Father can be an enemy country

Chapter 391 Food stamps
Suzhou, Canglang Pavilion, Qingxiang Pavilion.

Since the third brother started to enjoy life, King Chu moved here.

The plaque of this museum was inscribed by Han Shizhong at that time.The name of the museum comes from Li Shangyin's poem "Attentiveness should not make the fragrance penetrate, and the gold fish will be locked in the cinnamon cluster".

There is a whitewashed wall with leaky windows in front of the museum, forming a courtyard of its own. There are several branches of osmanthus in the courtyard, which is a good place for quiet and quiet.

However, the three Suzhou parents in the museum at this time—Li Heng, the prefect of Suzhou, Xue Ding'e, the prefect of Wu County, and Fei Mi, the prefect of Changzhou County, were in a state of mind that had nothing to do with cleanliness.

Gein, although the civil uprising in Suzhou has subsided, the unemployment and hunger problems that caused the uprising have not been resolved at all.If this continues, people will starve to death.

If there is another disturbance at that time, it will not be as painless as before.

"Your Highness, has the Emperor replied?" Li Heng and the two county magistrates could only pin their hopes on this Highness who is not yet 14 years old.

"Yeah." Zhu Zhen nodded, and said with a wry smile: "Father said that there is no money, let us find a way to solve it ourselves."

"This is the end..." The three officials heard that they wanted to die.

"Don't panic." His Royal Highness Chu Wang still smiled and said: "There is a saying that 'as long as the thinking doesn't slip, there are more ways than difficulties', can a living person be suffocated by urine?"

"Yes, yes..." The three officials smiled compensatingly, and their mothers criticized in their hearts.What's the use of being full of jingles, but think of a way?
"Your Highness, it's really impossible, first copy the Lu family as an emergency." Li Heng couldn't help but make suggestions.

"Good idea." Magistrate Xue hurriedly responded, "Anyway, that uncle and nephew has already pleaded guilty, and the Lu family is the one who initiated the civil uprising. It is only natural that they use their property to help the people."

"His Highness urges the imperial court to hurry up and convict." Fei Zhixian also persuaded.Obviously, the three of them came here after discussing it, and they could only think of this way.

"..." Zhu Zhen looked calm, but smiled wryly in his heart.You guys don't want to rush to ransack your house when you're my king?I can't wait to copy all the big dogs' houses for emergency.

But the Ministry of Punishment has been unwilling to speed up and convict, so this king can only stare blankly.

He knew that most of the time Hu Weiyong dug a hole for himself to jump into.I'm afraid that as long as I can't hold my breath and order the house to be raided, the censor over there will hear the news and impeach him.

And the two brothers have discussed it, this time the third brother sings the bad face, and he sings the red face.There are white-faced songs for white faces, and red-faced songs for red faces, and the behavior is in line with the persona.

So he said sternly: "If you want to rescue the citizens by ransacking their homes, wouldn't it appear that the government is too incompetent?"

"Your Highness, the most important thing now is not face..." Li Heng smiled wryly.

"No, the government only relies on face. Without face, who would be convinced?" His Royal Highness Chu Wang taught Li Heng a few words, and then changed the subject: "Besides, this king has a better way."

The three officials listened attentively.

"Isn't it just that we don't have any money? Let's just print something ourselves." Then His Highness said loudly.

'Pfft...' The three officials almost vomited blood.

"Your Highness, forging banknotes is a capital offense!" Li Heng said helplessly.

The two county magistrates also resolutely refused to do anything.

According to Boss Zhu's regulations, anyone who forges banknotes, regardless of whether he is the main criminal or an accomplice, or anyone who hides the money without reporting it will be punished by beheading and all property will be confiscated.

Although Boss Zhu will not behead his son, he will definitely behead them.Everyone came out to be an official, but they just ate their food, and they didn't even risk their lives.

"Who said that precious banknotes are going to be printed?" King Chu gasped and said, "If we don't print precious banknotes, won't it be illegal?"

"But if we print other things, we can't spend it as money." Li Heng heaved a sigh of relief, as long as it doesn't kill him, he can do whatever he wants.

"Why can't it be spent as money..." Zhu Zhen said indifferently: "As long as we give it value, it can be spent as money."

"..." The three officials were confused.They hadn't heard him talk about numismatics, so naturally they didn't understand.

"Let's be honest, what we print are food stamps, you can also call them food stamps." Zhu Zhen said, picked up a hand-painted food stamp from the table, handed it to the three of them for a look:
"Ordinary people can use this coupon to exchange for the face value of grain...here, it says five buckets of japonica rice, and you can exchange it for five buckets of japonica rice. What do you think is the difference between this and money?"

In this era, at least half of the salaries of officials and the military pay of soldiers were distributed in the form of food.Among the folks who lack money, they can even use grain to directly buy all the commodities on the market.

There have always been only sellers who do not accept treasure notes, and there are no sellers who do not accept grain.

"There's no difference..." So the three officials understood King Chu's words in an instant, and they all felt that the food stamps were much more reliable than the treasure notes.

"It's just, where do we go to exchange food?" At this time, Xue Zhixian asked a very important question.

"Of course I went to the Yamen." His Royal Highness Chu said slowly: "Let the common people go to the grain merchants to exchange? They don't have that reputation."

"Ah?" The three officials suddenly lost face again. "Your Highness, how can we exchange food for the citizens?"

"Nonsense, there are reserve warehouses in all the prefectures and counties, why would there be no food?" King Chu said with a smile.

"It's not Your Highness, the food in the reserve warehouse can only be borrowed from the people, and can't be given to the people for nothing." The three of them hurriedly said: "When the time comes, the household department will take inventory and fail to account, and we will lose our heads!"

Daming's reserve warehouse is similar to the regular warehouse of the previous dynasty, but there are also differences.Its general operating model is that local governments at all levels will issue official banknotes to buy grain and store it for relief during the harvest, and borrow money from the people in bad years to make them repay after the autumn harvest.

Boss Zhu's law enforcement is strict, and no official dares to be sloppy with him.The three of Li Heng would rather not be this official than let people use paper to exchange the grain in the storage warehouse.

"Then you directly lend food to the citizens!" His Royal Highness Chu said with a downcast.

"Your Highness, calm down, according to the imperial court's regulations, to borrow grain from the storage warehouse, you need land under your name as collateral," Li Heng hurriedly explained: "Most of those weavers and boatmen do not have land, so they are not eligible to borrow grain. "

"What kind of bullshit rule is this?" The King of Chu said angrily, "There is food in the warehouse, but the citizens are not allowed to borrow it. Could it be that they starve to death? Can't you make a change?!"

"Oh, Your Highness, I don't want to be like this." The three of them wrinkled their faces into bitter gourds and said, "After the case is printed, who dares to be flexible?"

"That's true..." Zhu Zhen was at a loss for words.Those officials who know how to adapt and have brains have all lost their minds.How dare the rest of them go half a step further?
"How about this, how about I borrow food from you in the name of Suzhou Weaving and Dyeing Bureau?" He changed his mind again.

(End of this chapter)