The atmosphere in the huge central army lobby was subtle and tense. Due to the large number of people and many braziers, many people's foreheads were already sweating. Master Rufahe, who was slightly rich, had a glossy face.

At this moment, the Zhao Guan family just looked down at the notes and kept making the atmosphere more intense.

"I am a military officer and should not have interrupted the affairs of the country, but since the official has said that anyone can speak out today, so I will take the liberty to talk about finance from the military man."

After a while of argument, Li Qiong, the right deputy commander of the Central Army of the Imperial Camp, couldn't help but suddenly interrupt. "Since you want to use money, it is actually not advisable to say that the common people can be bullied, because since ancient times, there have been those who can be bullied, they are just those who can be bullied! The two major turmoils caused by taxation in this dynasty were Fang La, and they rely on the poor people in the southeast city; the other was Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao, and their foundation was the fishermen and farmers in Jingxiang. This is the lesson of the past! On the contrary, the temples and merchants... To put it bluntly, since ancient times, there have been monks rebelling and merchants rebelling. The country is in danger, so we should kill them to be fat! Even the powerful landlords are really not good at it. This time, there are no need to be Yue Jiedu to pacify. They will be the whole country, and they will pacify themselves! Let's see who is sharp?"

Li Qiong was born in a state student and was considered a man with a mind and vision. However, no matter what, he is now just a martial artist who is exiled to the northern people. He is most concerned about the Northern Expedition, but he does not have the overall view and compassionate attitude of Yue Fei. When he was young and energetic, he was inevitably extreme in related matters. On that day, the court was in peace talks, and everyone was worried that he would cause trouble, which was not without reason.

However, no one scolded or refuted such intense words at this time, which even caused a temporary silence at the scene, which aggravated the solemnity of the atmosphere... After all, everyone knows that although the official family is so peaceful at this time, with this person's temper, they may not be able to attack at any time, and they really have to talk about the problem of knife.

Even Li Qiong only thought about his intentions and showed his unscrupulous characteristics of the Hebei exiled army... In any case, the Eight Character Army and the Imperial Camp Front Army were both a trump card in the hands of the Zhao Guan family.

However, at this moment, after looking down for a while and thinking for a long time, the Zhao Guanjia looked up: "I will express my opinion first... I can discuss things, don't shout at the beating and killing at every turn. When Wanqi Jingluo was the censor, he advised me that before Yaoshan was completely different from after Yaoshan. The country was in danger before, and no extraordinary law could be implemented, but at that time, the extraordinary law was implemented, which was to not perform extraordinary law today."

Li Qiong quickly apologized and then returned to the sequence.

Zhao Jiu paused a little, but continued to say, "Just now from several prime ministers to several ministers and Chen Jijiu, they all said very well, even the Deputy Chief Li, although his words were absurd, the truth was still a bit real... The country lacked money, but he could never exploit the people anymore, so he could only take it from those possessed people above the people. These possessed people, whether monks, Taoists, merchants, landlords, or even nobles, were definitely rich, and could even be said to be the richest people at the moment. They usually enjoy their fruits, like the country's difficulties.

It's hard, of course, I can only ask them to work hard. But how should they work hard? It's impossible to force them? This way, it's not enough to win the trust of others. What's more, once a force plunder is forced, it can be stopped, and how can the boundaries be divided? Landlords and wealthy merchants easily seize the property, so do the wealthy family also hand over? After the rich family, will the middle-class family also torture? There will be no boundaries and there will be a big mess. Therefore, we have to think of a way to take out the money from these property plunders in a regular and legal manner.

To be honest, the monks and Taoist priests who came to the scene today and the giant merchants rose and floated up and down, but in this kind of place, there was no place they could speak, so they could only stand and suffer there... Just as the official family just talked, they sank to the bottom of the mud pit and then floated to the surface.

"Officials." After hearing Zhao Jiu's words, Lin Qi, Minister of Revenue, couldn't wait to say. "I just said Jiaozi, and this is the meaning of the treasury bonds... Now that the country is stable, why not imitate the Sichuan Jiaozi example, and re-establish or set up new Jiaozi affairs in six places in Tokyo, Chang'an, Nanyang, Yangzhou, Hangzhou and Guangzhou? Issued properly to ensure that Jiaozi is reliable. As for the treasury bonds, I think the treasury bonds should also change according to the time being. The degree to which the treasury bonds are so popular should not be repurchased, but should be sold at a rate hike, and there is no need to set a half-year or one-year period, which should be changed to long-term allowance. The gold, silver and copper coins obtained from the issuance of treasury bonds can be used as reserves for Jiaozi. I boldly calculate that if it can be done, there will always be an income of treasury bonds, and there will be a year-on-year difference."

After Lin Qi said this, the monks, Taoists, nobles and merchants in the distance made their own intentions. If they just bought national debts and the amount was not too extreme, why not? But according to the words of the Minister of Revenue, it might be possible to match some of the Jiaozi, which would hurt a little.

Unexpectedly, after Lin Qi spoke such proper words, the Zhao official family even praised him. Not only did he do this, the several prime ministers looked at each other.

After a while, the person who spoke to Lin Qi was actually his political ally, the chief censor Li Guang: "Shangshu Lin... what you said is very reasonable. Jiaozi's national debt is a good thing, and the court must do it. But I ask you, if the national debt is no longer profitable, but if it is issued with positive interest, how much can it be sold? If you are determined to make this amount of interest, is it in conflict with the emergency response of the national debt?"

Lin Qi frowned slightly and wanted to answer.

But Li Guang did not give the other party a chance to think, so he directly revealed the mystery: "If the imperial court wants to make money, where is the Qingmiao method?"

Lin Qi was speechless and it was difficult for a moment. The civil and military officials, monks, lay people, and nobles and nobles were also a little dazed, and then they became aroused.

There is nothing else. The word Qingmiao Law touched on the core political and economic contradictions of the Song Dynasty.

Anyone with a little common sense knows that one of the core laws of Wang Anshi's reform is the Qingmiao Law, and the Qingmiao Law is a replacing the proprietors who lend money to usury with the government and directly lending to the poor... This is a very outstanding theoretical structure and is extremely effective in experiments in small-scale areas. However, although it was successfully made to make money in the final implementation, it failed in the people's livelihood economy and political morality.

Even Wang Anshi's failure in reform cannot escape the Qingmiao method.

At the same time, everyone finally understood why the officials gathered together a messy group of monks, Taoists, nobles, and merchants, and then let these people enter the public hall first.

It should be known that according to the theory that determines everything according to the economic foundation, in the Song Dynasty, Buddhism and Taoism were no longer pure religious groups. Although they still maintained their basic religious instincts and also made some upper-level routes from time to time, as the three schools of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism merged, religious theories were completely localized, but the temple economy gradually became powerful and landlord, so they focused more on the direction of land management and expansion.

From this perspective, monks and Taoist priests are basically more like big landlords.

However, unlike ordinary landlords, religious characteristics naturally make them have more money gathering function... Think about it, who really exchanged all the money they received for gold to use to shape the golden body?

It would be very conscientious if you pour copper inside and a layer of gold powder on the outside.

There are also printing Buddhist scriptures and local commercial and social activities, which are all openly charged money to believers. There is no need to mention the 300% account. The key is when the account was made public?

As a result, the believers' gold, silver, copper coins, silk and food gradually filled the cellar. With spare money in hand, greed caused trouble, I couldn't help but think that money could make money, so I naturally began to lend usury.

Monks and Taoist priests are the most active part of the landlord class who lend, and even most temples have professional lending functions, which makes them occupy a considerable proportion of the landlord class's lending business... It can only be said that from ancient times to the south, north, south, middle and foreign, foreign monks, or local Taoist priests, have been all the same.

Look at the next door, isn’t the Knights Templar very good?

This is determined by religious characteristics.

At the same time, as the top landlords, the nobles gathered the most and had the most money. They must lend money, and even loaned together in the urban and rural areas.

Of course, merchants don’t have to say much. Their professionalism is like this, but they often compete in the countryside for temples and landlords, so their general influence is in the market.

In other words, these people who came here inexplicably today finally found the common label between them... loan sharks in the feudal era!

To put it bluntly, the law of the Qingmiao Law is to issue usury loans and seize the usury loan market, but the interest rate will be lower in name, which seems to be beneficial to people's livelihood!

"Official family!"

In the midst of chaos, someone gritted his teeth and made a speech to break the silence. It was Chen Gongfu, the Minister of Personnel who had previously supported the attack on these people and had a fierce attitude. "Don't re-practice of the Qingmiao Law!"

"Why not?" Chen Kangbo, the Imperial College Priest, who was just on the same front, immediately made a defense. "The Guanzi says that if a profit comes out, the country will be prosperous. This is the reason! The rich and the poor will lend money to the poor, and they will easily take advantage of their benefits. The government should take advantage of this profit to seek great things!"

Chen Gongfu shook his head repeatedly: "I agree with the theory of profit and profit, but no matter how well he said it, it will not delay the new law and be defeated."

"The failure of Qingmiao Law is because this method benefits the people, and it has evild countless people like this who are possessed in the hall today. The possessed people are entangled in the old party and deceived the Emperor Shenzong." Chen Kangbo continued to argue without hesitation. "In addition, Wang Shu hastily appointed many shameless people to become the new party, and destroyed the new law during the implementation, which has led to the failure of Qingmiao Law! And where is the old party now? And with the Shenwu of the official family, will they be deceived by these villains in the hall? As long as we use the right people, we can succeed!"

"This matter is not that simple." Chen Gongfu still shook his head. "How old am I, I have seen the government forcefully levy and force households to borrow money... Did Chen Jijiu not talk about the original practice?"

"you……"

"Fahe presided over." Just as the dispute was expanding, Zhao Jiu suddenly spoke, but ordered a person. "You are the Arhat I have chosen, why don't you speak?"

Fahe's face was covered in oil and sweat. He heard this and quickly stepped out, folded his hands and bowed: "Your Majesty, the little monk dare not talk about major national affairs."

"I won't ask about your national affairs, ask about some ordinary things." Zhao Jiu smiled and said, "Does Shaolin Temple lend money? Qingmiao loan?"

Not to mention that the government was obviously prepared, I really asked casually, and I couldn't hide this matter. So after hesitating for a while, Fahe gritted his teeth and honestly said: "So that the government knew that when the green and yellow people were not in charge, when seeds and farm tools were needed before spring plowing, Shaolin Temple did lend money and grain to the tenants and the people of Dengfeng."

Zhao Jiu nodded: "How much interest?"

"Qingmiaodian is not about the month, year, or season." Fahe could only answer the news after asking privately, but under the light, his bare head was wrinkled, which was so soft that it was unreasonable. "40% interest."

"Has interest always been like this?" Zhao Jiu's face turned as usual and his voice was gentle.

"Of course not." Fahe's face became more and more conspicuous, but he did not dare to hide it at all. "It is said that a long time ago, it was always 50% interest, but after Wang Xianggong established the Qingmiao Law, the rules in Henan, whether it is monks, Taoists and merchants, became 30%..."

"Because the Qingmiao Law stipulates that the upper limit of interest on Qingmiao loans is 30%?"

“Yes…yes!”

"What then?" Zhao Jiu did not pursue the malice of the reactionary forces in the fight against the government, but just continued to ask questions if he was easy-going.

"Then...and after the "Qingmiao Law" was abolished, it gradually became 40%." Fahe was careful. "In the past few years, before Prince Xu presided over the military farming in Henan, it was once because of the scarcity and preciousness of seeds, and a little bit more than 50%. Later, after Prince Xu was in charge of the management, it gradually returned to 40%."

"You are also talking about market economy." Zhao Jiu rarely laughed, but sighed after laughing. "But lending is the best business in the world that can make money quickly. 40% of it is a conscientious price, and 30% of it is a good government for the court... No wonder you can all become rich, and no wonder Wang Shu's new law was defeated so quickly, but he still gathered so much money for the court to use troops."

Fahe tried hard to say: "The official family is inevitable... It is true that the people have this need."

"I know." Zhao Jiu shook his head and said again. "Even if this dynasty is destroyed and the emperor is gone, the usury business is inevitable. But Fahe, do you think Guanzi's profit is a big theory, right?"

"Official family." Faheqing knew that the most critical time had come, but he rose up with courage. "The little monk did not dare to say extravagantly about the saints, but he dared to make a promise. Dengfeng people have always been happy with the Qingmiao loans in our Shaolin Temple... When the people were poor and had no way to go, the rich would contribute to each other and collect interest for reporting. Isn't this a match between the rich and the poor? Isn't it a good thing?"

It is difficult for Fahe to come forward, and the theory of "rich and poor" was immediately supported by many people. For a time, there were many discussions in the hall, and many nobles, monks and Taoists were taking the opportunity to speak.

Let’s talk about it now, because of the extra performance of several unplanned ministers, the plot development of this "Legend of White Snake" has long exceeded expectations. However, Zhao Jiu and the several ministers who have been silent for a long time have not had any too much prominence in the speech or expressions, but they are a little sighing... The reason is very simple. Many things have been discussed repeatedly in the past half month.

Today's remarks are either intense or stern, or righteous or shameless, without the detailed discussions of the emperor and the priests!

And one of the ridiculous things is that they are very clear that whether it is "profits come out" or "practice is the basis", or Fahe's shameless theory of usury that "wealth and poor" appears in their discussion... In other words, even the highest level has differences, and each theory seems to be right, at least within a certain range!

It's really right.

The logic behind the emperor and the priests discussing this matter at that time was as follows:

The country’s first priority is that all the discussions are abundant finances;

And abundant finances will open up new ways of wealth;

To open up new ways of wealth, you can only make profits from those with propriety;

If you want to make profits from those with possessed property, you should not forcefully rob, and you cannot break the law by enforcing the law by yourself. That is really destroying the fundamentals. Instead, you should use legal and reasonable means to seize the largest, fastest, but shameless economic income means of the proprietor to make profits, take it as national affairs, and let the country make this money;

This business, or the means of accumulating, can only be usury. If you want to quickly and expand your finances in large quantities, you should let the country replace these proprietors and occupy the usury market.

When it came to this point, Zhao Jiu and several ministers immediately realized... They have been those routines since ancient times, and Wang Anshi thought about them decades earlier than them.

Therefore, the discussion immediately evolved into a discussion of the Qingmiao Law.

However, as the same thing, the Qingmiao Law, as the core of Wang Anshi's reform, is not that simple... Some people, that is, when the Zhao Guan family was at the beginning, and Zhang Jun, like Chen Kangbo in front of him, insisted that the failure of the Qingmiao Law touched the core interests of the proprietors and attracted the alliance between the proprietors and the old party, so the failure was a purely political failure.

It may not be impossible to implement it now.

At the same time, almost every mature and pragmatic official firmly opposed this... Lu Haowen, Zhao Ding, Liu Ji, Li Guang, and even the old rules that now have more military responsibilities but rich local governance experience have firmly and clearly expressed their attitude, that is, the failure of the Qingmiao Law is directly related to the regulations themselves.

The Qingmiao Law itself is not good.

What's the problem?

The truth becomes clearer the more we argued. After many debates and many notes, Zhao Jiu had already figured out the key point and gradually changed his attitude. Then he reached a consensus with several prime ministers on a rough basis, or everyone said that they convinced each other - the problem lies in the bureaucratic system.

The relationship between the bureaucratic system and the Qingmiao Law can be analyzed from two perspectives.

First of all, the imperial power does not go to the countryside. As an extension of imperial power, if the bureaucratic system that enforces the law is really in accordance with the law, it will not be able to confront these proletarians in the countryside, and the people also trust and obey these temples and landlords more. Even in the market, it is difficult for grassroots officials to compete with the wealthy merchants who have been operating for many years.

From this perspective, the reactionary force is indeed too strong.

However, at the same time, one thing that has to be admitted is that compared with temples, landlords, and wealthy merchants, bureaucratic ends, or grassroots officials, are probably the most reactionary group of people in this era!

Not to mention that they must collect cash, but they can lend at a maximum of 30% and so on. The most terrifying thing is that when they execute Qingmiao loans, they often directly change to malicious levies, and there are some evil officials. This policy and other policies are no different from them. They are just means to use them to annex land and blackmail money... Even Qingmiao loans are more convenient and have more room for operation.

Therefore, for ordinary people, monks, Taoists, merchants, and landlords may still be able to talk about human feelings, clans and neighbors to use certain constraints, and are great good people who can use millet and fresh fish as interest; but the government is a mortificial star who often destroys the family and destroys the family. He is not short of money and forces you to lend money. He releases moldy seeds. When he takes it back, he points out that he wants cash. He dares to say that he is not a son and immediately asks you to serve as a laborer... Even if there are some bullies, evil monks, evil merchants, and evil paths, I am afraid that they will collude with the government first, so that they can get evil.

Therefore, once the setting that imperial power - government officials - grassroots officials are the real evil people is considered, even the "wealth between the rich and the poor" used by Fahe to defend usury will become reasonable.

After all, the people are extremely poor, and when they really don’t want to take advantage of the situation and prepare for spring plowing, they really need to borrow and turnover.

In the eyes of the common people, 30% of the Qingmiao loans that often destroy the family are far better than borrowing 40% from nearby temples... What's more, a large temple like Shaolin Temple that has been prosperous for hundreds of years has its own prestige, force guarantee, and religious delusion.

Of course, the problem arises. Zhao Guanjia wants to learn to eat this bowl of rice carefully, so how can he eat it safely?
To be continued...