Chapter 81 – It’s a Conspiracy

The quiet valley was oppressive and panicky, but no one dared to make a move.

Of course Ming Lan Shi knew that this was something Fan Xian had arranged, from the very beginning, but he couldn’t understand how the other party, who was after all a court official, could do such a shameless thing – facing such a branch of terrifying cavalry, Ming Lan Shi didn’t want to send his own life away in a firefight with the other party, but the splinters all over the ground sent his mind reeling with rage!

“I’m going to Kyoto to fight the lawsuit!”

Ming Lan Shi cursed in a furious shrill voice.

“Whatever, this general will not accompany you.”

Jing Ge coldly threw down this sentence, then led the team to leave, before leaving did not forget to carry the heavy stone log back to the carriage, leaving behind only the Ming Lan Shi who wanted to cry without tears, those who are full of jaws of the Ming family private army, and a large area of scattered on the ground, crystal shiny glass fragments.

In the past years, the Ming family secretly raise pirates, and Jiaozhou sailors collusion, in the East China Sea, robbing ships and goods, killing people, I do not know how many lives, robbing the imperial court of how many goods, and now Fan Xian the opposite way, not in the sea underhanded, but in the land knife, neither harm your Ming family life, nor rob you of the goods and property, just …… all destroyed, let you Ming family cry! The Ming family will not be able to cry even if they are destroyed.

The cycle of heavenly justice, heaven and earth, should be so.

Things are not over yet.

Hong Changqing, who was wearing an official uniform, coughed twice and walked from the mountain to Ming Lan Shi’s side, smiling and saying, “Good day young master Ming.”

“Young Master Hong?” Ming Lan Shi was already numb at this point, and wasn’t too surprised to see Fan Xian’s crony, he just didn’t know what the other party wanted to say to him.

“My real name is Qing Wa, and I was originally a brother on that island as well.” Hong Changqing came to Ming Lan Shi s ear and said coldly and fiercely through gritted teeth, “These worthless pieces of glass are this official s thanks to you on behalf of Brother Mangzi, Sister Orchid Flower, and the hundreds of brothers …… who died on the island. Will not forget the orchid sister, that is your most loved aunt ah ……”

Hong Changqing finished this sentence, his chest was filled with the pleasure of revenge, and said loudly, “Thank you ah!”

With a haha laugh, Hong Changqing left in style, leaving Ming Lan Shi with a face like dirt and a face of shock. He looked at his hands with some consternation, as if he only remembered at this moment that he had once used these hands to end the life of a woman who was full of infatuation for him.

The news spread back to the Ming Garden outside of Suzhou, Ming Qingda’s right hand trembled, the hands holding a good official kiln porcelain bowl burst with a bang and fell to the ground broken into countless pieces, but he didn’t feel any heartache at all.

Because the crunching sound of those silver mirrors shattering into glass pieces had already made his heart ache to the point of senselessness, this old man suddenly felt that his heart, too, like the porcelain bowl on the ground, the silver mirrors there, shattered into countless pieces.

“A lawsuit? I am not afraid. The imperial lawsuit is more not afraid of …… him to find who to fight for him?”

After getting away for half a month in Yingzhou, Fan Xian waited for Wang Qinian and finally got on the carriage and started to continue on to Hangzhou.

The news from the Inspectorate had been delivered long ago, and Fan Xian raised his eyebrows in some amusement and pleasure. Last year in Jiangnan although also calling the shots, but always by Ming Qingda that old fox depressed dragged, at this time in Kyoto things are calm, he will play each other in the palm of the hand, is really very fast and happy things.

He just gave a rough strategy, and the specific implementer is the following people, he also did not expect, Hong Changqing until now still remember the tragedy on that island, hard to refuse to let the Ming family die painfully, have to be so slow knife to cut meat.

“Slow knife cuts the meat, warm water boils the frog.” Fan Xian said to Wang Qinian beside him, “I feel heartbroken for the Ming family. Pass the order down, when the fire is ready, tell the sons and daughters to stop being greedy and hurry up to close the deal.”

Wang Qinian stayed in the capital for nearly a month, just to watch the movements in the palace, and said, “In two more days, the eldest princess and the crown prince, will already not care about the death of the Ming family, and to snatch a move before the Ming family reacts, now is the right time.”

Fan Xian nodded and said, “What I want is for them to not think that I will come down hard on …… the Ming family now only think that I will continue to accompany him to slowly simmer down, I have to catch him off guard.”

He suddenly laughed, lifted the curtain in front of the car and looked at the slowly regressing Jiangnan official road, unable to hold back the pleasure in his heart, humming a little song.

Wang Qinian was listening to that strange sounding tune on the side, and couldn’t help but ask with a smile, “My lord, as for being happy like this?”

Fan Xian laughed out loud and said, “After holding back for a year, I can finally let go of things, so it’s hard to be unhappy.”

When the carriage of the imperial official was moving towards Hangzhou at the slowest speed, the people in Suzhou city had their own thoughts. After receiving Fan Xian’s handwritten letter, Xue Qing, the powerful governor of Jiangnan, has been sitting in his study in a daze, and the two masters on his left and right also know the content of the letter, and the same as the adults are in a daze.

They looked like three clay bodhisattvas.

Xue Qing left the capital early, the road fast, twenty days ago to Suzhou, for this period of time the Ming family ate the loss of clear, but he had thought that this is just the Supervisory Yuan on the Ming family again weakened, but did not think that Fan Xian in the letter actually said that confident, even …… like ready to Biqi Gong in a battle.

“Fan Xian what are his credentials? This isn’t a fight?”

Jiangnan Governor Xue Qing obviously didn’t know about the hookup regarding the Merchants’ Money Bank, and was thinking hard about where Fan Xian’s confidence was coming from, and why he had to air it out to himself in his letter, so that he could be prepared.

“Since Lord Qinzhi said this, it is that he has a certainty in his mind.” Master Zuo frowned at the idea and said, “The question now is what should we do?”

Xue Qing fell into deep thought, if Fan Xian could really eat up the Ming family, as a close friend who knew His Majesty’s heart well, he would of course cooperate well, but the problem was that …… he was also quite scrupulous about the imperial forces behind the Ming family, and once there was no obvious inclination in the capital, he would never dare to make the first move.

“Otherwise …… let’s just take a look at it again as we did last year?” The right master thought for half a day, and only came up with a way to make peace.

Xue Qing suddenly opened his eyes, and two cold lights shot out, “Look …… of course we have to continue to look, but we can’t just look, Fan Xian is only traveling the Jiangnan Road Qinzhi, even if he has a way to drive away Ming Qingda on the surface, but secretly it’s inconvenient for the Supervisory Yuan to make a move . . there is always a need to take care of the people of Jiangnan.”

Jiangnan Governor Lord finally said, “Transfer the state army to watch over the Ming Garden and the Ming family’s 1,000 private soldiers …… If Fan Xian can’t do anything about it, we’ll continue to watch, and if Fan Xian succeeds, we’ll have to help him eat these people up!”

The right master said in a trembling voice, “My lord, deploying troops to kill …… people will cause big trouble if those people in the palace know about it.”

Xue Qing waved the handwritten secret letter that Fan Xian had sent in his hand and calmly said, “Since he dares to do it, he must have a grasp of the situation in the capital, and this young Lord Qinzhi is not a fool …… writing to tell me that he is trying to share the credit with me… …But this year Jiangnan Road Yamen did nothing, if you want to share this credit, you must contribute.”

Suddenly a sharp knock came from outside the study, Xue Qing frowned. The master went forward to open the door, a subordinate official of the Jiangnan Road Yamen came in in a panic, too late to bow, directly reported to Xue Qing, “Governor, something has happened to the Ming family!”

The Ming family is in trouble?

Xue Qing was shocked in his heart and sighed that Fan Xian was quick to act, but his face remained calm as he asked, “Tell me specifically.”

The official swallowed his saliva and said, “In the morning, the Inner Treasury Transit Division collected a batch of accounts from the Ming Garden, and the name seems to be silver mirrors.”

Xue Qing knew the inside story of that batch of silver mirrors being smashed by Fan Xian’s men, and with a slight frown on her brow, she couldn’t help but feel a bit distressed as well, asking, “So what? The Ming family signed the agreement, and this silver is naturally to be given.”

These words were clearly biased towards Fan Xian’s side, the court was always this shameless when dealing with merchants.

“The key is not this silver.” That official glanced at Lord Governor and said carefully, “I heard that …… the Ming family’s turnover is in trouble, and several money changers …… associated with his family have now gone to the Ming Garden to force a debt!”

Forcing debts?

Xue Qing Huo’s bang stood up, the Ming family in Jiangnan stretches for a hundred years, dare to go on the Ming Garden to force the debt of …… there are not a few, on the one hand, the Ming family silver is more, on the other hand, there is also no money bank is willing to offend his family, which …… how is it that this today has suddenly changed? Xue Qing’s heart immediately turned over countless thoughts, could it be that Fan Xian has been organizing the Ming family for a year, and has actually forced the Ming family to the point of exhaustion?

If the Ming family really can’t pay back the money, and is forced by those money changers to sell their merchant houses cheaply, the family will be in chaos……. This …… Xue Qing’s brow furrowed, he knew what His Majesty meant, the Ming family family should be allowed to be controlled by the imperial court, but… . the Ming family cannot be in chaos!

Once the Ming family is really bankrupt, not to mention the tens of thousands of sons and daughters in that family, what about the people of Jiangnan who are closely related to them?

“The Taiping Money Bank also went?”

“No.”

“Send someone to keep an eye outside the Ming Garden.” Hearing that the Ming family’s biggest partner, the Taiping Money Bank, was not involved in this matter, Xue Qing felt a little more at ease, but his face remained somber as he commanded, “Tell those people that the court doesn’t care about disputes between the Ming family and the money bank, but the Ming family is not allowed to fall!”

Fan Xian and Xue Qing, both understand the meaning of the emperor’s son, the Ming family is to be eaten, and to be eaten over the whole, the eating can not be too ugly, can not let the Ming family’s own strength is too much loss, thus affecting the stability of the entire Jiangnan.

So he will not stand by and watch the Ming family fall, Ming Qingda is also impossible to watch the Ming family fall, so this forced debt does not store the idea of liquidation, just want to seek some …… great benefits. And today, the reason why several money banks together to go to the Ming Garden to ask for money …… is purely because Fan Xian still stored a trace of extravagant hope …… to be able to Merchants Money Bank behind the proprietor to hide.

In this world, those who owe money will always be more reasonable than those who lend money out, so the contemporary master of the Ming family, Ming Qingda, held a slightly warm bowl of tea, slowly sipping the tea one mouthful at a time, his eyelids were too lazy to raise a glance, although below him sat the representatives of the various money changers, who were nominally all his debtors.

And those money changers didn’t have the self-consciousness of being debt collectors, sitting obscenely in their chairs, only daring to put up a third of their asses, occasionally lifting their eyes to look at the master of the Ming family, a hint of fear would flash in their eyes, where did it look like they had come to collect a debt.

These money changers know that they are small ants, as long as the master of the Ming family moves his finger, he can pinch himself to death and drive himself out of this part of Jiangnan, but today they had to come, because the storms and rains that the Ming family has experienced in the past year have made them worried, and together with the fact that they have been picked on by some people’s hearts, today they all converged in the Ming family’s parlor.

They represent the capital, although the silver is not much, but still is the capital. Capital is most heartbroken about itself, and the one thing it can’t tolerate the most is loss. Especially in this month, all of them know that the Supervisory Court’s crackdown on the Ming family has become big again, and the Ming family has suffered losses in a row …… And the recent scrapping of that batch of silver mirrors, and this morning’s forced silver from the inner treasury’s Transit Department have finally succeeded in crushing the psychological defenses of these money changers.

An old shopkeeper bitter face, respectfully said: “Ming master, the Ming family executive Jiangnan business cattle ear has been nearly a hundred years, if you say not out of silver …… that is no one believes, just recently the market rumors are extremely much, always want to come to beg the old master to give us these people a quasi-talk. ”

“Quasi words?” Ming Qingda frowned in disgust, these locusts general shameless things! In the past, kneeling at the door, they were too lazy to look at them squarely, and now they actually dare to come …… to ask for words from themselves!

Ming masters simply do not care about these money bankers, even if the turnover of the Ming family is now difficult, pay off these silver is still more than enough, the corner of his eye just glanced at the cabinet has been sitting quietly at the end of the banker.

That treasurer was the grand treasurer of the Merchants Bank, and behind him stood a handsome young man. Not many people knew about the relationship between Merchants and the Ming family, and Merchants Money Bank’s reputation in Jiangnan wasn’t very loud, so he sat at the very back. Ming Qingda had some ominous premonitions in his heart, what did Merchants Money Bank come to join the fun today?

He was not interested in talking to these bankers, picked up the bowl of tea to see off the guests, and at the same time indifferently let these people to go to the account room to clear all the loans, a total of more than 100,000 taels of debt, the Ming family can not afford to be humiliated.

Those money bank counters in their hearts after the great joy and then shocked, first of all, the money finally got their hands, although the loss of some interest, shocked, see the Ming family this kind of bravado …… is it their own people received the wind there is a problem?

All the shopkeepers have retreated, Ming Qingda inclined his head to look at the shopkeeper who has not moved with interest, and said softly, “I know, they are all persuaded by you to come.”

The grand treasurer of the Merchants Money Bank smiled mildly and did not refute this statement.

Ming Qingda frowned slightly and said, “Say it, what do you want.”

All are in the business world floating for countless years of old fox, from this year with the Merchants Bank of cooperation seems, Ming Qingda know in his heart, this is never famous money Bank of the big boss, back then must be a ruthless role, at this time all the idle shrimp are gone, the two will speak directly a lot.

Ming Qingda clear Ming family to the Merchants money transfer a total of how much silver, if the Merchants money previously joined the team of debt liquidation, the Ming family can only go to sell the field to sell the house, even if the support down, the family will also be injured …… and the other side since the other side has been silent until now, it certainly will not be to look at the jokes of the Ming family, must have other The other side has been silent until now, then certainly not look at the Ming family jokes, must have something else.

And with the Merchants Bank holding those IOUs, it is indeed qualified to ask for something from the hands of the Ming family.

The big shopkeeper smiled faintly and said, “Ming old master, my family Dongjia wants …… to cooperate with you.”

Cooperation? Ming Qingda’s eyes narrowed, a cold light was released and then converged, a money bank cooperating with a merchant, what kind of cooperation? He closed his eyes and pondered for a moment, then said softly: “No.”

Although the word “no” is light, it is loud and clear, not to be questioned.

The big shopkeeper also seems to have not thought that the Ming family will actually be so directly rejected, after a slight stunned still smiled, “No …… also have to line.”

Ming Qingda snapped his eyes open, staring at the shopkeeper with a hint of pity and disdain, his cold voice seeping out from between his teeth, “Are you …… threatening me?”

“Don’t dare.” The money shop’s Grand Boss said mildly, “It’s just a request.”

Ming Qingda once again into contemplation, he did not go to ask each other to threaten their credentials, this year to the Merchants Bank borrowed a lot of money, which is enough to let the other side to speak more than a few points of the bottom of the air.

The shopkeeper said without haste: “In business, today’s situation, Master Ming you are also clear, if my money bank demanded silver, the Ming family turnover will soon be cut off, what you take to supply the internal treasury of the subsequent silver? That small Fan Lord can wait for you can not get silver …… can cut off your right to line the East Road. Although the Ming family is rich and powerful, but …… this royal merchant’s identity can’t be unwanted, and the silver flowing out of the inner treasury can’t be unwanted.”

Ming Qingda fell silent, knowing that the other side said in their own vitals, the biggest problem of the Ming family now is that the flow of water turnover has gradually dried up.

“The silver transfer deed written clearly, no time, you do not want to take back one or two silver.” Now, Ming Qingda still not a trace of panic, because he has enough backbone.

Unexpectedly, the Merchants Money Bank’s Grand Master smiled faintly and said, “Who says you can’t take it back? Article deed written, if the money bank is willing to shallow water price out of the deed, you must return silver within five days, this lawsuit …… even if it is to fight to Kyoto, but also I win, you still must return silver.”

“Shallow water price!” Ming Qingda stood up violently, an incredulous expression on his tired face, and lowered his voice to grimly rebuke, “You’re crazy! You’re going to lose thirty percent!”

The big shopkeeper’s face was unchanged: “If you really can’t cooperate …… even if you lose thirty percent of the silver, our money bank will still ask you to pay back the silver in advance.”

Ming Qingda stared at him coldly, as if trying to judge whether the other party was a madman or not, slightly slowed down his tone and said, “If you really do this, my Ming family’s big deal is to sell the fields and land, it’s not like I can’t pay you back, but your money bank’s loss will be huge ……”

“This just proves our side’s determination and sincerity.” The Grand Boss smiled gently, “My family’s proprietor has always been in the money bank business, but is very interested in your country’s commerce and trade, he is an ambitious man who is willing to cooperate with a great man of the world like you, so please do give me the honor of your presence.”

Ming Qingda slowly sat down, he finally figured out, the original Merchants Money Bank’s proprietor as early as a year ago wanted to borrow a loan relationship to join the Ming family’s business, this bureau …… set up is also too long ago.

“Who is the proprietor of your house?”

“On the day the agreement is reached, the proprietor will definitely come to the door to personally thank Master Ming.”

“But what if I really don’t want to?” Ming Qingda has returned to calm, said lightly: “lawsuit or not, I Ming family all the way to accompany, but these silver well, always can drag a year and a half.”

“Really can drag?” The big shopkeeper mildly smiled: “The imperial lawsuit is just a joke, according to the first three articles of the Qing law Min Sheng Duo, adults should understand that the civil loan lawsuit can at most fight to the Jiangnan Road Yamen …… to Xue Qing adults in front of you …… to confirm that you would be willing to Do this?”

Ming Qingda of course not willing to do so, the court for the family has been eyeing a whole year, if you run into this kind of lawsuit, will certainly find ways to shade themselves.

Unexpectedly, Merchants Money Bank will all the back roads have been counted, will the dispute between the Qing court and merchants see so clearly, Ming Qingda’s fingers slightly shook, staring at this big treasurer, the old tired heart is roaring: “This is a conspiracy!”

After an extremely long silence, Ming Qingda said somewhat wearily, “How does your proprietor want to cooperate with me?”

“Debt against silver, transferring shares.” The Grand Master said cleanly.