A century-old family that runs through the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 14 Wu Guogong

July.

Marshal's House.

Zhu Yuanzhang was sitting on the main seat, with his generals, officials and ministers standing below. Even if he looked carefully, there were many soldiers standing behind these senior officials. At this time, the entire mansion was full of people.

"What are you guys doing?" His face was full of doubts.

Li Shanchang took the lead, followed by Yan Ling, Xu Da, Chang Yuchun and others. At the same time, they knelt on the ground, cupped their fists with their hands, and shouted:

"We respectfully invite you to ascend to the throne and become the Duke of the country."

As if in response, just after they finished speaking, the soldiers at the rear spoke in unison, the sound so loud that it almost resounded throughout the city.

Li Shanchang lowered his head and raised a tray high. There was a seal inside. If you turn it over, you can see the four characters "Wu Guogong Seal".

Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to be very shocked when he heard what everyone said, with a shocked expression on his face.

"No, we are ministers of the Song Dynasty (Han Song Dynasty). How can we arrogantly claim the title of Duke without the order of the King of Ming Dynasty? Please retreat quickly, don't trap me in injustice!"

He glared angrily and yelled loudly.

"I haven't heard of King Ming's extraordinary achievements, but I have seen him enjoying glory and wealth. We conquered Taiping and attacked Jiqing, but we didn't see any of King Ming's soldiers coming to help. If that's the case, why should we care about him!"

Chang Yuchun was the first to speak, with a look of no scheming and unobstructed speech, but Yan Ling knew that although this person was not deep in the city, his political attribute was only 78 points. Compared with Zhu Yuanzhang's 95, Li Shanchang's 92, and Xu Da's 90 , even my own 83 is far behind, but it is not too low. This appearance at this time is naturally fake.

But when Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, his face turned red, veins popped up on his forehead, and he looked like he was about to get angry. After all, he was still nominally a subordinate of King Ming. Chang Yuchun said this, and it would be unreasonable if he didn't express anything.

But before he could say anything, Yan Ling had already said loudly:
"We are all ministers of the superior. Since the uprising, we have never heard of a Ming King. The superior has treated us with as much kindness as a mountain, and we don't know how to repay it, which is why we are doing what we are doing today. If the superior does not accept it today, we will kneel down and die. it's here."

After saying this, Yan Ling knelt down in front of Zhu Yuanzhang and bowed to the ground.He naturally knew that Zhu Yuanzhang did not actually want to scold Chang Yuchun, so he simply exposed the matter and expressed his position further. Sure enough, he felt Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes of approval.

The generals in the rear said in unison: "Please ascend to the throne of the country, otherwise we will kneel down and die here."

After finishing speaking, they all fell to their knees on the ground.

Zhu Yuanzhang covered his forehead with his hands, seemingly helpless. He sighed several times, and finally could only compromise:

"Even if it is what everyone wants, I can't refuse, lest I make others look down upon me. Anyway, I will accept the position of Duke today. If King Ming gives orders in the future, I will definitely abdicate in favor of someone worthy of my honour."

In July of the 16th year of Zhengzheng, Zhu Yuanzhang was supported by the generals and was appointed Duke of Wu, and he was granted a great title to all ministers.

Yan Ling was appointed as the counselor, alongside Li Shanchang, as the second civil servant, with the same position as Xu Da and Chang Yuchun.
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"My lord, of course we can use the Dragon and Phoenix Tongbao and issue another currency on our own, but you can't just print it directly. Wouldn't this be similar to the emperor of Yuan Ting?"

Yan Ling stood in front of the table and said helplessly, holding a piece of white paper in his hand, which was covered with patterns, and three big words were written in the middle: Ten Thousand Dollars.

Li Shanchang and Zhu Yuanzhang stood aside and looked at him with confused eyes.

Just now, Zhu Yuanzhang quickly walked into the offices of Yan Ling and Li Shanchang, took a piece of paper and shouted: "Baoshi, Baishi (Li Shanchang's character is Baishi), the money has been made."

"Dong Guo, we can issue coins." Li Shanchang was also very happy. "Hurry up and arrange for people to print, collect all the official banknotes circulating among the people, exchange them, and then print hundreds of thousands of them. It just so happens that there are pensions and rewards recently, and some of them are not enough."

Li Shanchang hesitated for a moment: "My lord, is there something wrong with giving out money like this... There should be a limit."

"How to limit it?" Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were very innocent.

Li Shanchang said "Uh-huh" twice, but couldn't say anything.

But once Lao Zhu came to power, his true nature was exposed.This guy is scared of being short of money. Now when he gets the chance, he will just print paper money to death.

Although Li Shanchang was good at political affairs, after all, he was a small official before, and he was proficient in Legalist knowledge. Although he felt something was wrong with Zhu Yuanzhang's behavior of giving out money, he couldn't explain why.

"My lord, money is not worth as much as you print."

Yan Ling had no choice but to step forward. If Lao Zhu was allowed to mess around, the financial system of the new Wu Guogong regime might be as bad as that of Yuan Ting.

It’s not like you printed a message of [-] yuan on paper, you really want to be the messenger of [-] yuan.

You might as well use the Dragon and Phoenix Tongbao issued by Han Song Dynasty. At least they are made of real money and made of copper.

"My lord, we need to have reserves when issuing banknotes. Banknotes are not like gold and silver. They have no value in themselves. They are all supported by the credibility of the court."

"What is the credibility of the court? If the people hold ten thousand yuan of banknotes and can get ten thousand yuan of gold and silver from the court, this is credibility."

"If the people can't exchange so much, even if you issue 100 million or 1000 million, the actual value of the banknotes will not be that much. Look at the Zhizhengbao banknotes, who among the people is still willing to use them? This means that the court has completely lost its credibility. The banknotes it issues are just pieces of paper.”

After finishing speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang was still a little confused, but Li Shanchang's eyes suddenly shone with light.

"You mean, how many gold, silver, and copper coins do we have to issue currency worth?" Li Shanchang had a little understanding of this Tao. At this time, he understood the point immediately. He patted his thigh with his hand and suddenly realized it.

"Exactly." Yan Ling nodded.

"Yes, yes, Ruixuan is really a great talent. My lord, thanks to Ruixuan this time, otherwise the two of us would have been in great danger!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was still a little confused. Is there any relationship between the two?In his impression, doesn’t it mean that as much money as you print can be spent? (In fact, he never figured it out until his death. Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, a pair of currency-printing madmen, tossed the Ming Dynasty's banknotes until no one wanted to use them. Poor Renzong and Xuanzong also tried to pull the Ming Dynasty banknotes back from the cliff. They died laughing. Can't do it.)
After some explanations from the two great civil servants, he nodded in understanding.

"So, we can't just print money?" Zhu Yuanzhang was a little depressed, and his dream of getting rich was in vain.

"Yes, Lord."

"In this case, the issuance of banknotes will be suspended." Since he could not print unlimited money, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately lost interest in it. He planned to just use copper coins, gold and silver, like other heroes at that time.

However, a smile soon appeared on his face again, and he patted Yan Ling's shoulder with his hand: "Ruixuan is really my son Fangye!"
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PS: I don’t know if what I said about the reserve is right. If there are any mistakes, I welcome you to point them out.

　Thanks to "Zhu Youxu" and "Book Friends 20211230185636734" for their recommendation votes.

　　


(End of this chapter)