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

Chapter 577 Add Money First

After seeing Huo Tao successfully become the top scorer in the provincial examination, Pei Yuan became increasingly bold in his judgment of this imperial examination.

He immediately made a startling statement to Li Shishi, saying, "If I'm not mistaken, these three are the top-ranking scholars in this special imperial examination."

Li Shishi instinctively felt that Pei Yuan was talking nonsense, but the list of candidates in front of him was the most convincing thing.

Li Shishi asked instinctively, "Are they your people too?"

Unexpectedly, Pei Yuan gave Li Shishi an unexpected answer: "No, I met these three people on the way back to the capital."

"At that time, many of their candidates were stranded at the post station by the heavy rain and were worried that the muddy roads would affect their journey to the north for the imperial examinations, so they came to me for help."

"I could tell at a glance from those candidates that these three were destined for greatness, which is why I readily offered my help and traveled to the capital with them on the same boat."

"If the Grand Commandant doesn't believe it, he can ask the people who were at Chongwu Water Station back then. These things are not difficult to investigate."

"Hehe, who knows, after the results of the imperial examination are announced, there will be candidates who were not chosen by me who will write a memorial to impeach these three people for colluding with me, the Jinyiwei, who are evil."

Li Shishi looked at the rankings of the three men and couldn't see how such ordinary people could have the potential to sweep the top three spots.

He was somewhat skeptical, "Brother, aren't you exaggerating a bit?"

Pei Yuan laughed and said, "When we were having a banquet at Zhihua Temple, the Grand Commandant also had his doubts. Now the results of the imperial examination are in the Grand Commandant's hands."

"At this moment, the Grand Commandant may naturally have doubts, but with the palace examination just around the corner, I, Pei, need not say too much."

Seeing Pei Yuan's certainty, Li Shishi asked, somewhat puzzled, "What do you mean by telling me all this?"

Pei Yuan said frankly, "It's nothing. It's just to prove that this imperial examination was fair, open, and just, and there was absolutely no inside story. I, Pei, got to know these people entirely because of my ability to judge character."

Li Shishi thought to himself, "There's no way anyone can believe this."

But seeing Pei Yuan's confident demeanor, she had some doubts.

Li Shishi thought for a moment, then asked Pei Yuan, "Do I look like a Grand Scholar?"

Pei Yuan was stunned for a moment before he realized what was happening.

Damn it, is this a weasel coming to ask for a title?
Seeing Li Shishi staring intently at him, Pei Yuan, as his younger brother, had to give him the emotional reward.

So he said, “I think you look like a Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince, Minister of Personnel, and Grand Secretary of the Hall of Literary Glory.”

Li Shishi burst into laughter upon hearing this.

Leaving aside the honorary titles such as Junior Tutor, Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince, and Minister of Personnel, the Grand Secretary of the Hall of Literary Glory was the foremost civil official and the chief minister of the cabinet.

Putting aside other matters, I like hearing this.

Li Shishi calmed down a bit and then confirmed with Pei Yuan, "You just said that all I need to do is nod at the right time, and that'll be enough for us to reach a deal?"

Pei Yuan said, "That's right, I would never trouble the Grand Commandant with such trivial matters."

"The Grand Coordinator only needs to express his opinion at crucial moments."

Li Shishi pondered for a moment, then stopped worrying about it.

Whatever the reasons, the outcome is clear. With these intellectuals entering politics, a small political group has effectively formed.

Such political cliques have been countless since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

Most of them disappeared without a trace as the careers of the key figures came to an end.

Let alone these adorable newbies banding together, even many powerful alliances cannot escape this fate.

For example, the anti-Eight Tigers camp, led by the three Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet and the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Eastern Depot, collapsed in recent years as Li Dongyang defected, Xie Qian and Liu Jian retired, and Wang Yue and others were exiled.

For example, the "Ten Years of Jia Shen," whose influence was so vast that they could effectively usurp the court, were defeated one by one and driven away as their core figure, Jiao Fang, retired.

To take a closer look, Li Dongyang's departure led to a major reshuffling of He Jian and a large number of officials in the Ministry of War faction.

Yang Yiqing, who had once fought Yang Tinghe to a standstill for a short period, was now clearly at a disadvantage after Zhang Yong and other prominent officials of the Zhengde era were replaced.

Even if Pei Yuan manages to assemble a team of more than ten successful candidates, it's really hard to say how far they'll go in the end.

Even if it really reaches the level of the "Ten Years of Jia Shen" and another "Seventeen Sons of Ren Shen", it is very likely to be just a small ripple in the bloody storm of the imperial court.

Instead of worrying about these things, you should think about what tangible benefits you can gain.

Li Shishi had dealt with Pei Yuan before, and since Pei Yuan had been so straightforward in asking for a price back then, Li Shishi wasn't embarrassed to ask for the same price this time.

He said directly, "Add more money first."

Pei Yuan felt relieved to see that Li Shishi was eloquent.

He reminded him, somewhat amused and exasperated, "My brother hasn't said what conditions he plans to offer yet."

Li Shishi then realized what was happening and said directly, "Then you speak."

Pei Yuan said, "I just learned of a big business opportunity. If handled well, it's easy to earn hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. I wonder if the Grand Commandant is interested?"

Li Shishi nodded and said, "Then you can add it."

After saying that, she suddenly realized something and looked at Pei Yuan with a blank expression, asking, "How much?"

Pei Yuan showed his utmost sincerity, saying, "If handled properly, you can earn hundreds of thousands of taels of silver!"

Li Shishi looked Pei Yuan up and down, and said in disbelief, "Brother, are you perhaps playing a trick on me?"

Pei Yuan didn't keep Li Shishi in suspense and told him about the upcoming incident involving the Siyueku memorial.

Once Li Shishi understood the contents of the "Secret Treasury Memorial Incident," his expression indeed changed.

Pei Yuan seized the opportunity to say, "The price of the Ming Dynasty Treasure Notes has now fallen to rock bottom. Once the Treasury submits a memorial, a large number of merchants will surely choose to use the Ming Dynasty Treasure Notes to pay taxes at the customs in order to save silver."

“In the fifth year of Zhengde’s reign, one string of paper money could be exchanged for two coins. But after the court suspended the collection of paper money, only two years later, dozens of strings of paper money could not even be exchanged for a single coin.”

"There is a huge price difference in between."

"If we quickly stockpile a batch of Ming Dynasty banknotes now, then once the memorial from the Treasury is submitted, the price of Ming Dynasty banknotes will immediately skyrocket."

"This is money."

“Every penny of discount we earn is real profit that we can actually get from the merchants.”

"If handled well, the price difference here is not 20% or 30%, nor is it two or three times, but twenty or thirty times!"

Li Shishi was utterly stunned. "Twenty times, thirty times?!"

Then Pei Yuan continued, "Moreover, there is another benefit to this matter." "The memorial submitted by the Director of the Key Treasury must have been pushed forward by someone behind the scenes."

“We don’t need to do anything; someone will take the initiative to promote the appreciation of the Ming Dynasty’s precious paper money. So, we have almost no risk in this matter; we just need to hitch a ride.”

"In short, it's like the mantis stalks the cicada behind, or it's like getting something for nothing."

Li Shishi's mouth was agape in disbelief. "Could such a good thing really happen?"

This matter was certainly not as easy as Pei Yuan made it out to be. At least from a historical perspective, this attempt to rescue the Ming Dynasty's paper money likely ended in failure.

Pei Yuan certainly didn't expect anything from the person behind the key repository.

The risks of this speculation in precious paper money are enormous, and Pei Yuan already has a bad feeling about it.

He had already made preparations to first take advantage of the situation and then seize the opportunity to buy the shares at any time.

Since we're planning to fight the Silver Group, the safest approach is to have our sworn ally Zhu Chenhao cover our losses and extract Pei Yuan's capital before the war even begins.

Pei Yuan said to Li Shishi in a deep voice, "If my information is correct, the Directorate of Keys will submit a memorial within ten days. However, by then, if the Grand Commandant wants to take action again, he probably won't gain any advantage."

Li Shishi remained silent for a moment, then quickly analyzed the information provided by Pei Yuan.

If this information is accurate, then Pei Yuan's previous mention of twenty or thirty times the profit might actually be true.

However, to profit from it, a considerable amount of capital needs to be invested.

If you only invest a thousand or so taels of silver, well, you can make a lot of money if you do.

However, compared to the tax revenue from the major customs offices of the imperial court, this amount of silver was nothing.

Don't be fooled by the tax revenue the imperial court receives each year; the figures may seem normal, but that's all that's been distributed down the ranks, leaving only what's left.

The wealth actually flowing through the major tax checkpoints is an astronomical figure.

Once this intelligence is confirmed.

If Li Shishi were to ultimately earn only ten thousand taels of silver from such a valuable piece of information, he would be so regretful he would want to slap his thigh in despair.

However, if a large amount of money is invested and the news turns out to be false, or other variables occur that cause the Ming Dynasty Treasure Notes to continue their downward trend, or even begin to fall more rapidly due to the false news, then the invested money will be wasted.

Li Shishi was at a loss for what to do.

He said to Pei Yuan, "This matter is of great importance, and I must ask Prince Ning for his opinion."

Pei Yuan reminded him, "I'm afraid that before the letter from the Grand Capital Censor even reaches the Prince of Ning, the memorial from the Key Treasury will already be sent to the Office of Transmission."

"Instead of doing that, it would be better for the Grand Commandant to simply pretend he doesn't know anything, so that when things come to light, if Prince Ning sees the letter, he will think that the Grand Commandant is indecisive and incapable of accomplishing great things."

“This…” Li Shishi was reminded by Pei Yuanyi and suddenly realized what was going on.

Seeking advice from Prince Ning is not a good idea.

Li Shishi pondered the matter over and over, but he really didn't know what to do. He could only sigh and say, "This matter is too important for me to decide. At most, I will invest a thousand taels of my own money, just to accompany you and stand with you through thick and thin."

Pei Yuan smiled and said, "That works too."

Pei Yuan picked up a cup of tea from the table and took a sip. He noticed that Li Shishi was still frowning, looking preoccupied.

He couldn't help but laugh and said, "Could it be that the Grand Commandant is unwilling to part with such a tremendous achievement?"

Li Shishi hesitated for a moment, then said frankly, "To be honest, in order to achieve victory in one battle, the Ning Prince has already spent the savings accumulated over several generations. Originally, this money should have been more than enough to win over the court officials or to raise troops."

"It's just that back then, when the rebels in Bazhou were in trouble, Prince Ning was greedy and invested a lot of resources."

"In addition, Ningfan's finances are not so abundant recently because he needs to smooth things over in order to restore the Three Guards."

“In the past, I could make the decision, but now that more money is being transferred, we’re facing financial difficulties elsewhere.”

Pei Yuan was a little disappointed; he hadn't expected that the Prince of Ning wasn't so wealthy after all.

Logically speaking, the Prince of Ning in history should have had considerable wealth to secretly support so many bandits in Poyang Lake and to organize the provisions for 100,000 troops during the rebellion.

This version of Zhu Chenhao seems much weaker.

Fortunately, Pei Yuan quickly figured out what he wanted and immediately smiled and said, "It's alright. This intelligence is of great importance, and it's only natural that the Metropolitan Governor would be cautious."

"But since I'm using this to trade with the Grand Commandant, if the Grand Commandant and the Ning Prince don't receive any real benefits, how can this intelligence, even if it's extremely valuable, demonstrate my sincerity?"

Upon hearing this, Li Shishi couldn't help but exclaim, "Brother Pei is truly a frank and honest gentleman."

As he spoke, he became expectant, "Then I wonder if Brother Pei has any good ideas?"

Pei Yuan smiled and said, "It's very simple. After receiving this news, although I can't confirm its authenticity yet, I have already had my men acquire a batch of banknotes in various places."

At this point, Pei Yuan paused and explained to Li Shishi, "At that time, I was also very apprehensive, and I was just taking a gamble. Now that I can be fairly certain that the news is true, I came to inform the Grand Commandant before the Directorate of Keys submitted its memorial."

Li Shishi naturally didn't care about that. As long as he could make his move before the Siyueku memorial was submitted, he wouldn't miss the most lucrative period of appreciation.

Pei Yuan acted earlier, which also meant he faced greater risks.

Li Shishi was more concerned about the solution proposed by Pei Yuan.

Pei Yuan continued, "I currently have a large sum of banknotes on hand. If the Grand Commandant wishes to wait and see, he can agree on a price and quantity with me. Once this news is confirmed, he can exchange the banknotes for silver from me."

"Of course, if the news turns out to be false, and there is no memorial from the Treasury, and the price of the paper money rises below the amount we agreed upon, then this matter will be dropped."

"What does the Grand Commandant think?"

Li Shishi was somewhat incredulous upon hearing this. "So, you mean I can set a price and buy banknotes from Brother Pei? If the news is true and the banknotes appreciate, I can cash them out. If the news is false, the previous agreement can be canceled?"

Pei Yuan nodded and said, "That's right."

Li Shishi was immediately tempted. In this way, not only would the Ning Kingdom not miss out on this opportunity, but Pei Yuan would also bear all the risks.

He certainly understood that the price couldn't be calculated based on the current price.

After all, by the time this agreement is fulfilled, whether the price of the precious currency rises or falls will already be settled.

The Ning princes essentially made a fortune for free.

Even if the agreed price has a premium compared to buying the banknotes now, so what?

Pei Yuan might make a profit, but Ning Fan will definitely not lose out!

(End of this chapter)