Huai'an is a major city in northern Jiangsu. It has a history of more than 2,000 years since its establishment. The Huai'an prefect Wen Dong is in the backyard of the government office. Compared with the other prefectures, the Huai'an government office not only covers a vast area, but also has an extremely grand architecture.

Compared with Jiangning and Hangzhou, Huai'an Prefecture seems to be inconspicuous, but in fact, Huai'an Prefecture has always been a fat job before the 47th year of Kangxi. Not to mention the rest, you can know just the Governor's Grain Transportation Office not far from the Huai'an Prefecture. In addition, Huai'an Prefecture was also a heavy place for the Qing court to hoard grain. In history, the trial of the Li Yuchang case was in Huai'an. Later generations also filmed the drama "Gravel in the World" based on this story.

"Sir, I got the things." Wen Dong's master Zhou Shixing entered the backyard with a wooden box in his arms, turned around and closed the yard gate first, and then said to Wen Dong, who had been waiting for some time.

"Let's talk about it when you go in." Although Wen Dong was a little anxious, his expression seemed very normal. He called Zhou Shixing into the study room. After closing the study room door, he took the wooden box brought by Zhou Shixing.

When you open the wooden box, there is a thick stack of paper inside. Of course, this is not a stack of ordinary paper. The size and workmanship of these papers are different from ordinary paper. They are printed with cumbersome patterns and numbers. In addition, there are special seals on the paper, which are more refined than the silver notes of the money house.

"There are 50 pieces with a denomination of 1,000 yuan, and 200 pieces with a denomination of 500 yuan, totaling 150,000 yuan." Zhou Shixing said softly, and subconsciously swallowed his saliva. This inconspicuous wooden box contained the bonds just issued by the Ming Dynasty, totaling 150,000 yuan, which was purchased by Wen Dong for Zhou Shixing through connections.

Wen Dong picked up a few bonds and looked at them carefully, nodded slightly while looking, and then carefully counted the amount. The amount was right, which was exactly what Zhou Shixing said. After confirming, Wen Dong stood up and walked aside, took a bunch of keys from his waist, and carefully put the wooden box along with the bond worth 150,000 yuan in the cabinet.

After locking the cabinet, Wen Dong said, "Thank you for your hard work, isn't it easy to do these things?"

"I should do this for adults. It's not hard to do it, but it's really not easy to do it. It's really hard to do it if it's not for fellow villagers."

Wen Dong nodded. Zhou Shixing said it was not bad. The bond was worth 150,000 yuan, equivalent to about 120,000 taels of silver. In fact, Wen Dong spent a total of 140,000 taels of silver to purchase the bond, and the loss was more than 20,000 taels of silver when one in and out.

In addition, there are discounts in the underwriting of the Ming Dynasty bonds, and if the discount is included in the price Wen Dong paid, it will be even greater. Speaking of which, this is almost a loss-making business. Zhou Shixing also asked someone to finally get it through the path, and he spent a lot of money to get it.

"You can contact your fellow countrymen again to see if you can find a way to buy some more." Wen Dong said.

Zhou Shixing was stunned and then said, "This should not be a big problem, but it will take some time. You know, sir, it is not that easy for this bond to come from the south. In addition, you have to be more careful when handing over the silver. In addition, I wonder how much do you need to buy?"

Wen Dong stretched out a finger, and Zhou Shixing understood, "100,000 taels? The villain knows..."

"No! One million taels!"

When Wen Dong spoke out the number he wanted, Zhou Shixing was shocked and his face was full of shock.

"Master... Sir, I heard it right? One million taels?"

"That's right! It's exactly one million taels!"

Zhou Shixing never expected that Wen Dong would want so much, and it was a bit incredible to take out such a huge amount of silver at once. You should know that as Wen Dong's master, he should know about Wen Dong's income. Huai'an Mansion is a fat man. As the saying goes, three years of Qing magistrates, 100,000 snowflakes. This sentence was actually the first to talk about Huai'an Mansion. Wen Dong has been serving as the magistrate in Huai'an for more than three years. It is not surprising that he could use 140,000 silver to buy 150,000 yuan bonds, but it was outrageous to have to take out 100,000 yuan in a single time.

"This money is not owned by me, and I am also buying it for others. As for who it is, you don't need to ask more."

After hearing Wen Dong say this, Zhou Shixing then realized that he didn't dare to ask more questions. He nodded quickly, but at the same time he looked embarrassed and said, "Sir, this amount is really too large, I'm afraid it's hard to buy."

"Buy as much as you can."

"This is OK, but adults, the difference is huge. If you buy it at this amount, you will have to pay a lot of money! In the opinion of the students, you still think it is better to use other methods..."

Before Zhou Shixing finished speaking, Wen Dong interrupted: "This... you don't understand. The reason why I do this is naturally of my deep meaning. The less I know, the better. You just need to do it according to the meaning of my official."

Hearing Wen Dong say this, Zhou Shixing reacted immediately and immediately closed his mouth.

After Zhou Shixing left, Wen Dong picked up the tea and took a sip. At the same time, he thought about it carefully, then stood up and took out the key just now, opened the cabinet door, took out the box inside, and turned around and left the study.

After hiding the wooden box containing bonds in his bedroom, Wen Dong was completely relieved. The reason for purchasing these bonds was that Wen Dong was to leave a way out for himself. Now the situation has changed drastically, the Qing Dynasty's national strength has declined, and the Ming Dynasty in the south is booming, not only in the court, but also in the local area.

As the prefect of Huai'an, Wen Dong is also a middle-level official and knows more than ordinary officials. What's more, Huai'an's geographical location is important and not far from the Yangtze River. In addition, the Grand Canal passes through Huai'an and connects north and south, and Wen Dong's news is much more informative than other prefectures.

After the Ming Dynasty took over Guangdong, it basically occupied half of the south of the Yangtze River. Now the Ming Dynasty is reorganizing its troops, and the next target is Jiangbei.

Once the Ming army crossed the river and attacked north, in addition to the occupied Anqing, Yangzhou was the first to be affected. Wen Dong knew very well that it would be extremely difficult to protect Yangzhou with the strength of the Qing army in Jiangbei. Once Yangzhou was taken down, then Huai'an would be the next one.

Therefore, Wen Dong must make some preparations in advance. If Wen Dong had not had this idea three years ago, it was natural for him to be loyal to the Qing Dynasty. However, with the changes in the situation, the mentality of many Qing officials has also changed slightly. Wen Dong is one of them. On the one hand, this is because of the increasing prosperity of the Ming Dynasty, and on the other hand, it is also caused by Kangxi's distrust of Han ministers in the past two years.

Especially this year, after the term of office of local Han ministers reached, the court did not promote or allocate according to previous practices, but obviously reduced the proportion of Han ministers as local officials, and replaced them with a large number of Manchus.

No one who can be an official is fool, especially officials like Wen Dong who are from Jinshi. In addition, not long ago, Shandong governor Zhao Hongxie was suddenly transferred to the capital and served as the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice. In terms of rank, it is the same, but in fact, Zhao Hongxie changed from a local official to a minister in Beijing. How can he not see the mystery of this?

You should know that Zhao Hongxie has a very good official reputation in Shandong and has a very high prestige. If the court is promoted normally, he will either be transferred to the governor of any place, or go to the capital to serve as the Minister of the Ministry of Justice. But now he has only given the position of the right minister of the Ministry of Justice. It is obvious that Zhao Hongxie has found a free agent, and the person who replaced Zhao Hongxie was an unknown Manchu.

From this we can see that Kangxi is now very strict with Han ministers, and this current situation cannot help but make Wen Dong feel heartbroken. Mencius said: If a king treats his ministers as his brothers and feet, then his ministers regard him as his confidant; if a king treats his ministers as dogs and horses, then his ministers regard him as his countrymen; if a king treats his ministers as earth, then his ministers regard him as enemies.

The so-called Qing Dynasty family turned out to be just a joke. Wen Dong was not a person who could study hard, nor was he a person who didn't know how to adapt. If Wen Dong was just a nerd, he wouldn't have been in the Huai'an Prefecture for so many days, nor would he have given out such a huge amount of money at once.

After thinking about it, Wen Dong decided to find a way out for himself, but it was not so easy to find a way out for him based on his status and position. Just so happened that when the news of the Ming Dynasty issuing bonds came, Wen Dong immediately thought of a good idea, which was to take this opportunity to privately purchase Ming Dynasty bonds to open up a way out for himself.

First of all, Wen Dong made a lot of money during his tenure, but it is not so easy to take or transfer these money. The goal of silver is too big and inconvenient to bring it up, but it is much more convenient to exchange it for bonds. However, there is another way, that is, it is to exchange it for silver notes in the money house, which can also have a similar effect. However, in doing so, the confidentiality of the money house is far less than that of the Ming bonds. You should know that the Ming bonds are unnamed, and you can go to the Royal Bank of the Ming Dynasty to exchange or transfer anytime and anywhere with the bonds. This is much better than ordinary silver notes.

Furthermore, when purchasing the Ming bonds, Wen Dong could also use this method to tactfully express his closeness and inclusion to the Ming Dynasty. This is a way out when necessary. In fact, Wen Dong learned that after the release of the Ming bonds, there were many people who had the same thoughts as him in Jiangbei. Many Han officials and even some low-level Manchu officials were also secretly buying these bonds, and they were also calculating similarly.

He and Zhou Shixing asked for another one million taels of bonds. Among the huge sums, his own part only accounted for a small number, only about 100,000 taels. More of them were reliable classmates and fellow villagers who privately raised and commissioned him to purchase on behalf of others. There was another person who accounted for a large proportion of them. I am afraid no one would believe this person's identity, because this person was not only Manchu, but also a high-ranking official among Manchus. He is the current Governor of the Cao Transportation Heshou.
Chapter completed!