Taiheng Yinhao is located at the corner of Yamen North Street, which is the façade of a three-bay room, and only the door of the middle one is open. The counter on the façade is not very high, and it is covered with dark lacquer, which looks like it has been around for some years. Today's business is particularly good, and more than half of the batch of silver transported from the county treasury before noon has been released, and there are still several groups of people waiting to make the payment.

"Wang Anpei, the bearer of the ticket, Yang Fan Tongzhou, borrowed five hundred taels of silver from Taiheng Yin. The interest will be paid in two cents per month, and the period will be until December, and it will be repaid together, so as not to be negative. I am afraid that there is no evidence in the future, and this book is proof. On the twenty-sixth day of December in the second year of Chongzhen, Wang Anpei, the voter, was Fan Tongzhou. ”

In the room with the door closed on the left, Wang Anpeiti, a member of Gu'an, wrote a note on rice paper, drew a monogram, and handed the pen to Fan Tongzhou on the side.

After the news of the release of the silver horn spread today, refugees in the city came one after another, hoping to borrow money as soon as possible and use it to spend New Year's goods. In particular, refugees with their families should buy some rice, food, cakes and clothing to comfort their displaced families.

Naturally, the silver number will not directly lend money to the refugees one by one, and it is the leading figures in each team of refugees who come out, or pledge the property, or find a guarantor, in order to borrow the silver. When Wang Anpei participated in the Shuntianfu Township Examination before, he had lived in a hostel with Fan Tongzhou, and the two exchanged poems and writings, learned and tempered their knowledge, and had a bit of friendship, so they pulled Fan Tongzhou out as the guarantor of the borrowed silver.

Fan Tongzhou's family is not a big family, it is said that he can't be the guarantor of the five hundred taels of silver, but these days, Fan Tongzhou has climbed Yang Ming, and he is red and purple in the magistrate, and his worth has risen.

Picking up the wolf's pen and dipping it on the inkstone, Fan Tongzhou drew his own monogram.

※ The monogram is a signature font with a strange shape that is not easy to imitate, similar to the circle drawn by Ah Q.

The tall and thin silver boss took the IOU, read it carefully, took it to his mouth and blew it, and when the ink was dry, he put the IOU away, and then asked the man to take out the money.

Ten ingots and fifty taels of silver were held out and placed on the table. Wang Anpei picked up an ingot, held it in his hand heavily, and the bottom of the silver ingot was engraved with the inscription "Zhaoqing Huangjiang Factory Solve the Charge Silver Wu Pick Two Craftsmen Huang Jie", he nodded and put the silver ingot back in its place.

"Do you want to clip it open?" The tall and thin man asked Wang Anpei. The so-called clipping refers to the use of clipping scissors to cut the silver ingot from it to verify whether there is adulteration.

"No, you don't." Wang Anpei shook his head, "It's all chiseled, it's all chiseled, it's cut into half two." ”

There were eight or nine hundred Gu'an refugees led by Wang Anpei, and five hundred taels of silver were chiseled, and almost one person could get half a tael.

The tall and thin man nodded with a wry smile and said, "What used to be a whole ingot, but now it's good, and it will be broken." ”

"Isn't this world naïve changed?"

Fan Tongzhou, Wang Anpei and others laughed awkwardly.

Two silversmiths came in with tools, short clothes with narrow sleeves, rolled up their sleeves and bowed their hands to the few people in the house, to show that there was no secret in their sleeves. Then he took the silver with one hand, and chiseled it with the other, and the fragments of silver poured down from his hand.

Wang Anpei picked up a walnut wooden fan handle on the table, and gently twisted the thin end, the section of the fan handle was separated, and a small piece was sandwiched in it. He grabbed a few grains of broken silver of different shapes, and weighed them with a pole, and the grains were about half a tael.

* The Europeans recorded in 1733 that "the poorest man in China also carried a chisel and a small scale with him." The former is used to cut gold and silver, and the latter is used to weigh out. The Chinese are extremely dexterous in doing this kind of thing, and if they need two cents of silver or five cents of gold, they can often chisel the exact weight at one time, without increasing or decreasing. ”

After chiseling the silver, and re-weighing it, Wang Anpei asked the entourage to divide the broken silver into several parts, put it up, and said goodbye, and walked towards the school with Fan Tongzhou.

The streets are full of people buying New Year's goods, peddlers and pawns, leading cars to sell pulp, shouting one after another. Thinking that he was also a gentleman in the country, but he had no family to return to, Wang Anpei couldn't help but sigh and groaned:

Lao Ge is a song to explain the boat,

Autumn leaves, green mountains, and rapids.

The sunset wine is far away,

The wind and rain went down to the west building.

When Fan Tongzhou heard this, he was also sad in his heart. After thinking about it for a while, he said to Wang Anpei: "In this current situation, I don't know when I will be able to calm down." With Brother An Pei's talents, why not do something in this Shunyi City? ”

"It's easier said than done." Wang Anpei knew that Fan Tongzhou was persuading him to go to Liu Bixian to get an errand again, "At the beginning, Liu Bixian managed the prisoners for Houjin, but the younger brother was indignant, and he had offended him in person, how could he ...... now"

"It's not necessarily useful to find a general in this matter," Fan Tongzhou said, "otherwise I would have recommended Brother An Pei to the general a long time ago." ”

"Liu Bi is in the limelight, but I am afraid that the general will not want to force him." After a moment of silence, Fan Tongzhou said, "However, there is one person who can definitely do it." ”

In the hanging flower door, Xu Ying sat on the stool with the child in her arms, next to her was a narrow table against the wall, and there was a pen and inkstone book on the table, which was where Xu Ying sat and listened to things.

A fat woman in a tacky silk robe stood in front of Xu Ying, bent over, holding a gift box in both hands, which contained several sets of baby clothes, and on top of it rested a silver collar with a longevity lock, the silver was shiny, and it was obviously newly created.

"The lady in charge, this is a little bit of the old body's heart, the courtesy is light and affectionate, please smile at the little lady." The fat woman smiled flatteringly, squeezing out the wrinkles all over her face.

"Second sister-in-law Zhang, is this the relative you are talking about?" Xu Ying turned her head slightly and asked the servant woman standing behind her.

"Back to the words of the little lady, Aunt Hu is the cousin of the nephew and daughter-in-law of the second uncle of the old slave." Zhang's second sister-in-law replied, "It was the old slave who often told Aunt Hu that the little lady was good-hearted and would take care of our subordinates, so Aunt Hu thought of begging the little lady." ”

"Tell me, what's the matter?" Xu Ying smiled slightly, holding the child in her arms and shaking it gently.

"The lady in charge, the old man wants to borrow some goods from the lady......"

"Borrowing goods? Isn't that the time to find Mr. Liu? Xu Ying asked.

"The old man has looked for Mr. Liu, Mr. Liu, he ......" Aunt Hu wanted to speak and stopped.

"Oh? What kind of goods are you borrowing? ”

"The old body will borrow brimstone and saltpeter."

"Brimstone, saltpeter? What are you borrowing these things for? Xu Ying looked up at Aunt Hu.

"Don't hide it from the little lady, the old family is making firecrackers and fireworks, and now that there is a war, you can't buy raw materials anywhere." Mrs. Hu said, "The New Year will be in a few days - and the Lantern Festival, this firecracker fireworks are very in demand - the price in the capital has increased several times......

"Why doesn't Mr. Liu borrow you?" Xu Ying said coldly.

"Mr. Liu said that sulfur and saltpeter are arms...... It cannot be borrowed. ”

"If that's the case, then you can go back." Xu Ying stood up, "Second sister-in-law Zhang, send off guests." ”

The smile on Aunt Hu's face froze, tears flowed down, and she knelt on the ground with a thud.

"Little lady, you are good, take pity on the old body......" Aunt Hu wiped her tears, "The old body is miserable, the head of the family dies early, and the old body pulls the two children to grow up alone......"

"This year, in order to marry the little cub's daughter-in-law, I owed a loan shark, and I thought that I could repay the money by selling firecrackers and fireworks for the New Year, but this damn Tartar soldier came, and the sulfur and saltpeter that the family had just bought were all gone...... Little lady, the sulfur and saltpeter in your library already have an old family......"

"Little lady, no, young grandmother, you can pity the poor old body......"

Aunt Hu knelt on the ground, sobbing and begging with tears, and the second sister-in-law Zhang, who was standing behind Xu Ying, also shed tears.

"Young grandma, what Aunt Hu said is true." Second sister-in-law Zhang took a step forward and knelt down, "Young grandmother, you can take pity on poor Aunt Hu, when the New Year is over, Aunt Hu will definitely return the goods one by one, and she will never embarrass the young grandmother." ”

"Besides, even if the general knows, he won't blame the young grandmother. The old slave watched everything in this mansion, and the general was the only one in his heart......