The Prosperous Era of Longwan

𝟨𝟫Book Bar

In the inner city of Beijing, Nanxunfang, Wei Mansion Study Room.

"Where did Li Chengliang go to in the past two days?"

Wei Guangde sat on the Taishi chair and asked Zhang Ji who was standing in front of him.

"Master, Li Chengliang has been staying at the post house for the past two days and has not gone out. Apart from attending court ceremonies, he also went to the Ministry of War to report.

By the way, he spent a long time with Wang Daokun, the minister of war, in the Ministry of War, and I don't know what they talked about.

What's more, he didn't go out, but he sent out a few soldiers and contacted several dental shops in the inner city, saying that he wanted to find a house to live in the inner city. "

Zhang Ji replied.

"Wang Daokun."

Wei Guangde nodded. He probably knew Li Chengliang's connections in the capital. Li Chengliang didn't have many connections in the capital, otherwise it wouldn't have taken him so long to come to the capital to take up his post.

Not at the beginning, but he has been in Liaodong since then. Although he sends ice and charcoal to the capital every year, we have never met him. Who dares to get close to him.

Just maintaining a superficial relationship, such a relationship is actually very fragile and cannot withstand the test at all.

Everyone gives it away like this. If you don’t offend anyone by giving it, others won’t remember it if you do.

Wei Guangde understood that Li Chengliang might have gotten some information from Wang Daokun, so he was now more stable.

In this case, he originally planned to call Li Chengliang over tomorrow night, so there was no need to be so anxious.

"Just keep arranging people to keep an eye on him and see if anyone else has contacted him."

Wei Guangde just gave an order and waved Zhang Ji to go down.

After the others left, Wei Guangde stood up and took down the wooden box from the bookshelf, dug out what he had recorded, put it on the desk, spread out another piece of paper, and began to write carefully.

These days, his main focus is still on the reform of money laws.

Establishing a new money law, although he does not think that all problems can be solved in one step, he still wants to do it perfectly.

At the very least, the money law introduced by the imperial court this time must adapt to the current social environment, and there will be no major mistakes.

As for the future, he didn't expect it.

After all, times are changing at any time, and there are no immutable laws. Only by assessing the situation and taking appropriate measures is the best way to govern.

Establish a large framework and put forward requirements, and the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Works will coordinate the rest.

Early the next morning, Wei Guangde left the Wei Mansion to go to the cabinet to run errands.

After entering, Zhongshu hurried over to see him.

"What's the matter?"

Wei Guangde asked while standing under the corridor in the courtyard.

"Urgent reports from Shanxi include Yingzhou, Shuozhou, Shanyin, Mayi and Datong counties in Shanxi and Andong, Zhongtun, Shanyin, Yinhe and Gaoshan counties. Disaster reports are coming.

In addition, after the severe drought in Lusi and other fields under the jurisdiction of Lianghuai, east of Gaoyou Prefecture in the South, violent storms occurred, and the rivers and seas overflowed. More than 10,000 cottages were destroyed, and more than 1,600 residents were drowned, as well as countless livestock and warehouses. The salt fields were left in ruins, the people were displaced, and they were hungry and had no food. Heavy rains caused disasters in Xuzhou and Yangzhou, and rivers overflowed with tsunamis. "

While he was talking, two memorials appeared in the Zhongshu's hand, and he handed them to Wei Guangde with both hands.

Reaching out to take it, Wei Guangde quickly opened it, looked through it, and asked casually: 'Did it come this morning? ’

"Back to Mr. Wei Ge, the urgent report from Shanxi was delivered last night, and the urgent report from South Zhili was delivered directly from the General Affairs Department this morning."

Na Zhongshu replied hurriedly.

"Are the two elders here?"

Wei Guangde asked again.

"Not yet in the cabinet."

"I understand, go down and distribute the memorials received today."

Wei Guangde glanced at the person in Zhongshushe and vaguely remembered that this person's surname was Yang. He seemed to be from South Zhili. He should be in the disaster-stricken area, so he was so confused.

Wei Guangde returned to the check-in room with two memorials, put them down directly on the desk, took out two pieces of paper and wrote on them respectively, and wrote down the votes for land rent reduction and exemption in Shanxi, Huai, Yang and other places, and relief for the victims. Simulate.

Ever since Wei Guangde became an official, he has been numb to such disaster reports.

Unless some natural disaster occurs every year, it seems like this year will be difficult.

It's terrifying to think of the Jiajing period more than 30 years ago. Disasters occurred in almost all provinces, either severe droughts or severe floods. It was difficult for Yan Ge to survive the old days when he demolished the east wall to make up for the west wall.

When Lu Bu came in with tea, Wei Guangde had already written the draft, pasted it on the memorial and put it aside.

"Lu Bu, please pay attention. Let me know when the chief assistant and Mr. Lu Ge arrive later."

Wei Guangde ordered.

"yes."

Lu Bu naturally agreed immediately.

Not long after, Lu Bu brought in a pile of memorials distributed today, placed them at the end of the desk, and then went out.

Not long after, Lu Bu came in and announced that both Zhang Juzheng and Lu Tiaoyang had arrived at the cabinet and started running errands.

"Um."

Wei Guangde just nodded slightly, but did not go over immediately. He was still waiting for Wang Guangguang and Zhu Heng to come over.

At the end of yesterday, Wang Guoguang was mainly arranged to check the total number of copper coins in circulation in the Ming Dynasty, especially the number of copper coins minted since the Jiajing Dynasty, while Zhu Heng needed to find craftsmen to choose the appropriate gold, silver and copper alloy ratio.

Determining the cost of minting coins first allowed them to determine which denominations of coins to mint under the new money method.

In fact, Wei Guangde wanted to directly introduce a decimal currency unit, that is, change the current sixteen cents and one tael to ten cents and one tael, which feels more convenient.

However, he tentatively mentioned it and was opposed by almost everyone, including Zhang Juzheng.

They have long been accustomed to the hexadecimal system, and in Wei Guangde's opinion, the simpler decimal system is troublesome to them.

It's all due to habit, and Wei Guangde can't continue to mention this matter.

In ancient Chinese dynasties, coinage was an inevitable choice.

From the Spring and Autumn Period to the metal coinage stage to the Warring States Period, four major monetary systems have been established: cloth coins, knife goods, ant-nosed coins, and ring coins.

Afterwards, through the Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang and other dynasties, round square hole coins began to dominate the era, and coins evolved from the previous chaotic shape to a unified shape.

The coins of the Ming Dynasty also changed from the "Dazhong Tongbao" cast when Zhu Yuanzhang was King of Wu to the "Hongwu Tongbao" cast.

The shape of Dazhong Tongbao is divided into five grades. It is stipulated that each penny of small flat coins weighs one coin, and there are four types of coins that weigh two coins, three coins, five coins, and ten coins.

Hongwu Tongbao was minted intermittently in the first year of Hongwu. In the 26th year of Hongwu, the money system was changed and fifth-class coins were minted again. According to the regulations of the minting industry in the first year of Hongwu, the copper coins were later changed to weigh one cent and two cents per coin.

The other four grades of money are increased according to the weight of Xiaoping money.

The most special one is the Hongwu Tongbao, which weighs ten coins. When this coin was issued, it was still in the war period, and Zhu Yuanzhang did not have enough copper materials. Therefore, when the coins were issued at that time, he set the rule that ten coins weighed one tael, that is, It is said that when ten coins are counted as one tael of silver.

However, such large amounts of money did not flow to the private sector on a large scale, but mostly circulated among government treasury.

Therefore, in later generations, most of the copper coins handed down were flat coins, two coins, or three coins.

From the Ming Taizu Hongwu to the Ming Emperor Longqing, there were twelve emperors, only six of whom minted coins. Except for Zhu Yuanzhang, who minted a large number of coins, the other emperors minted a limited number of coins.

This was also one of the main reasons for the money shortage among the people in the Ming Dynasty and the proliferation of private money. The court was really short of copper.

After reading two more memorials, Lu Bu did not come to report anything else. Wei Guangde did not want to continue reading other memorials, so he picked up the two Shanxi and Nanzhili memorials and got up and walked to Zhang Juzheng's duty room.

Although I have become numb after reading disaster reports, the court must still deal with such reports as soon as possible, and there must be no delay.

If the news spreads, I don't know how the court and the scholars will talk about them.

Wei Guangde walked into Zhang Juzheng's check-in room. Zhang Juzheng had already been notified and got up to greet him.

"Be kind, you are here, come, sit down and talk."

Zhang Juzheng asked Wei Guangde to sit down, and Wei Guangde took out two memorials and handed them over.

"Is this the money law charter you wrote?"

Zhang Juzheng mistakenly thought that Wei Guangde had written a charter on money law reform overnight. After all, Wei Guangde proposed this matter, so he would naturally focus on it.

"No, I am still writing the charter and have not completed it."

Wei Guangde wrote some last night, but he didn't finish it, so naturally he wouldn't take it out in a hurry.

"This is the report I got from Zhongshu this morning about the successive disasters in Shanxi and Nanzhili.

Uncle, let's take a look. If there's nothing else, we'll immediately arrange for someone to be sent to the Supervisor of Ceremonies to rush to approve the red hair. "

Wei Guangde explained the source of the memorial, and Zhang Juzheng immediately opened it and read it.

Zhang Juzheng read memorials very quickly. In other words, cabinet ministers generally developed the ability to read ten lines at a glance. Otherwise, if so many memorials were sent to him and he could read them word by word, he would not be able to process many of them in a day.

Zhang Juzheng understood what Wei Guangde meant, and immediately took the two memorials to the desk and signed Wei Guangde's draft with a pen.

Then he called his scribe, handed the two memorials into his hands, and ordered: "Send them to the Chief of Ceremonies immediately, and please Eunuch Feng hurry up and submit them to the emperor."

"yes."

The clerk took the memorial handed over by Zhang Juzheng, turned his head and trotted out of the check-in room with his fists in hand.

Zhang Juzheng returned to his previous position and said with a smile: "I just read the report from the Ministry of Works, asking the Ministry of Household Affairs to allocate 30,000 taels of silver, and the Ministry of Industry's estimate of 20,000 taels of silver, for a total of 50,000 taels to be sent to Nanzhili. Jiang Zhi is here Over there, we just have to wait for the money to be received before the construction of the Canal can be started.”

Upon hearing this, Wei Guangde understood that Zhang Juzheng wanted to delay the matter for a while and wait for new money to come out before allocating it.

For 50,000 taels of silver, the court had a profit of 5,000 taels, and this was after deducting the cost of labor and materials.

It can only be said that it is not easy to be Daming's family.

Let alone five thousand taels, even fifty thousand taels is not too much money for Wei Guangde now.

Ever since the chamber of commerce in which he was a shareholder obtained the ship guide and started maritime trade, money flowed into his pocket like water.

Wei Guangde had more than one hundred thousand taels of gold stored in his old house in Jiangxi. This was just in exchange for using some privileges to help others get some resources. Strictly speaking, Wei Ge Lao had never embezzled a single tael of gold from the imperial court.

Nowadays, officials in the Ming Dynasty all know how to make money by doing business, but most of them still can't lose face and just want to make money by relying on the unspoken rules of officialdom.

That is to say, Xun Gui followed the bad example and stopped making plans for the army. Instead, he used various means to start investing in the big chamber of commerce.

Anyway, many people are already involved in business whether they like it or not. As for their own shops in the capital, they are still not very profitable due to various reasons.

There are advantages and disadvantages to being a distinguished person in business.

However, at least the life of being a soldier will be a little easier.

"The construction of the Jia Canal is not something that happens overnight. Since the court has planned to complete it in ten years, I think it is better to proceed according to the plan.

As for the 50,000 taels of silver, the court can delay it a little, or ask the surrounding treasury to advance it first.

Just wait until the new money from the court is minted and then allocate it to make up for it. "

Wei Guangde said.

His meaning was also very clear. Since it had been planned, it was best to proceed in accordance with the wishes of the Ministry of Industry.

As for the 50,000 taels of silver, the court may not be able to release it right away, so it can be cushioned by the local government first.

Zhang Juzheng thought about it and nodded, "Well, when Ru Guan comes, let the household department write a note to the other side first, and support it from the treasury."

The two chatted for a while, Wei Guangde had no intention of leaving, and Zhang Juzheng did not rush him.

Not long after, Wang Guoguang arrived at the cabinet first.

After informing him of the results of the Ministry of Household Inspection, Zhang Juzheng told him about the Ministry of Works' request for payment of money from Jiahe River.

"Wei Ge Lao and I want to let the local treasury handle it first, and then allocate additional money to make up for it when new money comes out."

Zhang Juzheng briefly explained the situation, saying that Wang Guoguang was indispensable.

As long as the cabinet votes are drafted and the ceremonial supervisor approves, the Ministry of Household Affairs will just issue a note.

It's not that the court has no money, it's just that due to some reasons, foreign money needs to be temporarily frozen.

"Yesterday, I sent a letter to Ambassador Taicang to ask them to suspend the expenditure of money."

Wang Guoguang smiled.

"That's very good. Let's wait and see when the Ministry of Industry can finalize regulations and mint sample money. Once the palace approves it, all silver coins will be transferred to the Ministry of Industry for re-casting."

Zhang Juzheng agreed.

"Two pavilion elders, there is another matter that I don't know whether to talk about or not."

Afterwards, Wang Guangming said hesitantly.

"What's the matter?"

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Zhang Juzheng continued.

"Yesterday, after leaving the office, I passed by the Metropolitan Procuratorate and met Ge Yushi. I saw that he was ill. After chatting for a while, I learned that his bones had broken again in the past two months."

Wang Guangguang's words were enough, but Wei Guangde also understood what he meant.

"Brother Yu Li heard that he was ill recently, but I didn't hear that he was going to serve again."

Of course they were talking about Ge Shouli, the current imperial censor of Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. This old man had gone through several ups and downs. He was still in the Hubu position, but he became cannon fodder because of his neutrality in the fight between Gao Gong and Xu Jie. , retired to office sadly.

Of course, Gao Gong accepted his feelings and brought him back to the court.

Later, after Gao Gong left the field again, neither Zhang Juzheng nor Wei Guangde had any intention of touching him.

It is true that neither party wants someone from the other party to take over his position. The Metropolitan Procuratorate is too important. The two people who have experienced court battles know in their hearts that they cannot let the other party get what they want no matter what.

In this way, Ge Shouli, a neutral faction, sat firmly in his position in the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

"Ge Yuli is almost seventy."

Zhang Juzheng said.

Wei Guangde glanced at him and wondered whether Zhang Juzheng really knew or did it on purpose.

"Let's see again. If Brother Yu Li is really in bad health, it won't be too late to nominate a candidate."

It is a fact that Ge Shouli is old, but Wei Guangde will not agree to this matter easily and will deal with it first.

But he also knew that he really had to pay attention to the position of the Metropolitan Procuratorate to see if there was a suitable candidate.