Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 396 Chen Yonghua

When the strong man was threatening the scholars fiercely, he heard that the Duke of Chu was coming, so he knelt on the ground in fright. From the beginning to the end of this incident, he was the one who bullied the old and the weak. Even if the magistrate's concubine is the main wife, if Chu Guogong is angered, he may not be able to bear it and walk around.

Wang Yan walked into the inner circle, and the old farmer quickly knelt aside, "The grassroots salute the Duke!" Wang Yan glanced at the strong man who was kneeling and kowtowing, not daring to speak, then turned his gaze to the old farmer, and asked, "Old man What's your name, where are you from?" "Reporting to the Duke, the grass people are called Zhao Jiaren, from eastern Guangdong. After the Qing soldiers attacked back and forth, the grass people and their families fled to Guangzhou with their sheep." Wang Yan asked warmly, "How many people do you have now?" Sheep? Can the family survive?"

"Cao Ming originally had more than 30 of them, but lost more than ten of them when fleeing for disaster, and now there are ten more. Caomin heard that the emperor had arrived in Guangzhou, and thought that since the emperor had arrived in Guangdong, his hometown must be safe, so he planned to sell it. A sheep, in exchange for some copper coins to return to the hometown. Now the government supports our people in eastern Guangdong to return to their hometowns, as long as they return to their hometowns, they will definitely survive." Wang Yan nodded, took out five taels of silver, handed it to the old man, and said with a smile: "The money is accepted, and the governor Yang wants it. Go back to the east of Guangdong and live a good life. The governor will tell you a good news in advance. Today, the princes of the court have passed a resolution that the court will no longer collect agricultural taxes. The previous three days The payment will also be abolished as soon as possible.”

Hearing the words, the old farmer repeatedly kowtowed to thank, and the people around him also talked a lot.

At this time, Wang Yan was looking at the strong man who had completely lost his ferocity. He was just a stern and introverted bastard. .”

The brawny man was so frightened by Wang Yan's cold snort that he almost pissed and pissed, and kowtowed like garlic, "Duke atones, I know I was wrong, and I dare not do it again. Please forgive me this time, I won't do it again!" Dare!" Wang Yan didn't have time to entangle with him. Although this person was hateful, he didn't break the law, but he used the name of the prefect of Guangzhou to bully the weak but he had to guard against it. Send it to the Guangzhou government office and hand it over to the magistrate."

Wang Yan's move is also a blow to the prefect of Guangzhou. If he doesn't know the virtues of his concubine's elder brother, it's a reminder to him and let him take good care of his relatives. It was like a wake-up call for him.

Two soldiers immediately stepped forward, one left and one right dragged the strong man away.

At this time, Wang Yan waved his hand to signal the crowd to disperse, but he stopped the scholar and said, "What's Gong Sheng's name? Where is he from?"

"Late-born Chen Yonghua, whose name is Fufu, was born in Zhangzhou, Fujian, and his father, Chen Ding, was a Jinshi in the Kuiwei Division in the 16th year of Chongzhen." The scholar saluted a little excitedly.

Wang Yan raised his brows when he heard that he was named as Sun Shan in Kuiwei, but he had stayed in the capital for a long time, and happened to have some contact with Chen Ding, so he said happily: "It turns out that he is brother Mingjing's son, where is brother Mingjing now?" ? Fufu is here to attend the provincial examination?"

Chen Yonghua felt sad when he heard the words, and said sadly: "The Duke doesn't know, my father committed suicide when the Qing army entered Fujian, but this time Wansheng really came to take part in the provincial examination, but Wansheng felt ashamed of his father, he was released on the list a few days ago, and his name fell to Sunshan, Didn't win."

Wang Yan was shocked. He didn't expect Chen Ding to commit suicide. He couldn't help feeling sad. At this moment, he adjusted his mood and patted Chen Yonghua's shoulder, "Brother Ming Jing's integrity is admirable, and it will surely leave a lasting impression on history. Fufu does not need to be sad, as for the failure of the ranking, you can fight again in the next year. If Fufu has no other arrangements, I can recommend Fufu to study in the Imperial College for a period of time, what does Fufu think?"

When Chen Yonghua heard the words, his face showed joy. His hometown was occupied by Qing soldiers, his father committed suicide, his family property was taken away, and he would definitely not be able to go back to his hometown.

Originally, he escaped from his home, intending to vote for Zheng Chenggong nearby, but when the news came that the imperial court opened Enke, he changed his mind and came to Guangzhou to take part in the imperial examination, but he failed the exam unexpectedly.

Right now he has exhausted all his money and is not sure what to do in the future, Wang Yan wants to recommend him to enter the Imperial Academy, and he naturally immediately agrees, "The late student is willing to study in the Imperial College."

Wang Yan nodded and said: "It's getting late now, I still have some things to ask Fufu, why don't you stay at my house tonight?" Chen Yonghua nodded, Wang Yan asked his guard to give him a horse, and then Get on the horse and go to the mansion.

Back at the mansion, the soldiers went back to the barracks, Wang Yan took Chen Yonghua to eat together, after eating, he took him to the study, and said with a heavy face: "Just now at the market, Fufu said that money is expensive Silver is cheap, one tael of silver can only be exchanged for seven hundred Wen, what's going on?"

The Central Plains lacked silver, and copper was not much, so all dynasties relied on imports from Japan, and the Ming court circulated silver and money in parallel.

Under normal circumstances, one tael of silver is equal to one thousand Wen of making money, but since Zhang Juzheng's reform, the imperial court no longer collects in kind, and the state taxation has changed to silver. Farmers can only exchange money with grain and silk, and then go to Yinzhuang to exchange silver for payment.

This stimulated the circulation of the economy, but it also improved the status of silver. In addition, the state used more silver for government expenditure and large-scale transactions, resulting in less silver among the people, but the people needed silver to pay taxes, so it often resulted in a situation where silver was expensive and money was cheap. That is to say, one tael of silver can be exchanged for one thousand Wen, but in fact, one tael of silver can often be exchanged for more than one thousand Wen.

Wang Yan is well aware of the fact that silver is expensive and money is cheap, but this is the first time he has seen the phenomenon of silver being cheap and money expensive.

In the area of ​​Guangdong and Fujian, in the Ming Dynasty, due to the lack of arable land, it was necessary to find another way to feed so many people. Therefore, many people went abroad to do business. There were already a large number of Han Chinese in Nanyang in the Ming Dynasty.

It is because of the population flow and frequent trade that the young Chen Yonghua is more sensitive to these issues. He hardly thought about it, so he replied: "The land of Guangnan is now the only export of Ming Dynasty's foreign trade. A large number of Materials are transported from here to Nanyang, in exchange for a large amount of silver flowing in, and if there is more silver, it will naturally become cheap."

"Things are rare and expensive!" Wang Yan understood at once, and his face suddenly changed, "Isn't that equal to the value of silver, and is it decreasing?"

If one tael of silver is exchanged for seven hundred cash now, wouldn't that mean that Wang Yan's current assets have shrunk by [-]% in one fell swoop.

Chen Yonghua said: "Actually, the problem is more complicated. While a large amount of silver is flowing in, a large amount of materials are also flowing out. On the one hand, the value of silver decreases, and on the other hand, the price of goods in Ming Dynasty rises due to the outflow of materials. This will definitely cause some problems."

Wang Yan seemed to understand a little bit, "Is this one of the reasons why the imperial court banned the sea? Can Fufu find a solution to such a problem?"

(Thanks to Huamancheng 666 for the reward, I will routinely push the next chapter of "Yaoyuezhu" at [-] o'clock)
(End of this chapter)