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"Shopkeeper, I heard that you have prepared the affairs of the ocean, right?" Although Zhang Kuangzheng tried to calm his emotions, his voice still revealed irrepressible excitement. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Chen Yuan pulled him to sit down and poured him a cup of tea: "Don't worry, I just helped you prepare the fleet, as for the sailors and supplies, I don't know what you need for the ocean, so I need you to come back and prepare it yourself." ”

An uncontrollable smile appeared on Zhang Kuangzheng's face, and his hands, which were accustomed to fighting with the wind and waves, actually trembled slightly at this moment: "Okay, okay, thank you shopkeeper." ”

Chen Yuan sat in front of him: "You don't have to thank me, I just fulfilled the promise I made to you, I remember that I said five years at the time, but it took seven or eight years, and I really can't stand you." ”

Zhang Kuangzheng shook his head: "Don't say that, if you can run again, I will die without complaint." ”

Chen Yuan looked at him: "Brother Zhang, are you planning to go east?" ”

Zhang Kuangzheng nodded: "Yes, I dare to conclude that the small island I arrived at last time is not the easternmost part of the sea, I want to continue to move forward, I want to know what else is ahead." ”

Chen Yuan looked a little embarrassed, and said after a while: "Can you go west?" ”

Zhang Kuangzheng was stunned: "To the west? Why? ”

Chen Yuan stood up: "Judging from the shipping business we have been running in recent years, the market in the west is obviously much more prosperous than in the east, and there are more countries in the west, and our Great Qin in the Han and Tang dynasties is also in the west. ”

Hearing that it was Renzong's meaning, Zhang Kuangzheng nodded: "Okay, you can go east and west, just let me go to a place I haven't been to." ”

It was so easy to convince him, which made Chen Yuan very happy in his heart: "This time I have prepared six hundred ships for you, including a large ship of thousands of tons that has just been launched, so let's name it." ”

Zhang Kuangzheng was even more happy: "Alas, I will take care of the sailors and supplies by myself, and the shopkeeper will give some money." ”

Chen Yuan smiled and took out a holy decree from his arms: "I will give you the money, just ask for as much as you want." This is for you, and this time your fleet is accompanied by 3,000 officers and men of the Naval Division. Brother Zhang, this trip is for you to go to places that you have not been to, but you have to help me open up my business by the way, and also help Long Live to promote our Great Song Guowei. Long live you as the three-product ambassador, don't live up to the expectations of Long live. ”

Zhang Kuangzheng's face trembled, and he stood up and took Renzong's holy decree with both hands, his expression was very excited. In the past, others said that he was not doing his job, but he didn't expect that he could get a three-grade official position without doing his job, which not only realized his ideals, but also fulfilled his father's expectations of himself, which really made him not know what to say.

Chen Yuan took another box and put it in front of him: "Inside this box is your official uniform, as well as the banner of the Song Dynasty, wherever you go in the future, let this flag fly, do you know?" ”

Zhang Kuangzheng nodded: "Yes, I know." ”

What should have been said has been said, Zhang Kuangzheng's mood Chen Yuan can understand, and he doesn't know what to say to calm Zhang Kuangzheng's emotions: "You go and prepare, what do you need to buy to open the store and give me the opening list." Before leaving, I went to meet Mr. Bao, and Mr. Bao told me that he wanted to meet you. ”

Ocean-going is a necessary thing. The overseas market has huge profits, and during the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He went to the West seven times, so that the market of the Ming Dynasty immediately developed, and the private commerce and handicraft industries were booming. If it weren't for the later Ming Dynasty's sea ban, the fate of the Ming Dynasty would inevitably change, and she would likely become the most advanced country in the world.

This is another issue that Chen Yuan will pay attention to in the future. The Ming Dynasty's ban on the sea was because commerce developed too fast, which impacted the foundation of the feudal system. Will the Song Dynasty's oceans have such an effect? Chen Yuan is not sure now.

However, in order to prevent himself from following in the footsteps of the Ming Dynasty, Chen Yuan wanted to build some strength for the merchants, some forces that could compete with the scholars. At least not like the merchants of the Ming Dynasty, who had no ability to fight back in front of the scholars.

But how much power is appropriate? If it's small, it doesn't work, but if it's big, these businessmen are also ambitious.

After Zhang Kuangzheng left, Chen Yuan sat on the chair and frowned on this problem, and after thinking for a long time, he couldn't come up with a perfect plan, so he could only put this matter down first, and the most urgent issue at the moment was to complete the reform of the monetary system.

The concept of the silver standard was quickly accepted by the people of the Song Dynasty, and judging from the situation in Bianjing alone, things went very smoothly. In fact, before the introduction of this policy, gold and silver were already regarded as a kind of circulating currency in the Great Song Dynasty, and they could already be exchanged at an equivalent value between private gold, silver and copper coins.

It's just that copper coins used to be the main currency, supplemented by gold and silver, but now the positions of the two sides have been reversed. The newspaper and the emperor said very clearly, and those officials also explained very clearly, this time it was not a complete abolition of copper coins, but only changed the main position of copper coins as the main circulating currency of the Great Song Dynasty.

If the copper coins are really abolished, then Chen Yuan is equivalent to using real money to buy back a batch of scrapped and useless things, and he is the biggest wrongdoer.

In general, things are going very smoothly, there is also good news from Dongying's side, the effect of the Kyoto massacre is very obvious, after Dongying's powerful people are killed under the Song saber, there is basically no organized resistance, with the cooperation of those Dongying puppet troops under Ji Xinzhi, Liu Ping's army is progressing very smoothly.

Except for Kunzaburo Fujiwara and Prince Sonhito, who still carried the banner of the emperor and resisted stubbornly in the Hokkaido region, all other places were already controlled by the Song army. Mining has begun in Iwami's mines, where the silver is transported by boats, and every day large ships stop at the dock and unload the silver from it, which gives everyone a sense of security, at least on the surface, there is still a lot of silver, and there is no need to worry about not being able to exchange it, and it also provides and very good trust for Chen Yuan to issue silver tickets.

Three months later, the gold and silver pilot in Bianjing was a success, and the process was much better than Chen Yuan had estimated at the beginning, and the panic and rush of the residents did not appear, and the next model was promoted throughout the Great Song Dynasty.

Renzong looked at Chen Yuan and Xia Zhu's report, with a satisfied smile on his face: "Well, yes, it didn't cause panic among the residents, and the two Aiqing did a very good job this time." Xia Xiangguo, and then promoted it in the Great Song Dynasty states according to Bianjing's practice. If the affairs of Bianjing are done well, it will be a reference for officials in other places, and it can also reassure the people in other places, and it will be much smoother in the future. ”

Xia Zhu stepped forward: "Long live, most of the people near Bianjing already know about this matter, and as Long Live said, their lives have not been affected much. It's just that in the past few years, envoys from Uighurs, Dali and other countries have kept coming to the old ministers, saying that they are already overwhelmed. ”

Renzong nodded: "I also received the credentials they submitted, it is said that during this period of time, the price of gold and silver in Dali has risen wildly, and one or two pieces of silver on the market have been able to exchange for more than ten copper coins, and the same is true for the Uighurs and Dali, Shimei, why can the price of gold and silver in our Great Song Dynasty remain normal?" ”

Chen Yuan said: "Long live, there are also some lawless people in our Great Song Dynasty who are creating all kinds of rumors in vain to speculate on the price of gold and silver, but compared to those vassal states, we have enough silver in our hands, and the space left for them is not very large. In addition, the government's propaganda is effective, so although the silver price of the Great Song Dynasty has risen slightly, it is unlikely that there will be a situation like that of Dali. ”

Renzong sighed: "More than ten yuan and a tael of silver, this price is really unfair." This time, it was the king of Dali who personally wrote to me and asked me to help him. Shimei, Dali has always been deferential to my court, and there has been no overstepping the courtesy, you can help if you look at it. ”

In fact, copper coins can still continue to be used as money, and those vassal states originally planned to take their time, but what they didn't expect was that after the Great Song Chamber of Commerce promulgated the silver standard system in the Song Dynasty, it immediately changed all foreign trade to gold and silver settlement.

Whether it was Dali, Uighur, or Tibet, their trade now depended on the Great Song, and the Great Song was settled in gold and silver, which meant that they had to use real money to trade with the Song people. This time it was going to kill them, they didn't have so much real money, and in order to make a deal with the merchants of the Song Dynasty, they had to buy it at a high price.

At this time, they bought silver at a high price, and some rumors, whether true or false, caused the price of silver to skyrocket.

The silver has risen in their place, but when trading with the people of the Song Dynasty, they still have to follow the price of the Song Dynasty. It is equivalent to them buying a few dollars of things with more than a dozen dollars, and this kind of business is something that no matter how strong the merchant is, he can't hold it.

Don't do it? If you don't do it right, the caravans of the Song Dynasty will immediately send the goods directly to those vassal states. That's how you do business, once you lose the market, it's even harder for you to beat it down, even if it's your own market.

Those merchants in Dali are unwilling to bear the losses themselves, and after the goods come in, all the money will be transferred to the buyers, and the soaring prices will inevitable.

This brought the problem from the people into the court, and the small court of Dali panicked and couldn't hold on, so he wrote to Renzong. The same is true for the Tibetans and the Uighurs, but their national strength is slightly better, and they do not react so quickly as Dali.

It is conceivable that once the Great Song Dynasty smoothly implemented this system throughout the country, it would be difficult for the Liao State to get rid of it.

Since Renzong said that he wanted to help Dali, Chen Yuan naturally wouldn't say anything: "Weichen understands, please rest assured, and immediately Weichen will go to discuss specific methods with Dali's envoy." ”

(To be continued)