Daming: The system rejected my request for salted fish

"It seems that I can only exchange it for treasure notes from the government in Yangzhou first, and then go back to the capital and exchange it for silver from Old Zhu."

While muttering to himself, Wei Wu could only sigh helplessly.

To be honest, he really didn't want to exchange his real gold and silver for something as worthless as Ming Baochao.

This thing won't even take decades, just seven or eight years, and it will depreciate like a ghost.

Lao Zhu is indeed good at riding horses and fighting, but he is a complete loser when it comes to economics.

Baochao has no anchor, and it is printed in quantities as needed, without any understanding of the harm caused by over-printing.

The key point is that Zhu Yuanzhang also set a rule that gold and silver can be exchanged for treasure notes, but treasure notes cannot be exchanged for gold and silver.

This is also the reason why Wei Wu had to return to the capital and find Zhu Yuanzhang to return the silver.

Because he has to go through the back door and ask Lao Zhu for help to do it.

Even so, he was still worried that if Old Zhu saw the silver, he would confiscate it directly.

After all, this was the money Lu Yao gave to buy his life, and Lu Yao was a member of the Lu family because he was a criminal whose property was confiscated.

According to normal procedures, his money should have been confiscated and deposited into the Ministry of Revenue or Zhu Yuanzhang's private treasury.

Thinking of this, Wei Wu immediately made a decision in his heart not to exchange the treasure notes.

Just buy a house in Yangzhou, put all the money in the house, and send someone to watch over it.

After this matter is done, I will return to the capital and send someone to transport the money back.

Once it’s in Wei Wu’s pocket, no one can take it out again. Even Old Zhu can’t do it. He won’t agree!

As for silver notes, if anyone dared to ask Wei Wu to exchange them for silver notes, he would definitely pull out his gun and shoot that person.

Would he know how to change it if he could? The problem is that in this era, there is no such thing as silver notes.

Silver bills are certificates issued by private financial institutions such as money shops and used for bulk commodity transactions.

The problem is that there was no such institution as a money shop in this era. It was something that only appeared during the Wanli period.

In the beginning, there was only the exchange business of silver and copper coins, and it was only later that the storage and loan business was developed.

It was not until the Qing Dynasty that deposits and withdrawals could be made in different places and silver notes could be used as currency.

Thinking of this, Wei Wu had an idea.

"Yes! When we get back, we can propose to Old Zhu that we should first open up the bank and make it a government-run business."

"By the way, let me also talk about the hidden dangers of treasure notes. However, that requires sufficient gold and silver as anchors to establish credit."

"When we defeat the Japanese pirates, we can bring back the silver from Iwami Silver Mine and spread the news to the people."

"By then, the credibility issue of the treasure notes will be resolved, but we still need to open up trade and maritime commerce to keep the money circulating!"

Wei Wu was so absorbed in thinking that he forgot someone was talking to him.

Zhang Hai, who was at the bottom of the passage, saw no response and had to climb up from below.

"Master? Master?"

Hearing the shouts, Wei Wu suddenly came to his senses and looked at Zhang Hai.

"Well, I was distracted accidentally. Okay, bring the others up first! We won't move the silver yet."

After receiving Wei Wu's order, Zhang Hai returned with Lu Yao and two subordinates not long after.

After they returned to the ground, Wei Wu asked Shen Lin to cover the tunnel, and then turned to look at Lu Yao.

"It's inconvenient to carry this silver, so I'll put it here first. I'll look at another house in the city first, and then go outside the city."

"Take the silver outside the city back to Yangzhou City. I will arrange for someone to come and take the silver away later."

Lu Yao didn't have any objection. He nodded and immediately took Wei Wu and the others out of the house.

Next, under the leadership of Lu Yao, the group came to a private house in the north of the city.

Like the previous one, the silver was also placed in a cellar-like location.

Lime and realgar were sprinkled on the house and the ground, and the amount was almost the same as what Lu Yao said.

All the silver in the city was gone, and the only thing left was the 300,000 taels hidden in the mountains outside the city.

After coming out of the city gate, Wei Wu and his group rode non-stop until they reached a place thirty miles east of Yangzhou City.

This is a mountain forest, not a very high one, about one or two hundred meters high.

However, this mountain covers a large area, has lush vegetation, and is very primitive.

I have to say that Lu Yao chose a good place to hide the silver.

When Wei Wu was taken into the mountains, there wasn't even a path trampled by humans, it was all vegetation.

The group walked through the woods for more than an hour, but they didn't even finish half the distance.

We rested for more than ten minutes, then set off again and walked for more than an hour before finally arriving at the destination.

The mountain road is not as good as the flat road. After two hours of climbing over mountains and hills, and being blocked by dense vegetation.

Not to mention Wei Wu, even Shen Lin, Zhang Hai and others who made a living by using knives were gasping for breath due to exhaustion.

Only Lu Yao, this guy, I don’t know if it’s because he has been here so many times and is more used to it.

He was actually in the best condition among everyone, just a little out of breath.

Fortunately, they had already arrived, so no one sat down to rest.

Under the gaze of everyone, Lu Yao used his hands to push away an area covered by a large amount of vines.

Only then did I see clearly that there was a naturally formed cave behind the vines.

However, this cave is not an earth cave, but more like a cave formed by cracks in the rock wall.

Most of the areas on the left, right and top are rocks, and only the area under your feet is soil.

After lighting the torch and following Lu Yao in, we found that the cave was not shallow, about ten meters deep.

But the cave was empty, there was no wooden box or anything like that.

Seeing this scene, Wei Wu subconsciously looked at the ground.

Based on the layout of the two previous houses, this cave should also have a similar cellar.

Sure enough, just as Wei Wu was observing the ground, Lu Yao went straight to the deepest part of the cave.

Then he leaned against the rock wall and moved left and right for a while, then squatted down and took out a piece of iron chain from the mud.

"Everyone, please help. This is too heavy. I can't lift it by myself."

Hearing Lu Yao's request for help, Shen Lin immediately arranged for two subordinates to go forward and help.

It’s no wonder that Lu Yaohui asked for help. With the combined efforts of the three of them, it took a lot of effort to open the secret door.

It was not until the door was completely pulled up that we discovered that the secret door was made of pure metal.

Just like the previous residential house, Zhang Hai led his men to follow Lu Yao down to check the situation, while Wei Wu and the others were waiting upstairs.

Maybe there was more money this time, so it took Zhang Hai seven or eight minutes to return to the entrance.

But this time he didn't shout from below, but returned to the ground and walked quickly to Wei Wu and whispered:

"Master, I didn't find anything wrong down there, but I unexpectedly found a jade-carved seal."

"It's engraved in small seal script. I can only make out the three characters 'Ming Yu Tian'. I don't know if it's that..."

"But I dare not touch it!"