Chapter 315: Business in the Capital

Wu Kaidi, after all, was someone who had spent more than ten years in the capital with his master. He had a lot of experience running errands for his master, and from the gossip among the servants, he also knew a lot about the ways of graft and corruption.

“These eunuchs, every one of them is a master at eating people without spitting out the bones. If he takes tens of thousands of taels of silver from me and doesn’t do anything, won’t he still have to give him his share of the profits? We are really putting up with a lot here.”

He thought for a moment and said, “Sir, are you worrying too much? Your relationship with Eunuch Yang is not an ordinary one—how much silver has he deposited in your bank? Besides, he also has a stake in the bank. What good would it do him to cheat you? Furthermore, if he goes to ask Wang Dehua for help, he will also have to give Wang Dehua silver. Wang Dehua will still have to give him face. Eunuch Yang would be more than happy to do something that can earn him extra money. Otherwise, how would he curry favor with his superiors?”

“That’s right!” Leng Ningyun supported his forehead with his hand. Wu Kaidi had a point. “But I’m still worried…”

Leng Ningyun had worked in the financial industry for a period in the past and had seen many brokers in the capital who pulled strings and made empty promises. They could swindle tens of thousands or even millions from out-of-town suckers without doing anything.

“You have a point, sir,” Wu Kaidi said. “I’ll go out and inquire right away. I’ll get you some solid news.”

One of Wu Kaidi’s important daily tasks was to go out and buy the court gazette, then go to the gates of the officials and large businesses with whom they had connections, chat with the gatekeepers, and listen to the news. Much of the intelligence Leng Ningyun collected in the capital actually came from this.

“And about the Dengzhou mutiny, you must inquire about it a lot,” he instructed.

“Yes, I understand.”

While Wu Kaidi was out gathering information, Leng Ningyun moved his numb legs off the heated kang. He rubbed his legs and feet, and with a heart full of dissatisfaction, he walked to a hidden door with a combination lock.

Opening the hidden door revealed a room with no windows on all four sides—the local “safe house.” The safe house was not small—it was not a small room. According to the traditional Chinese architectural style, it was a room with three bays. Along the walls were rows of large rosewood cabinets. In the middle was a large painting table. There were a few chairs and several blackboards.

Leng Ningyun lit the gas lamp on the table, and the whole room was instantly brightly lit.

This was a place that only he himself, his assistant Wu Kaidi, and his personal secretary and radio operator could enter.

He walked to a numbered rosewood cabinet.

Opening the cabinet door revealed a dense collection of loose-leaf binders. These cabinets contained all the intelligence materials of the capital, from the officials and clerks of various government offices, the owners and shopkeepers of major businesses, to the clerks, servants, slaves, gatekeepers, and cooks below… The list was complete. There were also short biographies of the more important people. In addition, there were the “black materials” on these people—any black materials, whether hearsay or fact, Wu Kaidi would report to him in detail every day, and he would summarize them into materials and file them in someone’s file.

The bigwigs thought that things were very confidential, but the lower levels knew about them very early on. This phenomenon was also very common in the Ming Dynasty. Especially the servants and petty officials around the high officials and nobles were almost natural leakers of secrets.

The notebooks recorded his achievements in the capital these days.

Intelligence work first required collecting sufficient basic data—and public information was the main source of intelligence. This was a concept that Li Yan had instilled in him during his training at the farm.

In fact, this was not a new concept for Leng Ningyun, who had worked in the financial industry. The financial industry also had an intelligence gathering system. He had worked in the major client department for a period, and the department had detailed customer files on all major clients, down to the birthdays, hobbies, and even eating habits of their wives, children, and even mistresses.

Leng Ningyun was very familiar with the documents in the cabinet. He quickly found the materials on Wang Dehua and other currently popular eunuchs, took them out one by one, piled them on the desk, and began to read.

The days of opening a bank in the capital made Leng Ningyun feel like he had returned to his old job at the bank—the biggest feeling was: it’s so damn boring.

How was this different from working in the major client department of a bank—at least that was in a high-end office building with a 24-hour constant temperature and humidity environment. The washrooms were clean, the flush toilets were shiny, and the air was filled with the smell of jasmine essence.

But since parting with Zhao Yigong in Hangzhou, he had completely lost direct contact with the Senate. His contact with the Senate was limited to a few letters and radio waves. Although the conditions in Lingao were harsh, after several years of construction, the living facilities for the senators had greatly improved. At least the bathroom facilities were fully popularized in Bairen City. Now here, his most accustomed way of hygiene was to boil water and take a bath every day. Wu Kaidi had reminded him more than once that doing so in winter was very dangerous: either he would catch a cold and die, or he would die of “carbon monoxide poisoning” from burning a charcoal basin for warmth while bathing. After catching a cold and having a fever once after bathing, he had to reduce bathing to once a week. Fortunately, there was paper for wiping one’s bottom sold in the capital—called “dou’er paper,” a rough straw paper. After his local maid carefully processed it, it was passable: first spray it with water, then iron it with a charcoal iron to make it much softer.

Leng Ningyun would occasionally regret applying to come to Beijing. He had applied with a faint idea of making a name for himself because he was just an ordinary person in the Senate, and he was actually approved. Leng Ningyun would often shamefully recall how he had fired all his bullets and fled for his life after dropping his rifle in the battle against Huang Shoutong’s camp. Because this matter had been seen by Wang Luobin, it had become a huge “stain” on him. He had always wanted to wash it away through some heroic action.

When he was packing his backpack to leave Lingao and picked up the Glock pistol, he felt a bit of self-mockery: what’s the use of carrying this pistol? Once something happens, it’s too late to expect the Foreign Intelligence Bureau to rescue him. At most, he could use this modern weapon to end his own life.

After arriving in Beijing, the difficulties of the work were far beyond his imagination. Although he had received comprehensive training at the “farm,” and the historical materials research group of the Great Library had specially crammed him with information about the officials and political struggles in the capital, when he actually arrived in Beijing to start work, these things were not very useful: high-ranking officials disdained to meet a small merchant like him. No matter if you were the Bill Gates or Warren Buffett of the Ming Dynasty, in the eyes of the scholar-officials, you were just a tool for amassing wealth.

More importantly, he had come to Beijing through Eunuch Yang’s connections. His business also had Eunuch Yang’s background. Many scholar-officials were not happy about this, which also created resistance to his work. Privately, Leng Ningyun had heard that some senators mocked him for only doing two things in Beijing: kowtowing and giving money.

The problem was, there were some people you wanted to give money to, but there was no way to give it. Leng Ningyun thought to himself, bribery is a profound art.

According to Leng Ningyun’s original plan, his two major tasks in Beijing were: to contact high-ranking officials and expand his intelligence network and connections; and to establish a Delong Bank branch and expand its financial influence to achieve profitability.

For the first task, Leng Ningyun felt that he had somewhat failed the Foreign Intelligence Bureau’s trust. Although Jiang Shan did not have high expectations for his activities, he had not made any noteworthy progress in approaching high-ranking officials. Obviously, just using Eunuch Yang’s route was not enough. They urgently needed new high-level figures with enough influence to broaden their social network.

On the other hand, Delong Bank had been successfully established. The current Delong Bank Beijing branch, though nominally a branch, was actually the Senate’s communication station and intelligence point in Beijing. The bank was established entirely in accordance with the standard system of Delong Bank’s various branches. Leng Ningyun considered himself to be diligent and conscientious in his professional field. With Delong’s existing influence in Guangdong and the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region, the remittance business he had handled since opening had made great progress. In the past, Delong’s drafts could only be cashed at Li Luoyou’s Liaohai Trading Company in the capital, which not only had a large discount but also a monthly limit on cashing, causing many inconveniences. Since Delong opened, the remittance business from Guangdong and Guangxi has been basically monopolized by Delong, and the remittance business in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region is also booming.

Due to the expansion of the remittance business, deposits have also increased significantly. On Leng Ningyun’s books, the recent daily turnover was over one hundred thousand taels. The fixed-term deposit business has also been carried out on a small scale. But the loan business, which is crucial for a bank, has not yet been developed.

From a certain perspective, in 17th-century Beijing of the Ming Dynasty, lending was a very profitable financial activity. Firstly, there was no limited liability in this time and space, only unlimited liability. Secondly, the interest rates here were ridiculously high, with interest calculated monthly. An annual interest rate of less than 30% was considered charitable.

Moreover, the demand for loans here was not small. Whether it was the various merchants operating large businesses here, or the failed scholars and dismissed officials who were striving to secure an official position, they all had a great demand for loans.

In the past few months, he had only issued one large loan: five hundred taels of silver. The project was to lend to a Mongolian merchant going to Mongolia to buy brick tea and miscellaneous goods.

The business was introduced by the Beijing headquarters of the Qiwei Escort Agency. The merchant took the brick tea to Mongolia, exchanged it for furs, horses, and cattle and sheep, and then brought them back to the pass. The profits of the Mongolian trade were very considerable, reaching several hundred percent at a time. Leng Ningyun felt that this risk was worth taking. Even so, he was still worried about this large loan: he actually knew very little about risk control in the Ming Dynasty, but he felt that this step had to be taken sooner or later. Everything has a beginning.