As Song Gongming expected, two days later, the court discussion was extremely fierce, and Lu Yi argued with Liang Yangzu and others; Lu Yi was a real expert in this field, and after listening to Yang Zhi's explanation of the concept of inflation, he drew inferences from one case and knew better than Yang Zhi the pros and cons of it. Facing the ministers, Lu Yi explained in detail in the main hall why the two Jiaozi in Chengdu collapsed and the reason why the Jiaozi of the Western Army was paralyzed.

Lu Yi pointed out that Sichuan originally issued Jiaozi because Bashu lacked copper coins, so he had no choice but to use iron to cast money, and the ratio of copper coins to iron coins was one to ten. It takes 20,000 pieces of iron money to buy a piece of cloth locally, and the weight is as high as 500 catties, so there will be Jiaozi shop, the customer will be inconvenient to carry the iron money stored in the Jiaozi shop, and the Jiaozi shop will issue a deposit certificate to the customer, ready to exchange iron money for the customer at any time, and charge the customer a handling fee according to the amount of deposit and the time of deposit.

However, with the prevalence of Jiaozi, the disputes and lawsuits caused by Jiaozi's inability to cash in gradually increased, and Zhang Yong, the governor of Yizhou in Jingde, handed over the management rights of Jiaozi in the jurisdiction to 16 wealthy businessmen with good reputation and strong capital in order to settle the lawsuit, and the government also supervised the issuance of Jiaozi. In the first year of Tiansheng, Xue Tian, who was the operation envoy at the time, suggested that the imperial court withdraw the right to issue Jiaozi to meet military expenditures; in the third year of Chongning, Jiaozi rushed out of Yizhou to the whole country, and in just three years, the price of Jiaozi in the market fell to more than ten cents, and the markets in various places collapsed.

Lu Yi explained: "The official Jiaozi are more exquisite and safe, and the reason for this situation is that the local government does not have the ability to use the Jiaozi well; However, Jiaozi is not a salt banknote for tea, and the salt banknote is guaranteed by salt, and tea is guaranteed by tea, so what guarantee is given for the value of Jiaozi? When the official Jiaozi was first issued, a total of 1.26 million guan was issued, and 360,000 guan of iron money was used as a reserve, and the reserve rate was 30 percent.

But later, whether it was the local government or the household department, what came to their minds, they bought and sold without capital, only issued Jiaozi regardless of reserves, and no one endorsed the market, which caused the collapse of the inflationary market. If the situation is really overwhelmed, then nothing will be done, and now that the economy of this imperial court is improving, there is no need to use such means so early. ”

Liang Yangzu asked reproachfully: "The imperial court can provide reserves. ”

Lu Yi said with a smile: "Lord Liang, this is a big deal, not a verbal game, Cai Jing also approved the reserve at the beginning, but it was later misappropriated by the household department, there is only one reason, the Western Army needs money; Now is not a time of peace, two years of hardship have passed, and now if the economy collapses, the soldiers on the front line will suddenly have no military salaries and food, which will shake the hearts of the people. ”

Zhu Shengfei smiled, although he understood the truth, but it was definitely not as thorough as Lu Yi's explanation, first used two metaphors to point out the unreliability of Jiaozi, and then said why even the reserves were unreliable. Liang Yangzu sneered: "Then what do you have to do, the situation in Guanzhong is right in front of you." ”

Lu Yi put away his smile and asked: "Is the situation in Guanzhong more difficult than that in Gyeonggi Road? They haven't fought for more than half a year, and the supplies transported from Bashu and Jiangnan have also arrived in Chang'an, Tianshui and other places in a steady stream. The situation in Tongzhou and Shaanxi has been improving, is there anything that is not said in the Di newspaper?"

Liang Yangzu's sneer hung on his face, and he realized that the argument had reached a critical point, if he couldn't defeat Lu Yi, he might have to hand over the dominance of the household department. Liang Yangzu said bluntly: "Tongzhou and Shaanzhou are backed by Puzhou and Taiyuan, and they have the same benefits as Gyeonggi Road, and Chang'an now has nothing, and they have to bear the cost of the army." ”

Lu Yi shook his head and said: "Xie Yan is 400,000 salt a year, plus the profit of trade is million, the household department has twice made up a million figures for Chuzhou, but the money is all in the treasury, and the local area is still the same." Shaanxi Wulu whether it is armor, grain and grass, military salaries are all allocated, starting from Tong Taiwei, military salaries and grain and grass are taken from Bashu and the people, Guanzhong has not raised its own army, this case has not been changed until now. ”

Lu Yi's homework can be regarded as home, Zhu Shengfei didn't wait for Liang Yangzu to speak, nodded and said: "What Lord Lu said is extremely true, if the Shaanxi Five-Way War starts, Bashu will not be able to transport it, and it will not be too late to issue Jiaozi, at least it can be supported for a while at that time, and it is better to rest and recuperate now." ”

Everyone already understands at this moment why Yang Zhi and Zhu Shengfei are opposed, for the two of them, Jiaozi is not as good as Yanyin; besides, Zhu Shengfei's proposal is reasonable, and now they will use this method, and when the Shaanxi Fifth Road fights again, where will they get the money. Song Gongming walked out of the queue slowly, and asked Lu Yi with a smile: "Lord Lu, now the proportion of military spending is very large, and it is difficult for the southeast to continue blood transfusion. ”

Song Gongming deliberately made it difficult for him to complain about the fact that Gyeonggi Road could be financially supported, and Runzhou had a high evaluation of many Wenchen in Bianliang, and Lu Yi was among the top five. Lu Yi was confident and said with a smile: "Lord Yang was still saying before the official came, Bashu and Guanzhong should increase the trade of tea and horses, although the southwest horses are short, but they are better than nothing, and they can rely on the Tubo merchants to extend to the Hehuang area; ”

In the seventh year of the reign of Emperor Xining, Emperor Shenzong practiced the Tea and Horse Method, and in Chengdu he set up a tea and horse master to trade tea and horses, and traded tea from the southeast and southwest with the 60 prefectures that produced tea on the 9th Road in the southeast to trade tea with the northwest and southwest, and exchanged a large number of fine horses from the Tubo, Hui, and Dangxiang ethnic groups; later, 24 tea and horse farms were set up in eight prefectures of Chengdu Fulu, 50 tea and horse farms were set up in Shaanxi, and even six were set up on Xihe Road. It's just that the Jin army entered the Guanzhong this time and destroyed these transactions in one fell swoop, and the tea and horse business in Shaanxi Wulu has not resumed until now, but the tea in the south of the Yangtze River is still harvested every year.

I have to say that the plan brought by Lu Yi has greatly reduced the power of the Ministry of Households, which was originally to supply materials to Guanzhong through multiple channels, and the various routes need to be coordinated and balanced, and the power is in the Ministry of Households and the Transit Division. Now, if the Bashu land is changed, it means that the power will be handed over to Chengdu Fulu; the proposal of Chama Road will inevitably be wasted if the original household department wants to replenish supplies from Gyeonggi Road and Hedong.