Before dawn, Han Xiufeng, who was sleeping soundly, was woken up by Wang Naizeng outside, put on his clothes in a daze, lit anti-wind lanterns, yawned and walked out of the inner house to ask, only to know that it was just past the middle of the day.

"Brother Yunqing, what's the matter with getting up so early?" Han Xiufeng put down the lamp and couldn't help yawning again.

"Dong Weng, Naizin will take you to a place." Wang Naizeng signaled Yu Youfu, who had already gotten up, to bring the freshly boiled hot water so that the owner could wash his face, and said with a smile: "I said hello to Feng Xiaowhip yesterday afternoon, he got up early in the morning and had already driven the car over. ”

"Where?"

"Rong Naizeng will sell it first, and if you go, you will find that this has not been in vain."

"Well, it's already up anyway."

After washing his face, getting dressed, he walked through the front hall with Wang Naizeng and Yu Youfu, bypassed the Yi Gate, opened the gate, and climbed into the carriage that Feng Xiaowhip had rushed in. found that it was not yet dawn, so I didn't bother to ask where to go, so I leaned on the carriage and fell asleep in a daze.

When I was woken up again, I heard a lot of excitement outside the car.

Got out of the carriage and rubbed his eyes and looked around, and found that the sky was already dark, the breakfast stalls on both sides of the street had opened, the steamers of steamed buns and steamed buns were filled with white mist, and the fog on the stalls of noodles and dumplings was even more foggy, and it was impossible to see whether anyone was sitting behind the stalls for breakfast.

The people who rushed to the morning market to buy vegetables either carried baskets or carried baskets on their shoulders, put their hands in their sleeves, and put down their heads at the entrance of the vegetable market. The big car selling "sweet water" is even more endless, the one that just passed by may be filled with too much water, the mule can't pull, and a **-year-old baby is drooling while looking at the bun shop, while helping to push it behind.

"Dong Weng, if you're hungry, try it, the buns in front of this street are the best." Wang Naizeng handed over two steamed buns wrapped in oiled paper, took two more from Yu Youfu's hands, and motioned to Feng Xiaowhip, who was also eating steamed buns, to wait here while eating.

"This is Zhushikou!" Han Xiufeng asked in his hand as he held the bun.

"Exactly."

"I like to eat the buns here, just send someone to buy them, why do you get up so early?"

"Dong Weng, we haven't arrived yet," Wang Naizeng smiled, then made a gesture of invitation, led Han Xiufeng to take a few steps forward, and followed a hurried man into an inconspicuous small alley.

Han Xiufeng didn't know what kind of medicine he was selling in his gourd, so he thought that since he came, he would go in and take a look, and eat steamed buns while drilling into the small alley with him.

Sure enough, the skin is thin and the filling is big, the bite is full of oil, and the mouth is full of oil, and I am enjoying eating, passing by a house, I can vaguely see the pair engraved on the gate with "increasing the mountains and rivers a thousand times the profit, and being as lush as the pine and cypress in the spring of four seasons".

The further I walked in, the narrower and narrower it became, so narrow that it could only allow one person to pass through, and I saw a few seemingly inconspicuous, but the pair on the door was a little conscious.

"Longevity is boundless, and there is a way to celebrate abundance; Jubao is endless, and the Thai level is as rising as the sun...... Brother Yunqing, it doesn't look like a Qianzhuang ticket number here, and it is impossible for a Qianzhuang ticket number to be opened in such a deep alley! Han Xiufeng said puzzled.

Wang Naizeng slowed down, raised his arm and pointed at his finger: "Dong Weng, look at the top." ”

Han Xiufeng looked up and found that there were a lot of pretenses hanging on it, such as "Wanju furnace room scattered into ingots and dumped in confidence", "Jutai furnace room dumped silver and broken into ingots", etc., colorful and dazzling.

Han Xiufeng reacted, "Furnace room, this is the place where silver ingots are melted?" ”

There were more and more people in front, and it was impossible to go in further, and then there came people who didn't look like Mr. Bookkeeper, Wang Naizeng simply stopped, and explained in his ear: "Although the official silver that has been cast by the provinces to the household department is the official silver, but because of the different fineness and weight, the household department usually does not accept it, but let them first come to these furnace rooms approved by the household department to melt and cast into a small treasure, so that they can be cashed in the warehouse, in order to be uniform." ”

"All here?"

"Almost." Wang Naizeng smiled, and continued: "Because it is not far from the jewelry market, and the jewelry trade, there are thousands of dollars, so many big jewelers also melt the silver taels here. Among them, there is no charge for melting and casting silver, and only profit is made in the fineness of silver. ”

Han Xiufeng had already heard that there was a money market near the mouth of the Zhushi market, so he stood on tiptoe to look at the people crowded in front, and then looked back at the people behind Yu Youfu, and couldn't help blurting out: "These people who got up early are all 'silver devils' (the nickname of the housekeeper of the furnace room). ”

"No, the 'silver devil' is busy melting ingots, so how can he stay outside." After Wang Naizeng finished eating the last bite, he threw down the oil paper and took out a handkerchief to wipe his mouth, stood on tiptoe and looked ahead and explained: "Dong Weng, this is a dead end, there is a house in the innermost, and that small mansion is the place where the money is exchanged. ”

"What are they doing here?"

"Wait for the news, wait for the money market to open for trading, and after a few transactions, they will know the market of the silver money transaction, and then send the news back to their own store, and the store will buy and sell the silver money according to the market."

"How much money can be exchanged for a tael of silver varies every day, I have always wondered who set this market, it turned out to be here!"

"Dong Weng, you don't open a money bank, it's normal if you don't know."

"Yes, we don't open a bank, what are we doing here?" Han Xiufeng asked with a smile.

"Don't be impatient, you'll know right away." As soon as Wang Naizeng's voice fell, there was a commotion in front of him.

Seeing that the three of them were not in a hurry, the people behind them were desperately squeezing forward, Han Xiufeng found that there were people standing on the steps of the house on the left, and hurriedly pulled Yu Youfu, who was squeezed to the point where he almost got mad with those people. Wang Naizeng realized that something was wrong, and it was too late to stand on the steps, so he was squeezed into it by the people behind him.

"Fourth Master, is Mr. Wang okay?" Yu Youfu asked anxiously.

"It shouldn't be anything," the probe looked forward, thinking about it, and couldn't help but say, "Let him spare people's dreams early in the morning, let him play tricks, and deserve to be squeezed and suffered." ”

As he was talking, because the alley was too narrow and crowded into an alley with a human dragon, a hundred and ten pigeons suddenly flew out, fluttering their wings and flying on the top of people's heads, and some even while flying, Han Xiufeng hurriedly retracted his head, and when he poked his head out again, the group just now had disappeared, but there were still pigeons flying out of the human dragon in twos and threes.

"Fourth master, it looks like those people in front of you put it!" Yu Youfu muttered.

"It should be," Han Xiufeng suddenly realized why Wang Naizeng brought him here early in the morning, and couldn't help laughing: "I have seen what I should see, let's go, go to the alley and wait." ”

"Fourth master, what do you see?"

"Pigeons."

"What is so beautiful about pigeons......" Yu Youfu was confused.

Han Xiufeng smiled and said nothing, just like this, while eating the leftover buns, he walked out of the alley, returned to the car and waited for about a stick of incense, Wang Naizeng came out embarrassed.

"Dong Weng, do you see that?"

"See, here, it's pigeon!" Han Xiufeng pointed to his shoulder and teased.

Wang Naizeng subconsciously turned his head and found that there was no pigeon feces on his shoulder, so he said with a smile: "Dong Weng, Naizeng is asking if you have seen those pigeons?" ”

"I saw it, I looked at a lot, but I don't know how far I can fly, whether I can fly back if I fly far, I don't know if it's reliable."

"Dong Weng, if it is not reliable, can those big money village big ticket numbers use pigeons to deliver news? But you're right, we can't hang ourselves on a tree, we can put a few more when we need to, and the people who should go will still be gone, what do you think? ”

"Domestication doesn't happen overnight."

"Dong Weng, you are now a 'little military aircraft', do you need to worry about these trivial matters?"

Han Xiufeng reacted: "That's right, Brother Yunqing, you don't have anything else to do this morning, just ask who has the most domesticated family, and when you inquire clearly, let Enjun go and invite their shopkeeper to Dengwen Drum Hall to talk." ”

Wang Naizeng took off his shoes, crossed his legs and said with a smile: "Dong Weng, there is no need to deliberately inquire about this matter, you just need to invite the shopkeepers of 'Rishengchang' and 'Weitaihou' to Dengwen Drum Hall to talk." As far as Naizeng knows, these two are not only domesticated, but also have semicolons in Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai. ”

"In terms of semicolons, there are more semicolons set up by 'Weitaihou', which is known for its combination of mergers and verticals, than 'Rishengchang'. Well, as long as we negotiate with these two, we don't have to worry about how the message will be delivered. ”

"In addition, in order to prevent foreigners, the imperial court has ordered the deputy capital of Shanhaiguan, the general army of Tianjin Town, and the officials of the coastal states and counties of Tianjin Prefecture to strictly prohibit the people from going to the sea.

"Brother Yunqing, if you don't mention it, I can't remember."

"So Naizeng wants to ask Dong Weng to send two or three people to Tianjin first."

"Okay, let Su Jueming, Wang Guisheng and Zhou Changchun go first, they just need to go to Nanying to pick a few scouts, and they don't have to think about what kind of family they are. Let them go to hire a ship with the fire plate of the military department first, and then set off together when you arrive. ”

Discuss the right thing, time flies.

Before I knew it, I had arrived at the door of my house, and the sky was already bright.

As soon as Han Xiufeng got out of the carriage, Xiao Shandong came up and said, "Fourth master, Master Enjun has arrived, and he is waiting for you in the bookstore, and Shopkeeper Yang came to report the letter." ”

"You climb over the wall from the backyard, ask him to come over the wall, and I'll listen to Yuxuan and wait for him."

"Yes."

Quickly came to the second entrance to listen to Yuxuan, just sat down not long, Yu Youfu ran in again and said that Qingxian had arrived, Han Xiufeng simply asked him to listen to Qingxian as well.

Eun-joon changed his clothes, and instead of carrying a knife like yesterday, he carried a package.

As soon as Han Xiufeng said hello to him and Qingxian, who was following him, he put the package on the coffee table and opened it, pointing to more than a dozen waist cards and saying with a wry smile: "Master Han, it is estimated that it was the emperor who explained it, and they actually engraved the three words 'Houyitang'!" ”

Han Xiufeng picked up the waist card and looked at it, and was immediately happy, on one side is "Qing Dynasty Internal Affairs Office", on the other side is the name, yamen and "yellow face without beard" and other characteristics, and the yamen is carved as Enjun said "Houyi Hall".

"Did they ask where the 'Houyi Hall' is and what kind of yamen it is?"

"Master Han, those grandsons don't bother to ask about this, they only know how to ask for money." Eunjun returned his resume to Han Xiufeng, looking helpless.

"How much, did you give it?"

"A waist card is ten taels, and these two copper tokens are forty taels, and I can't get it if I don't give it silver, so I can only put it on first."

Thinking that no matter what the Internal Affairs Office bought, it was expensive, and no matter what they did, they had to give money, Han Xiufeng turned out two pieces of wooden waist cards that were not engraved with their names, but only carved a big waist card with the word "Ling", and said lightly while weighing the weight: "If they want to give it, who asked us to use their names." ”

Eunjun didn't want to lose money on an errand, so he asked cautiously, "That...... What about the silver of the lowly mat? ”

"Brother Qingxian, did you hear that, I bother you to help Brother Xincheng reimburse this silver later, and by the way, I will give Brother Xincheng fifty taels for carriage and horse expenses and public expenses."

"Huh." Qingxian relieved himself, hurriedly put down the wooden box in his hand, opened it in front of Eunjun, and immediately arched his hand: "Master Han, the silver tickets here add up to a total of 80,000 taels." If...... If it's not enough, the next official will go back and find a way. ”

"That's enough," Han Xiufeng took out a thick stack of silver tickets, and muttered while counting: "Xincheng, I have to bother you to make a trip, help me enter the palace to hand over the sign, and tell the father-in-law at the performance office that I begged to see me." ”