Uncle Lai in the Red Chamber

Chapter 334 Stabilizing the Situation
The next day.

In the conference room of the Department of State-owned Enterprises, Lai Shangrong picked up the strong tea on the table and took a sip, finally gaining some energy.

"The scale of production and R&D this year has been greatly expanded compared to last year. The second phase of the staff dormitory project cannot be delayed. We must come up with a plan as soon as possible and start construction before next month."

"Sir! Now that the DPRK is in the middle of the court... let's slow down a bit to avoid telling the truth!"

It’s not that I want to go against Lai Shangrong. Those who were transferred to the State-Owned Department in the early days, except Chen Jie, did not have any background.

When Lai Shangrong took office, he grasped the big ones and let go the small ones. As long as they worked hard, they could all get a share of the pie. But once he fell, as the emperor and the courtiers, they, the old people in the state-owned enterprises with no background, would definitely not be as comfortable as they are now.

"No need! Those who are upright in this official are self-clearing. You can't look forward and backward because of these gossips outside. Even if the court finally transfers this official, you must stand on the last post!"

He spoke of righteousness, but in his heart he planned to coerce more people. After all, it was his personal interests to get a house, but it was none of his business to get one.

But as long as the plan for the second phase is released and the list is not announced, everyone has hope.

He had never thought about taking advantage of the workers' injustice.

It doesn't matter to him whether he is innocent or accountable, but the prerequisite is to save his life. Once he finds that something is not going well, he will not be soft when it is time to incite.

He even didn't hesitate to make some noise and muddy the water in the capital, waiting for an opportunity to escape.

"How's the silver coin going at the mint?"

"Return to your lord! According to your instructions, the first batch of silver coins totals 30 coins, with a total consumption of 15 taels of silver, and has been minted."

The money was misappropriated from the research and development funds invested in the company after the year. After all, it can't be used up all at once, so it's okay to leave it alone.

A silver coin is worth one tael of silver, but it cannot use a sufficient amount of silver. Otherwise, in the face of huge interests, it will inevitably be unstoppable and people will smelt it privately.

In ancient currency, there was always a situation where bad currency drove out good currency. What the people valued was only the precious metals in it, not the currency itself. Lai Shangrong wanted to gradually change this habit so as to better carry out currency reform.

Of course, in order to make it easier for the public to accept it, when promoting it, it must be under the banner of high purity, and the metal ratio of silver coins must also be simulated as much as possible.

He even desperately hoped that there would be some blind people who bought silver coins and went back to smelt them. In this way, each additional smelted coin would be equivalent to creating half a tael of silver value for the court.

Originally, he had not planned to implement it so early, but no matter which dynasty or generation, currency is the top priority for national stability.

Now that the wind is blowing loudly, this is also one of the chips in his hand to protect himself.

If it were implemented earlier, he would have one more means to protect himself.

"Establish an exchange bank in the capital as soon as possible. From now on, the commodities of the State-owned Department and the Salt and Iron Department must be delivered in silver coins."

As long as the silver coins are aligned with commodities such as glass, rubber, porcelain, tea, etc., implementation will be much simpler.

The difficulty lies only in the exchange. It is unrealistic to spread it across the country. We can only focus on the areas around the capital first and then gradually implement it.

"The bone china factory must speed up. From now on, all porcelain exported to the West will be replaced by bone china. The West is also required to exchange gold for silver coins of corresponding value at the exchange bank, and then trade with the state-owned company."

It may seem unnecessary, but it actually pave the way for pricing power and monetary power.

Seeing all his subordinates wilting, Lai Shangrong stood up and looked at the audience.

He raised his voice and said: "The reason why I am what I am today is firstly because of the appreciation of the emperor, and secondly because of my single-handedly building the State-owned Department and the transformation of new firearms. This is not something I got from being a corpse in the imperial court.

They are just a few clowns who have written a few impeachment memorials. Do you really think they can replace me?Even if I hand over the state-owned department to them, it will be good if they can maintain the existing stalls. How do you expect the follow-up of those research and development projects? "

Having said this, he paused and sneered: "If morality is not matched, there will be disaster. You know best how much money has been collected in the current research and development project and who is the investor. If there is a loss and compensation, who can afford it?" This responsibility!"

There is no exaggeration in his words. As the research and development projects are rolled out after the year, the state-owned enterprises will also be like a raging fire spewing fuel, and the slightest carelessness will cause fire.

He can control the general direction, so he is confident.

But looking at other people, not to mention the high-ranking civil servants in the court, even the old people working on the front line in the State-owned Enterprise Department cannot take care of all aspects.Not to mention currency reform, firearms improvements, foreign policy, and more.

This is why he is still in the mood to sow seeds.

Regardless of whether the emperor has a grudge or not, at least he will not take action now. This he also saw from the lifting of the ban in Yuanchun.

After listening to Lai Shangrong's words, there was finally energy off the court.

Lai Shangrong also turned and left, returning to the value room.

…………

Tongfu Inn.

Seeing Baochen coming back, Miaoyu stood up from the couch unconsciously.

"Back... come back!"

"Little... Miss! The concierge of Lai's family said that his master and wife have never heard of us, and told us not to come to the door again!"

"What?!" Miaoyu, who had just stood up, collapsed on the couch.

He murmured to himself: "How could this happen?... Could it be that we don't have enough money?"

Qi Chen pondered and said: "Miss Xing is the first child of the Lai family, maybe it's too tight! Now it seems that the only way to come is after Miss Xing gives birth."

"Yes, yes! Since I am about to give birth, I can't wait much longer. I won't refuse to tell you that I have a baby!"

Speaking of this, Miaoyu's expression suddenly changed and she said, "How much did you pay for that monk's robe? How much money did you give him?"

"If we pawned eight taels, the concierge wouldn't confiscate our money at all!"

After hearing this, Miaoyu felt relieved, but then she felt that she was acting too philistine.

"After all, it's troublesome for me, so... I can also pay for some tea!"

"I also want to have a good relationship. As long as we go to find Miss Xing, we can't avoid him. But we only have these eight taels of silver until Miss Xing gives birth, and we don't dare to spend it randomly!"

"How come you just pawned eight taels?"

She was not doubting Bichen, but thought that it would take eight taels of silver until Xing Xiuyan gave birth to her son. Thinking of the more than 20 taels last time, it didn't seem to take long.

The pawn shop is good at observing people's words and emotions. Last time, Bichen was wearing a good monk's robe. He didn't look like he was short of money, so he didn't dare to press the price too hard.

"The court said that the monk's robe was washed too much..."

Miaoyu was speechless for a moment.

In the past, not to mention the monk's robe that Bichen wore, it was the Qinglian monk's robe that he wore. It would have been unprecedented for him to wear it more than ten times without throwing it away.

"That's all! Just save some!"

"Well! Fortunately it's May. If it were winter, the charcoal fire wouldn't even be exposed to the cold!"

When Baichen heard these words in Miaoyu's ears, he felt extremely complicated.

It is indeed a blessing not to be cold, but with the arrival of summer, the weather is getting hotter, and now there is one less breathable monk robe...

I just hope that Xing Xiuyan can give birth to a baby soon, preferably before the dog days...

(End of this chapter)