Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 664 Who is in the same class as you?

With Tuohuan's order, Guo Kang brought Idris to the assembly point, assembled the troops, and prepared to set off.

In addition to the legionnaires who blocked the roads and city gates, some allied troops also participated in the operation. Under the city wall, the Knights Hospitaller and the Teutonic Knights had also gathered.

Guo Kang greeted them and found that in addition to the leading Grand Master Roberto of the Knights Hospitaller, Sir John, the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, also showed up. He had a splint on his arm and a bandage on his head, so he couldn't wear a helmet properly. He could only temporarily wear a pot-shaped helmet commonly used by infantrymen in his hometown in England - the "flying saucer hat" - to make do.

Guo Kang was a little surprised, so he advised: "Today's mission is not urgent, and it does not require all of you to command in person. In your current state, you should go back and recuperate."

"No problem, no problem." Sir John waved his hands repeatedly, and looked very excited: "It's not easy to get such an opportunity, I'd better participate."

"They have informed you of the specific task, right?" Guo Kang had to confirm.

"Isn't it just to rob Saracen merchants?" Sir John said excitedly, "Don't worry, our Knights are very professional!"

"Uh……"

Guo Kang didn't know how to explain it to him for a moment, but seeing his mental state, he didn't look depressed by his injury at all, so he just nodded and agreed.

Tuo Huan had previously instructed that all matters such as beating people and ransacking homes should be left to these allies. At the moment, it seems that they are indeed very professional, even a little too professional...

"Sir, it's time for us to set off. The Mamluks have already left." Idris reminded from the side.

Guo Kang nodded, quickly pulled him, jumped into the car, and asked the driver to follow and chase the team of Mamluks.

"How come they run so fast?" he couldn't help but say.

"When Taiji summoned them, he gave each of them ten gold coins as a gift. This time he also promised to give them another ten thousand dirhams as travel expenses." Idris replied: "Anyone who receives this money will be tempted."

"Besides, we haven't had dirham currency in circulation for a long time. The dirham silver coins he mentioned are probably your Roman silver coins." He thought for a moment and added, "The Mamluks must have expected this, so they are so excited."

"Is there anything special about this silver coin?" Guo Kang asked curiously.

"The currency in Egypt is very chaotic right now." Idris shook his head. "If I remember correctly, the currency here has not been normal for several years since the fall of the Fatimid dynasty."

"The gold coin in Egypt is called dinar, and the silver coin should actually be called dirham. History books say that these two words came from the Greeks and Romans." He thought for a moment and introduced: "The Greek silver coin is called drachma. King Iskandar conquered most of the known world, and wherever he went, he promoted his own currency system. We are still using it today."

"After Iskandar, the Persian region was ruled by several dynasties, but their currencies did not change. In Persian, drachma is pronounced 'dirham', and until the Sassanid dynasty, Persian silver coins were still called this name. However, in Arabic, drachma is pronounced 'dirham', so people often call it that."

"However, strictly speaking, these two are two currencies with different weights and values ​​- although they do have the same name, just with a slight difference in pronunciation."

"Why is this?" Guo Kang asked curiously.

"During the time of the Orthodox Caliphate, we started to mint our own coins, but nobody knew anything about it at the time, and we simply copied the Roman and Persian coinage. By the time of the Umayyad dynasty, the system was formally established, but now it seems that they copied it the wrong way," Idris said.

"In the former Roman regions, such as Syria, the monetary system imitated the Romans, using gold coins as the main currency. The Roman gold coin at that time was called the solidus, and the newly issued Arab gold coin was a copy of it and was renamed the dinar - of course, this word is also a Roman word, but it is the name of a coin that the Romans had already abandoned."

"But the weight of the denarius was not the Roman weight system. The Roman solidus weighed one-seventy-second of a Roman pound, while the weight of the denarius was the Persian system, the weight of one Iskander drachma."

"In Persia, people are used to using silver coins as the currency standard. The newly issued currency also follows the custom and is a silver coin called the Dirham. But the weight of this Dirham is calculated based on the Roman pound."

"Ah? Is it possible?" Guo Kang had never heard of this before.

"The Umayyad dynasty's unit of weight is called the Arabic pound. In fact, this is a variation of the Roman pound - the Arabic pound is divided into 15 parts, one of which is the seigniorage collected by the caliph, and the remaining 14 parts are exactly one Roman pound. That's how this unit came about," Idris explained.

"Maybe they did it on purpose." Guo Kang guessed, "Swapping each other like this would save trouble on the one hand, and also offset the influence of both sides, preventing the previous dynasty's cultural influence from being too great."

"I don't think so." Idris shook his head. "Because the currency system at that time was very crude. In the early years, the so-called gold dinar was a complete copy of the Roman appearance, even the portrait of the Roman emperor on it and the Greek inscriptions around it were copied."

"Ah? No one cares about this?" Guo Kang asked in surprise.

"Yeah, but no one cared." Idris spread his hands. "The gold coins at that time also had Hercules from Greek mythology on them. I don't know which template they copied..."

"Later, someone discovered that the symbols on the gold coins were still symbols of the Christian Church. The Caliph changed the face of the coin, changing the Greek words on it into Arabic to make it easier for Arabs to recognize it."

"It seems like no one really pays attention to it..." Guo Kang complained.

"Yes, it was the fifth generation of the Umayyad Caliphate at that time," Idris said. "By the sixth generation, everyone realized that the statue above still looked like a Roman emperor, so they urgently revised it and changed it to the Caliph's own head."

"After a while, someone suggested that according to Islamic law, it should not be allowed to put their own portrait on it, so the Caliph removed the portrait and replaced it with a badge and text. After that, it became the current standard style."

"So, you asked me if there is any strategy or trick. I think there is none." He shook his head and said, "That's it. How can I have the ability to use tricks? This is obviously too uncultured and it's just a random thing..."

"So, if they make Roman coins like this, are they considered counterfeit coins?" Guo Kang thought of another question.

"They are all produced by the Damascus Mint. The factory's trademark inscription has been retained for a long time without being changed." Idris actually thought about it seriously and said, "Products produced by other companies that are OEMs should not be considered fakes, right?"

"Uh..." Guo Kang suddenly realized that these people really knew how to do business. They could even react like this...

"But these are all very early currencies." Idris continued: "Although these names were also used later, the actual situation was quite different. For example, the dirham here had three types of silver content during the Ayyubid period."

"During the Mamluk rule, due to frequent internal strife and currency chaos, everyone preferred to use the Italian ducat and grosso for large-scale trade. The sultans once tried to re-regulate the minting of dinar gold coins to resist the invasion of Italian currency, but they never achieved their goal. As for silver coins, they simply gave up." "In recent years, the famine in Egypt has intensified, and the currency crisis has become more and more serious, which has affected the stability of the regime. Two years ago, the Sheikh tried once and put the silver reserves he had hoarded into the market to try to stabilize the currency value, but it was still useless."

"Besides, he is already a relatively responsible sultan. The previous Mamluk leaders were often unwilling to do even this kind of thing. On the contrary, they were particularly keen on issuing inferior coins, earning the difference by reducing the content, and raising military expenses for themselves. However, Egypt does not have many precious metals. Now the mines in Nubia are almost exhausted, and the sources are getting fewer and fewer. In addition, with the influx of Italian gold and silver coins, making large-denomination gold and silver coins is no longer particularly profitable. Those small copper coins are the best to use."

"But these small-denomination coins are the most commonly used in daily life. As a result, the daily lives of ordinary people have also been greatly affected. In addition, the past few years have been the worst time of famine, and the rising food prices and the depreciation of coins have caused prices to become very exaggerated. The price of an adbu's grain has risen from 160 dirhams to 1000. This is still the price quoted by the merchants. The specific amount of money you can get depends on the current market conditions..."

"Be good..."

The two chatted for a while, and finally caught up with a group of Mamluks in an alley next to the Grand Bazaar.

There were a lot of people blocking the alley. Guo Kang stretched his head and saw more than a dozen Mamluks, all of them staring ahead with their swords drawn.

Opposite them, there were hundreds of people gathered around a middle-aged man wearing a silk gown and with a big belly. On both sides, they were arguing fiercely with each other.

"What are they talking about?" Guo Kang asked hurriedly.

"That fat man is a grain merchant who opened a shop in the Khalili Grand Bazaar." Idris said, "The Mamluk centurion leading the team here asked him to lead the way and hand over the things in the warehouse. He was not happy."

"The Mamluk said that the Taiji had told everyone that he didn't want to use force when he entered the city this time. So everyone had better behave themselves. If they really draw their swords, it won't be considered that they didn't obey the Taiji's orders."

"There are so many people here." Guo Kang looked back and said, "Tell them to wait for a while while I call the Knights over."

However, before he could finish, a shoveling broke out between the two sides, and several Mamluks picked up sticks and began to push forward.

"You are also worried." Idris advised: "Even if you don't go under the knife, you may not suffer any loss."

He told Guo Kang that the training of the Mamluks started with wooden sticks. In the Nile River Basin, there is a kind of thick clay called "Maham". After being bought, those talented and strong young slaves would use training swords to chop these clay towers under the arrangement of the coach.

Beginners usually have to hit the clay tower 25 times in a row, 50 times the next day, and so on. When they can hit the clay tower 1000 times in a row with standard movements, the instructor will cover the tower with a layer of wet felt and continue. After the felt is stacked several layers, the training sword is replaced with a lead stick... This is a gradual process.

It is said that this is the training procedure established when Saladin formed the Mamluks. Every Mamluk student who successfully graduated has trained in this way. For them, this is basic skills and there is no need to worry about it.

Sure enough, after the two sides started fighting, the Mamluks swung their sticks and left afterimages. The bodyguards and thugs brought by the merchant were no match for this group of people, and were soon beaten to the ground.

The people behind them saw this and fled in panic. The Mamluks chased after them with thick sticks, knocking down anyone they caught up with. In the noisy crowd, the grain merchant was also pinned down by them and beaten up. He was beaten black and blue, and then tied up. He was thrown onto the cart brought by Guo Kang, and the mission was completed.

"Hey, Taiji is right, these people are indeed not in the same group..." Guo Kang muttered: "I thought they were of the same class, so they would have some cooperation and concerns."

"What is class?" Idris asked, not understanding.

"That is... they are all landowners, and others work to support them." Guo Kang didn't know how to explain it in a more understandable way, so he said: "It is said that these people are of the same level, so it is easy for them to unite and deal with tenants and lower-level craftsmen."

"That should be a little different." Idris thought for a moment and said, "Many Mamluks don't have much land or money to save, so they definitely don't like merchants."

"How much salary do these Mamluks usually get?" Guo Kang asked.

"The monthly salary of an ordinary Mamluk is three dinars, which is about 40 to 50 dirhams - of course, this is the standard dirham with a high enough silver content. We now have 'black dirhams' that contain almost no silver, so this does not count." Idris said: "For example, according to the market price just mentioned, you can probably only afford one twentieth of the grain of Adebu."

"The income of low-ranking officers has doubled to 7 dinars, but this purchasing power is definitely not enough. Officers with fiefs can have a much better life. But most people, especially these Mamluks who have lost power, are definitely in a bad situation."

"One adbu of wheat is about... 250 Roman catties. In other words, a Mamluk soldier can only buy 12 and a half catties of food with his monthly salary."

"what……"

The so-called "Roman pound" used by the Purple Tent Khanate was the same as the pound used in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, which was about 600 grams. This amount of food was obviously not enough to fill their stomachs.

"I was wondering why they were so strange on the battlefield." Guo Kang said with emotion: "From this perspective, they are willing to fight on the battlefield and force their way into our army. They are already very professional..."

"Yes. Like this time, the travel expenses given by Taiji are indeed enough for hundreds of them to have a big meal. If they can fill their stomachs, they will definitely work hard." Idris nodded and said.

“And to be honest, I think even the Mamluks, who were of a higher status, had some status and were relatively more affluent, would not consider the Egyptian merchants to be their own people, let alone to be on the same level as them.”

As he spoke, he stopped the Mamluk leader and asked him a question. The leader immediately widened his eyes, said something harsh, and turned away.

"Look. I asked him, he is a minor officer, he should have done something wrong in the past. Is he on the same level as these wealthy businessmen?" Idris spread his hands, "In the end he said, who is on the same level as the Egyptians, and told me not to talk nonsense. Then he went to beat people..."

"..." Guo Kang was silent for a moment, looked at the businessman who was howling next to him, and felt that what this man said was not surprising.

At this time, the Mamluks in front caught a few of the merchant's followers. After beating them up, they begged for mercy. With their guidance, the group quickly found the merchant's residence at the end of the alley.

Two Mamluks brought over a wooden stake, smashed the door open with a few bangs, and rushed in amidst the chaos.

"Find the account book first!" Guo Kang shouted hurriedly: "Find the account book first!"

"I'll go and tell them." Idris also ran over quickly.

(End of this chapter)