The thirteenth year of Chongzhen, July.

The nine-headed bird completed a new round of reorganization, and the 100,000 Chu army was organized into four towns, of which three towns were the army and one town was a water division. Liu Jun was the commander of the military affairs of the three towns of Huguang and the commander of the Beiyang Naval Division.

Fu Shan was awarded the general military officer of Yunyang to guard the town, and commanded 30,000 soldiers and horses in the eighth town. Cai Yuan and Zhang Guodong were respectively appointed as deputy commanders of the 1st and 2nd Divisions, stationed in Yunyang and Xiangyang.

Zhang Shan was awarded the general military officer of Wuchang to guard the town, and commanded 30,000 soldiers and horses in the ninth town. Zhu Yuancheng and Chang Sheng were appointed as deputy commanders of the Third and Fourth Divisions, stationed in Jingzhou and Wuchang.

Ma Xianglin was awarded the chief military officer of Changsha to guard the town, and 30,000 lost horses in the tenth town. Qin Yimin and Deng Yuan were appointed as deputy commanders of the Fifth and Sixth Divisions respectively, and were stationed in Changsha and Guiyang.

Liu Yun was promoted to the chief officer of the town guarding Lushun, commanded the Beiyang Naval Division of 15,000 men, and Du Song, Ding Xuan, and Zhang Guozhu were appointed as deputy commanders of the 123rd Fleet, stationed in Lushun, Phi Dao, and Miao Island.

The deputy commander-in-chief of each division has three associations, and the commander of each division is awarded the rank of general.

In addition, towns, divisions, and associations all have commanders, and the chief of staff is placed as a deputy, and the official position is one rank lower than that of the chief officer. The commanders of each standard under the association are guerrilla and capital divisions, the commanders of each battalion are garrisons and thousands, and the company commanders are generals and hundreds.

For the nine-headed bird, the emperor was in place once this time, and it was completely in accordance with the establishment of the official positions, and they were all properly matched, and the corresponding military ranks were awarded. From Liu Jun to the lowest soldiers, all of them were awarded the corresponding military ranks according to their duties. Even the Yiren mercenaries in the four towns were given military ranks, and some were even given official positions.

In order to let Liu Jun send the soldiers of the four towns to Liaodong and launch a greater offensive, in addition to the lack of silver, the court asked for officials to officials, and they wanted to increase their titles. The governors of Huguang were ostensibly still supervising these soldiers and horses, but in fact their control over the nine-headed bird was quite weak. Their supervision and maintenance standards are gone.

The only thing left is the prison army, from the town to the association, the town division association has three levels, and each level is equipped with eunuchs and Wenchen supervisors. But at Liu Jun's request. The eunuchs and civilian officials of the supervising army are one level lower than the chief officers, and these people only have the right to supervise, but not to command, and they are not allowed to lead troops, let alone command interfering in operations.

The imperial court also sent officers to supervise salaries, but the nine-headed bird's food and salary did not pass through the imperial court. Therefore, the establishment of this official office has no effect.

The military salaries of the four towns still come from the local settlement, ostensibly from the military cantonment rent, lottery tickets, customs fees, etc., but these are far from enough to supply food and wages, not to mention that the whole army has to complete the redress and build the nine-headed bird into an advanced firearms unit.

Liu Jun raised the army, mainly relying on banks, money banks, ordnance shops, salt factories, and the East India Company.

Especially on the bank side, it is now getting smoother and smoother, and the outlets have spread all over the two capitals and fifteen provinces of Daming. The three most profitable businesses of banks today are the minting of silver coins, commercial loans, and the issuance of silver dollar bills and foreign exchange. This golden rooster that constantly lays golden eggs is coveted by many people. But Liu Jun is very strict in his care, monopolizing this piece and not allowing anyone to intervene.

"Our minting business is good right now." Lu Weizhang said to his son-in-law very excitedly, he was originally just a businessman with a fortune of only two or three hundred thousand, and he was rich in Xiwan, but in the whole Hubei or even the whole world, it would be insignificant. But since he managed the business for his son-in-law, his eyes have been opened. Now the silver that has been passed from his hand is a hundred thousand taels.

Silver coins now have a standard silver content of 88 percent silver and 12 percent copper. It's less than one silver nine bronze. Because of the large scale of coinage, mechanical stamping such as hydraulic punching is used, which is extremely efficient. The minting of its coins is highly profitable, with a profit of eight percent for each silver dollar minted.

"Now we have five mints, each capable of minting 100,000 silver dollars a day."

Liu Jun nodded. There is a profit of 40,000 silver dollars a day, which is indeed a daily income.

"What is the attitude of the people towards our silver dollars?"

"Everybody loves our silver dollars, they're beautiful, they're beautiful, and they're standard." Lu Weizhang replied, "But there is also a situation. That is, the people like to go to the bank to exchange our silver dollars, but after they are exchanged, they use less, and they are all saved and collected. ”

Liu Jun smiled, "This is a very normal thing, over the ages, all kinds of money and private money are different, the better the money, the more it is collected, and the market is full of bad money circulation, which is actually called bad money to drive out good money." Everyone knows that good money is really gold, so they all collect it, and they all want to take out the bad money and use it, which leads to such a result. Just like our Ming Dynasty, rich people minted silver into silver ingots and stored them in cellars. ”

"What can I do?"

"Don't worry, it's not a bad thing." Liu Jun had thought of this situation at the beginning of the coinage. Although it is said that the silver coin is silver nine bronze one, but it is stable in color, and easy to use, such money is of course better than a variety of different colors, the shape of the silver ingots and broken silver, which is inconvenient to use, and it is normal to be collected.

But Liu Jun also has a way to increase the circulation of silver dollars, and the most important way is of course to mint more silver dollars.

In the past, everyone had money and lacked investment channels, so they buried their silver in cellars and kept it. And now, Liu Jun's bank helps them keep the silver without charging fees, and gives them a lot of interest, which naturally stimulates them to send the silver to the bank.

Liu Jun had to first identify and exchange the silver he had absorbed into silver dollar units according to his fineness, and then give them deposit receipts and silver bills. The silver was put into silver dollars, and Liu Jun turned around and sent them all to the mint, and they were all minted into silver dollars. It is then relented to those merchants and charged higher interest than the deposit interest. When depositors come to withdraw cash, the bank will no longer pay silver ingots but silver dollars.

Silver ingots are constantly being minted into silver coins, and there are more and more silver dollars, and all kinds of silver ingots that are directly used will become more and more inconvenient to use.

"However, there are some inconveniences with silver dollars, our silver dollars are all one yuan, the amount is still large, and they often have to be changed to use, and no one wants to exchange silver dollars for a bunch of copper coins back. Now the copper coins of the imperial court have become more and more evil, and no one wants to use them at all. Therefore, if it were not for a large transaction, the people would not use the silver dollar, and no one would want to suffer that loss. ”

Lu Weizhang raised another question. Although the nine-headed bird also issued silver dollar coupons, not only one to one hundred yuan, but also deliberately issued three kinds of small auxiliary coupons of five jiao, two jiao and one dime.

Although the bank promises that the silver dollar coupon can be cashed at any time, many people are still a little wary of this kind of paper coupon in their hearts, and now they have not been able to open the market immediately and circulate in large quantities.

"Then we'll mint small silver coins. In addition to one dollar silver dollar, there are three kinds of five jiao, two jiao, and one dime, and our one-yuan silver coin is eight percent silver, and the auxiliary coin contains seventy percent silver. "The low value of silver coins also increased the cost of minting, and Liu Jun directly reduced the silver content. Silver seven bronze three. This ensures that costs fall and profits increase. At least it will be twice as much.

Lu Weizhang's lips were a little dry, and he swallowed his throat, he didn't expect Liu Jun to have such a big appetite, so he had to remind in his heart, "Our silver dollar is not low in profit, and some people in the market have begun to mint it privately." If we change the silver coins to silver seven bronze three, I estimate that more unscrupulous people will mint counterfeits, which will be detrimental to the credit of our silver coins. ”

Eight percent of the profit on one dollar of silver. Now that the profit of the auxiliary currency is 16 percent, there are bound to be many people who will take risks. If there are many inferior silver coins on the market, it will undoubtedly ruin the credibility of the silver dollar. With such a high profit on silver coins, I am afraid that others will not need to adulterate them, and they will make money privately according to the bank's fineness, and it will not affect the credit of silver dollars, but it will rob the bank's minting profits.

Liu Jun waved his hand indifferently. "Others have privately cast it, and it can't reach the scale of ours. Without our technology, the cost could not be reduced, and the profit was not so high. As for adulteration and shoddy, even if we are full of silver dollars, then the higher the profit they make if they counterfeit. In short, no matter how good our condition is. In fact, it only affects the people, and if the quality is too low, there will be insufficient credit, but it has nothing to do with the counterfeiters. ”

"But I'm not worried about the decline in fineness and the acceptance of the people, and the silver coins are for convenience. It doesn't matter if the condition is lower, after all, we don't weigh the money, but the face value. As long as we release this money and are willing to exchange it back at any time, the people will use it. ”

As for privately minting fake money, this is definitely unavoidable, but Liu Jun will not let it go at will.

"We will intensify our efforts to crack down on smuggling, make an example of each other, and set up a special anti-smuggling team." Liu Jun himself was the largest private minter, but he had the emperor's permission, and he paid seigniorage to the emperor. Chongzhen also knew that the imperial court would return the coinage power to the imperial court and hand it over to the household department, which would not necessarily make a good profit, at most it would allow the officials to take advantage of it to embezzle.

After Liu Jun offered to pay the seigniorage tax to the imperial court, Chongzhen simply handed over the coinage right to Liu Jun, which was equivalent to contracting the coinage business to Liu Jun. Moreover, the seigniorage is a package tax system, which is also a feature of the tax system of the Ming Dynasty.

For example, there are many officials in the Ming Dynasty, when they collect tariffs at the local level, they once opened the customs after collecting the fixed amount of tax for one year in only four months a year, and no longer collected a penny for the next eight months. As a result, this approach has won praise from many officials.

Now the household department also collects seigniorage from Liu Jun in this way, with a seigniorage of 100,000 taels per year. Only 100,000 yuan a year is collected, not more, not less. As for how much Liu Jun can earn in a year, they don't care.

Hubu and Chongzhen also felt that they had made a lot of money, 100,000 taels a year, and if they didn't invest a penny, they would earn 100,000 yuan in vain. The imperial court used to mint copper coins every year, minting one furnace and losing one furnace, and minting a lot. Therefore, although now Daming silver has become currency, and there are also Hongyi silver coins flowing in, but Daming just no one has proposed to officially mint silver coins.

Now Liu Jun casts it himself, with a tax of 100,000 yuan a year, and the court is reluctant to agree.

In fact, the most important thing in minting silver coins is not the coinage, nor the geometry of fineness, but how to maintain the credit of silver coins. It was only when Liu Jun established a bank and spread all over the outlets, promising to be able to get the silver dollar back and exchange it at any time, that this was the reason why the silver dollar, which contained only 88 percent of the silver, could be pushed out.

In the case of the imperial court, the minting and issuance of this kind of silver coin, which is only more than eighty percent fine, is afraid that no one wants to use it at all. Everyone will think that the imperial court is robbing money in disguise, just like comparing treasure money.

"Re-mint some copper dollars." Liu Jun put forward another decision that shocked Lu Weizhang.

Anyway, the imperial court has already allowed him to mint coins, and he has also paid the contract tax, so he naturally has to make good use of it. The copper dollar is more widely used than the silver dollar, after all, even if it is a dime of silver dollars, it is five cents of silver, and five cents of silver can be used as a salary for some days and two days, and you can buy a few catties of meat.

However, Liu Jun does not plan to mint the original kind of money.

He intended to strike copper coins of silver coins, denominated at face value rather than by weight.

"Copper coins should not be round on the outside and square on the inside, but minted in the style of silver coins, minted in copper, lead and tin, minted in the third class, five wen, two wen and one wen style, one silver dollar for one hundred copper dollars, and one dime silver dollar for ten copper dollars. Copper ninety-five lead and tin five proportions casting, the size is slightly smaller than that of silver dollars. ”

This kind of way of casting copper coins is also something Lu Weizhang has never heard of, don't have copper coins, and it's not one or two silver for a thousand, it's actually one yuan for a hundred. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you Fan Xuanzi, Ice and Fire Ji, Qingfeng Qin Yuan, and the fourth young man of the Feng family for your support, thank you Fan Xuanzi for your reward!