Chapter 1039: The Counterfeiter in the "City of Light" (Part II)

In the Song Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty combined, about 300 years, a total of 22 examinations were held, and more than 41 people were admitted. In other words, the system is held about every ten years, and an average of two people are admitted each time.

Unfortunately, Su Shi's brothers embarked on their careers through the system, and only two of them were admitted that time, Su Shi won the top prize in the system - the third class of the system, and his younger brother Su Zhe followed closely - the fourth class of the system. During the 100 years of the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was only one literati named Wu Yu in front of Su Shi, who took the examination for the third time.

Su Shi knew that Zhao Xing was obsessed with miscellaneous studies, and judging from the fact that Zhao Xing built a house for him, and from the other party's business actions, this was a strong man with amazing organizational skills and extraordinary financial management skills...... But this does not mean that he can pass the subject exam, so he introduced the procedures and difficulties of the subject exam to Zhao Xing in detail.

Zhao Xing was very confident in himself, he shook his head and replied: "Why should the teacher resign, I believe that if I recognize the second in the number of techniques, no one in the entire Great Song Dynasty will dare to call it the first." The teacher only has to be your examiner, I will find a recommender myself, and I don't believe that I will not be able to pass the exam. ”

Su Shi pondered for a while, and then suggested: "It's better for you to take the examination of scripture and history, it is nothing to take the examination of the history of the scriptures with your talents...... It's just that Enke is not included in "Jinshilu", and he is a little aggrieved and ......"

Because Zhao Xing has the identity of Su Shi's protégé, in order to avoid suspicion, Su Shi has to resign from the appointment of the chief examiner after sponsoring, but if he finds another person to recommend, or Zhao Xing participates in the history class of Jinshi, without referral, and completely follows the normal procedure, then Su Shi can continue to serve as the chief examiner, and the marking officer is his protégé - Zhang Lei, one of the four bachelors of Sumen.

This year's imperial examination is a special Enke, called the "Pavilion Vocational Examination", and the examination is mainly based on economic history and world affairs, and does not test resignation. Those who pass the examination mainly enter the Zhaowen Hall (also known as the Hongwen Hall in the Tang Dynasty), the History Museum, the Jixian Academy and other places to serve as official positions in revision and editing. These official positions are all idle positions, which are basically equivalent to eating white rice - flipping books, proofreading, and literacy.

The name of the normal imperial examination jinshi must be written into the history books, which is the "Jinshi Lu", but the person who enters the first place in Enke has the name of Jinshi, but it is not included in the "Jinshi Lu" - because the Jinshi Lu is written by year, and Enke is not in the normal imperial examination year.

Su Shi guessed wrong, Zhao Xing didn't care if he could enter "Jinshilu" at all, no one knew that his existence was better. Therefore, as soon as Su Shi introduced, Zhao Xing listened to it, and was full of confidence in opposing this year's passage through Jinshidi - what a big back door!

He touched his chin, flashed his eyes, first sighed, and then asked in a probing tone: "Don't be wronged......"

Zhao Xing's face was full of laughter: "It's better this way...... Teacher, don't you know yet? My resignation level has always been poor, and it is enough for me to participate in such a imperial examination and mix with a jinshi...... Otherwise, I'm going to disgust and disgusting Jinshidi, I heard that several times in a row 'Jinshi is not first', and the official family will also give a background in order to take care of it. Anyway, I have leisure - I took the exam several times in a row, and I didn't hand in the blank paper every time, just waiting for him to give me a background. ”

In fact, Su Shi did not treat Zhao Xing purely as a protégé, and the relationship between the two was a bit of a teacher and a friend. He is an easy-going person, so easy-going that Zhao Xing's coming here is as casual as coming to his own home. He also knew that Zhao Xing was talented, and from the time Zhao Xing assigned those construction teams when he built the house, he knew that the other party had super organizational skills and a careful plan to do things. This ability is not innate, it needs to be studied through special learning.

At this time, there was no special "efficiency" or "histology", and this kind of science was called "the art of kingship" at this time. In ancient China, mastering this knowledge was the crime of killing the head, and even the nine ethnic groups had to be connected, so that they could not leave any genes in the history of the nation.

Knowing this, he understood Zhao Xing's pretense of being bland and trying his best to pretend to be stupid, which was also the reason why he knew that Zhao Xing was unwilling to learn poetry, but he admitted that he was his disciple.

Faintly, he also believed in the "heirs of Wuhou" that the children of the Cheng clan accidentally mentioned. With such a cautious person and proficient in the "art of kingship" as his disciple, at least, he can shelter his family in times of danger.

The ancients had a simple idea and felt that leaving a name for eternity was the act of honoring their ancestors, so there were not many people who participated in Enke, that is, this kind of imperial examination was not fiercely competitive. And Zhao Xing participated in Enke, and Su Shi did not have to resign from the position of chief examiner, it was simply the best of both worlds. But Zhao Xing's answer made him not know whether to be angry or frustrated.

Su Shi pointed at Zhao Xing and said nothing-I, Su Shi's disciple, how did I fall to the point of threatening the official family with "not handing over the white papers", God, what kind of world: "Leaving people, why are you doing this!" I'm no longer belittled, so you don't have to hide your talent – 'If life is only as ...... first seen', isn't this a good poem?

What the? Haha, don't pretend, not long ago, a Goryeo envoy came to our court, and he said that the whole country of Goryeo is singing your poem, this is not what you did, then the whole Goryeo people are blind - leave people, now that your name is taken out, you are not a vulgar person with no elegant bones, why hide it anymore. ”

Zhao Xing was taken aback when he first heard this poem, and after listening to Su Dongpo's words, he quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Su Dongpo once boasted: There are no books he hasn't read. Since Su Dongpo said that he wrote this poem, no one in this era will fight with him for copyright.

He was a little ashamed, a little squirming, and just didn't know what to say, the servant came back with Chen Gongchuan. Su Shi beckoned him to sit down, reflexively took out a cloth bag, poured out a few copper coins, and invited Chen Gongchuan to watch.

These are several copper coins of different ages, which are marked with the date of minting, and the shape and size are almost exactly the same as those of the Song coins...... Slightly different is that its casting process seems to be at a higher level than that of Song Qian - it is made by stamping, completely imitating the appearance of Song Qian and stamping copper coins.

Su Shi pulled those copper plates, picked out a few first, and explained to Chen Gongchuan: "In the seventh year of Yuanfeng, these copper coins appeared in Quanzhou and Guangzhou, and it is said that they were copper coins obtained by Japanese merchants when they traded with our Great Song merchants, and then they brought the Great Song Dynasty to purchase goods...... Look, these are the copper coins minted by my Great Song Dynasty, and these copper coins are flowing in from the Wa Kingdom, what is the difference between you. ”

Zhao Xing's face was rigid, and he couldn't see what he thought of the copper coins. Chen Gongchuan was a relatively stupid person, and when asked by the idol he worshipped, he replied very seriously: "Two coins - this money of the Wa Kingdom, the money seems to be more exquisite, the pattern is clearer, and the color of the money is more yellow, which seems to indicate that the Wa money has a high copper content." ”

Su Shi nodded: "I can tell you for sure: this batch of Japanese coins was not minted by my Great Song Dynasty, and my Great Song Dynasty forbade the outflow of copper coins." But what is strange is that the amount of money minted by the Wa Kingdom is very large, and the large amount is unimaginable.

Our Great Song Dynasty Casting Division has hundreds of thousands of craftsmen, and only a copper and lead mine in Xinzhou Lead Mountain often employs more than 100,000 miners, mining day and night. There are a total of 26 prisons for copper and iron coins in Zhulu, of which 17 are for copper coins, with a minting amount of 5.06 million yuan, and 9 are for iron coins, with a minting amount of nearly 890,000 yuan.

This batch of money, the Ministry Department went to the Wa Kingdom to estimate, the amount of money is one million, which is equivalent to the total number of coins cast by the Iron Money Division of the 9th Prison of the Great Song Dynasty - this is not something that can be made by one family, at least tens of thousands of people are needed, so many people, if it is in the territory of my Great Song Dynasty, it is impossible for the officials of our dynasty not to know. ”

Then, Su Shi took out a few more coins from the pile and spread them out in front of him, and continued: "Chen Yanei, please see, this is a new copper coin that appeared in the eighth year of Yuanfeng, these coins were circulated in the Wa Kingdom, these coins were found in Goryeo, and the money is still exactly the same as my Song money." Comparing the three coins, the copper coins of the Wa Kingdom and Goryeo came from the hand of one person, and the copper content was higher than that of my Song coins, so the color of the money was yellow. ”

Chen Gongchuan didn't speak, he only glanced at Zhao Xing with his eyes. And Zhao Xing looked very curious at the moment, flipping through and studying the copper coins.

Su Shi reflexively took out a cloth bag, and poured out a bunch of coins, which contained gold, silver and copper coins, these coins are all round, but it is very strange that the copper coins are round, the copper coins of the Song Dynasty are round on the outside and square on the inside, so they are called "hole square", but these copper coins have a square pattern, the square hole is indeed solid, and the whole coin constitutes a complete circle.

"This is the copper coin of the first year of Yuanyou, which is popular in your Jiaozhi. As with the previous batch of copper coins, the local merchants said that they were brought by the Song merchants who traded with them. Compared with the previous two batches of money, this batch of coins is more exquisitely minted, especially these gold and silver coins", Su Shi flipped over the gold and silver coins and motioned to Chen Gongchuan to look at the edge of the silver and gold coins.

The edges of these gold and silver coins are all cast with fine serrations, and Su Shi turned up the copper coin, and the edges were actually serrate, which made it different from Song coins.

The yin and yang sides of gold and silver coins are cast with words, the front is "Yuan Yu Jinbao", "Yuan Yu Yinbao", and the back is engraved with the weight of gold and silver coins, the three lines of words are: Feng Zhao King, full color gold (silver) yuan, when the value of half a tael.

Su Shi pointed to the fine tooth lines on the edge of the coin and said: "When the minister of the court and the central government saw these fine teeth, he was puzzled for a long time, and then he saw the merchant using them, and then he suddenly realized that the merchant scraped the silver edge with a knife, scraped off some silver dust, and then used it, but it was folded and weighed by the store. Only then did the minister of the DPRK and the central government suddenly realize: it turned out that these tooth patterns were deliberately scraped to prevent people from deliberately scraping the edges of the money.

Why should we prevent people from scraping - we weighed it, and the weight of the money was extremely accurate, and it was said that it was worth half a tael, and it was worth half a tael, so this thing has been used as a weight in the market...... How is this possible, I have a standard silver code in the Song Dynasty, and the weight in the ten ingots is different. The weight of these millions of gold, silver and copper coins is exactly accurate......

The strangest thing is this copper coin, my big Song copper coin is a round sky, but the hole in the middle of this copper coin is indeed solid, and it is a few baht more copper than ordinary copper coins - who minted this coin? How can you be so luxurious?

I heard that Chen Yanei is the son of the official eunuch of Jiaozhi State, and this money originally flowed out of the Yue Kingdom, presumably Yanei can solve Su's confusion - hum, Feng Zhao is King, 'Feng' whose 'edict', did my Great Song Dynasty talk like this? ”