Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Qin Hui is still squeezing out toothpaste.

"Xue Bi, the prefect of Xihe Prefecture in Shaanxi Province..."

"Wan Qixi has already confessed him, and a bunch of his subordinate officials have also been investigated by the Shaanxi Criminal Division. Your Majesty showed extra mercy and allowed them to perform meritorious service in disaster relief. And because of his active withdrawal of stolen goods, Xue Bi was sentenced to exile in Shazhou. He Although those officials were exempted from exile, some were imprisoned, some were dismissed, and some were demoted several levels."

"Huainan Province Councilor Zhao Kai..."

"Has been confessed by Wang Huo, he will definitely die, another one will be replaced."

"I'll think about it again, I'll think about it again..."

Qin Hui racked his brains and racked his brains, but it was difficult for him to accuse anyone of corruption and perversion of the law.

We have almost caught everything that should be caught!

Xue Bi and Zhao Kai, who were just confessed, are both people with good abilities but poor conduct.

Take Xue Bi, for example. Historically, he first assisted Li Gang in guarding Kaifeng, and then offered Yue Fei a plan to destroy Yang Yao. He officially served as Yue Fei's staff officer, and also came forward to appease Wang Yan's Eight-Character Army. Even after leaving Yue Fei, Xue Bi, as a civil official, calmed down or subdued thieves many times.

But when Qin Hui framed Yue Fei, Xue Bi not only did not help speak up, but actively joined Qin Hui. He even put all his achievements in suppressing bandits on Wan Qixi's head to please him.

In this way, all Yue Fei's former staff officers were dismissed by Qin Hui, but Xue Bi was promoted by Qin Hui.

That Zhao Kai was the "pioneer of reform" in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty. He reformed the Liquor Law, the Tea Horse Law, the Salt Law, and the Banknote Law... He made a huge contribution to easing the finances of the Southern Song Dynasty and made the people of the Southern Song Dynasty miserable.

His most outrageous operation was when the Xuanfu Division caught the counterfeit banknote making gang, and Zhang Jun planned to execute them all to correct the banknotes.

But Zhao Kai suggested that the counterfeit money should be stamped with the seal of Xuanfu Division, so that the counterfeit money would become real money. Then, all of these 50 people in the criminal gang were tattooed and specially made money, using their expertise in making counterfeit banknotes, and then stamped with official seals to directly turn them into real banknotes! This bypassed the limit on issuance of banknotes stipulated by the court, and Zhang Jun could use this to print money like crazy.

Zhao Kai's suggestions were already outrageous, but Zhang Jun actually adopted them all in order to raise military expenses.

In this time and space of the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty, every time Zhao Kai became an official in a place, he could greatly increase the business tax there. Moreover, by wandering on the edge of "Da Ming Law", one can always fool the patrol censor.

The amount of money this person embezzled was not even inferior to that of Qin Hui!

When they heard that Zhao Kai had been arrested, the merchants in the place where he used to work set off firecrackers to celebrate.

"Think again."

"I can't think of anything."

Qin Hui became frustrated and frightened, waiting for the final trial.

Late autumn.

Qin Hui's trial ended with a long list of charges. The amount of his own embezzled property that can be traced reaches 1.52 million yuan. This does not include the stolen money from his family, relatives and associates.

More than ten years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, prices have dropped.

Only food prices and wine prices have risen due to successive years of drought in the northwest. The price of wine is rising across the country, but the price of food is higher in the north and is rising steadily in the south.

Take the average grain price in Hangzhou as an example. Even if a lot of rice is shipped to the north for disaster relief this year, each catty of rice can be purchased for only 5 cents (converted to market jins hundreds of years later). Moreover, rice prices in rural areas around Hangzhou are cheaper than in the city.

If calculated at 5 cents per catty and based on this year's floating silver price, 1.52 million guan can buy 353 million catties of rice (modern market catty).

How much is the specific value in RMB? You can simply convert it yourself.

But the real purchasing power of this money is definitely higher than the converted RMB. Because food under the background of modern agriculture is far less valuable than in ancient times.

By the way, the money of the Ming Dynasty was not fixed at 1,000 wen per coin, but was always one or two silver coins per coin. Based on the floating exchange ratio of silver and copper coins, and then determining how many coins are always equivalent, it can be understood as the silver standard.

Of course, the imperial court would determine the amount of copper coins minted in the second year based on the amount of silver in circulation (market silver price), and use this to adjust the value of copper coins.

The current official basic exchange ratio is 1 tael of silver = 1 silver dollar = 1 string of money = 1,000 Wen.

Occasionally, it can be exchanged for 900 or 1,100 Wen, but in the past five years, it has never been lower than 800 Wen, nor higher than 1,200 Wen.

This gave rise to a group of gold and silver speculators. When gold and silver prices were low, they used Ming Dynasty copper coins to exchange for overseas gold and silver. And when the price of gold and silver is high, the gold and silver stored in it are taken out and exchanged for copper coins.

More and more wealthy businessmen and gentry no longer hoard a single currency, thus strengthening the circulation of various currencies.

But the overall trend is still toward deflation because currency outflows are too serious.

In the surrounding countries, only Annan, Dali and Xiliao minted their own currency, while all other countries and regions used Daming coins.

The gold, silver and copper coins of the Ming Dynasty were all used as hard currency in Korea, Japan, Nanyang, Southeast Asia, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Monan and Mobei... Even in Heian Kyo, Japan, traces of Ming Dynasty treasure notes have appeared.

Every year, a large amount of currency flows out and is shipped back in exchange for various in-demand commodities, including gold, silver and copper ingots.

Without the continued inflow of gold, silver, and copper from overseas, Ming Dynasty would almost be unable to hold on.

Fortunately, there are also Xiliao and India regions to supplement it. Both places used gold and silver coins, mostly silver coins, and could earn their gold and silver through trade. They then took the Ming Dynasty goods and ran further west to earn gold and silver.

The Ming Dynasty had almost recovered all the ancient copper coins from past dynasties, and re-melted them and cast them into Ming Tong Bao.

The recycling speed of Sichuan-Shaanxi iron money is faster. The valuable ones are destroyed and cast into iron ingots, while the worthless ones are destroyed and turned into iron slag (too many impurities). This caused heavy financial losses to the Ming Dynasty. Sichuan plus Hanzhong provided a lot of goods to the court, but the monetary tax revenue was always paid by the court.

The imperial court subsidized Sichuan's finances for more than ten years just to recover and destroy the iron money there. They arrested dozens of gangs who secretly made money for casting iron, and killed many people!

Nowadays, currency unification has basically been achieved.

At the same time, the bad habits of Zumo and Short Mo were also abolished, and the government was not allowed to use this to exploit the people.

The common people at the bottom of the country prefer to use "mo" as a unit, which means stringing together one hundred copper coins.

…

On the day Qin Hui was executed, Ju Ming asked several adult princes to go to the execution ground to see the consequences of corruption and bending the law.

Qin Hui's several children were all underage, so they were separated and sent to be raised in Salesian homes in various provinces. They will be taught how to make a living there, and they will be able to work and make money when they become adults.

Qin Hui's concubines were placed in southern Sichuan, Guangxi, Xiangxi and Guizhou. There are many young and unmarried immigrants there, who must be willing to marry them, and they are still rushing to propose marriage.

At this moment, Qin Hui, Qin Bin, Qin Zi, Qin Di, Wang Shi, Wang, Wang Huo, Wang Bing... Qin and Wang's family were kneeling neatly.

Of course, there is no real one-size-fits-all approach.

For example, Qin Hui's eldest brother's son is working as a landlord in Jiangning and is responsible for managing the properties Qin Hui bought in his hometown.

Although his father and uncles committed crimes, he himself was quite honest, so he was not sentenced to any crime. He was just implicated and exiled by his own father.

Qin Hui knelt in the middle, surrounded by his family and relatives. He couldn't help but burst into tears from grief.

Wang was paralyzed on the spot. She didn't even have the energy to blame her husband. She just looked ahead blankly.

I think back then, she was the granddaughter of the prime minister, and she was pampered since she was a child. In the new Ming Dynasty, we were even more prosperous and wealthy. How could we have imagined that we would end up like today?

A prison officer came over, strictly inspected each person, and began to read out the crimes.

The first person to be beheaded was Qin Hui's nephew Qin Changshi.

This guy was only in his twenties. He initially planned to take the imperial examination route, but after six years of taking the exam, he failed to pass the exam. So he ran to work as an official, and was transferred to another official position by Qin Hui. Along the way, he tampered with his resume and was promoted to the ninth rank in violation of regulations.

Compared with Qin Hui, the amount of corruption committed by Qin Chang was not large.

But he was extremely greedy and used his power to the extreme, even dragging down many of his colleagues. Moreover, he was extremely arrogant, often bullying men and dominating women, and also took advantage of people's property.

In comparison, Qin Hui's other nephew Qin Changling is much more honest than Qin Changshi.

Therefore, Qin Changling was not sentenced to death, but was exiled to Guangxi to reclaim wasteland.

"Qin Changshi, can you plead guilty?" the prison officer asked.

Qin Changshi was so frightened that he shouted quickly: "I don't accept it, I don't accept it. I only coveted a few thousand guan, and my crime will not lead to death!"

The prison officer sneered: "It's useless not to accept it. The Three Law Division has closed the case, and His Majesty has also settled the case. From being a clerk to becoming an official, you have only been promoted to the ninth rank in just four years. You have forged your resume and achievements, and you are indiscriminately It's already a serious crime to get promoted! It's hard for you to work while you are an official, and you collude with your colleagues to commit corruption and pervert the law, and even trick a good family member into gambling and borrowing money, and you will be punished for several crimes. "

The executioner stepped forward with a knife in hand and pulled open the collar on the back of Qin Changshi's neck.

Qin Changshi was so frightened that he shouted: "Spare your life, spare your life!"

The prison officer said to the executioner: "Don't delay deliberately, there will be a second batch in the afternoon."

The executioner smiled and said, "My sword is sharp."

The executioner had his own way of making extra money, but no one from Qin Hui's family was there to make extra money.

Forget it, time is tight and the task is heavy, so let’s cut more quickly.

The executioner forced Qin Changshi to kneel down and scolded: "If you keep shouting and moving, I'm afraid you will suffer more. Think about it yourself!"

Qin Changshi didn't dare to move.

brush!

With one stab, the head fell to the ground.

"good!"

The onlookers cheered in unison, not only happy to see the corrupt officials punished, but also praising the executioner's sword skills.

Heads fell to the ground one after another, and finally it was Wang's turn.

Mrs. Wang suddenly shouted: "I want to be a damn ghost. I have no appetite for yesterday's decapitation meal!"

The executioner pressed down several times, but Wang was still struggling. He was so angry that he yelled: "You thief woman, do you want to get stabbed a few more times? It's almost noon, and grandpa is going to chop people in the afternoon."

Qin Hui sighed: "It's already this time, why are you delaying?"

Mrs. Wang turned around and cursed angrily: "It's because of marrying you that I ended up like this. You are heartless and ungrateful, and you have made me miserable!"

Qin Hui asked back: "Which relative dragged me into trouble first? My brothers, except for those who were admitted to Jinshi, did not become officials at first. It was your brothers who begged me to become an official every day. Especially Wang Huo That guy had an official status in the former Song Dynasty and was appointed to an official position in the Ming Dynasty. He was greedy and wanted to climb higher. The first time I helped someone seek an official position was for that bastard Wang Huo! "

"My brother is going to break the law, why don't you stop him?" Ms. Wang began to beat him.

Qin Hui said angrily: "I stopped him? Because I rejected him twice, you cried and screamed and scratched my face until it bled! I was so cautious as an official at that time. It was because of your brother that I illegal."

The executioner shouted: "Don't make trouble anymore, just kneel down!"

But Wang was still struggling, and the executioner was so angry that he slashed randomly.

The knife struck down on the shoulder, causing Wang to cry loudly in pain.

Qin Hui was so frightened that he dared not speak. He knelt there trembling all over, and even closed his eyes and dared not look at anything.

The executioner dragged Wang up and knelt straight, and asked: "How many times do you want to die?"

Wang finally stopped making a fuss, and trembled and cried while enduring the severe pain, and knelt there obediently to be killed.

Qin Hui heard the sound of a head falling to the ground, and knew that his wife was dead, and immediately closed his eyes tighter: "I plead guilty, I plead guilty, please give me a quick death."

Swish.

The knife flashed, and the head flew up.

Qin Hui was finally dead, and this major case came to an end.