After listening to Wang Xiaolie and Wang Ruohai's words, Li Yanxian said: "Issuing Huizi is so profitable! With this method, you can print it for any amount of money! Using money like this is better than working hard to collect taxes from the people. It’s so much easier!”
Wang Xiaolie smiled: "Du Tong, how can things in this world be so easy? It's not like Daojun never printed Huizi when he was emperor, and he also minted large coins worth five or ten dollars. What happened in the end? If you are not careful, In the end, the printed money is just waste paper, which is of no use at all.”
Li Yanxian said: "After I came south, I mostly worked in the army and didn't know much about other things. According to Zhen Fu, it is not easy to do this. How did we do it? Nowadays, not only Xiang and Deng Areas such as Jinghu, Lianghuai, and even the Jingxi Road area in Liuyu all use our Huizi. I heard people say that even in Shaanxi and Hedong, there are still people who recognize our Xiangyang Huizi."
Wang Xiaolie said: "If it can be explained clearly in one sentence, everyone will know how to do this. In short, in life, there is always the need to trade goods, the so-called five horses for six sheep. But the transactions in the world are always We cannot rely solely on this method of barter, we always need currency. The imperial court has always used copper to cast money, in parallel with cloth. In fact, among the people, money is used for transactions. Use copper to cast it, use paper to print, as long as you can buy it What's the difference with goods? It's just that copper coins are not used as money, and can be destroyed to make copper utensils. In this dynasty, business is active, and the number of coins required in the previous dynasties is countless times more than in previous dynasties. Copper coins are obviously not enough. Also That is to say, the people are always short of money. So as long as we ensure that the currency does not become lighter, printing tens of millions of Guan is not a big deal. Not only do we have money in our hands, but when the people have money, business will become more active, which is a win-win situation for both parties. matter."
Li Yanxian nodded: "I see! Suppressing and printing money is also a good thing for the people!"
Wang Xiaolie said: "Of course it is a good thing. It is not easy to do good things well. To ensure that the printed money does not depreciate and can always buy things, the government has to do a lot. Why do Jinghu, Lianghuai, and even Liu Yu’s subordinates all recognize our Xiangyang Huizi? Because as long as merchants hold the Huizi, they can always buy the goods they need in Xiangyang. And the prices are stable and will not depreciate."
Li Yanxian seemed to understand but didn't understand, so he couldn't ask any more questions.
In most dynasties in ancient China, money was always scarce compared to commercial activities. In the Song Dynasty, the value of copper coins was low and the price of copper was high. This was especially true, and money shortages often occurred. Just to fill this cash gap would cost hundreds of millions of yuan.
Under Wang Xiaolie's rule, the political situation was stable and business was active. In the past two years, it has become almost the center of the world's commerce, and more money is needed. Wang Xiao Lie printed tens of millions of dollars, and as long as he maintained his credibility, it would not cause social unrest. With money, business activities in society are more active, which in turn can promote regular growth. In the future, with the taxation of industry and commerce, money will flow back, forming a positive cycle.
The key is to ensure currency stability and avoid large-scale depreciation. In the first two or three years, as long as Wang Xiaolie ensured that he could use printed banknotes to pay taxes, it was enough to give the people enough confidence.
In more than two years, Wang Xiaolie printed more than 30 million yuan. In addition to ensuring the expenditure of the government and the army, this money was also used in large quantities for investment. All kinds of restaurants, inns, factories, shopping malls, and supply and marketing cooperatives all rely on printed money. In fact, it turns money into assets and spreads it to society in this way. In addition, bridges, roads and engineering facilities were also built.
Nominally, all this money is Wang Xiaolie's debt. Of course, in this era this is just a name.
Seeing Song Yan coming over, Wang Xiaolie said: "The next drill in the Chinese Army will not only make the troops familiar with this new weapon and how to use it, but also see how well the troops are equipped in the actual drill." How many artillery pieces are appropriate? I will preliminarily say that large artillery pieces will be assigned to the division level, medium artillery pieces will be assigned to the regiment level, and small artillery pieces will be assigned to the battalion level. Whether they are suitable or not will be seen in actual exercises. In addition, We also need to determine how many cannons a division is equipped with, how many medium-sized artillery pieces a regiment is equipped with, and how many small artillery pieces a battalion is equipped with during actual drills. This kind of thing cannot be decided by us at once."
Song Yan said yes.
Wang Xiaolie added: "Of course, within a certain range, the more weapons, the better. For example, a division can be equipped with thirty weapons, but it can also be sixty, so how many weapons should be equipped? This question needs to be Take all things into consideration. Those of you who make artillery must also be aware of this."
Song Yan said: "Zhenfu, if this is the case, a lot of artillery will be needed. One artillery as big as this costs two thousand feet, which is really expensive. If we try to equip a division with a hundred of them, it's a lot of money. .”
Wang Xiaolie said: "You don't have to think about money for the time being, let me figure it out."
Wang Ruohai on the side said: "One door is calculated as two thousand guan, and one hundred doors is only 200,000 guan. It is not unaffordable."
Wang Xiaolie shook his head: "Counsellor, that's not the way to calculate the score. Artillery is not just cannon, but also healthy mules. Why do they use healthy mules instead of horses? We have been trying for more than two years, and the territory under our rule is really You can't breed good horses. Even if you try to buy good breeds, the horses they produce are really useless. Nowadays, the cavalry in the army still uses captured horses. There is no other way but to use mules. A cannon includes The mules that pull the cannon, as well as the cannon shells and gunpowder, require eight healthy mules. How much does this cost in Nanyang? Not only that, the iron bullets used in the artillery must be made in special factories, otherwise their effectiveness will be greatly reduced. All of these cost money. For one hundred cannons, the cost of the cannons is 200,000 guan, and if you add the others, it will cost up to 500,000 guan."
Song Yan said: "This is the money spent on equipment. When it comes to fighting, the money spent will be even more."
"When the cannon goes off, there are ten thousand taels of gold." Wang Xiaolie suddenly remembered this sentence. "The army is equipped with artillery, which is like a gold-eating monster. It is very different from before. If there is no money in the future, it will not even be able to fight wars."
Human beings have a process of understanding the use of artillery. It took several hundred years from the time when real artillery was developed in the Yuan Dynasty to when artillery was maturely used. It was probably not until the Napoleonic period that humans fully mastered the use of artillery.
Wang Xiaolie's past life experience can span many stages in between. Even if you don't know the technology very well, as long as you have a rough idea and a lot of practice, you can basically mature the use of artillery. At least, Wang Xiaolie knew that artillery should become a specialized branch of the army and should cooperate with other armies to participate in the war. Instead of just using it to attack and defend the city, it should be used as a mobile field artillery.
Artillery fires with gunpowder and cannonballs are made of iron, and everything costs money. Without certain industrial capabilities, it cannot be supported. An army without artillery will hardly have a chance to win against a mature army with artillery.
Li Yanxian said: "War is a waste of money. Even if there are no artillery, the money spent on fighting will be less? Not to mention anything else, the army shoots arrows, each bow costs 75 cents, and a crossbow costs 60 cents. Five cents. When fighting, fire it as hard as it rains. How much will it cost? I think that although the artillery costs a lot, it may not cost more than the crossbow."
Wang Xiaolie thought for a while, nodded and said: "That makes sense. Compared with bows and crossbows, artillery may not necessarily cost more. However, the role of artillery on the battlefield must be compared with artillery. Only stone cannons and beds Crossbows and the like can be compared with artillery, not crossbows. With artillery, crossbows will no longer be used less. How to fight future battles needs to be explored bit by bit."
Song Yan said: "Based on what I have tried these days, after the army was equipped with artillery, the way of fighting has changed a lot from before. Many of the Jin Army's strengths have turned out to be weaknesses. They like to attack frontally, but human flesh cannot withstand money and bullets. ?”
This is the most important thing. The Jin army's tactics were to wear heavy armor and form large groups to attack head-on. Ignoring the casualties, it goes on and on. It is difficult for ordinary armies to deal with this kind of tactics. But with cannons, forming a frontal formation is a recipe for death.
