Established a millennium family since King Wu defeated Zhou

Chapter 973 Luo's Money Shop
The sacred river of the Xia Dynasty flows all day long, rushing eastward.

North of Luo River.

The sacred city of Luoyang stands majestically, its imposing manner like a mountain deep in the abyss.

Countless people of all kinds come in and out of Shendu, which is the world's number one metropolis.

The population of the city and its surrounding areas exceeds one million.

In order to maintain the existence of this metropolis, huge amounts of materials come along the Grand Canal every day. The Grand Canal is like human blood. Due to the importance of the Grand Canal, the imperial court specially set up a grain transport envoy.

In addition, there is special funding for repairing the Grand Canal every year.

Fengtian Temple.

Taiping put down the memorial in her hand, called Luo Qianqiu, and then walked out of the hall, looking at the azure blue sky. Luo Qianqiu stood beside her.

After more than ten years on the throne, time has left some traces on her face, but her figure is still graceful, she is still beautiful, and full of amazing charm.

"What a brilliant landscape it is."

Whenever Taiping looked out, she felt happy and proud. When she was chosen as the Crown Princess, she was worried that she would not do a good job and that the prosperous Tang Dynasty would be ruined by her.

But after more than a decade in power, she no longer has such worries. Under her leadership, the Tang Dynasty has reached an unprecedented peak.

The prosperity of the Zhenguan period was unprecedented.

The prosperity of the Kaiyuan period now even exceeds that of the Zhenguan period.

Most importantly, the situation in which no one accepted advice during the reigns of Li Zhi and Wu Zhao was reversed again under her rule.

The Kaiyuan period was not only a period of prosperity in terms of achievements, but also a manifestation of political clarity. People from both inside and outside the court praised that "Kaiyuan has the legacy of Zhenguan" and "Your Majesty is the most like Emperor Taizong."

Luo Qianqiu reached out and held Taiping's hand, looking eastward, and after a while he said, "Penglai rejected the court's proposal."

Taiping raised his eyebrows upon hearing this, and pondered for a long time before slowly saying, "My brother Li Xian should be dying soon. Wait a minute. It won't look good if the siblings end up fighting each other."

Luo Qianqiu nodded slightly upon hearing this.

"We can use this time to build warships. Penglai's navy is very strong, and we need to be fully prepared for this sea battle."

Taiping seemed to see the endless flames of war, this time not within the country, but against the vassal states.

The reason was simple: the imperial court had learned that there was a huge open-air gold mine in Penglai.

In previous years, although gold was precious, the imperial court was not too eager for it. But it is different now in the Tang Dynasty court.

The Tang Dynasty needed a large amount of precious metals to supplement its monetary system, which is a long story.

……

In the eighth year of Kaiyuan, after the Tang army conquered Tubo and killed the Tubo Zamp, they spent another year carrying out a weeding operation in Tubo, which could be described as cutting the weeds completely and not allowing them to revive.

This weeding operation basically killed all the nine clans of the Tubo nobles at the level of Qianhu and above. If converted to the Central Plains, basically all the local tyrants at the county and town level were killed cleanly.

Moreover, they killed them according to their family tree, and no one was spared. To achieve this level of cleanup, of course, it was not the Tang army themselves who did it, but the slaves who did it. Killing one person could get rid of their slave status.

The most honorable person in Tubo now has a status similar to that of a respected person in the village.

Such weeding operations naturally cost a huge price and resulted in many accidental killings, but the effect was very good, and the foundation of Tubo's rule completely collapsed.

The plateau fell into a period of governmentlessness and chaos. Even if the Tang army was here, they would not be idle enough to handle government affairs.

This place experienced a period of governmentlessness for about four months. By the time the tax-collecting officials from the Central Plains arrived here, the population on the plateau had decreased by about one third.

Before leaving, the Tang army killed the newly established armed organizations along the way, and Tubo basically became a historical term.

After Luo Qianqiu's effective governance, Tubo was transformed into counties, and nobles from Qinghai Road were moved there to garrison.

After dealing with the Snow Region, Luo Qianqiu and Taiping turned their attention to the Western Region.

In the ninth year of Kaiyuan, Luo Qianshen, the Holy See of Xuanmen, launched a holy war and called on Xuanmen believers to march west. At once, the people of the Western Regions responded.

With the deliberate promotion of the imperial court, voices of support were heard everywhere in the Central Plains. Although the Central Plains were not as crazy as the Western Regions in terms of faith, they could not withstand the large number of people.

And the imperial court is actively promoting it.

In the end, an army of more than 50,000 people, composed of royal family, nobles, impoverished landlords, and bankrupt soldiers, flew the flag of Anxi Protectorate and headed to the far west to follow Xuanmen's western expedition.

When Luo Qianshen left, he took with him almost the entire Xuanmen leadership. He announced to everyone that Xuanmen would always be at the forefront of spreading the glory of King Su, that Xuanmen would go to the dark land to bring light, and at the same time bless the warriors who were on the Western Expedition.

Ordinary believers and common people naturally shouted in unison and were more devout in their belief in Xuanmen, but the rulers of the Western Regions were smarter and of course knew that there was more to it than that. There were probably other reasons behind it.

Later, the emperor gave the Xuanmen high priest a series of honorific titles, clearly stating that he was the only religious leader of the Tang Empire in the western border. All other religions and sects had to obtain the high priest's permission before they could preach.

The High Priest of Xuanmen accepted the enthronement, and the status between the two parties was determined here. This was the first time that the High Priest of Xuanmen accepted the enthronement of the emperor.

In the tenth year of Kaiyuan, the Yanqi Kingdom in the Western Regions took advantage of the emptiness of the Western Regions to rebel. Seven countries joined the rebellion. The court was furious. The Anxi Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty led an army of 30,000 to suppress the rebellion and beheaded the ringleaders. The rebellious countries were transformed into prefectures and counties, and a governor's office was established.

In the 11th year of Kaiyuan, Xuanmen rebuilt the temple in Suiye City west of the Pamir Mountains. Shenlin City was listed as the western capital of the Tang Dynasty, and it was transformed from a purely religious holy place into the political center of the western part of the empire.

The Tang Dynasty court felt helpless about the Pamir Mountains. Any army would have to spend a lot more money to cross the Pamir Mountains, so the court wanted to use the Pamir Mountains as the boundary, establish a vassal state in the west, and directly govern the east.

Many rulers of the Western Regions saw this, so in response to Xuanmen's call for a western expedition, they sent troops to fight against the Pashas in the eastern part of the Crescent Empire.

Xinyue wanted to infiltrate the Western Regions, and coincidentally, the Tang Dynasty also wanted to move westward.

In the 12th year of Kaiyuan, the headquarters of Anxi Protectorate was moved to Qiuci Town.

The Anxi Protectorate was under the jurisdiction of protectorates, military governorates, prefectures and counties. The area north of the Tianshan Mountains was the Beiting Protectorate, and the area south of the Tianshan Mountains was the Anxi Protectorate, each of which commanded dozens of prefectures. The Anxi Protectorate guarded the Western Regions and had 24,000 soldiers.

The Western Region has undergone drastic changes, and many of its rulers are unable to adapt. But things have come to this point and there is nothing they can do. In addition, Luo Qianshen, the Holy Throne of Xuanmen, has written a letter, and more people have gone west, changing cages and birds, and going in both directions.

At this point, the Snowy Region and the Western Regions were gradually brought under the control of the Tang Dynasty. Also, because the Western Regions were located west of the country and the enemy was kept outside the country's borders, the pressure on defending the Western Regions was slightly smaller.

The Crescent Empire was under great pressure on the eastern front. The Sultan felt the pressure from the Tang Dynasty's westward advance and had to give up the confrontation with Rome on the western front and turn his attention to the eastern front.

So the Tang Dynasty once again sent 20,000 troops to Anxi. This was already the limit of the Tang Dynasty. After all, the Tang Dynasty also had to guard against enemies from other directions and possible enemies.

When the Eastern Roman Emperor learned the news from the Tang Dynasty, he delightedly sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty to form an alliance with it.

After learning of this, the Crescent Empire had to give up the sovereignty of some countries in exchange for a temporary truce with the Tang Dynasty, and then organized a large army to attack the Eastern Roman Empire again.

The Tang army urgently needed to gain a foothold, but it could not keep attacking. After all, the Tang Dynasty was not going to rob things, but to seize land that could be cultivated and grazed.

……

From Rome to the Crescent, to the Western Regions, and then to the Central Plains, this is the traditional Silk Road.

Now the road is burning hot.

The resources required for war are extremely large, and the things plundered in war are also extremely large.

Large amounts of goods and money were exchanged between Rome, the Crescent and the Central Plains. The prosperity of commerce turned the Western Regions and every passage on the road into a golden land.

On this Silk Road paved with gold, there were imperial merchants and countless caravans with strong backgrounds operating and communicating, further promoting the war in the front and the economy in the rear.

In such a prosperous commercial exchange, metal currency, especially copper, was too difficult to carry.

The thirteenth year of Kaiyuan.

It can be called the creation of the world.

A thing called Jiaozi appeared among the people, which meant it was used to exchange materials and was also called flying money.

From this moment on, the entire Tang Dynasty underwent a great change.

This kind of thing that came into being among the people for convenience was issued by more than a dozen large trading companies that often did business together and had good reputations.

The main goal is to not need to carry a large amount of copper coins when exchanging bulk goods.

After all, the Silk Road is too long, covering thousands of miles, and carrying copper coins would greatly increase the cost.

Naturally, some people would have concerns about exchanging paper for real gold and silver, so it was basically only exchanged between a few chambers of commerce with extremely good reputations.

The royal family is naturally not included in this list. After all, the royal family is famous for its lack of credibility.

What if the royal family doesn’t keep their promise? Do we really have to ask them for it?
Who dares?

Therefore, this kind of Jiaozi was circulated among the fifteen merchants who initiated it, and it was not convenient for outsiders to join.

At this critical moment, a businessman named Li had a large money transaction to make, but he couldn't find anyone he could trust. Finally, through Lu's relationship, he found Luo to act as a guarantor.

Luo didn't take it seriously at first, but after listening to it, he immediately realized the convenience and horror of flying money.

After a detailed discussion within the family and after confirming the various benefits and current shortcomings of flying money, the Luo family did not join the dozen or so mutual aid organizations that had been established.

Instead, he set up a money shop on his own.

The rules of Luo's Money House are very simple. As long as you hold Jiaozi of Luo's Money House, you can withdraw the full amount of money and goods from any of Luo's Money Houses.

How can I get Jiaozi from Luo's Money House?

When you deposit money into Luo's Money House or sell goods to Luo's, you can choose to get cash or use Jiaozi.

Luo directly changed the usage of Jiaozi from a kind of exchange ticket with no circulation ability to a similar paper currency era.

The reason why the Luo family dared to do this was naturally because it was discussed by a group of highly intelligent people in the family.

This thing is perfect for Luo to do.

Money trading is not something that ordinary people can establish. The most feared thing about this thing is the lack of trust. Just like the common people don’t want to do business with the royal family, even if the royal family cheats, most people can’t do anything about it.

To put it bluntly, whether it is Jiaozi or Luo's paper currency, the most important thing is trust.

It's just a piece of paper, has it any value?

If you believe it, there will be nothing.

If you don’t trust it, it’s impossible to deposit money into it. After all, exchanging real money for a piece of paper requires an extremely high level of trust.

Moreover, banks are very afraid of bank runs, so they need sufficient reserves. Once one person’s money cannot be withdrawn, everyone will come to run on the bank in an instant.

But all these problems are nothing in front of Luo.

The Luo family is rich, this is the consensus of all families. The Luo family is not only engaged in business, but also has large tracts of land in Jiangnan, Liaodong, the Western Regions, and the Central Plains. Although the Luo family does not collect high taxes, they have a lot of land and are real landlords. The Luo family is powerful and is as close to the royal family as a family.

Rockefeller has better banknote printing technology, which is difficult for outsiders to imitate.

Most importantly, Luo's credit is good.

The credit of the Luo family is no longer a simple trust in people's character, but a natural trust that has been built over 1,700 years.

Luo's political credibility is very high, of course, there are still some people who are skeptical.

But for most people who do not participate in politics, the Luo family is a family with a good reputation for 1,700 years.

If you can't trust a family like this, who else can you trust?

Thus, a trend emerged in the land of the Tang Dynasty. Before the big merchants started using Jiaozi exchange services, many wealthy common people had already deposited money in Luo's Money House.

Once paper money appeared, there were soon all kinds of ways to play with it. After small-denomination deposits appeared, Luo soon discovered that it was entirely possible to issue Jiaozi in whole denominations, such as ten wen, one hundred wen, and one guan. In this way, it could be printed on a large scale, and then when the people came to exchange them, they could be given out directly.

These Jiaozi can be used to purchase goods in Luo's shop. As for those with a value less than ten cents, a few copper coins can be carried with you.

It took only a few months from the time Luo started paying attention to Jiaozi that he had developed a complete set of currency.

The era of paper money was completely opened.

Paper money quickly became popular in every part of the country, and the Luo family was able to open banks in cities all over the world.

This kind of paper currency is neither based on the gold standard nor the silver standard. Although this system uses metal currency as a reserve, it is essentially a credit currency.

It relies on the credit of Rockefeller. As long as Rockefeller still exists and as long as Rockefeller does not print more money on a large scale and obviously, no one will run a run on Rockefeller. In other words, even if Rockefeller opens a bank with reserves far below the safety line, no one will run a run on it.

As long as the Luo family still exists, the credit will not collapse. To put it bluntly, as long as this bank is still in the hands of the Luo family, even if the Tang Dynasty perishes, the credit of this currency will not collapse.

This is Luo’s credit!

Minting metal coins is a loss-making business, but making paper money is profitable. Moreover, there are too many profit models for banks, and most people can see that. Faced with such huge profits, others still want to compete for it, but soon everyone discovers in despair that the two sides are not on the same level at all.

Again, Luo's credit is invincible in this kind of currency. Even if the people don't say it, they will vote with their feet. Who is good and who is bad, who is trustworthy, will be fully demonstrated when it comes to their lives and property.

Just save Luo's without any brains and it's done.

Luo's money business is in full swing.

then.

The huge benefits made Luo silent.

When Luo Qianqiu received the profit statement of Qianhang in the 14th year of Kaiyuan, his hands kept shaking. Just as it was an exaggeration to describe a person as rich as a country, now he was really rich enough to rival a country.

Become a landlord by farming?

Do business and become a big businessman?

What does it all mean in front of a money-making bank?
The power of finance was only slightly displayed in front of Luo Qianqiu, and even the Luo family was deeply shocked.

And this is still the case with the Luo family holding back, otherwise it can really be described as just sitting there collecting money, and everyone in the world is working for the Luo family to make money.

A wild beast was unleashed.

Luo Qianqiu personally led the county reform in the Snow Region and the Western Region. For this, he killed countless people who tried to oppose it. But at this moment, he felt fear. This is killing and being invisible.

As long as he wanted, he could make countless people in the world bankrupt and homeless in an instant. The heavy responsibility was placed on him almost in an instant.

At that moment, he had only one thought, "The money must not be given to others."

There was a tradition of studying mathematics in the Luo family. After the emergence of Qianhang, almost everyone realized the power contained in it. The Luo family immediately began to organize people to study the various profit models of Qianhang and its role in the world.

Soon, the Luo family came to a conclusion that they were going to make a fortune.

"We are a vast country with abundant resources. Basically, there is nothing we lack. However, precious metals have always been very scarce. Therefore, from ancient times to the present, we have always lacked enough money. There has been a shortage of money in almost every era."

Although there was no concept of inflation and deflation, the national strength of the Tang Dynasty had grown stronger over the years, but the speed of making money had not developed as fast.

As a result, money becomes more and more valuable, which leads to a depreciation of prices, which is obvious to all.

Price depreciation is not necessarily a good thing, because it will cause people to hold on to their money and not spend it. The best thing is to keep the value of money unchanged, so that the economy can function normally.

Now that paper money has appeared, the Luo family can adjust the money on the market based on several commodities on the market, such as grain, cloth, salt and the like. The amount of money that can be drawn from these alone is beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

After all, making money is not as fast as printing money.

As the dignified head of the Luo family, the first super-class prince of the Tang Dynasty, and the husband of the emperor, Luo Qianqiu has seen all kinds of scenes, but he has never seen such a scene. All the people in the world are working for him, and he does nothing. Without anyone knowing, he actually collects more taxes than the court.

The most amazing thing is that the court's tax increase will make life difficult for people all over the world, but he will not. On the contrary, the economic situation will get better. This kind of counterintuitive thing makes Luo Qianqiu difficult to accept for a while, which is also quite normal.

After this kind of thing appeared, it was of course impossible for the Luo family to really take it into their pockets, and the imperial court would not agree to it either, because after all, this was the money of the world.

But it is impossible to really hand it over to the court. It would be really stupid to hand it over to those black-hearted bureaucrats.

Besides, this was built with Luo's credit and it is impossible to hand it over to others.

In the end, Taiping made the decision, and this thing was in the hands of the Luo family, but the royal family had to send people to check the accounts. In other words, the royal family had to share dividends with the Luo family, and these things ultimately belonged to taxes.

At this time, news came that an open-air gold mine had appeared in Penglai. There was a terrifying amount of gold and silver in Penglai.

The Tang Dynasty court was about to establish a complete financial system, and the emergence of gold and silver meant something self-evident. Precious metals such as gold and silver are more valuable than copper. If there are massive reserves of gold and silver, then this financial system will be unshakable.

Therefore, the Tang Dynasty court immediately issued an imperial edict to the Wei and Qi states on the three Penglai islands, stating that the gold mine must be returned to the court and that the court could provide compensation.

At this time, the uniqueness of these six kingdoms is reflected. They are very similar to the vassal states in the Zhou Dynasty, and more like the vassal states in the early Han Dynasty. The mountains, rivers, forests and mines in the country all belong to them.

If the imperial court did not need this gold mine so badly, it would never have used such means to obtain it. But there is no other way now. This concerns the entire world and cannot be controlled by the local authorities.

The final result is self-evident. King Wei rejected the court's proposal without hesitation. This was not just his opinion, but the will of the entire Penglai Three Islands.

Moreover, the three Penglai Islands have made a lot of preparations for this day. In other words, the three Penglai Islands are ready for a war.

This made the imperial court furious. Not only could they not get the gold mine, but now Penglai actually wanted to rebel.

You know, the State of Yan has always been ready to make a move, but until now it has only been ready to make a move. Even the most powerful State of Yan has not mentioned rebellion, but Penglai dared to do so.

The situation is completely different here.

Regardless of whether it was right or wrong for the imperial court to want the gold mine, this tendency of rebellion must be suppressed now.

No one can challenge the majesty of the central court.

……

In addition to the garrison corps in various places and the armies of the vassal states, the corps directly under the court of the Tang Dynasty are mainly the following.

The armies of Anxi, Beiting, Hexi, and Longyou, that is, the armies in the northwest and west of the empire, were called the Western Legion.
Among them, Anxi and Beiting were commanded by the Anxi Protectorate, while Hexi and Longyou were guarded by Zhongdu.

The army of these four towns has about 80,000 soldiers, all of whom are elite soldiers. They are mainly used to guard against the countries to the north and south of the four towns and the State of Yan.

In addition to the Western Legion, the strongest force is the army stationed in Jinyang. The imperial court has 40,000 troops here, mainly to prevent the State of Yan from moving directly south.

The Anbei Protectorate set up by the imperial court in the grasslands south of the desert had a population of 20,000, all of whom were nomadic cavalry. It was the first line of defense against the State of Yan.

These two armies were called the Northern Army.

The third army was the Eastern Corps commanded by the Grand Protector of An Dong, stationed in Liaodong to guard against the State of Yan, suppress the Hu tribes in Liaodong, and suppress possible betrayers on the peninsula.

The fourth army is the Southern Legion, stationed in Jingzhou, Yizhou and Yangzhou. This legion is the only one not commanded by the four protectorates. Its goal is to maintain the stability of the Yangtze River and Jianghuai areas, and to ensure the court's tax collection and grain supply.

The Annan Protectorate was further south, and the Tang court believed that the fighting power of the south was not to be feared, so it did not station heavy troops in Guangzhou, only 10,000 people.

If we want to conquer Penglai and fight with Penglai now, there are only two ways. One is to quickly cross the strait from the Jizi Peninsula and land in Qi State.

Or they could march from the Jiaodong Peninsula, cross the Penglai Sea, and then land on the three Penglai Islands.

Both of them require a navy, and even if they start from the Jizi Peninsula, a navy is needed to ensure the subsequent supply of food and grass.

This is not a simple war, it will be an unprecedented naval war, which is completely different from the water battles in the past in Changjian. The horror of the sea is feared by mankind.

But the Tang Dynasty had no choice.

No one can separate from the territory of the Tang Dynasty, even if he is a prince or grandson of the emperor of the Li family.

Any attempt to split the territory of the Tang Dynasty will backfire.

……

Li Xian's health had been failing for a long time, and the imperial court had known about it. Taiping had even sent envoys to express their condolences, but the first wave of envoys died in a storm at sea.

The person in charge of Wei State now is the Crown Prince of Wei State, Taiping’s nephew, but the two have only met once in all these years and have never met again since then.

At the beginning, the Zhou emperor and the princes were not so unfamiliar with each other, and the situation that ended up like this could be said to have been foreshadowed.

Li Xian did not let Taiping and Luo Qianqiu wait any longer. In this hot summer, Li Xian never woke up after a night's sleep.

He wanted to say something before he died, but in the end he kept his mouth shut because the words of a dead person have no effect.

Children and grandchildren will have their own blessings.

Let’s leave everything to fate, Li Xian thought.

"Madam, leave the rest to your husband."

Luo Qianqiu said this to Taiping solemnly.

----

The emergence of paper money is an inevitable product of the development of commodity economy, and the emergence of banks is also an inevitable product. History has proved that after the emergence of Rockefeller Bank, other banks were established at the same time. During a period of time, not only did Rockefeller issue paper money, but other banks also issued their own paper money.

But within just two or three months, other money houses were defeated by the strong foundation of the Luo family. The strength of the two sides was completely not on the same level. Only a very small number of money houses could get some leftovers that the Luo family did not touch.

In that era when the financial system was just developing, Luo's Money House had in fact become a central bank with the attributes of a commercial bank. The economy of the Tang Empire was tied to the chariot of Luo's Money House, and every move of Luo's Money House affected the livelihood of the entire world.

In the history of the empire, the presence of Luo's money bank was everywhere. Its rise and fall were inseparable from Luo's money bank. With the emergence of money bank, the power of money in the magnificent and prosperous Tang Dynasty was raised to an unprecedented level. ——"Economic History"

(End of this chapter)