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

Chapter 563: Missing the days of six taels of silver a month

Pei Yuan then said to Chen Xinjian, "In the early stage of recruiting soldiers, you will inevitably need some money. You are a little different from Cheng Leixiang. When he was in Tianjin, he was subsidized by the imperial court."

"As for you, don't mention that you mainly recruit elite servants. Even if you add regular soldiers later, Xuanfu may not give you much money and food."

"But there are also advantages. This army does not rely on the imperial court's food and wages, and is more independent."

Chen Xinjian was well aware of Captain Pei's financial resources and waited patiently for his arrangements.

Pei Yuan said straightforwardly, "In the early stage, we can follow Cheng Leixiang's example and give you 20,000 taels first. If you need silver to support the troops in the later stage, we will allocate it to you on time."

Chen Xinjian was overjoyed and said quickly, "I will definitely live up to your expectations."

In addition to his own 60,000 taels, Pei Yuan also moved the account books of Qianhu Suo and the savings of several tens of thousands of taels to the old house in Dengshikou.

In addition to this, there was the 170,000 taels of silver that he obtained from the commanders in the south when he helped Zhu Houzhao find his son.

Before that, Pei Yuan had Chen Xinjian take 70,000 taels of the 170,000 taels of silver from Wang Chang, and started purchasing Ming treasure notes from the seven major customs offices related to the memorials from the Siyueku.

It is now October, and it is less than a month since the "Siyuku Memorial Incident".

At the current time point, the personnel sent to the seven places have accelerated the purchase of Ming Dynasty treasure notes, and are now transporting the "waste paper" to the capital at a rapid speed.

After the "Siyuku Memorial Incident" occurred, the Ming Baochao could be used again to pay commercial taxes on the canal.

This was also the first and last time the Ming Dynasty's treasure notes were restarted after being abandoned for more than two years.

After the initial price matching trial, the depletion of Ming Baochao's liquidity due to Pei Yuan's crazy acquisitions will cause the exchange price of Baochao to quickly approach the official guidance price of the fifth year of Zhengde.

That is, one string of treasure notes was worth two cents.

The historical background when Pei Yuan sent people to buy up the Ming Dynasty treasure notes was that the Ming Dynasty treasure notes had been abandoned for two years and its future was uncertain.

The decline of Baochao's value was difficult to curb, and the main recycling channels were cut off, so the price basically went towards the level of waste paper.

But who would have thought that after a while, these "waste papers" would be able to pay taxes again?

Although Pei Yuan did not know the specific price at which his men purchased the treasure notes, the average exchange price of one penny should be between a dozen and several dozen strings of treasure notes.

In other words, if he really planned to sell off in large quantities, even if Pei Yuan's 70,000 taels of silver could not make a profit of dozens of times, at least a dozen times would be enough to make a lot of money.

However, given the amount of treasure notes in Pei Yuan's hands, if he really did this, the treasure note market would be completely destroyed.

Once the Ming Baochao collapsed and the value of currency was replaced by silver, the imperial court would completely lose its financial power and the entire country would be exploited by the premium silver.

This is something Pei Yuan absolutely does not want to see.

The most important innovation Pei Yuan tried to make to the Ming Dynasty was to cooperate with Wang Qiong and Wang Shouren, the two old six, to bind the Ming Dynasty's treasure notes with the "One Whip" method.

As long as this method succeeds, the imperial court will be able to break free from the control of the Silver Group and control a large amount of manpower and material resources through the Ming Baochao.

Moreover, if the Ming Baochao is used as a circulating currency, the people will not have to share the extra value of silver from mining and smelting to transportation and trading to the hands of the people, and the burden will be greatly reduced.

With these powerful human and material resources, the Ming Dynasty could exert its power to sweep both internally and externally.

Compared with this great vision, Pei Yuan is still willing to take a gamble.

Moreover, as long as Pei Yuan does not sell off, or even sells out in small quantities slowly, the price of Baochao may invert based on the official guidance price in the fifth year of Zhengde.

If measured by this currency value, the paper price of the treasure notes in Pei Yuan's hand would reach a staggering one million taels.

I don’t dare to think about it.

Pei Yuan shook his head. Damn it. He had just made more than 900,000 taels in Huai'an last year, and now he wanted more than 1 million taels.

Why do I feel so uneasy?

Speaking of which, I really miss the time when I was paid six taels of silver a month and was chased by my creditors.

That running under the sunset is my lost youth.

Immediately, Pei Yuan remembered that Wang Chang still had 100,000 taels of silver ready to go, and was preparing to purchase Yongle Tong Bao and then go to Japan to do some business.

Although the Yongle Tong Bao coin that is currently being hyped in Japan is far from reaching its peak, Pei Yuan can’t wait any longer.

He planned to take advantage of the Japanese delegation's stay in Beijing to find a suitable Japanese traitor as soon as possible, launch a Yongle Tong Bao offensive, reap Japan's wealth with all his strength, and strive to collapse the ruling system there in one fell swoop.

By then, there might be other opportunities to profit from it.

If you don’t cut this first batch of leeks, they will no longer be fragrant.

Moreover, what was exchanged for Yongle Tongbao was real silver. Only when Pei Yuan had sufficient silver reserves in his hands would he have more energy to face the counterattack of the Southern Silver Group.

When Chen Xinjian saw Pei Qianhu talking, he first looked thoughtful, then showed a mysterious smile, and was speechless for a moment.

Fortunately, Chen Xinjian was always sensible. He waited for a while until Pei Yuan came back to his senses before he took the initiative to bring up the previous topic.

"Should I go to Zhang Song to get the money, or..."

Pei Yuan came back to his senses and said, "Go find the young lady to get the silver. There is no rush for this matter. I will also go to Shandong to eliminate the De clan in a few days. You can go south with me."

Chen Xinjian's heart skipped a beat, remembering that when Pei Yuan mentioned Dongchang Prefecture just now, he told him not to worry about Defan's affairs.

I thought to myself, could it be that that thing is about to start?

However, Chen Xinjian still didn’t think that rumors of that magnitude would have any effect on Defan.

The two chatted for a while, and then they heard a Jinyiwei come to report, "Captain, the Imperial Examination Hall is open."

"Oh?" Pei Yuan perked up and looked outside. Sure enough, it was getting dark.

Pei Yuan glanced at Chen Xinjian and said with inexplicable emotion, "The opportunity to leap over the dragon gate is right in front of us. I wonder how many people can still remember the kindness of this thousand households."

Then he said, "Let's wait and see."

Pei Yuan also mentioned to Chen Xinjian how to equip the semi-private army of Xinghe Qianhu Suo.

We can no longer count on support from the imperial court and Xuanfu.

Chen Xinjian initially planned to find some ways to buy some useful weapons from Huguang or Guangdong. Huguang and Guangdong are both important iron-making areas, with Guangdong being the largest.

Guangdong iron pots have always been a hard currency for export to Arab merchants. In addition, iron pots were also a hot commodity when smuggled to Tartar.

The difficulty of casting an iron pot is several orders of magnitude more difficult than that of making weapons. If you can sell iron pots, you can naturally sell other ironware. This is a tacit understanding.

However, Pei Yuan gave other opinions.

"Earlier, in order to pacify the Bazhou Army, the imperial court opened up the supply of food, wages and military equipment to the border troops and the Beijing troops participating in the war."

"Now that the rebellion has been quelled, many of the Beijing troops will be seconded to various government offices or to build temples. Most of the equipment they have will be resold by military officers of all ranks in the various guards."

"We can first think of a way to buy a batch from the Beijing Camp at a low price." Chen Xinjian thought for a moment and said, "I don't have many connections in the Beijing Camp. I'll go see if Yun Buxian's injury has recurred and ask him by the way."

The two of them talked about each other.

Chen Xinjian could already sense that Pei Yuan's mind was clearly not on this.

He knew that Pei Yuan was concerned about the candidates, so he stopped talking and quietly went out to light the lamp and come back.

After a while, a member of the Imperial Guard came to report, "Captain, three candidates, Tang Gao, Huang Chu, and Cai Ang, have finished their examinations. I heard that you are handling official business at the temple, so I came here to express my gratitude."

Pei Yuangang smiled, then thought again. These three people were originally staying in Zhihua Temple, and he had done his best to bring them to the capital to take the exam. They owed him a great favor.

Now that the exam is over, it is only natural for me to come and say hello.

Pei Yuan's expression calmed down and he said, "Please let them in."

Chen Xinjian was watching Pei Yuan's expression and knew that he was concerned about those Shandong candidates who had spent a lot of effort on them.

He was afraid that Pei Yuan would be disappointed, so he couldn't help but remind him, "Qian Hu, sometimes they are confused, so you don't have to take them seriously. You can also give them a push at the critical moment."

Pei Yuan nodded slightly.

How can human nature stand the test?

After these people entered official careers and became civil servants, their past of being on friendly terms with the military officers of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, such as they were, would inevitably become their black history.

Even the most determined person will inevitably waver when faced with identity issues.

As a pragmatist like me, I really shouldn't be naive and expect too much.

After a while, Tang Gao and three others came in.

Perhaps it was because they had just come out of the examination room not long ago, so although the three of them looked a little tired, they were still excited. When they stepped forward to greet Pei Yuan, they could see joy on their brows.

Pei Yuan knew the abilities of these three people, and congratulated them with a smile in advance, "It seems that everyone has performed well this time. It shows that Pei still has some vision. I am fortunate to be able to bring three outstanding people to Beijing."

The three of them smiled and said modestly, "We don't deserve your praise."

Pei Yuan took the opportunity to invite, "I have asked someone to prepare some drinks, and we will celebrate with you three later."

Although these three are not talented people who will go down in history, they are still worth winning over due to their high status.

The only pity is that these three were going to enter the Hanlin Academy, and on weekdays they could only write lyrics and edit history. By the time they were able to play a role, Pei Yuan's situation had basically been decided.

Well, we can let them supervise the writing of history to prevent those clever people from taking the opportunity to discredit us in the history books.

Thinking that these three people could be useful, Pei Yuan's invitation became more sincere.

The three of them did really well in the exam this time. They looked at each other and thought that they had received a lot of help from Captain Pei. There was no need to be distant with him, so they all said, "Well, thank you for bothering us. Let's go back and take a shower and change clothes before attending the banquet."

Pei Yuan looked at the three people carefully.

They had been in the Imperial Examination Hall for a while, and they were indeed a little haggard and shabby. They really needed to take a good bath and change their clothes.

Pei Yuan listened to the words, looking thoughtful, and his expression improved a little.

After the three men left, Chen Xinjian immediately said, "Although those candidates were arranged near Zhihua Temple and their time of return was almost the same as the three men's, they were still somewhat different from the three men who lived in Zhihua Temple."

"Maybe he will come back after taking a shower and changing clothes. Who knows."

Pei Yuan nodded and waited for a moment.

Just when Pei Yuan was getting impatient, another Jinyiwei came in and reported, "Reporting to the commander, those Shandong candidates came together to ask to see the commander, saying that the commander had promised to hold a banquet for them before the exam."

After hearing this, Pei Yuan felt relieved.

He immediately asked, "How many people are here?"

The Jinyiwei replied, "It seems that the ten or so people who came last time have all come here."

Chen Xinjian said at the right moment, "Captain, I will ask someone to prepare a banquet."

Pei Yuan said happily, "Okay!"

As he spoke, he remembered Chen Xinjian's previous reminder, turned around in his seat and looked at the painting behind him.

The painting was made by Lu Ji, a famous artist of the time and commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. In it, Pei Yuan is in the center, with candidates drinking happily on his left and right.

Pei Yuan looked at it for a moment and said calmly, "Let's hold the banquet in the Buddhist hall and have someone hang the painting there for them to admire."

A qualified political affiliation requires not only close friendship but also a clear bond between the two parties.

It is not a redundant thing that the "Ten People of Jiashen" appear in the same painting.

Upon hearing this, Chen Xinjian immediately asked someone to make arrangements.

Just then, another Jinyiwei reported back that Huo Tao and Tian Fu had also arrived.

Pei Yuan was not surprised by these two. Even though they came late, he knew that something must have delayed them.

After all, the two of them were involved in too many things and could no longer jump ship.

Seeing that it was getting late and there wouldn't be much opportunity for private conversation, Pei Yuan simply asked them to go together to the Buddhist temple for the banquet.

Pei Yuan thought for a while, then ordered his men, "Go and invite Li Shishi, the governor of Dadu, to come here for me."

Chen Xinjian, who had just finished arranging everything, came back at the moment. Hearing this, he asked in surprise, "Now?"

Chen Xinjian reminded Pei Yuan carefully, "The dignified Seven Ministers and the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate are very attractive to these candidates. Qianhu must not make wedding clothes for Prince Ning."

Pei Yuan shook his head and said, "After these people pass the palace examination, we should consider sending them to various ministries to observe government affairs. I want to have them all go to the Censorate, but this cannot be done without Li Shishi's approval."

"It's a good opportunity to meet Li Shishi now. He has been close to Yang Yiqing, the official of the Ministry of Personnel, recently, so I might as well hand it over to him at the same time."

"As for Prince Ning, Li Shishi should know his limits and will not offend me for these Jinshi scholars. Besides, what's wrong with me arranging a few Jinshi scholars?"

If these words were said by some bigwigs from the civil service, it wouldn't be at all inappropriate.

It does sound a bit strange when said this as Captain Pei of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Fortunately, Chen Xinjian also had full confidence in Pei Yuan, so he said, "Then I will go to the governor of Dadu to ask for someone in person."

After a while, a Jinyiwei came in and carefully took the famous painting painted by Jinyiwei commander Lu Ji from the wall behind Pei Yuan.

Pei Yuan deliberately waited for a while before walking towards the Buddhist temple where he had had dinner last time.

(End of this chapter)