Di Ming

Chapter 465 "Little Black, I hereby appoint you as the Guardian Dog of the Nation."

Nanjing.

Two days ago, Emperor Taichang conferred the title of Prince of Wu upon Grand Tutor Zhu Yin, honoring him as Imperial Uncle and Regent Prince of Wu. The edict was referred to as Regent Prince and Imperial Uncle.

Then, the rites were equivalent to those of a regent, who took charge of the imperial seals and regalia. He used a jade carriage, ceremonial procession, bright yellow robes, and a large jade tablet.

Zhu Yin, holding the titles of Prince of Wu, Imperial Uncle, Grand Tutor, and Grand Commander, wielded power over the court and controlled all military and national affairs. Although he did not have the title of emperor, he possessed the power of one.

After suppressing the rebellion in Sichuan, the Xiaoling Incident, and the Northern Army's change of allegiance, Zhu Yin firmly grasped power and completely controlled the Southern Dynasty.

The following day, the emperor issued another decree, ordering the construction of the Prince of Wu's residence. However, Zhu Yin declined the order and continued to live in his original Duke's residence.

On the same day, the emperor conferred the title of Princess Consort of Wu upon Ning Caiwei, the title of Princess Changle upon Zhu Yingning, and the title of Princess Wuyou upon Wuyou.

Although no formal investiture ceremony was held, the status of Zhu Yin's family was already established when the emperor bestowed titles upon them.

On the ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhu Yin returned to his residence after court and held a banquet to celebrate his investiture. The plaque above the main gate was changed from "Duke of Ningguo's Residence" to "Prince of Wu's Residence".

However, this Prince Wu's mansion was originally intended to be a marquis's residence, but Zhu Yin didn't care about that at all. In Nanjing at that time, there were no ready-made princely mansions to live in.

After the wedding banquet ended and the guests took their leave, the city lights began to twinkle. The newlywed King Wu and Queen, holding the six-month-old Princess Chang Le, along with Ning Qingchen and Xiao Hei, returned to the warm pavilion in the inner quarters.

"Yesterday she was the Duchess, and today she's a Princess." Ning Caiwei had drunk a few glasses of wine, her face flushed under the fireplace, and her voice was warm.

"Your Highness, it's been ten years. We've struggled for a full ten years, and finally we've become a prince and a regent."

Slightly tipsy, Zhu Yin leaned comfortably against the brocade couch, stroking the glossy fur of the little black dog beside him, and chuckled:

"Qingchen hasn't been officially appointed yet. Qingchen, what title do you want? Anything is fine except for princess."

"Tch." Ning Qingchen said arrogantly, "I don't care about princesses or noblewomen. The people have already given me the title: Holy Mother Qingchen!"

"I've already been deified, isn't that more imposing than any of yours? There's no need to bestow this title upon me, I really don't want this kind of title."

After saying that, he stretched out his foot to tease Little Black, "Little Tiger, you should give Little Black a title, hehe! Little Black, am I good to you?"

Over the years, because Zhu Yin and Ning Caiwei were both very busy, Ning Qingchen was mostly accompanied by her mute friend, Xiao Hei. Ten years had passed, and her relationship with Xiao Hei was very deep, like that of close friends.

"Feng Xiaohei?" Ning Caiwei chuckled. "Nonsense again. Where do you get so many wild ideas? Xiaohei may be a hero who has made many contributions, but it's not human after all. How can you bestow a title upon it?"

Zhu Yin didn't laugh; instead, he seemed quite interested.

Ning Qingchen shook her head, her adorable dimples overflowing with disdain. "That's why I said you're a vulgar person, and you didn't believe me. You're so proud of yourself for being made a princess. Although Xiao Hei isn't human, he's a true hero, so why can't he be made a princess?"

“I have been reading history books in recent years and have learned a lot about things. Things are very different now. There are countless animals and plants in history that have been given titles. It is not surprising at all.”

Zhu Yin nodded in agreement, saying, "Qingchen is right, it is indeed a common occurrence in history. Take this dynasty for example, the old Taoist priest even bestowed the title of Marquis of Zhenhai upon a white tortoise and the title of Lord of Destiny, Xuanmao Yuanjun upon a black cat."

Emperor Wu of Liang bestowed the title of "Precious Light Tathagata" upon an elephant, and Emperor Huizong of Song bestowed the title of "Loyal and Righteous Dog Marquis" upon a dog that protected its master.

"Emperor Dezong of Tang bestowed the title of Duke of Lingwu upon a parrot because the parrot had predicted the Jingyuan Mutiny. After its death, it was given a grand burial in Chang'an, and an epitaph was unearthed from it."

Ning Qingchen laughed and said, "I knew it! Why can't Xiao Hei be granted a title? It has chased down so many enemy generals; it's qualified enough. Little Tiger, Xiao Hei is your beloved dog. They say that when a person attains enlightenment, even their chickens and dogs ascend to heaven. You're the Regent now, but your dog hasn't ascended to heaven with you."

Zhu Yin stroked Xiao Hei's glossy fur, patted Xiao Hei's head, and said affectionately, "Old buddy, what should I give you?"

At this moment, Xiao Hei was completely unlike its imposing and fierce appearance on the battlefield. Instead, it was adorable, with its ears drooping and its tail wagging.

Zhu Yin thought for a moment and said, "Little Black, I will appoint you as the guardian dog of the nation. Many years later, I will build a temple for you and have you worshipped for generations. What do you say?"

At this point, Zhu Yin's nose tingled with emotion. Because according to Xiao Hei's lifespan, he would only live for another ten years.

Suddenly, Ning Qingchen said, "Little Tiger, I've noticed that our bodies and Xiao Hei's bodies seem to have undergone some kind of optimization when we traveled through time. This is my professional intuition as a doctor."

She raised her small hand and pointed at Xiao Hei, "Xiao Hei's current condition may exceed its original lifespan." Zhu Yin took a closer look and indeed found that Xiao Hei was in better condition than when it was ten years old in its previous life, and seemed even younger.

Could what Ning Qingchen said be true? Zhu Yin was very happy; he really hoped that Xiao Hei could live a few more years.

"Alright," Ning Caiwei laughed, "I agree to designate Xiao Hei as the guardian dog of the nation. That way, even our dog is a god, we're all set. I'm more inclined to believe Xiao Hei can extend lifespan. But now, I need to get down to business. Hehe, Regent—"

Zhu Yin took his daughter, Princess Chang Le, from him, saying, "Don't call me Regent."

Ning Caiwei took out an account book. "The national treasury has 60 million taels of silver, and we have more than 20 million taels ourselves. I think we can set up a central bank and carry out currency reform."

"This kind of financial innovation faces little resistance, and it's better to do it sooner rather than later. Hey—don't get distracted!"

Zhu Yin kissed his sweet-smelling daughter and said, "You continue talking, I'm listening."

Ning Caiwei said, "The national treasury is very well-funded now. Let's just take out ten million taels, and we can add another ten million taels from our private sector. These two million taels will be the capital of the central bank to set up a mint and mint silver coins. Technically, there are no problems at all. We can bring in craftsmen directly from Daishan."

"Using a metal ratio of nine parts silver to one part copper, we minted exquisite Ming Dynasty silver coins. Each coin contained seven qian of pure silver and was worth one tael of silver. These silver coins were the national legal tender of the Ming Dynasty. Twenty million taels of silver could produce two thousand eight hundred legal coins. After deducting the minting costs, we immediately made a profit of seven million!"

"These seven million coins represent the pure profit from minting, which will be split 50/50 between the national treasury and us. Then, the silver coins will be used to pay salaries, military wages, government procurement, and relief efforts. At the same time, we will encourage the use of silver coins to pay taxes. The Ningyin Trading Company will also settle all transactions in silver coins."

"Then gradually exchange silver and gold coins for silver and gold, with a time limit for the exchange. After the expiration, it is stipulated that transactions using silver that violate the monetary law will be subject to a 'monetary law tax' of half, forcing illegal currencies out of the market through high costs and forcing them to exchange for legal tender with the imperial court."

Zhu Yin shook his head and said, “You think there’s little resistance to this? You’re overthinking it. Ordinary people have very little silver, so they are actually the beneficiaries. But what about the big landowners, high-ranking officials, and big merchants? They’ve hoarded vast amounts of silver. We’re minting silver coins, each worth seven qian of silver, but used as one tael of silver. This is diluting their mountains of gold and seas of silver. How can there be little resistance?”

"Then they will definitely counterfeit the silver coins themselves and mint them privately."

Ning Caiwei shook her head: "You really don't know much about finance. Do you think minting technology is simple? If they want to make high-quality counterfeits of the silver coins minted using the Daishan technique, they would need to figure it out for at least a few years, and the cost would be very high. They wouldn't make any money at all, so why would they do it? If they could mint high-quality counterfeits and still make a profit, it would only be due to a complete technological breakthrough, or a large-scale defection of the minting craftsmen we have trained, leading to the malignant spread of the technology."

"But what does Tiger Fang do? As long as we strengthen intelligence management and establish severe penalties to strictly prohibit the private minting of silver coins, they won't dare to take risks easily."

"Even if they manage to achieve a technological breakthrough in the short term and have the audacity to mint coins privately, producing high-quality counterfeits that are virtually indistinguishable from genuine ones, that would still be a good thing. Consider it helping the imperial court with coinage. As long as the silver coins are exquisite and people can't tell the difference, they can circulate freely and even accelerate the reform of silver coinage..."

Zhu Yin frowned and said, "What you say makes sense, but wealthy households hoard large amounts of silver, resulting in a low silver circulation rate. If we do this, it will be difficult for them to hoard silver anymore, so they will have to hoard large amounts of legal tender. At that time, the silver coins minted by the imperial court will also be difficult to circulate."

Ning Caiwei laughed and said, "What do banks do? They attract deposits! They pay interest on deposits, and all depositors can enjoy remote remittance services, so they can deposit and withdraw money in different places, saving a lot of trouble. With the court's credibility, we are not afraid that they will not deposit their silver coins in the bank."

Zhu Yin thought for a moment, "If we offer interest on deposits, what about the returns? Relying on lending? With the economic level and productivity of the Ming Dynasty, how large can the loan volume be? Can the loan interest break even with the deposit interest? It will definitely result in a loss."

“Initially, there will definitely be losses,” Ning Caiwei nodded. “But these losses are the price of buying credit, and they are controllable and reversible. The loan scale will expand year by year.”

"And don't forget, we hold the minting rights. We get over 20% of the profits from minting coins, so of course we have to give back a portion to the market. Small losses, big gains—we're still making a killing overall. It's like using financial instruments to fleece the rich..."

Ning Caiwei became more and more excited as she spoke, her eyes sparkling.

Zhu Yin thought about it and realized that Ning Caiwei's plan was almost flawless.

He immediately agreed, saying, "Great! We can do it! The imperial court has plundered a lot of wealth through financial reforms, and then used relief and welfare to subsidize the poor, improve infrastructure to benefit the whole population, or invest in factories to provide jobs. This is robbing the rich to help the poor."

Ning Caiwei smiled and said, "So the most important thing is that our swords must be sharp enough, and our military power must be firmly grasped. At the beginning, it's just about setting up a central bank, so they won't react too strongly. That's why I said there won't be much resistance. By the time they realize something is wrong, it will be a year later. By then, our 200,000 new troops will be almost ready for training. What are we afraid of?"

Ning Qingchen couldn't help but say, "Essentially, this is just using the name of currency reform to impose a heavy tax on the rich, but without the guise of taxation. It's indeed a good method, killing with a soft knife."

Ning Caiwei waved the ledger, "I've roughly calculated that if the currency reform succeeds, the imperial court will not only possess financial and fiscal tools, but will also gain over 100 million silver dollars in revenue from the south. Once the north is unified, there will be at least tens of millions more in revenue. In total, that's roughly 200 million silver dollars in revenue. That's the profit from the imperial court's successful currency reform!"

"Little Tiger, two hundred million silver dollars! That's eight times the total revenue of the national treasury when the Ming Dynasty was not divided between North and South!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yin clenched his fist excitedly, "Two hundred million! This is the initial capital for the revival of China and the rise of the Ming Dynasty!"

……

P.S.: I was supposed to take the day off today, but I wasn't feeling well. I struggled to write over 3,000 words, but I just couldn't keep going. Sorry… I'm going to sleep now, I feel so awful.

(End of this chapter)