The Emperor carefully read through the letter from beginning to end. Overcome with excitement, he stood up and paced in circles. Still not quite reassured, he took out the letter and read it through once more.
He nervously licked his lips, eager to summon someone immediately to discuss this matter. But recalling the difficulties of recent years, he restrained himself.
Zhao Hanzhang was right—this matter should be pursued gradually.
The Emperor calmed himself down and forced himself to wait until the next day before summoning his trusted confidants and Zhao Zhongyu.
He quietly asked them, “Yan Heng was killed by General Gou. Were many people from his circle present at the funeral rites?”
The ministers didn’t understand why the Emperor was bringing this up—it had been several days since Yan Heng’s cremation. But one of them replied, “There should have been quite a few. Didn’t Minister Zhao attend that day?”
Apart from subordinate officers who had good relations with him, no one went to pay respects for Yan Heng, who had died at Gou Xi’s hands. Among the court officials, only Zhao Zhongyu had attended.
They weren’t familiar with Yan Heng.
The Emperor immediately looked toward Zhao Zhongyu and asked with concern, “I wonder who attended, and what was the atmosphere like?”
Zhao Zhongyu also found this curious, not understanding why the Emperor was interested in this matter. But he still replied earnestly, “The funeral was presided over by Ming Yu. Generals Wen, Pei, and Wang all came personally to pay their respects. Those like General Fu who couldn’t make it back sent their deputies to offer condolences.”
Seeing the Emperor listening attentively, Zhao Zhongyu described the scene in detail, focusing on what they had said while offering condolences, which included no small amount of resentment toward Gou Xi.
As he spoke, Zhao Zhongyu seemed to sense something, vaguely guessing the Emperor’s true intentions.
The other ministers listening also caught on, exchanging glances with one another before sitting up straight, pondering the feasibility of this matter.
“Does Your Majesty also feel that General Gou acted wrongly in this matter?”
The Emperor glanced at Zhao Zhongyu and sighed, “When Yan Heng was taken to the General’s residence, I issued an edict, hoping General Gou would remember their past friendship and spare his life. I didn’t expect it to arrive too late.”
Zhao Zhongyu immediately said, “Indeed, Yan Heng had followed General Gou for many years. Even without merit, he had hard work to his credit. Moreover, this time he was offering counsel for General Gou’s own good. General Gou should not have killed him for this.”
What followed didn’t need to be stated too explicitly. The Emperor said, “I heard that Master Ming has taken seriously ill and is bedridden because of this. Minister Gu, take an imperial physician to see Master Ming and console him to take heart.”
Ming Yu was an advisor who relied on Gou Xi. He held no military authority, so naturally the Emperor wasn’t trying to compete with Gou Xi for Ming Yu, but rather to show an attitude to Gou Xi’s officers—to make a display for them to see.
After visiting Ming Yu, he could then send people to comfort the officers who felt the sorrow of comrades’ deaths this time.
The Emperor worked diligently and quietly at undermining Gou Xi’s support, while Zhao Hanzhang openly and boldly released her new currency.
Her new coins had been produced in large quantities.
Basket after basket of copper coins were delivered into the treasury. Then they conducted transactions among themselves, taking out pearls, gemstones, porcelain, and other items from the treasury that had been gathering dust. After roughly calculating their value, they exchanged them for copper coins.
These items would be divided into several portions and given to merchant caravans to take to other regions for trade.
In addition, the Zhao Pawnshop officially opened for business.
Zhao Hanzhang directly occupied three shop spaces. Oh, these three shops had originally belonged to the Zhao family—they had been part of the dowry Zhao Changyu left her back then. Later she had traded them to Zhao Zhongyu, and now, after going full circle, they were back in her hands.
Three connected pawnshops. The reason for making it so large was because Luoyang had little currency, and many people needed to exchange items for money.
Zhao Hanzhang had announcements posted, stating that from today onward, transactions in the marketplace should primarily use copper coins. Those without money could take items to the pawnshop to mortgage in exchange for coins.
In the process of bartering, merchants might suffer losses, and individuals might suffer losses too. Everyone felt they had been cheated, and even after completing exchanges, they were mostly unhappy.
Before, it was because there was no money. To obtain copper coins, Zhao Hanzhang had to send merchant caravans to very distant places to sell goods and exchange them for money.
But returning with only money was unprofitable, so the caravans would only keep a small portion of coins. Most of the remainder would be exchanged for grain and cloth to bring back for resale.
Yet because Luoyang had few coins, besides money they always received all sorts of other items from people wanting to barter.
If they were purely merchant caravans, they could simply refuse dominantly, saying they only wanted money.
But they weren’t. These caravans were organized by Ji Yuan, operating under Zhao Hanzhang’s name, so they carried a somewhat official nature.
If even Zhao Hanzhang wasn’t willing to barter with the common people for grain, then they would have no way to survive.
Therefore, the caravans always exchanged for a pile of miscellaneous items—useful or useless things.
The useless items could only be transported out again, but this back and forth took at least twenty days, making capital turnover extremely slow.
Now that Zhao Hanzhang was minting her own coins, it eliminated the middleman steps. The caravans no longer had to suffer so much.
This time when they departed, besides carrying various goods, they could also bring two carts of new coins to take to other regions to purchase goods.
The new coins were exchanged, increasing the money in circulation. When Zhao Hanzhang walked the main streets again, the sounds of quarrels over failed barter negotiations had decreased significantly.
Zhao Kuan’s workload plummeted. He no longer had to work overtime until late at night.
Therefore, this day he had time to dine with Zhao Hanzhang, Zhao Erlang, and Zhao Yunxin.
At the table were only siblings, not the Regional Inspector and County Magistrate. So he exhaled deeply and said casually to Zhao Hanzhang, “Because of the new coins, recently people coming to the county office over trade disputes have completely disappeared.”
He said, “If I’d known that problems money could solve should have had us minting coins earlier.”
Zhao Hanzhang replied, “Eighty percent of the world’s problems can be solved with money. The way you talk, one would think there was plenty of money outside.”
Zhao Kuan said relaxedly, “There wasn’t before, but isn’t there now? Have Tinghan mint more.”
“Coins can’t be minted arbitrarily,” Zhao Hanzhang said. “How many coins to mint must be calculated. If we mint coins without restraint, the market will collapse.”
Zhao Erlang didn’t understand such matters. He only asked, “Elder Sister, now that you have money, can you pay the military stipends?”
“No,” Zhao Hanzhang said gloomily. “The money in the mint isn’t mine. My money is only what’s in the treasury.”
Zhao Erlang looked at Fu Tinghan. “Brother-in-law, can you lend Elder Sister money to pay our military stipends first?”
Fu Tinghan smiled. “That money isn’t mine either.”
Zhao Erlang’s eyes widened. “How is it not yours? You clearly minted it.”
Zhao Hanzhang felt that explaining the ownership of that money would prevent them from finishing dinner tonight. So she asked directly, “What do you need military stipends for?”
Besides liking shiny jewelry, Zhao Erlang had no great desire for money. The army provided food and lodging, and occasionally he came back here for better meals. He had no reason to want money.