He was Xu Guangqi's disciple, Sun Yuan Hua, one of the few people at the end of the Ming Dynasty who could see the world with their eyes open. He was proficient in Western learning and good at making cannons. He was one of the few technical bureaucrats in the Ming Dynasty who could grasp real power. Unfortunately, his death was very unjust. The Great Ming Dynasty had almost perfectly avoided all the correct paths to survival and rushed headfirst into hell.
Stimulated by Zhou Qingfeng's attack on the capital, the Ming court finally had some public opinion that wanted to change. After all, as long as one wasn't a fool, they would understand the great danger of the water transport being cut off. Emperor Wanli died three years early. His son, Taichang Emperor, had to have some new atmosphere when he came to power. The Ming Army was reorganizing its troops and decided to attack Tianjin again. The Ming officials were also looking for a way to reform.
Grand Secretary Fang Yizhe hadn't fallen yet. Since Du Song and other generals said that the rebels' artillery was sharp, he found Xu Guangqi, who was proficient in Western learning, to make cannons. Xu Guangqi was already 60 years old. He recommended his proud disciple, Sun Yuan Hua, to be the secretary of the Ministry of War to find a way to strengthen the army.
Sun Yuan Hua received this heavy responsibility and knew that cannons alone couldn't save Daming. His first thought was to find a way to investigate the rebels of the Revolutionary Army. As the saying goes, know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. Everyone knew what the Ming Army was like. But there were different opinions about what the Revolutionary Army was like. Everyone was like a blind man touching an elephant. They all said different things.
The Revolutionary Army occupied Tianjin but didn't prohibit the flow of people to the outside world. Zhou Qingfeng even encouraged civilian personnel and business contacts. This was a kind of self-confidence. He wanted to show his strengths. Even if there were shortcomings, he wasn't afraid of others talking about it. He even encouraged the people to express reasonable opinions. Those who started rumors and sowed discord would definitely be unlucky.
Daming's Brocade Guard still sent people to Tianjin to find out the situation. In fact, it was a task that could be easily completed by sending all kinds of newspapers and pamphlets in the market back to the capital. If they wanted to secretly rebel, they would have to face Ma Gonggong's minions and the vast sea of people's war.
Sun Yuan Hua arrived in Tianjin and was quite emotional on the first day. He wrote down some notes and decided to take a good look around the city. Because he came with the identity of a merchant, the Imperial Bodyguard spy in Tianjin warned him, "That traitor Ma Keshi's methods are formidable, his surveillance is extremely strict. Sun Daren should go to the rebel thief's bank to exchange some silver. Only then would you look like you have truly come to Tianjin to do business. "
Exchange for silver dollars?
Sun Yuan Hua didn't quite understand what was going on, but he still went to the city center near the drum tower. The newly established "Chinese Bank" was a newly built three-story building. Just this building alone was over 20 meters tall, comparable to the city gates. It was the signature building of the rebels and was very eye-catching.
Since there was no cement yet, the building was made of bricks and wood. The walls were made of glutinous rice and lime, which cost a lot. However, after the completion of this bank building, it brought great fame, making people feel that the Revolutionary Army was indeed powerful. Moreover, the construction of the building was extremely fast. With a floor area of two thousand square meters, it was completed in less than a month and was quickly put into use. It was said that it would continue to expand in the future.
When Sun Yuanhua rushed over, he saw a sea of people in front of the bank building. When he asked, he found out that there was a building that was going to be built opposite the bank. It was called "Department Store".
"Sir, may I ask, what is this" Department Store "?" Sun Yuanhua didn't understand. Ever since he came to Tianjin, he felt like a country bumpkin from the countryside. Just by looking at the newspaper of the 'Revolutionary Army', which was published recently, he was able to understand the news from Liaodong, Shandong, and other places. There were even a lot of strange and strange news about overseas.
The person who was asked was an old man who was watching the fun. He grinned and said, "It's a place where all kinds of goods are bought and sold. The notice said that this place is mainly for retail. If there is a large quantity, it can be sold at the wholesale market outside the city. "
He didn't see anything strange about the bank, but he saw something strange about the department store.
Sun Yuan Hua followed the crowd and realized that the people on the street were actually looking at a big hole in the ground. The hole was about five or six meters deep. It was said to be the foundation and basement of some department store. When he saw the hole, he couldn't help but click his tongue. He then looked at the workers who were using cranes to transport the soil. Each time, they could transport thousands of pounds.
"Amazing. It's really amazing. I have long heard that the "Revolutionary Army" doesn't read the books of the saints, but they give preferential treatment to the craftsmen and are good at strange and obscene techniques. It's really true. " Sun Yuan Hua was pushed away by the crowd after watching for a while. He walked forward and saw the bank building that he was going to come to today.
From the perspective of future generations, this square-shaped three-story building was nothing out of the ordinary. But in the eyes of the Ming Dynasty, this building was strange everywhere. The height of the first floor of the building was more than five meters. Just the door made people feel that it was spacious. There were two guards with spears standing at the door. They wore helmets and breastplates and were fully armed. At first glance, people felt that they were majestic and didn't dare to act rashly.
Sun Yuan Hua was a person who knew technology. He was very curious about the bright breastplate. The Ming Army soldiers who fought with the Imperial Guard were all envious when talking about this breastplate. They said that it was unimaginable that this armor could only be worn by the generals of the Ming Army. This breastplate was bright and majestic. It was very difficult to cut it. Ordinary soldiers couldn't deal with it at all.
"For such a precious armor to be used by ordinary soldiers, this' Revolutionary Army 'is indeed extraordinary. It's a pity that this kind of power can't be used by me, Daming. It really makes one sigh. "Sun Yuan Hua sighed and followed the crowd into the bank.
Back then, Zhou Qingfeng started up the 'money-making treasure', and also engaged in insurance and financial management. Although these things were either deceiving people, or did not play a big role. But at the very least, he had recruited and trained a group of financial talents. These people could be used to set up banks. Banks, as financial institutions, could play a huge role if used well. Just curbing the usury among the people was a good policy.
There were signboards and guides on the first floor of the bank. Currently, there were deposit and loan services as well as remittance services. Sun Yuanhua brought two strong servants and more than a hundred taels of silver with him. He asked where he could handle the silver dollar exchange service. In fact, he still didn't know what this exchange service meant. He only knew that it was to change the silver taels into silver dollars, and that it was very convenient to do so.
When he arrived at the exchange counter in a daze, the clerk asked him how much he wanted to exchange. Sun Yuanhua put a bag of silver on the counter, and someone immediately came to weigh the silver. The weight was calculated by grams. More than a hundred taels was nearly four thousand grams.
After confirming that all the silver had been exchanged, someone came to check the silver that had been exchanged. One was to throw it into the water to confirm the relationship between density and weight, and then carefully cut it with a pair of scissors to confirm the quality of the silver.
The silver that Sun Yuanhua brought had good and bad qualities, and the exchange rate was also different. The clerk in the bank was busy for a long time before he calculated the amount of silver dollars that had been exchanged for more than a hundred taels of silver. "A total of 152 dollars and 72 cents."
Silver dollars were silver-copper alloy, 25 grams for one. There were also copper coins with lower value. Zhao Ze had recently developed a hydraulic stamping machine. First of all, it was not used to make weapons, but to make coins. The 'Revolutionary Army' needed to rely on commercial sales to buy a lot of materials. It was too troublesome to rely on silver, so there must be a standardized currency.
The stamping mold was made with a digital processing center. Originally, it was going to use Zhou Qingfeng's portrait as the pattern. But considering that it still needed to circulate in the area controlled by the Ming court, in the end, it was still decided to use plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum, and digital text to distinguish and mark it.
When Sun Yuanhua received the 'Revolutionary Army' silver dollar, he once again felt the charm of this industrial technology. He carefully looked at the stamping mold against the light, and the fine patterns were printed on the silver dollar. Those lines were not something that could be done by humans. The petals on the silver dollar even had a three-dimensional difference in height. The rarest thing was that every silver dollar was the same, exactly the same.
"Divine skill, it's really a divine skill!" Sun Yuanhua did not care that he was still in front of the bank counter, and praised the high-quality silver dollar. Daming's imperial court also made coins, but the patterns that were cast were definitely not as exquisite as this stamping. The concave and convex patterns on the edge, and even the wearability and identification of the silver dollar made it a work of art.
The 'Revolutionary Army's' currency was divided into five types: one yuan, fifty jiao, ten jiao, five fen, and one fen. It was divided into two types: silver and copper coins. Sun Yuanhua carefully looked at them and asked the bank staff, "Are there many people who come to exchange?"
"At first, not many, but we pay salaries and external purchases with silver dollars. Soon, everyone understood the convenience of this thing, and naturally liked it." The bank staff said.
Sun Yuanhua held the silver dollar in his hand, and his mind began to imagine quickly. After a while, he actually felt dizzy, and he could not judge what kind of huge impact this small silver dollar would have. The imperial court only thought that the 'Revolutionary Army' was a group of rebels with strong artillery and thick armor, and soldiers dared to fight. But their ability was already beyond the imagination of the imperial court.
It would have been better if they didn't compare, but the comparison really made people feel despair. These rebel chiefs of the 'Revolutionary Army' did everything from a strategically advantageous position, and they planned far ahead, while the officials of the imperial court were all stupid like pigs. This was simply an insult to pigs.
Currency was something that people couldn't do without in their daily lives, and it was even more necessary for commercial circulation. But it was very inconvenient for Daming to use silver as his currency. The value of one silver dollar was too big, and the value of one copper dollar was too small. Moreover, counterfeiting on silver was an essential ability for many profiteers, so a lot of effort was actually spent on how to distinguish the authenticity of the silver dollar when doing business.
The market was full of broken silver, and it was cut by the merchants with scissors non-stop. Every time they bought and sold, they had to weigh the broken silver, and the trouble was not to mention how big it was. The silver dollar of the 'Revolutionary Army' was exquisite, and it looked high-grade. The value was fixed, and it was difficult to counterfeit. This was bound to be very popular for commercial circulation.
As long as the 'Revolutionary Army' continued to provide these silver dollars, just the seigniorage alone would be a large sum of money. One silver dollar couldn't be exchanged for the same weight of silver dollar, and the silver dollar was mixed with about one-tenth of copper.
Zhao Ze was mass-producing stamping machines in the Liaodong Peninsula, and he kept turning melted silver into silver dollar day and night. When the silver in the market was continuously exchanged for the 'Revolutionary Army's' silver dollar, the hearts of the people would naturally be inclined to this group of rebels. This subtle erosion of consciousness would play a big role sooner or later, which was more powerful than winning a few battles.
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