The security at Yingtianfu Yamen is obviously tighter than before.
However, as soon as Wang Xian arrived, he was immediately invited in and went directly to the heavily guarded security room.
"Master Xue, what are you doing?" Wang Xian smiled and said to Xue Juzheng who came out: "Why are you facing a powerful enemy?"
"Let's talk after you come in." Xue Juzheng pulled him into the room with a serious look, nodded to Zhou Man and said: "Master Zhou, please follow me too." Zhou Man is now the second Wu Wei, and Wang Xian is almost inseparable, Xue Juzheng is naturally
know him.
After the two of them entered the detention room, Xue Juzheng closed the door, opened the drawer, took out two brown paper bags and said
: "You two, please take a look."
Wang Xian and Zhou Man each picked up a bag and opened it. They saw that it contained treasure banknotes. When they looked at the other's bag, it was also a treasure banknote.
"What is this?" Wang Xian said with a smile: "Is it possible that someone bribed you?" Then he denied himself: "It's unlikely. Who uses precious money to bribe these days? Isn't this a source of fun?"
"Look carefully," Xue Juzheng said, "are the treasures in these two bags different?"
Wang Xian and Zhou Man carefully looked at the treasure banknotes in their hands. In Wang Xian's hand, there was a treasure banknote with a consistent face value. This kind of cyan rectangular banknote was one foot long and six inches wide, which was larger than a book.
The cover of the book is even larger. It is surrounded by a dragon-patterned flower railing, with the words 'Da Ming Tong Bao Chao' written across the top, in six regular script characters. There is still a dragon patterned flower railing under the name of the banknote, and 'Yi Guan' is printed in the middle of the upper part of the flower railing.
Two characters, under the face value is a picture of ten strings of money, imitating the physical representation of the gold dollar banknote. There are seal scripts on both sides of the money, on the right is "Da Ming Bao Chao", on the left is "Tian Xia Tong"; at the bottom there are three lines of compact text:
'The Ministry of Household Affairs approved the printing of Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes, which can be used together with copper coins. Forgers will be executed, and those who accuse the arrest will be rewarded with five hundred taels of silver. The prisoner will still be given property, etc., and it will also be stamped with the seal of the Ministry of Household Affairs...
It's funny to say that this is the first time in the five years since Wang Xian came here that he has carefully looked at the appearance of Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes. But this is not surprising, because five years ago, the value of the treasure banknotes had already depreciated to the point where it was worth nothing, and even
It is less valuable than it has been in recent years... In recent years, with the efforts of the outstanding Xia Shangshu, through various means, such as expanding the use of treasure banknotes and increasing the recovery speed of worn-out banknotes, the value of treasure banknotes has been restored.
Several times... It went from being worth eleven yuan to being worth thirty or forty yuan. Although the growth rate is gratifying, the foundation is too poor and it is still very worthless...
Just like future generations will not carefully look at what a dime looks like, Wang Xian will not pay attention to what worthless banknotes look like...
When Wang Xian looked at the treasure banknote in his hand, Zhou Man also looked at it carefully. When Wang Xian raised his head, Zhou Man also raised his head, both of them looked puzzled. "Master Xue, what are you showing us for?"
"One of the bills here is counterfeit..." Xue Juzheng sighed.
"Really?" Wang Xian quickly took a banknote from Zhou Man's hand and compared it with the one in his own hand. He couldn't tell the difference. "Which one is the counterfeit banknote?
"This." Xue Juzheng also needed to distinguish it carefully before pointing to the one on Wang Xian's left hand and said: "This, look at the color of this banknote, it is slightly yellower, and the feel of the two banknotes is also somewhat different."
Wang Xian took a closer look at the light and saw that the colors were really different. Both of them were brand-new banknotes. The paper on the right hand was whiter and more durable to the touch, with a texture similar to that of later generations of banknotes. The one on the left hand was a bit yellower.
, it also feels softer.
"I have secretly consulted with the Ministry of Household Affairs. The Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes are all printed by the Banknote Collection Department of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the banknote paper bureau is responsible for the banknote paper." Xue Juzheng said: "The banknote paper used by this bureau is
Mulberry paper made from white mulberry grown in a certain place in southern Anhui and processed with special techniques has always been considered difficult to counterfeit. However, the counterfeit banknotes seized this time were actually mulberry paper made from white mulberry in southern Anhui. However, due to the manufacturing process
There are some slight differences, but it still cannot reach the level of real banknotes. But it is enough to look real, especially if it is an old banknote, it is impossible to distinguish between genuine and fake."
"Yes." Wang Xian nodded and said: "In order to reorganize the banknote method, His Royal Highness plans to order the banknote bureau to exchange old banknotes for new ones free of charge. In this way, criminals only need to make the counterfeit banknotes old and exchange them for real banknotes..."
"Yes." Xue Juzheng nodded heavily and said, "That's why I quickly invited my brother over and asked His Highness the Crown Prince to urgently stop the counterfeiting method."
"No, this will make His Highness the Crown Prince lose his trust to the people... Wang Xian frowned and said: "How were these counterfeit banknotes discovered?"
"When our police officers were chasing a thief, they unexpectedly hit a horse and a mule, which frightened another man so much that he turned around and ran away. The police officers then split up to pursue the man. As a result, he found this package of banknotes from the man.
After interrogation, I found out that his name was Wang Si, and he bought counterfeit money from a salesman. When he was about to use it, he saw the policeman got scared and ran away..." Xue Juzheng said.
"Has the salesman been caught?" Wang Xian asked.
"No, Wang Si doesn't know where he came from. I sent people to search everywhere and arrested no less than thirty salesmen. Although I didn't find the one who sold the goods to Wang Si, I searched all the goods from several of them.
This kind of counterfeit money came out... Well, I don't know why, it just appeared overnight."
This happened again..."
"This is really adding insult to injury," Zhou Man said with a worried look on his face: "If the news spreads, the people will be even more resistant to treasure banknotes... and the banknote law will be completely abolished."
"I'm afraid it can't be hidden," Wang Xian sighed: "Even ordinary salesmen can get the goods, which shows that this batch of counterfeit banknotes has fully spread."
"Yes, so I have to quickly ask the prince to stop pouring money." Xue Juzheng looked at Wang Xian and said: "Then I ask my brother to help me to find the source as soon as possible and eliminate it.
"Don't worry, Mr. Xue, you have helped me so many times, I will definitely help you with this." Wang Xian nodded loyally and said: "It's just this case, we can only investigate it privately to avoid making a fuss."
"That's natural." Xue Juzheng nodded.
But nine times out of ten things in the world are not as expected. In this room, Wang Xian quickly reported to the prince without any delay. In that room, the news of counterfeit banknotes in the capital spread throughout the city overnight. The next day, not only officials and wealthy businessmen
Everyone knows it, even the vegetable vendors on the street and the old ladies doing laundry at home also know it.
All of a sudden, the treasure banknotes were completely sentenced to death. When ordinary people used the treasure banknotes to buy things, they were refused to sell them almost without exception. The reasons were the same, and it was difficult to verify the authenticity. Some bold shops even dared not accept them.
Put up a sign, collect counterfeit banknotes, and prove the authenticity by yourself. Buyers will naturally say that the banknotes in their hands are genuine, but who can provide evidence to prove that their banknotes are genuine?
The money in their hands could not be spent, and the people were even more anxious. They couldn't watch their hard-earned money turn into waste paper, right? Almost unanimously, the people took out all their money and rushed to the Ministry of Household Affairs.
In the eyes of ordinary people, when the warehouse asks to buy grain, this treasure note is issued by your household department, so you can't reject it because it can't be verified for authenticity, right?
But the Ministry of Revenue warehouse really refused to accept it... Ambassador Cang said plausibly to the people: "The banknotes are issued by the Ministry of Household Affairs, but we are from the Treasury. We are only responsible for warehousing and do not know how to inspect banknotes. You have to find treasure banknotes to withdraw them."
Let’s go."
"No," the people said angrily, "You have to recognize the banknotes you issued, otherwise we won't leave today."
"That's right." The others agreed: "Don't try to use us as a ball, you must give an explanation today."
"That's right, do you think we ordinary people are easy to bully?" The ordinary people were already full of dissatisfaction, but now this arrogant little official was so agitated that he had the potential to explode.
Seeing the excitement of the crowd, Ambassador Cang turned pale with fright, and quickly ordered people to close the door. However, he made another wrong step. The people were almost desperate. How could they not feel completely desperate and angry when they saw him closing the door?
The people in front pushed the door hard in unison to prevent them from closing. The people behind were trying their best to squeeze in. There were only a few petty officials inside, but how could they compare to the large number of people outside? They were pushed away completely in an instant, and the people
swarming in...
Ambassador Nacang barely escaped being trampled to death by the people. He rolled around and hid aside and looked dumbfounded. The people rushed in and were dumbfounded, because they had no purpose at all and just rushed in out of anger... But soon, I don’t know.
Someone shouted, "Let's keep the money and carry away the grain ourselves." When everyone heard that they were right, they stuffed the treasure notes into the arms of the Cang Ambassador and the petty officials, and then swarmed to fight against the grain.
Seeing the bags of grain being carried away by the people, Ambassador Nagang came to his senses and hurriedly stepped forward to stop him, shouting: "Put it down quickly, you are robbing the treasury."
But the people have been short of food for many days. Now they are red-eyed when they see the food, and they all have the mentality of not being responsible for the law. How can they listen to his nonsense? Most people still go their own way. The one who was pulled by Ambassador Cang
The man said angrily: "You don't care about others, why do you pull me and let me go?" He turned around hard, and the heavy grain bag on his shoulders swept the warehouse ambassador to the ground.
Ambassador Cang was caught off guard and fell flat on his back. The back of his head hit a brick, and he immediately kicked off his legs and died... The clerks hurried forward and saw Ambassador Cang rolling their eyes.
When I checked his breathing, he immediately screamed: "He's dead. He was beaten to death by the mob."
The shouting didn't matter, the scene immediately turned into a mess, the people fled one after another, and there was no way to stop them... Moreover, after seeing the fate of Ambassador Cang, the petty officials did not dare to stop them. Everyone was just trying to make ends meet, so who could
Is it worth fighting for the imperial court?
So when the officials from Yingtian Prefecture arrived after hearing the news, the people had already fled, and they only saw the looted warehouse and the already dead Ambassador...
The news that the rioters ransacked the household warehouse and killed imperial officials immediately spread throughout the capital. Unable to bear it any longer, the officials once again gathered in the East Palace to ask for orders from the prince...