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

Chapter 622 The Wind Rises
Pei Yuan looked at Yun Buxian with approval, feeling a surge of emotions.

Why didn't I make good use of such a talented person sooner?

Although Yun Buxian was able to handle these matters smoothly, partly due to his father Yun Weilin's extensive connections in the religious circles of the capital, Pei Yuan was still impressed by how clearly and tightly the entire structure was organized.

At this moment, all of Yun Buxian's good qualities slowly came to Pei Yuan's mind.

Cheng Leixiang is quick-witted but mediocre in ability. Chen Tou Tie is not only not very bright but also mediocre in ability. Chen Xinjian is growing rapidly but lacks experience and is inevitably too young and impetuous.

Only Yun Buxian, who is usually neglected, turned out to be a cockroach with a hexagonal shape.

The trip to Shanxi, in particular, although it brought a lot of trouble, actually added a lot of points for Yun Buxian.

Because he demonstrated a valuable ability to stand alone even against strong opponents, something that has not yet been proven in his other subordinates.

This reminded Pei Yuan of someone.

After Liu Bei captured Hanzhong, because of its strategic location and complex situation, he needed a capable general to guard it.

At the time, everyone favored Zhang Fei, and Zhang Fei himself was confident that no one else could win.

Unexpectedly, Liu Bei had a keen eye for talent and pointed out a person, who was then just an ordinary person named Wei Yan.

At a grand assembly of his ministers, Liu Bei asked Wei Yan in public, "If I were to appoint you as the governor of Hanzhong to defend the northern border, what would you like to say to me?"

Wei Yan replied, "If Cao Cao comes with the full force of the nation, I request to block him for Your Majesty. If it is just a subordinate general leading an army of 100,000, I request to devour him for Your Majesty."

Liu Bei was very pleased with what he heard, and his ministers were also very impressed with his words.

Subsequently, Wei Yan indeed performed very well in his position as the Prefect of Hanzhong.

Thinking of this person, Pei Yuan couldn't help but praise Yun Buxian, "Buxian is truly my junior scholar."

Upon hearing this, Yun Buxian was overjoyed, feeling as if the whole world had brightened up.

The commander actually called me Little Yun Chang! I'm about to take off!

He didn't care that Commander Han was already in the hall, and said with tears of gratitude, "Your subordinate is willing to die for Commander Han."

Pei Yuan looked at him approvingly and said, "The emperor wants to suppress this matter, but the person behind the scenes who wants to push it forward may not agree."

"Time is tight right now. I estimate that in three to five days at most, this matter will become common knowledge."

"You should organize those monks who copy scriptures as soon as possible, and then find some managers of money shops to teach them properly."

Ordinary money shops typically engage in usury and the exchange of silver, coins, and banknotes.

Some local guild halls' money exchanges have a wide range of services and can even help people from the same hometown make remittances to other places.

Pei Yuan's money shops had clear goals and tasks: they did not engage in usury and only conducted currency exchange business.

Relatively speaking, it's much simpler.

It's simply a matter of specifying the exchange rate and taking a small commission from it.

Silver needs to be tested for purity, and paper money also needs to be identified as genuine or counterfeit.

It requires a little skill, but it's not difficult.

As for finding some money shop managers to train, that was no problem for a member of the Imperial Guard.

Yun Buxian confidently agreed.

Pei Yuancai then allowed him to go and do his work.

Pei Yuan only withdrew his gaze after Yun Buxian's figure had left.

He said to the person next to him, half subconsciously and half to himself, "Don't underestimate these money houses just because they're a makeshift operation. If we do this well, they might be able to give the entire Ming Dynasty a new lease on life."

After he finished speaking, Pei Yuan realized that the person next to him was Commander Han, not Chen Xinjian, who had stopped him from finishing his sentence.

Pei Yuan felt slightly embarrassed and glanced at Commander Han.

Han Qianhu had recovered somewhat from her earlier emotions. As she listened to Pei Yuan's words, she suddenly recalled the scene when they met in Yanggu last time.

At that time, Pei Yuan also seemed to be saying similar things.

He said he had the determination and confidence to revitalize the Ming Dynasty and was willing to risk his entire fortune to do so.

Back then, Pei Yuan spoke with great confidence and appeared very powerful. But now, his unconscious words are filled with worry and hesitation.

Perhaps all men have these two sides.

At this moment, Xiao Tong finished counting the silver notes and went to the palace to report that the silver notes of the Xiao family had been transferred.

Xiao Ying breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, and he was too lazy to care about anything else.

He stood up and said to Pei Yuan, "Then I will go back and arrange the matter of the banknotes. If there is any important news, you can have Xiao Tong come to me."

Pei Yuan had no idea how much anger the beautiful woman beside him still had, but he couldn't force her to stay any longer, so he could only watch Brother Xiao leave.

Once Xiao Ying left, only Li Shishi remained in the hall, dawdling and not moving.

Pei Yuan knew that the old man probably had something to say, and sure enough, Li Shishi quickly gestured to Pei Yuan's left and right.

Pei Yuan then dismissed the Imperial Guards.

Li Shishi hesitated for a moment, then looked at Commander Han.

Pei Yuan didn't mention Han Qianhu's official position, only saying, "This is my wife."

Li Shishi suddenly realized and laughed, "So it's your sister-in-law."

Pei Yuan had barely finished speaking when he felt another sharp pain in the top of his foot.

Pei Yuan thought about what had just happened and thought to himself, "If we had really fought like that, it would have been worth it to get trampled on again."

However, Han Qianhu, who had just been tempted by Pei Yuan's lustful intentions, actually took the initiative to retreat.

such a pity……

Pei Yuan felt a pang of regret.

After learning that the beauty in the hall was Pei Yuan's wife, Li Shishi no longer held back and took the initiative to say, "I have already sent a letter to Prince Ning, but I don't know when there will be any news. Brother, don't forget to set aside a share for me."

Pei Yuan smiled and said, "No problem."

Then he reminded Li Shishi, "Then the Grand Commandant should not forget what the premise was for us to reach this consensus in the first place."

Li Shishi laughed and said, "Of course I won't forget. Isn't it just about getting your Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations) into the Censorate?"

The reason Li Shishi was able to give such a firm answer was because Pei Yuan had set preconditions for himself during the last negotiation.

So Li Shishi said with difficulty, "But the Censorate is not short of people right now. Even if it were, we would give priority to selecting outstanding candidates from the top three graduates of previous years."

"We had an agreement on this matter. I just need to nod, and getting the person in there is your job."

Pei Yuan couldn't say too much right now, only saying, "I know what I'm doing."

After Li Shishi finished talking about the resale of the Bazhou army, there was nothing else to discuss.

This wasn't the first time he'd done business with Pei Yuan, and he still trusted Pei Yuan to some extent. Li Shishi didn't want to stay too long, so he immediately took his leave.

Fearing that the tigress might seek revenge later, Pei Yuan quickly stood up and said, "Then let me escort the Grand Commandant."

Pei Yuan secretly glanced at Han Qianhu and saw that she was looking at a dossier in her hand with her brows furrowed. Her face showed no emotion, and she did not seem to be about to fight him to the death.

Overjoyed, he quickly saw Li Shishi off at the temple.

Han Qianhu waited for a while, but Pei Yuan didn't return, so he couldn't help but let out a soft hum.

Meanwhile, Lu Yin and Zhang Rui, having received their mission, returned to their respective offices and plotted with their underlings.

Lu Yin summoned his henchmen Yin Sheng and Zhang Zhong, who were overjoyed upon hearing the news.

Zhang Zhong said to the two men, “This is a golden opportunity. Two years ago, after the use of paper money to pay commercial taxes was prohibited, the value of paper money was almost equivalent to a piece of waste paper.”

"Now that this worthless piece of paper can be used to pay commercial taxes again, the profits involved are enormous. Since even His Majesty is interested, why don't we get involved too?"

“This…” Lu Yin hesitated.

Logically, they should be focusing all their efforts on completing Zhu Houzhao's task by now, but Zhang Zhong is right; now is the perfect time to take advantage of the favorable winds and make a fortune.

The key point is that Lu Yin himself is not clean either; he had already amassed a large sum of money in advance.

If we oppose it now, and the underlings find out later, they might become disloyal and alienated.

Lu Yin had no choice but to instruct the two men, "Buying a small amount is nothing, just don't delay the Emperor's affairs."

Both men readily agreed and went back to mobilize their respective forces to secretly acquire precious paper money for the emperor.

After returning to the Eastern Depot, Zhang Rui immediately summoned people for a secret meeting.

However, the person he was secretly discussing this with was his younger brother, Zhang Xiong.

Zhang Xiong led the elite troops of the Eastern Depot to Jiangnan to collect taxes last time, but returned empty-handed. Later, fearing that this incident would affect Zhang Rui's chances of seizing the position of Grand Secretary of the Directorate of Ceremonial, Zhang Xiong chose to keep it a secret.

As a result, this cover-up happened to get involved in Zhang Yong's case, which required Zhang Rui to spend a lot of effort to suppress the matter.

After hearing Zhang Rui mention this matter, Zhang Xiong immediately had a similar thought to Zhang Zhongyin.

Especially considering that Zhang Rui is now the Director of the Eastern Depot, his family's current economic situation is not very good.

Zhang Rui and Zhang Xiong were previously just stewards of the imperial estate in Tianjin.

Although the two men embezzled some money, the imperial estates in Tianjin, under the competition among nobles and relatives of the emperor, did not have much room for expansion.

Even if the two of them sold all their annual income, how much money would they have left?

Later, he finally managed to be recalled through connections and spent some time gaining seniority at the Imperial Horse Stables.

Fortunately, Qiu Ju, the director of the Eastern Depot, was sensible and voluntarily gave up his position early on, which allowed Zhang Rui to become the director of the Eastern Depot as he wished.

After Zhang Rui became the head of the Eastern Depot, he received a task from Zhu Houzhao, ordering him to collect commercial taxes in Jiangnan.

Zhang Rui thought to himself that this was a lucrative job.

Whether the imperial court can collect the tax revenue is uncertain, but the people from the Eastern Depot will definitely make a fortune on their trip.

With the idea of ​​keeping the benefits within the family, Zhang Rui handed the job over to his good younger brother, Zhang Xiong.

Unexpectedly, the Jiangnan gentry reacted particularly strongly this time, directly attacking the Eastern Depot agents that Zhang Xiong had brought, causing them not only to receive little money but also to suffer heavy losses.

Previously, in order to gather enough evidence against Zhang Yong and avoid any unforeseen complications, Zhang Rui had no choice but to spend a sum of money out of his own pocket. Later, in order to help his brother obtain the position of Grand Secretary of the Directorate of Ceremonial, and to boost his political achievements, Zhang Xiong raised another sum of tax money.

This made their already meager savings even more strained.

After inquiring about his savings from the steward yesterday, Zhang Dugong was so upset that he almost burst into tears on the spot.

They wished the imperial court would immediately launch a major case to quickly recover the losses.

Unexpectedly, instead of catching up on the major case of the imperial court, I stumbled upon this god-given opportunity.

The two brothers discussed it for a while.

It is generally believed that this speculation on the Baochao (precious paper money) was led by the emperor, who also had direct access to inside information. Furthermore, because of the emperor's presence, he could even intervene in the price of the Baochao at crucial moments with his imperial pronouncements.

This seems like a sure thing, a guaranteed profit.

So the two brothers made up their minds, took out their last eight hundred taels of silver, and prepared to pawn it.

As Lu Yin and Zhang Zhong's secret acquisition proceeded in an orderly manner, almost all the major money shops in the capital were wiped out.

It wasn't that the two of them had consumed a lot of goods; the main problem was that the precious paper money had been unwanted for a long time, and no one had much stock left.

Seeing that someone was actually buying banknotes, he sold them at a very low price.

As a result, not long after, someone else came to the door wanting the precious paper money.

After this happened several times, the managers of those money shops immediately realized that something must have happened that was beyond their control.

So they quickly ordered all branches to stop issuing banknotes and requisitioned banknotes from various regions to bring them to the capital.

As one money exchange and bank after another stopped issuing bank cards, Lu Yin and Zhang Rui both felt a sense of urgency.

Both of them had invested money in the paper money, so naturally they wanted to see its price rise.

Since it was all money spent from the internal transport warehouse, and Zhu Houzhao was the sucker to pay for it, the two of them unanimously began to instruct their subordinates to raise the purchase price.

The managers of the major banks in the capital then witnessed a scene that left them speechless.

With almost no transactions, the price of the Ming Dynasty Treasure Notes quickly dropped from 60 strings of cash to 1 coin to 15 strings of cash to 1 coin.

The managers of those money shops quickly notified their back offices while urging the requisition of money from various regions.

Before the sun had even set, many powerful families had already noticed the unusual activity in the silver and banknote market.

Many people don't quite understand why the price of the paper money has suddenly increased when it has almost no circulation capacity.

As evening approached, a significant sell-off suddenly occurred in Beijing's closely watched silver and banknote market.

This considerable sell-off was easily absorbed, preventing the price of the Baochao (a type of Chinese currency) from plummeting and instead causing a slight increase.

Everyone who was following this story was somewhat taken aback.

This looks like a big plate.

Soon after, they noticed the rising profits in the paper money market.

If we start counting from the bottom, the price of the banknotes has already quadrupled in just one day!
Although there was little trading volume throughout the process, the price was relatively inflated, and the price could easily revert to its original level once the buying interest disappeared.

However, the large order they closed in the evening gave them some confidence.

That's four times the profit!

Since someone is setting up a scheme, careful observation won't stop them from making a quick buck.

(End of this chapter)