The spring of the twelfth year of Jingwu came a little late, and a large number of cattle and sheep died in the long and severe cold on the grassland. Although the Kelge people looted everywhere, they still suffered serious losses.
At Li Dan's suggestion, Pan Chang asked Seyan and Luyan to clear the field and move closer to the border wall. He led his troops forward, and with the help of the two troops, he formed a three-sided encirclement, forcing the demoralized and panic-stricken Kerr people. Keep retreating.
Before winter came, Bihan retreated across the Tuhe River. He established a winter camp on the north bank and reduced his troops.
Prince Mudan of Seyan and the general of the Luyan tribe were closely connected, and each led five thousand cavalry to form two mobile corps to assist the official army in constantly harassing the outskirts of Ker's camps.
In return, the imperial court provided limited assistance to the two ministries and allowed them to purchase grain and feed in barter.
Throughout the autumn and winter, the imperial court sent special ministers and organized merchants to provide each of the two ministries with 150,000 shi of wheat, 60,000 shi of beans, and 30,000 shi of other grains.
The terms of exchange were 300,000 stones of wool, 100,000 stones of camel hair, horsehair, and 40,000 sheepskins and cowhide.
These supplies were transferred across Liaoning, providing another 8,000 job opportunities for immigrants.
The sweaters, woolen trousers, woolen scarves, hats, gloves, etc. produced in Liaodi not only equipped the army, but high-end products were also sold to Heshun Prefecture in Hebei Province, becoming popular goods and winter necessities favored by officials and wealthy families.
But the Kelge people who were trapped by the Tuhe River were miserable. They were hungry and cold and heard the news that Helin had been captured and that enemy cavalry had appeared around Hulan. They were immediately disheartened.
Anger and disappointment made people lose their minds. After the left counselor Halemu and the chief military officer Baitu led their troops to surrender to Pan Chang, a rumor spread that the death of the Yellow Sect master was a sign that even those who discarded it must sweat.
On a snowy night, Ye Bihan was killed by his own bodyguards. Rebel troops massacred his cronies, and attacks on each other continued throughout the night in the camp.
A few days later, Daruhua Chire's tribe Dieli appointed Yebi's nephew Sage as Khan six hundred miles away. He re-erected the banner to recruit the scattered tribesmen and began to return to his hometown in the north.
After such great changes, Kerge has been reduced from the largest Egu people in the north to a third-rate tribe, with a total population of no more than 100,000.
Hearing that the number of surrendered and captured soldiers amounted to 170,000, Li Dan immediately realized that how to use and distribute them was a big problem.
He was sure that both Se Yan and Lu Yan stared at this piece of fat greedily, but they did not want to hand over all the population to them. Fattening these guys would not be beneficial to the court.
After meeting with Halemu and Baitu in Liaoyang, Li Dan arranged relief for Kelge Rao and went to the Chief Envoy Yao Qing and the Dusi Sun Dou'en.
Finally, Sun Douen agreed to recruit 6,000 people into the army and build four new military towns: Liaoyuan, Hanzhou, Tongliao, and Shuangliao;
Yao Qing also agreed to Li Dan's plan to enrich the forts in Fushun, Xiuyan, Jiulian City, Fenghuang City, Jinzhou, Fuzhou and Kuandian, and to establish the three cities of Donggou, Zhuanghe and Benxi.
In this way, except for Liaoxi Road, each city is now assigned a thousand Kerr people to engage in postal services, transportation, and express delivery industries. In southern Liaoning and Liaodong, they are also allowed to engage in pasture cultivation, feed, and animal husbandry.
In addition to allowing them to engage in transportation and herding, the military town also absorbed some people as night-time workers. As for Se Yan and Lu Yan, Li Dan decided to give them a maximum of 10,000 troops each.
In addition, Baitu is willing to join the army. It is estimated that the emperor will let him lead some people to be appointed by the Ministry of War. Halemu is quite good at managing people in the army. Li Dan suggested that Yao Qing consider letting him stay in the Chief Envoy Department as a counselor. The title is dedicated to minority affairs.
The most troublesome were the more than 2,000 people who were captured but were extremely reluctant, or were hostile or resistant to the Han people. Li Dan decided to send them to work in coal mines and iron mines.
In April, the emperor summoned Pan Chang and Li Dan back to Beijing. While still on the way, he received an order. As the two men were ordered to defeat the Kerrs in danger, the emperor specially approved Jia Panchang as the co-president of the rear army governor's office. Li Dan was awarded the title of "Direct Bachelor of Tiren Pavilion" and "Zhongshu Zuolang" Zheng.
This is a 22-year-old straight bachelor, which means Li Dan is not far from the door of the cabinet!
After returning to Shangjing and finishing his errands, Li Dan handed a letter to the palace gate to indicate that he had returned to Beijing, and then returned to Banyuan, where he finally saw his long-lost relatives.
But he couldn't talk at the moment. After hurriedly washing and changing clothes at Aying's place, he took a look at the garden that he had personally planned but had never seen before, and then ran to the Four Seasons Curling Hall in front, where people were already gathering. There were many people waiting to see him.
"Everyone, please sit down." Li Dan greeted everyone one by one, first made an appointment for some people to meet on a date and time, and then with a smile, he pressed his hand downwards and asked the remaining staff to sit down and talk.
He first listened to Zhu Qing's report on the situation in Jingli, Yugan and other places, affirmed everyone's achievements, and then said: "Before I came back, I received a report from the hero Shen and discovered the situation in Changyi. What is going on? Yes. What evidence?"
"Yes." Shenjie replied. Zhang Nao, who had been lurking all the time, found that among the guests he was asked to receive in Changyi, there were Koreans and Japanese people, as well as Yeerqiang and Tibetan people from the west, and they were all concentrated recently.
Because he had been lurking for a long time, the other party gradually relaxed its vigilance, and some words came out. Because Kelge's failure disappointed the superiors, they were re-adjusting their deployment.
Moreover, he also found that some Egu people of unknown tribe were also mixed in the caravan going south. Judging from the fact that he was asked to take special care of them from above, it was most likely related to Changyi.
"Aren't they still giving up?" Li Dan frowned. "Is there any other movement?" he asked after a few breaths.
"Well... there is an official in Jiangxi who has a close relationship with him."
"who?"
"Tang Xuan was involved in politics from the left."
"Is it him? No wonder!" Li Dan raised his eyebrows and turned to Zhu Qing.
: "My uncle and Tang were both Jinshi in the same field. He came to me several times to cause trouble, and there were two complaints against me from the imperial censor here in Jiangxi. I was suspicious of this person at that time, but now it seems that it may be true! "
Wan instructed Shen Jie: "Let San Qianzi try to investigate his affairs immediately and see how much mess there is behind him!"
Shenjie quickly crossed his arms and agreed. Li Dan did not use the Zifang Division, indicating that he did not want to use his power for personal gain. The Zifang Division was for rebels and invaders, not for investigating and punishing lawbreakers.
However, Shen Jie also felt that Li Dan had the de facto greatest military and political influence in Liao during the two years he had been in Liao. Now he had developed more decisiveness in killing.
Du Jing opened his mouth and told him about the current operation of the trading company and its development in Zhili, and then said: "The problem now is that there are more horse-drawn carriages, and there are more crashes. Everyone has bad roads, but even if the roads are repaired, they will still crash!"
"I understand." Li Dan nodded: "This is not just road construction, but also a set of rules."
"What rules?"
"In the "Road Traffic Safety Driving Regulations", it is necessary to develop a system to tell everyone what to do, when something is wrong, who should be responsible, and how responsible car owners should compensate."
Li Dan said to Zhu Qing: "I'll write something. You should familiarize yourself with it first, and then take it to Shunfu and ask them to implement it first." After that, Wang Xu appeared at the door: "Is something wrong?" he asked. .
Mao Zaidi was sent back to the military academy to study at the beginning of the year. Wang Xu is now his personal captain and temporarily takes over Amao's duties. Seeing him asking questions, Wang Xu entered the door, pressed his saber with his left hand, saluted with his right hand, and replied:
"Your Majesty, someone from the palace has something to ask you." Upon hearing this, everyone stood up and left.
After a while, Li Dan saw through the glass that Wang Xu was guiding the Bingbi eunuch Xia Shu in. He hurriedly went out and walked down the steps, cupping his hands and saying, "Eunuch Xia, why is it you? Aren't you in the Bingbi Department?"
"My Sanlang, please leave me alone. This old slave can't bear it. You, Mr. Li, might go into the cabinet to pay homage to the prime minister!" Xia Shu happily bowed in return.
"What about paying homage to the prime minister? I am still a junior in front of you, so I have to have the proper etiquette, especially when we are in private, we don't need to pay attention to those empty words.
You also know that most of the civil servants like me are fakes created with knives and guns. I have no patience for those sour articles and fake jealousies. "Li Dan's few words made Eunuch Xia laugh.
After the two of them entered the room to serve tea, everyone left. Eunuch Xia told Li Dan softly: "Old Liu is confused. The emperor gave him a house because of his old love and asked him to go to Jinling to retire."
"What's going on?" Li Dan asked in surprise.
Lao Xia Yi, he learned that Liu Kan was sent to Nanjing when he set out, and at the same time he also learned a shocking news: Zhu Zhanzhen had been impeached!
"Where does this come from? Are their affairs related?"
It turned out that Zhu Zhanzhen was caught in the rain once when he went out. When he was looking for shelter in someone's house, he saw several Song Dynasty books in his house. At that time, I didn't have much to talk about and came back, but I talked about it with people a few times.
Later, a shopkeeper brought the purchased book to him, and the fat bookworm took it without thinking.
Little did he know that more than half a year later, Shunfu suddenly came to his door. Those books were related to human lives, which shocked him. Hurry to find the Qingke. He has been put in the prison of the Ministry of Justice. Immediately afterwards, the censor impeached him for encouraging Qingke to harm people and seize books.
At this time, the emperor had to suspend him from duty and stay at home pending investigation.
As for Liu Kan, he shouldn't have done anything. He was an old man who had watched Zhu Zhanzong grow up. He couldn't bear to see him suffer, so he secretly ran to tell him the emperor's decision and told him to find a way to deal with it quickly. Exonerate yourself.
Who would have thought that before he could leave, he would be bumped into by Xingrensi and Yushitai who came to convey the order.
The people around him ran to leak the news, and the emperor was naturally furious. Even if he knew that he felt sorry for Fatty Zhu, he couldn't forgive him! So there was the punishment of Jinling Pension.
Li Dan sighed after hearing this. Eunuch Liu had been cautious all his life, but he didn't expect that he would be so confused when he was over fifty years old. And no need, his disciples like Sun Liang Wu and Liu Xi might all be in trouble.
"So the emperor appointed you as the general manager? Congratulations, congratulations! What about Bingbi Department?" Li Dan wanted to ask Qingqing.
"Leave it to Qidanian."
"Oh! That high-ranking official, is he from the imperial kitchen?" Li Dan thought of a fat man who was nimble and flexible, but that guy was actually an Egu man. "My father-in-law is coming tonight, but what is your Majesty's order?"
"It's nothing special." Eunuch Xia took out an envelope from his sleeve and handed it over.
Li Dan bowed first, opened it and saw that it was an imperial pen, and asked: "The First Bank of Liaoning is currently operating well. Banknotes and auxiliary coins are already used throughout Liaoning. Can it be extended to the whole country?" After reading this, Li Dan knew that the emperor's intention.
This dynasty has always used banknotes and coins, but there are many banknotes and few coins. In other words, the quantity and type of banknotes printed are far greater than the precious metals held.
In his previous life, Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the rule of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty and seized a large amount of precious metals from the Yuan aristocrats, Semu people, northerners and merchants. In order to meet the needs of the Northern Expedition and the construction of the new dynasty, he printed and issued many banknotes.
Although there were seizures in the early years of this dynasty, the Zhao family did not overly exploit the Han princes and big landowners in the north, and also had a tolerant attitude towards merchants, so they did not hold so many precious metals and could not engage in feudalism and prosperity like Zhu Yuanzhang did. The construction boom of the palace made more use of the materials left over from the previous dynasty.
However, urban recovery and market construction still require money, so banknotes were also printed and issued. The issuance of banknotes reached its peak during the Taizong and Renzong periods.
Renzong allowed one bank in each province across the country to be responsible for issuing banknotes. As a result, the appearance, color, unit, value and even pattern of banknotes were inconsistent, which was quite confusing.
Although some sorting was done during the Xuanzong period, it was only an improvement and not a cure.
On the other hand, the banknotes printed by banks, namely banknotes, existed at the same time as the Jiaobao, Pibao, Jiaozi, etc. of the previous dynasties and even the Southern Song Dynasty.
This situation has caused chaos, and there are both new and old banknotes. No one is responsible for recycling the old banknotes, resulting in more and more banknotes being printed on the market.
Some of these banknotes have blurry designs and some are torn, making it extremely inconvenient for civilians to use them. Refusal to accept or pay bad banknotes and the resulting conflicts abound, which has also led to the large circulation of illegal and counterfeit banknotes.
Although local inspection departments have never been lenient towards counterfeit banknotes and counterfeiters, their inhibitory effects are limited.
In terms of use, in order to avoid receiving counterfeit banknotes, the official government does not accept banknotes when collecting agricultural taxes, only physical or metal currency, resulting in a low official credibility.
The reason why paper money is still in circulation is mainly because it is irreplaceable in convenience in daily life, so people have no choice but to make do with it.
"Eunuch Xia, believe it or not, if the imperial court decrees that all taxes can only be paid in silver, everyone will wipe their butts with banknotes overnight, and in two years there won't be any banknotes in use!" Li Dan .
At the same time, another reason why people love and hate banknotes is that they are over-issued, only printed but not recycled, resulting in excessive banknotes on the market, or over-saturation in a certain area, resulting in regional or large-scale inflation.
For example, the excessive printing of money in Shaanxi will overflow to Gansu, Yulin, Henan and other places. In these places, the original banknotes of consistent face value may only be worth 800 or 750 yuan. They used to buy a sheep, but now they can only buy half of it. .
"This is called currency devaluation." Li Dan told Eunuch Xia.
Having worked as a pen clerk for a long time, Eunuch Xia must be the type who can memorize a lot of information and understand it quickly. He gasped after hearing Li Dan's introduction and asked: "Then, are banknotes bad, or should they be abolished and replaced with copper coins?"
"Father, please hire a boat to go to Yangzhou on business. It costs three 600 yuan for a round trip. Are you willing to give him banknotes, or are you willing to carry the three 600 yuan for him?" Li Dan gave an example with a smile.
"I...of course I'm giving banknotes. Isn't it more convenient?"
"Yes!" Li Dan high-fived: "Everything has its own reason! Paper money has been used for more than two hundred years, so it must have its benefits. The reason why there are various problems is probably not the paper money itself. It’s people who don’t use it well.”
Li Dan pointed out the shortcomings of current banknotes: printing and issuance are not unified, and units are not unified; there is no clear and effective recycling method for dirty banknotes, and there are no relevant laws to protect the issuance and use of banknotes;
The official only uses it as a supplementary means and does not treat it as currency, and the anchor is confusing.
The result of all this is that the credibility of banknotes is shaky and people use them with trepidation and suspicion.
"It's difficult to change all this, but it's simple." Li Danwan took out a leather wallet, took out a few Liao coins and spread them out on the table, and took out two Hui notes used in the mainland. Spread it aside.
"Father, please take a look. These are banknotes issued by the Royal Liaoning First Bank we established in Liaoning. Compared with the old-fashioned banknotes, you should be able to see the differences and advantages of the new banknotes at a glance."
Xia Shu's eyes lit up, he picked up the new banknote, touched and flicked it with his hands, and then looked at the candlelight according to Li Dan's hand. He saw the dragon on the watermark. He was shocked and looked away again.
"It's amazing. How did you do it?" he exclaimed.
"I can't tell you this, it's a top secret for anti-counterfeiting." Li Dan smiled and pointed: "Please see, father-in-law, this paper is made of special material with colored silk threads mixed in. The numbers on the front and back are opposite, and it also has anti-counterfeiting watermarks and special ink.
If it weren't for the family's capital, it would be impossible to copy something printed like this! If it looks like a good thing at first glance, so good that people are reluctant to use it, then it can be equivalent to precious metals.
Liaoning Bank has branches or sub-branches in various cities, and has set up business offices in larger towns and forts. This not only provides thousands of employees with opportunities to work and earn money to support their families, but these people can also skillfully press "Currency" "Administrative Regulations" for the recycling of faded banknotes and the issuance of new currency
The most important thing is that we use the gold and silver seized in the war, as well as the gold and silver recovered from transactions with Seyan, Luyan, North Korea, and Nüzhi people, plus the precious metals invested by shareholders when they bought shares, as anchors to issue banknotes.
This kind of paper money is called credit currency, which has unlimited repayment ability and can be flexibly and safely released based on the amount of anchored precious metals.
There are inflows and outflows, and the stock of currency in the market is kept within a reasonable but not excessive range.
As a legal institution entrusted by the government, banks put the issued currency into the market through credit to supply the needs of various industries such as commerce, industry and mining, agriculture, animal husbandry and fishery. "
"So, banknotes are inseparable from merchants?"
“It was commerce that gave rise to paper money.
The activity of commerce gave the empire vitality, which in turn gave rise to a large demand for purchases or sales. They required old currencies, currencies that were not suitable for this era, to withdraw from the stage and be replaced by new ones that were more convenient, lighter but not suitable for this era. Currency that loses value.
For example...this Liao coin in my hand! "Li Dan held up a new banknote.
