When Dai Yan was still in charge of Taoqiu, he once talked about the nature of money. In his view, money is essentially a contract about the right of exchange. This kind of contract itself has no value, so it can manifest itself in various forms!

Food, which is urgently needed by everyone, can be used as currency, copper, which determines the strategic balance of countries, can also be used as currency, and gold, which has no real value and is just beautiful, can also be used as currency!

Many people think that gold is a precious thing, but in fact, it is just the value that people give to it! Especially in this era, gold, a soft metal, can neither be used as a weapon, nor as a farm tool, except for being good-looking, it is useless!

But as soon as people recognized the rarity of this thing as the main form of currency, it was immediately sought after! From this phenomenon, Dai Yan told the merchants of Taoqiu that as long as there is something that everyone recognizes and accepts its actual value, even if it is ordinary paper, it will also become the actual minted money, and it will be sought after by people!

Soon after Dai Yan put forward the concept of paper money, he began to set off a counter-flag in the Song Kingdom, preparing to compete with Zixi for the throne, so he did not give too many hints for the promotion of paper money. After he took charge of the Song Kingdom, his ideas about paper money began to become conservative again.

To govern a country is to be responsible for the whole country, so any radical reform should be avoided! Something like the implementation of paper money collapsed in the Song Kingdom, so it was absolutely impossible for him to escape the involvement! You must know that when he first decided on the Song Kingdom, there were still many people in the entire Song Kingdom who were not convinced! Therefore, the plan to implement paper money was canceled in the Song Kingdom.

However, a certain philosopher of later generations said it well: capital is afraid of no profit or too little profit, just as nature is afraid of a vacuum. As soon as there is a proper profit, capital is emboldened. If there is a 10% profit, it is guaranteed to be used everywhere; With a 20% profit, it becomes active; With a 50% profit, it takes risks; For the sake of 100% profit, it dares to trample on all human laws; With a 300% profit, it dares to commit any crime, even risking hanging its head. If turmoil and strife bring profit, it encourages unrest and strife!

For the merchants of the Song Kingdom, such a thing as issuing paper money was obviously profitable! It's hard for them to estimate how big this profit is, after all, no one has ever done such a thing. In addition, Dai Yan temporarily suspended the plan to issue banknotes in China, so they did not think of doing such a thing.

However, the best of them never forgot about this profitable plan! When Tian Bu carried out this plan indirectly in the now turbulent Yan Kingdom, he suddenly found that a door to wealth had opened in front of his eyes!

Although the wealth deposited in Linzi Qianzhuang today is not his own, but needs to be returned to those soldiers who deposited it. However, those bills of exchange, in today's Yan Kingdom, are no different from coins!

Soldiers could use it to buy wine, meat, and even go to the kiln! Tian Bu, who has a keen sense of business, immediately discovered that this kind of bill of exchange was issued in a one-to-one ratio, which was actually equivalent to doubling the wealth they held!

That is to say, the coalition forces have worked hard to break through and sack Yidu, and half of the huge wealth they have obtained has actually belonged to the Taoqiu merchants!

The huge profit of up to 100%, and such a stable huge profit, made Detian Bu shocked! Of course, in today's era when merchants pay attention to creditworthiness, he only issues as many bills of exchange as he has absorbed as much stored wealth, and he has not yet thought of expanding credit by lowering the reserve ratio to obtain higher profits! That's it, the profit from the issuance of such paper bills of exchange is unimaginably large!

Of course, Tian Bu knows very well that being able to obtain such huge profits now is also very important for the trust of Linzi Qianzhuang! In order to stabilize such a layer of trust, he immediately asked Xiao Xiang, the commander of the Song army, that the Song army could help escort this wealth back to Linzi City!

Such a request was quickly reported to the hands of Kuang Zhang, the commander of the coalition forces, and thinking that this wealth was related to the confidence of the entire coalition army, it really could not be delayed. In addition, he was among them, and he also had a huge profit, so Kuang Zhang quickly agreed to Song Jun's request!

So Xiao Xiang divided the army of 50,000 and divided 20,000 people to assist the Taoqiu merchants to escort this wealth back to Linzi!

With the support of the Song army, Tian Bu, as a big merchant in Taoqiu, naturally would not treat the soldiers who benefited them! He took the initiative to talk to Xiao Xiang, and was ready to use the profits of Linzi Qianzhuang to labor the army of the Song Kingdom!

For such a request, Xiao Xiang did not dare to agree privately. He had no choice but to report such news back to the country and hand it over to the monarch to decide!

When the coalition soldiers saw that there was a strong army to take charge of the escort, and their wealth was guaranteed, they immediately became full of energy, and they all began to respond to Kuang Zhang's plan to march into Jicheng! In the eyes of the soldiers, now that they have just sacked a Yi City, there is such a huge gain, so if they capture Jicheng, the capital of Yan Kingdom, how much wealth can they earn?

Stimulated by this wealth, the entire coalition army, except for the Song army, was very popular!

Although today's Song army is composed of peasants from all over the Song Kingdom, its spiritual connotation was determined in Dai Yan's start from Taoqiu and the Song Civil War.

The establishment of the Song army itself was ordered by Dai Yan to pull out of Taoqiu City, and the soldiers were not like other countries, they did not even have a basic salary, and they were maintained by plundering alone. The soldier of the Song Kingdom, from the moment he entered the barracks, was a job with a salary!

And throughout the Song Civil War, Dai Yan also controlled the looting extremely strictly! In his opinion, although the Song Civil War was a military struggle, it was also a struggle between him and Zixi to compete for the hearts and minds of the people in the Song Kingdom! Such a struggle determines who has better military discipline on both sides, then who will be more popular with the Song people!

He was able to defeat Zixi and become Song Jun, although his military superiority was the main reason, but the good military discipline of Taoqiu's army was definitely indispensable! All kinds of deeds have created the tradition of the Song army not to loot!

And in his opinion, the ability of an army to restrain its desires is also a sign of its strength! The Yue family's army, which was famous all over the world in later generations, did not demolish the house when it froze to death, and did not loot when it starved to death, which is its strong foundation! And from the era that Dai Yan crossed over, the TG army that established the Huanghuang Celestial Dynasty also has the tradition of "not taking a stitch from the masses"! This kind of army that restrains desires is a truly powerful army!

And for this war against Yan, Dai Yan actually has a far-reaching political purpose! When Xiao Xiang led his troops out and went on an expedition to Yan Kingdom, Dai Yan also instructed Xiao Xiang very much: The war against Yan is also a war for people's hearts!

Dai Yan saw the details of the Yan War very clearly! In this war, the State of Qi nominally fought against the State of Yan under the banner of "setting things right and rebuilding the State of Yan", but in fact, the State of Qi hoped to annex the State of Yan!

For this war in history, which failed both militarily and politically, Dai Yan was very optimistic about the future of the Qi army! In his mind, with the corrupt military discipline of the Qi army, he might be able to defeat Zizhi quickly, but he definitely couldn't pacify the Yan Kingdom quickly and bring the Yan Kingdom under his rule! All this is caused by the political and military concept of the Qi Guotian clan!

The Qi Guotian clan is a big family with many talents, especially military strategists. From Sima Sui Tho and Sun Wu in the Spring and Autumn Period to Sun Bin today, Tian has his own unique military concept. Among them, the most profound influence on Tian's army is the idea of "food for the enemy" advocated by Sun Wu.

Because of the fact that food is on the enemy, if from a purely military point of view, it is definitely a very good policy. After all, not consuming one's own belongings, but plundering a large number of enemy countries' materials is definitely the key to a quick victory in the war!

The idea of building the army of Qi and the practice of foreign wars all reveal this strategic concept of Sun Wu. For example, it doesn't cost much money, and you can accumulate a large number of skilled fighters in the Qi country; When fighting abroad, it doesn't take much material to keep the soldiers motivated!

However, in Dai Yan's view, there is no problem with the idea of building an army like Qi from a military point of view, but it is very problematic from a political point of view! The purpose of war is, after all, to achieve the established political goal. If the purpose of Qi's crusade against another country is to annex this country, then how can such an army that is good at plundering be able to bring the attacking country to its heart?

In Dai Yan's view, this characteristic of the Qi army must mean that the Qi State cannot annex the Yan State! In fact, such an experience can also be explained from the operation of Qi in the East. As the overlord of the East, Qi has been for many years, and there are very few countries in the entire East that can compete with Qi, but why has Qi not annexed the surrounding small countries for a long time, and even Lu, Zou, Teng and other countries still exist around Qi?

These are actually closely related to Qi Jun's "no way". How could an army that mainly plundered be able to bring the surrounding countries of Qi to their hearts?

With such a cognition, Dai Yan can see the inevitable defeat of the Qi army very clearly! Therefore, after the Qi army took Yidu, Xiao Xiang remembered the plan mentioned by Dai Yan before, and immediately proposed to Kuang Zhang that the rest of the army stay in Yidu and watch the Yan nobles in this city for the Qi State!

Kuang Zhang only thought about it for a while, and basically agreed to Song Jun's request. In his mind, Yidu, as the capital of Yan State, and handed it over to Zhongshan State, would inevitably greatly increase the territory of Zhongshan State, thereby enhancing Zhongshan's strength, which was not in the interests of Qi State. And if Yidu is handed over to the Song State for temporary management, because this place does not border the Song State, then this place is actually still in the hands of the Qi State!

Moreover, if the Song army did not go to Jidu to participate in the battle, it was naturally impossible to collect the wealth in the city, which was extremely beneficial to the Qi army!

Therefore, Kuang Zhang was happy to see the Song army stay in Yidu to defend, and the only condition he added to the Song army was that the Song army must go to Jicheng with the siege force to accompany the Qi army to Jicheng to coordinate the siege battle!

Xiao Xiang naturally has no opinion on such a request. As a result, Yidu, the capital of the Yan Kingdom, soon fell into the hands of the Song army. And the main force of the Qi army, plus the allied forces of Zhongshan and Sishang, all followed the Qi army, and under the leadership of the Yan people in Yidu City, they marched towards Jicheng!

Because of the need to send a large army to transport the wealth of the soldiers back to the Qi country, there are only more than 20,000 Song troops who can stay in Yidu now. After Xiao Xiang took over this city, he immediately began to follow Dai Yan's order to help the Yan people restore order in Yidu City, and worked hard to establish a good relationship with the nobles of the Yan Kingdom!

These are all political tasks assigned to him by Dai Yan before he was sent to Yan State: befriend Yan State, make Yan State an ally of Song State, and be able to balance Qi State's pawns in the future!