Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 347: Four Seasons Uniforms: No More Than Eight Sets
It is also the Buddha's Bathing Festival on the eighth day of April, and the Buddha's Bathing Festival in Luoyang is much more lively.

The war on the front line did not affect the nobles of Luoyang. On the Buddha's Bathing Festival, all the major Buddhist temples in Luoyang were crowded with people, and the Buddha statues were piled up with mountains of tributes.

Su Suan (the envoy who is well versed in human nature) threw some Buddhist money in front of the donation box of Yongning Temple, and then a group of fat and big-eared monks rushed into the hall and began to drive away the crowd.

"The Queen Mother has come to Yongning Temple. All irrelevant people must leave immediately!"

Warrior monks armed with sticks rushed in, scaring the people who were worshipping Buddha so much that they quickly left the temple.

Su Suan also followed the crowd and left Yongning Temple, and then he saw the grand procession of the Empress Dowager.

But unlike the previous ceremonies, this time Empress Dowager Hu's ceremonial procession was obviously prepared in a hurry, and the horses ridden by the knights who led the way were all of mixed colors. It seemed that Empress Dowager Hu came to Yongning Temple to offer incense on a whim.

Come to think of it, if it had been planned in advance, Yongning Temple would not have been open to ordinary people.

Looking at the noisy Buddhist temple, Su Suan shook his head secretly. Is this a carnival at the end of the world?

In the Northern Dynasties, Buddhist bells rang loudly, and in the Southern Dynasties, there were 480 temples.

The city of Jiankang was also bustling with people. Today, the Bodhisattva Emperor Xiao Yan once again visited the Tongtai Temple which was still under construction and inspected the construction progress of the Tongtai Temple.

Bian Ji followed Xiao Yan and looked at the pagoda that rose from the ground within a year in the largest temple in the Southern Dynasty. He wondered how many craftsmen's bones were buried under the pagoda.

In order to build Tongtai Temple, Xiao Yan conscripted a total of 50,000 craftsmen and slaves from the vicinity of Jiankang. In order to complete the Buddhist temple as quickly as possible, these people worked day and night at Tongtai Temple. It is said that people died of exhaustion on the construction site every day.

At the beginning of the construction of Tongtai Temple, Xiao Yan promised to pay the craftsmen and slaves copper coins in order to show that his construction of Tongtai Temple was a benevolent policy.

However, since the defection of Xiao Yan's son, Xiao Zong, the governor of Southern Xuzhou, last year, which led to the defeat of Xuzhou in Southern Liang, Xiao Yan's treasury has become strained.

Although Xiao Yan announced to the public that he, as the Bodhisattva Emperor, was not interested in women and took the lead in fasting and practicing Buddhism every day, the expenses of Xiao Yan's palace were still astronomical.

"There are no more than eight sets of regular clothes for four seasons", but Xiao Yan's robes were all cut from the highest-grade Shu brocade, and on the robes there were scriptures written by Xiao Yan himself, which were sewed and printed on the robes with gold thread by court craftsmen. Each set of robes was priceless.

The gold-flowered Xiaoxiang paper used by Xiao Yan to copy Buddhist scriptures was made by mixing large pieces of gold foil into the highest-grade Xiaoxiang paper and various precious spices.

In addition, although Xiao Yan was not interested in women, he often rewarded the concubines in the harem, and the rewards were often lavish. In addition to the rewards given to clan members, sons, and officials, he spent tens of millions of dollars on rewards every year.

In addition, although Xiao Yan did not eat meat, the vegetables he ate were all made of high-end ingredients and were made from seasonal vegetables transported by fast horses from all over the place. He also ate different fruits every day. A few years ago, after envoys from the Western Regions came to Southern Liang to pay tribute to Western fruits and vegetables, Xiao Yan personally designed a greenhouse and cultivated Western fruits in the inner courtyard of the palace.

In addition, each of Xiao Yan's hobbies, including music, chess, calligraphy and painting, requires money.

No matter how wealthy the family was, it could not support Xiao Yan's spending, not to mention that his younger brothers, sons, and ministers around him also followed suit and had already drained the entire Southern Liang.

The Northern Wei Dynasty had been in turmoil in recent years, but apart from giving Chen Qingzhi 3,000 men to go to Xuzhou to take over the surrendered cities, Xiao Yan had not launched a war against the north. The reason was that beneath the appearance of raging prosperity in the Southern Liang Dynasty, the treasury was actually empty.

Not only was Nanliang short of money, but it was also short of food.

Speaking of which, Bian Ji was a little surprised. If he was not deeply trusted by Xiao Yan and had access to confidential documents of Southern Liang, he really could not imagine that there would be a shortage of food in the Southern Dynasty, a land of fish and rice.
You have to know that the Jiangnan today is no longer the Jiangnan of the late Han Dynasty.

After the successive development of the Eastern Wu, Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties, the Jiangnan region had become very prosperous.

That is, in the Tang Dynasty more than a hundred years later, some people had already shouted the slogan "Yang Yi Yi Er", which was enough to illustrate the prosperity of Jiangnan.

Besides, Emperor Yang of Sui visited Jiangnan many times in later generations because he liked its prosperity. During the Sui Dynasty, grain was transported to Guanzhong and Luoyang via the canal in Jiangnan.

Moreover, after the Battle of Fushan Weir, the Southern Liang Dynasty had not raised a large army again. The north was hit by leukemia, drought, and locust plagues one after another, but not many states and counties in the Southern Dynasty were affected by the disasters, and there were good weather for several years.

After Bian Ji found out, he knew why Southern Liang was short of food.

Because the people living near the city are simply unwilling to grow crops.

The developed trade of the Southern Liang Dynasty gave rise to the earliest urban residents in Jiankang City. These urban residents did not make a living by farming, but provided various services to earn money, and then used the money they earned to buy food to live.

For example, the sutra copyists in various Buddhist temples in Southern Liang, some of them could not even read, but they were very skilled in copying Buddhist scriptures, and could make a good living every year by copying scriptures for others.

In addition, there are hangers-on and servants who serve the powerful in the city, as well as various places for these powerful to consume.

Therefore, there was a trend of people moving to the cities to work near the cities of Nanliang. Many people gave up their farmland and moved to the cities to work and earn money. This was much more cost-effective than working hard on the farm for a year, then being taxed by the government and not being able to sell the surplus at a good price.

And those powerful people also began to replace the farmland originally used to grow grain with mulberry fields with higher economic benefits.

The economic output of an acre of mulberry field is definitely much higher than that of farmland. This is the spontaneous action of the people in Nanliang to "change rice to mulberry".

Moreover, this phenomenon occurred not only in the capital Jiankang, but also in Jiangling, Chengdu, and nearby cities of all sizes in the Southern Liang Dynasty. Merchants could earn thousands of gold coins by reselling goods. Every day in Jiankang, there were legends that actors and actresses were rewarded with thousands of gold coins for singing well. As a result, ordinary people also wanted their children to engage in business. Some even castrated their sons and sent them to the theater troupe so that their sons could become parents of actors and actresses.

Bian Ji felt the decadence and extravagance that permeated the city of Jiankang.

Coming to Tongtai Temple again today, Xiao Yan was very satisfied with the construction progress. According to this progress, Tongtai Temple will be completed next year.

Xiao Yan couldn't wait to teach Buddhism to his subjects in Tongtai Temple.

Xiao Yan was just about to reward the officials and craftsmen who were responsible for the construction of Tongtai Temple when his close minister Zhu Yi suddenly started coughing.

Only then did Xiao Yan remember that there was no money left in the treasury.

Looking at the meritorious official who was eagerly begging for reward, Xiao Yan could only promote him and then return to the palace in disappointment.

As a close minister of Xiao Yan, Zhu Yi was of course aware that he had ruined Xiao Yan's mood today.

However, as Xiao Yan's tool in the outer court, Zhu Yi had to remind Xiao Yan.

When they returned to the palace, Xiao Yan sat on the throne and pretended to be in great pain and said:
"Since I ascended the throne, I have never been willing to spend a penny on myself. Now I am building Tongtai Temple for the benefit of Daliang, but the meritorious people are not rewarded!"

Zhu Yi's face was also burning. Xiao Yan was accusing him, the prime minister in charge of the outer court, of being incompetent.

Just as Zhu Yi was about to apologize, Bian Ji suddenly said:

"Your Majesty, when I was in the north, the pseudo-Wei state also had a money shortage, and they finally solved it by issuing Buddhist coins that were worth ten times the value of one. This method does not increase the taxes on the people, and it can also fill the treasury. Why don't you give it a try, Your Majesty?"

After Bian Ji finished speaking, Xiao Yan and Zhu Yi's faces changed. Xiao Yan even showed a hint of anger. Bian Ji quickly knelt down and said:
"A monk is ignorant and shouldn't discuss state affairs!"

Xiao Yan was still good-tempered towards people close to him. He did not punish Bian Ji, but just waved his hand and asked the two to leave the inner court.

On the way out of the inner court, Bian Ji asked Zhu Yi:

"Zhu Zhongshu, why is His Majesty so angry? Did the monk say something wrong?"

During these days, Bian Ji not only went in and out of the palace, but also actively made friends with important officials of Southern Liang.

Zhu Yi himself was also a Buddhist, and Bian Ji actually helped him preach and secretly revealed some palace dynamics to him. The two of them vaguely had some intention of forming an alliance.

Zhu Yi saw that there was no one around, so he said:
"Your Majesty has already issued the ten-cent coin of the Suo Nuo (Northern Wei Dynasty), and even the fifty-cent and hundred-cent coins. However, these coin systems were able to maintain their value when they were first implemented, but soon fell into oblivion."

Bian Ji was dumbfounded. You people from Southern Liang are so cruel!
Back then, a ten-coin coin almost caused the price of goods in Luoyang to collapse, and you actually dare to mint fifty and one hundred coins!

Bian Ji said quickly:

"The monk is ignorant."

A gleam of light flashed in Zhu Yi's eyes, and he said:
"Master, you have enlightened me. Although I cannot mint 100 coins, I can use other things to mint coins!"

Zhu Yi thought of something, and said to Bian Ji:

"Master, you have supernatural powers! If this method can be successful, it will also be the credit of the master!"

After saying this, Zhu Yi excitedly ran back to his house, leaving Bian Ji wondering in the night what on earth he had inspired him.
One day after the Buddha's Bathing Festival, the Minister of the Central Secretariat Zhu Yi submitted a memorial to Xiao Yan, proposing a currency reform proposal of "abolishing all copper coins and casting iron coins."

Although Zhu Yi was a flatterer, he was a capable flatterer. He discussed in detail the advantages of issuing iron coins.

First, there is more iron than copper, and by casting coins with iron, there can be sufficient currency, so there will be no more money shortage.

Secondly, there were a large number of iron shops in the imperial court. These iron shops, which originally made weapons and farm tools, already had experienced craftsmen. As long as the coin molds were issued, they could immediately cast iron coins, without having to wait for copper mines to be mined before casting copper coins.

Finally, Zhu Yi wrote secretly to Xiao Yan. Iron, like copper, was controlled by the government. However, iron mines were mined every year, so the court could mint iron coins at any time in the future, and the treasury would never be out of money again.

When Xiao Yan saw Zhu Yi's plan, he was overjoyed. Among the ministers, except Xiao Hong, who had hundreds of millions of copper coins hidden at home, all the ministers expressed their support for the plan to mint iron coins.

In the fourth year of the Common Era, Xiao Yan ordered the abolition of copper coins and the use of iron coins. He personally wrote "Da Ji Wu Zhu", "Da Tong Wu Zhu" and "Da Fu Wu Zhu" in ink and ordered all iron smelters in the world to cast iron coins.

I will update as usual tomorrow and continue writing.

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(End of this chapter)