Updated: 2010-04-01

When he arrived at the mansion, he was full of injuries. Huang Wen looked at Chen De apologetically, but Chen De was a little moved.

In order to avoid suspicion from the court, he could only stay in Lanzhou for one night. After hurriedly comforting the injured soldiers and the people, he took Xiao Jiu, Zhang Zhongyao and Li Jian to the study. Seeing that Chen De had just summoned Le Yangfu and encouraged him, Xiao Jiu let him go. He secretly sighed in his heart that Jincheng Camp has been ineffective in defending the city for several months, but it has its own system and has lost Chen De's trust. It is a huge loss for the hundreds of kids. Seeing that Xiao Jiu felt regretful, Chen De smiled and said, "Is General Xiao unfair for the children of Shu camp?" Xiao Jiu hurriedly said, "The military supplies are not different from each other. The adults reward and punish the children of Shu camp fairly. I just think these hundreds of kids are a pity."

Chen De smiled and said, "They have their own explanations from Wang Qibo. I am too kind to them. In the future, they will be unfair to wait for their men to return to Western Shu. They treat each other so politely and kindly to everyone." Seeing that Xiao Jiu was relieved, Chen Defang said, "This time, Hexi's army was reorganized, and the six armies were selected, and Xiao Jiu was the commander of the Lianrui Army. You all know that since there are too many military horses and everything is complicated, several institutions need to coordinate. There is nothing new. The Military Information Department is still under the jurisdiction of Li Si, and the logistics department is established based on the logistics battalion, led by Xiao Jiu. In addition, Zhong Yao is in charge of the Road Department, Youtong is in charge of the Training Department, and Li Jian is in charge of the Military Ordnance Department." Chen De established these military departments, which are in charge of major matters such as intelligence, logistics, training, staff, and research and development. Among them, the Road Department under the control of Zhang Zhongyao is the most important.

Xiao Jiu is so prestige. Zhang Zhongyao had known the matter before, but Li Jian was very excited. His official position was originally just a captain, but now he suddenly took charge of the front military department. He was pondering how to express his loyalty to Chen De again, but he heard him say again: "This military department is an organization that is responsible for the various armies. If you wait for the head of the military department, you can draw 50 people from the competent officers to be responsible for coordinating the relevant affairs of all six armies."

It was given the right to choose his subordinates. The Anxi Army followed the recommendation system. Even Xin Gu and Xiao Jiu and other commanders, it was not easy to install their confidants in the army. The highest commander of the Military Department was appointed by Chen De to serve as generals and select his subordinates, which greatly increased the efforts to implement Chen De's intentions in various fields. This was also a means for Chen De to prepare for the future to balance the drawbacks of the recommendation system in the army.

"The establishment of the military command does not match the imperial system, and it is still the secret of our army. You can only know it, but you cannot disclose it to the public." Chen De said in a deep voice.

"The last general knows it's amazing." Li Jian, Xiao Jiu and Zhang Zhongyao were also both focused on it. They knew that Chen De's actions had exceeded the scope of authority given to the court to the governor to choose his subordinates, and it was obvious that he wanted to set up his own business. Although he had known this, Xiao Zu Li San still felt an inexplicable excitement in his heart.

Seeing that Chen De had said almost everything, Xiao Jiu said carefully: "After lord set out for Hexi, Sogdian merchant Kangqudagan sent people to say that they wanted to imitate the wool-knitted clothes made in Lanzhou, so he asked the lord to accept it. The last time, I thought this matter was not urgent, and the lord had no time to take care of the war in Hexi, so I never reported it." Xiao Jiu always stayed away from the merchants such as Kangqudagan, but since he came to him and knew that this group of Sogdian merchants were Chen De's allies, he reported it. From what he saw, the wool-knit workshop was an important source of wealth at present, and of course, Kangqudagan should not be allowed to imitate it.

Chen De pondered for a moment and smiled and said, "A businessman, it's only for money to travel thousands of miles. The wool weaving industry is profitable, and imitation is a matter of time. Kang Qudagan thought about asking for my permission, and he was considerate." He turned to Li Jian and said, "Person Li, others are catching up with the imitation. Our wool weaving workshop must make the fabric more exquisite and durable, and also improve the proficiency of workers and prevention and control technology." As for machine textiles, Chen De dared not expect it now. He paused and said:

"Tell Lao Kang that he can do this. However, the method of wool weaving was first invented by the Lanzhou Army. For every wool weaving clothes, he would pay me 200 copper coins. This is called apprenticeship money. Spread half of the apprenticeship money received to those craftsmen who have reformed their clothing weaving technology. If Kang Quda knew about it, he would continue to allow him to copy and sell the money and property of my Lanzhou in the future. I will still explain later. Li Ziwei will make a charter according to the rules that I would charge apprenticeship money."

After giving Li Jian, Chen De turned around and said to Xiao Jiu: "General Xiao, just reply to him like this. From the Western Regions to Jinling, everyone knows the rules of the masters taking apprentices in various workshops and guilds. Which one does not need to serve the master for 17 or 8 years to learn the craftsmanship. My Anxi craftsmanship is more kind, and the apprenticeship will last for ten years. My Anxi Army's wise people do not do secret things. If Lao Kang has any new ways to make money in the future, my Anxi Army's craftsmanship will still pay him the apprenticeship."

With the current profit of sweater, it is nothing to charge a patented 200 copper coins. The key is to let the merchants led by Kang Qu Dagan accept this rule. At the same time, the existence of patented money prevents authorized merchants from vicious bidding, causing the profit of sweater to decline rapidly. The big businessmen who accept Chen De's patent concept will naturally spare no effort to exclude those merchants who imitate sweaters without authorization. At least within the scope of Chen De and these big businessmen's power, infringing imitations cannot be popular.

The patent system is the treasure to promote technological innovation. In an era when everyone arbitrarily invades the results of others' innovation, people either follow the old ways or cherish them. The technical level of the entire society is slowly improving like a snail. However, after the implementation of the patent system, the creation of inventions and improvements in production processes can greatly improve the speed of individuals' accumulation of wealth and social status. Although Chen De could not control the infringement and imitation in the Song and Liao countries, he only used patent rights to profit within the control of the Anxi Army. The richness of the gains was enough to stimulate people to open their minds. What's more, the guild system and the tradition of masters taking apprentices in this era themselves restricted other handicraftsmen to arbitrarily imitate other skills.

"Person Li, how is the progress of coin minting?" After explaining the most important military system and operating rules, as well as the various details of the patent system to the three generals again, Chen De was concerned about other projects in the craftsman's camp.

"According to the instructions of the adults, the mold has been made, and now it can be suppressed with gold, silver and copper coins." Li Jian said, taking out a few coins from his arms and handing them to Chen De. Chen De left only one of them in his hands to examine them, and the others were distributed to Xiao Jiu and Zhang Zhongyao to watch.

The gold coins made by Jiangzuoying are patterned with a dragon on the front, and the back has the words "One or Two Gold" as the words "One or Two Gold" are added. Because a little other metal components are added, they are harder and more wear-resistant than pure gold, and are more shiny under Chen De's guidance and strict requirements, Lanzhou's current coin minting technology is even better than that of the Song Dynasty, and the square-hole round gold coins made are extremely beautiful. The same is true for silver coins and copper coins, with the words "One or Two Silver" and "One or Two Copper" written respectively.

Chen De directly ordered Li Jian to do the coin. Zhang Zhongyao and Xiao Jiu were not aware of this. They were a little surprised when they saw this. Zhang Zhongyao even thought that it seemed that the lord was determined to change the dynasty, but he listened to Chen De's saying: "After the craftsman set up a coin minting farm as soon as possible, then pay the money from the grassland tribes and trade vendors, and try to use our own coins. Since we occupy Hexi, the trade volume between the East and the West is so large. If we can pass through the gold, silver and copper coins minted by the Wu'anxi Army, the annual coin income will not be a decimal."

While rubbing the exquisite coins in his hand, Chen De couldn't help but sigh that the trade pattern between the East and the West in this era was very different from that in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Not only did the West import a large number of exquisite products such as silk and porcelain from the Central Plains and the Khitan, but the Central Plains and the Khitan also imported a large number of spices, gems, horses and various utensils from the West. In general, trade between the East and the West was balanced. In other words, the Chinese in the early era had a very strong consumption capacity, and they also continuously purchased a large amount of goods from the West.

After the Qing Dynasty, perhaps some changes occurred in China's social structure. In short, the consumption capacity of the Chinese people plummeted. By the Qing Dynasty, the continuous surplus caused 75% of the world's silver to be concentrated in the hands of the old empire. When bacon and afternoon tea became the norm on the table of English farmers, the living standards of the people of the Celestial Dynasty were at the low end in all dynasties, becoming a country described by barbarian envoys as beggars running all over the streets. This is the so-called Kangxi and Qianlong prosperous era. The last war caused by trade and a century of deep national disaster swept away the huge surplus silver accumulated over hundreds of years of wealth and wealth.

However, it is strange that from the records of the state dynasty, China's precious metals and coins were leaking out in large quantities in the trade between the East and the West. Therefore, there were regulations prohibiting the export of coins in all dynasties. That is to say, from the perspective of metal currency, the state dynasty recorded a huge deficit. However, from the records of Rome and Persia in the same period, a large number of precious metals such as gold flowed out to the east, that is, Western countries also had huge deficits. So, where did such a huge amount of precious metals go, Chen De probably was earned by commercial cities that specialized in East and West trade in this era.

A Silk Road has nurtured hundreds of the most brilliant and wealthy commercial ancient cities. In China, there are Luoyang, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Jiayuguan, Dunhuang, Gaochang, Jiaohe, Loulan, Turpan, Urumqi, Yining, Kuche, Aksu, Kashgar, etc. In West Asia, Europe, there are Tashkurgan, Islamabad, Kabul, Mashhad, Tehran, Baghdad, Damascus, Constantinople, Lyon, Rome, Venice, Genoa, etc.

Note 1: In 1992, a large number of Jianzhong Kaiyuan and Qianyuan coins were unearthed near Kuqa (known as Anxi in the Tang Dynasty). These coins have the characteristics of copper produced in Xinjiang locally, and are not copper produced in the Central Plains. Therefore, they should be self-cast coins of the defenders stationed here during the Anxi Protectorate in the Tang Dynasty.
Chapter completed!