After all, Yan Zhenqing was very old, and he came all the way, obviously a little tired, so Guo Song asked Du Siye to send him to have a good rest, Guo Song changed into civilian clothes and went to the market with two entourages to inspect.

Guo Song was very grateful to Yan Zhenqing for reminding him that they had indeed neglected the problem of a large amount of inferior money pouring in, and the fundamental solution was to mint money by themselves and isolate these inferior money from the outside, so that they could not be allowed to plunder the physical objects in Hexi.

The idea is already very clear, the key is to find out the situation in the market, how much is this inferior money?

At this time, Guo Song saw a cabinet shop, Lei's cabinet shop, which was opened by Zhang Lei in Hexi, filling the gap in the cabinet shop of the Han people in Hexi.

There are many Sogdian shops in Hexi, and they are also shops for exchanging money and saving money, but there are no money shops opened by Han people, Zhang Lei found a business opportunity, and opened the first one last year, and now there are almost every county in Hexi, and there are as many as three in Zhangye.

Guo Song walked into the cabinet, the shopkeeper was only invited from the Central Plains this year, and he didn't know Guo Song yet, the shopkeeper was very polite, stood up and bowed and said, "What does the guest officer want us to do?" ”

"I want to redeem five dollars!"

Guo Song put five taels of silver on the counter, and the shopkeeper hesitated and said: "If five taels of silver are exchanged for money, then it can be exchanged for six pieces of money, and the price of the cashier in the small shop is 1,200 wen yuan for one tael of silver, this is the market price, the whole Hexi is this price, the black market price is a little more expensive, but it is not safe." ”

"What if you give money outward? And what is the price? ”

"This ..... The small shop only accepts but does not redeem. The shopkeeper smiled sheepishly.

Guo Song secretly scolded Zhang Lei, and said: "Then Liuguan!" ”

"Wait a minute, officer, let's identify the silver."

The shopkeeper identified it a little, the silver was real, and the quality was not bad, so he signed and accepted it, took out six copper coins, put them in a basket and handed them out, "This is six pieces of money, please look at it." ”

Guo Song picked up the six pieces of money and looked at it carefully, the money was not bad, it was all Huang Chengcheng's old money, at this time, the pro-soldier mentioned a string of money and said: "Please see this consistent!" ”

The color of this money is a bit mottled, some yellow, some black, about three or four hundred dollars black, which is a sign of insufficient copper content, although the appearance is exactly the same as copper coins.

Guo Song immediately realized that this was the new money that Yan Zhenqing said, the money minted by Zhu Zhu.

"Shopkeeper, this money has always been a bit of a problem, and the quality of the money in it is different."

The shopkeeper nodded, "There are three hundred Wen in this is new money, and it is also minted by the imperial court, not small money, please feel free to use it." ”

"There is a problem with the quality of this kind of money, can it be used for every penny?"

"The guest officials don't know, now the Zhangye market is just a small amount of money and doesn't accept it, and everyone doesn't accept it, but after all, this new money is minted by the imperial court, and it is basically recognized."

"You say that the small money is not recognized, but the market has a lot of small money?"

"There was a time before when many people suffered heavy losses, mainly because the Sogdians did not recognize small money, saying that it was rotten money, and everyone refused to accept it."

Guo Song nodded, "Okay then!" I'll give it a try. ”

Guo Song walked out of the cabinet, took down the three hundred yuan, and handed it to the two guards, "You go and spend it, eat, buy things, and see how well everyone accepts it." ”

"Where is the envoy going?"

"I'm going home, and when I'm done with the money, I'll come back and report to me."

"Obey!" Two soldiers hurried away.

Guo Song turned over his horse, turned his horse's head, and ran towards his mansion.

........

After returning to the mansion, Guo Song sat down in the lobby and asked the maid to invite his wife over.

After a while, Xue Tao hurriedly walked over, "Husband is in a hurry to find me?" ”

Guo Song took out a small amount of money and handed it to her, "Do we have this kind of money in our house?" ”

"How could it not be?"

Xue Tao said angrily: "There are more than thirty pieces of this kind of small money!" If you don't need it, you will be thrown away in the storeroom. ”

"How can we have a little money?"

"It's a long story, this kind of small money appeared in February this year, not long after you set out on the expedition, someone took this money to exchange for silver, one or two silver for 1,500 Wen, the general market price is one or two silver for 1,200 Wen, there are a few stupid girls in our house who happily ran to get silver to exchange money, and soon the store did not accept this kind of small money, they were dumbfounded, came to me and cried, I saw that they were pitiful, so I used good copper coins to exchange their small money back, a total of thirty-three small coins, and they were thrown in the treasury, which was my loss."

"And what about this new money?" Guo Song took out another new coin and showed it to his wife.

"There is also this kind of new money, but it is not much, scattered and scattered, adding up to about a dozen or so."

Xue Tao was puzzled: "Is there a problem with this new money?" ”

Guo Song nodded, "The government is ready to issue an order that this new money is no longer allowed to circulate, and the new money in the hands of the people will be recovered by the government." ”

"Then our government has to mint money by itself, otherwise there won't be enough copper money."

Guo Song nodded, "I'm ready to start minting, and then I'm going to make some silver beans to supplement the copper coins." ”

Xue Tao smiled: "Actually, I'm not interested in this, if my husband doesn't have anything else, I'll go back to see the child." ”

Guo Song hesitated and said, "Yan Xiangguo is here." ”

Xue Tao was stunned, but immediately reacted, "He's here to be a matchmaker?" ”

Guo Song nodded, "He accepted the commission of the Dugu family to come over and ask for my opinion, and I agreed." ”

"The Dugu family is still looking for a matchmaker?"

Xue Tao's tone was a little jealous, "Do they still want to marry Ming Media?" ”

Guo Song hurriedly shook his head and said: "There may be a Ming media, but it is impossible to marry, I think that Yan Zhenqing came more to ask for my opinion, if it is a matchmaker, there should be a marriage book, but no, besides, people from the Dugu family cannot come to Hexi, and all kinds of ceremonies are meaningless." ”

Xue Tao felt a little more comfortable in her heart, although she agreed to the marriage request of the Dugu family from the consideration of her husband's career, it does not mean that she has no dignity, on the contrary, she values emotional single-mindedness more than ordinary Tang Dynasty women, although her husband is high and powerful, but he never messes around outside, which makes her like it very much, so she can also generously agree to marry with the Dugu family, she believes that her husband is not a person who likes the new and hates the old.

"I hope the Dugu family will be as soon as possible! Don't put it off any longer. Xue Tao also made his position clear.

At this time, the two pro-soldiers returned, and Xue Tao went back to the inner house.

Guo Song asked, "Used up so soon?" ”

The two pro-soldiers nodded, "Basically, they all accept it, and they don't resist the new money, only three stores have offered to let us exchange it for the old money." ”

Guo Song understands that this is mainly because there is not enough copper money in the market, so he will reluctantly accept new money, and it seems that the introduction of Hexi money is imminent.

........

Early the next morning, Guo Song brought Zhang Chen, who joined the army of Cangcao, and Li Yangui, who joined the army, and Li Yangui, who joined the army, and not long after, Pan Liao also hurried over.

"What do you know about the copper coins on the market?"

Pan Liao said: "We understand the situation is roughly the same, the small money only appeared for a month, and then stopped circulation, all the merchants do not accept small money, but the loss is still not small, now the new money is still in circulation, but the quantity is not as widespread as the small money, after all, it was only minted last year, and the number itself is not much." ”

"Yan Xiangguo said that the horse buyer was investigated?"

"It has been investigated, they are indeed businessmen from Weizhou, Hebei, they bought a total of three hundred and fifty horses, with silver, and paid three thousand five hundred taels of silver to the liquidation office, they did not pay taxes in Zhangye, but ran to the Delete Dan tax card to pay taxes, it is estimated that they thought that they were remote over there, and they did not understand the market, they could pay taxes with a small amount of money, but they were rejected by the tax collector, and the lowly official has ordered the tax collector to be commended."

The Liquidation Office is a trade agency of the government, under the jurisdiction of the Cangcao Division, and some important strategic materials are sold by the Liquidation Agency, such as horses, sheepskins, pig iron, wine, grain, salt and tea, etc.

The Hexi Corridor is rich in horses, sheepskins, and wine, which are in principle allowed to be sold to the outside world, while pig iron is strictly controlled and not sold to the outside world, but only sold to designated blacksmith shops, who make agricultural tools and sell them to farmers.

Guo Song nodded and said: "Today is mainly to discuss with you about the minting of Hexi money, now there are too few copper coins on the market, which has led to the loopholes of small money and new money, we must plug this loophole, Li joined the army, how are the preparations for minting money?" ”