Datong is also worried about the Qing State, this barbaric country towards civilization is vibrant, tenacious and warlike, it is definitely a huge hidden danger, not only to limit its development, but also to eradicate it as soon as possible, but the Ming State or another Han dynasty to replace it is equally dangerous, the failed country is accustomed to dictatorship, disregard for civil rights, once turned over is the sworn enemy of freedom, it must also be completely weakened - the Qing State goes south in the interests of Datong, but to what extent the Ming State is weakened is when to send troops to fight the Qing State is not easy to master, and it is certain to start fighting, When to do it is the question.

Song Yihe, the governor of the Terracotta Division, initially reported to the House of Representatives the regulations for sending troops: the time for sending troops was set when the Qing army occupied Nanjing, Wuchang and Luoyang sent 100,000 troops to sweep Jiangbei and Jiangnan, and Datong and Rizhao sent 100,000 troops to attack Zhili and Shandong, and after succeeding, they marched into Liaodong, and ended the war within a year, and they had to allocate 8 million taels of military expenses - but no one expected that the Qing army would be so fast and occupy Nanjing and Hangzhou in two months.

The Senate and the House of Representatives were angry, this is simply child's play, and the relevant officials must be investigated, so the Prime Minister Wu Xian, the Governor of the Du Branch Li Jianji, the Governor of the Soldiers and Horses Division Song Yihe, the Governor of the Metropolitan Governor's Office Zhao Ji, and the Associate Metropolitan Governor's Office Affairs Xue Xianguang were all summoned to the House for accountability.

The Prime Minister's Office only asks about the military and political affairs, not about the military orders, the command of the war belongs to the Metropolitan Governor's Office, and the Soldiers and Horses Division only budgets the military expenses according to the operational regulations of the Metropolitan Governor's Office, and then submits it to the branch bureau for deliberation, and finally the Prime Minister's government affairs seal is signed and sent to the Parliament, the Prime Minister's Office is actually not responsible, Wu Xian, Li Jianji, and Song Yihe were purely called to accompany and tie up, and the Metropolitan Governor's Office will definitely not be able to run away, but the councillor does not dare to challenge the old horse thief Zhao Ji, and the spearhead is pointed at Xue Xianguang, Xue Xianguang has nowhere to shirk, Zhao Ji is not very literate, and the combat regulations are indeed formulated by him.

At the end of last year, it was abolished by a resolution of the House of Representatives, and the governor Fang Zhikun was elected by the House of Representatives as a federal senator because of his qualifications.

"Xue Xianguang, you are an old military officer, this kind of thing that you can finish the war by drinking wine and singing is up to you, tell me what's going on!" Fang asked.

Xue Xianguang cried out in pain: "I can't think of it, I can't think of it!" I thought that the Ming army would be able to fight for more than three months in Jiangbei no matter what, at least 20,000 Qing troops would be consumed, and the Yangtze River defense line would be able to hold until the beginning of spring next year. ”

"You also said before that the city of Beijing is tall and strong, and 100,000 pigs can defend the city wall, but it was broken by thieves in an instant, can you judge the combat power by pigs?" Sun Tingyao interjected.

Xue Xianguang hugged his head and was silent, and he couldn't figure out why the Ming army, which had absolute superiority, was defeated so completely, Fang Zhikun shook his head and asked: "Did the Titang Division provide the military report accurately and in a timely manner?" ”

"The Titang Division accurately probed the troops, equipment and attack route of the Qing army's southern expedition, and reported it to Datong in a timely manner, and also informed the Jiangbei Governor of the Ming State, but Nanjing did not seem to take it seriously."

Fang Zhikun thought for a while and asked Wu Xian: "Premier Wu, Shi Kefa, the governor of Jiangbei in the Ming Kingdom, once served as the governor of Xi'an Prefecture and worked under you, what is this person's military ability?" ”

"Emperor Lie was in Japan, and he wanted to use Feng Yuanbiao to replace Zhang Guowei as the secretary of the military department, Feng Yuanbiao bit it to death and recommended Shi Kefa, but Emperor Lie finally chose Zhang Jinyan, what do you say about his military ability?" Wu Yu replied lightly.

Zhao Ji couldn't help but speak: "This matter is not that the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion is incompetent, but that the Ming army is too bad, I found a witness, the former general soldier of the Ming army, Guangchang Bo Liu Liangzuo, it is enough weight, you ask him to understand everything." ”

Liu Liangzuo's brothers arrived in Datong last month, Liu Liangchen was recalled to Titang Division as an errand, Liu Liangzuo was idle and had nothing to do, bought a house in Datong City and was about to move, and was suddenly called by Zhao Ji to testify, and his heart was pounding with fright.

"Liu Liangzuo, what is the strength of the four towns in Jiangbei? Be honest. Fang Zhikun asked solemnly.

"Gao Jie has 400,000, Huang Degong and Liu Zeqing and I each have 300,000, but this is all fake, in fact, Liu Zeqing only has 10,000 soldiers, and the other three of us each have about 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers." Liu Liangzuo replied honestly.

"In this way, there are about 100,000 elites in Jiangbei, why don't you surrender if you don't resist?" Xue Xianguang interjected and asked.

"The soldiers can't get their salaries, I heard that the Qing army paid them on time and in full, and they all ran over, this battle can't be fought, we don't blame us for the fall of Jiangbei, it's all the court that refuses to pay for it."

"Nonsense, the imperial court will pay you 30,000 people per town and 20 taels per soldier per year, and the Jiangbei Governor also allows you to raise your own food and salary in the defense area, why can't you pay military salaries, are you greedy for ink?" Xue Xianguang took the case.

"I'm not greedy for ink!" Liu Liangzuo jumped up, but when he saw hundreds of pairs of eyes staring at him, he sat down dejectedly, "I took a little, but there are rules in the army, and the filial piety money above does not dare to be less, and the standard battalions, pro-soldiers, and family members below must also be paid in full, and there is not much money in my hands, so how can I take care of other people." ”

Fang Zhikun sneered: "You dare to do things that surrender to the enemy, and you must also be filial piety to the above, I heard that the Jiangbei Governor has always been honest, and he also accepts filial piety money?" ”

"It doesn't matter if you rebel in these years, but you just can't break the rules, otherwise you will die a miserable death, Master Shi is indeed incorruptible, he abides by the rules, we divide the account in six or four years, he takes sixty percent, and we take forty percent."

"Fuck, the price is still rising at this time, and when the official is the governor of Huguang, he still splits the account fifty-fifty," Song Yihe couldn't help but shout, but immediately realized that he had lost his mouth, and explained with embarrassment, "Actually, it's not easy to be a Shangguan, although I took fifty percent at that time, but the cabinet, the military department, the household department, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the eunuchs in the palace all had to stuff money, and the rest of the money was not enough to pay the military salary, and I often had to pay the money backwards, I was really honest, and Shi Kefa must be the same." ”

"Liu Liangzuo, the 'shaving order' is angry with everyone and gods, but you and others help to abuse, your soldiers slaughtered Jiangyin, Li Chengdong's soldiers slaughtered Jiading, killed countless compatriots, and the crime was heinous, how do you explain it?" Chen Changyan, a former member of the House of Representatives of Jiangnan Xuezheng, asked angrily.

"I'm already anyway, it's none of my business, it must have been the Qing army who instigated them to do it for the provincial army's salary" Liu Liangzuo shouted hoarsely, then covered his face and shook his head and sighed, "The poor and crazy soldiers, they dare to do anything for money, no one can stop them from killing and robbing, and I am also powerless in the army." ”

"It's all understood, Liu Shuai, you can go." Fang Zhikun stood up and made a gesture to see off the guest, Liu Liangzuo ran away as soon as he was amnestied, and almost fell when he went out - the house is so scary, and the emperor is not so nervous.

"Can I understand it this way, officialdom is a business field, everything is clearly priced, and those who abide by the rules and trade fairly are clean officials, and corrupt officials are unruly fools," Li Jianji stood up and looked at Wu Xian and Wang Jimo, one of the two was the former deputy assistant of the cabinet, and the other was the former governor of Xuanda, nodding helplessly, Li Jianji raised his voice and continued, "Gentlemen, I don't want this kind of thing to happen to the Datong Federation, we are taxpayers in this country, and we have the right to demand the innocence of every tael of silver, So I ask the House of Representatives to make a resolution authorizing the House of Representatives officers who remain in the provinces to oversee the use of military funds by the garrisons, and at the same time ask the Senate to send inspectors to the provinces. ”

"I agree, in fact, the Senate has already sent Tuo Yangkun to Henan to inspect military affairs, and if necessary, he can send another person." Ortai said, leading Senate affairs.

"Li Erzeng, you don't trust the army created by the president, and my Datong army can't accept such an insult." Zhao Ji shouted angrily.

"Zhao Shuai, I trust our army very much, but there are a large number of Ming troops in the south, can you guarantee that they will not make old mistakes, this kind of disease is contagious, we have to think about the future, aren't you afraid that the glorious Datong Army will become the same as the Ming army?" Li Jian replied sharply, and Zhao Ji sat down silently.

"I didn't expect that the corruption of the Ming Kingdom was so serious, and there was no heavenly reason for the immortal country, and the Metropolitan Governor's Office agreed to order the ministries to accept the supervision of the two courts," Xue Xianguang stood up with a pale face, tried to calm down for a while, and then said, "The Qing Army has about 100,000 troops in the Eight Banners, Zhili and Shandong have trained 200,000 green battalion soldiers, and Jiangbei has collected 300,000 Ming troops, and the total strength has exceeded 600,000, and it can no longer be allowed to develop, and it must be started after the beginning of spring next year, but our army is currently only 100,000, at least another 300,000 people will be mobilized, you estimate how much military spending you can take, I will fight as many battles as I want. ”

Xue Xianguang staggered out, Zhao Ji sighed and followed behind, the remaining members of the council hall looked at each other, miscalculated, originally thought that although the Ming army would be defeated, it would definitely be able to consume part of the strength of the Qing army, and when the two sides were exhausted, the Datong army would be able to send troops to harvest crops, but the actual situation was that the Ming and Qing armies were not consumed much, and they were merged, so that the scale of the war would inevitably expand, and the military consumption must be amazing, can the Datong Federation afford this price?

"Gentlemen, we can't escape this big war, only by gathering China's strength can we win, the Prime Minister's Office and government offices at all levels have been working hard, the federal tax revenue reached five million last year, and it is expected to be close to eight million this year, but this money is far from enough to deal with the war, you don't agree to raise taxes, then please hand over the silver money bureau to the Prime Minister's Office, I beg you!" Wu Xian also wanted to leave, but after thinking about it, he stayed and said a few more words.

The Statutes of the Banknote Board were voted by both the Senate and the House of Representatives as early as mid-March, and it refers to the commercial rules of the Netherlands that the Banknote Board is under the jurisdiction of the House of Representatives, and establishes a thirteen-member board of directors as the decision-making body and a nine-member supervisory board as the supervisory body, of which nine directors and five supervisors are elected by the shareholders of the Banknote Board, four directors are appointed by the House of Representatives, and four supervisors are appointed by the Senate. However, the Prime Minister's Office only reserved the right to appoint and dismiss the governor, the co-introducer, and the chief accountant according to the resolution of the board of directors of the Banknote Bureau, Wu Xian was angry and refused to sign the resolution, and the "Datong Constitutional Law" stipulated that the government decree must be signed by the prime minister and then sent to the president for approval, and if he refused to sign, the decree could not take effect, and the Prime Minister's Office and the two houses fought openly and secretly for several months.

The councillors obviously did not want to give in, and they all remained silent, Wu Xian sighed and continued: "Since Emperor Xiaowu of the Han Dynasty minted five baht coins, the power of coinage is all in the hands of the imperial court, and the experience of all dynasties tells us that only the coinage power can the world be unified and the country is strong, and only then can China gather its strength to resist internal and external troubles, you can understand your concerns, but I can guarantee that the additional issuance of silver banknotes will never exceed 20 million, and refer to the Southern Song Dynasty method of issuing huizi, three years for a boundary, and the expiration of the period will be recovered with gold and silverThe Federation is facing a life-and-death battle and needs your support. ”

Wu Xian's suggestion is very reasonable, Datong is a country with peace and security, industry and commerce are developed, and silver is rolling in all over the world, and although the silver banknote bureau continues to mint silver coins to recover silver banknotes, the silver inventory is still increasing unabated, and it is close to 40 million taels, while the silver banknotes currently circulating in the market are only 180 million taels, and in some areas there is even a situation where the silver banknotes are at a premium, and the additional 20 million taels can be fully afforded.

Someone finally spoke, and Sun Tingyao retorted with confidence: "We think that only when there is a family can there be a country, and if the people do not exist, the country will be safe?" The Southern Song Dynasty issued a meeting, repeatedly delayed the cash, and there were still a large number of old debts outstanding to its demise, and at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it was even indiscriminately issued treasure money to loot the people's wealth, and then it was flooded with miscellaneous silver and rotten money, which shows that the coinage right is more likely to become a tool for the imperial court to expropriate and extort, and the chaos of the world does not begin here, is it meaningful to control the chaos of this kind of chaos? ”

"Lu You, the prime minister's term of office is only five years, but we have to run the livelihood for generations, we believe that your life is useless, including me, no one sitting in your seat can control the desire to issue money," Bao Zhen shook his head and stood up, pointing to a young man on the side seat and said loudly to everyone, "Gentlemen, for the long-term plan, the banknote bureau must be firmly in the hands of the people, and the Liberal Party invited a young talent today - Sun Zhiwei, the rising star of the Liberal Party and the youngest professor of Datong University, Sun Baoren, Ask him to tell us about it. ”

Sun Tingyao took the lead in a standing ovation, his nephew is too promising, he has shown his talent in less than a year after studying at Datong University, especially the way of running the ABN AMRO is very deep, Huang Da, the governor of the banknote bureau, asserts that his successor is this person, not only accepts him as a disciple, but also recommends him to teach economics.

Sun Zhiwei stood up and was a little at a loss, Speaker Wang Jimo came over with a smile, took his hand and walked to the front desk, he glanced at his uncle and master in the audience with a red face, and said calmly: "Students think that the foundation of national strength lies in industry and commerce, and the foundation of industry and commerce lies in currency, and a unified and stable currency is the top priority. ”

Sun Zhiwei gradually calmed down, and talked eloquently like teaching students: first of all, the abolition of the two yuan and the change of yuan, the rapid development of the federal industry and commerce, silver coins and silver banknotes have steadily occupied the market, and then the use of silver two is out of date, it is better to directly use the seven coins and two cents issued by the silver banknote bureau as the yuan, the silver banknotes should also be changed accordingly, and the remaining miscellaneous silver and inferior money will be regarded as illegal currency and expelled from the market, so as to unify the currency; Secondly, a large number of gold and copper auxiliary coins were minted, and the Datong Federation was rich in resources, not only silver mines, but also gold mines and copper mines, and gold, silver, and copper exchanges should be opened to allow them to trade freely, and the comparison of gold, silver, and copper coins should be determined according to the transactions of the three, and the monetary silver standard should be gradually transitioned to the mixed gold, silver and copper standard, so as to improve the ability to redeem silver banknotes, so as to stabilize the currency; Thirdly, the issuance of silver banknotes has been intensified, the territory of the Federation has been expanding, the population has also increased substantially, and the demand for money is also increasing, and excessive caution has restricted the development of industry and commerce, and there is no problem in issuing an additional 200 million silver banknotes according to the current gold, silver and copper stocks of the Federation; Third, it is necessary to increase the issuance of bonds, because federal tax revenues have increased sharply year by year, and the ability to cash in on bonds has been continuously improved.

"The premise of all this is monetary credit, and it is necessary to ensure that silver banknotes can be freely exchanged for gold, silver and copper physical currency at any time, so the student proposes - unlimited legal compensation." Sun Zhiwei finally said.

"Arrogance, only Meng Yuan has promised unlimited legal compensation in all dynasties, but if the silver outflow is guaranteed to be cashed, won't the silver banknotes become waste paper, and the reason for Meng Yuan's demise lies in this." Wu Zhu couldn't listen to it anymore, and stood up excitedly and yelled.

"The mixed currency standard is all about preventing silver outflows, and I firmly believe in the future of the Federation." Sun Zhiwei did not flinch.

There was only the quarrel between Wu Zhu and Sun Zhiwei in the meeting hall, and the others remained silent, and after a long time, Li Jianji stood up and said with a wry smile: "There has never been a perfect thing, let's talk about the future in the future, future generations will come up with a solution, I am in favor of unlimited legal compensation." ”

"I'm in favor of unlimited liability." Sun Tingyao, the owner of the Bauktu banknote banknote, said.

"I'm in favor of unlimited liability." Xiao Daiwang, the owner of Minsheng Banknote Bank, said.

"We are in favor of unlimited legal compensation." The councillors raised their hands and shouted.

Crazy, all crazy, this news should be told to the president as soon as possible, forget it, that's also a fool, let's go to Li Fugui - Wu Xian was so angry that he brushed his sleeves away.

"Officials are always self-righteous, what's wrong with us protecting our property," the House of Representatives Wang glanced at Wu Xian's back again, waved his hand and said to everyone, "I propose to change the official system, let them be honest in the future, we will lead by example, and in the future, we will change our names to representatives and senators, and they can no longer be called adults and lords." ”

"Of course, we have to change the official system, the federation is so big, but there are less than 1,000 central officials and officials in the establishment, and people are too hard, so we have to give them promotions and bonuses." Bao Zhen said mysteriously.

The Prime Minister's Office has asked for several times to expand the establishment and improve the treatment of officials, but the House of Representatives has resolutely rejected it on the grounds that the hand is too tight, and the officials are full of complaints, and even President Li Yu complains that the income is too low, and it is not as good as the little king he adopted - the child has an income of 1,000 taels a month, but the president has less than 100 taels.