Seventeen years of Chongzhen.

What does this year mean?

No one knows, at least for many of them, that year means.

But Zhu Guoqiang knows very well that this year, for Daming, means a new beginning.

In fact, he has been waiting for this year for all these years.

In the following months, Zhu Guoqiang, as usual, handled various government affairs in the Pingyu General's Mansion every day, considering the threat from the polar bear in the north, he even instructed the Tun Reclamation Division to appease the poor peasants in exile in Guannei, plough cattle for them, and recruit people to reclaim fields along the Songhua River to the Heilongjiang River.

Only in the millions of immigrants, you can ensure that the land in the north will always return to the Ming Dynasty!

Of course, this is also preparing for the expedition, after all, tens of thousands of miles of expeditions, the closer the grain and grass are to the front line, the more likely it is to succeed, of course, the expeditionary force can also be like the Russians - burn and loot all the way, and feed the enemy, but from Dzerzhinsky, Zhu Guoqiang learned that the conquest of the Cossacks, robbing the food of the locals is robbery, but when the food is not enough, they will even capture the local residents to kill and eat.

Our Ming legion is not so barbaric.

But for Zhu Guoqiang, the Far North is just an episode, what is more important? Or Kannai.

In the evening of that day, Zhu Guoqiang was eating while playing with the copper coins in his hand. These are all private coins minted in Dalian at present, and in order to pay the officers and soldiers and the laborers, they are specially minted in Dalian with imported copper.

At the end of the dynasty, the first to collapse was the finances, and the collapse of ancient dynasties often began with the money policy, and in order to make up for the financial deficit in the apocalypse, it was still solved by increasing the amount of coinage. In this case, the provincial money bureaus across the country cast "when ten" to make a profit. Later, because the official and private coins minted too much money were too bad and too bad, they ordered to stop minting, and the court issued silver and recovered it as ten coins.

In the first year of Chongzhen, "Chongzhen Tongbao" was cast, and it began to stipulate that every penny minted was a penny, and two coins of copper were used. Efforts were made to restore the old system of Jiajing and Longqing, but it was not maintained, but because the imperial court's finances almost collapsed. The money bureaus in various places wantonly minted indiscriminately, and the money, characters, sizes, and weights of the money minted were different, and the confusion of the money law was more than that of the apocalypse.

It is precisely because of this that Zhu Guoqiang will instruct to mint copper coins in the form of "Chongzhen Tongbao", which is mainly to meet the needs of circulation inside and outside the customs, and also to facilitate the exchange between new and old money. This kind of copper coin weighing 1.25 yuan, although the weight can not catch up with the standard of the early years, but the craftsmanship is exquisite, and the seven copper and three lead materials are full.

Since the minting of this kind of good money, it has been called "Liaodong money" by the people, and it was only circulated in Liaodong at the beginning, and now even Nanzhili, Huguang and other places are also circulating and used.

"What are you doing staring at the copper coin?"

Suddenly, there was a delicate voice on the side, it was Mingzheng. In October of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, she led more than 400 officials and palace maids to marry the Ming Dynasty and Zhu Guoqiang.

Although Zhu Guoqiang has already become a princess and a side concubine, what kind of concubine such a Japanese emperor marries him has not been decided until now, but even so, it does not prevent Zhu Guoqiang from becoming the man who sleeps with the emperor.

Not only slept, but even the belly was bigger.

Although he has been married to Daming for more than a year, Mingzheng's official words are a little blunt. Looking up at her, her appearance is still as fresh and natural as when she first saw her, not to mention how amazing, after all, there are already Chen Yuanyuan, Li Xiangjun, and Liu Ru at home, compared to their brilliance, she is like a girl next door like Aragaki Yui, fresh and lovely.

Of course, the girl next door doesn't have the status of an emperor.

This identity is really good, at least in the past year, Japan has been sending people to Dalian, asking to see the emperor, and by the way asking for help - this year, Huang Taiji can make the Japanese disaster not light, not to mention the successful landing in Japan, and even rebuilt the green battalion in the local area. He also recruited foreign daimyos, and he looked like he was going to conquer Japan.

However, Zhu Guoqiang did not agree to Japan's request for help, after all, Daming's own affairs have not been resolved.

Zhu Guoqiang said with a smile:

"Don't underestimate this copper coin, if it is operated well, this copper coin is a weapon."

Pinching the small copper coin in his hand, he said with a smile.

"In the future, if we enter the customs, copper coins will not only be money, but also our weapons for entering the customs, weapons to conquer the hearts of the people, Mingzheng, you know, we are in North Korea, what is the first to conquer the hearts of the Korean people?"

"Copper coins, huh?"

"Yes!"

Zhu Guoqiang nodded and said.

"North Koreans do not use gold and silver, only use copper coins, and North Korean copper coins are of low quality, low copper content, when the Pingyu army entered the DPRK, buying and selling materials, employing people, all with Dalian cast "Chongzhen Tongbao", after the war, North Korean copper coins are not used, the people only recognize "Chongzhen Tongbao", and do not recognize North Korean copper coins, even if it is the North Korean government, in the end can only be recast "Chongzhen Tongbao", too North Koreans, the Ming Dynasty is high in the Celestial Dynasty, and now, it is relying on it to ......"

Holding the copper coin in his hand, Zhu Guoqiang said with a smile.

"The people of North Korea already know that North Korea is a part of the Ming Dynasty, and this money system is a matter of people's hearts, and the North Korean people use my Ming Dynasty to make money, so they naturally regard my Ming Dynasty as orthodox and regard themselves as the people of my Ming Dynasty!"

Although he is the emperor, he is actually a decoration, and he has no interest in this, and only says:

"Mingzheng doesn't understand these major things, but Mingzheng knows that no matter how good the copper money is, there is no gold or silver to use."

Zhu Guoqiang shook his head and laughed:

"It's true that there is no gold and silver to use, but the people of the world use copper coins to buy and sell materials, well, when you say that, I think about it, and speaking of which, it's time to mint new money."

In fact, whether it was in the past or now, Zhu Guoqiang has been minting new money, for example, the Pingyu Army used the "Liaodong Military Salary Silver Dollar", which is a kind of imitation of the military salary silver dollar of Longyang in later generations. In addition to one or two silver dollars for military salaries, there are also five coins and one silver dollar. These military pay silver dollars, although the silver content is slightly lower than the silver, but because of the exquisite production, accurate measurement does not need to check the fineness of the silver before weighing, so it is very popular in the market, small transactions are also very convenient, there is no need to cut a corner of the silver, directly to one tael, five or one penny of military pay silver dollars.

For several years, the silver dollar has long gained a firm foothold in the market. But the military salary is returned to the military salary, for Zhu Guoqiang, he wants to "usurp the throne".

If the people are good at using Dalian money, they will naturally regard me as orthodox!

With the successful experience in North Korea, how could Zhu Guoqiang ignore such a war?

"Why don't you mint new money first?"

Playing with the copper in his hand, Zhu Guoqiang's mind subconsciously emerged - "Daming Tongbao", and a mechanism currency emerged.

In fact, although Dalian has been minting new money, the new money has not been enough, this is because the money is too exquisite, the materials are full, and the exquisite Dalian money is brought to the market by merchants to circulate. If it weren't for the fact that copper is used to mint money, not only will it not lose money, but it can also make money, I'm afraid that the minting would have been stopped a long time ago.

But the cost of minting money is still too high.

Why do you have to mint money?

Even now, the steam engine in Dalian has been successfully improved, and it has been put into practical use for two years, and even a steam-powered spinning mill has been built. In the future, it will be possible to press coins with steam. With steam engines and presses, it was possible to make coins on a large scale, and the cost was low, and the merchants took them out at will, and you brought them to the world, and it happened to save you money on your own side.

As long as the amount is full, the market will soon accept the "Daming Tongbao", and when the time comes, it doesn't matter who is orthodox, the most important thing is that as long as the emperor's surname is Zhu.

That's right, when the Chongzhen Tongbao in the market is squeezed out by the "Daming Tongbao", who is the orthodoxy in the eyes of the people?

Will it still be him Chongzhen?

Thinking so in his heart, Zhu Guoqiang couldn't help but regret it a little.

"It's late, it's late, if I had figured this out two years earlier, there would have been room for the rogues to make trouble to this step!"