The entrance to the cave is not deep from the basement, only about one person's height, and there is a flat stone slab under your feet.
"This way." Old Mrs. Fang was one step away, reaching out to push a carved and hollowed stone slab. A faint light came from behind it.
The stone slabs were pushed aside to reveal the steps. Miss Jun held a torch and followed Old Mrs. Fang down.
After the steps, there is no blocking mechanism anymore, it is directly a warehouse with shelves.
"What mechanism do you want? It's just a warehouse. It's not as mysterious as you think." Mrs. Fang smiled, standing in front of a wooden shelf, opened the drawer and took out a whisk with satisfaction, "This is the same as the last time I came here.
I put it in and thought about cleaning it the next time I come back.”
As she spoke, she waved it on the wooden frame, and dust flew up, causing her to cough several times.
Miss Jun was looking at the luminous pearls inlaid on the surrounding walls that looked like stars. They were the source of the dim light. When she heard the cough, she turned to look at Old Mrs. Fang.
"Grandma, you can't clean it alone," she said.
Of course Mrs. Fang also knew this and put the whisk back again.
"There's no need to clean it," she said, "No one dislikes dirty money."
Miss Jun glanced inside. Yes, even though it was covered in dust, the layers of silver ingots, bricks and balls placed on the shelves made people's hearts beat faster.
However, she has no interest in silver.
"Over there." Mrs. Fang said, pointing to the southwest corner.
Miss Jun walked over without hesitation. The entire southwest corner was filled with silver ingots, stacked one above the other with no discernable difference.
Mrs. Fang came over, reached out and picked up a silver ingot from the middle grid, and turned it over.
There is a square seal printed on the base of the silver ingot.
"Deshengchang." Miss Jun took it and read.
The silver ingots of each bank account naturally have their own mark. The mark. Miss Jun looked slightly startled. The secret lies in the mark?
She reached out and picked up the silver ingots from the grid, one Deshengchang, two Deshengchang...
Old Mrs. Fang didn't speak or move, she just watched quietly.
I don't know which number I turned to, but Miss Jun's hand stopped. It was still a silver ingot, and there was still a seal at the bottom, but this seal was different from the previous Deshengchang inscription, and the number of words was a bit too long.
"Internal transportation warehouse." She read, "Fifty taels of August in the third year of Dayan."
Official silver, to be precise, inner treasury silver, royal inner treasury. Although inner treasury silver sounds very prestigious, since it is a type of official silver, it is normal to store it in the ticket number.
Is this worthy of being so cautious and sneaky?
"So these things are actually not secrets at all." Old Mrs. Fang said.
The real secret is the story behind the money. The money alone cannot explain anything.
Miss Jun also thought of this and put the money back with some disappointment.
"So besides the imperial edict, the other thing is these official silver?" she asked.
Mrs. Fang said oh.
"There is another post," she said, "which is similar to an imperial edict. You can ask the government to mobilize troops, but that can only be used once."
Miss Jun remembered that it was when she ambushed the officers and soldiers who originally ambushed them on their way back to Yangcheng from Runan.
She then flipped through the shelves for a moment, and found a lot of these official silver among Deshengchang's silver ingots.
"Originally there were more than this," Mrs. Fang said. "It was used a lot at the beginning, but when the business grew, it was no longer needed."
In other words, official silver has been turned into private money, money begets money, and money makes money. After so many years, the posts and imperial edicts about mobilizing troops and horses have been withdrawn. If the remaining official silver is withdrawn, the relationship between the Fang family and the royal family will be completely destroyed.
The traces were eliminated, and once Mrs. Fang died, no one would know this secret anymore.
"Even if this silver doesn't count as evidence, we can't give it to them." Miss Jun put down the silver ingots in her hand and said firmly, "In short, you can't give the bad guys what they want."
Mrs. Fang laughed and put the silver ingot back in her hand.
"Okay." She said, "That's it already. I'll listen to you just once, otherwise our fight for family property will be too much of a joke and more like a show. Let's continue to make trouble for a while."
Miss Jun nodded.
"Thank you grandma for trusting me," she said.
Mrs. Fang smiled.
"Do you want to see more?" she said, looking around the bank.
She wasn't here to see the money. Miss Jun shook her head.
"Let's go back," she said, "and discuss what to do next."
Old Mrs. Fang turned around and walked out with her, looking around with some nostalgia.
"The money here is older than you," she said. "It's from your great-grandfather's time. I was still young at that time."
Miss Jun nodded.
Jun Zhenzhen's great-grandfather was about the same age as his grandfather at that time, and her father was still young at that time, and she was not yet born.
"...I heard your grandfather say that it was difficult at that time. There were wars, and the fear of the Jin invaders and the emperor being robbed was still there. It was really scary to transport so much money from Shandong to Shanxi..." Mr. Fang
The wife continued, and suddenly Miss Jun beside her stopped leaving, and the hand holding her arm seemed to be trembling slightly.
What's wrong?
Scared?
Old Mrs. Fang looked over in surprise. Her eyesight had adapted to the pearly light in the room, and she watched the woman next to her whose face, covered with a layer of pearly light, turn pale.
"What's wrong?" Mrs. Fang was startled and asked quickly, then held Miss Jun's hand with her backhand.
The tentacles were cold and trembling.
"What's going on?" Mrs. Fang asked anxiously, and looked around subconsciously.
Because the basement is underground and close to the underworld, there are often folk tales of ghostly things happening. Could this child have bumped into something?
Miss Jun looked at her, her lips trembling.
"Three years of Taiyan." She spat out four words.
Three years of Taiyan? Old Mrs. Fang was stunned for a moment before reading the inscription on the silver ingot.
"At that time, it was the third year of Taiyan." Miss Jun looked at her and said tremblingly.
At that time? Mrs. Fang was stunned again. What she just said...
"Oh no, it was the third year of Taiyan's reign when your great-grandfather came from Shandong to Shanxi." She said hurriedly, and patted Miss Jun hard on the back, "Did you hear your father tell you about it? That was at that time.
The days were a bit difficult and chaotic, but they have all passed, so don’t be afraid..."
Before she finished speaking, Miss Jun stepped out and walked out. Her steps were hurried and staggering, as if there were some hungry wolves and tigers here and they wanted to escape.
Could it be that something really happened?
Old Mrs. Fang quickly took out the whisk from the shelf drawer next to the door and knocked it hard on the shelf.
"Stop scaring my children!" She raised her eyebrows and started scolding.
Miss Jun, who was rushing up the steps, paused. She knew this. She had seen it with her master. Women in the countryside would curse when they thought their children had offended evil spirits. This would scare away the evil spirits.
Miss Jun looked at Old Mrs. Fang who was slapping her fly whisk in the bank and cursing. She looked blank for a moment, but in the end she said nothing, turned around and walked out quickly.
Mrs. Fang was not at ease after all, so she threw down the fly whisk and followed her out. After she closed the basement door, she climbed up and found that Miss Jun was no longer there.
Maybe she went back to her room first, but when Mrs. Fang asked, she learned that Miss Jun had left the house.
"Where are you going so late?" Old Mrs. Fang asked in surprise.
The butler shook his head, Miss Jun and the others did not dare to stop her, let alone ask.
What happened? Mrs. Fang frowned and looked worried.
.........
........
The door was knocked open with a bang, and Zhu Zan, who had just taken off his clothes and went to bed, jumped up in fright. Of course, he was not on alert for life and death danger, because no one else could break in past the defenses he had arranged so skillfully.
"I said what do you want to do..." He subconsciously wanted to wrap the quilt around him, but it was still a step too late. Miss Jun had already rushed over and grabbed his arm.
"I know, I know what it is." She said hoarsely.
Her expression was pale, her voice was trembling, she was carrying the cool breeze of early autumn, and the hot breath from her mouth and nose hit Zhu Zan who was sitting on the bed.
She had never seen her like this before, and it was somewhat similar to her when King Huai was ill.
What happened? She was so frightened?
Zhu Zan took a deep breath and held her shoulders with his backhand.
"What?" he asked in a deep voice.
Miss Jun looked at him.
"What those people want to take away is silver," she said. "That silver is official silver."
Zhu Zan said oh.
"So what?" He just thought about it and said in a deep voice.
Miss Jun looked at him and trembled her lips.
"Do you know that Taiyan has been there for three years?" She finally said these words.
Zhu Zan didn't even blink.
"In the first year of Taiyan, the Jin people attacked Kaifeng Mansion and robbed Emperor Renxiao. The late emperor moved south and moved the capital in October. The armies from the north, south and east joined forces to expel the Jin people." He said, "In the third year of Taiyan, they negotiated peace with the Jin people, and the Jin people broke the treaty.
, killed Emperor Renxiao, the peace talks broke down, and the Northern Army began a ten-year campaign."
Miss Jun looked at him and lowered her head.
"What's wrong?" Zhu Zan asked again in a deep voice.
"The official silver stored in the Fang family's warehouse is from Taiyan for three years." Miss Jun seemed to not want to look at him, lowered her head and said hoarsely.
Zhu Zan said oh and waited for her to continue.
Miss Jun seemed to be unable to speak, and lowered her head even further.
"In the third year of Taiyan, the internal transportation warehouse only produced a batch of official silver." She said hoarsely, and could no longer continue at this point.
Zhu Zan was startled for a moment, then suddenly had an idea.
"No, it's just..." he blurted out.
Miss Jun buried her head almost to her chest, but then she covered her face with her hands.
Zhu Zan's expression turned red and white. He sat on the bed for a long time and uttered a word in the air.