same man, still in Hexi, Fang Chongyong personally led a team to intercept and kill the smuggling caravan on the sandy land north of Baiting Sea, using ruthless means to kill the smuggling caravans.

Compared with Fang Chongyong's behavior, Xin Yunjing can't even be considered a younger brother.

At the beginning, Xin Yunjing only sent fifty elite soldiers to intercept and kill dozens of Tianzhu monks, but Fang Chongyong sent out 3,500 elite soldiers at once and killed more than 1,500 people in one breath!

"The former dragon-slaying warrior has now become the evil dragon in Hexi, with his hands covered in blood.

The old society turned people into ghosts, maybe this is life. "

Fang Chongyong couldn't help but sigh, but he didn't regret doing so at all.

Only blood can calm down some people who are blinded by money.

If you want to establish authority, you have to kill people. If you want to scare monkeys, you will inevitably kill chickens. If you don't pack up a caravan of thousands of people, there will be people who are lucky enough to think that they are invincible and can try the water.

After all, you have to kill people, so you don’t have to care about who you kill.

Thinking of this, Fang Chongyong couldn't help but think of "Jiaozi" who was born in the late Zhou Dynasty and the early Northern Song Dynasty. The environment in which new circulating goods were produced was often accompanied by the decline of old things. The whole process is a history of blood and tears.

Many people think that things like Jiaozi arose "naturally" because the market economy of the Song Dynasty developed to a very large scale.

Not at all!

Not only was Jiaozi born in Shu, not because of the prosperity of commerce, but because the Song army invaded Shu and frantically looted the wealth of Shu, taking away the gold and silver utensils, copper coins, Shu brocade and palace treasures on the market. It was scraped three feet off the ground and sent to Bianliang, which resulted in a severe shortage of precious metals that could be used as "money" in Shu.

Then the Northern Song Dynasty learned 100% from the Southern Liang Dynasty and issued iron money in the Shu region. This allowed the people of the Shu region to deplete the fishing industry in a long-term manner. As a result, the people of the Shu region were wildly boycotted.

On the one hand, there is a severe shortage of precious metals, and on the other hand, the economic fundamentals of Shu are stable and its hematopoietic ability is strong.

Within two years of this, strong deflation had reached the point of hindering economic operation, and people had to use food as the anchor of the price system.

But for food, you can do some small business, but it is too inconvenient to transport when doing business. Therefore, wealthy merchants in Shu who sensed business opportunities set up a business in their own banks, allowing depositors to deliver cash (including iron coins, silk, etc.) to the banks for safekeeping.

The bank fills in the deposit amount on a roll made of special paper, returns it to the depositor, and charges a certain storage fee. The general charge rate is about 3%. Can be used as needed.

Later, many businessmen in Chengdu jointly established the "Jiaozi Shop" specializing in the issuance and exchange of Jiaozi, and set up branches in various places. Because the shopkeepers abide by their trustworthiness and collect goods whenever they come, Jiaozi gradually gained a high reputation. To some extent, it has almost replaced the pronoun of folk "currency".

Within the Shu region, Jiaozi was promoted and became a common medium for large-scale transactions.

To put it simply, if Shu can spread its friendship, it is really thanks to the emperors who drained the "blood" in the early Northern Song Dynasty. Otherwise, it is really difficult to say under what conditions this thing was born. .

In other words, Jiaozi was actually forced out by someone with a knife, and it really was not born naturally because of the development of the commodity economy.

In Fang Chongyong's series of plans to release Jiaozi, the situation of warmth and tenderness does not exist at all.

Because he, the Hexi Jiedushi, controls the largest violent machine in the Hexi region: the Datang Hexi Frontier Army!

If you don’t use the military resources you control to organize affairs and play big games, do you still have to reason with the Sogdian Hu merchants and local big players in the Western Regions?

Sharp weapons and abundant martial virtue are the biggest principles!

Thinking of this, Fang Chongyong's heart hardened. The greater the ability, the greater the position, the greater the responsibility.

Let's talk with the sword. The tens of thousands of silks exchanged with the lower-level Qiu Ba for valuables from the Western Regions were not just used to stabilize the military morale and please Qiu Ba.

The five states in Hexi do not support idle people!

……

Less than a month after Fang Chongyong came to Liangzhou, a Sogdian caravan from the Western Regions was intercepted and killed by thousands of horse bandits of unknown origin in the desert-steppe area north of Baiting Sea.

Not only were the goods and camels robbed, but more than 1,500 people were killed, not even a single person was left alive, and their bodies were exposed in the wilderness.

It was extremely tragic!

It is said that the body was almost dry when it was discovered by passing herdsmen!

This incident shocked businessmen of all sizes in the five states of Hexi! But this is a taboo topic. No matter it is Liangzhou in the east or Shazhou in the west, no matter it is a large restaurant like Huamen Tower that is open all night or a small restaurant with only a few tables, no one dares to speak in public. Talk about it.

There are rumors circulating that it was the cavalry of the Chishui Army who did this work. He is worthy of being the most elite soldier in Liangzhou, and his attacks are clean and neat.

But some people are also talking privately, saying that the origin of this caravan is not clean, and the location of the accident is very strange. Otherwise, why did they ignore the official road in the Hexi Corridor and take a long detour, taking the grassland north of the Hexi Corridor in an attempt to finally reach Liangzhou?

In fact, anyone with a little bit of brains can understand that this caravan violated the Tang Army's taboo.

These people wanted to take a "private route", bribe the border generals in Liangzhou, and then smuggle goods from the Western Regions to Liangzhou, and then bypass the other four states in the Hexi Corridor.

It's not like this kind of thing has happened before. To be honest, it doesn't matter whether it's big or small.

According to the past rules, even if you were caught by the patrol of the Chishui Army, you would be fined some money and handed over some goods.

No one in the Hexi frontier army will really hold on to him. In peacetime, everyone is just looking for money. If they are guilty, they will be killed at every turn.

But obviously, their luck was not very good this time. Tang Jun did not want to act according to the previous "old rules". The newly appointed Hexi Jiedushi was trying to scare the monkeys!

Of course, this is just speculation by some people, thinking that maybe Fang Chongyong, the new Hexi Jiedushi envoy, wants to establish his authority in Hexi.

However, there is no evidence or witnesses for this statement, and it is difficult to verify what one person says. Even if someone suffered the loss of being mute, they would not dare to do anything to Fang Chongyong.

Even if they knew that the horse thieves who robbed and killed the caravan were disguised as Chishui troops, what would they do?

The people in Hexi are tough and do not pay attention to benevolence, justice and morality. If the knife in someone's hand is not fast enough or the number of subordinates is not enough, then it is best to just shut up and watch others perform!

Not even two days after Fang Chongyong returned to Liangzhou from Baitinghai, he summoned the local wealthy families in Liangzhou, such as the An family, the Lun family, the Zhang family, the Li family, the Xin family, etc., to gather in the lobby of the Hexi Jiedushi Yamen to discuss important matters.

The matter discussed was the preparation for the issuance of Jiaozi in the five states of Hexi.

That morning, there was silence in the lobby of the Jiedushi Yamen. Everyone present was circulating and observing a piece of paper that did not look like a document, and the talisman did not look like a talisman.

It was a "picture" printed on paper through engraving.

The bottom part of "this painting" is painted with landscapes, and the writing style is sophisticated; the top part is painted with some strange copper coins and "ghost painting symbols" whose meanings cannot be discerned; in the middle is written "Issued by Liangzhou, available in the five states of Hexi" words such as "Exchange".

After watching for a long time, no one could figure out the reason.

"Fang Jieshuai, can you exchange this for silk?"

An Zhongzhang's father, An Zhongjing, who is now idle at home and only manages family affairs, asked in confusion.

Using paper as money is something I have never heard of before, let alone seeing it before.

"Indeed.

Silk was inconvenient to carry, so each of the five prefectures in Hexi opened a bank to issue this kind of note called Jiaozi.

Whatever the denomination above is, you can exchange it at the corresponding bank, which is very convenient. "

Fang Chongyong introduced patiently. Today was just a test. He just wanted to see how well the local wealthy people in Hexi would accept this kind of thing.

However, judging from the expressions of everyone present, it seemed that he had been too optimistic before.

"Hahahaha, this thing is very good. The government opening such a bank is also convenient for the people and merchants. Okay, okay, okay."

An Zhongjing, whose beard had already turned gray, laughed and said, and many representatives of large households in the lobby of the government office also laughed.

If the government opens such a bank, there is no conflict of interest with them. If you want to open it, you can open it and ask them to discuss it with the government office. It is already a great face. Of course, no one present would object to such a thing.

As for participating, don't even think about it. The old foxes present chose to pretend to be idiots who don't understand anything.

However, Fang Chongyong didn't call them here just to let them watch the excitement!

Hearing what An Zhongjing said, Fang Chongyong knew that his concept was too advanced, and the current elite of the Tang Dynasty could not understand its beauty.

For paper money to circulate smoothly in the feudal era, there were still some necessary conditions.

First of all, it is to restore the usage attributes of silk and downplay the transaction attributes. Here in Hexi, banks use silk as the principal to support currency issuance. The trading habits of merchants in the five states of Hexi must be corrected. The government strictly controls the export quota of silk and sells it as commodities, and promulgates laws to strictly control it. "Barter".

To achieve this, it is unimaginable without communicating with the local wealthy families in Hexi and gaining their support!

Secondly, Hexi can only have this "serial number" bank opened by the government to carry out financial monopoly.

Therefore, so-called "private competitors" must not appear to disrupt the situation. Therefore, bringing in large local investors to invest is a necessary step. Otherwise there must be something wrong behind it.

As long as large local investors take shares, foreign investors will not be able to gain a foothold in Jiaozi issuance. This works much better than an executive order.

So Fang Chongyong let the representatives of these big local companies in the lobby know about this and invited them to join the game!

Finally, Hexi is an important border port of Datang. It is also necessary to control the outflow of precious metals. These things require the support of large local businesses to put an end to smuggling.

In a word, the imperial court in the feudal era had limited control over local areas. It was unimaginable to promote reforms without in-depth cooperation with local people.

"The commander of this section believes that if this bank is opened, the five states in Hexi can mainly circulate this kind of jiaozi, which can be used as coins and silk. It has many benefits, including convenience for the people and merchants.

However, considering the size of Hexi's trade, the imperial court and Jiedu Mansion had limited financial resources, so the issuance of Jiaozi would probably require help from others.

Therefore, in this section, Shuai wants to call on local big players to donate generously, so that those who are able to share the burden can participate in the business by buying shares.

What do you think? "

Fang Chongyong looked around the crowd and asked.

The people who were still talking about it all shut up when they heard this, and then looked around, no one was willing to stand up and express their opinion.

Fang Chongyong was not in a hurry, put his hands into his sleeves, and then looked at everyone present leisurely without saying anything.

"Fang Jieshuai, I have something to say. I don't know whether to say it or not. Please forgive me, Marshal Jie."

An Zhongjing suddenly spoke with a very humble tone.

"Mr. An, please speak."

"I think that in this kind of business, it is okay for the court to do housework, but for us locals to do it, it is not interesting at all.

On the contrary, when Fang Jieshuai was the governor of Shazhou a few years ago, the things he made were very interesting.

I wonder if Fang Jieshuai has any business in that area that he can introduce to me? "

An Zhongjing asked with a smile.

It’s not that you can’t pay for it, but it’s more cost-effective to smuggle it!

"Yes, Fang Jieshuai, the past few years have been really good. As long as the trade routes are reorganized, why bother with money banks?

There is no shortage of loan sharks in Hexi. "

Someone echoed An Zhongjing and said.

Hearing this, Fang Chongyong looked confused, wondering if he had heard it wrong!

You don't do the business of printing money, but you want to do smuggling to make money?

Is there any better business in the world than printing money?

If there is, it must be a government monopoly that exclusively prints money!

I kindly share the cake with these local bumpkins, but these people don't appreciate it?

Fang Chongyong sneered in his heart. Soon he would let these people know what "generation of versions of gods" means!

(End of this chapter)