In addition to a large number of monks who were returned to the common people, a large number of people who were slaves in the temple were also cleared out, and the number of these slaves and maids was as high as 150,000!

These slaves and maids alone, coupled with the monks who returned to the laity, made Wu Guo increase the working population by nearly 400,000 at once, what a huge number?

You must know that now Wu has nominally unified the entire southern land except for Jingxiang and Shuzhong, although in fact there are places like Qianzhou, Shaozhou, Lingnan and other places that are not actually controlled, but in terms of the territory that can be actually controlled, the population of the whole country is estimated to be only seven or eight million.

And this time, the labor force increased by 400,000 at once, which is equivalent to half of the population obtained after the defeat of Fujian.

In fact, this is also normal, many people can't live in the troubled times, so naturally they can only escape into the empty door, such as Zhu Yuanzhang in later generations, but it is not because he can't live that he became a monk.

Therefore, as many as 400,000 monks and slaves have been cleared out of so many temples in Wu today, and this number is very normal.

Although the action to rectify the temple quickly achieved results under the high-pressure policy of the Wu court, the imperial decree of collecting the Buddha statues and bronze objects from all over the world met with great resistance.

According to Yang Wu's decree, folk Buddha statues and bronze utensils must be handed over to the government for minting money within 50 days, and if they are kept in possession of more than five catties, they will be executed.

The reason why Yang Wu issued such a strict order was also a matter of last resort.

China was originally a country lacking copper, and after a large amount of copper was used to cast bronze statues, etc., the imperial court was even more lacking in copper resources, resulting in a shortage of coins every year, and a lack of coin supply in the market, which was obviously not conducive to the development of commerce.

In the early years, when the state of Wu had just been pacified and commerce was not prosperous, the disadvantages of the lack of copper coins in the market were not serious; However, in recent years, with the unification of the south, various places have re-settled, especially the Wu court has established a merchant fleet of more than 30 ships, and actively explored overseas trade, making Wu's commerce and trade prosper rapidly.

Nowadays, the situation of lack of copper coins in the market has reached the point where it needs to be solved urgently.

Luo Zhixiang, the head of the household, proposed to Yang Wu more than once that he could either quickly find a large amount of copper to mint money, or he could only use iron to mint money.

The value of iron is far less than that of copper, and the use of iron to make money, of course, ordinary people will not be happy to accept it.

Although the imperial court can also force the people to accept, and even Yang Wu can issue paper money like later generations, but in this era, before the establishment of such a thing as "credit", rashly issuing paper money, although it can solve a temporary crisis, but it will eventually cause chaos and easily lose the support of the people.

For example, in the Yuan Dynasty in later generations, after those Mongolian barbarians discovered the more efficient "money grabbing artifact" of printing paper money, they disregarded the life and death of the people and caused a large number of paper money, resulting in serious inflation, and the people were not able to make a living, which eventually led to rebellion in various places and chaos in the world.

The paper money of the Ming Dynasty also had a large number of problems because of the uncontrolled issuance of the imperial court, and finally the paper money was unwilling to be accepted by the imperial court, and the people could only use sufficient cash to pay taxes, and could not use paper money, which shows how chaotic the issuance of paper money was at that time.

So the best way to do this is to keep using copper coins, and try to mint enough copper coins in sufficient color for the people to use.

This time, Yang Wu wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to clean up the Buddhist gate and solve the problem of insufficient copper coins in one fell swoop, so there was such a strict edict.

Of course, Yang Wu also knows that China is a country lacking copper after all, or not only copper, but also gold and silver, two precious metals are also very scarce, so there is a lack of enough precious metals, which greatly restricts the development of commerce.

In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to expand overseas and plunder from those regions where there are abundant gold and silver reserves, and on the other hand, the issuance of paper money is inevitable.

However, whether it is to go overseas to find gold mines or issue banknotes, it is not something that can be done all at once.

Meals must be eaten one bite at a time, problems must be solved one by one, and too many changes must not be made at once, otherwise the people's ability to accept them will be limited, and sooner or later there will be chaos.

Yang Wu is still young now, and there should be no problem in living for another twenty or thirty years in the future, so there is no need to be in such a hurry.

At this time, looking at the summary of the confiscated bronzes from all over the country, Luo Zhixiang's face was full of smiles.

Cleaning up the Buddha Gate was proposed by him at the beginning.

Now Yang Wu has endured it for several years, and once it is launched, it is such a resolute move, and it is Luo Zhixiang who is the happiest.

"With so many copper objects, there is no need to worry about the lack of copper coins on the market for at least the last ten years!" He sighed with a smile.

"Ten years? I'm afraid you're a little too optimistic? You must know how rapidly overseas trade has progressed since the opening of the imperial court's merchant fleet in recent years. I dare to say, don't say ten years, I'm afraid that after five years, there will be a shortage of copper money in various places. Yang Wu was a little unimpressed by Luo Zhixiang's optimism.

"Five years? The king's judgment is a bit pessimistic, right? Luo Zhixiang frowned.

"Maybe five years is indeed a bit pessimistic, but I think the ten years you said must be too long! Within 10 years, we must find a suitable way to completely solve the problem of lack of cash! ”

Luo Zhixiang said: "King, if it is really as you said, then this time the matter of cleaning up the Buddhist gate and confiscating the bronze utensils will not only delay the problem for a few years?" The minister also plans to resume the collection of cash in a year or two! ”

The collection of cash rather than the collection of goods is also an inevitable development direction in the future.

The two taxation laws of the Tang Dynasty levied cash, which was originally a great progress in history, but unfortunately in the period of insufficient cash circulation, the collection of cash would bring great inconvenience to ordinary people, so in the first year of Tianyou, Luo Zhixiang took the lead in proposing to change the collection of cash to the collection of goods in kind, in order to reduce the burden of the people.

Over the past few years, this method of expropriating goods has indeed greatly reduced the burden on the people and has been supported by the people.

However, whether it is Yang Wu or Luo Zhixiang, both of them know that the imposition of taxes in kind is only an alternative as a last resort, not a long-term solution.

Luo Zhixiang had long planned to propose to the imperial court to resume the collection of cash, but unfortunately the cash on the market had been insufficient in circulation in recent years, so his plan could not be implemented for the time being.

Seeing that Luo Zhixiang's expression was a little frustrated, Yang Wu's heart moved, and he immediately smiled: "Luo Qing, there is a way to alleviate the problem of insufficient cash to a certain extent, but Gu is a little worried that this method will be abused, so he doesn't dare to propose it rashly." ”

Luo Zhixiang's eyes suddenly lit up, and he hurriedly asked: "I don't know what the king has to say, you might as well say it and let the ministers know a little bit!" ”

Yang Wu nodded and said: "I was about to ask Luo Qing to help Gu Ti make suggestions, and the method that Gu thought of was to issue banknotes!" ”

"Issuing banknotes? What is this? Luo Zhixiang was a little dazed.

In fact, he is not to blame, the world's earliest paper money, that is, the "Jiaozi" that appeared in Sichuan during the Northern Song Dynasty, so it is normal for Luo Zhixiang not to know about paper money.

Yang Wu explained with a smile: "Luo Qing thinks that why copper coins can be circulated as coins, everyone will accept it, but ordinary copper, but not ordinary copper, everyone will not accept it?" ”

Copper has its value, so it can be used as currency, which Luo Zhixiang naturally understands; However, why the copper coins minted by the government can be circulated, while those bronze objects that have not been minted cannot be used as coins, Luo Zhixiang has not thought carefully about this before.

So after being asked by Yang Wu, he also paused for a moment, lowered his head and pondered for a moment, and then replied: "Because this is stipulated by the imperial court, and the imperial court has come forward to guarantee it, it can be circulated as a coin!" ”

"Yes, it is precisely because of the endorsement of the imperial court that copper coins can be circulated in the city. A pound of copper, after casting it into copper coins, you can generally buy more than a pound of copper, why? It is because the imperial court mixed a lot of worthless things into the process of minting copper coins, so if the copper coin is not endorsed by the imperial court, although it still has its value, it will definitely not be as valuable as its denomination! Yang Wu laughed.

In today's troubled times, all forces lack copper coins, so some forces choose to mix more base metals in the process of minting coins, and some forces go even further and simply use iron to mint money.

The value of these iron coins is naturally far less than their denomination, so in order to ensure the circulation of iron coins, these forces can only guarantee them by coercive orders.

For example, Ma Yin minted a large amount of iron coins to circulate in the city under Gao Yu's suggestion, which not only ensured that there were enough coins on the market, but also that after foreign merchants made money in Chu State, because the coins of Chu State could not be circulated in other places, these merchants had to spend these iron coins before leaving Chu State.

In this way, the economic development of the Chu State was promoted, and the government benefited greatly.

However, this method of issuing iron coins is not a long-term solution, and it can only be used in a short time, but in the long run, it is still necessary to mint enough money.

Of course, the so-called "sufficient" is only relative, such as the "Kaiyuan Tongbao" cast during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, etc., which have been circulated to this period and are still used on the market, because the weight of Kaiyuan Tongbao is sufficient, the value is high, and everyone is happy to accept it.

Other dynasties also minted coins that were relatively large in their heyday, and when they reached the end of the dynasty, their coins were underweighted.

And now the "Wuyi Tongbao" minted by Wu State, although the weight is not as sufficient as Kaiyuan Tongbao, but it is also the heaviest currency compared to the currency minted by other forces, so the currency of Wu State can often pass the world, and the people of all countries are happy to accept it, and even some barbarians in overseas areas will accept Wuyi Tongbao.

On the one hand, this greatly promoted the economic prosperity of Wu, but at the same time, it also led to a large outflow of money, which further led to the lack of coins in circulation in Wu.