Chapter 2163 Flower Struggle (Seventy-one)

The Battle of Jinchuan and Jinchuan lasted from the twelfth year of Qianlong's reign to the forty-first year of Qianlong's reign. The war was fought intermittently. The Qing court invested a total of nearly 600,000 manpower and spent 70 million taels of silver.

The Yuan Dynasty was an era of banknotes. Although a lot of gold and silver were rewarded, the main salary was banknotes. In Marco Polo's travels, the process of forcing the use of banknotes was recorded: "It is not allowed to pass through the land of Fanzhou County and the land under the jurisdiction of the monarch.

Although the subjects are in a high position, they dare not refuse to use it. Those who refuse to use it will be punished until death. Anyone who dares to speak for the king will be happy to use this coin. Wherever the merchants in the Great Khanate go, use this banknote.

In order to pay for the expenses, to suffice the goods, and to get the selling price of the goods, it is no different from pure gold, and its weight is so light that even if it is worth ten gold coins, its weight is no more than one gold coin."

Paper money relied on the authority of the monarch and also brought convenience to the monarch. The Ming Dynasty once wanted to issue Ming Bao banknotes like the Yuan Dynasty, but it did not succeed.

There were also silver notes in the Qing Dynasty, but they were issued by the Ministry of Household Affairs. After the White Lotus Sect uprising, transporting gold and silver from various places became a troublesome matter, and the escort agencies were no longer able to send merchants' money home. Compared with the Lianghuai salt merchants who were severely damaged by the salt fraud case, they made a lot of money at the border.

Qian's Shanxi merchants accumulated immeasurable wealth. They began to go south, opened bank accounts, and engaged in exchange business including official bank.

In May of the fiftieth year of Qianlong's reign, Qianlong was going to Rehe as usual. The Ministry of Internal Affairs had to prepare in advance. According to the usual practice, the accompanying guards needed to go to the Guangzhou Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to collect the money for assistance before departure, and then go to the street.

Go to the bank to exchange for scattered silver for use on the road.

However, 10 days later, some of the guards took silver ingots but could not exchange them for broken silver. The clerk at the silver shop told them that the silver was "low-tide silver" and could not be exchanged for standard silver. Naturally, the guards did not believe it and asked the shopkeeper to verify the result in person.

As the guy said, the silver ingots are of insufficient quality, which is the so-called "low tide silver".

These silver ingots were obtained directly from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the bank of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is on the west side of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City. There are strict procedures for opening the bank. Three people must be present at the same time, and two people must sign together to close the bank.

Draw a lock seal and stick it on the lock. There is a treasurer on duty every night, but the person on duty does not hold the key. Instead, the guards of the Qianqing Palace centrally keep the keys to the six treasures, and they need the permission of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In other words, there would be no case of secretly subcontracting silver ingots, unless officials were guarding theft or engaging in malpractice for personal gain, and the person in charge of this matter was Wang Yongrong of Zhijun.

After learning about this incident, Yong Rong immediately recovered the money that had been sent out, and inspected the silver ingots together with several ministers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He concluded that the quality of the silver ingots was also insufficient, only 60 to 70% of normal official silver.

Then the ministers made a detailed count of the silver treasury next to the Hall of Supreme Harmony, and found that there was about 70,000 taels missing. This amount is not large, but the key is that it happened in the Forbidden City.

Although the Ministry of Internal Affairs can order those suitcase shop owners to close down and stop selling goods, it cannot force bank shops to accept silver ingots of insufficient quality. The control of banknotes is even stricter, and they dare not print them casually even to raise military funds.

The funding for Heshen's construction of the Xumi Temple of Fortune and Longevity in Rehe was reported by the Military Aircraft Department. It should have been an allocation of one million taels of silver from the Ministry of Household Affairs, but Heshen found a way to raise part of this money on his own.

First, there was 20,000 taels of silver from the prisoner Yang Kui, and 15,000 taels of silver from AH Governor Min Eyuan. Then there were the 139,000 taels of gold, silver and jade that were confiscated from the house of Gao Pu, the minister of the Ministry of War.

Gao Pu was the son of Gao Heng, the former Huai salt administrator. He was from the same clan as Huixian, the noble concubine, and Gao Jin. This time, he was greedy for the jade trade.

XJ produces Hetian jade, but private mining has been prohibited since the Kangxi year, and the actual implementation was only after Qianlong pacified Jungar.

After Gao Pu took office, he teamed up with Aqim Beke's opponent to organize Uyghur miners to mine jade, and then ordered Han merchants to transport it to the mainland to sell it for huge profits.

This was not the reason why the emperor was furious and wanted to severely punish the Gao Jia family. After E Dui's death, Gao Pu once petitioned, hoping that E Dui's son could succeed Aqimu Beke.

In the later period of the Tang Dynasty, the governors of vassal towns were also hereditary and replaceable. In order to avoid this, Qianlong sent E Dui's son to KS, and transferred Aqimubek from KS to Yarkand. Soon the new Aqi arrived.

Muboke discovered that Gao Pu was collecting jade privately, and there were other problems.

The place where jade is mined is located in a deep mountain canyon, with high and cold terrain, heavy rainfall in summer, and prone to flash floods. The work of jade mining is already very difficult, and it has to face various natural disasters. The life safety of the miners cannot be guaranteed, and everyone will be unbearable over time.

He was burdened with a heavy burden and was planning to escape.

There is only one person among these miners who knows how to mine. He is the leader of these miners. If he escapes, he will be chased back no matter where he goes. The only way is to kill him. Once he dies, the others will not know how to mine jade. Others

The person will be released home.

But the miners didn't want him to do that, so the leader jumped down the cliff.

The angry miners carried the leader's body to the bottom of the mountain to demand an explanation. The new Aqimuboke could see as long as he was not blind. Gao Pu stuffed 50 gold ingots into him, hoping that he would keep silent. But since the unification of the Qing Dynasty,

After XJ, the military and political officials stationed here by the imperial court became accustomed to enjoying themselves and oppressing the people. The Changji rebellion broke out in the 33rd year of Qianlong's reign, and the Uighur rebellion occurred in the 30th year of Qianlong's reign. If these three thousand miners also rebelled, Aqimube would be dead.

Give up the blame.

So he reported the matter to Yonggui, the newly appointed minister of Wushi affairs. Yonggui rushed 800 miles to tell Qianlong. Qianlong immediately approved the memorial and asked Yonggui to go to Gaopu's place in person and pull out his crown.

Dai Hualing took the criminals in the case into custody for interrogation.

Agui, who personally participated in the pacification of Jungar, knew that this matter was important. He was ordered to inspect Gao Pu's property in Beijing. In his servant's letter, he saw that these Hetian jade had been sent to Suzhou, Yangzhou, Jiangning and other cities where jade carving was developed.

So Qianlong sent Sa Zai, the governor of the Jiangnan River, and Yang Kui, the governor of Jiangsu, to investigate.

Yang Kui was the same Yang Kui who paid 20,000 taels of silver for the crime. He was not involved in Gao Pu's affairs, but because of his dealings in official circles, who knows whether some stolen goods might be given to him as gifts.

This person had handled the literary inquisition related to Xu Shukui, and had seen the scenes of confiscation of homes and extermination of clans. Perhaps he felt scared, so he was not sincere when handling errands, and was eventually demoted two levels to remain in office.

Later, when Wang Danwang's incident happened, he assisted Governor Chen Zuhui in searching his property. No one knows whether he was involved in Chen Zuhui's exchange of stolen goods. Anyway, he fell ill when he was a governor in Fujian and wrote a letter hoping to retire and return to his hometown. He died of illness on the way back to Beijing.

Qianlong did not raid his home.

The Gao Pu case was widely implicated. Qianlong cursed "Such evildoers cannot be tolerated by national law." Gao Pu was not only sentenced to beheading, but was not even escorted back to Beijing for execution because Qianlong's order did not allow his body to be returned to the mainland.

After it was over, he might still feel resentful, so he had Gao Pu cut into pieces and fed to dogs.

Dogs are regarded as "celestial dragons" in the eyes of Manchu Jurchens, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs feeds hunting dogs with meat.

After Yongrong was adopted, he had no interest in politics, just like the former prince Yunxi. Because Yunxi was indifferent to fame and fortune and loved poetry and painting, Yongzheng was particularly kind to his younger brother.

When Yongrong branch office came out, he got a pawnshop. Later, when the money was not enough, Qianlong gave him another pawnshop "Qingchundang", which had more than 24,000 taels in principal and interest, and also gave another 1,000 taels to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The rent money for eight hundred official houses.

After the case of Guang Chu Division was reported, the case also became a hot topic. Prince Zhi, who was good at poetry and painting, and liked fortune-telling, immediately summoned all the relevant people for interrogation in isolation, and obtained a written and signed confession. When it was found out,

After the case was reported, Yong Rong immediately reported it to the emperor, requesting for a review of the crime, and took the initiative to plead guilty, believing that he had neglected his duties. Other relevant officials in Liuku also had unshirkable responsibilities and requested the emperor to impose severe punishment.

What happened in the case was that except for the salt policy and customs duties, the Guangzhou Reserve Department had official fine silver ingots. Others, such as the silver that was confiscated and put into the warehouse, were of varying fineness. The person who went through the warehousing procedures was careless and put the low-tide silver into the warehouse as full-quality silver.

Because time has passed, more low-tide silver has been accumulated. The Ministry of Internal Affairs will pay fees to some royal relatives, and these royal relatives usually want high-quality silver in order to exchange for small profits.

The good-quality silver went out, and the low-tide silver remained, accounting for a larger proportion. 70,000 taels of low-tide silver accounted for one-tenth of the total inventory.

When the report was received by Qianlong, he just approved "I understand, I appreciate this", and then fined He Shen and Yong Rong three months' salary. Those with grades would have a fine of ten times the total amount of silver that was not paid. Those without grades would

Hit the 80 mark, and that's the end.

Zhijun Wang’s nickname “Think twice about your master” is three times more common than “Think twice before you act”.

The little prince "wanted" to inherit the position left by his father hereditary, but while he was staying in the capital and getting married, that position had already been occupied by Tuxie Tuhan Chedendorji. Forty-eight years ago, Chedendorji secretly

He was dismissed after being given a vote by Wula Huangdan. Later, Lawang Dorji was appointed as the minister of Kulun, and Yunduan Dorji was appointed as his assistant. From then on, the little prince began to live a life of running in both directions.

Unexpectedly, the Buryat people in Russia hijacked Han merchants the next year. They not only took the goods but refused to release them, they also issued repeated warnings to no avail. By the 50th year of Qianlong's reign, the Kyakhta market was closed.

Of course, the restless little prince could not be idle, so he moved the alliance to Mulan Paddock, and Culun and Ulia Sutai each led their best men to prepare for the siege.

The Thousand Old Man's Banquet held in the fiftieth year of Qianlong's reign did not have any delicacies. The Manchu-Han banquet consisted of thousands of people eating hot pot together, and the mutton was shipped from Mongolia.

Qianlong was very happy and praised the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but no one wanted to compete for the credit.

Just in March of the previous year, Long Fu'an died, and the six ministers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs became five, namely Yong Rong, He Shen, Jin Jian, Debao, and Fu Chang'an. In the past, each of them was in charge of a treasury.

If no new people are arranged to come in, one of their five ministers will always be in charge of two treasuries.

After the Old Summer Palace burned down and Yongxun left Qianlong and ran away first, he was adopted and left idle. His eldest son Minhui was born the next year, and Yongxun didn't care much about him, while his mother gave birth to him.

The disease took root and he died not long after. When Mianhui was 14 years old, Yongxun also died. Mianhui did not inherit his father's prince title and was only a Baylor. Qianlong ordered Jin Jian to take charge of him.

In Baylor's words, Jin Jian is just a slave, who has the right to care about him?

His mother was the Wanyan family of Xifujin, which meant that Jin Jian was Mianhui Baylor's biological uncle.

Yongxun gave birth to five sons, and only one of them lived to adulthood. However, Baylor died at the age of 33, leaving no heirs. He was an adopted son who wore mourning and mourning, and the title he inherited had to be downgraded to Beizi.

Wang Danwang's father was an upright official, otherwise Qianlong would not have used him. But the kind of father does not mean the kind of son. Juren suffered this loss, and he did not expect that the bank where he saved money would "suddenly" close down.

Already.

The banker was most afraid of a run, and it had already happened when he arrived. In the end, he got some back through a lawsuit.

This new owner did not squander his father's family business, but was involved in the Changlu salt case. Changlu had produced good salt since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but Qianlong loved jade, so Changlu salt merchants also bought jade, and then

Pay tribute to the Yanzheng. But this time the problem was not with Yanyin or Yanzheng, but with the salt merchants themselves.

The interest rate on loans lent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs is about 12%, which is much lower than ordinary loan sharks, but they mainly lend to merchants with "frequent dealings".

Borrowing money requires repaying interest. The more you borrow, the more you have to pay back. When you can't pay back the interest, you have to pay for it. No one thought that the salt merchants would not be able to pay back the money.

Not only the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but also the young owner of the bank where Juren saved his money did not know. In the end, it was discovered that these salt merchants were insolvent, and all their belongings were liquidated, leaving the Ministry of Internal Affairs with 790,000 taels.

All these "properties" were packed up by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and none were left to the people. There may be some left, but the Shaodong family did not get any. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg of Changlu's debt. This is a group incident, not a long-term incident.

The reed salt merchant owed money.

By the time of Emperor Jiaqing, the tribute from Changlu was just some silk, and valuables were no longer required, and the local salt industry also declined.

The debt they owe is largely related to the Battle of Jinchuan. Taking the initiative to donate the money can also build "enthusiasm" to make a difference.

It is precisely because of this that the Changlu Salt Merchant was able to borrow a loan from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the repayment did not arouse the emperor's wrath.

In addition, there is the problem of "silver is expensive and money is cheap". The quality of copper coins in different places is different, which is not convenient for long-distance circulation. The fineness of silver is easier to identify, so it has become a currency for long-distance circulation. Common people buy salt with copper coins or broken pieces.

Silver, their copper coins are different from those in Zhili. A thousand coins are not worth one tael of silver.

Anyway, the decline of Changlu is a complicated issue, and Juren can only admit defeat.

Besides, the little prince went to Mobei not only to serve as an assistant, but also to patrol and "deal with" the Buryat people. It's hard to say what use he would have done there.

Save it so we can meet again later. After all, in this world, who knows what will happen?
Chapter completed!