Life (eight)

It’s also the New Year, ordinary families don’t have so many troubles. After working hard for a whole year, it’s only a few days to relax. Who would be willing to bother to think about the profound connotation of the imperial decree? Anyway, the people of the Central Plains have never expected officials to be greedy since ancient times. There is a saying that “The Yellow River is easy to be clear and the officials are hard to be clear.” There is too many opportunities for embezzlement and there is no supervision. In that position, it is really difficult for these officials to be able to maintain their integrity. If the common people have the ability to figure out the imperial decree, they might as well go to the streets to sell New Year’s goods and find some money to make a living.

As soon as the snow clears, the streets are crowded with people. Those who buy windmills and those who blow candy are shouting happily. The "wave drums" are mixed with wind whistles and firecrackers that sound from time to time, which raises the atmosphere of the New Year. At the beginning of the first lunar month, it happened that the children had New Year's money. The small vendors rushed to the coins in the hands of the children. These coins were good things. The court prepared for several months and was not released until the end of the year. It was only circulated in the capital and several surrounding counties. The cities outside were said to have to wait until three or four months before they could see them. This exquisite currency court stipulated that they were themselves and their treasure money, gold

The temporary exchange rate of silver and other currencies is currently exchanged with gold and silver and other weights. However, no one with a discerning eye can see that this thing is much more at ease than treasure banknotes. Even real gold and silver may not be as useful as this thing. So during the Spring Festival, the red envelopes given to children by elders are more of this kind of coins. Rich families have gold, medium families have silver, and small families don’t have that much savings, and two copper coins are also suitable. The supply of new coins on the market is insufficient, so the value is higher than the scope prescribed by the court. Originally, two silver coins for one tael of silver were copied privately for twenty coins, which led to the rise of gold and copper coins.

The development of the new currency in the Ming Dynasty mobilized more than half of the staff of the Academy of Sciences to participate. After several months of repeated research, the samples were launched after entering the wax and trialed in a small range at the end of the year. The new currency was divided into gold, silver and copper, and the picture was basically the same except for the face value mark. The front is the sunrise in the sea, which was born in the sea, and thousands of auspicious colors were shot out against the backdrop of waves and clouds. On the back is the Yanshan Mountain, and a bright moon shines quietly on the stone wall of the ages, with several stars siege one.

The semicircle is scattered around the moon. Unlike the previous money-making, the new currency does not have a square hole in the middle, and the eight words "The sun and the moon will never die, shine on the Ming Dynasty" are added on the side of the coin, which are written by Zhou Wuyou, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Works. According to the regulations of the court, during the passage, the clouds and clouds protruding on both sides of the currency, stars or concave writings on the sides are flattened, and the holder must take it to the designated bank or bill number of the Ming Dynasty court to exchange it at a discount depending on the wear level.

Unless you deliberately use a knife to scrape it, it is difficult to smooth the pattern on the currency. In terms of quality, the new coin is not pure, and the gold coins are bright yellow. The students who are interested take it home and measure it with the miscellaneous knowledge they have learned. It is estimated that the gold content of the gold coins is about 92% and the other additives should be copper or silver. In any case, pure gold is definitely not so hard (the current American commemorative gold coins have a composition content of 91.67% gold; 5.33% copper; 3% silver). The silver coins should be 925% (early British silver coins standard, containing 92.5% silver, and 7.5% copper). The copper coins have the highest quality, with a copper content of 97%. The remaining impurities should be lead or tin (wear-resistant bronze coins, modern German standards).

The new coins were designed by the Academy of Sciences, funded by the Treasury, and supervised by the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Works and the three ordnance manufacturing plants in Peking, Tianjin and Songjiang. The fire consumption cost is 6%. After the metal is melted, it is pressed in a unified mold by a water hammer. Two of them are taken out in a handful of gold coins. The appearance and weight are absolutely no different. Each gold coins weigh about one or two taels in the folk, which is equivalent to the Ming Dynasty's ordnance measurement standard (Peking standard) forty grams (the weight of the two in the Ming Dynasty should be 37.5 grams), and the silver coins are half a tael, which is equivalent to the Ming Dynasty's ordnance standard for twenty grams. The copper coins are two types of big coins and small coins, and the big coins weigh 4 grams, which is equivalent to the market's money. The exchange ratio of the four currencies is: one gold coins are exchanged for ten silver coins, and one silver coins are exchanged for five hundred small coins or fifty big coins.

The exchange rate stipulated by the court is roughly the same as the currency circulating on the market, but the people themselves have their own little calculations in their minds. One tael of silver can now be exchanged for nine hundred to one thousand Tongbao. The weight of two silver coins is equal to one tael of silver, so they do not suffer any loss when using one thousand Tongbao for two silver coins. For merchants who often deal with gold and silver, one gold coins exchanged for ten silver coins is to fix the gold and silver ratio to one to five, so they are also attracted to the new coins. The only unhappy person is probably some private money minted in the countryside of Zhejiang. These black-hearted guys are used to using inferior products as good ones and risk the whole family beheading their heads to privately mint coins with insufficient weight. This time, when they saw the pattern of the new coins, they were stunned. Coinmakers

A brief look can be seen that there are more than twenty patterns, without molds and hydraulic hammers. Making copper coins by hand alone is definitely a loss of money. This time, the imperial court clearly stipulates that the gold and silver in private hands can be exchanged for new coins at the money shop. Within two years, the physical gold and silver and gold and silver currency will be exchanged at the same weight. After two years, 8% of the fire consumption fee will be paid. After five years, the price of gold and silver exchange currency will be liberalized. It will either be based on the current price or be made into a utensil. Gold and silver cannot be used as payment means to circulate. In this way, for the sake of 8% loss within five years, merchants will never privately hire people to mint coins at the risk of raiding homes and extermination. Five years later, it is estimated that the gold and silver in merchants will have already been exchanged.

"Oh, it would be great if Baochao was not used to be used." Wu Youde, who had been making counterfeit coins for half his life, squatted at his doorstep and looked at the sun in the west and sighed. Unlike gold, silver and old-style money, the final exchange period of Baochao is the end of the year, that is, after the next Spring Festival, the banknotes will completely disappear from the market in the Ming Dynasty. News came from the capital that this spring, the Ming Dynasty officially used the local semicolons to collect Baochao and exchange new coins in various places. The Yizheng banknotes are collected at the value of seven cents of silver. Na Zhan, Xu, and Gaochao banknotes.

The chief shopkeepers all paid a large sum of gold as collateral and obtained the right to assist in issuance of new coins in the court. The commission given to them was 2% for these two cents. The commission was really not high. Once they received counterfeit banknotes and silver of insufficient quality, they would have to pay a few days of profit. Therefore, the folks in each semicolon were very energetic. Especially the newly opened Zhan Ji, the chief shopkeeper's brother was nicknamed "The Wolf of the City". The strong generals had no weak soldiers. Most of the shopkeepers in the semicolons were graduated from the business school of Peking Academy, and they all had a keen eye.

"Dad Wu, Dad Wu, Uncle Wu, I'll call you to go, in the ancestral hall." A young man drove a plow truck to pass by Dad Wu's house. The steel plow blade emitted the smell of early spring soil. It seemed that he had returned from his own land. Although the price of plows in this building was a bit expensive, the sowing efficiency was as high as several laborers. It was early to buy this one in the village.

"I understand"! Wu Youde quilted his eyes, and then rubbed his frozen red ears in the spring breeze with his hands, and stood up to walk towards the Wu family ancestral hall at the entrance of the village. Falsification is a craft, and it is not easy to make the fakes to the point where they can be real. The Wu family has been able to produce masters every few decades since the Song Dynasty. Although the masters' endings are not good, life is very comfortable before making mistakes. Wu Youde's craftsmanship has also reached a state of perfection. If it weren't for gambling, his life would definitely be the best in the village.

After entering the ancestral hall, Wu Youde found that everyone had basically arrived. The patriarch Wu Liang changed his usual lukewarm appearance to Wu Youde, stood up and greeted him with a smile, "Youde, come and sit, come and sit."

Everyone pushed and shoved Wu Youde to the patriarch, closed the door of the ancestral hall, and began to discuss the counterfeiting technology of new coins. The stamping machine and lathe are high-end goods. Even if you can find a distinguished customer to help you pay for it, you still need to register in Peking. If you don’t do serious business after buying it, you may get angry. There is no place to make the coin templates, and it is not like handmade counterfeits. People holding counterfeit coins may be taken out and sent to the government for a bounty before they can be spent. They chatted for a long time, but they couldn’t make a fuss. So the patriarch Wu Liang saw that the time had come, took a sip of tea and coughed gently.

Everyone stopped the voice very politely. Wu's family is a large clan in the village. The tribe is strict and the power of the clan leader is no less than that of officials. Some private methods of punishing unfilial descendants have never heard of them.

"I'll ask you to discuss something today. Since the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty, our Wu family has been relying on this craft. You also know that this matter is very risky. Although according to the clan rules, if something happens, the relatives will always be the ones who have to take the disaster. Over the past few hundred years, the clan has also spent a lot of lives. Now that the new currency has been launched, I think that the days of our Wu family's private coins have come to an end, so I discussed with Brother Cai to greet everyone and discuss future opportunities." The clan leader Wu Liang looked solemn, and when it comes to the livelihood of a hundred people, he felt that he was responsible on his shoulders.

"Uncle Liang, you have a reasonable point, but the old and young men in our village are all skilled. There are only a few who can serve crops well. If you don't make fake money, what can we do?" An older man stood up and said.

"Yes, we have never done business, so why do we have a job?" several young young people agreed.

"We can't make new coins. We will make more money this year and make a lot of money while the old and new are changing. When the money is invalid, we will also have a fortune. We will buy a lot of land outside the pass and hire tenants to be rich."

The people below obviously disagree with the patriarch's proposal to closure the business, and they were full of opposition.

"Youde, what do you think, you are good at craftsmanship, I want to hear what you mean," Wu Liang suppressed everyone's voices and pushed the problem to Wu Youde.

If this gambling ghost Wu Youde cannot imitate the new currency, everyone will be yelling for nothing. Everyone knows that Guan Qiao is there and they will look at Wu Youde in unison.

If it were normal, Wu Youde would definitely take a stand and put on the show before speaking, but today it was not possible. The silver coins he asked someone to exchange for from the capital were covered in his pocket. He had been thinking about it for several days, but he had not figured out how many hidden marks there were on the silver coins. Looking at the moon, stars, mountains and rivers seemed to be arranged very casually, but in fact, there must be a statement between the distance, angle, or the correspondence between a certain star and a certain stone. Compared with the previous money-making, it is more than ten thousand times more difficult to imitate.

Shaking his head, Wu Youde sighed: "Don't look at me, I have no choice this time. I have been watching this thing for more than a day. The more I look at it, the more I have a better idea. Unless I can steal the template, I should not make this idea. There is a stupid way, which is to collect more big copper coins and then sell them. I guess we can make some hard money."

"This way, the village in front of Shanqian has already been used. It turns out that they are just selling copper to make money. It is not easy to use. They deducted the filial piety to the fathers in the county and could not lose a few of them." The blushing old man Wu Cai raised objections below, which aroused a lot of consent.

Wu Liang glared at the old man with red face. They were cousins ​​and had been fighting for the position of the patriarch for many years. Wu Cai, who was blushing, lost and was unwilling to fail. He always sang opposite Wu Liang in front of others. But Wu Cai was very reasonable and Wu Liang had no choice but to do anything to him.

"Brother Cai, then what should we do?" Wu Youde saw that Wu Liang could not stay in the market, so in order to repay his kindness to him just now, he used the topic to make things difficult for Wu Cai.

Wu Cai smiled slightly, as if he had already made up his mind, "I still have the same old saying, "I starve to death, and those who are brave to death. We can't make counterfeit money, and we can't make anything else. Make a quick money, and then everyone will win the whole thing."

"Quick money, it's easy to say. Brother Cai, why don't you tell me where to find fast money?" Wu Liang said with an unhappy face.

"Yes, Brother Cai, tell everyone how we can find a quick money, so that we can stop the mountain after making money, so as to avoid being worried about living a life." Several villagers who wanted to make a fortune said.

Wu Cai stood up, looked around everyone, and asked in a low voice: "If I have a way to make money, will you all listen to me in the future?"

"Listen, whoever can make money for everyone, everyone will listen to whoever you want?" A few younger generations of Wu Cai followed suit and deceived him. In their eyes, Wu Cai was more pleasing than the patriarch Wu Liang, at least he was not that rigid.

"Brother Liang, what do you think?" Seeing that everyone's support, Wu Cai forced Wu Liang to palace, waiting for the patriarch's answer.

Wu Liang knew what his cousin wanted, and smiled bitterly and said, "Acai, if you have a solution, this position will belong to you, but you can't let the whole village encounter danger. We have to leave a way out for everyone."

"What's the problem? Anyway, everyone has made fake money. This time, we'll just come to the second largest one. We'll make money. By the end of the year, there will be one year left for the Baochao to expire, which is enough for us to make a fortune. As long as Brother Liang asked Xiao Liu, who was shipped, to move faster, he was afraid that he would not make money without money." The old man blushed boldly proposed his plan.

"No, the shipment cannot be too fast. You must ship to Guangdong according to the old rules. Otherwise, once the government finds counterfeit money coming to the door, we will die." The patriarch Wu Liang immediately rejected Wu Cai's proposal. False money is easy to make, but it is difficult to ship, and it is difficult to find next door. Therefore, the village has been very restrained in making counterfeit money in recent years, and this is also the case that Wu Cai and others are not satisfied with.

"That's right, this fake money is easy to go out. Anyway, the copper is circulating in daily life, and it is impossible to see if it is worn. It's troublesome to make fake money. Small-sized transactions are not used. We don't need so much goods for bulk transactions. It's hard to wash them all." Wu Liang has many supporters in the clan.

Wu Cai, blushing, smiled gloomy and whispered: "If what we made is real money, can we still be discovered?"

The ancestral hall suddenly became quiet. How could it be possible to make real money? But when Wu Cai said so surely, everyone felt strange. What was even more strange was that the patriarch Wu Liang's face suddenly turned pale. He pointed at Wu Cai, couldn't speak for a long time, and his body shook into a ball.

"Brother Liang, I don't need to say anything now. A few years ago, our village took on several big deals, and someone asked us to print a banknote. Every time you have to take everyone to work for more than a month before the completion was completed. Afterwards, I collected a total of 20,000 taels of cash. In addition to the benefits of being distributed to local governments, each of them only distributed more than 100 taels of taels of fake banknotes. But I heard from people that the batch of fake banknotes totaled more than 6 million guan. Everyone is here today. I would like to ask Brother Liang, where is the template for the fake banknote? Is it really carved with virtue?"

"Oh my god, did you hear it? Six million guan." The house was in a panic. Everyone was busy, and no one counted how much money they had made. If it was really six million guan, then according to the ten-drawn business rules, the client would have to leave at least 600,000 taels of cash in the village. Why did the 20,000 taels be sent to everyone? What about the remaining money? Was it greedy for this kid Wu Liang?

An old man immediately stood up and asked the patriarch: "Uncle Liang, are there really so many? Why are you not afraid of living a big life that time? Why did you give everyone such a little benefit?"

"This, this," Wu Liang shook his hands repeatedly and somehow answered. Wu Youde, who was sitting next to him, was sweating heavily, as if it was not early spring now.

"Let me say, the template is real. It is a real mold made by the Ministry of Revenue in the Ming Dynasty and used by the Ministry of Industry to print money." Wu Cai loudly revealed the secret, "Youde, do you say, did you really carve that mold?"

"Don't talk nonsense, be careful to bring disaster to everyone." The patriarch Wu Liang waved his hands repeatedly, and ordered while stopping Wu Cai's shouting: "Xiao Wu, take a few people around the ancestral hall and notify him not to let the idle people get close."

The young man who was called Xiaowu agreed and led a few young men to the door, pulled down the door bolt, but the door could not be opened. He pulled it hard several times, but the door remained motionless.

I felt bored in the room. This is the weather in early spring. Why is it so hot just after the Chinese New Year?

"Uncle Liang, the door was tied up from outside," Xiao Wu reported loudly.

It was broken, something big happened, and the people outside the ancestral hall didn't even sound. The patriarch Wu Liang didn't care about rebelling with his cousin in the nest and shouted, "Everyone jumped into the window, go quickly, go quickly."

Others also felt something was wrong. They just clamored to make money, but forgot to take into account the outside environment. Now they realized that something was different. The strong young man immediately jumped over the spiritual position of his ancestors and pulled the window with all his might.

"Swish", a rocket shot in from outside the window, nailing the young man closest to the window to the ground.

A lively life disappeared from the front of his eyes in a flash. Under the ancestor's spirit card, there were a pair of big, desperate eyes.

"Don't mess around, smash the window, smash it with a chair, and then jump out one by one, everyone runs apart, and runs one by one," Wu Liang shouted loudly, directing the crowd to avoid it. After a while, several corpses were already lying on the window. Through the window, you could see dazzling fires flashing in the village.

"It's gone, it's gone, ah..." A child who released the buffalo shouted at the top of his throat. After shouting twice, it was cut off.

The screams came from afar, women's and children's, from afar in the spring breeze. Every moan was filled with the desire for life.

"Wu Cai, who told you, who told you that we have real molds?" The patriarch Wu Liang began to calm down in despair, pulling his cousin's neck and shouting.

"I am a guy named Zhang, who was the last time I collected money and the old guest. Today I met him in the town. He advised me to gather everyone to do a big deal, and he accepted everything as required. He also quietly revealed that I said you got a real mold and you and Youde embezzled the printed money." Wu Cai's voice was filled with crying voice, his pants were already wet, I didn't know if it was sweat or his own urine.

"Damn it, kill someone to silence you. You have no brainstorm, don't you think about why you want you to gather everyone together." Wu Liang put down his cousin's collar, raised half of the table and walked to the window.

Several sharp arrows shot on the table, and the fire-burning object on the arrow slowly began to rise.

The patriarch Wu Liang hid behind the table and shouted, "Don't shoot, don't shoot, I am the patriarch. Please ask your Lord Zhang to speak out. My village is willing to use all the savings to atone for his sins." The burning sound of Pili Bar blocked his voice.

"Don't shoot, don't shoot, we are willing to atone for our sins, we are willing to atone for our sins." Wu Cai, who knew the power, shouted with several people.

The sound of mercy from the crowd passed through the thick smoke and reached the ears of the masked man surrounding the house. About 200 men in black-clad holding weapons surrounded the ancestral hall and kept shooting rockets at the wooden beams. The village was already in a mess. The robbers in black were searching door-to-door with sharp blades, and they cut off a few times when they saw living things. When they saw valuable things, they tried their best to make a robber robber.

Men, women, young and old, survived. In the fields far away, the newly sown land silently watched everything that happened in the world.

"Sir, the people in the room are begging for mercy, and they are willing to use money to redeem their lives." A man in black came forward to ask for instructions.

"Sir, what should I do if there are a few children?" Another man in black had a hint of unbearableness flashed in his eyes. In the chilly spring breeze, several half-aged children were tied together by ropes, and they were so scared that they could not cry.

"Twist all into the ancestral hall, don't leave any living mouths. The lives of these troublemakers are worthless. If you keep one of them, our master and we will be dead." The leader calmly ordered. "As soon as we came, I will draw a white lotus at the entrance of the village and tell the people nearby that they would offend me."

"Yes, how can our magic sect be ruthless in doing things?" Several dog-legged smiled grimly and raised the knife towards the child.
Chapter completed!