Chapter 270: Heroes See Alike

Jiaozi has been promoted in Hexi for half a month now; apart from some town‑side tribes in Ganzhou and Guazhou that refused to accept Jiaozi in exchange for cattle and sheep and were beaten up by the Chishui army's rapid response unit, everything else has been uneventful.

No one truly dares to reject Jiaozi, and the court has not yet refused redemption, so a total loss is unnecessary.

Fang Chongyong is quite confident about the Jiaozi promotion because he has linked Jiaozi with the most popular Western Region commodity, silk.

In other words, the money shop issuing Jiaozi is now the largest silk merchant in Hexi! Each Jiaozi can be redeemed for the full amount of silk after one month.

And the checkpoint in Shazhou tightly controls silk exports, which can to some extent prevent Jiaozi over‑redemption.

At the same time, the governments of the five Hexi prefectures have even deployed troops to crack down on the silk black market, and have posted the guideline prices of Western Region goods on the money shop's notice board.

If silk is insufficient, then Western Region goods will be exchanged for Jiaozi at the guideline price.

With bulk‑commodity‑anchored pricing, Jiaozi can be freely exchanged for physical goods across the five Hexi prefectures, so the system should run smoothly.

At this moment, Fang Chongyong sits in a pledge‑room of the Jiedushi's office, watching local Liangzhou farmers come here to handle the mutual grain exchange, collect the corresponding Jiaozi from the office, and sign loan slips for filing.

After receiving the Jiaozi, they keep them close and careful, their hearts full of anxiety.

These farmers will use the borrowed Jiaozi to approach Liangzhou merchants to purchase farming tools and seeds.

After the September harvest, they will repay with grain and cancel the loan slips.

In previous years, the Hexi Jiedushi's office would lend the silk coming from Chang'an to local big merchants, letting them repay the debt with grain after the harvest.

So why not lend directly to ordinary farmers?

Because they are small‑scale farmers with poor risk resistance; the silk lent to them can easily become bad debt.

Now the Hexi Jiedushi's office no longer has to clamour and beg Chang'an to send silk for raising military grain.

The Jiedushi here can handle the matter in advance, then wait for the court's silk to replenish the treasury for Jiaozi redemption.

This is the Jiaozi's initial impact in the new system. At the very least it saves farmers financing costs, eases their burden, and strikes down the 'middlemen'.

A good sword in the hands of a good person can save lives.

Fang Chongyong watches the busy Yang Yan at the counter and can't help but nod slightly. He feels his line of thought is still on target.

The mutual grain exchange system that has run in Shazhou for years, with a slight tweak, becomes Wang Anshi's Qingmiao policy.

If local officials can work responsibly, then with Jiaozi's support, the policy's implementation would be twice as effective with half the effort.

As for how it would work elsewhere, Fang Chongyong has little confidence.

Just look at Zheng Shuqing's style, and you'll know the character of Tang officials.

"Fang Jiedushi, I have finished my tasks,"

Yang Yan salutes Fang Chongyong with a hand‑crossed bow.

"Yo, you're handling things quite efficiently,"

Fang Chongyong can't help but exclaim.

"Jiedushi, previously the grain exchange required counting silk and several people to move it around. Now it's just counting a few sheets of paper; this minor task I can still handle,"

Yang Yan smiles modestly.

The Fang Jiedushi before me is not someone to be easily fooled; he has been handling Hexi affairs for many years.

Don't be fooled by his youth; he is actually an experienced senior bureaucrat.

Yang Yan, many years ago, was an official in Liangzhou City in charge of the mutual grain loan business; what he does now is similar, only the steps are streamlined so one person can finish it.

"Fang Jiedushi…"

Seeing Yang Yan hesitate, Fang Chongyong asks puzzled, "What's wrong?"

"No, no, no, there's nothing wrong at the office; to be precise, it's too proper."

I, the subordinate, want to know whether this Jiaozi method can be promoted elsewhere in our Tang.

Using Jiaozi to directly exchange grain with the people is good governance, do the court officials not understand?"

Yang Yan lowers his voice and asks.

"Um… the Jiedushi truly does not know."

Fang Chongyong sighs, not knowing what to say.

Many those in power, after discovering a knife in their hand, do not first intend to go hunting dangerous beasts in the wild and bring shared wealth to those around them.

Instead, they take the knife to a neighbor's house and seize whatever they can!

After that, they discuss other matters.

Fang Chongyong knows Ji Ge's nature intimately and dares not hold any expectations of him. In his memorial to the court, he has spelled out clearly how the Jiaozi should be used.

Ji Ge would of course see it immediately.

Whether the other side will listen and how they will handle it is truly hard to say.

At that moment, a panting man entered the pledge‑room. Upon seeing Fang Chongyong, his face lit up with surprise, and he hurried over, grasped Fang's hands, and exclaimed, "Fang Jiedushi, this is… this is… quickly, quickly, come with me back to Chang'an, now, we set off at once!"

Eh?

Fang Chongyong and Yang Yan were both stunned; the newcomer was the eunuch Bian Licheng, who often rides out to border towns to deliver messages!

"Eunuch Bian, take a break first, don't rush, speak slowly,"

Fang Chongyong, unflustered, patted Bian Licheng's shoulder and slipped a stack of Jiaozi into the man's sleeve.

Bian Licheng clearly knew what Jiaozi were; a smile almost blossomed on his face as he steadied himself and said, "The saint has an urgent matter to discuss with Fang Jiedushi; the sooner the better."

Ji Ge?

Fang Chongyong felt a pang of doubt.

Ji Ge had previously sent him to oversee Hexi affairs, so it's unlikely he's being asked to return to Chang'an.

That would make all his effort pointless.

But his demeanor doesn't seem like he's being dismissed.

What is the real reason?

Fang Chongyong's hair stood on end.

"But what great event has happened in Chang'an?"

Fang Chongyong lowered his voice and asked.

"Alas, Jiedushi Fang, you are unaware. The Sage and a host of central ministers have been flushed with anger over the jiaozi issue."

The Sage instructed Jiedushi Fang to return to Chang'an quickly and arrange the promotion of the jiaozi.

"The Sage is delighted with the matter you handled in Hexi, constantly praising you for perceiving the Sage's will!"

Bian Lingcheng smiled broadly and said, as if he were dying to kneel and flatter Fang Chongyong.

"Understood. Then, Jiedushi, attend to the affairs in the military governor's office, and then you may return to Chang'an with me."

Fang Chongyong's expression remained calm, and he nodded slightly.

Sure enough, Ji Ge, unsurprisingly, gave no refusal to Fang Chongyong's proposal concerning the jiaozi.

In fact, from Fang Chongyong's perspective, the Tang Emperor had no reason to reject the jiaozi.

Even if standing opposite all the ministers, Ji Ge would spare no effort. It's a matter where the bottom line dictates the mind, not swayed by personal will.

In truth, thinking about it, for the prodigally extravagant Ji Ge, nothing is more tempting than printing money directly.

However, what Fang Chongyong did not anticipate was that Ji Ge could not even wait a month; as soon as the jiaozi began to spread in Hexi, he was already scheming to issue jiaozi in Chang'an.

One must admit, when it comes to money‑grabbing schemes, this emperor's nose is keener than a dog's!

"If you ride a swift horse, you can reach Chang'an in five days. Of course, if you push a dead horse, departing from Liangzhou, you can be in Chang'an in three days."

Bian Lingcheng said softly. As an eunuch who often 'went on business trips', he was well aware of the distance from frontier towns to Chang'an.

From Liangzhou to Chang'an, a reckless horseback ride takes three days, a nonstop horse journey five days, traveling on foot takes over ten days, and the court's appointment deadline is a month—roughly that situation.

Fang Chongyong briefed Guo Ziyi on the arrangements of the Chishui army, briefed Cen Shen on the daily operations of the office, and briefed Yang Yan on the jiaozi exchange and silk collection arrangements.

After he placed Ana Ye with her adoptive father Doctor Li, he hurried with Bian Lingcheng to the outpost outside Liangzhou, mounted a horse, and rode toward Chang'an, carrying no luggage.

……

In a courtyard of Li Linfu's residence in Pingkang Lane, the Tang Right Prime Minister paced anxiously, his mind a tangled mess.

Not long ago, Tang Emperor Li Longji issued a deathly order to this Tang Right Prime Minister: within three months, jiaozi must be spread across Chang'an, Luoyang, Yangzhou, Chengdu, Guangzhou, and other places, to replace silk.

This decree met with opposition from many officials in the Secretariat.

Even the Six Ministries saw many officials submit memorials, opposing the court's plan to loot the people's wealth with "paper pieces".

Of course, their opposition wasn't solely due to ignorance of jiaozi, but because they saw no concrete benefit for themselves.

In fact, they'd rather maintain the status quo.

In reality, the Tang's circulation system, centered on silk with copper coins and precious metals as supplements, is the product of years of multi‑party compromise. Its intricacies are hard to sum up in a few words.

In the twentieth year of the Kaiyuan era, Ji Ge promulgated the "Unified Currency and Commodity System", which stipulated: "Silk, brocade, silk cloth, and miscellaneous goods shall all be accepted in trade. If a market insists on seeing money, that is unreasonable; from now on, money and goods shall be used together, and violators shall be punished according to law."

In other words: if someone offers a bolt of cloth to purchase something, the merchant must accept it and cannot refuse. Otherwise, it is contempt of the law. Customers may report, and the authorities can prosecute.

An important detail worth noting here is: merchants may not refuse silk.

Thus one can infer the opposite: silk must be highly unwelcome in transactions.

If it were popular, why would the law stress that it cannot be refused?

In fact, regional resistance to silk in the Tang was commonplace; refusing silk was a regular occurrence!

This issue arose very early, and the societal bargaining over it has persisted for a long time!

Further speculation suggests that, at the time, in most of the Tang, silk was an even "worse" form of bad money, extremely unpopular.

Whenever possible to avoid taking silk, merchants would strive to steer clear of accepting it, preferring to pass the silk on.

In Hexi, silk is "premium currency" because the Silk Road's export point lies there, serving foreign trade.

In the Western Regions, silk sells effortlessly and yields high profit, clearly more popular than copper coins.

However, in Chang'an, Luoyang, Yangzhou and the like, silk and similar goods are not the hard currency merchants welcome. These merchants truly have no choice; forced by law, they reluctantly accept silk.

Because silk is a physical good, unlike the Ming dynasty's treasure notes, it lacks intrinsic utility.

Thus, even if merchants dislike it, they eventually compromise for various reasons.

In fact, one can understand that ordinary households, even those with modest means, cannot change clothes frequently. Families that do so are either very rich or noble, and such people are few in society.

Cloth and grain, as hard necessities, differ slightly.

Skipping a meal makes one feel weak, but lacking a set of clothes is not as severe. The ancients were frugal in clothing; after all, there is a saying: "new for three years, old for three years, mend and patch for another three years."

This shows they did not change clothes that often.

Silk, though useful, does not enjoy strong social demand; it is a "slow‑selling necessity", only in some frontier towns like Hexi does it strongly attract foreigners.

With the rapid development of the Tang's commodity economy, the total amount of silk in society has steadily risen, far outpacing consumption.

Massive quantities of silk, due to the commodity economy, have been hoarded by merchants as currency, piled in warehouses and rotting.

Moreover, because the Tang's "ancestral law" remains unchanged, the levies themselves naturally generate cloth and silk.

These silks and cloths also enter circulation through officials' salaries, rewards, and other channels.

The accumulation of many factors causes silk in the hands of the people to continuously depreciate. Moreover, cloth depreciates over time, may be refused due to stains during trade, and is hard to divide; forced division sharply drops its value, among other drawbacks.

Finding a currency to replace silk has been an urgent need that has troubled the Tang court for many years.

Although Ji Ge clamors to implement jiaozi, Li Linfu, as Right Prime Minister, is not idle; he harbors many concerns.

Printing jiaozi is too risky! There is no precedent!

Moreover, the Sage demands it too hastily, leaving no buffer time!

If something goes wrong, it will cause a great chaos.

In Li Linfu's view, these policies should be advanced slowly, step by step.

"Jiaozi, jiaozi, how could a single sheet of paper possibly serve as money in this world…"

Li Linfu placed his hand behind his back, gazing at the distant bright sun where branches sprouted fresh buds, full of vitality.

At this moment, Li Linfu seemed poised to make a decision on a difficult matter, as if…

Issuing exchange notes, the emperor is pleased, but those who own large amounts of land—the powerful clans—are displeased, including some of the Guandong aristocracy, as well as the officials they support.

Even if these people don't realize it for now, they will eventually understand how formidable the exchange note is; when that time comes, there will still be a wave of bloody violence.

If the state masters the ability to issue currency without limit, it will cut off the path for local magnates to privately mint copper coins.

Because no matter how low the cost of private minting, it cannot possibly be lower than printing exchange notes!

Hoarding to manipulate grain prices, collecting good money and burying it to control the "price of money"—such operations, under the dominance of exchange notes, also become hard to pull off.

An exchange note that can be printed without limit is precisely the weapon to deal with these petty tactics!

Li Linfu has already imagined how much resistance the exchange note would face if it were rolled out across the Tang.

By then, the government's grip on the nation's economic operation will be greatly strengthened. Apart from lacking over a thousand years of insight in his mind, Fang Chongyong had considered those matters initially, and Li Linfu likewise considered them all; many of his answers were similar.

In short, he, the Tang's Right Minister, is caught between the emperor and the powerful elite, belonging nowhere.

How is he to break free?

At that moment, a familiar figure entered his sight. Seeing the person approach, Li Linfu hurried forward to salute, saying: "General Gao, why have you personally come to my residence—is it at the emperor's command?"

This morning, Fang Guozhong arrived in Chang'an and had a delightful discussion with the emperor.

Now the emperor summons the Right Minister to the Hall of Blossoms to discuss state affairs; the Right Minister, please come with me.

Gao Lishi said with a smile.

The exchange note proposal was Fang Guozhong's idea; having him oversee its rollout is most appropriate.

Li Linfu deflected blame without changing his expression.

Hearing this, Gao Lishi blinked, then smiled meaningfully: "The Right Minister's view coincides somewhat with Fang Guozhong's. Upon meeting, he recommended that the Right Minister take full charge of this matter, and said that in this affair, no one in the Tang can replace the Right Minister. You two have arrived at the same conclusion."

Well then, this Minister will have to take a good look.

Li Linfu laughed it off, a flicker of annoyance flashing in his eyes.

(End of chapter)