Peerless Pirates

"Guan Chen?" Song Zheng was surprised, "Your master? What happened to Uncle Lu?"

"My master was arrested by the people from the Ministry of Punishment and put in jail and looked at the forensic doctor three times." Guan Chen cried.

Song Zhengteng suddenly stood up: "Take him to jail? Who is so brave?" Lu Dafu, as the boss of Huitong Trading Company, is now considered a leader in Jiangning's business community. Although he is a businessman, he can cooperate with the eldest son of the prime minister's office. , it also absorbed shares from the Imperial Palace Household Office, giving it an extraordinary status.

Such a person was actually imprisoned in the prison of the Ministry of Justice! Song Zheng was shocked. He clenched his fists and said, "Get up first and speak. What's going on!"

Guan Chen stood up shivering and kept licking his tears.

The story started more than two months ago. On that day, a man named Shen Huaqing went to the trading building of Jiangning City to visit Lu Dafu. Shen Huaqing was the branch manager of Ruifeng Bank, and he had also fought with Lu Dafu. At the beginning of the establishment of Jiaodao Huitong Trading House, Ruifeng Bank also approached Lu Dafu, hoping that the commercial bank would allow the use of Ruifeng Bank's bank notes for transactions. However, Lu Dafu did not agree to be on the safe side. In any case, Lu Dafu and Shen Huaqing They were already acquainted. This time Shen Huaqing came to visit, so Lu Dafu quickly invited Shen Huaqing in.

After sitting down, Shen Huaqing quickly explained his purpose. It turned out that the boss of Ruifeng Bank wanted to sell the entire bank to Huitong Trading House for 650,000 taels.

Huitong Trading Bank has long wanted to set up its own bank. Nowadays, the trading bank's transactions are generally based on banknotes from Datong Bank and Kaibao Bank. Especially as Huitong Trading Bank expands, it borrows a lot of money from Datong Bank and Kaibao Bank, which is quite popular. Under the control of these two bank accounts. If you set up your own bank account, it will be much more convenient for Huitong Trading Bank to use money.

Lu Dafu is an old man in the shopping mall. Although he was happy to see Xun Xin, he could not act rashly. Therefore, he asked in detail about the details of Ruifeng Bank and the reason for the transfer.

The main office of Ruifeng Bank is located in Jinjiang on Fujian Road. Jinjiang is one of the bases of Daqi's foreign trade. Ocean-going ships from Luzon, Tianzhu, Persia, and Daqi dock here. At the same time, Quanzhou, where Jinjiang is located, is Daqi's foreign trade base. The main iron production areas are in the mountains in the northwest of Quanzhou, including Qingyang Iron Works, Yiyang Iron Works, Chishui Iron Works, etc. The smelting of iron ore should be transported to Jiangning and other parts of the country through Jinjiang sea ships. In addition, in the south of Quanzhou In Tong'an, there is an Anren Salt Field. Although the salt production is not large, it is one of the few southern salt fields in Daqi.

The above conditions have resulted in the prosperity of Jinjiang, which is second only to Mingzhou (today's Ningbo) where the Maritime Governor's Yamen is located. Because of this, the Maritime Governor's Yamen dispatched right-wing troops to be stationed in Jinjiang.

This right-wing maritime envoy was named Tong, and his name was Qiong. He had a close relationship with Ruifeng Bank and was regarded as the backstage of the bank. However, this time the military purged, Tong Qiong was taken down. His charges included not only taking empty pay, but also accepting bribes. Bribery, seizing local fertile land, etc. Originally, according to what Tong Qiong did, beheading a few times was not too much. But Tong Qiong was quite sensible and usually respected Liang Shouxin, so under Liang Shouxin's dealings, Tong Qiong was just dismissed from office.

Although Ruifeng Bank was not implicated, without Tong Qiong's protection, the bank's prospects were not good. Many powerful officials and big families were eyeing Ruifeng Bank, including the Xu family, one of the Jiangnan masters. So , the chief shopkeeper of Ruifeng Bank, Tong Qiong's uncle Shen Guanzhi, wanted to withdraw from the bank, and entrusted his younger brother, Shen Huaqing, the shopkeeper of Ruifeng Bank's Jiangning branch, to find Lu Dafu.

Behind Huitong Trading House are the Prime Minister's Mansion and the current little emperor. Logically speaking, no one dares to touch Tai Sui's head. However, Lu Dafu is cautious and sent his confidants to conduct a careful investigation of Ruifeng Bank.

The scale of Ruifeng Bank is naturally far smaller than that of Datong Bank and Kaibao Bank. In addition to its main office in Jinjiang, it has eight branches on Fujian Road, Liangzhe Road and Jiangning. Among them, the Jiangning branch is not small. Second only to the main account, the banknotes issued also have a large market in Jiangning.

After a month-long investigation, Lu Dafu found out the details of Ruifeng Bank, and after discussing with Huang Yue, Xu Mingxuan and others, he agreed to the deal. Just over a month ago, the two parties officially handed over Huitong. Although the trading house is now a big business, it is still unsustainable to withdraw 650,000 taels of silver at once. The two parties discussed that Huitong Trading House would pay 250,000 taels in advance, and the remaining 400,000 taels would be paid in four years, with ten ten thousand taels per year. Ten thousand taels.

Even so, with the withdrawal of 250,000 taels, 80% of the working capital of Huitong Commercial Bank was immediately reduced, leaving only 20% to maintain normal expenses. Thanks to Bei Leye, the silver taels needed had been prepared long ago, otherwise Shuguan would Commercial branches nearby will also be affected.

In fact, Huitong Trading Company has made a lot of money over the years, but due to its rapid expansion and not much cash on hand, the time to get involved in the bank is not ripe. But since it was reported that Datong Bank and Kaibao Bank were going to establish a Huilian account After the news came out, Lu Dafu and others felt tremendous pressure. Originally, Huitong Commercial Bank had borrowed a lot from the two major banks, totaling about 300,000 taels. If the two major banks were to unite again, they would be tightly restricted. The development of Huitong Trading House. Therefore, Lu Dafu gritted his teeth and swallowed up Ruifeng Bank.

Fortunately, after taking over Ruifeng Bank for a month, everything was still normal, which made Lu Dafu, Huang Yue and others heave a sigh of relief. The next step is to gradually reduce borrowings from the two major banks. At the same time, as Huitong Trading Bank The expansion of Ruifeng Bank slowly opened branches all over the country, and then impacted the market of the two major banks, Kaibao and Datong. Relying on the mutual blood transfusion between the Commercial Bank and Ruifeng Bank, they must grow steadily at the same time. Not impossible.

This is a good path, but just five days ago, a sap was struck. Ruifeng Bank was actually related to a major case in the Ministry of Household Affairs that year.

It turned out that with the help of the "dongfeng" of the Qi Dynasty to track down the empty wages, the major case of 300,000 taels of Shuguan wages in the Ministry of Household Affairs was brought up again. The new Minister of Punishment, Dong Lancheng, was fully responsible for the recovery of these wages.

Dong Lancheng, as Prince Pang Hui's confidant, knew very well where the 300,000 taels of silver had gone, and his target was directed at Prime Minister Huang Yuandu. Although the whereabouts of the 300,000 taels of silver were traced to Tang Wan's father, Tang Qing. He was executed and disappeared, but what kind of person was Dong Lancheng! At that time, the Imperial City Division also traced this batch of salary and obtained many clues. However, because Pang Hui and Huang Yuandu did not know what agreement they had reached, the Imperial City Division did not Check further.

Now that Pang Hui is dead, Dong Lancheng, who has changed his family, relies on the clues from the past to continue the investigation, and finally confirms that this batch of salary money was transferred from the Ministry of Household Affairs to the Jiangning Treasury, where Song Zheng's uncle Fang Jingui served as treasurer.

The next step was easy. The Ministry of Punishment searched the Jiangning Treasury’s transaction records over the years, and finally discovered that 280,000 taels of them had indeed been put into the treasury, but were quickly transferred to the Jiangning branch of Ruifeng Bank! And these two The 180,000 taels from the time it was put into the treasury to the time it was taken out of the treasury were not in the name of Shuguan Salary Bank, but in the name of disaster relief silver taels from Fujian Road and Guangnan East Road.

Records show that Shen Huaqing, the second shopkeeper of Ruifeng Bank, withdrew the 280,000 taels of silver based on the documents from the Ministry of Accounts and the bank's certificates!

This is where things started. When Tang Qing was under investigation, he stated that the payment was handed over to Datong Bank's branch in Jiangning, and entrusted Datong Bank to transfer it to Shuguan. However, the relevant documents left by the Ministry of Household Affairs were not found. I couldn't find it either. Without this official document, Datong Bank refused to admit that it had received the money. Because of this, Tang Qing, the assistant official of the Ministry of Revenue, and two assistants were ransacked and executed, and the three hundred thousand taels of silver became a mystery. sedimented.

No one expected that the 300,000 taels of silver were not initially transferred to Datong Bank, but most of them were transferred to Jiangning's treasury and then taken away by Ruifeng Bank.

When the case is traced to this point, the Ministry of Punishment naturally needs to ask the Ministry of Accounts whether it has issued a document allowing Jiangning's treasury to transfer this batch of silver. However, the records of the Ministry of Accounts show that no such official document has been issued. The Ministry of Punishment carefully examined the household records retained in Jiangning's treasury. After reading the official documents, I was shocked to find that the two official documents proving the withdrawal and storage of the money were fake! Only the bank certificate issued by Ruifeng Bank when withdrawing this batch of money was genuine.

In other words, Jiangning's Treasury secretly accepted the two hundred and eighty thousand taels of silver, and then handed the silver to Ruifeng Bank in a confused manner. The only thing that is certain is that this batch of silver existed and was indeed withdrawn by Ruifeng Bank. Gone.

As a result, Song Zheng's uncle Fang Jingui was arrested and imprisoned by the Ministry of Punishment as the treasurer of Jiangning Treasury. The governor of Jiangning at that time is now deceased, otherwise he would have been questioned. Although Fang Jingui did not embezzle a penny, he did not embezzle a penny back then. The responsibility for identifying fake official documents is not small. Naturally, the position of a ninth-grade official cannot be saved, and whether he will be sentenced or even beheaded depends on whether the money can be recovered.

Next, the Ministry of Criminal Justice sent officers to inspect the Jiangning branch of Ruifeng Bank and search for the whereabouts of 280,000 taels of silver. Fortunately, Lu Dafu acted extremely safely. After taking over Ruifeng Bank, he wrote off all the old certificates he had accumulated. If there is no problem, the newly activated seal will be stamped and sealed. Especially if it involves more than one thousand taels of silver, it will be carefully screened and kept separately.

The Ministry of Punishment conducted an inventory for two days and found no record of the entry and exit of 280,000 taels of silver. Even so, with the evidence retained by Jiangning's treasury, Ruifeng Bank must repay the 280,000 taels of silver. Naturally, Lu Dafu could not Admit the account and let the Ministry of Punishments trace the original semicolon shopkeeper Shen Huaqing who personally issued this voucher.

However, Shen Huaqing left Jiangning long after the delivery was clear and disappeared. There was no trace of Shen Huaqing in Zhenjiang, his hometown. As a result, the 280,000 taels of silver fell on Ruifeng Silver. As for Ruifeng Bank, The former big shopkeeper Shen Guanzhi claimed that the Ruifeng Bank account had already been settled. The agreement he signed with Lu Dafu clearly stated that Lu Dafu had full authority to receive all the incoming and outgoing accounts of the Ruifeng Bank account.

Due to Lu Dafu's special status, the Ministry of Punishment did not embarrass him, but asked him to raise 280,000 taels of silver within half a month. Two hundred and eighty thousand taels is not a small amount. Where could Lu Dafu find so much silver? Huang Yue Although Xu Mingxuan and Xu Mingxuan have extraordinary wealth, they have invested most of their money in branch offices of commercial banks in various places in the past two years, and they cannot afford so much cash.

What's even more irritating is that Datong Bank and Kaibao Bank used the excuse that the Huitong Bank was about to be established, and also asked Huitong Commercial Bank to repay the loan in advance. At this point, even Huang Yue had no good solution.

Misfortunes never come singly, and just when Lu Dafu was frowning, Lu Chun's younger brother Lu Qiu launched a lawsuit.