"Zheng Yushi, you said that those people who privately minted copper coins, do they know that they will be killed after they are found doing this work?"

In Jin Wuwei's signing room, Fang Chongyong, who was reading the "Tang Liudian" by candlelight, asked casually.

Naturally, the yamen couldn't hear how those unlucky people who privately minted copper coins cried for their fathers and mothers. But Fang Chongyong could imagine that tonight's scene must be quite tragic.

He didn't want to witness it with his own eyes, and he didn't have the power to stop it.

In the strict deployment from top to bottom, Fang Chongyong believed that Jin Wuwei's soldiers would carry out the order thoroughly: only kill, not loot, do not cause extraneous branches, and withdraw after finishing their work.

At this time, even robbery and rape became a form of tolerance and mercy. In order not to let some of the Chang'an magnates associated with it notice, in order not to let them deal with it, this action will be quite simple.

At the same time, it will be cruel to the extreme.

Fang Chongyong once fantasized about what would happen if he was born in a family of unscrupulous merchants after he crossed over.

Tonight, he seems to have gotten the answer.

"You can't punish a doctor, you can't be courteous to a concubine, nothing else."

Zheng Shuqing sighed lightly and said, finding that Fang Chongyong hadn't replied for a long time, he added another sentence:

"I know that they didn't take the big head, but the people behind them took it. However, there is no firewood and charcoal around Chang'an, and everyone is having a hard time, so they can only give up them to protect more people.

I also know that after dealing with this group of people, there will soon be new people on top. However, even if a certain can deal with the magnates behind them, will there be no new magnates on top?

People live for a lifetime, and it is a blessing to have peace for decades, how can you ask for too much? ”

"Yes, Zheng Yushi is just a royal historian. A few people who supervise the imperial history, a few foreign officials who run errands, and a few who do motley service, how can they persuade those behind the private casters to give up their own interests? ”

Fang Chongyong nodded slightly and said, closing a certain volume of the "Tang Liudian" in his hand.

Although this book clearly describes what official positions in the imperial court are going to do, what are the rights and responsibilities. But I don't know why, he couldn't read a word tonight.

"Yes, kill them, and the work of minting private money will also stop. There are more people in Chang'an who can afford firewood and charcoal, and there will be less bad money circulating in the market, so why not? ”

Zheng Shuqing walked up to Fang Chongyong and stretched out his hands and asked.

Yes, from this day on, these hands are stained with blood.

However, these hands are also empty, in the final analysis, Zheng Shuqing is just an ordinary bureaucrat, and he has no division in his hands.

Even if it is a traverser, in his position, there is only so much that can be estimated, what else can be done?

Fang Chongyong remembered that in the history of his previous life, Du Fu wrote the famous sentence "Zhumen wine and meat stink, and there are frozen bones on the road", expressing his sympathy for the bottom of society and his indignation at social injustice.

However, Du Fu doesn't seem to have told future generations how to avoid this kind of thing, how to deal with it, and how to save it.

It's always easy to figure out the problem, but it's hard how to deal with it. It is already rare for someone like Zheng Shuqing to "raise the soup and stop the boiling", and if he doesn't do it well, he will encounter retaliation from the powerful, not to mention anything else?

So how can we "draw wages from the bottom of the kettle"?

Fang Chongyong found that this problem was actually unsolvable, at least now, he hadn't thought of any way. As a member of the "ruling class", he could not reduce his quality of life to the level of a tenant, and the reality did not allow it.

Eating delicious food, hugging beautiful girls, doing beautiful things, living in a mansion, and then saying some sad words, Fang Chongyong couldn't do such a thing.

"Do you remember what So-and-so said to you after taking you to the saint's banquet?"

Zheng Shuqing suddenly mentioned an old incident many years ago.

"Remember, Zheng Yushi said that dogs are stronger than ants."

Fang Chongyong nodded slightly and said.

"Isn't that what it is?

However, although dogs are stronger than ants, once something happens, it is usually the dog that is killed first!

Dogs are also limited in their strength than ants.

Don't look at a certain person tonight seems to be very majestic, he will be liquidated on a certain day, and he may have to find you to save his life. ”

Zheng Shuqing looked at Fang Chongyong and smiled bitterly.

Since he became a charcoal maker and was in charge of charcoal distribution in the Gyeonggi region, it was impossible to clean his hands and feet.

Either it smells of copper or it gets blood; Either you are corrupt or you offend people, it just depends on which side you are on, and the two need to be at least the same. Zheng Shuqing's family is rich, and the Zheng family in Xingyang occupies the benefits of the canal, and Zheng Shuqing naturally does not need to be greedy for money.

In order to retain his power, then it is inevitable that he will offend people. If you don't offend the powerful, you will surely anger Kego.

Zheng Shuqing's power was given by Brother Ji, and Brother Ji could naturally take it back, but he would be unlucky at that time. He was unlucky, and the local economic interests of the Zheng family in Xingyang would have no official support and protection, and it was only a matter of time before they were devoured.

On the surface, what Zheng Shuqing does seems to be very willful, but in fact, what path he wants to take and what choices he can make are all decided.

"Actually...... Never mind. ”

Fang Chongyong originally wanted to tell Zheng Shuqing a cruel truth, but thinking that this Zheng Yushi is now estimated to be immersed in the emotions of "sacrificing himself for the public" and "serving the country and the people", he really can't bear to interrupt the other party's illusions.

"Hmph, you must be trying to say that this kind of thing is not good for you if you do it, right?"

Uncle Zheng snorted coldly and said.

"Uh, no."

Fang Chongyong wanted to speak and stopped.

"What's that?"

"In fact, many powerful people in Chang'an have hidden a lot of good money in case of emergency.

Now Zheng Yushi has killed all the people who make bad money, which will inevitably lead to fewer coins circulating in the market in Chang'an. If it is one of those people, they will take advantage of the fact that others do not react, collect a large amount of money, make the money on the market even less, and at the same time quietly release the bad money in their hands.

Let the bad money become the same as the good money of the past.

As soon as the limelight passed, they continued to smelt the good money and cast the bad money, and continued to make waves, and in the end, Zheng Yushi was actually busy in vain. At most, killing the big charcoal burners can reduce the price of charcoal, but it is absolutely impossible to crack down on private money casting.

I'm sure that next year, private money casting will definitely be more rampant, next winter, what does Zheng Yushi plan to do? ”

Fang Chongyong asked slowly.

It is foreseeable that this wave of crackdowns on private casting will cause prices to fall in the short term. But the powerful people who have good money and bad money in their hands will quietly collect good money and release bad money to replace it, and at the same time use bad money to buy materials to make up for the loss, they are doubly happy.

In this way, it can generally ensure that there are no major fluctuations in the market price, which is difficult for even ordinary people to detect.

Although inflation treats everyone equally, the information channels and reaction speed of ordinary people are definitely much slower than those of the powerful. By the time they reacted, this wave of "regulation" had come to an end, and more good money on the market had fallen into the pockets of the powerful, and the proportion of bad money would definitely be greater than before the crackdown!

In other words, although the market price may still be the same, the market size has become smaller, and the materials are more concentrated in the hands of the powerful and have not been released for circulation in the market.

Although Zheng Shuqing cracked down on private minting and reduced the circulation scale of copper coins in the market, it only made the market smaller and did not substantially reduce prices. Even, in this process, most of the people will be unlucky because of the ups and downs.

Of course, smelting is a large charcoal burner, and burning a furnace of copper coins basically consumes 30 to 50 parts of firewood of the same weight! Zheng Shuqing let this winter be "quiet", and he can still knock down the price of firewood and charcoal.

But that's about it.

"You're saying that killing so many people is actually ...... It's not very useful, just drinking to quench your thirst? ”

Zheng Shuqing asked with a shocked expression.

"I don't want to say that, but ...... That's true. ”

Fang Chongyong nodded and said.

In his previous life, his understanding was that the market in the Tang Dynasty circulated copper coins in the Tang Dynasty. But after arriving here, I found that even Nan Chen's "forked waist money" was circulated in Chang'an!

In his previous life, the people who made counterfeit banknotes slowly had no future, and that was because the circulation of counterfeit banknotes in the market belonged to the ranks of "seeing the light and dying". However, the situation in Datang is different, the privately minted copper coins are also "real money", and can even replace the copper coins circulated by the Tang Dynasty government, as long as there is no official "Kaiyuan Tongbao" on the market, then there is no big problem.

This has led to the chaos in the market today.

Even if the powerful do nothing, as long as they use the information advantage to go back and forth among the four things of "good money", "bad money", "silk silk" and "people's biological resources", they can make a lot of money.

What's more, these people are still "out of thousands", privately mint copper coins, and use the power of officials to buy and sell.

Zheng Shuqing's method of "treating the symptoms but not the root cause" will only cause a greater backlash afterwards, and there is nothing else.

"It turns out that it's just been a busy day."

Zheng Shuqing sat weakly in front of the table and let out a long sigh.

"It's not in vain, at least, Zheng Yushi's position is probably kept, and the price of charcoal will drop a little, why is it in vain?"

Fang Chongyong couldn't help but tease.

"Okay."

Zheng Shuqing was hit by him, and he was depressed and didn't want to speak.

He thought he would get a perfect score this time, but in the end he only barely passed. Anyone who receives such a blow will not be able to bear it.

……

On this night, many people died in Chang'an, many of whom were innocent on the surface.

Fang Chongyong thought that this was just the beginning, but what he didn't expect was that round after round of liquidation lasted for ten days! Every night, many people in Chang'an can hear the earth-shattering cries from a certain square and a household.

Later, according to Jin Wuwei's own statistics, more than 2,000 people were killed within 10 days, and many more were imprisoned, exiled, and reduced to slavery.

Probably after listening to Fang Chongyong's words, Zheng Shuqing thought that if he cracked down on private casting more, the ability of the powerful to do things would decrease, so he was extremely ruthless. Many people who have only built casting tools and purchased copper materials, but have not yet started to mint copper coins privately, have also fallen into bad luck.

Under some operation, the nickname of "Zheng Dog Official" has become the old yellow calendar. Now, Chang'an has given Zheng Shuqing a new nickname: King Zheng Yan.

The effect of the crackdown on private casting is obvious, and the price of charcoal is falling at a rate that is visible to the naked eye.

Following Fang Chongyong's suggestion, Zheng Shuqing ordered the establishment of a "charcoal warehouse" on the outskirts of the capital to collect charcoal at a low price, which to a certain extent restrained the behavior of the powerful to collect charcoal at a low price and then hoard and resell it.

However, it was limited to this, the price of firewood in Chang'an City plummeted, but the price of charcoal only fell slightly, ordinary officials still could not afford charcoal, and more and more woodcutters joined the ranks of charcoal burning. "Charcoal seller" has become "charcoal seller", which has become a sought-after occupation in Chang'an winter this year.

It's as if everything has changed, and it's as if nothing has changed.

On this day, it was the harsh winter of March 9, and Fang Youde, the general of the Longwu Army, presented a plan for "military reform" to Li Longji, the son of the Tang Dynasty.

This military reform is mainly aimed at the Northern Ya Forbidden Army, and how the Southern Ya Army is, Fang Youde did not mention a word.

After reading this military reform plan, Brother Ji did not comment on anything, at least he did not mention this stubble to foreign ministers. However, he handed over the task of "organizing and training the new army" to Fang Youde, which was actually tantamount to agreeing with this "military reform plan," or at least agreeing with part of it.

In the winter of the fifth year of Tianbao, Li Longji, the son of the Tang Dynasty, ordered the establishment of a large battalion in the suburbs of Chang'an to train the new forbidden army, and Fang Youde, the general of the Longwu Army, presided over the recruitment of personnel and the training of sergeants.

And the number of the new forbidden army is called:

Divine Army!

This new army plans to recruit 30,000 people and 12 armies. It was divided into two compartments, one compartment and six armies, each with 2,500 men.

The biggest change on the surface is that the original "decimal system" of the grassroots units of the Tang Army has been changed to the "five-base system" of the grassroots units, and soldiers are no longer arbitrarily arranged when performing tasks as before.

The smallest unit is a team of five people. Once formed, as long as the team members are not killed or retired, they will not be broken up and regrouped. Every time an army marches and fights, it is transferred as a "team" unit, and it can be combined at will in an army, and it is not limited to the sequence in which it is located.

Fang Youde also admonished Li Longji: The combat units of this army are "armies," which are easily confused with the existing "armies" of the border armies, and the two have nothing in common in nature and scale.

Therefore, it is suggested that the word "army" should be replaced by the word "capital".

The specific establishment is: the commander of the Shence Army will be a general, and his command will be divided into two compartments, one with 15,000 people, and one commander;

Each compartment has six "capitals", each of which has 2,500 people and one commander;

Each "capital" has ten battalions, each with 250 men and a battalion master;

Each battalion has five fires, each with fifty people and one fire chief.

One fire ten teams, one team of five people, and one team.

Each team does not separate from each other in their daily actions, each fire uses a stove for meals, each battalion lives together whether it is a marching camp or a quartermaster, each "all" shares a roster, and collective rewards are distributed together.

This also means that as long as a soldier is assigned to a certain team, as long as he does not die, then he and other soldiers in the same team are basically brothers in life and death. But the soldiers between different teams are likely to be very indifferent.

In terms of the number of soldiers, the Shence Army and the Dragon Martial Army are comparable, and it looks like they are preparing to replace the Dragon Martial Army.

However, looking at the compilation alone, there seems to be a trend of "refinement".

Reducing the number of "battalion" level units by half can better meet the needs of the garrison and Chang'an. In addition, there is no longer a distinction between "marching establishment" and "combat establishment", and the powers and responsibilities are clearer.

Moreover, Fang Youde also downplayed the power of the left and right "compartments", and only retained their administrative and management powers, depriving the general of the Shence Army of the right to transfer troops.

In other words, the generals of the Shence Army, who manage the left and right compartments on weekdays, cannot mobilize the soldiers and horses of their six "capitals" even if they want to make a coup.

And each "all" has a commander, and the power of the commander is higher than that of officers of the same rank in the past. It's just that although they are powerful, they can't make any big things because of the lack of troops under them.

……

"Why does it look more and more like Saint Seiya and the Golden Zodiac?"

In his own study, he took the "Military Reform Plan" written by Fang Youde and looked at it again and again, and Fang Chongyong muttered to himself.

"You just say it's okay."

Fang Youde asked with a straight face, ignoring the "strange" words that Fang Chongyong said.

"It's okay, but even if the Shence Army is trained, can it ensure that they don't rebel?"

Fang Chongyong asked with a puzzled expression.

"At least, it's stronger than the Long Wu Army. The establishment of the Longwu Army is naturally problematic, and the generals of the left and right armies have too much power. ”

Fang Youde said in a deep voice.

"Okay, if you're happy, it's okay."

Fang Chongyong waved his hand and said, "I'm going to fight Wuduo, you are slowly busy." ”

This chapter is made up for yesterday, and there is another chapter today

(End of chapter)