Three Kingdoms

  Chapter 1275 A new strategy hidden under Tongbao

After Yuan Jun's defeat, Fei stayed in the Huguan area for a period of time, and met with the gentry Haoyou in the Shangdang area headed by the Linghu family. After reassuring and motivating him, he left Zhang Xiu to strengthen the Huguan area After defending the Taihang Mountain area, he led the soldiers back to Pingyang.

   After all, Qiuhuo is very important, so we still need to keep an eye on it.

Moreover, Yu Fuluo's attitude on the side of Yinshan Mountain is also a key point of Fei Qian's precautions. However, before Yu Fuluo, Fei Qian still needs to arrange the things at hand. The most important project is to use the economic and trade The Jiaozi system has been upgraded to the Tongbao system.

  Fei Qian also holds a few Tongbao in his hands, rattling around with his left and right hands, and somehow finds some bad habits that later generations will tremble when they are rich, um, a good habit.

The earliest Tongbao was forged by hand, that is, a hammer was used to place the coin in the upper and lower two pressing block modules, and after beating and beating, it was considered completed. Due to the balance, it is easy to form uneven edges and different thicknesses from top to bottom.

It is not easy to directly use the production mode of later generations of coins. First of all, it is difficult to do it in terms of process. In addition, there is no hydraulic press that can withstand dozens or hundreds of tons to forge coins. Hydraulic forging is carried out, and the simple crank linkage method is used to press the coin embryos softened by quenching and pickling, and the final formed coins are more like the appearance of later generations.

   How many will not have the urge to pick him up...

Tongbao, or coins, are of three qualities, gold, silver, and red copper, and then four kinds of specifications. Gold and silver are both of one type, and red copper is of two types. Each of them is of different size. There are two kinds of three baht and six baht.

Because the Qin system was still adopted in the Han Dynasty, twenty-four baht was one tael, so Feiqian simply removed the five baht coin, which is very strange, for the convenience of calculation and to reduce the possibility of his own coins being expelled by bad coins. The unit of quantity, directly use the specifications of three baht and six baht, which are easier to round up into integers.

Of course, the actual weight of the coin is not enough, only about 90% of the weight, and the metallurgical process of the Han Dynasty is not very good, almost 80% of the texture can be called pure gold and silver, so in fact, the coins made by Feiqian The real texture of Tongbao is only about 70%.

  Using gold and silver as coins was not pioneered by Fei Qian. In the early Han Dynasty, there were silver coins of various shapes that continued to be used, but not as many as gold. In the fourth year of Yuanshou in the Han Dynasty, due to the use of troops against the Huns and financial difficulties, according to Zhang Tang's suggestion, while issuing the white deer skin coins, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used the silver and tin accumulated in Shaofu to cast the third grade of platinum, that is, silver coins as the Han Dynasty coins. Commemorative coins, one is a round dragon coin, also known as Baixuan, Baiyan, round with dragon patterns, weighing eight taels, and worth three thousand. One is the square ringgit, which is square and has a horse pattern, weighs six taels, and is worth five hundred. The last one is the oval turtle coin, the meat is round and square, the coin looks like a turtle, and the tortoise shell is used as the coin character. It weighs four taels and is worth three hundred.

  Not to mention gold, horseshoe gold, lin gold, gold sentence, etc., have all appeared, and they were even more common than silver in the Han Dynasty.

In the Han Dynasty, silver and gold were actually called gold, just like red copper. However, because the output of silver and gold was relatively small, they were generally used as raw materials for luxury goods to make utensils, and even if the emperor made In most cases, the gold coins and silver coins issued will also be enshrined, and they are rarely put into the market for use.

Although the royal family of the Han Dynasty often rewarded members of the royal family with large amounts of gold and silver, but in fact they were not seen in the market at all, and because the Han Dynasty paid attention to funeral factors, many of the gold and silver that were rewarded were also given by their owners. After death, burial followed, which eventually led to the existence of high-value metals that did not exceed copper coins on the market, and also provided the source of disasters for those who were so popular.

  Fei Qian doesn’t have much silver on hand, but gold...

If Yinshan Xianbei hadn't attacked Feiqian, Feiqian would not have sent Zhao Yun to tour the Northland, and it would not even be possible to see the primitive and natural gold nugget ornaments on the Xianbei colorful scepter. That one gold mine.

  According to geography, the gold mine that was discovered should belong to the later generations of Inner Mongolia?

  Probably, anyway, gold is generally enough at this stage.

Although it is said that the official exchange rate of gold and copper coins in the Han Dynasty was that a catty of gold equals 10,000 yuan, pay attention to the Han catty, but in fact, from the Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty, private casting was repeatedly banned, and a large number of stupid economic strategies that used ten as a hundred led to Copper coins have depreciated greatly, so the amount of one gold exchange far exceeds the official exchange rate.

  After Feiqian created the Gold Tongbao, plus he has control of the gold mine, if it can be used in an all-round way, it is equivalent to controlling the lifeline of the invisible economy, and even in the future, there will be some additional benefits...

Zaozhi also looked at these Tongbao upside down, looked at the patterns of these Tongbao with great interest, and then weighed each of them, and then said: "Junhou, this...um, Tongbao, is really exquisite, I don't know how much it is worth? "

  Fei Qian picked up the gold tongbao, and said, "This is the reason why I invited Zijing to come here... This coin is worth half a tael, how about five stones of fine millet?"

Zaozhi raised his head, blinked his eyes a few times, and pulled his fingers again, and said, "So, one catty of gold is one hundred and sixty stone millets? Hmm...it seems a little higher, but it's not too bad. many…"

   Fei Qian smiled and nodded. In the Western Han Dynasty, if a stone of grain was worth tens of dollars, it was too cheap, and if it was hundreds of dollars, it was too expensive. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, hundreds of dollars are considered cheap, and now they cost thousands of dollars. Feiqian It's still better, but it costs about eight or nine hundred yuan a stone, so if gold is directly linked to copper coins, and a fixed exchange rate is adopted, then no matter how much it is set, it will lead to the emergence of bad money driving out good money, either driving out copper money or driving out gold.

  So Fei Qian simply linked it directly to the grain.

It’s like saying that there is no inflation, no depreciation, and everything is within a reasonable range, within the control range, and within the original plan. A series of proper nouns such as CPI and GPI are fascinating, but as long as the Basically, seeing how much food can be purchased with the same amount of coins, it is clear whether the coins have depreciated or not, and whether there is inflation.

People live on food, not on the value of coins. Under normal circumstances, the amount of food that can be supplied for a stone is relatively stable, so when Fei Qian directly links the price of gold to food, it is equivalent to Let the price of gold have a fixed standard.

  As for the future, it may be tens or hundreds of years later, when the society is stable and the grain grows in a large amount, the possibility of gold devaluation will also increase. But right now, grain is a hard currency, just like oil at a certain stage in later generations.

   This is the result of the value and competition between items.

   And doing so has great benefits, that is, it is convenient for Fei Qian to conduct transactions with the surrounding princes. After all, with a fixed standard, everyone will accept and agree with it.

   It’s just that Zaoyi still has some doubts, fiddled with these Tongbao and said: “If someone else made it privately, what should I do?”

   Feiqian pointed to Tong Bao, and said: "If you talk about excellent appearance, the location of the workshop is not bad, but if someone wants to melt copper for private casting, he can do it, as long as the value is the same."

  Zaozhi frowned, thought for a while, but couldn't quite figure it out, but since Fei Qian acted confidently, Zaozhi didn't say much about it anymore.

  Fei Qian knew in his heart that imitation must not be banned. The Han Dynasty had no way to prohibit private casting, let alone the princes of Feiqian.

But the weight of gold and silver is there. Although the weight is only 90%, the practice is basically the same, and Feiqian's Tongbao has patterns on both sides, and it also adopts the structure of the round sky. There are inscribed patterns on the inner and outer contours to prevent the edge from being trimmed and stolen, and the shape is naturally better than the original five baht coins.

As for Tongyuan Tongbao, the most widely used copper coin, there is not much difference in weight between the six baht coin and the original five baht coin, so it cuts off the possibility of being melted and stolen. Some five baht coins are cast to imitate the six baht Tongbao here in Feiqian.

Most of the exquisite five-baht coins in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, that is, the five-baht coins of the three officials have disappeared. During the period of "four out of five baht", the weight was more or less sufficient. The so-called "four outs" means that the money screen draws out a straight line of Yangwen from the four corners of the square hole to the outside, which is a preventive technique to prevent the back of the money from being filed and stolen from the copper.

  But the five baht coins minted by the subsequent princes are not as good as one. What should be ten or one hundred? What Dong Zhuo has done, Cao Cao has done, and Liu Bei has done.

  So Fei Qian is not afraid of imitation by others at all, even at this stage when coins are widely used, imitation is welcome.

  Hands up, warm welcome.

In other words, Feiqian is now casting six baht coins, which has depreciated by less than 20%. In addition, exquisite craftsmanship also requires cost, so it can actually be regarded as a perfect substitute for the original five baht coins. From the perspective of weight, Feiqian's six baht coin is a "bad coin". If the princes from all over the country compete to imitate it, it means that the original normal five baht coin, the "good coin", will eventually be expelled After leaving the market, what is left in the end is the six baht tongbao formulated by Fei Qian.

   As for how many six baht tongbao the princes of various places make is not the key, the key is the price that Fei Qian set at the beginning to replace five stones of corn with one gold tongbao.

"Zijing, take advantage of the time of autumn harvest and the opportunity to collect taxes from all over the country to build silver shops in Pingyang, Anyi, Huguan, Jinyang, Lishi, Linjin, Huaili, Chang'an, and Nanzheng. , arrange personnel, and start exchanging Tongbao," Fei Qian said to Zaozhi, after all, Zaoyi's reputation among ordinary farmers in Bingbei is still very good, so he used Zaoyi's reputation to influence the entire five baht coins and Jiaozi's Replacing and upgrading naturally became Feiqian's best choice, "I have ordered the county guards to cooperate with Zijing and handle it together with the Agricultural Society. I don't know if Zijing has other questions?"

  Zaozhi thought about it for a while, and felt that the problem didn't seem to be a big one, so he nodded and took over the matter. Although Zaoyi really doesn't know anything about economics, Zaoyi even feels more used to it than Jiaozi as the Tongbao that Fei Qian took out. After all these years, no matter if it is a man or a woman, they still like money. The bag feels heavy, the wallet is too light after all...

And in Zaozhi's view, Fei Qian just changed five baht coins into six baht coins, which is considered a benevolent government. So Zao only thinks that it is not a big problem to push it.

"By the way," Fei Qian suddenly thought of something, after all, he had promised before, "Zijing, send someone to bring some millet wine to Huguan in Shangdang. During a certain battle with Yuan Jun, the post-war general Zeng Yun gave him a jar of wine. Well, I will also give an altar to Gong and Wei, the second captain."

   Of course, Zaoyi had no problem with such trivial matters, so he wrote them down, and then said: "Your Majesty, this General Yuan..."

As Zaoyi who was born in Yingzhou, how could he not know the strength of the Yuan family in Shandong? Hearing that Fei Qian defeated Yuan Jun, Zaozhi was both happy and worried, so he couldn't help asking, mainly because he wanted to know Fei Qian's follow-up strategy for Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu.

   "The thief of impermanence, only the benefit of eternity." Fei Qian said with a smile, "I don't know if Zijing can hear this statement?"

  Zaozhi touched the tip of the goatee that was gradually growing out on his chin, pondered for a while, nodded, and said, "Well... this statement makes a lot of sense... what the king means... Yuan can also drive it away?"

Fei Qian laughed, and said, "Why not? It's not worth the effort, but the price is insufficient! War horses, weapons, armor, leather goods, and even Zhuanghe's fine breeds are all what Yuan needs. Combining them will benefit both, and dividing them will benefit the Yuan family." Two defeats, in the current situation, if Zijing is the Yuan family, what should he do?"

With the decline of Chang'an Luoyang, Pingyang has completely replaced these two places, becoming the largest business center in the Han Dynasty, and for the Hu people, there is a relatively close, relatively fair and safe trading place, who would be stupid? Deng's running farther to trade with unfamiliar guys with bad reputation?

  So under such circumstances, the Hu merchants who originally flowed to Jizhou and other areas were basically cut off. If it weren't for the caravan sent by Fei Qian, these areas could only rely on self-sufficiency.

"By the way, even so, there are contingencies in everything..." Fei Qian looked at Zaozhi and said, "A certain has passed on a letter to Yuanzhi, you can welcome his mother, go along the north of Jingxiang, pass Wuguan to Guanzhong, son If you respect...you may wish to write a letter, if your father wishes, you can go together, and you can take care of me on the way..."

  Zaozhi listened, and couldn't help being taken aback, then nodded.

This matter can be regarded as a place for Fei Qian to plan ahead. Xu Shu's mother was originally in Jingxiang. Although it is said that there is a high probability that there will be no problems under the care of Mr. Pang De, but Mr. Pang De is getting older. Simply let Mr. Pang De take over as the leader of the Shoushan Academy's grand sacrificial wine, so if Mr. Pound leaves Jingxiang, the situation will naturally change...

   I wish all readers a happy new year! Thank you for your company all the way. With your support, the author's perseverance is the only way...

   Best wishes to all readers. In the new year, there will be many red envelopes and good luck!

   Happy family, good health, all the best!

  (end of this chapter)