[Comprehensive] The days when I pretended to be a meow in the Forbidden City

The little leopard was tormented by two unskilled young men and became bald. The leopard, which has always been proud of its smooth fur like water, was so sad that it licked its fur in the sun. It was much more loving when it saw the bald piece Licked a few times.

He hasn't been able to figure out what happened until now, why was he suddenly caught taking a shower?

It's not fair!Why am I the only one washing?What about fairness and justice?As soon as Daddy left, he bullied Leopard!Don't expect a leopard to sleep with you at night!

Seeing the little leopard complaining at him, Xia Anran was both angry and funny.

When he came back from work, the housekeeper pointed him in the direction of the little leopard, and when he found the leopard, Xia Anran couldn't believe it.

The leopard, which had a thick coat of fur in winter, was stained with peach red, especially the tip of the tail. The thick tail of the clouded leopard has now become a feather duster. This leopard still feels nothing and is happy there. chasing their tails to play.

This frightened Xia Anran!The pigments themselves are all plant and mineral fuels, and this time the watermelon red has added cinnabar.When processing the color, the dye is heated, and the cinnabar itself is mercury sulfide, so it is very likely that mercury dissociation occurred during the processing.

People can't stand this thing, let alone a mere leopard. It's a pity that the leopard is no longer the size of a milk cat in the past. He ran away on four legs.Xia Anran immediately realized that she couldn't catch it with her own strength, so she rushed to rescue it.

Bai Yutang was good at catching cats, but at this moment he gave up doing it, euphemistically saying that he wanted to see "two cats fighting each other." As soon as he said this, Zhan Zhao immediately squinted at him, just as Xia Anran thought When he was about to smooth things over, he suddenly saw the young man in the scarlet official robe showing his face and smiling. He bowed to Xia Anran gracefully, saying that he was impolite, and then jumped up into the air with one foot, like a bird soaring into the sky, and the whole world No need to borrow.

Seeing this scene, Xia Anran couldn't help exclaiming, "It's so handsome."

Afterwards, Bai Yutang snorted softly, "It's a cat, that's all it does."

...Then what's the matter with that admiring expression on your face.

Xia Anran didn't even want to talk to his arrogant student.

Soon, he saw Zhan Zhao and Shi Shiran driving the little red leopard over. He was running after him lightly. Tang immediately had bad intuition and wanted to brake, but at this moment he was too inertial and couldn't stop for a while, so he could only foolishly bump into Bai Yutang who wanted to catch the leopard empty-handed, and overwhelmed him.

"Huh...?" Xia Anran was a little surprised by this scene, he looked down at Bai Yutang's angry gaze at Zhan Zhao, and then looked at his movements that he hadn't gotten up for a long time, and immediately understood something.

"Oh! Why is Fifth Brother so careless?" Zhan Zhao approached with a smile on his brows, "Dignified Bai Yutang...how could he be overwhelmed by a half-breed cat?"

Xia Anran's sensitive hearing brought him the sound of grinding his teeth, he coughed dryly and said to Bai Yutang who couldn't get up for a while, "Yutang, please give the leopard a bath and wash off some of its red hair. "

"Why?" Bai Yutang lost face, and then got up after a moment of slowing down. He looked at the colorful little leopard with some doubts, "Didn't the master dye it like this?"

This time it was Xia Anran who was grinding her teeth, "No, this brat knocked over the ink in my study, made a mess inside, and even got into the cage and stained your brother's robe, you wash it first, I I have to go and order some clothes for Ze Xuan to go to the embroidery workshop, otherwise he won't have any clothes to wear when he comes back."

Bai Yutang nodded his head to express his understanding. After a while, he suddenly realized, no, he is the younger brother. If the eldest brother's clothes are stained, shouldn't he order clothes for his brother?And where do I need to order new clothes?How about some remedies from Jinhua?

Zhan Zhaoheng, who has been by Master Bao's side and has heard about the relationship between Governor Bai and Nan Wang, picked up the leopard that was trying to escape, and smiled at Bai Yutang, "Fifth brother, let's bathe the leopard first."

"...Then you should relieve me first."

As soon as the novice duo got started, they actually combed the leopard while the fur was still wet, and they didn't know how to handle it. Didn't they almost pluck the little leopard bald?

Those floating hairs when pouring water are really... It's miserable to watch.

Xia Anran patted the leopard's head in reassurance. He rolled his eyes and looked at Xia Duoduo who was fined to stand on one foot and wanted to be lazy.

"Gah..." Xia Duoduo, who somehow revealed that he was the sinner behind the scenes, let out a grievance, tilted his head under the watchful eyes of Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, and silently buried his head under the big wings.

===

The next day, Xia Anran, who had experienced cat flying and bird jumping, was still a little tired when he entered the workshop, but the good news that came immediately made him feel much brighter.

The mass production of frosted glass has been successfully developed.

This small workshop dedicated to processing glass was built along the Yellow River, adjacent to the kiln. This is because although the glass workshop does not need fire, it needs lime water to neutralize acid and alkali to eliminate the impact of hydrogen fluoride on the environment. So they were placed in the same area as the steelworks that also needed lime, and it was more convenient for materials to be transported.

The lacquer wax produced by the Bai family played a huge role at this time. This is because the wax is a substance that does not react with fluorine, and it can resist the corrosion of the sun. It needs to be processed and carved on the glass. Use wax to coat the parts that don't need to react.In this way, the blank space is where the pattern is.

It's a pity that the output of beeswax and white wax is very low. If there are too many recycling processes for these waxes contaminated with hydrogen fluoride liquid, it will not be possible to mass-produce them in a short time. Fortunately, lacquer wax has greatly filled this market.

The frosted glass that the workshop is mass-producing now is a round glass surface with the image of plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum carefully drawn by craftsmen. Ann in Zhao Zhen's study.

The light transmittance of the glass is extremely high and thin, and it can also block the wind. Not long after this round glass became a showcase, some people used it as a glass window or a daylighting window, but this time, the big The Song royal family did not equip it for a long time.

It is winter now, the day is short and the night is long, and the lighting is poor. The area illuminated by candle light will never be as comfortable as natural light. As an emperor who follows fashion closely, Zhao Zhen has long wanted to install Up the window!but!At the beginning, he felt that the glass windows were expensive, and he was afraid that his extravagant behavior would set a bad example. Then, after the price of glass dropped, he was subject to the opinions of the general prisoner.

It is not easy to open the windows, especially the emperor's study, which has something to do with Feng Shui, and if one is not careful, it will affect Guozuo.

Second, if transparent glass is used, outsiders can also directly see His Majesty's face, which is always a bit inappropriate and not dignified enough.

So Zhao Zhen put up with this little idea until his caring younger brother showed him the new glassware made by the workshop.

The originally transparent glass appears foggy but not foggy after being processed. The light transmission performance is not affected, but it can ensure that nothing can be seen from the inside.

After inquiring about the cost of making this kind of glassware, Zhao Zhen was so happy that he tore off the original pasted paper on the wooden window of the study and replaced it with this kind of glass window.Another advantage of this kind of glass window is that its transparency will increase when it is raining, and the lighting effect in rainy days will not decrease but increase.

It is airtight, the lighting rate is high, and the inside cannot be seen from the outside. Soon, the royal family of the Song Dynasty, who are accustomed to the dark room in winter, expressed their satisfaction after using it, and they personally endorsed it.

Although so far, due to the limitations of glass manufacturing methods, it has not been able to overcome the limitation that glass windows can only be small circular pieces, but this change has made people in Song Dynasty very satisfied.

The main purpose of the glass windows used by the government is to transmit light, so the glass has a light-colored glass surface, so that many glass windows with impure colors or color blocks have been eliminated.

None of this is wasted.

Skillful craftsmen have nothing to do when they are idle, and outline the patterns and textures of the glass on it. The chemical reaction of hydrogen fluoride to the glass does not pick the color, and the effect of the colored glass after being processed is even more amazing.

Especially now when some craftsmen are making glassware, they can wrap a layer of glass liquid of other colors on the outside of the blow molding, and there will be several colors on the cooled glass. Such glassware was too popular in the Song Dynasty. Fancy and not very popular, but after skillful processing, its color can achieve the effect of painting.

The artists of the Song Dynasty quickly adapted to the aesthetic hobby of changing from hazy beauty to direct beauty and then to another hazy beauty, and finally launched a brand new product called glass screen exhibition.

The glassware drawn with hydrogen fluoride as a pen was placed on a wooden frame with a glass base. This unique and unique exclusive custom-made product with a special aesthetic feeling was placed in the three shops.

Sanjia, which is famous for selling glassware, has once again occupied the entire market by relying on this exquisite artwork.

No one knows how the craftsmen of this family managed to inscribe on the glassware.After the appearance of this product, many craftsmen tried to process it in various ways.

Naturally, they use the method of grinding with coarse and fine sandstone, which can indeed produce similar effects, but the process is complicated and it is easy to scratch the glassware, and imitations can be made, but the cost is high, so the cost is naturally not worth it. way to seize this market.In the end they had to give up.

When the merchants of the Liao Kingdom saw these products, they immediately became vigilant.

Last year, due to the demand for glass products in the Song Dynasty, many large glassware workshops were built in the territory of the Liao Kingdom.Because of Liao's developed glass manufacturing industry and abundant raw materials, Liao's glass manufacturing industry is in full swing. For the first time last year, the country's export volume exceeded its import volume.

But it is no surprise that this kind of single-industry development has transformed the glass market from a seller's market to a buyer's market, and because of excess production, many craftsmen can only choose to cut prices as the main customer port of Liao glassware. , The pricing power was gradually transferred from the Liao State to the Song State.

But the merchants of the Song Dynasty are very loyal. Even though many manufacturers voluntarily lowered their prices last year, the Song Dynasty refused them sternly. Their purchase prices only dropped symbolically. Until the re-signing of the floor price for glass imports, Liao is still in a situation of making a lot of money overall.

But just when Song Liao was about to re-sign foreign trade prices, Song Guo developed a glass manufacturing method that they did not have.

This discovery immediately made the merchants of the Liao Kingdom nervous, and they began to replay the eighty-episode story "Romance of Glass" in their minds.

But soon their partner told them: Don't worry, dear.

We have developed a new glass processing method, but the raw materials still have to be purchased from your country. As you know, although we have highlighted the technical points, the raw materials are not enough.

By the way, if your company is willing to buy processed original products from us, you can offer a cheap price because you are our supplier.

The Liao merchants felt very uncomfortable.

They silently glanced at the price they sold to the merchants of the Song Dynasty, then looked at the resale price after being processed by the merchants of the Song Dynasty, and compared the profits... Their expressions changed several times, and they still showed that they wanted The gesture of raising prices.

As soon as this remark came out, the Song businessman in front of him immediately changed his face.The businessman quoted the classics and explained to the Liao people the difference between the buyer's cost price and the processing price, especially describing the difficulty of processing these glassware. He even invited the Liao country businessman to visit their production. The factory site showed their scrap rate to people, and the honest Liao businessman was taken aback.

There, they saw that a skilled craftsman had to scrap three or four items before he could grind out a single glass display.And it was immediately rated as a second class, because there was a small uneven engraving on it, and it had to be scrapped.

Waste of everything, Liao merchants immediately showed distressed expressions, Song people are good at everything, but they are too wasteful, like their porcelain is also a defective product that is not well made, and they have to be broken. In fact, in their opinion, such commodities It is already extremely exquisite, but the Song people don't, what they want is not enough, but the most.

It seems that this glass screen exhibition is also the same.

After the businessmen from the Liao Kingdom, who weighed it up and down, touted the merchants from the Song Dynasty, the previous demand for price increases came to nothing.

The misunderstanding about frosted glass manufacturing lasted for a long, long time. It was not until later that the frosted glass manufacturing market was almost saturated that Song State spread this secret.

At that time, the reputation of glazed wares in the Song Dynasty had already spread to the whole world.

While Xia Anran was carefully developing this kind of art that can be exported to earn foreign exchange, the idle craftsmen in the workshop came up with another thing.They made silver coins.

They took the mold of the brass Song Dynasty copper coin that they had experimented with before, and made silver coins to play with.

The authors had no intention - they were experimenting with the melting of silver and trying to improve its hardness.

Those who see it are interested——Zhao Zhen wanted to come to the Ministry of Industry to find his younger brother to check the situation, and overheard the conversation between the craftsmen and Xia Anran inadvertently.

Using silver as currency...is completely impossible in the Song Dynasty.

In fact, before the Ming Dynasty, China was not a country rich in gold and silver. At the same time, gold and silver were precious metals in the country and were not used as currency in circulation. Although there are gold ingots and silver ingots today, they are sold It is its own value and does not appear as an official currency.

After the Ming Dynasty, a large influx of foreign gold and silver made it possible to show a gold ingot in TV dramas in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.After all, for savvy merchants—making gold handicrafts is far more valuable than making a gold ingot. Generally speaking, gold and silver ingots are originally made by the nobles for rewards.

The reason why they wanted to make silver coins was because the craftsmen still felt that the money was not enough for the trade volume of the Song Dynasty, but the circulation of silver ingots was indeed not convenient enough.

But Xia Anran just silently glanced at it and dismissed it.

the reason is simple.

Silver is much softer than copper coins. After making silver coins, you can even engrave them with your fingernails on the protrusions. Such silver coins will become thinner after one round of circulation outside.

The silver production in China is not large, and there is no need to make silver coins. Compared with silver coins, paper money is really more practical.

Prior to this, when Empress Liu was in power, there was a prosperous and developed Jiaozi culture in the Bashu area. Empress Liu had already recognized its legalization, and was vacillating whether to nationalize the right to initiate Jiaozi.It's just that Zhao Zhen has already taken the position before even arguing, and all of them have been put aside for the time being.

But now, the Song Dynasty is undergoing a currency rotation. Judging from the collected currency, the previous concept that the Song Dynasty lacks currency may be somewhat biased.

For this exchange, the Qianjian even sent copper coins issued at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Because of the way they were placed, these copper coins were already marginally blended.Although there are not many such extreme cases, there were quite a few coins in the Taizong Dynasty, and there was even a smell of earth when the money was buried in the ground.

If it weren't for the complete transformation of the coins of the Song Dynasty this time, how much the people of the Song Dynasty love to hide money would not have been exposed.

But this also made Zhao Zhen very anxious.

He couldn't help but wonder whether the sufficient amount of coins issued now will be insufficient in a few years, and whether these coins will also be buried in the ground?Be someone's family's reserve money?

The money that has not been used is nothing more than scrap copper. How to make the money flow instead of being stored has become a proposition awarded to the Ministry of Households by Zhao Zhen this year.

Then, Jiaozi appeared on Zhao Zhen's table.

It has many advantages.

Paper cannot be stored for a long time, which can prompt the holder to realize it as soon as possible.Very light, highly portable, convenient for bulk goods trading.

But all this is outweighed by its one shortcoming

"Easy to counterfeit."

Xia Anran picked up the small kettle on the charcoal stove and poured hot tea into his brother's cup. At this time, the two of them were sitting in Xia Anran's small office in the Ministry of Industry. There was tea in Xia Anran's room, but there was no The raw materials for grinding tea are up to the customer. Although Zhao Zhen is an expert in ordering tea, he can only make tea that is a little bland to him at this time.

"That's right." Zhao Zhen sniffed the tea, took a sip, and sighed, "The emperor told me...before, she wanted to turn it into a national system and incorporate it into currency for this reason. With the power of the country Resist counterfeiting, so it can also deter counterfeiters, just..."

He sighed softly, "If you are big, you will lose."

Under the weight of profit, the people's behavior, heart, and reason will indeed be shaken. Xia Anran nodded silently, and Zhao Zhen continued, "What's more, if it is Yinjiaozi, I am also afraid that future generations will mess up."

"As brother said before..."

"Issuing [Dang Ten] will still have a lot of inflation risks, so let's talk about Jiaozi with a higher currency value."

"And the most important thing is...who will be entrusted to honor Jiaozi at that time."

Zhao Zhen said this because of the special financial system of the Northern Song Dynasty.The method used by the Song Dynasty today is that after local taxes are collected, all of them are handed over to the central government, and then the central government distributes the property needed by the local area from another line.

Of course, the local finance itself has reserved a part of the reserve fund, but the amount is not high. Relying on the developed transportation system of the Song Dynasty, they can deploy materials in a short time, which is very effective in disaster relief. The establishment of an official money bank means that for the Song government, the pressure on them to escort the money will increase dramatically.

If it seems to others that there is a very simple solution to this method, it is the same as today, the local tax is deducted and then the local tax is paid.

You can also learn the operation method of Ming and Qing Dynasties, instead of using cash flow, you can use bank note acceptance flow.

This move can not only reduce the pressure on grain and grass transportation and reduce cargo damage, but also put this part of the expenditure into the tax channel.

It operates in a method similar to that of local money banks "buying" money from the imperial court.

However, this move also caused large-scale corruption in the actual operation of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and it was also one of the main reasons why the government always sent personnel to conduct financial investigations.

And there will be a side effect of doing so. The top will distribute Jiaozi as military expenses, and the local military camps will need to use the money to buy goods, but what if there is no local food production or the price of food is expensive?

How to balance this?

There is no way to balance it. In a good year, it is natural to pay money, but in a bad year, the army can only entrust the grain store to purchase. The difference is huge, and it may even cause losses. It is better to let the officials dispatch it.

Moreover, the army has to buy food locally in large quantities, which will soon lead to a situation of less food and more money.

The end result of this is inflation.In the internal politics of the Song Dynasty, Xia Anran was powerless, and all the thinking patterns of the strong and weak branches of the Song Dynasty were based on Tang's tragic experience.It is not so easy to change because of the system, not to mention that Xia Anran is a feudal lord himself, if he raises the speculation that the resources will be tilted to the local area, he will know it.

Is the popularity of banknotes inevitable, but the emergence of banknotes is indeed the most likely to cause inflation.

This point was confirmed by the three subsequent dynasties of Yuan, Ming and Qing, including the Republic of China.

"Brother, I heard that during the exchange of coins this time, it was found that there was a serious shortage of coins in Shu?"

Zhao Zhen responded, "Yes, the road to Bashu is difficult. When the country was founded... Well, because of the lack of copper, there are many people who mint coins with iron, but this exchange of coins should relieve one or two."

The reason why Zhao Zhen hesitated was because of the lack of copper in the land of Bashu. In fact, it was because the two founding emperors of the Song Dynasty had to search again and again, and almost exhausted all the copper in the land of abundance. Coins replaced copper coins for currency exchange, and because the value of iron coins was too small, a large amount of iron coins were needed to buy the same goods, so Jiaozi had to be invented as a currency in circulation.

In short, they are all forced.

"That being the case..." Xia Anran pondered for a while, "After Yibi, is Bashu still using Jiaozi?"

Zhao Zhen smiled wryly, "It's not just Bashu, it's useful for the whole country."

"Fan people are also useful."

Xia Anran opened her mouth wide.

This...isn't written like that in the history books!

Zhao Zhen didn't know the reason for his surprise, so he just explained, "Last year's trade increased by [-]% compared to previous years." He glanced at Xia Anran's eyes meaningfully, "Under such circumstances, it's too late for the coins to be transferred, and the merchants will pay back the money." It is also unable to keep up with the payment speed, and merchants can avoid these problems by using Jiaozi.”

"Of course..."

"I have received news that there is a problem with a bank in Shanxi called Datong, and there are a lot of counterfeit coins." Xia Anran's expression froze, and Zhao Zhen was drinking tea with his eyes downcast, so he said intimately, "Thanks to Lu Xiaofeng .”

"Brother Lu?"

"The dealer behind the Datong Bank is the Hua family. If something happens to the bank, your brother Lu will definitely help."

Zhao Zhen took out two bills from his sleeve pocket, and handed them to Xia Anran. The latter was speechless because of his brother's trick-like trick, and then took them over to compare them carefully.

He squinted his eyes for a while, pinched the paper and compared the pattern on it, but finally he couldn't see anything. "Brother, which one is real?"

"Both are." Zhao Zhen said, he looked at his younger brother and complained, and he didn't feel guilty for teasing his younger brother. He said, "In the end, it was found that the printing plate was copied, so all the money It's all true."

"Fake, it's a printing plate."

"That is to say, as long as someone can make exactly the same printing plate, they can take advantage of the inconvenient information circulation of banks in various places to accept it madly within a period of time?"

"Not only that," Zhao Zhen rubbed his fingertips, but his eyes were a little cold, "it can also bring down Qianzhuang."

Xia Anran only thought for a while, and then understood what his elder brother meant.

If it is a counterfeit currency, then the bank can naturally refuse to accept it. Not only can it refuse, but it can also be reported to the officials. However, these are genuine coins. If the bank cannot prove the authenticity and provide evidence, they must accept it.

At the same time, they are also unable to report to the officials. If this matter becomes serious, depositors will flock to exchange their real friends. The acceptance of such a large amount of cash within a period of time will definitely cause currency troubles in the bank. Well, direct downfall is possible.

As for the counterfeiters, no matter what the final outcome is, they have nothing to lose.

The cost of counterfeiting is low, the profit is large, and it is difficult to find the source. No wonder these people started to attack Jiaozi.Xia Anran hesitated for a moment, then pinched the paper again, "Brother is planning to print and distribute Jiaozi, but you are struggling with anti-counterfeiting?"

"Yes."

"But brother, what I am more afraid of is that because of my actions, it will cause hardships for future generations, and the more harmful subjects will suffer from it."

Xia Anran's eyes were soft, "Brother, I don't know how it works better, but if it's only anti-counterfeiting... there is a way."

This method is called "concave-convex method."

In the currency anti-counterfeiting of the 90s, apart from the ultraviolet color ink that was only available later, the most common one is embossing.

One of the bumps is the obvious and exquisite raised patterns on the paper, for example, the collar of Mao Zedong is convex, and the concave is the watermark.

The manufacturing modes of these two anti-counterfeiting methods have the same goal in fact.

Paper is made by interlacing fibers, and each sheet is made by stacking several layers, and finally pressed into one sheet.Many modern schools use this type of paper for their examination papers, which has a strong sense of fiber. If you are skilled enough, you can tear off the surface layer after soaking it in water, and completely separate the top layer.

Xia Anran did this before when she was a child, as for why she did it... Cough, don't ask.

The dent is the first step to embroider the pattern on the papermaking net with very thin silk thread. When the paper is made, this piece will be slightly thinner than the surrounding ones. A single piece of paper is not obvious, but several pieces can be stacked before facing the light. You can see the pattern here.

If you want to describe this kind of dent with a term more familiar to modern people, it is a watermark.

This is a basic method commonly used in modern anti-counterfeiting, and it has been on the road of anti-counterfeiting for a long time. Its anti-counterfeiting effect is through the change of light or through the line of sight. Will emerge because of a change in angle.

In the same way, the convex mark is to turn the net over, the fibers here will be thicker than the other places, and it will become more obvious after repeated stacking.

Of course, the craftsmanship is like this, and experimentation is indispensable in order to achieve this effect.

But in any case, such an anti-counterfeiting method will definitely be difficult to crack for a while.

There is also a way to check banknotes. Make a special banknote checking mold, put the coins in, and if the concave and convex marks are completely consistent after light transmission, it can be judged as genuine.

It’s just that it will also cause a problem. In the era of pure handwork, no one can guarantee that the pattern of each net can be embroidered exactly the same. It will be embarrassing if the real coin is regarded as a counterfeit coin at that time!

Of course, this is just an anti-counterfeit on the top of the paper. He remembered that the Ming Dynasty still came up with a method when printing banknotes, which was to use uncommon tree species and dye the pulp with a unique color. These methods can be printed on paper. For anti-counterfeiting on the printing plate, if the anti-counterfeiting traces operated on the printing plate are superimposed, the effect should be the group.

When Xia Anran rubbed his chin to recall, Zhao Zhen was also sorting out what his brother said just now in his mind.

After a while, Zhao Zhen, who had been thinking for a long time and doing associative work in his head, gave up on Xia Anran's whimsical idea, and decided to wait until the real thing was made. After all, the younger brother's description was relatively vague, and he still had to use it to convince his subjects. As for how to transfer Jiaozi in the country and how to set the quota...need to discuss further.

Big brother Zhao stood up, patted his younger brother on the shoulder lightly, his brows and eyes soft, "Xin You my younger brother too. Wait for the good news from my younger brother."

After Xia Anran sent her brother away with a smile, the expression on her face suddenly froze.

and many more!

Why!Why do I have one more thing to do?

The author has something to say: Xia Duoduo: Whoa, whoa, why was I discovered?Why!

How could dad be so stupid to find out?

Xia Miao: Silly boy, don't kick the bottle after playing until your paw is ashamed next time! !Also, you are stupid!