The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 114 Full of Harvests
Li Xianze was doing very well on Haidadao, and he almost cleared out all the valuables in the foreign companies there.

However, the operation to rob the banks of the major powers on Central Street was not very smooth.

Although the vanguard's attack on the concession was sudden, leaving the banks no time to transfer funds and valuables, almost all banks had Chinese and foreign guards on duty at night, so Hu Daqiu encountered resistance in these banks.

However, the intensity of resistance of these banks was still different. Although the bank guards of the Western powers were led by tall and strong foreign guard foremen, and even had some foreign guards, they basically opened the door and surrendered after a symbolic resistance. However, some banks still resisted very strongly.

Among them, the one that valued money more than life was the Japanese Specie Bank. There were not only a dozen Japanese soldiers armed with long and short weapons in the Specie Bank, but also a dozen Japanese samurai wearing wooden clogs and kimonos, with shaved yin-yang heads, and wielding samurai swords.

Hu Daqiu was not careful and six or seven people were killed or injured by the Japanese. This made Hu Daqiu furious. After forcing the Japanese into the building with intensive firepower, he threw explosive packs along the way and finally killed all these Japanese who were resisting desperately.

In order to cover up the traces of the explosives, Li Yaoting finally set fire to the Japanese Specie Bank before the No. 1 Regiment arrived.

All these resistances caused Hu Daqiu to suffer nearly thirty casualties, but Hu Daqiu still resolutely carried out Teng Yuzhao's orders, stopped the soldiers who had already become red-eyed, disarmed the remaining guards and drove them away.

As for those who were too dedicated to their work to leave the bank, Hu Daqiu naturally would not force them. He just took away their weapons, and Li Yaoting would naturally deal with them.

Although Li Yaoting said nothing after he came back, Hu Daqiu noticed that there were blood stains on the several big knives that Li Yaoting brought.

Unfortunately, we ultimately failed to succeed at HSBC.

Because of the No. 1 group in the world, HSBC escaped a disaster.

When Hu Daqiu and his men rushed over, half of Victoria Street had been occupied by Zhang Decheng's No. 1 Regiment in the World due to the active retreat of the Allied Forces. However, the No. 1 Regiment in the World, where most of the men were still holding swords and spears, was no longer able to advance under the intensive firepower of the Maxim heavy machine guns and rifles of the Allied Forces, which had reorganized and set up their lines.

The HSBC Bank is located on Boshitu Road, which is on the east side of Victoria Street. To sneak there, one has to cross Victoria Street, where half of the street is occupied by the No. 1 Group in the World.

After being unable to advance further on Victoria Street, the No. 1 Regiment in the World, which had suffered heavy casualties, vented its anger on the foreigners living there and the foreign houses along the street. Not only were many foreigners killed in the chaos, but many houses and buildings there were also set on fire, and the raging fire illuminated the entire street.

At this time, if a vanguard army passed through this blazing street, it would be difficult not to be noticed.

In order to make up for the "loss" of losing HSBC, and seeing that there was still time, Hu Daqiu and Li Yaoting made a plan and plundered the money houses and bill offices opened by Chinese people, whose guards on duty had disappeared without a trace.

While still on the floating bridge, Hu Daqiu and Li Yaoting had already taken the initiative to "confess" their "crimes" to Teng Yuzhao.

Although their "robbing" of domestic merchants' money houses and bill offices exceeded the scope given by Teng Yuzhao, they were after all also considering the vanguard army, and even these two people might have been considering his personal interests.

Teng Yuzhao estimated that these two people might be thinking that he, Teng Yuzhao, wanted to take such a huge amount of wealth into his own hands.

Fortunately, no one was hurt in the process of targeting these banks and ticket offices, so Teng Yuzao just pretended not to hear about it. "Xingfu, we have made a fortune. Time is too tight to count it completely, but we have classified and stored all kinds of money and valuables. We can count the exact number when we pack them."

Excited Li Yulin wiped the sweat from his head and said with an apologetic smile.

“How many can there be, roughly?”

Although Teng Yuzao wanted to act more reserved, he couldn't control his inner excitement and couldn't help but blurt out the question.

As soon as he said this, Teng Yuzhao couldn't help but feel his face getting hot and secretly cursed himself for being so useless.

Especially, the source of this huge sum of money was questionable. He was so impatient, even a bit like the joy of a successful robber. This seemed...

Li Yulin, who was in an excited state, did not notice Teng Yuzhao's expression and said excitedly.

"Excited. I roughly calculated that among these funds, there should be nearly 800,000 pounds, more than 3.6 million German gold marks, nearly 5 million francs, and nearly 2 million dollars and rubles each. The largest amount is Japanese yen, which is more than 6.5 million."

"There are also more than 250,000 taels of gold bars and gold ingots, and a total of about 3 million taels of silver and silver dollars. There are also nearly 3 million taels of silver dollar certificates issued by various banks, and two large boxes of Western gold and silver jewelry. It's hard to estimate the value of these."

After hearing the numbers Li Yulin reported, Teng Yuzhao felt dizzy and didn't hear clearly what Li Yulin said next.

Teng Yuzhao was not surprised at all that these foreign banks had so much cash in reserve. The capital of these foreign banks would exceed five million taels of silver, and the capital of large foreign banks could reach tens of millions of taels. They not only engaged in savings and lending, but also foreign exchange business. At the same time, these banks also issued a large number of silver dollar certificates in the country. Even some funds for domestic purchases of bulk foreign materials, such as weapons, were exchanged through them.

In addition, taxes pledged by the customs and war reparations paid to Britain, France, Japan and Russia would also be deposited in these banks, which would then remit them back to their own countries.

Even some small money houses and bill exchange offices in the concessions would temporarily place their daily balances in these safe foreign banks for safekeeping and use them as vaults.

In addition, because the Qing court was bullied by the great powers, it turned a blind eye to the foreign banks' unauthorized issuance of silver dollar certificates in the country.

The so-called silver dollar certificates are equivalent to the paper money issued by these foreign banks in the country, and are of the same nature as the silver notes issued by domestic money houses and bill shops.

The difference is that silver bills are all in large denominations, while these silver dollar notes are in small denominations like paper money. They can be circulated and are even popular in major cities in the country because they are more credible.

Those holding these silver dollar certificates can exchange them for silver dollars at any time at the issuing foreign banks.

All of this determines that these banks have huge reserves of gold, silver and foreign currencies. If these foreign banks did not have a large amount of funds to lend out, the harvest this time would be even more astonishing.

Thanks: 20210301105381281322, Zhu Zhinan, 20190912101209937, Chi Changyingz Fu Canglong, Laogui Wu Ge, Shenlan and other book friends for their strong support!
Your support is the driving force of Zuima!


(End of this chapter)