Chang Feng led Hu Zi and followed everyone to Cai Zhong's study.
Release the tiger cubs. Huzi turned left and right in the study, sniffing. Suddenly, Huzi stopped in front of the south wall and started barking.
Chang Feng walked over and tapped the wall with the treasure ring. When the treasure ring made a familiar sound again, Chang Feng smiled and said, "Hiding silver under the wall is nothing new."
Digging a cellar under the bed in a bedroom to store silver is called a "cellar."
The wall is equipped with a mezzanine to hide silver, which is called "wall hiding".
To break the wall, you need to use a sledgehammer.
The job of swinging the sledgehammer has always belonged to Fatty Xu. He is seven feet tall and weighs more than two hundred pounds. He is a famous strongman in Jinyiwei.
"Ah haha!" Fatty Xu spat on his hand, then picked up the sledgehammer and hit the south wall hard.
"Boom." A large hole was opened in the south wall. Two taels of small silver locks flowed out of the hole like water.
"Ding, ding, ding." Every silver ingot dropped to the ground and made a crisp sound.
Fatty Xu kept up his efforts and hit ten more hammers.
The entire south wall was smashed open. There were a lot of 2 taels of small silver coins neatly stacked inside.
Chang Feng picked up one and saw that the small silver ingot was inscribed "Fuyuan Hao Cast".
Fuyuan Hao is one of the three largest banks in Beijing. It seems that the silver is not official silver, but market silver.
Fatty Xu said: "Market money? It seems that Xu Zhong did not get it through corruption, but from bribery. This is what we are talking about - embezzling official money and taking bribes from market money."
Chang Feng smiled slightly: "That's wrong! These are also official silver. Do you think this silver coin is different from ordinary silver coins?"
Fatty Xu picked it up and looked at it carefully. I saw a little bit of gold on the white silver.
Fatty Xu said: "The quality of this silver is very similar to the fifty taels of silver ingots given to my family by the Ministry of Revenue every twelfth lunar month to worship our ancestors."
Chang Feng talked eloquently: "Yes! This is gold flower silver. As the name suggests, gold flower silver contains gold."
"This is not gold deliberately added by the silversmith. It's gold within the silver."
"The Ming Dynasty had a system, and gold, flowers and silver were not allowed to circulate in the market. They were collected by governors of various provinces and paid tribute to the national treasury. They were used for rewards from the emperor or as part of military attache's monthly salary."
Fatty Xu was a little strange: "Since it can only exist in the national treasury, how could it become a municipal silver with the name of a private bank?"
Chang Feng said: "Simple. Cai Zhong must have embezzled the gold and silver from the treasury, and then melted it into market silver to hide the public's eyes. From now on, he will use it to give gifts to relatives and friends, buy a house and land to raise his sister and watch actors."
Fatty Xu thought for a moment: "I'm telling you! My father has been complaining for the past two years that the silver ingots enshrined to my ancestor King Zhongshan in the first month are never heavy enough."
"Because it was awarded by the imperial court, it's hard to complain to the person in charge of the Ministry of Household Affairs who is in charge of distributing silver."
Chang Feng analyzed: "Most of the nobles in the capital may have the same mentality as your father. I am embarrassed to complain that the amount of silver granted by the court is insufficient."
"Cai Zhong took advantage of your mentality. He tampered with the amount when casting the silver. He put the part he withheld into his own pocket. He also asked the bank to change it into an inconspicuous two taels."
Fatty Xu scolded: "You fucked up your mother's legs. You really have a good way of making money."
Everyone began to count the number of silver coins hidden in the wall.
After the inventory was completed, Chang Feng called the accounting officer: "Remember, in the residence of Cai Zhong, the right servant of the Ministry of Revenue, there were 2 taels of gold flowers and 715 silver coins found in the study. The total is 1,403 taels."
The school captain who recorded the accounts did a second count. Chang Feng signed the account book, and everyone packed the gold and silver into boxes and affixed seals.
Fatty Xu asked the accounting officer: "How much real money and silver have been copied?"
The accounting officer replied: "Silver ingots, silver ingots, plus gold ingots, the total is three thousand six hundred and ninety taels."
Chang Feng took a breath of cold air: "It's still far from the number of 30,000! Our waist card is still hanging in the air, and it will be gone if we don't."
The two of them came out of the study. I saw soldiers from the Wucheng Military and Horse Division escorting eight women as they passed by. Those eight women have completely different charms.
Four of them were in their twenties. Plump figure. Quite mature and charming.
The other four looked to be only thirteen or fourteen, young girls in their early adulthood, very charming.
They were crying. The soldiers on the side urged impatiently: "Hurry up!"
Chang Feng stopped a group of people. He asked the soldier: "Who are these women?"
The soldier smiled evilly: "Hey, let's go back to the superior. These are the prostitutes raised by Cai Zhong. The commander asked us to take us to Xikuoyuan for easy supervision. The Jiaofang Secretary will come to pick them up in the afternoon."
Chang Feng asked one of the women who was crying so hard: "Where are you from?"
The woman said in a strong Shanxi old vinegar accent: "Well, I'm from Datong, Shanxi."
Chang Feng asked a timid girl again: "Where are you from?"
The girl spoke softly to Wu Nong: "I belong to Yangzhou Silver."
Chang Feng and Fatty Xu looked at each other.
Fatty Xu sighed: "Aunt Datong, Yangzhou thin horse! Cai Zhong, the wolf, is like a toad marrying a frog, looking ugly and having fun!"
Auntie Datong and Yangzhou Shouma are the favorite domestic prostitutes of wealthy families in Beijing.
In this era where women are no different from objects, beautiful women are often traded as goods.
Datong Auntie, as the name suggests, is a Datong woman.
Traffickers bought them when they were ten years old. "Sitting on the urn" every day.
The traffickers will select an age-matched urn for them and ask the girls to sit on the urn with their legs. Every day they have to sit in bed for more than three hours.
This went on for six full years. The bodies of these girls will develop differently from those of ordinary people.
It took six years for "Sitting on the Urn" to be completed. They will become qualified Datong mothers-in-law. They were sold to the capital and south of the Yangtze River by human traffickers.
Literati and poets commented on "Auntie Datong" and said: There are many houses and winding paths leading to secluded places.
When rough people say "Aunt Datong", it's basically just one word...
From the Ming and Qing Dynasties to modern times, you must not call a woman "aunt" in Datong. If you shout, a big guy will basically not be able to run away.
On the market, a Datong mother-in-law's contract of sale ranges from 200 taels to 300 taels.
Yangzhou Shou Ma is a five-year-old girl selected by Yangzhou's "Yangmazi". He has learned music, chess, calligraphy, painting, singing and dancing since he was a child.
By the time you are thirteen, if you agree with the seven standards of "thin, fragrant, small, pointed, curved, straight, and soft", you can write poems and paint, dance like a fairy, and dance around the beam for three days. They will become qualified thin horses.
On the market, the price of a Yangzhou thin horse is three to four hundred taels.
In addition to Datong Auntie and Yangzhou Shouma, there are two other schools in the flower industry of the Ming Dynasty: Taishan Auntie and West Lake Boat Girl.
The four major schools basically dominate the Ming Dynasty flower industry.
Chang Feng said to the soldiers: "If the Jiaofang Secretary comes to pick up someone this afternoon, tell them that these eight female Jinyiwei are temporarily detained! Let them wait."
With an "I understand" expression on his face, the soldier led the eight women to Xikuoyuan.
Fatty Xu said: "I'm talking about Master Chang. If you detain these eight women, don't you plan to give them to the commander for promotion, right?"
Chang Feng shook his head: "Although I look forward to promotion, I am not ashamed to use such a despicable method as giving a woman away."
Fatty Xu's expression changed: "Huh? Don't try it yourself! This is a violation of Jin Yiwei's family rules! What you will lose then is not your badge, but your head!"
Chang Feng shook his head: "Woman, I'm only interested in Xiaoyan. Let me tell you, Commander Jun Ling only said that we should find 30,000 taels of silver. But he didn't say whether we can change the color!"
Silver is white.
The so-called discount is to calculate the price of houses, fields, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, domestic prostitutes, etc., and then add the real money and silver copied to calculate the total.
Fatty Xu thought for a moment: "Zese? I didn't expect that."
Chang Feng said: "Those eight women are worth at least two thousand taels. So I will hold them captive first."
"If we copy out thirty thousand taels of silver, we will give them to the Jiaofang Secretary. If they are not enough, we will use them as a bargain."
