Chapter 392: Currency War (Central)

In the guest room, Xing Qian was drinking tea, and his eyes swept at the man in black behind him from time to time. In fact, he didn't know the man in black, but this man took out Li Qing'an's gold medal. Li Qing'an told him in person that the person who won his gold medal should do his best to help.

It has been almost two years since Xing Yan suffered. Compared with that time, he has obviously gained weight and has become very confident in every move. It is no wonder that Wang Gong, his backstage, became the left prime minister, and his status in Chang'an naturally increased. He also opened the largest tea shop in Chang'an. Anxi alone ordered 200,000 dans of goods last year, which made him rich and made a fortune.

Xing Qian is a grateful person. He has always been obsessed with Li Qing'an's life-saving kindness, but he also knows that with Li Qing'an's status, it may be difficult for him to repay him again. He can only establish a ancestral tablet for Li Qing'an and worship for all seasons.

Unexpectedly, the man in black found him today and took out Li Qing'an's gold medal, saying that he wanted to see Wang Yuanbao on Li Qing'an's order and asked him to recommend him. Xing Qian immediately took this person to Wang Yuanbao's mansion without saying a word.

He asked several times, but he saw that this person had no intention of answering him, so he had to forget it. At this time, Wang Yuanbao's laughter came from outside the door, "Do you want to have a free meal when you come to my house during dinner?"

The door opened, and four family members carried a soft sedan chair in. The soft sedan chair fell to the ground, and the family members helped out the fat Wang Yuanbao.

"It's so troublesome to be fat, you can't even cross the threshold, hey! It's rude."

Wang Yuanbao smiled and bowed to the two of them. Xing Qian replied with a smile: "I will explain first that I came after dinner and don't want to eat your dinner. Besides, when I see you, I dare not eat anymore."

"What are you saying? Do you mock me for being fat? I'm so angry."

He said he was angry, but Wang Yuanbao smiled on his face without any anger. He glanced at the man in black and saw that he had taken off his hat. He was about 34 or 35 years old, tall and thin, with particularly long arms, thin cheeks, and a pair of eagle eyes that looked extremely smart and capable.

When Wang Yuanbao saw that he was actually coming to his mansion with a hat, he couldn't help but feel a strange feeling in his heart. This person was too mysterious. He bowed to the person who came and asked Xing Qian, "This person is..."

Xing Qian whispered in his ear: "This person was sent by Li Qing'an, it's very mysterious. I don't know who he is?"

Wang Yuanbao was extremely shocked. The person sent by Li Qing'an came to find him. He suddenly remembered the strange things that happened in Anxiguifang and was shocked and suspicious.

At this time, the person who came took out the gold medal and placed it on the table and said, "This is my identity. My surname is Hu, and I am ranked fifth. Wang Dongzhu might as well call me Hu Wulang."

The visitor was Hu Yunpei. He turned out to be the head of Luoyang, the Han and Tang dynasties, and one of the members of the Yinlong Association. He is now the general manager of the Anxi Interior Office in Chang'an and the intelligence leader of Anxi in the mainland of the Tang Dynasty. He received a letter from Anxi Feige and came to personally carry out the important tasks ordered by Li Qing'an.

Li Qing'an had a total of twenty-four gold medals, and he gave them to his beloved generals. Many people know about this, and Wang Yuanbao also knew about it. He took the gold medal and looked at it. He was the first to see Li Qing'an's gold medal. He saw a dragon looming in the clouds, with the words "Anxi Li Qing'an" underneath, and the number on the back was numbered, No. 16. Wang Yuanbao was secretly surprised. This person ranks sixteenth among Li Qing'an's confidants, and is definitely not a simple person.

Although Wang Yuanbao didn't know whether the gold medal was true or not, Xing Jun should have known that Wang Yuanbao immediately returned the gold medal with both hands and said respectfully: "I am fortunate to meet the envoy Hu."

"You're welcome to be polite, we're still walking together."

Hu Yunpei smiled and took out another white jade lion seal and put it in front of Wang Yuanbao. Wang Yuanbao knew that this was the treasure seal of Anxiguifang. Generally, only people at the level of the boss held it, and even the shopkeeper could not get it. Wang Yuanbao believed it, and he waved his hand quickly, "Please sit down by the envoy Hu!"

Hu Yunpei is obviously an efficiency-oriented person. He doesn’t drink tea or make a smoother round. After sitting down, he goes straight to his purpose today. "I came today because our general wants to make a deal with Wang Dongzhu."

Wang Yuanbao was picking up the tea cup to drink tea. When he heard this, his hand was frightened and half of the tea was splashed out. He didn't care about wiping the tea stains on his body, and quickly put down the tea cup and bowed, "Eunuch Hu, why not go to my study to talk."

"Okay, I'll just follow the guests."

Hu Yunpei stood up with a smile, glanced at Xing Jian, but Xing Jian smiled and said, "You go! I'll take a break here for tea."

He is a smart person, and the less he knows about some things, the better. He doesn't want to get angry, so Hu Yunpei doesn't force him, nods, and follows Wang Yuanbao to his study.

In fact, going to the study was just an excuse for Wang Yuanbao. He needed some time to think about countermeasures. Li Qing'an actually wanted to cooperate with him. Besides the cabin, what else can Li Qing'an cooperate with him? Wang Yuanbao immediately thought of the abnormality of Anxi cabin these days. He couldn't help but feel a little nervous. He was just a businessman, and at most involved in politics, he wanted to find a backstage. He didn't want to really participate in the political struggle, but Li Qing'an couldn't afford to offend him, so Wang Yuanbao had to bite the bullet and take Hu Yunpei to his study.

When he walked to the door of the study, he happened to meet his eldest son asking him for something. Wang Yuanbao's eldest son was Wang Muyun, who was responsible for the external contact of the Wang family. Wang Yuanbao had just turned around and a shadow wall blocked Hu Yunpei behind him. Wang Muyun did not see it. He stepped forward and bowed, "Father, report to his father if you have important things."

Wang Yuanbao waved his hand quickly and winked backwards. Only then did Wang Muyun see Hu Yunpei. He was stunned. Who is this?

"This is Hu Jun, a very important guest. You can also go to your father's study!"

Wang Muyun looked at Hu Yunpei in confusion, then nodded, and it was about his father entering the study. The study was the last line of freedom for men and had nothing to do with reading. Even a huge businessman like Wang Yuanbao had his own study room. The study room was decorated with luxurious desks made of rosewood, bookshelf made of gold, pen holder carved from top to top jade, and the wall was covered with authentic works of various famous calligraphy and paintings. As for the book, it was inconspicuous.

Wang Yuanbao asked Hu Yunpei to sit down, and his eldest son Wang Muyun stood behind him. A maid served tea. The two finally got to the point. Wang Yuanbao took a sip of tea, suppressed the tension in his heart, and said, "Please tell me, Envoy Hu! What is Your Highness, King Zhao, want to cooperate with me, like the grass-roots people?"

"Lord Wang is humble."

Hu Peiyun smiled and said, "I want to ask first how much money there is in Wang Baoji's cabinet. I mean copper coins, and the scope is Guanzhong and Henan Prefecture."

"this....."

Wang Yuanbao was a little embarrassed. This was his business secret. The other party was the representative of Anxiguifang. Can he say it? He smiled bitterly and said vaguely: "I don't have a specific account, it's about hundreds of thousands of yuan!"

"Are you more than a million trump cards?"

"No!" Wang Yuanbao breathed a sigh of relief and said hurriedly: "Even 500,000 guan is not more than."

Hu Yunpei nodded and said, "If we use Anxi Silver Dollar to acquire the copper coins in Wang Dongzhu's hand, I wonder if Wang Dongzhu is willing?"

Wang Yuanbao's eyelids pulled a few times and exchanged Anxi silver dollars for his own copper coins. This was once a dream. Because Anxi silver dollars were very popular among merchants, most merchants came to his cabinet to withdraw money, and almost all pointed out that they wanted to exchange Anxi silver dollars. For this reason, Wang Yuanbao has exchanged a large number of Anxi silver dollars in the past year. He even had a dream, dreaming that he led a large group of friends to the basement of Anxi glass dollars and took all their silver dollars for himself. But now, when his dream wanted to become reality, he hesitated. Anxi silver dollars suddenly became a little hot for some reason. In fact, the problem was not Anxi silver dollars, Anxi silver dollars was still as cute, but the guy in front of him, the guy holding Li Qing'an's 16th gold medal. What exactly did he want to do?

Wang Yuanbao was drinking tea and pretending to be contemplative. In fact, his heart was already in a mess. Hu Yunpei seemed to know his thoughts and threw out a huge bait. "Of course, since it is cooperation, we will also consider the interests of Wang Dongzhu. We can give a one-to-one price, exchange an Anxi silver dollar for a permanent copper coins. We will exchange all of Wang Dongzhu's copper coins."

The merchant had to make a profit. Sure enough, when he heard this price, Wang Yuanbao's heart suddenly pounded. Now the price of Anxi silver dollar on the black market has been exchanged for 300 ounces, which means that Anxi gave him 30% of the profit, and the huge profit suddenly covered the possible risks. Wang Yuanbao quickly calculated in his mind that in fact, he had one million ounces of copper coins in Chang'an and Luoyang. If he exchanged it for one million ounces of Anxi silver dollar, he would make 300,000 ounces in vain. Even if he didn't make 300,000 ounces, there would be no problem with 200,000 ounces. This is his net profit for a year, and if he has a good relationship with Anxi, he can directly purchase silver dollars from Anxi, which will be a huge long-term benefit.

Wang Yuanbao pondered for a moment, and at this time he remembered something. Can they take out so many silver dollars? He knew that after the imperial court took Hexi, it blocked the way to advance the silver dollars eastward. During this period, a large amount of silver dollars were exchanged on the market. He was very worried that the other party would not have such inventory.

"Eunuch Hu, if I transfer money from various places and transfer one million stags of copper coins to exchange for your silver dollars, can you give so much?"

"There are not so many silver dollars in Chang'an, only 400,000."

Hu Peiyun said frankly: "But soon a large number of silver dollars came to Beijing. We not only had to exchange the copper coins in the hands of Wang Dongzhu, but also exchange as many copper coins as possible. Please rest assured that the court cannot block us. We can mobilize two million silver dollars to Chang'an within one month. We are going to buy all copper coins. If Wang Dongzhu is willing, we can entrust Wang Baoji Cabinet to exchange all the copper coins. Wang Baoji Cabinet can be purchased at the same price as Anxi Cabinet."

Wang Yuanbao's squinting eyes were glowing. If he let go of this opportunity to make money, his ancestors would not spare him. He was about to agree, but his son, who was standing behind him, pressed his waist with his knees. Wang Yuanbao suddenly woke up. He quickly coughed and said, "Eunuch Hu, this matter is of great importance, let me think twice."

"Yes! I'll give you a night to consider. If you figure it out, please ask Master Wang to go to Anxi Guifang in person and tell the shopkeeper Chang Da of the Guifang that the time is before noon tomorrow. After this time, our cooperation will fail and say goodbye."

Hu Yunpei turned around and walked away. When he reached the door, he stopped again and said without looking back: "I once again reminded Wang Dongzhu that this is the cooperation between General Li, the governor of Anxi, and Wang Dongzhu. I hope Wang Dongzhu will remember this."

He opened the door and left briskly. Wang Yuanbao sent Hu and Xing away, and then rushed back to the study room in panic. As soon as he entered the study room, he said to his son: "Is there any problem here?"

Wang Muyun closed the door and said calmly: "Have your father considered what is the purpose of Li Qing'an doing this? Why did he buy copper coins from Chang'an and Henan Prefecture?"

A sentence reminded Wang Yuanbao. In fact, he had already thought of something vaguely, but it was like watching flowers in the fog, and his thoughts were not very clear. His son's reminder made him understand a little.

"You mean that Li Qing'an is targeting the court's upcoming issuance of silver and money?"

Wang Muyun nodded, "I think it's exactly what it is. Li Qing'an intends to destroy the imperial court to issue silver."

"But can he destroy it by collecting copper coins? I don't quite understand. I don't know how many copper coins he has cast in the Tang Dynasty for a hundred years, and how many can he buy?"

"My father doesn't understand. He is not trying to acquire the copper coins of the Tang Dynasty. He is trying to destroy the imperial court's issuance of silver. As long as he draws the money, he will achieve his goal."

Wang Yuanbao was also a very smart person. He immediately understood that the purpose of issuing silver coins was to exchange copper coins in a ratio of one to fifty. Although there were many copper coins in the Tang Dynasty, most of them were among the people. No ordinary people or merchants would ask for such inferior silver coins. The lesson of indiscriminately is deep enough in the past two years, and the powerful people with a large amount of copper coins would not buy them. The court could only send them to officials, but the number would not be too large. The key was to use coercive means to force exchange from the cabinet shop with the largest amount of money. So Li Qing'an took the initiative to use silver dollars to exchange the copper coins in stock from each cabinet shop, and cut off the firewood from the cauldron, so that the cabinet shop had no money to exchange.

But Wang Yuanbao frowned and said, "I still don't understand. If the court changes to forced exchange of silver dollars, such as 1 to 20 to exchange silver dollars, isn't that the same?"

"No! Different."

After all, Wang Muyun is a person who has been dealing with the officialdom for a long time and is more clear than his father. He shook his head and smiled: "Did your father forget it? The emperor issued an order a few days ago that he did not recognize the Anxi silver dollar as the Tang Dynasty coins. If he publicly used silver dollars to exchange silver dollars, wouldn't this mean that he would admit that the Anxi silver dollar was the Tang Dynasty coins? Or it was just an excuse that the silver dollar was forcibly confiscated on the illegality of the silver dollar, but who would be so stupid to let them snatch the silver dollar? Furthermore, the people in the opening counter shop had a backend, and at worst they would close their business and transfer the silver dollar. There was no money to exchange. What should he do?"

Wang Yuanbao finally understood Li Qing'an's intention, and he became a little scared. If he was involved in the struggle between the emperor and Li Qing'an, it would put the Wang family in an extremely dangerous situation. This was not something he was willing to do, but the huge benefits made him reluctant to let go. He asked his son: "Yun'er, do you think we are going to do this business? I'm really a little worried."

"Father, I just stopped you from agreeing on the spot. It was not that we would not do this business. My child meant that it would be better to ask Zhang Xiangguo for advice and listen to his opinion. He is our backstage!"

Wang Yuanbao nodded, his son said very well.

Zhang Yun was still the Minister of Revenue. He has been in this position for nearly ten years and has almost firmly controlled the Ministry of Revenue. However, since the beginning of the year, he has been a little unable to control the Ministry of Revenue. The reason is that Pei Min became the Minister of Revenue. After Li Yu ascended the throne, he was promoted to Pei Min to the Prime Minister of the Political Affairs Hall. It is obvious that Li Yu is using Pei Min to underestimate him. Pei Min is Li Qing'an's wife's uncle. With Li Qing'an's support, Pei Min will not be easily attracted by himself.

Zhang Yun didn't go to fight, so he simply raised flowers and fished at home, cultivated his temperament, and took retreat as soon as possible, waiting for the opportunity to appear. At night, Zhang Yun reads books in the study as usual.

When reading a book, Zhang Yun didn't like to be disturbed, but his brother Zhang Ye came uninvited.

"Brother, I heard something about it!"

Zhang Ye rushed into Zhang Yun's study like a gust of wind. The old housekeeper behind him couldn't catch up with him and stomped his feet repeatedly. Zhang Yun put down the book and frowned and said, "What are you anxious about? A person in his fifties, don't even have this little cultivation?"

"But this news is important, I have to hurry!"

Just as Zhang Ye was about to speak, Zhang Yun stopped him, waved to the butler, and ordered him to retreat.

"Tell me! What news makes you so anxious?"

Zhang Ye turned around and closed the door. He approached his brother and said in a low voice: "I just got the news from the palace that the late emperor woke up."

"What!"

Zhang Yun was shocked, "Are you talking about the late emperor? The late emperor who has been confused in Qinggang Mountain?"

He couldn't believe his ears.

"Yes! But this is top secret news. I just got it. He can't speak for the time being, but he has opened his eyes."

"Oh my God!" Zhang Yun was shocked. Li Longji woke up. What does this mean? It means that the Tang Dynasty has changed again. If he ordered the princes to return to the court, would those princes listen? More importantly, if Li Longji recovered his health, would he be willing to be lonely without power?

"Brother, what should we do?" Zhang Ye asked nervously.

Zhang Yun was in a mess. He tried his best to calm himself down and said, "We do nothing, just wait and see what changes."

At this time, the housekeeper appeared outside the door again, pushed open a crack in the door, and reported: "Master, Wang Yuanbao is here, I'm asking to see him!"

Zhang Yun was not in the mood to see him now, so he waved his hand and said, "Tell me, I'm not feeling well, see him again next day."

The housekeeper hesitated and said, "But he said he had something important to report to the master, saying that the matter was very urgent."

No matter how urgent it is, it is just a businessman. Zhang Yun only thought about Li Longji's awakening. He said impatiently: "I said it, I won't see you!"

Zhang Ye next to him was moved. Next month was his birthday, and he was still waiting for Wang Yuanbao to give him a great gift! How could the God of Wealth be so rude to keep him away?

He advised the eldest brother, "Brother, please see him! Isn't it rumored that the emperor is going to issue silver? Maybe it's related to this matter."

"Um!"
Chapter completed!