It was a hazy white expanse, with fog all around. I couldn't see clearly where I was, but this place seemed very familiar.
A ragged old woman appeared in front of him, walking slowly and staggeringly in front of him.
Then Luo Mengzi's round head appeared in front of him, looked at him with trusting eyes and said: Brother, for your ambition, I will follow you.
Suddenly, both of them had blood on their faces.
Guo Shao suddenly woke up and found a strange girl lying next to him. The scars on her left eye and cheekbone quickly reminded Guo Shao of who she was. He felt a little difficult to breathe. When he looked around, he saw red candles swaying, silk curtains hanging low, exquisite furnishings, and a red silk quilt that looked rich and noble.
Your Majesty, your hands are shaking. Yuqing also woke up.
Guo Shao took a deep breath, calmed himself and said: It's okay, it's just a nightmare.
Yuqing looked at him suspiciously. Guo Shao pretended to be calm and said: I have led soldiers in battles and killed too many people. It is inevitable that they will come to me in my dreams occasionally.
But Guo Shao could no longer sleep. His subjects often praised him as a heroic ruler, but Guo Shao knew very well that his psychological quality was not very good, lacking a certain open-mindedness or ruthlessness of a king. For example, Cao Cao, the hero, said that he would rather betray the world than be betrayed by the world. In the blink of an eye, he could kill his old friend who warmly entertained him because of a little suspicion. Guo Shao could not do these things without any pressure.
In the morning, he got up early, changed his clothes, and hurried to the Jinxiang Hall. Because today was the third day of the third month, the West Hall and the Council Hall were in session.
Guo Shao didn't sleep well, so he felt a little dizzy, and the most obvious thing was that he had bags under his eyes. But he was still able to handle it calmly in the Council Hall, because the twenty or so people who came were all ministers he was familiar with.
Today's topic is crying poor. The Ministry of Works is rushing to repair the river bank before the Yellow River flood season and is in dire need of money; the Ministry of War is transferring grain and cloth from various places to pay the imperial guards and the imperial guards, believing that this method will cause huge losses in transportation and that the supervision process is very difficult. The Ministry of Revenue suggests that gold, silver, copper coins, silk and other things that are easy to transport should be taken from the royal treasury to make up for the shortfall in the treasury.
Guo Shao did not hide it and said directly: There is no money in the inner treasury.
Prime Minister Fan could not help but bring up the old topic again. He first said how serious the task of repairing the Yellow River was, which was directly related to the safety of the people in the capital and countless counties. Then he mentioned that he saw the imperial guards drinking wine and visiting brothels on the street.
Generals, you should really go out of the capital and see how the common people and soldiers live.
Shi Yanchao said coldly: Mr. Fan, you only see people eating meat, but you don't see people fighting desperately. Mr. Fan, why don't you go to the front of the battle and see what it looks like
Li Chuyun and Shi Yanchao had no disagreement on this issue. Li Chuyun immediately said calmly: After I followed Your Majesty back to the capital, I had nothing to do, so I did travel around.
Just five or six days ago, I saw an old man working as a laborer by the Yellow River. Seeing that he was old and weak, I asked him why he didn't let the young and strong people in his family do the labor. What do you think of his answer
Everyone remained silent and waited for Li Chuyun to speak.
Li Chuyun said: The old man said that he had a son in his old age, and the eldest son in the family was only twelve or thirteen years old and could not bear the hardship of repairing the river; but the wealthy families paid bribes to the county officials, and in order to gather enough people, the county officials had no choice but to conscript poor families like them.
Fan Zhi was furious after hearing this and said: "General Li, please ask which county and which official took the money. I will personally investigate the matter and punish him severely."
Li Chuyun said: Mr. Fan believed that punishing a petty official would change the situation where officials were greedy for money and exploited the people.
Shi Yanchao smiled and said, "That's a good point. Brothers, you followed the government and risked your life. The reward is the emperor's food, which is better than being a sneaky person who bullies the people."
Guo Shao listened for a long time and became a little impatient. The Ministry of Revenue minted coins by exchanging grain, copper mines, etc. for copper coins, which was a loss-making business; this was not a big deal, as the materials collected from taxes in various places were relatively abundant anyway. However, the coins minted now were completely a drop in the bucket. The copper coins used in the treasury were transported by carts, and the demand was too great.
He also couldn't come up with money. He also realized that the strategy of centralization of power to strengthen the trunk and weaken the branches had more advantages than disadvantages, but once the old military system was changed, all aspects would be affected, and there would be many problems in implementation.
Since the imperial court has great power, can the state finance not pay for it? Of course not, because this is not a slave society, and we cannot forcibly plunder and enslave the people in various industries without compensation, otherwise society will regress. If the court officials want to do things, they have to spend money.
The ministers could not decide who was right or wrong, but Guo Shao could not say that there was nothing he could do because he was the emperor and he had to maintain a steady attitude.
Guo Shao immediately spoke up:
Everyone stopped arguing, and the Council Hall became quiet for a while.
Guo Shao said calmly: "In recent years, we have rarely heard of droughts, floods, natural disasters, famines, etc. Generally speaking, the weather is good everywhere. Last time, Zan Jurun proposed the mature manure method, which greatly improved the harvest. As long as people in the world have food and clothing, everything is not a problem, there is always a way to solve it."
When everyone heard this, they thought it made sense. After all, no one would starve to death, so how serious could it be? Isn't this the truth? Everyone bowed and said, "Your Majesty is wise!"
Today's meeting is over, so let's go. Guo Shao waved his sleeves.
Guo Shao left the table and went to the study, where he saw Jingniang waiting for him.
Jingniang came forward, took out a piece of metal from a cloth bag and placed it on the table. Guo Shao didn't wait for Jingniang to speak, he reached out and took it to examine it. It was a very strange thing, it looked like ore, but it was obviously melted metal. He didn't recognize it for a moment.
This is silver, Jingniang said.
Guo Shao was a little confused about the silver and felt that it was very unlike the other silver pieces, because silver is at least white, but this piece of silver was grey.
Jingniang said: "The things that the military officials brought back from Dongdao were purchased from Dongdao Shanyin Road. After the officials of Jiafang Office looked at it, they said it was silver, but it was just rough silver. There were silver, lead, copper and other things mixed in it, which made it poor in quality. It may be because the people of Dongdao Shanyin Road are not yet able to refine silver, so it is like this."
Guo Shao suddenly understood and asked: "There are many mines like Shanyindao.
Jingniang looked slightly embarrassed: I don’t know either.
Guo Shao pondered again, "They can't even refine silver, so their mining skills must be very poor. But they can produce silver ore in blocks, so it must be an open-pit silver mine. If we dig deeper, we will definitely get something."
Guo Shao was playing with the thing in his hand, and for a moment he seemed to see a white light in the darkness.
He had no doubt about the silver mines in Japan. With the development of information in later generations, he saw somewhere that Japan had gold and silver mines; and at this time, the sporadic investigations of the ancients once again verified this information. So Guo Shao felt that it was more credible.
Guo Shaodao: You should personally meet those spies who have been to Dongdao, and then report to me. In addition to the news of precious minerals, you should also report all the information about Dongdao's national politics, military, population, ships, etc., as long as you can find out.
Jingniang clasped her fists and said: Yes.
Guo Shao stood up, paced back and forth behind the screen, and rubbed his hands together a few times. He suddenly felt a little impatient, and was tempted to be anxious. Just when he was extremely poor, he suddenly found a mountain of gold and silver. This feeling was like a person who had been hungry for three days and saw a delicious chicken leg, and he couldn't help himself.
Cash that is easy to transport can solve many of Guo Shao's problems.
Especially for the brothers of the Imperial Guards, Guo Shao would certainly not listen to the proposals of some civil officials to reduce their treatment. There are two reasons: First, those brothers were encouraged by him to fight for the country and the people, and fought for their country with all kinds of bright and noble righteousness. Guo Shao really couldn't bear to treat them badly. Second, the policy of recruiting soldiers to strengthen the trunk and weaken the branches that he implemented required sufficient financial support from the central government of the court. Because he couldn't give them fiefs, he had to give them other benefits.
Where does the money come from to issue paper money? It is absolutely impossible. In history, the adhesive paper of the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty's treasure notes all failed and proved that paper money cannot be used without a professional financial system. Establishing credit is also a problem. At the beginning, no one accepts the value of a piece of paper; when a lot of effort is invested to establish the credit of paper money, it is easy to destroy it with the current backward system. Anyway, it is a laborious and not very good thing.
Using precious metals, such as gold, silver and copper, to mint coins can solve all the side effects. It has value in itself, and for thousands of years, people have accepted its value.
Guo Shao seemed to see piles of golden copper coins and white silver coins coming out of the workshop in batches and transported directly to the national treasury. He was rich and powerful, and he could do whatever he wanted in the future. He could use troops whenever he wanted.
His emotions gradually became agitated. Although he appeared calm on the surface, his walking around and making some trivial movements exposed his inner unrest.
Guo Shao turned around and said: Come, summon Han Tong to the audience.
The eunuch's voice said: I obey your order.
The power of money is still very great, and it can directly affect the military strategy of the entire Daxu Dynasty. Guo Shao now feels that the Liao Kingdom and Hexi are not the most urgent opponents. Even the superpower Liao Kingdom does not dare to take the initiative to provoke Daxu. First, they have just lost the battle of Youzhou, and second, the battle of Pingxia has also intimidated them. They can temporarily slow down and rob the mountains of gold and silver, but it is urgent.
Guo Shao was short of money every day. If it were up to his personal wishes, he would definitely want to occupy Shanyin Road next month and dig some out of the gold and silver mountains to solve the urgent problem. But it was just a thought, and it still took time to prepare. The key was that Dongdao was too far away from the current Central Plains. The East China Sea was wide and stormy. It was not that they could not win, but that they could not reach it.
But Guo Shao had already made up his mind and was determined to find a way to go mining.
Sorry, I haven't updated for two days. I'm really prone to writing problems now, and sometimes I need to think carefully.