Late Tang

Shamen Town newly issued banknotes. The heavy copper coins of more than 20 to [-] catties that were handed out by everyone every month were replaced by a few thin sheets of colorful paper. This huge change made many people They were all caught off guard.Facing this piece of paper, some older people are full of confusion and worry.However, because Li Jing had anticipated these possible situations, the town immediately issued many notices.

When the announcement announced that the issued banknotes could be exchanged for food, cloth and clothing at any time, and even completely used the banknotes to buy new houses in the city, or purchase land in designated manors outside the city, everyone immediately settled down.At the beginning, some old people took the newly issued banknotes and went to the warehouse to rush to buy and stockpile food, but when everyone saw how much money they took out, the warehouse would sell you as much food as they wanted. The wave of worry passed.

Those who really object to banknotes are Changjie and other merchants on the island. As the town of Shamen becomes more and more prosperous, the merchants on the island also become more and more prosperous.Now Li Jing ordered that all merchants must accept banknotes as payment for goods, and even those sailors and other foreigners who came to the island had to exchange their money and silk into banknotes before they could consume on the big island.If you do not comply with the new regulations and directly accept copper coins and silk, two currencies that have been banned in the island, the merchants will be fined extremely heavy.

It’s okay if it’s just like this, but what matters now is that the banknotes received can only be circulated on the island. If they want to exchange these banknotes into money and take them out of the island, they have to go to the bank to handle the exchange business.What makes them even more upset is that merchants have to pay a handling fee to convert the banknotes in their hands into money.From the merchants' point of view, this is Li Jing's disguised breaking of his previous promise not to charge them commercial tax, and the handling fee is commercial tax.And this business tax is very tricky, how much money they have sold is clear when they exchange, unless they hold these colorful papers and don't sell them.

The issuance and circulation of banknotes on the island quickly suppressed the hidden money shortage.

But Li Jing knew in his heart that the bustle and bustle on the surface was just an appearance, and the island was still short of money.Banknotes can only be circulated internally, and when it comes to the outside world, you have to spend as much as you want, which cannot be replaced by banknotes.

By the beginning of April, the whole army in Shamen Town had finished changing their spring clothes again.Originally, this batch of spring clothes was going to be changed in February, but due to various reasons, the quilt workshop was unable to exchange them for a long time. Seeing that spring was almost over, the workshop only delivered the spring clothes of more than 8000 people.

The military uniforms of the Shamen Town Army are available throughout the year, and there are two sets of uniforms per person per season.This is the system established by Li Jing early on, and this system has always made Zhang Hong, the housekeeper, somewhat dissatisfied.In his opinion, it is enough for soldiers to have uniforms for two seasons a year, summer and winter.It's a bit extravagant to have military uniforms for the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter.But Li Jing has always insisted that not only the military uniforms for the four seasons, but also the shoes, socks and underwear that are equipped with them are distributed in a fixed amount.Even in addition to the military rations, even the towels for the soldiers to wash their faces, tooth brushes for brushing their teeth, tooth powder, soap for bathing, saponins for washing clothes, and buckets and bowls are all distributed uniformly.

In Li Jing's words, the army is sacred, and soldiers must not be treated as a group of slaves or a group of beggars.If the soldiers have lost even a bit of image, how can they have a sense of honor, and how can they be expected to defend their homes and the country and fight on the battlefield.

Money needs to be spent, and Zhang Hong, a conservative old rich man, thinks of saving money when he sees that his money is being spent quickly.

But for Li Jing, if you don't have enough money, you have to make money, instead of thinking about how to split a penny into two halves.Of course throttling is needed, but more importantly, open source.

Sitting in the town general's mansion, Li Jing was also a little bored. In April, he changed into a much lighter spring clothes, and his whole body became much lighter.But what bothers him now is money. Without money, he can't buy food, raw materials for equipment, or even guarantee the exchange of banknotes for the people.

It's just that this money is really not easy to earn. Last month's bandit suppression was good. More than 20 cottages, large and small, were wiped out, and they made a lot of extra money.But up to now, there are no pirates that can be wiped out along the coast of Dengzhou.The rest are either onshore or have to go outside Terengganu.Li Jing had already crossed the border when he sent troops to suppress the bandits along the coast of Dengzhou, just because he moved quickly every time, and he only cared about suppressing the bandits and checking the property in the lair, and he didn't even care about it.Li Jing did not repay the credit for the extermination of the bandits, and let the local officials take the credit, so everyone lived in peace, and no one sued Li Jing for sending troops across the border.

It used to be fine on the coast, but now if you want to go deep into the inland to suppress bandits, it's a bit inappropriate, let alone go to other states to suppress bandits.Sending troops across the border is always a big taboo.In Dengzhou, there are always Song Wei and others covering him, so it would be bad to go to other people's territory and cause some misunderstandings.

Even Li Jing regretted it now, if he was bolder, he might as well cooperate with Wang Xianzhi and the others and sell private salt.At present, Nantuozi Salt Factory has produced three batches of salt, and has stored 10,000+ rock salt, which has not yet been sold.If we cooperate with Wang Xianzhi, a big salt dealer, then 10,000+ rock salt will become tens of thousands of cash.

Where can I get the money, or who should I sell this batch of salt to?

When Li Jing was frowning, Li Wei suddenly reported that people from the reconnaissance battalion had found several suspicious ships outside the Pearl Waterway.They went forward and surrounded the boat. After searching, someone on the boat claimed to be the envoy of Duli Town and came to see Li Jing.

Just now Wang Xianzhi's No. [-] general, Shang Junchang, came to see him, but was arrested by Li Jing and sent to Dengzhou.In the blink of an eye, another envoy from Duli Town came, what happened?

"My subordinates may know some internal reasons." Seeing that Li Jing was a little puzzled, Li Wei hurriedly reported: "The spies sent by the reconnaissance battalion in Liaohai just reported back, saying that in the middle of the night yesterday, Li Lingpu of Qingnipu suddenly sent a fleet to attack A cruise squadron in Duli Town. Qingnipu used the magic fire we gave them and caught Duli Town by surprise. The patrol squadron of eleven ships was wiped out."

This result is astonishing. Although Qingnipu's fleet has more than 3000 people, its warships and sailors are far inferior to the equipment of the combined fleet of Duli Town.Although only one squadron was annihilated, the squadron of these eleven ships had a total of 2000 people.In terms of strength, they are even above the Qingnipu Fleet.But now, they were completely annihilated before the United Fleet came to reinforce them.

The sneak attack was one of the reasons for their defeat, and the bigger reason was that Qingnipu used divine fire in this battle. This kind of extremely powerful divine fire is not only powerful, but also has a deterrent effect.The kind of divine fire that can burn when it meets water, can't be extinguished by pouring water, can quickly burn a ship, and even ignite other ships when they are next to each other. reason.

This battle shocked the group of merchants in Duli Town.Without figuring out what that divine fire was, they no longer dared to send a fleet to cruise outside Qingni Port.Immediately withdrew all fleets back to Hong Kong, and immediately sent envoys to Shamen Town.

"They actually know that we sold this Shenhuo to Qingnipu, and the news is very well-informed." Hearing that there was such an inside story, Li Jing almost understood the other party's intention immediately.Needless to say, this group of merchants definitely wanted to buy Shenhuo.

"I think that as long as the price they give is high, it's okay to sell some to them. Anyway, didn't the general say that this magic fire can't be cracked by others?" Li Wei said on the side, and he also knew that Li Jing was frantically looking for it recently. money.

"A gentleman loves money, so he gets it in a proper way. This god fire is not an ordinary commodity. Since we sold it to our allies at a high price, we can no longer sell it to our enemies easily. Have you ever thought that we sold it to everyone? Lizhen Shenhuo, they are likely to use it against us?" Li Jing shook his head.

"Let Zhang Bingcao receive the people, and everything else is negotiable. We may sell all kinds of goods to each other, but Shenhuo can't talk about it." Although I know that if I am willing to sell, Shenhuo will definitely sell at a super high price, but Shenhuo It is completely called a strategic weapon.With such a striking force, Li Jing even strictly controlled the quantity of Qingnipu sold, so how could he sell it to his opponent Duli Town for some money.

Du Lizhen came straight to Shenhuo, but he didn't even meet Li Jing's face.Although they were quite satisfied with the many commodities on the island, they didn't really come to discuss these businesses at this time. After staying for a day, seeing that they had no chance to see Li Jing, they returned angrily.Go back to Duli town to report to Wang Pu, the city lord, and Wang Pu is furious.

Now they sent people to Dengzhou again, but this time they went straight to Daxie Walled City.It was the Feng family from Duli Town who came. Last time the entire fleet of Duli Town was wiped out, Duli Town actually didn't know what role the Shenhuo played in this battle.But they knew that Feng Zhang had been defeated by Li Jing's Shenhuo attack, so they specially sent a representative of the Feng family to find out what kind of terrifying weapon it was.

"Horror, that's the will-o'-the-wisp from hell, which is more than ten times stronger than ordinary kerosene or even fierce kerosene. This is basically a will-o'-the-wisp specially born for naval warfare, and it is specially used to deal with warships. On tall warships in this will-o'-the-wisp In front of them, there is no way to fight back. There may be some hope in the sea battle, but if it is against the coastal defense wharf equipped with this kind of will-o’-the-wisp, there is no hope at all.” Faced with the situation according to his seniority, he still came from his uncle’s family. People, Feng Zhang's face was pale, talking about this will-o'-the-wisp, as if the scene of the battlefield from that day was still emerging in front of his eyes.

(To be continued)