On the third day, early in the morning, Mr. Xu’s men brought the silver.
Qin Fang was politely let into the living room, served tea and entertained him. He went to the backyard to invite Zheng Haizhu out and opened the box in front of his employer.
When the first box was opened, Zheng Haizhu noticed that Qin Fang was slightly startled, but he instantly wiped away his surprise and quickly went to the counter to get a scale.
Among the people who came to deliver the money from the Xu Mansion was a middle-aged man about the same age as Qin Fang. He was dressed most decently, wearing a long straight coat of Guangzhou silk and a net crown with a jade hairpin on his head. He looked like a steward.
With a humble smile, the steward said to Zheng Haizhu: "Master, please forgive me for coming all the way north to deliver the goods. The money received is not very neat. It is not an official-made silver ingot. I'd like to thank the shopkeeper for your trouble."
Zheng Haizhu smiled, exchanged a few polite words, and ordered the waiter to bring some finely woven handkerchiefs.
After writing the IOU and seeing off the people from the Xu Mansion, Zheng Haizhu asked Qin Fang: "You didn't expect it to be a silver nugget and not a silver ingot?"
Qin Fang nodded: "Yes, madam. Mr. Xu, the Guangxiu Bijia that I sent earlier seems to be extraordinary. I thought they were all silver ingots from dignitaries or big merchants. After all, the delivery of silver ingots is honorable."
It’s convenient and easy to verify the authenticity.”
Zheng Haizhu grabbed a not too small piece of silver from the box: "Then look, what's the quality of these things?"
Qin Fang cut the silver piece into pieces and looked at it under the sunlight, his eyes becoming more complicated.
Also included in the same boat to Beijing were Zhang Mingshi's eldest son and three or four capable cronies sent by Xu Yilong.
When Chen Sanni heard this, not only did she not feel flattered, but she felt a little bit disappointed.
Zheng Haizhu noticed her loneliness and said calmly: "No matter what we do, whether it's overt or covert, as long as we don't lose anything, don't set up any barriers or obstacles for yourself. If you don't want to marry, don't marry. Just do it well."
Work for me. If you want to get married, there is no shame in it. You can live a good life with that man in a down-to-earth manner, have children, and be with you when you grow old."
"Well, that's why I didn't enter your Fusi Yamen in Beizhen. Instead, I invited Governor Liu to come out to talk. I was afraid that Gu Qingquan would see it. Because Mr. Xu just lent me three thousand taels of silver."
Chen Sanni frowned and said, "What if you slowly find out after getting married that he is a bastard?"
He turned back and called Li Daniu, "You go with Lao Qin. We just happened to pick up some goods from Wang's Silk and Satin Factory. Go to Jishuitan Wharf to find a warehouse to put them in, and do the whole show. Then Lao Qin will come back, and Daniu will work hard, so he will stay there.
Look at what's going on when Mr. Xu is unloading the goods."
Liu Qiao curled his lips: "It's not a small amount, it's enough to cover our yamen's salary for three months from top to bottom."
Sister Zaohua is no longer here, and Madam summoned her to her side, but she still seems to have no intention of relying on Zhong Zhong as her right-hand man and being inseparable from her.
Chen Sanni also arrived in the past few days. Accompanying her were two senior female students from Songjiang School. They were both in their late teens and were preparing to serve as teaching assistants. They accompanied Zheng Haizhu to Ciqing Palace and followed the instructions of Emperor Zhu Changluo.
, giving lectures to little princesses and clan girls.
…
"Sanny understands."
At this time, Zheng Haizhu was followed by Sanni, Hua Er and a group of young and vigorous girls. They were chatting and laughing about the famous rouge and gouache shop in the capital. They left the alley and walked toward the market. They looked like the head of the family. It's not unusual to take the women shopping with them.
After half a stick of incense, Liu Qiao, the governor of Fusi in Beizhen, walked to a teahouse in Nianzi Hutong without wearing official uniform and sat down at a table in the corner.
After Zheng Haizhu gave his instructions, he put a small bag of silver coins in his pocket and asked Hua Er to call some other friends to come out.
When Zheng Haizhu came out of prison to rescue Zhang Mingshi, he promised to reunite his father and son as soon as possible. As for Chen Sanni and the Xu family's servant, Zheng Haizhu asked them to expand Li Daniu's spy team, but it was difficult to always rely on Wang Wenyan's manpower.
Chen Sanni shook her head decisively: "What are you getting married for? I want to be like Madam, not looking for a husband, not having children, and traveling to the ends of the world. Among those married women, all of them fell from the clouds into the mud."
Qin Fang understood: "Madam, I feel that Mr. Xu may be suspicious of Madam telling the truth, so his steward will not go far and is watching our house nearby. Should he use this money to ask his colleagues to transfer goods?"
"Gu Qingquan knew that you went to Fahua Temple on the Buddha's birthday, but there you met someone who was seeking revenge and someone who came to rescue you. Are they in the same group? Just like me, they also fell in love with you. ?”
"On the contrary," Qin Fang waved his hand, "Madam, I have been working as a dentist in Tongzhou for ten years and have seen a lot of silver ingots and silver nuggets. This silver nugget has excellent frying, casting and casting skills. It should not be made in a small private workshop. What came out was not an official silver ingot, which is strange."
Zheng Haizhu spread out his handkerchief and said, "Commander, take a look. It's not official silver, but it's made of excellent quality."
Chen Sanni was one of the female canal trackers at that time. Like Mu Zaohua, she was brought out by Wu Bangdang. She also went to Wu Bangdang's grave in Chongming to cry once, but she didn't know that Mu Zaohua secretly went to Liaodong and met Zheng Haizhu this time. , I learned that Zaohua contracted the epidemic and died on the way north to Yanzhou. I remembered that when I was trying to stretch my fiber, if it weren’t for Zaohua’s ruthlessness, how would the sisters have been bullied by the men. I couldn’t help but feel sad, shocked and sad. .
As a member of the Jinyi Guards, Liu Qiao had investigated imperial cases for many years and ransacked homes every day. His eye for all kinds of money was even better than that of Qin Fang.
Zheng Haizhu said: "What kind of bastard law? Beat you and torture you? Make you a widow without a home? Sanni, the law of this dynasty is to restrain the wife. If the husband has a hundred sticks, the wife can divorce and return to the family; the husband has escaped for three years. If she doesn't return the favor after a few years, the government will give her a license and allow her to marry another woman without asking for a bride price. When the time comes, just leave her and come back to teach me a disciple. How can I get stuck in the mud and not be able to climb out? Sanni, I said These are not only considerations for your future, but you also need to understand that the more you become a spy, the less you can look at people and things in a single-minded way, otherwise many clues will often be missed."
Zheng Haizhu said: "This is a good idea, I like it very much. But if you fall in love with a man one day, you must also tell me. I will prepare a dowry and send you to the sedan chair."
Zheng Haizhu waited for her to finish shedding tears and said kindly: "People can't be resurrected after death. Zaohua has always been here and likes Mr. Wu. She went to heaven to accompany him, which is considered to have renewed the fate. Do you feel better if you think about it this way?
?Sanni, do you have a sweetheart in Zhenjiang?"
"Added lead?" Zheng Haizhu asked.
Zheng Haizhu thought for a while and said to Qin Fang: "Cut a dime from each big silver nugget, wrap it in a bag and give it to me. I want to go out. Now you can load the silver into our own car and deliver it to me."
Go to the silk and satin shop in Chunshu Hutong to the west of Liulichang, it’s owned by Mr. Wang’s people.”
Walking to the vicinity of Qipan Street, Hua Er, who was dragging behind, came up and reported: "Madam, I didn't see those faces in Xu Mansion this morning."
Zheng Haizhu nodded: "You take everyone and continue to get familiar with Zhengyangmen, and I'll go take care of things."
"Well," Zheng Haizhu said, "when you go out for a walk, think of others wisely, so that you won't stumble easily."
He rubbed the silver ingot and judged: "It's good. If it is made to look like a gold ingot, and if there are words engraved on the bottom, it will be a silver ingot from Jie Bian and Jie Jing, and the quality will be just like this."
Zheng Haizhu asked: "Is it that the official silver from the treasury was melted and then cast?"
Liu Qiao blurted out: "The ingots that circulate among the people and are most recognized for their inscriptions, who had their brains pinched by a door and destroyed it and recast it?"
"What if you don't want the source of the silver to be found out? It's more likely that the person who cast it is quite powerful, so the person who fry the silver is not a small workshop."
Liu Qiao was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said: "No wonder you want to borrow money."