Chapter 863 - Phantom Shares

However, to his slight disappointment, Eunuch Yang's face remained absolutely expressionless, without even a trace to be captured.

"This old monster really gives nothing away," he cursed inwardly.

Finally, Eunuch Yang slowly rolled the letter into a small tube, pulled a lighter from his person, struck it four or five times, lit a flame, and set the secret letter on fire. He kept rotating it until the paper had almost burned to his fingers before dropping it into the spittoon beside the small table.

"Sir has traveled a thousand li, from the South Seas to the capital. What is your purpose?" the old eunuch asked, eyes half-closed.

"This student has come to the capital first to admire its flourishing culture, and second to prepare to open a bank here, to facilitate transfers between north and south," Leng Ningyun seized the opportunity to say. "I must ask for Your Honor's assistance."

"Hehe, how could this humble eunuch have such ability..." Eunuch Yang gave a dry laugh. "I wonder how this 'bank' of yours differs from the money shops those Shanxi fellows run in the capital?"

What Leng Ningyun most feared was that Eunuch Yang would be indifferent to this matter, putting on an air of inscrutability. Now seeing he was interested in discussing it, he immediately gathered his spirits and gave a general overview of Delong's business scope.

The Planning Commission and the Finance Directorate had given Delong a very broad scope of business. Delong not only played the role of a central bank but also undertook all the business of a commercial bank. Even insurance services, which properly belonged to insurance companies, were currently handled by Delong as well.

Delong's branches operating in the Ming Dynasty primarily dealt in savings, remittances, and loans—also the traditional business of Chinese banking. China's most mature financial institutions, the qianzhuang [private banks], didn't appear until the mid-Qing Dynasty, but commercial institutions engaging in similar financial services, remittances, savings, and loans had always existed throughout the dynasties. In Ming Dynasty Beijing, there were similar institutions, all run by Shanxi merchants. Delong's advantage over traditional banking lay in the speed of remittances—ordinary money shops and silver shops handled remittances mainly by issuing and honoring silver notes. But Delong, using radio, could conduct wire transfers. Additionally, in all lines of business, Delong implemented modern financial management systems, with management structures far more rigorous and efficient.

Of course, Eunuch Yang would have difficulty understanding these things. Leng Ningyun mainly selected Delong's distinctive features to discuss, which Eunuch Yang listened to with great interest.

"Sir truly has the skills of Tao Zhu," Eunuch Yang said with narrowed eyes and a smile. "Surely your wealth must roll in like water. However, this humble eunuch must attend His Majesty day and night, already too busy to spare any time. I'm afraid I cannot offer assistance. Hehe, hahaha."

Leng Ningyun knew this was waiting for him to offer the fattened meat—this had been agreed upon long ago: using the time-tested old method of official-merchant collusion: phantom shares.

According to regulations from the Colonization and Trade Department and the Commerce Department, all shops opened outside the Green Zone allocated their net profits into fourteen shares. The plan for Delong's Beijing branch allocated eleven shares to public ownership, one share for shop accumulation fund, one share distributed among all western partners, and the last share was the offering to Eunuch Yang.

Leng Ningyun stated: the phantom shares offered to Eunuch Yang would pay annual dividends according to profits, without fail. Additionally, there would be gift offerings at the three major festivals, two official days of respects, plus Eunuch Yang's birthday.

As soon as he finished speaking, Eunuch Yang fell into contemplation, gaze vacant, as if calculating something.

"Sir comes from Guangzhou, correct? There is actually something I would like Sir's help with..." After a long while, Eunuch Yang finally spoke.

"Yes, please command me, Your Honor."

Eunuch Yang yawned and said: "You Australians over in Guangzhou—"

"Yes, there are indeed many Australian goods sold in Guangzhou."

"Since you come from Guangzhou, you must have many friends and relatives there. Recently, the Chief Eunuch has a birthday coming up. This humble one needs to prepare some gifts as congratulations—you know, what hasn't the Chief Eunuch seen? Things must be novel and amusing. This humble one thought of Australian treasures. I have ten thousand taels of silver. Have someone in Guangzhou purchase some for me."

Saying this, he produced a list.

"Yes, this is within this student's duties. I will serve with all my effort. Please deliver the silver at your convenience, and this student will immediately dispatch someone to handle it."

Hearing these words, Eunuch Yang gave a slight smile and raised his tea bowl.

Immediately, the young eunuch at his side brought tea. Leng Ningyun had learned etiquette at the "Farm" and knew this was the "seeing-off tea"—once the tea was raised, the guest had to rise and "take his leave."

Leng Ningyun took his leave, got into his sedan, but the matter of offering Eunuch Yang phantom shares had been left unresolved. Leng Ningyun couldn't help feeling anxious: what exactly did Eunuch Yang mean?

He pondered in the sedan for a long time but couldn't figure out what Eunuch Yang intended. This matter needed to be discussed with someone quickly.

Leng Ningyun's residence was a small courtyard temporarily lent to him by Li Luoyou. The place wasn't large, used specifically by Li Luoyou to host important guests visiting Beijing. Furniture and amenities were complete, with servants to attend. Knowing that Australians preferred secrecy in their affairs, Li Luoyou had told his Beijing manager in advance that except for the gatekeeper and purchaser, all servants should be withdrawn. Staff within the courtyard would be provided by "Guangdong Master Leng" himself.

Leng Ningyun had also brought a small team of naturalized citizens to Beijing. Serving as manager was Wu Kaidi. Wu Kaidi was one of the rare northerners among the refugees taken in by the Elder Council—a native of Baoding in Northern Zhili. Originally a household servant, he had spent over ten years in the capital with his master, a minor capital official. Later his master was assigned to Guangdong, and he followed. A few years later, his master died of illness in office in Guangdong. On the journey home with the household, they were robbed by bandits and stranded in Guangdong, the whole family nearly starving to death.

Because Wu Kaidi had previously served an official as a household servant, he was very familiar with bureaucratic ways. Combined with his northern background, he became an ideal candidate for the Intelligence Bureau's overseas deployments. Both he and his wife had received foreign assignment training. Wu Kaidi's reliability rating in the Political Security General Administration's evaluation wasn't very high—IIIC class. But his son was currently attending boarding school at Fangcaodi in Lingao, and the Political Security General Administration knew this man cared very much about his son.

Leng Ningyun returned to his lodgings and immediately summoned Wu Kaidi to his study. Closing the door, he described what had happened in detail.

"Now this matter is hanging in mid-air. I have no idea how to proceed or where to even start—isn't that frustrating?" Leng Ningyun continued. "Now I'm stuck whether I do it or don't, whether I find another path or not—caught between a rock and a hard place."

"Master! You really don't understand these worldly ways! Hasn't Eunuch Yang already named his price? He wants ten thousand taels of silver worth of Australian treasures!"

"Ah!" Leng Ningyun suddenly understood. "No wonder, no wonder!"

He recalled the situation again. Indeed, it was exactly as Wu Kaidi said. All that about procuring Australian treasures was just an excuse. He himself hadn't caught on and had actually said Eunuch Yang should "deliver the silver"—of course he'd be shown the door immediately.

"Offering him phantom shares—free silver every year, just sitting at home counting money—and he still requires silver payment to accept? This is really beyond me," Leng Ningyun sighed. "Does he think everyone's silver falls from the sky?"

"No wonder Master can't understand. But in this Beijing city, these 'grandfathers' [eunuchs] are the ones who hold sway. Speaking frankly, plenty of people want to offer phantom shares to them but can't even find a way in! This bunch of grandfathers all have money fever. Never mind your phantom shares—anything good that catches their eye, there's nothing they don't want. Silver, antiques, houses, fine horses, beautiful women, handsome boys... like flies on blood..."

Leng Ningyun said: "Everything else I understand, but why would they want beautiful women and handsome boys? To keep at home as decorations?"

Wu Kaidi gave a lewd smile: "It's like fine horses—they can't ride them, but they can still enjoy looking at them at home. Besides, it's not like they can't use them at all."

Apparently feeling it wasn't quite proper to discuss such things with a "chief," he quickly shut his mouth.

Leng Ningyun very much wanted to know how they could be "used," but this was somewhat embarrassing to ask. He changed the subject to how to deliver the money.

Leng Ningyun hadn't brought much silver—like Zhao Yingong, he had only brought three hundred taels of gold to Beijing. However, he also carried several Delong Bank bills of exchange of different denominations, totaling fifty thousand taels. These could be exchanged for cash or bills from other silver shops at Li Luoyou's Beijing establishments. Delong bills had no exchange rate in Beijing; the hardest currency here were the silver notes from Shanxi banking houses. Before coming to Beijing this time, Leng Ningyun had done some background research on the Shanxi banking houses—in Beijing, these "Old Xi" were his biggest competitors.

Of course, the Finance Directorate couldn't possibly give fifty thousand taels of silver to an overseas intelligence officer, nor would Li Luoyou pay out such a large sum at once to Leng Ningyun in the capital. In fact, the fifty thousand taels were payment for a trade contract Li Luoyou had negotiated: various goods produced in Lingao would be delivered in Guangdong and Jiangnan; the silver would be paid in installments in Beijing by Li Luoyou's Liaohai Trading Company. They had agreed that amounts under ten thousand taels could be withdrawn at any time; amounts over ten thousand required advance notice so silver could be assembled.

Leng Ningyun took out a ten-thousand-tael Delong Bank draft from his personal code cylinder and gave it to Wu Kaidi. The code cylinder was the kind from The Da Vinci Code. The External Intelligence Bureau had ordered a batch of Italian-made products through Macau. Compared to the document boxes and jewelry cases that people of the time used for carrying valuables, its security was much better, and there was no need to carry a key.

"Take this draft and this goods list to Liaohai Trading immediately. Have them prepare goods according to the list. They certainly won't have all these items—first have Liaohai send over an inventory list."

"Yes, this servant understands."

Wu Kaidi left with his orders. The next morning, Leng Ningyun had Wu Kaidi deliver the inventory list to Eunuch Yang's mansion. By evening, a young eunuch was dispatched from Eunuch Yang's residence, bearing a red invitation requesting him to "come for a chat" in three days.

"The matter is settled," Wu Kaidi said. "When you go in three days, Eunuch Yang will probably have some important matters to discuss with you."