In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, at the end of the first month.

Liu Yan led the battalions of the new army into the Qingzhou capital city, and the soldiers of the army, especially the soldiers of the former battalion led by Chen Xun, were warmly welcomed by the shogunate and the people of the city.

Liu Yan ordered each battalion to have a three-day holiday, so that the officers and men in the army could spend money, enjoy themselves, and have a good year in the city.

However, Xun Jingyun still reminded the generals of each battalion that during the holiday, the officers and men of each battalion must strictly abide by military discipline, and if anyone oppresses the people or violates military regulations, he will be severely punished as a pacification officer and deputy minister of the military department!

In the General Soldier's Mansion, Liu Yan and Wang Yunhe, Shang Shan, Ruoshui, and his son Liu Sheng celebrated the New Year together.

Watching Liu Sheng playing happily in the snow, Shang Shan and Ruoshui chasing and playing on the side, Liu Yan was happy, and suddenly remembered the tragic situation in Henan, and the dead soldiers who were driven by thieves and rushed to the battle formation of the new army in despair.

"After the beginning of spring, Li Zicheng should have recovered from his injuries, it's time to make a comeback, right?"

Thinking of this, Liu Yan's good mood also ended, for Gao Mingheng and Chen Yongfu, Liu Yan didn't have hope at all, the two of them still have the ability, but against Li Zicheng, it was a little not enough, and the endgame in Henan was not something that the two of them could settle.

"Husband?"

Wang Yunhe was wearing a red canopy, standing in the snow very obviously, at this time he noticed that Liu Yan's brows were tightly locked, and he said: "Husband, are you thinking about those military affairs again?" ”

"It's okay, just think about it."

"For the New Year, don't think about the troubles, let's go to the drama in a while, okay?"

Liu Yan smiled and was about to agree

, but saw Xun Jingyun coming with a straight face, first saluted Wang Yunhe, and then said: "General Town, my subordinates have something to report." ”

Wang Yunhe said with a smile: "Let's clean up and go to listen to the play, my husband will be busy first." ”

"Okay."

Seeing Wang Yunhe and the four of them leave with a smile and a smile, Liu Yan glared at Xun Jingyun with some loss and said, "Say, what's the matter?" ”

"Say it here?"

"Then come into the house and say, I'll serve you another pot of hot tea!"

In the main hall, Xun Jingyun took a sip of hot tea, then exhaled comfortably, and said: "General Town, my subordinates have been inspecting the military discipline in each battalion for the past two days, and they have found that the reward silver and the pension silver issued by the imperial court this time are very problematic. ”

Liu Yan was taken aback and asked, "Tell me more details." ”

"Yes."

"Because the silver issued by the imperial court was raised temporarily, only a small part of it was official silver, that is, snowflake silver, and most of it was private silver of various shapes, even broken silver."

"There are silver ingots, Yamagata silver, silver beads, and silver cakes, and the fineness and weight of the silver are also different, which is very troublesome. The silver received by the soldiers of each battalion was nominally the same, but in fact, because the size and fineness of the silver were uneven, many soldiers suffered losses, and many soldiers did not get enough silver. ”

"Especially those private silver with a lot of impurities, it is obviously ten taels of silver, but in fact, after smelting, there are only eight or nine taels of silver left."

"After the soldiers of each battalion are on holiday, they go to the street to spend money to buy things, and they also encounter many disputes, all because of the quality of the silver issued by the imperial court."

Liu Yan was silent for a long time after hearing this, and then said, "Actually, this town

I have long seen the disadvantages of using silver for circulation, but the previous strength was insufficient, and the idea in the town's heart has never been realized. Now it seems that the time has come. ”

Xun Jingyun was a little puzzled, and said, "Zongzhen, what should I do now?" ”

"This town knows about this, you, as the town magistrate, first stabilize the morale of the soldiers of each battalion, and the court is indeed in a hurry in order to raise silver. Try not to let the soldiers of the battalion have any conflicts because of the matter of silver. ”

"As for the rest, the town will have to think about it again."

"Yes."

On that day, Liu Yan stayed alone in the study to think about countermeasures.

As early as when Liu Yan was still in the Qianqian Household Office in Xiahe Village, he already had the idea of opening a money bank. Qianzhuang is the bank of this era, which can lend money, support businessmen, and mobilize the financial resources of the people, which has many benefits.

But Liu Yan never did it, because he didn't have enough silver in his hand, and the plate was not big enough.

Now that the time is ripe and there is an opportunity now, Liu Yan decided to take action and open a money bank in the city of Qingzhou.

Regarding how to open a money village, Liu Yan had already had a comprehensive plan before, and after a whole night of combing, Liu Yan formulated a set of feasible strategies.

Early the next morning, Liu Yan brought Yue Ming, Minister of Finance, Song Gongming, Minister of Commerce, Wang Jing, President of the Chamber of Commerce, Wang Weizhen, Minister of Political Affairs, and staff officers Li Jiwen and Hu Zongming.

At present, several people are high-ranking officials of the shogunate, and all of them have daily offices and residences in the city of Qingzhou, and they will soon be there.

Liu Yan said with a smile: "It's not the New Year yet, and it's still the New Year, but you guys have to get busy, Ben."

The town says sorry first. ”

Everyone laughed, and Wang Weizhen even said: "It's okay, we saw that the general town invited Lao Taishan, and our hearts are much more balanced, and we have the strength to work." ”

"Haha."

Liu Yan also laughed, and then began to get down to business: "Here's the thing: At present, the silver circulating in Qinglai Town is uneven, and all kinds of colors, styles, and sizes abound, and it is very inconvenient for the army to distribute military salaries, pensions, and the salaries of shogunate officials. Therefore, the town decided to open Shandong Qian Zhuang and issue silver coins through Shandong Qian Zhuang. ”

"This silver coin weighs one tael and has a face value of one tael ......"

Liu Yan immediately took out the pattern he had drawn and handed it to everyone to circulate: "The silver coin is round, with no hole in the middle, which is larger than the top ten coins." The obverse of the silver coin is engraved with the face value, the words issued by Shandong Qianzhuang, the issuance time and year number, etc., the north side of the silver coin is a complex pattern of workmanship, as well as the code language of anti-counterfeiting, the code language is different every year, the town will develop a code book, change it every year, in order to prevent counterfeiting. ”

The code language is actually a password that uses Chinese characters as a carrier, and the code language could have been any book.

The code word is divided into three numbers, the first paragraph is the number of pages, the second paragraph is the number of columns, and the third paragraph is the specific words.

As a result, each coin has a different codeword, and if someone wants to forge it, the code code will definitely not be forged.

After hearing Liu Yan's thoughts, everyone immediately discussed, and Wang Weizhen asked: "This move of the general town is indeed convenient, and in the future, the military salary and Yulu will be issued, and it is said that it is a few taels, and it is good to give a few silver coins directly, and there is no need to worry about the color, size, weight error, etc."

Just doing this, the shogunate has to bear too much cost. ”

Liu Yan said: "The role of Shandong money is not only to issue silver coins, but also to lend money to foreign countries, absorb deposits and so on. When the people have surplus money, they can store it in the bank, and the bank will pay a certain amount of interest to the people on a monthly basis, so that the people can make a profit. Merchants have difficulty in turnover, they can borrow money from the bank, and pay higher interest than the deposit of silver to the bank, but it is definitely ......more cost-effective than the high interest rate of private loans, and the money bank can also exchange money, broken silver or silver ingots, silver coins, and copper coins can be exchanged with each other, which is convenient for the people and the merchants, and the money bank charges a certain amount of water, that is, the cost ......"

Liu Yan patiently explained the role of Qianzhuang to everyone, as well as various related businesses, and everyone listened to it fascinated, how did Zongzhen come up with such a novel way to make money?

In fact, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Jin merchants in Shanxi had already opened a money village, but at this time it was still in its infancy, and various rules and businesses were definitely not as perfect as the Shandong money village that Liu Yan was preparing to open.

As for the silver bills, bills of exchange, etc. in the film and television of later generations, there are still no ones in the chaotic times at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and they will not really circulate until the middle and late Manchu Qing Dynasty.

And Liu Yan will not implement silver bills and bills of exchange for the time being, although it is very convenient, but the lesson of the Ming treasure banknote is too profound, so that from the emperor to the people, they are afraid of paper financial means such as treasure money, Liu Yan is not too lazy to touch the mold at this time, and it is imperative to promote silver coins first.

"Shandong Qianzhuang is subordinate to the Ministry of Finance in the shogunate, and the specific preparation matters are in charge of Minister Yue, and it will be completed within a month."

"The establishment of the money bank is not only there

It's as simple as finding a shop, the training of the guys and the shopkeeper, the establishment of various systems, the location and defense of the silver vault, the batch minting of silver coins, etc., must be done thoroughly. ”

Yue Ming clenched his fists and said, "Please rest assured, my subordinates will definitely do a good job." ”

"Hmm."

Liu Yan said with a smile: "Minister Yue is doing things, and the town is still very relieved. ”

Later, Liu Yan made a request and ordered the Ministry of Finance to mint all the 500,000 taels of silver allocated by the imperial court into silver coins for later use.

Liu Yan looked at everyone's surprised look and said: "This is just the beginning, a month later, Shandong Qianzhuang will open, and all the expenses of the shogunate and the battalions of the new army will be settled in silver coins." ”

"Today, the two people from the Ministry of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce are called to inform them that the town will give a one-year transition period, and after one year, all the income of the various industries of the Ministry of Commerce will only collect silver coins, and refuse to accept broken silver of all shapes. On the side of the Chamber of Commerce, the town hopes that all businessmen who join the Chamber of Commerce will fully support the promotion of silver coins and support the various businesses of Shandong Qianzhuang. ”

Song Gongming and Wang Jing received orders one after another.

"Minister Wang, the Ministry of Political Affairs must do a good job of publicity and explanation, after the promotion of the silver coin, there will definitely be many people and shogunate officials who can't figure it out, and you will be under a lot of pressure at that time."

Wang Weizhen said with a smile: "Don't worry, my lord, in fact, silver coins are replaced with a type of silver, and it is not difficult to promote, but the difficulty is to gradually prohibit the circulation of other forms of silver." ”

Liu Yan nodded approvingly, Wang Weizhen said.

"The general town, it's just that all that circulates in the Ming Dynasty is a mess of broken silver

, just the use of silver coins in the four prefectures of Qinglai Town cannot be completely banned after all. ”

"Don't worry about this, in the future, the silver allocated by the imperial court will be put into the treasury of the Ministry of Finance first, and it will not be issued until the Shandong Qianzhuang is re-minted into silver coins."

"As for the silver coins flowing in from the private sector, there is no need to worry. After the large-scale circulation of silver coins, the town will issue an order to completely prohibit the circulation of broken silver among the people, and the people must go to Shandong Qian Zhuang to exchange it if they want to use it. ”

Liu Yan said with a smile: "In fact, the most used by the common people is copper coins, and the silver has very little contact, and the impact is not very great, and the real impact is businessmen, officials, new army soldiers, etc., so your burden is very heavy." ”

The crowd took orders.

Subsequently, Liu Yan's staff officers Li Jiwen and Hu Zongming participated in the preparation of Shandong Qianzhuang, checked and filled in the gaps for Yue Ming, and communicated with him in a timely manner.

"You must be fast, the reason why this town only gives you a month is because Yanzhou Mansion and Dengzhou Mansion have just been merged, and there are too many things to do, and this town must rush to run Shandong Qianzhuang before the implementation of the new policy in the two prefectures, so as to avoid the loss caused by the chaos of money and money to the people, you must hurry up!"

The crowd roared into orders.