In the commercial street outside Zhengyangmen in Beijing, there is a long queue at the door of a beautifully decorated three-story building, anxious people wait patiently, and from time to time someone walks out from the front with a smile on their faces. This building www.biquge.info the Qing Dynasty Bank jointly established by the Qing court and the Jin merchants, and the people in line naturally came to exchange cash.

The Qing Dynasty dragon banknotes have been issued for almost a year, and there is a Shanxi ticket number of the cash silver as a guarantee, claiming that you can go to the Qing Bank at any time to exchange cash, but the credit value of the Qing Dynasty dragon banknotes is not as good as the Qing court imagined, whether it is the green battalion soldiers or merchants, farmers, craftsmen, after getting the Qing Dynasty dragon banknotes, they can't wait to exchange this kind of banknotes for cash. Every day, there is a long queue of people in front of the Daqing Bank, and those in the back of the queue will not line up until the door closes in the evening.

"These people! I don't trust the dragon banknotes issued by the imperial court! Fan Yubin, then president of Daqing Bank, looked at the long queue of people outside and was anxious.

Fan Yubin's elder brother Fan Yuxin had just returned from an envoy to the Rakshasa Kingdom not long ago, and he also borrowed back 500 Rakshasa elite soldiers, which really lived up to the high hopes of the imperial court. And Fan Yubin himself, who was appointed as a household servant and concurrently served as the president of the Daqing Bank, can be said to be prosperous in official fortune, and the Fan family is still an imperial merchant appointed by the first emperor, and the family has endless gold and silver.

But today, Fan Yubin discovered that this Daqing Bank is not only not profitable, but a pit! The reason is that the military and civilians do not trust the dragon banknotes of the Qing Dynasty, and everyone can't wait to exchange the banknotes when they get them.

The Daqing Bank must have issued more banknotes than silver in stock, and if there were the same amount, what was the use of issuing them? The purpose of issuing banknotes was to save money to pay the Eight Banners, to buy arms from the Rakshasas, and to support some smuggling merchants who smuggled grain from the south to the north.

But as soon as everyone gets the banknotes, they come to exchange for cash, even if the Fan family and the other seven people are gold and silver, they can't afford to exchange it like this!

The military salaries and wages paid to the craftsmen, the purchase of grain from the peasants, and even the payment of the Han officials were all settled in the dragon banknotes of the Qing Dynasty, but the Qing court did not have that much silver in its hands. The military, civilian, merchants, and officials, after getting the dragon banknotes of the Qing Dynasty, all have to come to exchange for silver, this silver, is not the eight masters of the Jin merchants?

Seeing the long queue of people waiting anxiously at the door of the bank every day to exchange cash, Fan Yubin was sweating profusely and felt that his heart was dripping blood. Their Fan family has been trading with the Jurchens since the post-Jin Dynasty, risking the risk of killing their heads to do business, and they also spent a lot of silver to pay Xuanda's civil and military generals, which has accumulated so much wealth. But today, the eight families found that the silver in their hands was like flowing water.

Although it is said that the banknotes obtained by the Koreans cannot be exchanged for cash, and in the Qing Dynasty, except for Jinan and other big cities, there are no Daqing Bank business outlets in ordinary small cities and counties, and the military and civilians cannot exchange them for cash, but many people from the county and the countryside rush to Dacheng every day to exchange the Daqing dragon banknotes in their hands for silver.

As for some Han officials in the Qing court, although the money issued to them by the court was banknotes, and many lower-level officials and local gentry bribes were also changed to banknotes, but these officials did not need to queue up at all, and they could find their own connections and exchange money from the Qing Bank to cash, so it became a form and meaningless to say that the money issued by them became a formality.

Those who are officials take banknotes to exchange for cash, and the Fan family can't help but exchange them, after all, the officials and officials defend each other, although the Fan family is an imperial businessman, they can't afford to offend the people in the officialdom.

Just when Fan Yubin was anxious, he heard a quarrel on the counter, and it seemed that there were a few people who were talking very arrogantly, and they wanted to see the shopkeeper, and they sounded like they were the green battalion soldiers in the capital outside.

"What's going on?" Fan Yubin heard the sound and walked out.

"What's going on with you guys? Why can't the military salary that Lao Tzu has received be exchanged for cash? Outside the counter, several Green Battalion soldiers were swearing and yelling.

When the guy at the counter saw that Fan Yubin was coming, he hurriedly got up and saluted: "My lord, these military masters are bringing fake banknotes!" ”

"Counterfeit bills?" The green battalion soldier named Cheng Wancai roared, "Lao Tzu, this is a military salary issued by the imperial court!" Why do you say that Lao Tzu is a counterfeit banknote? ”

The guy was full of grievances, and handed a large Qing dragon banknote to Fan Yubin: "My lord, please see, this banknote is very well made, and it is impossible to distinguish the authenticity at all." But the little one clearly remembered that not long ago, he had exchanged a bill of the same number! Xiao Xin was suspicious, so he took out the banknote he had exchanged before and compared it, and found that it was indeed the same number! ”

Each Daqing dragon banknote has a different number, and if two banknotes with the same number appear, it means that one of them must be a counterfeit.

Fan Yubin looked at the table and saw two almost identical banknotes on it, even the numbers were the same, even if it was an old man from the bank, it was difficult to tell the real and fake.

"These two banknotes are the same number, how do you explain this?" Fan Yubin asked.

Cheng Wancai outside sneered and said, "Same number? That must have been your negligence when printing money! Lao Tzu's is a military salary issued by the imperial court! How could it be fake? ”

Fan Yubin asked the guy, "Where did you get that banknote in your hand?" ”

The guy replied, "That one can't be fake!" It was issued by Master Zhang of the Ministry of Rites, and it was also issued by the imperial court, how could it be fake? ”

"Could it be that the official's salary is real, and Lao Tzu's military salary is fake? The military salary is also issued by the imperial court! Cheng Wancai was still scolding and yelling outside.

Because of the quarrel in front, the work of exchanging cash was forced to stop, and the people in the long line behind did not move forward, and many people began to scold, and the queue became longer and longer, but there was not a single step in front of them.

The matter got bigger and bigger, and seeing that it was about to be untenable, Fan Yubin asked people to call Cheng Wancai's superior officer to confront him. Not long after, Zhao Shigen, an officer of the Green Battalion, came, and he proved that Cheng Wancai was not lying, and that this banknote was indeed a military salary allocated by the imperial court, and he personally handed it to Cheng Wancai.

Fan Yubin picked up the two banknotes and compared them carefully, and he felt that something was wrong. These two banknotes are almost identical, and it is impossible to tell the real and fake at all, which shows that the people who printed the counterfeit banknotes are very skilled! These two banknotes with the same number, if there is negligence when the real money is printed, it is good to say, if not, it means that the level of someone making counterfeit banknotes is simply the peak, and even the household department of the imperial court can not see the truth from the fake!

Thinking of this, Fan Yubin broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly ordered: "Take out the banknotes in the vault and compare them one by one!" Let's see if there's one with the same number! ”