unclear

Chapter 726: Run 6
"Manager Zheng, we only have these deposits left, Vault No. 4..."

The silver vault supervisor was a little older, fair-skinned, and had a slightly shrill voice. He was not from the Haihu Division, but his origins were more mysterious, and he was an eunuch in the palace. He was nominally good at identifying the quality of silver, but in fact he was a spy sent by Gekko.

"Manager Jiang, you and I are both His Majesty's disciples, so there is no need to say anything extra. We cannot damage the bank's reputation in public today, so no matter what time it is, as long as outsiders ask, Warehouse No. 4 is full. Go ahead, I'll take a rest in the office, call me when you're done with the inventory."

Zheng Bugou only knew that the eunuchs in the palace worked for the emperor, and did not know the existence of the Cuju team and the gecko. But this did not affect the tacit understanding between the two sides, and it was easier for them to communicate than with others.

"..." Manager Jiang was only responsible for monitoring whether the middle and senior management in the bank had abnormal behavior. He did not know much about banking business and had no right to tell the manager what to do. He nodded and began to arrange for staff to move the silver ingots.

It might be God's deliberate arrangement, or it might be that Zheng Bugou was not destined to die. Just as the sun was gradually climbing up overhead and the inspection of the 70,000 taels of silver was about to be completed, a man in the work clothes of the Sun and Moon Bank, led by two staff members, knocked on the heavy wooden door of the manager's office.

"…The inventory needs to be escorted on the last day of every ten days. Are you always so sloppy in your work?"

After listening to the staff's introduction, Zheng Bugou checked the other party's ID card and secret order again, and turned hostile on the spot. I'm about to die in the line of duty, and you're still here to mess things up. Could it be that you think I'm dying too slowly, so you're here to hasten my death?
The person who came had an ID card of the head office escort team and knew how to decipher the secret order, so his identity should be correct. However, each branch had a fixed date for transporting excess silver. Even if he remembered it wrong, it shouldn't have been six days off. How could he do it if he was so careless?

"Manager Zheng, don't worry. I have a delivery note here that needs your signature and seal together with the treasury supervisor."

The escort team member didn't know what was going on. He fiddled with the belt buckle with his hands for a few times, took out a small copper tube, unscrewed it, and took out a small paper roll. He unfolded it and smoothed it out, then placed it on the desk with both hands as if he was holding a heavy burden.

"...hiss...are you sure you're not mistaken? Look carefully, this is a transfer order. You are not taking the silver from the Zhangzhou branch. Instead, you are sending me 600,000 taels of victory silver coins!"

Zheng Bugou glanced at it, not intending to read it carefully. He was about to commit suicide to sacrifice himself for the emperor, so he had to put aside any urgent matters. But once his eyes had swept over the paper, he could no longer take them back. This not uncommon internal bank document was more eye-catching than anything else.

"Manager Zheng, you must have read more books than me, and you are an expert at bookkeeping and accounting, but I have also worked in the head office for three years, and I have read the transfer orders as many times as you do. The colors of the incoming and outgoing orders are different, how could they be wrong? Sign and stamp quickly. After counting the quantities, we still have to go to the Fuzhou branch. Time is short and the task is heavy."

This time it was the escort team members' turn to be impatient. Although one was a manager and the other a team member, it sounded like there was a big difference in status. In fact, the escort team of the head office and the branch had no subordinate relationship at all, let alone belonged to the same department, and no one could control anyone.

When the two sides have working contacts, everything is subject to the procedures and documents. If the procedures and documents are incomplete, the escort team can refuse to accept the escort task, and the branch manager can also refuse to provide the corresponding escort items. Then both parties will go to the head office to complain to the vice premier or the premier to see who made the mistake.

"Still...still going to Fuzhou? I'm sorry, sorry, I didn't bother to entertain you after you came all the way here. Actually, I didn't mean to make things difficult for you, but something went wrong today..."

At this time, Zheng Bugou finally came out of all the negative emotions, his brain started to work, he knew that he had made a mistake, he quickly apologized, and tried to make a reasonable explanation to gain forgiveness. Otherwise, if they really went to the head office, it would be his own fault after investigation. "No need to explain, we started from Macau, went to the Guangzhou branch first, and then came to you. It was more lively over there, and the one million taels of silver were exchanged for most of the day, and Manager Hua was so anxious that he almost jumped into the river. If he didn't need too much silver, which delayed the time, we should have arrived last night.

Oh, and he also asked me to bring a letter, saying that you should read it immediately, and then write one, and then I will pass it to Manager Li of the Fuzhou branch. You hurry up, the bank car will be here soon, and we can't stay long."

The escort team didn't want to hear any apologies or explanations, they just wanted to complete the delivery quickly. Their mission was heavy, a full three million taels of silver, and they had to watch it meticulously from the moment it was loaded onto the ship in Macau.

The train had to stop three times in Guangzhou, Zhangzhou and Fuzhou to transfer all the silver to the bank's vault according to the prescribed amount. Even though there were naval warships escorting the whole journey, the pressure was enormous and I could hardly eat or sleep every day.

"...Please go to the next door and take a rest. I will reply immediately!"

After checking the seal, opening the lacquer seal, and reading the first piece of letter paper as quickly as possible, Zheng Bugou's brows gradually knitted together, and his face became very ugly. However, he had not forgotten the proper etiquette, and he forced a smile and asked the escort team members to leave first.

"You are ungrateful wolves. Your Majesty should confiscate all your property and exterminate all your clans!"

As soon as the office door was closed, Zheng Bugou exploded. He held the letter paper and cursed while reading it. With one hand, he grabbed a paper cutter and hit the table hard, making small holes all over the camphor wood table.

This letter came from the Guangzhou branch, but the writer was not Hua Buwan, the branch manager, but Oyani, the prime minister of Sun Moon Bank. Judging from the date, she should have returned from Manila. The reason for such a hurry was that the Chaozhou Chen family, who exchanged silver outside, was one of them.

Oyani said in the letter that the Guangzhou branch had received several reservations for early redemption of large deposits of silver a few days ago. Noticing something unusual, the branch immediately dispatched silver to other branches.

If the Zhangzhou branch does not find any large amount of silver deposits being redeemed in advance, it will first deposit the silver coins into the warehouse, and then conduct a thorough check in the bank according to the list on the letter to see if there are any deposits that are closely related to these people, and then send the detailed accounts to the Guangzhou branch by a naval transport ship.

Obviously, Oyani anticipated that someone would launch a large-scale run on the Sun Moon Bank. In addition to dispatching deposits to deal with it, she was also working on finding and verifying who were involved in the run.

As for where so many silver coins came from, the letter did not say, and there was no need to explain. As the actual manager of Sun Moon Bank, this Xifan woman's ability is obvious to all. She is not only sharp but also decisive. In the face of such a big accident, she was not panicked and defended while attacking.

(End of this chapter)