Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 194 The unsolvable conspiracy

When Pei Yuan heard Zhou Chao's words, a chill rushed from the back of his vertebrae directly to his head.

If what Zhou Chao said was true, Pei Yuan could indeed quit the job early, and with two guard commanders taking the blame, he could also get away with it without being held responsible at all.

But now, the 80,000 taels of silver in the silver transport car are fake!

The real silver had been used by Han Qianhu to speculate in commodities.

What the fuck.

Pei Yuan planned to take advantage of the Bazhou rebels' march south to speculate on commodities and make a fortune.

Huai'an Wei and Dahe Wei were thinking of taking advantage of the opportunity of the Bazhou rebels moving south to divide the money from the court!

If the time was slightly staggered, after the roasting of the nuts was completed and the silver was returned, Pei Yuan might be overjoyed and directly throw the burden to Huai'an Wei.

But now?

He couldn't let Huai'an Wei divide the fake silver first and then exchange it later, right?
This will cause a mutiny!

Once the chaos breaks out, who will listen to Pei Yuan's explanation, and who will care about Pei Yuan's plan?
If at that time there happens to be news that a large amount of cash has entered Chanheji, will people in the government and the country have rich associations?

Pei Yuan's originally flawless plan was instantly full of loopholes after Huai'an Wei and Dahe Wei entered the scene!

However, if the silver had to be returned urgently, firstly, Pei Yuan would definitely not be willing to waste this excellent opportunity; secondly, a large group of soldiers from Huai'an Guard had already set their sights on this silver transport team, and it would be impossible to exchange the silver back quietly.

Pei Yuan now realized the seriousness of the matter.

For Huai'an Wei and Dahe Wei, this is a legitimate opportunity to share the court's money!
There was no need to be greedy or rob, the imperial court's money would come to Huai'an City on its own.

And what a coincidence! The rebels in Bazhou may move south at any time.

Taking the court's money, supporting the court's soldiers, and guarding the court's city is simply a matter of course!
The two commanders acted openly and honestly, and even if the matter was brought up for discussion at the court meeting, they had no guilt at all.

As long as the two guards commanders submitted memorials to the court, the court could not even think of a reason to refute.

These two garrisons were just defeated in Suqian last year, and the money for the soldiers' pensions has been in arrears. Now they are asked to defend Huai'an Prefecture, which is already unreasonable. How can they evade it at this time?

Saying that the court has no money?
Huai'an Wei, Dahe Wei: I saw it all!
He said he had other use for the money?

But if we don’t pay money to boost morale, the rebels in Bazhou will soon attack Shanyang and steal the money!
As long as the imperial court still had some sense, it would decisively agree to the two guards' request.

This is an almost unsolvable conspiracy.

Therefore, this tax of 80,000 taels of silver came into the sight of the two commanders as if it had fallen from the sky.

Pei Yuan had previously dared to bluff and bully the Zhou Dynasty.

Only then did he realize that he was playing with fire.

In order to share in this huge windfall, the two commanders will definitely stop at nothing to prevent the silver transport team from leaving Huai'an Prefecture!

Huai'an Wei may not be without powerful soldiers and heavy artillery! Otherwise, given the local garrisons' cowardly and incompetent nature, they would not have sent out such a strong force to monitor.

Pei Yuan's face looked extremely ugly.

Zhou Chao observed the expression and took the initiative to say, "Our commander also specifically mentioned that the two guards will use this money to reward the troops for war preparations, and it will not involve the Zhenxie Qianhu Office. However, the two commanders will express their gratitude to Pei Qianhu personally."

Seeing that Pei Yuan seemed to be still not getting the point.

The Zhou Dynasty made a final escalation.

"The commander also said that if Captain Pei is willing to make friends with Huai'an Guard and Dahe Guard, the ships used by the captain will be able to sail freely on the canal in the future."

"Whether it's transporting beans or wheat, or salt or tea, or even ironware, our two guards will never make it difficult."

Hearing this, Pei Yuan's eyelids twitched.

The conditions offered by Huai'an Wei and Dahe Wei are quite generous.

With the friendship between these two garrisons, Pei Yuan would have no problem shipping goods on the Grand Canal in the future.

But what really shook Pei Yuan was that the Zhou Dynasty was so blatant that it even dared to produce iron tools.

Ironware?

What ironware?
There are so many iron tools!
In fact, if they dare to agree to this, what else are they afraid of?

This is really the final reveal of the true intention!
After thinking this through, Pei Yuan came to a clear conclusion. He could no longer refuse this matter, and now he could only take it one step at a time.

Pei Yuan immediately pretended to be persuaded, a smile appeared on his face, but he quickly put it away.

When Zhou Chao saw this, he breathed a sigh of relief.

He asked with a smile, "What do you think, Captain Pei?"

Pei Yuan reluctantly responded, "How can I answer you about something that hasn't happened yet?"

"Now that the Bazhou rebels haven't arrived and the imperial court hasn't issued an order, let's take it one step at a time."

Zhou Chao's eyes moved slightly after hearing this, and he asked with a smile, "So how far does Qian Hu want to go first?"

Pei Yuan said vaguely, "Let's stay in Huai'an for now."

Hearing this, Zhou Chao's whole state relaxed.

In fact, the only thing the two guards needed Pei Yuan's cooperation for in this matter was to stay in Huai'an temporarily. What happened afterwards had little to do with Pei Yuan.

When the rebels in Bazhou marched south, Huai'an Wei and Dahe Wei would be able to naturally submit a petition to the court to directly share the silver.

At that time, the two guards commanders would at most give Pei Yuan a sum of money as hush money in their personal names, and this money would probably also be counted as a favor.

Seeing that the matter had been settled, Zhou Chao immediately repeated his previous promise, "Starting from the fourth day, fifty taels per day."

Although Pei Yuan is not as short of money as before, that is fifty taels!
Pei Yuan hesitated and said to Zhou Chao, "Although the plans of the two commanders have opened my eyes, this matter ultimately depends on the court's opinion. If the court does not allow it, I can only follow orders."

Zhou Chao patted his chest and said, "Don't worry. We are all imperial soldiers. If there is anything, we have to speak out. If the imperial court doesn't agree, then we won't do it. Do you think our commander dares to disregard his bright future and do something treasonous?"

Although 80,000 taels of silver is a huge sum of money, it is not worth the risk for Huai'an Wei and Dahe Wei, who control key sections of the Grand Canal.

The Grand Canal, through which silver flows, is the key to their wealth.

Pei Yuan sighed, looked around and said, "Who can predict what will happen in the future?"

Zhou Chao thought about it and roughly understood what Pei Yuan meant.

Then he added, "The commander will settle the bill on a daily basis. Even if the final result is not satisfactory, the other conditions promised to the commander will not be reduced."

He said naively, "Let's make friends."

Pei Yuan let out a long breath.

He was not thinking about the fifty taels of silver, although fifty taels of silver was a lot of money, but the most important thing was that by building a good relationship with Huai'an Wei now, he could at least avoid the intensification of many conflicts.

For example, what if they wanted to see the silver?
Pei Yuan's slight retreat could at least maintain superficial friendship and harmony and avoid a direct fallout.

As for what happens next, we have to figure out how to resolve this crisis.

Pei Yuan said to Zhou Chao, "I haven't met with my brothers for a long time, and I have some things to tell them. If Brother Zhou is not in a hurry, let's talk after we enter the city?"

Zhou Chao quickly understood and said, "Brother Pei, please be busy first." He added, "Commander He has been organizing the troops in the barracks these days to prepare to fight against the rebels from Bazhou, so he is not available for the time being. Commander He said that he would have a banquet after the rebels from Bazhou retreated, so that he could get to know his brother better."

Pei Yuan naturally responded perfunctorily to such perfunctory words.

He didn't think that a third-rank commander had so much free time to care about himself, a fifth-rank captain.

Zhou Chao led his men away, still guarding them on both sides. Judging from his appearance, it seemed that he had already regarded the 80,000 taels of silver as belonging to Huai'an Wei and Dahe Wei.

Pei Yuan thought unrealistically in his mind that it would be great if at this time, those Jiangnan nobles who were obstructing the transportation of silver could come up and deal with them.

Unfortunately, I'm not stupid.

Thinking of the five words "I'm not stupid either", Pei Yuan felt even more uncomfortable.

If even a figure like He Huan, the commander of Huai'an Guard, could keenly capture the opportunity here and rush out to scramble for tax silver, then what about others?
How many variables are there in this layout?
It was like Pei Yuan was carefully planning his chess moves, preparing for a resounding victory, only to find that there were many people around the table who were eager to play chess.

And with both of you and me, the whole situation was almost out of control.

Watching Zhou Chao gradually leave, and seeing Cui Bohou, Ji Xin, Hou Qing and other subordinates rushing over, Pei Yuan rubbed his face vigorously.

It seems that a new game has begun.

First of all, Pei Yuan had to ensure that Han Qianhu could speculate smoothly when the Bazhou rebels were heading south and Huai'an Wei was intervening, and that he could safely withdraw the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver from this carnival in a timely manner!
Secondly, Pei Yuan wanted to muddy the waters in Huai'an and absolutely could not let Huai'an Guard and Dahe Guard just sit there and stare at the 80,000 taels of tax silver.

Furthermore, Pei Yuan also had to find a way to get Lu Ting to the position and seize Gu Dayong's military power, so that Gu Dayong, the catfish that could stir up the forces of all parties, could move and create room for development for the Northern Bureau of the Qianhu Suo.

It would be even better if we could take the opportunity to achieve the long-term goal of allowing the remnants of Liu Jin, led by Wang Chang, to re-list through a backdoor listing!
If all these economic, military and political accounts are to be activated and the goal is to be achieved, then the most fatal and critical link is to firmly grasp the most unstable factor in the entire situation - the movements of the Bazhou rebels.

Not only did he need to know where the Bazhou rebels were, but he also had to make them obey his orders as if they were his own arm.

Pei Yuan thought for a while and couldn't help but sigh.

Several subordinates came over with concern, "Captain, is there anything I can do for you?"

"Ok?"

Pei Yuan came back to his senses and looked around.

His eyes fell on one person.

——Song Chunniang!

"You." Pei Yuan looked at her seriously.

Song Chunniang was at a loss, "What's wrong?"

Pei Yuan said with a dark face, "Stand behind me."

In such a chaotic situation, how could you be slow in drawing your sword?

The second day of abstaining from sex, I still started with Song Chunniang!
Song Chunniang was a little surprised at first, but when she saw all kinds of strange looks from her colleagues, she felt aggrieved and could only retreat outside silently.

"Hmm..." Pei Yuan nodded with satisfaction, and looked at the people who came over. Unexpectedly, he saw Sun Keding's old butler a little further away.

He remembered that he had taken 1,500 taels of silver from someone else.

In this kind of collusion between officials and businessmen, businessmen are inherently at a disadvantage. If they don't do their job well, people won't say anything, but they will definitely not buy into it in the future.

Pei Yuan waved to Manager Sun, motioning him to come over.

The old steward stepped forward and said respectfully, "I, Sun Fu, greet the Master!"

Pei Yuan asked in a friendly manner, "Have all the merchants I mentioned last time come here?"

Sun Fu nodded repeatedly and said, "Reporting to the captain, the carriages and horses behind belong to the merchants from Yangzhou."

Pei Yuan took a glance.

After all, this is the official road from Yangzhou to Huai'an, with many pedestrians and goods coming and going. At first, Pei Yuan did not realize that they were his customers.

"How many people came?"

Sun Fu replied, "There are about twenty or so."

He explained, "The incident in Yangzhou at that time caused quite a stir and frightened many people, but some people also felt that Qianhu was strong and had a strong backing, so they got involved."

"Hmm." Pei Yuan thought about it.

If the protection fee is one hundred taels, it would be about two thousand taels. He has already advanced one thousand five hundred taels, so this is totally a good deal.

Pei Yuan asked with a cheerful face, "Did the journey go smoothly?"

Sun Fu replied, "The officials of the Imperial Guards were quite considerate, and the tax checkpoints along the way were not troublesome."

When Pei Yuan heard the word "tax card", he suddenly realized something.

It’s broken, the quote was too low!

After all, it was the first time for him and Sun Keding to handle such a thing, so when collecting the money, they only calculated the protection along the way, but forgot about the potential hidden benefits.

That is, merchants can avoid paying taxes by following their own teams.

This is also an unspoken rule in officialdom.

Just like what Zhou Chao promised him just now, if he uses the canal to transport something in the future, they can provide convenience.

Therefore, these merchants who followed him north were really blessed. Not to mention that they could avoid being blackmailed by officials along the way, the taxes they were exempted from alone were enough to make back the one hundred taels of silver.

Thinking that he had taken too little, Pei Yuan was tempted to send these people back to Yangzhou.

Fortunately, Pei Yuan still has some dignity to save, and understands that as long as he builds a good reputation, this will be a long-term thing.

Let them take advantage of it for now, maybe we can open up the Yangzhou market better.

Thinking of this, Pei Yuan also became troubled about how to deal with Huai'an Wei and Dahe Wei.

If we can handle things here smoothly and establish good relations with these two guards.

At that time, I will be stationed in Beijing, place a centurion in Jining, and let Han Qianhu place a centurion in Huai'an, Yangzhou and Suzhou respectively.

In that way, Suzhou will have the prefect Zhai De'an to take care of it, Yangzhou will have a huge merchant group market, Huai'an will have Huai'an Guards and Dahe Guards, Jining will have Portuguese cannons, and I will be in Beijing.

At that time, the interests of the entire canal could be mixed in.

From the perspective of the long-term development of the Evil Suppression Thousand Households Office, it seems to be a good way to go.

Pei Yuan was thinking about it, and inexplicably remembered something.

Wait, in this case, it seems that the biggest threat to this industrial chain is Liu Jin’s new policy which may be revived!
Pei Yuan remembered that one of the important policies in Liu Jin's new policy was to crack down on officials who used official duties to transport goods.

What the hell!

Liu Jin, the traitor!

Damn it...

Thanks to Haikuoxinglang for the reward, thank you for your support!
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(End of this chapter)