This scarf merchant has a lot of background, he is Xu Guangqi's disciple Sun Yuanhua, and there are few practical people who open their eyes to the world in the late Ming Dynasty. He was proficient in Western studies and made artillery, and was one of the few technocrats in the Ming Dynasty who could grasp real power. It's a pity that he died unjustly - Da Ming almost perfectly avoided all the correct ways to survive in the last stage and rushed headlong into hell.

Stimulated by Zhou Qingfeng's attack on Gyeonggi, the Ming court finally had a bit of public opinion to seek change and truth. After all, as long as you are not a fool, you will understand the great harm of being truncated. Emperor Wanli was hung up three years in advance, and his son Emperor Taichang always had to have a new atmosphere when he came to power. The Ming army was reorganizing and decided to attack Tianjin again, and the Ming bureaucracy was also looking for a path to reform.

The first assistant Fang Yizhe has not yet fallen, in view of the fact that Juniper and other generals said that the anti-thief artillery is sharp, he sought Xu Guangqi, who is proficient in Western studies, to build artillery. Xu Guangqi was already sixty years old, so he recommended his proud disciple Sun Yuanhua to serve as the secretary of the military department to explore the road to strengthening the army.

Sun Yuanhua received this important task and knew that the light cannon could not save the Ming Dynasty. His first thought was to find a way to investigate the anti-thieves of the 'revolutionary army' on the spot. As the saying goes, 'know yourself and know your opponent, and you will not be defeated in a hundred battles', everyone knows what kind of bird the Ming army is. However, there are different opinions about what the 'revolutionary army' really looks like. The crowd is like a blind man touching an elephant, and they all speak differently.

The 'revolutionary army' occupied Tianjin, but it did not prohibit the circulation of people to the outside world. Zhou Qingfeng even encouraged people and business exchanges with the people. It's a kind of self-confidence, which is to show your strengths. Even if there are shortcomings, they are not afraid of being talked about, and even encourage people in the private sector to express reasonable opinions - spreading rumors and sowing discord will definitely be unlucky.

Daming Jinyiwei still sent people to Tianjin to find out, in fact, it was easy to complete the task by sending all kinds of newspapers and brochures publicly available on the market back to the capital. If they want to make trouble in secret, they will have to face the minions of Ma Gonggong and the vast sea of people's war.

Sun Yuanhua arrived in Tianjin, and he was quite touched on the first day. He wrote notes by hand and decided to take a good look at the city. Since he came as a businessman, the Jinyi Wei spy in Tianjin reminded: "Marco's traitorous methods are powerful, and the monitoring is extremely strict. Master Sun should go to the thief's bank to exchange some silver dollars, so that he can really come to Tianjin to do business. ”

Exchange for silver dollars?

Sun Yuanhua didn't quite understand what was going on, but he still went to the city center near the Drum Tower, where the newly established 'Bank of China' was a newly built three-story building. The height of this building alone is more than 20 meters, which is comparable to the city gate tower, which is a signature building of this anti-thief, which is very conspicuous.

Since there was no cement, the building was built with brick and wood and glutinous rice lime walls, which cost a lot of money. However, after the completion of this bank building, it brought great fame, and people felt that the 'revolutionary army' was indeed powerful. In addition, the building was built very quickly, with a construction area of 2,000 square meters, which was completed in less than a month and was soon put into use. It is said that it will continue to be expanded in the future.

When Sun Yuanhua rushed over, he saw a crowd of people in front of the bank building. When he asked, he learned that another building was going to be built on the opposite side recently, called the 'Department Store'.

"Dare to ask my husband, what is this 'department store'?" Sun Yuanhua didn't understand, anyway, after he came to Tianjin, he felt like a dumpling from the countryside, just looking at the recently published 'Revolutionary Army' newspaper opened his eyes - he could understand the news from Liaodong, Shandong and other places at once, and even a lot of strange things about overseas.

The one who was asked was an old man who watched the excitement, and grinned: "It is a place to buy and sell all kinds of commercial goods." The notice says that the main retail is here, and if the quantity is large, it will be in the wholesale market outside the city. ”

Before I saw the strangeness of the bank, I saw the strangeness of a department store.

Sun Yuanhua walked forward along the flow of people, and when he got closer, he realized that the people on the street were actually looking at a big pit in the ground. The pit was dug about five or six meters deep, and it was said that it was the foundation and basement of a department store. He himself was amazed to see such a pit, and then saw the workers on the site use a crane to transport the excavated soil, each time they can transport thousands of catties, the speed is extremely fast.

"Remarkable, remarkable. It has long been heard that this 'revolutionary army' does not read the books of the saints, but treats craftsmen preferentially, and is good at kitsch and lewd skills, and this is indeed the case. Sun Yuanhua looked at it for a while and was squeezed away by the crowd, and he saw the bank building that was coming today.

From the perspective of future generations, this square three-story building is not unusual. But in the eyes of the people of the Ming Dynasty, this building is full of strangeness. The first floor of the building is more than five meters high, and the door alone makes people feel open. At the door stood two spear guards, helmets and cuirasses, fully armed. At first glance, people feel majestic and majestic, and they dare not make a mistake.

Sun Yuanhua is a person who understands technology, and he is very curious about this bright breastplate. The Ming army, who had fought with the guards, was envious when they talked about this cuirass, saying that it was unbelievable that this kind of armor that could only be equipped by a Ming army general was worn on the anti-thief soldiers. This cuirass is bright and spirited, and it is particularly difficult to cut, and ordinary soldiers can't deal with it at all.

"Such a treasure armor is allocated to small soldiers, and this 'revolutionary army' is indeed outstanding. It's a pity that these forces can't be used by my Ming Dynasty, which is really sighing. Sun Yuanhua sighed for a while, and followed the flow of people into the bank building.

Zhou Qingfeng was engaged in 'making money' at the beginning, and also engaged in insurance and financial management, although these things were either cheating people, or did not play a big role. But at worst, it has also gathered and cultivated a group of talents in the financial industry. These people are now being used to open banks, and banks are financial institutions that can play a huge role if they are used well, and curbing usury among the people alone is a great matter of good governance.

There are signs and guides in the lobby on the first floor of the bank, and there are currently deposit and loan business, as well as exchange business. Sun Yuanhua came over with two strong servants and more than a hundred taels of silver, and asked where the silver dollar exchange business was handled—in fact, he still didn't know what this exchange business meant. I only know that it is to convert silver into silver dollars, but I know that it is very convenient after changing.

When I arrived at the exchange window in a daze, the clerk asked how many taels to exchange? Sun Yuanhua put a burden containing silver on the counter, and someone immediately came over to weigh the silver taels. The weighing is calculated by grams, and more than one hundred taels is nearly four kilograms.

After confirming all the exchanges, someone came over to inspect the exchanged silver. One is to throw it into the water to confirm the relationship between density and weight, and then use scissors to cut it carefully to confirm the fineness of the silver.

The fineness of the silver brought by Sun Yuanhua was good and bad, and the exchange rate was not the same. The people at the bank were busy for a long time before they could calculate the amount of more than 100 taels of silver exchanged for silver dollars, "a total of one hundred and fifty-two yuan and seven jiao and two cents." ”

Silver dollars are silver-copper alloys, 25 grams, and there are also copper coins of lower value. Zhao Ze recently developed a hydraulic stamping machine, which was first used not to make weapons, but to mint coins. The 'revolutionary army' needed to rely on commercial sales to buy a large amount of supplies, and it was too cumbersome to rely on silver taels, and it was necessary to have a standardized currency.

The stamped dies are manufactured with a digital machining center. Originally, Zhou Qingfeng's avatar was used as a pattern. Considering that it also needs to be circulated in the area controlled by the Ming Court, it is still chosen to distinguish and identify it with Meilan bamboo chrysanthemum and digital characters.

Sun Yuanhua once again felt the charm of this industrial technology when he got the silver dollar of the 'revolutionary army', and he looked carefully at the fine patterns printed on the silver dollar by the stamping die, which was absolutely beyond the power of man. There is even a three-dimensional difference between the petals on the silver dollar, and the most rare thing is that each silver dollar is exactly the same.

"Divine skill, really divine skill!" Sun Yuanhua praised the high-quality silver dollar, despite the fact that he was still in front of the bank counter. The Ming court also minted coins, and the patterns that could be minted were definitely not as exquisite as this stamping. The uneven texture, the toothing of the edges, and even the wearability and recognizability of the silver dollar make it a work of art.

The currency of the 'revolutionary army' is divided into five kinds, one yuan, five jiao, one dime, five cents, and one cent. There are two categories: silver and copper coins. Sun Yuanhua looked at it carefully, and asked the bank staff who exchanged it: "Is there a lot of exchange?" ”

"At first, there weren't many, but we used silver dollars for salaries and external purchases, and soon everyone understood the convenience of this thing, so they naturally liked it." Said the banker.

Sun Yuanhua grabbed the silver coin in his hand, and his mind began to imagine quickly. After a while, he felt dizzy, unable to judge what a huge impact this small silver dollar would have—the court only felt that the 'revolutionary army' was a gang of thieves with fierce artillery and thick armor, and the soldiers dared to fight. But the ability of the people is beyond the imagination of the court bosses.

It's okay not to compare, but it's really desperate. The thieves of the 'revolutionary army' are all ambitious and far-reaching, and the bureaucrats of the imperial court are as stupid as pigs - this is simply an insult to pigs.

Currency is an indispensable thing for the people to use in their daily lives, and it is even more necessary for commercial circulation. But it is very inconvenient to use silver for the currency of the Ming Dynasty. A silver coin is too big, and a copper coin is too small. Moreover, cheating on silver is a necessary ability for many profiteers, so a lot of effort is actually spent on how to distinguish the authenticity of silver taels.

There are broken silver on the market, and it is all cut like that by merchants with scissors. Every time you buy and sell, you have to weigh the broken silver, not to mention how much trouble there is. The 'Revolutionary Army' silver dollar is exquisitely shaped, and it looks high-grade, and the currency value is fixed and difficult to forge. This is bound to be a big hit for commercial circulation.

As long as the 'revolutionary army' continued to provide these silver dollars, the seigniorage alone would be a lot of money—a tael of silver could not be exchanged for the same weight of silver dollars, and the silver dollars were mixed with about a tenth of copper.

Zhao Ze was mass-producing stamping machines on the Liaodong Peninsula, turning melted silver into silver dollars day and night. When the silver on the market is constantly exchanged for the silver dollars of the 'revolutionary army', it is natural that the common people will be inclined to this gang of thieves. Sooner or later, this subtle erosion of consciousness will play a big role, which is more powerful than winning a few battles.

Sun Yuanhua only came to Tianjin on the second day, and he received such a critical blow!