While Zhou Lang was busy working in Beichenglou, the officials in Guangzhou City were not idle.

After Cai Shiwen sent troops to escort Zhou Lang to the south gate, he himself asked the soldiers in the city to pull him up, and brought Zhou Lang's request after entering the city.

As the enemy invaded the city of Guangzhou, from the governor to the county commander, these officials were really anxious, Colin attacked too fiercely, and the news fed back from the front line was simply impossible to resist, but the main roads outside the city were basically occupied by the enemy, and they couldn't escape if they wanted to, besides, where was the law of the Manchu Dynasty, it was not yet the end of the Qing Dynasty when the etiquette completely collapsed, and no one dared to violate the law, at least the Guangzhou prefect, Nanhai and Panyu County Orders did not dare to abandon the city, and the Eight Banners General and the Green Battalion did not have the courage to do so.

But it is too difficult to meet the demands of the enemy, because the other party wants too much. Last time, Yi only asked for 200,000 silver dollars, and this time Zhou Lang, a Haikou, actually asked for 20 million silver dollars.

If you don't give it, judging from the current situation, the other party really has the ability to take Guangzhou City. The officials in the city couldn't say that they didn't work hard, and they thought of all the ways they could, and the generals of the Eight Banners and the Green Battalion all gave their subordinates death orders, killing hundreds of deserters, but they just couldn't stop each other. The Nanhai County Decree and the Panyu County Decree organized the people to be strong, and offered heavy rewards to recruit dead soldiers, and finally attacked the enemy, but the effect was not great. The governor of Liangguang and the governor of Guangdong had long since transferred troops to the outside of the city, repeatedly urging them to concentrate the entire army of Guangdong Province on the capital city, but at present only a few reinforcements had arrived, and they were still blocked outside the city, and the enemy occupied the key points and could not be saved at all.

Sticking to the aid is a way, but the problem is that everyone is not confident that they can hold on until the reinforcements arrive, although the Panyu County Commander has been shouting to defend the city to the death and be loyal to the Son of Heaven, their group of people is loyal, of course, they can have a good reputation, but who wants to die.

"But it's just money, just give it to them and it's over!"

The richer the person, the less he wanted to die, and the customs superintendent Sheng Zhu couldn't help but complain. His brother-in-law is about to become an emperor, what is the death at this time, is it stupid.

Changlin, the governor of Liangguang, is actually the same idea, he is also a powerful person, called Jueluo Changlin, although he is different from Sheng Zhu, he has a Jinshi signboard on his body, but everyone knows that his Jinshi is not serious, and he has two titles in front of the Jinshi, the translator Jinshi. Manchu translation, this is a system designed for Manchu promotion, this year Manchu people are all in Chinese, where do you need what translation, but the translation examination, it is much easier than the ordinary imperial examination, only Manchu, Mongolians can take the exam. The Mongolian passed the exam, but he only entered the Lifan Academy, and the full people passed the exam, but like the Zhengyin translation, he directly entered the six departments. In the year of Changlin's examination, he mixed up the position of a principal. A few years later, he rose step by step, mixed for eight years, and the decentralized place was the Daotai, three years later, he returned to the Criminal Department as a waiter, and the second year he was delegated to the local governor as a governor, he basically never started from the grassroots level, of course, there was no idea of a petty official like a county order.

"Where is the money in the treasury, even if there is money, it can't be given to Haikou. When the court investigates it, who can afford it. ”

Changlin sighed.

It's not that he doesn't want to give money, it's that he really doesn't have any money, 20 million silver dollars, it's really a huge amount of money, and if there is, he won't be reluctant. After all, when an official is a powerful person at the level of a governor, who does not have a few million or two properties in his family, he has seen money. This is the prosperous era of Qianlong, the so-called prosperous era, that is, the era of rampant corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and the concentration of wealth.

Sheng Zhu snorted: "Where can you get money from the treasury for this kind of thing." Of course, I found a way to make it up. ”

Li Zong, the Nanhai county commander who is also a county magistrate, immediately said: "Yes, make up." The lower officials are meager and are willing to take out a thousand taels to relieve the danger of the city. ”

Li Zheng is a small role, he passed the imperial examination and became a jinshi, but he, a Han man who has no political resources, except for a few people with extremely strong ability, some of them will be county commanders until death. However, in Nanhai County, a magistrate who governs half of Guangzhou Prefecture, if his brain is alive enough, he may not have 100,000 snowflakes of silver in the Qing Governor's Mansion in three years, but there are 350,000.

But the Panyu County Commander didn't know what medicine he had taken wrong, and said sarcastically: "The imperial court uses Yulu to raise me, and we wait to raise thieves with Yulu?" Outrageous! ”

Sheng Zhu said dissatisfiedly: "Say that those false things are doing nothing, this is to save everyone's lives!" ”

The Panyu County Order can choke the Nanhai County Order, but it has no temper with Shengzhu, and he doesn't speak in a muffled voice.

Chief Secretary Chan Tai-man retorted: "How can we be an enemy because of our own life and death? ”

Zhu Dong, the prefect of Guangzhou, sighed: "It's also to save the people!" ”

Seeing that the attitudes of the officials were different, and the 20 million silver dollars really forced out the bottom line of the individual, Changlin knew that he had to express his position, otherwise these people could quarrel for a day, and the time limit would only be three days, and he couldn't afford to waste it.

Changlin sighed: "It is definitely not our original intention to raise the enemy, but we can't delay saving the people from fire and water." If the thief does not retreat for a day, Guangfu will be soldiers for a day, and the people will suffer a day's military disaster, and the people will be innocent! This superintendent is duty-bound, and he should donate 100,000 yuan to solve the crisis! ”

Changlin took out 100,000 taels in one go, which can be regarded as setting an upper limit for donating money.

The prefect of Guangzhou said: "Our heart to serve the country can be seen with our fists." However, I am afraid that I will launch a fundraiser for the gentry. ”

Sheng Zhu said: "You can only get a few dollars, this thing is all caused by disaster, and those merchants have to pay!" ”

Guangdong Customs is in charge of the thirteen lines, and the merchant has money, of course Sheng Zhu knows, he doesn't want to pay for it himself.

But Changlin's attitude was tough: "Of course, the merchants have to serve the imperial court, but now it is a disaster for the nest, and the salt merchants, silk merchants, and seventy-two lines have to be donated." The Salt Transportation Department and the Political Department will convene the businessmen and the people to donate money, and the Guangdong Customs will urge the merchants, and all colleagues should also do their part to raise all the funds within three days and send them to the customs yamen for verification! ”

Changlin is not the guy who doesn't know how to live, he insists on letting the officials pay for it, and he also asks the political secretary and the salt transportation department to supervise the merchants under his jurisdiction, of course, not for the money donated by the officials, but this matter must involve everyone, so that when the accountability is pursued, no one can escape, and the secret can be kept.

As for the final amount of money, Changlin is not worried, the merchants and salt merchants are all rich, and the largest ones are not millions of family assets, Guangzhou has been in trade for decades, and the annual tariffs are hundreds of thousands, and the evaded taxes are not known to be several times more, and they have all fallen into the hands of those merchants. In addition, there are money banks and pawnshops, and those who drink the blood of the people should also bleed. It is not difficult to mobilize all the merchants in Guangzhou City to gather 20 million silver dollars in three days.

Chief Secretary Chen Dawen said in a bad tone: "There must be a name for letting businessmen donate, tell them about the ransom fee?" ”

Changlin snorted: "Military salary! ”

After saying that, he brushed his sleeves and left.

So when Zhou Lang was busy collecting military power on the city tower, the officials in Guangzhou began to squeeze donations from the rich merchants and gentry in the city in the name of donating military salaries.

The ordinary gentry, officials, and even the seventy-two merchants were limited in what they could donate, and in the end the lion's share had to go to the merchants.

For example, the salt store gathered to donate 2 million taels, the bank (silver number, pawnshop guild) donated 1.8 million taels, the silk weaving shop donated 700,000 taels, and other small industries donated 3 million taels, which was only half of the total.

At this moment, even general businessmen like Cai Shiwen and Pan Qiguan are about to go bankrupt, especially Pan Qiguan, who has a good business performance, and the French who have seen the consumption of the Pan family's mansion think that the Pan family consumes three million francs a year, saying that Pan Qiguan is the richest man in the world. The famous Wu Bingjian family in later generations also started from the Pan family as a bookkeeper.

But Cai Shiwen is different, he spends extravagantly, and he likes to make friends with powerful people too much, and his annual expenses are greater than the Pan family, in fact, he has long been unable to make ends meet, and he has a false appearance, as a result, most of the donations fell to the Pan family, Pan Qiguan convened dozens of merchants, and the public bank used (a public fund established by thirteen merchants, each company pays 10% of the profits, and takes 3% from each transaction as a provident fund, mainly used to jointly give gifts to officials and deal with blackmail, as well as for emergencies) out of two million, The Pan family independently bears 2 million yuan, and the remaining 4 million is shared by each family.

Cai Shiwen begged the Pan family to borrow money, and gave several of his own shops to the Pan family, borrowing 500,000 taels, barely supporting his shelf as a general businessman.

The money was sent to the Guangdong Customs for counting, totaling 15.5 million taels, equivalent to 21 million silver dollars, and Shengzhu even earned 1 million, which is also the benefit that Changlin gave him, but in fact, this money is only relieved when he comes to take it, in the final analysis, his royal status is worth it, because he can take the blame at this time.

Due to the fact that the silver and silver dollars have to be converted and counted, one or two silver dollars are exchanged for about 74 silver dollars, such a huge amount, and the amount of work is very huge, and the shopkeepers of the Guangzhou City Money Village, the silver number and the pawnshop have all been temporarily requisitioned, and they are still too busy.

But the day of the demand for delivery outside the city has passed, although there is no attack, but the cannon sound on the fort in the four sides rang out, causing panic in the city of Guangzhou, Sheng Zhu looked for Cai Shiwen to communicate, hoping to send the money directly to the barracks to count, but the other party did not agree, so let the customs yamen count it.

And proposed, all the silver money, all packed in a strong wooden box, the other party does not refuse silver ingots and loose silver, even gold can be converted according to the normal market price, but it must be packed, each box of 10,000 silver dollars, locked with a lock, sealed, Zhou Lang sent someone to supervise the packing and sealing of the box, the person who supervised is not an outsider, it is Wei Lianli, who has been detained in the customs yamen to enjoy happiness.

This requires 2,000 wooden boxes, which is definitely not enough to build temporarily, and it is another toss, and the government loots the wooden boxes of various houses everywhere.

Fortunately, Zhou Lang promised a grace period, but stipulated that at least 500 boxes must be delivered every day, otherwise the cannon would be fired.

Watching boxes of silver dollars leave the city from Nancheng near the customs yamen, and then carried to the ship by soldiers outside the city, Wei Lianli sighed about his good luck.

He really didn't want to come to Guangzhou, it was too dangerous, but he found that he had never encountered any danger from beginning to end, even if he was detained by the customs yamen, but every day he was good at eating and drinking, and there were beautiful women with him, especially in the end, the work of counting the silver was really too painful, and it turned out that the silver could really be too much to count!

He suddenly had this thought:

"Could it be that Dashuai is the noble person I have set in my life!"