After returning from his visit to Li Mansion, Zhao Tuo fell into an extremely busy work. very busy!
"This country is almost operating at full capacity." Zhao Tuo sighed secretly. According to his observation, the entire Qin State is like a clockwork machine, busy everywhere.
In the newly conquered vassal areas, a large number of officials needed to be dispatched to take over local government affairs, appease the survivors of the Six Kingdoms, popularize Qin's laws, and crack down on resistance forces.
In the original Qin State's old land, the heads of Guizhou were recruited to serve, and the construction of Chi Road connecting Xianyang was started. At the same time, the roads between counties and counties were also to be renovated.
In terms of military affairs, General Tu Sui was leading his army all the way west, gathering the Han and Wei clansmen along the way.
Shu County will also begin to recruit soldiers, transport grain and fodder, and prepare to attack the southwestern barbarians, and then attack the distant Dian Kingdom all the way.
This is local. Every department in the central government is also overwhelmed by various matters.
Tingwei needed to train legal officials and judge crimes in various places. At the same time, he was also responsible for promoting Qin law to the newly conquered Qi region.
The internal history of millet management is responsible for spring plowing, and at the same time, it is also necessary to prepare for the grain and fodder matters after the nobles of the six countries migrate to Guanzhong.
Even Zong Zheng and Feng Chang were busy with the expansion of the ancestral temple and the revision of Qin etiquette. As one of the Nine Qings, Zhao Tuo was naturally very busy. In addition to the papermaking project he asked Zhang Han to do, he also had several big projects in full swing.
The most important thing among them is the matter of selling the world's troops to make plowshares and coins, which is the responsibility of the Shaofu.
As the order was issued, a large number of carriages carried countless weapons from the Six Nations to the huge construction site on the south bank of the Weishui River.
There are tens of thousands of Qin people serving here. Under the command of iron officials, the collected weapons of the Six Kingdoms are classified into categories. They have to remove the wooden parts of the weapons and stack them according to the different materials of copper and iron.
Within ten months, countless hills of copper and iron were piled up here. Accompanied by his subordinates, Zhao Tuo came to the construction site in person to inspect the progress of this project. This was his first major project after taking office, so he could not be careless.
"Reporting to the Shaofu, according to statistics, there are more than 600,000 copper weapons and nearly one million iron weapons. In addition to weapons, there are also a large number of copper and iron parts, as well as horse harness and vehicle leather, enough There are nearly two million." Baigan, the chief minister of the Shaofu, followed Zhao Tuo and reported nonchalantly.
Zhao Tuo nodded slightly. There are a large number of iron weapons among the weapons collected from the Six Nations. Although these items cannot be used to mint coins, if they are made into agricultural tools, the quantity will be very large.
After they were cast, these agricultural tools were distributed to various counties and counties, which would be of great benefit to Qin's agricultural production. It was far more useful than just casting twelve golden men for the emperor.
When I think of the Qin Emperor and the Golden Man in history. Zhao Tuo then asked Bai Gan: "Have you found the model of the Twelve Golden People?" Bai Gan said hurriedly: "I just asked someone to get the picture out and was about to submit it to the young master for review. If the young master approves it, , we can start making models for casting." After saying that, Bai Gan asked his men to get the silk paintings of the Twelve Golden People.
Zhao Tuo opened the silk painting and saw that it was twelve Di people with high noses and deep eyes, wearing barbarian costumes.
Each one looks quite majestic. If it were cast into a five-foot-tall giant, it would really be very majestic and domineering, and would be called a wonder in the world.
However, the twelve golden men designed on the drawings are only one foot tall. Compared with the original history, it can only be regarded as a low-end version, and the materials required are not too much.
"One foot?" Zhao Tuo frowned and said, "It's too high. If he stands, he is taller than the emperor. How can this be done? The emperor's majesty cannot be offended. Make them smaller and make them eight feet tall. Make it according to the length of a real person."
"In addition, they should be made to look like they are kneeling and bowing, so that their height is lower than the emperor. Only in this way can they show the power of the king and the surrender of Yi and Di."
"Oh, by the way, the postures of these golden men should be different, but don't make them the same. Don't make them all men, either. There must be some female barbarians among them. Only in this way can all men and women in the world worship the emperor! "Zhao Tuo imagined the needs of future generations of figurine otakus and fine-tuned some details.
Bai Gan wiped the sweat from his head and said, "What the Young Mansion said is that the subordinates will ask someone to draw another sketch." Zhao Tuo nodded with satisfaction. With these twelve little golden figures on display in the Qin Palace, The emperor should not have any resentment.
After inspecting the completion site, determine the size of the golden man, as well as the type and quantity of agricultural tools to be cast later.
Zhao Tuo hurried back to the Shaofu, where Yin Chang, the Tongcheng of the Shaofu, also finished the design of the new currency. There are many styles of coins in the Seven Kingdoms era.
In terms of shape alone, there are shovel coins, knife coins, round coins and other types. Each shape of coin is divided into various different shapes.
For example, there are two types of round coins: round round holes and round square holes. There is no fixed shape. For example, the Banluo coins and Linhuan coins circulated in the Qin Dynasty all have round holes.
"Since later generations are called Brother Kong Fang, it is natural to use square holes." Zhao Tuo decided on the shape of the new coins, which were all round square holes.
This shape has been tested by later generations for two thousand years, and it is absolutely right to choose it. As for the patterns on the coins. In this era, coins would have words printed on them, most of which were place names or country names.
For example, Jiyinquan money has
The word "Jiyin" means that the money was minted in Jiyin. Another example is the Eastern Zhou Dynasty Wan coin.
The word "Eastern Zhou" means that it was cast by the Lord of Eastern Zhou. In addition, there are also words engraved with weight, such as Qin Banliang, which is printed on the coins.
"Half two". However, because of Zhao Tuo's suggestion, the First Emperor decided not to print words on the coins, but to print dragon patterns instead.
He minted coins as a symbol of himself and Qin. According to Yin Chang's design, it is a giant dragon circling around the square hole in the middle, with its dragon body spread out and surrounding the money surface. At first glance, it looks quite interesting.
"There is a dragon printed on the money, and this dragon is the ancestral dragon!" Zhao Tuo was quite proud, although he wanted to cast
The proposal of "Qin Datou" was rejected by the emperor, but a dragon is not bad. It is a symbol of the First Emperor and is still very meaningful.
Thousands of years later, when these coins are dug out of the ground, the dragon patterns on them may still be alive, and I don't know how much they can be sold for.
After the shape and pattern were decided, it was time to weigh the money. Zhao Tuo still exerted his innovative spirit here and carried out reforms according to his ideas.
The old coins of the Qin State weighed about half a tael. In the original history, after Qin Shihuang unified the country, he generally followed the old system in terms of currency, using half a tael of money.
In Qin, one tael was 24 baht, and half a tael was 12 baht. This is the plan presented by Yin Chang. But Zhao Tuo felt bad.
"Half a tael is too heavy, and it is a large amount of money. It is not easy to carry, and it is easy to be scraped and minted privately, so it is better to cut it in half and mint six baht coins!" Zhao Tuo said plausibly.
If he remembers correctly, Qin's half-liang coins did not circulate for too long because they were heavy and difficult to use. In the later period, the coins shrank in size and weight.
In the Han Dynasty, crude pod money was first produced, and then eight baht coins were produced. It was only then that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty came up with five baht coins, which unified the weight of currency. Until the Sui Dynasty, five baht coins were still being minted. coins.
Since he, Zhao Tuo, is now in charge of coinage, instead of using half a tael of money that is destined to be eliminated by history, it is better to directly learn from the practices of the Han Dynasty in one step.
However, although the five-baht coin has a long history and has passed the test of time, Zhao Tuo cannot directly copy it.
Because the reason why Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used five baht coins was because he changed the water virtue of the Han Dynasty into the soil virtue. The lucky number of Tu De is five, so Han people use five baht.
"Qin is the virtue of water, and it is the sixth grade."
"So the weight of the new coin should be six baht, which just symbolizes that our country of Qin is six!" Zhao Tuo waved his hand and cut the weight of the Qin coin in half.
Yin Chang said worriedly: "Will the emperor agree to such a big weight change?"
"Oh, how could the emperor disagree? I broke a copper coin into two pieces for him!" Zhao Tuo was very confident that a half-liang coin weighing 12 baht could be turned into two pieces after being melted and recast. Six baht, if you do this, your savings will be doubled. Will the emperor be unhappy?
Anyway, he, the young man in charge of money, is very happy. Not to mention that the emperor loved six, so six baht was considered his lucky number.
Sure enough, after Zhao Tuo presented his new coin casting plan, the First Emperor expressed satisfaction with the shape and weight of the new Qin coins designed by Zhao Tuo.
However, the emperor was also dissatisfied with the name that Zhao Tuo came up with.
"Black Dragon Coin?"
"Back then, my late king, Duke Wen, went hunting and caught a black dragon, which was an auspicious sign of Shui De. Named after this prey, it does not show my majesty."
"This coin should be called the Dragon Mark Coin."
