The people of the Tiger Character Banner sent County Magistrate Chen out of the camp and all the way to the outside of Kaifeng City.
Different from when he came, there were people with tiger flags to guide him. He didn't encounter any traps along the way and returned to the city smoothly.
Chen Yongfu and the generals below were absent, leaving only one general guarding the city gate.
The two sedan bearers who had brought Magistrate Chen to the city gate had been waiting here. As soon as he came back, they rushed directly to Yang He in the sedan.
Fifty thousand turned into one hundred thousand. If he wanted to come up with such money at once, he could only find Yang He to solve it.
There were almost no pedestrians on the street. The bearer had rested for a while, so the sedan walked briskly on the road and soon arrived at Yang He's residence.
It had already darkened, and as soon as County Magistrate Chen left, the people of the Yang Mansion closed the main door and bolted it.
Snapped! Snapped! Snapped!
County Magistrate Chen personally came over and knocked the knocker on the door with his hand.
When the doorman heard someone calling the door, he came out from the concierge on the side, opened the auxiliary window above the door, exposed half of his face, and used a lantern to shine outside.
"Mr. Chen, are you back? I've been keeping the door open for you." The doorman recognized Magistrate Chen and quickly took out the latch behind the door and opened the main door.
County Magistrate Chen raised his legs and crossed the threshold, looked sideways at the door standing beside him and asked, "Has the Superintendent ever rested?"
"Master has been waiting for you." Menzi said respectfully.
County Magistrate Chen stepped into the courtyard.
The door closed the front door again and the door bolt was pushed on the back of the door again.
Because of the food price issue, there was a lot of chaos in the city. In order to ensure Yang He's safety, the front door would often be locked as soon as it got dark.
Since Magistrate Chen left, Yang He has been waiting in the study for news from Magistrate Chen. It involves whether the rebels can retreat, so he cannot be cautious.
"Master, County Magistrate Chen is here." The servant came to the study to announce.
Yang He put down his pen and said, "Bring people in quickly."
Soon Magistrate Chen was brought in.
"I have met the Supervisor." Upon entering the study, County Magistrate Chen took the lead in saluting Yang He.
Yang Hexu raised his right hand and asked eagerly: "How is the matter going? Did the rebels say when they will withdraw?"
"We encountered some trouble." County Magistrate Chen did not dare to look up at Yang He.
He had approached Yang He before and said that the rebels could retreat with only fifty thousand taels of silver, but now the rebels suddenly raised the price and asked for one hundred thousand taels. He was a little confused as to what to say to Yang He.
Hearing this, Yang He frowned and said, "But the rebels regretted it and did not agree to withdraw?"
"No, no, no." County Magistrate Chen shook his head and said, "The rebels agreed to withdraw, but they put forward a condition. The subordinates did not dare to make the decision privately."
Hearing that the rebels did not regret their withdrawal, Yang He felt much more relaxed and asked: "What other conditions did the rebels put forward? If it is not too difficult, I can agree to them."
He ordered the Yun family to be confiscated, and he did not hesitate to offend some people in Kaifeng City, just so that he could use the Yun family's Yunzi to bribe the rebels outside the city to retreat.
At this last step, he didn't want to cause more trouble.
"It's not that there were any other conditions, it's just that the rebels wanted more money because the fifty thousand silver was delivered too late!" County Magistrate Chen glanced at Yang He nervously.
Hearing that it was just such a small matter, Yang He said disapprovingly: "If they want more money, then give them more money. At the worst, give them another ten thousand taels of silver. As long as we can withdraw the troops, the money matter will be easy to talk about."
He didn't feel bad that all the property confiscated from the Yun family was given to the rebels outside the city.
For him, nothing was more important than resolving the siege of Kaifeng City.
"It's not an extra ten thousand taels of silver." County Magistrate Chen said cautiously.
Hearing this, Yang He laughed and said: "These rebels are short-sighted. They only add hundreds or thousands of taels at a time. They are a bunch of mud-legged people who have never seen anything good."
"No, it's not." County Magistrate Chen stuttered when he saw that Yang He had misunderstood, "They want to add 50,000 taels, making a total of 100,000 taels of silver, and they only give us three days."
He carefully stretched out three fingers and gestured.
"One hundred thousand taels, how dare a bunch of lowlifes open their mouths." Yang He's face darkened.
In just a few days, fifty thousand taels had turned into one hundred thousand taels. He even suspected that the rebels outside the city were deliberately deceiving Magistrate Chen and had no intention of retreating.
Magistrate Chen quickly said: "This matter is also to blame on Xiaguan. Originally, Xiaguan had promised to give them 50,000 taels of silver, but he didn't expect that Lin Futai later disagreed, causing the matter to be delayed again and again. As time went by, outside the city The rebels thought they had been cheated, so they doubled their money when Xianguan left the city."
"You didn't talk to them properly?" Yang He asked.
After calming down, he felt that there was no need for the rebels outside the city to deliberately deceive them. If they really wanted to deceive them, they could just take away the 50,000 taels of silver and then not retreat.
Instead of taking the fifty thousand taels of silver, an additional fifty thousand taels of silver was added, indicating that the rebels might really intend to retreat after receiving a sum of silver.
County Magistrate Chen saw that Yang He's attitude had relaxed, and quickly explained to himself: "I have tried to persuade my subordinates several times, but these rebels have no money and will not retreat unless they give us one hundred thousand taels of silver. Moreover, they also said that they would only give us three dollars." It will take a few days, otherwise the price will increase.”
"These damn rebels." Yang He raised his hand and slapped the table angrily.
On the one hand, he was angry that the rebels were raising prices, and on the other hand, he couldn't afford such a large sum of money.
County Magistrate Chen lowered his head honestly.
Not to mention one hundred thousand taels of silver, he didn't even have fifty thousand taels of silver.
Yang He suppressed his annoyance and said to County Magistrate Chen: "You can find a way to exchange the deeds of the Yun family's house and some antique calligraphy and paintings into silver as soon as possible. You should be able to get a hundred thousand taels together."
The money confiscated from Yun's house was not enough, so he could only think of other belongings.
"Even if we include the Yun family's house deeds, land deeds, and antique calligraphy and paintings, it's still not enough for one hundred thousand taels." County Magistrate Chen said.
How many things were confiscated from Yun's house, he had gone through the number himself, so he knew very well.
Yang He frowned and said, "How could it not be enough? The combined value of these things is far more than the money confiscated from the Yun family."
"These things must have been exchanged for a lot of money before, but now that Kaifeng City is under siege, these things are not worth much anymore, and there are not many people in the city who can eat these things, so the prices will definitely be lowered, and I am afraid that even the actual value Not even 30% of it can be sold," County Magistrate Chen reminded.
Except for food, most things in the city began to become less and less valuable, and the value of dead objects such as houses, pavements, antiques, calligraphy and paintings dropped sharply.
Yang He frowned when he heard this.
He also knew that the other party was not exaggerating, but apart from confiscating the Yun family's belongings, he had nothing more valuable to exchange for money.
