Gold and silver are not money by nature, but money is naturally gold and silver - Karl. Marx.

The long-awaited war has never arrived, but there are some things that Doomsday Phoenix can't wait for.

The weather is gradually getting warmer, spring ploughing must begin, and the old man Zhang Zhanyuan has urged Song Yu several times.

Compared to the war with Heaven's Gate, farming is now the top priority in Phoenix, and in the last days, only the cultivation and harvesting of the land can ensure the continued survival of humanity.

There are countless vacant lands around Phoenix, but now all of them have become wilderness, and as long as they are reclaimed with a little tidying up, they are fertile fields.

Yi Fengleng's utopian socialist experiments also had ideas about agriculture, and Phoenix was not ready to divide these lands to individual households, but Phoenix City set up farms to carry out unified planning and management of these lands, turning farmers into agricultural workers, and farmers were only responsible for providing labor and receiving labor remuneration on a daily basis.

For the people who are temporarily living under Phoenix City and waiting to exchange points for points to enter the city, Yi Fengleng is also ready to recruit them for farming. Now there is countless land available for cultivation in Phoenix's sphere of influence of more than 2,000 square kilometers, and as much labor as there can be absorbed. And every acre of land reclaimed in the spring will be harvested in the autumn. In addition, as long as these outcasts are firmly attached to the land, their fate will be tied to Phoenix.

Spring ploughing began, and the scene of labor was so spectacular, thousands of people waved hoes and shovels at the same time to level the land and sow seeds.

More and more people outside the city are joining the farming. Although the reward given by Phoenix is only one pound of food a day, people see their value again in labor, and people see hope that life will be better in labor.

Zhang Zhanyuan and his son, along with some elderly farmers from several villages near Xishan Village, are now the technical leaders of the farm, responsible for instructing urban residents who had no experience on how to become qualified farmers.

Lin Jiamu of Qinghu Village also plunged into the field, and now he has finally found his own value. There are no useless abilities in this world, only abilities that haven't found the right value. Lin Jiamu is now the chief engineer of the farm officially appointed by Song Yu, and the first batch of cold-resistant and drought-resistant seeds he improved and cultivated have been sown, and thus won the respect of every farmer.

The Phoenix Escort has now added a new mission, escorting the farmers to the fields early in the morning and back to the city in the evening. At night, a small number of personnel will stay on the farmland to patrol, so that farmers can work with peace of mind without being disturbed by displaced people and mutated animals.

With agriculture as its foundation, everything in Phoenix is slowly getting off the rails. Without the interference of war, it only takes two or three years for Phoenix to gradually restore its basic urban civilization in addition to digitalization.

As more and more immigrants are hired to work on farms, a thorny issue that has to be solved immediately comes to the fore: the payment of labor wages to employees.

Phoenix's foreign hired labor force is paid one pound of grain for one day's work, and one day is settled. So after finishing work every evening, there was a long queue outside Phoenix City to receive food, and Song Yu had to arrange forty or fifty people to distribute food every day, sometimes busy until midnight.

In the past, Phoenix City implemented closed management, and the food and clothing of residents in the city were rationed, and they were distributed according to their contributions to the city, which greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of residents. However, after a long period of stability, people's inner inertia gradually became apparent, and the phenomenon of cheating and deceitful at work began to appear, so it was necessary to change the current distribution system.

In addition, with the increasing number of affiliated camps belonging to the forces of Doomsday Phoenix outside the city, the number of people in the sphere of influence has exceeded 100,000, and it is too troublesome for the camps to barter with Phoenix and between the people of each camp.

All the problems piled up and there is only one solution - issuing money.

Chi Hua, Yi Fengleng and Song Yu didn't know that currency was the way to solve the problem, but they didn't take that step for a long time, so naturally there were deeper reasons in it.

In order to issue currency in the apocalyptic world, Phoenix must first cross two hurdles. The first hurdle is the hurdle in the heart, only a sovereign state can issue currency, and the criminal law of all dynasties for privately coined currency is the death penalty. Chi Hua has always been reluctant to become a warlord on one side of the separatist from the bottom of his heart, which is why Beidou adopted a loose management model in Shengshui Town before, and once the currency is issued, it will form a de facto secession.

If the hurdle in the heart is still easy to overcome, the second hurdle needs to be based on strong economic and armed strength. Money is just a general equivalent, and the reason why it is valuable is based on the economy, guaranteed by national credit, and circulated by the coercive power of the government.

The reason why no power in the northwest has yet been able to issue currency is not because their force is not enough to rule a region, but because they lack sufficient economic base and credit. They cannot guarantee that the currency they issue will be exchanged for its actual use, in other words, the people cannot use the currency in their hands to buy what they want from the forces that issue it, because they do not have it!

And the Doomsday Phoenix, which lacks other forces, already has it. There are 250,000 tons of grain in the basement under Phoenix Mountain as the basic equivalent of issuing currency, and the hope of the 100,000 people in the sphere of influence for the future of Phoenix City is also the basis of credit, and what is missing is to take that final step.

"Now that we have embarked on this road, there is no chance to turn back, whether it is infamous through the ages or forever, for the sake of the original hope, we can only go all the way!" Yi Fengleng's words finally strengthened Chi Hua's determination to issue currency.

Doomsday Phoenix begins issuing currency!

This news is no less than another round of nuclear bombs dropped after the end of the world, which shocked all forces in the Northwest Region, large and small, and the explosiveness of the news even exceeded that of Doomsday Phoenix City to seize the Chosen City. There are forces that admire the courage of Doomsday Phoenix and are ready to follow suit, and many more are waiting to see the jokes of Doomsday Phoenix as a joke.

Regardless of the outside world's opinion, after a day and a night of deliberation by all the top leaders of Doomsday Phoenix City, and the final decision of the three-member committee, the Phoenix Coin has finally come out.

At that time, it seemed that the Phoenix Coin was issued in a hurry and even a little child's play, but in the next few years, it exerted a more powerful power than guns, cannons, and evolutionary combat power, and even became the most valuable hard currency in the entire post-apocalyptic world in the later stage!

The reverse of the Phoenix coin is a phoenix pattern soaring in flames, the obverse is the face value, and the small print around the circle is "Doomsday Phoenix Bank", and the year is 2023. Phoenix coins are divided into two types of gold and silver coins, with a total of six denominations, namely one dollar silver coin, five yuan silver coins and ten yuan silver coins, one yuan gold coins, ten yuan gold coins and one hundred yuan gold coins, and the exchange ratio is 100 yuan silver coins to one yuan gold coins.

In terms of setting the value scale of currency, Doomsday Phoenix City links Phoenix Coin to the most basic hard currency grain and the most expensive hard currency evolutionary crystal nucleus in the last days. Half a catty of grain is priced at one yuan of silver, and a standard-sized evolutionary crystal nucleus is priced at 20,000 yuan of silver. 250,000 tons of grain in Phoenix can support the issuance of at least 500 million yuan of silver coins or the equivalent of 5 million yuan of gold coins.

Because it is impossible for everyone to exchange the issued gold coins for grain and evolutionary crystal nuclei at the same time, considering the number of times the currency is in circulation and the storage of a large amount of gold and evolutionary crystal nuclei in Phoenix, the issuance of currency can be four times overissued, and a maximum of 2 billion yuan of silver coins or equivalent gold coins can be issued.

The gold and silver coins of Phoenix City were made by Chi Hua himself, and after the master carver made the molds of different denominations, the liquid metal slowly flowed into the molds, and the Phoenix coins came into being.

Because it is mixed with other metals purified by Chi Hua's ability, the surface of the Phoenix coin shows a special gold and silver luster, and other forces have no way to imitate it.

From the moment the Phoenix Coin was born, Phoenix stopped providing residents with food and clothing and other daily necessities for free, and instead paid Phoenix Coin to the residents for their labor. Ordinary factory and farm workers were paid 5 silver coins a day, and the residents needed to use the wages they earned to buy food in the canteen and other daily necessities for their personal needs.

The price of an ordinary meal served in the canteen is one yuan of silver, and the price of a meal of a slightly higher grade is two yuan. The aim was to ensure that the inhabitants of the city were fed as long as they worked under the present conditions, and that they had a little money left over to buy other things or choose to rest.

Doomsday Phoenix has never pursued a policy of equalizing the rich and the poor. The salary of a person with special skills is 10 yuan per day, and the salary of an ordinary guard soldier is 8 yuan per day, but the soldier's room and board are free. The daily wage of an evolutionary in the special combat team is 30 yuan, the daily wage of the squad leader is 50 yuan, the daily wage of Qin Yurou, Yang Hongquan and other squadron leaders and regiment commanders is one gold coin a day, and the salary of Chi Hua, Yi Fengleng and Song Yu is two gold coins per day.

Chi Hua may not need gold coins, but this reward is not for him personally, but for this position, and at the same time, he must also consider Song Yu and Yi Fengleng.

According to this set of salary standards, an ordinary soldier can only be exchanged for a crystal nucleus that becomes an evolutionary after serving for eight years without any other expenses, a special combat member has to serve for two years to exchange for a crystal nucleus to continue to strengthen, and Qin Yurou and others have a crystal nucleus for half a year.

But whether it is an ordinary warrior or a super evolver like Qin Yurou, it is impossible to have no expenses, and if Phoenix wants to make money circulate, it must promote people's consumption. Only the most basic food and housing are free, and if you want to have better food and better living conditions, you must buy or rent, and all the houses in Phoenix are only rented, not sold!

Another far-reaching meaning of issuing currency is the establishment of a visible, tangible and transparent incentive system. Previously, Phoenix City took out 50 crystal nuclei at once to reward meritorious escort soldiers and special combat members, some people saw hope in it and performed better, while some people were secretly unhappy in their hearts, feeling that they deserved to be rewarded more.

Since the issuance of currency, Phoenix's rewards for military exploits have been changed to monetary rewards. Bonuses are given directly according to the size of military merits, and soldiers or evolutionaries can choose whether to buy evolutionary crystal nuclei from Phoenix City after saving enough money.

Doomsday Phoenix hopes to make military merit an additional source of income for soldiers and evolutionaries through the reform of the incentive system, so as to create a strong Doomsday force unlike any other.

PS: This chapter may be a little boring, and the discussion on the nature of money is not professional, the author is trying to construct a rich apocalyptic world, write a different apocalyptic story, and compensate for it in the evening.