Chapter 605: Reaching Ying Wei

There were three types of currency in the Great Han Empire: gold, silver, and copper coins. Copper coins were an alloy of copper, aluminium, lead, and nickel. The production of copper coins were completely managed by the imperial court. The local authorities and the wealthy did not have the right to manufacture copper coins. That would be a heavy crime, and it was rare for anyone to want to take such risks.

But gold and silver coins were different. These two were precious metals. If the local governments and wealthy people had enough gold and silver, they could melt and create their nuggets. This would create a lot of chaos. Quite a few greedy people mixed metals that easily mixed with silver such as lead and aluminum into the nuggets.

In practicality, there were a lot of drawbacks to using natural gold nuggets and silver pieces as coins. This was very detrimental to commercial development. To a random merchant in Pingxi Prefecture for example, the merchants had to have keen eyes and use their senses to feel if the weight and color of the gold and silver they got were genuine when receiving payment. If they were certain about its quality, the second thing they would do was weigh the gold and silver on the scale to confirm the weight. For the third step, if they needed to find change, then the owner would often use iron scissors and cut the silver into small pieces.

If the silver quality wasn’t good, then when the merchants saw it they could either not take it or take it at a discount. This would cause a lot of discord. Often, people would fight over one gram of silver and how accurate the scale was or how good the quality of the silver was.

The imperial court couldn’t deal with such matters so they could only let it be.

There was also a small number of silver and gold coins on the market but they weren’t truly gold and silver coins. It’s just that when some wealthy families were smelting their gold, they made it into the shape of the copper coins. These coins were very coarse and were weighted differently. Many of them were marked with longevity, fortune, happiness, and such words that the wealthy families used to flaunt their status.

The wealthy and elite of the Great Han Empire didn’t understand the meaning of forging gold and silver coins, but for Yan Liqiang, turning gold and silver into coins contained a huge fortune, or the power to make money.

If the coins the Qiyun Protectorate Office released flowed in the market and became a currency that everyone was willing to accept and the credibility was built up, their prospects would be huge.

However, no one in the Great Han Empire could see the point of this yet. Perhaps people thought of forging coins, but they didn’t have the technology to do so.

But for Yan Liqiang, this wasn’t a problem at all as he only needed one money-making machine to forge coins. A hydraulic press printing machine wasn’t hard for Yan Liqiang to make since he had the blueprint in his brain. Thiemachine’s structure was simpler than a steam engine and didn’t have complex parts while it was also durable and effective. The ones he saw in his past life could still be used after 100 years of use.

Yan Liqiang had already envisioned the coins he would release. All the coins would have the primary value of one unit as the foundation. One silver piece was ten silver coins, and one gold piece was ten gold coins. This was easy to use and calculate…

He had only given the blueprint to the manufacturing bureau for a few days. The worksmiths were probably still figuring out the secrets behind the press but Yan Liqiang believed that in a few days, the manufacturing bureau would be able to place the first coin pressing machine in front of him.

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……

When the sun fell, Yan Liqiang’s carriage finally stopped.

The door opened and Qian Su and Lu Wenbing got off first. Then, Yan Liqiang organized his clothes and hopped off.

Outside the carriage was the Yingwei County town hall. The guards stood on the two sides surrounding the streets. Quite a few citizens looked around. The officials along with Fu Changde stood orderly at the gates. Seeing Yan Liqiang come down, Fu Changde led all the officials to bow, “Yingwei County Magistrate Chang Lu greets the Protectorate General…”

In order to prevent people from guessing who he was and dropping the vigilance of the Shatu Seven Tribes onto the new Qiyun Protectorate Office, Fu Changde hadn’t been using his real name. No one knew his real name other than Yan Liqiang.

Yan Liqiang glanced at Fu Changde and then quite a few familiar faces among the officials and smiled, “Lord Chang, do you like this official uniform?”

“I knew Protectorate General was coming today so I put on this official uniform. Usually, I feel this uniform is quite uncomfortable — it’s not as good as the lambskin jackets…” Fu Changde smiled.

“Okay, since you don’t like this uniform then I’ll allow you to not wear it even when you see me!”

“Thank you, Protectorate General!”

Looking up at the tattered doors, Yan Liqiang felt his stomach, “Alright, let’s go inside and talk. Lord Qian, Lord Lu, and I have spent the day on the road, our stomachs are very hungry, let’s eat dinner first…”

“Dinner is ready, lords please come!” Chang Lu said and then bowed before leading them in.

Chang Lu knew Yan Liqiang’s habit. He knew that Yan Liqiang didn’t like to be ostentatious so the dinner he prepared to greet Yan Liqiang was only abundant not lavish.

After dinner, Yan Liqiang rested in the official dorms at the back and Fu Changde with Situ Feixing who wore ordinary police uniforms came into Yan Liqiang’s room…

After the two sat down, Yan Liqiang asked straight up, “How’s the contact with the Black Ram people?”

Situ Feixing licked his lips and looked at Yan Liqiang with some respect, “Young Master is very wise. The Black Ram people took the bait. After getting some benefits, their appetite is getting bigger and bigger…”