A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 1007: Kaifeng Eight Gates Saibei Victory, the Treasury is Empty and the National Treasury is Used
The fifteenth year of Xia Chengqian, the fourth year of Qingtai in the Later Tang Dynasty

September
It was the Double Ninth Festival, and Kaifeng was bustling with activity. Ordinary people outside the city wanted to go into the city to spend money, and the children of the powerful and wealthy in the city wanted to go out for an outing.

Nearly half of Kaifeng’s people gathered at the four city gates of Kaifeng.

The City Gate Division was under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng Prefecture and was responsible for the eight city gates of Kaifeng.

Kaifeng has two gates in each direction, so there are eight gates in Kaifeng. With this connection, there are long queues at all eight gates.

Fortunately, the city gate department had a contingency plan, with one gate for exit and one gate for entry, so the traffic was smooth.

Compared with the prosperity and bustle in the city, the palace seemed gloomy and desolate.

In the Xuanwu Hall, Bai Jian, Bai Xi, father and son, together with Cui Shaojie, Bai Shijin, Su Xiaohui and other important military officials from the Privy Council, the Governor's Office, the Marshal's Office, and the Ministry of War, gathered together.

Looking at the sand table in the hall, worry was evident in his eyes.

Even Bai Jian slumped on the throne, looking exhausted.

"Report, urgent news from Saibei."

Upon hearing the urgent news, Bai Xi, the youngest person in the hall, walked forward quickly, snatched the battle report without waiting for the messenger to kneel down, and handed it to Bai Jian.

I checked the ink pad first, and after confirming that it was correct, I tore open the envelope and read it carefully.

After a moment, Bai Jian burst into laughter and couldn't stop.

Bai Xi took the battle report and soon showed joy on his face.

In response to other people's inquiries, Bai Xi announced: "The King of Ji defeated the 300,000-strong Khitan-Jin coalition army at Baihe, beheaded 25,000 people, and captured more than 50,000 enemies. Yelu Deguang fled north, and Shi Jingtang fled back to Taiyuan."

"Okay, that's great."

Grand Commander Bai Shijin couldn't help but slap his thigh in excitement.

The same was true for others, with flushed faces.

After a while, Bai Jian regained control of his emotions and said loudly: "My lords, the battle in Hebei is over. Next, we should deal with the matter of the stone bandits."

Bai Xi took over the conversation and said angrily: "That's right. Shi Jingtang led the wolves into the pass. He is a sinner of the Xia people and must be punished. We, the Great Xia, are following the will of heaven. The descendants of the Xia people must forcefully eliminate him."

Minister of War Su Xiaohui hesitated and said, "But now we have just finished the battle in the northern frontier, and the treasury is not rich enough, should we wait a little longer?"

Although Daxia only deployed 100,000 troops this time, it fought a great battle against the 300,000-strong Khitan-Jin coalition force.

But these 100,000 were not tribal soldiers like the Khitan, nor were they mostly semi-professional soldiers like the Jin, but fully professional imperial guards.

In order to provide logistics for these 100,000 people, Kaifeng allocated countless supplies and laborers to the north.

In addition, Hebei was in a state of decay and the journey was long, so the loss along the way was at least 80%.

In other words, to deliver 10,000 shi of grain to the northern border, 8,000 shi would be lost on the way.

And a considerable portion of it was used for disaster relief in Hebei Province.

"It's difficult for us, and it's difficult for Jin as well."

"The Jin State was newly established and was extremely dependent on the support of the Khitans. However, this battle has severely damaged the Khitans. It is time for us to unify the north."

"If the Khitans recover in two years and Shi Jingtang consolidates his throne, it will be very difficult to advance westward."

Privy Councilor Cui Shaojie firmly supported Crown Prince Bai Xi's proposal.

Taking advantage of the defeat of Shi Jingtang and Yelu Deguang this year, he would capture Jin in one fell swoop, unify the north, and then mobilize half of China to defeat the Khitans.

Then he conquered other countries in the south and unified China.

"Shao Ning, tell me, can Daxia's current inventory support the deployment of a large army?"

Upon hearing Bai Jian's call, Shao Ning, the Third Division Envoy, stepped out immediately and said:

"Your Majesty, in recent years, Daxia has conquered Nanping and conquered Bashu. Hebei Road has also been plundered by the Khitan. The war in the northern frontier was launched, and the national treasury really has no extra food and grass."

"The accumulation of decades of Daxia has been wasted. Your Majesty, please think twice."

As the money bag of Daxia, Shao Ning is in charge of all the money and grain treasury of Daxia. He knows very well that Daxia's current finances are in a very urgent situation.

If it weren't for the fact that the salt and iron industry in Daxia was state-run and the minerals were nationalized, coupled with the development of commerce, there would have been a large amount of overseas trade.

The many years of water conservancy projects in Henan and the decades of accumulation of the former Bai’s Research Institute have greatly improved agricultural tools and grain varieties.

Daxia had to maintain such huge military expenditures and wage wars every year, and it had already gone bankrupt long ago.

After hearing Shao Ning's cry, Cui Shaojie, Bai Shijin and other military officers who were originally full of confidence and ready to fight a big battle were silent. After all, without money and food, there was no point in fighting a war.

After experiencing the end of the Tang Dynasty, everyone knows that the barrel of a gun is based on the purse.

Even Bai Xi stopped talking and looked at Bai Jian, wanting the emperor to decide.

Upon learning that the treasury was out of money, Bai Jian was helpless. This battle in the northern border directly wiped out Daxia's savings of several years.

If one wants to launch a war to annihilate a country, even if Daxia has high income and makes money quickly, it will take at least one or two years.

But by the time Daxia became rich, Shi Jingtang and the Khitans should have had a chance to catch their breath.

Although it is impossible to fight Daxia head-on, it is not impossible to join forces to drag Daxia into the quagmire of war, and then contact the southern countries to jointly harass Daxia's rear.

Therefore, any war to destroy a country must be fought quickly and concluded in one blow. Any war that lasts more than a year will end in failure.

As he was thinking, Bai Jian suddenly thought of someone.

"Someone, summon Bai Changzhi, the president of the Daxia Royal Chamber of Commerce, to the palace."

The Daxia Royal Chamber of Commerce was formed by the merger of many businesses under the former Bai family.

The Bai family has been passed down for a long time and has been involved in countless fields. To maintain such a large number of people, they naturally need a huge business empire to support it.

Therefore, since the pre-Zhou Dynasty, the Bai family has always been the richest businessman in the world.

The industries involved include but are not limited to shipping, grain, mining, armaments, cloth, money houses, groceries, etc.

If it's available on the market or in this world, Bai's family has a business.

Since the end of the Tang Dynasty, the feudal lords had been fighting each other. The Bai family concentrated their strength and took the lead in establishing chambers of commerce in various places to support the local feudal lords, protect the territory and the people, and greatly preserve their own strength.

When Daxia was established, the Bai family gathered all the businesses in the country and founded the "Daxia Royal Chamber of Commerce".

Moreover, the Royal Chamber of Commerce was the leader of all local chambers of commerce, and it organized groups for foreign trade and reaped huge profits from it.

"I, Bai Changzhi, pay my respects to Your Majesty. Long live Your Majesty."

Although Bai Changzhi is the president of the Royal Chamber of Commerce and a top figure in the business world, he does not hold any official title.

If it had not had the support of the royal family, it would have been devoured by outsiders without leaving a single bone behind.

"I heard the King of Qin say that you have a theory called 'bonds' that can make money, but I don't know whether it is true or not."

"Your Majesty, it is true."

"In that case, let's talk about it in detail."

"The grass people follow the order."

Then Bai Changzhi explained the principle of "bonds".

"Isn't this just private lending?" Shao Ning, as the one in charge of money, understood it immediately.

Bai Changzhi nodded and said, "Yes, this move is to transform private lending into state lending."

“It’s just that there’s a huge difference.”

“Private individuals can only lend small amounts of money, not to mention that they have no credit to back them up, and their ability to withstand disasters is not strong.”

"The country is not like that. Daxia is currently strong. Your Majesty can use the country's reputation as a guarantee and use the next year's taxes as capital to overdraw the people's money in advance. There is no intention to deceive the people."

"But this move also has disadvantages, that is, we must not lend too much money to the point where the country cannot repay its debts, which leads to its reputation going bankrupt and people becoming resentful of the country."

Bai Jian nodded and looked at Shao Ning: "What do you think, Sansi Envoy?"

Shao Ning pondered for a moment, raised his head and said firmly: "If it is true as Bai Changzhi said, I can guarantee Daxia's war expenses next year."

"Good." Bai Jian said with a smile.

"In this case, I hereby decree the establishment of the Great Xia National Treasury Department, which is responsible for the storage of gold, silver and copper coins, local mints and all other matters related to money."

"Summon the president of the Great Xia Royal Chamber of Commerce, Bai Changzhi, as the envoy of the national treasury, with a rank of the fifth rank."

"The Daxia Bank is under the national treasury. It is the only official bank in Daxia. It is used to ban disorderly local banks and offer low interest rates. It also issues 'national bonds' to gather the strength of the whole country and destroy the immoral fake Jin."

"Your Majesty is holy."

(End of this chapter)