"What is it?" Zuo Youyou asked.

"At the moment, we know that there are historical facts." Jiang Shiqin made a flow chart with a computer and pointed it out to Zuo Youyou, "Bai Jiesheng dug up the first pot of gold through the lottery, but lost money because the Shandong Gang grabbed the Silk Road from Incheon to Seoul, but took this opportunity to become independent from the Shanghai Wantai." ”

"Immediately, Bai Jiesheng climbed into Yuan Shikai's relationship and had a close relationship with the Qing Dynasty's Western-style officials, so he got the 'rice photo', relied on rice to turn losses into profits, and made a comeback in North Korea."

Zuo Youyou nodded.

"Immediately afterwards, the materials we now have confirm that the payment to Japan is because the scope of capital circulation and settlement network of the Wantaihe is not only North Korea and China, but also includes the multi-corner settlement of Japanese ports. We have tried to argue that the so-called dividends to Japanese people are normal business-to-business remittance business. ”

Zuo Youyou nodded.

Jiang Shiqin said: "This is the unreasonable place - the amount paid in yen does not match. In the ledger, the amount paid by Wantaihe in yen is much larger than the amount settled by Duojiao. ”

Zuo Youyou carefully looked at the form Jiang Shiqin pulled for himself and frowned.

"Right?"

"That's right." "The amount varies very much. Therefore, we are missing a link in the rise of Wantaihe. ”

"Missing a link?"

"We believe that Wantaihe relied on rice to make a fortune, but we ignored a phenomenon: the rice business belongs to the wholesale and retail business, and even the multi-angle settlement at the Japanese port is also a small business in a sense. Therefore, the real fortune of Wantaihe must require a large transaction, so what is this kind of large transaction? When Wan Tae Ho became a commercial giant in Seoul, he inevitably needed to control the trade routes, and how did he control the trade routes? This is the missing link in our research on the Wantaihe. From 1904, when Pak Jason obtained Mi Zhao, to 1921, when Pak Jason became the richest man in Seoul, what business was he involved in? ”

Dr. Caleb added: "We have to examine this business before we can reconcile the amount paid in yen, so as to argue that the fortune of the Mantaihe did not depend on Japanese capital injections. ”

Zuo Youyou concluded: "In other words, we need to know what happened in the 20 years since Pak Jie Sheng obtained the 'Mi Zhao'. ”

"Yes."

Zuo Youyou pondered for a moment.

At this moment, Zuo Youyou's computer flashed and received a folder from Chen Zhao.

"There are 36 scanned copies of letters sent by the Wantaihe in the folder." Chen Zhao left a message.

The four members of the historical reconnaissance team were ecstatic for a while!

"There are still newly discovered letters? Thank God! Dr. Caleb happily urged Zuo Youyou, "Quick, open it and take a look!" ”

The folder was not large, it was received quickly, and the four of them stared at the computer screen with blazing eyes.

"Won't it be too smooth......" Jiang Shiqin whispered, and was slapped on the top of his head by Dr. Caleb.

"God forbid, you can say something nice!"

Jiang Shiqin met the murderous eyes of several other people, and coaxed: "Okay, good." ”

Jiang Shiqin shut up, but there are often good spirits but not bad spirits in this world.

"What is this?" The four of them wailed in unison, "I can't see at all!" ”

Zuo Youyou stared at the computer screen with dead fish eyes.

The letters are stained and the handwriting is blurred.

Dr. Caleb sighed heavily:

This is a copy of the epistle of the ancients. The business letters of the ancients were very important to confirm the transaction information, so when they were written, thin paper was lined underneath and written in thick ink, the original text on which was sent as a letter, and the thin paper underneath was stained with thick ink and kept as a copy. And the 36 letters we see today are copies of the ancients. ”

Zuo Youyou was dazzled, and he couldn't see clearly: "This copy of theirs was originally blurry?" ”

"Yes, they probably know the content themselves, and they don't expect to read it, but only to keep it. But we don't know it, so we can't read it. And, after all, it has been preserved for more than a hundred years, and the handwriting is even more blurred, so I propose to abandon these 36 letters. ”

Okay.

To do historical research, you have to get used to the ups and downs of your mood.

Haichuan-kun interjected: "My ancestors were in the cotton cloth business in North Korea. At that time, Japanese merchants entered Korea before Chinese merchants, and mainly exported cotton cloth to Korea, and these cotton cloths were purchased from Japanese merchants from Chinese merchants for resale. ”

"Do you think the Vantae-ho may sell cotton cloth directly to North Korea?"

"Yes. At that time, the cotton cloth business of Chinese merchants was the second most stable business after the silk business, and the cotton cloth was produced in England, and Chinese merchants took the sea route to directly transfer British cotton bula from Shanghai to Japan. ”

"I don't think so." Dr. Caleb said.

Haichuan-kun tried to convince him: "Since Bai Jiesheng and my ancestor Haichuan Liang are friends, why can't it be Bai Jiesheng who is involved in the cotton cloth business?" “

"Even if it's a cotton business, it's a wholesaler retail business." Dr. Caleb objected, "It's still essentially a sale, not enough to be the ladder that made the Mantae Wo the richest man in Seoul." More importantly, shipping needs maritime trade routes, where does the maritime trade route of Wantaihe come from? ”

Haichuan-kun also fell into deep thought.

"It's not going to work."

Historical evidence really goes up and down.

"Or, let's change our minds and follow the line of Bai Xiuluan." Zuo Youyou pulled out another line outside the name of "Bai Xiuluan", "We can go to Chen's house to find information." ”

She wrote down the words "Chen family" and thought of Chen Wei.

"Shanghai?"

"No, Fuyang."

Zuo Youyou thought of the ancestral house of the Chen family in Fuyang, where he had been, and the newspaper clippings and account books found in the ancestral house of the Chen family:

"We used to find a clip newspaper in Fuyang Chen that paid attention to Wan Tai He, and this clip newspaper should be inseparable from Bai Xiuluan."

Today, the Chen family's ancestral house in Fuyang, Hangzhou, has been built into a museum by the local government, and many materials and documents have been well preserved.

Zuo Youyou called Bai Xinshu and asked him to help contact Chen Wei and send the scanned copies of the materials and documents in the Chen family's ancestral house.

Evening.

Bai Xinshu returned to his residence with more than a dozen express boxes, and the recipients were all Zuo Youyou.

What does she buy so many things for!

Do you want to vent your depression with online shopping?!

One of the boxes was so large and heavy that the tree had to ask the property for help.

The property helped Bai Xinshu to put more than a dozen couriers at the door of his house.

True Overtime Fortress.

Bai Xinshu pushed open the door, and was immediately shocked to find that there were three more overseas injustices working overtime at home!

How did Zuo Youyou pull these three people into the camp of overtime?!

The foreign quartet spoke with different English accents, sat together arguing with the whiteboard, and when they saw the Bai Xin tree, they just nodded casually.

As if it was a natural and normal thing for them to appear in the house of the Bai Xin tree?

Seeing their expressions like this, Bai Xinshu didn't make a fuss, silently entered the house, poured himself a glass of water at a loss, and drank it stiffly.

As if this was not his home.