"Meng Jian has learned your true teachings. This plan is well used and many people are put into it. The best thing is to keep it without any trace."

Sun Ce closed the good news he had just received, put it on the table, and looked at Guo Jia with a smile. After receiving Taishi Ci's good news, he learned that Meng Jian had ambushed Liu Bei, and Guo Jia came to report the good news as soon as possible. Taishi Ci and Gongsun Du swept the grassland, the Xianbei people who depended on Liu Bei, and the Wuhuan people dared not go south. Qingzhou and Yanzhou were greatly reduced, and they were able to find Guan Yu. Liu Bei's heart was thorny.

As for Gongsun Fan's death, it was just a side benefit. Gongsun Fan died in battle, and Gongsun Xu became Gongsun Zan's only heir. He was alone and was subdued by Taishi Ci. However, from Meng Jian's original intention, he most hoped that the person who died in battle should be Gongsun Xu. Maybe he would also secretly give the help to the Arc Cavalry and let the water go at critical moments. However, Gongsun Fan was cautious and did not let Gongsun Xu take risks, and he became a scapegoat.

"King, Gongsun Fan died in battle, and the Liaodong vassal state can be abolished."

Sun Ce nodded. The Liaodong vassal state was abolished, and Taishi Ci could directly control the manpower and material resources. The Liaodong vassal state included the Yu River and the downstream of the Liao River. It not only had a fertile land and was suitable for farming, but also a distribution center for sea and road trade. At that time, I didn’t know what the officials of the court thought, and assigned such a good place to the Hu people to live in. Can you get peace by cutting flesh and feeding tigers? What a naive idea. Those Confucian scholars used the Naijing strategy to attack the Hu people, but cruelly suppressed the Yellow Turban Army. I really don’t know what they thought.

"Abolishing the vassal state of Liaodong is only the first step, and reorganizing the defense of Liaodong is the key. Although the Xianbei people were severely damaged, they were not injured at all. Be careful and don't expect to achieve their contributions in one battle."

"The key to preparing for the border is to select generals. With Taishi Ci in, Liaodong is safe for the time being. However, the safety of Liaodong is not a long-term solution. I think that when setting up a martial arts lecture hall in Liaodong, focusing on cavalry warfare, and cultivating more cavalry generals. In addition, the equipment of cavalry must also be improved. The secret of stirrups cannot be kept for too long. Can we rely on the wisdom of more people."

"That's right, but it all requires money." Sun Ce smiled bitterly: "It's the end of the year soon. How much of the five-year plan has been completed will be made public soon. To be honest, I feel a little upset. However, compared to the report card of the first five-year plan, I am more worried about whether the second five-year plan can be implemented smoothly. Fengxiao, our biggest problem now is money, we need more money. The gap between gold and copper is very large."

Guo Jia was also a little scratched his head. The problem of money shortage has always existed, but it has never been as serious as it is now. Revitalizing industry and commerce, developing the economy, and the rapid increase in the total economic volume has exacerbated the money shortage. There is not enough money to be circulated in the market, and prices have been suppressed. Many bulk goods can only barter, which seriously affects the progress of transactions.

Even after being supplemented by Hanshui Sand Gold and issuing treasury bonds replaced part of the circulation of funds, Sun Ce was still short of money and a lot of money. It can be imagined that with the further development of industry and commerce, the currency gap will become larger and larger. If it is not resolved as soon as possible, deflation will be inevitable. Recently, he has been considering sending Cai Mao to sea to find gold. With sea boats, more effective ways of advancing, and a certain degree of mastery of hydrology along the way, especially the emergence of insurance, the conditions for going to sea to sail are basically met, so it is time to encourage some people to go out to sea to take risks.

He now regrets that when he was reading history books, he did not pay enough attention to technical history, only pay attention to the style of civil officials and military generals, and not pay enough attention to the details behind history. In fact, historical books also mentioned the shortage of money, such as the severe lack of Wuzhu coins, Dong Zhuo issued small money, and later transported copper materials from Chang'an. The disappearance of huge amounts of gold in the Han Dynasty was a familiar historical mystery. If he could go deeper, he would not be so embarrassed.

The gold he could think of now was related to the tomb. The tomb of King Xiao of Liang and the tomb of Marquis of Haihun all contained a lot of gold. Cao Cao was in Yanzhou for too short time and had not had time to set up a lieutenant to set up a gold-touching lieutenant. Should I make up for this gap? But if I think about it carefully, even if these two tombs are dug, it would be a drop in the bucket. His current currency gap is in units of one billion. Digging one or two tombs will not solve the problem at all, unless he dug all the large Han Dynasty tombs.

In contrast, it is enough to leave the defense of Liaodong to Taishi Ci to worry about. Taishi Ci is steady, and with Meng Jian and Zhuge Jin, he is not as reckless as Gan Ning, and is not cautious in doing things. He can always cause a lot of trouble while making contributions. Because He Kui was opposed by half of the military's plan, even Shen You and Xu Kun planned to write a letter to impeach him, but he was stopped by Pang Tong. In order to appease the Ru Ying faction's emotions, he had to let a few more people go out.

This account will be settled with Gan Ning again.

Sun Ce and Guo Jia discussed the situation in Hebei. Taishici held Liu Bei and Yuan Tan did not have any cavalry reinforcements, so he stopped in the plains. Shen You, Xu Kun and Gan Ning were able to clean up the Yanzhou family and make a smooth progress. At most half a year, Qingzhou could be firmly in his hands. Now wait for Ji Ling to complete the training of the new recruits, launch the Yanzhou offensive, and complete the siege of Jizhou.

But how to fight Jizhou has not yet made a definite plan, and at least it will take until all Yanzhou is taken. Jizhou's strength is by no means comparable to Yanzhou. Qingzhou is also proactive in attacking, and it is inevitable to siege the city. It is initially estimated that 100,000 people will be used, and at least half of the nine governors will participate in the war. There are too many people and many contradictions, and just coordination of relationships is a headache.

Too many things were mixed together, which made Sun Ce feel that he was not smart enough. He just regretted that he had little study and had incomplete knowledge system, especially economic and financial theory, which was almost blank, and could only be discussed in general and could not be applied to reality.

Guo Jia had just left, and Yu Fan walked in quickly, went to the hall to take a seat, pushed a few pages of paper in front of Sun Ce, poured a glass of water himself, and took a big sip. Sun Ce glanced at him and held back his laughter. The end of the year is the final review stage of the five-year plan, and taxes need to be completed as much as possible so that the data can be better. However, the taxes of the maritime merchants are not easy to collect, and many problems must be solved for them, especially the shortage of currency and the deflation caused by insufficient currency has affected their profits. Yu Fan has been arguing with them for several days.

"Are you finished arguing?"

"How can it end so soon? I left the table halfway and hung them for a while. King, this is the end of this year's plan. The expenses are very big, and I can't make ends meet. Once released, I guess the response will be great." Yu Fan looked at Sun Ce and was worried. "If there is no reasonable explanation, someone will jump out to fight the war, especially Zhou Gongjin's journey, with a 30,000 army, a 30,000-mile expedition, and a 3 billion yuan a year, but there is no real profit. If it is not done well, it will become a military force. Even Jizhou must give up considerable benefits."

"They said freedom, and they decided to do it. When will it be their turn to worry about the battle?" Sun Ce frowned and looked at Yu Fan with some concern. "Zhongxiang, have you been led by them?"

Yu Fan smiled bitterly and said, "King, if the ministers do not put themselves in their shoes, how can they know what they are thinking, and how can they be targeted and convince them? Just as the matter is, the expenses for several concessions are indeed too large, and money and grain are difficult to support, and there is insufficient taxes, so I can only borrow money from them. Now the prices are so low, whether to borrow money is calculated by money or by grain, there is a big difference here. Not to mention that they are very particular merchants, even the ministers find it difficult."

Yu Fan took another sip of water. "King, I received the news that new money has appeared in Nanyang. Someone is making a profit for us to cut our meat because we are short of money. If we cannot deal with it in time, we will be in vain and we will be working for others."

As he said that, he took out a Wuzhu coin from his arms and placed it in front of Sun Ce. Sun Ce took out the new money and bought it very lightly. You can tell at a glance that the portion is insufficient, the face value is Wuzhu, and the weight is at most Sanzhu. Smart people are always short of them. Han people value profit and the variety of stealing coins is only what you can't imagine, and there is nothing they can't do. It would be strange if such a big flaw is exposed in front of them. In the long run, this will attract more money, but in the short run, it is definitely a loss-making business.

The steps are too big, and the eggs are being pulled. The problem of currency shortage comes too quickly and fiercely, far exceeding his expectations and must be solved as soon as possible. Even if you take some risks, it is worth it. You can't watch others cut their losses.

Sun Ce gritted his teeth and made a decision. "Zhongxiang, I have an idea that maybe it can solve this problem."

Yu Fan's eyes lit up. "King, what are your tricks?" He said so much in front of Sun Ce, hoping that Sun Ce could have a good solution. He had already considered the conventional methods, and there was no solution, so he could only hope that Sun Ce would win by surprise.

"Build a batch of gold coins for bulk transactions."

"How to prevent counterfeiting?" Yu Fan asked in response. Whether it is a gold coin or a copper coin, as long as the face value exceeds the actual value, there will inevitably be a problem of forgery. How to prevent counterfeiting becomes the key. A large face value of gold coins is ten or even a hundred times the actual value, which is enough to make people crazy, and even if they catch it and kill it, they cannot be stopped.

"Using the alloy process recently developed by Huang Dajiang, we can create a batch of alloy coins that cannot be copied in the short term to temporarily solve the urgent problem. You can refer to the government bonds and register each alloy coins. Every time you change the holder, you need to go to the government to register and file. Once it appears where it shouldn't appear, it can be judged as a counterfeit currency immediately. In this way, the face value can also be made larger."

"Is there such a process?" Yu Fan expressed doubts.

Sun Ce hooked his fingers. Zhen Xiang walked over and placed a brocade box on the table. Sun Ce opened the brocade box, took out an alloy piece from it, and handed it to Yu Fan. Yu Fan took it and looked at it repeatedly. The alloy piece was not big, but it was a circle larger than the Wuzhu coins. The color was not pure gold, white, a bit like silver coins or iron coins. The surface was smooth and light could be seen. On one side, there was a pattern of a phoenix as fire, and on the other side, it was the character Wu. It was the unique logo of the Iron Official of Wu State hosted by Huang Chengyan. Many exquisitely made weapons were included. With such a logo on the weapon, it means that this weapon was personally supervised by Huang Chengyan, and all those who obtained it regarded it as a treasure.

Yu Fan himself has such a long sword.

"Can this be anti-counterfeiting?" Yu Fan still felt that it was not reliable. The coin surface was smooth, the characters and phoenix patterns were also very clear, and it was difficult to imitate it, but it was definitely not impossible.
Chapter completed!