Chapter 7 run on

"Ben Chang," Hu Xueyan pointed to Shao Youlian's letter replying to him, "you will know it after reading this letter. They made it very clear that all the money from all provinces has been collected, and they will be sent over immediately. Before the deadline, it must be done. , If the deadline is missed, he will bear all the responsibilities. After all, he is Shanghai Dao, so it doesn’t matter what he says.” Mi often read the letter and asked, "What is the deadline for foreigners?" "Ten days are relaxed, as long as the payment is made before the tenth day of November, it will not be considered a violation."

"Uh," Mi Ben often said, "When is Mr. Big planning to return to Hangzhou?" This question made Hu Xueyan very displeased, "It's a good day on the fifth day of November." He said, "Today is October 29th. When do you think I should leave for Hangzhou?" It will take at least three days to return to Hangzhou by water and be towed by small steamer.Before the wedding day, there were many red tapes, even if he didn't have to take care of the host, he had to show up, so no matter what, we had to leave the next day—the end of October. Mi Ben often hit a snag and didn't dare to say another word, but his heart was in a state of turmoil and confusion, but Hu Xueyan didn't know what was on his mind, and only focused on the deadline for foreign debts.

"Of course I have to prepare for this." He said, "The deadline is the tenth day of the first month of November. We don't need to urge Shao Xiaocun now. On the fifth and sixth day of the month, you can go there and see how much money you can get back first. I estimate that if there is no 90% or 80% of the money, I can deposit at most one hundred thousand taels of silver, and the matter can be settled." "yes." "How much money do you have now?" Asked this, Mi Benchang's heart skipped a beat again.Hu Xueyan has already checked the accounts, and he should know how much money is left in cash. Now that he brings it up, isn't he asking knowingly?

Thinking like this, he forgot to answer, and Hu Xueyan asked again: "How much?" "Uh!" Mi Ben often said, "Didn't Mr. Da read the account? There are always around 400,000." The bank deposits in Shanghai are only one million taels, and Fukang alone has 400,000. How can it be considered small?However, Hu Xueyan also knew that he embezzled part of it, thinking that although 400,000 is not enough, there should be 300,000, and it is not a worry to put one hundred thousand taels of silver on the back. Having said that, you might as well ask another question: "If you can't make the schedule, what are your plans?"

This is a strange question!Mi Benchang thought to himself that if the cash is insufficient, it is natural to transfer to the "associated account", and it does not matter "plan".He asked this, is there any meaning behind the words? I didn't have time to think about it for a while, so I had to make a big deal first and then said, "I won't be unable to manage it. I am very clear about the income and expenditure of the thirty-three offices in Shanghai, Hankou, and Hangzhou. It doesn't count as an advance of 100,000 silver." What happened." He added, "Two houses in Ningbo often have hundreds of thousands of silver there."

This is to cover up that he used the name of the client to embezzle deposits, "a bachelor can tell at a glance", Hu Xueyan thought he was implying that he had embezzled hundreds of thousands of silver, and he would try to make up for it when necessary.This is more reassuring. But he didn't know that the rumors on the market were already rampant, saying that Hu Xueyan was on the verge of collapse, that he was fighting with foreigners on silk cocoons, and that he had already lost the upper hand. Although there was no movement in Shanghai, the silk in Tianjin warehouses was sold at a low price. , no buyers yet.

Another is to pay foreign debts, which cannot be paid off when they mature.This legend can be divided into two types. One is that although Hu Xueyan has a good face, but the turnover is not good enough to deliver on time, he has asked foreigners to extend the limit and is still negotiating; One after another, the provincial co-payments were handed over to Fukang, but Fukang's assistant Mi Benchang made up for his own shortfall in private. Rumors must have evidence to win people's trust. This evidence is a question: Hu Xueyan married his daughter on the fifth day of November, but he himself has been staying in Shanghai. Why?

Because his "position" is not balanced.Otherwise, with Hu Xueyan's style, he should have gone back to Hangzhou for the wedding a long time ago. This statement is very powerful, because everyone can see that this is a big and unreasonable thing.But Hu Xueyan is the "God of Wealth", known far and near, so although everyone has deep doubts and concerns, there is always an idea that since he is called the "God of Wealth", he has his own unpredictable depths, and we will wait and see. When did you see it?At the end of October, I watched Hu Xueyan pass the test but not pass it.

Most of these news—half false, half true, seemingly rumors but not rumors—was spread by Sheng Xuanhuai and Shao Youlian through HSBC.Therefore, on the day of October 30th, which everyone is looking forward to, many people went to HSBC to inquire about news, but more people went to Fukang Bank to see what was going on. "Is Mr. Hu Da here?" A well-dressed middle-aged man said to Fukang's clerk, "I'm here to see Mr. Hu Da." "Mr. Hu Da has returned to Hangzhou." "Back to Hangzhou?" "That's right! Hu's family held a wedding in early November, of course Mr. Hu Da has to go back."

"Oh, if that's the case, they should have left long ago! Why?" why?No one can answer this question.The well-dressed middle-aged man was the envoy sent by Sheng Xuanhuai to spread rumors. He told others that Hu Xueyan saw that something was wrong and fled back to Hangzhou. So that afternoon, someone came to cash in Fukang's banknotes. The first one who came was "payment by check" of five hundred taels, saying that it was a dowry gift, not only in cash, but also in "official officials" who had just been released. precious".Fukang's clerk has always been very ingratiating to customers, so he went to the warehouse to buy ten brand new big ingots, some of which were pasted with red paper cut out double happiness, which was the deposit of the happy event.

The second one came to cash in 800 taels, without giving a reason, and the buddy couldn’t ask the reason. This is also a common thing, not surprising, but the third one was wrong. This person brought a cart and two porters, and handed over a total of seven banknotes to the cabinet, totaling 21,400 taels. Such a large amount of silver was cashed out, unless the military camp paid, but they were paid in advance. Take care of.Seeing that something was wrong, the man smiled and said, "Please sit inside, have a cup of tea and take a rest." "Okay, okay, take your troubles." After finishing speaking, the man walked slowly to the guest seat to accept the hospitality. At this time, Mi Benchang had already received the report, and felt that something was wrong, so he rushed out to receive him personally, and politely asked, "What's your surname?" "My surname is Zhu. Ask me!" "My surname is Mi, and there is an obligatory character under the treasure cover." Mi Ben often said, "I heard that Mr. Zhu wants to cash silver?" "yes." "More than 20,000 yuan in cash is more than 1,200 catties, and more than 400 big ingots. It is very inconvenient to carry." Mi Benchang added, "Fukang always needs to take care of its customers when doing business. What does Mr. Zhu want this cash for? Let’s see where it can be remitted to? Or, according to the amount specified by Mr. Zhu, it will be easier to exchange tickets separately, wouldn’t it be much easier?” "Thank you for your attention." The person surnamed Zhu said, "There is an unavoidable use for this money, and I can't tell you. In short, I have to follow the instructions. They brought people with them in a car." Having said that, it was at the end of the day, if Mi Benchang said another word, it would be equivalent to cutting a knife on the gold-lettered signboard, so he said repeatedly, and immediately told him to open the warehouse and pay the silver. There are many styles of silver, more than 20,000 taels is not a small amount, and it is not possible to pay for a large ingot of 50 taels. It is quite troublesome to piece together the size and count the fineness. The silver was packed in wooden boxes. A box was opened, inspected, counted, and moved, so many spectators gathered and discussed a lot. In the end, a question was naturally formed: Is it possible that Fukang’s banknotes are all Unreliable, so people have to withdraw cash? As soon as Zhu left, Fukang went to the front door to eat dinner at closing time. Mi Benchang looked depressed and couldn't eat, so he barely ate half a bowl of rice, stood up, and greeted several important employees. Beckon, go upstairs to his bedroom to have a secret talk. "I think it's going to be a ghost!" he asked, "How much cash do you have?" "More than 18,000." The warehouse manager said. "Only more than 18,000?" Mi Benchang asked again, "How much are the receivables and receivables?" So looking at the general ledger and the running account, the receivables are deposits from foreign banks and notes from various banks, a total of more than 156,000 taels, and the payables can only be counted as remittances notified by each joint account, a total of about 70,000 taels. The bank notes issued cannot be counted. "Like this, I have to go to the meeting overnight today. It's all Mr. Da's business. If you are in need, give me an amount of cash. If it's urgent, ask them to support you." The so-called "they" refer to the pawn shop, silk shop, and cocoon shop set up by Hu Xueyan in Shanghai.The four important men in Fukang had a general understanding of the situation after running around in the middle of the night, and the cash they could gather was only 120,000 taels.Mi often recalculated the receivable and payable accounts carefully, and the total amount of available cash was about 230,000 taels. "It should be enough." Mi Ben often said, "As long as there are no ghosts, it doesn't matter." He suddenly recalled shouting, "Azhang, Azhang!" Zhang is the leader of the apprentices, he is about to leave the teacher, and he has been in charge of Fukang's chores. He has already gone to bed, and Fu is called up to speak again. "Have you made a confession from 'Da Xian'?" "The offering to the immortals is on the second and sixteenth day of the lunar new year, and today is the end of the month." "Advance, advance! Offer now." The so-called "big fairy" is the fox fairy. On the second and sixteenth day of the lunar new year, offerings are made, a bowl of shochu, ten boiled eggs, the wine is ready-made, and the eggs have to be bought on the street.It was already midnight, knocked on the door to buy eggs, boiled them and made offerings, it was already two o'clock when Ah Zhang went to bed. The next day when he was woken up in bed, it was his brother Xiaomao who came to call him, "Azhang, Azhang!" He said angrily, "It's really a ghost!" "What did you say?" "listen!" Azhang listened quietly for a while, except for the noise of the city, he couldn't help asking in surprise, "What did you tell me to listen to?" "Listen to the human voice!" To put it bluntly, sure enough, the human voice seems to be noisier than before, but what is the relationship between "human voice" and "ghost"? "Go and have a look, the gates have not been unloaded, and customers are already queuing up." When Ah Zhang heard this, the remaining drowsiness was frightened away, he hurriedly got up, washed his face in a hurry and rushed to the shop, only to see Mi Benchang looking up at the chime clock hanging high on the wall. The clock pointed at 8:50, and the door would be unloaded in ten minutes. At this moment, Mi Benchang paused and said, "It's better to open early than late. Open!" So Zhang, who just got up, went to work immediately. As soon as the door was removed, the crowd rushed in and pushed him to the ground. Zhang yelled: "It's going to kill someone! It's going to kill someone!" Fortunately, the police had already arrived. Although Shanghainese people are familiar with "Indian Ah San" with their heads wrapped in red cloth, the waving of the baton still has a considerable repressive effect. Hundreds of customers still lined up in a long queue.The small leader in the patrol, Shanghai people call it "Sandaotou", entered Fukang, and asked in Chinese with a Shandong accent: "Who is the shopkeeper?" "It's me!" Mi Benchang stepped forward. "You run a bank?" "The bank is not run by Allah, but it is managed by Allah." "As long as you are in charge, it's fine. Move out the money quickly and send people to walk, so as not to ruin the market." "There is plenty of money. Sandaotou, please maintain order, come one by one." Sandaotou nodded, and said loudly to the outside of the counter: "There are plenty of silver, and all of them, come one by one!" With this cry, the customers became quieter again. The guys were all told in advance to move as slowly as possible. Some of them used passbooks to withdraw deposits and needed to settle the interest. Then it was even slower. Six people stood at the counter for an hour. Only 40 or 50 customers were taken care of, and less than 10,000 money was taken away. It seems that the situation can be stabilized. Around noon, a thin old man came, opened the towel bag, handed a passbook to the counter, and said, "Withdraw one hundred thousand." Although the voice was not high, Mi Ben often heard it as if Jiao Lei was on the top, and hurried to deal with it in person. First, he looked at the account name of the zhezi, which had the word "Fuji" written on it, and secretly called out: "It's not good!" "May I ask your surname?" "My surname is Mao." "What do you call Mr. Mao and Mr. Zhaofu?" "friend." "Oh, please sit inside, Mr. Mao." "Also." Xu Bu, surnamed Mao, stepped into the guest seat, and the young apprentice served him with tea and cigarettes. When he was seated, Mi Benchang asked, "Mr. Mao is here to raise one hundred thousand silver on behalf of Mr. Zhaofu?" "yes." "I don't know where to use it, please ask Mr. Zhu to order it down, so that I can get a ticket." "For local use." "How many tickets are there?" The one surnamed Mao raised his eyes and asked slowly, "Where did you pay?" Mi Benchang was taken aback for a moment, thinking that it must be Fukang's banknotes. There must be a reason for him to ask so knowingly, so he asked, "Where does Mr. Mao want to draw the banknotes?" "HSBC." Mi Benchang's heart skipped a beat again. HSBC's deposit was only over 60,000 yuan, and the check for 100,000 yuan had to be made up with bank notes from other companies. According to the regulations, it could not be credited on the same day. At this critical juncture, go to HSBC to ask for favor. If the rumor spreads, it will damage your credit. Thinking of this, I thought that instead of asking HSBC for EQ, why not go far to the EQ with the surname Mao, "Mr. Mao," he said, "Can you open it separately?" "How to divide?" "Half HSBC, half bank notes?" The one surnamed Mao smiled slightly, "No need." He said, "Please return the passbook to me." Mi Benchang thought to himself, as expected, it was Zhang Zhaofu playing tricks. It turned out that "Fu Ji" was Zhang Zhaofu. This person was in the yarn and flower business, and he was friends with Hu Xueyan. Drunk, for a girl to change the situation, the meeting was not very happy.The next day, after Mi Benchang woke up, he felt very uneasy when he thought about it, and went to the door to accompany him, but Zhang Zhaofu replied flatly: "I am a friend of your boss, so there is no need to be so." It means that he does not recognize him as a friend. , Now sending someone to come to withdraw the deposit, of course, has no good intentions, but why you want to mention it and don't mention it, why is it so strange, it makes people suspicious. After receiving the passbook, the surname Mao said: "You made me lose the host!" "Losing the host?" Mi Ben often asked, "Mr. Mao, who are you betting on the host? What are you betting on?" "Of course it's the same as Cheung Siu-fu—" The one surnamed Mao said that he and Zhang Zhaofu had tea in the West Garden of the Town God's Temple this morning. Hearing that Fukang was running out of money, Zhang Zhaofu said that the situation was in danger, and the one surnamed Mao thought that Fukang was a famous brand and could be saved.Zhang Zhaofu said that Fukang's deposit in HSBC Bank may be less than 100,000. If you don't believe me, you can try it. If Fukang can write a check for 100,000 taels from HSBC, he will lose a table of flowers and wine in Changsantangzi , otherwise it will be the host named Mao. As bad as it gets!Mi Ben often thought to himself, after eating this table of flowers and wine tonight, there will be countless people in the Shiliyi market tomorrow who will say that Fukang's deposit in HSBC is only 50,000 silver. Sure enough, if such a situation occurs, the consequences will be unimaginable, and we must do our best to turn the tide.Mi Ben often thought about it and calculated it repeatedly, and finally thought of a way. He first withdrew the salary payable by the Shanghai Dao Yamen and stored it in HSBC as Fukang's position. Cheque. Whenever Mi Ben went back to the Shanghai Dao Yamen to collect money or inquire about news, he would go to a fellow villager surnamed Zhu, and upon meeting him, he would ask, "Why do you have the time to come here?" Mi was often stunned, "Why don't I have time?" He asked back. "I heard that Fukang has a run on it." The surname Zhu said, "Shouldn't you take care of it in the store?" Mi Benchang was startled. The news of the run had already reached the Shanghai Provincial Yamen, so it was hard to say a reminder, but his timing changed quickly, and he thought he would just use this incident as an excuse. There are more people than usual, it’s true, it’s all because of an edict issued on October 21, martial law along the river, everyone has to flee. Fukang’s position is sufficient, feel free to raise it, it doesn’t matter.” He followed up Said, "However, before Mr. Hu Da left, he had to prepare a sum of money to pay back the foreign money. Now there is no way to prepare the full amount of the money. I would like to ask your brother to talk to Mr. Shao about how much money he received. Call first to see how much the difference is, I can plan." "Okay!" the surname Zhu said without hesitation, "You came by coincidence. Our boss just arrived, so I will speak for you first." Mi Ben was always full of joy, and he couldn't help but feel complacent, thinking that the move he came up with was very clever, but who knew that the surname Zhu came back soon, but there was a suspicious look on his face. "Please rest assured and go back. This foreign money is due on the tenth day of the lunar month, and it will be paid directly from here, and Fukang does not need to advance a penny." Mi often changed color when he heard it, although it was only a momentary event, the surname Zhu had already seen it in his eyes, which aggravated his suspicion, "Old Mi, let me ask you something, our boss blames me, why don't you think about it. Fukang is running out of money now, and the government funds have been allocated to fill the stuff for you, how will you pay the public account in the future?" He asked, "Do you have such a plan?" Mi Benchang was not willing to admit it, he waved his hands again and again: "No such words, no such words!" "real?" "Of course it's true, how could I lie to you." "I think you wouldn't lie to me, otherwise, you'd be calling me 'Ji Mu Shao', and you wouldn't be like a friend." These words were often stinging in Mi Ben's heart, so he could only apologize with a smile and say goodbye, his steps softened, as if Fukang was a frying pan volcano waiting for him to jump. When he returned to Fukang, he entered from the back of the "stove draped room". There was a lot of people outside the gate, and he was startled when he heard it. Not long after he entered, a guy surnamed Du stopped him and said, "Mr. Mi, don't go to the front." go!" "Why?" "Two big households came here just now. One wants to raise 250,000 yuan and the other wants to raise 180,000 yuan. I said that the position in Shanghai has not been loose this year. We have adjusted the position later. He said he will come back tomorrow. You As soon as I show up, my words will not work." Mi Ben, who is at the end of his life, really enjoys the joy of the willow and the flowers, and thinks that to be honest, it is a prevarication method. This man surnamed Du is very capable. The guy at the counter, headed by him, can handle a lot of heavy burdens, why not let him choose pick. So he thought for a while and said, "That's right! You can use these words to deal with it. You say please rest assured that our silk alone is worth several million silver, and everyone can't afford to run on it." "I understand." Guy Du said, "But today is over, and there will be an explanation tomorrow." "The two big households will come back tomorrow. You said that I will go to Ningbo to withdraw the cash in person, and it will take five days." Mi Benchang said again, "I really want to go to Ningbo, and I will leave now." "It's time for lunch, let's go after eating." "There's still food to eat." Mi Ben often patted him on the shoulder, "I trust you so much here. When this trend is over, I will recommend you well in front of Mr. Da." Unexpectedly, there are more customers coming to the door in the afternoon, and the big family is no better than the two in the morning. The crowd is turbulent and the crowd is angry. Seeing that there is an accident, the "Sandaotou" sent by the patrol room asked where Mi Benchang was, and the surname Du had to To tell the truth: "I went to Ningbo." "What to do here?" No one knew what to do, only Zhang said: "I have to go to the door."