MTL - Poor Family-v2 Chapter 910 One Leaf Knows Autumn

  Chapter 910 One Leaf Knows Autumn

Although Zhang Shun issued a letter of guarantee in front of the coach, he did not have enough confidence in his heart. In order to track down this carrier pigeon that flew into the city, he spent a lot of manpower to search for the past two days, but he still found nothing. It was not until yesterday evening that he got one. The clue is that someone has heard the cooing of pigeons near Wulin Lane in the west of the city.

  Zhang Shun sent fifty soldiers overnight to search for the chirping of pigeons near Wulin Lane. It was not until dawn that he finally found and locked the source of the sound.

  Zhang Shun did not scare the snakes, but sent someone to secretly watch the yard where the pigeons were singing. After reporting to Li Yanqing, Zhang Shun immediately took action.

Five hundred soldiers surrounded the yard. This is a very ordinary residential house, covering an area of ​​about three acres. It looks like a middle-class family, and the surrounding area is very deserted. The young and middle-aged people around have joined the militia. The elderly and children also try to live in secluded places, and there is no one pedestrian in the streets and alleys.

After observing for a while, they found nothing abnormal. With a wave of Zhang Shun's hand, several soldiers jumped over the wall and entered the yard. After a while, the soldiers opened the backyard door and waved to Zhang Shun. Zhang Shun stepped forward and asked: " What did you find?"

   "We found that pigeon!"

Zhang Shun was refreshed, and then he led a large group of soldiers into the backyard, and saw a small wooden hut in the corner of the yard. A soldier took out a large birdcage from the hut. The birdcage should have been covered with a black cloth, but it had been ripped off. Opened it, and there was a pigeon inside. Zhang Shun recognized it at a glance. It was a very strong carrier pigeon.

   "Have you searched the house?" Zhang Shun asked immediately.

   "A brother has already gone."

   Soon, several soldiers escorted an old man from the house. The old man was thin and gray-haired, but he was very energetic. When he saw Zhang, he knelt down by the way, "General, the villain is not a spy, but a businessman."

  Zhang Shun immediately heard that his accent was wrong, not his normal pronunciation. He looked at the old man carefully, and suddenly asked, "Are you not Han?"

   "Little man, the villain is a party businessman." The old man lowered his head timidly. He knew that during the war, he was a foreigner with a carrier pigeon, and he couldn't speak clearly.

  When Zhang Shun heard that he was from Xixia, he was stunned for a moment, and immediately ordered his left and right to say: "Search carefully for me, and don't let go of any corner."

  The old man kowtowed again and begged, "General, the villain is really a Xixia businessman. He has been doing business in Taiyuan and has been in Taiyuan for more than ten years. The neighbors around can prove that the villain also bought this house ten years ago."

   "If you are really a Xixia businessman, I won't embarrass you. After I prove your innocence, I will naturally let you go, but first explain to me, what's going on with this carrier pigeon?"

  Zhang Shun pointed to the pigeon cage next to it. The homing pigeon flapped its wings in the cage and sang anxiously. It had been locked up for too long and was very eager to fly into the blue sky.

The old man bowed his head and said: "The villain is a fur merchant. His Chinese name is Li Guiyuan, and his party name is Na Puduo. He is from Xingqing Prefecture. After he came to Taiyuan fifteen years ago, he settled down and opened a shop. My brother is in Xingqing. The government is responsible for receiving the goods, and this carrier pigeon is used by the two of us to contact the news."

   "Don't you know Song Jun has issued a ban on pigeons?"

   "The villain knows that on the day the pigeon ban was issued, the villain released the pigeons back to Xingqing Mansion, but a few days ago my brother got an important news and sent me the pigeon letter."

   "What important news?"

   "Just... a business message."

   "Say!" Zhang Shun glared at him.

  The old man had no choice but to explain: "A snowstorm broke out in the northern grassland today, and a large number of sheep were frozen to death, causing the price of sheepskin to plummet. My brother asked me to go to Liaodong to buy more lambskins."

At this time, the soldiers who searched came out and reported to Zhang Shun: "No suspicious things were found in his home, and a large number of old sheepskins were found in several warehouses, as many as tens of thousands. From his account books and letters Come on, he should be a fur trader."

   "The villain is a fur merchant, and those sheepskins have been hoarded for several years."

The soldier handed Zhang Shun another volume of pigeon letters, which contained party items, and the translation was the news that the old man said. This made Zhang Shun deeply disappointed. It seemed that the old man was indeed a businessman, not what he was expecting. He is a spy of the Kingdom of Jin, but he can't point out that a deer is a horse, and forcefully identify the old man as a spy of the Kingdom of Jin. If he does that, he will be severely punished by the government.

  Zhang Shun suddenly moved, there are tens of thousands of sheepskins! He quickly asked, "Sheepskin should be very popular this year, why don't you sell it?"

  The old man smiled wryly and said: "How dare I take out these sheepskins, as long as the Jin soldiers find them, they will be snatched away immediately. If the Song army wants it, I can sell it to you at a cheaper price."

  Zhang Shun nodded, this can be regarded as a harvest! The recruits just lacked warm military blankets, and these old sheepskins could play a role.

  Zhang Shun immediately asked the soldiers to report to the Metropolitan Command, and asked Li Yanqing to come and have a look. He couldn't decide whether to buy these sheepskins.

Not long after, Li Yanqing rushed to Wulin Lane with a dozen of his own soldiers. Zhang Shun reported to him how he had seized the carrier pigeons. For the old sheepskin in the house, he turned his head and asked Li Guiyuan, "What is the market price of the sheepskin?"

   "A piece of lambskin is 850 yuan, ordinary sheepskin is 550 yuan, and old sheepskin is 1,000 yuan. This is the market price in November last year. Now there is no market, so there is no market price."

Of course, this is the price of iron coins. If it is copper coins, the price will be half cheaper, but now there are almost no copper coins in the northern market. They are all iron coins. Every day changes, there is no standard at all, Li Yanqing can also accept the asking price of the other party, but he is a little strange.

   "Why is lambskin expensive?" Li Yanqing asked in confusion.

"It is reported that lambskin is mainly in small quantities. In addition, women's thermal underwear must be sewn with lambskin, and women's boots must also be made of lambskin, so the price of lambskin is expensive, and it is very expensive in the south. In demand."

  Li Yanqing nodded, "I want all these sheepskins, tell me a price!"

  Li Guiyuan hesitated for a while and said, "Let's pay for the money!"

   "Yes, but it must be calculated at the northern price of one tael of silver to five thousand Wen."

  Now the price of silver varies from place to place. Generally, the price of silver is expensive in the north and low in the south. Now the price of silver is unified in the south of the Huaihe River. According to the price of silver in Lin'an, one tael of silver is worth three thousand Wen.

And the imperial court promulgated a new money law last summer. Under the rule of the Song Dynasty, Zumo shall prevail. The money system was confused, and the imperial court simply unified the money system.

The official price in Lin'an is one tael of silver and three thousand wen. In the Central Plains, the official price is gone, only the market price, one tael of silver is exchanged for four thousand wen. Taiyuan and Hebei silver are less expensive and cheap, and with the continuous war, one tael of silver is even more expensive. It is worth 5,000 Wen, which is the exchange rate for copper coins. If it is iron coins, the price of silver will be doubled.

Li Yanqing smiled slightly and said: "Then it's settled like this! I don't want your discount either. I will buy ten old sheepskins for one tael of silver at the market price last November. If this price is acceptable, we will close the deal. "

Li Guiyuan was in great pain. In Lin'an, three sheepskins can be exchanged for a tael of silver. He also knew that his goods were urgently needed by the army, so he talked about discounts, but in fact he wanted to sell them at a high price, but the pain returned. Painful, Li Guiyuan also knew that he could only accept this price, at least it was the market price, if it was a golden soldier, he would not give him a penny, and would directly requisition it.

  He sighed and said: "That's how it is! I have a total of 30,000 old sheepskins in exchange for 3,000 taels of silver, but can the envoy send troops to protect my safety?"

  Li Yanqing smiled faintly, "As long as you stay in Taiyuan City for a day, no one will dare to touch you. If you feel that the silver is too much to carry, I can exchange it for three hundred taels of gold for you. You can choose between silver and gold."

  Li Guiyuan thought for a while, "Then gold!"

  Gold is easy to carry, and Xixia gold is more expensive. One tael of gold can be exchanged for fifteen taels of silver on the black market, and I don’t suffer much.

  After discussing the business, Li Yanqing invited Li Guiyuan to the lobby again. He took the pigeon letter and asked, "The letter said that there was a severe snowstorm in the northern grasslands. Why did you ask you to go to Liaodong to buy lambskins?"

  In terms of strategic thinking, Li Yanqing is hundreds of times stronger than Zhang Shun. Li Guiyuan said something casually, Zhang Shun didn't hear the problem, but Li Yanqing grasped the essence of the problem at once, Liaodong!

   "Reporting to the Economic Commissioner, this is what my brother said. In fact, I don't know what it means. The reason why I went to Liaodong should be that my brother got some news from some merchants."

  Businessmen have always been the group with the sharpest news. Xixia has always had a lot of business contacts with Liao.

  Li Yanqing is more interested in the situation in Liaodong. If a snowstorm breaks out in Liaodong, then the Kingdom of Jin is also inevitable. If a country suffers from severe natural disasters, how can it support a large-scale war?

  If the news of the snow disaster in Liaodong is true, the war will not last long.

  Thinking of this, Li Yanqing told Li Guiyuan: "You continue to send letters to your brother, ask about the situation in Liaodong, and report to General Zhang immediately after you reply."

   "The villain understands!"

  Li Yanqing then returned to the official office, and he also needed to ask Lin'an to help him understand the situation in Liaodong.

  (end of this chapter)