Chapter 335: Minting Coins

"There is no wisdom greater than the Emperor's; taking Jiangning is equivalent to taking most of Jiangnan."

All the generals participating in the meeting praised the Emperor's wisdom and martial arts.

And they had no doubt about whether Song Wan, who was currently in Xiangyang, could break through Jiangning.

Not to mention the sharpness of their Great Gan's firearms, which made capturing cities and seizing territory as easy as reaching into a bag,

the Great Song's Bianliang City had its city walls blown down by their Great Gan's artillery,

and Zhao, who changed his name from Zhao in Zhuo County (now Zhuozhou, Hebei), became Zhang in Yanggu County, Shandong.

Although Jiangning was also a top-tier big city in Jiangnan, surpassing Hangzhou and Yangzhou,

in terms of the solidity of city defense, how could it compare to Bianjing City, which had been maintained,

reinforced, widened, and heightened for hundreds of years since Taizu Zhao Kuangyin was "forced" to wear the yellow robe at Chen Qiao,

and seized the country from the orphans and widows of the Later Zhou Chai family to establish the Great Song.

Although the "Donkey Cart War God" Zhao Guangyi opposed his elder brother moving the capital to Luoyang, which was more favorable for defense,

and said things like "the solidity of the country does not depend on the danger of mountains and rivers, but on hearts and virtues,"

his body was still very honest; after ascending the throne, he desperately reinforced the Bianliang city defense,

and gathered the elite troops of the world here, forming an imperial army of several tens of thousands.

Just talking about their Great Gan crushing the Liao Kingdom outside Yanmen Pass, carrying such a momentum of great victory,

anyone with eyes knew whose world this was,

and those forces in Jiangnan who knew the times were heroes had long wanted to welcome the royal army with food and drink.

In these days, there were countless forces of all sizes that openly expressed loyalty, secretly contacted Great Gan,

or even directly let their heads come to Bianjing to beg to see their Emperor.

They roared excitedly in their hearts: My Great Gan is invincible in the world!

The only thing that made them feel unfair was that such a great merit

was actually pocketed by that reckless man Song Wan, who had strong limbs but a simple mind,

and didn't know a basket of words.

Unfortunately, this matter was decided by the Emperor alone, overriding all objections,

so no matter how unwilling they were, they could only hold it in, not daring to show even a bit, and could only sigh in their hearts,

this Song Wan is worthy of being an old man who served the Emperor before he went to Liang Shan,

even with the fault of improper conduct before the throne, he was still in the Emperor's heart and could get such a huge opportunity.

Immediately, one by one, they prepared to write letters and send telegrams after the meeting to chat with General Song Wan.

How great is the merit of winning this half of the country; if they could share some of the merit,

wouldn't it be a dream to go further, or even several steps?

I think Song Wan wouldn't be completely ungrateful and greedy enough to swallow this monstrous merit alone.

Too much merit can also choke people to death!

"Hearts."

Zhang Jie, who took in all the little movements of the generals, sighed faintly in his heart.

When lurking and developing in Liang Shan, and when rising up to rebel,

and when attacking the Liao army, these generals of all sizes could still be united and work hard.

But now that the world is about to be settled, Great Gan is invincible, and everyone's little thoughts have emerged.

Those with small or little merit want more merit,

those with low official positions want to go further, and so on.

All kinds of living states, and even the ghosts of human hearts, have slowly spread in this newly built Great Gan dynasty.

He now finally knows why Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang always raised his butcher knife after establishing the Ming Dynasty,

launching many major cases that involved tens of thousands of people, or heads falling to the ground, or exile for three thousand miles,

it's really because some people can only be spoken to with knives,

talking about reason, hearts, or morality, they can't listen.

"However, why would I be afraid of these?"

Sighing like this, Zhang Jie suddenly smiled in his heart.

Now he is truly invincible in this world,

let him fight with these hearts!

He wants to see whether the knife in his hand is hard,

or the necks of those who don't know what's good for them and reach out are hard!

"Next, you must fully prepare for the reception of Jiangnan; I don't want to see any major turmoil."

Zhang Jie looked at the generals under his command with a stern expression and ordered.

If anyone dares to make trouble in this matter, don't blame him, Zhang Jie, for being ruthless.

"We understand!"

The generals, knowing the seriousness of the matter, didn't dare to be negligent, stood up from their chairs in unison, and responded solemnly.

After making a rough deployment, Zhang Jie went to handle other matters,

and the rest of the details, such as how to break the city, whether to recruit surrender, or directly break it to intimidate people,

and how to establish stable rule after breaking the city, naturally had other professionals to solve.

If all matters, big and small, were decided by him,

even if he had extraordinary cultivation, he would be exhausted to death like the First Emperor,

grasping the big and letting go of the small, mastering the direction, and being the captain and helmsman of this Great Gan ship was what he should do.

Besides, if everything was done by him alone,

then what are the officials and civil servants under him for, eating dry rice?

It is still necessary to give them a platform to show their abilities.

"Emperor, the Minting Department has minted new sample coins, please appreciate them, Emperor."

In the Hall of Government Affairs, a while later, Wang Lun came to report the good news to Zhang Jie with joy, holding a small box.

"Oh, have the sample coins been minted? Bring them here quickly."

Zhang Jie, hearing this, was also somewhat happy and stood up to welcome Wang Lun.

Ever since he sacrificed to heaven, ascended the throne, and established Great Gan, he had been pushing for the minting of Great Gan's own coins.

Now, what is circulating among the people is still Songyuan Tongbao (minted by Song Taizu), Taiping Tongbao (minted by Song Taizong),

Chunhua Yuanbao (Song Taizong's imperial calligraphy money, with three styles: regular script, running script, and cursive script),

Huangsong Tongbao (minted during the Song Renzong period), Chongning Tongbao (Song Huizong's imperial calligraphy thin gold style money, known as "the most beautiful ancient coin in China"),

Daguan Tongbao (Song Huizong's imperial calligraphy money, the peak of calligraphy art), and various other Great Song Tongbao.

Now that his Great Gan has been established, naturally, it must issue its own currency.

Otherwise, what is circulating in the market is still the Great Song Tongbao,

where does that put his Zhang Jie's face and Great Gan's dignity?

And to tell the truth, the Great Song's money is not very good, with a wide variety,

almost every ruler would discover one or several Tongbao,

causing chaos in the currency system, with multiple Tongbao of different values hitting the market at once, which would cause great trouble for circulation.

The Great Song even implemented a special iron coin system in the Sichuan region, using iron coins cast from iron.

Iron coins, because their metal value is relatively low, the casting volume is large, but they are easily corroded,

and the preservation state is generally not good, which greatly affected normal circulation.

The rise of the Great Song's Jiaozi also had to do with the difficulty of using the iron coins they pushed:

Jiaozi was first issued by wealthy households in Sichuan, and in 1023, it was unified and managed by the government establishing the "Jiaozi Office,"

and even used iron coins as reserve funds, with a circulation period of three years.

To show the elegant politics of the new dynasty, and also to facilitate circulation, Zhang Jie naturally wanted to mint new money. ===== CHAPTER 336 =====