Shanghai, Miaoqian Street, in front of the original Huilian Miaoqian store, crowded, gongs and drums are noisy, the southern lion and the north dance, and the colorful flags are displayed, which is a festive atmosphere.

However, if you look closely, you will notice that there are many strange and emotional rumors mixed with this celebration, and after the spread of the newspapers, worries and uneasiness quickly ferment, and people are all worried about the safety of their property. Therefore, on the eighth day of the eighth month of August, all the people in front of the stores of Huilian and Riyilong were crowded with people who were worried like this store.

As soon as the auspicious time arrived, firecrackers crackled in front of the store, and the shareholders of the Royal Bank and the shopkeeper of the Shanghai branch joined hands to pick up the red silk on the door, and a plaque with gold letters on a blue background was displayed. The Shanghai Miaoqian Branch of the Royal Bank finally opened its doors amid applause and cheers.

However, before the shareholders and the shopkeeper and other store personnel woke up from the joy of the new opening, people poured into the store, rushed to the counters, and held up the passbooks in their hands to demand cash.

Most of the deposit receipts that went to the front counter to ask for redemption were about 500 taels or 800 taels, which was not too much, but it could not support many people. People didn't say the reason, and the guy couldn't ask the reason, but fortunately, it was foreseen that there would be a wave of redemption as soon as the door was opened, and in order to stabilize people's hearts, three million taels of silver had been prepared. Therefore, after verifying that it was correct, the clerk opened boxes of new official silver, took out fifty taels of large ingots neatly stacked, and paid them to the depositor.

Seeing that the person in front of him had successfully cashed out, the depositor's mood suddenly stabilized a lot, which made the shareholders and shopkeepers who had been trying their best to appease the depositors in the hall secretly relieved. But before he could relax to the end, he brought up the guy to report again, and the big depositors came to the VIP channel in the backyard and asked for payment.

The man had brought five carts, ten porters, and a dozen bodyguards, and handed over a total of seventeen silver tickets to the counter, totaling two hundred and eighty-eight thousand eight hundred taels of silver. Such a large amount of cash in money is all taken care of in advance, and it is a big trouble for the bank to come to the door without saying hello like this.

The steward in charge of VIP business saw that the signs were wrong, and said with a smile: "Please have tea and rest your feet in the distinguished guests, and I will immediately call the shopkeeper over." "Well said." The man nodded, and with two bodyguards, Xu Bu walked into the hospitality room, and drank tea calmly.

As soon as he received the report, the shopkeeper felt that something was wrong, said hello to the shareholders, and rushed to the back to receive him in person, and politely hugged his fists and said: "Dare to ask Mr. your surname?" ”

"My surname is money, begging for money!" The man smiled and said, "This shopkeeper is tight." ”

"1 Xiaoke was originally in Yangzhou Branch, and he was just transferred to take over the store." The shopkeeper smiled.

"Your last name?"

"1 The small surname is Wang, and the cheap name is Benchang." The shopkeeper Wang said: "I heard that Mr. Qian wants to cash the silver? ”

"Yes." Mr. Qian nodded and said, "Two hundred and eighty-eight thousand eight hundred taels, of which there are ten Huilian tickets and seven daily tickets, please ask the shopkeeper Wang to check them." ”

"No hurry, no hurry." The shopkeeper Wang poured tea for Mr. Qian and said: "Our shop serves tea, it is all the best before the Ming Dynasty, Mr. Qian, please try it." ”

"I'm in a hurry to see the money, and I can't drink it." Mr. Qian didn't appreciate it.

"Is this" The shopkeeper Wang is also accustomed to seeing wind and rain, and still smiled and said: "More than 200,000 cash, that is, more than 12,000 catties, more than 4,000 large ingots, it is very inconvenient to move..." Doing Business 1

It has always been necessary to plan properly for the patrons, and so much cash is both inconvenient and unsafe, so it is still kept by our name. I don't know what Mr. Qian wants to use this huge amount of money, but it is much easier to see if it can be remitted there, or to exchange the tickets separately according to the amount specified by Mr. Qian? ”

"Thank you for your attention." The surnamed Qian took a puff of cigarette and said lightly: "This money has a helpless use, and I am inconvenient to tell you." All in all, if someone asks for cash, I can't help but do it. I also knew that it would be cumbersome and unsafe to move, so I brought a car and someone with me. ”

Having said that, it is already very face-saving, and whether it is a bank or a ticket number, to put it bluntly, it is a place to keep money for others, how can it control the use of other depositors? If the shopkeeper Wang spares another sentence, it is to discredit his own gold-lettered signboard, so he can only sneer and say: "How to arrange this silver is your own freedom, but this amount is really not small, according to the custom, you have to notify us one day in advance." ”

"I'd like to give you advance notice, are you opening the door? Besides, there is no explicit rule that you can't withdraw a large amount of money on the same day, right? Mr. Qian lowered his face: "I am in a hurry to use the money today, otherwise the transaction will be delayed, and I can only ask your account for compensation." ”

On the first day of the opening of "Since Mr. Qian is in a hurry", the shopkeeper Wang really didn't want to touch the moldy head, so he had to endure the pain in his flesh, and pretended to be happy: "My number will be broken!" "I immediately took care of the ticket inspection, opened the warehouse and paid the silver.

The silver of the Royal Bank was packed in wooden boxes, and the silver of the Royal Bank was packed in wooden boxes, and one box was opened, one box was inspected, one box was counted, and one box was moved. In addition to the official silver, there are many styles of silver, and 200,000 taels is a terrible amount, and it is impossible to pay 50 taels in full for a large ingot, so it must be pieced together in size, and it must be counted as sè, which is quite troublesome.

So it attracted a lot of people to watch the excitement, and there were many discussions: "The rich are well-informed, could it be that the tickets of the Yilong and Huilian are unreliable, so people want to withdraw cash?" "In this world, cash is still king" made the redemption tide in the front hall that had just calmed down rise again.

After spending a day in torment, I finally lasted until the five bells rang and the ticket number closed, and the tellers immediately lowered the windows and stopped working. The crowd lingered in the hall for a long time before leaving.

When the outsiders were gone, the guy went to the door. It was time to eat after work, but they all sat there and couldn't move their buttocks, looking depressed and staring blankly...... They are all old money banks that have been in the business for many years, and it is the first time they have seen such a situation like today. Seriously, they were all scared.

The shopkeeper Wang also looked gloomy, greeted a few important subordinates, and went to the conference room upstairs behind to have a secret conversation.

"I think something is going to happen!" He took a heavy drag on his cigarette and asked Guan Ku's men, "How much money is left?" ”

"A little more than 900,000," the Guan Ku replied in a low voice.

"Only 900,000?" Although the shopkeeper Wang had prepared for the worst, he was still stunned by the reported number: "In one day, more than two million taels will be redeemed?" ”

"The guy surnamed Qian has a bad head, and many rich people have followed suit, you 30,000 and I have 50,000, all as long as the cash is not a ticket." The manager of the VIP counter answered: "If I hadn't asked the guy to delay as much time as possible and removed two more counters, we would have seen an ugly look a long time ago." ”

The shopkeeper waved his hand depressedly, signaling him not to open any more pots, and asked, "How much is the total amount that should be received and solved?" So the head of the accounting office looked at the general ledger and the running account, and the receivables were the deposits of the branch in the general treasury, the loans due to the loans, and various securities and in-transit payments, with a total value of more than 16 million taels. Only the depositors' deposits should be counted as more than 6 million taels, and as for the silver bills issued, it cannot be calculated.

"It takes at least three million taels to stabilize people's hearts." The head of the accounting office gave a professional estimate: "After surviving, the cash will naturally return, and the signboard of our Royal Bank can be regarded as erected."

"I don't care about the big picture, I only have one thought, which is to let this store survive." The shopkeeper Wang extinguished the cigarette butt fiercely, and ordered everyone with red eyes: "Everyone worked hard tonight, and went to all places overnight to ask for help. I will pay off all the cash they have. Tell them to help each other in times of trouble today, and they will be rewarded tomorrow! ”

The so-called "Huamen" refers to the pawnshops, salt shops and trading houses set up by the Jin merchants in Shanghai. When this kind of life and death is going to live, who will wade into this troubled water except for their own people?

The four stewards took the order and ran all night, and then returned at dawn. The news brought back was not optimistic, and it turned out that the other nine branches in Shanghai City had also been rushed to redeem, and the shopkeepers and managers of those stores were desperately trying to raise cash. There are more monks and less porridge, and you compete for me to grab the cash that can be raised by the branch in front of the temple, but **100,000 taels.

The shopkeeper Wang had just returned from the branch, and he relied on being the descendant of the big shopkeeper of the branch to take out the two million taels of silver he had deposited, because the Shanghai general treasury of Huilian was looted by the emperor, and the deficit could only be made up by the Jin merchants themselves. Although Zhang Siwei raised funds by issuing new shares, the Jin businessmen were still reluctant. Zhang Siwei took the lead in making capital contributions, and coerced profits, and finally subscribed for less than half of the more than 20 million taels issued. This has also caused the dilemma of Shanghai today, except for the Miaoqian branch of the shopkeeper Wang, none of the other nine major branches can fully withdraw the deposit, and the least is only less than one-third.

"That should be enough." Wang Zhangsu still has the same attitude, he can't control others, and he can sweep the snow in front of the door and burn high incense: "As long as there are no more moths, we can tǐng the past!" Looking at the watch, there was still more than an hour before the store opened, and everyone went back to their rooms to sleep for a while, and recuperated to cope with the situation of hot hands.

11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 I didn't know what to do with the nightmare, and when I was in a cold sweat, I was woken up.

It was the front desk manager who came to call him, but he said angrily: "Shopkeeper, wake up, it's really a moth!" ”

"What do you say?" The shopkeeper Wang was still confused, rubbing his sleepy eyes.

"The row door has not been unloaded yet, and the depositors are already in a long queue." The steward's report.

When the shopkeeper Wang heard this, the remnants of sleepiness were frightened and disappeared, so he hurriedly got up, hurriedly washed his face and rushed to the store, only to see the clerks looking up at the wall clock hanging high on the wall.

The clock pointed to 8:50, and the door would be unloaded in another ten minutes. The passage of time was as uncomfortable as a death row prisoner waiting to be tortured, but no one dared to propose to open the door in advance, because everyone knew very well that opening for a minute early could mean that tens of thousands of taels of cash flowed out in this stormy time, and every cash must be saved.

But the ten minutes were fast coming, and the bell of the time woke up everyone in a daze, and the shopkeeper stomped his feet, gritted his teeth, and said, "Open the door!" ”

As soon as one of the men removed the door, the crowd rushed in and pushed him to the ground, and the others quickly shouted, "Someone is going to die!" It's going to kill you! "Get him out.

As soon as the scene began, it was chaotic. Fortunately, the patrol of the Shanghai prefect's yamen arrived in time, and under the intimidation, the situation was finally stabilized.

Zhang Zhutou, who led the patrol, wore shiny big leather boots, walked into the store with a clatter, and said in a Shandong dialect: "Who is the shopkeeper?" ”

"It's me!" Shopkeeper Wang hurriedly leaned over and handed over the cigarette.

Zhang Zhutou took the cigarette, didn't smoke it, put it on his ear and said, "You shopkeeper, don't make trouble for the owner." Get out of the money quickly, and send them on their walks, lest they spoil the market. ”

"There is silver. Lord Zhang, please maintain order, one by one. ”

When the shopkeeper saw the xiōng card of Zhang Zhutou, he smiled and said, "I won't let the brothers suffer in vain." ”

Seeing that he was still quite good, Zhang Zhutou nodded, then raised his throat and said: "Don't worry, don't worry, the silver is there, come one by one!" "Finally, the depositors lined up for a long time, and the line reached more than a dozen feet on the street.

With the government in charge, the customers are quieter again, and the tellers have been instructed in advance to slow down as much as possible. Many depositors take their passbooks to deposit and withdraw their deposits, and they need to settle the interest, which is even slower, and the six people standing at the counter only take care of forty or fifty customers in an hour, and the silver that is withdrawn is less than 100,000 yuan, and it seems that the situation can be stabilized.

But at the VIP counter in the backyard, more than a dozen large households came together, saying in unison that they wanted to withdraw money, and each of them had a large passbook in their hands. The total adds up to more than three million taels!

Shopkeeper Wang was sweating like pulp at that time, but fortunately, Shanghai was still very hot at this time, and he was finally able to cover up the past. He wiped his sweat and said with a smile: "You are all distinguished customers of the bank, why bother to withdraw it, if it is useful, it is better to issue a silver ticket by the bank, and the handling fee can be waived!" ”

But they did not say, "We only need silver!" ”

"I don't know what you are going to do with raising so much money?"

"Hide at home, okay?" The big ones were angry and said: "Why are you talking so much nonsense?" On the back of this passbook is written "Redeem and take as you go!" "That's it, the big families all over the beach are looking at us, don't you want to pay the bill!" The shopkeeper said this," the shopkeeper's facial muscles twitched and said, "When did we pay the bill?" In a hurry, he said the original name of the store...