Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 79 A gentleman takes revenge the next day!
Prince Wu's Mansion.

Zhu Yunhuan lay on the bed, feeling bored.

His injury is almost healed now.

But Yang Shiqi asked him to continue pretending to be injured and lie down for a few more days.

This world does not have the rich entertainment like that of later generations. It would be very boring to lie in bed all day.

Reading?

As a modern person, things written in classical Chinese are more or less difficult for him to understand.

Although it is not impossible to understand, it does require a lot of effort.

What’s more, it is still the early years of the Ming Dynasty, and novels are not very prosperous yet, they are just emerging.

Even if he calmed down and wanted to read the classic novels, there was no way!
As for reading poetry, songs, the Four Books and Five Classics, and orthodox history books, well... forget it for now.

Zhu Yunhuan remembered the singers and dancers that Zhao Rui had arranged for him not long ago.

They all have red lips and white teeth, are bright and attractive, and have enchanting figures.

Lying on the bed and watching them singing and dancing must be an extremely comfortable experience.

But soon.

Zhu Yunhuan dismissed this idea again.

It’s not that he really doesn’t want to enjoy himself, but he is still "injured" and has just been entrusted by Zhu Yuanzhang with the important task of regent.

At this time, he ignored state affairs, but spent his days singing and dancing.

When Old Zhu heard this, he didn't know how to explain it.

What's more, those censors and officials of the Zhejiang East Group who already hated and disliked him and did not want to see him succeed to the throne would surely take the opportunity to attack him like wild beasts smelling blood when they heard the news.

Why bring unnecessary trouble upon yourself?

After much deliberation, Zhu Yunhuan ordered the craftsmen who had helped him make the roller printing press last time to be summoned.

He hadn't let these people leave since the last time he finished working on the roller printing press.

On the one hand, although the roller printing press had been invented, it was still necessary to produce more of them, which naturally required craftsmen.

On the other hand, he had other ideas in mind, to keep them for something else.

Also, it is different from a drum printing press.

The craftsmanship and technology of this thing need to be kept strictly confidential.

Because the next thing he was going to make was the Ming Dynasty Treasure Notes!
Soon after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, in order to solve the court's financial problems, support the army's operations, and especially reward military merits, Zhu Yuanzhang began to consider issuing paper money.

In the seventh year of Hongwu, the Ming court established the Baochao Tizhusi to coordinate the issuance of Baochao.

In the eighth year of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty's treasure notes were officially printed.

The printing of Baochao played a great role in solving the financial problems in the early Ming Dynasty.

After all, the dynasty was just founded and wars were constant.

Isn't it all about money, wealth and materials that are fought for?
With constant wars, one can imagine how much the national treasury is spending.

It was only by printing money that it was able to survive.

However, as time went by, Baochao has gradually lost its original value and credit.

The reason is very simple. Zhu had no restraint in printing money and did as he pleased.

It’s not that Mr. Zhu really doesn’t understand the disadvantages of printing too much money.

However, in Zhu Yuanzhang's opinion, this issue is not as important as solving the financial expenditures needed by the court.

The lesser of two evils.

If more banknotes were printed, the court would have an easier time.

Anyway, paper money is not like silver.

Not only are banknotes easily damaged, they also have a shelf life.

If it is damaged, a new one can be sent.

If you want to exchange it for a new one after the expiration date, you have to pay a discount or even not exchange it at all.

This cycle repeats over and over again.

Couldn't the imperial court just print money without an anchor and exchange it for wealth from the people?

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang was very casual when printing banknotes.

Especially when the court needs money.

For example, if a great victory was won on the front line, the soldiers of the three armies should be rewarded.

But the court has no money, what to do?
You must know that at that time in the Ming Dynasty, the military pay and food expenses were all solved by each army through farming.

But there is no way to reward!

So, Lao Zhu waved his hand and said, "Print it!"

Let’s print 50 million taels of silver worth of banknotes at a time!

The soldiers on the front line fought bravely and deserve generous rewards.

No matter what, we cannot let down the soldiers fighting on the front line!

For this reason, the speed of printing money has skyrocketed.

You have to know that at this time in the Ming Dynasty, the total fiscal revenue of the imperial court was only more than 20 million taels of silver a year.

This is the value of all the grain after it is converted into silver.

The actual amount of money received was far less than this.

After all, most of it is harvested grain.

Too much banknotes were printed, so naturally the common people were not willing to accept them. They did not recognize the banknotes and only wanted silver and copper coins.

In this regard, Lao Zhu’s solution was also very simple and crude.

If the imperial court lets you use it, you must use it obediently.

Anyone who dares not use it or refuses to accept it will be killed!
As a result, many people lost their lives.

But even so, the credibility of the Ming Baochao could not be saved.

Not only is the value falling, but many merchants still refuse to accept it.

After all, who wants to collect a piece of waste paper?

And it's obvious.

Zhu Yuanzhang even stipulated that ordinary people and merchants could only pay taxes to the court in the form of grain, silver, or copper coins, and were not allowed to pay taxes in the form of banknotes.

But the imperial court issues salaries, rewards, wages... and so on, oh, then just issue treasure notes!

But you can't use the imperial banknotes to buy salt from the government, and you can't use them to buy grain from the government's granaries!
The word "robbery" was almost clearly written on his face.

The credibility of Baochao can naturally be imagined.

Zhu Yunhuan knew very well that the first issue in governing the country was finance.

Without money, nothing can be done.

In order to improve the finances of the Ming Dynasty, it is necessary to rectify the Ming Baochao and restore its credibility.

This of course requires adjustments to national policies, and we must stop printing banknotes indiscriminately.

But before that, there is another problem that must be solved, and that is counterfeit money!

The court's desperate printing of money also stimulated the "ingenuity" of the poor people.

It turns out that "robbing money" is so easy!
If the imperial court can print, so can we!

The anti-counterfeiting technology of the Ming Dynasty's treasure notes was not advanced, and ordinary people did not have the ability to distinguish between genuine and fake treasure notes.

Counterfeit money soon became a disaster!
Lao Zhu also adopted the method of raising the butcher knife high to deal with it.

Killing batches of people!
However, as long as there is profit to be made, there will always be people in the world willing to take risks.

In this era, productivity levels are low and most people are struggling to survive.

Printing counterfeit money can make you rich quickly in the shortest time and enjoy a wonderful life from then on.

Those who want to take shortcuts will naturally come in droves, and they will be killed and slaughtered endlessly!

In the end, even Lao Zhu himself lamented, why are there so many law-breaking and desperate criminals?
If the problem of rampant counterfeit money cannot be solved, it will be useless even if the Ming Dynasty court issues money in a very restrained manner.

Because the final result will definitely be that you will be flooded with counterfeit banknotes.

The method envisioned by Zhu Yunhuan was to prevent counterfeiting from a technical perspective.

Greatly raise the threshold for producing counterfeit banknotes, and fundamentally deal a devastating blow to counterfeit banknotes.

Just like when the first generation of ID cards were introduced in later generations, fake ID cards were rampant.

Later, with the promotion of the second-generation ID cards, fake ID cards basically disappeared.

The reason is very simple.

This is because counterfeiters cannot make second-generation ID cards, and even if they do, it is easy to tell that they are fake at first glance!

This is especially true for the chips inside.

Perhaps there are some companies that have the technical means to produce it, but because the production threshold is very high, the risk of being discovered is too great, and the benefits are too low, these companies normally will not produce it.

The state only needs to manage a few companies, and it is very easy to trace their responsibilities.

Banknote anti-counterfeiting needs to be addressed from three aspects.

The first is paper, the second is ink, and the third is printing technology.

The problem of ink had been largely solved when Zhu Yunhuan invented the roller printing press.

After all, roller printing itself requires certain improvements to the original ink.

Fortunately, this is not complicated. After repeated trials, I succeeded quickly.

That, of course, is for print newspapers.

Further improvements are needed to print banknotes.

Fortunately, there are not too many secrets and difficulties in this matter. It is just a matter of repeated experiments.

Before this, craftsmen had low status and did not have enough money to support their experiments.

It has always been made strictly according to the ancient recipes and secrets, and it never changes!
Unless you make an occasional unexpected discovery, it is difficult to make progress at other times.

Now we have the strong support and encouragement from Prince Zhu Yunhuan.

There was a lot of silver thrown in like running water.

Let them try it over and over again, and soon they came up with various different ink formulas!
The problem with paper is roughly the same, and different formulas are repeatedly tested.

But after it is made, it needs to be kept strictly confidential.

In addition, the third point is the core of banknote anti-counterfeiting - intaglio printing!
To put it simply, gravure printing is a simple process that involves coating the entire surface of the printing plate with ink.

Then use a special ink scraper to remove the ink from the blank area, leaving the ink only in the cells of the graphic part.

Then, under greater pressure, the ink is transferred to the surface of the substrate to obtain a printed product.

The most typical gravure printing work in later generations is the RMB!
Among various gravure printing techniques, hand-carved gravure has clear lines and a strong sense of layering in the printed products, making it the most difficult to forge!

It is still in use in later generations!
The disadvantage is that manual carving is difficult, requires a very high level of carving skills, and is time-consuming, labor-intensive and costly...

But in the current Ming Dynasty, although the productivity level was not high, there were many craftsmen who could carve.

The skill level is also very high.

Zhu Yunhuan lay on the bed and gave detailed instructions to the craftsmen, and also told them to keep it confidential.

After they left, he ordered Zhao Rui to further arrange more confidentiality measures.

Including necessary isolation of craftsmen, etc.

As long as the new banknotes are printed and there are no anti-counterfeiting problems, making it difficult for outsiders to forge them, he will carry out drastic reforms to the Ming Dynasty's financial system.

These things are complicated and very important, and must be done personally.

It took several hours before everything was arranged.

At this time, a servant came to report that King Yan wanted to see him.

Zhu Yunhuan was wondering why Zhu Di came again, and then he heard the voices of Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaoxu.

"Dad, can you please not send us to the Prince of Wu's Palace?"

"Dad, we provoked him like that yesterday. King Wu will definitely not let us go. You can't send us to the fire pit!"

"Dad, go and beg Grandpa Huang to take back his decision!"

"Dad, if it doesn't work, let's run away together."

"Yes, Daddy, if we flee the capital and return to Peking, everything will be fine!"

……

I had only heard the voices of these two little bastards once yesterday.

However, it left a very deep impression on Zhu Yunhuan.

It turned out that Zhu's order had been conveyed, and Zhu Di sent these two little bastards here.

This is how a gentleman takes revenge, and it happens the next day.

It's time to settle the score with them for yesterday!

……

(End of this chapter)