Tang Dynasty Hidden Guards

On his way back to the government office, Xue Wei had a doubt in his heart. If the batch of government silver six years ago was counterfeit, then where did the Tibetan merchant's three thousand taels of silver come from?

He slowed down his horse and waited for Yuan Renjing, who was riding a donkey, to catch up, then asked him the question.

Yuan Renjing sneered and said, "That fire destroyed not only 300,000 taels of silver, but also all the detailed records of silver casting in the Imperial Treasury over the years. In the end, only the main ledger was preserved, but the main ledger only had the quantity, not the serial numbers. The so-called forgery is not about making up serial numbers out of thin air. Does Commander Xue understand what I mean?"

Xue Wei seemed to understand something. "They reused the old official silver serial numbers, burned the old records, and deliberately kept the forged records. This way, the corresponding official silver could be found in the market, thus concealing the fact that Wu Chengsi ordered the forgery!"

"That's right. On the surface, they burned down the finished goods warehouse, but in reality, they burned down the adjacent document warehouse. The two warehouses were the same large warehouse, just separated by a wall."

Xue Wei's heart skipped a beat. "Could the evidence left by Han Qun be this original record that was forged into an official silver serial number? In that case, the same ingot of silver would have two batch number records, and the evidence of forgery would be conclusive."

"Very likely!"

Speculation is speculation, but Xue Wei needs to find evidence.

Xue Wei and Yuan Renjing returned to the Shaofujian, and Gao Yuanli led seventeen judges from the Dali Temple to arrive.

The group arrived at the storage room, and under Yuan Renjing's guidance, they dug out the box buried underground.

As Xue Wei stared at the large crater on the warehouse floor, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind: white copper can't grow wings, and if 20,000 jin were transported out, it would definitely be discovered. Since it didn't fly away or get discovered, but simply disappeared into thin air, there's only one possibility: it was buried underground.

"Have you dug beneath the raw material warehouse?" Xue Wei asked urgently.

Yuan Renjing shook his head. "They don't allow us to take materials without permission. We just came in and took a quick look, found that the white copper was gone, and then we didn't ask any further questions."

"Has it not been dug up again?"

"Later, the case was dropped, and nobody cared about it anymore."

Xue Wei made a quick decision, "Let's go! To the raw material warehouse."

The group then rushed to the raw material warehouse, which was not the warehouse that had been burned down. The warehouse that had been burned down was the finished product warehouse and the document warehouse.

The raw material warehouse was where raw materials were stored, mainly crude copper and crude silver sent from the mines in the south. These were refined at the Imperial Household Department and then used to mint coins.

Yuan Renjing pointed to a corner piled high with crude copper ingots and said, "That batch of white copper was originally placed there, and then it disappeared without a trace."

At Xue Wei's command, "Move all the boxes away!"

With everyone working together, all the large boxes were moved away in no time, revealing a large open space.

"Dig it up!"

A dozen or so soldiers from the Dali Temple set to work together, wielding hoes to dig the soil. Soon after, someone shouted, "Captain, there are wooden boxes down there!"

Yuan Renjing perked up and quickly said, "One hundred boxes would be just right, each box containing two hundred catties of coarse silver."

Finally, 101 boxes were unearthed. There was one extra box. All the other boxes were marked with "78 batches of Chenzhou silver", but this box had no markings at all.

Xue Wei pointed at the box and said, "Open it!"

The soldiers pried open the box, which was filled with densely packed documents and records.

Xue Wei flipped through the records and found two batches of silver casting records, one from twenty years ago and the other from twenty-five years ago. The total amount of the two batches was exactly 300,000 taels.

"This is it!"

Yuan Renjing could not contain his excitement. "The batch number of the official silver on this batch of records is exactly the same as that of the batch of official silver records from six years ago. These are the original records, with signatures and seals, so they cannot be forged."

Xue Wei then ordered the other boxes to be opened; they were all filled with white copper, each box weighing 200 jin (approximately 100 kg), totaling 20,000 jin (approximately 10,000 kg).

Xue Wei immediately ordered his men to send the batch of white copper, along with all the records and the Dali Temple files, back to the Dali Temple for safekeeping.

This was an unexpected reversal. The official silver that Wan Guojun and his team were investigating was silver that had been normally minted and circulated twenty and twenty-five years ago, not the so-called official silver from six years ago.

He found complete records proving that the official silver records from six years ago copied the official silver batch number from more than twenty years ago, as well as 20,000 catties of white copper and the original warehousing records.

This is the complete chain of evidence.

Xue Wei rushed to Meihuawei and found the three thousand taels of official silver belonging to the foreign merchants in the Meihuawei warehouse. The batch number on it was indeed the same as the batch of official silver used to counterfeit it.

Wan Guojun believed they were the batch of official silver that had disappeared six years ago, but in fact they were legal silver that had been minted and circulated normally twenty years ago.

Xue Wei no longer wanted to investigate who had replaced the genuine 20,000 jin of official silver, as there was simply no trace left to follow.

..........

In the afternoon, Xue Wei handed all the evidence and his report to his mother. Princess Taiping immediately went to the palace and reported the matter to her mother with the evidence and Xue Wei's investigation report.

Just before the court session ended, the news finally came out: the emperor canceled the previous investigation into the government's silver reserves, the joint trial by the three judicial departments was dissolved, and Wan Guojun was reassigned to Runzhou to investigate a case of cheating in the imperial examinations.

As for the case from six years ago, it has been completely sealed off, along with the evidence Xue Wei found, and has been sealed off, forbidding anyone from touching it again.

Wu Chengsi is dead, and this fraud scandal has been buried deep in the annals of history along with him.

However, Yuan Renjing's perseverance paid off. The emperor issued an edict to transfer Yuan Renjing back to the Dali Temple and promote him to the position of Dali Zheng.

The imperial decree that Qingyun Pawnshop had just affixed in the morning was revoked by the afternoon. Empress Wu Zetian also issued an edict: "Officials are not permitted to arbitrarily investigate legally operating businesses in the private sector."

In the end, this finally gave Yuan Min an explanation.

..........

When Xue Wei returned home from court, Yuan Min prepared a table full of delicious dishes to reward her beloved husband for his hard work in investigating the case.

At the dinner table, Xue Wei ate while telling Yuan Min about what had happened that day.

"Yuan Renjing was indeed the key to the reversal; otherwise, who would have thought that Wu Chengsi was a fraudster?"

"Yes! If it weren't for Yuan Renjing, my shop and my fortune would have been seized, and I would have had to compensate for so many customers' inventory. How could I possibly pay for it? Old Xue, we should thank him properly."

Xue Wei nodded. "I've spoken to my mother, and she's agreed to use her connections to arrange a three-acre official residence for Yuan Renjing, so his family won't have to rent anymore."

"Are there still official residences?"

"Of course it exists, but it's very difficult to get one. Officials like Yuan Renjing, who have no connections, no background, and no family wealth, shouldn't even think about it."

"In this way, Yuan Renjing will become your man."

Xue Wei lay comfortably on Yuan Min's lap, gazing at the ceiling and muttering, "Actually, I'm a bit tired of being the Commandant of the Imperial Carriage. I just want to stay at home, eat and wait to die. If there's anything important, I can just write a note to the officials in the court, and they'll take care of it properly without me having to worry about it."

"Change your surname!"

Yuan Min pinched his cheeks until they were long and swollen, making them look like a pig's face. She said irritably, "Change your surname to Pig, and name yourself Pig Guard. Also, change the name of Mingyue Tower to Pig Guard Tower, and your dream will come true."

Xue Wei laughed loudly, sat up, rolled up his sleeves, and prepared to devour the dishes on the table. "Since I'm called Pig Wei, I shouldn't let the name down."

Yuan Min laughed heartily, and the two drank and ate, chatting and laughing continuously.

After a few rounds of drinks, Yuan Min suddenly asked, "Old Xue, do you think the Emperor will allow you to continue investigating the white copper case?"

"I don't know, there's not a single clue, how can we investigate?"

"Not even a single clue?"

Xue Wei thought for a moment, "The only clue is that the box says '78 batches of Chenzhou silver.' Am I supposed to go to Chenzhou again? I don't want to investigate this case."

Yuan Min suddenly fell silent. She put down her chopsticks and didn't say a word.

Xue Wei also noticed Yuan Min's sudden silence. He put down his chopsticks and looked at Yuan Min with concern.

"What's wrong?"

After a long pause, Yuan Min said in a low voice, "Among the boxes in my father's secret room, I found one today that says 'Seventy-eight batches of Chenzhou silver' on it."