Chapter 444 Establishment of a Central Bank
The smile on His Majesty Daxia's face faded, and he asked in a deep voice, "What crime have you committed?"

Zhou Tieyi continued, "Your Majesty, my Zhou family was also implicated in the case of inkstone smuggling in Taihang Mountain Province, so I apologize for the crime."

Everyone in the court held their breath, because the Great Xia Emperor's sentence on Zhou Tieyi might very well determine the outcome of the Mo Shi case.

It is not surprising that the Zhou family, as a titled general's mansion, smuggled inkstone. However, the Zhou family was definitely not the largest smuggler. At most, they were considered to be in the upper-middle class, and they were not even as good as the royal relatives such as Prince Ning.

Zhou Tieyi took out a book of Zhou family accounts from his sleeve. "This is the amount of inkstone that my Zhou family has smuggled over the years. Except for a small amount that we kept for ourselves, all of it was shipped to the front line."

The Emperor of Daxia took a glance, and even without looking, he knew in his heart that the Zhou family was small, and except for the guest official Gongshu Sheng, no one practiced the art of mechanical engineering, so the Zhou family could not use much inkstone. If they really needed to use inkstone, they could only transport it to the front-line troops for use.

"Bring it up."

The chief eunuch Xue Minghao carefully took the account book from Zhou Tieyi and placed it on the imperial desk. The Great Xia Emperor flipped through the account book and exhaled, "What is your Zhou family's intention in smuggling so many inkstones to the front line?"

When His Majesty of Daxia asked this, many ministers present breathed a sigh of relief. This meant that the court had taken the issue of the ink stone in the army very seriously and let it go.

Zhou Tieyi replied, "Of course it was to resist the invasion of Yuanmeng. Although the court allocated inkstone military supplies to the front line every year, the inkstone production is limited. In the past two or three decades, the inkstone allocated to the front line has long been insufficient for the use of large-scale institutions such as Feipeng and Zhulou. The world has been at peace for twenty years thanks to the emperor's achievements in defeating the enemy. Therefore, the court did not increase the inkstone allocation to the frontline troops, causing the frontline troops to have to find ways to raise inkstone on their own."

What Zhou Tieyi said was the good side, which was also the account of the first ten years. However, in the second ten years, a lot of smuggled inkstones flowed into private consumption. Places such as the Golden Building in Shantong Mansion used inkstone lamps for lighting, which was extremely luxurious.

"excusable."

The Great Xia Emperor nodded slightly, then looked at Si Lu Qing Kong Gui, "Si Lu, what do you think the punishment should be?"

Qingkong Gui looked solemn when he heard the question. This judgment was related to the fragile trust between the court and the front line at this time, so he had to be careful.

In fact, the lightest and most reasonable punishment is to ask the smuggling army to replenish the ink stones, but even this punishment is almost impossible now. Even if the Zhou family can rely on Zhou Tieyi to replenish the ink stones, what about the rest of the army?
Qingkong Gui knew without checking that the ink stones of the other armies must have been consumed and squandered. If they were asked to make up for such a huge deficit, it would be more practical to confiscate their property, or force the front-line troops to embezzle from other places.

"Since it is to be used for military purposes on the front lines, privately using it is an emergency measure, but it is also an abuse of power."

Qingkong Gui skillfully kicked the ball back to the emperor. He first described the smuggling of ink stone as an emergency measure, which almost made it clear that he would let bygones be bygones. However, in order to save the face of the emperor of Daxia, Qingkong Gui classified the crime as abuse of power.

The sentencing for the crime of abuse of power is too broad. The greatest abuse of power is for a minister to seize the power of the emperor, which is equivalent to the crime of deceiving the emperor and is enough to kill the three generations of the family. However, the lightest abuse of power can be interpreted as the military using the power of the ministry in an emergency. If it is reasonable and justified afterwards, the emperor can still pardon the crime.

The Great Xia Emperor picked up Zhou Tieyi's memorial, read it, and thought quietly. Then he closed the memorial and said, "Although it is an abuse of power, the soldiers on the front line have sacrificed their lives and redeemed their mistakes. All the troops from the commander-in-chief and above will be fined for three years and their merits will be reduced by one level to see the effect. But if you dare to do it again, you will not be forgiven easily!"

Hearing the judgment of the Great Xia Emperor, the Right General Yuchi Pojun was the first to bow and said, "Your Majesty is wise!"

When the other honored warriors heard the verdict, they felt relieved and bowed their heads, saying, "Your Majesty is wise!"

The military's smuggling will be punished lightly, so those who help the military smuggle will naturally not be punished too severely.

Zhou Tieyi continued, "Except for the front-line, the rest of the local noble families and merchants who smuggle will be severely punished. On the one hand, it can make up for the shortage of inkstones on the front line and the fiscal shortage this year. On the other hand, it can serve as a warning to the world."

Those who can get in touch with the army must be the aristocratic families in the three provinces of Taihang. However, the aristocratic families also have branches, and not every branch can be connected with the army. What's more, there are also middle and lower-level clans born from local officials. On the contrary, they are more daring in corruption than the aristocratic families.

The simplest examples are the Wu family in Xiaoshi Town and the He family in Shantong Prefecture.

Although the He family helped the Zhou family transport the inkstone and took the most, they would never be greedy for even the money earned by the miners, because all the aristocratic families with a long history knew that once this thing spread, the disadvantages would outweigh the advantages, not to mention that they would not be able to gain much benefit.

On the contrary, the Wu family, which is under the He family, is smaller in size, so they think that even a small amount of money is worth a lot and they lean on a big tree to embezzle money.

Therefore, before leaving Shantong Mansion, Zhou Tieyi asked the major families to prepare their abandoned children. While giving an explanation to the people of the world, he also cut off the tentacles of the families spreading to the local areas and made room for those who had made contributions to the reform of Taihang Mountain.

The noble families thought about it again and again, and finally agreed to this matter.

The Great Xia Emperor had already read the case yesterday. Those local middle and lower-level clans were originally thrown out by the local noble families to cut off their tails and survive. Even if the Great Xia Emperor wanted to investigate, due to the large number and small benefits, it would not be of much benefit to him. Instead, the most important thing now is to quickly stabilize the local area and the army. So he said, "The case of Mo Shi will be handed over to the Ministry of Justice and convicted according to the law."

Zhou Tieyi took out a memorial entitled "On the Current Malpractices of Tieyin" from his sleeve.

His Majesty the Great Xia Emperor was well aware of the reforms in Shantong Prefecture, and naturally knew that no matter how many reforms Zhou Tieyi was advocating now, they could not avoid the matter of Tieyin.

As long as Tieyin exists, the reform relying on the steel institutions will be shackled. Just like the steel plant in Shantongfu, even if it has the ability to produce high-quality steel, it will not be able to sell it smoothly without Tieyin.

"You want to abolish the iron and copper lead?"

"Exactly."

The Great Xia Emperor looked at the many ministers below, especially the eager Minister of Revenue Shi Changsheng, "Minister Shi, do you have anything to say?"

"Your Majesty, the iron voucher must not be abolished, at least not this year or next year!" Shi Changsheng said anxiously, "The Ministry of Revenue is currently short of funds. If the iron voucher and copper voucher are abolished, how will the deficit be compensated?"

The Emperor of Great Xia pondered for a moment. He was able to figure out that if Zhou Tieyi's reforms were to be implemented throughout the country, the iron and copper passes must be abolished. Only in this way could the entire reform process be accelerated, the world could be made more prosperous, and he could be helped to make further progress.

But just as Shi Changsheng said, this year's finances are extremely tight. If the iron and copper currencies are abolished, how will the fiscal deficit be made up?

The Great Xia Emperor looked at the Queen next to him and asked, "Queen, what do you think?"

The Queen behind the pearl curtain spoke up, "This matter is of great importance. Your Majesty, why don't you publish Zhou Qing's memorial in the official gazette and circulate it to the officials in the court, and then discuss it at the next court meeting."

The Great Xia Emperor nodded.

After the morning court session, Zhou Tieyi was not in a hurry to leave. The same went for Dong Xingshu, Qingkong Gui and others. Although the Queen Mother suggested discussing the matter at the next court session, before the meeting, the leaders of all major forces would definitely be summoned by the Emperor for a small court session.

Sure enough, before Zhou Tieyi walked out of the Noon Gate, Su Xibi came running over, "Lord Zhou, the emperor has summoned you to the imperial study."

Zhou Tieyi, Dong Xingshu and others followed Su Xibi and passed through the Imperial Garden. It was now midwinter, and the Imperial Garden was covered with a layer of light white snow.

Shi Changsheng, the Minister of Finance, who was walking with Zhou Tieyi, asked tentatively, "Lord Zhou, it's not because of party disputes that I disagree with abolishing the iron and copper notes. It's just that there is really no way to make up for the deficit after the abolition. And even if the Taihang Mountain family is confiscated this year, I'm afraid it won't be easy to get through the end of the year."

In previous years, at this time of year, the budget for the next year would have to be allocated. However, this year, the Ministry of Revenue has carefully calculated every penny from top to bottom, but there is still a huge deficit.

Why did His Majesty just let go of the inkstone issue so easily? Wasn't it because he wanted the troops on the front lines to be sensible and not only not want so many inkstones, but also cut the silver mentioned just now in half at least?

Zhou Tieyi smiled and said, "We are all doing our best for the country."

Zhou Tieyi was doing Tai Chi, and Shi Changsheng couldn't get any information from him for the time being. He didn't know how Zhou Tieyi would deal with the iron and copper levies. He could only turn around and look at Yuchi Pojun, "General Yuchi, you know the difficulties of the Ministry of Revenue. We really can't allocate tens of millions of taels to build railways this year."

Yuchi Pojun thought for a while and shook his head. "This is not what I want. The front line wants it. I cannot answer you about this."

Shi Changsheng exchanged glances with Dong Xingshu. Both of them were sure at this time that Yuchi Pojun or the military heroes still wanted to tie the iron duct and the railway together. Even the emperor had an ambiguous attitude towards this matter. The only hardship was their Ministry of Revenue, which really could not come up with the money this year.

Everyone entered the imperial study. The power of the earth veins flowed slowly and was transformed into heat energy with the help of the mechanism array, causing spring flowers to bloom in the imperial study. The light snow falling on everyone's shoulders disappeared as they came in.

The Emperor and the Empress have already taken their seats, and Dong Xingshu led everyone to pay their respects as usual. In addition to the three secretaries, the Minister of Revenue, and Zhou Tieyi, there was another person present, the current director of the Newspaper Department, Ke Anran.

"No gift."

The Great Xia Emperor raised his hand and said, "Please take a seat."

After everyone was seated, His Majesty the Great Xia looked at Zhou Tieyi and said, "On the way to the Imperial Study just now, Shi Changsheng told you about the difficulties of the Ministry of Revenue, right?"

He glanced at the first memorial beside the throne and motioned Su Xibi to hand it to Zhou Tieyi.

Zhou Tieyi flipped open the memorial, which listed the Ministry of Revenue's income and expenditure this year. Not counting the silver just applied for from the front line, there was still a deficit of nearly 20 million taels!

"This is still the loss caused by the stalemate in the war on the front line. The evil gods have made such a big move this year, Yuan Meng will definitely not let it go."

Zhou Tieyi closed the memorial and talked about another matter. "During the battle of Bingzhong this year, the corpse of the White Emperor turned into a tiger and went to the west. I went to Taihang Mountain to thoroughly investigate the ink stone. It also involved the 24 levels of the Western Paradise of Buddhism. The Dazhi Zen Temple in Shantong Mansion is only one of the 24 levels of the Western Paradise. I am worried that by the end of this year, the exposed Buddhist Western Paradise will cooperate with Yuan Meng's offensive and continue to disrupt the foundation of our Great Xia country."

After listening to Zhou Tieyi's analysis, everyone felt heavier in their hearts. A few months ago, Zhou Tieyi had lured out the Western Paradise through Shanyin, but the Emperor of Daxia felt it was extremely difficult to deal with, as he didn't know how many Buddhist sects were implicated, so he could only hold it off for the time being.

Now that Zhou Tieyi has brought up this matter directly, everyone has a premonition that this winter, the New Year may not be peaceful.

The Great Xia Emperor looked at Dong Xingshu and asked, "Are there any unusual movements in the western provinces?"

Dong Xingshu replied, "This year's drought has hit the western part of the country hard, and the people have been displaced and are fleeing the famine. Now, because of the military situation on the front line, if the follow-up relief money and grain cannot be mobilized in time, the people may not be able to settle down."

Given the strong foundation of Buddhism among the people, it is inevitable that the Western Paradise will take advantage of the situation to cause chaos when natural disasters and man-made calamities occur simultaneously.

The calmness of the past half month or so may actually be a precursor to an outbreak.

The Emperor of Great Xia had anticipated this and had even made preparations in advance. The difficulty was not how to win, but how to maintain the national strength of Great Xia amidst internal and external troubles. This was the most important thing for him.

"Since you proposed abolishing iron and copper notes, and you have also looked at the accounts of the Ministry of Revenue, what methods do you have to solve this problem?"

"Please establish a central bank to issue banknotes, bonds, and stocks in a unified manner."

(End of this chapter)