Chapter 394: The news is revealed

Broken leaves, night has already fallen, Li Qing'an's inner study is brightly lit, a basin of charcoal is burning vigorously, and a series of sparks burst out from time to time, crackling, and a wisp of white smoke appeared in a copper stove at the corner of the room, and a faint sandalwood filled the room.

Li Qing'an was sitting under the lamp reading a book intently. He reached out to pick up the teacup and slowly brought it to his lips, but suddenly realized that the teacup was empty.

At this time, the door opened, and his side concubine Ruhua brought a cup of tea and walked in. Seeing Li Qing'an holding the cup of tea, she couldn't help but smile and said, "I'm here just right!"

She knelt down, put the tea tray on the table, and replaced a cup of hot tea with him. Li Qing'an frowned, "Is it ginseng tea?"

Ruhua smiled and said, "This is what my elder sister told me, you must drink it."

Li Qing'an put down the book and smiled and pushed the teacup to her, "You know I don't like drinking ginseng tea, this thing is easy to get angry. Go and change me a cup of Mengding tea or white water."

Ruhua put her hand behind her back, shook her head and smiled, "I won't do it. My sister knows. She will say that I can't even do this little thing. Otherwise, you drink the ginseng tea first and I'll cook Mengding tea for you."

"You just listen to my elder sister, but don't listen to me? I've told you that I'll get angry when I drink ginseng tea."

Li Qingan pinched her tender face and smiled and said, "Go quickly! Listen to me this time, I will reward you well tonight."

Ruhua glanced at him gently, "Hey! It's hard for you to serve, so wait a moment."

Ruhua's waist was gently swaying and she went out in a charming way. After a moment, she brought another cup of tea in, knelt down and handed the tea cup to Li Qing'an, "Brother, Mengding tea has actually been cooked for you."

While drinking tea, Li Qing'an hugged Ruhua and gently groped on her body. Ruhua snuggled in his arms, playing with a silver dollar on the table in her hand. At this time, she suddenly remembered something and quickly sat up straight and smiled, "I've given it to you during the meal. I have a suggestion about silver dollar. Do you listen?"

"What is the suggestion, please tell me."

Ruhua held the silver dollar in her palm and smiled and said, "Your Anxi silver dollar is good, but the currency is too big. A silver dollar is worth a lot of money. It's okay to buy a big thing, but if you buy some small things, such as two or three hundred pens, pens, inkstones, paper and inkstones, you can take two or three hundred pens and get out with two or three hundred pens, it's too heavy. Others ask you for seven hundred pens, which is even heavier. So we're talking about whether you can make some small silver dollars, such as a silver dollar worth about fifty pens, between silver dollars and copper coins, which is more convenient."

In fact, some officials have proposed the issuance of small silver coins, but considering that the counterfeit money will damage Anxi's reputation, it was rejected by everyone. Li Qing'an smiled and said, "Issuing small silver coins is easy to be counterfeited. Just like the imperial court issuing silver coins, if the imperial court issues one silver coins, ten same silver coins will come out outside. It is difficult to distinguish the true or false, and it will be despised in the end. This problem cannot be solved, so it is meaningless to issue silver coins."

"You can use other methods, too!"

Ruhua smiled and said, "For example, you can issue small silver horns, which are as big as a little finger, or square or in a pentagonal shape, small and exquisite, and you can tell that it is pure silver at a glance. You can't pretend to be faked, but you can't weigh it. It's different in weight! Or you can use a hole in the middle so that you can see that a silver horn is worth fifty or thirty cents at a glance. In this way, there will be a transitional coin between the copper coins and the silver dollar. Isn't that better?"

Li Qingan was a little stunned. Ruhua's suggestion was amazing! Using silver horns, why didn't he expect that it was difficult to be faked like broken silver later, and it was made into standard shape and weight, making it more convenient. This was simply a wonderful suggestion. He hugged Ruhua and kissed her in the face happily, "You are simply the goddess of wealth, I have adopted your suggestion."

Ruhua's eyes are as charming as silk, she stretched out her snow-white arms and wrapped them around Li Qing'an's neck, blew Ru Lan in his ear and said, "Brother, how do you want to thank him?"

"Little Goblin, what do you want!"

"I want you..."

Two fingers that were like jade onions were stretched out like a painting, and gently pinched the lamp flower, and the study room suddenly turned black.

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In Chang'an, a news spread quickly in the streets and alleys. The court was about to issue new silver coins, one silver, six lead, and three silver, one penny as thirty penny, and forced copper coins from various cabinets and shops were exchanged. The news spread like the wind to every corner of Chang'an City, and soon spread to the prefectures and counties in Guanzhong. For a while, Chang'an people were panicked, and various news spread in various public places such as wine shops, teahouses, etc.

‘The imperial court declared that the Anxi silver dollar illegal was to issue new silver dollars.

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‘This time the court will issue silver and money worth three million knots. If the people refuse to exchange it, the court will purchase grain to exchange it.’

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Various news quickly triggered a series of serious consequences. First, the run-off of various cabinet shops broke out. Not only merchants, but ordinary families who saved money in the cabinet shop also went crazy to exchange money, fearing that the copper coins they saved would become silver coins. In just one day, the Xu family cabinet shop, ranked fourth in the capital, was taken away 300,000 guan of copper coins. The copper coins in the inventory were swept away and had to close the door. The one million copper coins in Wang Baoji cabinet shop had already been exchanged, and they received an IOU of 400,000 silver dollars and 600,000 silver dollars. In this money withdrawal trend, Wang Baoji cabinet shop made a lot of money. Within two days, all 400,000 silver dollars were taken away. It made a net profit of 120,000 guan in two days. In the end, the money was taken away and had to close the door.

Secondly, Anxi silver dollar once again became the target of being chased by madness. Every household was scrambling to exchange copper coins for Anxi silver dollar, especially merchant shops, who were even more afraid of being forced to exchange by the court, and were trying every means to hide the copper coins into silver dollars. For a time, the price of Anxi silver dollar soared, and the black market price had risen to 100 to 500 yuan, and it was difficult to exchange. In this case, whether it was the counter or the shop, in order to protect themselves, they transported or hid the copper coins.

But the biggest impact was the price of grain. The consequence of the imperial court's issuance of silver in the past two years was that the price of grain doubled. People still remember it freshly. Inspired by the news that the new silver was about to be issued, a wave of rice robbery broke out in Chang'an, and every household went to buy rice. The rice price rose sharply. The most expensive Huzhou rice rose from 400 cigarettes per dou to 700 cigarettes in just one afternoon.

In the evening, the lobby of Guima Laixi's restaurant was quarreling. Nearly a hundred merchants eating here were clamoring for the new money law that the court was about to launch.

"Damn it, if you want money, you can cast copper coins. If you don't have money, you have to issue silver coins. I think they are crazy about money."

"Qin Dalang, you don't understand how many copper coins can be cast? How much is it like silver coins? One is fifty or one is one hundred. Isn't this money rolling in? How fast, do you think they are stupid?"

"You are wrong. Isn't this just issuing big money? It's better to issue big money directly. What is the Dali Chongbao? Isn't it faster to get fifty?"

"If you say you are stupid, just be stupid! They are shameless people, silver coins, do you understand? They are money minted from silver. In the future, the historian will write books and issue silver coins on a certain year, month and day. I heard clearly that it is silver coins, not big money."

"Lao Wu, don't talk nonsense, be careful of being arrested by the government."

"I'm afraid of nothing. If he dares to issue money, I dare to scold me!"

"Alas! The world is getting worse and the people's hearts are not old. I'm not sure that I don't understand these things for a while. I guess it's because of the slanderous ministers who are deceived will lead to using silver and money as big money."

"That's right! Didn't that Duzhi doctor named Diwuqi always advocate the issuance of big money? It must be this traitor who encouraged him."

"Riege!"

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There were shouting and cursing in the wine shop. Sitting in front of the window, a middle-aged man in his forties was sitting down and drinking with a slutty face. When he heard everyone's yelling, he was furious several times, but in the end he couldn't help it.

This middle-aged man was the traitor Di Wuqi who was scolded by everyone. Di Wuqi was a famous minister of finance in the middle Tang Dynasty. In history, he did two things to make him famous in history. One was to issue large money to plunder people's wealth. Of course, he just took the blame. The real motivation for issuing large money is that the superiors need to raise military expenses. The second was to promote the salt method, which is still in use today.

However, although his salt method was well thought out, it was a bit difficult to implement. The key was that the salt field was not under the absolute control of the court. The Jianghuai Salt Field was under the hands of King Li Lin of Wu, and the Bashu well salt was under the control of King Shu. Although the South China Sea area was under the jurisdiction of the court, the Jingxiang route was blocked by Li Mao, which made his salt method have a wonderful prospect, but it was difficult to implement.

Wu Qi's focus naturally shifted to issuing silver coins. This was something he was committed to promoting. Tomorrow is the day when the silver coins were officially promoted. However, the huge public boycott of the new silver coins movement made him extremely frustrated, and then he was extremely angry. The emperor strictly prohibited the disclosure of this matter repeatedly, but the news was still leaked. Who did this good thing?

While drinking a slutty wine, Wuqi listened to the angry scolding of the merchants, but various thoughts flashed quickly in his mind. At this time, a line began to become clear.

The emperor took one and a half months from considering minting silver coins to discussing and making decisions to preparing to formally promote silver coins. It took one and a half months. There was no news on the market in the past one and a half months. Although Anxi Guifang was closed three days ago, Di Wuqi believed that it was because the source of silver coins was cut off and had nothing to do with issuing silver coins. The news of issuing silver coins suddenly spread yesterday, which shows that someone deliberately destroyed it, and the time was very accurate, just two days before the official issuing silver coins, which also shows that this person knows the specific day of issuing silver coins.

There are only six people who know the issuance date. The emperor, Yang Guozhong, he, Pei Min, Yang Shenyu, and Li Mi. In other words, one of these six people revealed it. Who will this person be? The fifth Qi used the exclusion method to exclude one by one. The emperor cannot be, and he himself cannot, and Li Mi cannot. Then there are three more people, Yang Guozhong, Pei Min and Yang Shenyu. It should be said that they are all possible. Yang Guozhong's clan lady Yang Huahua is the main owner of the Yang Family Cabinet House of Chang'an's third largest cabin, and has a personal interest. The Shaofu Supervisor Yang Shenyu is the brother of Yang Shenjin, the Minister of Rites, and Yang Shenjin is the party of Zhang Yun. It is also possible that Zhang Yunshi Shi Lengjian, but the most suspected is Pei Min. Pei Min is Li Qing'an's wife's uncle. The issuance of silver will directly have a direct conflict of interest with Anxi silver dollar. If it was done by Li Qing'an, then Pei Min must have disclosed the news.

"Pei Min!"

Wu Qi gritted his teeth in hatred. He knew that Pei Min was a firm opposition to the issuance of money. If he could not oppose it, would he use this method to destroy it?

Wuqi could no longer sit still. He pushed the table away and stood up. He had already noticed that his friend ran up immediately, "Customer, do you want to check out?"

"Checkout?" Di Wuqi was stunned for a moment, and said unhappy: "How much does it cost?"

The guy held a list in his hand and said respectfully: "This man, I have two pots of ten-li fragrant wine, half a roast lamb leg, a stewed carp, a beef patty, a plate of seasonal fruits and vegetables, and a fragrant soup, a total of two jin and fifty cents."

Wu Qi took the bag into his hand, and there was only one handful of silver in his pocket. This was the money issued by Li Longji last year. He took out a handful of money and put it on the table, "Do you see if it's enough?"

The guy suddenly changed his face and shook his head and said, "Customer, our store does not charge cash coins, only Anxi silver dollars or copper coins. If the customer thinks that copper coins are not easy to bring, then use silver dollars to pay the bill!"

Wu Qi was furious. He knocked the table heavily with his index finger joint and said viciously: "This is the silver and money issued by the court. It is required by the law. Anxi silver dollars have been banned from circulation. Do you still dare to use it?"

His loud voice attracted the attention of a group of people. Everyone looked at the silver money on the table and then looked at Di Wuqi, as if they were looking at a strange man. No one had used the silver money half a year ago, and he actually took it out to pay the bill. It was obvious that he wanted to pay for the wine.

"Hey! Are you unreasonable?"

Someone started to stand up and accused Di Wuqi of the slaughter, "Who still uses money now? If the guy collects your money, he has to pay the money out of his own pocket for the wine. This guy has no grudge against you, why are you harming others?"

"Man, you just came down from Mount Zhongnan!" someone cheered.

There was a burst of laughter in the lobby. Di Wuqi was so angry that his face turned purple and could not say a word. The guy didn't let him go and said with a dark face: "If the guest has no money, then take off his clothes and pay the bill. Otherwise, we will go to your house to ask for it now. In short, if you don't pay, you won't want to leave."

At this time, the shopkeeper squeezed over and said, "What happened?"

The man quickly pointed at Di Wuqi and whispered to the shopkeeper: "This man owes two jin of wine, but he uses silver to pay the bill. I refuse, so he threatens me with the law."

The shopkeeper had some knowledge. Seeing that Di Wuqi was well-dressed and extraordinary, and there seemed to be no such figure among the Bai Chi Party recorded on the record, he couldn't help but think secretly, "No, he is a high-ranking official!" But the senior official should have a follower. This person came alone, and the shopkeeper couldn't make up his mind for the moment, but he was polite but couldn't miss it."

He stepped forward and bowed, "This customer, the shop is small and profitable, and cannot afford to owe money. This is how we send someone to go home with the customers to withdraw money. Everyone is kind and don't tear the face."

Wu Qi sat down with a gloomy face and patted the silver coins with his hand, "This silver coins are required to be used by the imperial court. If you are a hundred yuan per pen, will you collect it or not?"

"this......"

The shopkeeper is a bit difficult, and he must not collect money. If he opens this hole, all the free party will come to eat with money. He can't afford it. It is said that a bad person took advantage of this loophole and used money to force the sale. The middle-aged man in front of him would not be such a bad person!

Thinking of this, the shopkeeper bowed and said, "Master, even if this meal is invited by a small shop, we will not collect the money, please take it back!"

Wu Qi felt that he had suffered a great insult. The store actually ridiculed him for not having money to pay the bill. He could no longer control his anger and slapped the table and roared: "I am a doctor in the Tang Dynasty. Do you dare to insult me?"

The lobby suddenly became silent. After a long time, someone said coldly: "He is Diwuqi!"

"Fight, kill this traitor!"

Countless fists hit Di Wuqi, screaming and roaring, and the winery was almost overwhelmed by anger.

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On the west bank of the Yellow River in Youzhou, the long yellow sand is spreading to the west. This is the northern part of Helan Mountain. Hundreds of miles northward is the vast Langshan Mountain. A huge wind vent is formed here. Millions of years of wind and sand erosion have gradually formed a Gobi desert here. Occasionally, there are business travelers from the north, walking through the endless desert, crossing the Yellow River from here to the Tang Dynasty.

After the Anshi Rebellion, Hexi and Anxi were occupied by the Tubo people, and the Silk Road was forced to move north to Mobei. This road later became the main road of the Northern Silk Road. However, at this time, this was just a walkway for grassland merchants to enter the pass by by chance.

It was early November, the cold wind was howling, and the world was bleak. Winter was coming, and the earth was vast and looked particularly cold. The Yellow River was frozen, and the white and bright ice surface stretched north and south, like a bright jade belt. At dusk, a business trip came from afar, consisting of hundreds of camels, with huge wooden boxes on the backs of the camels. In the cold early winter, they slowly drove towards the Tang Dynasty.

The caravan has more than 500 people. The leader is a young man under 30 years old. He is burly, thick-eyed and big-eyed. His straight body can tell that he is a soldier. His name is Zhang Yongqing. He was originally one of Li Qing'an's personal soldiers. He is currently the second envoy of the Hanhai Army and is named Lang General. This time he was ordered to enter Beijing to send 1.5 million Anxi silver dollars to Chang'an. The road in Hexi has been closed, so they detoured the north of Mobei and passed through Juyanhai, the control of the Anxi Tang army, and prepared to enter the pass from here.

After entering the inner road of the pass, they would be broken into pieces, and the Han and Tang dynasties assisted them in Guanzhong. All the passes along the way had been arranged, and the key was to pass through the garrison area of ​​the Shuofang Army.

It is twenty miles away from the Yellow River. A new castle is built on the east bank of the Yellow River, called the Baisha Army. There are thousands of troops stationed in it. As long as they pass this castle, they will enter the hinterland of Youzhou.

At this time, a soldier pointed to the distance and shouted: "General Zhang, someone is coming in front of him."

Zhang Yongqing waved his hand and the camel team stopped. He straightened his body and looked into the distance. He had already seen movement in the distance.

After a moment, three knights ran back from afar and quickly rushed to the front of the camels. The three were not scouts he sent, but Anxi officials who came to open the road a few days ago.

An older official immediately bowed and said, "General Zhang has worked hard all the way."

Zhang Yongqing hurriedly replied, "Thank you, Judge Han, I wonder if there is any news?"

"We have already contacted some officers of the Shuofang Army. Guo Ziyi cannot pass it, but he can bribe the garrison officers below and enter the pass."

"Why don't you know what the situation of the White Sand Army ahead?"

Judge Han smiled and said, "As long as you are willing to invest, there is no obstacle that cannot be overcome. The Shuofang army guarding Baisha Castle is a Dangxiang person. The leader called Fangdangnunu. We have agreed that the price of 10,000 sheep can pass through his garrison at night. General Zhang, the gate has been opened."

Zhang Yongqing was overjoyed. He looked at the sky. It was almost dark. He turned around and waved his hand and shouted, "Go away and cross the Yellow River at night!"

The camel caravan set out again, and the camel bell rang and walked towards the Yellow River twenty miles away.

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Chapter completed!