My life skills in Daming Liver - Chapter 647

c637 Xi’an spy war

The reason why Peng An’s bank business is so good is because the name of his bank is “Postal Savings Bank”.

Almost all businessmen doing business with Southeast know this bank. This bank was established at the port terminal of Southeast Station. It was mainly responsible for the money order business of merchants from all over the country.

A money order means depositing money at one bank, and then transferring the ticket to other banks through the station system. Then the merchant can withdraw money directly from the bank through a money order after arriving at the destination.

This reduces the risk of carrying large amounts of gold and silver on the road and greatly facilitates the circulation of goods. It has been widely praised since its launch.

Later, merchants discovered that they could just use money orders when trading, and transfer the money directly to the other party’s account, eliminating the need for withdrawing and depositing money.

Postal Savings Bank has quickly become a standard in major cities, and even businessmen from the Southeast are opening accounts at Postal Savings Bank for transactions.

And because of this background, the powerful people in the Ming Dynasty all had accounts in the Postal Savings Bank, either openly or secretly.

Peng An was Su Ze’s disciple at the Nanping Nursing Home. Over the years, Peng An helped Su Ze run newspapers, collected taxes, and served as a soldier. Later, Peng An chose to join the Postal Savings Bank’s financial system.

As the founder of the Postal Savings Bank, Peng An has a very high status in the banking system. He came to Xi’an this time on his own initiative, because he came not only for banking business, but more importantly, to represent Southeast Asia and the People’s Republic of China. Negotiated by all walks of life in Shaanxi.

In fact, Guo Pu had noticed Peng An since he entered Shaanxi. He also opened his business with great fanfare, but the Shaanxi Governor’s Office always turned a blind eye.

The war has reached this point, but actually the struggle has tended to ease.

When the struggle is most intense, it is often when both sides are evenly matched.

Because when the forces are evenly matched, neutral forces will determine the balance of power, so all underground battles at this stage are very bloody.

But now that the overall situation of the world is about to be decided, the powerful factions in various places are already at both ends. Even if the spies in the southeast are discovered, they will either send them out of the country with gifts, or they will turn a blind eye and shout to be beaten and killed. There are very few already.

Of course, before the empire fell, there were also some fanatical martyrs who wanted to drag others to die together. This kind of thing was also common in history, but no rational person would choose this path.

Therefore, Guo Pu knew Peng An’s identity, and the whole of Xi’an knew it, but the whole of Xi’an regarded him as a businessman who opened a ticket account.

Peng An’s identity is a businessman, so naturally no one makes things difficult for him. It is natural for him to open a bank account and accept deposits from local dignitaries in Xi’an.

This has created a strange situation. On the one hand, the front is tense. A military confrontation has begun on the front line. The Tongguan area has begun to be cleared and martial law enforced. The smell of gunpowder is almost out of the sky.

On the one hand, Xi’an is a peaceful place. Peng An goes to various banquets every day, exchanging cups with powerful people from all walks of life in Xi’an, testing each other’s tone.

Today is a banquet organized by Qiu Yuanshan. The banquet is attended by high-level people in the Shaanxi army, as well as celebrities from Shaanxi, and even the prince of Qin is present.

Even the place where the banquet was held was an annex of Prince Qin’s Mansion. The dishes at the banquet were all the most popular new dishes in the Southeast, and the tableware used were all the most popular filigree gold porcelain in the Southeast today.

Peng An secretly lamented that even the most luxurious banquet in Hangzhou could not compare to the banquet he attended today.

The cost of hosting this banquet in Hangzhou will definitely be far lower than the cost of hosting a banquet in Xi’an.

Sure enough, Qiu Yuanshan pulled a young man and said:

“This is the Crown Prince of Qin. We are all taking advantage of Shopkeeper Peng for this banquet, so we can enjoy the treatment of the royal family banquet.”

The young Prince Qin, whose body had long been drained by alcohol and sex, asked triumphantly:

“I heard that Shopkeeper Peng was once Su Rulin’s disciple? I wonder how this banquet at the Governor’s Mansion compares to my banquet?”

Qiu Yuanshan’s face suddenly became much uglier. These feudal princes were really stupid, and they actually asked such a question.

But Peng An was not angry, but said: “It’s far worse!”

Prince Qin’s face became even more proud, and he said:

“The tableware and chef for my banquet are all shipped from the southeast of your country. This set of tableware alone costs a thousand silver dollars!”

“This chef used to be the head chef of the main restaurant in Hangzhou, and I hired him at a huge price!”

“Even the ingredients are transported from your southeast fast horse. This plate of seafood consumes ten high-quality military horses, so that it can be delivered to Xi’an while still alive.”

Now even Peng An was surprised. When he entered Shaanxi, he had seen half-clothed soldiers, as well as the dilapidated city defenses and ancient cannons of the Shaanxi Ming Army.

Shaanxi is backed by Longyou, and there is no shortage of horses. However, the war horses of the Ming army are all thin and weak horses, and even the officers rarely have good horses.

But the King of Qin actually soaked ten fine military horses alive for seafood. Peng An also attended some dinner parties in Hangzhou, but never such extravagant ones.

The Prince of Qin still kept talking about how extravagant he was, but Qiu Yuanshan’s face became increasingly ugly.

When the Prince of Qin left, Qiu Yuanshan pulled Peng An aside. When he saw no one around, he whispered:

“Shopkeeper Peng also saw it. This is what the powerful people in Shaanxi look like. The situation in the army is similar. The soldiers have no intention of fighting.”

Peng An was noncommittal, Qiu Yuanshan said:

“Shopkeeper Peng, I sincerely believe that Shaanxi cannot be defended and want to surrender to your army.”

Peng An then said:

“Qiu Canjun, if you want to surrender, just look for the southeastern army in front of Tongguan. Peng is just a businessman, how can he talk too much about such a major military matter?”

Qiu Yuanshan gritted his teeth and said, “Mr. Peng is the governor’s student. As long as you are willing to make connections, our brothers will definitely not miss out on your benefits.”

After saying this, Qiu Yuanshan stuffed a money order into Peng An’s clothes.

Peng An quickly refused and said:

“It’s not that Peng didn’t help, it’s just that it was published in the southeastern newspapers and he only accepted unconditional surrender.”

Qiu Yuanshan’s face turned a little pale. In fact, he had already thought of surrendering, but if he could not negotiate a good condition, he could not explain to his officers that the purpose of contacting Peng An at this dinner was to make Peng An Help out.

But this time Peng An also led Ren Wu, and he whispered:

“Although we in the southeast do not accept conditional surrender, we still treat the heroes of the first righteous cause.”

Qiu Yuanshan’s eyes lit up.