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

Chapter 479: Bow down and call me brother

Pei Yuan flipped through the books again and found two more that claimed to have the auspicious "Good Harvest".

If Pei Yuan remembered correctly, these years were rare years of good harvests.

Although many people were making trouble, it did not prevent Zhu Houzhao from deploying large-scale troops in the north to announce to the Daryus that the Ming Dynasty was strong again.

Pei Yuan looked at the three memorials in his hands and sighed softly.

A brave and truly capable emperor, land conflicts eased after the war, and there were continuous good harvests.

Maybe this is the atmosphere of ZTE. What a pity.

Pei Yuan tucked the three memorials under his arm, walked out of the main hall, and went to the side room of the pacification department to look for the officer Zhang Song.

When Pei Yuan entered, he saw no one there. He asked the Jinyiwei guarding the courtyard in surprise, "Where is Zhang Jingli?"

The Jinyiwei quickly replied, "General Chen came here before and took Zhang Jingli away."

Pei Yuan said "Oh" and then he understood what was going on.

He asked Chen Xinjian to settle the debts of Shandong candidates in Beijing, but he didn't expect that Chen Xinjian also called Zhang Song, the instigator.

Wouldn’t Zhang Song be embarrassed?

Pei Yuan smacked his lips.

It's true that you don't cherish it once you get it.

Pei Yuan silently calculated in his heart that it was indeed a waste for a Jinshi to serve as an assistant official to handle trivial matters.

Once we have some tacit understanding in the future, perhaps we can package it into the next big plan of collective ascension.

Pei Yuan held the memorial in his arms and strolled back to his own court.

Coincidentally, the Jinyiwei who went to the Western Factory to look for Song Chunniang also returned.

He went to the court and reported, "Captain, General Song has been sitting in the court in the West Factory since early morning. Later, General Chen said that there was something that the commander had instructed him to do, so he asked someone to invite her over."

Pei Yuan was a little puzzled after hearing this. What the hell was Chen Xinjian doing?

Pei Yuan could roughly guess that it was because of the Beijing debt, but couldn't he handle such a small matter himself?

Pei Yuan continued to take a stack of documents reluctantly. The contents inside were even more complicated. They were the membership fees collected from various temples this month, as well as some of the Qianhu Suo's visible expenses.

Pei Yuan flipped down and found that there were two accounts.

Some of the shops that had been confiscated previously were rented out directly, and some of them had good business, so the Qianhu Office simply took over the business and hired some people to manage it.

In addition to rent and employment expenses, it also involves the quantity and price of goods bought and sold, the comparison of previous inventory, and the commission of the brokers.

The money for the Jinyiwei, who were registered under the name of Qianhu Suo and were secretly expanded and trained by Pei Yuan, was also taken from the second account. This included silver for food and clothing, salary subsidies, the preparation of weapons and armor, and other miscellaneous things.

Because the income was obviously not enough to cover the expenses, it was specially noted which parts of the money were falsely paid out from the first account book.

Pei Yuan patiently did a simple calculation and found that no matter how he handled the account, he would start to eat into his original capital.

Fortunately, the Second Northern Bureau in Yanggu has already developed. When the Jinyiwei here are transferred over one after another, both sides will be able to maintain a relatively healthy development trend.

Although there were not so many temples in Yanggu that were guaranteed to generate income regardless of drought or flood, from which one could collect membership fees, a large amount of wealth was obtained through the confiscation of property.

Pei Yuan used the gold, silver and other floating assets to support the development of Luojiao, but the remaining fixed assets were still quite a lot.

In addition to large tracts of land and entire streets of shops, there are also some mule and horse teams engaged in commercial transactions.

Pei Yuan planned to gradually replace the tenants who rented the land with young and strong men from the Luo Sect. As for the shops and caravans, he could try to set up the caravan that he had mentioned to Zang Xian before.

Yanggu County actually has great potential for development.

Not only can it enjoy the convenience of the Grand Canal, but it can also connect to the Daqing River and the Bohai Sea.

During this era, the team transporting salt from the north bought salt from the Lijin Salt Field, loaded it onto ships, and sailed up the Daqing River, passing through Putai, Huimin, Qingcheng, Qihe, Changqing, and Pingyin to reach Yanggu, and then transported it from Yanggu to the canal.

Cheng Leixiang is conspiring with the commanders of Tianjin's left and right guards to get some residual salt business from Tianjin. If successful, they can also use Yanggu for transportation.

Moreover, this waterway that connects to the Bohai Sea and the canal is useless to others, but it is very useful to Pei Yuan.

When he started the timber business later, he could transport the timber from Liaodong, then cross the Bohai Sea, change ships and transport it from the Daqing River to the canal.

Upstream from the canal is the major customer Linqing Shipyard, and downstream from the canal is the super large customer Qingjiang Shipyard.

In addition, there is also a large amount of wood needed for people to build large houses.

Liaodong also has various wild delicacies, medicinal herbs, and furs, which are also very profitable.

If Yanggu is well developed as a hub city, the future benefits will not be too low.

It took Pei Yuan a while to check the accounts. After signing and stamping, he put the two thick documents aside.

Pei Yuan let out a long breath and looked at the pile of documents mechanically. It turned out to be the accounts again.

Pei Yuan rubbed his eyes, picked up the two books of accounts, and looked at the one he had just read in disbelief, only to find the difference.

Wow, the one I just read was from July, and these two are from June.

He flipped the page down roughly again and found all the accounts since he came to Beijing in March were piled up here.

Pei Yuan took a chance and picked the thinnest account book for March to take a look. Then he found that Song Chunniang was in charge of the incoming accounts, while Chen Toutie was in charge of the outgoing accounts. The records were so chaotic that it was simply unbearable to read.

These accounts have been sorted out by the governor Kong Xu, but the word "doubtful" marked everywhere still made Pei Yuan realize that this should be a mess of accounts that is not worth reading.

Pei Yuan did not doubt that Song Chunniang and Chen Toutie would cause trouble over the money, but with the situation so chaotic, it was difficult to sort it out.

Seeing that Kong Xu had kept the accounts in order, Pei Yuan remembered something and opened the July account he had just reviewed.

After a brief comparison, Pei Yuan saw the gap between Kong Xu and Zhang Song.

Although Kong Xu was only a minor official in the Inspection Office, he had strong practical skills and was quite organized in his accounting.

Although Zhang Song, a Jinshi, belongs to the elite class, he is not very good at handling these things. After all, not everyone is Wang Qiong.

Pei Yuan looked worriedly at the accounts waiting for confirmation, and couldn't help wondering whether he should find someone to do the accounting.

Just as I was thinking about it, I suddenly heard a commotion ahead and I couldn't tell how many people were walking towards this side.

Pei Yuan frowned slightly, somewhat puzzled as to why no one among the Jinyiwei in the courtyard stopped him.

When they arrived in front of the hall, they noticed that the person leading these people was Chen Xinjian.

Chen Xinjian obviously knew Pei Yuan was here. As soon as he came to the hall, he immediately said to Pei Yuan loudly, "Reporting to the captain, I have fulfilled my mission and have collected all the debts from the candidates."

Before Pei Yuan could say anything, he saw those burly scholars rushing in from outside the hall, bowing their heads in emotion and calling him brother.

Pei Yuan was stunned for a moment, then he was overjoyed and quickly came down from the hall to help them up one by one. He kept apologizing and blaming himself, "It's all because of my poor alcohol tolerance that I made the mistake. Otherwise, if I were here, how could I watch you all step into that fire pit?!"

As he spoke, he would occasionally clap his hands and high-five, the regret and annoyance on his face evident.

Pei Yuan's eyes fell on Zhang Song who was looking at him awkwardly outside the crowd, and he said bitterly, "Zhang Jingli, you are so confused!"

When many Shandong candidates heard Pei Yuan say this, they were deeply moved.

A Liaodong candidate named Bai Jun shouted, "Don't say that, Captain. Zhang Jingli has already explained it to us before. Otherwise, we wouldn't know that this position is so difficult and there are so many tricks."

Another candidate named Xie Bin who was nearby was also afraid that Pei Yuan would blame Zhang Song, so he quickly explained, "We originally wanted to get through this hurdle first, at least spend some money, get some connections, and get some essays from seniors who might serve as examiners. Unexpectedly, we were found by General Chen before we spent much money, and then we realized the benefits and disadvantages of this."

Chen Xinjian knew that Pei Yuan didn't know the inside story, and these candidates were talking at the same time and their words were confusing. He was afraid that Pei Yuan would be confused, so he quickly said to the candidates, "This matter involves many officials. I have to tell the thousand households to avoid any interference."

"Why don't you all go to the Buddhist temple in front and have some tea first? I'll have a good chat with you after Qian Hu has finished his work. How about that?"

When those scholars thought of what had happened today, they all agreed, fearing that they would really delay Captain Pei's plan.

Upon seeing this, Zhang Song hurriedly led the way and took those candidates out first.

After the people had gone far away, Pei Yuan couldn't wait to ask Chen Xinjian, "What happened? Tell me quickly."

Chen Xinjian then quickly told Pei Yuan what had happened.

It turned out that Chen Xinjian and Zhang Song found those candidates and after explaining the pros and cons to them, those candidates did not take it too seriously.

The main reason was that Zhang Song, as an experienced person, had given them some advice on the imperial examinations and thus opened the door to a new world for these candidates.

Only then did they realize that the imperial examination was a huge project.

The exam questions are highly metaphysical and are not within their consideration.

However, it is easy to narrow down the candidates for the chief examiner and co-examiners.

After all, there are not many people who are qualified and suitable to participate in the marking.

Coupled with the analysis of the current situation, many test preparation institutions can come up with one or more combined review lists.

What these candidates were planning to spend a large sum of money to buy were the past essays of these examiners compiled by someone with ulterior motives, so that the candidates could analyze and guess the examiners' marking tendencies.

When the imperial examination is approaching and these examiners are locked in the Imperial Examination Hall, the candidates can quickly adjust the direction of their arguments based on the candidates they have identified.

After all, the imperial examination was a liberal arts exam and there were no judging criteria.

Whether or not you will make the list in the end depends on whether you can reach an ideological consensus with the examiners.

After realizing the importance of the matter, even the candidates who were most reluctant to spend money were forced to pack up their money.

Fortunately, most of them came from good family backgrounds and had some money with them. Just to be on the safe side, they borrowed some extra money when the loan brokers came to them.

The least was only a hundred or so taels, and the most was only three or four hundred taels.

So they thought they could afford it and decided to pass the imperial examination first.

As for those unpaid Beijing debts, I definitely won’t touch them…

So despite Chen Xinjian's repeated persuasion, they still didn't believe it.

It was not until Zhang Song used his own example to make them realize the dangers of debts in Beijing that they tried to redeem the IOUs with some doubt.

As a result, when these scholars who did not take the matter seriously found the moneylenders, they were shocked to learn that the debts they owed had been sold and they did not know who was holding them now.

When the candidates thought about who had the debts, they didn't know who to ask to pay them back, nor did they know who was behind them. They began to get scared.

There are extremely high interest rates rolling on those debt notes.

If the delay is a little longer, even though it is only a hundred or a few hundred taels, if the interest is compounded, it will be a figure they cannot afford.

Seeing that those scholars began to feel frightened, Chen Xinjian deliberately started an argument with those moneylenders only in his capacity as the chief flag bearer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Behind these moneylenders are either dukes, marquises or high-ranking officials in the palace. How could they look down on a small general?

So they all made sarcastic remarks and pretended to be powerful.

Chen Xinjian contacted several companies and even made several arguments, but to no avail. He could not find out to whom the debt was sold.

When the candidates saw that even the Jinyiwei were useless, they became even more panicked.

At this time, Chen Xinjian acted like a bullied monkey, and pretended to lead the scholars to run to Song Chunniang for help.

When the candidates learned that they, the scholars, were actually going to form a group to ask the Western Factory for help, they felt it was very magical.

No, this...

But now my life and property are in the hands of others, so how can I care about so many things?

Song Chunniang heard that younger brother Chen was bullied, and also heard Chen Xinjian deliberately threaten in front of the scholars, saying that Captain Pei had ordered that he would help them redeem the debt at all costs.

What else is there to say?

Because Gu Dayong was not in the capital, Song Chunniang, who was sitting in the hall bored, immediately ordered the imperial guards to follow Chen Xinjian and attack him.

When the moneylenders heard that the person who came to their door was the Chief of Punishments of the Western Factory, they were dumbfounded.

They all looked at Chen Xinjian with resentment.

No, buddy, you have the support of the Western Factory’s Chief of Punishment, why didn’t you say it earlier?
Although the rank of Qianhu is not high, it would be completely different if this Qianhu was the Qianhu in charge of criminal justice in the Western Factory.

There may be countless people in Beijing who have higher positions than her, but only a handful of them dare to mess with her.

Seeing that the situation was not good, many money lenders not only quickly revealed the whereabouts of the debts, but also took the initiative to help redeem the debts.

The backer behind one of them was Yin Sheng, a senior eunuch in the palace.

The manager wanted to settle the matter peacefully and was about to write out the IOU, but he habitually blurted out a harsh word.

As a result, Chen Xinjian remembered what he had heard from Lu Ting last time, and quickly held down the IOU and punched him three times. Then he led a large group of candidates to ask for help from Lu Ting, the future seal of the Imperial Household Department.

The candidates were completely stunned. What kind of monsters are these?

It would have been fine if I had just gone to find the Captain of the Western Factory, but how is this related to the Imperial Household Department?

Although the result of running for help was that the two fathers-in-law were speechless, they loudly asked Chen Xinjian if it was just a trivial matter?
But..., Chen Xinjian's attitude of doing his best and sticking up for others is really touching.

Thinking back to how Brother Qianhu had behaved yesterday, everyone felt a little excited.

The word "righteousness" itself is irrational, which makes it hard for these Shandong scholars not to identify with it!

(End of this chapter)