In the past, Deng Ming was responsible for the pricing of the goods transported to Wuchang, and the price was not necessarily accurate, some were too high, some were too low, but the personnel stationed in Wuchang did not have the right to modify the pricing. This right is not permanently held in his hands, but is allowed to be modified by Chengdu. However, Deng Ming did not specify who had the right to modify the price, because he himself had not thought about this issue very carefully, so he handed it to Liu Jinge, and did not say that he could not transfer this right to others.

After arriving in Wuchang with Yu Youming, he showed Liu Jinge's warrant to the Wuchang garrison, and these Ming troops immediately said that they would obey the orders of Deputy Director Park.

After learning that Pu Fu could modify the price of the goods, Zhou Peigong was even more convinced that the other party was the person specially assigned by Deng Ming to deal with this batch of goods. For these goods that only accepted IOUs, Zhou Peigong also felt that the original pricing was very cumbersome, so he came up with a Jianyi, that is, he directly regarded a hundred yuan IOU as a certain amount of silver, and no longer continued to use Deng Ming's strange way of conversion, in short, he regarded the IOU as a kind of silver ticket.

When this condition was proposed, Zhou Peigong was ready to pay some price in exchange, although it was not entirely clear why Deng Ming deliberately distanced the IOU from the silver, but Zhou Peigong had already perceived some beneficial effects of this policy on Deng Ming. There are some trading difficulties and disadvantages due to the non-locking and silver exchange ratio, coupled with unknown dangers - Zhou Peigong didn't dare to say that Deng Ming must have a follow-up trick, but now he is lenient to Deng Ming, so he is willing to pay some compensation to persuade the other party to link the IOU to the silver.

"Okay." After talking with the Wuchang garrison yesterday, he felt that it was really cumbersome to use the price of grain in Chengdu to calculate the IOU here in Wuchang, and it would undoubtedly be much more convenient to change it to a fixed exchange rate with silver.

"Director Park is refreshing." Zhou Peigong smiled slightly.

Zhou Peigong and Pu Fu looked at each other for a moment, and in the end, Pu Fu couldn't help it first: "Is there anything else in the Zhou Governor's Mansion?" ”

Pu's annoying question made Zhou Peigong stunned, and he took two seconds before asking: "Is the matter of silver and IOUs being exchanged for huàn like this?" ”

"Didn't I already say yes?" Park asked suspiciously.

"Yes, Director Park has agreed just now." Yu Youming, who accompanied him, also said, he was also a little confused: "Didn't Governor Zhou also praise Director Park for being cheerful?" Why are you still thinking about this? ”

"Oh." Only then did Zhou Peigong understand that the other party agreed to his offer without asking for any additional conditions, and just now Zhou Peigong praised Pu for being bothered and cheerful, but he just thought that the two sides had just reached a big consensus, and the bargaining had just begun.

"Didn't he decide the price of death to the benefit of Admiral Deng?" Zhou Peigong couldn't help but have some doubts in his heart: "Could it be that Admiral Deng just unintentionally inserted willows?" However, Zhou Peigong didn't believe his speculation too much, because Deng Ming's deliberate antithesis of the IOU to silver was too obvious, and Zhou Peigong didn't seem to have stumbled into it by mistake: "But these two guys seem to think that my mention is very fair, and they don't need to provide them with any compensation." ”

"Oh, by the way, I don't know how the Zhou Governor's Mansion plans to calculate the exchange between the IOU and the silver?" Yu Youming suddenly remembered something again.

"Does it matter?" Zhou Peicheng was suspicious, and blurted out a rhetorical question without thinking.

"Why doesn't it matter?" Yu Youming shouted; "Governor Zhou, don't deceive us, now a hundred IOUs can be worth one or two cents, or even one or two cents of silver."

Zhou Peigong was stunned again, in his coming, if the IOU and silver are locked in the ratio to huàn, then the IOU is simply a kind of silver bill, and it is said that the IOU is used as an intermediary to trade, but it is actually equivalent to using silver as an intermediary to conduct a transaction - after the purpose of locking the exchange rate is achieved, it can completely eliminate the huge benefits that Deng Ming can bring about by having the right to issue IOUs and the right to set commodity prices.

Since the IOU is equivalent to the silver bill, it seems that there is no difference between stipulating that one hundred yuan is equal to one tael of silver or two taels...... Wait a minute! Zhou Peigong suddenly remembered something again: "They didn't seem to mention how to pay the compensation IOU next, and I always thought that the first thing to lock up and redeem was to change the compensation method - this is a matter of course, and I will agree immediately, but they didn't even mention this." ”

"The two of you were sent by Admiral Deng, right?" Zhou Peigong confirmed the identity of the other party again, and he confirmed it very seriously: "You have the right to determine how the IOU and silver are exchanged, and you also have the right to price the goods, right?" ”

"Of course." Pu Fu and Yu Youming replied in unison, if they don't have this right, then what are they talking about sitting here?

"Can you give me a token?" If it is a magistrate, of course there will be a letter of appointment, and if it is an angel, it will also carry a holy decree, Zhou Peigong thought about the token that Deng Ming gave them, as long as the other party could let Deng Ming's left-behind personnel in the Wuchang warehouse release the goods, but now he suddenly felt that it was necessary to further confirm the identity of the other party.

After discussing with Yu Youming for a few sentences, Pu Fu took out the warrant from Deng Ming to Liu Jinge and Liu Jinge to the Ming army on Wuchang's side, and although Zhou Peigong's words made him feel suspicious and offended, he still showed these supporting documents.

Zhou Peigong smiled and took the boring Wen Jiàn with both hands, and then immediately lowered his head carefully, Deng Ming's warrant was not long, but it clearly mentioned that the trading and pricing power was handed over to Liu Jinge, Zhou Peigong also noticed that Deng Ming mentioned a sentence on the warrant, saying that this batch of goods must be traded with IOUs.

"Admiral Deng really had a premeditated plan, and he had been planning to deceive me into biting the hook for a long time, and what he said was to show his sincerity, and when dealing with Admiral Deng, it was a careless way." At this point, Zhou Peigong secretly hated in his heart, but he still kept a smile on his face, and then there was a sneer in his belly: "But your subordinates actually agreed to exchange IOUs and silver quotas for huàn, even if they still use IOUs to trade, what is the difference with silver?" ”

Then there is Liu Jinge's warrant, which is much simpler, to ask the Ming army on the Wuchang side to obey Pu Fange's orders, he is Liu Jinge's plenipotentiary representative.

After confirming that Pu Fu's rights were correct, Zhou Peigong asked his staff to immediately copy the two warrants on the fine silk, and then brought the ink to ask Pu Fu to stamp his handprint: "If the subordinate officials are careful, they have never seen Director Park before, and dare to press the fingerprint of Director Pu to prove that the content of these two letters is correct with you." ”

"Why is that?" Pu Fu asked with some surprise, he felt that it was enough for the other party to confirm his identity, and he didn't understand why the other party wanted to keep the file.

"It's all Admiral Deng's goods here, if there is any ambiguity in the future, I can't tell it all over my body," Zhou Peigong said pitifully: "And Admiral Deng originally said that these goods must be traded with IOUs compensated by land, and now we exchange them for silver, in case there is a mistake in the future, I can prove that this is not my intention to deceive Admiral Deng." ”

Seeing that the Qing court officials were so afraid of Deng Ming, Pu Fu and Yu Youming both felt that their faces were bright, and immediately Pu Fu didn't think much about it, and pressed his handprints on the two copying scrolls to confirm that the contents were accurate.

After carefully putting away the backup warrant, the smile on Zhou Peigong's face became even brighter, and he handed back the original copies of the two warrants to Pu Fu with both hands: "The matter of the price of silver the day before yesterday is a matter of importance, and I don't know whether the current market price outside is one, two, two, or three, so I have to go back and ask." Don't let you suffer, and we can't suffer too much. ”

"What Governor Zhou said is reasonable." Pu Fu and Yu Youming thought that this was indeed the truth, and they did not have any objections.

After sending the two away, Zhou Peigong brought the Admiral of Wuchang Ma Jun and his father-in-law Lu Chenyin, and as soon as he told him about today's events, Lu Chenyin jumped up: "These two people must be liars!" ”

"They really aren't." Zhou Peigong gave Lu Chenyin the two warrants he had copied, and told him: "Lu Weng will definitely not be able to guess the reason for the suspension of the negotiation just now, is it that he can't make up his mind to set 100 yuan as one or two or two or three. ”

"Hehe," Lu Chenyin unfolded the two warrants lightly, and smiled as he spoke: "Admiral Deng sent two straw bales." ”

When Lu Chenyin said that Deng Ming said that the goods must be traded with IOUs, he pointed to which sentence and said, "Has the prefect ever been here?" ”

"It's here," Zhou Peigong gritted his teeth and said, "It's all Admiral Deng's tricks, and I was cheated by him." If it weren't for this warrant, I wouldn't have been able to say clearly, you've always thought I screwed things up. ”

"It's not serious, is it?" Admiral Ma Jun pondered on the side for a long time, his face was still confused, and finally he couldn't help but ask: "A penny of silver is also money, and it ......."

"You're a bale too." Lu Chenyin interrupted his son-in-law's words, and scolded while returning the warrant to Zhou Peigong: "This is one hundred yuan, not one hundred taels of silver, the amount is the same, you go home and think about it." ”

"It's different, how can it be the same?" Zhou Peigong said with a smile: "The IOU that Admiral Deng compensated us for, but we still paid 100 yuan for one stone of rice. ”

"Why, they agreed without mentioning this?" After Lu Chenyin received an affirmative reply from Zhou Peigong, he stretched out his hand again: "Dare to ask the prefect to give those two warrants to the old man again." ”

……

Beijing.

On the same day that Zhou Peigong received Pu Fu and Yu Youming, Jiang Guozhu's plea for Huguang to send troops to help suppress it was also taken out by Shunzhi to discuss with his courtiers.

Deng Ming and Zhang Huangyan stayed in Zhenjiang and did not leave, which was not only a threat to the Qing court's Cao Yun, but had actually been cut off, if the Ming army wreaked havoc on the canal and dragged it out until the beginning of next year, then there was no need to count on the next Cao Yun. Jiang Guozhu, the governor of Jiangning, had frankly admitted that he was completely unable to expel Deng Ming by relying on the forces of Liangjiang, and urgently needed reinforcements from Dasu or Huguang, and Dasu was obviously impossible to give him.

"Zhou Peigong is really a talent." Seeing that Jiang Guozhu wanted to borrow this person by name, Shunzhi also paid more attention to this young Hanchen: "In the future, I will always find a time to let him go to Beijing." After speaking, Shunzhi glanced at Aobai.

"Minions understand." Ao Bai understood that Shunzhi was going to try how many catties this Zhou Peigong had, if he was really a young military talent, then while trying to win over, he should also be prepared to send him to a remote position to guard after the world was settled in the future.

"I just don't know if Zhang Changgeng is willing to lend it to him." Sony said that now Huguang is still threatened by Yudong, and while reorganizing the army, he must not only support Wu Sangui, but also undertake the task of transporting Cao, and the pressure is not easier than that of Liangjiang, and Zhou Peigong is obviously a trump card in Zhang Changgeng's hands.

Shunzhi considered not only the needs of Huguang, but also Huguang's willingness to borrow, and whether to let Huguang's troops enter the hinterland of the two rivers also needed to be considered.

Last year, a large number of prefectures and counties in Liangjiang suffered from military disasters, and the imperial court ordered tax exemption; This year, many prefectures and counties in Zhejiang had to be exempted from taxes because of Ma Fengzhi's rebellion. finally blew away Ma Fengzhi, this Deng Ming is here again, and I wonder if next year's taxes in Liangjiang will be reduced or exempted by a large amount. If the reinforcements from Huguang enter the two rivers, I am afraid that the place they pass through will be full of sorrow - Shunzhi is very clear that the prefectures and counties that have passed through the thieves may need to be exempt from taxes, but the prefectures and counties of the officers and soldiers must be exempted from taxes, especially the officers and soldiers who have been co-suppressed by other provinces, and it may not be enough to be exempted from taxes for one year after crossing. Repelling the Ming army was important, but Shunzhi also had to consider the cost, and if possible, it was best to rely on the strength of the province to repel it - along with the Jiangxi troops under the Yamen, the governor of Liangjiang, were not very reliable.

This is not only clear to Shunzhi, but Jiang Guozhu must also understand that whether it is the reinforcements from Huguang or the reinforcements from Henan and Shandong, these officers and soldiers who assisted in the suppression will definitely take every Liangjiang woman they meet and every Liangjiang coin they see when they leave. If it weren't a last resort, Jiang Guozhu wouldn't mention this kind of construction, and Shunzhi would definitely not agree.

Anyway, there is still time, Shunzhi really wants to delay this in advance, and after Dasu annihilates Zheng Chenggong, the Qing army assembled in Fujian can start to march towards Zhoushan, which is likely to force Zhang Huangyan to return to the rescue, and then the Yamen, the governor of Liangjiang, may be able to rely on his own strength to expel Deng Ming.

When the monarch hesitated, another report from Fujian arrived.

Shunzhi unfolded Dasu's recital, sighed after a long time, and said while throwing the recital to Sony: "Give an order to Wuchang and ask him to send reinforcements to Jiangnan immediately." The remaining taxes in Huguang this year, as well as next year's taxes, do not need to be deported to Beijing for the use of Chu Shi. ”

Now the problem is no longer the time to consider the taxation of the two rivers, that is, the reinforcements of Hubei and Hunan plundered the two rivers into white land, which is better than the manpower and financial resources above the Ming army.

……

The next day, Zhou Peigong and Yu Youming started the second round of negotiations, and before the start he introduced Lu Chenyin next to him, who was the major shareholder of the firm that smuggled with the Ming Army in Sichuan, and was unanimously authorized by the shareholders to discuss the transaction.

"As the two of them said, the IOU of one hundred yuan is now worth one or two or three dollars, and it will continue to rise," Lu Chenyin said slyly: "Then we will condemn it to one or two or four dollars, how about it?" ”

Pu Fu was about to agree when he heard it, and yesterday he discussed with Yu Youming, and felt that whether it was one or two dollars, it would be acceptable, but Yu Youming, a native of Zhejiang, obviously reacted faster than the honest Pu Fu, and he rushed to say before Pu Fu agreed: "No, maybe this will go up." ”

In fact, one or two or four dollars is a lot, and Yu Youming is a little overjoyed like Pu Fu.

"Indeed," Lu Chenyin nodded, and a temptation allowed him to find out the details of the other party: "Since this is the case, then it is better to set a hundred yuan for huàn two taels." ”

Yu Youming and Pu Fu were speechless in surprise, neither of them expected that the other party would be so generous. Yesterday, Yu Youming calculated with Pu Fu that the goods purchased here for 100 yuan could probably be sold for more than 200 yuan when they returned to Chengdu.

Such a big profit made Yu Youming happy.

"Do you still think it's less?" The other party's face was full of joy but he didn't agree immediately, Lu Chenyin said with a sad face: "How about the one hundred yuan for huàn two taels and five dollars?" ”

In a few breaths, the profit rose by 20% wildly, and Yu Youming and Pu Fu felt as if they were dreaming.

"Still doesn't work?" Lu Chenyin's voice began to tremble, and he gritted his teeth: "How about a hundred yuan for three taels?" ”

Yu Youming and Pu Fu were completely stunned, and when they saw this, Lu Chenyin slapped his thigh fiercely, and they were about to come up with a new jumping price. Before Lu Chenyin could speak, he was interrupted by Zhou Peigong's heavy cough, Lu Chenyin turned his head, and Zhou Peigong frowned and shook his head slightly, suggesting that he should stop in moderation.

"It's just one hundred yuan and three taels, no matter how old it is, the family will be ruined."

Lu Chenyin insisted on not raising the price again, and after arguing weakly for a sentence or two, Pu Fu and Yu Youming agreed to the other party's offer.

Before signing the contract, Zhou Peigong and Lu Chenyin had been waiting nervously, waiting for the other party to propose to modify the amount of the compensation IOU, but they never heard this question. After this matter came to an end, Lu Chenyin's smile became even brighter: "There is another thing, what you pay us is vouchers, not real money, if you can't provide us with goods, then these vouchers are no different from waste paper." ”

"We're going to have a steady stream of goods coming in." Yu Youming said.

"But how can you guarantee that the receipts you will send us will be less than your goods? After all, you're taking the real thing from us, and we're just waiting to pick it up from your warehouse. Lu Chenyin questioned: "If you issue vouchers indiscriminately, for example, you only have one million taels of goods, but you send us three million taels of vouchers, then the commercial bank can only wait for the goods to come in these two months, and this silver can be used to do some other business during the period, this should not be fair to our commercial firm, right?" ”

Of course, this situation will not happen, because Lu Chenyin has a good idea of how many goods Deng Ming has shipped, and if there is no goods in the Ming army's warehouse or the evidence of over-delivery is far greater than their delivery capacity, Lu Chenyin's trading house will not accept it at all.

But this question did stop Yu Youming, and he and Pu Fu discussed it quietly for a while, but they couldn't come up with any solution.

"Otherwise, we can accept the IOU voucher first, even if it is out of stock for a while, it doesn't matter, we can give you ten days to stock up, and the loss of these ten days will be ours." Lu Chenyin said magnanimously: "But if you don't have the goods after ten days, then we ask for some compensation, and give us fifty percent of the interest every ten days." ”

Zhou Peigong coughed heavily, and Lu Chenyin changed the terms without changing his face: "Considering the wind and rain on the Yangtze River, it would be better to give you no more than five days to prepare the goods, and change it to half a month, and each time it will be thirty percent of the profit." ”

The leg under the table was kicked heavily, and seeing Zhou Peigong's fierce opposition, Lu Lao Jinshen had no choice but to change his words again: "In this way, I don't think you will deliberately deceive our goods, so if the voucher issued to us cannot be converted into goods in a month, then we will ask for some compensation, one percent of the interest per month, that is, ten yuan for every 100 yuan of IOU vouchers, and it will be settled in one month." If the goods arrive within a month, then there is no need to compensate, and the losses in the middle can be regarded as the friendship of the landlords of our commercial line. ”

Yu Youming and Pu Fu both agreed, the kind-eyed Lu Chenyin on the other side is more and more pleasing to the eye, of course they will not deliberately deceive Wuchang's goods, and the Yangtze River transportation will inevitably have no delay, as long as they fill in the goods within a month, the other party is willing to bear all the losses in the middle. And if it really can't be filled, the compensation demanded by the other party is very small, only one percent, Yu Youming and Pu Fu both feel that they will not buy a large amount of goods on credit, and this interest is basically not worth mentioning.

After the signing of this agreement, the benevolent Lu Jinshen pointed out that as the party that paid the goods first, their concerns could not be completely dispelled, because it was entirely possible for the Sichuan side to buy large quantities of goods on credit and then run away decisively, so that no matter how high the profits, they would not be able to recover the losses on the Wuchang side.

Yu Youming and Pu Fu said that they were not this kind of people, and Lu Jinshen said that he believed that they were not, so he planned to collect a little mortgage symbolically, for example, Sichuan deposited 100,000 taels of silver in Wuchang Commercial Bank (which can be paid for the goods purchased without IOUs), and then issued 150,000 taels of IOU vouchers every month, and the extra 50,000 yuan was completely provided to them by Lu Jinshen in trust and goodwill.

Before Pu Fu agreed, Zhou Peigong diverted the topic. Lu Chenyin immediately modified the conditions, and changed to a voucher of 200,000 taels can be issued if you deposit 100,000 yuan, which is a full double of the credit limit. But the topic was diverted by Zhou Peigong again.

Lu Chenyin thought about Yu Youming and Pu Fu for the third time and said that he wanted a little guarantee that the silver was completely symbolic, so he would come up with the jumping price, that is, for every 10,000 taels of silver that Sichuan people saved in his Qian Zhuang Li, they could issue an IOU voucher of 100,000 taels to buy the goods of Lu Chenyin's firm and use Deng Ming's goods as collateral.

This condition made Yu Youming and Pu Fu feel a little embarrassed, and then Zhou Peigong suddenly stood up and said to the two: "The two distinguished guests go back to rest first, and we will stop here today." ”

After sending off the negotiators from Sichuan, Zhou Peigong viciously landed on Chenyin: "Mr. Lu, what do you want to do?" ”

"Your Excellency, the prefect, has also arrived, this is what they agreed, I didn't force it, they are still very happy and satisfied." Lu Chenyin said innocently.

"It's not a chick without a backstage, they're Admiral Deng's people!" Zhou Peigong shouted: "Yes, Admiral Deng's chess skills are very good, but no matter how good the chess skills are, sometimes they will flip the chessboard!" Enough is enough, we don't have anything more! ”

After finishing speaking, Zhou Peigong shook his head again, and said in disbelief: "Admiral Deng is smart and confused for a while, how could he think of sending such two wine bags and rice bags to Wuchang?"