The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

"There are thirteen people involved in this case, and their previous private money marketing covered most of Southern Zhili."

Jie Xuelong took the memorial and reported to Liu Sheng.

In fact, various documents, reports, etc. on the case have been submitted to Liu Sheng's desk.

Now the report is in person to facilitate the monarch and his ministers to discuss some issues in the case immediately.

No, after Liu Sheng learned about the backgrounds of Wang Enwen and other thirteen private money minters, he had some questions.

"These thirteen people are basically big landowners. Some of their ancestors are even former Ming Dynasty officials and gentry, and some even appear to be from scholarly families."

"It stands to reason that whether these people are farming or doing business, their income is not small. Why would they choose to mint private money?"

“Is private money highly profitable?”

After hearing Liu Sheng's words, several people looked at each other, and it was Treasury Secretary Yi Yingchang who answered.

"Reporting to your Majesty, as far as I know, the profit from private money is indeed higher than collecting rent from farming."

"As for comparing it with doing business, it depends on what kind of business it is. In fact, these people actually treat their private money as a business."

"Most businesses will lose money if they don't do well. But private money is a business that is sure to make money without losing money."

"However, when it comes to making money, you can actually make more private money abroad."

"North Korea, Japan, Annan, Burma, and Nanyang countries either do not mint money, or their own coins are abandoned by the people, and most of them are based on our country's coins."

"So, if you sell copper coins overseas, your profits will be several times those at home."

"Of course, if those who make private money want to sell it overseas, they must make a large enough shipment and have connections with maritime merchants."

Liu Sheng was a little surprised.

Although he read a lot of Ming Dynasty novels before traveling through time.

But this is the first time I know that private money merchants in the Ming Dynasty were able to do business overseas!

And you can make more money overseas than at home!

It’s incredible when you think about it.

However, this also allowed him to further understand why private money was so abundant before.

Because the coins minted by the imperial court must not only be sufficient for domestic use, but also preferably have a share of "foreign exchange".

Otherwise it won’t be enough.

A court like the Ming Dynasty, which is in a mess financially, is probably not aware of this - some ministers may know, but they may not tell the emperor; even if someone does, the problem may not be taken seriously and solved.

Therefore, from the beginning, the coins officially minted by the Ming Dynasty were quite insufficient.

This gives opportunities for private money to be generated and spread.

In addition, Liu Sheng also thought of another thing.

"Since private money dealers can make considerable profits overseas, why doesn't the imperial court take over this business?"

Hearing Liu Sheng's question, except Bai Xiaosheng, Jie Xuelong, Su Guansheng and Yi Yingchang were all stunned.

Although they knew that Liu Sheng advocated the need to run the country without shame, they were still surprised to hear that Liu Sheng wanted to steal the business of a private money dealer.

Come back to your senses.

Yi Yingchang said: "The money minted by the former Ming government was not enough for domestic use, so it would not consider selling it overseas."

"Furthermore, the former Ming Dynasty did not pay much attention to commerce and had no business contacts with overseas countries. Even if it could mint a lot of copper coins, it would not think so."

Liu Sheng smiled and said, "We couldn't do it in the past, but we in Da'ei can do it. If we can make the surrounding countries use our Da'ei copper coins as the main private currency, in the future, the currency can affect the people's livelihood of that country and thus deter the country."

The three ministers from Qian Ming were stunned again.

When I thought about it, I couldn't help but look weird.

I just feel that the founding emperor of Damei was so insidious that he could think of influencing other countries through coins.

Yi Yingchang is the one who knows more about finance among the few people.

He thought for a while and reminded: "Your Majesty, even if North Korea, Japan and other neighboring countries all use Ming copper coins, it will be difficult to have a serious impact on the country."

"Although these countries use our country's copper coins, they also use gold and silver. Especially for large-scale transactions, gold and silver are basically used."

"Most of the people who use copper coins are ordinary people - even if ordinary people have difficulty in using money, I am afraid that the courts of these countries will not care about it, and may even take the opportunity to promote their own money making."

Liu Sheng's smile did not fade and he asked: "What if our silver coins are also promoted to neighboring countries? Will they abandon silver ingots and broken silver and become accustomed to our silver coins?"

Yi Yingchang frowned and said in confusion: "Our country has insufficient silver for its own use, so how can we sell it overseas?"

Liu Sheng was a little disappointed after hearing this.

"Yi Qing can't understand the relationship between this? Our one-yuan coins are worth only seven cents and two cents in silver. Even if they are taken overseas, they are not regarded as one or two, but only eight or nine cents, and they are still profitable."

"In fact, the same is true for copper coins. Our country does not have enough copper for its own use. However, if copper coins are sold overseas to purchase copper, they will be shipped back to be minted into more copper coins and then sold overseas."

"By repeating this cycle, we can naturally slowly earn the copper, silver and even gold from the surrounding countries."

Liu Sheng explained this truth simply and easily.

Not only Yi Yingchang understood it, but also Jie Xuelong, Su Guansheng, and Bai Xiaosheng.

In the final analysis, they are still not really accustomed to applying business methods between countries.

In fact, this principle can be extended to more aspects.

That is to say, in later generations, developed countries will use the material and human resources of other countries to produce high-end goods and sell them back to earn more resources.

This cycle goes on and on, using the nutrients of that country to strengthen the country.

Liu Sheng didn't continue talking because it was useless to talk to the people in front of him.

Among them, only Yi Yingchang is a minister of the Ministry of Finance, and the other three belong to other departments.

Besides, this matter can't be done just by asking the ministers to discuss it during the New Year.

This kind of national plan requires at least five, ten or even more years of planning before it can see results.

Therefore, when several people were thinking about the way of governing the country in Liu Sheng's words, Liu Sheng changed his words.

"Go back and look at these private money dealers again to see if any of them are selling money overseas."

"In addition, the Trial and Punishment Department will also give orders to the local judicial bureaus. If they catch people with experience in money trafficking overseas, they should interrogate them in detail and obtain more relevant information."

"In this way, when the time is right in a year or two, the International Trade Department can start this business of selling money overseas."

Bai Xiaosheng and Xie Xuelong responded together: "Yes."

The International Trade Department was originally an agency under the Treasury Department, but it was proposed by Liu Sheng this year and became an independent department under the Ministry of Finance.

It is specifically responsible for managing some factories and even shops in the name of the Da'ei imperial court and local government. It is also responsible for handling some prisoners' assets confiscated by the imperial court.

It can be said to be the top five important tasks under the Ministry of Finance today.

For example, this time Wang Enwen and other thirteen private money minters were almost all sentenced to exile, that is, to the frontier for several years of hard labor.

All property was confiscated.

Although these thirteen people were considered small and medium-sized landowners in Yingtian Mansion, they also confiscated a total of 20,000 to 30,000 acres of farmland, dozens of shops, and gold and silver jewelry worth millions of taels.

Here, in addition to gold and silver being handed over directly to the Treasury Department, properties, shops, real estate, jewelry, calligraphy and paintings, etc. will also be handed over to the International Trade Department.

Shops, real estate, jewelry, calligraphy and paintings, etc. are mostly auctioned, and only a few suitable ones are reserved for public use.

As for the land, it may be given as military land to meritorious soldiers, or it may be given as official land to farmers who have lost or have little land.

It can be seen from this that the International Trade Department is a powerful and well-oiled bureau, which can easily breed corruption.

But it cannot be ignored just because it is easy to breed corruption.

In Liu Sheng's view, all we need to do is strengthen supervision of such oily and watery departments and clean up more "worms".

······
Summer passes and autumn comes. In the blink of an eye, time came to September of the third year of Qianyuan (AD 1644).

The third day of September.

Li's concubine Xu Wan gave birth to a second daughter for Emperor Qianyuan, named Yuan Yuan, and named Liu Zhu.

On the same day, Xu Wan was promoted to concubine Li.

Also in this autumn, Da'ei sent troops to attack Yunnan, preparing to completely destroy the small court of Can Ming Hongguang.

This time.

The Yi army was divided into two groups: east and west.

The east road is the main one and the west road is the partial one.

The East Route Army is still led by Li Dingguo, commander of the Fifth Division of the Standing Army and Duke of Yongxing County, and bears the seal of General Dingnan.

It also commanded more than 80,000 troops, mainly composed of the 5th Division of the Standing Army, supplemented by the 4th Brigade Garrison Brigade transferred from Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hunan Provinces.

The West Route Army was led by Zhang Ao, deputy commander of the Third Division of the Standing Army and Marquis of Weiyuan (County Marquis), and was awarded the seal of Pingman General.

It commands nearly 50,000 soldiers and horses, mainly the ninth brigade of the standing army, supplemented by the third brigade of garrison troops transferred from Sichuan and Guizhou.

After the war started.

The troops and horses on both the east and west routes were overwhelmingly powerful.

In less than a month, the Eastern Route Army defeated the four prefectures of Guangnan, Guangxi, Lin'an and Qujing, and forced troops to attack Yunnan Prefecture.

The West Route Army also made slow progress.

Within one month, they successively captured Beisheng Prefecture, Heqing Prefecture, and Yao'an Prefecture, and marched into Dali Prefecture!

The reason why the Yi army captured cities so quickly was mainly because most of the defenders in these places surrendered or fled without fighting.

Not even 10% of them actually fought against the Yi army.

The reason for this situation is that in the past few years, Yunnan has been in chaos.

First, chieftains such as Wu Bikui and Sha Dingzhou rebelled.

They fought endlessly with the Ming army from Prince Mu's Mansion and the chieftains from its affiliated camps.

In the history of later generations, it started with the Wubikui rebellion. Sha Dingzhou took the opportunity to increase his strength and ambition while pacifying the Wubikui rebellion. Finally, he invaded Kunming, broke through Prince Mu's palace, and dominated Yunnan.

In this time and space, because Can Ming's power was weaker, Sha Dingzhou and Wu Bikui rebelled together, but they were not as strong as in history.

In addition, after the small court of Canming Hongguang split last year, most of the troops entered Yunnan and joined forces with the Canming forces headed by Prince Mu's Palace to suppress the rebellious chieftains such as Sha Dingzhou and Wu Bikui.

However, the small court of Hongguang was already controlled by warlords such as Fang Guoan, and there were endless internal fights.

Now that it has joined forces with the Yunnan Residual Ming forces such as Prince Mu's Mansion, the internal situation is even more chaotic.

Even though Can Ming had a great advantage over the rebel chieftains in terms of troops, money and food, and even defeated the rebel chieftains several times, it was still difficult to wipe them out.

In addition, some local officials in Yunnan had different intentions and did not obey orders, so it was naturally difficult to form a joint force to resist the Yi army.

It's mid-October.

The only areas under the control of Hongguang's small court were Dali, Chuxiong, Yunnan, Menghua, and Jingdong.

As for the many state capitals in the west and south, most of them are now controlled by chieftains.

A considerable number of these chieftains had previously participated in the rebellions of Sha Dingzhou and Wu Bikui.

Now that the Yi army has invaded Yunnan, it can be said that there are only a handful of people who are willing to obey the orders of the Hongguang court.

Seeing that the Tai army was unstoppable, warlords such as Fang Guoan and Mou Wenshou tried their old tricks again and fled to Burma with Zhu Youlang.

This proposal was fiercely opposed by the real-power civil servants, mainly Mu Tianbo, Wu Zhaoyuan, Fang Zhenru, and Yang Weizhi.

Kunming.

Imperial Palace (formerly Prince Mu's Mansion).

The gray-haired veteran Mou Wenshou raised his beard and shouted with a fierce face: "If we don't retreat to Burma, is it possible that we can still stop the Yi army?!"

"What does it mean for the emperor to go into exile abroad? In that case, how is the Ming Dynasty different from the subjugation of the country?!"

Yang Weizhi responded tit for tat.

Among the several powerful civil officials in Hongguang's small court today, Yang Weizhi has the lowest official position, serving as Yunnan's Inspector-General, Zuobu Zhengen and Chuxiong Prefect.

Such a person holding multiple positions would have been impossible a few years ago.

But it was normal in the precarious Hongguang court.

For example, Wu Zhaoyuan.

He was originally the governor of Yunnan and was already seventy-four years old.

Now he is not only a bachelor (cabinet minister), but also a minister of household affairs, governor of Yunnan, and deputy capital envoy.

At the same time, he also holds a team of thousands of people.

Another example is Fang Zhenru, who was originally the governor of Guangxi.

Originally, he lost his real power because he later joined the Hongguang court.

However, when the Hongguang court retreated into Yunnan, it seized the opportunity and regained some power.

Now he is also a bachelor (cabinet minister), and also holds the positions of Minister of Rites, Yunnan Zuo Bu Zheng Envoy, and Deputy Capital Envoy.

At the same time, he was named the "Inspection Envoy of the Beijing Camp" by Zhu Youlang, and he also controlled a "Beijing Camp" army of 3,000 people.

However, these two people now have less actual authority than Yang Weizhi in the Hongguang court.

Because Yang Weizhi has more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, including more than 3,000 Chuxiong elite soldiers!

These more than 3,000 elite soldiers were all fought during the pacification of the Wubikui and Shadingzhou rebellions.

Yang Weizhi knew that he was only thirty-seven years old, in the prime of life, and not as old as Wu Zhaoyuan and Fang Zhenru.

He is originally from Shaanxi.

His family was poor since he was a child, and his reputation was no more than a scholar.

Yet he was born brave.

As early as the early years of Chongzhen, when Gao Yingxiang was revolting, he led the local braves from time to time to cooperate with the government in suppressing bandits. He was repeatedly appreciated by the governor of Shaanxi and other officials, and then went to Tianting.

In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, he was recommended by Shaanxi officials for special use and served successively as Deputy Envoy of Yunnan Military Preparation and Branch Patrol.

After Wu Bikui and Sha Dingzhou rebelled, the troops of Prince Mu's family were defeated again and again, and could not stop the offensive of the rebel chieftains.

At its worst, the rebel chieftains even captured parts of Dali, Kunming, and Chuxiong, the core capitals of Yunnan.

At the critical moment, it was Yang Weizhi who led more than 3,000 elite Ming troops to defeat the rebellious chieftains one after another.

Later, he successively took over the Dali and Chuxiong mansions, and assisted Mu Tianbo in driving the rebellious chieftains out of Kunming, thus stabilizing the situation in Yunnan.

In such troubled times, although Yang Weizhi was a civil servant, he had more than 3,000 elite soldiers and more than 10,000 troops, and he was indeed good at fighting. It is conceivable that he had a say in the Hongguang court.

Due to the emergence of powerful civil servants such as Yang Weizhi, there were many fewer civil servants in the Hongguang court such as Guo An and Mou Wenshou.

In addition, there are not many people in the Hongguang court who are qualified to participate in this kind of "court meeting" involving the survival of the country.

As a result, Fang Guoan and Mou Wenshou had to go out in person and quarrel with Yang Weizhi and other civil servants.

at this time.

After listening to Yang Weizhi's words, Mou Wenshou couldn't help but sneer.

"The country is subjugated? Didn't the Ming Dynasty suffer the country's subjugation? We are all just hanging on to survive!"

When Fang Zhenru, who had never spoken, heard the words, he immediately faced Zhu Youlang and said: "Your Majesty, please punish Ning Guogong (Mou Wenshou) for the crime of disrespect!" (End of this chapter)