Sure enough, just as the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were thinking about this matter, they heard Emperor Chongzhen say loudly: "I am here today to cash in your military pay and rewards. Come on, carry it up!"
Hearing this, the soldiers of the Emperor's powerful army couldn't help but feel even more happy, especially the soldiers of the non-Yongwei camp. Most of them had not touched what silver was for many years. Hearing this, many people even rolled their eyes, wanting to see the spectacular scene of boxes of silver being carried up. After all, the emperor is personally in charge here. Anyone who dares to deduct money must be real. Then, the money is probably hundreds of thousands of taels.
Indeed, the military salary of ordinary soldiers in this powerful army of the Emperor is two taels of silver per month, which is higher than that of any other army. The higher the military rank and the different types of arms, the more money will be added to this basis. In addition, the rewards for the contribution made during King Qin's war are also very large.
However, what surprised the soldiers on the campus was that, following the emperor's decree, some guards in Jinyi carried several boxes to the front of the army. The number of the box was much lower than they thought, and the box was not big. How could it hold so much money?
But they were more than a little surprised. Just looking at it, could it be that this box was a bottomless pit that could produce enough silver? With the emperor here, who dares to lose his money?
Emperor Chongzhen naturally knew what they were thinking, so he asked the royal guards to open the box, walked forward, took out the things, and then showed them to the soldiers on the campus. At the same time, he said: "It is extremely inconvenient to distribute silver, and it is also difficult to carry it around." It is inconvenient, so I specially opened a Ming Dynasty Royal Bank, which is a bank. The money is stored in the bank. This is a bank note, a bank note issued by the Ming Royal Bank. I know that the first time I use this bank note, everyone will feel You may feel a little uneasy. For this reason, I have specifically told the bank that as long as you go to exchange silver coins, there will be a special exchange place for you to exchange money, so you don't need to queue up with other people."
"In addition, not only you, but also others who are waiting to redeem, all require immediate payment, and no excuses can be made to delay." Emperor Chongzhen glanced at the eyes of everyone in the audience and continued to speak loudly, "If such a situation occurs, when I come to the military camp, , you can report it directly to me, whose problem is it, I want his head!"
If Emperor Chongzhen had said from the beginning that these banknotes were Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes, then no matter how fanatical Ming soldiers were about the emperor, they would have been disappointed. After all, the reputation of Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes was already too bad. Who would Everyone knows that not only is that thing not worth the face value, it is even far lower than the face value.
However, Emperor Chongzhen did not directly issue banknotes in one step, but only banknotes. Although they are all paper-based, there are differences.
As for paper currency, it is used for market circulation, and the currency cannot be large. It even has a face value of several copper coins. This has the precedent of Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes, and its reputation is very bad. Even if the name is changed, everyone is not a fool. Don't you still recognize that Zhang San is no longer Zhang San if he changes his name to Li Si?
Although banknotes are made of paper, their face value is generally relatively large, and they are usually in silver taels. Ordinary people do not use banknotes in their daily lives for buying and selling, which are usually large-scale transactions. Moreover, in this era, banknotes are already very common and everyone knows about them. In other words, under the operation of others, the banknote should already have a certain credibility foundation.
Others don’t know that Emperor Chongzhen’s fundamental purpose was actually not banknotes, but banknotes; however, he never thought of getting it right in one step. Instead, he started with banknotes so that wealthy people in society would get used to the money issued by the Royal Bank of the Ming Dynasty. After banknotes, gradually introduce banknotes, so that the resistance will be smaller.
At this time, when he said this, these Ming soldiers were a little surprised. They didn't expect that the emperor would open a bank and give it such a strange name. But think about it, how can the bank opened by the emperor be on the same level as those opened by ordinary people? Naturally, even the names must be different!
Based on their enthusiasm for Emperor Chongzhen, although they were surprised, or some of them were a little confused, the majestic Emperor Ming, in front of so many people, had already guaranteed the authenticity of these banknotes. Even if someone made things difficult for them, Anyone can submit a petition directly to the emperor. In this way, most of the soldiers accepted the banknotes issued by the emperor in their hearts.
Subsequently, the officials under the Royal Horse Supervisor, together with Chen Baoting and other chamberlains, began to distribute military pay and rewards according to the roster in various places. The emperor sat on the general stage and watched personally, but did not leave.
This made the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty feel a lot more at ease. When they heard their names, they stepped forward to receive the money. When they got the banknote from the Royal Bank of Ming Dynasty, they couldn't help but be very surprised.
Although most of them have never owned a bank note, they have at least seen one.
The old banknotes, or the banknotes from other banks, whether they are paper or printed, you can tell at a glance that they have a shoddy feel.
But now, the banknotes they got in their hands were all made of exquisite paper and beautifully printed, just like paintings. What's even more exaggerated is that the painting on the banknote actually has a concave and convex feeling, which is really strange.
Of course they didn't know that Emperor Chongzhen had already issued an order to find printing talents from the very beginning. Thanks to the other party's reputation and the fact that he happened to be in the capital, he found them. He was a famous calligraphy, painting, seal engraver and publisher in the late Ming Dynasty. This concave-convex feeling is Gonghua printing, which was his own creation. This person is Hu Zhengyan, who is nearly fifty years old at this time and is at the peak of his craft.
In the original history, Hu Zhengyan was also appointed to the Hanlin Academy, but before he could take up the post, the Manchus invaded the capital; but this time, due to the butterfly effect, he was able to enter the court as an official in advance and do what he was best at. thing.
In today's Ming Dynasty, this "Gonghua" printing method did not appear. In the original history, Hu Zhengyan was still publishing "Shizhuzhai Calligraphy and Painting Manual" at this time. This "Shizhuzhai Painting and Calligraphy Manual" was also very good, using watermark color registration technology. When the printing work of "Shizhuzhai Calligraphy and Painting Manual" was about to be completed, he began to engrave the "Jianpu", and it was not until the 16th year of Chongzhen that it was fully published. The printing of this "Jianpu" was the first time that "Gonghua" printing was used.
In addition, the paper used for this banknote was a tribute and was used exclusively by the palace. Once these two aspects were combined, Emperor Chongzhen was confident that he could prevent counterfeiting without relying on secret deposits. And this is the most fundamental guarantee that banknotes can be used as banknotes in the future.
For this reason, Emperor Chongzhen specifically asked Hu Zhengyan to give advice on the matter of anti-counterfeiting. First, paper tributes must be strictly inspected and private circulation is strictly prohibited; second, the ink formula required for his color printing, It is also kept confidential; thirdly, this printing technology, including watermark registration and arching technology, is also kept confidential, and the relevant craftsmen are not allowed to go out.
Although all literati love to be officials, Hu Zhengyan is nearly fifty years old and has experienced too many things in the world. Now he is reused by the emperor and is engaged in what he is most interested in, and this matter can be known to the world. And leave a name for future generations. For this matter, he naturally devoted 120% of his efforts, constantly asking himself to continue to improve the printing technology of Ming Dynasty Royal Bank's banknotes.
It has to be said that the cost of this banknote is actually very high, although after mass printing, the cost will be reduced a lot. But if the face value is only a few pennies, it will probably be a loss. And before you have established enough credibility, you cannot print more banknotes, so the cost is real.
But fortunately, the money gained from ransacking houses is still relatively large. The printing of these banknotes is mainly in large denominations, and the smallest unit is one tael of silver. After these banknotes had been circulated for a period of time, Emperor Chongzhen saw that the time was right, and then he introduced face values of one, two, and five cents. This is equivalent to fifty yuan, one hundred yuan, and two hundred and fifty yuan in later generations. It is still a bit high in face value, but things must be done step by step.
The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty on the school field, even the generals and deputy generals, could not help but be very surprised after receiving these banknotes from the Royal Bank of the Ming Dynasty. At this time, they didn't need to try to exchange money, but the bank note itself gave them confidence.
Many people took the banknotes, looked left, right, turned over, turned over, looked at it, rare, absolutely rare!
The characters and paintings on it are beautiful, and they are in color. What’s even weirder is how the concave and convex texture came about. It’s really weird!
The banknotes have different patterns according to their face values, but they are all those that Hu Zhengyan is good at, such as plum, chrysanthemum, bamboo, etc.; and he himself is good at various fonts, so Daming Royal Bank is a font with the amount number. Another font, and the year in another font. This banknote, on which Hu Zhengyan put so much effort, can really be regarded as a work of art.
This distribution process is very long. After all, the roster must be checked, and different amounts must be distributed according to the size of the merit and the size of the official position. Even so, the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty waited one by one, and it was not too long at all.
What surprised them even more was that Emperor Chongzhen was always sitting on the general stage and accompanying them. You know, this is the Ming Emperor who has many things to do, but he actually takes time to stay here. This makes these Ming soldiers fanatical about the emperor and always maintains that enthusiasm.
After finishing all this, Emperor Chongzhen walked to the general stand again and said loudly to the Ming army officers and soldiers: "You should familiarize yourself with the military camp first. I am preparing new ordnance, armor, etc. for you, at least in the future with Jianlu If we fight against each other, you will never lose to Jianlu in terms of equipment. This is my promise to you!"
Hearing this, these soldiers who had suffered heavy losses in the equipment and weapons could not help but get excited. If this was really the case, they would be afraid that they would be defeated!
Emperor Chongzhen glanced at the soldiers below, looking at their excitement, and finally added: "When you all settle down and everything returns to normal, everyone will be assigned according to the team structure to protect the Royal Bank of the Ming Dynasty."
Upon hearing this, these Ming army soldiers couldn't help but be a little surprised, but thinking back, it's not surprising. There must be millions of taels of silver in the Ming Royal Bank, otherwise, the emperor would not let them protect it. . Thinking like this, they felt a little more at ease in their hearts.
After Emperor Chongzhen said this, he gave Wang Chengen, the eunuch in charge of the royal horse supervisor, a chance to step forward as the chief officer.
However, Emperor Chongzhen had already made his first show today. As the chief officer, what else could he say in front of the emperor, and he could only order the disbandment.
These three battalions of troops cannot leave the camp yet. They must first familiarize themselves with the situation before they can be released in turn. As a result, the outside world still doesn't know that the Ming Dynasty Royal Bank issued a banknote. Emperor Chongzhen was waiting, and those Shanxi merchants started to stir up trouble.
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen did not leave, but went to the Royal Horse Supervisor Office. This place now is his real one-third of an acre of land.
Lu Xiangsheng, Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting remained silent. In fact, they did not have a chance to speak. They just watched all this from the side. When they saw that the soldiers were rewarded with silver notes instead of money, but the soldiers were not dissatisfied, they knew how important the emperor was in this army. However, all this was actually not beyond their expectations.
When they watched Emperor Chongzhen complete the awards for military generals and ordinary soldiers, and then brought them to the Yamen to discuss matters, they had a vague feeling that there might be an explanation for the merits and demerits of the three of them.
Although they have not gone to court these days and have been busy with the affairs of the king's army, it does not mean that they have not heard the news, heard that many ministers in the court were attacking them. In this regard, they are somewhat worried. After all, the impeachments of those civil servants were not made up without any purpose.
However, looking back and thinking about the emperor's wise performance during this period, the three of them felt relieved. Their intuition told them that the emperor would never punish them, or even though he punished them, they would still be the emperor's confidants. Otherwise, the emperor would not have been honest with them and explained the source of the money in detail to them.
After arriving at the Yuma Prison Yamen and sitting down, there were only the three of them in the hall, accompanied by Wang Chengen.
Regarding Wang Chengen, not only because of the knowledge brought by later generations, but also based on the observation of Emperor Chongzhen, this person did not have much thought. Otherwise, he would not have turned over so much dirty money without thinking about it; in addition, he was sent abroad During his stay with King Qin's army, eavesdropping on the seeds was enough to prove that he was trustworthy.
Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen began to train him and took him with him when discussing matters, but Cao Huachun did not have the qualifications yet.
At this time, it was almost evening, and Emperor Chongzhen did not waste any time. He said to the three of them straight to the point: "Now that the matter of King Qin's army has come to an end, I should have an explanation for the three of you."
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