Chapter 160 Bad Money Drives Out Good Money (5k)
Under the candlelight, Grand Chamberlain Liu Teng took out a Buddhist coin from his gray robe and placed it on the desk of Jiangyang King Yuanyi.
Those who can sit here are all direct descendants and close confidants of Jiangyang King Yuanyi.
The person closest to the seat of King Jiangyang Yuanyi was a military general with slightly gray hair on his temples.
Yuan Yi picked up the Buddhist coin and after reading it, he did not talk about the currency law, but talked about the current political situation.
He first said to the veterans around him: "To divide the military power of the He King's imperial guards, we have to ask General Xi to take action!"
This veteran general is the current Guanglu Qing, General Pingnan Xi Kangsheng, who had defeated the Southern Liang army many times.
Yuan Yi needed to compete with Prince Qinghe for control of the Imperial Guards, so he needed to put forward someone of his own. The only person in his camp who was qualified to do so was Xi Kangsheng, who had led the Imperial Guards to attack Southern Liang many times.
As for Li Chong, he could only be considered a collaborator of Yuan Yi, so Yuan Yi had no intention of recommending Li Chong to be the General of the Right Guard Army.
Hou Gang, who was demoted to a soldier in Qinzhou, was Yuan Yi's brother-in-law, and Hou Gang's daughter married Xi Kangsheng's son.
In other words, Yuan Yi's niece is Xi Kangsheng's daughter-in-law. The reason why political families are keen on alliances is that they use the future of their children to bind their political positions. Isn't it for their descendants and families that everyone has struggled all their lives?
Therefore, Yuan Yi and Xi Kangsheng had a close relationship, and Xi Kangsheng had made great military achievements and had prestige in the imperial guards. The Qinghe King's party in the court had no reason to oppose him.
In addition to Xi Kangsheng's military achievements, he also had a good relationship with Prince Qinghe, which could dispel Prince Qinghe's doubts and make him not object to his appointment as the Right Guard General.
By appointing him as the General of the Right Guard, he would be able to eliminate Prince Qinghe's control over the imperial guards.
Xi was a big Xianbei surname. The reason why Xi Kangsheng and King Jiangyang got together was that they were dissatisfied with the appointment of Han ministers by King Qinghe Yuan Yi. Since he took office as the Tianguan, the Minister of Personnel Cui Guang has always favored Han ministers in the promotion and appointment of officials, especially the noble positions were monopolized by the children of Han ministers.
Xi Kangsheng said dissatisfiedly: "The Prince of Qinghe appointed Han ministers, and the positions of Xiaolang and Zhulang were occupied by those who have done nothing for the country. My son has followed me to fight in the battlefield since he was young and has made countless contributions to the country, but my son is now only a Qianniu Qianniu attendant. How unfair!"
Xi Kangsheng's eldest son, Xi Nandang, the son who married Hou Gang's daughter, now holds the position of Qianniu Beishen.
Qianniu is a knife with an extremely sharp blade. It can slaughter a thousand cows without damaging the blade. It is the sword worn by the emperor.
However, it was impossible for the emperor to carry a sword himself, so he had three thousand-man guards by his side to protect him closely.
During the Tang Dynasty, this position became Qianniuwei, which referred to the imperial guards who were responsible for the safety of the emperor and empress dowager in the imperial palace.
This position was very important before the reform of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty and during his reign.
As the emperor's personal guards, it is easy for the emperor to see their talents and appoint them as generals or directly fight in wars. This is just like the Langguan position held by the sons of meritorious officials in the Han Dynasty. Many outstanding generals of Emperor Wu of Han started out as Langguan.
However, starting with Emperor Xuanwu, he gradually suppressed the power of the Xianbei warriors. First, the civil officials made suggestions and prohibited the guards around the emperor and the empress dowager from participating in state affairs, and even military affairs were not allowed to be involved. Qianniu Beishen now became a bodyguard-like position, while civil positions such as Zuozhuolang and Jiaoshulang became the secretaries of the emperor and the empress dowager, which became the fast lane for promotion.
Xi Kangsheng was dissatisfied with his son's future, and was also dissatisfied with the fact that Han literati were in power in the court, so he chose to cooperate with Jiangyang King Yuan Yi.
However, there are still significant differences between the two sides in their ultimate goals.
Prince Jiangyang Yuan Yi was not only dissatisfied with Prince Qinghe's rule, but also with Queen Mother Hu's rule. He planned to depose the Queen Mother and assist in the government as a prince.
However, Xi Kangsheng was just dissatisfied with the reign of Prince Qinghe. He had no interest in participating in the dethronement and enthronement of the king, nor did he want to risk his family.
Prince Jiangyang naturally would not reveal his plan to Xi Kangsheng. At present, their interests were the same, which was to overthrow Prince Qinghe first.
King Jiangyang picked up the Buddhist money on the table and said to his confidant:
"I have already arranged for the craftsmen of the Ministry of Works to make the coin molds. We will immediately use these coins as ten-buddha coins after the Queen Mother promulgates the coin law."
Everyone understood that King Jiangyang convened everyone for the meeting in order to distribute the benefits. As long as each family took out the Taihe Wuzhu coins in the mansion, King Jiangyang would naturally coordinate and organize them to be melted into new Dangshi Buddha coins. This was King Jiangyang's way of making everyone rich!
All those present were Yuan Yi's core members. Even peripheral members like Erzhu Rong, Xiao Baoyin and Li Chong were not qualified to attend. Yuan Shen, who was sitting on the fence, was even less qualified to attend. As for Su Ze, who was an peripheral of the peripherals, he had no qualifications at all to attend.
What followed was a banquet. After the banquet was over and the other party members dispersed, King Jiangyang Yuan Yi and Grand Chamberlain Liu Teng sat opposite each other.
Liu Teng cupped his hands and said to Yuan Yi, "Your Majesty, as His Majesty grows older, he is already somewhat dissatisfied with the Queen Mother's reign, especially the affair between Prince Qinghe and the Queen Mother. I don't know which filthy person leaked it to Your Majesty, and Your Majesty even smashed several pieces of porcelain in the palace."
Now Emperor Yuanxu is eight years old. Growing up in an imperial family, he is precocious. Any emperor wants to have complete power in his hands, and sharing it even with his mother is intolerable.
After Emperor Xuanwu passed away, Empress Dowager Hu lived in separate palaces from the young emperor in order to facilitate her own pleasure, which resulted in the friendship between Empress Dowager Hu and the young emperor not being very deep.
Those who accompanied Yuan Xu on a daily basis were eunuchs like Liu Teng, palace maids, and study companions like Yuan Ziyou.
As the most powerful person in the palace, Liu Teng was also secretly influencing the young emperor. For example, he managed to reveal the affair between Empress Dowager Hu and Prince Qinghe to the young emperor.
Yuan Yi nodded with satisfaction. It was almost an open conspiracy to alienate Empress Dowager Hu and the young emperor and his mother. The position of Prince Qinghe Yuan Yi also determined that he would inevitably become an enemy of the young emperor.
The regent appointed by the late emperor, the important official in the ceremonial guard of the current empress dowager, and his affair with Empress Dowager Hu are secondary. As long as the little emperor grows up, he will inevitably come into conflict with the forces of Empress Dowager Hu.
At that time, as long as he got the emperor's edict, King Jiangyang could capture and kill King Qinghe and force Empress Dowager Hu to remove her regency.
At that time, he could rely on his status as a prince to ascend to the position of regent.
Originally according to this plan, they just had to wait for the little emperor to grow up, but now Yuan Yi and Liu Teng can't wait any longer.
The reason is that Liu Teng is already quite old and has been in poor health since this year.
If one wants to force the Queen Mother to abdicate, one must collude with both internal and external forces, and Liu Teng is a necessary link.
If Liu Teng died of illness, Yuan Yi would have no influential followers in the palace to rely on, so the two had to discuss how to speed up the process and find a way to bring down Prince Qinghe as soon as possible.
Moreover, when the emperor gets older, Yuan Yi, the regent, will become the emperor's enemy, and he will then take Yuan Yi's position.
Liu Teng continued, "My two adopted sons, the Yellow Gate of the Main Food Department, Hu Xuandu and Hu Dinglie, are now serving as eunuchs to Your Majesty. I plan to have them falsely accuse Prince Qinghe of poisoning Your Majesty's food and request Your Majesty to issue a secret decree to summon the King to the palace to defend His Majesty."
After saying this, Liu Teng started to cough violently. Yuan Yi immediately stepped forward and stroked his back and said:
"Mr. Liu, please take care of yourself! Our great cause depends on you!"
Liu Teng was also somewhat moved. Prince Qinghe always valued civil officials and looked down upon eunuchs in the palace.
When Prince Qinghe first came to power, he often used eunuchs like these to establish his authority and establish his image of fairness and impartiality.
However, facing the illegal behavior of those scholars, the Prince of Qinghe was very lenient, so the palace was very dissatisfied with the Prince of Qinghe. In contrast, Yuan Yi, as a treacherous minister, had no psychological burden to interact with the eunuchs, and often gave gifts to important eunuchs, which made him very popular in the palace.
Yuan Yi continued, "Please continue to alienate the King of Qinghe in front of His Majesty. The issuance of the Buddha coins this time will cause chaos in the Luoyang market. When the time comes, I will write a letter to impeach the King of Qinghe, saying that he falsely offered auspicious signs and actually brought disaster to the country!"
-
The following scenes were all within Su Ze's expectations.
The imperial court suddenly issued an edict, and auspicious Buddhist coins came into being. Empress Dowager Hu ordered that the Buddhist coins be circulated in the world at a rate of ten to one.
In order to resolutely implement this imperial edict, the Ministry of Personnel issued another order that the court would use Buddhist money when dealing with the people and buying goods. The Secretariat also ordered all departments to allow Buddhist money to be used to settle expenditures from the court treasury and rewards to the troops.
In addition, the court also ordered Henan Prefecture that any merchants who refused to accept Buddhist money could be reported to Henan Prefecture, and Henan Prefecture would punish those illegal merchants who refused to accept Buddhist money.
The Duzhi Cao sent people to the four markets in Luoyang to read out the imperial edicts and decrees. At this time, the dignitaries including Su Ze, who had received the news in advance, quickly had the newly minted Buddhist coins thrown into the market in Luoyang.
It was only at this time that Su Ze realized what it meant to have a black heart.
For example, Cui Liang, the Minister of Personnel, had long wanted to expand his residence, but because the land price in Luoyang was too expensive, he had never been able to do so.
This time, before the imperial decree to allow the use of Buddhist coins was issued, Minister Cui spent 300,000 coins to buy the house next door.
This price was considered higher than the market price, so the neighbor happily signed the contract with Minister Cui. However, the next day, the imperial edict came down, and Minister Cui directly used a cart to pull out Buddhist coins worth 300,000 coins to settle the bill.
Naturally, the neighbors were unwilling to accept the Buddhist money, but Minister Cui immediately took out the order from Henan Prefecture and threatened to sue the other party in Henan Prefecture if they did not accept it.
Cui Liang's neighbor was also a retired minister, so he naturally knew the ins and outs of the matter. However, Cui Liang's tactics were too cruel, and he himself had already retired.
He could only accept Cui Liang's Buddhist money with hatred, and then quickly asked his family to take it to the market to spend it.
But by the time the family of this retired official rushed to the market, all the goods in the four markets of Luoyang had been sold out!
By this time, some big businessmen had come to their senses. They ordered their employees to close down their businesses. If your court doesn't agree and we refuse to accept it, it's okay for us to not sell it, right?
But the small and medium-sized merchants were not so tough. The market officials knocked on their shop doors and forced them to sell their goods. For a while, the entire four markets in Luoyang were filled with cries of grief.
Compared with those wealthy people, Su Ze and Princess Chenliu were just small fry in the market. The newly minted Buddhist coins in their hands were quickly used up. Looking at the southern brocade, rouge and powder piled up in Princess Chenliu's treasury, Su Ze couldn't help but sigh, this made money faster than robbery!
However, the joy in this world is conserved, and the joy of one group of people must be accompanied by the sorrow of another group of people.
-
Duke Danyang Xiao Baoyin no longer had his former elegance. He angrily smashed a vase and listened to Su Liang reporting their losses today.
In this feast of recasting big coins, core members of both the Qinghe King's faction and the Jiangyang King's faction participated in the plunder.
However, it was not until today when the imperial edict was announced that Xiao Baoyin got the news.
By this time the looting had already begun. It was too late for him to order the Guanzhong merchants under his command to close their shops. A large number of goods were forcibly bought away, and Xiao Baoyin only received a large amount of newly minted Buddhist coins.
As a member of the former royal family of Southern Qi, Xiao Baoyin knew that minting new coins was a well-known practice in the south. Once the market opened tomorrow, merchants would raise the prices of their goods, and soon the actual exchange rate of this ten-buddha coin would fall. Today, he had lost all the profits that the merchants in Guanzhong had made from robbing the imperial army from trafficking southern goods in the past six months!
Although the loss of this little money and goods was painful, what made Xiao Baoyin most angry was that he did not get any news!
What Xiao Baoyin feared was that he would be abandoned by both factions and treated as a lamb to be slaughtered by the Northern Wei upper class!
In other words, despite all his efforts over the years, he still wasn't able to truly enter the core circle of the Northern Wei Dynasty!
Xiao Baoyin suddenly thought of King Song Liu Hui again. If he continued to live in Luoyang, would he suffer the same fate as Liu Hui?
The bone-chilling coldness extinguished Xiao Baoyin's anger, and he asked Su Liang:
"Which families in Luoyang are using Buddhist coins in large quantities today?"
Su Liang quickly reported the names he had found out. When he finally reported the names of Princess Chenliu and Princess Lanling, Xiao Baoyin became furious again and said to Su Liang:
"Go and ask the lady to come over!"
Su Liang had never seen Xiao Baoyin so angry before, so he quickly tried to persuade him, "Mingsir! Don't let this little thing ruin the relationship between you and your spouse!"
But Xiao Baoyin was already overwhelmed by this, and he said impatiently: "Go and ask the lady to come over!"
Su Liang could only walk out of the study helplessly, and asked a maid to invite Princess Nanyang to the study. Su Liang then told the maid what happened today so that Princess Nanyang could be mentally prepared.
Su Liang sighed. He was willing to work for Xiao Baoyin because he was impressed by his demeanor and talent. At that time, when Xiao Baoyin was leading the troops on the southern front, although he suffered some defeats in battle, he never took his anger out on others.
But Luoyang seemed to be under some curse. Since returning to Luoyang, Xiao Baoyin's character became increasingly bad and he often lost his temper with people close to him.
In the past, Princess Nanyang had tried to persuade them, but now the relationship between the couple was becoming increasingly tense, which made Su Liang doubt his original choice.
Did I choose the wrong lord?
When this thought came to his mind, Su Liang remembered that Xiao Baoyin had asked his younger brother Su Chao a few days ago about his upcoming coming of age. He absolutely could not let his younger brother join the government and serve Xiao Baoyin!
Su Liang was still standing guard at the door worriedly, and soon Princess Nanyang came to the study with her servants.
Seeing his mistress's frightened look, Su Liang could only intervene and sigh and shake his head. Princess Nanyang quickly left the maid and pushed the door open to enter the study.
At this time, Xiao Baoyin was sitting behind the desk. He waited until Princess Nanyang entered the study before he said:
"Your Highness, how do I treat you on a daily basis?"
Hearing the title "Your Highness", Princess Nanyang's heart trembled. She knew her husband's temperament best. As a member of the former Southern Qi royal family, Xiao Baoyin was quite arrogant. After marriage, he never called himself "Your Highness" in the inner house.
Princess Nanyang also knew her husband's character, so she ordered her maids not to call her "Your Highness". Usually, people in the mansion called her "Madam" or "Lady of the Duke".
When her husband suddenly addressed her as His Highness, Princess Nanyang said in panic, "What's wrong with you, my husband? You've been very good to me since we got married, and my sisters all envy us. Why are you asking this?"
Xiao Baoyin said: "If that's the case, why would Your Highness want to harm me!?"
"what?"
Xiao Baoyin suddenly stepped forward, grabbed Princess Nanyang's wrist and said, "The prince and princess knew about the recasting of the Buddha coins! Why didn't Your Highness know about it?"
Princess Nanyang's snow-white wrists were shattered by Xiao Baoyin, leaving red marks. She said with a bitter face, "My dear husband! I have been concentrating on worshipping Buddha these days and have never been to the palace. I really don't know!"
Princess Nanyang usually lived a life of luxury and had never been treated like this by Xiao Baoyin. She said with tears in her eyes, "My husband, you hurt me."
Xiao Baoyin did not let his wife go just because she begged for mercy. He pushed Princess Nanyang away and even pushed her down on the couch. He grabbed Princess Nanyang's face again and said, "Pray to the Buddha! Do you think I don't know what you want? Do you want me to live in seclusion in Luoyang for the rest of my life? Just like King Song Liu Hui?"
Princess Nanyang was speechless and struggled until she collapsed, but Xiao Baoyin still said without mercy:
"Since we got married, I have never touched other women, let alone taken concubines. I have also provided you with fine clothes and delicious food, but you have only given birth to one child so far. If anything goes wrong, do you want to cut off the bloodline of my Xiao family?"
"Now you want me to serve you in the backyard like Liu Hui did?"
Princess Nanyang was almost suffocating, so Xiao Baoyin finally let go of her hand. He wiped his hands and said, "I would not hesitate to attack my homeland for the sake of your Yuan family. If you push me into a corner, I will never be as weak as Liu Hui!"
After saying this, Xiao Baoyin dropped the handkerchief and left the study room, leaving Princess Nanyang crying quietly.
Xiao Baoyin walked out of the study and said to Su Lang, "Use the Buddha's money to recast Buddha's money with a lower quality! Thin the edges and reduce the weight to four zhu. Send people to take the money to buy grain and horses around Luoyang. Go and do it!"
-
In Princess Chenliu's mansion, Su Ze held Princess Chenliu in his arms and said leisurely: "The Buddhist coins on the market now are all of good quality. Soon there will be Buddhist coins with lower copper content. This is the bad money driving out the good money."
(End of this chapter)