Zhao Bing knew that issuing new notes is not only a major event that concerns the national economy and people's livelihood, but also an extremely cumbersome thing. He could not answer the questions raised by the two of them for a while. But the matter has reached a point where it has to be solved. As the king of a country, he has no room for retreat, and he cannot show cowardice. He can only face the difficulties until the problem is solved.

Since he was determined, he had to go on firmly. Zhao Bing wrote down the questions of the two, pondered for a moment and sorted out his mind. He divided this work into three stages: early, medium and late stages. Then he disassembled the three tasks one by one, gradually refined them, and implemented them in every department and every person until the plan was completed.

The first thing to be determined is the project leader. The Ministry of Revenue and the General Accounting Department were the two major departments in charge of wealth in the Song Dynasty. Of course, they were the main body, and they must be the dominant ones. Zhao Bing knew that changing currencies had a great impact on the economy and people's livelihood. If the news leaked, it would inevitably lead to panic, trigger rush purchases, and lead to price fluctuations. Of course, speculators would also take advantage of this opportunity to make profits. Therefore, the most important thing at the moment is to keep it confidential and strictly prevent the news leaks.

"The issuance of new currency is related to the national destiny. There is no need to say anything about the difficulties, but we cannot retreat when we see them. This matter should not be widely known. I plan to prepare for this matter with the two first, and report it to all provinces and ministers after we have a look. No word must be disclosed to the outside world before. Violators will be severely punished." Zhao Bing thought it through and glanced at the two of them in a deep voice.

"I am obeying the saint's order and wishing to share my worries!" The two of them stood up and bowed together.

"Okay, sit down!" Zhao Bing said, "The issuance of new coins is complicated, and it is difficult for us to complete the three monarchs and ministers alone. After you go back, you secretly draw experienced officials to form a preparatory team. The staff should be more refined than many. The main part is Chen Shangshu and the head of the manor is the deputy, and the presidency is in charge of this matter. I will arrange a safe and secret place as an office place to carry out preliminary preparations. At this stage, you only need to be responsible to me and do not disclose a word to anyone else, including the left and right."

"Yes, I understand!" Chen Zeweng bowed and said, "What is the task of the preparatory team at the moment? Please tell me."

"The current main purpose is to determine the style and value of the currency, find out the exchange rate in various places, make sample money, and formulate corresponding plans for reference!" Zhao Bing said.

"Your Majesty thinks it is a metal coin to issue paper money, and what kind of metal is used?" Zhuang Shilin asked after hearing this. He knew that this kind of thing was not something that one of them could determine. All of this needs to be decided by the emperor. It is best to ask clearly now.

"Paper currency is economical and convenient, easy to carry and circulate, so it is not suitable to imitate, but its own currency value is low, so it is not suitable to gain market trust; metal coins themselves are relatively high, so it is easy to gain market trust, but their own weight is relatively large, making it difficult to carry. However, simple manufacturing is easier to imitate than paper currency, and once the metal used is short, there will be a risk of illegal collecting and melting, causing insufficient circulation!" Zhao Bing first analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of metal currencies and paper currency, but he felt that metal currencies had greater disadvantages.

"I think it is still necessary to focus on paper money. Its manufacturing cost is low, easy to carry, and can save the required metal for making weapons. As for using metal as currency, I think it needs to be cautious!" Zhao Bing knew very well that according to the law of bad coins driving out good coins in the "Greshin Law", if the value of metal coins themselves is low, it is easy to be made. If the quality is increased, it will exceed the value of the currency itself, which will lead to currency smuggling. This has been repeatedly banned in the history of the Song Dynasty and has serious consequences.

"Your Majesty, my subordinates think that paper money should be the main one and copper coins as supplementary. After all, huge amounts of copper and iron coins are still circulated in the public and markets. If it is abolished once, it will cause uneasiness. People either grab the exchange or retain copper and iron coins as savings and circulate them privately, which will affect the implementation and circulation of new coins." Zhuang Shilin's merchant was born as a merchant, and it is easy to find the disadvantages. Thinking about it, "So my subordinates think that they should still mint a batch of good-quality copper coins to exchange for circulating copper and iron coins. Such imitators will naturally not do it without profit. The high value of new coins is easy to gain the trust of the people and facilitate the promotion of new coins!"

"Your Majesty, issuing new coins is of great importance. Have you listened to the opinions of other magistrates?" Chen Zeweng was a little hesitant and asked for instructions.

"Don't think about others, just say what do you think is the best?" Zhao Bing looked at him and said with a smile.

"Your Majesty, I think the owner of the manor has a good proposal!" Chen Zeweng hesitated and said.

"Since both of you said it is feasible, it is right, so paper money is the main one and copper coins are the auxiliary ones. The guys in the court are not proficient in this, but they dare to talk nonsense as long as they ask them. In the end, they will not decide for a long time, which will lead to a big mistake!" Zhao Bing slapped the table and decided.

"Okay, let's follow Your Majesty!" Chen Zeweng said with a smile.

"Shangshu Chen's words are wrong. I have followed you. If you make a mistake, you will be held accountable. You must not be blamed on me!" Zhao Bing smiled with a stern face.

"Haha, my subordinates are willing to take all their responsibilities!" Chen Zeweng bowed and smiled. He said this, but in fact he knew very well that the little emperor was definitely not a person who shirked responsibility, and would not let his subordinates suffer for themselves.

"Your Majesty, since that's the case, I still want to invite someone to join in to help speed up the progress!" Zhuang Shilin said at this time.

"Do you want Director Zheng to participate?" Zhao Bing understood after listening to it for a while.

"That's right!" Zhuang Shilin nodded.

"Is Zheng, the affairs bureau chief? He is also familiar with this matter!" Chen Zeweng asked in surprise. In his impression, Zheng Huchen was an extremely mysterious person. He rarely appeared in the eyes of the people. He never showed up at meetings of all dynasties and had no contact with the ministers in the court. However, he knew that he was very trusted by the little emperor, but no one knew what he did. It was rumored that he was specialized in collecting intelligence and was in charge of the most secret intelligence agencies in the Song Dynasty.

"This..." Zhuang Shilin looked at it but did not dare to answer. He also realized that he had made a mistake, and he did not dare to say a word without permission.

"Don't doubt Chen Shangshu. Some of these things involve a secret in the court. If they are leaked, they will cause an uproar and even endanger the country. However, if you handle this matter together, it will indeed be a great help. I will inform you of the assistance and you should let you know about it. But don't leak it out, so as not to cause disaster!" Zhao Bing thought for a while and said.

"Yes, I will keep your Majesty's instructions in mind!" Chen Zeweng said with politeness. He knew that it would be best not to involve the secret matters of the royal family, nor to try to spy on it, otherwise he would not know how to die.

Zhao Bing nodded without saying anything more. He thought that although Zhuang Shilin's words just now were abrupt, they were not without reason. You should know that making a fake coin is real, now it is real money. Even in ancient times, it was not a simple thing. In fact, modern times have continued the practices at this time in some aspects. The coin making has been the highest secret of the country since ancient times, and very few people know the core secrets. However, after the fall of Jiangnan, the craftsmen in the coin making field belonging to the court had already fled. It would be very difficult to reorganize and put into production.

Because of lack of money, Zhao Bing had to use the method of making non-stop money and started to create counterfeit money. In the eyes of the scholars and officials, this kind of thing was a matter of robbers and dogs being robbed. It was untolerable, which forced him to operate under extremely confidentiality. He participated in all the processes, so he could be called an "expert" and knew the difficulties.

First of all, to prevent counterfeiting, the banknotes issued in previous dynasties used special materials and mixed with other substances to make banknotes, which made it difficult for ordinary people to obtain. Jiaozi of the Song Dynasty was made of mulberry vouchers, so paper money was also known as "milion bark". The Yuan Dynasty mainly used mulberry paper for making banknotes, and its production was also very complicated. First, peel off the mulberry bark, take out a layer of extremely thin inner skin between the mulberry bark and the mass, soak it horizontally, then pour it into a mortar, mash it into pulp, spread it out and pressurize, and then dry it into a banknote paper.

It is precisely because the government adopts monopoly measures on banknotes that objectively limits the source of raw materials for counterfeiters to a certain extent. Although it cannot completely eliminate counterfeiting, it can curb the emergence of counterfeit money. However, when the new dynasty uses raw materials similar to the old banknotes of the previous dynasty to print new banknotes, counterfeiters will purchase large quantities of waste banknotes of the previous generation and use pulping as the materials for making counterfeit banknotes. Therefore, it is difficult to eliminate counterfeit currency by relying solely on raw material restrictions, and there must be a series of other corresponding measures.

The most common method is to draw more complex patterns so that counterfeiters are not easy to copy and imitate. The pattern of the Song Jiaozi version of the bill consists of "wooden figures" and "shops and houses, each with secret words, and the red and ink are intertwined", which becomes a good anti-counterfeiting method. The pattern of the bill for the Jin Dynasty is relatively complicated, with dragon and crane patterns painted around the shape of the bill for the early period, and the pattern of the bill for the later period is "a railing outside and a pattern". The pattern of the bill for the Yuan paper is divided into two types: sidebar patterns and Qianguan patterns. The sidebar patterns are relatively complex. The pattern of the money pattern depicts line patterns to show its face value, so that people who are illiterate can also distinguish it. The purpose is to prevent counterfeiting.

In order to intimidate counterfeiters, the bills are sometimes printed with forgery punishment and reporting reward regulations to further curb the counterfeiting of paper money. From the Jin Dynasty, there were legal penalties for counterfeiters and reward regulations for whistleblowers to enhance their warning and supervision role. During the Zhenyuan period of the Jin Dynasty, the seal script was written on the banknotes: "Forgery who forges and pays for money, and those who sued the arrests are rewarded with 300 guan." The Yuan Dynasty Yuanbao banknotes have the words "Forgery who executes them, and those who first report to reward five silver ingots".

In order to avoid causing market chaos, in fact, the replacement of new coins in previous dynasties was actually a similar method to that of Zhao Bing. First, specially appointed officials tried to prepare sample coins. They not only had to name each banknote, but also had to stamp it. After they completed these procedures in turn, the emperor appointed the chief supervisor dipped the imperial seal he kept in silver vermilion and covered it on the paper. The form of the seal was left on the paper because of silver vermilion and never faded. After this treatment, the banknote not only obtained the full authority and credit of the general currency, but also was still one of the anti-counterfeiting measures. The ink paste used by the emperor was not available to ordinary people, and the use of seals also increased the difficulty of forgery.

The Bureau of Affairs first incorporated the "Huomen" to specialize in the manufacturing of counterfeit coins. After so many years of development, it has formed a complete system. From papermaking, carving to printing, it can be completed independently, and has formed a scale. It is not an exaggeration to call it the "Dayuan Second Mint". It is also conceivable how much money Zhao Bing has obtained from it. However, with the proliferation of Mongolian Yuan banknotes, the depreciation has been extremely strong, and it has almost reached the point where he cannot recover the cost. However, he did not disband the counterfeit coins workshop.

The reason why Zhao Bing retained this workshop was to support them with delicious food and drink. At first, he was only worried that those "professional talents" would be dispersed to society and turned to the old business, which would harm others and oneself. But if they were "handled" them all, to be honest, he was really reluctant to let them print salt bills. Who would have thought that they would accidentally plant the willows and willows, which would now be very useful.

"Your Majesty, I have another suggestion. Can I keep the silk collected in this summer tax in the local area and put it in the two warehouses a little slow down!" Zhuang Shilin saw that the little emperor was not angry, so he put forward another suggestion.

"Why?" Before Zhao Bing could speak, Chen Zeweng became anxious. You should know that silk and brocade are an important income in the summer tax. If it is stored in the local area, it may be misappropriated, but the losses must be borne by the Ministry of Revenue.

"Don't worry, don't listen to his reasons first!" Zhao Bing pressed his hands, asked Chen Zeweng to sit down, and pointed at Zhuang Shilin.

"Your Majesty, I suddenly remembered an interesting story about the previous dynasty, which may help the issuance of new coins..." Zhuang Shilin said with a smile.

Listening to Zhuang Shilin's story, although he did not specify which dynasty or what era it was, Zhao Bing thought that the story was made up by himself and used to speak. The general idea of ​​the story was that people used iron coins to buy and sell goods, which were very heavy and were not suitable for carrying. An official wrote to the court to request the abolition of the iron coins. The court decided to exchange coins, but it took a long time to implement them. But somehow, people in the capital said that the iron coins would be scrapped immediately and they had to be spent quickly.

For this reason, everyone was competing to buy things with iron coins, but the sellers knew that the iron coins were going to be scrapped, so they refused to collect the iron coins. The buyers and sellers then had a dispute, and the entire capital was rioted, and many merchants even closed the shops. For a while, people were panicked and the city was in a slump. Officials in the court wrote another letter to ban this situation and cancel the iron coins as soon as possible, but the new money could not be listed in time. How to calm the storm? A minister proposed:

If the use of iron coins is suddenly banned, people will become more confused and riotous. It is better to call silk merchants and ask them to take out hundreds of silk silks in their homes to sell them, saying, "Everyone who buys silks must pay for money." In this way, the iron coins will be easily concentrated in the hands of several merchants. Then the court will exchange the new coins for several silk merchants. In this way, the market order can be stable and people's hearts will be stable.

"What do you think Chen Shangshu?" After hearing this, Zhao Bing looked at Chen Zeweng and asked.
Chapter completed!