Chapter 422

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

As a Divine Art Knight possessing the "Oath Keeping" faith, the conditions he proposed were usually extremely exacting, and moreover left room for maneuver.

Ten minutes and all the nobles were the limiting conditions, the latter being impossible to fulfill. Yi Yaer quite naturally put forward: "I need at least an hour."

Chen Yi chuckled lightly, patting the frosted lid of the treasury with his hand, as if it would open at any moment.

The High Priest left helplessly; he had to strike the temple's great bell to announce that an urgent matter had occurred. At the same time, it would transmit the information to the Water Dragon Temple, where the High Priest there could see everything within the temple's range through a pool of clear green water.

A few minutes later, the bell rang out, shaking the city's residents until they trembled, causing all knights and nobles to rise uneasily.

Chen Yi still sat on the ground, face upturned, admiring the patterns on the dome.

The church used to store gold looked incomparably sturdy; those pure stone pillars, one knows not how much labor they consumed. One could tell its construction period was very early, and defense had been considered during construction — the heavy iron-clad wooden doors were a case in point; at any time, those were luxury goods on the West Continent. Perhaps in the era when Ma La was not yet prosperous, this small chapel bore the task of housing the offerings; only when the offerings grew more and more, turning from copper coins into conch shells or even metal ingots, did the priests establish the present basement.

"Ten minutes are up." Yin Senyong clapped his hands, laughing: "Only twenty Temple Knights gathered."

"Pull it open."

Three Divine Art Knights jointly utilized divine power; the iron chest emitted a teeth-aching screech. When the three Divine Art Knights' source energy converged, the Temple High Priest's ordinary blessing was instantly destroyed.

Yin Senchen tossed aside the iron lid casually, shouting loudly: "Quite a big hole."

The High Priest rushed in from outside, shouting: "You do not keep your word."

"Ten minutes are up." Chen Yi shrugged.

"But..."

"Move the things inside out and have a look."

"How about prying it open?" Yin Senchen exerted force, prying open the ground bit by bit along the broken lid, like snapping a biscuit, exerting force while saying: "Pure copper? You people are too rich, right?"

Yi Yaer watched as he pried open the treasury he had accumulated over many years, suppressing his voice: "Those are war funds; only when the Temple War reaches the very end can they be melted down."

"Pure copper!" At least one chi thick, nearly ten square meters of iron lid plate — if melted down entirely, it could truly support one or two months of war.

Yin Senchen lifted up the entire top of the money storage chamber, occupying three-quarters of the chapel. The four-meter-deep storage chamber was divided into three parts: the middle held various precious metal currencies — conch shells, gold coins, silver coins — piled into three small hills; the left side held various precious metal ingots — besides white platinum and silver, yellow gold, there were also steel ingots and another kind of metal ingot. The right side had the most spacious area, filled with wooden chests and a large quantity of weapons.

"Pry open the chests."

Yi Yaer blocked them, saying: "Don't, they're just some weapons."

Chen Yi pursed his lips; Yin Senyong immediately jumped down and pried open all the wooden chests.

Sure enough, they were all weapons — the long ones three meters, the short ones mere inches. Estimated to also be so-called war funds.

"Your Excellency, the nobles inside the city, I've gathered as many as I could." The High Priest, fearing Chen Yi would actually act, said quietly: "The money inside is prepared for the Temple War; if you move it, the Water Dragon Temple will know. If you turn around and leave now, we'll pretend we don't know about this."

Chen Yi ignored him, but ordered: "Call Jin Douna in, count the money inside, load it onto carts and send it away."

Yi Yaer shouted hatefully: "Your Excellency!"

"Has the Council Chairman of this city come?"

The High Priest made no sound; the Young Priest behind him, scratching his head, said: "Couldn't find him."

"Yin Senyong, find the next treasury."

The next treasury, ten out of ten, belongs to some major noble family, not Ma La's national treasury.

The nobles all thought of a certain possibility; sweat broke out instantly.

This is simply a bandit!

The High Priest deeply suspected the three of them — were they preparing to snatch two hauls and run?

If they plundered all the nobles of Ma La, that would also be a huge sum.

It would just thoroughly ruin their reputation.

Before long, Jin Douna, sticking out her little buttocks, together with a group of people moved everything inside out. Counting on one hand, pursing her lips and smiling on the other.

Chen Yi leaned over and asked: "What's up?"

"I'm just calculating — if made into platinum jewelry, how many pieces could these conch shells make?"

"Quite a lot — each one is over half a tael."

Jin Douna scratched her ear, calculating: "That's enough to make a belt; I see over ten thousand conch shells, too many, can't use them all up no matter what."

"If actually used, it's not enough."

Jin Douna asked curiously: "How to use them?"

"As precious metal reserves, issue currency." Chen Yi said quietly.

"On the West Continent?"

"Of course not, in China."

"Ah?"

Chen Yi nodded lightly.

13,000 conch shells, weighing over 6,500 jin, yielding 3 tons of platinum. Additionally, over a thousand platinum ingots, all 5 kg standard, yielding 5 tons of platinum. Plus gold coins and gold bars totaling around 3 tons — this time the precious metals gained amounted to around 12 tons. And in Jiangning, excluding the precious metals he sold earlier, the accumulated inventory of precious metals exceeded 60 tons — five times this figure.

Chen Yi guessed that if he plundered Ma La's treasury and a few major noble families, his precious metal assets would break through the 100-ton threshold.

This meant that relying on these precious metals alone, he could issue a currency with good credit, freely redeemable for gold or platinum.

This is also the purest attribute possessed by the earliest currencies.

The attribute of free gold redemption!

For hundreds of years, thousands of years, before the Americans relied on their advantageous position to default and end the Bretton Woods system, the world's currencies should all have been pegged to precious metals — no matter which country's credit, none was better than precious metals' credit.

Gold is an honest metal.

But the state is absolutely a dishonest monster. If you give the state power, it will use that power to the utmost — any possible loophole, it will exploit, whether after hesitation or without hesitation, as long as it needs to.

Therefore, when the Bretton Woods system pegging the US dollar to gold collapsed in 1973, currency actually only concerned national credibility and had nothing to do with precious metals anymore.

What followed was a natural, irreversible currency inflation.

Chen Yi did not dare hope to change the world, but he possessed an opportunity to establish the foundation for a currency capable of collecting seigniorage on its own, a foundation for a return to the era of honest currency thirty years ago.

The value of 100 tons of gold exceeds 25 billion US dollars, and the value of 100 tons of platinum is even higher. If issued only in Jiangning, it would be more than sufficient.

The only thing needing consideration is how to fabricate a perfect reason and story to make the Central Government turn a blind eye.

"Chen Yi, it's all moved." Jin Douna scratched softly by his ear.

Chen Yi startled awake, let out an embarrassed "Oh," and asked, "All moved out?"

"The copper was too heavy."

The copper left on site was truly not a small amount.

Chen Yi smiled at the High Priest: "You store it for now. Yin Senyong, has the next household been found?"

"Found it."

"Then let's go." Chen Yi stood up and said to Jin Douna: "Armored vehicle escorts back to Shuizhai, swap vehicles and come over. Yin Senchen, you follow along back."

"Yes." Yin Senchen scanned the Temple Knights before him with leopard eyes; threatened by the reputation of the Divine Art Knights, they all naturally made way.

Yin Senyong mounted the Earth Dragon and led the way.

A local Noble anxiously asked: "Lord Chen Yi, what exactly do you want to do?"

"You have no qualification to speak with me. Get your Council Chairman."

Yi Yaer waved his hand, sent the Nobles out, and let Chen Yi and the others leave.

The treasury with the second most metal found by Yin Senyong was precisely that of the Elder Council Chairman, the Jiasaiye Family. A cave chiseled out of a stone mountain, outside was an iron gate made of fine steel; although there were traces of blessings, it was far from reaching the Temple High Priest's level. Yin Senyong used the Divine Art "Break Barrier" and instantly cleared the obstacles.

Door open.

Again, a dazzle of golden light.

Yin Senyong went in, circled once, and returned: "More metal ingots than the Temple, just a bit less money."

"Good." Chen Yi naturally wouldn't go in to move things; he sat grandly at the entrance and said: "Wait."

Yin Senyong initially thought he was waiting for the vehicles to return, but after waiting half a day, it was actually Jiasaiye who returned first.

He could not help but return; his family treasury was being pried open, that was more important than his life.

"Divine Art Knight Chen Yi?"

"Hm?"

Jiasaiye held it in and said: "Didn't you say you wanted to see me?"

Chen Yi pointed at the metal ingots inside and smiled: "You're the one who wants to see them, right?"

Jiasaiye forced out a smiling face and said: "Lord Divine Art Knight, if you have any business, please just instruct."

"I'm just waiting for the vehicle to come, then load the gold and leave. If you want to resist, go find Yin Senyong."

"How would I dare battle a Divine Art Knight." Jiasaiye curled his lip.

Chen Yi hehe'd a laugh and said: "Then there's no choice."

He sat there without moving at all.

After a while, the roar of armored vehicles approached; Jiasaiye's face changed greatly, and he couldn't help but say: "Lord Divine Art Knight, Ma La's Warriors are all at the Temple War Front Line, at this time you're seizing our property..."

"I even seized the Temple's, so what of yours." Chen Yi raised his eyebrows.

Jiasaiye hated that he couldn't strangle Chen Yi with one hand, but the situation was stronger than the man; he forcibly swallowed his anger, lowered his brows and pleasingly said: "My Lord, whatever instructions you have, please speak freely."

"We'll talk inside." Chen Yi suddenly stretched out a hand.

Jiasaiye followed in a daze into the pitch-black stone cave.

Under the dim light, platinum and gold flickered with greedy light.

Jiasaiye gazed at them nostalgically, as if to memorize their shapes, sniff out their scent. This money included what he had extorted, and what he had earned through legitimate business... now to have it all snatched away, it was truly too unfair!

"Do you want them back?" Chen Yi coldly asked Jiasaiye.

"I..."

"If you want them back, you get me 2 times this amount in precious metals, that is these two kinds." Chen Yi took out a piece of platinum and a gold brick, placed them before Jiasaiye, and said: "I want 30 tons."

Jiasaiye "chi" laughed, flicked his sleeve and said: "You flay my skin and I still couldn't scrape together this many Conch Shells."

"You get it from other Nobles, wouldn't that work." Chen Yi smiled easily, sitting on the pile of gold bricks.

Jiasaiye only thought for a moment, then shook his head: "This is equivalent to tax farming. Tax farming sounds too ugly."

"If you don't do it, then I'll just empty everything in the treasury." Chen Yi patted his buttocks, stood up, walked to the entrance, and turned back: "Better let your family members leave early; your mansion's things, I'm preparing to move away."

"What?"

"I have to find 30 tons of metal somehow."

Walking out of the pitch-dark stone cave, the returned Yin Senchen made Jiasaiye dizzy again. Three Divine Art Knights standing before you and hearing about it are truly two different matters.

Just the chaotic Source Energy alone could make someone suffer terribly.

"Chairman, what do you say?"

Jiasaiye's heart was in turmoil, like Ultraman having an affair, the rolling was earth-shattering, waters flowing into rivers.

Forget it, he only had one path; he nodded and said: "Okay."

"A word is binding." Chen Yi gave a signal; the freshly returned new recruits rushed into the stone cave in a swarm.

Tons of gold, everyone had never seen such a thing.

"Hey, why are they still taking?" Jiasaiye wanted to stop them but didn't dare, like a stripped Ultraman looking left and right for a condom.

Chen Yi pressed his shoulder and whispered in his ear: "Once you get the tax farming arranged, it'll naturally fill your account..."

Jiasaiye's lips trembled, speechless.

All from anger.

You took all my money, and still want me to pay you tax farming.

But Gasa Ye also understood that without the West River City Fortress name, he wouldn't be able to get back a single penny.

"Everyone hide your treasuries well, we'll come back the day after tomorrow." Chen Yi winked at Gasa Ye and jumped onto the Raptor.

At this moment, Grand Knight Silva on the vehicle was already gone.

Returning to West River City Fortress, including Yu Weichao and the others, they all stood guard in the treasury, just staring blankly at those platinum and gold.

To speak of normal times, they could get several thousand to tens of thousands of conch shells each month, all exchanged back using West River's own minted money — bad money drives out good, although West River Water Fortress's credit was lower, as long as their money entered the market, it would circulate one hundred percent. The conch shells exchanged back were also all piled in this treasury.

But the precious metals in the treasury had never been piled this high before.

"Seen enough?" Chen Yi strolled in from the doorway.

"Seen enough."

"Seen enough."

A group of people laughed foolishly.

"These precious metals, I all have great use for. You lot just stop staring."

Seeing Chen Yi looking on with good-natured amusement, Li Feng boldly laughed: "My Lord, we were just saying, West River side has few good things, money can't even be spent. What about Earth side, expenses are bigger after all. Don't know if West River side's points can be exchanged for some things, brought back."

"Exchange for what?"

She Lei blurted out: "Fur's pretty good, I want to get a snow bear pelt, take it back to make a mattress pad."

"Oh? Filial offering for whom?"

She Lei scratched his head, laughed embarrassedly: "Make one for my parents, make one for my grandma too."

"Like that... quite filial." Chen Yi looked at She Lei seriously for two minutes, then said: "There are no snow bears on Earth, you know that right?"

"... Know."

"However..." Chen Yi changed tone, said: "I specially permit you to take one snow bear pelt back, must find someone to tan it so it's unrecognizable, can you do it?"

"Can."

"Deduct two months of your points."

Points were their salary used on the West Continent, separate from the RMB issued on Earth, the latter being for their families, or a kind of savings.

She Lei blinked his eyes a few times, ultimately still couldn't figure out whether he had gained or lost.

Chen Yi then turned to Jin Douna, said: "Find someone to draft a set of rules, in the future those wanting to use points to exchange for supplies to take back, implement a prohibition rule where not allowed is prohibited, only supplies that get unanimous agreement from the Lingshi Committee and my approval can be taken back to Earth. You draft a specific list of which supplies are allowed, not too many types, must give points exchange ratios."

"Yes."

"Medal-holding students, according to different medal levels, give certain exchange priority, even discounts." Chen Yi once again increased benefits for medal holders, from a certain perspective, in West River Water Fortress besides high-level posts, medals were more sought-after than posts.

She Lei and Li Feng greatly agreed with this, they both commanded teams, and medal acquisition basically only had the combat path, increasing medal benefits also helped them lead teams.

Others couldn't conveniently oppose, Yu Weichao then began reporting on natural rubber matters.

Current wild rubber forest area has already expanded to 100,000 hectares, 2 times before, equivalent to one-sixth of China's natural rubber planting area.

Chen Yi didn't care about the specific production process, only asked: "How's the current yield?"

"100,000 tons a year, barely achievable, our slave count has already exceeded 30,000, can't control more."

"Learn how Westerners used to run plantations." Chen Yi likewise didn't care about slaves, what he thought about was domestic natural rubber price fluctuations. If yield reaches one-sixth of domestic yield, that means domestic rubber increases by one-sixth without anyone knowing, exceeding 15%, according to normal price laws, a 30% price drop is possible.

Short sell world rubber?

Chen Yi had a bit of hesitation about this.

He wasn't afraid of short selling, he was afraid of other price factors taking effect.

Current world futures market, doesn't belong to Chinese people.

"How much natural rubber now?"

"3,000 tons, our installed equipment, still a bit unfamiliar."

"Latex?"

"Under 10,000 tons."

"Load it all on vehicles, I'm taking it."

Chen Yi also didn't expect them to process 100,000 tons of natural rubber, these also had to be taken back to find other factories, fortunately China has plenty of processing-on-supplied-materials factories, they have zero curiosity about raw material sources.

Jin Douna saw they'd spoken about enough, handed over the account books while asking: "Why don't we just loot all of Ma La's precious metals? That Council Chairman's family alone has 10 tons of precious metals, no less than the Temple, and there's Ma La's Treasury."

"Ma La's Treasury isn't the third precious metal gathering place, not even the fourth." Chen Yi smiled asking Yin Senyong, said: "Right?"

Yin Senyong quite seriously said: "Ma La's Treasury definitely can't rank top five, in noble city-state system, the city-state is the poorest, if it had money, nobles would've divided it up long ago."

"Then don't loot other nobles' either?"

"If we loot it all clean, Ma La's problems become our problems." Chen Yi shrugged, said: "Don't rush, with the Ring City Highway, unless they fly to heaven or burrow underground, people can die, gold silver treasures only have the fate of waiting to die."

"So you let their Council Chairman tax farm?"

"Slowly raise them." Chen Yi laughed like a habitual child kidnapper.

"Then... the Temple?" Jin Douna had to ask, she needed to know future war scale to make a budget without holes.

Chen Yi had a prepared answer: "The Temple's problem, hand to Yin Senchen to solve."

At the same time, Water Dragon Temple's Temple High Priests were also discussing Divine Art Knight Yin Senchen's matter.

Like most Temples, Water Dragon Temple's power was controlled by 9 Temple High Priests, they worked in a Cabinet-like form, the Shouzheng Dajisi had qualification to alone audience Water Dragon God, while other priests could only jointly audience Water Dragon God when everyone agreed.

At this moment, the Shouzheng Dajisi was conventionally silent, while others fell into intense discussion.

Send troops!

Deploy Divine Art Knights!

Deploy High Priests and Divine Art Knights!

Draw forces from the God Temple Battlefield!

At least four plans for them to choose from, but almost none could truly be carried out.

At such a tense moment of war, where would they find three Divine Art Knights? That is the crux of the problem. They couldn't very well dispatch the Divine Art Knights guarding the temple.

On the other hand, even if they dispatched three Divine Art Knights, or even four, they couldn't guarantee a clean victory. If even one was injured, it would be a terrible loss. This isn't war; any single loss is a pure loss.

Just as their discussion reached its most heated point, the Shouzheng Dajisi spoke: "The Yin Sen Family — Yin Senlie has returned to the family and become a Divine Art Knight."

"That is the Wood Dragon Temple's matter." The Temple High Priest ranked third said in a low voice.

The Grand Priest shook his head, yet said: "Yin Senlie, Yin Senchen, Yin Senyong — the Yin Sen Family suddenly has three Divine Art Knights. That's too many, isn't it?"

"Plus that Chen Yi, that makes four?"

"Recently, besides Yin Senlie, Yin Senchen, and Yin Senyong leaving the Yin Sen Family, there is one more person: Yin Senjin." The Grand Priest made a two-finger twisting motion, and a document appeared in his palm: "Take a look. They have at least five Divine Art Knights."

Impossible to win!

The three Temple High Priests, full of fighting spirit, all shut up.

"Let's proceed to the next agenda item." The Temple High Priest ranked fourth was presiding over the meeting.

"That Ma La temple... not tell them the result?"

"No result." The High Priest slowly closed his eyes, unable to be bothered to say another word.

……(Unfinished. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian. com) to cast Recommendation Tickets, Monthly Tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)