After the First World War at Gaoyou Lake, the Praetorian Guards, including Suo Etu, who had been captured, did not have a good life. Because the captives were all children of Manchurian nobles, almost all of the princes and auxiliary ministers had relatives and friends, and the empress dowager also pardoned them for the unity of the Manchurian Eight Banners. However, the loss of a glorious future is undoubtedly a heavy blow to people with great ambitions such as Suo Etu, and after being removed from the sequence of imperial guards, he and Aobai's nephew, Kubilong's son-in-law and others borrow wine every day to drown their sorrows, completely losing their previous high-spirited spirit.

Today, when a few brothers and sisters were drinking, they suddenly heard someone shouting behind them, and then they saw a boy coming over and greeting the children of these auxiliary ministers with a smile. Suo Etu glanced at the person, vaguely remembering that he had seen this person, but it didn't seem to be from the two yellow flags. The person who came reported his family turned out to be surnamed Niu Colu, and his father Niyahana was still a Barutu.

"Oh, remember to remember." Although he was a little drunk, Suo Etu immediately remembered that the other party was a person with a red flag, and he was the official of the white flag.

The other party must invite a few former imperial guards of the Zhenghuang Banner to drink, and it is not easy for them to refuse. This Zhenghongqi surnamed Niu Colu has a tall posture, a delicate appearance, and quite eloquence, which makes the atmosphere at the banquet very warm. According to this person who is a button and a colu, since the original Janissaries were expelled from the First Battle of Gaoyouhu, the Eight Banners of the Forbidden Brigade have now become unbearable - this is not entirely flattery, it is true that the officers originally selected are the best of the Eight Banners of the Beijing Battalion. In the First Battle of Gaoyou Lake, before Shunzhi was killed, the morale of the Praetorian Guards was always maintained, which was very good for a young army that was almost always on the battlefield for the first time. Although the name of the Eight Banners of the Forbidden Brigade that followed Prince Kang to Shandong remains unchanged, it can only be filled with some previous losers, who were originally not qualified to enter the Praetorian Guard, and are an army whose backbone has been broken, and they have lost confidence in victory.

After a few glasses of wine, it gradually became ripe, and Niu Colu began to knock on the side and ask about Cao Yun. All of them had the opportunity to meet the Auxiliary Ministers, so Niu asked them if they had heard of the need to transport grain by sea, and what the Auxiliary Ministers, especially Sonny and Aobai, had plans for.

In the past few days, Suo Etu has indeed heard his father talk about the operation of the sea, and not long ago he talked about it with his brother and sister, everyone is a person who knows the inside story, even if they talk a few words in private, it is nothing. However, this button Cobalt Lu didn't have a chance to know this kind of high-level secret, although Suo Etu drank a lot, but when he heard this, he was stunned, and he was going to shake his head and say that he didn't know.

But before Suo Etu could speak, Aobai's nephew preemptively said: "Alas, did my brother also hear the rumor? This luck is to recruit Anfu thieves to carry it. What a thief! In order to pay for errands, even the food is willing to help us transport. ”

Suo Etu has always thought that things are not so simple, and last time Deng Ming casually said the word "Kangxi", he made the auxiliary ministers miserable, so after hearing about it from his father this time, Suo Etu firmly believed that it was a conspiracy. And Sony privately told his family that he also thought that Deng Ming probably knew and acquiesced to Mu Tan to facilitate the matter. However, as long as Caoyun has not been completely cut off, the imperial court will be jealous. If Deng Ming's purpose was to use Cao Yun to whet the appetite of the Qing court, so that they would be ruthless and scattered, then Deng Ming had already succeeded. Now no one in the imperial court dared to advocate a big fight, and in case of another defeat, the consequences would be very serious - since the money and grain could still be transported to Tianjin, then the imperial court seemed to be able to wait for a better time, and the southeast seemed to be still basically in the hands of the Qing court.

"In other words, did the court agree to let the thieves transport it?" Niu Colu toasted with another glass of wine.

"I don't know." Guerjia (the surname of the Ao Bai family) raised his glass and drank it down, placing the empty glass heavily on the table, letting out a long sigh of satisfaction.

Niu Colu hurriedly filled the empty cup again, and Guerjia did not refuse, raised his neck, and poured it into his mouth. The empty cup was slapped on the table, and Niu Cobalt was filled again, like three.

"My uncle seems to be going to mention this matter to the Empress Dowager today." Guerjia was drunk, and laughed again before slamming the cup on the table: "See the thief with the eyes of money!" ”

The others were almost drunk, and Niu Colu toasted another glass of wine to Suo Etu, who hadn't touched his glass for a long time. He glanced down and stared at the wine glass for a moment, only to see that the hands holding it were calm and powerful, and there was not a single ripple on the surface of the clear wine.

Raising his eyes, Suo Etu looked at the person opposite, only to see that the other party's face was still calm as usual, and he didn't look nervous at all because of the sneer on his face.

"Let's go have a cup of tea." Suo Etu's words were clear, and there was no drunkenness in his tone.

"Okay." Niu Colu summoned the coats who were waiting outside to come in and let them take their respective masters home.

Suo Etu, the son of the chief auxiliary minister, was a minister who leaned towards the government and the opposition for 20 years in Deng Ming's previous life. When his coat came, Suo Etu waved his hand and let the coats follow him from a distance, and Suo Etu took a step towards a familiar teahouse. And Niu Colu is one position behind Suo Etu, and the two are still talking and laughing on the road, like a pair of friends who have not seen each other for many years - in Deng Ming's previous life, this Niu Colu had a great-grandson named Chang Bao, who was later renamed He Shen.

"Why are you looking into this?" Niu Colu's good appearance left a very good impression on Suo Etu, and it didn't seem that Niu Colu was a fine work to serve the Ming army, and it seemed that he was just trying to know if this matter could be done, and he didn't show any intention of lobbying, which also made Suo Etu's suspicion of him a lot less.

"Sony-sama's son, he really knows everything." Sitting down in the teahouse, Niu Colu replaced the wine with tea, saluted Suo Etu, and then said as it was: "Someone has indeed asked the younger brother to inquire about the news, you must know whether this matter can be done or not, as long as you can know it three days before the official decree of the imperial court, the younger brother can get five hundred taels of silver; If it is two days in advance, it is two hundred taels; If it could only be one day earlier, it would only be fifty taels. The younger brother has been inquiring about this matter. Today, I heard from a friend in the household department that the three assistant political lords went to see Lafayette for this matter, and they must be able to believe it soon. Today, the little brother just wants to come and get acquainted, and he will continue to listen tomorrow. ”

After hearing that there was a reward of five hundred taels three days in advance, Suo Etu was horrified, that is, he could get fifty taels of silver one day in advance, which was also many times more than the monthly money when Suo Etu was a royal guard. Suo Etu, who no longer suspected that the other party was inquiring for the Ming army, became suspicious after hearing this number.

"Mingren doesn't say dark words in front of him," Niu Colu stretched out a finger at Suo Etu after finishing speaking: "As long as the elder brother can give the younger brother a letter, then this reward will be added to two and one to five, how about it?" ”

"Whose money is this, the thief's? If it's a thief's money, I don't dare to ask for it. When he said the last few words, Suo Etu's eyes suddenly sharpened.

The murderous aura that suddenly gushed out from Suo Etu's body made Niu Colu, who had always been very calm, pause, and his face changed slightly, and then he suddenly laughed: "What are you talking about, brother?" The younger brother is not a heartless brute, and he is incompatible with the Deng thief. ”

The sudden sharp Suo Etu made Niu Colu feel a little uncomfortable, he coughed, and explained further: "This is what a few Huguang businessmen asked his younger brother to inquire...... Has dude ever heard of the word 'fund'? ”

"Nope."

"What about 'stocks'?"

"Not either."

"Then the younger brother will start from the beginning."

According to Niu Baolu, the reform of Cao Yun, which Beijing regarded as a top secret, had already spread in Huguang, and Wuchang had also set up a stock exchange to raise Cao Yin.

"Raise money?" Suo Etu asked confusedly.

"Yes, Huguang's quota for Caoyin this year is 3.8 million taels. The elder brother must also know that this silver must be ...... by Sichuan merchants first Well, first sent to Tianjin by Mu Tan's slaves under the banner of Sichuan merchants, and then Wuchang plus Sancheng...... No, plus fifty percent of the silver, it was paid to the Sichuan merchants, that is, those Mu Tan's house slaves. Huguang's silver will be shipped in ten batches, each time 380,000 taels. The imperial court approved the first batch, put in the first batch, and waited for the silver ships outside the mouth of Dagu to drive in another batch, one by one. If the court breaks the contract or refuses to give the receipt, then the Sichuan merchant will lose a fortune of silver, about 400,000 taels. Huguang, Liangjiang, and Zhejiang are all handled in this way. "Speaking of the transportation plan of the Sichuan merchants, Niu Colu seems to know more clearly than the auxiliary minister's father of Suo Etu.

"Most of the months ago, Sichuan businessmen set up a fund in Wuchang, named 'Chu Cao Loan', which was to raise 3.8 million taels of silver from wealthy families in Huguang, and the silver transported to Tianjin was this 'Chu Cao Loan'. If the court breaks the contract, then the fund will lose thirty-eight taels, and every person who buys ten taels of silver loses one tael. If the imperial court approves and the matter is done, then the news will be transmitted back to Wuchang, and the Yamen, the governor of Huguang, will pay the silver to the Sichuan merchants, and then the Sichuan merchants will immediately repay the money - plus a dividend of one to five to the rich who borrowed the silver. A month's profit, cash, many people are staring at buying. Many people in the local area say that this is a gamble, and if you win, it will be a profit of five percent, and if you lose, it will be a loss. Niu Colu told Suo Etu that this fund is not selling very well, because many people think that the Qing court will not agree to be escorted by the Sichuan army and the Zhoushan army, so they are still waiting: "But as long as the news of the court's consent spreads, this fund will definitely rise wildly, and those who know the news first will be able to double their family property in a blink of an eye, at least by five or sixty percent." ”

"Just one lake is wide, and there are almost 600,000 taels of silver in a month." Suo Etu also gasped after figuring it out, and understood why someone would be willing to pay a few hundred taels to find out the news. However, he didn't think much of Niu Colu's words: "Isn't it just a profit of five percent?" It's high, but it's not doubled. ”

"Have you ever heard of 'security deposit'?"

"I don't know."

The brother started from the beginning. This 'Chu Cao dismantling' fund has a 5% margin rule, by the way, has my brother ever heard of 'percentage'? ”