Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 216 Banknotes
"You agreed?" Chen Gu asked with raised eyebrows.

"Of course not." Wu Qing'er shook her head and continued, "I just want to see what you think."

Chen Gu could not help but remain silent.

Everyone has their own demands, and in order to satisfy their various goals, they naturally want to build up their own power.

Qin Ling has a romantic mind, but Wu Qing'er has a deep mind. She is a woman with certain ambitions.

It’s just that Chen Gu’s brilliance is too dazzling, completely overshadowing hers, making it easy for people to ignore her.

However, it was precisely because Chen Gu was too dazzling that many people were suppressed and felt uncomfortable, so naturally some people would want to make a breakthrough in Wu Qing'er.

Chen Gu thought for a moment and said, "In principle, I have no objection to your participation in various things, as long as you don't do anything illegal.

But you need to understand that you are unique in your identity. People with ulterior motives may use your identity to exchange benefits.

Many things may not be obvious on the surface, but in fact they may have already violated the law.

The human heart is hard to predict. You need to think carefully to avoid being taken advantage of by someone with ulterior motives.

Although I will not punish you personally at that time, it is not impossible that I will crack down on the things you are involved in, or even uproot everything you have worked so hard to cultivate, destroying all your hard work.

Therefore, you must think carefully beforehand about what you want to do, and make sure you weigh clearly whether the person you are entrusting is reliable!"

"I understand!" Wu Qing'er nodded.

Qin Ling looked at Chen Gu with a confused look on her face, then looked at Wu Qing'er, and finally moved closer to Chen Gu.

The next day, Zhang Haomin finally rushed back to Chongqing and met Chen Gu as soon as possible.

"The matter of Zigong has been settled, and various departments have also moved into Zigong. The various salt wells have been divided into shares as you said, and the salt price will remain stable."

Chen Gu couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he heard this.

Salt and iron are necessities and the foundation of everything, so Zigong cannot be in chaos. For this reason, Chen Gu can make certain concessions. Except for the equal distribution of land, Chen Gu can leave Zigong alone and let the original powerful and wealthy continue to enjoy wealth and glory.

From now on, as long as they obey the law, Chen Ju will not touch them.

Of course, if they don't know what's good for them, Chen Gu is not afraid to cleanse Zigong. The worst that can happen is that everything starts over again.

"Let's leave the Zigong matter at this for now. You will stay in Chongqing and set up a finance department. All the expenses of the Huaxia Ministry will come from your finance department, so the income will also be kept in your finance department." Chen Gu said.

"Haha, that's great. I haven't seen how huge a sum of money hundreds of millions of taels of silver is!" Zhang Haomin said with a smile.

"Not much actually!" Chen Gu smiled and continued, "And I don't plan to transport much silver to Chongqing, most of it will still be stored in the Buddhist Treasures!"

Zhang Haomin couldn't help but frown when he heard this and said, "Now that we have occupied the entire Sichuan, our troops have penetrated into the towns below the county level. The salary alone is a huge expense. If we don't transport the money to Chongqing, I'm afraid we won't have enough to spend!"

"Copper coins are enough. How many ordinary people can afford silver?" Chen Jue paused and continued, "As for the issue of salary payment, I plan to use bills, also known as tax coupons!" Zhang Haomin was stunned and asked, "What tax coupons?"

"It's like a silver note, with a face value of one yuan and ten yuan, representing a silver coin and one tael of silver respectively. It is distributed as salary and circulated. After receiving these notes, merchants can pay them as taxes!" said Chen Gu.

"Isn't that Baochao?" Zhang Haomin was shocked when he heard this. "Baochao must not be printed. The Ming Baochao has become a piece of waste paper, and now my Huaxia Department only occupies a corner of Sichuan.

If the imperial court copied our notes, Sichuan would immediately be in chaos."

In fact, paper money had been in use in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty, and it was even very popular in the Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, it was ruined by Zhu Yuanzhang. He once printed a treasure note worth 10 million strings of cash for Zhu Di. Can you believe it?

It's like child's play.

However, paper money is the trend of the future. Even if Chen Kui does not print it, others will print it. It is better to print it by ourselves first and improve the technical reserves.

"Silver bills can be circulated, so why can't our tax vouchers be circulated?" Chen Gu insisted, "Let's arrange for someone to print them first. At worst, we can wait until we print a tax voucher that others can't copy before issuing it."

After hearing what Chen Gu said, Zhang Haomin breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that it would not be circulated for the time being. As for arranging people to print it, it was simple and the cost was not high.

"Okay, I'll arrange for someone to print it!" Zhang Haomin agreed.

Chen Gu smiled, took out two pieces of paper and handed them to Zhang Haomin.

Zhang Haomin took it and took a look. On the front of the note was written: "One Yuan, Special Tax Voucher of the Chinese Ministry", and on the back was written: "Long Live the Chinese Soldiers".

On the front of one voucher it was written: Ten Yuan, special tax voucher of the Ministry of China, and on the back it was written: The great unity of all ethnic groups and thousands of families in China.

What puzzled Zhang Haomin was, "Why are there such large blank spaces on both tax vouchers?"

"I heard there is a kind of watermark, which is the mark left before printing on the paper when it is still wet. It is not very conspicuous when viewed normally, and needs light to be transmitted to be clearly seen. You can try to make it and see how it works. Can it be used as an anti-counterfeiting mark?"

Zhang Haomin frowned and nodded, "Then let's give it a try!"

Seeing that Zhang Haomin was so resistant to paper money, Chen Gu couldn't help but sigh. The promotion of paper money would probably be full of difficulties. You, as the issuer, are not happy about it, let alone the recipient.

As the New Year approaches, more and more representatives from various prefectures and counties come to Chongqing.

Although we have delicious food and drinks every day, everyone still hopes that Chen Shuai can convene the so-called legislative assembly as soon as possible and finish it early so that everyone can go home earlier to celebrate the New Year, right?
Amid everyone's calls, although the number of people was far from complete, Chen Kui still planned to convene a legislative assembly to give it a try.

The topic of discussion is the property tax, which has never been seen in any dynasty.

At this time, there were nearly 300 representatives who had arrived in Chongqing, and these people were only from nearby prefectures and counties. People from more distant places would probably have to wait until after the New Year to come.

Considering that it would be bad to delay people's New Year celebrations and family reunions, Chen Gu simply ordered representatives from all over the country to come back after the New Year.

As for those who have already arrived, everyone will have a meeting to adjust to the new environment and then they can go back.

(End of this chapter)