Overlord!

Chapter 354 The troops leave Wuguan

Sun Ce also understood the difficulties of Bu Sta.

Today's coinage still requires copper and iron, but China is short of copper and iron ores.

Therefore, in history, there has been a situation where China collected mint taxes until it collapsed. The imperial court issued an order not to allow coins to leave the fortress in large quantities. Even foreigners are not allowed to use coins to trade with the Central Plains. Bartering must be carried out between the two parties in designated markets and under the supervision of the government.

This is because the northern nomads lack copper and iron, so they often melt coins from the Central Plains and make them into knives, sickles, and even armor and arrowheads.

Therefore, although the Central Plains can use copper coins made of brass to harvest from all directions, it can exchange for gold coins, silver coins, war horses, jade, spices and other items from foreigners.

But there is still not enough money to harvest the aliens.

There were Yuzhang Tongshan and Danyang Iron Mines near Kyoto in the Song Dynasty. After all, this was Ma'anshan, the famous steel capital in later generations. Minting coins was a little more convenient than in other dynasties, but it was not much better.

Due to the production capacity issues of this era, even if there is a mountain of gold or silver, the miners can't carry much copper ore out, even if they carry basket after basket.

Two million copper coins were minted in one year, which was the current limit of Song Ting.

Even if the technology is improved, the mining efficiency is increased, and the production efficiency increases by 50% within a year, it will only increase the mintage from two million min to three million min.

Both of these are not easy for ordinary people.

The financial shortage in the early Ming Dynasty was supported by the issuance of Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes. During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, the large-scale war against the Northern Yuan Dynasty and the large-scale water conservancy construction in the south of the Yangtze River were carried out.

What's more important is that this scale of millions does not circulate throughout the country, but only circulates near Jiankang. Each currency from one to a hundred will definitely harvest a huge amount of wealth near Jiankang.

Before the issuance of treasure banknotes, the imperial court also implemented an edict in advance, strictly prohibiting private casting in the world.

In this regard, the way out for emperors, generals and ministers at home and abroad in ancient and modern times is the same. If there is not enough money, paper money will be made.

Song Ting is currently building a city, which will surely make the city's commodity economy more prosperous and larger in scale.

It was only the uncontrolled and excessive issuance of Ming Dynasty officials in the later period that led to the collapse of the value of Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes.

As the Song Dynasty unified the world, the world gradually became peaceful, and the prestige of the imperial court spread to every county in the thirteen states of the Han Dynasty. At the same time, the expansion of territory reached a period of relaxation.

But you must know that usury does not happen without reason.

Bu Zhi immediately handed over his hand and replied: "I will go all out immediately and work with the three divisions to handle this matter."

You must know that it is not that there is no currency among the people, but that it is accumulated in the hands of a large number of wealthy businessmen and aristocratic families.

Of course, the emperor did not necessarily see it in person, but the Shangshu bureau drafted the results, and the Shanggong bureau stamped them and approved them.

To counterfeit this banknote, not only the currency must be counterfeited, but also the official seal must be engraved, which is a relatively serious crime.

The severe punishment did not implicate the nine clans. Sun Ce had already promulgated the abolition of the joint sitting law.

So Sun Ce went on to say: "I thought that since there was a shortage of copper and iron, we could follow the example of the White Deer Coin and use paper money to make up for the gap. And the minting of coins should be more standardized."

At the same time, Sun Ce also took the opportunity to rectify the problem of private casting.

The first batch of banknotes issued, called Kaiyuan Baobao, totaled two million yuan. They were issued in banks and were similar in form to land deeds and talisman deeds. They were also stamped with the seals of the three ministers.

Since there is not enough money, it is the consensus of all kings and prime ministers to find ways to make money.

Sun Ce looked at Bu Zhi and asked, "You must have heard the story of the White Deer Coin."

As long as there is an economy with prosperous commerce, there must be merchants who lend money.

At the same time, all his family property can be confiscated, a large amount of copper and iron can be obtained, and the income of the national treasury can be increased.

In the early stage, it is not a problem to issue tens of millions of coins, but to issue several million coins.

Not to mention, the Song Army is about to launch a war involving 100,000 people, which requires money everywhere.

"Xiangzhe's imperial court is focusing its energy on opening up territory, but it has insufficient control over private coinage. From now on, it is announced to the world that all coins will be distributed by the government. No matter how many private minters there are, even if one is minted privately, Money will also be punished severely!”

The same was true in the Northern Song Dynasty in the history of the Central Plains. Private loan sharking was one of the most serious problems.

Especially now, papermaking technology has not yet been developed nationwide. As long as the government strictly controls the quality and makes the craftsmanship exquisite, it will be difficult to be imitated and faked.

Sun Ce nodded and said: "Yes, although it sounds complicated, at its core, it is also a kind of currency. I think currency does not have to stick to tradition, it must be based on copper coins."

The first thing to do when making banknotes is to prevent counterfeiting. There is no doubt that the papermaking process needs to be improved and the dyeing and printing technology needs to be upgraded.

All executions must be reviewed by the emperor.

Moreover, today's population is greatly reduced, and the country is people-oriented. Even the death penalty is cautious.

This is because a large number of handicraftsmen hope to transform into workshop owners, and small traders hope to transform into large merchants, which require a large amount of capital investment.

Exquisite papermaking technology is an area that the private sector has not yet set foot in.

As for dyeing and printing technology, raw materials are even more rare. Even during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Goryeo and North Korea in the north still wore white clothes. The important reason was that they could not obtain sufficient dyes.

This number is simply a drop in the bucket compared to the ever-expanding territory, the new land added every year, and the growing city size.

The ancient Middle East was located at the transportation hub of the Eurasian continent, so Jews were lending money everywhere, and Arabs also established banks for this reason.

The issuance of this new banknote, combined with the banks built by the royal family before, will not only increase the government treasury, but also greatly activate the prosperity of private industry and commerce.

But this also greatly reflects the importance that the emperor of the current dynasty attached to executions. The total number of prisoners who were stamped by Zhou Cheng and passed the death penalty this year was only 162.

Bu Zhi immediately replied: "According to "Historical Records", it is said that there is a white deer in the Tianzi Garden, and its skin is used as a coin to send out auspicious responses and make white gold. It is also a square ruler made of white deer skin, edged with velvet, and used to recommend bi, so that gold can be obtained A pound instead.”

With this experience of success and failure in front of him, of course Sun Ce must learn from it.

The issue of private casting has become a thorn in the side of the imperial court. At this time, private casting has done more harm than good.

It is precisely because this severe crime is not the death penalty that it can be more commonly carried out on all offenders. Once an illegal act is discovered, the lighter person will be imprisoned for three years, and the worst person will be demoted to a concubine forever.

In fact, the government has issued documents prohibiting private casting in the past, but it has never banned it with violence.

But this time, the court directly activated the state's violence machine.

Within three months, more than 70 households in Jiangdong, Huainan, and Jingzhou were eliminated from private casting, and most of them were large households. Their wealth was more than 300,000 yuan, or tens of thousands of kilograms of copper and iron.

The trend of private casting among the people has died down for a while. At least the wealthy people don't dare to be as unscrupulous as in the past.

These plundered property, as well as two million yuan of paper currency, combined with the more than eight million yuan of savings in the treasury, finally supported Zhou Yu's 120,000 infantry and cavalry troops against Guanzhong in March of the fourth year of Kaiyuan. This time the Song Dynasty dispatched the absolute main force of the imperial army, with the right general Zhou Yu as the governor, and the governors were Cheng Pu, Taishi Ci, Zhou Tai, Wei Yan, Huang Zhong, Xu Huang, Zhang Fei, Yu Jin, Xu Sheng, Chen Wu, Han Dang, Twenty-six generals including Lu Dai, Zhu Huan, Zang Ba, Zhang Yan, Yan Rou, and Ling Cao, as well as Lu Xun, Ling Tong, Wang Ling, Guo Huai, Qian Zhao, and many other lieutenants and lieutenants, went out. In Guanxi, attack the coalition forces of Ma Chao and Han Sui.

And Ma Chao was indeed a filial son. He teamed up with Han Sui and rebelled in the local area. As a result, his father Ma Teng and all his legitimate sons were implicated in seizing titles, demoted to civilians, and imprisoned pending trial.

Fortunately, Sun Ce abolished the law of sitting together, and the crime was not as serious as that of his family. He did not execute all the innocent people. He only asked a judge to examine whether Ma Teng and others had colluded with Ma Chao and conspired to rebel.

Sun Ce was undoubtedly lenient. Ma Teng had previously written more than a dozen letters to advise Ma Chao to stay calm and not to kill court officials without permission.

However, although Ma Chao was a bastard, he now controlled the military power in Kansai and did not listen to the advice of Ma Teng, a powerless old man. He was so angry that Ma Teng announced that he had severed ties with Ma Chao several times.

Therefore, Sun Ce only took away Ma Teng's title and reduced his fiefdom of 5,000 households.

The advantage of not killing Ma Teng is that this prince of the Kansai region was loyal and wrote a letter to his old ministry, asking him not to act as a coward, and to know his way back as soon as possible and submit to the imperial court.

As the most prestigious prince in the northwest, Ma Teng's letter reached Guanzhong, and people immediately surrendered to the court.

Liu Xiongming, a Nanshan bandit near Lantian, immediately sent an envoy to write a letter stating that he would not comply with Ma Chao's rebellion and was willing to surrender to the imperial court and welcome the king's troops to Wuguan.

However, his troops did not want to surrender, so they rebelled against him. All the refugees came to rely on him. Thousands of them were stationed at the Wuguan Pass.

Therefore, at this time, the handling of Liu Xiongming's troops and the ownership of Wu Guandao are related to the entire plan to quell the chaos and the people in the Guanzhong.

Zhou Yu personally led more than 60,000 troops out of Nanyang, with general Zhu Huan as the vanguard, out of Wuguan and into Guanzhong.

There is no doubt that the focus of the competition between the Song army and the rebels is not Tongguan but Wuguan. Song Ting's governance was in the south, not in the north. In terms of logistical supplies, the center of gravity was naturally in the south.

The rebels also blocked the main force near Wuguan Road. The main force was stationed in Shangxian and Shangluo lines, and they transported supplies along Danshui to maintain their front.

For the Song Army, this can be said to be an advantage and extremely beneficial.

The water network in Nanyang, Jingzhou, is much denser than that in Guanzhong. It is also Danshui. The water potential here is higher and it is more convenient to transport supplies. More importantly, Nanxiang, the important supply town of the Song Army, is closer to Wuguan, less than a hundred miles away.

And if the princes in Guanzhong want to supply the front line of Wuguan, they have to be hundreds of miles away.

Even if the Song army is exhausted, it will be enough to collapse the Guanzhong princes, and then drive straight in to sweep the Guanzhong army that has collapsed without food.

The Song army already had such an advantage, but it did not stick to one route. On the right, there were more than 30,000 men from Tai Shici, the general who conquered the west, marching along Luoyang to threaten Tongguan.

On the north route, there were more than 30,000 rebel general Xu Huang, who marched from the Fen River and wanted to cross Puban and the Wei River.

Any way along this route, it is a majestic formation that even the combined forces of the Guanzhong vassals cannot defeat.

And with so many elite troops gathered together, Zhou Yu had no intention of standing firm.

When the Song army arrived at Wuguan, they immediately fought with the rebels outside the pass.

Zhou Yu first sent Zhu Huan to challenge him with light troops. After a long battle, he was attacked by black armor cavalry and defeated them. In one battle, he beheaded Cheng Yi, Li Kan and other ten generals, and destroyed more than 10,000 troops.

The generals in Guanzhong were all frightened and fled back all night, abandoning countless grain, grass, cattle and horses piled up in Shang County on the front line.

The rebels lost most of their accumulated military strength over the years in one battle.

The main force of the Song army fought with the rebels for only a few days, and they destroyed more than 50 rebel camps along the Danshui River and defeated more than 30,000 defenders along the Danshui defense line in Guanzhong.

There is a huge gap between the two sides in terms of combat power, commander-in-chief and even bravery. The elite Song army only needed to dispatch 5,000 light troops to challenge, and the 20,000 rebels could not shake its defense line.

The Song army took the opportunity to launch a pincer attack with cavalry, advance with both foot and cavalry, and attack both internally and externally, easily defeating the entire rebel army.

The result of the defeat of more than 20,000 rebels in one battle was that the generals in Guanzhong were so frightened that they collapsed in despair.

Among them, the Qianghu are particularly timid.

In the past, they dared to cause chaos in Guanzhong. An important reason was that they were large in number and the size of the Han soldiers was limited.

Every time they fight, they can hit more with fewer hits.

When the Han army had the largest number, it did not exceed 40,000.

They can rely on one hundred thousand Qiang and Hu to gain an advantage over the Han soldiers in the battle formation, at least they are evenly matched.

But today's Song army is simply terrifying. Not only are they fierce and good at fighting, well-trained, but they are also huge in size and their red flags can block out the sun.

A huge army was deployed, with a numerical advantage in every battle. The rebels fought with them, never knowing whether there would be a new Song army ambush. Until now, the rebels could not even hold on.

The generals on the southern front were dying and fleeing, and the defense line collapsed.

It was not until Ma Chao led his army from the Wei River to Lantian Valley that he finally stabilized the defense line and blocked the Song army at the front line of Lantian Valley.

But even after blocking the Song army, Ma Chao was furious in the rebel camp and cursed angrily at the generals.

"Thirty thousand troops! Thirty thousand troops! The whole army collapsed within less than three days. Even if there are 30,000 stupid pigs, the Song army can't catch them all in three days, right?"

Yang Qiu and others looked pale and wanted to refute, but they really didn't know how to defend themselves.

The Song army was really unstoppable. The generals of the Kansai Army still tremble every time they recall the battle between the two armies.

Even if the battle happens again, they don't know how to win.

The Song army of 5,000 men challenged them with light troops. Could it be that the Kansai army could not resist? This is the best opportunity to defeat the enemy. If these five thousand people can be destroyed, their victory will be defeated.

If you don't dare to fight like this, give up Wuguan Road and let the Song army march out of Wuguan with a force of 100,000 troops safe and sound.

There is no need to fight the 30,000 rebels, they will definitely be defeated.

Being surrounded by a hundred thousand troops in the camp, the soldiers would be frightened and flee at night.

But when the two armies fought, the resilience of these warriors in the Song Army was simply terrifying.

More than 20,000 Kansai troops attacked fiercely for nearly a day, but the opponent also refused to retreat and firmly held the line.

The opponent's armor is bright, the array is thick, and the flag of righteousness cannot be pushed by a mob like the rebels.

As a result, the fierce battle continued, and the 20,000-strong army was held back. The opponent's cavalry made a surprise attack, and the 20,000-strong Kansai army was lost in one battle.

What can the remaining soldiers do if they don't flee?

So Yang Qiu could only say: "The enemy's army is huge and there are no reinforcements. It will be difficult for me to take the lead."

(End of this chapter)