Daming Yinghua

Chapter 278 Aren't They Going to Open an Escort?

At night, after the capital's curfew began, Xuanwumen Street, which was bustling and bustling during the day, became empty and silent.

Wang Wenyan, who carried a sign and ignored the curfew, took his own carriage and turned into Chunshu Hutong between Xuanwumen Street and Liulichang, and walked into the backyard of the silk and satin village.

Liu Qiao and Zheng Haizhu were already waiting for him.

Wang Wenyan knew the rules of etiquette, so he asked Liu Qiao's youngest son about the situation of quitting drugs with concern, and he was relieved when he learned that the frequency of crying had decreased, and he walked to the cash box.

Liu Qiao didn't put on airs, and said frankly: "My official knowledge is limited, I can only see that the silver is not inferior to Xie Jing's salary. Mr. Wang is more knowledgeable, but can you see other strange things about the silver?"

Wang Wenyan's servants and Li Daniu had passed on Mr. Xu's doubts, so he didn't repeat himself at this moment, he reached out and took a piece of silver with a plump appearance of about five taels, put it under a bright candle, slowly turned it, carefully observe.

"Forged in the Northland." He said the first judgment.

"Can you see this too?" Zheng Haizhu and Liu Qiao asked for advice at the same time.

Wang Wenyan pursed his lips lightly, pointed to the pitted honeycomb-shaped traces on the surface of the silver block and said: "Whether it is a silver block or a silver ingot, if the fineness is over [-]%, under the sun or candlelight, the surface between the pores has a silvery luster." If you look at the inner wall of the air hole from the side, there are colorful neon lights, which dazzle the eyes. But in silver, there is copper to some extent, and there are red copper and brass. Brass is born together, seven black, eight gray and nine It turns blue, with copper and red, seven black, eight red and nine white. The silver mines in the north have more red copper, and the silver mines in the south have more brass."

Zheng Haizhu took the silver from Wang Wenyan, looked through it for a while, then checked several silver boxes, and said to Liu Qiao: "As Mr. Wang said, since the silver has reached more than [-]% fineness, it is good Its appearance is white but not blue, so it can be inferred that it was obtained by refining in the north. The manager of Mr. Xu said that it was the silver they collected all the way from the south. Although silver is circulated from north to south on the commercial road, it is The silver nuggets, which are several thousand taels small, are all white, and it is too strange not to see the green ones."

Isn't it too strange?It's like paying a buyer in another province, and the renminbi paid are all in consecutive numbers.

I saw Wang Wenyan leaned over, grabbed a larger silver nugget of 30 taels, and continued to sip it under the lamp, sliding his fingers back and forth on the surface, as if a warrior was carefully feeling the edge of a sword.

"Is there a sense of touch?" Zheng Haizhu asked.

"No, it's a pattern." Wang Wenyan replied.

He simply ordered his servants to carry the box to the table, and added two more glazed candle lamps to illuminate it. He immersed himself in scratching in the box for a while, and after a while he picked out a few pieces and put them together.

A complicated expression appeared on Wang Wenyan's face.

"Look, you two, if you spell out a big guy with 50 taels, what does the pattern on it look like?"

Zheng and Liu went up to distinguish each other.

"Flagpole? Still hanging the flag?" Liu Qiao asked doubtfully.

"No, it's a weapon," Zheng Haizhu said. "Is it... the kind that generals use on horses, a broadsword?"

Liu Qiao's Jinyiwei investigated crimes and did not go to the battlefield. They used the Xiuchun Dao every day, which was a short weapon in the shape of a waist knife. Zheng Haizhu had seen Ma Xianglin and his subordinates' white-stemmed guns several times, and was very sensitive to long weapons. .

Wang Wenyan nodded: "It's a big knife, and it's a big knife with a provenance. It's the Qinglong Yanyue Dao of Guan Erye. The people who cast these silvers used silver models engraved with the pattern of Qinglong Yanyue Dao, because what they obeyed was theirs. The fellow with the title of righteousness, Guan Yu, the second master of Guan."

Liu Qiao was still groping for this information, Zheng Haizhu, who had more knowledge of the previous situation, had already brightened his eyes, and said awe-inspiringly: "Shan merchants?"

"That's right," Wang Wenyan said with a sneer, "I wouldn't have known such details at first. Last year, Shanxi merchants competed with our Huizhou merchants for the location of the guild hall. I didn't reveal my identity, and followed Huizhou to find a tooth shop. Theoretically, Yaxing proudly shows off the Dingyin sent by Shanxi merchants. It is of good quality and large in weight. They all use silver models of the same size. There is also a Qinglong Yanyue knife at the bottom of the fan, which shows that they are Shanxi merchants and must be protected by Guan Erye. , with the four characters of 'loyalty, faith, benevolence, and righteousness', you can pass five passes and kill six generals, and travel all over the world."

When Zheng Haizhu listened, she felt a little ironic in her heart.

Guan Erye is indeed the most important word.

But whether the Shanxi merchants in the late Ming Dynasty had the righteousness of the family and the country, at least from the eight major families who took refuge in Houjin and sought glory and profit, could not be seen.

At this moment, Zheng Haizhu held the silver nugget vaguely showing the half-faced Yanyue knife, gently stroked and pulled it on the table, and deduced: "If the person surnamed Xu sells high-quality Cantonese embroidery Guangbu and sells it to Shanxi people, one or two votes will be sold." Thousands of taels of silver are not uncommon, but based on the show he showed me when he invited me to dinner that day, why did he hide his relationship with the rich and wealthy business gangs in Jin? But the rascal who was looking for my bad luck at Fahua Temple that day, went to There are also people from Shanxi in the Xique Hutong family. Therefore, the turmoil in Fahua Temple was performed by Mr. Xu. He saved lives once and rescued emergencies twice. I have never seen him before. He seemed to have fallen from the sky. The same, but still trying so hard to please, what is he trying to do to me? Is he trying to help him sell goods?"

Hearing the last sentence, Liu Qiao clearly sensed the sarcasm in it. He smiled, but quickly put away his smile, and said seriously, "Mr. Bo is also from Shanxi. You said he wanted me, Lao Liu, to have soldiers under his command, and to be a The Son of Heaven is close to the army, so for you, could it be that you are also fancying that you can enter and exit the imperial city..."

Wang Wenyan, who was listening on the sidelines, interrupted: "Wenhua Palace and the inner court teach, only one or two assistants can be brought in, and the inspection is also strict. These people may be a group of people, and they should be coveting the more useful things in Madam's hands. "

When Zheng Haizhu heard Wang Wenyan say "more useful things", his heart suddenly felt like an electric shock.

She looked up at Wang Wenyan: "The really useful ones in my hand are the firearms factory in Songjiang, and the navy and battalion soldiers in Chongming. The latter is still young, but the former has some weight. The Xu, I want to ask I buy firearms?"

Wang Wenyan said: "There is no need to 'buy'. If they are really a group, they are obviously not in the same way to treat Liu Dudu's family as they are to his wife. Mr. Xu looks like he wants to be with his wife. Marriage, isn't the property and army in the wife's hands also surnamed Xu?"

After all, Liu Qiao was the spy chief. Once he got enough clues, his thoughts would flow like a river that opened its gates, and his imagination would open a little wider. He abruptly interjected: "Then they want to kill the king and rebel? It's not the case. Open an escort agency?"

Zheng Haizhu stared at him: "In today's world, who might be seeking the emperor's life and the Ming Dynasty?"

As Donglin's counselor, Wang Wenyan blurted out: "Concubine Zheng and Prince Fu Zhu Changxun."

"There is also Jiannu," Zheng Haizhu said with a solemn expression. "Just now when we mentioned the firearms factory, I remembered that when Jiannu's spies found Songjiang, they targeted my firearms factory and wanted to kidnap me to Hetuala. . Furthermore, Shanxi merchants took root in the border trade area of ​​Zhangjiakou and monopolized the mutual trade with the Mongolian tribes. It is not impossible for the Jiannu to make peace with the Mongolian tribes and be introduced to Shanxi merchants by the Mongols for bulk purchases. With the cunning and good deeds of Nurhachi and his son Conspiracy, how did you know that they would not secretly communicate with those Shanxi merchants?"

Wang Wenyan thought it made sense: "Ma'am guessed, that Mr. Xu is also Jiannu's spy?"

Zheng Haizhu caught sight of Liu Qiao's eyes suddenly became strange, raised his head to meet him, and said bluntly, "What did Governor Liu think of?"

"Thinking of the rumors of the reappearance of the Jade Seal of the Chuan Kingdom inside and outside the capital since the end of summer, I also thought of the clues Madam saw in our imperial prison," Liu Qiao said in a deep voice, "Thus, those who want to kill the king and usurp the country should still There is a third kind of person."

When Zheng Haizhu heard this, she did not show any excitement in agreeing with the crime, although she and Liu Qiao had the same answer.

She felt that in a short moment, she seemed to be divided into two people, one was still standing by the table, discussing the division of labor with Wang Wenyan and Liu Qiao to continue the investigation, and the other sat in the corner.

While bowing his head and thinking quietly, Zheng Haizhu felt an indescribable chill spreading all over his body when he thought of Mr. Xu's generosity in claiming that his ancestors were from Nanjing, and also thought about Wang Wenyan's words, "He seems to be marrying his wife."

She decided to accompany Wang An tomorrow and go to Shanhaiguan to find Ma Xianglin after finishing another urgent matter in the inner court.

(End of this chapter)