Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 415

"The deposits are 460 taels of gold, 12 taels of silver, and copper ingots..."

On the first day of June, with the arrival of gold and silver from South Asia, people from the four yamen, Jinyiwei, Yumajian, Duchayuan, and Hubu, went to Tianjin.

For this reason, Shuntian Mansion specially mobilized tens of thousands of mules and horses, and transported them continuously for half a month.

Finally, before June [-]th, all the gold, silver and copper ingots were stockpiled one after another, and the total amount of gold and silver in the stockpiles couldn't help but make people's hearts flutter.

The total value of gold, silver and copper ingots, together with rare treasures, antique calligraphy and paintings, has reached nearly [-] million taels of silver.

It’s just that these things cannot be used directly, because in Daming, where the commodity liquidity is not strong, using this gold and silver in one province or even several provinces alone may cause inflation, and the court will need to use a lot of energy to quell it.

But not being able to use it directly does not mean that there is no way to use it...

"The Finance Department will transfer all the copper ingots and 300 million taels of silver today."

In front of the gold and silver treasury, Li Changgeng, who had been waiting for a long time, could not wait to speak just after the treasury officials finished reading the deposit, and his words also attracted people from Jinyiwei, Yumajian, Metropolitan Procuratorate, and Household Department.

Although they all knew that the financial secretary could withdraw the gold and silver from the gold and silver treasury at will, but Li Changgeng used to withdraw 100 million taels and copper ingots from the treasury every month. Why did he suddenly have to spend three times the usual amount this month?

They looked at the officials of the treasury, thinking that these people would say something, but they didn't want to wait for one in the end:
"Li Shilang wait a moment, the officer has already ordered someone to withdraw the points."

Yuanwailang, who was in charge of the gold and silver treasury, bowed in return, and Li Changgeng hurriedly returned the gift when he heard the words.

The harmonious appearance of the two made the people in each yamen almost grit their teeth.

You must know that Zhu Youjian will basically not use the gold and silver in the gold and silver treasury. Even if Bi Ziyan begged his grandpa to sue his grandma, he has taken more than 700 million taels of silver over the years.

Including the Yumajian, the two only got less than 500 million taels.

Not to mention that the Finance Department withdraws millions of dollars every month, but now it is going to increase to 300 million.

According to the frequency of their withdrawals, no matter how rich the gold and silver treasury is, it will be able to last until the end of next year at most.

Shaking his head, people from all the yamen left one after another, while Li Changgeng waited for two hours at the same spot before five hundred civilians loaded the silver and copper ingots into the carriage.

Bringing back a team of more than 500 carriages, Li Changgeng left towards the Xuanwu Gate in the capital under the guard of the Wanping Battalion.

The long convoy went from noon to dusk, and finally stopped in front of a concrete and steel reinforced city at the foot of Baiwang Mountain, and there was a roar of "boom" inside the city.

The soldiers and horses of the Gongwei Battalion of Changping are stationed here. The strength of a whole battalion abandoned Changping and defended this place, which is enough to illustrate the importance of this place.

Li Changgeng did not ask Wanpingying to deliver the silver and copper ingots into the city, but asked the soldiers and horses of Changpingying to transport the silver and copper ingots into the city, and he himself followed.

As for the Wanping camp, they could only sit in the carriage against the darkness and leisurely return to the Wanping military camp outside the capital.

Above the wilderness, their figures slowly disappeared, but the roaring sound became louder and louder.

Boxes of silver and copper ingots were stored in the warehouse. After checking the door of the warehouse, Li Changgeng took off his black gauze hat, exhaled a foul breath while showing sweat on his forehead, and walked towards some tall houses in the city.

The shapes of these houses are square and square, which are very different from those of Daming. However, among the thirty houses, only three houses are making roaring sounds, and the rest are dead silent, which makes people curious.

Li Changgeng walked to the open door of the house, took a deep breath and walked in.

When he walked into this spacious house, what appeared in front of his eyes were hundreds of roaring steel machines, and what they were doing was to hydraulically smelt the metal smelted by the workers, and finally formed brand new coins, along the way. Falling into a trolley along the conveyor belt.

The speed of these machines is not fast, almost pressing out a perfect coin every five seconds.

On the entire assembly line, there are thousands of workers wearing protective equipment, and thousands of people serve one hundred assembly lines respectively.

What they do is very simple, nine people are responsible for placing the metal in the mold, and one person is responsible for checking the quality of silver coins and selecting unqualified silver coins.

These 1000 people are very young, almost around 20 years old, and although they are working, some rest workers take off their gloves, and the exposed hands are very white and slender, without frostbite and scars.

They were students drawn by Zhu Youjian from the Yanshan Academy, and they were the only people who had studied basic mathematics and physics, who met the needs of "highly educated" technicians in mints and factories.

Perhaps in later generations, the knowledge of each of them is no more than a junior high school student at best.

But in this world, they can be said to have mastered theoretical knowledge hundreds of years ahead of the West.

Although it is difficult for them to work as a mechanic in the mint, the wages at the mint are difficult for them to refuse.

The annual salary is 36 taels, which adds up to nearly [-] Wen per day.

They were originally people with average grades among the students, even if they were sent down, they were just nine-rank officials.

With a salary of more than ten taels a year, it is difficult to get promoted for several years...

Instead of this, it is better to enter the Mint directly, because the selectors have told them that as long as they do not steal or violate discipline after entering the Mint, they will be transferred to the local government after five years of service, starting from the eighth-rank official.

In Zhu Youjian's future plan, Zhengbapin is to serve as an official at the mayor level, and further expand the rule of the court to market towns.

As long as the more than 1 market towns are controlled, the roots of the gentry will be dug in half.

As for sending workers to be mayors, would it be too unfriendly?Zhu Youjian is not worried about this at all.

To put it bluntly, those who can persist in the mint for five years without stealing or stealing have passed the first level of character, and the basic knowledge they have mastered is completely enough to be a mayor in this era who manages two to three thousand people.

Therefore, in Zhu Youjian's plan, the students of Yanshan will gradually turn to the factory.

Of course, this system will not last long. When the students of basic education for all enter the society, this group of people in Yanshan will be gradually eliminated.

"Li Shilang, the ten new machines have already been installed on the line."

When Li Changgeng was watching the assembly line, a technician from Yanshan stepped forward and bowed, pointing to many technicians from Yanshan who were debugging equipment not far away.

Seeing this, Li Changgeng walked over quickly, while the busy mechanics here were constantly correcting the machine.

Compared with the experience of craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty, their methods have more systematic theories, and they will install according to the installation instructions issued by the Armament Academy, and each step is not bad.

Li Changgeng saw June from the first month, and he was no longer surprised by these rumbling machines.

After watching more, he discovered that these things are actually similar to some primitive machinery in farmland and textile fields, only more complicated and rarer.

"How? Did the debugging succeed?"

He asked with concern, and the mechanic in charge of debugging looked up and saw that it was Li Changgeng, and said honestly:

"It's almost there, but it depends on its online performance."

"Then start the machine." Li Changgeng took a few steps back, while the other technicians also stepped back to their posts.

The technician in charge of debugging the machine and several other technicians began to connect the water pipes to the machine, and then pushed a cart of coal aside, and added coal while adding water to the machine.

When the water was filled, they closed the water valves, then lit the coals and closed the bunkers.

These Yanshan technicians all had a pocket watch tied around their waist. After finishing everything, they opened the pocket watch and counted the time.

After about half a stick of incense pressurized, the valve gauge of the machine had reached the red range, and the technician who saw this quickly asked someone to turn on the switch of the assembly line.

They used sticks to turn on the switch with difficulty, and then the entire steam engine and assembly line made noises.

The molds on the assembly line started to move, and this brand new machine started to work.

Unlike the previous machine, this machine has five presses, which means it can press five coins in an instant.

On the assembly line, the molds are lifted and compacted the moment they are sent to them, and then the assembly line below runs normally.

When the assembly line sends the new mold to the five ports, the mold is raised again and compacted by the press, and so on.

The nine workers on the line could only keep filling the metal blocks. Although the rhythm was disrupted at first, they were a bit overwhelmed, but soon they adapted to this rhythm, sitting on the stool and constantly moving around.

In their kind of assembly line work, the tinkling of bells began to sound, and the silver coins fell into the cart one by one.

Seeing this, Li Changgeng walked to the side of the cart, and took out some hot coins to observe.

"Whether it's from the tooth marks on the edge or the patterns and texts on the front and back are very clear, it can be regarded as a fine product."

Li Changgeng praised without hesitation, while the mechanic next to him said:
"The main thing is speed. These ten new machines are comparable to fifty old machines."

"The Military Armament Academy said that ten more will be delivered after ten days, and ten more will be delivered after 20 days."

"Ten units are delivered every ten days, and the factory will not stop until the factory produces 4000 million coins per day."

"4000 million pieces..." Li Changgeng threw the silver coins in his hand back into the car, and then said:

"It's probably about a year or so. How much money do we have now?"

"More than 30 billion coins with a denomination of more than 300 million taels. It is estimated that there will be nearly 4000 billion coins with a denomination of [-] million taels by the end of the year." The mechanic replied, and Li Changgeng couldn't help but nodded when he heard the words:
"It is enough to mint 1000 million and [-] million coins for one tael and one hundred coins respectively, and the rest of the time is used to mint ten and one copper coins."

"What Guochao needs now is not silver coins, but copper coins. The people don't have that much silver in their hands, and they don't have that much savings. They still have to rely on copper coins to use them."

"Yes!" The technician bowed back, and Li Changgeng also nodded and said:

"Go ahead, I will rest overnight, and I have to return to the capital tomorrow to continue busy with the bank."

"That humble job has resigned." The mechanic stepped back a few steps after hearing that, then turned and left.

Seeing this, Li Changgeng breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and walked out of the factory, and came to his residence in the Mint, a simple courtyard.

The yard is not big, only about two hundred square meters. For a person of his status, it is already economical to use it as a rest and office space.

Walking into the courtyard, it was completely dark, and the technicians began to change shifts.

Here, they work in four shifts, each working for three hours, with a total of more than 4000 workers.

In the three hours, there are still two quarters of an hour for eating and resting. In conversion, basically working for five and a half hours, the annual salary is 36 taels of silver.

The work is easy, the salary is high, and the food is good. This is the reason why they are willing to stay here.

Hearing the noise of changing shifts, Li Changgeng dismissed the two attendants in the mansion, then sat behind the desk and began to deal with the affairs of the bank.

In general, although Qianzhuang had considerable influence in Daming, facing the violent machine of the imperial court, no matter how powerful the local folk forces were, they had to succumb.

Li Changgeng's plan to acquire banks is progressing very quickly. Basically, [-]% of the banks on the market have been acquired by him.

Of course, acquisitions belonged to acquisitions, but most of the money houses only existed in the county towns, and the market towns outside the county towns had no foundation because they were easy to be robbed.

However, the imperial court wanted to establish a bank and was not worried about looting at all. Therefore, Li Changgeng and the Ministry of Industry had already negotiated at the beginning of the year about the bank issue of the more than 1 market towns in Daming.

First of all, regardless of whether it is a county town or a market town, banks must be conspicuous and have strong protection. Therefore, strong buildings made of reinforced concrete have become Li Changgeng's first choice.

A one-foot-thick concrete wall, as long as the insiders put down the jack, even bandits with artillery can only look at the wall and sigh.

However, this involves a problem, that is, the rationing of cement and steel bars.

Fortunately, compared with the construction of roads, the bank with only two floors and an area of ​​less than half an acre does not consume much cement.

Although steel bars cannot be allocated, wrought iron and cement can still be satisfied.

In counties and market towns, more than [-] banks were built in three years, and the annual construction took up about one-tenth of the total cement production.

It looks like a lot, but once the fourth version of the steam engine works in all walks of life, the output of cement will also increase, so Zhu Youjian is not stingy.

He cares more about Daming's financial system than the government.

Only by perfecting this system can the corruption of corrupt officials become more "transparent", and it can also solve the economic stagflation problem of Ming Dynasty.

Of course, Li Changgeng didn't understand these things, what he cared about was Zhu Youjian's trust in him and his belief in accomplishing this matter.

So when the cement and wrought iron were approved, he first implemented the guidelines planned by Zhu Youjian and him.

In the first year, it will be piloted in North Zhili, in the second year in the north, and in the third year in the south.

This is a gradual process, and many details in the process still need to be perfected, so Li Changgeng picked up a pen and wrote it down word by word on the blank memorial...

"This year, if equipment continues to be imported, tens of billions of coins will be accumulated, and tens of billions of coins will benefit Zhili, and Zhili will be passed on first, and then passed on to the north. At the age of this year, another tens of billions of coins will be accumulated, and then pushed to the north. The provinces, passed on..."

On June 22, during Wang Chengen's recitation, Zhu Youjian finished listening to Li Changgeng's content on bank promotion and currency system.

"okay……"

Zhu Youjian spoke, but Wang Chengen stopped.

Zhu Youjian, who was still in Dading Palace, got up from the armchair, walked around the hall covered with gold bricks, and said after a while:

"Although there are tens of billions of coins, this is only achieved by relying on the court's accumulation of a lot of copper ingots and silver."

"Although the silver and copper of the Yumajian can be used to mint coins, the market is full of bad coins. If new coins are issued and cannot form a volume, it is easy for some local villains to take advantage of the chaos of the currency system to do evil."

What Zhu Youjian said was doing evil, but he was actually worried that local counterfeit money dealers would melt the new coins and cast them into copper coins.

New coins are difficult to counterfeit, but their silver and copper content are very high, which are higher than ordinary copper coins.

Silver may not cost much, and no one will smelt it, but copper coins will definitely be tempted.

Three Tianqi copper coins are enough to produce four Wanli Tongbao, which is enough profit for counterfeit coin dealers to go crazy.

It was Zhu Youjian who underestimated the production scale of the counterfeit money dealers before, and he asked Jin Yiwei to investigate later, only to find that the people of Ming Dynasty are still full of a large number of counterfeit money dealers who are constantly making bad money.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian had to get rid of more than half of this group of people first, and at the same time use the Yumajian to recover the copper coins in the market.

After the number of recycling reached a certain level, various places began to release a large amount of silver coins and continue recycling.

After the copper coins on the market are recycled, Zhu Youjian can release the copper coins and release news at the same time, only recognizing Tianqi Tongbao as the legal tender of the Ming Dynasty, and increase recycling efforts.

However, if you want to recover a large amount of copper coins on the market, it will be a test of the national treasury.

From the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period to the present, hundreds of billions or even trillions of copper coins were minted in the market of Ming Dynasty. In the Northern Song Dynasty alone, more than [-] billion coins were minted, not to mention others.

Sometimes Zhu Youjian is very lucky, fortunately, the ancients had the act of burying a large pile of copper coins when they died, otherwise the amount of copper coins he would have to face might be able to empty out the wealth of ten Ming Dynasty families.

Buried underground, Zhu Youjian is not going to move it, he just needs to recycle the copper coins on the market. Although there are hundreds of billions, it is only hundreds of millions of taels of silver after the color is folded.

As long as the implementation of metal currency is successful, Ming can then promote paper currency to replace copper coins, and then gradually replace silver coins.

Everything is difficult at the beginning. Zhu Youjian must replace the traditional copper coins before he is qualified to talk about banknotes. Therefore, he confessed to Wang Chengen:
"The matter of the mint and the bank has to be done slowly. Tell Li Changgeng that the bank in Beizhili should not be activated for the time being, and continue to accumulate new coins."

"In addition, the mint's machines need to be added continuously, and it will reach a thousand minting machines in five years' time!"

"A thousand units... this..." Hearing Zhu Youjian's words, Wang Chengen showed embarrassment:

"Your Highness, it takes three years for the six steam engine factories to reach their maximum output. In three years, there may be less than [-] medium-sized steam engines that can be used in industry."

"A quarter is used for minting coins, so other industries can only share [-] units equally..."

Wang Chengen didn't continue talking, because to put it bluntly, according to such a division, many factories in Yumajian would not reach the output value estimated by Zhu Youjian.

But for Zhu Youjian, the economic problem is more important than anything else. If Daming cannot create his own "monetary hegemony system", no matter how big the market is, he will end up making wedding dresses for others.

If the output value of other factories is not enough, it is very simple, just continue to build steam engine factories.

"Since it's not enough, let's set up a steam engine factory. Except for the mint, all the industrial steam engines that are going to be sent to the government offices will be intercepted and sent to the factory to produce steam engines."

"Once the six factories are ready to go into production, immediately transfer money from the treasury and build the factories."

"My Ming Dynasty is vast, and my annual production of [-] steam engines can't even satisfy the north. How can I satisfy the world?"

"In ten years, I want to see a steam engine factory in Daming, with an annual output of [-] steam engines."

An annual production of [-] steam engines sounds like a lot, but it is very small for Daming.

According to the proportion, it is just more than 2000 steam engine ships and trains, more than 6000 industrial machinery and [-] agricultural machinery every year.

These machines may allow a province to enter the industrial age, but it is too slow for Ming, which has two capitals and twenty provinces.

Unless the Military Academy can come up with an internal combustion engine, but that's a bit unrealistic.

When Zhu Youjian knew the steam engine well, it took Daming ten years to come up with a steam engine that can be used in agriculture and industry. How many years would it take for the internal combustion engine that Zhu Youjian didn't understand?
The current Ming Dynasty seems to be powerful in technology, but it is actually built on a duckweed, which may collapse at any time.

Unless Ming's basic physics, chemistry, mathematics and other disciplines can reach the quality of the nineteenth century, otherwise the internal combustion engine may not be seen until Zhu Youjian's death based on the current personnel quality.

Basic education for all is a policy of strengthening the country, and it is also a policy of strengthening science and technology. Ming Dynasty must change its thinking and pay attention to what it thinks is "extraordinary skills", so as not to be caught up and surpassed by the future Europe.

If he wanted a universal education, Daming had to have enough gold and silver, and it was the existing gold and silver, not the mined one.

Only in this way can Daming's economic stagflation be alleviated while ensuring no inflation.

The problem of economic stagflation was solved, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and the cost of living became lower, while the imperial court began to reform the tax system, strengthen the treasury, and provide better comprehensive education.

This is a game of chess, one link is linked to another, and Zhu Youjian has to link all links in person.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian already had an idea in his mind.

Jianlu must be destroyed next year, and Toungoo must be destroyed later.

When the Jiankui died, the northeast would be safe, and the people would be stable, and they would go north to open up.

The death of Toungoo means that the southwest will be settled, and the railway can be built directly to the mouth of the Ganges River, and countless commodities will flood into the places where the feudal vassals live.

As long as these two places are settled, one food, one economy, the two problems that plagued Ming Dynasty will be solved instantly, and Daming will be able to tell the world what it means to be truly "abundant in martial arts".

(End of this chapter)