Chapter 102 – Borrowing Your Hand, Holding the Emperor of Northern Qi’s Hand

After hearing Fan Xian’s analysis, Haitang felt slightly relieved, thinking that as long as he took advantage of this point, with the Qing Emperor’s secret connivance, as long as the detailed planning and thorough arrangements, then the Ming family’s downfall is a matter of time, and how dominant and deeply rooted the local clans are, in the face of the powerful state apparatus, it’s still just a fragile egg next to a stone.

“This year’s goal is to eat up the Ming family’s silver intake.” Fan Xian said, “the inner treasury bidding is need to have Ming silver to do pressure, and after winning the bidding need to reserve the bidding 40% of the number, this time the new spring open, I will let people with the Ming family bidding, will raise the price, let the Ming family greatly out of a few mouths of blood, and no longer have the ability to fight with me and the Cui family vacated the position, at the same time also chip in some fast silver, and hurriedly fill in to the national treasury. ”

“How high are you going to lift it?” Haitang asked seriously.

Fan Xian smiled and said, “As high as I can, you know I’m a very greedy person.”

Haitang frowned and said, “Since you don’t intend to clash with the Ming family head on, you can only use the matter of opening the door to bidding to strike the other side, but things like lifting the price is not like shouting the number to the dice barrel in a gambling house, in case the price you lift is too high, and you directly take it from the Ming family’s hands……. The inner treasury of the three major workshops sixteen out of the item , forty percent of the stock of silver …… You yourself calculate how much silver you want, how do you take it out?”

“It’s the Ming bid.” Fan Xian explained, “In order to prevent officials and businessmen from secretly colluding, so has always been the inner treasury new spring open door are used in the open bidding, it just so happens that this gives me the opportunity, since things are laid out in the open to do, I will naturally ……” He thought about it, did not continue to cover up anything , said softly, “I will let Xia Qufei bid a suitable price, and then let the Ming family know.”

“Xia Qufei?” Haitang was slightly surprised, “The Jiangnan Water Village’s big leader, a well-known figure in the Jianghu, how could he possibly listen to your arrangement to confront the Ming family? You should know that he is a native of Jiangnan.”

Regarding Xia Qufei’s life, Fan Xian naturally did not continue to explain, but only showed that Xia Qufei was already his own person, and then explained on the silver issue, “As you said, the silver we raised in our hands is not enough to completely swallow all of the sixteen outgoing items of the inner treasury, so naturally a part of it is to be left to the Ming family, on the one hand to appease the other side, and on the other hand, to use that huge amount of silver to trap the Ming family in Jiangnan, so that they can’t get out.”

Haitang curiously asked, “How are you sure that the Ming family won’t be strong? They have already earned too much silver over the years, and this time the discerning know that you are going down to Jiangnan to deal with them, if you let Xia Qufei shout out a jaw-droppingly high price, in case that old master Ming claps his hands …… and doesn’t play, won’t you be suffering a stifling loss? If you can’t get the fixed silver, the Qing court will definitely not let Xia Qufei have a good time.”

Fan Xian sneered, “Even if the Ming family spits blood this year, they must take the Inner Treasury’s bid. Even if his family has ten thousand hectares of good land, so what? After all, it’s just some dead things, how can it compare to the inner treasury which is a lake of living water with fat fish and grass, and it involves the interests of all the royal family members in Kyoto, so if he, the Ming family, wants to send out silver, and wants to maintain the face and interests of the eldest princess, he must continue to be rooted inside the inner treasury.”

He looked at the end of the forest slowly rising black smoke, eyes slightly narrowed and said: “merchants, after all, just puppets. Ming family self-produced pirates, robbing the inner treasury of goods, and then turn back from the court side to eat money …… ruthless, if he once closed his hands do not do, those characters in Kyoto did not have to enter, how will the old shame under the wrath of letting go of them? By then it’s not my turn to do it, they’re going to collapse.”

So the Ming family this year, no matter what, must also will be the internal treasury merchandise marketing right to grasp most, first stabilized through this one or two years, and then see Kyoto not see blood but extraordinarily eerie struggle, exactly how the trend will be.

“That silver, you are going to transfer it to Xia Qufei?” This was a question that Haitang was very concerned about.

Fan Xian nodded: “Part of it, although father also prepared some for me, but the inner treasury is open, the whole world is staring at my body, staring at the treasury of the Ministry of the household, the eldest princess is only afraid that she has guessed this path of wealth of mine early on, if I really use the Ministry of the household to store silver to fight the battle with the Ming family,…… I am only afraid that One careless move will result in total loss.”

He laughed at himself and said, “Calling the silver of the state treasury, this is a crime that will lead to the death of the whole family, I am timid.”

Hai Tang heard him admit to being timid, shook her head noncommittally, and asked softly, “But using the Taiping Qianzhuang to transfer silver over …… Taiping Qianzhuang’s background is Dongyi City, aren’t you afraid that they’ll notice something?”

Fan Xian glanced at her and slowly said, “This is your Emperor’s Majesty’s arrangement, probably even you wouldn’t have thought that the silver from Beiqi’s inner treasury, in January after the Niulan Street incident the year before last, began to be injected into the Taiping Money Bank through dozens of channels in a smooth and unobtrusive manner, and in the middle of the process, I don’t know how many turns were made, and that’s what led to transferring the silver over to the south of the Yangtze River.”

Haitang was stunned and speechless.

Fan Xian continued, “I have the help of the Supervisory Yuan and the Ministry of Revenue, and neither of them noticed the direction of these dozens of silver money, and that silver money, although huge in number, was not particularly eye-catching when placed in the Taiping Qian Chuang, the world’s No. 1 silver bank, so I think the Dongyi City side must not have noticed it.”

Haitang shook his head with some difficulty in believing it and said, “Wait, are you saying …… that this silver was two years ago when His Majesty began to move it toward Jiangnan? How is this possible? I only learned of this matter during September last year, and there have been no whispers in the Upper Capital.”

“Not bad.” Fan Xian’s eyes flashed with a hint of admiration and vigilance, “I only went back to check the threads after you confided in me, and as a result, I didn’t find out anything, but only vaguely found out that the dozens of piles of silver entered the Taiping Money Bank just two years ago.”

“Two years ago?” Haitang frowned, “You only just entered Kyoto not long ago, how could His Majesty guess that you would be in charge of the inner treasury two years later, and how could he know that he would work hand in hand with you two years later to swallow the inner treasury’s marketing rights in a big bite?”

Fan Xian said mockingly, “At that time, I was just a nameless bastard of the Sinanbo House.”

He sighed quietly, “It may be that the matter of Oxley Street made that little emperor of yours confirm that the Elder Princess wanted to kill me, and that he had judged from all aspects of intelligence that I would take over the internal treasury of the country of Qing …… As for the things that came after that, perhaps it was just his analysis, and since there was no way to harmonize between the Elder Princess and me, then I definitely need to cut off the arms of the Elder Princess.Cui family? The Ming family? No wonder both of us cleaned up the Cui family so smoothly at the end of last year.”

Fan Xian frowned and said, “But how could your emperor …… have guessed that I would use this against the Ming family? If I were to say that it was calculated to this point, I can only gift him with a word.”

Haitang also hadn’t yet gotten over her shock, she really hadn’t thought that the teenage emperor that she had grown up with along with her and often shouted at her little master’s aunt, would be so far-sighted as to start laying out a plan to deal with Fan Xian, or any possible variables that might come up, as far as two years ago.

Listening to Fan Xian speak, she subconsciously asked, “What words?”

“It seems like your Lord’s much wisdom is really close to a demon.”

Fan Xian softly said, “Two years ago began to plan, the development of the world state actually and his guess did not deviate too much, even if our majesty decides to purge the inner treasury with not me, not this you Beiqi sufficiently trusted me …… only afraid that he still has a way to change the face of these silvers to participate in this Inner Treasury’s open door bidding.”

It was not until today that Fan Xian admitted somewhat depressingly that he had indeed underestimated that young monarch in the north. For the inner treasury this world’s most glorious golden chicken, due to the Qing country guarded extremely tightly, countries have no way to steal craft this kind of thing to do for more than ten years, have not succeeded …… who expected the Emperor of Northern Qi to be a different loom, played such a trick!

For the Emperor of Northern Qi, since when a thief, can not steal your baby, when a robber, can not beat your guards, then I will change, become a capital merchant without a name, mixed into the process of selling your baby to your family, although can not earn a mouthful of soup, but also more than to eat some of the remnants of the food – only in the world of the situation of the arrangement! Later on, Fan Xian appeared as a surprising variable to the people of Beiqi, so the Emperor of Beiqi became more and more generous and calm.

Fan Xian sighed, there are many people under the sky who are extremely intelligent and sophisticated, compared to himself, an internationalist, who really carries too much of an idealistic flavor.

“You’re angry?” Haitang looked at his face and asked tentatively.

Fan Xian smiled and shook his head, “If this is something that your family’s emperor has been hiding from me, of course I would be angry, but now that he must cooperate with me, what do I have to be angry about. Now it’s like he has taken all this money as a hostage and handed it over to me, which …… is enough to exchange my trust in him.”

Haitang sighed and said, “You’re not someone who trusts others easily.”

Fan Xian lowered his head and said slowly, “Trust is mutual, I’m just curious as to why your emperor trusts me so much. You should know that in the future, if the two countries are at war, or if I have something else in mind, then I can always eat his silver and cut off his cargo, and he won’t have the slightest possibility of flipping out.”

He raised his head, looked at Haitang’s eyes that were as bright as a clear lake, and said softly, “I am a little skeptical about this sudden great trust.”

Haitang was silent and thought for a while, and then suddenly spread his face and smiled, “When I mentioned this silver to you in my letter …… it seemed like it was the time when the rumors of your life would surface in the world.”

“Hmm?” Fan Xian looked at her suspiciously, “What’s the connection?”

Haitang smiled and said, “Perhaps in His Majesty’s view, since you are a descendant of the Ye family, you must not be satisfied with being a powerful official of Qing, and your vision will definitely not be confined to the limits of the country’s borders, and everything Qing can give you, I, Daqi, can give you all of them, His Majesty is only afraid that he still has some other meanings… …”

The words were not finished, but Fan Xian had already heard and understood, and shook his head mockingly, saying, “Thank you for your emperor’s good intentions, I don’t want to be cross-eyed.”

Haitang smiled and said, “It’s rare to have the pleasure of composing poetry.”

“I’m even less likely to stoop to the level of a child.” Fan Xian said indifferently, “What’s more, your family’s emperor should later know that I am also a prince of the Qing Kingdom as a fake ……”

“There are many emperors in this world, Ye family descendants, but …… only you.” Haitang said in a clear and soft manner, but picked out the meaning of the Northern Qi side.

Fan Xian laughed, no longer continue this topic, he is in Qing Guo is the time of scenery, although there are a few women in the palace, Kyoto has two emperors, himself to deal with some small difficulties, but in good conscience, the emperor is currently playing that role of a loving father, is not too bad, he can not find too persuasive reasons to have to think about the invitation of the Beiqi side.

“Back to the beginning.” Fan Xian said, “Why is it impossible for you to like me? It’s impossible for me to like you?”

Hai Tang was a little dumbfounded, a little angry, thinking how this person always dwelled on this matter, and said in a cold voice, “Duo Duo has never cared about men and women, the realm of love is not big or small, but there’s a difference between up and down, and while I don’t seek to extinguish my love and extinguish my sexuality, I won’t think about it.”

Fan Xian understood that the girl was expressing the meaning of putting the people of the world first, and said with a slight mockery, “Worrying about the world first? Is it not too tasteless to live your whole life like this, your emperor still has a hat to wear and play with …….”

He did not say what color that top hat is, and suddenly showed teeth sunshine a smile and said, “Duo Duo.”

“Hm?” Haitang stopped walking and inclined her head to look at him, but was shaken by the gentle smile on Fan Xian’s clear face, and couldn’t help but sigh and ask, “What is it?”

“It’s possible for a hu man not to kill.” Fan Xian said seriously.

Knowing that he was talking about the sentence he had gagged Si Si in the carriage earlier, Haitang couldn’t help but be bitterly angry, but still quietly returned, “Is that so? Perhaps neither the people of Northern Qi nor Southern Qing will believe it.”

Fan Xian said gently, “It’s certainly possible for the Hu people not to kill, if they’re all turned into dead people by us.”

Haitang was stunned and inexplicably lost her smile.

Fan Xian said softly, “By the same token, it is possible for me to like you, and it is possible for you to like me.”

Haitang said mockingly, “When we’re both dead?”

“No.” Fan Xian explained seriously, “Waiting for everyone else in this world to die.”

Haitang was helpless and said, “Everyone is dead and we’re the only two left standing by the river blowing in the wind?”

Fan Xian raised his head and thought for half a day before nodding, “It really doesn’t seem like much fun.”

Then he stretched out his hands from his pockets and took hold of Haitang’s hands, gently rubbing them in the girl’s slightly stunned gaze, smiling gently and saying, “Since it’s something that’s not interesting, don’t think about it, this weather is still cold, and you’re wearing a maid’s clothes, so your hands are only going to freeze.”

Four hands held each other, firmness and gentleness melted in a piece of warmth, behind the two of them came the sound of carriage wheels.

Haitang’s eyes carried a trace of amused amusement, and did not pull her hands out, but instead slightly inclined her head, looking at Fan Xian and said, “Deliberately giving it away for others to see?”

Fan Xian half lowered his head, his eyelashes slightly blinking, and softly responded, “To convince my emperor that I brought you with me in Jiangnan for a reason, and to make the mutual trust between your emperor and me have a stronger foundation, we must both be closer.”

Haitang looked at him with a wry smile.

Fan Xian finally said seriously, “Of course, your hands are still very comfortable to hold, often doing farm work, yet …… without calluses.”