Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 10: Money is worth money
"Yang Zhan? Where did you get this pepper?!"

Zhu Gaoxu saw a familiar food in the vegetable basket, which was chili peppers that were only introduced in the late Ming Dynasty.

However, it is very small at the moment, only a centimeter or two, and it is sun-dried.

As a person who likes spicy food, when he saw chili peppers, he felt more friendly than when he saw his fellow villagers.

"chili?"

Yang Zhan, who was immersed in lighting the fire, looked up in confusion. After seeing the red pepper in Zhu Gaoxu's hand, he cursed:
"Wang Xuan's bastard brought this from his hometown. I've said that people in Jiangnan and Peking don't eat wild pepper. This guy prefers it. Let him cook for a while, so as not to make it difficult for His Highness."

When Zhu Gaoxu heard that Yang Zhan called peppers wild peppers, he couldn't help but feel confused and looked sideways at Wang Xuan.

Wang Xuan was like a child who had done something wrong. He scratched his head and replied with a loud voice:
"Your Highness, we come from the mountains. It's humid when it's foggy, so we need to eat something spicy."

"If you don't like it, we can eat it by ourselves in the future. It's almost finished anyway..."

"I like it! How could I not like it!" Zhu Gaoxu, who was always full of passion and displeasure, gritted his teeth and said:

"This is what I like. You found this thing from Yunnan. Let your family send some more, otherwise... they will sow its seeds in the wasteland on the backyard wall!"

"Huh?" Yang Zhan was surprised when he heard that Zhu Gaoxu liked to eat wild peppers, and then felt a little uncomfortable.

He was born in Jiangnan and doesn't like spicy seasonings that much.

But he was in trouble with his front foot, and he saw Zhu Gaoxu take a bite of wild pepper with his back foot, which made him stunned.

"The spiciness is... not bad."

Tasting the spiciness of the wild pepper in his mouth, Zhu Gaoxu nodded with satisfaction. It felt that the spiciness was about the same as that of Sichuan peppercorns.

Seeing him like this, Wang Xuan also smiled and explained:
"This is a wild pepper my father and Marquis Xiping saw on the roadside when they went to fight in the south, but no one ate it. My father took a bite and felt good about it, so he took it home."

"It's just that I can't keep this thing. I'm afraid your highness will be disappointed."

Wang Xuan sighed, and Zhu Gaoxu also looked at the few wild peppers in his hand heartbrokenly: "No matter what, you try it first."

Zhu Gaoxu didn't know beforehand that there was this wild little pepper in Indochina and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Although it was not that spicy and was still very small, in order to satisfy his appetite, he still wanted Wang Xuan to try it.

Thinking about it, Zhu Gaoxu handed the seeds to Wang Xuan, who was happy next to him, and began to chop and prepare vegetables.

When the beef was almost cooked, he took it out and let it cool down. He asked Yang Zhan to wash the pot, took out the oil pot and poured a ounce of oil into it, and watched Yang Zhan's meat hurt.

You must know that oil is still expensive at this time. Ordinary people basically just roll the oil on the pot and pour it back. When it comes to Zhu Gaoxu, it is as if it is free.

Zhu Gaoxu heated up the oil in the pot and spent a quarter of an hour preparing three dishes, while Yang Zhan was looking at the rice.

By the time Zhu Gaoxu finished the last piece of cabbage soup, three dishes and one soup were already placed on the stone table in the front yard, and the rice was already ripe.

Yang Zhan brought out a pot of rice, while Wang Xuan happily came back from his work, washed his hands and took out the bowls and chopsticks.

When Zhu Gaoxu sat down, what appeared in front of him were stir-fried cabbage, stir-fried beef with wild pepper, fried river fish, and tofu and cabbage soup.

"Move chopsticks."

Zhu Gaoxu was busy finishing his meal and reading the military book, so he moved very quickly. When the two saw this, they also moved their chopsticks.

Only after eating halfway, Zhu Gaoxu asked hurriedly: "Can the common people eat our food today?"

"Those who have farmland and land at home and are still working in Nanjing should be able to eat these fish and vegetables. You will never be able to eat the beef. However, your highness's cooking is quite delicious, better than what the chef of Songjiang Prefecture makes." It’s delicious.”

Yang Zhan explained while eating, not forgetting to flatter him.After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu was not happy. Instead, he nodded with a vague understanding. He understood the life of the people in the south of the Yangtze River.

Wang Xuan, on the other hand, shook his head when he heard this and said, "That's Jiangnan. If it's the north or southwest, the food wouldn't be so rich."

"When I was in Yunnan, the Han people who migrated there could still eat a cabbage, but the local barbarians ate a portion of brown rice with some wild vegetables and water."

"It's really not a good life..." Listening to Wang Xuan's words, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but feel glad that he had traveled through time to Lao Zhu's house.

If he traveled back in time to Shaomin in the southwest, he might really have to live the life Wang Xuan talks about.

"From tomorrow onwards, you two will study martial arts as before, and then go out to buy groceries after practicing."

Zhu Gaoxu confessed, then got up and returned to the study.

When he arrived in the study, he saw the money on the table, and then walked out with the money and threw it to Yang Zhan: "From now on, you will be in charge of the money."

"So much?!" Yang Zhan took the thirty-guan worth of money with a cheerful face.

However, after he was happy, he still took the treasure banknote and reminded him: "Your Highness, this banknote may not be spent."

"Can't you spend the money?" Zhu Gaoxu frowned, and Yang Zhan also explained:
"This precious money is fine in other places, but it may be difficult to spend it in southern Zhili, Jiangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang."

Yang Zhan answered Zhu Gaoxu first, and then explained in detail.

Since the issuance of the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes, although Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that the consistent banknotes could be converted into one tael of silver or one thousand copper coins, unfortunately since the Ming Dynasty Central Bank made great efforts to issue the treasure banknotes in the eighth year of Hongwu, the treasure banknotes have been in constant trouble. The endless cycle of depreciation.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang himself also implemented some policies to recycle damaged treasure banknotes, the number of recovered treasure banknotes was far less than the number issued, which resulted in this thing not having much credibility.

Now, if I have to spend a lot of treasure money, I can spend it, but now I can buy four stones of rice with a lot of money, but it will cost four stones to buy it with treasure money.

In other words, these twenty guan treasure notes, converted into money, can only be counted as five or six guan at most.

"I understand..." Zhu Gaoxu nodded helplessly, feeling a little headache.

In fact, as a large amount of gold and silver were buried in the land by ancient nobles, and the copper during the Hongwu period was also used to make firearms, the Ming Dynasty fell into a money shortage problem from the beginning.

If Zhu Gaoxu remembers correctly, if the Ming Dynasty manages this shortcoming well, it can definitely enter the paper currency era.

But the problem is that this kind of economic problem will be difficult to solve even in later generations, because the real value of this kind of paper money lies in the fact that there must be rare metal currency or grain reserves that actually exist at a certain ratio behind it as a guarantee for the value of the paper money, that is, its reserves.

But the problem is that the Ming Dynasty did not have so many reserves, so it was very difficult to operate the Baochao system.

Zhu Yuanzhang was printing money like crazy, but he was only exchanging it but not accepting it. As more treasure money poured into the market, but only a few things were produced, the system would naturally collapse.

Zhu Gaoxu cannot hold Zhu Yuanzhang to the economic standards of future generations. Moreover, Zhu Gaoxu also feels that Zhu Yuanzhang should know the consequences of the excessive issuance of treasure banknotes.

But the problem is that the Ming Dynasty did not have enough metal to make reserves, so this system itself was a system that harvested a large number of middle class people.

"Emperor..."

Zhu Gaoxu sighed, turned back to the study and began to study the military books left by Xu Da.

Although Xu Da's military book is a bit rough, and Xu Da also boasted about the war he had commanded, it is indeed a good read for Zhu Gaoxu.

Zhu Gaoxu devoted himself wholeheartedly to the contents of the military book. He knew very well that only by learning how to lead troops in war could he better protect himself in the future.

While he was studying, the one in the Forbidden City also encountered a difficult thing...

(End of this chapter)