"Liu Shuai, although Peng Laibo and Liu Minyuan asked for the closure of Shandong Town for you, it's just that the asking price is too high!"

As the saying goes, it's good to enjoy the shade with your back against a big tree, Yang Guozhu obviously doesn't think it's worth sending 200,000 taels to Li Xingzhi, this Penglaibo, in his opinion, the money should be used on the knife edge, and if you want to send it to Xue Guoguan, the first minister of the cabinet.

"Hehe, Brother Yang, do you think that Peng Laibo asked us for money alone, and Liu Buyuan categorically increased the price."

Liu Zeqing has been in the officialdom for many years, and this is still clear, saying that it is a relationship between the upper and lower levels, and it is not that the officials are asking for bribes under the pretext, according to his estimates, the 200,000 taels definitely went into the pockets of Li Xingzhi and Liu Lishun.

But he doesn't care, in Liu Zeqing's opinion, everything that can be solved with money is nothing, the so-called big fish eat small fish, small fish eat dried shrimp, if it wasn't for the gentry who would have invited Linqing to listen to "Empty City Plan", what would they do?

"Here in the back house, Ben Jiang has already arranged a banquet for you, you are all the general's brothers, everyone can do it yourself, Ben will go to see the gentry in the flower hall and the lobby."

After Liu Zeqing finished speaking, Shi Shiran stood up and walked slowly in the direction of the flower hall.

The repertoire has been changed on the stage in front of the flower hall, and a few Hua Dan are singing "Roll Sweep Tube".

"The yamen is open to the south, there is no money! Don't come in, don't come in......! ”

Liu Zeqing stepped into the back garden with a song, and the gentry saw General Liu appear, and saw the repertoire on the stage, knowing that he was going to be slaughtered again today, but he didn't know how much money the general was going to pit everyone this time.

Entering the back garden, Liu Zeqing waved his hand and drank away a few servants who were babbling on the stage, raised the wine glass sent by Huang Guoqi, and bowed to the officials and gentry in the garden, and spoke leisurely.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Peng Laibo and Liu Minyuan Bao will be the general army of Shandong, and the town is discussing with the generals about moving to Jinan, but the town has been fighting hard for more than a month since it arrived in Dezhou and Linqing, and the soldiers have been killed and wounded very seriously, in addition, the town is going to move to Jinan, and the army sergeant has nearly 20,000 people, and the expenses required are quite large, and I hope that you will see the town's efforts to protect Linqing, and help the town with 500,000 taels of silver, and the town is very grateful."

"Bang, bang, bang......!"

Several gentry were shocked, and the wine glasses in their hands suddenly couldn't hold them, and they fell to the floor.

"500,000 taels ......!"

"Liu Shuai, you just sold us, I'm afraid you won't be able to make up so much silver, don't look at our relatively wide hands, but there are hundreds of people in the family, and they have to spend silver anywhere, so they really can't take it out!"

As the largest gentry representative of Linqing, the king of Dongcheng complained about his bitterness on the spot.

"Hehe, you are guarding the canal's transportation, and you have two Huai salt profits, don't you want to help with this bit of silver? I heard that there is a gang of thieves in Daxigou now, if you can help, before Ben Shuai goes to Jinan, he can naturally exterminate them for you. ”

Liu Zeqing obviously has a set of ways to deal with the bureaucrats and gentry, otherwise he would not have raised an army of four or five thousand without money and food, and he would not have bribed Zhou Yanru with 20,000 taels of gold in later generations.

Besides, there are not a hundred or seventy or eighty Linqing gentry invited to the banquet in this town today, and they are evenly shared, and one is only seven or eight thousand taels, is it too much? Liu Zeqing thinks it's not much at all.

"This?"

Master Wang was stunned, and the gentry present were also stunned, this dog's Liu Zeqing is blatant blackmail, we are all Linqing people, and there is no industry outside the city, are there any thieves over there in Daxigou, can we not know?

"Liu Shuai, we are rich in Linqing, but this time we will donate money and food, and the expenses of tens of thousands of young and strong people are all on us, and after more than a month, our pressure is not small! I also asked Liu Shuai to reduce it a little for the sake of the township. ”

Another gentry, on behalf of Mrs. Li, got up and begged Liu Zeqing for mercy, if you don't ask for it, you can't do it! The knife handle is in someone's hand, if Liu Zeqing, who killed this day, gets a few bandits out and loots Linqing City, then everyone's lives can't be saved.

"Alas......! This town is not an unreasonable person, everyone is a fellow villager, so let's do it, this town pays 150,000 taels by itself, and you pay 350,000 taels, well, it can't be less, if it's less, this town can't explain to the soldiers. ”

350,000 taels of silver is Liu Zeqing's bottom line, according to his estimates, Li Xingzhi wants 100,000 taels, Liu Lishun also wants 100,000 taels, he invited the gentry of the whole city to listen to the play, and eat, and it is natural to take 100,000 taels, as for the extra 50,000 taels, it can be rewarded to the soldiers of his subordinates.

"Done! We will pay 350,000 taels, but so much silver, we also need time to raise, at the latest the day after tomorrow, we will send the silver to Liu Shuai's mansion, and ask Liu Shuai to move to the town before the group of bandits in Daxigou, I have thanked Liu Shuai for the people of Linqing. ”

Mrs. Li was afraid that there would be any more moths, and 350,000 taels of silver was not much in his opinion, and there were more things to make money here in Linqing, and the most profitable business was actually fake money.

The emperor set up the coinage department in Linqing, but the corrupt officials of the coinage department were too dark, and the Chongzhen Tongbao minted were all copper two lead eight, sometimes even reaching the terrifying copper one lead nine, which was not recognized by the local people at all, let alone circulated.

The gentry group in Linqing soon discovered the way to make money, that is, counterfeit money.

According to the Ming system, the copper content of the copper coins in circulation should reach 6 to 7 percent, and the rest of the lead and tin content should only be allowed to be 3 to 4 percent.

To tell the truth, the gentry group of the Linqing Dynasty was much more conscientious than the mint of the Ming Dynasty, and most of them adopted the production method of copper five lead and five tin.

But this is the kind of coin that has been recognized by the people of Shandong and even Huai'an, and a large amount of fake money has flowed from Shandong to Huai'an and even Jiangnan.

In the market environment where good money drives out bad money, the copper coins of the Ming official system are not circulated at all, and are replaced by such fake money, which brings crazy returns to the gentry of Linqing, except for those who open up joints and bribe Shangguan, which gentry here do not have hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

The gentry of Linqing could make fake money, Leiden's Penglaibo could also make money, and as the chief military officer of Liaodong and Shandong, Li Xingzhi could make money openly and openly in the name of issuing military tickets.

Of course, Li Xingzhi's original intention of minting coins was not to make money, but to obtain too much silver, whether it was to pay or soldiers to carry and spend it, it was more troublesome.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Li Xingzhi began to consider the establishment of the Leyden Mint Division, and transferred Lu Qinghou, the former deputy envoy of the Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau, to the Minting Department as an ambassador.

Liaohai observed that the hydraulic forging machine brought by Wang Hui became the most expensive tool for minting coins.

As long as enough pig iron molds are poured, the desired coin can be forged using a hydraulic forging machine using the principle of low melting points of copper and silver.