bookrebus Chapter 290 The Story of 2 Silver
Chapter 290 The Story of 2 Silver
As Li Xian spoke, he walked among the crowd and poured wine for his confidants.
This was a reward from the crown prince of the current dynasty to his subordinates. Everyone dared not refuse it and knelt down waiting for Li Xian to pour them wine.
Li Xian filled them up one by one, and then spoke again:
"There are four major cases, each with its own twists and turns, and each one involves our Li clan. Cunxi used his methods to cleverly avoid all of us, except... Lingyue."
"I'm afraid you all don't know, but actually, Princess Yiyang Li Qingxia is not dead at all, and my cousin Li Gui is not dead at all either. I'm really curious about where they went."
“Hehe, actually I am curious too, but I will never take the initiative to ask Li Cunxi, and he will never tell me, because this is to protect the two of them.”
"As both of us are descendants of the Li family, I, Li Xian, no longer care who will be the emperor!"
"I only hope that after Li Dan and I have no chance, everyone can work together to push my brother Cunxi to the throne!"
"Among the Li family heirs of the same generation as us, only Li Cunxi is a high-ranking official at a young age. If he is given a few more years, he will have more abilities and a higher position. How many people in the court can defeat him?"
Li Xian returned to his seat, poured himself a glass of wine, tilted his head back and drank it all.
He let go completely and unbuttoned his clothes unscrupulously, hoping to make himself cooler.
"Everyone, you are all my absolute confidants. I hope you can lend me a helping hand."
Li Xian glanced at everyone and said calmly.
Li Huaiyuan and General Li Duozuo of the Left Imperial Guard took the lead and came to the center of the Tang Dynasty to kowtow to Li Xian.
The remaining few people followed suit and came over to kowtow.
Li Huaiyuan kowtowed three times, clasped his fists towards Li Xian and said:
"Your Highness the Crown Prince is willing to command you!"
Everyone clasped their fists and said:
"We are also willing to obey His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's orders!"
Li Xian showed a satisfied smile, bowed to the ministers below, and said loudly:
"Everyone, Li Tang Jiangshan, please!"
The seven people knocked their heads to the ground and shouted:
"I am willing to die for your Highness!"
……
Bird Trading Company.
The servants came over with tea and placed a cup in front of everyone.
The bald shopkeeper Wu Duo drank a sip of tea to calm himself down, and then he barely suppressed his fear of Li Cunxi.
Li Cunxi pushed the tea in front of him to Wu Duo and said lightly:
"Before I get the answer to my question, I really don't dare to drink your water, Shopkeeper Wu."
"However, since this cup of tea has been brought over, please let Shopkeeper Wu do it for you."
Wu Duo's face suddenly became bitter. He took Li Cunxi's tea bowl and drank it in just a few gulps.
After drinking it, Wu Duo still looked miserable.
"Li Shaoyin is too cautious. How dare I poison the tea? This is in front of everyone."
"I'm sorry, I value my life."
Li Cunxi pointed happily at the remaining four cups of tea.
"Please ask Shopkeeper Wu to serve them tea later. As for now, Shopkeeper Wu, please tell me what happened to Yu Lei's loan of 200,000 taels of silver?"
Wu Duo was stared at by several pairs of eyes. He swallowed his saliva and tremblingly spoke about what happened five years ago.
On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month five years ago, Yu Lei, the newly appointed governor of Dengzhou, came to their Bainiao Trading Company late at night and asked to borrow two hundred thousand taels of silver.
At that time, the Bainiao Commercial Bank branch in Rang County had just been opened for less than half a month, and it was the first time that someone came to borrow such a large sum of silver. The most important thing was that it was the governor of a state who came to borrow money.
Because the loan amount was so huge and the borrower was a very special official, Wu Duo remembered it particularly clearly.
At that time, there were only more than 300,000 taels of silver on the counter of Bainiao Trading Company. They were afraid that after Yu Lei borrowed the money, there would not be enough silver on the books to lend again, so they applied for 500,000 taels of silver from the headquarters.
Only after approval from the headquarters did they dare to lend cash to Yu Lei. So, on the 30th day of the first lunar month, this loan of 200,000 taels of silver was delivered to Yu Lei's governor's mansion.
What is the use of these two hundred thousand taels of silver?
Wu Duo didn't know.
They have rules.
They just lend money and collect it, regardless of what others do with the money.
Over the years, they only received a meager interest, which Yu Lei could easily pay.
Time flies, and Yu Lei's repayment deadline arrived a few days ago. On the night of a week ago, Yu Lei suddenly came to their door and brought 200,000 taels of silver to them, and repaid all the borrowed money.
They originally thought that nothing had happened, but they didn't expect that Yu Lei suddenly committed suicide a few days ago.
After telling the story of the two hundred thousand taels of silver, Wu Duo took another sip of tea and looked at Li Cunxi and the others with trembling eyes.
Judging from the expressions of the five people, they are all smiling, but no one knows what they are laughing at.
Li Cunxi leaned back, tapped the table lightly, and finally asked:
"Since it's a loan, your Bai Niao Company must have a receipt."
Upon hearing this, Wu Duo immediately asked someone to take out the stub.
The receipts for such large amounts of silver are kept together with the receipts for similar loans.
There aren't many people who can lend out such large deposits, so it's easy to find them.
In just a few sips of tea, someone found the loan receipt that Yu Lei had borrowed.
Wu Yanhao had traveled all over the country and had seen this thing in Yangzhou, so when the servant brought it to him, it was natural for him to take it in his hands and examine it carefully.
The loan amount, borrower and lender in the document were all correct, except for the area at the bottom where the borrower's name and lender's name were filled in, which was painted black.
This is similar to the IOU that Li Yuanfang found in Yu's mansion.
"My Lords, the black mark below means that the loan has been paid off. In order to prevent anyone from making irresponsible remarks about this in the future, and also for the sake of our company's reputation, we have simply blacked it out and kept it as evidence."
Wu Duo was afraid that several people didn't know, so he took the initiative to explain it to them without waiting for them to ask.
Li Cunxi had always used this method of blackening at Xize Silver Bank, the headquarters of the bank in Yangzhou. He naturally understood the mystery behind it and had no doubts about it.
Several people passed the stub around, but found nothing suspicious, so they returned it to Wu Duo.
"Boss, after listening to what you said, I deeply feel that it is not easy for you people... In addition, I would like to visit your headquarters. I wonder where your headquarters is? Which prince do you belong to?"
A thief never leaves empty-handed. Since no useful information was obtained, it is natural to ask who is behind this.
Wu Duo was a little embarrassed and didn't know who to ask for help. In the end, he had to tell the truth:
"The headquarters is in Shangluo County, Shangzhou. I am a servant in the Prince Liang's mansion."