Zhao Imperial Palace, Ziheng Hall
The King of Zhao, who was over sixty years old, sat on the dragon throne, listening to the reports of his ministers with a dignified look on his face.
The Minister of the Ministry of Rites of Zhao presented two letters and said anxiously, "Your Majesty, I have two letters from Jin and Yan. The Minister of the Ministry of Rites of Jin said that all the cash in the Qian's Bank in Jin has been taken out. The King of Jin gave Zhao half a month to prepare the cash and return all the deposits of the people of Jin, otherwise they will send troops to seek justice for the people of Jin!"
"It's the same with the banks in Yan State. All the cash in the cities has been withdrawn. Countless depositors went to the banks to make trouble and demand their silver back. The King of Yan State also gave us half a month to prepare the cash, otherwise he would send troops to demand the silver!"
The eunuch took the two letters from the Minister of Honglu Temple and presented them to the King of Zhao.
After reading the letter, the King of Zhao tore it up and said, "All the nobles have heard about this. What do you think of this?"
Although Qian's Money House was named after the Qian family, all four countries knew that behind Qian's Money House was the treasury of the State of Zhao.
That is why Qian’s Bank became so big in the four countries and was trusted by so many people, and the people of the four countries deposited their money in it.
Because as long as the State of Zhao does not fall, the money house will not fall!
Of course, that is why the letters from Jin and Yan demanding payment of money were sent directly to the king of Zhao, demanding payment from him.
The King of Zhao was almost furious. The cause of this incident was simply that he owed the formation masters of Chu and the Crown Prince of Chu a total of tens of millions of taels. As long as he mobilized the silver from the Qian family banks across Chu to pay it back, the matter would be resolved!
I didn't expect that the Prince of Xiang would not return it and chose to send troops, but he lost the battle. As a result, the State of Zhao is now being attacked by three countries!
If he doesn't pay back the money immediately, his country may be destroyed!
The Crown Prince of Zhao: "Father, we have always been on good terms with Jin and Yan, and we have sold them high-yield grains at low prices. Now they are taking advantage of the situation to add insult to injury! They knew that this was deliberately done by Chu, but they still followed suit! Now the only way out is that as long as Jin and Yan stabilize the people in the banks, we will be fine! But Jin and Yan actually took the opportunity to threaten us. I am afraid that Chu has already joined forces with Jin and Yan!"
"Your Majesty, although Jin and Yan are taking advantage of our misfortune, we must stabilize them as soon as possible! Otherwise, if they attack from three sides, our Zhao State will be surrounded by enemies on all sides!"
"Your Majesty, it is impossible for Jin and Yan to unite. I think as long as we mobilize enough silver to the banks of these two countries, so that the people of Jin and Yan can get silver, as long as we do not harm the interests of the people of Jin and Yan, they will not care how we fight against Chu!"
... ...
The Zhao army on the front line suffered successive defeats and even lost the city of Hanxiang!
This is a situation that has never occurred since the Changping Army of Chu was destroyed.
The soldiers of Chu State rose up under the leadership of the talented prince of Chu State.
If we fail to stabilize Jin and Yan now, Zhao will be in danger!
All the civil and military officials in the court said something similar to the above.
The King of Zhao looked at the Minister of Finance and asked, "How much silver can be mobilized from the treasury?"
The Minister of Finance said: "Your Majesty, in the past two months, we have sent 7,000 to 8,000 taels of silver to the banks in Jin and Yan. There is not much silver left in the treasury! Only about 30 million taels of silver are left."
This was because most of the taxes from all over the country had been paid at the end of the year, so only 70 to 80 million taels were handed in.
The King of Zhao asked again, "How much silver do we need to make up for the shortfalls of the banks in Jin and Yan? It shouldn't be much, right?"
The money houses in various places already had 10 or 20 million taels of cash for emergencies. With the addition of the 70 or 80 million taels of replenishment and the recovered silver that had been lent out, the king of Zhao made some calculations and felt that if another 30 million taels were added, it should be possible to stabilize Jin and Yan.
The Minister of Revenue had already checked this matter early on, after all, there were accounts to check.
Every day, all the major cities in the country would report a sum of silver to the general bank, so the Minister of Revenue knew exactly how much silver was needed to solve the silver crisis, which was why he was anxious: "Your Majesty, Jin will probably need another 50 million taels, Yan will need another 40 million taels. As for Chu, it will need another 50 million taels."
The King of Zhao frowned upon hearing this, his face covered with age spots wrinkled like a chrysanthemum: "This number doesn't make sense at all, how can it be so much! I checked before, and it was only about 40 to 50 million taels short!"
He didn't care about the operation of Qian's Bank, but because of a big incident, the King of Zhao had just looked at the total amount of silver deposits in banks of various countries a while ago. The total amount of silver deposits and the amount of deficit reported by the Minister of Revenue did not add up.
He originally wanted to use high-yield grains and food to make up for the amount owed to Jin and Yan states, but the gap was so large that even if he emptied the grain in the national treasury, it would not be enough to pay the compensation.
What's more, they are now at war with the State of Chu, so it is impossible that the treasury's grain reserves are really half empty.
At the same time, we had to be prepared for the possibility that Jin and Yan would have too much stored grain so that we could take the opportunity to send troops to destroy Zhao.
The Minister of Revenue said: "Your Majesty, the customers who come to the bank to withdraw silver with silver bills may not be the customers who deposited silver into the bank."
What else could the King of Zhao not understand after hearing this
The Qian family privately printed silver notes for their own use, which led to such a huge discrepancy in the numbers!
This is simply a capital crime!
The King of Zhao said angrily: "Let Qian Wanfu come to the palace to see me!"
Just as the King of Zhao was waiting for Qian Wanfu to enter the palace, urgent military intelligence was reported.
A soldier rushed into the hall covered in blood, holding a blood-stained letter in his hand: "Your Majesty, Luoyang City has been lost!"
"What?!!!" The King of Zhao stood up in shock, his whole body shaky.
I just received information a few days ago that the enemy was trapped in a formation on the snowy mountains.
How come Hanyang City was lost in such a short time
After the soldier said this, he fainted from overeating.
Someone immediately stepped forward to check his breath and said, "Your Majesty, he is seriously injured and has passed out."
The eunuch hurried down to take the letter from his hand and presented it to the King of Zhao.
The King of Zhao took the letter in a rage and said, "Call the imperial physician to wake him up!"
The Chu army is almost here!
What exactly happened
~
Peony Palace
A woman with exquisite and beautiful features, a healthy body and a somewhat haggard and pale face was leaning on the windowsill, staring blankly at the white clouds in the blue sky outside the palace.
How she wished she were a cloud, floating freely in the sky with the wind.
A palace maid hurried in carrying a food box.
"Princess, it's time to eat!" The maid put down the food box, called out to the woman lying on the windowsill, and then took out two dishes from the food box.
One dish was chicken stewed with mushrooms. The chicken in it was all chicken butts. It was icy cold and the juice had frozen!
One dish contained fish meat, which looked like leftovers that were simply mixed together and fried and served over.
The maid burst into tears immediately: "Princess, they are going too far. Is this food for humans? Princess had a miscarriage a while ago and her body hasn't recovered yet. How can she eat this cold food?"
Chu Zijun walked to the table and sat down. When he saw the food, he actually saw hope: "What's so excessive about this?"
She is not afraid of these!
Xiao Ling'er overheard that the Chu and Zhao states had gone to war, and that the troops were led by the emperor's younger brother himself.
The more the people of Zhao treat him like this, it means that my brother has won!
She picked up a bowl of rice that was so cold that it was almost frozen and started eating: "Eat quickly! Don't starve yourself, save some strength."
Chu Zijun was eating the cold, ice-cold rice bite by bite, and did not touch the dishes.
Xiao Ling'er wiped her tears, sat down, and started eating.
Just when the two of them had finished half a bowl of rice, a shrill voice rang out: "The emperor has arrived."
Chu Zijun's hand trembled, and the coins fell to the ground, his face becoming paler.
Xiao Ling'er's face quickly turned pale, fear appeared in her eyes, and her voice trembled: "Princess."
"It's okay, you go out first." Chu Zijun said calmly.
At this time, a yellow figure strode in and angrily said to Xiao Ling'er: "Get out!"
Xiao Ling'er stood in front of Chu Zijun.
Immediately two palace maids came forward and dragged her out!
Xiao Ling'er struggled, "Princess!"
Chu Zijun said: "Xiao Ling'er, you go out first!"
At this moment, a dry, wrinkled hand grabbed her neck, pushed her onto the bed, and pressed her down.
Xiao Ling'er was dragged out.
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