China in 1848 must have been eventful, a dynasty that had ruled China for 200 years collapsed almost overnight! It is not surprising that all sorts of crises have taken place. Therefore, the financial plate of Liangjiang naturally entered a tight state after the news of the battle of Huaxian - after all, most of the big merchants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty colluded with the high-ranking officials and nobles of the imperial court, such as the Lianghuai salt merchants and the Shanxi Jin merchants, who were more privileged merchants. As soon as the Manchus fell, their privileges naturally disappeared, and it was only natural that there would be a run on the money bank tickets opened by these privileged merchants.

If the de facto central bank of Liangjiang, such as HSBC, is controlled by the yamen of the governor of Liangjiang, then it is time to loosen the monetary policy and deal with a possible run. However, HSBC did the opposite, raising the interbank interest rate by 20 times overnight, and desperately tightening the monetary system, eager to hold every silver dollar in the market in the palm of your hand!

This is the case alone, Jiangnan Qianzhuang may be able to survive it, but there is another "Lixin Qianzhuang bankruptcy incident". Before the collapse of this Lixin bank, it also used high interest rates to borrow a large amount of money, totaling no less than 5 million taels, and there was a rumor that Jiangnan Qianzhuang was swept away by the Manchu court with 52 million taels of silver!

The Qing government of this era was no better than the modern governments of later generations that reacted quickly, and even Lin Zexu did not take strong measures to refute the rumors in the first place - in fact, he himself believed it! also asked Wei Yuan to send someone to investigate.

Before the results of the investigation came out, the "Ta Kung Pao" published in Shanghai began to declare in no uncertain terms: The Qing Dynasty is dead! It is said that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had broken through the city of Beijing on November 8, 1848 in the Western calendar, and Emperor Daoguang hanged himself on Jingshan! Moreover, the Taiping army that broke through Beijing also carried out a massacre. More than 200,000 bannermen and 80,000 remnants of the defenders in Beijing were slaughtered. The foundations of the Manchus were destroyed. There is no possibility of revival!

At the same time, Ta Kung Pao also published an announcement that the Ming court launched the Second Northern Expedition, announcing that the four provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Sichuan would be the targets of the Ming Northern Expedition.

Under the blow of this series of bad news, the Liangjiang Qianzhuang industry, which was still struggling to support, was finally overwhelmed and closed down one after another.

Shanghai, Liangjiang Governor's Office.

"Is Zhu Jishi really ready to do it?"

Inside the signature room. Lin Zexu's henchmen were all together, and they were all worried. Hearing Governor Lin's question, everyone nodded silently. Although no one spoke, the sad look on everyone's face spoke for itself.

Lin Zexu turned his attention to Pan Shien's eldest son Pan Zengyi, who originally suffered from tuberculosis and could not come out to do things, so he recuperated in Suzhou. After coming to Shanghai for more than a year to receive berberine treatment from Western medicine, he actually improved, and his whole body was refreshed. Lin Zexu and Pan Shien had a good relationship, so he made Pan Zengyi, who was famous for his fame, a political envoy in Jiangsu. Together with Wei Yuan, who led the post of assistant minister of foreign affairs, he was responsible for raising salaries for the Jiangnan training army.

Seeing Lin Zexu's gaze coming over, Pan Zengyi sighed: "Mu Weng." The salt merchants of Lianghuai, the lake merchants of Nanxun, and the gentry of southern Jiangsu were all bitter by the collapse of the money village...... None of their money is kept in their homes. ”

When everyone heard about the collapse of the bank, they didn't speak. The support of the gentry and wealthy businessmen of Liangjiang for the training of the army in Liangjiang is obvious to all, how long has Lin Zexu controlled Liangjiang? They have donated tens of millions of silver dollars to repay the service, and have also lent tens of millions to the Yamen of the Governor of Liangjiang - in addition to the "disaster of treasure money" and the turbulence of the situation, this time the collapse of the bank is probably also due to the fact that the Yamen of the Governor of Liangjiang borrowed too much, right? Now that a large number of money banks have closed down, even if the gentry and giant businessmen of Liangjiang have the heart to help, they are unable to raise money.

Pan Zengyi sighed again: "My father is going to mortgage the land in Suzhou to raise some cash, but there is no silver in the money bank we Chinese, and the foreigner's bank is ...... Refusal to take out loans. ”

The foreigner's bank also refuses to lend money! Needless to say, this must be HSBC's troublemaker! Now the banks in Jiangnan and Guangdong are the most powerful in HSBC, and it is said that the industry leaders are small, and they should be the industry masters! Especially on Zhu Ming's territory, any bank or bank has to deposit 25% of the deposits it absorbs into HSBC before it is allowed to open, which is really more domineering than the emperor's house! But the foreign devil didn't have a temper at all, and obediently deposited the silver dollars in the HSBC bank, which was really a hell of a life.

"Mu Weng, I think this HSBC bank must have silver, it is better to send troops to copy it!"

The person who spoke was Liu Xun, a native of Gaomi, Shandong, who is said to be of the same clan as Liu Luoguo and his family, and was originally Lin Zexu's staff, and later went to Shandong to recruit troops and set up more than a dozen battalion heads. I've probably been messing around with a bunch of rough guys for a long time, and I dare to say anything.

Li Hongzhang, who had the most troops under Lin Zexu, heard Liu Xun's words, but just shook his head: "Copy? People are not stupid, will they put the gold and silver mountains there for us to copy? Besides, what should I do after I finish copying? Even if we get tens of millions of taels of silver, we will be able to defeat Zhu Jishi's Northern Expeditionary Army? In the final analysis, the armed forces of our Liangjiang are still weak, and they can still protect themselves by relying on the Qing Dynasty, but now the Qing Dynasty has no ...... It is necessary to choose between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Ming Dynasty! ”

Li Hongzhang's words can be to the point, the biggest difficulty of the Liangjiang Group is not that it has no money, but that its armed forces are weak. There are only 70,000 or 80,000 training troops, and they are all novices who have never been on the battlefield. Can you fight with Zhu Ming's 200,000 elite veterans? Lin Zexu really wanted to have this strength, and he would have led his troops north to King Qin.

Hearing this, everyone was silent, and turned their eyes to Lin Zexu, he is the boss, now that the Qing Dynasty has fallen, Zhu Ming's Northern Expedition, he can only make up his mind.

"That's all for today, let's disperse first." But Lin Zexu stood up with a tired face, sighed softly, and turned around and walked towards the back door of the signing room.

……

In the Hanshan Temple in Fengqiao Town, 10 miles away from the west gate of Suzhou City, there is a small courtyard with elegant furnishings. In the panicked atmosphere in the south of the Yangtze River, this ancient temple and famous temple still generally maintains the original quiet and leisurely elegance. The trend in other places does not seem to have affected this ancient temple with a history of more than 1,300 years. Monks in robes still chant sutras and worship the Buddha day after day, but the number of pilgrims who come here to burn incense and pray for blessings is suddenly much less.

In the Daxiong Hall of Hanshan Temple, a white-haired old man is facing a golden statue of Shakyamuni Buddha. There muttered sutras. After each recitation, draw a red circle on the yellow paper book in front of you. On the yellow paper, it is densely covered with red circles, and I really don't know how long this old man has been reciting the scriptures here. In the silence, only the distant sound of bells came from outside the main hall, making the hall even more unearthly.

At the entrance of the main hall, a middle-aged man dressed in the clothes of a scribe of the Ming Dynasty was standing silently, accompanied by a young man of eighteen or nineteen years old and quite elegant. These two people, one is the current Ming Dynasty Prime Minister Zuo, Xiangyin Marquis Zuo Zongtang, he was ordered to come to Jiangnan to lobby Lin Zexu, the governor of Liangjiang, and somehow arrived at Suzhou Hanshan Temple; One is named Pan Zuyin, a well-known genius in Suzhou City, his father Pan Zengshou is the current governor of Jiangsu, and his grandfather is Pan Shien, who was respected by Emperor Daoguang as "Master Pan" in the past. It was the old man who was reciting the scriptures.

"Is Zhi Weng praying for the blessings of the more than 300,000 banner men and soldiers of the Green Battalion who died in Beijing?" Zuo Zongtang asked Pan Zuyin beside him lightly.

Pan Zuyin said: "Grandpa is praying for the blessings of the officers and soldiers who died in the two battles of Huaxian and Baisha Town, as well as the people of the three provinces of Zhilu and Henan who died in the diversion of the Yellow River. As for Beijing...... Grandpa didn't believe that the Cantonese bandits had broken the city, and he said that the rumors outside were not credible. ”

Zuo Zongtang shook his head and said: "It's not a matter of time before the Taiping army breaks the city, Zhi Weng is a veteran of the three dynasties of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and it is also appropriate to recite scriptures for the Daoguang family." Even the son of heaven in my family also respects the loyalty of the Qing Dynasty like Zhi Weng and Mu Weng. (To be continued......)