On the evening of the 23rd, Chongzhen arrived in Jizhou City, and that night he summoned the representatives of the three banks in Jizhou City, and to his surprise, Chang Wanchun, the president of Shanxi Bank, was also in Jizhou City.

Zhu Youzhen looked at Chang Wanchun and couldn't help but smile and said, "I didn't expect that President Chang actually ran to the front line, I still think that you should stay in Shanxi now and have no time to clone?" ”

Chang Wanchun hurriedly got up and saluted the emperor, and then said with a smile: "The emperor said that the emperor is laughing, no matter how big the matter is now, it is nothing more than driving the Tartars back to Liaodong.

Therefore, after hearing the news of the Tartar invasion, Xiaomin rushed here to make some modest contributions for the court and the emperor. As for other things, Xiaomin can't take care of it now. ”

Zhu Youzhen glanced at him, then restrained his smile and said, "I summoned you here today, I have a few things I want to inform you.

The first thing is that I would like to transfer a sum of money from your three banks for backup, which must be in place by noon tomorrow, and the amount required is not less than 1.5 million yuan. Can you tell me how much each of you can raise? ”

The representative of the central bank in Jizhou City said that it was able to mobilize 500,000 yuan, while the Bank of Communications was only able to raise 200,000 yuan because its business in Jizhou had not been carried out much. After the representatives of the two banks finished speaking, Chang Wanchun said: "Xiaomin can withdraw 2 million yuan at any time, and if there is still a shortage, he can borrow about 500,000 yuan from the nearby businesses within five days." ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at Chang Wanchun for a long time before he smiled again and said: "Then it seems that the first thing I want to do is solved, then Shanxi Bank will prepare 2 million yuan, and the other two banks will make up 500,000 yuan, and they will be handed over to President Chang for management, and President Chang will stay and chat with me later."

Then the second thing is that I am going to issue the second batch of war bonds, and the amount is still 5 million yuan. Of this, $2,500,000 will be used to repay the $2,500,000 loan, and the other $2,500,000 will be used for post-war pension and reconstruction. ”

With regard to the second request put forward by the emperor, the representatives of the other two banks said that they would pass it back as soon as possible, while Chang Wanchun said that Shanxi Bank had a fully supportive attitude towards the issuance of the second batch of war bonds, and in addition to being willing to increase the underwriting ratio of the second batch of war bonds to 50 percent, if the other two banks had any concerns, Shanxi Bank was also willing to further increase the proportion of underwriting war bonds.

Zhu Youzhen nodded at Chang Wanchun, and then continued: "The third thing, I will once again ask Your Excellency to order the strengthening of the implementation of the provisions of the Golden Bill.

At the same time, in order to ensure financial security, the market will strictly prohibit the trading of more than 500 taels of gold, and all those who have more than 500 taels of gold reserves at home must report to the bank. After two years, anyone who has not declared it to the bank, but has more than 500 taels of gold in his home, will be regarded as illegal gains, and the court will forcibly confiscate the gold and impose a fine. ”

If the first and second things Chongzhen said were to transfer funds from the three banks, then the third thing he said was tantamount to giving the three banks in return. These days, the price of gold has been rising against silver, and it is almost 1:14.

However, anyone who knows the progress of the Lianghuai salt case knows that it is a matter of time before the gold ratio breaks through 1:15, but it is limited to the time limit of transportation, and now the impact of the salt case has not spread to all places, so there is no panic selling of silver in the market.

The gentry and bureaucrats who had stood with the two Huai salt merchants and dumped their gold and stored silver, among those who got the news of the salt case, had begun to change their stance and tried to escape from the silver crisis when the two Huai salt merchants were unable to act on the salt case.

Although the three banks won the gold appreciation war against silver, the three banks still could not confirm the true amount of gold reserves in Daming, the only thing they could know was that after this gold acquisition war, the number of gold reserves of the three banks has at least approached or occupied nearly half of the gold reserves in Daming.

It is impossible to determine the gold reserves in the Ming Dynasty, and most of the gold reserves cannot be controlled, so it is obviously extremely difficult for the price ratio of gold and silver to be fixed at 1:15.

However, now the imperial court issued an order prohibiting large amounts of gold from being traded in the market, and then required the establishment of a system for declaring gold reserves, which was equivalent to giving the three banks the right to supervise the gold reserves in the Ming Dynasty, and also allowed the gold bill to be further implemented. This is obviously good news for the three banks.

After talking about these three things, Zhu Youzhen sent out the representatives of the other two banks and asked them to raise the funds he had just requested.

After only he and Chang Wanchun were left in the room, Zhu Youzhen said to Chang Wanchun: "I left you behind, just to tell you one thing, I have something for you to do here." If you can handle this matter well, the case of the Zhangjiakou businessman collaborating with the enemy will not continue to dig, you and those people around you can be preserved, and the Chang family will still be the controller of Shanxi Bank, as long as you obey the orders of the inner government in the future, no one can shake your position in Shanxi Bank. ”

Chang Wanchun knelt down with a "poof", kowtowed three times to the cold brick surface, and said with joy in his mouth: "Your Majesty is benevolent, Xiaomin's family should keep it in mind, what orders Your Majesty has, even if it is to break through the sword mountain and the sea of fire, Xiaomin will complete it if he fights for this life." ”

When the case of collaborating with the enemy broke out, Chang Wanchun, who was still in Taiyuan, soon learned the news. He originally wanted to unite the forces of the Jin merchants to dredge the local government, and limited the case to those few firms in Zhangjiakou.

However, this case involves rebellion, and it is a case personally supervised by Jinyiwei and the Xuanda Governor's Office, and even the deputy general of the Xuanfu Mansion has folded in, and other local officials are afraid of being involved in the case of collaborating with the enemy at the moment, so where are they willing to intercede for these businessmen. The Bank of Shanxi has been in operation for more than a year, and the loan income alone is very rich, not to mention the manipulation of the rise in the price of gold, and tens of millions of profits are about to be received.

In the face of this kind of naked monetary interests, even within the Jin merchants, who have always been united, there is a considerable degree of differentiation. Because of the emperor's pressure, when Shanxi Bank was established, most of the shareholders who invested in the bank's share capital in advance were second- and third-rate figures in the Jin merchants.

These people had money but no official power, so they had to pay the bulk of the bank's initial share capital. The Jin merchant gentry represented by the Zhang and Wang clans in Puzhou only had a little meaning of share capital.

When Shanxi Bank had just been established and the construction of the Shanxi Railway had not yet been completed, no one could see what benefits these two new things could bring, so naturally there was no interest in the shareholders of Shanxi Bank.

But after the Shanxi Railway was built for hundreds of miles, and the Shanxi Bank not only robbed the pawn shop business, but also monopolized the supply of materials to the border towns and the business of lending money to the government, these calculating Jin merchants realized the great value of the railway and the bank.

Although the Bank of Shanxi has expanded its share capital several times since then, a group of Jin merchants led by the Chang family have firmly restricted the shares of the Jin merchant gentry led by the Zhang and Wang clans in the Shanxi Bank because they have occupied the status of the original shareholders, so that the control power of the Shanxi Bank is still in the hands of the Chang family.

Originally, the Chang family, who was just a wealthy businessman, has emerged at this moment, and there is a tendency to lead the entire Jin merchant group. The Jin merchants, who had always relied on their status as gentry and monopolized the salt industry and the grain business of the border army, were naturally unwilling to let the Jin merchants, who had only been smuggling with Mongolia and Houjin outside the mouth and had done business for them, climb on their heads.

When the Zhangjiakou case broke out, the Jin merchants, who had little to do with the case, began to want to seize the shares of the Jin merchants led by the Chang family in the Shanxi Bank and the Shanxi Railway.

After Chang Wanchun and others ran into a wall in Shanxi, Datong, Xuanfu and other governors' yamen, they got some guidance from Liu Jingting, who was the envoy to the Chahar Department.

In order not to be implicated in the case of collaborating with the enemy, other local officials could no longer help them except for the protection of the emperor. As for fleeing or something, Chang Wanchun and the others didn't even want to think about it, the clansmen involved in these big families were at least hundreds, even if one or two families escaped, the entire family's business for several generations would be completely ruined.

What's more, before the bank was established, each family still had some wealth hidden up as a means of just in case. But after the establishment of the bank, the income brought by the liquid capital made them want to invest every penny. Now that something went wrong, they found that they couldn't transfer the money out, and the way the bank supervised it made every large amount of money under the supervision of the personnel sent by the Ministry of Households. Once they lose their stakes in the banks and the railways, they are literally nothing.

At this time, Chang Wanchun and the others could only move closer to the emperor with all their hearts, hoping to get the emperor's protection. In fact, if Chongzhen has an accident now, those former Shanxi Township Party members are estimated to be the first to attack the wealth they have, and even the charges are ready-made.

In addition to sending his son to follow Liu Jingting to the Chahar Department, Chang Wanchun hoped to let one of his sons escape even if he couldn't save the whole clan, and he even hinted to his son that if things didn't go well, he would simply not go back to Guannei. And he himself personally came to Jizhou with a sum of money raised, hoping to meet the emperor and find a way out for himself and those Jin merchants involved in the case of collaborating with the enemy.

It was also thanks to him that he pretended to raise logistics support funds for the emperor's expeditionary troops, so Jinyiwei did not stop him, but also sent people to protect him and came to Jizhou. Chang Wanchun hadn't found a way to see the emperor, and unexpectedly heard the news that the emperor had asked to summon the bank's representative in Jizhou, and he naturally met Chongzhen in the name of this representative.

Things went more smoothly than he had imagined, and the emperor accepted the funds he had offered, and asked him to do one thing to erase the connection with the enemy. This couldn't help but make Chang Wanchun's mood suddenly relaxed, no matter what problems the emperor had, Chang Wanchun knew that they had finally passed this hurdle.