Fenghou

The next morning, Chen Qing summoned Xu Xiantu, the prime minister in charge of the household department.

"Wei Chen sees His Majesty!"

Chen Qing nodded, "Xu Xiangguo, please sit down!"

Chen Qing asked Xu Xiantu to sit down, and said to him: "Half of the money ticket case that happened in the former Yongjing cabinet workshop has been cracked by the inner guards. It was done by a group of Koreans. At present, all the Koreans have also been arrested. There are 550 counterfeit bills with a total face value of [-] million guan. According to their account, they plan to withdraw copper coins from [-] counters in various places at the same time after the money bills are rolled out in large quantities. If they succeed, the imperial court will suffer heavy losses.”

Xu Xiantu was taken aback and said, "Could it be that the cabinet shop can't tell if it's true or not?"

Chen Qing shook his head, "If it wasn't for the intervention of the internal guards, the counter of the main store would not be able to tell the authenticity of the money ticket."

"Isn't it too easy to fake?"

"Here is the problem. Our technology is not enough to make money notes that others cannot imitate. The only fear method is severe punishment. Fake."

Speaking of this, Chen Qing sighed and said: "I am responsible for this matter. I think things are too simple. I want to run before I can walk. I always want to issue clubs. Now I know that there is no breakthrough in anti-counterfeiting technology." In the past, it was very inappropriate to issue money and bank notes, regardless of the issuance of clubs, and the real-name counter ticket with the key is the most suitable method. As for ordinary people, silver dimes and silver coins are enough."

Xu Xiantu smiled and said, "Wei Chen also went to the counter shop to investigate the counter tickets a few days ago, and found that the counter tickets can completely achieve the convenience of money tickets."

"How do you say that?"

"In the past, counter tickets were inconvenient because there were too few branches in various places. For example, I wanted to go to Changzhou to buy goods, but there was no counter shop in Changzhou, so I had to go to Jiangning or Suzhou first. I found that Xiangyang has good products with good quality and low price, but I can’t buy them. I have to go to Suzhou to get the money first, and then turn around and go back to Xiangyang. It may take more than a month to go back and forth, and there may be delays.

If it is a money ticket, there is no need to go to Suzhou, and it can be directly exchanged into money in Xiangyang. This is the convenience of the money ticket. "

"And then?" Chen Qingrao asked with interest.

"Now on the one hand, there are many branches, and there are also branches in Changzhou. When you go to Changzhou and find that the goods in Changzhou are not as good as those in Suzhou, then Changzhou counters can transfer the counter ticket and key to Suzhou counters, and now the main store The cabinet is going to implement a dual-key system, which is to solve the trouble in Xiangyang just now."

"Be specific!"

"Weichen still used the example just now. If the customer finds good goods in Xiangyang on the way to Changzhou, then he can find the Xiangyang cabinet shop and hand over the counter ticket and one of the code words to the cabinet shop. Xiangyang cabinet shop Immediately use pigeon letters to verify with the Jingzhao head office, wait for two days at most, and if the verification is correct, the Xiangyang counter shop can give him the money, and then use a quick horse to notify the Changzhou counter shop that the ticket has been honored and the key is invalidated.”

Chen Qing nodded, "This dual key method is not bad, and the risk is also small!"

"That's right, Weichen also suggested that the billing counter store keep a physical characteristic of the billing person, such as a large black mole on the earlobe, etc., and send the verified information and physical characteristics to the exchange counter, and the exchange counter will It can be verified that I am operating it.”

Chen Qing said happily: "In this case, the counter ticket will be more secure, and it can be implemented accordingly."

Chen Qing sighed again and said, "The money ticket is too risky, stop it!"

He once wanted to use the issuance of money notes to gradually transition to paper currency. Now it seems that this is indeed a very unrealistic idea. Jiaozi and Huizi caused the people to suffer extremely heavy losses, except for the valuable copper coins. Silver, who would trust a piece of paper.

Without a networked system and no anti-counterfeiting means, issuing paper tickets rashly will only bring huge losses.

He wants to keep the box full of fake bills that the Koreans left him. Every time he sees them, his mind will clear up.
Another seven or eight days passed in a blink of an eye, and an eagle letter was sent from Shazhou. This eagle letter was forwarded to Harabalu, the Huihe envoy of Xizhou. State Huihe envoy.

Inside the letter tube is a letter written by Bi Lege, Khan of Huihe in Xizhou, and there is a secret mark on the letter.

This is of course the result of Bilge's deliberation. In fact, Xizhou Huihe became a vassal state of the Yong Dynasty. Since they used to be a vassal state of Heihan and Xiliao, there is nothing wrong with becoming a vassal state of the Yong Dynasty.

With Khan's clear answer, Harabalu started negotiations with Yongchao again. After three days of negotiations, the two sides reached a final agreement. The main conditions are as follows:

First, Xizhou Huihe will unconditionally become a subsidiary state of the Yong Dynasty.

Second, the Yong Dynasty will send [-] troops to help Xizhou Huihe fight against the invasion of Xiliao. If the capital of Xizhou Huihe is occupied by Xiliao, then this agreement will become invalid.

Third, the Yong Dynasty will rebuild the Anxi Protectorate, implement the military city system of the Tang Dynasty, and establish five military cities in Xizhou Huihe, including Tingzhou, Yiwu, Gaochang, Yanqi, and Qiuci. The perimeter of the city wall should not exceed 1 miles, and the maximum number of garrisons could not exceed [-]. These five military cities belonged to the territory of the Yong Dynasty, but the land outside the military cities belonged to Xizhou Huihe.

Fourth, the Yong Dynasty could properly recruit soldiers from Huihe in Xizhou, but the total number of recruits should not exceed 5000.

Fifth, Xizhou Huihe did not bear the military rations and logistics of the Yong army, but they could give cattle and sheep through trading.

Sixth, the Anxi Duhufu is a military city system, and the Yong Dynasty could not implement the prefecture and county system, and it was not allowed to migrate a large number of Han people to Anxi.

There are other detailed terms, such as trade, marriage, customs, religion, etc., but these are not important. The key is that the Yong Dynasty can garrison troops in the Western Regions and own the land of five cities, which is a solid first step .

The negotiation between the two sides was of course conducted in secret. After the secret negotiation ended, the Huihe envoy Harabalu led his people back to Xizhou Huihe, and the "Beijing News" published a headline on the front page of "Negotiation failed, Xizhou Huihe mission returned sadly." ' message.

The news clearly pointed out that because the two sides could not reach an agreement on logistical supplies and the status of the garrison, the negotiation failed, and the Yong Dynasty would no longer send troops to support Huihe in Xizhou.

Of course, this news was specifically for the spies in Xiliao.

At noon, Wang Chongshan rushed back to the shop with a newspaper in his hand, and said to Brother Li Ba: "Look at this!"

Brother Li Ba's literacy ability is limited, he only vaguely understood the title, and said, "Read it to me!"

After Wang Chongshan finished reading the contents of the newspaper, Brother Li Ba slammed his fist on the table excitedly, "Great, we must inform His Majesty the Emperor of this information immediately!"

Wang Chongshan nodded, "Send all the information collected earlier back to Xiliao!"

Li Bage immediately wrote an updated report on the negotiation, together with dozens of previous reports, he sent two of his men back to Xiliao on horseback.

At dusk, two messenger spies left the shop with several horses, and also left Xianyang County, heading for the distant Hexi Corridor. They had to walk for at least a month to reach Xiliao.

The grocery store diagonally opposite the store has been staring at Hu's store. From the time Wang Chongshan ran back to the store with the newspaper, their every move was watched by the grocery store and the newly deployed internal guard spies.

Zhong Huan is very clear that this afternoon is the most critical moment, and the other party will definitely take action after seeing the news in the newspaper.

Zhong Huan simply took three hundred internal guards to station in Xianyang County, ready to attack.

At dusk, a soldier from the inner guard came to report, "General Qi, the other two messengers have left the county and headed west."

"Are you sure it's the messenger?"

"It should be. The two of them each brought three horses, tents and a lot of supplies. It looked like they were going to take a long distance. This was the first time they left the county to go west."

Zhong Huan nodded, and said to several leaders: "There are still ten of them living in the store. We will act at the first watch tonight. We must catch all ten of them."

The information that should be sent has already been sent away by Xiliao spies, so they can no longer find out the truth.

That night, [-] internal guard soldiers surrounded Huhuodian, including the leader Li Bage and Wang Chongshan, and ten sleeping Xiliao spies were caught by the internal guard.