Follow Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the country

Chapter 228: The wealthy gentry suffered huge losses in the silver speculation, and Li Shanchang advised Hu Weiyong to regard Zhang Cheng as his master!

Yuan Zhizheng seventeenth year, May.

Tang He returned to Jiqing.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Cheng went to greet him in person.

When Tang He saw Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Cheng, his face was solemn. After he followed Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Cheng to the Duke of Wu's mansion, he said to Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Cheng with excitement:

"Come on! Mr. Zhang! There is really a big silver mine there, and those Japanese are easy to deal with. They are short in stature and have little armor. The key is that they don't have any firearms!"

Then, Tang He glanced at Zhang Cheng and said, "In short, there is no difference from what Mr. Zhang said!"

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded solemnly, and then said: "So it is true that there are a large amount of copper mines in Luzon and a large amount of gold in America and Africa."

Zhang Cheng smiled and said: "Of course! So we can completely make the people of China realize Great Harmony, as long as our Great Harmony Society controls these gold and silver."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, and then said with a smile: "Then we should start purchasing large quantities of grain, cloth and land now, so that those bureaucrats and gentry who save silver will regret it."

Therefore, when Hu Weiyong and other corrupt officials and gentry were selling grain, cloth, and land in exchange for gold and silver, and even using corruption and bribery to collect gold and silver, government merchants such as Huimin Commercial Bank actually began to buy grain, cloth, and even land.

When Hu Weiyong met Li Shanchang that day, he spoke optimistically to Li Shanchang about his views on Huimin Commercial Bank's increased efforts to purchase grain, cloth, and land.

Because in this era, there was not much silver, and gold was even scarcer.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang gave all the silver to the cabinet, but did not keep any for himself. He only went to the Privy Council to study how to unify China militarily faster, so that the military could deploy overseas on a large scale as soon as possible.

Hu Weiyong said: "Please rest assured, Mr. Ge, the disciples will never dare to steal official food without authorization, but they will only dispose of some moldy food."

Wang Guangyang was horrified after hearing this: "Is there so much silver?"

Thinking that people like to hoard silver, Zhang Cheng simply asked the newly established Datong Bank to sell silver coins for the sake of convenience.

Zhang Cheng smiled and told Wang Guangyang: "Don't leak the secret, otherwise you are the only one who can ask!"

Therefore, when a large amount of silver from Iwami Ginzan begins to flow into the market through officials and merchants in exchange for grain, cloth, and land, it will undoubtedly cause great fluctuations in silver prices and cause the assets of many corrupt officials and gentry to depreciate significantly. After all, they are now very Most assets are in silver.

"You can be sure that if this trend continues, the superior will surely conquer the world in the future!"

Li Shanchang smiled and said: "This is a natural thing. You, the Iron Administration Secretary, must be honest and honest. You must not let the grain and cloth purchased from various places be washed away by others."

Zhang Cheng followed up.

"Exactly! The newly established Datong Bank has begun to mint silver coins. As a bank product for purchasing cloth coins, there is so much silver now that it can sell more silver."

Hu Weiyong and other corrupt officials mainly collected silver.

"Of course!"

But not many people know that Zhang Cheng sells silver coins in order to reap the benefits of those large households who sell land and grain in exchange for silver coins in the future.

"That's not OK!"

"Yes!"

After Zhang Cheng returned to the cabinet, he summoned Wang Guangyang and said: "Let Huimin Commercial Bank and other government and businessmen increase their efforts to purchase wheat, cloth, and fertile land to prepare for the subsequent military expansion and larger-scale land distribution. At that time, the cabinet will prepare five million taels of silver to buy it back from them. "

However, due to the delayed nature of the news, and because Zhang Cheng deliberately concealed it and only publicized that most of what Tang He brought back was grain and iron materials confiscated from the local government offices of the Yuan Dynasty, Hu Weiyong and other corrupt officials and gentry He didn't know about this yet, and when he saw that Huimin Trading Company and other officials and merchants continued to increase their efforts to purchase grain, cloth, and land, they still thought that this was for the purpose of providing more adequate military logistics support and for a larger-scale battle. After making preparations, they continued to sell grain, cloth, and land to government merchants such as Huimin Trading Company.

of course.

Li Shanchang said in a stern voice.

"Yes!"

Then, Li Shanchang asked Hu Weiyong: "I heard that you have accumulated a lot of silver recently?"

Hu Weiyong glanced at Li Shanchang in surprise.

Later, Hu Weiyong replied truthfully: "Nothing can be hidden from you, Mr. Ge."

"How much silver have you accumulated?"

Li Shanchang asked.

Hu Weiyong replied: "About one hundred thousand taels!"

Li Shanchang stood up immediately: "What do you want so much money for?!"

Then, Li Shanchang pointed at Hu Weiyong: "How many times have I told you, you can't be too greedy as an official, and you have to stop it in moderation. You have saved so much money, can you bring even one or two to the coffin in the future?!"

"Mr. Ge, calm down!"

Hu Weiyong hurriedly knelt down and replied: "This disciple is also thinking about the great cause of his superiors. In response to Mr. Zhang's call to divide the land among the people and increase the number of farmers, he sold all the land to the villagers at a low price. However, the villagers could not bear the disciple's loss. I was only willing to exchange cloth coins for silver, so I accumulated a lot of silver for a while."

Li Shanchang chuckled: "Tell me what you said. It doesn't matter whether I believe it or not. What matters is that Mr. Zhang and the superiors are willing to believe what you say."

"Please rest assured, Mr. Ge, the disciples will make them believe it."

After Hu Weiyong left Li Shanchang, he threw up his sleeves and sneered: "Old man, you are so cowardly, how dare Zhu Yuanzhang really steal my money? You know, Xie Zaixing and their money are all with me. Woolen cloth."

While Hu Weiyong was smiling, Zhao Zhongzhong hurried over to Hu Weiyong and said, "The father-in-law has come out, something big is going to happen!" After hearing this, Hu Weiyong couldn't help but ask, "What's going to happen?"

"The price of silver has dropped!"

Zhao Zhongzhong then said something hurriedly.

After hearing this, Hu Weiyong shouted hurriedly: "Nonsense, how could the price of silver fall? I didn't let it fall, how could it fall!"

"It really fell."

"You should know that the newly established Datong Bank has issued silver dollars, allowing people to exchange cloth coins for silver dollars, and will adjust the price according to the situation of cloth coins. As a result, although many wealthy gentry have exchanged cloth coins for silver dollars, but then There seems to be an endless supply of silver dollars, and the price of silver dollars has dropped a lot due to this, which undoubtedly means that the price of silver will also become less valuable. "

Zhao Zhongzhong couldn't help but stamp his feet and said.

After hearing this, Hu Weiyong's expression tightened and he hurriedly said, "Take me to have a look."

Soon, Hu Weiyong arrived outside Datong Bank, and sure enough he saw that the price of silver dollars written on the sign had dropped a lot.

"This shows that Datong Bank did not print many cloth coins, but kept issuing silver coins."

"Where did Datong Bank get so many silver dollars?"

Hu Weiyong's expression darkened.

Zhao Zhongzhong said: "Who knows, so much silver flows to the market in the form of silver dollars, wouldn't the saved silver be in vain?"

Hu Weiyong said at this time: "Datong Bank must have obtained a lot of silver."

"But Datong Bank is under the control of the cabinet. Didn't Mr. Cabinet remind you?"

Zhao Zhongzhong asked.

Hu Weiyong said with a stern face: "He just said some superficial words, how can he really tell me that Datong Bank will get a lot of silver? After all, to put it bluntly, those people in their Tingyi Bureau are their own people, and we are just their dogs." That’s all!”

After hearing this, Zhao Zhongzhong couldn't help but ask: "Then what should we do now?"

"What else can I do, I can only admit defeat!"

Hu Weiyong only expressed half of his thoughts.

He still has the other half in mind.

That is, through this incident, he thought that he should not pay so much attention to the gains in property, but should try his best to climb up, enter the top level of power, and also go to the court, so that he can come into contact with real people who can An opportunity for him to make a lot of wealth in one fell swoop, rather than like now, where he thinks he's very smart, but still just becomes food in people's mouths.

In short, Hu Weiyong does not want to be a dog in his heart. He also wants to sit at the table of the Tingyi Bureau, and even become the only person at the table who can sit and eat.

But how to get up there?
Hu Weiyong had to think seriously about this.

He had to admit that there were many people ahead of him who were qualified to enter the Imperial Council and become senior officials.

Among the civil servants, Wang Guangyang counts as one, Yang Xian counts as one, and Shu Anguo counts as one.

Not to mention the generals, many of them are already qualified to audit, but now he is not even qualified to audit!

Hu Weiyong knew that he had to provoke internal fighting and find a way to pull down a few people, so that he could quickly rise to power.

to this end.

Hu Weiyong asked to see Li Shanchang again. After meeting Li Shanchang, he bowed his hands and said to Li Shanchang: "Master Ge, my disciple is wrong. I shouldn't disobey you, let alone be self-righteous."

Li Shanchang smiled secretly when he saw this, and then said: "It's good to know, what happened today?"

"The price of silver dollars in exchange for cloth coins at Datong Bank has been falling. Datong Bank seems to have a lot of silver."

"And therefore, the disciple has only now understood that it is Mr. Zhang and Mr. Ge who are the ones with great supernatural powers. It is not something that juniors like the disciple can figure out clearly."

Hu Weiyong replied.

Li Shanchang said: "It's not too late for you to understand now. I have already said that you must be in awe."

"Yes!"

"From now on, the disciple will only obey the orders of the elder, and treat the elder as his master."

Hu Weiyong replied.

Li Shanchang said: "This is not enough!"

Hu Weiyong couldn't help being stunned, but then he lowered his head and cupped his hands and said, "Please give me some advice."

Li Shanchang asked: "The superior Mr. Zhang must also be treated as the master."

Then, Li Shanchang looked at Hu Weiyong and said in a calm tone: "If you don't let the superiors be the masters, how can Mr. Zhang be the master? If you don't let Mr. Zhang be the master, how can I dare to be the master? If I don't let you be the master, how can you be the master of the people below you?" Be the master in front of me?”

Because Hu Weiyong was now honest enough and Li Shanchang also wanted to enlighten him, he spoke out his inner thoughts.

Moreover, Li Shanchang then pointed at Hu Weiyong: "You, you were a little too arrogant before. I hope this lesson can make you make some progress and know what the real way of life is. Don't follow those who can't grow up." Foolish people only want those below them to treat them with respect, but want those above them to treat them like servants. This kind of good thing only happens when you are a child! "

(End of this chapter)