Fenghou

Chen Qing nodded, "This is a smart approach. In fact, the "Beijing News" contains a lot of important information, such as our national strength, our army, our population, prices, finances, etc., can all be included in the "Beijing News". " found that as long as it is not confidential military information, there is normal information, which is enough for Xiliao."

"But today they learned about the arrival of the special envoy from Huihe in Xizhou!"

Chen Qing said with a smile: "They must be very concerned!"

"The humble job means that they can only use manpower to ride horses to Xiliao to send information, and the humble job can intercept the person who sent the information!"

Chen Qing took a few steps with his hands behind his back and said, "Don't intercept it. Since they are collecting information from the "Beijing News", they can release some information that we want Xiliao to know at critical moments."

Chapter 520 Gathering

In the afternoon, Zhong Huan came to the main store of Yongjing Cabinet Shop located on Dongdajie. The headquarter covers an area of ​​about [-] mu. Only the official Yongjing Cabinet Store has this kind of treatment. The main stores of Wanbao Cabinet Shop and Jiangnan Cabinet Shop are both in Jingzhao County in the south, and each only occupies ten acres of land.

The Yongjing cabinet workshop mainly consists of several warehouses, both underground and on the ground, occupying most of the land, and the specific storefront building is only about three acres.

Yongjing cabinet shop is the former No. [-] cabinet shop in Sichuan and Shaanxi. It changed its name after the emperor ascended the throne, and quickly expanded to all counties in the world. It belongs to the Ministry of Households and is a typical official cabinet shop.

The chief manager of the counter shop is called Yang Chun, who used to be a doctor in the Du Zhi Department, and now works full-time in the counter shop. He is about fifty years old, a very shrewd and capable thin old man.

Yang Chun invited Zhong Huan to sit in the guest room, and asked the waiter to serve tea. Zhong Huan said apologetically, "Before, Your Majesty told me that there was some trouble in the cabinet shop, and asked me to pay attention to it, but I forgot it as soon as I got busy." , I just remembered."

Yang Chun stroked his beard and said, "It's okay, even if General Zhong doesn't come to this matter, we will report to the inner guard tomorrow."

"Tell me what first?"

Yang Chun asked an accountant to fetch the wooden box. He opened the wooden box and found two bills inside. "General, please look at these two bills."

Chong Huan picked up the bill, it was a money bill from Yongjing Cabinet Shop, the amount was one thousand guan, a bill he had never seen before, and it was also a money bill, and when he looked closely, the two money bills were exactly the same, even the number was the same , all stamped with the redeemed seal.

"This...which one is true?"

Yang Chun smiled bitterly: "We don't know which one is true."

Zhong Huan was stunned, how could it be possible, even the issuer couldn't tell, wouldn't that be a mess?

Yang Chun sighed and said: "Let me tell the general what is going on with the money ticket first, because the counter tickets are all issued with real names and must be exchanged at designated counters, which is actually very inconvenient, so we tried to issue money. Tickets, this kind of idea has existed before, but we dare not implement it, because we are afraid that the enemy will imitate it. Now that the world is unified, we think we can try it out, so we issued a thousand large-value bills, each of which is a thousand guan. Wanguan was used as a guarantee for the issuance, and all counters paid on sight, but problems occurred after three months."

"Is there a problem with this one?"

"So far, this one has a problem, but we still have 87 money tickets outside, which have not been exchanged or recovered. I don't know if there will be a problem?"

"Where did this money ticket come from? I mean, in which county was it found?"

"They were all found in the capital, but not in one cabinet shop. One was in our cabinet shop, and the other was in Wanbao cabinet shop."

"You mean to say that the other two counters also recognize this money ticket?"

"All approved!"

Zhong Huan nodded and asked again: "Then who bought this counter ticket? Could it be that the counter shop didn't register?"

"It's registered. I can't find this person at the moment, so I want to ask the inner guard for help."

"Okay! I get it. You send all the information to the internal guards tomorrow morning and make a formal report. We will classify it as a major investigation!"

……

Zhong Huan came out from the cabinet shop, and it was getting dark. Today he still has a restaurant, which is on the East Street. He walked directly to the Taibai Restaurant at Zhuangyuan Bridge. This is still a big restaurant owned by the Liu family. The government refused to approve the construction of a bridge over the river, and the two restaurants were separated.

After Shi Guangping’s home was ransacked by the emperor Zhao Gou, the Taibai restaurant opposite was bought by the Zheng family at a low price of [-] guan. After the end of the Song Dynasty, the Jingzhao government approved them to build a bridge over the river, and the two Taibai restaurants officially merged. For one, it became the largest restaurant in Jingzhao City. A total of six families occupied [-]%, the Zheng family accounted for [-]%, the Liu family [-]%, the Gao family [-]%, the Yang family [-]%, the Qian family [-]%, and the Zheng family accounted for [-]%. Whether there are special members or not is unknown.

When Zhong Huan came to the gate of the restaurant, a waiter greeted him with a smile, "Excuse me, do you have a reservation?"

The business of the restaurant is so hot that you must make a reservation to get a seat. Zhong Huan smiled and said, "Mingyuelou Shaoyao Room!"

"Officer, please follow me!"

The man took Zhong Huan to the gate and handed it to a maid who led him there with a lantern. In fact, the restaurant was brightly lit and there was no need to light the lantern. The maid just lit the lantern to create an atmosphere.

Mingyue Building is the east building, and the west building is called Baozhu Building. Unlike Fengle Building in Lin'an, Taibai Restaurant is open to everyone, as long as you dress decently, and don't show your chest or bare arms or bare feet, you can enter. .

The maid walked to the Shaoyao room, put on a gesture of invitation, and Zhong Huan nodded and went in.

There were already two guests in the room, one was Chao Qing and the other was Su Ce. Back then, the three of them took part in the imperial examination together and passed the Jinshi exam. Chao Qing and Zhong Huan stayed in Jingzhao. He was in the Duzhi Office, but at the last moment, he chose to go to the local government to become an official. He has been transferred several times, and he was recently appointed as the governor of Fengzhou, and he came to Beijing to go through the formalities. "

Zhong Huan and Su Ce hugged tightly, they hadn't seen each other for many years.

"Sit down!" Chao Qing smiled and asked the two to sit down.

The three of them sat down separately, today Chao Qing was the host, he had already ordered the food and wine, soon, a maid brought them the food and wine, originally there was a singing girl to add to the fun, but they refused.

Chao Qing filled the wine for the three of them, toasted and said with a smile, "This is our first meeting in five years!"

"cheers!"

The three of them clinked wine glasses and drank them all in one gulp. Zhong Huan grabbed the jug and filled it up for the two of them, and asked, "How did Brother Su become so skinny and dark? I almost couldn't recognize him."

Su Ce sighed, "Don't you know my nickname?"

Chao Qing clapped his hands and laughed, "I know, this nickname was given by the Son of Heaven."

"What nickname, tell me?" Zhong Huan asked curiously.

Su Ce smiled bitterly and said, "Call Mian Mian County Magistrate!"

Zhong Huan was taken aback, "Why is it called this nickname?"

"The tens of thousands of hectares in our Lingwu County are all used to grow cotton, which is the kind of high-quality long-staple cotton. My biggest task is to grow cotton. I have planted cotton in Lingwu County for three full years, and it is exposed to the sun every day. Can it turn black?"

"So, Lingwu County doesn't grow wheat anymore?"

Su Ce shook his head, "Now the entire Hetao Plain is used to grow cotton, and we want to become a cotton road."

Zhong Huan was really puzzled, and asked Chao Qing, "Hetao is an important place for producing wheat. If we give up wheat, will it affect food stability?"

Chao Qing pointed at Zhong Huan and said, "You have been in the inner guard for a long time, and you don't understand the society and people's livelihood at all. You are not as good as His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

"I don't care too much. Tell me, I'm all ears."

Su Ce also smiled and said, "I also want to know more about it. It will be good for me in Fengzhou."

Chao Qing asked calmly: "Which of you still wear fine linen clothes now?"

Chong Huan thought for a while and said: "It seems that there are no more, it is all cotton cloth, and it seems that some low-level people wear fine linen."

"Fine linen is also the clothes in the past. Now the fine linen is almost no longer sold. The old hemp fields are replaced by corn, and then the cotton in the Hetao Plain, the cotton in the Hehuang Valley, and the cotton from Liuqiu Island and Fujian Road are mixed. Weaving it into cotton cloth is enough to supply the clothes of the world, and it is supplemented by silk and satin from Jiangnan and Bashu."

"That's not right!"

Zhong Huan suddenly remembered, "Cotton is planted in Hanzhong. I went on a business trip not long ago and saw a cotton field."

"The cotton fields you mentioned are not only in Hanzhong, but also in Zhongyuan and Shandong Road. They grow short-staple cotton and cannot be used for weaving. They can only be used as filling materials for cotton clothes and quilts, but they are relatively sporadic and do not affect the overall situation. New crops such as pumpkins, pumpkins, and potatoes were a stroke of genius and completely solved the food problem, but what to do with the need for land to grow corn? So wood cotton and cotton were used to weave cotton cloth instead of linen, and the hemp field was vacated.

The production of corn and potatoes is huge, and it is not a problem to feed a population of 9000 million. The excess corn can also raise pigs, and eating meat can strengthen the body and prolong life.

If the food problem is solved, the population will grow. When the population increases, a large number of people will be able to go out and occupy more land. Even if the empire is divided in the future, there will be many Han countries in the world. This is what His Majesty said personally.

He said that there are still many unowned lands in the world, which are countless times larger than our Yong Dynasty. If we don't occupy them, if they are occupied by others, our descendants will blame us in a thousand years. "

Su Ce heaved a long sigh, "What you said sounds like a bible to me, it completely subverts my imagination."

Chong Huan raised his wine glass and said leisurely: "Hearing what you said, I really don't want to be an internal guard. I also want to lead troops to fight and open up territories for my descendants!"

The first thousand and 520 chapters 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!"