"Wait, let me explain it clearly, but I feel a little confused when I hear it." Sun Bi suddenly interrupted. Obviously, he did not have the economic and business thinking like Li Ling, and he could not keep up with the other party's ideas for a while.

Li Ling also understood and explained briefly: "Your Majesty, the reason why this penny can be accepted by everyone is because it has its own value, that is, its material, the alloy of copper and lead, is the value of it."

Sun Bi pondered for a moment, then nodded barely: "Well, I understand a little. What you mean is that the newly cast Tianyou Tongbao has also changed its value because the ratio of copper and lead has changed."

"Your Majesty said. As far as I know, in the past, the ratio of copper coins to lead was 55, and even if copper accounts for less than lead, the copper coins will quickly turn black after circulating on the market for a period of time, just as Your Majesty saw it.

"The value of lead is far lower than copper, and there are fewer places to use, so this money is not worth a penny in terms of its material. But this time, Tianyou Tongbao is different, because His Majesty set the copper-lead ratio of 73 early in the morning, resulting in the value of the material of this batch of money exceeding itself. In this way, once someone notices the loopholes, he can think of making a profit from it.

"For example, they can earn a lot of money from these Tianyou Tongbao, and then melt it and extract more valuable copper materials from them. Then the value of these copper materials will be completely used, and they can make copperware and other things for sale, which is a profitable transaction.

"What's more important is that they can even mix the remaining copper materials in the machine with a large amount of lead and cast it into a new Tianyou Tongbao. But because the money at this time can no longer be called copper coins, it looks like an old copper coins that have been circulating for decades. It not only looks black and old, but also light and thin. If Your Majesty doesn't believe it, you can weigh the new and old Tianyou Tongbao and try it out."

Sun Bi's expression condensed, and he immediately took two Tianyou Tongbao and put them on his palm to weigh it. Although the difference was not big, he still noticed the importance and his face suddenly sank: "As it turns out, someone really dares to do such a lawless act!"

"Your Majesty, doing this can no longer be considered a huge profit, but a huge profit without a huge profit. In the face of huge profits, there are naturally people who are willing to take a risk. Moreover, they have already succeeded more than half of them. At least the Tianyou Tongbao on the ground in Jiangnan has been plundered by them. Even the tax money sent to the court was forged by them. The copper materials that were embezzled by them have long been made into bronze ware by them, and they want to sell them for profit!" Li Ling immediately explained, "Just a few days ago, a batch of bronze ware in Jiangnan was going to be sent to the north, just by the Zongheng Trading Company under the name of me. But because I realized that something was wrong, Jiangnan did not produce much copper, I was careful.

"So I think that there is an 80% possibility in this matter. The owners of those bronze ware are prisoners who plundered Jiangnan copper coins for personal gain. I hope Your Majesty will find out the truth as soon as possible and bring them to justice!"

Sun Bi suppressed his anger again at this time, but his face was still serious: "You are right. You cannot underestimate this matter. You must find out the truth as soon as possible and capture the prisoner! However, this matter is just something you heard about, and there is still a fact. I still have to ask someone to verify it."

Li Ling was his most trusted minister, but since he was on the throne, Sun Bi had to be responsible for the entire country and could not listen to it indirectly, so further verification was needed.

Li Ling could understand this, and was prepared, and said, "Your Majesty is wise. After learning about it, I have asked Wan Lang, the shopkeeper of Zongheng Trading Company who was in contact with this matter, to come with me and wait outside the palace. If Your Majesty wants to know more clearly, you can ask him."

Sun Bi looked at him, pondered for a moment and nodded, "Then let Wan Lang enter the palace as well."

Although Wan Lang was just a businessman, he had some friendship with Sun Bi. When he was still a prince, he had dated. Then, in the previous two years, Wan Lang made many contributions to the Northern Expedition, and the two even met on the grassland.

However, when the war ended, when the reward was held, Wan Lang refused the imperial court's reward and was still his own businessman, and did not visit the court again. However, his actions made Sun Bi look up to this person a few more times, thinking that this was a pure person who did not take credit, so his words were naturally credible.

When Wan Lang entered the palace and saw the current emperor, he was a little helpless and worried. After all, he was the noble Lord of the people. As a small businessman, he would inevitably feel panic. After entering the palace, he could not afford to bow his head and didn't even dare to raise his head.

"Wanlang, I'm here to ask you, have you seen those bronze ware transported from Jiangnan to the north? How do they look? And who asked you to transfer your fortune?" Sun Bi quickly got to the point and asked directly.

When Wan Lang came, he had already learned about the strangeness of this from Li Ling. He felt even more nervous. After a long time of grunting, he replied: "Go back to Your Majesty, those bronze ware and grass ware have only seen three or five pieces, all of which are carved and cast exquisite objects. The big ones can sell thousands of taels of silver, and the small ones can sell dozens of taels. As for the cargo owner who was transported by the grass ware merchant, he was a bronze ware merchant in Jiangnan named Ye Quan."

After hearing the value of these bronze ware, Sun Bi's face became even more serious. Even if he was the one who made the profits, he could calculate them. Of course, he could also calculate them. For this batch of bronze ware, the dozens or millions of coins of Tianyou Tongbao that had flowed into Jiangnan before were all plundered by them.

How could he accept this?

Tianyou Tongbao, which was a copper coin cast under his name as his year name, is now being melted and forged by others, that is slapping him in the face. How can he tolerate this?

"Ye Quan?" Sun Bi muttered the name and remembered it in his heart. Then he nodded, "Don't publicize this matter for the time being. You should follow the original route. The court has its own arrangements. I will not forget your contribution..."

"Caomin dares not praise her for her merits. She just asks Your Majesty not to blame Caomin and Zongheng Shang for acting like accomplices." Wan Lang quickly expressed his opinion. This was his heartfelt words. After all, if this case is really involved, Zongheng Shang Shang Shang is afraid that it will be difficult to escape the involvement.

As the emperor nodded and agreed, Wan Lang finally breathed a sigh of relief. With this statement, he would have no worries. At the same time, he looked at Li Ling with some gratitude. If he hadn't noticed that there were major problems with this transaction in time, there would probably be endless troubles in the future.

But when he looked over, he found that Li Ling's expression did not relax like himself, but continued to frown deeply, as if he had any concerns. Sun Bi also saw this and asked again: "Wen Zhong, what are you thinking? Tell me."

"Your Majesty, if everything is really as I think, the consequences of this matter will be more serious than being made by these greedy people."

"Oh? How do you say it?"

"Your Majesty, these forged copper coins are far less texture than Tianyou Tongbao, and they may be broken for some reason in a while. If it is just one or two, it would be fine, but if it is all like this, ordinary people will suffer. After all, although the people now have silver, ordinary people still use copper coins as the most commonly used coins to buy goods. Once the copper coins are constantly broken in their hands, they will inevitably suffer a great loss.

"This is not the most serious. The most serious thing is that when such things happen, everyone will no longer trust Tianyou Tongbao and think that the newly cast copper coins themselves have problems. In this way, spreading from Jiangnan, those unscrupulous merchants can take the opportunity to take the Tianyou Tongbao elsewhere into their pockets in more convenient ways, and even if a Tianyou Tongbao is not worth a penny... Over time, the only one who suffers will be ordinary people, which makes those unscrupulous merchants make a fortune.

"And the prestige of the court will also cause great setbacks due to the matter. This is really not what the ministers and others want to see. I think this matter is urgent and the source must be found as soon as possible and these unscrupulous merchants must be treated equally regardless of their identity!"

"Not bad!" Sun Bi also felt more and more what negative impact this change would have on the court and himself. He nodded repeatedly, "Just do what you want. Come and send me the Weiliang Department of Justice and Lu Zhen from the Imperial City Department to me to the palace."

At this point, Sun Bi did not hesitate anymore and decided to let the two most capable parties handle the case go to Jiangnan to find out the matter. In addition, the guy named Ye Quan who could get it soon, took a two-pronged approach, so the case could naturally quickly find out the inside story.

At this point, Li Ling, the three envoys who only held the financial power of the court, stopped talking. After only giving a tribute, he took Wan Lang back. What will the court handle the case and how to take the people next has nothing to do with him.

However, after they left the palace, Wan Lang still saw that Li Ling was worried, and asked nervously: "Do you have any other concerns? Why don't you say it in front of the emperor?"

"There is another thing that I care a lot, but I really can't tell you until the matter is finished." Li Ling smiled bitterly.

“What is it?”

"Where do you think the tyrants who forged copper coins in Jiangnan got the money style?" Li Ling narrowed his eyes and said to him.

The casting of copper coins is the same as that of later paper money. It is not enough to copy it. There are several processes in it, which is the money model. Such an important procedure is naturally kept strictly by the court. How could it be known to some people in Jiangnan at will?
Chapter completed!