Chapter 374: Currency Issue

Chapter 374: The Currency Issue

Mountain City.

First step: mass‑produce basic necessities and forge a rudimentary centralized trading system.

Second step: open trade routes far and wide, erect logistics hubs, and accelerate the flow of people.

Third step: strengthen infrastructure, expand the towns, and craft differentiated residential districts.

Fourth step: draw settlers in and swell the city's size.

Fifth step: reinforce the city's cultural character and erase religious influence.

Sixth step: build this city.

This is the true Spark Plan—its scope must be vast, its execution meticulous.

Abstract ideas alone cannot save this world; we must act concretely.

Chen Jian stood outside the makeshift command post, watching the tools churned out of the underground factory and endlessly ferried to the surface, and said:

We are now in the first phase, the manufacturing of daily necessities.

But these products are still far too prone to market saturation.

The world houses only a few million souls, and many of them lie beyond our reach, lacking purchasing power; relying solely on mundane tools to achieve indispensability is inevitably too slow.

The best solution is still guns and bullets.

After all, no one can do without them; in this world they are a genuine, hard‑won necessity.

Indeed, a hard necessity.

He Shuo first nodded, then spoke again:

If we can solve the current resource bottleneck, we will swiftly become the greatest arms dealer on the planet.

When that day arrives, Mountain City will naturally become the world's hub.

But for now we face a very real problem.

These merchants do not know what we need.

The goods they bring for trade are still relics of the wasteland era.

Worn‑out batteries, dim light bulbs, even gold.

Gold, of course, is useful; we could adopt it as a benchmark currency.

Yet if we are to erect our own centralized system, we must issue our own money.

Indeed.

Chen Jian nodded thoughtfully, then raised his hand and called:

Ji Xing, come here!

Ji Xing, who had been helping Yu Qian settle—or rather, deal with—the newly arrived pilgrims in Mountain City, turned at the summons and walked toward the two men deep in discussion.

Commander.

Ji Xing looked at Chen Jian:

What is it?

We intend to issue currency in Mountain City and establish a centralized financial system.

Chen Jian replied:

I will have Fuxi design a basic framework, but his knowledge of the wasteland is still limited, especially regarding certain details we cannot fully feed him.

Therefore, I need your counsel.

My counsel?

Ji Xing was momentarily stunned, then furrowed his brow and said:

Frankly, issuing currency under the present circumstances is far from a sound choice.

Or, to put it another way, ‘locking’ a currency is not advisable.

What do you mean?

Chen Jian asked:

We cannot ‘lock’ a currency—are you suggesting multiple currencies running in parallel?

No.

Ji Xing shook his head and answered:

Even parallelism is impossible.

Commander, I think you may not grasp the underlying conditions of this world.

The Huaxia army has endured harrowing times, yet from start to finish we never lacked resources or grain.

We have always been affluent; our only concern is how to eradicate the monsters, never how to survive should we fail to defeat them.

But the others in the wasteland do consider that.

Even the wealthiest merchants must reckon with it.

And there is only one answer: eliminate every non‑deterministic risk.

Why, after all these years, does gold remain merely a measure of value and never become true circulating money? That is the root cause.

Because a piece of gold, however certain, can become a burdensome weight at the most critical moment.

Bullets and food, however, carry no such hesitation.

You must fire a gun, and you must eat.

If, by chance, those two things can also serve as mediums of exchange, tell me—do you choose bullets and grain, or gold?

Indeed.

Chen Jian exhaled a heavy breath.

In truth, he had long noticed this dilemma, but never found the time to probe it deeply.

Yet now it appears unmistakably grave.

An unstable environment will strangle the development of a monetary economy; not to mention issuing new money, even merely bolstering gold's status would be hard to accept under these conditions.

Do you intend to trade gold with the merchants?

No, they will not consent.

They will act swiftly, converting every ounce of gold in Mountain City into the goods they require.

What then?

Without a complete monetary system, the efficiency of trade throughout Mountain City will plummet.

When that happens, building a commercial hub is out of the question; even maintaining stable commerce will drain unnecessary resources.

And what is your view?

Chen Jian opened his mouth and asked:

“Use bullets directly as currency?”

“The problem with this plan is that we would inevitably have to manufacture bullets of various calibers.”

“How should we define the value of different bullets?”

“We can’t just price a 9mm the same as a 7.62mm, can we?”

“No need for that.”

A faint smile tugged at Ji Xing’s lips.

She had already thought it through.

“All bullets carry a single value, provided we can verify they were produced by us.”

“We can imprint a special design on each round, perhaps stamping our emblem onto the primer.”

“Regardless of caliber, each bullet would be priced the same.”

“Then, as bullets begin to accumulate—when supply outstrips demand—people will notice that their monetary function starts to outweigh their practical use.”

“They’ll complain that bullets are heavy, that they’re cumbersome to carry and to count.”

“When that moment arrives, it will be time for us to unveil a true currency.”

“Bullet‑coins.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Jian couldn’t help but give Ji Xing a thumbs‑up.

“It works.”

“The idea is completely viable!”

“No need to wait—there’s a production line beneath the mountain city; we’re only short of raw material for now.”

“We’ll draw from our current ammunition stock; in this round of trade, we’ll release our currency.”

“Understood!”

Ji Xing nodded gravely.

“I’ll take Yu Qian with me to handle this.”

“It’s not just a transaction; I have an even better idea.”

Two hours later.

The pilgrims’ shelter camp.

Ji Xing, accompanied by Yu Qian and several volunteers from the battalion, stood at the makeshift camp’s gate, with several crates of already‑opened bullets stacked behind them.

She surveyed the scene; every pilgrim’s gaze held a trace of fear.

——

To be honest, anyone witnessing this tableau would be inevitably terrified.

Armed soldiers bristling with live ammunition, the sheer volume of rounds gave the impression of a firing range set for sheer exhilaration.

The pilgrims at the front already began to tremble, yet a fierce conviction and faith still anchored them in place.

Ji Xing shook her head in helpless frustration, about to speak, when a figure hurriedly sprinted from afar. “Wait!”

“Wait!”

Turning her head, Ji Xing saw that the newcomer was Guo Xu.

His face was a mask of disbelief, tinged with shock and fear.

“Ji Xing, Commander Ji, what are you doing??”

Gasping for breath, Guo Xu stepped before Ji Xing, his voice urgent:

“They’re merely pilgrims; if you won’t let them stay, I can escort them away!”

“I’ve already spoken with Officer Yu Qian; our discussion went well!”

“You’ll need to give us time— even if we have to withdraw, we still need a moment, right?”

“You can’t.”

“Hold on a moment.”

Ji Xing raised a hand, cutting Guo Xu off, then continued:

“You don’t actually think I intend to kill them, do you? Where did you hear such a baffling rumor?”

The words hung in the air; Guo Xu stared, stunned.

“Isn’t that so?”

“A bishop rushed to me, shouting that you’d brought people here, damn it!”

At that moment, Guo Xu clearly grasped the situation.

He muttered a curse in irritation, then addressed Ji Xing:

“Sorry, sorry!”

“I overthought it. When I return, I’ll punish that bishop.”

“But seriously, what exactly are you planning?”

Ji Xing pointed at the bullets behind her and replied:

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“We’re distributing bullets.”

“Distributing bullets??”

Guo Xu stared, mouth agape.

“Give them to the pilgrims? Why?”

“Most of them don’t even own automatic weapons—what good are the bullets?”

“Some of them have no weapons at all!”

“They’re currency.”

Ji Xing said bluntly:

“Since they’ve come here, we can’t just watch them perish, can we?”

“We must give them food, let them survive.”

“But we can’t treat them as ordinary refugees—do we really have to deliver food to their mouths every day?”

“So we’ll use bullets as money.”

“We’ll hand them a few rounds; those bullets can be exchanged for food.”

“Of course, they can barter for other goods as well.”

“Things like firearms, perhaps—but I urge you to keep them in check. Should any unnecessary bloodshed occur here, our retaliation will be far more than a simple expulsion.”

“Understood, understood!”

Guo Xu finally relaxed.

At that moment, Yu Qian had already begun leading people to hand out bullets to the pilgrims.

The instant they received the bullets, almost every pilgrim was bewildered.

They could not fathom what it meant.

Were they to use these bullets to solve their own problems?

But soon, Yu Qian began to explain.

And then the pilgrims started to quarrel among themselves.

Upon hearing that bullets could be exchanged for food, some hurled the bullets to the ground, declaring they would not accept the “heretical” charity of the Huaxia army.

Yet others furtively scooped the fallen bullets up and slipped them into their pockets.

Yu Qian turned a blind eye, and Ji Xing could not be bothered to glance any further.

She cared not for their thoughts; she only knew that once bullets were issued as currency, they would inevitably be reclaimed by some means.

Guo Xu, however, still harbored a hint of doubt.

“So does this method of using bullets as money really work?”

“Most people will just hide the bullets and sell them to a merchant at a higher price, won’t they?”

When he finished speaking, Ji Xing gave a mysterious smile.

Then she asked:

“Do you want to go see the market?”

“Sure!”

Guo Xu nodded decisively, and the two walked toward the market, where even a modestly sized bazaar was already packed with newly arrived traders.

They were the first merchants to arrive after the road opened, and also the boldest lot.

It was precisely this boldness that made them more receptive to the “bullet currency.”

Bullets circulated everywhere in the market; at first, some merchants doubted the “value” of the bullets.

Because, according to the current exchange rates in the mountain‑city market, the total value of the bullets handed to them for purchasing the goods they brought in actually exceeded the total value of the goods themselves.

They wondered whether the Huaxia army would ever reclaim the bullets.

Or perhaps the army merely intended to offload its stockpiled bullets through this exchange.

Of course, even so, they stood to make a profit without risk.

After all, bullets are a rare commodity wherever they are placed.

If they can’t be sold here, they can simply be taken back to Jinling to be sold.

Thus, the merchants all accepted the bullet‑as‑currency scheme.

But that alone was not enough to keep the market alive.

At some point, a merchant discovered a new item the Huaxia army had introduced.

A multifunctional engineer’s shovel.

He adored the thing; he knew its worth all too well.

If taken to other lands, the shovel’s value might rival the long swords wielded by the Holy Blooded.

Here, however, it required only half a bullet.

Or four catties of raw iron.

He had no raw iron, but bullets he had in abundance.

So the trade began at once.

After the first deal closed, the second and third followed in quick succession.

Demand for the engineer’s shovels surged, and then, in an instant, their price began to climb.

No, the Huaxia army did not raise the price deliberately; when the first batch of shovels sold out and the army announced it would not produce more in the short term, merchants started internal trades based on risk‑hedging.

The shovel’s price rocketed from five bullets to fifteen, and at that moment everyone saw the truth.

Bullets have value.

They can buy things.

The more chips you hold, the greater the gains you can secure.

The merchants’ thirst for profit erupted instantly, and from then on no one bothered to contemplate the true nature of the bullets.

Because that is what money is.

Guo Xu watched the whole scene.

He inhaled deeply, then exhaled slowly.

Then he spoke:

“I am completely impressed by you all.”

“But, to be fair.”

“I also want one of those engineer’s shovels for our protective troops.”

“So, does that mean there truly aren’t any left?”

(The chapter ends)