These days, the city of Xuzhou is in turmoil, with people in panic.

As expected, on the second day after the bank run, Manager Song's people came to Jiangnan Bank to continue processing foreign exchange transactions, and applied to withdraw a full one million taels in the morning!

In the afternoon, perhaps because the news of the bank run spread, people from Xuzhou City flocked to the bank, bringing their silver certificates and demanding to exchange them for silver.

The lobby of Jiangnan Bank was packed with people and noisy, it was almost bursting!

This scene disgusted the bank employees. A few days ago, the scene of the various banks and pawnshops on Nanmen Street buying silver bills at a discount was still vivid in my mind. Even the silver bills of Jiangnan Bank had been withdrawn for several days. How many were left in the hands of ordinary people?

Now it is easy to imagine where these so-called people in the hall, who are red-faced and roaring loudly to return the money, come from.

They are the people hired by the money houses to cause trouble!

"Bah, disgusting!" the tellers were furious.

"Pay them the money." President Jiang did not allow his men to do anything radical. The banknotes were bearer, so even if a dog brought them to the counter, Jiangnan Bank would pay them on sight.

The tellers had no choice but to suppress their anger and start checking the banknotes. The method of checking banknotes is very simple, and you don't even need to use your eyes to see the details such as ink and printing. You just need to rub and pull the banknotes in your hands. The unique feeling of not being able to be torn is enough to make all counterfeiters sigh in despair.

As long as it is genuine banknotes, we will pay you with official silver on the spot, not a penny less!

~~

Opposite, on the second floor of Hengtongji.

Manager Song was still standing in front of the window, watching the people he had arranged come out one after another, carrying bulging bags on their backs, like ants moving house.

Song Cai held a teacup and a towel for him, and said with a flattering smile: "Jiangnan Bank is arrogant and naive. They want to pay on sight. Isn't this courting death?"

"If you pay without seeing the bill, why should people treat the paper you print as money?" Manager Song glanced at his cousin as if he were an idiot.

"What I mean is that you are one step ahead and you seized their loophole to strike a fatal blow." Seeing that his flattery had backfired, Song Cai hurriedly changed his words awkwardly, "More than two million taels of silver notes were withdrawn at the same time. This move alone can squeeze them down!"

"That's not necessarily true." Song Xiaoming shook his head and said, "Their silver notes are still in the market stage. At this time, they should be cautious and keep enough silver as a reserve."

"I asked people to use silver notes to run on Jiangnan Bank. First, to consume their deposits so that they can't embezzle the reserve silver. Second, to create panic so that they can't get away with using silver notes." After a pause, he said quietly:

"But silver notes are a good thing. Once this is over, we have to issue Hengtong silver notes no matter how much it costs."

While saying this, Manager Song kept staring at the golden sign of "Jiangnan Bank".

In fact, he admired, envied and even envied Jiangnan Bank, a rising star. Since taking the top spot in the money-lending industry, Song Xiaoming was full of pride, but he had also been thinking hard about how to make Hengtongji bigger and stronger and create more glory.

Manager Song knew very well that the current situation was definitely not the end of this business, but he was puzzled as to how to break the impasse.

It was not until Jiangnan Bank rose like a comet with a powerful and sweeping attitude that Manager Song realized from this opponent that what Jiangnan Bank was doing was the answer he had been seeking.

If you want the money banking industry to achieve a qualitative leap and become a dominant presence, you must follow the path of Jiangnan Bank!

But the pride of the leader prevented Hengtongji from worshipping a rising star as his master. So he could only choose to destroy this challenger for the throne and then follow the other's path.

"So, you'd better go and die soon, and don't delay my business." Manager Song said silently, and finally withdrew his eyes from the sign of "Jiangnan Bank" and turned away from the window.

~~

Just as Manager Song had expected, because the credit of silver certificates had not yet been established, Jiang Xueying had been asking branches across the country to firmly implement the rule of 'silver in, certificates out, special funds for special purposes'.

That is to say, the Treasury must prepare an equal amount of silver to the amount of silver notes issued by the bank, and it is strictly forbidden to use the reserve silver for other purposes.

The vice president of risk control is specifically responsible for this matter, and even the president cannot violate the regulations.

Therefore, the Xuzhou branch had sufficient reserve silver to redeem the silver bills that poured in.

But the citizens believed everything they heard. When they heard that there was a bank run at the Xuzhou branch, they also took out their own bills and silver notes and followed the trend to run on the Jiangnan Bank.

This made the Xuzhou branch look very precarious, but President Jiang and his staff showed strong resilience. For four days, they opened the bank on time every day, accepting all who came to cash out and handling foreign exchange business, with no intention of closing the bank or running away.

It also disappointed the bank owners who had ambushed people in secret, ready to catch them red-handed.

At this time, the news that Jiangnan Group was counterattacking Hengtongji in the ten prefectures of Jiangnan also reached Xuzhou through the pigeon system of various money houses.

The bank owners were all terrified when they heard the news. Compared to the fact that Jiangnan Bank offered two or three times higher interest rates and was luring Hengtongji's deposits, they were more afraid of the Jiangnan Group's determination to take revenge and fight to the death.

Normally, Jiangnan Bank should have clasped its hands and made peace after being hit by this blow. Even if it wanted to retaliate, it should have waited until it got through this hurdle and recovered, right?

How could they rush over with bricks in their hands when their heads were covered in blood? Was Jiangnan Bank crazy, or did they simply not take their attacks seriously?

It seems that no matter which one it is, it is not something that small characters like them can endure...

All the bosses were panicking and quickly came to Hengtongji to meet with Manager Song to ask him what he thought of Jiangnan Bank's countermeasures.

"What do you think? It's normal." Song Xiaoming was very calm. He comforted the bosses and said, "Jiangnan Bank is just trying to play the trick of besieging Wei to save Zhao. Don't worry, our Hengtongji has enough silver in stock, so we are not afraid of them copying."

"Yes, the result will be known in the next two days. Why are you so impatient?" Song Cai also said unhappily, "Starting tomorrow, they will have to pay the silver. It's uncertain whether they can pay the one million taels on the first day!"

"That's right, everyone, just wait for two more days." The bosses felt relieved after hearing this. As long as the Jiangnan Bank in Xuzhou collapsed, everyone would have a better life. Who cares whether Hengtongji in Jiangnan is dead or alive?

Song Cai said a few polite words and sent the bosses away.

When he turned around, he saw Manager Song pacing upstairs with his hands behind his back, no longer as calm as before.

"Uncle, are you worried about Jiangnan?" Song Cai quickly brought him a cup of tea.

In fact, they didn't tell the truth to the bank owners. Jiangnan Hengtongji's current silver inventory was actually not sufficient - where did the five million taels deposited in Jiangnan Bank come from? It was taken from Hengtongji's silver inventory!

"No." Song Xiaoming shook his head.

Hengtongji's base was in Huai'an, and the canal from Huai'an to Jiangnan was not cut off. As soon as he received the emergency call from Jiangnan, he immediately ordered the Huai'an head office to transfer 5 million taels of silver in the warehouse to Suzhou, Nanjing and other places. This should be enough to deal with the situation in Jiangnan.

What made him uneasy was the reaction of the Xuzhou branch, which was too stable. They seemed to have been panicked only in the first two days, and then they quickly regained their composure. Everything went according to plan, as if they had completely forgotten that they would start paying out silver in units of one million taels tomorrow.

"Could it be that they found the silver from somewhere else?" Manager Song thought of a possibility.

"That's impossible." Song Cai shook his head and said, "We have been keeping an eye on their branches in Shandong, but they haven't made any moves so far. Besides, they can't even protect themselves, so where can they find money to support the Xuzhou branch?"

"Hmm." Song Xiaoming nodded blankly. Of course he knew these things. And to be on the safe side, he even asked the General Office of the Canal Transport to temporarily block the Xiazhen Gate on Weishan Lake to prevent any civilian ships from entering Xuzhou. It should be foolproof.

That's why he was wondering where the other party got the confidence from.

Unable to figure out this problem, Manager Song suffered from insomnia.

That night, as he was tossing and turning in the pancakes, he heard a noisy sound of horses neighing and cows mooing on the street.

As if sensing something, Song Xiaoming sat up immediately. The maid quickly lit the lamp and just as she was putting on his shoes, she heard the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs.

Manager Song felt even worse now, and quickly calmed himself down and asked in a deep voice, "What happened on the street?"

"Uncle, it's a fleet from Jiangnan Bank..." Song Cai's voice changed due to fear: "They said a fleet came to the official ship dock. Jiang Dou brought most of the guys and drove a car to meet the ship. All the silver boxes were unloaded!"

"Where did the fleet come from?" Song Xiaoming was so furious that he no longer stayed upstairs and went downstairs in two steps.

"Jining." Song Cai almost bumped into him and quickly moved aside.

"How did they pass through the gate?" asked Manager Song in disbelief.

"They used the boats of the river administration office..." Song Cai answered with difficulty, "They were under the banner of Pan Jixun, so the gates dared not stop them."

"Ah! Isn't this cheating? How can you use the government's boat?" Song Xiaoming's blood seemed to freeze when he heard this. He had planned everything, but he never expected that the river government would openly help Jiangnan Bank to deal with him.

Although he knew that Pan Jixun and Zhao Hao had a good relationship, but if he offended the Canal Transport Office, would he, as the Minister of Rivers, still want to repair the Yellow River?

Now was not the time to think about these things. He forced himself to calm down and said, "That doesn't matter. Even if we emptied the money from the four branches in Shandong, it would only be three million taels at most. It's still not enough!"

In the past few days, the people of the shopkeeper Song have handled a total of 5 million taels of foreign exchange at the Xuzhou branch. In addition to the actions of various money houses and the run on the bank, the payment pressure of the Xuzhou branch of Jiangnan Bank has reached a huge amount of 7 million taels!

There is still half left to go!!

“Fortunately, Uncle Bo Tuyi used all his strength, otherwise we would have let them get away with it this time.” Song Cai also calmed down and wiped the sweat off his forehead thankfully.

"..." Song Xiaoming didn't say anything, because he realized how stupid what he said was.