...

"Credit coins? But how can there be any extra money to mint coins now? Zhen Sidao, the national treasury has already had a huge deficit, but you don't know what to use to mint such excellent coins now?"

Zhen Sidao's proposal aroused Wei Ran very dissatisfied. He now wanted to break a penny into two, so how could he spend more energy and material resources to mint coins? Moreover, this fire consumption is a considerable expense, so where can I raise the money?

Unexpectedly, Zhen Sidao did not retreat when facing Wei Ran's anger, but lowered his head and said confidently: "Your Majesty, it's not too late to get angry after hearing what I said.

This Hanling Tongbao can be used for two or three months. The Hanling Hou gave Weichen a solution to the current dilemma, which is worse than..."

When he said this, Zhen Sidao was stunned, carefully stepped forward, and said to Wei Ran: "It is better for the court to use this as an example to mint new coins and solve financial problems.

As long as the court agrees, minting a coin as an old money and serving hundreds of people, and ordering the people under the jurisdiction of the capital to only have one currency to circulate in the market in the future. Wouldn’t it be that there would be money to pay military salaries and pensions for large-scale military personnel?"

Wei Ran nodded thoughtfully, but then asked again: "But, the treasury does not have so many new copper coins minted..."

Zhen Sidao said: "Your Majesty, it is not necessary to use copper to cast coins. The treasury is short of copper, but tin, lead and other materials are extremely surplus. These useless things are piled up. It is better to exchange for a fortune to relieve your anger..."

Wei Ran nodded again and asked uneasyly: "Isn't that deceiving the people and causing the court to lose credibility?"

Zhen Sidao smiled and said, "Your Majesty, you have been worried too much. This new currency was issued by the court. How can the people not accept it? If they do not accept it, they will be disregarded!"

Wei Ran stood up and paced back and forth in the imperial study room, pondered for a while, and finally made up his mind and said to Zhen Sidao:

"Okay, you and Zhang Fuguo will do this coin together. The first batch of new coins will be distributed in Shendu City first, and after it is feasible, it will be promoted to the provinces in the capital and even the entire Great Zhou..."

Zhen Sidao hurriedly thanked: "Please rest assured, my subordinates will definitely do this job..."

Yes, after the discussion between the king and his ministers, the already cold mint was once again lively, and the "Big Zhou New Coins" with a thumb thickness of 15 grams were born.

But Wei Ran would never have thought that this coin minting completely exhausted the last bit of the people's credibility of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

...

December 18th, early morning, Shendu City...

The central city of the empire after the war has really recovered a lot of vitality compared to two years ago, but compared with Wei Zhen's reign, it is like the cold winter, and it seems much more depressed.

The people in the capital were originally registered for 3.8 million, but now the people in the capital have reduced their 1.4 million people due to the robbery and destruction of the Xia people. Some of them were disappointed to leave the capital, some went north to find traces of their daughters being plundered by the Hu people, and some went south to find another way out.

In short, the gods now have completely lost the prosperous atmosphere of the dynasty's heyday, giving people a broken scene where the building is about to collapse and can't be supported by a single tree.

"Bang bang bang bang~~"

On the streets of Shendu, a loud gong sounded, waking up the people in the city who were still resting. Zhang Fuguo personally led the official officer to ride on the bleak street.

"Hear, the emperor's decree, starting from now on, the new coins in the capital will be issued. The original coins must be replaced by the royal bank for a five-day period. The overdue old coins will be invalidated and cannot be used again. Those who violate the order will be severely punished and will not be borrowed!"

The official wielded a copper-skinned trumpet and shouted three times in a row, then walked towards the next neighborhood, and posted notices in conspicuous places from time to time.

On the 3rd day, the money house for the copper coins exchanged in the outer city of Shendu was already full of people who were preparing to replace the new coins. When the hour of Mao arrived and the door opened, the crowd of black people squeezed in.

"I'll come first, exchange money..."

In front of the counter where the coins were exchanged, a scholar in his thirties, who was in his thirties, immediately called out to take out a bag of copper coins from his sleeve, and said to the office holder inside.

The official took the purse and ordered the amount. Then he took two new coins from the plate on one side and went to the scholar...

"What's going on?" The scholar took the two crude big money and asked suspiciously: "Are you mistaken? Is that a full 200 cents!"

The little official who exchanged money heard this and glanced at the scholar and said, "It's not wrong. One new coin can be used as an old coin for 100 coins..."

The scholar frowned and looked at the two square-hole coins with extremely poor quality in his hand with disbelief. He couldn't help but return them and said, "I won't change them, I'll give me the money back. How can I use such bad money?"

The little official said disgustedly: "Sorry, the new currency is only exchanged but not refunded. Do you still change it? If you don't change it, there are still people waiting to change it behind you!"

The scholar was so angry that his face turned red and said loudly to the minor official: "It's outrageous. How can people use this kind of bad money? I'm afraid there is no copper, it's all filled with lead?"

After saying that, he raised the two new coins in his hand and shouted to the people lined up behind him: "Look carefully, can this newly issued coins from the imperial court be used as one hundred quotas? Look quickly..."

The scholar's shout immediately attracted the attention of the people. After everyone looked carefully, they realized that the so-called new currency was a large-sized lead-filled petal, so how could it be used?

"If you want to exchange for such a broken money for one hundred cents?"

"The whole thing is lead..."

"Can you use this kind of money?"

"What's the difference between this and cheating people?"

"No more change, go around..."

The people who were disappointed to line up for money exchange saw this scene immediately became noisy and turned around and walked out of the money shop.

"Slow down!"

At this moment, Zhang Fuguo shouted loudly and led a large group of soldiers to surround the money house, blocking the crowd that was about to leave.

I saw him coldly glance at the long queue in the bank, then snatch a new coin from the scholar, holding him up and saying:

"Tell you, this is a new currency issued by the court, and you must use it. If you dare not use it, you will deceive the emperor and the emperor. You will be disrespectful to the court and the emperor!

Let’s put the ugly words here first. From now on, the entire capital’s transactions will be replaced by this kind of coins. The original copper coins will be invalidated. Anyone who dares to disobey will be severely punished!”

Looking at Zhang Fuguo and his soldiers emitting a solemn atmosphere, these people endured their anger and dissatisfaction and continued to line up to start exchange for the new coins...

For five consecutive days, under the pressure and supervision of Zhang Fuguo, the first batch of newly minted coins had been exchanged, which finally began to enrich Wei Ran's already empty treasury, and finally alleviated the problem of insufficient military pay.

However, the impact of this incident was extremely negative. Although Wei Ran's finances were temporarily abundant, this approach was even more cruel than robbers, and unknowingly plundered the wealth that the people had accumulated with great difficulty.

The circulation effect of the new currency can only be described as a terrible one. Those coins that are shoddy in quality and workmanship cannot be traded at all. The silver price in the entire market soared. Vendors refused to trade with new currency and only accepted silver or exchanged goods for goods. The price of grain has risen to one tael of silver per bucket, which made the entire capital city feel resentful.

However, Wei Ran was obviously very satisfied with the benefits that the new currency could bring to him. Without understanding the public sentiment, he issued the second batch of new coins again at the end of December.

This time, it was even more excessive than before. It was directly exchanged for one thousand copper coins or one tael of silver for one new coin. It was also a loss that the printing technology was only mastered under Liu Ce's rule. Otherwise, the amount written on the treasure banknote would be simpler and more crude...

Amid the whistling sounds, although Wei Ran gained a lot of wealth from the people, the method of only unilateral exchange of currency completely lost the last bit of credit the people had to the court.

Merchants do not charge new coins and only want to trade them with silver. The new coins exchanged by the people cannot be used, which directly led to the rise in prices in Shendu City several days and the economy instantly fell into a semi-paralyzed state.

The people who felt that they could not live on and the merchants who could not make profits began to flee from the capital of Shen one by one, and even some aristocratic families moved one after another, leaving the capital as if they were fleeing.

By the seventh day of the first lunar month, more than 400,000 people were missing in the Shendu City. Yao Zhong, who found that the situation was wrong, hurried into the palace to report the truth to Wei Ran, and ordered the Imperial Army General Xiang Zhifei to immediately control the Shendu City Gate to prevent the loss of the people.

...

"... Emperor, I beg you to stop issuing new coins quickly. Since the issuance of new coins, the people in the city have been resentful and have left the capital and rushed to another place. Now the entire Shendu City is in a bleak situation. I beg the emperor to abolish the new coins and money policy..."

In the imperial study of the palace, Yao Zhong expressed his heart to Wei Ran the adverse effects of the new money, hoping that Wei Ran could stop this self-cutting practice.

Unexpectedly, Wei Ran said to Yao Zhong: "Chief Yao, what do you mean? The issuance of new coins fills the national treasury, which is just used to pay the military pay of the three armies. There are still some surplus, so why stop issuing it?

What's more, when I issued the new currency, I had already stipulated that each new currency could be used as the amount exchanged for the old currency, so how could the public be resentful and escape from the gods?”

Yao Zhong said: "Your Majesty, please forgive me for saying that the new currency is filled with too much lead, and its amount is far less than a hundred.

People in the city are unwilling to use it, and vendors also refuse to accept new coins, causing prices to soar. Because old coins cannot be used, they are forced to be exchanged for new coins.

The vendors were unprofitable, so they naturally found another way to make a living and fled the capital of Shendu. As for the remaining people, those who could run away had already run away. Even those who stayed were mostly tortured by the New Currency Policy.

I beg the emperor to abolish the new coins. If this continues, the people in the entire capital will probably not even be able to buy charcoal fires, and they will freeze to death..."

Wei Ran felt that things seemed to be out of control, and got up and walked back and forth in the imperial study room. After a long time, he asked: "Yao Yushi, what you said is the truth?"

Yao Zhong bowed and said, "Everything that I said is true. If the emperor does not believe it, you can go out of the palace to see it yourself. The entire 17 counties of the Shendu City are deeply harmed by the new coins, the emperor!"

Wei Ran thought about it carefully and hurriedly said to Yao Zhong: "Civil Secretary Yao, what you said is that the people have fled to Shendu and left? Then do you know how many people have left the city since the issuance of the new currency?"

Yao Zhong took out a book of this article from his sleeve and submitted it to Wei Ran:

"Reporting to the emperor, I have roughly estimated that there will be no less than 400,000 people leaving the capital of Shendu. This is the most conservative number of Weimin. We have to wait for the General Inspection Office to report it before we can know..."

"What? Four hundred thousand!" Wei Ran was shocked and asked with wide eyes, "It's just a conservative number? You can take me out of the palace for a tour..."
Chapter completed!