My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 354: The one who spends money is the boss!
The Shaofu basically raised the 1.1 billion yuan in starting capital with the horses and weapons under his own name, and basically did not need to pay much "cash".

The subsequent 500 million coins each year were basically supplies - in addition to the straw needed by the prime minister's office and the military rations from the treasury, there was more than 100 million coins for military pay;

Even if real gold and silver were really distributed, the Shaofu's current savings would be enough to last for more than 300 years.

To sum up: Sprinkle some water~
The Shaofu was easily responsible for the formation and support of these two standing field armies, so the "ownership" of these two troops naturally belonged to the only owner of the Shaofu's treasury: Emperor Liu Rong, rather than the entire Han Dynasty.

Maybe that's a little strange to say.

——The emperor is rich and owns the whole world. Everything in the world is his private property.

How come the army is divided into "the emperor's personal ownership" and "shared by the ancestral temple and the country"?
In fact, the gap between the two is still quite large.

Take a very simple example.

After the Heisei War, Emperor Taizu Gaozu formed the first standing field army of the Han Dynasty: the Feihu Army, almost at his own expense.

Because the imperial court - that is, the prime minister's office and the national treasury - did not help from the formation to the support of the Feihu Army, the outer court had no say in any mobilization of the Feihu Army.

The emperor said go east, and the Flying Fox Army went east;
If the emperor says go west, the Feihu Army will never go north.

To exaggerate a bit: even if a certain Han emperor was in a good mood and ordered the Feihu Army to reach for the moon in the sky and catch turtles in the five oceans, the Feihu Army would only concentrate on studying spaceships and ships instead of questioning the emperor's decision.

During this process, the outer court has no right to interfere, and will never interfere, or even interrupt.

——The money is spent by the emperor, so this army is the emperor’s private armed forces, and has nothing to do with your external court!
On the contrary, the three camps of Xiliu, Bashang and Jimen during the reign of Emperor Taizong were at the other extreme.

Back then, when Empress Dowager Lu was seriously ill and was about to die, in order to ensure that the Lu family's in-laws would not be liquidated after her death, she handed over the military power of the two imperial guards in the south and north of Chang'an to her two nephews, Lu Chan and Lu Lu, respectively.

This is Wei;
In addition to intimidation, Empress Dowager Lu also opened up a large amount of the treasury of the Shaofu to reward ministers, officials, and nobles, calling it "rewarding their merits." In fact, it was just a way to win people's hearts.

This is grace.

After using both kindness and force, Empress Dowager Lu finally felt relieved about her mother's family and closed her eyes in peace.

However, as soon as Empress Dowager Lu passed away, the brothers Lu Chan and Lu Lu forgot the Empress Dowager Lu's advice to "use both kindness and severity", and even had inappropriate thoughts and intended to subvert the country!

In the end, court officials led by Chen Ping and Zhou Bo, together with King Liu Xiang of Qi, worked together to wipe out the entire Lu clan and restore peace to the Han Dynasty.

After that, naturally, Emperor Taizong Xiaowen succeeded to the throne, but he was constrained by old ministers such as Chen Ping and Zhou Bo, and briefly went through a puppet stage like a clay statue.

After outlasting Chen Ping, overthrowing Zhou Bo, and officially taking power, Emperor Taizong was in high spirits and decided to have a decisive battle with the Huns!
Unexpectedly, King of Jibei Liu Xingju, the younger brother of King of Qi Liu Xiang, raised an army to rebel. Emperor Taizong had no choice but to make peace with the Xiongnu people and form an alliance on the front line in order to turn around and quell the rebellion of King of Jibei.

Then, there was a ten-year period of recuperation, which was interrupted by the war in the fourteenth year of Emperor Taizong's reign that almost led to the fall of the Han Dynasty...

In this process, there is a very important issue that is ignored by most people.

——The financial situation of the Han Dynasty was actually very bad when Emperor Taizu Gao first founded the country.

How bad is it?
The emperor's chariot cannot have eight horses of the same color;
The prime minister of the time didn't even have a horse, so he could only awkwardly ride in an ox cart to go to court.

Unfortunately, rebellions by foreign princes in Guandong continued one after another, and the army to suppress the rebellions was a huge expense.

In order to raise the military funds to quell the rebellion, Emperor Taizu Liu Bang had no choice but to issue the "Han Ban Liang" which was despised by later generations.

What is Han Ban Liang?
Like the Qin Ban Liang, the word "half liang" is written on the coin.
However, its weight is only one-fourth of the Qin half-liang, or three zhu, and its copper content is almost zero. The entire coin exudes a lead-silver luster.

Rather than calling it a "Han Banliang Copper Coin", it would be more accurate to say that it is a Han Sanzhu Lead Coin.

It is also called by common people: jiao qian - inferior money as thin and light as elm pods.

The reason why Emperor Taizu Liu Bang did this was very simple.

A Qin Banliang coin weighs exactly half a liang, or twelve zhu.
However, one Han Ban Liang coin weighs only three zhu.

In other words, even without changing the copper content, a Qin half-liang coin can be melted into four Han half-liang coins through simple smelting.

What's even more terrible is that the Qin Banliang, one of the most dazzling achievements of Emperor Qin Shi Huang's "unification of weights and measures", has a copper content of an astonishing 70%!
This makes the math a simple matter.

——One Qin Ban Liang, containing 70% copper, can be obtained by four Han Ban Liang coins, also containing 70% copper;

If the copper content is reduced to 30%, 20% or even less than 10%...

Thus, a vigorous coin minting campaign began throughout the Han Dynasty.

Everybody is smelting copper coins!
You only need to melt a Qin Ban Liang, add the copper obtained and a pile of cheap and useless lead, and you can get dozens or even hundreds of 'Han Ban Liang'!
Hundred times profit!
In particular, Emperor Taizu Liu Bang issued a special decree stipulating that the Qin Banliang and the Han Banliang have the same face value of "Banliang", that is, the purchasing power is the same!
As a result, the total amount of currency in the Han Dynasty increased a hundred times almost overnight!
Naturally, it also triggered inflation of hundreds or even thousands of times throughout the entire Han Dynasty.

——The price of grain, which was originally less than 100 coins, suddenly skyrocketed to 8,000 coins per stone!

During this process, only Emperor Taizu Liu Bang, relying on his first-mover advantage, "transformed" the Han Dynasty's meager money and grain into a hundred times its face value, and successfully raised the military funds to quell the rebellion of the foreign princes.

However, this act of killing to get the eggs caused irreparable and serious damage to the Han Dynasty and the economic and social order of China for decades to come.

Later, Emperor Xiaohui ascended the throne, and the former and later Emperor Shao ascended the throne one after another, which was the period of Empress Dowager Lu.

As the actual controller of the Han Dynasty during those fifteen years, Empress Dowager Lu took a series of remedial measures to clean up the mess left by her husband Liu Bang.

The first step: abolish Taizu Han Banliang, that is, three-zhu bean pod coins, and replace them with eight-zhu coins.

The second step: prohibit private minting of coins by the people and take back the minted coins to the central government.

These two measures significantly improved the social and economic order that was disrupted by Liu Bang's three-zhu coins.

——Eight-zhu coins, although still only two-thirds the weight of the Qin half-liang, are still better than three-zhu coins which are only one-fourth the weight of the Qin half-liang.

In addition, the copper content is acceptable - although not as much as the 70% of the Qin Banliang, it is also around 40% to 50%, and the color of the copper coin can be seen.

In comparison, the people just had to accept it with a pinch of their nose.

But what should we do with the old currency after the new currency is introduced?
Especially those Taizu "Han Ban Liang" coins that were completely white and had no trace of copper, they were not worth reclaiming for smelting! In desperation, Empress Dowager Lu added the third step - the "Han Law Jinbu Law" stipulated that any coin that was round on the outside and square on the inside and had not been completely broken could not be rejected even if it was slightly damaged!
To put it bluntly: as long as there is a shape of coin, even if it is pure lead, even if it weighs only three zhu or even one or two zhu, it cannot be rejected.

Violators will be fined four taels.

After this series of measures, plus the autonomous adjustments of the private market, the Han Dynasty's economy and monetary system, which had been ruined by Emperor Taizu Liu Bang, finally gradually recovered.

As for your question, how can the private market adjust itself?
It's very simple: set the corresponding price according to the quality of the coin.

Take grain for example. If you can pay with half a liang of Qin, I will sell it to you for eighty coins per stone.
If it is Empress Lü's Eight Zhu - as long as the quality is normal and the copper content is 40% to 50%, I can barely accept the price of one hundred and fifty coins per stone.

As for Taizu Sanzhu~
This is a bit complicated.

——Empress Dowager Lü issued an order: No currency of any standard shall be rejected. Of course, I dare not resist this.
But if you bring a bunch of three-zhu lead coins to pay, then I can only wait for the price to rise.

I'll just stand there with a walking bag, waiting for you to throw coins into the bag!

As you threw the coins, I looked at them to see how much copper they contained.

I think it's about time, so I'll tie the bag, and the money will be mine and the food will be yours.

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As for this pricing method, how high would the price of one stone of grain be?
Sometimes it is three thousand, sometimes it is five thousand - it mainly depends on the quality of your Sanzhu coins.

If the quality is better, it is not impossible to get 1,800 coins;

If the quality is really too poor, especially if there are a lot of pure lead coins mixed in it, I can only let you throw it away.

Maybe in the end, the food you bought is not worth the money you paid for it...

In other words, after being destroyed by Emperor Taizu Liu Bang and saved by Empress Dowager Lu, the economy of the Han Dynasty returned to the state at the beginning of the founding of the country, when the treasury was so poor that rats could run away.

Then came Emperor Taizong's ascension to the throne. But just before that, Empress Dowager Lu gave away the last bit of the Shaofu's treasury in an attempt to win people's hearts.

Therefore, Emperor Taizong had no choice but to make up his mind: to recuperate, accumulate strength, and save money in the treasury for future rulers to be used as military expenses for the decisive battle against the Huns.

By the fourteenth year of Emperor Taizong's reign, after about ten years of recuperation, the Shaofu treasury had saved up some money.

However, most of this money was used by Emperor Taizong to start the Han Dynasty's horse conscription construction, namely the Border Wall Horse Garden Project, after the war in the 14th year of Emperor Taizong's reign.

At the same time, the three camps of Xiliu, Bashang and Jimen were set up. After much deliberation, Emperor Taizong finally had to hand over all the funds for these three troops to the prime minister's treasury.

But the treasury of the prime minister's mansion has never had any extra money, from Prime Minister Xiao at the beginning of the country to the current prime minister Liu Rong: Marquis of Tao Liu She is in power!

Even if some could be squeezed out like toothpaste, it would never be enough to support three standing field armies!

How to do?
Therefore, Emperor Taizong changed the original plan of "converting them into a standing field army" to "suspending and disbanding them indefinitely";
The Shaofu treasury spread his hands and said: No money;

The prime minister's treasury cried poor: There is money, but not much.

In desperation, the three main generals of the three armies: Zhou Yafu, Marquis of Tiao, Xu Li, Marquis of Zhuzi, and Liu Li, Marquis of Pinglu, could only use the production from their respective marquisates to barely cover the expenses of the three armies.

Out of guilt, Emperor Taizong also issued a special order to the Shaofu: if the three armies of Xiliu, Bashang and Jimen came to buy food or weapons, they must pay at cost price.

——Zhou Yafu was better off, at least he had a fief of 8,100 households;
Together with the cheap supplies provided by the Shaofu, they could barely support the six schools of Xiliu, totaling 12,000 troops.

However, Xu Li and Liu Li had less than 5,000 households in total, so they were naturally unable to fully support their respective armies.

Unable to afford to support them, and unable to get rid of them, the two could only resort to a compromise: "supplying military talents" to the local counties of the Han Dynasty.

To put it bluntly, it means reducing the number of staff.

This is also the main reason why Zhou Yafu's Xiuli Camp can always maintain strong combat effectiveness, while Xu Li and Liu Li's Bashang Army and Jimen Army cannot even be considered an army.

——No money!

Not to mention the complete armor, they can’t even get two meals a day;
Not to mention it's an exercise, just not being able to starve to death is already a great blessing!
In this process, the prime minister's treasury, relying on the right to "bear part of the military expenses of the three camps of Xiliu, Bashang and Jimen", brought these three armies into the outer court, that is, the public property of the Han Dynasty.

When there is a war, whether or not to send out the three camps and how many to send out are no longer decided by the emperor alone, but require discussion by all officials and ministers before the emperor makes the final decision.

Although the emperor still retained the veto power, he also lost the "approval power".

What is one-vote right?
——Historically, Emperor Wu of Han proposed to form a standing field army to start an all-out decisive battle with the Huns!

Unexpectedly, the proposal was rejected by the outer court. In a rage, Emperor Wu of Han paid out of his own pocket and used the rich family fortune accumulated by his father and grandfather during the reign of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing to form the Yulin and Huben armies respectively!
With an army raised at his own expense, Emperor Wu of Han was able to bypass the entire outer court - with a single word and his own ideas, he easily launched a series of campaigns against the Huns.

During this process, the outer court, which had not contributed a penny to the establishment of the Yulin and Huben armies, could only dare not say a word and let Emperor Wu of Han do what he wanted...

This is precisely the reason why Liu Rong did not hesitate to order the Shaofu to take charge of all the expenses of the two commanders of the Shuofang and Hexi armies, as well as the Yulin and Huben armies.

——As for the standing field army, whoever pays for it controls it!

The money comes from the Shaofu treasury, and that is Liu Rong’s private army. When a war breaks out, Liu Rong does not need to discuss with anyone to send these troops out!

On the contrary, if the prime minister's treasury pays money - even if it is just a symbolic amount, a corresponding part of the right to speak will be taken away.

It's like going into business together.

A shop worth 200,000 yuan, you pay 180,000 yuan and your friend pays 20,000 yuan;
Even if he contributes very little, you still have to discuss it with him when something happens: Do you think this is the way to go?
Thinking of this, Liu Rong finally made up his mind: the two commanders of Shuofang and Hexi, the two armies of Yulin and Huben, from war horses, military equipment, food and supplies to the subsequent supply of food and wages - including war horse feed, all will be borne entirely by the Shaofu treasury!

Even the fodder tax collected every year would never be spent by the Prime Minister's Office or the National Treasury in vain. Instead, the Ministry of Rites would pay to buy it from the National Treasury, and then distribute it to various troops!
Such an action naturally made everyone inside and outside the court understand immediately: Liu Rong was going to become an autocratic "Emperor Wu".

As expected, Liu Rong was summoned to the Eastern Palace again.

But this time, when Liu Rong faced his grandmother, Empress Dowager Dou, his attitude was tougher than ever before...

(End of this chapter)