When Li Mengbiao arrived in Taiwan, he was quickly defrauded of a large sum of money by an American soldier on the pretext of helping with immigration, and then his life soon became difficult. When life is difficult, emotions naturally come up. In addition to reporting Hu Zongnan, he also reported Yu Youren. Yu Youren is also from Shaanxi, this is really a fellow countryman seeing a fellow countryman, and he will be shot in the back.

This incident still hurt Hu Zongnan quite a lot, although in the end after the mediation of all parties, it was not resolved, but since then Hu Zongnan has lived in a simple house and no longer cares about political affairs.

This Li Mengbiao is idle, and he has been exchanging letters with Lin Qian. After Lin Qian knew his predicament, he was still righteous, and sent him a little money from time to time to support his wife and children. Later, seeing that he had nothing to do, he was encouraged to write a guide to deception. At that time, the idea was very lofty, saying that it was written to warn the world to avoid being deceived. In the end, I didn't expect this book to become a compulsory book for fraudsters in Taiwan, which is really ironic.

If you want to talk about this Li Mengbiao, there is really no writing and artistic attainment. For example, some of the practices he mentioned in the book about hiring workers to defraud their masters, although they are named foreigners, but discerning people can see at a glance that this is the common practice of those shepherds in northern Shaanxi. But the secret story seems to be not very good after all, Li Mengbiao was finally hurt by this matter, this is a later story, put it aside for the time being.

Let's take a look at some of the contents of the book:

Something very practical

In the sixties of the twelfth century, Robert Carpenter, a free-holding farmer on the Isle of Wight in England and a steward of the estate, wrote a collection of cases—a collection of practices and laws that would help in the administration of the territory. In the middle of these texts, he also adds some detailed descriptions of the fraud. Carpenter does not provide any introduction to these examples, nor does he say why he decided to include them in the work. Some scholars believe that he was bragging about his past exploits, while others believe that he wrote these to warn his readers that he could be scammed.

The first fraud is simple – if you are a steward or farmer who manages a flock, you will know that not all pregnant ewes give birth to lambs within a year. When you report the numbers to your employer, you can misrepresent the total, such as keeping 12 lambs for yourself out of 150.

The second type of fraud occurs when you go to sell sheepskins – if you have 160 sheepskins, you can take 25 of the best ones and sell them for a penny each, and then use the money to buy 50 sheepskins for a little less than half a penny each. After that, you can change the sheepskins you have on hand and give them to your lord, while keeping the other 25 sheepskins for your own use.

The third type of fraud is "to make a sheepskin look like an ewe skin that died of the plague." Once the sheepskin is skinned, put it in hot water and dry it immediately, and it will become like a ewe dying of the plague". In this way, you can convince everyone that the animal is sick and that its meat cannot be eaten, and at the same time, you are left with really good meat to eat or sell.

The fourth type of fraud involves two shepherds working together – as long as the flock they manage grazes on the same pasture. They stole three sheep from one of the flocks and sold them, but when the superior counted the flock, they could borrow three sheep from the other flock to make up the number. Later, when two flocks graze together on a common pasture, the three sheep naturally return to their flock.

The fifth type of fraud is when employers target shepherds – when shearing sheep, it is always found that some of the wool is damaged or of poor quality. You separate the unqualified wool from the other good wool and gather it together, and when the wool is valued, you take out the wool, so that you have reason to accuse the shepherd of not taking good care of the flock, and perhaps to fine him or other punishment.

The final fraud involved cheese making, which was carried out in the spring and summer, Carpenter wrote. First, on the day you start making the cheese, divide the milk into eight equal portions, let the eighth portion be reserved for the next day, and the rest of the portions are immediately put into the making. The next day, divide the milk into eight more parts, take two portions, and pour back the one that was taken out from the first day. On the third day, divide another eight, take three points, and rewind the two portions for the second day. Do this every day, and on the seventh day, you will have eight servings of milk in production and six servings of milk from the previous day, so that on the seventh day you will have made two pieces of cheese of the same size.

This last scam is particularly ingenious because the amount of milk you take each day will only make the cheese very small in size, which is unlikely to be detected by your owner, and you are not at risk of the milk going bad. At the end of each week, you have enough milk to make an extra cheese that you can eat on your own or sell.

This type of employee fraud was quite common in the Middle Ages, and various records show that rulers and lords struggled to ensure that their servants did not try to embezzle their money or goods. The fifteenth-century writer Cristina de Pissan, in her book The Treasures of the City of Ladies, also wrote: "There are dishonest maids who have been entrusted with great responsibility, and who know how to infiltrate the great families of burghers and wealthy by skillfully playing the role of good managers of the household." They would be given the task of buying groceries and meat, where they would be able to "hit the fruit basket", which is a common saying meaning to inflate the price and then keep the difference. "

Although he himself has never deceived people, and even in his life, he has helped many people, but the secret of fraud will inevitably be used by criminals, but this is beyond the control of Li Mengbiao as the author.

After receiving Li Mengbiao's gift of books, Lin Mu's grandfather briefly flipped through it and was deeply shocked. Since then, a rule has been made in the Lin family, this book can never enter the door of the Lin family, and some descendants of the Lin family have read and studied this book privately, and they will be severely punished.

Ironically, the idea for writing this book was provided to Li Mengbiao by Lin Qian. It's just that when a book is written, the only thing that may belong to the author is copyright and royalties. As for how readers and critics interpret it, whether there is interpretation and over-interpretation, that is a matter of opinion, and no one can convince anyone.

Lin Qian is shrewd and sophisticated, so he naturally understands these truths deeply, and he is worried about the descendants of the Lin family. Lin Mu's father Lin Jinfei and Lin Mu's uncle Lin Jinsong are great if they can have half of Lin Qian's skills, so they can't be rich for three generations, and when they come to Lin Mu, they don't know how much they can lose.