Chapter 450: Relic Project Launched

It is now August of the seventh year of the Zhengde reign, and there are still more than two months until the tenth day of the tenth month when Si Yaoku submits the memorial.

The official guidance price of Ming Baochao in the fifth year of Zhengde was one string of Baochao equivalent to two cents.

When the Ming treasure notes can be used again to pay commercial taxes on the canal, there is a high probability that the price will start at one string of treasure notes for one penny.

Anyone who buys below this price has a chance to profit.

Even due to Pei Yuan's intervention, a large number of low-price buyers, the first batch of speculators who got the news and entered the market, obviously felt that it was easy to push up the price.

Perhaps by then, the Ming treasure notes will approach the guidance price of the fifth year of Zhengde at a speed they could not imagine.

Considering that the Ming Baochao has been depreciating since its appearance, the "one string of Baochao equivalent to two cents" in the fifth year of Zhengde may become an important boundary.

Speculators who entered the market early would most likely sell off the Ming treasure notes when the price reached this level and ship them to merchants who needed the treasure notes in order to offset taxes at a low price.

Pei Yuan now needs to continue raising money, try to withstand that wave of impact, and take on enough Ming Dynasty banknotes that are thrown at high prices.

Once those speculators find that they cannot lower the price, the merchants' keen sense of smell will make them test the upward space, and the price of Ming Baochao will hesitate and stand at the "guide price of the fifth year of Zhengde".

This will be the first time that the exchange rate between Ming Baochao and copper coins has been inverted since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

By then, it’s time to tell the story.

Pei Yuan had to buy a large amount while the price was still low. This would not only allow him to accumulate more Ming treasure notes, but also reduce the selling pressure when the price of the treasure notes rose by two cents.

Pei Yuan discussed the issue of manpower and silver with Chen Xinjian again, and finally decided to use 70,000 taels of silver from Wang Chang, and then start purchasing Ming treasure notes around the seven major customs offices related to the memorials from Siyueku.

When Pei Yuan returned to his residence, he learned that the people in the backyard had not eaten yet, so he went to the backyard to eat together.

Looking at the beautiful Jiao Xiaomei, Pei Yuan felt melancholy again.

He had also spent a lot of time on Jiao Yan'er and Song Chunniang these days. In order to get these two pregnant, Pei Yuan restrained his playfulness and managed to get every bit of food back.

But after watering for such a long time, there was still no movement from either of them.

I don’t know if it’s because of the wrong day, bad posture, or some metaphysical reason.

Early the next morning, Pei Yuan was sitting in the front hall, wondering whether he should try spending some time on the two singers, Qingge and Wanyue.

Suddenly, the doorman came to report that the Left Censor-in-Chief Li Shishi had come back from court.

Pei Yuan looked at the time and, somewhat puzzled, personally welcomed his elder brother in.

After the greetings were over, he asked, "Why did the Grand Secretary come back so early today?"

Li Shishi's expression was calm, "Your Majesty did not attend court today. I heard that he went to inspect the troops in the Beijing camp."

From Li Shishi's point of view, it was a good thing that Zhu Houzhao liked to mess around, but it was a bit disturbing that he was too concerned about the army.

Pei Yuan could guess what Li Shi was thinking, so he comforted him, "The emperor is like this, I'm afraid the court officials will have some complaints."

Zhu Houzhao wanted to establish the Ming Dynasty with the first army, which would definitely alienate him from the outer court.

This is another good thing for King Ning.

Li Shishi nodded and said, "Indeed. I heard that Yang Tinghe, Yang Yiqing and He Jian all wrote letters to advise the emperor. But this matter has been going on for a long time, and the emperor does not care about the opinions of the outside court."

Having said this, Li Shishi's expression finally softened a little.

"I heard that there is a man named He Huan beside the emperor. He gave the emperor an idea to draw elite troops from various camps of the Beijing army, disperse them, and then mix them with the border troops to train again."

"So the emperor ordered He Huan, Wang Liangzuo, Zhou Lun, and Hou Lun, the director of the Ministry of War, to select the officers and soldiers of each camp for training."

Li Shishi's words were filled with a hint of gloating, "I heard that the result was not very good."

Pei Yuan was a little concerned when he heard the news about Brother He. "What do you mean?"

Li Shishi said with a slight smile, "The records show that there are 384,745 soldiers in charge of food supply, but 162,850 of them were transferred to various government offices to serve as laborers. In addition, there are 14,746 soldiers who are on duty at the mausoleum all year round and who manage the herdsmen."

"After deducting the thousands of men His Majesty has interned in the Western Palace Hall, and the others who have been removed and reduced, there are only 134,983 men left in the regiment."

Although Pei Yuan was speechless when he heard this, he could barely accept it.

Although only 130,000 of the 380,000 soldiers were left, this is the Ming Dynasty, so it is understandable.

Unexpectedly, Li Shishi hadn't finished speaking yet, "This time, His Majesty wanted soldiers who could fight, so he asked the four of them to remove the old and weak and conduct a strict selection. As a result, the four of them selected a total of 23,323 people."

Even though Pei Yuan repeated "This is the Ming Dynasty" several times, he still felt a little overwhelmed.

These are the Beijing troops with the most adequate food and pay!

380,000 people, only 20,000 people were left after removing the old and weak. For such an army, let alone the level of training, the morale of the army can be imagined.

If Pei Yuan remembered correctly, border troubles had been going on since the eighth year of Zhengde.

If we were to continue in this state and face the Daruts heading south, not only would we not be able to win a great victory in Yingzhou, but we might even accidentally create another Tumu Fort.

Pei Yuan's already depressed mood became even worse.

He was in no mood to gloat with Li Shishi, so he asked him, "What is the purpose of the Grand Commandant's visit this time?"

Li Shishi thought about his business and was not so happy anymore.

So he said to Pei Yuan, "According to what you said, I have already gained all the merits of the imperial examination, and also won the gratitude of scholars by deducting half a year's salary. Now, I have taken advantage of this imperial examination to eliminate redundant officials and have become quite close to Yang Yiqing. It can be said that this has completely exceeded my previous expectations."

Li Shishi can be said to have gained all the benefits this time.

He picked the peaches of "Enke" himself, and gained the favor of Yang Yiqing by breaking up with Yang Tinghe.

You must know that Yang Yiqing’s biggest political foundation is opposing Liu Jin.

He joined forces with Zhang Yong to defeat Liu Jin personally, and also overturned the verdicts on Jiangxi officials who were persecuted by Liu Jin.

Therefore, among Yang Yiqing's supporters, a large proportion are from Jiangxi.

I am from Jiangxi!

King Ning’s lair is in Jiangxi.

Moreover, Li Shishi himself was from Jiangxi, so it was easy for him to reach a consensus with Yang Yiqing, an old friend of the Jiangxi people.

Unfortunately, things cannot escape the basic laws. After Li Shishi had his fun, he started to feel pain in his balls.

What he thought was a sure thing to pass the three levels has become a problem again. Li Shishi failed to get into the Ministry of Rites, so now he has to get back in touch with the doctor of rituals in the Ministry of Rites.

After listening to Li Shishi's sighs, Pei Yuan first absolved himself of responsibility, "They have long been plotting the matter of the Minister of Rites. Even if Dadu Xian lets them manipulate him, I'm afraid he won't be able to sit in that position."

"Besides, there are quite a few people in the court who are optimistic about Prince Ning. We should give him a chance to take credit. Instead of worrying about everything and standing in the way, it is better for the Grand Secretary to take a step back and let the world be broader."

Li Shishi thought it made some sense.

He then lamented, "What a pity. We spent so much money paving the way, but now we don't know which one is cheaper."

When Pei Yuan heard the word "money", he suddenly remembered his original intention.

For a fool like Prince Ning, who is destined to be together, it is better for him to do it himself than to let others cheat him.

Why cause trouble to society?
So Pei Yuan said immediately, "There is no rush for this matter. If the governor of Dadu really wants this credit, I have some channels here that can bypass those procedures and help King Ning get what he wants. But I may have to use some money to smooth the relationship..."

Seeing Li Shishi opening his mouth to say something, Pei Yuanxian said seriously, "Let me make it clear first, this money is not mine. I am using Prince Ning's money to do Prince Ning's business."

Li Shishi had experience in this operation and said knowingly, "I understand."

After Li Shishi left, Pei Yuan called Chen Xinjian over again and said to him, "The Enke has been decided, and I don't know how Shandong is preparing. Is there any news from Wang Chang and Huo Tao recently?"

Chen Xinjian replied, "There has been no news from those two people, but my brother has sent me a letter again, wanting Qian Hu to go back to Shandong to take a look."

Pei Yuan was surprised when he heard this, "Isn't everything going well for him?"

The development of Shandong Luojiao was indeed quite smooth, and it could even be said that it far exceeded Pei Yuan's expectations.

After the official document of reprimand drafted by Cabinet Grand Secretary Fei Hongpiao was issued, Chen Toutie immediately dismissed the first generation of Mu Luo followers who had been secretly trained in Tai'an Prefecture and sent them back to their hometowns.

These Luo followers relived the foundation of their religion, Journey to the West, through the storyteller's explanations. They listened to the story every day and forgot to eat and sleep, becoming extremely obsessed with it.

Later, storytellers cleverly incorporated Luo Zu into the story by creating derivative fan fictions.

In between, he also explained the scriptures that were crowdfunded to the Luo believers.

Because of the proper learning method, many believers have memorized the things taught by Luo Jiao by heart, and they also study and discuss in private some of the content they don’t understand with each other.

For example, which one is more powerful, the 72 Earthly Transformations of the ancestor Sun Wukong or the 36 Heavenly Transformations of the second ancestor Zhu Bajie?

For example, the ancestor stopped the seven fairies from stealing peaches. Was it because the way of the fairies was ruthless, or was it because they had gained the Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils and had been dispelled from their enchantment, and had begun to transform into sophisticated selfishness?

Zhu Bajie is not like that!

It was at this time that Chen Toutie told them about the mysterious "Relic Project".

As long as these people return to their hometown and attract seven people to join the religion, they can get a combination of seven relics from the seventeen relics.

If the seven relics are exactly the same as the relics shaken out in the current period, it means that the person has a great affinity with Zhenkong’s hometown, and the religion will give rewards.

So after these Luo believers returned to their hometown, they immediately began to preach in the local area intensively.

There were quite a few members of this first generation of Mu Luo followers, with as few as a dozen in a county and as many as over twenty.

With so many people gossiping, the secret of the relic could no longer be kept.

After experiencing the expansion of the second generation, these second generations quickly developed their own downlines, producing the third and fourth generations!

Throughout Shandong, the number of Luo Christians is growing almost exponentially.

However, local officials were at a loss in the face of this situation.

At the beginning, the imperial court issued strict orders to Shandong again and again, calling for a severe crackdown on Luojiao.

Those officials didn't take it seriously at the time. Where on earth is this Luo Sect? There is no Luo Sect at all. Are you fighting among yourselves again?
When the imperial court became impatient, the prefectures and counties began to reluctantly arrest some people and send them over.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a Luo believer or not, at least you have to let the higher-ups see your attitude.

As a result, just when many local officials were making fun of Luo Jiao's affairs, Luo Jiao arrived!

First, one day, the reprimand from Cabinet Grand Secretary Fei Hong for their indiscriminate arrest of innocent people appeared in the court's official documents like thunder from the sky, with anger.

Just when those local officials were feeling extremely terrified and were considering how to explain to the court.

Then, those who were sent to the Western Factory and the Governor's Office and were forced to confess under torture came back in high spirits.

Before the local officials could ask these people about the situation, what happened next left them dumbfounded.

These guys who were arrested and charged with crimes actually started to preach!

You know, in this world, no one knows the innocence of these people better than them.

How could they be Luo Christians?
Then think deeper.

So, how did they become Luo Christians?

Before they could recover from their confusion, even the yamen runners were excitedly discussing the "choose seven out of seventeen" issue.

Think about the suffocating combination of the Cabinet, the Western Factory, and the Governor's Office. The officials didn't even know who to report to about what happened in the prefectures and counties.

When he asked his confidant to secretly bring the evil teachings of the Luo Cult, he saw familiar words in some chapters, and then found his own name among the editors on the last page.

The state and county officials turned pale and were at a loss.

Layers of information barriers, carefully and ingenious layout, simple doctrines that are deeply rooted in people's hearts, and an unstoppable expansion plan.

Luo Jiao has arrived!

Seeing Pei Yuan asking this, Chen Xinjian whispered, "It's mainly about the land tax. He wants to ask, now that the Luo Cult has expanded rapidly and controls a large population, whether to get rid of Gu Dayong and Qiu Ju. As long as these two people die, the Luo Cult will be completely free from the chain and can achieve great things."

Pei Yuan's face darkened, "Nonsense!"

Then he said to Chen Xinjian, "Don't say that the Luo Cult is just a loose organization now, and it still needs Gu Dayong and Qiu Ju to help it grow. Even if the Luo Cult really strengthens its control, there are still so many of my personal soldiers in it, how can I eliminate them all one by one?"

Pei Yuan said to Chen Xinjian with a serious face, "Tell Tian Fu not to think about dealing with his own people, and strengthen the cohesion and control of Luojiao."

Seeing Pei Yuan's attitude, Chen Xinjian quickly added, "My brother thinks so too."

Thinking about Pei Yuan's previous question, Chen Xinjian took the initiative to ask, "The captain wants to ask about the Shandong candidate, right? Should I write to Wang Chang or Huo Tao to ask?"

Pei Yuan responded, while thinking quickly in his mind, the special examination is about to be held, how should this captain win the hearts of those candidates?

(End of this chapter)

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