Chastity Layman

  Chapter 61 Five School Offices

   Pulling a group of old men back together, the team of Zhenfu Si Yamen was basically pulled up.

"This is Wei Zheng and Wei Xuancheng, the Chief Registrar of Prince Zhan's Mansion. I specially borrowed him to work part-time as the Chief Registrar of our Zhenfu Department. There is also this one, King Ma Zhou and Ma Bin Wang. He was originally a guest of my family, and now I invite him here as well." Let’s get to know each other as the head secretary of the Zhenfu Department, and we will be colleagues from now on.”

  Qin Lang introduced Wei Zheng and Ma Zhou to everyone.

Wei Zheng came prepared, but Ma Zhou was not told anything when he was called here today. He was originally watching the excitement, but who knew that he was suddenly given an official position, and he was immediately covered with a piece of jute paper. The seal of the Ministry of Ministers was handed over to him.

  He took it in a daze, and glanced at it for a while. Ma Zhou's name was clearly written on it, and behind it was the official position of the chief secretary of the Zhenfu Department, descending from the seventh rank.

   "Saburo is this?"

   "Brother Ma, this is a confession."

   "But, but..." Ma Zhou stammered, "But I'm just white."

   Ma Zhou used to be a teaching assistant in Bozhou. This was just a foreign official position, but this official position was later resigned because he offended the governor. Therefore, he is indeed a white body now, and according to the normal rules, it is impossible for him to be directly appointed as an official.

"Brother Ma has been a guest at my house for some time. I have had a lot of contact with Brother Ma, and I know that you are a talented and capable person. Talented people like you cannot be buried. , Your Highness has given me the right to buy my own subordinates, so I will not shy away from being close to you, and this is also recommending talents for the court and His Highness. Don't refuse, as long as you use your talents to help me."

  Ma Zhou declined.

"Brother Ma, don't be too polite. Although I will give you the position of chief bookkeeper, it still depends on your ability. If you do not perform well after the three-month observation period, then the higher authorities may eventually dismiss you. If you perform well, of course everyone will be convinced, isn't it? Or is it that Brother Ma, you have no confidence in yourself and think you can't do it?"

   Never say no to a man at any time.

  Ma Yiyi heard this, and sure enough, he no longer declined, and if he refused again, he would admit that he couldn't do it.

   Please general is not as good as radical.

"Brother Yi, I know you well. When you fought with my father, you have already been awarded the title of Lieutenant of Qingche. The court also awarded you the post of captain, but you are still willing to return to my father to serve as a lieutenant." General, I know that you are not greedy for fame and fame, but now that I am out to do things, I especially need help, you are my righteous brother, and you are capable, so you must come and help me."

  Qin Lang awarded Qin Yong the title of Zuo Wei of the Zhenfu Division, from the sixth grade, this is the deputy of the Zhenfu Division, in charge of the judges, and there is another Zhenfu Division Youwei, which Qin Lang awarded to Li Kai.

  Liu Jiu, Lin San, Wei Chang, Zhang Cheng, and Zhao An were appointed as the school office orders of the front, back, middle, left, and right school offices.

  Ah Huang was granted the post of military recorder.

   There are also official positions such as joining the army, Zhucao joining the army, government, history, and Dianshi. Qin Lang simply handed over these newly appointed people to him and asked them to recommend suitable people to him.

   "It doesn't matter whether you are an official or a bad knight, and no matter which yamen he is in, as long as he has ability and talent, he can be recommended. After my assessment, he will be selected based on the best."

   "Sanlang, what does our Zhen Fu Division do?" Liu Jiu asked.

   "Suppressing violence and appeasing the people, our first task is to find Li Chengyi, the deposed prince and make him the youngest son of Julu King."

  As soon as these words came out, everyone understood the responsibilities of the Zhenfu Division, and also understood the deep meaning of this first task, which was nothing more than cutting the weeds and rooting them out.

   "Everyone take your own report, and I will send it to you later when the copper seal is ready and delivered. Now you don't have to sit still, and go find your own subordinates."

  Qin Lang set up five school offices under the Zhenfu Division, equivalent to five divisions.

  Five school offices, each with a focus on division of labor.

  Zhao An's back school office is in charge of Zhenfusi Prison, in charge of detention and interrogation.

  The left school office in charge of Lin San is responsible for intelligence, responsible for information transmission, collection, summary and analysis. The right school office in charge of Wei Chang is to develop hidden piles, send spies, and monitor.

  The former school office that Liu Jiuze is in charge of is the operation department, mainly responsible for arrests, assassinations, etc.

  The Lieutenant Colonel Administration that Zhang Cheng is in charge of is the management of logistics equipment.

   Wei Zheng, Ma Zhou, Qin Yong, and Ah Huang assisted Qin Lang in management, command, decision-making and deliberation.

  Qin Lang felt that his arrangements could be regarded as making the best of his talents. Wei Chang was originally bad and handsome, with many bad people under his command and more hidden eyeliners.

  Lin San was originally the boss of the society in Pingkangfang.

   As for Liu Jiu, he is a ruthless person, so Qin Lang planned to get a group of ruthless people to take him with him, and take charge of the operation.

  The organization was arranged, the tasks were divided, and several people went to look for his subordinates. At the same time, they also had the task of finding out the whereabouts of the Julu King, so Qin Lang was fine.

   Ma Zhou is quite active.

"This was originally a Buddhist temple. It is a spacious place for the Zhenfusi Yamen, but there are still so many Buddha statues, scriptures, etc. that need to be cleaned up. It is best to clear all these Buddhist temples, so that it is suitable for our Zhenfusi Yamen. image."

   "It's up to you. I think those Buddha statues are plated with gold and platinum powder, and there are some small copper Buddha statues. These things are quite valuable. You should find someone to melt them down."

   "That's good, it can be melted and cast into money." Ma Zhou laughed.

   "Isn't private casting illegal?" Qin Lang was a little worried.

"Sanlang, you don't know. After the founding of our dynasty, although we changed to cast Kaiyuan Tongbao coins, because the treasure coins contained high copper content, and there was little copper in the market, the amount of money minted by the court was small, and it was easy to be hidden by the people. Or it could be melted and cast into bronze wares, resulting in a constant scarcity of copper coins, so in the end the imperial court could only do both money and silk, while no longer prohibiting private money."

  In the final analysis, this is actually caused by the lack of capable people in the court's finances.

  The imperial court is now casting copper coins, about 300,000 guan coins a year, but this amount is far from enough for market demand. At the same time, the output of copper in the market is low, and the demand for various bronze wares and statues is high, which leads to high copper prices. Therefore, as long as copper coins are melted and cast into copper wares, there are often six or seven times the profit, so everyone likes to destroy money. Casting, although the imperial court strictly prohibits it, some people still take risks.

  On the one hand, the imperial court lost money on casting money, on the other hand, the newly minted money was constantly being destroyed, or because the Kaiyuan coins contained high copper content, they were kept privately by the people and were reluctant to use them, resulting in bad coins constantly driving out good ones.

  Copper coins were scarce in the market, and finally the imperial court had to lift the ban on minting private money, allowing the people to mint money, and even allowing these private money to circulate legally.

  This is the irresponsible practice of the imperial court, which leads to the confusion of various private money in the market, making it inconvenient for the common people to trade, various money transactions have different prices, and even provinces and other situations appear.

   "That said, won't we lose money if we cast money?"

   "We didn't pay the capital, how can we lose money." Ma Zhou was more accurate in his calculations.

  Qin Lang thinks about it too. The copper used to make money is bronze wares and bronze statues.

   "Then why not just sell these bronze statues and bronze wares for money?" Ah Huang said beside him.

Ma Zhou then told Ah Huang, "At the beginning of the ninth year of Wude, that is, at the beginning of this year, the imperial court has officially issued an edict to rectify Buddhism and Taoism, including the control and prohibition of Buddha statues and other objects. We have these Things cannot be legally and openly traded now, and there are only so many Buddhist temples left, and no one dares to buy ours at this time."

   "The scraped gold and platinum powder can also be cast into gold coins."

  The new coin Kaiyuan Tongbao minted by Emperor Wude of the Tang Dynasty includes not only copper Kaiyuan, but also gold Kaiyuan and silver Kaiyuan, but the number is small, and because it is more expensive, it will not be used in general transactions.

  It is a good way to make money by melting gold and copper, and then mixing some other lead and tin into them to make coins and then flow them into the market.

   Qin Lang looked at those bronze wares and golden Buddha statues, and always felt that something was wrong. How could he still lose money when making money?

  In the final analysis, copper itself is too expensive, and Kaiyuan Tongbao is just one coin, and the copper material used is sufficient. The copper material used in this penny has exceeded the value of the currency itself.

  The minting of coins requires not only copper, but also lead, etc. At the same time, there must be casting and transportation costs. Calculated, if you make a thousand coins, sometimes you may lose hundreds of coins, which really makes the court a headache.

Ma Zhou said that it is not easy to mint coins. For a coin-making furnace in the imperial court, many servants have to be recruited. One coin-making furnace can only cast 3,000 guan coins a year, and the imperial court has a total of 100 coin-making furnaces in various copper producing areas. , so only 300,000 yuan of new money is produced a year.

   "How can private money make money without losing money?"

   "Firstly, the workmanship of private money is rough, which saves labor costs. The two privately minted money reduce the purity and weight, and reduce the cost of materials. Therefore, privately minted money will not lose money and will make money."

  Of course there is another reason. Privately minted money often does not need to be transported and transferred like the imperial court, so it also saves a lot of transportation costs.

   Even many privately minted coins are directly collected copper coins, and then melted down and cast into small coins. One copper coin can cast two private coins. In addition, some privately minted coins do not even use copper at all. They use iron or lead to imitate the appearance of copper coins and flow out.

After listening to it for a long time, Qin Lang felt that the root cause was that the technology of casting money was too backward. From the Spring and Autumn Period to the Tang Dynasty, Fan Zhu's method had been used all the time, and Fan Zhu was the most likely to cause wrong models and copper flow. Casting technology is not only easy to waste materials, but also makes it difficult to unify the money cast in the same furnace, and there are often great differences in weight and fineness.

  A large money prison usually has two to three thousand craftsmen and peasants casting and processing copper coins all year round. For the convenience of copper materials, these money prisons are often located in the deep mountains and dense forests where copper is produced, and it is extremely difficult to transport them out.

   "I think, if we can find a simpler casting technology, then we can reduce the amount of copper in an appropriate amount, then this is indeed a very profitable business." Qin Lang pinched his chin and said.

  Ma Zhou smiled, "Sanlang, you are the governor of the town, why are you thinking about such trivial matters?"

"That's right. It's really a bit of a waste of time to think about it, but it's good to have a chance to get a side job and make some extra money. It will enrich the small treasury and bring some benefits to the brothers." Qin Lang also said with a smile, not for his subordinates. The leader who engages in welfare is not a good brother.

   "Sanlang, if one day you can solve the problem of private casting, then don't talk about being the prime minister, at least the position of Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs will belong to you." Ma Zhou said.

"There is nothing difficult in the world, as long as there is a caring person, if you really want to study it, I think there must be a way." Qin Lang said, although there is no way now, but he is a time traveler after all, and things like making money are not really advanced. As long as the direction is right, are you afraid that you won't be able to come up with new technologies?

  (end of this chapter)