Upon the Eastern Sea, several ships came steaming toward shore.
No one had expected the pale-skins to have already applied steam engines to their vessels.
The fleet docked at the harbor, and the pale-skins' dark-skinned workers unloaded crate after crate of miracle herb and silver, then loaded crate after crate of exquisite porcelain, silk, and other precious goods onto the ships.
The Central Plains—vast in territory, rich in resources and abundant in produce—these foreigners had originally come to dump their products here. Yet once they witnessed the prosperity of the cities, they not only left their goods behind but also left behind enormous quantities of silver.
But a massive influx of silver was not necessarily a good thing.
Silver transactions were already cumbersome, and now with silver prices falling, trade would only become more troublesome.
Fortunately, Dragon City had the foresight to prepare for everyone—our paper currency is convenient for transactions, and our credibility is rock-solid, so hurry up and start using it! From south to north, even the capital has opened branches of our bank; negotiations with Emperor Ming are also underway, and the bank will soon establish itself in Liujing! What are you all waiting for? Use it early and benefit early; use it late and suffer losses!
Dragon City had already begun strengthening its intelligence network, and all news of overseas merchants' arrivals was relayed back at the first opportunity.
Zhao Baihui immediately issued an order: abolish the silver standard and decouple paper currency from silver. Prices would be updated at regular intervals, set by the Dragon City government.
The moment the news broke, the exchange rate between silver and paper currency plummeted to 1:98.5—meaning that yesterday one tael of silver could still be exchanged for one hundred yuan, but today it could only fetch ninety-eight yuan and five jiao!
The bank's justification was perfectly plausible: overseas silver was flooding in; more silver with the same population meant prices would naturally drop.
Some wealthy merchants panicked. After much deliberation, they decided the bank made sense—better to convert their silver into banknotes for safety! A great crowd of people rushed into the bank, arms laden with heaps of silver.
A few days later, the silver price dropped another two jiao, falling to 1:98.3. Those who had exchanged earlier congratulated themselves on their foresight, while even more people beat their chests in frustration and rushed to the bank to convert their silver.
These overseas merchants probably wouldn't come just once, would they? Dragon coins were simply more appealing!
Zhao Baihui released an updated edition of the currency, adding many Eastern elements to the existing design, such as the dragon head motif beneath the numerical denominations. To further convenience everyone, three new subsidiary denominations were introduced: three jiao, three yuan, and thirty yuan. This brought the total range of denominations to eight: one jiao, three jiao, one yuan, three yuan, ten yuan, thirty yuan, one hundred yuan, and one thousand yuan.
Before, if you spent a ten-yuan note to buy something costing one yuan, you'd get nine yuan in change—not only easy to count wrong but also a small stack of bills. It was still somewhat inconvenient—though admittedly far better than paying in silver and receiving a pouch of copper coins as change. This currency update made things much more convenient, and so many people affectionately dubbed it "Dragon Coin"!
In reality, a few waves of merchants bringing silver could never have caused such a massive impact. This was merely a little trick the bank used to push forward the adoption of paper currency. After all, how many people in this era understood economics? Probably not a single one—including those foreigners from overseas.
With just a minor stratagem, the bank had persuaded many merchants and wealthy individuals to further embrace paper currency, while also pocketing a tidy sum of silver in the process. After all, only a small circle of people currently accepted that silver had depreciated; most people in other regions did not share that view.
Dragon City's development speed was limited. Constrained by the system's various conditions, absorbing population required possessing territory that was one hundred percent under one's own control, and during the evaluation period, one could not leave the garrison for extended periods. This posed certain obstacles to Dragon City's rapid expansion.
Then they would pave the way with economics.
Dragon City submitted formal applications to both Prince Fu and Emperor Ming's administrations, requesting permission to establish banks in their territories. But neither side responded! These two were not nearly as easy to deal with as the barbarians in the capital!
Fine—if you won't show goodwill, don't blame me for being ruthless!
Two battalions of Wolf Riders led a large contingent to the vicinity of Xinjing and began massive construction just a dozen li outside the city. Cement was poured as if it cost nothing, and a small town visibly sprang up from the ground at astonishing speed. Five-meter-high walls—sufficient to repel the vast majority of attackers.
A third-rank court official steeled himself and came to request an audience with the general stationed here.
Mingwei received him.
"General of Dragon City, might I ask what you intend by all this?"
Did he truly not know, or was he feigning ignorance? Of course he was pretending.
"A minor matter. Dragon City wishes to build a bank here for the convenience of merchants and common folk throughout the realm."
The official glanced at those five-meter walls. You call this building a bank? Who do you think you're fooling? Xinjing had formerly been a prosperous prefectural city, and even its walls were only about this height—and not nearly as sturdy.
"General, if His Majesty grants Dragon City permission to open a bank within Xinjing, surely this outpost can be dismantled?"
Mingwei shook his big head. "I'm afraid not. We've already sunk several hundred thousand taels of silver into this place—how can we just tear it down on a whim? How about this: you reimburse us for the costs?"
Several hundred thousand? The court official's jaw dropped. You're just pulling numbers out of thin air!
If it were the Ming bandits, they might have been able to cough up that sum—after all, they had once extorted seventy million taels. But the new court genuinely could not produce such money—and even if they could, they mustn't. Wasn't this blatant extortion?
Mingwei had truly picked up all the wrong lessons from Mingxin; he had mastered the art of brazen nonsense. He was openly extorting them! Back when they were given the chance to cooperate, they refused—now they could only come crawling back on their own.
"If the general insists on this course, then we shall see! Hmph!"
Seeing that reason would not prevail, the visitor stiffened his spine as well and stormed off with a dramatic sweep of his sleeves.
Mingwei was rather curious: this court that had been spineless its entire existence—how had it suddenly grown a backbone? Was it those fifty thousand new recruits giving them confidence?
Even with new armor, don't you know what caliber of soldiers you have?
And you probably don't even realize—someone on your side has been selling off your new-style armor. According to our intelligence, the biggest buyer of that armor is none other than Emperor Ming...
The world was truly a wondrous place.
At the moment, the court genuinely did not fear Dragon City's Wolf Soldiers much, because they believed they too had produced new-style armor. Confident in their defenses and boasting numerical superiority over the Wolf Soldiers—what was there to fear?
Since Dragon City had no shame, then it was time to teach them a lesson!
And so, while Dragon City continued building without pause, the court recalled twenty thousand troops from the Yangtze River line and stationed them on either side of the Wolf Soldiers' position, forming a pincer formation.
Several days later, war horns suddenly blared from within the Wolf Soldiers' camp, startling the surrounding court troops.
The Wolf Soldiers were assembling—but for what purpose? Had they felt the pressure and decided to withdraw? Or were they looking for a fight?
"They wouldn't dare, would they?"
"Whether they dare or not, let's assemble first and be ready for anything."
The two court armies sounded their own assembly horns in response.
Within half an hour, the fully assembled Wolf Soldiers charged ferociously toward the court army on the left flank—which had not yet finished forming up!
Since no one feared the Wolf Soldiers' reputation anymore, it was time to bare the claws—to remind them all exactly who was the true king of this land!
Kill!