Chengdu, prefect's yamen.

Recently, there have been many fierce quarrels between Governor Xiong Lan and the prefect Liu Jinge, and the officials of the yamen have become accustomed to this, but today's fierce Cheng Dù is far more fierce than before.

The phenomenon of the appreciation of IOUs is still worsening, and now the price of grain has been hovering around 81 yuan per stone, which is only a line away from the "life and death line of grain officials" of 80 yuan for one stone of grain. The population continued to pour into the vicinity of Chengdu, and in addition to more Zhejiang, Huguang and their families, there were also residents of Jiading Prefecture who arrived today - Di Sanxi stayed in Jiading Prefecture for a long time when he led his army back to Jianchang, and the situation here in Chengdu spread throughout Jiading Prefecture at once.

Originally, Chengdu's government in Jiading Prefecture basically had only one post station function, and it had not collected taxes from the vicinity for many years, but in just one month, its function became an information center for displaced people, because there was no local government, the people near Jiading Prefecture ran to the post station to inquire about Chengdu's policy.

Originally, many people in Jiading Prefecture fled to Leshan and Emei Mountains to escape the war in western Sichuan, and after learning that Chengdu had a large amount of grain and actively resumed production, many people had the idea of returning to western Sichuan. At present, many people are still waiting, after all, the shape of the Ming court is as dangerous as a tired egg, except for the danger of the Qing army invading Chengdu, no one dares to say that Deng Ming will not break his word, and the people will be incorporated into the army.

Now they are returning to Chengdu with the most hardship and courageous people, and it is the grain ships that make them finally make up their minds. After seeing a large number of Zhejiang people sailing to Chengdu with a boatload of grain, the people of Jiading Prefecture finally couldn't help but gamble and took these passing boats to Chengdu together.

More and more people are coming in, making IOUs more scarce, and since they all need IOUs, the new immigrants not only strive to collect IOUs to buy the first batch of households, but also want to save as much as possible; As for the local residents, in addition to the $200 that each person must leave behind, they also need to save for future purchases of tools, just like the new immigrants.

"Of the 30,000 Tongxiucai, almost all of them think that they can cultivate more than 20 acres, so they will have to save 6 million yuan in IOUs. Most of the newcomers think that they will have no problem with making up 10 acres of land this year. Not counting those who have not yet arrived, only the more than 15,000 people who have arrived now, they also have to save 1.5 million yuan. These add up to 7.5 million, IOUs that they hide under their beds and will not take out alive or dead. Although she has only been the governor for a month, Xiong Lan is now very proficient in calculation, and her oral and mental arithmetic abilities have improved every day: "The prices of farm tools, pig iron, and salt have all fallen sharply, especially down!" Seeing that things were becoming more and more unsold, everyone from the trading houses to the peasants was terrified, and the trading houses desperately deposited IOUs in case they could repay the loans and pay the rent of the shops in the future, and were reluctant to use them to buy raw materials - they felt that they might be able to buy cheaper ones in the future, and were unwilling to hire more people - they were afraid that prices would continue to fall, and that the wages of hired workers would continue to fall......"

The price of grain is not only the most concerned by Governor Xiong, but also the only one that the prefect's yamen has made efforts to control, so the price fluctuations are not too outrageous, and iron ore and salt have fallen to about half the price of a month ago, and the price of agricultural tools has not fallen strictly due to extreme shortage for the time being, but the number of people buying has also decreased significantly - now many people would rather make do with wooden farm tools than get rid of their precious IOUs.

The drop in prices also hit the morale of the trading houses, and many people secretly calculated that the income from hoarding IOUs was no lower than that from engaging in industrial manufacturing. On the one hand, a large number of new immigrants are eager to work to obtain IOUs, and on the other hand, the commercial banks are clinging to the loans given by the banks and are unwilling to take them out to hire workers to expand production.

Bang!

The louder Xiong Lan shouted, he slapped Liu Jinge's desk angrily: "Many places have started bartering again, and our yamen can't get any benefit from this kind of transaction." Seeing the loss of tax revenue, isn't Governor Liu distressed? The Admiral asked you to be in charge of the official mansion, and you didn't earn so much money, don't you feel ashamed of Governor Liu? ”

Bang!

Now every time the two of them quarrel, they will face each other like fighting cocks, and Liu Jinge also slapped the table with a slap: "Then Governor Xiong, you printed an IOU, you only sent 15 million IOUs, of which 10 million were picked up and not used, of course it was not enough!" ”

Bang!

"Others are just holding a few hundred yuan, and Governor Liu's Mansion is a few million, and the people don't dare to spend it if they have about eighty or ninety thousand yuan in their hands now, just because Governor Liu's Mansion is holding millions of IOUs in your hands and you want to make a fortune!"

Xiong Lan yelled angrily, the first few times Liu Jinge cried poorly, he was fooled, and then the more Xiong Lan settled the account, the more he felt wrong, so he sent someone to Liu Yao and other places to ask, asking Liu Jinge how many IOUs he gave them; I also went to each pavilion and asked how much wages and funds the prefect's yamen gave them. After collecting the information, Xiong Lan asked the bank's subordinates to help the prefect yamen settle the accounts. It's not that I don't know, I'm shocked, Xiong Lan found that Liu Jinge had at least three million IOUs in his hand, obviously the prefect's yamen was holding back to make a big deal in this price turmoil, and Liu Zhifu was the biggest IOU hoarder in Chengdu, and the prefect's yamen led by Liu Jinge was the largest speculative group!

Bang!

"What is a national disaster? The Admiral said that the biggest job of zhèngfǔ is to earn money and collect grain. After being exposed by Xiong Lan half a month ago, Liu Jinge no longer denied it, but admitted it: "Since there is 80 yuan and a stone of grain to collect, why should I use 100 yuan to collect?" ”

"Alright, alright." Yuan Xiang, who had been listening on the side, came out to play the round as usual. Now during the tripartite meeting, every time Governor Liu and President Xiong would quarrel, his face would be red and his neck would be thick, and Yuan Xiang had also become accustomed to his new horn sè - a peacemaker.

When the two quarreled just now, Yuan Xiang had been cautiously holding his teacup in his hand, and now except for the teacup in his hand, the things that were originally on the table had been slapped to the ground by the two of them - after dropping the ceramic pen holder and teacup twice, Liu Jinge ordered that all the decorations on the table in the prefect's yamen be replaced with cheap wood products.

"This desktop has been cracked," Yuan Xiang touched the patent leather on the desk lovingly, and said distressedly: "You quarrel a few more times, this table should be changed, Governor Liu, you first change the iron table and then discuss government affairs with President Xiong." ”

Bang!

Xiong Lan turned a deaf ear to Yuan Xiang's words.

"There is no need to print more IOUs. It's only February now, so why do both the original people and the newcomers have to prepare IOUs after the autumn harvest? It was they who were worried that at that time, a stone of grain had fallen to fifty yuan, or even lower, so they would hold on to the IOU in their hands and not let go. As long as Governor Liu doesn't want to make a fortune by relying on IOUs, and honestly exchange 100 yuan for a stone of grain, soon the people will put aside their worries and take out the IOUs and use them. ”

Now that the price of grain is only a thin line away from eighty yuan, Xiong Lan has nightmares every night, dreaming that Deng Ming transformed into Cao Cāo and dragged himself out to sacrifice the flag; However, now there is still a solution to the grain cheapness, as long as the IOUs are printed at full speed, they will definitely be able to reverse; But what will happen when the price of food rises to 119 in the future? Xiong Lan felt that it would be even more difficult for him to spit out the grain stored in the warehouse with Liu Tichun's Bingxìng, not to mention that the food would still be consumed after all. Besides, Deng Ming's order to Liu Jinge was to make money, not to control prices, and it was not Liu Jinge's head that would be killed at that time.

Bang!

Liu Jinge couldn't argue with Xiong Lan, so he shouted angrily: "Single-handed!" ”

After Xiong Lan settled the accounts last time, she told Liu Jinge that he still had a few million yuan in his hand to Youming, the junior general of the Zhejiang army, and after hearing this, Yu Youming was furious, and immediately went to Liu Zhifu with Xiong Lan to theorize. But Liu Jinge said that there was an IOU, but if you want to exchange it, you have to exchange it for eighty-five yuan a stone, which is still a special discount given by Governor Liu to Zhejiang soldiers.

After being reprimanded by Yu Youming, Liu Jinge took off his official uniform and challenged Yu Youming in front of Yuan Xiang and Xiong Lan: "Heads-up!" ”

Yu Youming couldn't swallow this breath, so he had a fight with Liu Jinge, but Yu Jiangmen was beaten to the ground by Liu Zhifu, and finally had to swallow his anger and accept the ratio of 85 yuan to one stone from Liu Zhifu, and exchanged 5,000 stone of grain for a batch of IOUs with hatred. Later, Xiong Lan went to find Tai Youming again, but the latter closed the door. I heard from the people of Zhejiang that after Yu Youming recovered from his injury, he stayed at home every day, lifted the stone lock three times a day, and spent the rest of the time either exercising his fists and feet, or learning sticks.

Shut down

The other party's momentum had a certain deterrent effect on Xiong Lan, and he didn't slap the table again when he continued to argue: "The price of this grain is ......"

Bang!

Liu Jinge slammed the table harder: "Heads-up!" ”

"This price ......," Xiong Lan also tried to speak.

Bang, bang, bang! The Chengdu prefect smashed the table three times in a row, interrupting the bank president's last attempt to reason with him today, and the governor Liu used all his strength to pull his throat and shouted to the governor Xiong: "Single-handed!" ”

Governor Liu leaned forward, his face almost touching Governor Xiong's face, Xiong Lan raised her arm up, and gently wiped her saliva face with her sleeve.

After wiping it, Xiong Lan took a step back and began to take off her official uniform without saying a word, revealing her ** upper body full of tattoos.

Seeing this, Liu Jinge also took off his robe and pulled up his trouser legs.

Yuan Xiang had already dragged the table between the two of them aside, and at the same time did not forget to instruct: "Don't hit the crotch, don't insert your eyes, don't lock your throat, don't forget that you are the official of the court!" "Needless to say, Liu Jinge, Xiong Lan has been in the army for many years, and she also has several lives in her hands, Yuan Xiang does not stop them from fighting, but reminds the two to pay attention to proportion.

"Kill you thief son!"

"Kill you little!"

Before Yuan Xiang's words fell, the Chengdu prefect and the bank president roared and fought together, fists and feet flying......

Half an hour later, Xiong Lan, who had dark eyes, left the prefect's yamen angrily with her subordinates, gritting her teeth with hatred for Liu Jinge: "Liu thief is too capable of fighting!" ”

At this time, half of Governor Liu's face was swollen and tall, and he was sitting on his chair resting with his cheeks covered, thinking of the hard-won victory just now, he also had palpitations: "Governor Xiong is so fierce, I used to underestimate him." ”

"He has also been a soldier for more than 20 years, and he has always been in the army." Yuan Xiang said: "It is not easy for President Xiong, if the price of grain is less than eighty, Mr. will settle accounts with him." ”

"I know, don't you see that the price of food has been steadily stopping at eighty-one? In the future, if the price of food rises, I will also help him stop below 12. Now he can't trust me. I know that the price of food is very important to him, but I also have to earn money and collect food. Liu Jinge said. If the bank was open to printing IOUs, of course he would not hoard such notes, but now that Xiong Lan refuses to distribute them indiscriminately, Liu Jinge has no choice but to use this method to generate income for zhèngfǔ.

……

When he left Chengdu, Deng Ming didn't have much time, so he simply gave Xiong Lan an overview of the bank structure he had in mind, and gave some names to the bank staff, such as "manager", "bookkeeper", "cashier", "security", etc., and left the rest to Xiong Lan.

In Deng Ming's impression, bank employees should be polite, with eyes and gentle voices. And the movies and TV series left another impression on Deng Ming, that is, bank clerks are a highly dangerous job. In movies and television, shortly after the bank footage, a dark room will appear with a group of men with fierce faces and tattoos, wielding all kinds of dangerous weapons in their hands, and their resourceful leaders are plotting the details of the bank's ransack.

In Chengdu now, probably no one thinks that banks are dangerous occupations that are easy to be robbed, on the contrary, bank robbery is a dangerous occupation.

At the other end of Chūn Road, Xiong Lan's yamen is located, under the high eaves of a plaque with the word "bank" written on it, and several burly men with large swords standing at the door. Several of them are security guards of the bank, and they have been scanning the pedestrians around them with jǐng ti eyes, and their gaze makes every Tongxiucai who is concerned feel that their hair is standing on end, if they don't have to go to the bank to do business, the people around them are far away from the gate of the bank in a big circle.

When President Xiong was seen returning to the yamen in his armor surrounded by a team of heavily armed "cashiers", the unrelated people around him kept a considerable distance from them.

The compound was littered with stone locks of various sizes, which were used by a large number of cashiers and bookkeepers to exercise their muscles when they had nothing to do. Although it was a cold early chūn, these dragons and tigers were wearing shorts one by one, revealing their muscles, and with the continuous movement of their limbs, the various animals on the tattoo pattern seemed to have life.

Today is the same, Xiong Lan heard one after another shouting before entering the hospital, many bank employees were sweating and carrying out regular training, and many people were sitting by the wall and the corner of the courtyard in twos and threes, carefully wiping the big knives and spears in their hands.

Xiong Lan didn't stay in the front yard for a long time, but walked all the way to the back, where Qin Xiucai was training the salesmen in arithmetic - Qin Xiucai had been teaching himself arithmetic before handing it over to Xiong Lan's other subordinates.

"What's going on, boss?" After seeing Xiong Lan come in with a scarred face, Qin Xiucai asked in surprise.

"Governor Liu!" Xiong Lan said angrily: "He just wants to use the IOU to collect more food, and he doesn't care about my life or death." ”

"Ugh." Qin Xiucai stopped lecturing, and the other students also came up to greet Xiong Lan beside him, and some of them shouted recklessly: "President! We went and smashed the prefect's yamen. ”

"Nonsense!" Xiong Lan hated the iron and scolded: "If I could smash it, wouldn't I have gone earlier?" There are more than 300 Yamen soldiers in Governor Liu's mansion, we don't have an advantage, and he still has hundreds of pavilions to use. ”

"It is imperative that we recruit more cashiers and security guards," according to Xiong Lan's understanding, cashiers and security guards are similar to family members and soldiers, and as for the manager, of course, he is the boss.

"Master, you go to chóngqìng." Xiong Lan asked Qin Xiucai to bring a few capable cashiers to Chóngqìng to find Deng Ming to complain.

"Okay, owner, a few ships have been unloaded today, and I'll leave early tomorrow morning." Qin Xiucai immediately agreed.

"When I met the Admiral, in addition to telling me what I had explained, I also had to ask the Admiral for someone." Xiong Lan said.

"Who do you want?"

"Of course it's Pu annoying them," Xiong Lan touched the back of her head, and said resolutely: "I don't want the foundation of Wanxian County, and I want the governor to transfer Pu Fu and them to Chengdu." ”

In addition to asking Deng Ming for permission, Xiong Lan also asked other henchmen to go to Wanxian County, and asked Pu Fu to select a group of capable subordinates to bring: "Sue Pu Fu, I want one hundred and fifty security guards." It doesn't matter if you don't know how to farm, we don't need to build our own military tun when we get to Chengdu; Fifty cashiers, all of whom have gone into battle. When Pu Fu arrived in Chengdu, I promised the Admiral that he would be the general manager of the Bank of Chengdu. In addition, these 200 people will probably need three managers to lead. The position of the bank manager is not trivial, and he must have killed people and seen blood. ”

……

Since leaving Loushan Pass, a large number of carts of cattle have begun to die, and the army has not had time to stop to collect enough forage, and even if there is, priority must be given to the supply of war horses.

After ten days of arduous marching, almost all the strong women brought out of Guizhou were gone, and in the last two days, a large number of strong women have also begun to die. After losing their livestock, the Qing army put the auxiliaries on their vehicles and drove them forward with leather whips. Tan Xiaozhuang saw more than once that the auxiliary soldiers pulling the cart were walking, and suddenly their heads tilted, and their heads fell to the ground, no matter how hard the Qing soldiers whipped, there was no slightest reaction. After confirming that the auxiliary soldier was dead, the Qing soldiers would untie the ropes around him, throw the body on the side of the road, and then change a person to the deceased's place and continue on his way.

On the way north, the number of auxiliaries was decreasing faster and faster, and the corpses strewn up on the roadside were becoming denser. Tan Xiaozhuang recognized one of the faces today, it was the man who set up a stall not far from him in the market.

The man lay motionless on the side of the road, his clothes whipped to shreds, and his ragged clothes and flesh were mixed and congealed; His eyes were wide open, but his mouth was closed.

Until now, Tan Xiaozhuang has not been sent to pull a cart, and he is responsible for lighter tasks such as collecting firewood, but he also knows very well that pulling a cart is only a matter of time. Tan Xiaozhuang stood beside this man for a moment, looked around and no one noticed him, so he quickly squatted down and closed the man's angry eyes, and then quickly fled a few steps.

If Tan Xiaozhuang's actions were discovered by the soldiers, perhaps he would think that he sympathized with the deceased and was dissatisfied with the officials. Even if he is not punished, he may be immediately put on a cart. Despite this, Tan Xiaozhuang couldn't help but reach out and close his eyes for the man who only had one side. After staying away from this location, Tan Xiaozhuang still felt his heart pounding.

Tan Xiaozhuang seemed to hear the little girl's laughter again, as well as the sentence "Dad, I want to be warm." Although it was just such a simple word, how much warmth had it injected into his chest? Tan Xiaozhuang felt that the corners of his eyes were a little sour, but he tried his best to suppress his feelings and not let them be revealed: "There are no more women in the team, you can close your eyes and the family will be reunited." But what about me? When I fall on the side of the road, who do I go to? Will someone close their eyes for me? ”