The air inside the stone gate was not circulating, and upon entering, there was an uncomfortable feeling of stuffiness.
Jiang Bai took out the lamp oil he had prepared and lit the candle.
He examined the boxes in the secret room, spread a long cloth on the ground, turned the basket upside down, and laid a wooden board on it to serve as a table.
A stone that was carried in was used as a stool.
She took out several homemade charcoal pencils from the cloth bag, and with everything ready, she began to count them.
Each silver ingot is worth ten taels. Twenty silver ingots are placed horizontally in the box, and ten silver ingots are placed vertically in a row, for a total of twenty rows, totaling forty ingots of silver. That is, one box contains forty thousand taels of silver.
There are two such boxes, which contain the silver ingots placed here, totaling 80,000 taels of silver.
Jiang Bai wrote down the quantity and amount of silver on a piece of paper, his mind at peace.
It's only 80,000 taels.
Converted to copper coins, that's 80 million coins. The price of grain has increased by 10 coins compared to a few days ago, averaging 40 coins per catty. If all this silver were converted into grain, that would be 2 million catties.
That sounds like a lot.
However, based on an average daily grain consumption of half a jin per person, this amount of grain would only be enough to feed four million people for one day. If the timeframe is extended to one month, it would only be enough to feed one hundred thousand people.
One hundred thousand people, a month's worth of food, could spend all that money.
This only includes grains, not salt, iron, meat, vegetables, etc.
Nowadays, meat prices are outrageously high; ordinary domestic pork sells for six or seven qian of silver per jin.
If we were to buy meat, this amount of money wouldn't be enough to feed 100,000 people for a month.
Therefore, Jiang Bai remained calm. Compared to the other items in the secret room, these two boxes of silver were the least valuable.
Only when his gaze fell upon the box containing the gold did a hint of eagerness appear in Jiang Bai's eyes.
One tael of gold is worth ten taels of silver. The gold ingots in the box are worth ten taels each. They are arranged in 25 rows horizontally and 10 rows vertically. Each box contains 12 rows of gold ingots, with 3,000 ingots in each box. The two boxes together contain 6,000 ingots, which is 60,000 taels of gold, worth 600,000 taels of silver.
After meticulously recording the quantity and value of the gold, Jiang Bai calmly closed the box and began to inventory the six boxes of old jewelry.
Twenty pearls the size of pigeon eggs, one hundred gemstones of various colors, fifty sets of crafted headdresses, and a whole box of jade ornaments…
One by one, these precious objects were recorded on paper.
Perhaps Jiang Bai had seen it many times, and she could remain calm as still water.
Until the very end, Jiang Bai discovered a hidden compartment under the box at the very back of the secret room.
Knock knock.
A dull, hollow sound came from the bottom of the box. Jiang Bai took a knife and began to cut along the bottom of the box.
Sizzle.
The blade scraped against the bottom of the wooden box with a harsh sound. With a little force, she pierced the bottom of the box and cut along the edge, revealing a palm-sized box underneath.
Use a knife to pry the box out from under the box, and you'll find a keyhole in front of it.
Jiang Bai stared silently at the key hanging around his neck.
So this key is multi-purpose?
Insert the key into the lock, and with a click, the box opens successfully, revealing a piece of animal skin as thin as a cicada's wing.
The words "Luzhou" were written on the animal hide, the curved lines pointing directly to the deep mountain region of Luzhou.
"Could this be a treasure map?"
Jiang Bai muttered to himself, carefully examining the animal hide. In the lower left corner, there was a black dot that looked no bigger than a thumb.
"Yu?"
Jiang Bai muttered the word, raised the knife in his hand, and there was also the character "Yu" on the top of the hilt.
The same character was also engraved on the bows, arrows, guns, and other weapons in the armory.
As far as she knew, there was no family with the surname Yu in the Qian Yuan Kingdom. Either the family did not exist, or it had been wiped out.
Will Ji Mo find out?
Jiang Bai put the animal hide away, thinking about how Wang Shaoyang had suddenly left Nan'an County for Luzhou. He wondered if it was because of the place recorded on the animal hide.
It seems the Third Prince went there too?
Suppressing her thoughts, she continued to take inventory.
Besides the extra animal hides, the gold and silver jewelry and other items in the secret room were worth approximately three million taels of silver.
Three million taels sounds like a lot, but in reality, it's not that much.
It's just the price of ten thousand pigs.
I thought I had made a fortune, but if I were to support people, this amount of money would be enough to support around 10,000 people.
Unless there's a continuous influx of money, this amount of silver really isn't enough.
Jiang Bai sighed and put his things away.
Jewelry is marked, making it difficult to sell; gold is too conspicuous and its use could easily arouse suspicion.
After all the calculations, only the 80,000 taels of silver could actually be used.
After counting the silver and other valuables, she went to the armory and spent the whole night registering all of them.
It was a booklet as thick as a thumb, and it contained four volumes.
The book includes one volume on knives, one volume on guns, one volume on bows and arrows, and one volume on gold and silver jewelry.
After counting the money, she returned to the stone chamber.
Instead of going home, they first went deep into Pingshan and found the highest point on the mountaintop.
The wind was still scorching tonight, and even though it was past midnight, there was still a heat in the air.
Jiang Songzong's resentment before his death gave her an idea: how to solve the problem of loyalty among those she supported.
Humans are the most fickle creatures in the world. One moment they can be loyal to you, and the next they may betray you for all sorts of unfounded reasons.
She prefers other methods of control to trusting in human nature.
She sat cross-legged on the mountaintop, her soul sinking deep into her mind.
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