The mining of Luzon gold was a major move of the Ming Dynasty.

Due to the large amount of supplies that needed to be supplied from Guangdong, it was originally planned to take more than half a year to build a road from Luzon City to the gold mines.

It's just that the attributes of the Chinese infrastructure madness seem to have been ignited in advance during this period.

A large number of migrant workers went to Luzon not to serve in forced labor, but to get real wages, and even to have food comparable to that of middle-class families, leading them to play the fine tradition of the Chinese people to endure hardships and stand hard work.

Even if they had to eat and drink on the construction site, none of them complained, but diligently built bridges and paved roads on this island full of primitive flavors.

Although Zhang Sui, Yu Yuanzan and Lin Feiyang, who were hired by Zhu Youji, were still very young, the three of them all had a lot of enthusiasm and always kept in mind that the mission was to mine gold.

It is under their leadership that some internal disputes or external pressures can always be resolved quickly.

As for the supply of grain, none of them had the idea of greedy ink, but distributed the grain to the hands of the workers, striving to make all the workers eat well, dress and sleep well.

Originally, there was a shortage of people to build the road, but during this period, northern Luzon was very short of food, not to mention sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn, and even rice was scarce.

The pristine forests and seashores in the north are rich in natural ingredients, but the food sources are not stable, and the average life expectancy of all tribesmen is very short, and there are cases of starvation.

The Chishan tribe's annexation to the Ming Dynasty was just the beginning, and after seeing the people of the Chishan tribe hungry and clothed, many tribes expressed their willingness to serve the Ming Dynasty as the master, and just let them eat rice.

With the addition of this group of labor, not only did the process of building roads speed up, but also the aboriginal people, who were accustomed to walking in the mountains and forests, solved the transportation needs of gold mining.

It is precisely because of the combination of multiple factors that the cycle of road construction and gold mining has been greatly reduced, while the cost of mining has hardly increased.

With the completion of a road connecting the belly gold mines from the north gate of Luzon City, batches of exposed gold ore were mined and smelted to be delivered to Luzon City.

The city of Luzon not only had a heavy garrison here, but also had a fleet, but it was enough to threaten the whole of the South Seas.

After hoarding 100,000 taels of gold, Yu Yuanzan personally escorted the gold back to the capital.

As more and more Ming merchants went to the South Seas to pan for gold, pirates appeared in the nearby seas, but no one dared to fight the idea of the Ming fleet, not to mention that the combat power of the two was not at the same level at all.

Yu Yuanzan did not take it lightly, but vigilantly sailed northeast towards the southeast sea area of Daming.

Although he experienced a summer storm on the way, with the help of increasingly mature charts and navigation techniques, he made it all the way north along the southeast coastline without danger.

The Ming Dynasty has now begun to attach importance to the maritime frontier, and once the fleet returns to the Fujian region, it will basically be within the control of the Ming Dynasty.

Finally, before the arrival of August 15, the gold ship carrying 100,000 taels of silver returned to the port of Tianjin.

The ancient city of Tianjin is built by Taizong Zhu Di after seizing the world, the circumference of the city is eight miles, and the three guards of Tianjin are stationed here, and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians live here.

When the soldiers and civilians of Tianjin City learned of the arrival of the golden ship from Luzon, they also rushed to tell each other, and at the same time took the initiative to help clear the road, so that Yu Yuanzan could escort the gold all the way to the capital by horse-drawn carriage.

There is no such thing as hatred without a cause, nor is there love without a cause.

In the early days of Hongzhi's accession to the throne, Zhou Shou, the Marquis of Qingyun, relied on his identity to openly ask for a disputed piece of land in Baodi, and wanted to drive away all the Tianjin soldiers and civilians who cultivated on it.

Emperor Hongzhi not only did not give the land to the Marquis of Qingyun, but also disposed of the land in a way that made people laugh, causing their property rights to cultivate the land to be clear.

With the opening of the sea trade in the Hongzhi Dynasty, the port of Tianjin is becoming more and more prosperous, resulting in more and more means of livelihood for the military and civilians in Tianjin, and they are enjoying the dividends of opening the sea.

It is precisely because of Hongzhi's various favors that he never raised taxes after ascending the throne, but it made the Tianjin military and civilians one of the guards who firmly supported Emperor Hongzhi.

On August 12, the city of Beijing suddenly boiled.

"Is this all Luzon gold?"

"Did you see that little soldier transporting gold? That's my son-in-law! ”

"My dear, how much gold do these cars get?"

"A cart is a few hundred pounds, you listen to the sound of the wheel, and the horse is sweating!"

……

The onlookers saw the convoy coming in from Chongwenmen, saw boxes of large boxes with seals, and heard the unusually heavy sound, but they began to talk about it.

Earlier, the capital had always doubted the authenticity of the Luzon gold mines, and many of them were highly respected Confucians.

It's just that now the facts have been laid out in front of me, and the boxes of genuine gold appear here, but it is the voice and news that all the doubts have made, and it has slapped those Confucians.

"It seems that Luzon really has a big gold mountain!"

"Look at what you said, the students of Guozijian saw it with their own eyes!"

"It's not as simple as that, now that the road has been repaired, more and more gold will be shipped back in the future!"

……

Now that we have witnessed the gold from Luzon being brought back, everyone's imagination has been opened, as if they are about to see the gold of Luzon Island about to flood into the capital.

This is not a wishful thinking, but an inevitable trend.

As long as there is no major turmoil in Luzon, the gold mines of Luzon will continue to be mined, and the mined gold will naturally flow back to the Ming Dynasty.

Although gold cannot drive productivity, so much gold will help the Ming Dynasty to build a stable monetary system, which will be a powerful weapon for the Ming Dynasty to harvest the world.

"The emperor dreamed of the silver mountain, I really believe it!"

"If silver is really everywhere, we really can't treat it as a treasure!"

"Speaking of which, silver can neither be eaten nor worn, if you insist on using silver, it will only be cheaper for Dongying people!"

"Huh...... What we really have to worry about is the group of powerful people who are sitting on the silver mountain, we resolutely support our emperor! ”

……

With the smooth transportation of Luzon gold back to the capital, the original plan of the capital's magnates to guide public opinion went bankrupt, and more and more people believed in Zhu Youji's dream, and they no longer fell in love with silver.

It is precisely in this way that in this battle of currency public opinion, the Hongzhi silver dollar launched by Zhu Youzhi won a big victory by successfully mining Luzon gold.

In the latest issue of the "Ming" magazine, Xie Qian threw out the "Theory of Money", pointing directly to the shortcomings of the silver standard.

It was only the abolition of the silver standard that infringed on the interests of the elite class, leading to another war in the capital.

Originally, many powerful people who were on the sidelines, but they didn't know what kind of psychology they had, but they chose to send ammunition to the Marquis of Xiangcheng, as if they wanted Li Jin to control the rice market in the capital.

"What the hell is going on? How can there be rice in the royal rice shop? ”

After half a month, Li Jin, the Marquis of Xiangcheng, wanted to buy all the polished rice from the royal rice shop, but found that the rice grain from the royal rice shop seemed to have no end.

No matter how many cloth stamps and rice stamps they secretly bought, or how many Hongzhi silver dollars they secretly bought, or how many Hongzhi silver dollars were issued by the Ming court, they were all able to cash in the rice in the royal rice shop.

On the contrary, under their frenzied buying, buying, buying, buying, silver, silver is becoming less and less recognized by the people of the capital, and some people have even refused to trade silver.

As for the people in the capital, they have passed the period of food panic, and now they buy rice and grain according to their ability, but they are no longer as eager to fill their houses with rice as before.

Under the trade-off, the payment pressure of the Royal Rice Bank actually continued to decline, but no one knew how much rice grain the Royal Rice Bank had.

"We all underestimate our emperor's vision, he built several granaries in the imperial city, and the rice and grain for half a month were transported from the imperial city!" Steward Li has been trying to find out the hole cards of the royal rice line for a while, and reported very bitterly.

Li Jin sent the pipa girl away, but he picked up the teacup and said, "Quickly find out, how many granaries he still has in the imperial city, and how much grain is left in them?" ”

"Master Hou, it's an imperial city, this really can't be found!" Steward Li faced the unreasonable request of the Marquis of Xiangcheng, and said with a bitter face.

Since Zhu Youzhu beheaded the imperial physician Liu Wentai, the news channels in the palace and outside the palace are basically suspended, and it is impossible to find out the situation of the rice warehouse in the imperial city.

Although it is not absolutely impossible, it is indeed powerless with his ability.

What's more, once this kind of thing is found out by Dongchang or Jinyiwei, it will be beheaded, and it will even affect the family. No matter how loyal he is to the Marquis of Xiangcheng, he will not joke with his net worth and life.

"Do you really want to give up?" Li Jin took a sip of tea, and his eyes flashed with a touch of unwillingness.

At this moment, he seemed to see a bottomless pit, and the thought of giving up had arisen in his heart.

It's just that he is very puzzled, obviously his financial resources are very sufficient, and he has dragged away nearly 10 million catties of polished rice from the royal rice store, but the royal rice store still hasn't bottomed out, and even the signs of bottoming out have not appeared.

"Master Hou, Renyi Qian is not as happy as before, and the warehouse where we store grain is becoming more and more difficult to find, do you want to think of other ways out?" Steward Li hesitated for a moment, and seemed cautious to persuade.

It's not that he doesn't want to take advantage of the blockage of the canal and the locust plague to make a lot of money.

It's just that the royal rice line is really too high and unfathomable, even if the gold and silver they use are already astronomical, but they still can't figure out how many meters the royal rice line has.

Although he also found out a little inside information, Huangdian has made a lot of silver taels over the years with cotton cloth, locks and soap and other items, but Wei Yu has never hoarded silver, but has exchanged it all for polished rice.

No matter how actively Wei Yu hoards polished rice, if the storage capacity reaches the level of 20 million catties, it is said that it should make a little wave.

On the contrary, everything seems so silent, and now the royal rice line has never refused to pay, but it makes people more and more like the royal rice line is bottomless.

"Other ways out?" When Li Jin heard this, a wry smile immediately appeared on his face.

Although Beizhili suffered a locust plague, the government organized the people to exterminate the locusts, and saw that the locusts did not infringe on cotton, the mood in the capital was more stable than before, and the price of rice was stuck at a low level by the royal rice bank.

Now he is already riding a tiger, even if he wants to quit, but if he sells it at the current price of rice, not to mention that other nobles will not let him go, his Xiangcheng Marquis Mansion will definitely go bankrupt.

Since he chose this path, he was already doomed to never turn back.

It was at this moment that a figure hurriedly walked in, and the person who came was Li Fu, the prince of Xiangcheng.

Li Fu was a well-known gentleman in the capital when he was young, but once he was jealous of Xu Shiying, but he was kicked in the key place fiercely, and he has not given birth so far.

Maybe it's because you have experienced a lot that you can grow up quickly.

Li Fu later stayed at home and studied hard, although he failed to get a good reputation, but he also understood the art of war and business. This time, helping Li Jin in and out, it seems that he wants to perform well.

Li Jin didn't like this son who couldn't give birth to offspring, but said with a straight face: "How many times have I told you to calm down when you encounter trouble, what kind of body are you frizzy and irritable?" ”

"Dad, the rice in the royal rice line should be about to bottom out!" Li Fu was accustomed to Li Jin's attitude, and he reported very excitedly.

Li Jin's heart moved slightly, and he asked very seriously: "Where did you learn about this?" ”

Hey?

When Steward Li heard this unexpected joy, he also turned his head to look at Li Fu curiously.

Now they have joined forces with the magnates of the capital to make a heavy bet on rice polishing, betting that the royal rice store will bottom out in the short term, otherwise each of them will suffer heavy losses, and their Xiangcheng Marquis Mansion is facing bankruptcy.

"Just now the Royal Bank issued a new treasury bond, guess what this is intended for?" The corners of Li Fu's mouth rose slightly, and he immediately deliberately betrayed Guan Zidao.

Li Jin thought of the Luzon gold that had just been transported back, so he picked up the teacup again and said, "Could it be that as rumored, the royal family has issued treasury bonds to Dongying to dig silver mines?" ”

Now with the successful experience of gold mining in Luzon, and now that Da Ming has discovered a large ore vein in Dongying, it is very likely that Zhu Youzhi will issue treasury bonds to raise funds to mine the Dongying silver mine and redeem the silver dollar two years later.

"Definitely?" Li Fu immediately shook his head seriously.

Li Jin's teacup had already been brought to his mouth, and he immediately looked up in surprise and said, "No, what are you doing by issuing treasury bonds to raise money?" ”

"The royal money bank said that the rice grain stored in the rice grain of the Qianzhuang rice store is getting less and less, so it is ready to issue new bonds to raise 100,000 new money, and send people to North Korea to purchase rice grain and transport it back to Beijing!" Li Fu rarely saw his father's shocked expression, so he revealed the news.

Steward Li finally understood why Li Fu hurriedly ran in, and said with a look of understanding: "In this way, there should not be much rice in the royal rice shop, so they plan to use Korean rice to solve the crisis of food shortage in the capital!" ”

"Dad, it's already outrageous that the royal rice shop has so many meters, and it makes sense to see the bottom now! If the Royal Rice Bank is unable to transport rice from North Korea this time, then the price of rice in the capital will be up to us! Li Fu looked very optimistic.

Steward Li looked at Li Jin, who was drinking tea, and said very optimistically: "Master Hou, the rice grain of the Royal Rice Store should bottom out soon, and it is really our chance!" ”

"Since the royal rice shop can't support it, you immediately go to Renyi Money to ask for money to continue buying rice!" Li Jin gently put down the teacup and immediately made a decision.

Originally, he couldn't give up, and now that he knew that the rice warehouse of the Royal Rice Store was about to bottom, then he had no reason to choose to give up.

Now he not only can't give up, but also wants to increase his efforts to buy the milled rice of the Royal Rice Row, and strive to make the rice warehouse of the Royal Rice Store quickly bottom out.

As for the money and silver, not only to get the silver taels from the Renyi Qian Store, but also to pull more of the capital's magnates into the water, it is bound to fight a beautiful turnaround.

Li Fu's eyes flashed with coldness, and he said impatiently: "Dad, their rice grain must pass through Shanhaiguan, where do we do it?" ”

"You don't get involved in this kind of thing!" Li Jin didn't expect his son to be so bold, and immediately reprimanded him with a straight face.

Now, in addition to buying the granary of the Royal Rice Store as soon as possible, it is also impossible to let the Korean rice come to the capital smoothly.

In fact, the most effective way is to stop this transaction, and sending someone to snatch it in the middle is the worst way, and there are actually many ways to stop it.

Of course, the most important thing now is to let the rice of the royal rice shop bottom out, forcing the people in the capital to buy their own high-priced rice, so as to make a lot of money.

Li Fu saw that his father wanted to exclude him, and he felt indignant in his heart, but he secretly made a decision: no matter what means are used, he must prevent North Korean from coming to the capital.

The words were divided into two ends, and the capital once again ushered in a grand occasion.

A full 100,000 taels of Luzon gold was transported back to the capital, and this batch of gold did not become the kiln gold of the royal family, but was handed over to the newly established royal gold jewelry workshop, and all the Luzon gold was turned into various ornaments and sold at the royal gold store.

"These gold ornaments are really beautiful!"

"Not only is it beautiful, but there are so many styles!"

"I've heard that it's been smelted several times, how bright do you see?"

……

Regardless of the era, it is human nature to love beauty, and now seeing a complete range of new gold ornaments in front of you attracts almost all the noble ladies of the city to hang out.

Although the current royal store transactions require the use of new coins, the current new coins are not difficult to obtain.

One is through the exchange of copper coins, and copper coins are indeed the official currency of the Ming Dynasty. The second is that the Ming Dynasty recognizes the value of gold, but it can be exchanged for a golden ticket.

What is very exciting is that the Royal Money Village adheres to the positioning of "gold is expensive and silver is cheap", and only one tael of gold is needed for ten taels of silver dollars, and the ratio is directly increased to ten to one.

Many noble concubines have taken out their own gold, although it is more troublesome to go to the royal money house to exchange it first, but it only costs a little processing fee to get a satisfactory gold jewelry, which makes them very satisfied.

In fact, the Royal Gold Store not only sells gold jewelry, but also pearl jewelry and even silver jewelry due to the large number of pearls produced in Tokyo Bay.

It is by virtue of its own capital advantages that Royal Gold Bank has created the most complete range of luxury chain gold shops, which has helped the popularization and circulation of silver dollars.

Because the ornaments of the royal gold house are too tempting, many women holding treasury bonds cannot sit still.

"If there is no accident, the treasury bonds can be exchanged for gold at the end of the year!"

"Now the treasury bonds can be exchanged in advance, but there is no interest on the performance!"

"If you really want to sell the treasury bonds in your hand, our money bank can help you match!"

……

It was thanks to the subscriptions of these women that the royal bank was able to carry out the mining of Luzon gold, and now it has achieved initial success and shows great goodwill.

For debt holders who are eager to sell government bonds, the Royal Bank also plays the role of a platform.

Although Qianzhuang has the strength to recover government bonds, it is more willing to play the role of a middleman and use the high-quality customer resources on hand to match.

Not satisfied with this achievement, Royal Money Bank continued to play its role as a financial platform after its first experience in government bonds, and now that it has accumulated enough reputation.

Faced with the difference in the price of rice and grain between the capital and Korea, the Royal Money House issued 100,000 taels of silver dollars to the public on behalf of the Royal Rice Bank, and the subscribed currency naturally required the use of Hongji silver dollars or copper coins. (End of chapter)