There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 117: It’s Time to Coin

"Long live the Han army!"

"That damned King of Killing was finally driven away."

When the militia defending Anren County saw that the army that had killed Wang Jin was driven away by the Han soldiers, they all raised their hands and cheered loudly.

Wu Jun led the Han soldiers in pursuit for a while, and then stopped. When they returned to Anren County, the county officials and gentry had already come out to welcome them.

They resisted Sha Jin Wang because Sha Jin Wang not only killed all the landlords and officials, but also killed civilians indiscriminately, burned, killed and looted their property. However, the Han soldiers were different. Although they were also rebels, the Han soldiers had a good reputation and had become the "heavenly soldiers" among merchants and travelers.

Their military discipline is better than that of the officers and soldiers. They do not kill landlords indiscriminately or rob the people. They just take away the land in the hands of the landlords. In front of the deadly Sha Jin Wang, they are simply a benevolent and righteous royal army!

The officials and gentry of Anren County not only respectfully welcomed the Han soldiers into the city, but also prayed to the Han general not to leave. Without the deterrent effect of the Han soldiers, they were afraid that the escaped Shajin King would make a comeback.

My goodness, a group of officials and gentry actually took the initiative to beg the Han soldiers to stay because they were afraid that other rebels would come and indiscriminately attack people.

This is the case in Anren County, and the towns and villages in the counties and towns of Leiyang and Changning in the south are not much different.

Upon hearing that the Han army was heading south, the county magistrates of Leiyang and Changning could not wait to open the city walls and surrender.

There was no way out. Changsha and Hengzhou were gone, and the news spread too quickly, causing chaos all over southeastern Hunan. Rebels ran out everywhere, scaring all the officials.

They were not only afraid that rebels from other places would attack the areas under their jurisdiction, but they were also afraid that the ignorant people under their jurisdiction would get confused and imitate other rebels in rebellion.

Now, the Han army has come, the great judge has come, and when the great judge has come, there will be peace!

What? The Han army is coming and wants to divide the land?
Dividing the land is a benevolent policy. The general loves the people like his own children. Dividing the land among the people gives them a way to make a living. The gentry and officials should fully support this.

Moreover, the general did not force them, but treated them with great respect. As long as they took the initiative to hand over the hidden land, he would be forgiven and could even keep one or two hundred acres of land.

The Han army, who are so respectful to the wise and virtuous and who respect scholars, only want some of their own land. What's the harm even if they divide it all?

"Changning County actually produces silver?" Nie Yu asked.

Zuo Guanlan nodded. "They do produce silver. I checked the tax records of the Hengzhou government office, and they're the same as those of the Yongxing and Jiaoxi silver mines in Liuyang County (Changsha Prefecture). They also record that both Changning and Hengshan counties produce silver, even going back to the previous dynasty."

Nie Yu laughed: "Before I came south from Yuezhou, I always thought that only Guiyang produced silver. I didn't expect that Changsha and Hengzhou also had silver. Hunan really is full of silver!"

It may be a bit of an exaggeration to say that there is silver everywhere, but as the main silver producing area in the south, Hunan can indeed make a name for itself.

Let’s not talk about anything else, just look at the south of Hengzhou Prefecture. Around Changning County, a major silver-producing county, more than 20 towns have naturally gathered together. It can be seen how prosperous the private business here is because of a silver field.

"What about Guiyang?" Nie Yu asked.

It is not surprising that Changning produces silver, because in the earliest times, this place was under the jurisdiction of Guiyang Prison, rich in silver and copper mines, and specialized in smelting copper, cooking silver and minting coins.

It was not until the Ming and Qing Dynasties that Changning was separated from Guiyang because it was too powerful. With so much silver and copper coins concentrated in the hands of Guiyang, it would be disastrous if a rebel emerged.

Zuo Guanlan said, "That Guiyang rebel army surrounded the city of Guiyang. When they saw our Han troops moving south, they wanted to fight us. Now they have been defeated by Li Qianzong and have fled south to Jiahe County."

"The Governor of Guiyang, upon seeing the rebels being routed by our Han army, offered the city in surrender and offered the Guiyang Silver Mine and the methods of silver smelting. We are currently gathering craftsmen and officials to go to the silver mine to learn from them."

Zuo Guanlan's words were simple, but in reality, his military intelligence was detailed and not much different from that of the King of Killing in Anren County. Chen Hong, the "General of Guiyang," felt that he was also a general, and Nie Yu was also a general, so the two sides should be on equal footing.

As a later rebel, Chen Hong respectfully called Nie Yu "brother", which showed that he understood the rules and knew when to advance and retreat.

But the Han army snatched the meat from his mouth and tried to take over Guiyang Prefecture, which he had besieged for many days. The key point was that the Guiyang Prefecture governor sent people to surrender to the Han army, but was unwilling to surrender to him.

This made Chen Hong very angry, and he started a battle with the Han army in a fit of rage!
It must be said that General Chen Hong is at least a real talent. It may also be because the composition of his troops is different from the mob that killed Wang Jin. His troops are all from silver field miners.

The miners' greatest advantage was their strong discipline. After becoming a rebel army, their combat effectiveness was clearly not on the same level as other ragtag rebel armies. At least, the Guiyang rebels understood the banners and could at least follow orders.

But that was all he could do. Chen Hong felt that he had some strength, but the Han army taught him a good lesson.

From weapons and armor to military quality and combat effectiveness and morale, Chen Hong's Guiyang volunteer army was completely crushed.

After reading the detailed military report, Nie Yu said, "There's no need to rush to send the craftsmen abroad. I have a new smelting method that can further refine silver and copper ores. It can also be used to remelt silver and copper from waste slag, and it can also improve the quality of silver and copper coins."

This time, the Han army marched south, conquered Changsha and Hengzhou, and expanded to Guiyang. In fact, they were already experiencing some indigestion.

Now that the Guiyang Silver Mine has been taken, the rebel forces in the southeast have been successfully dealt a heavy blow. In the short term, there should be no major conflicts.

The expansion in the south can be paused for now, and the strategic center can be shifted back to Xiangxi. The domestic economy should also be taken care of.

It has been almost a year since the Han army started its uprising. The problem of salt shortage can be solved by buying salt from the mall. At the same time, they can also establish export trade routes with Hui merchants to earn more silver, open up the economic network of the Han army's territory, and at the same time control the salt-making industry to bring down the Qing Dynasty.

Salt is easy to solve, but money and goods have always been a problem. Before, the demand for money and goods within the Han army was not too great, and they could still levy taxes internally. They also had reserves of silver and copper coins in the official treasuries of major cities such as Jingzhou, Yuezhou, and Lizhou.

Now, with the Guiyang Silver Mine, the Han army could finally mint its own coins without being controlled by the Qing court.

Nie Yu also planned to further engage in a currency war with the Qing Dynasty. It is said that bad money drives out good money, but have you ever heard of what good money driving out bad money means?
Nie Yu is not bragging. Just to the west of the mainland, the British, the troublemakers in Europe, have already done this and succeeded.

Because Britain at that time had long been troubled by the rampant spread of inferior coins in the country, the phenomenon of bad coins driving out good coins and private coinage fraud was quite serious in the market. The British royal family and parliament had no good way to solve it, and even the great Lord Bull was tortured to death.

Well, gravity was just Lord Niu's side job. His main job was the director of the Royal Mint. Until his death, he was still wondering: "Where did the empire's money go?"

The phenomenon of bad money driving out good money lasted for hundreds of years in the UK, and was finally solved inadvertently by a British factory owner a few years ago.

Because Britain already had the steam engine, the factory owner happened to be the owner of a copper mine. He found that the money on the market was of poor quality and had a low copper content, so he thought that if others could mint coins to cheat people, why couldn't he mint coins to pay his workers?

then……

Nothing more happened. In less than a decade, the low-quality counterfeit money that flooded the British market disappeared.

Steam-powered coinage is very convenient. Not only are the coins high in copper content, but the styles are also uniform and exquisite, far superior to manual coinage.

The most important thing is that steam coinage is much more efficient than manual coinage.

A large amount of steam-cast coins flowed into the market at one time, which quickly destroyed all the hand-cast coins, both private and official.

Bad money drives out good money? That doesn't happen. Good money is more exquisite, more plentiful, and produced in greater quantities. It's hard to say whether ordinary people are willing to use it, but business operators will definitely not be willing to accept it.

Because there is no profit, even if you collect it, you will still suffer losses.

Nie Yu had already made plans in his mind. He first took out the drawings of the improved steam engine and gave them to the Yuezhou craftsmen to try to make samples, as well as a copper coin punching machine that was connected to it.

As long as these two are produced and the Guiyang silver mine is established, he will be able to cast his own Han army copper coins in batches.

The silver mine not only produces silver, but also copper mines.

After the silver was smelted, the people could keep it for their own use, and all the copper coins would be put into circulation and handed over to Huizhou merchants to help distribute it into the Qing Dynasty territory.

Steam-powered coinage was produced locally, and with sufficient copper mines to support it, the styles of copper coins became more uniform and exquisite.

This was enough to destroy the copper coins of the Qing Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)