The Emperor finished reading the letter carefully, excitedly got up and turned in place twice. He felt a bit uneasy, then took out the letter to read it again carefully.
He nervously licked his lips, really wanting to call soone in to discuss it imdiately, but recalling the difficulties of these years, he held back.
Zhao Hanzhang was right; this matter should be approached gradually.
The Emperor cald down and waited until the next day to summon a few of his confidants and Zhao Zhongyu.
He quietly asked them, "Yan Heng was killed by General Gou. Did many people attend his funeral?"
The ministers did not understand why the Emperor brought this up, as it was already several days past, and Yan Heng was already reduced to ashes. Still, soone said, "There should be quite a few, wasn’t Minister Zhao present that day?"
Yan Heng died at the hands of Gou Xi. Apart from those generals close to him, no one attended the funeral, and the only minister present was Zhao Zhongyu.
They were not familiar with Yan Heng.
The Emperor imdiately looked at Zhao Zhongyu and asked with concern, "Do you know who they were, and what were the circumstances?"
Zhao Zhongyu also found it strange, not understanding why the Emperor was interested in this matter, but he replied seriously, "The funeral was presided over by Ming Yu. Generals Wen, Pei, and Wang all ca to pay their respects, and a few who couldn’t return in ti sent deputy generals as representatives."
Seeing the Emperor listening intently, Zhao Zhongyu then described in detail, mainly focusing on the words they spoke during the mourning, which included complaints against Gou Xi.
As he spoke, Zhao Zhongyu seed to sense sothing, vaguely guessing the Emperor’s true intention.
The other few listening ministers also grasped the hint, exchanged glances, and all sat up straighter, contemplating the feasibility of the matter.
"Does Your Majesty also think General Gou acted wrongly in this matter?"
The Emperor glanced at Zhao Zhongyu and sighed, "When Yan Heng was taken to the General Mansion, I issued a decree, hoping General Gou would spare his life for old tis’ sake. I didn’t expect it to be too late."
Zhao Zhongyu imdiately said, "Yes, Yan Heng followed General Gou for many years. Even if he hadn’t achieved rit, he endured hardship. Additionally, this ti he tried to advise for General Gou’s sake; General Gou shouldn’t have killed him for this."
The next words didn’t need to be very explicit. The Emperor said, "I’ve heard that Mr. Ming is seriously ill in bed because of this. Gu Qing, take an Imperial Physician to visit Mr. Ming and persuade him to be cheerful."
Ming Yu is a counselor relying on Gou Xi, without any military power. Naturally, the Emperor didn’t intend to compete for Ming Yu with Gou Xi but rather intended to show a stance to Gou Xi’s subordinate generals.
After visiting Ming Yu, he could send people to comfort those subordinate generals feeling compassion as the rabbit dies, the fox mourns.
The Emperor diligently, yet quietly, chipped away at Gou Xi’s foundation, while Zhao Hanzhang openly issued her new currency.
Her new currency was printed in large quantities.
Baskets and baskets of copper coins were sent to the treasury, and then they engaged in transactions amongst themselves, taking out pearls, gems, porcelain, and other items, nearly gathering dust in the treasury, roughly estimating their value and exchanging them for copper coins.
These items were divided into several parts and handed over to rchant fleets to take them to trade in distant places.
In addition, Zhao’s Pawnshop officially opened.
Zhao Hanzhang directly took over three shops, oh, these three shops were originally a betrothal gift from Zhao Changyu, later she exchanged them with Zhao Zhongyu, went through a roundabout, and now they returned to her hands.
Three connected pawnshops, making it so large because Luoyang had a shortage of currency, requiring many to exchange money.
Zhao Hanzhang posted notices stating that from today, market transactions should be primarily conducted using copper coins. Those without money could mortgage items at the pawnshop to exchange for money.
During bartering, rchants might suffer losses, individuals might suffer losses, everyone felt they had lost; even if exchanges were made, their moods would likely not improve.
Previously, due to a lack of money, Zhao Hanzhang had the rchant fleet travel far distances, sell goods, and exchange them for money.
But returning only with money was at a loss, so the rchant fleet left only a small portion of money; most of it was exchanged for food and cloth to be brought back and sold again.
But because Luoyang had little money, besides currency, they could always receive all sorts of items wanting to barter.
If the rchant fleet were purely comrcial, they could simply declare, without exchanging, only accepting money.
But they were not, as these rchant fleets were organized by Ji Yuan, bearing Zhao Hanzhang’s na, thus carrying a bit of public nature.
If even Zhao Hanzhang was unwilling to barter goods for grain for the people, then they had no livelihood.
Therefore, the rchant fleet always returned with a heap of miscellaneous items, useful or not.
Useless items had to be shipped out again, but this roundtrip took at least twenty days, making fund turnover particularly slow.
Now that Zhao Hanzhang herself minted currency, she streamlined the middle process, and the rchant fleet didn’t have to suffer.
Leaving this ti, besides carrying various goods, they could take along two carts of new money to purchase goods in other places.
With new money circulated, more money appeared in the market. When Zhao Hanzhang walked the streets again, the sounds of quarrels from bartering were noticeably less.
Zhao Kuan’s workload drastically decreased, and he no longer had to work overti until late at night every day.
Thus, on this day, he had the ti to have a al with Zhao Hanzhang, Zhao Erlang, and Zhao Yunxin.
At the dining table, it was siblings rather than the Inspector and County Magistrate, allowing him to exhale and openly say to Zhao Hanzhang, "Due to the new currency, there have been no more people fighting at the county governnt over transaction disputes."
He said, "If I’d known money could solve these issues, I would have minted it earlier."
Zhao Hanzhang: "Eighty percent of things in this world can be resolved with money. Your statent makes one think there’s a lot of money out there."
Zhao Kuan relaxedly said, "Didn’t have before, but now we do. Let Ting Han mint more."
"Money isn’t minted casually," Zhao Hanzhang said, "Every minted coin must be accounted for. If money is minted without restraint, the market will collapse."
Zhao Erlang didn’t understand this and only asked, "Sister, now that you have money, can you disburse military pay?"
"No," Zhao Hanzhang said gloomily, "The money in the mint isn’t mine; my money is only what’s in the treasury."
Zhao Erlang then looked at Fu Tinghan, "Brother-in-law, can you lend money to Sister to pay the military wages?"
Fu Tinghan laughed, "That money isn’t mine either."
Zhao Erlang glared, "How isn’t it yours? Clearly, you’re the one who minted it."
Zhao Hanzhang felt that if she explained the ownership of the money, tonight’s al would never end, so she straightforwardly asked, "Why do you want military pay?"
Besides liking shiny jewels, Zhao Erlang didn’t have much desire for money. The military provided food and shelter, and occasionally he’d run back to her place for a banquet, having no real need for money.
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