Guan Hai took it out and took a look, and it was indeed a small piece of gold. Le jumped straight up: "Haha, I can also spell." ”

The Taoist priest smiled slightly: "This is not the power of the donor, but the power of the poor Dao." I don't believe you'll change again. ”

Pick up a piece of charcoal and hand it to Guan Hai. Guan Hai burned for a long time, but he really couldn't change it.

Guan Hai was convinced, and couldn't help but be in awe of the Taoist priest. Guan Hai hurriedly apologized: "Dao Chief, don't be surprised, I'm reckless, I've offended a lot, I'm ... ”

Gongsun Kang had seen it for a long time, and he had already understood the trick, and when he saw that Guan Hai wanted to apologize, he interrupted him. "Guy, step back!" "Fool means stupid.

Gongsun Kang looked at Xi Zhicai: "Zhicai can see the key clearly? ”

"I only know one place." Xi Zhicai pointed to the pile of coal.

Gongsun Kang nodded, "It's already good to see through one place." "The other two places involve chemical knowledge, which is not something that this person in the late Han Dynasty can understand.

He waved his hand, and dozens of officials surrounded him, watching the Taoist priests and the crowd.

Looking at the confused and even angry eyes of the people who eat melons, Gongsun Kang felt that it was necessary to popularize common sense to the masses.

"These Taoist priests are liars! These spells are nothing more than charlatans. I'm here to uncover the mystery. "Gongsun Kang has become a fighter against counterfeiting.

"The white paper is baked over fire because it is written in advance with milk instead of ink.

Pour the milk into a dish, then dip the brush in the milk, write on the paper, bake it over the fire, and the words will appear on the paper.

It's a simple trick that you can try for yourself when you get home. ”

After writing with milk on white paper, why can the words be displayed by roasting them over a fire? The specific chemical reason Gongsun Kang is not good to say to the people, it turns out that it is because: milk is organic matter, after writing on paper with milk, although it cannot be seen, but when the fire is roasted, the place where the words have been written with milk will become charcoal, so the words are displayed.

As for the fire-breathing trick, hundreds of years later, it was performed every day in the field of the old tenbashi in Kyoto. The flame-breather disguises himself as a judge holding an ingot, and performs "the judge spits fire", and the fire is hidden in the ingot.

The fire-breathing fire used rosin powder, which was later replaced by kerosene as fuel. But in this era, kerosene has not yet been refined. Therefore, it can be replaced by vegetable oil and animal oil.

Yellow phosphorus and white phosphorus are synonyms that have been merged. It is a spontaneously combustible substance with an ignition point of 40°C and a fire at about 30°C in moist air. So there are also people who use phosphorus as flamethrowers.

The mystery of spitting fire is well known in later generations, but it takes repeated practice to spray the kerosene in your mouth evenly and at a moderate distance. Generally, it is necessary to start with water and spray it into a mist shape, and spread out more than a foot away from the face, so that kerosene cannot flow out of the corners of the mouth. The more evenly sprayed, the more shaped the fire mass is, and the more scattered it is, the larger the fire mass will be.

In addition to repeated practice, the master's allocation is also very important, and kerosene is also extremely dangerous to the performers themselves, so the master will not allow them to perform until they are trained and proficient.

Therefore, after explaining the principle of fire-breathing, Gongsun Kang repeatedly warned the people: "Fire-breathing is a technique that requires several years of practice to master, and it is a very dangerous performance. Ordinary people should not imitate. Otherwise, it is easy to burn yourself. ”

As for the last item, burning charcoal to get gold, it is a pure hoax.

Gongsun Kang smiled and said to Xi Zhicai: "This last item, burning charcoal to get gold, it's up to you to reveal the answer." ”

"No!" Xi Zhicai bowed his hand to Gongsun Kang. Then he turned to the people and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, now I will reveal the deception. ”

Xi Zhicai stepped forward, picked up a piece of coal, and weighed it. Raised high in public, broken in the air, in the middle was a small piece of gold, glittering in the sun.

Xi Zhicai said: "Ladies and gentlemen, please see, these monks put charcoal powder on the outside of the gold, and they did it very skillfully. Put it in the fire and burn off the charcoal powder. And there was only one complete piece of gold left. ”

After the deception was exposed, the people of Li began to hate the Taoists who had fooled them, so they threw rotten vegetable leaves at them.

Gongsun Kang asked the officials to take the swindlers to the state capital and interrogate them strictly. Copper coins and other goods were registered in the merit book for the people to retrieve.

Summing up afterwards, Gongsun Kang said to Xi Zhicai: "This is theocracy, if we don't want to promote atheism, we need to create some gods for them to meet the spiritual needs of the Li people." It's a blank slate, and if we give up, there will be the Yellow Turbans and the like to occupy it. ”

Xi Zhicai nodded in approval, and at the same time began to think about how to fool the people.