A week after the enthronement ceremony, the first grand court meeting of the Hongwu Dynasty kicked off, and all the officials above the fifth rank in the capital gathered in the Taiji Hall to wait for the new emperor to ascend to the court. In the Mingyang Hall of the harem, the queen is helping Sima Shu to wear court clothes.

Since Sima Shu ascended the throne, except for the relocation of his usual life from the East Palace to the Imperial Palace, nothing else has changed. At this time, the Luoyang Imperial Palace was rebuilt on the basis of the Eastern Han Dynasty Imperial Palace, and the main palaces were Taiji Hall (where the emperor often dealt with government affairs), Mingyang Hall (where the queen lived), Furong Palace, Chengguang Palace, Renshou Palace, Mingguang Palace, etc.

Surrounded by palace maids and guards, Sima Shu came out of the Mingyang Hall and got into a carriage and drove to the Taiji Palace. Sitting in the car, Sima Shu's brain did not stop thinking at all. Before ascending the throne, due to the good performance of the family, coupled with the fact that he had already controlled the entire country, he relaxed his control over the family after ascending the throne.

In terms of forming a cabinet between the DPRK and China, the family and the Hanmen are also fighting very hotly. However, under Sima Shu's mediation, the two sides reached a compromise for the time being. Judging from the composition of the cabinet, there is one more bachelor from a family than a bachelor from a poor family, but because the children of the poor family occupy the first and one second assistant seats in the cabinet, the children of the poor family still have a slight advantage in the cabinet.

Judging by the cabinet seats, the two sides seem to be very fair. But if you look at it as a whole, it is not difficult to see the disadvantages of the family, the students who graduated from Guanzhong have completely occupied the middle and lower classes of the imperial court officialdom, and the children of the family have only seized a few unimportant Shangshu.

"The emperor has arrived!"

"See Your Majesty, long live my emperor, long live, long live!"

"All the ministers are flat!"

As soon as Sima Shu sat down on the dragon chair, the ministers in the Taiji Hall paid homage to him one after another, and even some ministers of the family suddenly felt that this kind of ritual was no longer a form of walking, but made people feel afraid of the royal family from the bottom of their hearts. This feeling of never before makes some Maisons lament: the politics of the Maisons has finally become history!

"Your Majesty, in the past year, the imperial army has fought in the Central Plains, Bingzhou, Huainan, and Shuzhong. Although the rebels were defeated successively, the losses of the imperial court were not small, there were 12,000 soldiers killed in the battle, and if the wounded were added, almost half of the 80,000 troops dispatched by the imperial court were lost. ”

"In order to pay pensions, the imperial court has invested millions of yuan, plus the expenditure of the Central Plains reconstruction plan, the imperial court spent nearly 10 billion yuan in the second half of last year. If it weren't for the large sum of money stolen from the rebellious family, I'm afraid the imperial court would have gone bankrupt long ago! But even so, the court will have to tighten their belts in the next few years. ”

As soon as the court meeting began, Du Xi, the secretary of the household department and the second assistant of the cabinet, threw out a thorny question. For a long time, the financial situation of the Jin Dynasty political axe has been deteriorating. After the Battle of Pingwu and Pingshu, although they were victorious twice, due to the existence of some objective reasons, Shuzhong and Jiangdong basically did not really integrate into the new empire.

In addition, almost all the taxes of the court were controlled by the big families, so even after the stable development of the first 20 years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the finances of the Jin Dynasty were still tight, and the annual tax revenue was only one million. If it weren't for Sima Shu to build Guanzhong into a powerful logistics base in advance, it would still be a question whether the imperial court could support it.

"Do you have any solutions?" Although Sima Shu has a bit of an eye in his heart, he still wants to listen to other people's opinions, and being good at accepting advice is the most important quality of a monarch.

"Your Majesty, the solution is nothing more than to open up sources and reduce expenditure. His Majesty has set an example, whether it is the elimination of redundant personnel or the reduction of royal expenses, which has greatly reduced the burden on the imperial court. Therefore, what we can do now is to open up financial resources, and the imperial court can learn from Guanzhong, change the taxation method based on agricultural tax, and include commerce and industry in the imperial court's tax channels! ”

Jiang Tong, who had just been transferred from Guanzhong to the central cabinet as a scholar, first proposed a solution, in fact, even if he didn't say it, the imperial court was ready to abolish the previous tax system, but such a method would take a long time to be effective, and it would not be able to provide assistance to the imperial court in a short period of time.

"Is there any other way for the imperial court to raise a huge amount of money in a short period of time?"

"This ......"

Faced with the emperor's question, Jiang Tong hesitated, he didn't know whether to say it or not, and whether it would break the current stable situation in the court after saying it. After Sima Shu saw this, he knew that the other party had something unspeakable, and he didn't ask in front of everyone.

The next court meeting was a thrilling one, but Sima Shu had always been worried about financial problems, so as soon as the court meeting ended, he immediately summoned Jiang Tong to his study, which was the place where he discussed important matters with cabinet ministers.

Jiang Tong was discussing political affairs with Zhang Bin and other cabinet ministers, and suddenly heard the emperor's summons, he seemed to have expected it, so he greeted several ministers and left the cabinet. Ever since he had spoken half of his words at the court meeting this morning, he knew that the emperor would summon him to the palace sooner or later.

Sure enough, the emperor sat on the nine-dragon chair, and after Cijiang Tongping, he split his head with a sentence:

"Jiang Aiqing, do you think the finance of the Great Jin Dynasty can last for a few years?"

Jiang Tong's cold sweat came out all of a sudden!

"Why did the emperor say this?" Jiang Tong, who reacted, knelt down, "Weichen has no words, and there is no way to assist the government, so he can't share the emperor's worries, and he deserves death." ”

"Get up, I just want to hear the truth from you." Sima Shu still admires Jiang Tong very much, the other party has been sitting in Guanzhong in the past few years, and has achieved remarkable results, otherwise Sima Shu would not have transferred him to the capital.

"Your Majesty, Weichen Mengxian Emperor Jianba; It has been nearly ten years since he received His Majesty's blue eyes and prepared for the position of auxiliary minister, and he has been so kind that he can't repay his liver and brains. I am willing to serve the power of the whole horse for the emperor to drive; I tried my best to die for Dajin. After listening to Sima Shu's words, Jiang Tong breathed a sigh of relief, after all, he hadn't seen Sima Shu for nearly two years, who knows if the original prince had changed!

Sima Shu smiled, listening to how there was a taste of "The Teacher's Table"; He knew that this Jiang Tong had no problem with loyalty, and his talent was also one of the best among the zaifu. Seeing that it was almost over, he stepped forward to help Jiang Tong and said: "I know that Mr. is the pillar of the Great Jin, and now I remember from time to time that Mr. stated the scene of the hidden dangers of the Hu people!" ”

Sima Shu continued: "Back then, the emperor's grandfather said, 'Mr. Jiang and Mr. Du are loyal and upright, so I want to trust you and reuse you. ’”

"Weichen should do his best to share the emperor's worries."

Sima Shu turned back to the dragon chair, took a book of excerpts and said: "This is the recital of Lord Du of the Ministry of Households, which suggests that the imperial court should save expenses and take care of the people's power in the world, I think it is very good." It's a pity that the Quartet is restless at the moment, and it is the time to need money to vigorously develop, and I am deeply worried about the finances. ”

"This, this," back to the original question, Jiang Tong was a little hesitant, because the thing he wanted to say was too big, and once the imperial court adopted his suggestion, I was afraid that Jiang Tong would offend a large number of local magnates.

"Sir, just say it, don't mind." Sima Shu encouraged, "As long as what Mr. says is reasonable, I will fully support it, and with me as your backing, what else do you have to worry about?" ”

"Well, since that's the case, the minister is presumptuous! The minister felt that there was only one way for the imperial court to get rid of the current financial constraints, and that was to mint money! With the support of Sima Shu, Jiang Tong finally said what he had hidden in his heart.

"Mint money!?" Sima Shu looked at Jiang Tong with a shocked expression, no wonder he kept hesitating, hesitating. The amount involved in this coinage is too great, and Sima Shu believes that if it weren't for the fact that he had ruthlessly rectified the family before, I am afraid that Jiang Tong would not even have the courage to mention it.

Everyone knows that coinage is profitable, especially since the end of the Han Dynasty, various private coinage has seriously threatened the stability of the country's economy. Some powerful and lawless elements in the people like to ruin the money and recast it. This is not about increasing GDP, but about being profitable.

Here is the popularization of casting knowledge again. The main materials of copper coins are red copper, bronze, brass, white copper and so on. Red copper is pure copper, bronze is a copper-tin-lead alloy, brass is a copper-zinc alloy, and cupronickel is a copper-tin alloy. Melted down the good copper coins, mixed them with lead and tin, and minted them a little more, and the money gave rise to a lot of money for no reason.

This is blatant adulteration. But at that time, there was no quality supervision bureau, no one was in charge, and the national leaders of the Three Kingdoms period, in addition to Cao Wei, who was more kind, even Liu Bei, who claimed to be benevolent and righteous, took the lead in casting worthless money. In this way, the weight loss and reduction of official money and the private casting of the people have really become a comparison in two times.

This is the law of "bad money drives out good money" in the field of money. After a long time, bad money will inevitably flood the market and will no longer be able to circulate, because everyone will not recognize it. So the official had to come forward to rectify, and after some rectification, some bad coins were swept away, and a certain amount of space was vacated. Bad money is endless, and the more it is rectified, the more powerful it becomes.

By the time of the Wei and Jin dynasties, because the monarchs and ministers were too lazy, they only cared about the convenience of using the old money of the previous dynasty, but the old money, first, there was outflow and loss, and second, the big money was saving more and more money, and the country always did not mint money, and the money supply would be seriously insufficient. Private money is rampant!

It can be said that the coinage of the Jin Dynasty was in the hands of the family Haoqiang, and the family Haoqiang made a lot of profits through private coinage. If the imperial court suddenly proposes to withdraw the coinage at this time, those families who mint coins privately must not make a fuss? The situation that has just stabilized may be making waves again.

"Shhh This one...... Let me think about this, Mr. Jiang should go down first, by the way, don't reveal the slightest thing to the outside world about today's matter! Before leaving, Sima Shu specially instructed Jiang to unify the sentence. In fact, even if the emperor didn't say it, Jiang Tong didn't dare to reveal it at will, and it would be bad if something happened. (To be continued.) )