Chapter 384: The Dragon-Flame Richest Woman

That night, the revelry lasted until dawn, and everyone was drunk.

Except for Liu Zheng.

He remained very clear-headed.

Because he had been thinking the entire time.

What should he do about Chuan Shu?

Should he really ignore everything and withdraw his troops? He certainly wasn't reconciled to that in his heart! Chuan Shu was a strategic location. Since he had come, he had to plan accordingly.

But...

On the other hand, he was Xie Zhen's sworn brother.

He still felt guilty in his heart about scheming against his own brother.

He paced in his room all night, staring at the map of the Chuan Shu lands, lost in deep thought.

Shen Manqing, watching from the side, felt her heart ache. She rose and went to Liu Zheng's side, helping him drape a garment over his shoulders, and said softly, "Young Master, the night is deep. Can you not look at it again tomorrow?"

Liu Zheng gave a bitter smile: "Tomorrow? Today the King of Shu ascended the throne; tomorrow, all these civil and military officials will be wishing for me to take the Liangzhou Army and leave. I must think of a way."

"Ah? Are they really so heartless?"

Shen Manqing was indignant.

Liu Zheng chuckled: "A new emperor brings new courtiers. My brother has just become the King of Shu and truly needs to stabilize the situation. If I participate too much, it will not be good for him."

Shen Manqing said, unwilling to accept it: "Could it be that we ran all this way just to leave like this?"

Liu Zheng shook his head: "That is why tomorrow, these Chuan Shu officials will surely draw a line and come to negotiate with me."

"Ah?"

Shen Manqing was a bit bewildered.

Negotiate?

Liu Zheng explained: "How to dismiss my Liangzhou Army, how to dismiss me. Whether to compensate with grain, gold, and silver, or to allow me to station troops. This is another headache."

He sighed faintly.

In reality, he did not want to clash with Xie Zhen like this.

But this was inevitable.

This was the arena of interests.

As the commander of an army, having helped stabilize Chuan Shu this time, if he were to just leave like this, he feared the brothers under his command would not be willing. He still had to consider the feelings of so many people.

Gratitude.

How to show gratitude?

Want gold and silver?

Liu Zheng was not lacking in that.

Station troops?

That would likely be too obvious. And it would also affect his reputation.

As for the puppet status that the people of Chuan Shu were most worried about at this time, Liu Zheng would absolutely not do that. Since they were sworn brothers, he should not scheme like that.

Suddenly.

Liu Zheng's eyes landed on the southwestern-most corner of the map.

The Southern Barbarian Lands?

He smiled slightly.

"It's madness, it's madness, hurry, stop them, stop them!"

At this moment.

Yintan City had been in a frenzy for several days.

It was madness!

Everyone in the city had gone mad!

When that great fire broke out, and the day the Southern Barbarian army was destined to be completely wiped out, the Yinzhou Coin, which had been plummeting, began a retaliatory rise!

Three gold, four gold, five gold...

And then.

When the Emperor's rewards spread throughout the world.

At this point, the price of the Yinzhou Coin could no longer be suppressed.

Six gold!

Seven gold!

Eight gold!

Cart after cart of gold and silver were hauled into Yintan City. The revelry lasted until dawn; the entire Yintan City was lit up all night, and no one could sleep.

"This, this, this..."

Qingyang Shuo and Zheng Yueru were both frightened silly by the situation before them.

It was too crazy!

Simply too crazy!

As long as someone offered Yinzhou Coins for sale, no matter how high the premium, someone would buy them on the spot! Very quickly, the exchange rate in Yintan City could not keep up with the soaring rates in the outside market.

Good news.

This was good news!

The Emperor had bestowed rewards, which meant there would be no punishment! What were they waiting for? Yintan City was going to rise again! The Yinzhou Coin was going to be valuable again.

That group of wealthy merchants from the Yinzhou Chamber of Commerce, who had followed Zheng Yueru and practically put up their entire family fortunes, had also not slept for several days.

"This... oh my, I sold too early! A huge loss, a massive loss!"

"This, has it already tripled?"

"Lao Cui, how many times has your family fortune multiplied?"

Where had these wealthy merchants ever seen such a spectacle?

Terrifying!

Insane!

Some were extremely excited, unable to control themselves. Some beat their chests and stamped their feet, feeling they had sold too early. Others held massive amounts of Yinzhou Coin, sitting and waiting for the price to rise to reap the harvest.

Look again at the group of people who had bought everything up earlier.

That night, several bankrupt merchants leaped from the top of Fengming Tower.

They could no longer afford to pay...

They truly could not afford to pay.

After they had paid the deposit for their orders, they could not afford the final payment no matter what. The deposit—that was a deposit; had anyone ever heard of a deposit being refundable?

A massive loss!

A bloody loss!

Furthermore, they still had to face liquidated damages, also in Yinzhou Coin!

They were wiped out...

No one had expected that in just a moment, there would be such a crazy transformation.

This is Yinzhou Coin...

This is the Yinzhou Coin that makes people both love and hate it.

Zheng Yueru, at this moment, was somewhat incoherent, taking a deep breath: "Sir... sir, this time our Zheng Family invested one million gold, this this this..."

How much had this actually earned?

Qingyang Shuo smiled bitterly: "Yue Ru, it is impossible to tell right now, I can only say, conservatively estimated, it is already three million gold..."

Boom!

Zheng Yueru could not help but feel a roar in her brain.

Three million gold?

One gold equals twenty taels of silver. Three million, that is sixty million taels of silver? This is absolutely an Astronomy figure! According to the ratio of later generations where one tael of silver equals six hundred yuan.

These sixty million taels of silver would be 3.9 billion!

The richest person...

In this feudal dynasty, given the suppression of merchants by various Feudatory Kings, the fact that merchants were not valued, and the difficulty of forming industry monopolies or developing on a national scale.

3.9 billion was already enough to make one's heart chill.

One must know.

Even during the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court's annual tax revenue only hovered around twenty million taels of silver.

And at this moment, the Zheng Family was already at a scale of three times the imperial court's income!

How terrifying is that?

Not only that, but looking at the Yinzhou Coin at this time, it still had not risen to its peak.

She felt that at this moment, even breathing was somewhat difficult.

Heavens...

Then how much could this entire Yintan City be worth now?

The next day.

As expected.

As soon as Liu Zheng got out of bed, he was sought out by Xie Zhen.

Just by looking at the unhappy expression on Xie Zhen's face, Liu Zheng knew why he had come.

Therefore.

He did not intend to make things difficult for his elder brother, so he laughed and stretched: "Did you sleep well, brother? I was just about to find you to discuss the matter of withdrawing the troops."

"Ah?"

Xie Zhen looked helpless: "Second brother, this matter, this matter, brother will absolutely not overthink it! But those old fellows..."

Liu Zheng smiled and shook his head: "Brother, no need to be troubled, we can just go see them together. Your younger brother will never make things difficult for you."

Xie Zhen breathed a sigh of relief.

Actually, he was quite anxious in his heart right now. He was not a person who was good at refusing others. Moreover, times had changed. When he was in trouble, Liu Zheng was his savior. Now that Chuan Shu was stable, he still very much wanted to hold the power in his own hands... This was not being ungrateful, this was human nature.

But on the other hand, he was afraid of chilling the heart of his brother.

Hearing Liu Zheng say this, he felt at ease.

The two went together.

Sure enough.

A group of old men were already waiting at the Shu Wang Mansion; when Liu Zheng and Xie Zhen entered at the same time, swish, swish, swish, pairs of eyes looked over simultaneously.

Liu Zheng...

Seemed to see killing intent within them?

【Author's Note】

I might have been slack recently, I've corrected quite a few typos. Ahhhhh.

m.