The footsteps of the twelfth year of the Apocalypse soon came to winter, and compared with the frequent mobilization of troops in the first half of the year, the Ming Dynasty in the second half of the year basically did not make any major moves.

It's not that Zhu Youzhen doesn't want to make any moves, but that Daming's Apocalypse Tongbao is about to start officially issuing to the people.

When the time entered the beginning of winter in October, after three months of bank opening, the number of more than 60 billion Tianqi Tongbao was officially issued.

Stand, build the beginning also; Winter, the end, all things are collected.

The beginning of winter means that the vitality begins to be closed, all things enter a state of recuperation and collection, and its climate also changes from a rainy and dry autumn to a rainy and freezing winter climate.

The tradition is to take the "beginning of winter" as the beginning of winter, "spring growth, summer growth, autumn harvest, winter storage".

Winter is the season to enjoy the harvest and recuperate, and the beginning of winter is one of the "four seasons and eight festivals" in ancient folk.

On the day of the beginning of winter, the people hold sacrifices, drinking and feasting and other activities to celebrate as an important festival.

The Ming Dynasty chose this day to issue new coins to the people, which was also decided by its convenient records.

The warm-up of the new currency began in June, and on June 15, a total of more than 9,000 banks in the 24 provinces of the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty were opened, but due to the inclusion of Luchuan and Wusizang, the banks in June were mainly aimed at the officials, soldiers, and workers under the Ming Household Department and the Huangdian.

Although there are more than 5 million people in this group alone, this is still less than the total population of more than 150 million after the census.

However, even so, the new coins began to become popular, and many people improved the styling and style, and the heavy new coins were very popular, and there was no boycott that Zhu Youzhen expected.

Therefore, when the bank was about to open on the day of the beginning of winter, many people were crowded around more than a dozen banks in the capital.

At the beginning of winter, the busy Zhu Youzhen rarely had a day to spare, and he sat on the second floor of a small teahouse not far from Dongcheng Bank.

From this angle, he can perfectly overlook the bank in Chang'an Fang in the east city at his feet.

For the safety of Zhu Youzhen, the entire teahouse and nearby buildings were temporarily requisitioned by Jinyiwei's people, and of course, a sum of money would be given to the shopkeepers of each store as usual.

The person in charge of protecting Zhu Youzhen was Shen Lian, who had just returned to the capital from the south.

After leading the team around the area, he changed into his regular clothes and stepped on the wooden stairs to the second floor.

Zhu Youzhen had been looking at the bank in the distance, and the table he was sitting on was full of more than a dozen dishes, and it was estimated that he couldn't finish it alone, so he asked Shen Lian to sit down together.

"How are the officials preparing?" Zhu Youzhen took a bite of the food, his eyes staring at the bank in the distance and asking.

There is a reason why he asked, after all, the implementation of the new currency needs the support of many people, and officials taking the lead are the best example for the people.

Therefore, he had already informed the hundred officials a few days ago, and asked them to take the lead in exchanging new dollars from the bank on this day.

The officials were naturally unwilling, but they did not dare to disobey Zhu Youzhen's words.

Facing Zhu Youzhen's questioning, Shen Lian also nodded: "According to His Royal Highness's arrangement, the first batch of people in the bank to exchange silver coins are the civil and military officials of the Six Ministries, the Cabinet and the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies. ”

Creak......

As soon as Shen Lian's words fell, the sound of a large number of carriages running over and walking on the bluestone road sounded not far away.

Horse-drawn carriages came from afar, and some onlookers avoided them when they saw them.

Under the watchful eyes of the people, some officials they were familiar with began to appear, and the officials of the Ming Dynasty were very high, and the people knew about this matter.

The Minister of Civil and Military Affairs, who is similar to Yipin, has an annual salary of 3,000 taels, which can be described as a huge wealth unimaginable to the people.

Among the officials who got off the bus, Zhu Youzhen also saw Li Zicheng and Li Guo.

"Why are these people here?"

Zhu Youzhen still remembered Li Zicheng and them, and he was naturally very familiar with their small group, Shen Lian followed his gaze, and after seeing Li Zicheng and the others, he asked the left and right Jinyi guards, and then replied:

"Li Zicheng and the others have taken a year's vacation since the end of the war in the various domains, and they should have come to the capital to report on their work."

"Hmm......" Zhu Youzhen replied, and after being silent, he asked again: "According to the rules, which Governor's Mansion are they going to this year?" ”

"It should be the Northern Army." Shen Lian responded, and Zhu Youzhen didn't ask again, just looked at this group of guys carefully.

These guys are busy with the military, and they eat and drink in the barracks, so they don't have much to spend money on.

After their carriage stopped, a cart behind them was basically pulling one or two large boxes, and I thought it should be full of silver.

Compared with them, the civilian officials are much shabby, especially Gu Bingqian, the first assistant of the cabinet.

In addition to Yuan Keli and Bi Ziyan, there is a big box behind them, and the gold and silver brought by the other Wenchen are just a small box in the hands of the servant next to him.

In this way, it made them look very shabby, and they were very embarrassed to stand beside the generals of the "hugely rich" Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies.

"Your Highness, this group of civil officials is too stingy...... "Seeing that Gu Bingqian was carrying a box that could only hold a few hundred taels, Shen Lian couldn't help but speak.

However, after Zhu Youzhen heard his words, his face was very calm: "Do you still expect them to take out all the gold and silver at home?" ”

After eating the dishes for a while, Zhu You looked at the hundreds of officials, looked at the less than 10,000 taels of silver around them, shook his head and said:

"Unless the new coin issuance is very successful, they won't put their entire net worth on the new coin."

When Zhu Youzhen said this, hundreds of ministers such as the six ministries of the cabinet and the capital procuratorate in the cold wind looked at Li Zicheng and the others with frowns.

After the end of the war of the feudal domains, Li Zicheng became the chief soldier of a province, but after the reform of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies, the general army was only a fourth-grade official, so in terms of rank, their rank was not as high as that of some of the main officials of the Cabinet, the Sixth Ministry and the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Although the official position is not high, the silver in their hands is hot.

Although most of the civil servants knew that after the war was over, the gold and silver captured by the Governor's Office of the Five Armies would be distributed to the generals, the court, and the soldiers in proportion, they were still inevitably jealous.

Creak......

When Gu Bingqian looked at the boxes of silver behind the generals with sour eyes, the door of Dongcheng Bank finally opened.

Because it was a place where gold and silver were stored, the banks were guarded by soldiers and horses dressed in armor, and each bank, no matter how big or small, had at least a team of twelve people.

Under the maintenance of the armor, the people began to line up with their silver.

First of all, because of the abundance of money, civil and military officials are naturally the first to line up, and they can be regarded as setting a good example for the people.

Secondly, in fact, many people came to watch, and they were deceived by the treasure money or inferior copper coins of the past dynasties, so they naturally had a heart.

Although the Ming Dynasty has indeed been too good for the people in the past ten years, the people are still a little wary.

Seeing that all the officials took the lead in entering the bank, and boxes of silver were also moved into the bank, Zhu Youzhen asked Shen Lian sideways:

"How much silver has been stockpiled in the banks of the East City today?"

"Your Highness, the total number of silver and copper coins stored in Dongcheng today is fifteen million taels." Shen Lian opened his mouth to respond.

After listening to this, Zhu Youzhen also nodded: "Let a Ti ride to the bank and send back the bank's exchange volume at any time." ”

"Yes!" Hearing what Zhu Youzhen said, Shen Lian immediately asked people to arrange it.

After the arrangements were completed, Shen Lian sat down in the meeting seat and ate with Zhu Youzhen.

In three years, the Suncheon Mint minted more than 50 billion coins, and the total denomination of coins reached more than 120 million taels.

In terms of the total amount of currency in this era, the world is only a few billion taels of silver, although there is a lot of silver in the Ming Dynasty, but it is not a lot per capita.

However, in addition to silver, the currency of the Ming Dynasty also included a scarce amount of gold and an even larger number of copper coins.

No one can know how much these gold, silver and copper coins are worth together, after all, the Han people like to store silver taels and copper coins too much......

"It's a pretty coin."

"There is a denomination, but it will not be cut."

"yes, it's a lot more convenient than before."

As time passed, the merchants who exchanged the Apocalypse Tongbao kept walking in at the gates of the banks in the various cities of the capital, and at the same time, there were also people who walked out after exchanging them, holding the copper coins and silver coins in their hands to observe.

As far as the craftsmanship is concerned, the Ming Dynasty's Apocalypse Tongbao is definitely the most exquisite coin of all dynasties, especially the denomination on the coin, which eliminates the cumbersome use of silver in the past.

Some merchants exchanged small silver coins with a denomination of 100 yuan, and of course some exchanged silver coins for one tael of large flat coins.

Although the weight of silver coins is not reduced compared to silver, having a denomination will make it much easier for them to do business.

Soon, the officials exchanged the new currency and left, followed by the merchants, and then the ordinary people.

Seeing that the officials and merchants had exchanged it, they also took out a part of the silver to participate in the exchange.

Soon, there was a long queue at the entrance of Dongcheng Bank, and at the same time, the bank's exchange amount was also delivered to the teahouse every half an hour.

According to the first report, Dongcheng Bank exchanged more than 370,000 taels of silver coins, and the Quanjing Bank exchanged more than 1.9 million taels of silver coins.

It's just that compared to their family property, this is nothing, whether the bank can stand on its foot, mainly depends on the exchange volume of the people.

The second batch of exchanges is the people in the exchange, when half an hour passes, the entire capital is more than 170,000 taels.

Compared with the previous time, the number was almost one-tenth of the first batch, but Zhu Youzhen did not panic, just continued to sit.

Under his waiting, the third, fourth, fifth, sixth......

Batches of exchange amounts were placed in front of him, and it was not until 13 o'clock that Bi Ziyan, who was the secretary of the household department, Li Changgeng of the Finance Department, and Dong Yingju, the director of the salt department, changed into regular clothes and came to the teahouse, and Zhu Youzhen ordered Jinyiwei not to send the exchange amount.

As the three hours passed, the entire capital exchanged nearly 3.5 million taels of silver, and the exchange ratio of officials and ordinary people was more than 1.9 million to more than 1.5 million taels respectively.

Holding this amount, Zhu Youzhen calmly put it down and said to Bi Ziyan and the others who were sitting in front of him:

"According to this situation, today's new currency exchange in the capital may exceed five million taels."

"In your opinion, how much can the new currency exchange of the dynasty reach today?"

Zhu Youzhen's expectations for the people of the capital are very high, in the final analysis, because the capital has too many people and the economy is much better than most cities.

The exchange amount of five million taels is spread evenly, which is more than four taels of silver for each common person, and if officials and businessmen are included, each common person even needs to exchange only two taels of silver.

This is not much for the capital, which has the lowest daily wage of 15 Wen.

However, Zhu Youzhen is more concerned about the world, after all, only if the people are willing to use new currency, can the people compile accounts to issue passbooks.

"It should be no less than 30 million taels ......"

Dong Yingju is the oldest, he is now seventy-five years old, supervising the third division of the salt and tea mine, he is the most familiar with the economy of the Ming Dynasty, and he also knows that the new currency is different from the previous coins, not only convenient for trading, but also excellent condition.

It is impossible for the gentry and businessmen in Jiangnan to boycott the new currency because of the boycott of the new policy, which belongs to their own incompatibility.

As long as the gentry and merchants in Jiangnan are willing to exchange new currency, it is not difficult to exchange 30 million taels of coins on the first day of the new currency to the people.

Everything Dong Yingju said was recognized by Bi Ziyan and Li Changgeng, and the two nodded their heads in acknowledgement, but Zhu Youzhen frowned and said:

"According to what you said, the deposit of the financial department will probably be redeemed in just a few days."

"Back to Your Highness, it should be so." Li Changgeng, who is in charge of the Department of Finance, echoed and comforted:

"But please rest assured, Your Highness, the mint is now minting 50 million coins a day, and if the new coins work well, then silver coins can be introduced first."

Li Changgeng suggested the introduction of silver coins because there were many copper coins in private circulation, but very little silver.

Use silver coins to recycle the potential silver, and then you can make a profit of one cent of silver, that is, exchange for 10 million taels of silver, and the court can earn 100,000 taels.

Compared with copper coins, silver coins are the key to the return of the financial department.

Moreover, even if a small flat coin of 100 wen was minted, the mint could mint 5 million taels of silver every day.

Although the demand for new currency in the world is large, the exchange scale of 150 million taels of silver per month is still unattainable.

It's just that in this way, the recovery and minting of copper coins will be delayed.

"No, the matter of the Apocalypse Tongbao can be done slowly, I let you come, in addition to talking about this matter, there is also the matter of Qi Min's account and passbook."

Zhu Youzhen did not approve of Li Changgeng's words, after all, if the currency made by the fourth version of the steam engine wants to be imitated, it is very difficult, there are really people who can imitate, Zhu Youzhen is afraid that he will have to pull the other party to manage the mint.

What he is more concerned about is the local Qi Min's household and passbook.

"How many passbooks have been issued by the bank at present, and how many people have deposited silver in the passbooks?"

Zhu Youzhen asked Li Changgeng, Bi Ziyan and Dong Yingju also looked at him, to which Li Changgeng responded unhurriedly:

"About 120,000 copies, about 6.9 million taels of silver, basically all of which are deposited by officials and generals and soldiers of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, and not one of the people."

Although the money bank appeared very early, the people's ability to accept the bank of Daming was not so strong.

Moreover, the bank's passbook is more cumbersome, which is also the reason why the promotion speed is not fast.

However, after today, more and more people will deposit money in banks.

"Should the bank expand or expand, there are more than 2,800 counties and more than 30,000 market towns in the country, and at least you have to ensure that you can see the bank in the market town."

Zhu Youzhen made a request to Li Changgeng, and he readily accepted it.

Seeing this, he continued: "It has been nine months since the implementation of the new policy, and nearly 3 million people have been identified, which is still too slow. ”

"There are nearly 400,000 people who have signed up for Enke this month, and the quota given by the Ministry of Officials is 40,000."

"The Ministry of Household Affairs will make a list of officials who have not implemented the new policy effectively, and let the Ministry of Officials notify the local officials that if there is no progress in the follow-up, then after the Lantern Festival, those who should be demoted will be demoted, and those who should be promoted will be promoted."

"The number of officials in the dynasty is enough to maintain at 800,000."

Zhu Youzhen has very high requirements for local officials, and if he can't implement the new policy, he will get out early.

He didn't have that much time to wait for this group of guys who colluded with the gentry to turn back, and even if he was willing to wait, God wouldn't.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen put down his fast son, although there was no expression on his face, but Bi Ziyan and the three of them knew that he had something important to say.

"In this year's autumn harvest, how much grain does the household department store in the local area? What are the places affected by the drought and how many people are there? How many people have migrated? ”

Zhu Youzhen kept asking, and every question made Bi Ziyan feel heavy.

He sorted out his mood for a while, and then raised his hand heavily: "This year's autumn harvest, the grain stored by the household department in the local area plus last year's old grain, a total of more than 37 million stones. ”

"The places that have suffered from the drought are still Shanxi, Shaanxi, Huguang, Nanzhili, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi provinces, and about 20 million people have been affected, but the people in the south have some grain in their hands, and this year's exemption will not be a problem until next autumn."

"As for the people who have migrated, there are more than 590,000 people in Nanzhili, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi who have moved to Jiaozhi and Jiugang."

"There are more than 320,000 people from Huguang who moved to Luchuan."

"There are more than 600,000 people in Shanxi who have moved to Guanwai."

When the Ming Dynasty was no longer in the stable food prices, the number of spontaneous migration of the people was rising, after all, the price of grain of six or seven hundred wen and one stone did make many people unable to eat.

In order to survive, they had to sell their fields to the government and then move with food stamps.

In nine months, nearly 1.5 million people had received food stamps and relocated, but it was estimated that it would be four or five months before they arrived at the place where they had been moved.

There are many familiar places between Luchuan and the old port and Jiaozhi, but they can't help but move so many people.

According to the number of people, Daming had to take out at least 20 million mu of cooked land to settle them, so whether the cooked land was enough was something that Zhu Youzhen was worried about.

For this reason, he looked at Bi Ziyan: "Is the familiar land in the provinces still enough?" ”

"Jiugang, Jiaozhi, and Luchuan provinces have reclaimed more than 3 million mu of cooked land this year with the help of labor reforms, plus more than 2 million mu of cooked land reclaimed last year, and tens of millions of mu of cooked land in the hands of the government in Luchuan, this year's resettled land should not be a problem, and it can be distributed."

"As for the more than 600,000 Shanxi people who want to relocate the three provinces outside the Guan, the place where the imperial court's promise will take place is to cultivate cattle and machinery."

"The officialdom can produce 200,000 ploughing cattle and 400,000 horses this year, and it will not be a problem outside the customs."

"It's just that there are some difficulties in this regard, and there is no more cooked land outside the border than in the south, and there is more cooked land in the south and less cooked land outside the border, so after adding more than 600,000 people, we have to transfer grain from other places and distribute it to them."

"Xia Guan has calculated, transferring 5 million stone grain from Yingzhou for four consecutive years, and he should be able to redeem enough food stamps in the hands of these people."

Bi Ziyan said the follow-up problem of immigration, but this is not a problem in Zhu Youzhen's view.

It is much better to transport Yingzhou grain to the Northeast by sea than to transport it to Shanxi by land, and the loss on the road alone can be reduced a lot.

"How many people are there in Shanxi?" Zhu Youzhen asked Bi Ziyan, and Bi Ziyan also responded: "About seven million." ”

"Seven million ......" Hearing that there are still seven million people in Shanxi, Zhu Youzhen frowned again and again, but soon he also stretched his brows.

Judging from this year's measures, as long as the imperial court does not stabilize grain prices, the local people will naturally not be able to bear the high grain prices and relocate.

There are still 11 years to go before the drought in Shanxi, let alone 11 years, even if it comes for another three years, the people of Shanxi will not be able to withstand the pressure and most of them will migrate.

According to Zhu Youjian's estimates by the Ministry of Industry, there are less than 15 million mu of irrigated fields in Shanxi, and the remaining 27 million mu or so are dry land.

This year, because there is no drought in the southern part of Shanxi, the people think that life will be better, but in fact, from next year, the drought in Shanxi will be better every year.

Fifteen million mu of irrigated land can feed more than 4 million people at most under the influence of reduced grain production due to the cold of the Xiaoice River.

In other words, even if the people of Shanxi can cultivate a small part of the dry land, the population of Shanxi will not exceed 5 million, even if there is no way to cultivate most of the dry land.

"At least two million people will have to move to ...... outside the border"

Zhu Youzhen silently calculated an account, and then he looked at Bi Ziyan: "If Henan, Shandong, and Beizhili suffer from a major drought, can the local people be able to feed the local people?" ”

"This ......" Bi Ziyan was stunned for a moment, a little speechless, after all, he couldn't calculate it himself if he didn't know the drought.

"Your Highness, if you don't know the scale of the drought, it's hard to calculate."

"However, most of Shandong's fields are paddy fields, and even if there is a severe drought in the province, relying on mountain springs and rivers, I am afraid that most of the fields can be cultivated, and it should not be a problem to feed more than 7 million people."

"As for Henan and Beizhili, it should not be a problem, there will not be too many people affected by the disaster, and Yingzhou Province alone should be able to supply the food shortage."

Bi Ziyan's answer made Zhu Youzhen nod with satisfaction, after all, Zhu Youzhen has prepared too much for this drought, especially in the area of migrating population.

In the first year of the Apocalypse, the cultivated land of the five provinces of Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hexi, Shandong, and Beizhili was more than 220 million mu, and the actual population should be close to 50 million.

After several rounds of relocation, the cultivated land of the five provinces has not changed much, but the population has dropped to more than 36 million.

Although there was a severe drought in the north almost every year, relying on the Wei River, the Jing River, the Yellow River, and some rivers with large runoff, even if these 36 million people could not be fully fed, as long as they were properly relocated, there should be no problem.

The grain problem in the north can be made up by Yingzhou and the four northeastern provinces, and the current problem is mainly in the south.

If we want to solve the grain problem in the south, we can only speed up the research and development of steam engine ships, put them into use in large quantities, and shorten the voyage period from the old port to Jiangnan from three months to one month.

As long as this can be done, the grain from the old port and Jiaozhi can be continuously sent to Jiangnan.

But even so, if the people in Jiangnan want to be full, they still have to see how Daming regulates it.

Migration is something that must be done, and Zhu Youzhen must seize this opportunity to move a large number of people out of the densely populated Jiangnan in one go.

Qi State, Jiugang, Jiaozhi, Zhu Domain, Luchuan, Nanzhou......

Even if only one-tenth of the population of Jiangnan flocks to these places, the Ming Dynasty will completely gain a foothold in these places.

It is not realistic to split Jiangnan, no matter how it is split, where is the population, a population of Nanzhili is equivalent to three or four provinces, unless Nanzhili is split into three or four, otherwise this is useless.

However, the migration of the population seems to be once and for all, whether in ancient times or in later generations, as long as the population of a place decreases, the economic and political discourse will be reduced.

Since the population of Jiangnan is large, it is up to them to make some contributions to the territory of the Ming Dynasty......