July 14 is the day when the ghost gate of the underworld is opened according to folklore, and on this day, the people of the Song Dynasty will burn paper money for their ancestors at the intersection.

On this day, the old Wang Tou, who opened a shoe store at the west gate of Qingzhou City, closed the store early in the evening.

Lao Wang is the most diligent, and usually his shop will only close when the lights are on.

And today is July 14th, Lao Wang's wife died of illness last year, so today he has to close the door early and go to the coffin shop on Beimen Street in Qingzhou to buy some paper money to burn for his deceased wife.

When I arrived at the door of the coffin shop, there were many people inside, all of whom came to buy incense paper and white candles, Lao Wang squinted, now that Qingzhou is prosperous, there are more and more people who have no time to prepare these memorial offerings in advance.

After entering the shop, Lao Wang called Xiao Er.

"Bring me two packets of incense, four white candles, and ten pennies of paper money."

"Howler!"

The little second-hand foot was quick, and quickly took out the incense and white candles from the counter, and when he took the paper money, he paused for a moment and asked Lao Wang: "Do you want ordinary paper money, or a new paper money and silver ticket?" ”

"Paper money and silver tickets?" Lao Wang was stunned for a moment and asked, "What is that?" ”

"Hey, it's Lao Wang!" At this time, a guest next to him recognized Lao Wang and immediately enthusiastically explained to Lao Wang: "Do you have any deposit silver bills from Da Song Bank?" Seeing Lao Wang nodding, he continued: "Yes, yes, the new paper money is like the paper money of the Da Song Bank!" That's it......"

At this time, Xiao Er had already taken out a dozen new paper money, Lao Wang's eyes lit up, and he picked up the paper money and looked at it carefully.

"Silver Ticket" is the same size as the silver ticket issued by the Great Song Bank, rectangular, with green flowers on it, the most conspicuous thing at a glance is the words "Heaven and Earth Bank" printed in black letters, and the portrait of the Jade Emperor is also printed on it, as for the amount is ridiculously high, a denomination is 10 million taels of gold!

If it is exchanged for cash, the dozen dark coins in Lao Wang's hand will cover all the taxes since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty.

Lao Wang Han smiled, and immediately said to Xiao Er: "This paper money is burned below, can it be used?" ”

"Of course it works! Isn't there a portrait of the Jade Emperor printed on it! The Great Jade Emperor of Heaven and Earth is the biggest, and the little ghosts below dare not buy it?! ”

"Hahaha......"

Xiao Er's words amused everyone.

"That's right! It is still issued by the Bank of Heaven and Earth, whether it is to go to the underworld after death, or to ascend to the heavens, you can withdraw money and make it! ”

One of the guests joked loudly.

In fact, everyone also understands that the living sacrifice to the dead is actually for their own seeing, burning paper money or something to have peace of mind, and who can know if it is useful or not? It is also paper money, why does the paper money cut count, but the paper money and silver tickets printed do not count?

"Good! Bring me twenty pennies! Lao Wang was infected by everyone, and immediately waved his hand heroically, and after speaking, he muttered to himself: "I burned a basket of paper money but only a few hundred yuan, not as much as a fraction of a paper silver ticket, they all say that the little ghosts in the underworld are difficult, I don't want my family to be bullied below, it's better to burn more......"

As soon as Lao Wang said this, everyone was worried that their ancestors would suffer a loss at the bottom, and they all bought a lot of paper money one by one.

"Give me twenty pennies too!"

"Add another ten cents!"

…………

On this day, at night, paper money was burned at all intersections in Qingzhou City, as well as at the door of people's homes, red light was dotted, flickering bright and dark, this one had just been extinguished, and the other had lit up paper money again...... When the green smoke was filled, the entire Qingzhou City fell into a quiet atmosphere.

…… It seems that this night, there are really a hundred ghosts walking at night, wandering around, collecting paper money everywhere.

It is commendable that the quality of the people of the Great Song Dynasty is really not covered, each family will bring their own brazier when they burn paper money, and the people will also properly dispose of the paper ashes after burning the money, so Qingzhou City is only filled with green smoke, and there is no dust fluttering.

However, a breeze blows, and there are still paper ashes that have slipped through the net or paper money that has not been burned out flying in the wind.

There was a burnt, mottled fragment of paper money tumbling in the air, floating, and swaying...... Crossed the city wall of Qingzhou and followed the wind to fly into the unknown distance.

The fragments of paper money were burned beyond recognition, but you can still see the four black characters on it at a glance - Heaven and Earth Bank.

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Together, Wu Zhi and Wu Song burned a large pot of paper money for their deceased "parents" as a tribute.

For his parents in this era, Wu Zhi doesn't have much memory, he can only find it in Wu Dalang's memory, when Wu Song was very young, his parents died when he fled, Wu Dalang was not big at that time, only six or seven years old, and he relied on begging everywhere and doing some coolies that he could never do at that age to support himself and his brother Wu Song, who was only four years old at the time.

The original Wu Dalang may be cowardly, useless, and timid, but he is definitely a good big brother.

Wu Song has no impression of his parents, he only knows that the eldest brother in front of him single-handedly pulled him up.

…………

Wu Zhi is very satisfied with the paper money designed by Brother Yun according to his meaning, basically no different from later generations, and it is very simple to print these paper money, that is, first engraved into engravings, and finally printed in batches, after all, the paper money has not changed, and it is good to have a template.

In this era, the people's acceptance of paper money is faster than Wu Zhi's imagination, he never expected that as soon as the new paper money was launched, it would quickly be popularized in Qingzhou!

Come to think of it, what kind of money is used by the underworld, no one knows at all, there is new paper money coming out, people would rather burn a few more than anything missing, in case it is not thoughtful, the ancestors below are not happy to come up to find themselves...... That's trouble.

The Chinese will always keep pace with the times for the things burned to their ancestors, and after the silver notes of the Da Song Bank came out, even if Wu Zhi did not deliberately introduce new paper money, people would soon make new silver coins that imitated silver tickets.

Later generations are not like this, each generation of the dark currency keeps up with the trend of the times, there are various styles of RMB, US dollars, and pounds, and there are even people who burn paper paste Apple mobile phones......

Now that the dark currency of Tiandi Bank has been spread in Qingzhou, it will definitely be popular in the whole territory of the Great Song Dynasty in a few years, and it will be seen who will still use the silver ticket of Zhujia Bank when the time comes!

————

The exhibition is still ongoing, after Wu Zhi taught the students the concept of watercolor painting and oil painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, under the leadership of Xiao Xie Qing, the students studied and painted color paintings.

As soon as the watercolor oil painting came out, it naturally caused a sensation again.

But this time, there was finally a trace of joy and excitement in the depths of Wu Zhi's eyes, which should be there but not easy to detect.

The reason why he was excited, of course, was not because of any sketches, watercolors, oil paintings, and had nothing to do with any of this.

Wu Zhi was excited because the imperial decree had finally arrived.

A holy decree to Wu Zhi.