To be honest, the eighteen large boxes in front of him were enough to surprise Jia Lian.
These are all valuable things. I estimate that they are worth millions of taels of silver.
With this number, it is absolutely no problem to build a decent provincial residence.
.
Before the provincial residence was built, the Jia family still had two to three million taels of silver in their treasury.
Jia Lian has been housekeeping for Jia Zheng. Before setting off to Yangzhou to rescue Lao Lin, he personally watched Wu Xindeng and others do the counting.
It's a pity that now... Alas, except for the living expenses until the end of the year, the Jia family's bank account has completely bottomed out.
At this time, Jia Lian heard that the Lai family actually had a small building dedicated to storing money, banknotes and account books. How could he not be curious?
How much money can you have?
It makes people feel itchy.
.
Next to the main room is a high wall. There is an inconspicuous small door on the high corner with a hidden lock.
Jia Lian lowered his head and entered the small door. He was faced with a green brick screen wall. Turning around the wall, there was a very hidden and closed courtyard. There were only a few small warehouses for storing sundries on the east and west sides.
This kind of courtyard that is hidden and cannot be seen from the outside has a name, it is called "Mute Courtyard", and it is normal to put debris there.
But Jia Lian could already see that there was a small gray building on the east side of the mute courtyard. There was no door on the wall, so he didn't know how to get through.
Zhaoer smiled and said:
"Second Master, please come with me, this is another mystery."
Jia Lian followed Zhao'er and walked into the innermost warehouse of the Mute Courtyard. Behind a cabinet, there was a small door with a secret lock hidden behind it.
After passing through the small door, we arrived at the enclosed courtyard where the small building is located.
This small courtyard is smaller than the previous one, but has higher walls. There is a solid brick and stone building in the middle.
Jia Lian looked at the small brick building and couldn't help complaining:
Damn it! The Lai family is building a bunker in their own home?
Xing'er had been secretly looking at Jia Lian's face, and immediately came up to join in the fun:
"Second Master, I know this. I heard the monks in the temple say that you have to be careful about lighting in a wooden house. This kind of house that does not use wood does not have to worry about water leakage."
Jia Lian rolled his eyes at him:
"Then don't use paper for their banknotes and account books. The paper is not fireproof. They might as well use iron plates."
Xing'er curled her lips and muttered:
"Gangtou."
Jia Lian ignored him and strode into the small brick building.
.
When he saw the silver and banknotes, Jia Lian was deeply suspicious:
Has anyone in the Lai family ever been a librarian?
.
The small building only has two floors, and the floor height is not high.
All the doors and windows looked inconspicuous from the outside, but when I got closer, I discovered that they were all tightly wrapped in iron sheets. They were indeed fireproof and anti-theft.
On the first floor of the small building, there are fifteen large iron boxes placed against the wall, all of which have been opened.
Six of the large iron boxes contained Taizhou ingots, and the other six large iron boxes contained ten taels or fifty taels of Beijing ingots and official silver. These ingots were all neatly stacked.
In particular, this Taizhou ingot is official silver produced in Taizhou Prefecture, with the stamps of "Huangyan County", "Linhai County" or "Xianju County" on it. Although Taizhou ingots are generally small ingots of five taels, due to their high purity
, the quality is very good, and it is more valuable in Beijing than the official silver ingot.
The remaining three boxes contained miscellaneous silver of various sizes for daily use, which obviously had not yet been exchanged for official silver.
But even this kind of miscellaneous silver, which can be as small as silver beans or as big as silver cakes, and some of which have half of the money clipped by silver clips, is neatly sorted into categories using wooden boxes. And the words on each wooden box
There are also small signs inserted on the side, which read "four taels and five qian", "four taels", "three taels"... all the way to "five qian".
Damn! Even banks are so professional!
.
The second floor of the small building is more like a library.
The second floor is full of iron shelves, and there are iron boxes one after another on the iron shelves, arranged neatly vertically.
The iron boxes are divided into two colors: black and white. Each iron box has a uniform label affixed to the outside edge.
Jia Lian walked to a shelf with a black iron box and saw that the labels on the box read "Yuanhe from the 10th to the 19th year", "Yuanhe from the 20th to the 29th year" and other words.
Jia Lian conveniently took one and opened it. It was filled with neatly arranged account books.
Then I walked to a shelf with tin boxes, and I saw that the signs on the boxes in this row all read "Tongdui official silver one thousand taels", while the boxes in the lower row all had signs written "Tongdui official silver five hundred taels".
Two".
Looking at the row of shelves at the back, there are words such as "Nan Province Treasure Number One Thousand Liang" and "Shanxi Merchant Treasure Number One Thousand Liang" on each shelf.
Obviously, these are all banknotes of different denominations used in different regions.
.
Jia Lian is really full of energy this time.
This is a huge rat hole!
Good guy! Jia Lian finally understands what the saying "Heshen falls, Jiaqing is full" means.
It is said that the Heshen family was raided, and Emperor Jiaqing got assets equivalent to 800 million taels of silver for nothing. That was the Qing government's national fiscal revenue for three years, and the total revenue of the treasury for fifteen to twenty years.
The current Jia family is in decline, but it may not be much better than the moral character of Emperor Jiaqing at that time!
By catching Heshen at this time, the Jia family can be considered saved.
.
Jia Lian ordered De'er to lead people to take a careful inventory, while he sat on the second floor of the small building with a smile, humming a tune leisurely, and asked people to escort Lai Nanny, Lai Da, Lai Er, Lai Shangrong and Lai Shangning here.<
/p>
Looking out from the window, the Lai family is really quite big.
Jia Lian smiled coldly:
"You are really people who live a good life. Let alone your family being slaves, you may not be able to save this huge family fortune in more than ten lifetimes even if your whole family goes out to be officials or do business." The faces of Lai Da and Lai Er have become ashen, and their eyes have lost their vitality.
They already understand - it's over, it's completely over.
Lai Shangrong and Lai Shangning were so frightened that their legs were shaking and they just muttered:
"I don't know anything...I don't know...I don't make the decision at home...It's unfair...I don't know anything..."
But Grandma Lai, who was kneeling on her head, was still calm even though her face was green and white.
Jia Lian saw it and thought:
I don’t know what the old fox is up to again.
So Jia Lian smiled and asked:
"Now that things have reached this point, what else does Grandma Lai have to say?"
.
In the eyes of Granny Lai, who has gray hair on her temples, Jia Lian is just a young boy.
He's a young boy, he knows how to hit and kill, but just because he knows how to hit a few people in the mouth, he feels like he's taking advantage, huh.
Aunt Lai knows very well that she cannot panic. Now that things have come to a head, she must first find a way to avoid the important and take the easy.
If it still doesn't work, you can only lose the pawn to save the rook.
If you keep the green hills, you won’t have to worry about running out of firewood.
Listening to Jia Lian's questions at this time, Grandma Lai sighed and said sadly:
"Since Mr. Lian asked me, I will tell you something from the bottom of my heart.
Nowadays, it is really called "talking and talking"! My old lady has lost her face.
I always say that the children at home must be controlled strictly, but even if they are so strict, they still sneak in and cause trouble, making the adults worry and making the master angry. I hate it so much that I can't help it.
In the early years, when Lai Da and his father were still alive, if there was something wrong with him, the master did not need to worry about it. When his father knew about it, he would just call him over, scold him and beat him a few times, and he would not dare anymore.
He has lost his father these years, and I am an old woman who doesn’t understand troublesome matters such as accounts and money. How could I have known that he would be so bold?
Second Master Lian is the master, and the master is more powerful than anyone else. If he fails to live up to his expectations, I don’t feel bad if Second Master Lian beats or punishes him casually.”