Chapter 85: Cleverly Obtaining the Recommendation Letter (Part 1)

  As he came out of the East Factory, Jiang Xia sighed in his heart: "Indeed, just as I imagined, revealing myself means that from now on, there will be no more peaceful days to live."

  Jiang Xia walked over to the carriage and sat down, waiting for Han Yu to come out.

  After waiting for about the time it takes to have a cup of tea, Han Yu walked out from the East Factory. Seeing Jiang Xia, Han Yu was visibly moved, and he walked in front of Jiang Xia and said: "Thank you."

  "It's too much to say those two words." Jiang Xia said with a smile.

  "What's next? Anyway, we're already free people, why not go out and have some fun first, then think about what to do next?" said Jiang Xia.

  He said that Han Yu had already become a free man because he made two requests to Liu Jin as a condition of joining the Dong Chang, and Liu Jin agreed to both.

  Firstly, no longer trouble Li Dongyang, and Jiang Xia must also ensure that Li Dongyang will never again interfere in court affairs. Secondly, let go of Han Yu and give him a free body.

  Han Yu said to Jiang Xia: "I will go to Shaoxing first, after finishing some things there I will return to the capital, and at that time I still hope that Brother Jiang can give me a guard's errand."

  Jiang Xia patted Han Yu's shoulder and smiled, then didn't say anything more.

  Han Yu also smiled and followed, jumped onto the horse-drawn carriage and drove away.

  On the way, Han Yu also asked Jiang Xia how he made Liu Jin believe that he was truly surrendering. Jiang Xia casually glossed over it and didn't mention the matter of the letter of surrender.

  That evening, Jiang Xia did not go to find Cui Ruxue to talk about life and ideals as he said. He sat alone in the yard in front of his house, thinking about the matter of Liu Jin's nomination.

  What Liu Jin wanted was the deed in Zhang Yong's hand, which seemed not difficult at first. However, those deeds involved a huge amount and were enough to bring down Zhang Yong.

  This matter we still have to start from the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, which has been lacking in copper. Due to the lack of copper in the Ming Dynasty, from the first year of "Hongwu" to the 16th year of "Hongzhi", the Ming Dynasty only cast and issued copper coins for four dynasties: "Hongwu", "Yongle", "Xuande" and "Hongzhi", and the quantity was very small.

  Up to the reign of Zhu Houzhao, no copper coins had been cast, so the only circulating copper coin currencies were "Hongwu Tongbao", "Yongle Tongbao", "Xuande Tongbao" and "Hongzhi Tongbao". The rest in circulation were gold, silver and paper money.

  To be honest, the Da Ming Bao Chao had been in a precarious state for a long time. Due to its poor paper quality, it was difficult for the Da Ming Bao Chao to last long and was prone to damage. Moreover, this thing was only issued but not collected, nor was there any distinction or recall of old notes. As a result, the amount of paper money in circulation on the market kept increasing, and the Bao Chao had already shown a tendency to become rampant.

  The official price of one tael of silver's baochao could be worth a thousand copper coins, but in reality, one tael of silver's baochao could only be exchanged for five hundred copper coins, its value was reduced by half. It was still possible to have such value because during the Hongzhi era, the wise and enlightened Emperor Xiaozong Zhu Youtang stipulated that merchants pay taxes, collecting both "Da Ming Bao Chao" and copper coins, with a ratio of 70% for "Da Ming Bao Chao" and 30% for copper coins. The salaries of all officials were also allocated in the same way, with "Da Ming Bao Chao" accounting for 70% and copper coins accounting for 30%.

  In order to encourage the use of "Da Ming Bao Chao", for a period of time, the imperial court even allowed ordinary people to exchange old "Da Ming Bao Chao" for new ones at a ratio of 1:1 in the "Chao Ku". This was the only way to prevent the currency system of Da Ming Bao Chao from collapsing.

  But also because of this, copper coins are rarely circulated on the market, but they have become hard currency, and the price of copper coins is much more expensive.

  For this reason, the copper materials of the Ming Dynasty were controlled by the imperial court. All copper mines had to be operated by the imperial court. Any private copper mining or operation would result in a death penalty once discovered.

  Liu Jin had Jiang Xia steal several deeds from Zhang Yong's place, which were the deeds of several copper mines.

  In the Ming dynasty, although private copper mines were punishable by death, many powerful people secretly operated private mines due to their huge profits. They would extract copper ore and then secretly cast coins with four different year numbers before putting them into circulation in the market.

  Because there were few copper coins in circulation, this method had never caused any major problems. However, seeing the emptiness of Zhu Houzhao's treasury was also one of the factors.

  If Jiang Xia could steal the deeds of the copper mine from Zhang Yong's hands and give them to Liu Jin, then with Zhang Yong's name on the deeds, it would be ironclad evidence, and Zhang Yong would have no chance of turning things around.

  But such a highly confidential thing Zhang Yong must have kept carefully, and if Jiang Xia had gone to steal it rashly, she would have been easily discovered, and might have lost her life in Zhang Yong's hands.

  However, if this matter is not completed, Jiang Xia will definitely not gain Liu Jin's trust, and Liu Jin will naturally send someone to eliminate Jiang Xia again. With Jiang Xia's current power, he cannot resist Liu Jin's attack at all, so this matter must be done.

  To the left is hell, to the right still hell. Jiang Xia was tormented for a whole night.

  On the second day, Jiang Xia got up early and reported to Guozijian for class. After two classes, Jiang Xia excused himself from Wang Ruhai and left alone through the back door of Guozijian, taking a shortcut to Zhang Yong's mansion. The reason was that Zhong Bin was waiting at the front gate, and Jiang Xia couldn't let him know about his visit to Zhang Yong.

  The Guozijian and Zhang Yong's mansion were not far apart, and after Jiang Xia left the Guozijian, he didn't walk for long before arriving at the entrance of Zhang Yong's mansion.

  He knocked on the gate of Zhang Yong's mansion, and soon a small door at the bottom of the gate opened. A doorman stuck his head out to ask about Jiang Xia's background. After telling the doorman his name, he was asked to wait for a moment while the doorman went to report.

  Before long, the middle gate opened wide, and behind the door was Zhang Yong himself coming to greet him. He smiled and held his fist to Jiang Xia, saying: "Ah, rare guest, rare guest! I didn't expect it to be Brother Jiang's visit, what a rare guest indeed..."

  Jiang Xia stepped across the threshold and into the mansion, smiling as he said to Zhang Yong: "The lessons at the Imperial Academy are dull and boring, I snuck out and couldn't find anywhere to go, so I thought of coming to Brother Zhang's mansion to have a good drink and mix in a meal."

  "Hahaha......" Zhang Yong burst out laughing and shook his head, saying: "Brother Jiang is being too polite. I'm more than happy to have you come visit me, if you like it here, you're welcome to come every day. Although I don't dare guarantee that the food and wine will definitely suit your taste, they will certainly be the best things I can offer."

  "Zhang is indeed a good fellow, this one shout of 'big brother' wasn't called in vain." Jiang Xia also followed with a loud laugh.

  The two of them walked into the main hall chatting, and at the moment they entered, Jiang Xia suddenly said in a low voice to Zhang Yong: "Zhang brother, let's find a quiet place to talk."

  Zhang Yong was taken aback for a moment, then immediately said loudly: "Brother, you've come at the right time. Last time you picked up a blue glaze lamp from me and took it away. This time I've found some more good treasures, come on, follow me to take a look."

  "Another treasure? That's really something to behold." Jiang Xia said with a smile, then followed Zhang Yong to the backyard.

  Zhang Yong led Jiang Xia into a house, which was indeed filled with antiques, calligraphy and paintings, gold, silver, and jade utensils as Zhang Yong had said. Zhang Yong pointed to a chair in the room and said: "Brother Jiang, please sit down. This house is specially made, you and I can talk here without being overheard by outsiders."

  Jiang Xia nodded, then smiled slightly and said: "To be honest, brother came to Zhang's mansion this time for no trivial matter. Brother wants to borrow a few things from Zhang."

  "Oh?" Zhang Yong said with a faint smile: "What thing, brother, just say it."

  "Deeds of land, a few copper mines' deeds." said Jiang Xia Dao.

  Zhang Yong suddenly fell silent, his face still wearing a smile, but a cold glint flashed in his eyes. However, Zhang Yong soon laughed again, shaking his head and saying: "Brother is really good at joking, how could brother possibly have the deed to that copper mine? Doesn't brother know that according to the Ming dynasty's laws, privately operating a copper mine is a capital offense?"

  Jiang Xia nodded and said, "The private copper mine is a serious crime, but the East Factory's Liu Gonggong forced me to come to Zhang Dage's place to steal those land deeds. If I don't get my hands on them, I'm afraid Liu Gonggong won't let me off easily."

  Zhang Yong laughed even more, he reached out and took a silver dagger with a blue sapphire from the small wooden table beside him, playing with it as he said: "Brother is only afraid that Liu Gonggong won't let you go, don't you fear that Zhang Gonggong also won't let you go?"

  "That's only natural." Jiang Xia smiled and said, "However, I'm guessing that Brother Zhang definitely won't just watch as his brother goes to die, so he directly told Brother Zhang what was on his mind. He hopes that Brother Zhang will save his brother's life."

  Zhang Yong smiled coldly and suddenly pulled out the small knife in his hand, saying: "Brothers have spoken up, so as the big brother, I naturally have to do my best to help. But brothers are asking for my life with just one word, how can I give it?"

  "Big brother misunderstood, how could little brother possibly want big brother's life? On the contrary, little brother not only won't take big brother's life, but will instead give big brother a share of merit, plus an even broader path to wealth."

  "Oh? What do you mean by that?" Zhang Yong raised an eyebrow and asked Jiang Xia.

  Jiang Xia smiled slightly and then told Zhang Yong about her plan.

  This conversation lasted for two or three hours, until Jiang Xia left Zhang Yong's mansion. Zhang Yong immediately changed his clothes and then ordered the steward to prepare a carriage to go to the imperial palace to pay respects.

  At night, Jiang Xia stood in the yard, as if waiting for someone.

  Suddenly a loud noise pierced the air, and Jiang Xia turned his head to see a man dressed in black standing before him. The man clasped his fists together in greeting and asked, "Is that Young Master Jiang?"

  "That's right." Jiang Xia replied.

  The man in black took out a few pieces of paper from his bosom and handed them to Jiang Xiaodao: "The master asked me to specially tell the young master that he thanks him, and in the future when there is silver, everyone will earn it together."