A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 265 Urgent emergency

Tai Chi Palace.

There were piles of coins in front of Li Yuan, Pei Ji, Xiao Yu, and Chen Shuda.

The emperor and his ministers were not gambling, but watching the chaos of privately minted bad coins.

"I never thought that privately minting money would be so evil."

"Private coinage is rampant and there are too many counterfeit coins. We need to take action," said Chen Shuda.

Li Yuan took a coin privately minted by Yishou Palace. The quality of this coin was a rare good coin among many privately minted coins.

Pei Ji sighed, "How can we control this? Right now, the people are already facing a severe money shortage. They have to use both grain and silk. There's a serious lack of currency transactions in the market, so private minting is rampant and counterfeit coins are rampant."

In fact, the minting of new Tang coins had been mentioned by ministers long ago. It was also a natural thing to do when a new dynasty was born. However, it had not been implemented for many reasons. First, the court was short of copper materials, and the mints left by the previous dynasty had lost a lot of mint craftsmen.

If we want to restart the coin casting furnace, we lack both copper materials and craftsmen, which means that not many new coins can be cast, and the casting cost is high.

An official calculated that if the furnace was reopened to mint coins under the current conditions, it would not be possible to mint white or bad coins like Yang Guang did, but to mint good coins, otherwise it would be possible to lose money.

Minting loses money,

How could the imperial court do this kind of business? It is useful everywhere, so how could it lose money here?

Xiao Yu retorted, “There are thirty-six coin-casting furnaces in Yishou Palace. If they have sufficient materials, they can cast more than three hundred strings of coins a day, and ten thousand strings of coins a month.

According to Li Yi's report, although the copper content of the five-zhu coins he cast was good and the fire consumption was as high as 19 percent, the copper content of the coins produced was 85 percent. The cost of casting every thousand coins was only 850 coins.

For every coin minted, there is a profit of 150 coins."

Xiao Yu asked Pei Ji, "Since private mints can make a 15% profit, does that mean the imperial court will lose money when minting coins?"

"Can you believe everything Li Yi says? He said that the small workshop could mint 10,000 strings of coins a month. I said that was completely nonsense. In the previous dynasty, most of the local mints were located near the big copper fields, which were convenient for water and land transportation, reducing transportation costs. A mint could only mint 3,300 strings of coins a year.
This bandit's private minting workshop can produce three coins in a month, the amount that the prison produces in a year?
The profit from coinage in the previous dynasty was always meager. How could a group of bandits make such a huge profit from privately minting coins?"

Chen Shuda said with a smile: "There is no need for you two gentlemen to argue. Since Li Yi said that he could mint so many coins and that there would be such great profits, and he also submitted a petition for minting new coins, I think it would be better to let him do it.
Anyway, there are ready-made workshops and craftsmen, and thirty-six coin casting furnaces, which are of considerable scale. If we can really cast 10,000 strings of coins per month, and make a profit of 15%, we can still make a profit of 1,500 strings of coins, which is not a small amount.

More importantly, it can also curb the proliferation of bad money."

Li Yuan held the Kaihuang Wuzhu coin in his hand and nodded. "Duke Jiang is right. Let's give Li Yi a try. Although he's young, he's both civil and military. He's performed exceptionally well on several missions. Perhaps he can surprise me again this time."

Pei Ji saw the emperor's attitude and said with a smile, "If Li Yi can really do it, it will really solve a big problem for the court."

"The imperial edict ordered Li Yi, the Crown Prince's Left Guard, to be the coin minter and to establish the Yishou Mint Office next to the Yishou Palace."

The Internal History ordered Xiao Yu to personally draft the edict.

As soon as the imperial edict was written, an urgent report was delivered from the border.

"Your Majesty, urgent news from the border!"

"Fengzhou Governor Zhang Changxun hastened to report from eight hundred miles away that the Turkic Shibi Khan has suddenly led his troops across the Yellow River and reached Xiazhou. The Liang army from Shuofang has already joined them.

Duan Decao, the governor of Yanzhou, reported urgently from eight hundred miles away that Shibi Khan had sent his cavalry, Fulilang, with a large wolf-head banner, to Liu Wuzhou in Mayi to assist him in his southward invasion of the border.

Shibi Khan also sent golden arrows to the various tribes on the grasslands, summoning them to Mayi to join Liu Wuzhou and march south.

A series of extremely urgent border military intelligence reports,

Li Yuan was shocked for a moment.
The Kaihuang Wuzhu coin in his hand fell to the ground with a clang.

Previously, Li Shimin had repeatedly said that the Turks were preparing for a large-scale invasion, but Li Yuan thought he was exaggerating. Pei Ji also thought that the Turks were just a little greedy, so they carried out some small attacks on the border to intimidate the Tang Dynasty and demand money.

But now, Li Yuan is not afraid of Liu Wuzhou, he is worried about the Turks.

"Pei Jian, what do you think about this matter? Does Shibi Khan really want to go to war with the Tang Dynasty?"

Pei Ji thought for a moment and said, "That's not the case. I think he's just showing off his military might to intimidate the Tang Dynasty and demand gold and silk."

"Perhaps the Turks, seeing the civil unrest in Hexi and the imminent recapture of Hexi by the Tang Dynasty, are becoming increasingly anxious. I believe we should immediately send an envoy with gold and silk to the Turks to meet with Shibi Khan and appease them."

Li Yuan also didn't want to fall out with the Turks.

He and his old friend Pei Ji had already decided on a strategy to stabilize the country first and then resist the foreign invasion. Therefore, he had been holding back even though the Turks were getting more and more aggressive.

A small leak will sink a great ship.

"Okay, then we'll send General Gao Shijing, the Right Marquis of Wu, to go again. How much gold and silk should we send this time?" Li Yuan asked with a serious face.

It’s really hard to be in a good mood when being blackmailed again and again.

"Anything less will definitely not do. This time, Shibi Khan has led his troops directly to Xiazhou, so we must appease them. I suggest sending them 3,000 taels of gold and 100,000 pieces of colorful silk. We should be patient for now. The imperial court will first recapture Hexi, then seize Luoyang. After restoring the Central Plains, we can then compete with the Turks."

"If Shibi Khan is still not satisfied, Gao Shijing can ask Shibi Khan to give him the two states of Feng and Sheng in Hetao in exchange for ten thousand war horses. Let's talk about it first and buy time."

Xiao Yu angrily rebuked Pei Ji for his weakness, "Just because of a threat from Shi Bi, the court is going to send 3,000 taels of gold and 100,000 pieces of colorful silk? As the Right Prime Minister, isn't it clear that the treasury is empty now?

How many meritorious soldiers have not received the rewards they deserve? How many refugees are there in Guanzhong, and how many people are starving?

Moreover, how can we easily cede the two states of Fengsheng?"

Pei Ji retorted, "Prime Minister Xiao is the Minister of Internal Affairs, a high-ranking official. Shouldn't he focus on the overall situation? Even in a war, he wouldn't be obsessed with the gains and losses of a city or a pond. If Shibi Khan launches a full-scale invasion, with the Turks holding 400,000 troops, what will they use to resist?"
How many soldiers would have died, how much money and food would have been consumed? How could a mere three thousand taels of gold and one hundred thousand pieces of miscellaneous colors be enough?

We are only temporarily enduring humiliation and bearing heavy burdens. We must first recover the Central Plains and unify the world, and then settle accounts with the Turks later. We should not make enemies on all sides now and fight the Turks to the death. That will only benefit Wang Shichong of Luoyang, Dou Jiande of Hebei, and even Liu Wuzhou of Mayi, Liang Shidu of Shuofang, Xiao Xian of Jiangling, and so on, and will ruin the current good situation in vain! "

Several prime ministers were arguing there.

Pei Ji advocated that before resisting foreign aggression, one must first stabilize the country. Temporarily showing weakness to the Turks and even giving them gifts of money and silk were just temporary expedients.

However, Xiao Yu believed that the Turks had wolfish ambitions that could never be satisfied. The more he showed weakness, the more he would think he was weak and easy to bully, and he would only become more aggressive. It would be better to use the gold and silk to recruit soldiers and provide them with money, food, and weapons.

Chen Shuda also tends to not be too weak,

And the imperial court really couldn't come up with that much money.

Li Yuan picked up another goose-eye-shaped, light, small, and very rough coin.

"Send Gao Shijing with 30,000 pieces of miscellaneous colored silk as an envoy to Shibi Khan. Have a good talk with him and try to appease Shibi Khan. This is a critical moment in Hexi, and we cannot ruin this promising situation."

Li Yuan reduced the gifts a lot, reducing the 3,000 taels of gold and the 100,000 pieces of colorful ornaments to 30,000 pieces.

"Your Majesty, the treasury is empty," Xiao Yu said.

Li Yuan had a headache. "These 30,000 pieces of miscellaneous colors came from my inner treasury."

Each piece of colorful silk cost four pieces of silk, three pieces of gauze, two pieces of gauze, and one piece of brocade, which was much more expensive than ten pieces of silk. Xiao Yu felt distressed. Using these 30,000 pieces of colorful silk to recruit soldiers and purchase food and fodder was no better than giving them away for free to the Turks.

At this time,

The memorial from Yuwen Xin, the Chief Clerk of Bingzhou and General of the Right Guard, arrived again.
Yuwen Xin said that Prince Yuanji of Qi was becoming more and more excessive. Not only did he allow the people around him to go out on the streets to rob the people's property, he also shot people in the streets and liked to watch them dodge in panic. "This rebellious son!" Li Yuan, who was in a very bad mood, finally couldn't help but slam the table.

"Xiao Yu drafted an edict to dismiss Prince Yuanji of Qi from his position as Governor of Bingzhou, and to have Chief Clerk Yuwen Xin temporarily assume the position."

Li Yuan's beard was shaking with anger, and it took him a while to calm down.

"Tell the Crown Prince to ignore the bandits in Sizhuyuan and Nanshan. Leave them to Li Yi to deal with. Have the Crown Prince immediately go to Yuanzhou, strengthen the defense of Xiaoguan, and assist An Xinggui and his brother in seizing the nine prefectures in Hexi."

"Send another order to the King of Qin. Hand over the Changning Palace to the Chief of Construction to be repaired. Have him immediately go to Changchun Palace. Now we have to guard against Liu Wuzhou in Mayi and Wang Shichong in Luoyang at all times.

Even the Jihu have to be on guard against them causing trouble again."

When the emperor's envoy arrived at the Yishou Palace in Heishui Valley, the prince was still busy suppressing bandits everywhere, with brilliant results. He had to suppress dozens of villages, big and small, every day.

In fact, there are not so many bandits. Most of them are refugees who reclaim wasteland and farm in the mountains. Of course, it is not ruled out that some people occasionally do part-time business with no capital. After all, as long as you are brave, you can make money quickly.

But now Li Jiancheng doesn't care whether you are a refugee who came to the mountains to reclaim wasteland, a hunter, or a half-real and half-fake bandit. As long as you are in the mountains and not on the household registration,
All wiped out.

The prince's military achievements were updated every day, with dozens or hundreds of beheadings and thousands of prisoners added every day.

Li Yi tried to persuade him several times, but Jiancheng ignored him and repeatedly stressed that in troubled times, severe punishments should be used, that authority must be established first and then kindness shown, and that suppression must be carried out first and then appeasement.

The local tyrants in several counties adjacent to Mount Zhongnan have also been suffering recently.

They have to face Li Yi every day, which is no easier than facing the prince. Li Yi is unmoved and it doesn't matter if you give him gold, land, beauties or BMWs. Not only that, Li Yi will also register everything you give him, and then write a receipt and a plaque for you on behalf of the court, so that you can vomit half a liter of blood in anger again.

There was chaos and the Nanshan Mountains were boiling.

When the angel read out the emperor's decree, Jiancheng sighed.

"Wuyi, I leave this to you. I didn't expect the saint to leave you here to mint coins."

Li Jiancheng wanted to take Li Yi to Yuanzhou, but now they can only part with regret.

All the generals that Li Yi had seconded were to return. Li Jing returned to Youwuhoufu and Yifu to command the troops of Banshangfu. Luo Shixin was to go to Hedong to take up the post of governor of Jiangzhou.

Qin Qiong, Cheng Yaojin, Wu Heita, and Niu Jinda all returned to the Qin Palace, while Tian Liuan and Liu Demin were going to Shandong to serve under Li Shentong.
Chang He and Li Junxian continued to follow Jiancheng on the Western Expedition.

The soldiers loaned out from the Prince of Qin's Palace also returned, but the one thousand soldiers given to him by the emperor stayed to help him deal with the aftermath. Qiu Shenyan, Li Dezhan, Zhao Yongan and other old subordinates were willing to continue to follow Li Yi.

Li Yi told the prince about it, and Jiancheng agreed generously.

"Mr. Li, Your Majesty has decreed that you be appointed Coin Minter. By the end of March, you must deliver 20,000 strings of new coins to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, along with 3,000 strings of profit."

Today is the 13th day of the second lunar month, which is only one and a half months away from the end of March. We need to carve new master coins and make new molds. Time is short and the task is urgent.

He felt that he shouldn't have submitted the petition requesting the minting of new coins. Wasn't that just shooting himself in the foot?

(End of this chapter)