The night of Chinese New Year's Eve passed in the excitement of the family, and Liu Xia slept with Bian Yujing in his arms tonight. The night was quiet, the snowflakes stopped, and a bright moon hung in the night sky, reflecting the white snow on the ground, shining the whole world with a piece of light.

This is the first time Liu Xia came to this world to celebrate the New Year, 16|46 is a common year, according to the sexagenary branch, it is the year of Yiyou. This year in history was not very peaceful, but when Nanming was not completely destroyed, these years were not peaceful.

Nanjing, the capital of the Southern Ming Dynasty, because of the arrival of the New Year, has become very lively, and the lanterns are brightly lit, pedestrians, tourists and those hawkers have crowded the entire city of Nanjing, and now the Qing army in the north has not attacked, so the city of Nanjing is still quite quiet, but due to the threat of Wu Sangui, some far-sighted businessmen have either transferred their property and family to the sea, or some have come to Henan.

After the fifth day of the lunar calendar, that is, the fifth day of the lunar calendar, the New Year and the holiday are over, and some officials have begun to work. That morning, Liu Xia came to the study, and then ordered someone to ask Wang En, the chief of the financial secretary, and Li Jingran, the chief of the industrial and commercial department, to come over.

Since Chinese New Year's Eve, Liu Xia thought of the way to make silver coins, he has been thinking about it in his heart, so just after the New Year, Liu Xia called the two over. Liu Xia said to Wang En: "How much silver did we spend last year?" Wang En thought it was to check him, and he was a little nervous, but he knew that he had not embezzled a copper plate, so he put down his heart again, and said: "General Hui, last year we spent 382,500 taels of silver on military expenses. ”

Liu Xia was shocked when he heard this, you must know that these 382,500 taels are 229.5 million yuan! Although it is incomparable to the 100 billion national defense expenses of the Republic, but now Liu Xia only has more than 10,000 people in his hands, which makes Liu Xia exclaim. Liu Xia said: "Then how many taels of silver do we have now?" Wang En thought for a while and said, "General Hui, my subordinates remember that there is about one million taels of silver, and because we exempted the people from taxes last year, we did not receive a single copper plate, and because of the war, industry and commerce are also very decadent, and only received five thousand taels of commercial taxes. But excluding the cost of fire, it's about four thousand five hundred taels. ”

"Fire consumption?"

Wang En nodded and said: "The silver we collected is scattered silver, in order to facilitate transportation and calculation, so according to the convention, these collected silver taels need to be melted into a whole ingot, so the manpower and material resources consumed also need to be calculated." ”

"Last year, the four ordinary brigades, the Tiger Brigade, the Wolf Roaring Brigade, the Leopard Cavalry Brigade, and the Xiongshi Brigade, spent a total of 284,000 taels of silver, and the Eagle Yangwei spent 7,000 taels of silver. The guards spent twenty-five thousand taels of silver. In addition, it costs one hundred taels to build one hundred tiger squat cannons, each of which costs one hundred taels, for a total of ten thousand taels of silver. Fifty red-coated cannons were built, each costing one hundred and fifty taels of silver, for a total of seven thousand five hundred taels. The cost of building 10,000 arquebuses is 50,000 taels of silver for each arquebus, and 5 taels of silver for each arquebus. and the expenses of the craftsmen, totaling five thousand taels of silver. In addition, there were 50,000 taels of silver for the bereavement of the fallen soldiers. And this is just military spending, the war spirit mausoleum, the armament academy, the academy and the expenditure of officials built by the general have not been counted. ”

After hearing this, Liu Xia couldn't help but have an absolute blank head, this war is really burning money! It's only been less than a year, and the military expenditure has reached 200 million, and Liu Xia finally knows that it is terrible to have no money. So Liu Xia felt that he had to find some money-making business for himself, yes, a money-making business, there is no shortage of rich people in the world, and there are many rich people in China.

"Well, Wang En, you did a very good job. But Ben Hou asked the two of you to come over today, not to talk about these things, but for other things. Liu Xia said, Wang En and Li Jingran were both a little puzzled, and the two said in unison: "I don't know what happened to the general?" Liu Xia said: "Just like Wang En said, it is time-consuming and laborious to cast the scattered silver into ingots every year, and it is not convenient to use it, and the traders each hold a pair of scissors and a scale to weigh the weight of the silver, which is really laborious, and sometimes the silver will be cut too small, and it is easy to lose." So I thought of making all the silver unified, fixed and cast into a pattern, and not allowed to cut it again. ”

Wang En and Li Jingran frowned when they heard this, and said: "General, you also know that cutting the silver into pieces is convenient for spending, after all, some people don't need so much silver taels to buy things, and it is impossible to give all the silver taels to the traders, if the general doesn't let the silver be cut into pieces, then ......."

Liu Xia listened to the worries of the two of them, and said with a smile: "Ben Hou doesn't mean that, Ben Hou means that the silver is cast into a silver coin, just like the copper plate, with a fixed size, and then we will cast it into different sizes to facilitate exchange, so that you don't have to worry about not being able to find it." ”

Wang En thought for a while and asked, "Then I don't know how many taels the general makes a silver coin weigh?" ”

Liu Xia thought about it, and then said the parameters of Yuan Datou in history, but Liu Xia modified it, in order to make the parameters of the calculation better, it will be heavier, and Yuan Datou is seven coins and two cents in history, Liu Xia said: "I thought, take the silver coin as our official currency, and temporarily issue two denominations of silver coins, one is a silver coin weighing about five coins, and the other is a silver coin weighing about one tael. On the top of the heavy five coins is engraved with the words "five coins", and then around the top is a row of words that read "Pingbei Military System", and on the other side is carved the head of the general. The silver coin, which weighs about one tael, is engraved with the word "one yuan" on one side, surrounded by a row of words that read 'Pingbei Military System', and the head of the general is engraved on the other. Among them, the 'five coins' belong to the transitional currency, and the one yuan belongs to the standard currency, the official national currency. ”

As a figure who is now about to reach the peak of power, Liu Xia also has vanity, after Yuan Shikai took power in history, he made the silver coin into Yuan Datou, and the silver coin issued by Sun Yat-sen was engraved with the head of Sun Yat-sen, and now Liu Xia is in power, and he also said that he abides by the rules.

Wang En and Li Jingran listened, the two looked at each other speechlessly, and carved their own heads on the silver coin, this Liu Xia! But neither of them said anything, Liu Xia's idea is good, and both of them agree, but it is a little difficult to issue it now, after all, it is impossible to take everyone's money!

Wang Endao: "The general's idea is good, and his subordinates agree, but I want to promote ......" Li Jingran also nodded, indicating that there was a problem with this promotion.

Liu Xia said with a smile: "We will first make all the 1 million taels of silver in stock into silver coins, and then send them out when the military salary is issued in the future." In addition, General Ben planned to set up a Luoyang Bank, and all the currency would be deposited in the bank. Then Liu Xia explained some of the rules of the bank to the two of them.

"Good!" Wang En often comes into contact with currency, and he is amazed by the bank that Liu Xia said. Although Li Jingran doesn't know too much, she also knows that it is a good thing.

"The reason why General Ben called you, the chief of the Department of Industry and Commerce, is to ask you to go down and unite with the large traders in Henan, so that they can support this measure of the Guogong Government, and if they agree, he will give them certain preferential policies, and I believe they will not quit. In addition, General Ben decided to set up a few factories to earn military expenses, after all, this cost is too great, if you don't have a lot of silver, you can't raise it at all! ”

Wang En was deeply able to understand the matter of silver, so he said, "What kind of factory does the general want to open?" ”

Liu Xia thought for a while and said, "Open a glass factory first, I believe that many people will like the transparent and beautiful glass." "Liu Xia has the method of making glass in later generations, so naturally he has no way to make money.

"Glass?" Wang En and Li Jingran wondered.

Liu Xia smiled and said, "You'll know when the time comes." Let's not talk about it now. Okay, you go down and start preparing, especially Wang En, General Ben has handed over so much silver to you, don't let General Ben down! ”

Wang En was full of wit, and hurriedly said: "The general's subordinates must do a good job." ”