In the Chang Dynasty of the Vertical Arch Palace, the Queen Mother did not arrive at all, and Han Jiang escorted the class and led the courtiers who were not conscientious to worship.

In the regular living room of the vertical arch hall, the queen mother took the little emperor Zhao Xu to sit solemnly and watched the ministers below pay homage.

He often lives in the inner court, and he is a minister of civil and military affairs who has practical skills, and he also discusses affairs inside and outside the court.

The important affairs of the military state cannot be sought by everyone. The real national affairs are still discussed and decided in the Chongzheng Palace.

But today, whether it is on the vertical arch hall or in the Chongzheng hall, there is no major event to discuss.

After the winter solstice, before the New Year's Festival, there is nothing to report.

The matter of the Six-Way Shipping Division discussed by the three governors of Dongfu before can be solved within the political affairs hall, and there is no need to alarm the Queen Mother. And yesterday, Han Gang reported to the Queen Mother about the big and small affairs, and there is no need to say it again in the court. Even if it is an important education issue such as Zhao Xu, the son of heaven, it is not too late to wait until next year. Glancing at the emperor, who was a lap younger than a normal seven-year-old child, Han Gang felt that it was best not to mention the matter of the sutra feast so early.

It was Lu Jia who asked about the salt tax in the northwest.

Salt is a patent of the imperial court, and the imperial court has regulations on where to eat salt. Henan and Hebei are also related to the west to eat salt, Bashu four roads, that is, Yi, Li, Zi, Kui, is the marketing area of well salt. The east of the river is earth salt, and the rest of the place is all sea salt - which is also divided into Guangzhou salt, Fu salt, Huaizhejiang salt, Northeast salt and other divisions.

Salt that does not belong to the local marketing area is never allowed to be sold locally. Moreover, in some places, in order to sell the official salt, each household even has to buy back its share of the salt when paying taxes, that is, forcibly suppressing the allocation.

There are many salt ponds on Longyou Road and Yongxing Military Road, in addition to the salt pond in Jiezhou, there are Qingbai salt ponds in Yinxia, and many salt ponds on the old Xihe Road. Now the government has adopted the means of small profits but quick turnover, and has also begun to pay attention to quality, the price of official salt is cheaper than private salt, but the income of the imperial court has not decreased. This is a good thing for both public and private parties, but the price of salt on the two roads in Kansai is low, so that the illegal salt dealers in Hedong and Jingxi all buy official salt from Shaanxi to sell.

Lu Jiawen is playing for this, either Shaanxi raises the price of salt, or he will watch the salt tax in western Beijing and Hedong greatly reduced.

The minister from Shaanxi strongly opposed this, and without Han Gang coming forward, Lu Jiawen's opinion was pushed back. Then the strategy set by the court was to send more people to inspect on the road out of the customs, and punish all the salt lords if they were caught. It's just that according to the results of the discussion between the three Dongfu Zaizhi outside the Xuande Gate in the morning, the heavy punishment of the salt lord will only be disposed of by exile, rather than cutting off his head in the past.

Han Gang had long been dissatisfied with today's salt law, and was thinking about how to change it, so he directly drew the old bottom of the third division, so he didn't pay attention to the look that Lu Jia gave when he returned to work.

Since the defeat of the election, Lu Jiawen has been impeached several times, but he insists on sitting in the position of the third secretary and refuses to move, although Wang Anshi is not a director, he has always protected him, so the imperial history can't help him.

Han Gang didn't bother to pay attention to him. The three divisions were established in order to divide the financial power in the hands of the prime minister, but now in the treasury of the political affairs hall, there are new law revenues such as the exemption law and the city change law, plus the loan from the inner treasury, the three divisions cannot be stuck in the neck of the political affairs hall.

At the beginning of the year, the treasury was so poor that it scraped the inner treasury by the way. But after the summer and autumn taxes were put into the treasury this year, plus the revenue of the new law and the seigniorage tax of the Mint, the imperial court's financial plan was much more relaxed.

Especially coinage, iron money seems to be cheap, but can not stand the country in the iron more iron, this year all roads minted a total of five million iron money, only in Beijing, there are two million, this is still afraid of the depreciation of iron money deliberately convergent results, otherwise it can be doubled. The iron coin is 5 million guan, the bronze coin of 5 wen and the brass coin of 10 wen, in terms of face value, there are also 5 million guan. Excluding raw materials and labor, the net profit is more than 30%.

And this kind of business, don't worry about not being able to do it for a long time, except for the iron money has to be slightly restrained, and there is no problem with how much copper money you want to mint. A quarter of the bronze and brass coins issued in the past year have been buried in the ground, and there will only be less money on the market, not more money.

The amount of coinage is larger and more stable, and the seigniorage can be guaranteed in drought and flood. Its income was put into the inner treasury, and the government office opened an IOU and took 600,000 yuan in cash into his hands. This is the national debt. If you need to, you can also open a list for the inner library, but it's just that the Zai Fu sign and draw the charge, and there will be money when you use the pen, Han Jiang, Zhang Qi, Han Gang, which one will be tired of writing?

On the Queen Mother's side, on the one hand, a large number of newly minted coins and newly woven silk were sent into the inner treasury, and on the other hand, they were rewarded for paying hundreds of officials and three armies, as well as IOUs handed over by the political affairs hall. No amount of money can only pass by. However, the government hall took the money, at least there was an IOU, and the government hall would not borrow all the money, leaving a lot for the queen mother. When I saw the half-full warehouse, I didn't panic - it was half full in a year, and I had to think about repairing the warehouse in two or three years.

Since there is more communication between the political hall and the inner library, the importance of the three envoys in the heart of the queen mother is a little lower, Lu Jia asked today's questioning, and he sank to the bottom of the water without even a bubble.

ended the deliberations of the Chongzheng Palace, and the Queen Mother did not leave anyone to speak. Back in the political hall, Han Gang and Han Jiang, Zhang Qi and others received an urgent report.

This is a secret report from Xiongzhou. The governor of Xiongzhou found out the contents of the Chinese book of the Liao State Zhengdan's envoy, and had another mission, so he sent someone to send the news to the Beijing division one step earlier, so as to prepare first.

"Next year's New Year's coin will change 100,000 pieces of silk into cotton ......cloth," Zhang Qi sneered, "Is Yelu Yixin tired of wearing silk clothes?" ”

"Yukun, what do you think?" Han Jiang asked Han Gang.

"If Yelu Yixin is willing to convert all the 200,000 taels of silver into corresponding silver coins, then that's no problem."

The exchange rate of silver against money has become a little higher this year because of the coinage—the treasury is slowly hoarding gold and silver in order to supply future gold and silver coins—and it has basically reached the level of one or two to three times. Not only silver, but also the price of gold has risen. Han Gang estimates that when the silver coin is successfully minted and the news of the upcoming release spreads, there will be a jump in the price of silver and gold. Even as long as there is a little hint, you can see a large reduction in gold and silver on the market, and the numbers on the water signs hanging out of the gold and silver shops in the boundary alley are rolling up.

Now use silver coins of silver seven bronze three instead of silver coins in the coins, which will definitely save a fortune.

"The Mint is already capable of minting silver coins?" Han Jiang was surprised.

He remembered that when Han Gang said about the Mint Bureau, in addition to the existing one-article, five-text, and ten-wen three-color money, he also mentioned that he wanted to make coins with large denominations, which were hundred-text, consistent, and ten-cent. However, according to Han Gang, in order to prevent counterfeiting, it is necessary to ensure that the coin cannot be counterfeited by forging. So a year has passed, and the coins minted by the law have filled the treasury, but there is no news about the coinage under the new law.

"If the machine for forging and minting is built, the mint can be renamed the mint." Han Gang shook his head, "It's still early." ”

"Then Yukun, why do you say that?"

"As long as Yelu Yi Xinken wants it, it is nothing to open the furnace and mint money for the Liao State, and it doesn't take much to make a mother money."

"That's right." Han Jiang shook his head, "Yukun, you really made the old man happy." ”

"It's just that Yuanyou is a heavy treasure, I'm afraid Yelu Yixin doesn't want it." Zhang Qi said.

"As long as it's real money, even if it's the name of Dakang printed on it, he will ask for it."

Listening to Han Gang's sneer, Han Jiang and Zhang Qi laughed, Dakang was the last year name left by Emperor Xuanzong who was killed by Yelu Yixin.

After laughing a few times, Han Gang restrained his smile and said that the laughter would end here. He said with a straight face, "The Liao people's demands are very unreasonable, and they have to block back, right?" ”

"Of course."

Han Jiang nodded solemnly, the previous words were a joke, if the Liao people wanted something, whether it was a yes or a bargain, it would be a shame. Together, where will the prime minister's face go?

Zhang Qi also said coldly: "If Yelu Yixin thinks that if he can intimidate China by winning two small countries, it would be too stupid. ”

If the peace treaty that had been made could be changed so easily, what was the purpose of the first few wars?

Liao wants to exchange silk for cotton cloth, which is indeed not a big deal, and the quality of silk in the annual coin is also worth a considerable amount of cotton cloth.

But no Zaifu would agree to come down, just because it was a condition proposed by the Liao State.

It's no problem for the Great Song Dynasty to use their brains to exploit loopholes, and the Zaifu don't care, but the Liao people want to change, so they will fight first.

Leaving Yelu Yixin's crazy words behind, Han Jiang brought up the old words again, "What about the affairs of the shipping department?" Relying on severe punishment alone is not the way to cure the root cause. ”

"Because of Xue Xiang, the Shipping Department has lost a lot of talented officials, which cannot be made up for in a short period of time."

"Could it be that Dimming wants to transfer those people back?"

"Of course not."

"What do you think?"

"The officials in the shipping department are so rampant only because Bianshui is unique and irreplaceable. Even if there is another Xue Xiang, he can rectify the shipment, but what about ten years later, what about a hundred years later? What will happen then? Zhang Qi looked at Han Jiang and then at Han Gang, "We should be in reserve for the sake of the world." ”

"I see." Han Jiang nodded, and his gaze turned to Han Gang, "But I have to ask Ji Yukun about this matter." ”

Han Gang's heart was shocked, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he looked at Han Jiang and Zhang Qi's faces, all of them looked at him with burning eyes.

It's really a poor dagger. Han Gang thought. The two old foxes sang together, just with the idea of tracking.