"It is true that they carried a large number of carriages, about hundreds of them, but I don't know what they contained. It's just that the ruts in the carriages are very deep, and the accompanying guards were very careful..."
Chao Cuo did not directly answer those things that he could not be sure of. Instead, he told the details he knew one by one.
"Qiang——"
Liu Qi directly pulled out the sword from his waist and struck the corner of the table with his backhand sword.
He has been using this short table for many years. It is made entirely of golden nanmu. He usually takes great care of this thing, but today, he showed no mercy at all.
"Your Highness!"
Chao Cuo didn't know what was wrong with him, why he suddenly lost such a temper.
"Sir, come and see!"
Something unexpected happened. Liu Qi squatted on the ground and searched for a moment, then picked up the copper coin split in half from the floor.
"This is?"
Chao Cuo came to his side with some doubts, picked up half a copper coin and observed it carefully.
"Is this lead?"
After breaking through the yellow outer skin, the gray stuff inside was revealed, and Chao Cuo's face suddenly turned ugly.
"Your Highness, where did this thing come from?"
Recalling what Liu Qi said before, Chao Cuo might have guessed the origin of this thing, but he still had some luck in his heart.
"Haven't you guessed it, sir? These guys are really insidious. They are not willing to forge the coins of the Wu Kingdom, but they used my big man's five baht coins to forge them. They, father and son, are really respectful!"
As Liu Qi spoke, his face turned as dark as the bottom of a pot.
What the father and son did really exceeded his bottom line. The imperial court had granted them the right to mint coins, allowing them to mint copper coins privately in their own territories.
But what about now? Unsatisfied, they bought back the imperial court's copper coins on a large scale, and then re-melted the copper coins they collected to make bad coins.
In this round and round, 30% of the profits were actually transferred away, and that's not all. Once this incident breaks out, I am afraid that the credibility of the five baht coins of the imperial court will be destroyed.
When private money was rampant, when people traded in the market, they would convert all copper coins into the same price, which not only brought great inconvenience to the people.
Even the imperial court was greatly affected. After all, casting money was definitely profitable, and it was also one of the main incomes of the imperial court.
What's more important is that as the main currency of the imperial court, once its credit collapsed, the threat to the economic system of the Han Empire would be devastating.
"No, we can't let this money go out!"
After getting angry, Liu Qi suddenly felt a cold feeling on his back. This thing must not flow out, otherwise the entire Han Dynasty may be turned upside down.
Different from the previous petty quarrels, this is tens of millions of copper coins, and once the money is scattered, it will not be so easy to get it back next time!
"Your Highness, this matter must be considered in the long run. Don't act too hastily!"
Seeing Liu Qi's irritable look, Chao Cuo quickly persuaded him. He must not act rashly at this time. After all, he was still the prince of Wu.
If these copper coins were really copied from Liu Xian's hands, such a large amount would be a serious crime of confiscating the family and exterminating the clan according to the law of the court!
Doesn’t this force King Wu to rebel?
"Let's take a long-term view. We've finished our discussion. The copper coins have already been scattered by him to the wealthy families in Chang'an. How can we take a long-term view then?"
Liu Qi angrily struck the table with his sword, directly splitting the corner-missing table into two halves.
"Your Highness! Even if he spends all the money, you can't just lead people to loot it openly. Don't forget that the land of Wu Chu has already stationed 200,000 troops. Do you want to force them to rebel? "
Seeing Liu Qi's temper rising, Chao Cuo hurried forward and knelt in front of Liu Qi, hugging his thigh tightly and preventing him from getting out.
If he goes out at this time, it will definitely cause a big disaster!
"call--"
After several violent gasps, Liu Qi finally calmed down a little.
"Then sir, what should we do about this matter? Is it possible that we just watch the father and son do evil and just sit back and watch them destroy the Great Wall of my great man?"
Liu Qi said this with a stern voice. In this posture, if Liu Xian were in front of him now, let alone the chessboard, the sword in his hand would have been stabbed directly into his heart.
"Your Highness, if you can't bear it, you will mess with me. Your Highness, the King of Dai Wang, always has a unique way of dealing with people. Now that he has exposed this matter, he must have his own solution, right?"
Chao Cuo himself is a sincere gentleman, and these conspiracies are indeed not his strong point.
But it is undeniable that he is very accurate in judging people. After spending time with Liu Deng, he has probably figured out Liu Deng's temper. If this guy doesn't have any perfect ideas, he will definitely He won't speak easily.
"It's okay if you don't say it. Talking about this makes me even more angry. Look what this bastard's idea is. He actually asked me to prepare more gold and silver and prepare to make a lot of money! A country's important weapon , can’t it be compared to those mere idiots?”
Speaking of Liu Deng's response to this guy, Liu Qi was even more angry. If this kid wasn't thousands of miles away, Liu Qi would have slapped him now.
After learning about such a major event, his first thought was not how to calm the situation and maintain the court's credibility, but to make money.
I just finished praising this boy for being a strong man and a good man, but this boy backhanded me like this.
"Your Highness, although His Majesty the King has always spoken and acted informally, he is not so ignorant when it comes to major matters of right and wrong! Can you let me have a look at his letters?"
Chao Cuo felt something in his heart. This was not like Liu Deng's behavior.
Now that he has exposed this matter, he must have a way to deal with it, and this matter has reached this point. With more gold and silver, can he make a fortune?
"Sir, just take it and look at it!"
Liu Qi angrily handed the letter in his hand to Chao Cuo. After Chao Cuo took it with both hands, he read it carefully.
As he watched, Chao Cuo suddenly felt that this matter was not as simple as Liu Qi understood.
Prince Wu and his son actually took these problematic copper coins and exchanged them for salt stamps worth nearly 6 million guan from Liu Deng. However, Liu Deng just asked the prince to prepare more gold and silver. Is this ridiculous?
Is this still the same Liu Deng who is determined to retaliate?
