Miss and farmhand

Shen Jingzong discovered that Huang Xingtong didn't even know the exchange rate before the war.

"Before the war, silver was worth 1,500 to 2,000 copper coins. There were too many low-quality copper coins and privately minted coins; it was impossible to manage them all."

"How could there be private minting? Aren't all the mineral resources in the hands of the imperial court?"

"Use cash to make a mold, the mold is rougher than the cash, then it is shaved flatter, and then the cash is melted down to recast the mold. One thousand cash can be used to cast one thousand five, and the worst is to use copper sheets directly, which can be used to cast two thousand."

Huang Xingtong opened his mouth slightly, indicating that he had learned something.

"...Then this isn't just about currency exchange; it involves much broader issues. Tracing the source...no, it's too difficult. In places like ours, the river sand is fine, and the casting tools are readily available. It's too easy. Afterwards, just dump it into the river, and there's no evidence whatsoever. There's nowhere to trace it." He muttered to himself.

"Everyone is broke and doesn't know where the money went. People can't let poverty kill them, so everyone tries to find ways to make money. They have their ways, and I have mine. I know I did wrong. Officials can't be compared to ordinary people. I don't need you to lecture me; I will submit to the law. But I also sigh and think, who is different from whom?"

Huang Xingtong certainly disagreed with him, but seeing how lonely he was now, he couldn't bring himself to kick him while he was down, so he could only change the subject back to the matter of speculating on silver.

"So, according to you, there's no way to resolve this?"

Shen Jingzong sneered, "How could that be?"

The next day, the yamen posted a notice and hired night watchmen to spread the word that the yamen would exchange silver at the official rate of one thousand coins per coin, and would accept any kind of money, regardless of the person. Anyone who came to queue up on the spot would be given a chance to exchange.

At first, of course, I didn't believe it, but the more I disbelieved it, the more I wanted to come and see. Since I was here, I thought it wouldn't hurt to bring a bag of copper coins to exchange for some.

In those days, no one's money was completely clean. If six or seven out of ten copper coins were recast, that was still considered good. Some particularly poor small business owners, who couldn't even save up a thousand coins, didn't have a single piece of official money in their possession.

It actually happened; the exchange rate didn't increase by a single cent, but it was 1,000 yuan per exchange.

The money exchange and redemption shops quickly became deserted.

Naturally, many people suffered huge losses, the more they exchanged initially, the more they lost. The tailor Huang Chu and her daughter met that day had exchanged fifty or sixty taels, and now they could exchange a hundred taels by queuing at the yamen. They were heartbroken and only then remembered that Huang Chu had told him not to speculate anymore. They suspected that Huang Chu had heard rumors and kindly told them, but they still didn't understand.

There are plenty of people like the tailor. The money shops and exchange shops are equally heartbroken, perhaps even more so.

After dark on the first day, once the line of people exchanging money dispersed, their carriage arrived at the back gate of the yamen (government office).

With tears streaming down his face, he pleaded with Shen Jingzong, "Sir, you're not trying to force us to our deaths. This is just our livelihood, we're only making a little extra. You also have a share, do you really want to see us lose money?"

For some reason, after reprimanding Huang Xingtong and sending him away, Shen Jingzong felt a surge of arrogance. He watched these people cry without offering any sarcastic remarks or driving them away; he simply listened. After listening, he realized things remained the same, nothing would change, so he simply considered his investment worthless. They could only leave dejectedly.

It's absolutely impossible that he changed his mind and wanted to be a good official when he was about to die.

It was a final, desperate celebration before death, a do-or-die moment.

Since everyone's going to die anyway, and the yamen won't be his yamen when Zhao Yuze returns, what's there to be afraid of? He'll just give away all the silver stored in the yamen! He'll be a generous spender for once. After all, it's not his money anymore; it's the next magistrate's money. It's someone else's money, and it doesn't hurt to spend other people's money!

His clerk understood him, because he believed he couldn't escape the charges against him either. The two of them teamed up and also fooled the other clerks, making a great success of their scheme.

The yamen runners were even more worried: "The yamen's silver isn't unlimited. If we keep exchanging it like this, it'll run out sooner or later. What will we do then? Everyone'll be in a panic."

Shen Jingzong waved his hand mysteriously, "What do you know? Didn't you see the governor when he came the other day? The governor knows everything! The governor has the court's silver in his hands. Can you even calculate how much silver the court has allocated?" He spoke with great disdain.

The more disdainful he was, the more at ease the constables felt.

As a result, before the government treasury had even finished redeeming all the silver, the panic and agitation among the people gradually subsided on their own, and fewer and fewer people came to redeem their money.

Because people still primarily used copper coins for daily expenses, those exchanging silver weren't doing it for spending, but rather to hoard it, fearing that copper coins would become obsolete and they'd still have silver to rely on. Seeing that the government was still collecting copper coins reassured them. Furthermore, since the naval cannon fire hadn't yet reached the nearshore areas, even if one out of ten merchant ships carrying grain and supplies was destroyed, nine would still remain. Given the war, these casualties were actually better than expected. Moreover, with the silver exchange rate stabilizing, grain and commodity prices also decreased. War is war, but people still needed to live their lives normally; what was the point of holding so much silver? They still needed copper coins. Thus, a chain reaction, almost triggering a run on silver, was finally suppressed.

Huang Xingtong said this was a true achievement. An official should not be afraid of being bad, but of creating chaos, because chaos is a sign of incompetence.

Huang Chu couldn't help but think of how incompetent Shen Jingzong was when he first handled Zhao Dong's case.

Now, Shen Jingzong seems to be doing good deeds even when he is about to die. He is still investigating the instigator of the man-made disaster, and his enthusiasm is as high as when he was making money.

In mid-June, Huang Chu and Huang Muyun were married, and Zhao Yuze finally returned from the sea, where everyone listened to his stories.

Just as he had initially planned and Huang Chu had predicted, to negotiate, one must first fight. Only by demonstrating one's strength can one be qualified to stand on the table. Before the fight, he had also corresponded with Ji Zheng, clarifying that the target was not him, but his subordinate Kobayashi, who had colluded with Japanese pirates who had committed serious crimes in Liaodong and fled south. If Ji Zheng tolerated this, he would be considered part of the same faction.

Ji Zheng was not intimidated at first; if they wanted to fight, they would fight, regardless of the accusations. His naval combat skills were definitely not low, his command was effective, and his fleet was skilled in battle, so Zhao Yuze's side had no advantage at all. However, they made good use of their early reconnaissance, and they anchored Kobayashi's fleet early on.

After a group of Kobayashi's men escaped, he mostly used Han Chinese, but there were also many other mixed-race people whose identities were unclear. It was as if he was throwing all sorts of people at him, which also had a sense of contempt. Kobayashi didn't know what he was thinking, but he did train them more hard than other fleets.

Zhao Yuze observed for several days before realizing that Kobayashi had infiltrated the fleeing Japanese pirates into his own ranks, a situation more alarming than the court's apparent plan for recuperation. Incorporation meant integration, which meant this group was at risk.

Zhao Yuze relentlessly pursued them, using small groups to harass the larger ships while keeping watch from afar, never truly engaging in combat, merely putting on a show for Ji Zheng. It wasn't until Ji Zheng was forced to intervene on behalf of his men, resulting in several fierce battles and significant losses on both sides, that things took a turn for the worse. Zhao Yuze couldn't afford further losses; his ships and men were cobbled together from various garrisons, and a second wave couldn't be mobilized quickly. Ji Zheng could afford the losses, but his men were bandits, not soldiers, and their management was clearly less effective than that of the garrisons. Previously, they had always enjoyed favorable winds at sea, following him only to exploit his power and influence. Now, with real fighting and deaths looming, many small boat owners were questioning whether it was worth it.

This is the time to negotiate.