Late Tang

Cao Shenjun Zhang Hong, the soldier in charge of money, flipped through the account book, and said with some embarrassment: "We have no money."

Li Jing froze for a moment, and said in disbelief, "How is this possible? Where did our money go?"

Zhang Hong spread out the account book, and said helplessly: "It is true that we are going to run out of money, and now there is only 11 guan in the account. 11 guan seems to be a lot, but we are not like before. We have a big family and a big business. It’s not much money at all.”

Over the past period of time, Shamen Town has traded with Zhendonghai, wiped out pirates, robbed almost the entire Daxie Islands, and recently robbed more than 20 pirates and bandits. Every time, there is a lot of income, why is there no money? up?

Zhang Hong poured out the chips in the counting bag in front of Li Jing, and started to calculate in front of Li Jing with chips with various marks.Shamen Town has indeed made a lot of money in the past three months, and it is estimated that there may be millions of dollars.However, it is easy for Shamen Town to get money, but it is also like flowing water.

One of the biggest expenditures is military expenses, including the salaries of the soldiers and the replacement equipment and armor.A standard set of iron armor is fifty guan, and a set of leather armor requires [-] guan.Another horizontal knife has three punctures, a bow has five punctures, and a crossbow has eight punctures.A spear hits twice, and a spear hits three times.A feather arrow costs sixty renminbi, and a crossbow nail costs eighty renminbi.A leather shield costs five hundred guan, and a square iron shield costs five guan.There is one iron helmet, and the Mo knife is twenty.

Based on the current equipment of the seven main battalions, an ordinary surprise soldier is equipped with an eight-foot three-edged spear, a square iron shield, an iron helmet, a set of iron armor, a horizontal knife, a bow, and a pot of three Ten arrows.Calculated, it is almost 200 guan, and there are [-] people in one capital, which is [-] guan. There are three surprise soldiers in the seven battalions, and there are [-] guan.

The other shield soldiers and crossbow soldiers are similar, and the Mo Dao soldiers are more expensive. Two sets of armor and a Mo Dao are already more than a hundred guan.But the more expensive ones are the cavalry. Although the cavalry wears leather armor, their horses also wear vests. A set of vests is forty guan, not counting the cost of each horse exceeding 350 guan, and the huge monthly cost of saddles and horses. consume.A cavalryman costs five times as much as a raider.In other words, a surprise soldier needs 25 guan, and a well-equipped cavalry may cost [-] guan.There are now three cavalry towns in the entire Shamen Town, not counting the cavalry in the reconnaissance capital. In total, there are more than [-] cavalry. The less than a thousand cavalry alone cost nearly [-] yuan.

An arrow costs 100 Wen, and 6 million feather arrows cost more than [-].

This is not counting the warships in Shamen Town and the pack horses and donkeys needed for logistics.According to the standard equipment of the Tang army, 30.00% of the entire army is logistics auxiliary soldiers, and every ten soldiers must be equipped with six pack donkeys.Shamen Town now has a logistics battalion and a transportation battalion, a total of eight battalions with more than 20 people.In addition to the horses of the cavalry and the private horses of the officers and soldiers, the entire army has as many as [-] horses and donkeys for logistics.If you count the private horses of the soldiers, it almost reaches one head per person.Although this ensured the strong mobility and transportation capacity of the Shamen Town Army, the cost of these pack horses and donkeys was not low. A donkey with thirty or forty packs of horses would cost more than [-] yuan in logistics.

8000 people and horses, including the equipment of the entire army, war horses, pack horses, etc., the money spent was as high as 30 million.If it weren't for the miraculous plundering of so much money from Shamen Town, it would be impossible to arm such a large and well-equipped army.This is a bottomless pit, and people consume a lot of horse chews every day.This is not all the expenses. After each battle, Li Jing's generous rewards and heavy pensions are also an important reason for the huge expenses.

"The food supplies and salaries of the soldiers are more than [-] guan every month. If you add the expenses of war horses and logistics pack horses, the monthly expenditure will be at least [-] guan. This is still the case when there is no battle. If there is a battle, you have to count the battle." Expenses, rewards and pensions are at least five times that of non-combat times." Zhang Hong sighed.

It’s not that I don’t know, but it’s shocking to maintain the current army of 8000 people, and more than 100 million guns were actually thrown in.

Li Jing took a breath, "We won't really go bankrupt, will we?"

Li Chun, who was in charge of the military affairs, smiled and said: "Zhang Bingcao is just reminding the general in advance. Judging from the current situation, we don't need [-] troops to defend this town, two forts, nine forts and seventeen islands." I think it is enough to maintain a standing army of about [-]. Others can be used as junior soldiers. They usually return home to do farming and make a living. If there is a war, they will be recruited later. The consumption of raising soldiers is really too high. It’s really not worth it.”

Li Jing rejected Uncle Cong's proposal, the war is coming soon, how could there be too many soldiers.Now it seems that there are too many soldiers, but once the fight starts, no one will say that again.

"In fact, we still have some money." Zhang Hong finally said something that made Li Jing feel more relaxed: "But we have no cash, copper coins are only 11 guan, and there are more silk, more than 30 pieces. More than 20 guan. Now the liquor workshop, perfume workshop, rock sugar workshop and even the ordnance workshop in the town, as well as the newly built lighter workshop, canning workshop, and salt factory, are all very profitable. However, all workshops are now According to the general's instructions, the finished products are all bartered, white wine for food, ordnance for materials, etc. There is really no money to go in. A lot of money in our hands has flowed to the soldiers and the workshops on the island In the hands of the workers, all the salaries were sent out. Seeing that there is no cash in our treasury to use, there is a shortage of money.”

What Zhang Hong was talking about was also the current situation on the island. The salaries of the soldiers and workers in the workshop in Shamen town were higher than those outside, and the army and workshops in Shamen town paid meals.This caused everyone to spend less after receiving their salaries, and they all kept the money in their hands.There is no cash flow in for foreign business in Shamen Town, and the money in hand is constantly flowing into the hands of the people and no longer used. After a while, Shamen Town has no money to use, no money to pay the salaries of the soldiers and craftsmen.

"Why don't you charge half of the money for foreign transactions?" Zhang Hong asked.There was a money shortage in the late Tang Dynasty, but now the money shortage in Shamen Town is even more serious.

"No, it's just March, and the spring drought is very serious. This year will definitely be another year of severe drought in the north. Food is in short supply, and it will become more and more difficult to buy food in the future. Even if you have money, you may not be able to buy it." Therefore, we have to take advantage of the fact that these commodities in our hands are still selling well, so we have to take the opportunity to exchange these commodities for food and raw materials. The armory workshop should also continue to exchange raw materials. The captured ones are useless, I plan to sell them all, and the ones we use must be finely crafted."

"Our existing food is enough for the army and civilians for two years. Now the price of food is getting higher day by day. At this time, we will try our best to stock up on food. If there is a bumper harvest next year and the food drops, then we will lose money." Li Chun reminded Li Jing.

Li Jing shook his head and said slowly: "You have to believe me, the price of food in the future will only be higher than it is now, it will be more precious than now, and it will never be cheaper. From now on, we can buy as much as we can, and we can buy as much as we can. Change as much as you want, and stock up with all your strength. And whether it is rice, millet, wheat, or even sorghum, highland barley, soybeans, as long as it is edible, we will try our best to buy it and hoard it. The canning workshop should also step up and catch more fish to make it. Canned and stored."

Everyone was a little surprised by Li Jing's act of comprehensively preparing for the famine, but considering the severe drought for two consecutive years, they also felt that there was nothing wrong with doing so.

"What about the money shortage?" Zhang Hong asked with a headache. Last time they brought back three money-making furnaces and more than 100 craftsmen from Fengshi's Cat Island in Liaohai.Li Jing secretly started casting private money. For every thousand coins cast, the profit can be almost 150 coins. The profit of 15.00% seems very high.However, even if a money-making furnace is started all year round, it can only cast 4 guan coins, and the three furnaces add up to only [-] guan coins.Doing the math, it's only a profit of [-] guan.In Li Jing's opinion, this is really a bit tasteless. He also thought about increasing the money-making furnace, but casting money requires a lot of copper coins, lead and tin. A consistent amount of money requires nearly four catties of copper, and ten thousand coins equals more than [-] catties of copper. .However, copper, lead, and tin are all metals controlled by the imperial court, and it is difficult to get them.

Li Jing also frowned. If the money shortage continued, the people on the island would have to barter, which would be a serious blow to the island's economy.

Zhang Chengye, who had been attending the meeting, suddenly said, "After we went to the island, I saw that the soldiers on the island took the money to change some kind of paper for work points at the military recorder, and then used the work points recorded on this paper to buy a house. I always thought it was strange. Now that there is a shortage of money, can we temporarily use this piece of paper to replace it on the island?"

A flash of inspiration flashed in front of Li Jing's eyes, and he couldn't help but slapped his hands heavily.This piece of Chengye really awakened the dreamer with one word, how could I forget this.The shortage of money is due to the high value of copper coins and the small amount of copper produced. The imperial court casts very little money. Only more than 30 guan of new coins are minted a year, and they are often melted and cast into bronze wares by the common people, or even directly traded abroad. Go to the feudal kingdom.

But if you use banknotes, it is completely different. The banknotes themselves are of little value.Looking at history, during the Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese also issued military coupons, and our army also issued border area coupons.Li Jing can also issue banknotes in Shamen Town to upgrade this work point and use it to temporarily replace money.

Of course, banknotes of later generations cannot be issued directly.After thinking for a long time, Li Jing brought up the idea of ​​banknotes.

"We set up a bank and issued two kinds of banknotes. One is anonymous banknotes, which are divided into four types: [-] Wen, [-] Wen, [-] Wen and [-] Wen. They are directly used to replace copper coins, but only for the thirteen of the town. Used on the island, one hundred Wen is equivalent to one hundred Wen copper coins. In the future, the salaries of the army and the workshop will be issued directly. The other is to issue registered banknotes, which are similar to flying money. Registered banknotes have always been up to a hundred guan denominations."

"Will everyone not accept it? After all, a piece of thin paper represents everyone's hard-earned money for a month."

Li Jing smiled, "The key lies in the purchasing power of this piece of paper. Like work points, it is not a piece of paper, but everyone uses money to exchange work points to buy a house. In the future, the shops in our island will also be unified. When selling items, use In this way, we can not use money, but only use banknotes to circulate on the island, solving the problem of money shortage.”

"Are those merchants willing? If they want to buy goods outside, don't they have to pay cash?"

"This can be exchanged by them. According to the actual purchase situation, we will withdraw the banknotes from their collection and exchange them into copper coins or silk."

The idea of ​​banknotes from the bank made everyone present actively participate in it, and constantly put forward various opinions.Li Jing was very happy to see this, and came up with solutions to some of the problems raised by everyone.Although the issuance of this banknote is still a bit immature, Li Jing believes that if done well, this is definitely an excellent strategy, which can at least stimulate the island's economy and avoid the loss of money.

Let’s try it out first. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Jiaozi could be circulated throughout the country. Li Jing didn’t believe that his own banknotes could not be circulated among 10,000+ people on such a dozen islands.

There used to be a paper mill and a printing workshop in Shamen Town. Li Jing saw that at this time in the late Tang Dynasty, the people worshiped Buddhism, the temples were very popular, and even the Buddhist scriptures were sold very well.Li Jing himself is not a believer in Buddhism, but Li Jing is now working hard to make money and accumulate food.Seeing that Buddhist scriptures are so popular, the idea of ​​printing Buddhist scriptures for sale was unavoidable.

He inquired a little bit, and found that the business of Buddhist scriptures was very promising, especially in Japan, which was separated by a sea, the most worshiped Buddha. Every year, merchants in the Tang Dynasty exported a large number of Buddha statues, Buddhist scriptures, sandalwood and other items, and the profits were astonishing.After knowing this situation, Li Jing would naturally not miss it.A group of paper workers and printing workers were recruited to set up the workshop.

But since Li Jing wants to do this, of course it won't be a small fight.Using his own knowledge, Li Jing improved the craftsmanship of the paper workshop to several levels, and created several new and better papers at a lower cost.Li Jing even asked craftsmen to rush out a toilet paper, which finally put an end to the troubles of going to the toilet in Datang.

In terms of printing, Li Jing even introduced movable type printing with lead type. Since the printed Buddhist scriptures are printed in large quantities, the engraving and movable type printing is very suitable and the cost is greatly reduced.Right now this new business is in full swing, and the first batch of Buddhist scriptures has already been stored in a warehouse.

With the convenience of paper mills and printing factories, Li Jing simply researched and manufactured a better paper with the craftsmen as banknote paper.Each of the new banknotes is the size of a five-sheet paper, and adopts five-color overprinting technology, which has high anti-counterfeiting performance.However, Li Jing was also very cautious about issuing banknotes. He set up a bank and appointed many officials in charge.In the first batch, Li Jing did not dare to print more, and only printed 50 guan notes, which were issued at a ratio of [-] to [-] of the [-] copper principal he deposited in the bank.

When the new banknotes were released from the factory, Li Jing immediately ordered the issuance of banknotes throughout the town. From now on, all soldiers and workers would be paid [-]% of their salaries in banknotes, [-]% in silk, and [-]% in money.In addition, it is stipulated that all shops on the island are open on the island, and priority is given to collecting money.Banknotes and copper are exchanged at a ratio of one to one. People can exchange banknotes with money and silk at any time, but there are restrictions on the exchange of banknotes for copper coins.

(To be continued)