Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 414 New Banknotes Issued
Lu Jin wrote these comments for two purposes. If Tao Guangyi pretended to surrender to deceive him about technology, then his comments were a strategic trick to make Tao Guangyi give up resistance as soon as possible. Even if he could make artillery of the same level, he could make one with a longer range.

If Tao Guangyi really surrenders and is interested in technology, then this comment is just a bait to lure him over to help him do the work.

There are two people around Lu Jin who are learning Gongshu Secret Classic relatively quickly. One of them is Meng Zhifang, but this person is not good at hands-on work and is more inclined to learn theory. Now he mainly helps Lu Jin lead the artillery squad and trains the artillerymen in basic mathematics. He also helps him lead the children of generals and teaches them simple mathematics and scientific knowledge.

The other is Fang Lanyue, the son of a craftsman, who is currently working and studying at the Luzhou Iron Factory. He is interested in scientific knowledge and has good hands-on skills, but lacks systematic learning. Moreover, the child is still young, and Lu Jin has no time to call him over to teach him personally.

He is now in need of an engineering talent with strong hands-on ability and interest in technology, preferably one who can come and help him directly with his work. Tao Guangyi is a good candidate. After he comes, he can learn while working.

After finishing writing these instructions, Lu Jin returned the letter to Tao Qixian and said, "You can take these back to him. This can be regarded as my reply to him."

"I will certainly pass it on for the Marshal. However, regarding the matter of surrender, I wonder when the Marshal will be able to send troops to Wuzhou? And how can the Tao family cooperate with the Marshal's plan?" Tao Qixian asked immediately after taking the letters.

"this one"

Lu Jin thought about when to attack Wuzhou Road and Quzhou Road. There was a timetable in this year's plan. He learned his fighting style from watching movies. He preferred to fight an annihilation war and try to destroy the enemy's manpower.

The Jinqu area is a long and narrow basin running from east to west. The Shengwu Army has now blocked the east side of the basin. Quzhou on the west side leads directly to Nanchang in Jiangxi and is still open. If an attack is launched from the east now, the Yuan army in the Jinqu Basin will be unable to resist and will most likely retreat to Jiangxi, which will only increase the difficulty of attacking Jiangxi this fall.

He didn't want to waste a good annihilation war like herding sheep. The best time to attack, of course, was to wait until Chang Yuchun's Fifth Front Army took over the entire Huizhou Road, blocked the west gate of the Jinqu Basin, and then attacked from the east and west to annihilate all the Yuan troops here in the basin.

However, according to the original plan, Chang Yuchun's Fifth Front Army is still in training and receiving equipment, and it will not be able to send troops until May at the earliest. Then it will reach Wuyuan on the Huizhou Road within one or two months, and it will probably be in June or July before it can launch an attack on the Jinqu Basin.

After calculating the approximate time, Lu Jin did not tell him directly, but asked instead.

"Mr. Tao, did you bring any followers with you this time? Or are you alone?"

Tao Qixian said quickly, "There are two more followers."

"Tao Guangyi should know them, right?"

"I know them. They are all trusted servants of the Tao family." Tao Qixian had already guessed what Lu Jin was going to say. The way he asked this was obviously to detain him.

As expected, Lu Jin said, "I haven't decided on the time to attack Wuzhou Road yet, but we will definitely send troops this year. It's just that I don't know which month it will be yet. In order to facilitate communication, how about Tao and I send secret envoys to each other?"

Tao Qixian was not panicked, but asked carefully, "Then how should this secret envoy be sent?"

Lu Jin immediately said, "Mr. Tao can stay with Governor Yang in Hangzhou as Tao's secret envoy. I will send another person to accompany you two and send them back to stay with Tao Guangyi.

"Isn't he the hereditary commander of Wuzhou? He must have some trusted generals under him, like the thousand-man commanders. I'll pick a few trustworthy ones and let him use his power to place them in various cities along Wuzhou Road. I'll make sure that no matter which city my army attacks in the future, there will be someone in the city who will open the gates and surrender.

"I will tell Yang Jing when the troops will be dispatched, and then let Yang Jing tell you. You can contact Tao Guangyi again, and I will send an envoy to him. If he has any urgent matters to contact me, this envoy can also deliver the message on his behalf. Mr. Tao can also write a personal letter to your nephew to explain the situation here. How about that? Tell him not to worry. Anyway, it will not be later than this year. I will definitely dispatch troops to Wuzhou."

Tao Qixian frowned and thought about it, then nodded and agreed.

It is now clear that Lu Jin does not trust Tao very much. He does not agree on a time directly because he is afraid that Tao will prepare for resistance or ambush in advance. He also proposes to send secret envoys to each other, just to place an open spy next to Tao Guangyi to monitor his every move and collect intelligence about Wuzhou Road. In this way, even if Tao is pretending to surrender and refuses to cooperate at that time, the Shengwu Army can easily take Wuzhou with the information of this spy.

Tao Qixian, although called a secret envoy, was actually just a hostage used to ensure the safety of the spy sent by Lu Jin.

Thinking of this, Tao Qixian felt that Lu Jin was really difficult to deal with. He was meticulous, not arrogant or impatient. Even when accepting the surrender of others, he did it very carefully and without any mistakes. However, Tao had no intention of pretending to surrender, so he could only cooperate with Lu Jin's request.

In addition, before he came, Tao Guangyi also told him that the most likely time for the Shengwu Army to send troops is September or October after the autumn harvest. Lu Jin also promised that the troops will be sent this year. Now it is mid-March, and it will take at most half a year. The Tao family can still afford to wait. Otherwise, it may take too long. If the Tao family's collusion with the enemy is exposed, it may be dangerous.
Tao Qixian could only say, "Tao will do our best to cooperate with the Marshal. Also, we must make the secret envoy be careful. Otherwise, if other officials in Wuzhou Road find out that Tao has a connection with the Marshal, then our Tao will be doomed."

Lu Jin immediately smiled and agreed, "Don't worry, Mr. Tao. This kind of thing is easy for my Marshal's Mansion to handle. How could it be difficult for the Tao family?"

"If you have no other instructions, I will go to Hangzhou first?"

"Sir, you can stay in Jiankang for one more day and bring those two trusted followers with you. I will ask someone to select a secret envoy and let you meet him. This will also save you from any mistakes when you go to Wuzhou." Lu Jin suggested again.

Tao Qixian heaved a sigh of relief when he heard this. "That's great. The Marshal is thoughtful."

So Tao Qixian was taken away, and Lu Jin also asked someone to call Bao Yu, told him about Tao's situation, and asked him to choose someone to send to Wuzhou as a secret envoy. The follow-up of this matter was fully handed over to the Intelligence Bureau.

After Bao Yu left, Fan Qiuchan asked curiously, "The Marshal told that man the secret of guns and cannons so easily. Aren't you afraid that he can make the same one?" Lu Jin said disdainfully, "Do you think that the current guns and cannons are the limit? If he can make the same one, I can make a better one immediately. Besides, it is too naive to think that you can make a usable object just by knowing some principles.

"I can also tell him that magnetism generates electricity. Can he build a generator and a telegraph with just these three words?"

Fan Qiuchan rolled her eyes at him and said coquettishly, "It's good that you know what's going on. I'm just worried that you might lose your guard after hearing the compliments. If someone tricks you into believing something, wouldn't that be bad?"

Lu Jin stared at her, "Do you think I look like a fool?"

Fan Qiuchan immediately laughed and said, "Oh, that's hard to say."

"You want to be beaten!" Lu Jin immediately stood up and was about to catch her. Fan Qiuchan also ran to the secret room in the villa with a giggle.

On the other hand, after Tao Qixian met with the secret envoy chosen by Bao Yu, he was sent back. Of course, he would not go back directly, but he had to go to Hangzhou first, which was closer to Jinhua and more convenient for conveying messages.

However, on his way back, he made a new discovery. Lu Jin's new policies were one after another, constantly changing the situation in eastern Zhejiang.

March was also the time set by the Marshal's Office to officially issue new banknotes. When Tao Qixian came before, many new banknotes were still on the way to transportation. This time, when he returned, all the prefectures and counties in eastern Zhejiang had already rolled out the new banknotes.

In all the counties and prefectures that Tao Qixian passed through on his way back, a large number of people were queuing up to exchange a new banknote called Salt and Iron Certificates, which officially replaced the Yuan court's treasure notes.

When passing by Changzhou, he also heard the officials announcing specific policies. All the prefectures and counties under the jurisdiction of the general's office must exchange the original Yuanting treasure notes within two months. Otherwise, they will be invalid. Copper coins and gold and silver can still be traded normally, but they must abide by the new exchange rate.

And if you want to exchange new banknotes, each household is limited to once. The government is short of staff and does not have time for you to exchange them back and forth for fun. Go home and collect all the old Yuan court banknotes, and then take the new government household registration book to various supply and marketing cooperatives to exchange new banknotes. Hidden households that have not yet registered their household registration will not be allowed to exchange, and the treasure notes will become invalid after expiration.

In addition, the price of exchanging new banknotes for old banknotes varies from place to place, roughly ranging from 1 to 70 to 1 to 150. The specific exchange price in each place is mainly determined by the local exchange rate between treasure notes and copper coins.

The Yuan court's treasure notes could not be exchanged for copper coins on a one-to-one basis. They were originally inflated. For example, even if there was no inflation caused by the court's money printing, the normal exchange rate of treasure notes for copper coins was about 1:20 or 1:30. However, after the financial collapse, the exchange rate has become even more exaggerated, becoming more than 1:100, or about 200 to 300.

Then, based on the original water content, the general's office and the people will share the loss in half. For example, the original ratio was 40:40, and now it is :. The water content exceeding is cents. The government and the people will each bear half of the loss, at a ratio of :. The people will admit a loss of cents, and the government will also lose cents.

The exchange price is divided by prefecture and county. The treasure notes of various places can only be exchanged in the county where the household registration is located. If you are from Suzhou, you will not be allowed to exchange them in Changzhou, so as to prevent someone from taking advantage of the price difference between regions to make a profit.

Of course, this situation cannot be completely avoided, but the restriction that each household can only exchange once and can only exchange at the place of household registration can greatly avoid this situation. There is also an extreme situation, that is, large amounts cannot be exchanged.

For example, if you take hundreds of thousands of strings of old banknotes to exchange for new ones at once, I'm sorry, we will arrest you first and ask you where the money came from. Even if it comes from a legitimate source, we will not exchange it for you. We will directly confiscate the old banknotes and transport them to Jiankang for destruction.

Some people say that this is too overbearing. Well, you have to first understand why the government and the people each lose half of the money to exchange the old banknotes in the hands of the people.
Of course, this is to provide a safety net for the poor and prevent their already limited assets from being wiped out, so as to prevent a large number of middle-class and poor people from going bankrupt and becoming refugees. This is the price that the government should bear for governing society and it is the government's responsibility.

But it’s different for the rich. Regardless of where you got those hundreds of thousands of strings of paper money, the reason you suffered losses was caused by the Yuan court. Why should the new government bear the losses for you?

The government only guarantees that you will not go bankrupt, but it cannot guarantee that your assets will continue to maintain their value. Even the Yuan court cannot guarantee it, so why should Lu Jin guarantee it? Therefore, the rich can only bear the loss themselves.

The specific large-scale exchange limit was that each household was allowed to exchange 1,000 yuan of new banknotes. The value of the new banknotes was one-to-one with copper coins and silver dollars. 1,000 yuan of salt and iron coupons was equivalent to 1,000 taels of silver. In ancient times, a middle-class family, leaving aside fixed assets such as houses and land, could hardly come up with 1,000 taels of cash.

One thousand taels of silver at the end of the Yuan Dynasty had a purchasing power roughly equivalent to more than one million RMB at the time when Lu Jin traveled through time. Not to mention ancient times, even in the modern times when he came, excluding fixed assets such as cars and houses, how many people could come up with one or two million in cash.

Therefore, the formulation of this large-scale redemption limit is very reasonable. You are so rich, so you should bear the losses yourself. The government can help you to prevent you from going bankrupt, but the government certainly cannot bear all your losses for you and let you continue to be rich. Then the government will collect taxes from the poor to fill the deficit. This is definitely impossible.

As a result, many wealthy families began to curse Lu Jin's new government. The previous tiered tax that forced them to divide their property had already cost them half their lives. This time, the exchange of new banknotes was directly aimed at the remaining half of their lives.

When the tiered tax was implemented before, some wealthy households were stubborn and refused to split up. Now, because the restrictions on the exchange of new banknotes are set per household, each household is limited to exchanging a maximum of 1,000 yuan in new banknotes. In order to protect their property, those who are extremely wealthy have no choice but to choose to split up their households.

For example, if the family assets can be exchanged for 10,000 yuan in new banknotes, they can be divided into ten households. This way, the family assets will not depreciate.

But this would bring up a new problem. Who among the side branches that received money and set up their own households would be willing to hand over the new banknotes they exchanged to the main clan? Once the family was divided, it was really divided. Therefore, some wealthy families would rather lose a large amount of property than let the side branches share their wealth.

Now, the conflict has directly shifted to the inner part of the big clan. Countless side branches are waiting to share the main clan's property. You would rather let the money rot in your hands than give it to us. How can this be acceptable? !

(End of this chapter)