Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 621 We Your Majesty was ready to fight to the death, why did you surrender first?

Pei Ayuan's intentions are obvious to everyone.

With Han Qianhu's intelligence, he naturally knew what this guy was up to.

But to her utter surprise, Pei Yuan was so audacious that he pretended not to see anything and still reached for the box under the table.

In this way, it was as if Commander Han himself had offered his legs into his arms.

Han Qianhu was taken aback.

Pei Yuan's lustful impulse was merely a momentary lapse of judgment; once he actually succeeded, he was quite surprised.

However, at this moment, he no longer had time to ponder what he had been thinking.

Sensing that Commander Han was about to leave, she instinctively hugged him tightly, reluctant to part.

Han Qianhu's legs were supple and elastic, with a slightly plump flesh on his thighs.

Smelling the rich, warm fragrance emanating from the robe, Pei Yuan forgot all about the consequences and felt his mouth water, wishing he could take a bite right away.

Han Qianhu gritted his teeth, stared intently at Pei Yuan, and forcefully pulled his left leg back.

Han Qianhu's attitude was very firm, and even with Pei Yuan's strength, he couldn't catch him for a while.

He was already half-squatting when he was pulled so hard that he fell forward.

Then, Pei Yuan's chin hit Han Qianhu's knee, and his teeth made a "clattering" sound.

He instinctively reached out and hugged himself, trying to steady himself.

As a result, Han Qianhu's left leg, which he had just pulled back, was tightly embraced by Pei Yuan along with his right leg.

Pei Yuan was startled and thought to himself, "Oh no!"

When he was living a hard life, Pei Yuan learned the art of getting things for free from his father. As long as he went out in his Jinyiwei uniform, if he didn't take much food, people would probably tolerate it and not make a fuss.

But if they push their luck too far, then it won't be fun anymore.

So when Pei Yuan realized that his hands were unconsciously pinching and squeezing, and that he had even lightly scraped the more supple flesh of her thigh with his thumb...

Pei Yuan knew then that things were in serious trouble!

Pei Yuan's eyelids twitched, and he quickly stole a glance at Commander Han.

But then he saw Commander Han looking at him with murderous eyes.

Feeling a little guilty, Pei Yuan quickly got up, and in his haste, his head hit the table with a "thud".

Xiao Ying, who had been half-heartedly watching Pei Yuan's movements, got up in confusion to see what was going on. "What's wrong?"

Han Qianhu was a man of pride, and he didn't want to make a scene in front of others. He immediately glared at Pei Yuan, his beautiful eyes slightly gesturing outwards.

Pei Yuan was incredibly grateful that her two older brothers were present; otherwise, she feared a tragic incident of murdering her husband in a fit of rage might have occurred.

Pei Yuan knew that he had to go along with Commander Han's temper for now.

So he slunk out from below, winking at Xiao Ying while saying with dissatisfaction, "You think you're so great, huh?"

Xiao Ying was furious and got up to leave.

Pei Yuan was afraid that if Xiao Ying left, Li Shishi would also leave, and then he would be in trouble. So he quickly said, "Brother Xiao, please wait. Eunuch Lu will send back news at any time."

Xiao Ying retorted angrily, "So what?"

Pei Yuan quickly replied, "I misspoke earlier. Brother Xiao has already invested 100,000 taels of silver in the banknotes; how could you act impulsively?"

As soon as Pei Yuan said this, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his foot.

Looking down, he saw a delicate official boot pressing down hard on his own boot.

Looking up again, he saw Commander Han staring at his things with a somber expression.

Pei Yuan knew he was in the wrong and didn't dare to say a word.

The matter of arranging the currency exchange is now a race against time. Pei Yuan dares not let Li Shishi and Xiao Ying leave, nor can he afford to delay any longer.

Considering that both of them had invested a huge amount of money in this matter, Pei Yuan decided not to hide it anymore.

He immediately sent someone to summon Yun Buxian to arrange manpower and silver.

Although Yun Buxian was not on duty today, he was at Zhihua Temple.

He noticed a large group of servants carrying boxes into Zhihua Temple through the side gate, and saw many people coming and going in the courtyard where the banknotes had been stored. He immediately had a premonition.

The preparations he had made over the past few days were finally coming in handy.

If he can achieve another great feat now, he will eventually surpass his former playmate Cheng Leixiang.

Sure enough, just as Yun Buxian finished preparing the materials, he heard Pei Qianhu's summons.

Yun Buxian hurriedly took the stack of papers and rushed to the courtroom.

Upon entering the hall, Yun Buxian looked up and felt as if the sky had fallen.

Then Pei Yuan and Commander Han sat side by side in the hall, resembling two emperors holding court.

Yun Buxian was completely bewildered.

No, the Yun family has been sitting on the fence for so long, but just a few days ago they clearly took sides between Commander Han and Commander Pei.

We, your humble servants, were prepared to fight to the death, so why did Your Majesty surrender first?

Before Yun Buxian could express his grief and indignation, Pei Yuan asked him about the money shop.

Yun Buxian had no choice but to compose himself first. After meeting the two commanders, he reported, "Your Majesty, cough, commanders, we have acquired a total of thirteen money shops in Daxing and Wanping counties. Six of them are in Daxing and seven are in Wanping."

The Daxing and Wanping of the Ming Dynasty were quite different from those of later dynasties.

During the Ming Dynasty, Beijing was divided into two parts along the central axis of the imperial palace. The eastern part was under the jurisdiction of Daxing County, and the western part was under the jurisdiction of Wanping County. Both were counties attached to the city walls.

When Pei Yuanchu took charge of the capital, he set up the Daxing Hundred-Household Office and the Wanping Hundred-Household Office on the east and west sides respectively.

Yun Buxian happened to mention these two centurions.

“Our money shops are all located in densely populated areas, and they are all not far from our Hundred Household Office.”

"When the silver and paper money begin to be exchanged, we can send more people to the two centurions so that we can provide support at any time."

"In addition, there are temples of all sizes near these money shops. I have temporarily gathered the various Taoist priests of the Zhenji sect in those temples, so they can act as a covert force in case of any unforeseen events."

Pei Yuan was initially pleased with Yun Buxian's well-organized explanation, but when he felt the pressure on his feet increasing, he knew something was wrong.

This is practically blatant misuse of the resources of the Thousand Households Office to do Pei Yuan's private work.

The key point is that Han Qianhu's share is not included here.

Pei Yuan glanced at Han Qianhu and tried to quickly pull his foot away, but Han Qianhu kept it firmly planted.

Pei Yuan was in so much pain that he quickly used his other foot to pry it off.

However, Pei Yuan was afraid of further angering Commander Han, so he didn't dare to use too much force. After tugging at the boots for a while, a thought suddenly occurred to him: if it weren't for these boots, the current situation would be somewhat similar to when he used to rub Yan'er with his feet in bed.

Then, Pei Yuan remembered the time when Bai Yujing forcefully pulled off Han Qianhu's official boots, revealing his slender, fair feet.

Whether Han Qianhu had some kind of telepathic ability or not, she quickly withdrew her foot as soon as Pei Yuangang had a strange thought.

The look in her eyes as she looked at Pei Yuan changed from anger to embarrassment.

Pei Yuan felt a tingling sensation in his heart.

Commander Han, please don't misunderstand...

Although Yun Buxian didn't see the two commanders' little actions under their desks, he could clearly sense that both of them were somewhat distracted.

His voice gradually faded, and he no longer knew what to say.

Pei Yuan was eager to distract Commander Han, so he didn't care about anything else and asked, "You did a good job with the money shop. How are the manpower preparations going?"

Yun Buxian's spirits lifted, and he quickly replied, "Reporting to Commander, I have already compiled a list of all the temples in the capital, large and small. There are no fewer than a hundred temples that employ monks to copy scriptures. The list is here..."

As he spoke, he strode forward and handed the thick stack of papers to Commander Pei's desk.

Pei Yuan reached out and took it, and naturally, his other hand also reached out.

Just as Pei Yuan's hand landed on the stack of papers, another hand landed on the back of Pei Yuan's hand.

Pei Yuan's eyes widened.

Surely this wasn't something I did on purpose?
Han Qianhu also seemed somewhat embarrassed and angry.

However, Yun Buxian's eyes were darting around, and he didn't know where to look away, so Commander Han couldn't cause any trouble.

She gently patted the back of Pei Yuan's hand with her slender hand that had been on Pei Yuan's hand.

Pei Yuan also remembered that he was a deputy commander of a thousand households, no wonder the other party took it so naturally and wanted to take it first.

So he quickly stopped and gave an embarrassed laugh.

Commander Han was initially very interested in Pei Yuan's long-planned war of silver notes. After all, the decline of the Ming Dynasty's paper money had been difficult to curb for over a century.

The difficulty of profiting from the appreciation of the paper money is self-evident.

Commander Han even predicted that Pei Yuan might make a mistake this time and suffer heavy losses in this silver and paper money war.

But at this moment, Han Qianhu inexplicably felt that she had already lost money before the precious paper money was even lost.

Han Qianhu gritted his teeth, glanced at the first page of the stack of papers, and then disdainfully tossed it to Pei Yuan.

After Pei Yuan received the list, he gave Yun Buxian, who was standing in front of him, a wink.

Yun Buxian felt as if he had been granted a pardon and quickly retreated, standing far away from the table.

Pei Yuan carefully reviewed the list and had a general idea of ​​what was going on.

Temples that can support monks who copy scriptures are generally large temples of a certain size.

These large temples were thriving, able to support a large number of monks in their spare time, and also had enough wealthy gentry to make offerings and purchase Buddhist scriptures from the temples at high prices.

Pei Yuan's mind was in a mess right now, only thinking about how to handle things with Commander Han later.

He remembered that it was Yun Buxian who suggested using monks who copied scriptures as manpower, so he asked Yun Buxian, "What are your thoughts on this matter, and what are your plans?"

"Uh." Yun Buxian was clearly a little distracted, but he reacted quickly and said immediately, "Commander, this is what I plan to do."

“We have a total of thirteen money shops, all of similar size. We can recruit one sutra-copying monk from each temple, and then classify them according to the size and strength of the temple.”

"Then the scribes from large temples and relatively smaller temples were mixed together."

"After that, the money shops were organized so that the scribes working in the same money shop would form a 'baojia' (a system of mutual responsibility among monks). If anything happened, the temples behind these scribes would provide compensation."

Pei Yuan thought to himself that this was an advanced version of the protection mode that Yun Buxian had mentioned last time.

However, last time the target was a single monk to prevent anyone from betraying the temple. Now, multiple temples are jointly guaranteeing the entire money exchange.

This approach is undoubtedly more secure.

Pei Yuan nodded approvingly, "This method is excellent."

Seeing Pei Yuan's approval, Yun Buxian immediately said, "Chief, I have roughly divided these temples that can provide sutra copying monks into thirteen groups according to their size, incense income, and distance."

Yun Buxian added, "Based on this, we can calculate the amount of silver and currency deposited into each bank every day."

"For example, there's Baoquan Money Exchange, which is closest to us. It's surrounded by nine temples, including Datong Temple, Jingye Temple, and Yunquan Temple. According to my estimation, if there's any trouble, getting them to jointly pay out four or five thousand taels shouldn't be a problem. With everyone sharing the burden, they'll feel the pinch, but it won't be a serious financial loss."

"Therefore, we can set the transaction quota of Baoquan Bank at five thousand taels. The amount of paper money and silver stored in Baoquan Bank each day should not exceed this number to avoid any problems."

"If the ratio of silver to paper money is too large, the Qianhu Office can coordinate the escort and transportation to bring back the silver or paper money in a timely manner."

Pei Yuan asked, "Then why not divide the temples in the capital equally according to their size? This way, some places won't have too many and some too few, which would be troublesome to manage."

Yun Buxian quickly explained, "I assigned them based on their distance. Since these temples are involved, they will naturally pay attention to the money exchange."

"The temples may not have much else, but they have a lot of young and strong monks. If there is any looting or disturbance, these temples can provide timely assistance, which provides an extra layer of protection."

The logic is quite simple.

Behind each money shop are eight or nine large temples, and these large temples each have their own nobles and gentry who would offend so many people for a few thousand taels of silver in a money shop.

Pei Yuan was satisfied. This was more than just an extra layer of protection; it was also an extra layer of cover.

Pei Yuan has already cashed out all the money he and his allies have.

If this speculation on the precious paper money goes smoothly and keeps its price firmly above "five strings of cash for one coin," then Pei Yuan will be able to pocket all the money.

If they fail to hold the line of "five strings of cash for one coin," Pei Yuan will have to use a portion of it to cover the losses.

Therefore, the paper money and silver coins that are about to be put into the market were all obtained from the monks.

It's reasonable for these monks to step in and manage the business, right?
It's quite reasonable for Pei Yuan, as a supervisory body at the imperial court level, to provide guidance on this matter, isn't it?

There wasn't a single banknote or tael of silver in there belonging to Pei Yuan.

He, Commander Pei, is completely innocent and can withstand the investigation by the Censorate.

Yun Buxian continued, "Besides these thirteen money shops, there are also temples of all sizes around these money shops that engage in usury and can exchange silver and paper money."

"These temples, as extensions of these thirteen money shops, could conduct silver and paper money exchange business and earn small commissions."

"In this way, it seems that we earn less commission, but these temples have their own sphere of influence. Our bank's exchange rate can be directly affected by these tentacles, affecting most of the capital."

"Compared to the lost commissions, the pricing power over the exchange rate of silver and banknotes is undoubtedly more valuable."

Pei Yuan didn't expect Yun Buxian to have created such a layered structure for him so quickly.

Once this architecture is up and running, it will be a mature, reliable, and stable channel, which will be a huge help to his future plans.

(End of this chapter)