Fenghou

Chapter 1523 Clues
Although the Huihe envoy Harabalu had full power to negotiate with the Yong Dynasty, but the Yong Dynasty put forward the conditions for rebuilding the Beiting Protectorate, and he did not dare to call the shots, so he hurriedly sent people back to Gaochang to report.

Negotiations were temporarily put on hold.

The Yongjing cabinet workshop reported the case early the next morning, and the No. [-] Neiwei Office took over the case, and Zhang Hongwen, the commander, reported the details of the case to Zhong Huan.

"General Qi, this money note was exchanged by Liu Jun, a cloth merchant, and he was going to buy cotton cloth. He exchanged it about a month ago, and then left home for Luoyang, but there is no news at all. We suspect that he is dead. gone."

Chong Huan pondered for a moment and said: "If it was an ordinary murder for money, it wouldn't be such a coincidence. I deduce that there are two possibilities. First, he was watched by someone when he exchanged money. Maybe there is an insider in the cabinet; Second, the robber and murderer took his banknotes and didn't dare to go to the counter to exchange them, but sold them to someone who forged the banknotes, but I think the first one is more likely."

"I also think that the first possibility is the most likely, and the second situation is too coincidental. The murderer knew the money ticket, but he also knew the person who made the counterfeit ticket. There are not so many coincidences, and the cabinet shopkeeper who came to report the crime also thought there was an insider! "

Zhong Huan asked interestedly, "What did he say?"

"He said that the paper for money notes is very special, very thick, and of high quality. Only a few people can make it. Most people don't know the paper-making workshop, and only the insider reveals it."

Chong Huan laughed and said, "Now there are two more clues!"

"Reporting to the general, there is actually only one clue. There are many people in the cabinet who know about the paper mill. There are at least fifteen or six people. There is no way to find out this clue. We can only go to the paper mill."

Zhong Huan nodded, "I suggest that the troops be divided into four groups. The first route is to investigate the whereabouts of the businessman Liu Jun. He is the key person. The second route is to check the inner ghost in the cabinet workshop, the third route is to investigate the paper mill, and the fourth route Go to the black market to find out who can counterfeit money notes, even if he is not a counterfeit person, but he is an insider, and he will know some clues."

"Humble post obeys orders!"

Zhong Huan laughed and said, "I don't have anything to do at the moment, I'll be in charge of the fourth road!"

． ． ． ． ． ． ． ．
The black market has always existed, and Jingzhao’s black market is also divided into two types. One is an open black market, mainly for the exchange of silver, and the official acquiesce to its existence.

But now the risk of exchanging silver is also very high. For example, the price of silver in the black market in Lin’an once soared to [-]:[-], and one tael of silver was exchanged for ten guan qian, but after the end of the Song Dynasty, it plummeted from [-]:[-] to [-]:[-]. Black market traders suffered heavy losses.

The explosion of silver in Lin'an also affected Jingzhao. Many Jingzhao black market merchants rushed to Lin'an to exchange their silver for copper coins. The increased demand made the Jingzhao black market silver price rise to [-]:[-].

But the subsequent sharp drop also caused Jingzhao's silver price to fall to [-]:[-] to [-] yuan, which is basically close to the official price of [-]:[-].

But the business is still very good, there are still many people who are willing to exchange silver, and some people exchange silver for money.

The main reason is that the silver in the Yong Dynasty can only be circulated in silver dime and silver coins. A silver dime is worth five hundred Wen, and a silver coin is worth a penny.

The silver treasury of the Yong Dynasty already had enough silver to support its large-scale issuance of silver coins and silver coins, as well as the large amount of silver that the officials exchanged from Japan with second-hand soldiers every year.

At present, only officials are doing silver exchange, and private commerce can only buy and sell goods.

Why private merchants can't exchange silver in Japan is because Japanese lords are only willing to exchange silver armor or pig iron, but these two materials are strictly prohibited from being privately owned or exported by the Yong Kingdom. To lose his head.

Even if you secretly saved a lot of pig iron and then sneaked past, there are still Japanese pirates guarding the gate, and they welcome this kind of fat sheep that has been left alone.

Even if you have a way to avoid the pirates, the Japanese daimyo still won't sell silver to you in the end. He offended Yong Guo because of your business, will he still do business in the future?

Far away, Jingzhao also has a second type of black market, which is an illegal black market. Once discovered by the government, they will be arrested immediately.

This illegal black market sells contraband, fake calligraphy and paintings, fake official kiln porcelain, fake dragon and phoenix tea, and so on.

But no matter how brave they are, there are still some things these black market merchants dare not touch. One is money, the other is salt. If they privately mint copper and silver coins, and sell private salt, they will be copied by the whole family. The risk is too great, and the benefits and costs do not match. By contrast, the merchants feel that it is not suitable.

Open mines in private, smelt a little crude iron and crude copper to sell on the black market, as long as you don't export it, even if you are caught, it is not a big crime.

As for fake calligraphy and painting, fake porcelain, and fake tea, those things are not reported by the public nor investigated by officials.

Zhong Huan came to the Great Town God’s Temple located in the west of the city. This is the largest community temple in Jingzhao, and also the largest personal goods trading market. Everyone can bring their idle items to set up stalls for sale. There are more than 3000 stalls at most. Even in normal times, there are more than [-] booths and hundreds of huts, which are considered fixed booths.

The Town God's Temple covers a large area and there are many people. There are three religions and nine streams here, and good and evil are mixed here. Except money and salt, everything can be bought here.

On the east side of the gate of the Town God's Temple, there are several Yaren's shops. This is a shop selling information. If you want something special, but you don't know the way, it doesn't matter. You just need to find a Yaren. The Yaren knows where to buy it.

Chong Huan walked into a dental shop called Guang Ji Hang. There was a middle-aged man drinking tea in the room. When he saw Chong Huan, he dropped the tea cup and ran away in fright, but the back door was blocked by two internal guards. up.

Helpless, the middle-aged man had no choice but to come back obediently, and said with a smile: "General Zhong, long time no see!"

The middle-aged man's name is Zhang Guang, who has always been Zhong Huan's spy. He is not only a dentist, but also a black market dealer in silver.

Zhong Huan said coldly: "Did you commit some serious crime, why did you run away when you saw me?"

"Where is it! Just earn a little money to support the family."

"No crime, so why do you want to run away when you see me?"

"General Zhong is the head of the internal guards. Even if you want to go out in person, there must be a shocking case. I'm afraid the villain will not be able to bear it."

"Hmph! It's not wrong to say that each of you responds quickly."

"That's right! If he reacted a little slower, he would have died in Lin'an long ago."

Zhong Huan sat down and said, "I heard that you made more than 1 yuan in Lin'an?"

"Hey! That damned man only half-spoken. He made more than 1 guan at the beginning. Then the market changed and the price of silver turned around. I reacted quickly and quickly got rid of the silver in my hand. I still lost a few thousand guan. After all, he only made more than 3000 yuan.

My elder brother, Zhang Taishan, believed that Baiyin would reverse, and raised money to take over Baiyin. In the end, his capital was [-]:[-], and he emptied it at [-]:[-]. He lost tens of thousands of pennies and hanged himself. "

Of course, Zhong Huan knew about the tragedy of the silver black market in Lin’an. In the end, the Western Army arrested more than 100 black market silver merchants, and then Yongjing Cabinet Square bought 10,000+ taels of silver from the black market merchants at a one-to-five official price. , Lin'an silver black market has since disappeared.

The Song Dynasty might be indifferent to raising the silver price to one to ten, but how could the Yong Kingdom tolerate it? This would affect their going to Japan to exchange silver.

This Zhang Guang ran away before the Western Army took action.

"Don't worry, I'm looking for you for something else!"

"Please command the general!"

Zhong Huan pondered for a while and said, "I remember a master counterfeiter named Duan, right?"

"Yes! Duan Ping, imitating famous people's calligraphy and painting is a unique skill, you can confuse the fake with the real one!"

"I want to find this Duan Ping, where is he?"

Zhang Guang breathed a sigh of relief, and said with a smile, "The general has found the right person, where is he? Really, only I know."

Zhang Guang whispered a few words, Zhong Huan nodded, and said to him: "Be honest with you, don't be a black market silver dealer anymore, the court discovered that privately minted silver coins appeared in Luoyang, and the silver content was insufficient. The imperial court will soon crack down on black market silver merchants."

(End of this chapter)