To overcome this difficult time, it is necessary to raise at least 50 million yuan to deal with the aftermath. Cui Junsu explained in detail to the emperor and the Zaifu why they needed so much money.

"In this war, the imperial court dispatched nearly 500,000 troops, of which more than 300,000 were directly transferred to the front line to fight, and another more than 100,000 were deployed to the second line of defense. No less than 200,000 county soldiers, more than 100,000 township soldiers, and more than 1 million people were dispatched. On the battlefield of Zhulu, more than 10,000 soldiers were killed in battle, and thousands of county soldiers and townsmen were brave. There were more than 100,000 dead horses, mounts, pack horses, etc. ”

"The dead and wounded of horses and other livestock can be replenished later, but the dead and disabled soldiers must be immediately given bereavement and rewards······"

It's really not a good family to know the price of firewood and rice, a big war, the prime ministers are strategizing in the middle of the country, and the generals are commanding the battle on the front line, but when the battle is over, I find that the most troublesome thing has just begun. It is both a reward and a pension, and there are still hundreds of thousands of standing soldiers here who are paid every month and rations every day.

The emperor's inner treasury has more than 1,300,000 guan, and he is willing to pull out 10 million guan, which is already rare. But Rao is like this, there is still a gap of at least 40 million.

40 million yuan, that's 40 billion yuan, and the money has always been six catties and four taels, more than 200 million catties, piled together, it is definitely a huge mountain of money.

If it is replaced with silk and folded into grain, it will be even more incredible, and it will be a continuous mountain.

Of course, although this is a lot of money, it is not very much for those powerful gatekeepers. Which gate valve doesn't have a family business of hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands? Which family of the sergeant clan can be called does not have a family business of more than 100,000 yuan?

The Ming Dynasty had Shen Wansan and the Qing Dynasty had Hu Xueyan, all of whom were rich and rival countries, and there were many in the Sui and Qin eras in the Middle Ages.

In history, Yang Guifei's elder brother Yang Guozhong had a net worth of 30 million silks. And Guo Ziyi, the king of Fenyang who recreated the Tang Dynasty, has as much as 280,000 yuan a year.

Another example is the time of Tang Gaozong, there was a businessman named Luo Fengchi in Chang'an City, who started from scratch, and later had tens of millions of assets and countless gold treasures, he once said to the emperor that he would take his family's silk and wrap it around every tree on Zhongnan Mountain, and after the tree was wrapped, his family's silk had not been used up, but he knew how rich he was.

Of course, no matter how rich you are, this money is not blown by the wind.

It's like the emperor has accumulated more than 10 million yuan of money, which is also supported by a huge royal handicraft workshop, royal caravan, royal shop, etc.

Others are the accumulation of several generations or even more than ten generations.

If the emperor issued an edict saying that he would borrow money from people in the world, even if those people had money, they would not be willing to borrow. Before the death of the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen asked the ministers to borrow money to pay Liao, but even the abbot refused to pay the money, only borrowed 500 taels, or his queen queen Zhou sent 1,000 taels from the palace to him, so that he could lend more together to the emperor to set an example, but the abbot still deducted 500 taels, and only lent 500 taels to Chongzhen.

But later, when the army broke through Beijing and tortured the nobles and officials, they copied countless gold and silver from the Guozhang Mansion.

People are like this, it's not so easy to borrow money.

In particular, when the imperial court borrowed money, others would think that the imperial court wanted to force the apportionment and extortion of donations, which was common in all dynasties, and this kind of borrowing, especially the war-related loans, was basically borrowed but not returned.

Luo Cheng still thinks about it more clearly, rather than borrowing it like this, it is better to engage in purity, that is, to treat it as a simple business industry.

At this time, the powerful landlords and powerful people actually like to do the lending business, because of the high interest rate, this kind of financial business can not be done by anyone, both rich and powerful, so as to ensure that there is a release and a receipt.

"With the tax of the imperial court as a credit guarantee, the imperial court bonds will be issued, with an annual interest rate set at five-quarter-and-three-thirds, etc., and a total of 50 million yuan of bonds can be issued for one-year, two-year, three-year, and five-year periods, so as to raise funds."

Luo Cheng was inspired by Cui Junsu and decided to issue bonds.

Bonds were very common in later generations, and they were issued by all countries, not only by the state, but also by local governments, and even by companies.

But in this era, after the emperor said such a plan, he was stunned by the zaifu.

"Bonds? What is it? ”

"Naturally, it is the voucher of the debt, and the imperial court stamps the paper coupon printed with the denomination of the loan, does a good job of anti-counterfeiting, and then issues it, so that officials and businessmen can come to subscribe for it. After the purchase, the imperial court received a loan, and the merchant kept the bond as a proof of borrowing, and after the agreed period, it was exchanged at the imperial court, and the imperial court repaid the principal and interest. ”

Cui Junsu felt that his brain couldn't turn around, and he couldn't keep up with the emperor's rhythm.

"It has never been easy for the imperial court to borrow money, and now it is still getting this bond, so that people can subscribe freely, and someone will subscribe to it?" He was deeply skeptical.

Luo Cheng smiled slightly.

"The annual interest rate is five cents, this interest is not low, no matter how much capital you have, you can have such an interest when you lend it to the imperial court, isn't Cui Xiang impressed?"

Although private loans used to have doubled the interest rate of lambs, donkey rolling, and nine out of thirteen, etc., the government's public money lending was also once eight cents interest.

However, after the founding of the Great Qin Dynasty, it cracked down on usury and stipulated that in the past, the interest on loans in the past could only be doubled at most, and the excess was not counted. After the founding of the Great Qin Dynasty, private loans could only be at most five cents, and the imperial court did not support it.

Although after the promulgation of this law, there will still be high-interest loans, but it is already forbidden by the law, if the law is violated, then once investigated, it will be severely punished, not to mention the confiscation of the loan capital, and may even be punished by exile and confiscation of property.

And now the imperial court borrows money, and directly prescribes the maximum interest rate within the provisions of the law and regulations, and at the same time, the amount of money borrowed by the imperial court is huge, directly 50 million yuan, and the repayment period is one year, two years, three years, five years, and four kinds, and the longest is only five years to repay.

For wealthy people who have a lot of spare money in their hands, such bonds are indeed very stable, and there is no need to worry about others not being able to pay them back.

However, you have to worry that the court will not pay it back.

"Three-cent interest on one-year bonds, three-and-a-half for two-year bonds, four three-cent interest for three years, and five cents for five-year bonds. The imperial court allowed the subscribers of these bonds to change hands, and when they were collected, only the bonds were recognized. The Emperor said. This article is added to avoid that after someone subscribes to and holds the bonds, if there is an urgent need for money in the middle, and the court does not exchange it before it expires, it can be transferred privately, which can also solve some troubles for the holder and give convenience.

"Your Majesty, how can you believe that the imperial court will repay the principal and interest when it is due?" Cui Junsu asked.

"This is also simple, the credit of the Great Qin Imperial Court and me, in addition, if the imperial court cannot repay the principal and interest when due, the imperial court will offset it with salt, tea, wine, etc., and will never let them suffer losses, let alone damage the credit of the imperial court."

Salt leads to tea and wine to lead these things, but they are good things, because these items are monopolized, and they must be introduced before they can be picked up and sold. The citation is the proof of paying taxes, but the goods are limited, so the quotation is also limited, who has the citation in his hand, who can get good goods such as salt, tea and wine to make money.

"Then why doesn't the imperial court directly sell to raise funds?"

"This year's introduction has been sold out by you in advance, so this year's taxes have also been collected in advance, and now there is no goods, aren't you selling short? Or are you planning to sell two of them? ”

In the Ming and Qing dynasties in history, there was this kind of situation of excessive salt introduction, and it was very serious, in fact, it was Yin eating grain, and finally led to a large amount of salt in hand, but never got the salt, which led to the more widespread private salt, and the overall corruption of salt administration.

Now the monopoly tax on salt, tea, wine, etc., is the bulk of the imperial court's revenue, Luo Cheng does not dare to open this bad mouth easily, once it starts, he is afraid that he will not be able to collect it at all in the future. I want to think that the salt introduction in the Ming and Qing dynasties was also financially insufficient at the beginning, so it was overissued a little, and slowly year after year, the excess salt was gathered more and more, and finally caused big trouble.

However, if it is used as a credit guarantee by salt, it is different, after all, the 50 million bond is divided into four maturities, the longest is five years, and it is not the kind that can be cashed out immediately.

And the imperial court now has 30 or 40 million yuan a year in salt tax alone, which means that with various quotations as guarantees, within five years, it is fully capable of digesting these 50 million yuan of bonds.

Of course, if the imperial court is financially good in the future, and can pay the bonds due every year, there is no need to use salt to pay on behalf of them.

"Cui Xiang, do you also take the lead and subscribe first?" Luo Cheng asked Cui Junsu with a smile.

Cui Junsu is a branch of the Cui family in Qinghe, but after all, it is the home of a famous lord, following Luo Cheng in the past few years, the tide is even higher, his daughter is still a concubine in the palace, and he has not been implicated after several storms and waves, and he is still very rich in his hands.

Cui Junsu thought for a while, "The minister is willing to subscribe for 100,000 yuan." ”

"Oh, how many years? Five years? The Emperor asked.

Cui Junsu is still a little uneasy, for fear that he won't be able to come back if the money goes out, but thinking about it, the emperor doesn't seem to be the kind of person who robs the courtiers' money, and the plan the emperor just gave is indeed good. So he gritted his teeth, "Five-year period." ”

"Okay, write it down, Ping Zhangshi, Cui Xiangguo, the secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, subscribed for a five-year bond of 100,000 yuan, with an annual interest rate of five cents, and repurchased at the end of the five-year period, with a total of 125,000 yuan of principal and interest."

Although there is no compound interest, the interest of 25,000 yuan in five years is still amazing. Although the five-cent interest rate is not the highest in the current private loans, the key is that the amount of money is huge, which is the most amazing.

Cui Jun shook his head and immediately spoke, "Your Majesty, the minister... The minister bought another 100,000 yuan. ”

"Hahaha, okay, add another 100,000 guan, Cui Xiangguo subscribes for 200,000 guan, which expires in five years, and the principal and interest will be repaid for a total of 250,000 guan!"

Cui Junsu listened to the interest of 50,000 yuan, and his face became hot. 50,000 yuan, such a large amount of money is not easy to make, but now it can easily make money, and there is no risk.

The emperor looked at the other ministers in the palace with a smile, "Everyone, this opportunity is rare, don't miss it, bonds don't come every year, if you miss such a good thing, it will be gone, you are close to the water and get the moon first." ”

Wei Zheng, the servant of the door, said with a smile, "The minister is not as rich as Cui Xiang, so let's subscribe for three thousand yuan!" ”

"Wei Zheng, don't cry poor, you have received a lot of rewards over the years, not to mention, your Wei family's brew is now one of the famous wines of Daqin, and your family's winery has more than 3,000 yuan a year."

"Then, then subscribe for 10,000." Wei Zhengdao.

With Cui Junsu and Wei Zheng as the two prime ministers, the other prime ministers and scholars are not welcome, this one is eight thousand guan, and that one is thirty or fifty thousand guan, after everyone has subscribed.

The emperor was surprised to find that his ministers and ministers of the three provinces and six ministries had subscribed for nearly 10 million yuan, plus his 10 million and 50 million bonds had not yet been printed, and the result was 20 million yuan, which was really a good start.

However, Cui Junsu immediately thought that for a bond of 50 million yuan, the lowest one-year bond also has a three-cent interest, and the highest five-year bond has a five-cent interest.

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