Mythical Qin: I, Gao Yao, will never be a eunuch!

Under this circumstance, the rich assets that the self-proclaimed princes had accumulated began to shrink significantly. Faced with such a severe situation, how can they support a war? You know, fighting a war is not just about the strength of troops and military force, but more importantly, the economic strength and financial support behind it! Without sufficient money and food as a backing, who would be willing to follow you to the battlefield when you talk about family, country and the world in vain?

This formed a vicious cycle. The princes, lacking money, continued to mint coins and issued them in large quantities. However, the consequences of this were disastrous - the monetary system, which was already on the verge of collapse, suffered even more serious damage. At the same time, the Qin court and Fusu, who was trapped in Xianyang City and could not protect himself, had no time to take care of the serious problems facing the monetary system.

Under such a chaotic situation, the impact on the Southern Territory is bound to be great. It is natural that there is no problem for the Southern Territory to be self-sufficient now, but Gao Yao’s goal has never been just the Southern Territory. If he wants more territory, more manpower and material resources, then economic stability is a must. The current imperial army will inevitably withdraw, and then the Southern Territory will become a pure land in the eyes of the world.

From then on, the view that the southern border is a barren land was changed. Refugees, merchants, or literati would inevitably go to the southern border, including the people, Kuaiji and other places. If Gao wanted to develop, he would not be able to refuse these people to join his rule, and the joining of these people would inevitably lead to a huge impact on the already collapsed economic system in the southern border. After all, many people came to the southern border with their families and a lot of money, but found that they could not spend the money. This would definitely cause chaos and affect subsequent development.

After careful consideration, he believed that the most urgent task was to re-coin a new currency. However, it was obviously not feasible to directly use gold and silver as currency. After all, the reserves of gold and silver were extremely limited. Once someone deliberately hoarded them, the entire monetary system would fall apart in an instant. Not only that, but also ways must be found to avoid problems such as duplication and reproducibility of currency. Therefore, considering various factors, paper money has undoubtedly become the best choice to solve the current dilemma. After all, the papermaking process is now firmly in Gao Yao's hands.

Gao Yao had to be vigilant at all times, especially against the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan. As long as the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan was still alive, Gao Yao would not be able to feel truly at ease. Because Gao Yao knew very well that, judging from the time the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan had lived, he was very likely to be familiar with the paper manufacturing process. Therefore, this not only involved how to successfully produce high-quality paper, but more importantly, it was necessary to formulate a series of strict laws so that ordinary people would not dare to take the risk of counterfeiting privately.

At the same time, in terms of the selection of raw materials, Gao Yao decided to use pulp made from trees that are unique to the southern border area. After all, the pulp produced by different types of trees has a very different feel when used to make paper. Therefore, strictly controlling the source of raw materials is undoubtedly the best way to prevent counterfeiting, and no other method can compare with it.

In addition, in order to further improve the anti-counterfeiting performance, Gao Yao also intends to adopt some complex and fine pattern designs, and pay attention to the difference in details. Moreover, appropriate adjustments will be made for each different production batch. In this way, there may be no obvious difference on the surface, but those experienced and professional experts can quickly detect the subtle differences in details. Through these means, Gao Yao is confident that at least 90% of counterfeit money can be curbed from circulating in the market.

However, it is not so simple that we can just throw away the old coins on impulse. Before that, we must first take effective measures to moderately recycle the Daqin currency that has been put on the market. In this way, the number of copper coins originally minted by Daqin circulating on the market can be gradually reduced. Of course, the recycling mentioned here is limited to the copper coins officially minted by Daqin, and other miscellaneous privately minted copper coins are not within the scope of recycling. The craftsmanship of the privately minted coins by the princes is quite different in terms of the degree of newness and oldness, and it is still easy to distinguish them clearly in front of professional coin-minting craftsmen.

Of course, the purchase price will be lower than most market prices, and this move will be promoted simultaneously with the new currency, which is the so-called old-for-new move, so that many people can willingly take out the original copper coins in their hands, and at the same time, it is also to further circulate the new currency. After all, a currency that can only circulate within the southern border is not Gao Yao's goal. Gao Yao's goal is to let the new currency of the southern border circulate throughout the world.

Once the currency begins to circulate in a real sense, Gao Yao, who holds the final decision-making power, will have more means to check and balance the princes of the world. Gao Yao may not even need to fight some special princes. He can simply drag them down economically, forcing them to surrender to him.

At the same time, Zhang Han, who was trapped in Heilongkou, was extremely anxious, like an ant on a hot pot. At this moment, he had already learned the news of Meng Yi's withdrawal. After careful consideration, he immediately gathered all the imperial troops in Heilongkou. These soldiers added up to as many as 130,000 people. However, even with such a large force, Zhang Han was still extremely anxious.

Because they were sure that they had fallen into an ambush by the enemy. What was worse was that the rations carried by the 130,000-man army were only enough to sustain for one day. Even if they tried every means to save food, they could only barely sustain for three days at most, and that was while the soldiers were starving. In addition, the terrain of Heilongkou was extremely unique, with either towering trees or bottomless swamps. It was even difficult to find fish, let alone other ways to get food.

Faced with such a grim situation, Zhang Han knew that the only way to survive was to break through. So, he did not hesitate to send 20,000 elite troops as the vanguard to try to force his way through the valley. In order to increase the chances of a successful breakout, he also deployed a large number of soldiers on both sides of the valley entrance. Unexpectedly, the two vanguards were ambushed by the Southern Border Army and could not break out at all. Now the Southern Border Army has occupied the position at the valley entrance and has a comprehensive advantage.