Guo Ning frowned: "People from Song State? People from Song State directly instigated our people to launch a rebellion?"
"Exactly."
"Where are the credentials?"
Zhou Keshan took his time and asked the servant for some water. He washed his face and hands, took out a cloth bag from his sleeve, and poured the contents of the bag onto the table.
Those were a few copper coins, golden and attractive in color.
Guo Ning looked down and looked a little confused: "Is this copper coin very particular?"
"Lin Zhen, that guy, has always been known for his boldness and generosity. In recent months, he has become extra generous. He often invites other leaders and subordinates to treat guests and entertain women. What exactly did they talk about? What did the leaders talk about? Even if you say it to your death, I won’t ask, but one thing is that many people have seen Lin Zhen let his subordinates pay the bills and seen the money he took out."
The Ding navy developed through maritime trade, and the benefits derived from maritime trade were ultimately reflected in copper coins. No matter how hard you work on a business, if you get bad money, you will have to pay the bills. Therefore, everyone who has done a little business is shrewd in distinguishing coins.
When Zhou Keshan was chatting with the leaders, he felt that there might be a possibility to dig deeper here, so he guided everyone's conversation in this direction.
Finally, a gang leader said that the copper coins used by Lin Zhen were Dading Tongbao from the Kingdom of Jin, but they were different from Dading Tongbao cast by official officials. I had never seen this gangshou before, and because I was curious, I kept a few coins and kept them on hand as change.
These few coins were now on the table in front of Guo Ning. They spun around twice and stopped.
Li Yun glanced at it and was immediately shocked. He strode over, touched the copper coins, and then said with certainty: "This is our money! It is the batch produced by Yidu Money Supervisor at the end of last year!"
Zhou Keshan nodded: "Since the establishment of Yidu Money Supervisor, we have only produced this batch of copper coins."
"Didn't this money not come out of the warehouse?" Li Yun asked.
It turns out that mining in Shandong has been developed since ancient times. As early as the Song Dynasty, Yanzhou, Dengzhou and Laizhou each had mining and metallurgy. In Yanzhou Laiwujian alone, there are Shibaye Metallurgy and Santiekeng. There are more than 2,400 furnace households and more than 5,000 miners living here who make a living by mining and smelting iron. After Ding Haijun established its foothold in Shandong, it became more and more engaged in mining and metallurgy. When it came to Wujian alone, it produced more than 1.2 million kilograms of iron per year, while the mines around Dengzhou produced more than 5,000 taels of gold per year. This was a great match for the army. expansion and regime stability, both made huge contributions.
However, in terms of mining output, there are many iron ores in Shandong, followed by gold and silver mines, and copper ores are relatively scarce. Gold and silver mines are still distributed in Deng, Lai, Mizhou and other places, while copper mines are only in Yidu, and mining is even more difficult. Therefore, for a long time, Ding Haijun obtained a large amount of copper coins from the Southern Dynasties through sea trade for its own use.
This is not just the case for Ding Haijun. In fact, since the founding of the country for a hundred years, Dajin has been relying on the copper coins of the Southern Dynasties and its own banknotes, which are increasingly like waste paper, to maintain economic operations. During the Dading reign of King Sejong, a money supervisor was set up in Zhongdu to mint coins on a large scale. The result may be that the technology was not up to par, or there were too many officials who reaped benefits. After a year of busy work, the Dading Tongbao minted were indeed high-quality, but The total currency value was 140,000 guan, and the expenses were as high as 800,000 guan. He suddenly made a huge profit and lost his pants.
For this reason, Ding Haijun was particularly cautious in his attempts at copper coins. It was not until the end of last year that, taking advantage of the establishment of the Zhongdu Privy Council, a new money supervisor was established to try to imitate Dading Tongbao. Because I had no experience and my craftsmanship was rough, I struggled several times and produced more than 3,000 copper coins.
Of course money is good money, but the new Qianjian was built. After all, it was the first time the work was started. The casting was not exquisite enough. Occasionally, pores could be seen, and the edges of the characters were also slightly molded. Compared with the Zhining Tongbao and Daan Tongbao newly minted by the court in recent years, they are quite different. Not as good as that, and the cost is prohibitively high.
In recent years, the world has been short of money. Even in the Southern Song Dynasty, there were a large number of official-made tin coins and privately-made iron coins in circulation. Although Ding Haijun's own copper coins were not so exquisite, they were valuable to the public, so the Privy Council of Zhongdu was not willing to spend them and instead kept them in the treasury.
Guo Ning picked up a copper coin and looked at it carefully, vaguely remembering that Du Shisheng seemed to have sent a written notification about this. He asked: "How did the money stored in Yidu's treasury end up here? How can we prove that the rebellion of the gang leaders was instigated by the Song people?"
"Ahem..." Zhou Keshan said respectfully: "Marshal, this money was later spent. It was urgent at the time, and Mr. Jinzhi specifically approved it. My subordinates were responsible for transferring it out of the treasury."
"Huh? Are we still in such a hurry for money? Why?"
"At the beginning of the year, the maritime grain trade was interrupted, and grain smuggling from the canal to the north was also affected. In Baoying County, Chuzhou, I contacted a local magistrate named Jia She who had a lot of money, and asked him to come forward to help Huaidong. The Zhizhi envoy and the Chuzhou side raised their noble hands and sent the merchants' grain ships to the north to hand over the goods."
"I remember this. You reported it later, saying that Jia She was good at appeasing all parties and was very talented. However, he was just a little too greedy for money..."
At this point, Guo Ning suddenly realized: "Three thousand strings?"
"It's the three thousand strings given in that batch."
Zhou Keshan said in a deep voice: "After we minted these copper coins, we kept them in the treasury until that time when Jia She openly asked for a bribe of three thousand guan. I didn't have enough money around me, so I sent a close friend to report to Yidu urgently. Because of the food Trade is very important, and Mr. Jinzhi was afraid of causing trouble, so he simply gave me three thousand self-made Dading Tongbao."
Li Yun picked up the money, flicked it twice, and listened to the sound: "The only person who got the money was Jia She, the magistrate of Baoying County. But not long after, the money came from Lin Zhen. Keep spending it and use it up..."
"Three thousand guan is not a small amount of money, but the place in Chuzhou faces Sizhou Ganchang and Xuyi Ganchang to the west, and to the south is the prosperous Yangzhou and the canal trade route passes through. Every day, gold mountains and silver seas flow like water. Three If Jia She spends thousands of dollars, it will immediately flow into countless channels and pass through the hands of countless people, and will be scattered and never be gathered again."
"But Lin Zhen was able to spend a lot of this money, so he must have gotten it from Jia She!"
Guo Ning followed the two people's thoughts and figured out the sequence, and suddenly became angry.
He slapped his hand on the table, causing the copper coins to jump wildly: "In other words, this Jia She took our bribes, then took our money, bribed our people, and made our people rebel in Zhongdu. ?”
"I think he used not only this little money to bribe Lin Zhen, but also promised many other benefits. Marshal, I have dealt with this Jia She several times, and I know that this person is cunning and has many tricks. Lin Zhen is It is indeed possible that a person wandering at sea could be bewitched by him..."
"Hey……"
Guo Ning thought for a while and asked: "But, why did he do this? I heard before that this person is quite well-intentioned towards our navy? Why did he suddenly fall out?"
