Chapter 525 In the dark place under the lamp, there are people who are bold
Zhao Pu grabbed a few copper coins and walked a long way before buying a flax cake.
Compared with the market in earlier years, the market in Kaifengfu, Tokyo is much sluggish.
It can be seen from this sesame cake that there were originally vendors selling cakes everywhere on the streets of Tokyo. Although sesame cakes were indeed much more expensive than other whole grains, they were not as luxurious as they are now. Even Zhao Pu felt that they were a bit luxurious.
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Moreover, the current price is three times what it was before the Khitans invaded Tokyo. It is still not easy to buy, and the sesame seeds on the cake are almost missing.
Zhao Pu cherished the bite and took a bite. His Yue family, the Wei family, was originally a local wealthy family, but after the Khitans entered the Central Plains, they suffered from military disasters, and now they asked him to help.
Therefore, although Zhao Pu's income is relatively guaranteed, he still feels that it is quite difficult and he is only willing to buy one sesame cake.
The emperor this week is a benevolent ruler who neither kills nor plunders. Unfortunately, life is getting more and more difficult.
With a sigh, Zhao Pu turned around and walked into a house next to the Daxiangguo Temple. After passing through several buildings, he came to a slightly dark room.
There were several fat, bald men standing at the door of the room. These men were wearing thick cowhide armor, with long daggers stuck in their waists. There were also heavy weapons such as spears and bones placed in the corners.
"Zhao Dalang is here. Go to the side room and change your clothes. Master Minghui has already arrived. We need to take inventory of the third warehouse of A in the near future."
Zhao Pu nodded and walked towards a small room. After a while, he got dressed and came out.
It's just that the so-called clothes are just a half-arm that clings to the body, and there is only a pair of calf-nosed shorts under the crotch.
This is because Zhao Pu is about to enter the treasury to take inventory. This kind of clothes that are extremely close-fitting and have no pockets are to prevent him from carrying gold and silver out.
That's right! This house located behind Daxiangguo Temple also belongs to Daxiangguo Temple.
Moreover, it is the bank account room of Daxiangguo Temple that specializes in managing money, and Zhao Pu is the small shopkeeper of the bank who is responsible for counting money.
Different from history, the Khitans invaded a few years earlier, and Zhao Pu had just gotten married, so he was reluctant to let his beloved wife go to Yanzhou to join the army.
As for Lan Ruo, who was in Daxiangguo Temple, the money banking industry was booming, and there was a shortage of people who could write and do calculations, so Zhao Pu stayed in Tokyo.
Wearing half-arm shorts and short noses, he was blindfolded and taken into the carriage. There was a jingling sound in the darkness. I don’t know how long it took.
After being supported by someone's arm and walking a certain distance, and then having his blindfold removed, Zhao Pu had already arrived at a huge warehouse.
In an instant, Zhao Pu was shocked. This warehouse, known as A3, was larger than the B5 warehouse that had been visited a few days ago, and contained more belongings.
And a fat monk, with a dozen bald monks, was standing in the warehouse first.
He looked at Zhao Pu and other small shopkeepers of the bank, looking arrogantly and leaving behind a gold bag the size of a baby's fist.
With a clang, the golden man was thrown into a pile of shining gold and silver like a stone.
Master Minghui's cold voice came next. He didn't sound like a temple mage at all, but more like a man-eating ghost.
"Two things. One, don't entrap anyone. Anyone who dares to entrap even a little bit will be beaten to death and thrown into the Bian River. These are troubled times, so it's not a big deal if a few people die.
Second, don't whisper to each other. If you don't want to lose this job and if you still want to support your family, then keep your mouth shut.
The inventory will be completed within three days, and there will be a heavy reward then."
Zhao Pu did not have any dissatisfaction with Master Minghui's threatening words, because he really needed this job very much.
Without this job, his sick wife, young son, and beautiful sister-in-law would all starve to death.
However, during the endless counting and estimation, Zhao Pu touched something, which was a gold medal with dark brown blood stains, and the three characters Zhenbaoer were engraved on the gold medal.
"My son, my treasure, she is only twelve years old! She is only twelve years old! You beasts!"
The screams seemed to still echo in Zhao Pu's ears, and a picture slowly appeared in Zhao Pu's mind.
The one who was crying was his neighbor, a clerk surnamed Zhou from the Salt and Iron Division. His family had a lot of assets, and he knew everything about the Salt and Iron Division.
The junior official also had a daughter whom he regarded as a treasure. She was indeed pretty and beautiful. The junior official often boasted to Zhao Pu, saying that he would never marry unless he was in the government office of the town.
Zhao Pu had seen this gold medal engraved with the words "Zhenbaoer" several times, because Zhenbaoer often came to play with his sister-in-law, and the two were close in age, so Zhenbaoer would sometimes show it off.
Zhao Pu felt uncomfortable all over when he touched the gold medal.
Zhen Bao'er is such a good woman! She was snatched away like a kitten by those ferocious northern captives. Even the little official who was crying and scolding had his head chopped off with a knife.
Suddenly, a thunder flashed through Zhao Pu's mind. Wasn't the treasure taken away by the Khitan people and disappeared?
This warehouse is also owned by the bank. It is a place where gold and silver brocades are supposed to be stored. Why are there precious gold medals and other miscellaneous gold hairpins and jade pendants?
Could it be that there is collusion between the bankers and the Khitan people?
In other words, the Khitans who went to fight the emperor's army stored a large amount of gold and silver in the bank.
Thinking of this, Zhao Pu felt sweating on his head. No wonder even their eyes were covered when they were cleaning the treasury recently.
Are such intense and strict measures just to cover up this?
Oops! If it's what you think, you must not be discovered. If someone sees through it, you will definitely be splashed in the Bian River.
Zhao Pu suppressed his trembling hands and quickly threw the gold medal into the wooden box next to him, and then quickly wrote on the account book, 'Gold medal, weighing two, two, three cents.'
....
In the Daning Palace, Shi Chonggui originally used it as a side hall to support the beautiful people who contributed to the palace from all over the country.
Zhang Liecheng, Li Xiaojie, Cao Dong, son of Cao Wantong of the Hexi Chamber of Commerce, Zhang Lieming of the Zhang family in Shazhou and other senior officials of the Jinyi Envoy were discussing countermeasures.
Zhang Lieming squinted his eyes and slowly played with the short knife in his hand. This cousin of Zhang Zhao looked like a dandy, but in fact, he was indeed a dandy.
He likes to eat good food and enjoys horse and dog fights, but he is quite talented in gathering intelligence and using dirty tricks, so he was thrown into the Jinyi Messenger by Zhang Zhao and became one of the three deputy commanders.
"Brother, we underestimated those bald donkeys! If they continue like this, I'm afraid they won't be able to redeem all the money until next year." Zhang Lieming said with a grin.
According to Zhang Zhao's instructions, the Jinyi envoy found Feng Yu and the craftsman who printed Liao's banknotes, and directly obtained 300,000 coins to cash them.
He also spread the word that the Khitans had kidnapped not only 500,000 guan from Ge Lanruo Qianzhuanghui, but 2 million guan.
I wanted to rely on this to directly squeeze out a few of these great monks' banks and let them have a taste of their power.
Zhang Liecheng and others also thought that the great monks might not admit the authenticity of these banknotes.
But that's exactly what they want! If the monks dare to do this, their credibility will collapse.
Who knows, but the Tokyo Bankers Association actually admitted that it was valid and bravely cashed in thousands of guan.
But just when the Jinyi envoy wanted to continue the run, the bank announced that because the place where the money was stored was far away and the road was unsafe, it would limit the daily exchange of Liao silver notes to five hundred guan.
Zhang Liecheng saw it at that time and thought, Wow! Here comes the trick, so he mobilized other businessmen who had deposited money in the bank and had Hexi banknotes to exchange it.
This rule of only exchanging five hundred guan a day will immediately cause the bank to lose its credibility.
However, something even more unexpected happened. The bank did not have a quota for these people at all. Only those who came to exchange money with Liao's banknotes would have a quota.
This would cause trouble. Originally, rich households and merchants in Tokyo felt that it would be safest to deposit their money in a bank, because if it was stored in their own homes, it might be robbed.
They ran the bank for a few days, but when they saw that it had no effect at all, they simply put the gold and silver brocade they took out one after another into the bank again.
Ma De! Jinyi Envoy worked for a long time. Although he got six or seven thousand guan in vain, the task was not completed. On the contrary, he helped Lanruo Bank and made his reputation famous.
Zhang Liecheng glanced around at the people in the room and said in a deep voice: "I heard from your Excellency yesterday that if our Jinyi envoys do things well, we will be promoted to Jinyi Guards, and we will be called Jinyi Personal Guards.
In the future, not only the current intelligence and investigation can continue to be managed, but also the shady officers and detectives from every state and county in the world will be handed over to us.
The title of a brocade-clad messenger is always somewhat nondescript, and one might say that one day he will be eliminated.
But once it is organized into a military guard, it is still like a pro-army force of the Forbidden Army, and then it becomes a formal yamen.
All of you are the Emperor's close friends, so you should know the pros and cons.
But if we can't even win over the Lanruo Bank Association, and the emperor thinks we are useless and doesn't set up a royal army, then the wealth and power for generations to come will be gone."
When Cao Dong heard this, his mouth almost dropped, and he was so anxious that he scratched his head and scratched his head.
Their Jinyi envoys are now like affiliated yamen. Zhang Liecheng is right, they may be eliminated at any time.
Only by becoming a royal guard can you continue your authority and wealth for your descendants.
After the words became clear, the four people in the house began to think quickly.
Zhang Lieming's eyes suddenly lit up. He clapped his hands and said, "I remember that day when I went to the south of the city to find some entertainment, and I happened to meet a beautiful little lady... Ugh! Cough cough cough!"
Speaking of this, Zhang Lieming suddenly coughed a few times, put away his squinting look, and suddenly became serious.
"That day, someone was doing a routine inspection in the south of the city and heard a piece of news from a young lady named Wei.
She said that her brother-in-law was a treasurer in a certain place, but she secretly took a look and found that there always seemed to be many strange, fat monks coming and going from that place.
Moreover, her brother-in-law always disappears from work for at least two or three days, and at most for five or six days."
After hearing this, Cao Dong immediately came over and said cautiously: "I also found out a piece of news that when the Khitans were in Tokyo at that time, they also liked to deposit their wealth in banks, but it was not very honorable, so there were few
Someone mentioned it."
Li Xiaojie suddenly opened his half-closed eyes, "If the information that Commander Cao detected is true, it will corroborate with the information obtained by a certain person.
The major accounting offices of Daxiangguo Temple have rarely been seen recently, and monks such as Minghui and Mingshen who are responsible for handling affairs outside the temple also seem to have disappeared overnight.
According to our spies’ investigation, they went to other places to clean out their warehouses.”
Speaking of this, Li Xiaojie, who has always been lively and imaginative, looked at the other three people and spoke slowly in a low voice.
“Everyone, do you think it’s possible that the Lanruo Bank in Tokyo seemed to have been extorted by the Khitans for 500,000 yuan, but in fact they absorbed the gold and silver brocade that the Khitans looted in Tokyo?
Don’t you think now that the Khitans were defeated and even the Khitan leader was killed by us, these bald donkeys just want to swallow this ill-gotten wealth?”
‘Hiss!’ Zhang Liecheng took a breath!
He still believed in Buddhism, so it was hard to believe it for a while. However, he knew what his mission was. After calming down, he looked at Zhang Lieming and said.
"Jiulang, please mobilize people to bring the whole family of the Wei family to our territory. Remember, we must try our best to avoid people's eyes and ears. Whether it is true or not, we will know after an investigation.
Li Xiaojie, Cao Dong, you two, immediately mobilize all the remaining personnel to explore the city to see if there are any other people who can write and calculate. They have suddenly disappeared for several days recently. If there are, find them all for me.
The Qianzhuanghui was created by the Emperor, and no one can use it to hide filth and evil.
The future of our brocade envoys depends on this fight."