In Guangdong, Zhou Shixiang, who was busy integrating his forces to prepare to advance westward, suddenly realized that his money seemed to be insufficient...

The Taiping Army has always implemented a public treasury system, that is, the gold, silver, silk, treasures, grain, salt, rape and meat seized during the battle must be handed over to the public treasury, and then the public treasury will be allocated to the public treasury according to the needs of the officers and soldiers. This system ensures the living needs of the officers and soldiers and their families, and also attracts a large number of poor people to join the Taiping Army.

At the beginning, Zhou Shixiang vigorously promoted the slogan "Everyone has food to eat, everyone has meat to eat, and everyone has clothes to wear". The public treasury system is the guarantee of this slogan. The public treasury system, which is completely based on the principle of selfless wealth and equal distribution of people, played a positive role at the beginning of the founding of the Taiping Army. However, with the continuous military victory of the Taiping Army, the number of cities and towns occupied has become more and more abundant, and the source of wealth and goods has become rich. In addition, the number of surrendered troops has joined, the public treasury system has naturally been impacted and destroyed.

People are selfish. In the past, those poor people who had nothing suddenly had their own income and had a certain status in the Taiping Army, and they would inevitably begin to gather their own private wealth. The Taiping Army's military component is already complex, with bandits and surrendering soldiers accounting for as much as 60%. It is basically impossible to expect these officers and soldiers who joined the Taiping Army to strictly enforce confiscation and strictly discipline themselves. Therefore, when Zhou Shixiang established the Laosi Town, he began to set salary for officers and soldiers to determine the income of officers and soldiers and ensure that officers and soldiers have sufficient income to support themselves and their families. On the one hand, this unites the hearts of officers and soldiers, and on the other hand, it also avoids looting and massacre due to money.

Zhou Shixiang, who returned to Guangzhou after the Chaohui War, did not forget the officers and soldiers who died in battle and were injured. He set a high pension to compensate the family members of the soldiers who died in battle, and stipulated that the fallen ones were called "martyrs". If the males in the martyrs' families, adults directly assigned the military salary to be elected, they could also be given priority when they were promoted; if they were unwilling to join the army, they could be given tax exemptions for money, grain and taxes. Underage children can go to the young soldiers camp to study, and after graduation, outstanding people will be promoted to the military preparation institute for further study, and after graduation, they will be promoted to the military preparation institute as the commander of the army and the young envoy of the army. Those who cannot be promoted to the military preparation institute will be arranged by local governments, either working in county governments, or working in various townships and village offices. In short, Zhou Shixiang repeatedly emphasized that the treatment of the martyrs' families must be absolutely guaranteed. Even if everyone is hungry, they must save money and grain to support the children of the martyrs and their parents.

Zhou Shixiang also attached great importance to the disabled, and stipulated that the minor injured people would be given disability funds and arranged to be held in various townships and village offices. This not only ensured that they had decent work and long-term and stable income, but also ensured that the loyalty of the staff of the townships and village offices would be to the Taiping Army. Those who could not take care of themselves would build the Invalides' House in Xiangshan and arrange special personnel to take care of them. This amount, including personnel expenses, is special expenses for the Military Commander's Office, and is not borne by the local government.

"Only if we have no worries, the soldiers will move forward bravely. If we are stingy and cannot save any money, how can we make the soldiers willing to work for us?"

"The Qian is in the military commander's mansion and does not go to the local area. This is not because I want to reduce the burden on the local area, but because I want to ask our Taiping Army to know that our Taiping Army is the strongest and the greatest backing! It doesn't matter if we die in battle. Parents, wife and children are raised for them, and they also ask their children to have a future prospect. Don't be afraid if you are injured or disabled. I am raising me, it's nothing if I have lame and broken arms. I will still be the village chief and the village chief. As long as I am here, as long as we Taiping Army, no one dares to look down on them!"

During the Battle of Chaohui, the Taiping Army suffered a total of 8,890 casualties, of which 4,620 were killed or killed. The pensions for the fallen people began to be counted and prepared by the Guangdong Provincial Administration and the Military Commander's Office when Zhou Shixiang was still in Huizhou. After Zhou Shixiang returned to Guangzhou, the part of the disabled was also counted. At the same time, the rewards of the soldiers who were meritorious in the Battle of Chaohui were also counted. Zhou Shixiang spent two days to check one by one, and after confirming that it was correct, he approved the distribution.

In addition to pensions, disability funds and rewards, Zhou Shixiang also gave silver rewards to the villagers who transported grain and the masons who built the fortress building.

Zhou Shixiang believed that war is not just a matter of the army. The people's efforts are greater than the army's efforts. If the army wins, there will be rewards, so the people should naturally get benefits. This benefit is called "war dividends."

"When we win, the people will get benefits. Do you think they are very motivated to support us? Will they hope we win? Will they support us with all their strength? If every time we go out to fight, the people will give us the Master and food, but they will get nothing, what do you think they will think?"

Zhou Shixiang decided to distribute the war dividends to the people. The people of Chaozhou and Huizhou did not receive this dividend, and the majority of them were obtained by the people of Guangzhou, especially the Xiangshan area. Almost every family received the war dividends from the Taiping Army.

The dividend depends on whether the household has children joining the army, the area of ​​farming, the amount of grain paid, and the amount of labor. This dividend is not simply given to gold, silver and copper coins, but also replaced by cloth, meat, rice, grain, salt and oil. In actual operation, Xiangshan County also used the remaining land as dividends instead of silver and money, and this move was unanimously supported by the people of Xiangshan.

Pensions, disability funds, rewards and various expenses, plus the war dividends to the people, the sum of these numbers is astronomical. Even if the Taiping Army gained the whole city of the city in Guangzhou, and two royal palaces and one Governor's Mansion, the money market became nervous immediately.

After a large amount of silver and money flowed into the hands of officers, soldiers and the people from the Taiping Army, a new problem soon emerged, that is price inflation. The gold and silver flowing out were basically concentrated in Guangzhou Prefecture, and there were only more than 500,000 people in Guangzhou Prefecture. Now millions of taels of silver are added, and copper coins are circulating in the market. Rising prices is inevitable.

Zhou Shixiang was a man of two lives, but he didn't know this. He decided to recycle gold and silver, curb the soaring prices, and reform the public treasury to make the public treasury more adapted to the current situation. After repeated consideration, Zhou Shixiang decided to change the public treasury into a bank treasury, and established the Guangdong Banking and Banking Headquarters in Guangzhou, with three branches under Guangzhou, Chaozhou and Huizhou. The counties under the jurisdiction of the three prefectures and the Sanzhou will establish a branch, and the sub-branches will be set up, and the exchange office will be established below the branch, which will be built in the offices of each township.

Guangdong Yinku Headquarters was directly under the command of the Military Commander's Office and was managed by the Ministry of Revenue of the Military Commander's Office. After the establishment of the Yinku Headquarters, Zhou Shi ordered Duke Xiang of Song to start issuing military tickets. The military ticket face value is determined by referring to the later RMB, and it is set as three types of face value: fifteen, jin and yuan, which are two cents and five cents; one cents, two cents, five cents; one cents, five cents, ten cents, twenty, and fifteen cents, and the maximum face value is one hundred yuan.

Two-part equals two-part copper plate, five-part equals five-part copper plate, both refer to the copper coins circulating on the market, and yuan refers to silver, one yuan is one tael of silver, and one hundred yuan is one hundred taels of silver. One tael of gold can be exchanged for 10 yuan military tickets in the public treasury, that is, one tael of gold is fixed to exchange for ten taels of silver.
Chapter completed!