Water Margin: The opening scene involves assassinating Emperor Huizong of Song and forcibly taking L

After reviewing each article, Wen Huanzhang said, "The second edition of the Great Ming Code must be promulgated before I retire."

“No problem,” Zhao Yuan said. “This year is still the seventh year of Hongwu. I will change the era name next year. When I change the era name, I will also promulgate the new calendar.”

Wen Huanzhang said, "The Agricultural Affairs Bureau should also be reformed."

"Have you figured out how to change it?" Zhao Yuan asked.

Wen Huanzhang said, "I've been thinking about this for several years."

"The Agricultural Promotion Bureau was merged into the Ministry of Revenue, becoming equivalent to the National Agricultural Development Bureau under the Ministry of Revenue."

"The top leader is the Director of the Agricultural Development Department of the Ministry of Revenue."

"At the provincial level, a Bureau for Promoting Agriculture would be established, similar to a provincial agricultural department (but certainly not with that much power)."

“At the prefecture level, agricultural promotion offices are set up, similar to municipal agricultural bureaus.”

"No agricultural promotion department is set up at the county level."

"The lowest-ranking agricultural official belonged to the category of technical officials, equivalent to an agricultural researcher and agricultural technician."

"Only after being promoted to the level of director or deputy director of the Agricultural Promotion Office can one become an eighth-rank government official and may be transferred to positions such as county magistrate or county assistant."

"Higher-ranking officials in the Bureau of Agricultural Promotion and the Department of Agricultural Promotion must be agricultural technicians and have experience in governing local areas."

"At this level, you're making development plans for agriculture nationwide or in the province."

Zhao Yuan laughed and said, "The idea is good, but it will be distorted."

"How so?" Wen Huanzhang asked.

Zhao Yuan said, "If I were a high-ranking official, my children and grandchildren would not pass the imperial examinations."

“Then I will have my children and grandchildren become officials in the arts and crafts field. As long as they serve for a certain number of years, they can become civil officials and rise all the way to the position of Director of the Agricultural Promotion Department of the Ministry of Revenue.”

“Using this as a springboard, one could even reach the level of Vice Minister or Minister.”

“If this continues, low-level agricultural officials will all be miserable technicians, while high-level agricultural officials will be the children of officials.”

"Then the layman will guide the expert."

“I will formulate promotion rules for agricultural officials,” Wen Huanzhang said. “While nepotism cannot be completely avoided, it should be generally fine.”

"Even if you climbed up through nepotism, you still need to understand agriculture to comply with the regulations."

"At least that's the general idea; let the few who exploit loopholes take advantage of them."

“If there is a large-scale phenomenon of exploiting loopholes, then it is not just a problem of the Agricultural Promotion Office, but a problem of corruption in the entire country.”

Zhao Yuan nodded: "That's true."

Wen Huanzhang said, "Everything has its advantages and disadvantages, and I have also thought this through carefully. When I was emperor, I advised agricultural officials to stay outside the court."

“The officials in charge of agricultural affairs must become more formalized, otherwise they will be finished in a decade or two.”

...

Besides the merger of the Agricultural Promotion Bureau into the Ministry of Revenue, there was another major event on New Year's Day this year.

A major reorganization of currency minting and issuing institutions across the country has been carried out, with gold, silver, and copper coin mints in various regions now under vertical management, alongside paper money printing and issuing institutions.

The highest monetary institution was named "Baoquan Temple," and its level was temporarily equivalent to that of Dali Temple, Taichang Temple, and Honglu Temple.

Each province will establish a branch office called "Baoquan Bureau" to manage and allocate all types of currency throughout the province.

Chapter 3367 Treasure Note Quota

Baoquan Temple was primarily under the leadership of the Ministry of Revenue, but it also possessed relative independence and was subject to supervision by other departments.

This is similar to the Court of State Ceremonial, which appears to be an independent institution, but is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Rites and also interacts with other departments.

The same applies to the Court of Judicial Review; it is relatively independent yet under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice and subject to strict supervision by the Censorate.

The New Year's Day holiday ends on the eighth day of the first lunar month.

Outside the Baoquan Bureau in Kaifeng Prefecture, wealthy merchants from the capital gathered.

Because the Li family refused to pay for their goods at crucial moments, they have been dismissed from their position as head of the trade by their peers, and their warehouses are filled with large quantities of unsold cloth.

Early in the morning, Li Dunyi, along with his son and his assistant, rushed to the Baoquan Bureau's office.

The streets were filled with carriages and horses, carrying out boxes and boxes of copper coins, the stench of money wafting for several blocks.

“Those with a shop license may enter!” a clerk shouted.

Li Dunyi and his son Li Wenzhong hurriedly ran into the Baoquan Bureau.

Baoquan Temple was only responsible for the printing, minting, issuance, transportation, and redemption of currency; it was not allowed to handle any other business. It was similar to a central bank.

The Kaifeng Baoquan Bureau does offer exchange services, but it only handles large-amount exchanges and charges a 0.25% handling fee.

In addition, even small denomination old or damaged banknotes can be exchanged for new ones at the Baoquan Bureau.

Local government monetary taxes, if they need to be submitted to the central government, can also be handled at the local tax bureaus.

After paying the handling fee, the money was transferred from Baoquan Bureau to the central government.

(This service only applies to currency; the Bureau of Currency does not handle in-kind tax transactions. This was actually how it was done in the Qing Dynasty, but taxes were paid to the central government through private banks.)

Small-value currency exchange business was all handed over to private money shops.

Private money shops need to obtain a license, and they must have a fixed shop and warehouse in order to obtain a legal license from the government.

Li Dunyi then opened a money shop, which was essentially a private bank.

To this end, he also cleared out a warehouse and sold all the cloth inside at half price.

Huo Zheng, the supervisor of the Kaifeng Baoquan Bureau, saw that most of the merchants had arrived, so he began to talk about business: "This year, Baoquan Temple will only issue 12 million strings of cash. These will be distributed to Sichuan, Hanzhong, the six major Maritime Trade Offices, Zhengding, Chang'an, Jiangling, Jiangzhou, Yangzhou... and Sichuan will receive the largest quota."

"Our Kaifeng Prefecture only received a quota of 600,000 strings of cash for issuance."

"So little?" The wealthy businessmen in Tokyo were very disappointed.

This was quite unusual; the Song Dynasty issued tens of millions of strings of paper money in a single year, which would inevitably cause localized panic.

Over the years, the credibility of paper money collapsed.

The Ming Dynasty issued 1200 million strings of banknotes this year, but merchants complained that the quota was too small.

Huo Zheng laughed and said, "Therefore, the Song Dynasty has learned from past mistakes, and paper money should not be issued indiscriminately."

"For every 100 million strings of paper money issued by the Ming Dynasty, 25 strings of copper coins would be prepared."

"When the national treasury is more abundant, more paper money will be issued."

Li Dunyi asked, "In the entire Kaifeng Prefecture, there are sixteen money shops that have obtained licenses. How should these 600,000 strings of cash be divided?"

Huo Zheng said, "Each household will be allocated 30,000 strings of cash, and the rest will be determined by drawing lots."

The wealthy merchants were speechless. Tens of thousands of strings of cash were not enough; they hadn't earned enough from their business.

According to the rules of money shops in the Northern Song Dynasty, a 3% handling fee was charged for exchanging paper money for metal currency.

"Currently, the six major maritime trade offices, as well as Yangzhou, Jiangling, Sichuan, Hanzhong, Chang'an... these places are also issuing currency."

Chapter 3368 Ancient Stock Trading

For major transactions along key transportation routes, there is no need to rely on inter-regional remittances; the Ming Dynasty banknotes can be used directly.

While reducing costs for customers, the exchange of banknotes also generates substantial profits for the business.

Of course, as the issuance of banknotes increases, in order to compete with traditional remittance services, money shops will have to lower their fees.

Huo Zheng continued, "Besides the Ming Dynasty banknotes, there are also 500,000 strings of gold and silver dollars this time."

"You need not hoard gold and silver. Gold and silver mines throughout the Ming Dynasty have resumed operations, and several more gold and silver mines have been discovered in Japan."

"There will be no shortage of gold and silver in the future, and hoarding them will not increase their value; on the contrary, they may depreciate."

Baskets of paper money and gold and silver coins were carried out.

Huo Zheng led the officials to carefully count the items, and only after confirming that there were no errors did they sign and stamp them.

The wealthy merchants also had their assistants carry in copper coins, and the huge amount of copper coins almost filled the courtyard.

When various businesses were purchasing banknotes and gold and silver dollars, a wealthy merchant couldn't help but ask, "How much gold and silver can Japan produce each year?"

Huo Zheng smiled and said, "I can't say the exact amount, but the gold and silver brought back from Japan this year may be worth hundreds of thousands of strings of cash."

"This is just the beginning. After all, only a portion of those gold and silver mines have been mined, and there aren't enough miners yet."

"In addition, the Japanese have grown increasingly fond of Ming Dynasty goods and are willing to use silver to buy silk, tea, lacquerware... The Japanese especially love lacquerware, believing it to be a product of the Tang Dynasty."

"They can make it themselves, but Japanese lacquerware is not as exquisite as that of the Ming Dynasty."

"Last year alone, Ming Dynasty merchants brought back tens of thousands of taels of silver from the sale of lacquerware..."

It would take another one or two hundred years for Japanese lacquerware craftsmanship to mature, and during the Ming Dynasty, people even went to Japan to learn lacquerware techniques.

At that time, Japan did not mint copper coins. Ming Dynasty merchants went there to trade, either bartering or bringing back silver.

It's fine to bring back a small amount of silver, but if you bring back too much, the Maritime Trade Office will stop you. Merchants must sell the silver to the government, and then the imperial court will mint it into silver coins for issuance.

With silver imports increasing year by year, silver dollars are expected to become less scarce in ten years and can be seen in everyday small transactions.

Li Wenzhong played with the silver coins he had just purchased, and they seemed to have been pressed with even more exquisite craftsmanship.

"Is Li Wenzhong here?" Huo Zheng called out.

"This junior is here." Li Wenzhong stepped forward to greet him.

Huo Zheng said, "His Majesty summons you to the Eastern Palace for an audience."

Upon hearing this, the wealthy businessmen all turned to look, their faces filled with envy.

...

As the eldest grandson of the richest cloth merchant in Tokyo, Li Wenzhong had overlooked the Tokyo Imperial City on many occasions.

Spying on the palace would have been a serious crime in other dynasties.

However, the Northern Song Dynasty was quite peculiar. In order to collect more contract fees, the imperial court took the initiative to spend money to expand Fanlou and even increased its height to five stories.

Unfortunately, Fanlou is right next to the imperial palace, so standing on the top floor gives you a real panoramic view!

Of course, you can't see the emperor's harem; you can only see the palace complex (office buildings) within the imperial city.

After the telescope was invented, the imperial court issued a new regulation.

Telescopes were forbidden from being pointed at the Imperial City from any building that was higher than the city walls. Anyone caught doing so would be sent to the Dali Temple for questioning.

Li Wenzhong had met the Crown Prince.

Standing on the top floor of Fanlou, one can glimpse a corner of the Eastern Palace.

Li Wenzhong was led into a small hall, where the eunuch instructed him, "You shall wait here and not move around at will."

Li Wenzhong was only allowed to enter after waiting for half an hour.

He encountered Shi Yuangong at the door and quickly bowed and greeted him, not daring to be negligent in the slightest: "This junior pays his respects to Marquis Shi!"

Now that the Agricultural Promotion Bureau has been formalized, Shi Yuangong's intelligence system is still controlled solely by His Majesty, who only reports information to the Privy Council and the Ministry of War on a regular basis.

There has been much speculation about this, and Li Wenzhong has also heard about it.

When greeted by a commoner, Shi Yuangong actually returned the greeting with a bow and a smile, showing no arrogance whatsoever.

However, that smile chilled Li Wenzhong to the bone, as if it concealed a dagger.

Li Wenzhong stepped into the hall and saw the emperor reviewing official documents.

He dared not disturb the emperor, so he stopped at a distance that was neither too close nor too far, and stood silently waiting for the emperor to finish his work.

"Li Wenzhong?"

Zhao Yuan didn't even look up, asking questions as he wrote.

Li Wenzhong quickly bowed and said, "This humble commoner, Li Wenzhong, greets Your Majesty!"

Zhao Yuan finally put down his brush: "Come closer, I can't see clearly."

"Yes!" Li Wenzhong stepped closer.

Zhao Yuan memorized the face and said, "Please take a seat."