。 In response to the Tianfu Yamen, the guard is obviously more stringent than before. However, as soon as Wang Xian arrived, he was immediately invited in and went directly to the heavily guarded inner signing room.

"Master Xue, what kind of reputation are you doing?" Wang Xian smiled and said to Xue Juzheng, who came out: "How can you be like a great enemy? ”

"Come in and talk about it." Xue Ju pulled him into the house with a stern face, nodded at Zhou Man, and said, "Lord Zhou should also follow up." "Zhou Man is now the second Wu Wei, and he is almost inseparable from Wang Xian, and Xue Juzheng naturally knows him.

After the two of them entered the inner signing room, Xue Juzheng closed the door, opened the drawer, and took out two brown paper bags

"Look, two. ”

Wang Xian and Zhou Man picked up a bag and opened it, and saw that it contained treasure money, and then looked at the other party's money, which was also treasure money.

"What is this for?" Wang Xian smiled: "Could it be that someone bribed you?" Saying that, he denied himself: "Unlikely, who used treasure money to bribe these years?" Isn't that unpleasant? ”

"Look closely." Xue Juzheng said: "What is the difference between the treasure notes in these two bags?" ”

Wang Xian and Zhou Man carefully looked at the treasure money in their hands. In Wang Xian's hand was a treasure banknote with a consistent face value, a cyan rectangular banknote that was one foot long and six inches wide, larger than the cover of a book. It is surrounded by a dragon pattern flower column, and the horizontal script on the top is 'Daming Pass Treasure Bank' six italic characters. Under the name of the banknote is still the dragon pattern flower column, the upper part of the flower column is printed in the middle of the word 'one through', and under the denomination is ten strings of money figures, imitating the physical indication of the gold dollar banknote surface. There are seals on both sides of the money, the right is 'Daming treasure banknote', the left is 'the world passes'; the lower part has three lines of compact text for 'the household department plays the permission to print the Ming treasure banknote, and the copper money is used in the pass, the forger is beheaded, and the arrester is rewarded with silver and two Bowu pick-ups, and the prisoner is still given property'......

It's ridiculous to say, this is the first time that Wang Xian has been here for five years, and he has carefully looked at the appearance of the Daming treasure banknote. However, this is not surprising, because five years ago, the treasure money had already depreciated to the point where it was worthless, and even less than in recent years...... In the past few years, thanks to the efforts of Xia Shangshu, who is extremely talented, the value of treasure banknotes has been restored several times through various means, such as expanding the use of treasure banknotes and increasing the recovery speed of faint banknotes...... From always worth eleven dollars to always worth thirty or forty dollars. Although the growth rate is gratifying, the foundation is too poor, and it is still very worthless......

Just as future generations will not carefully look at what a dime looks like, Wang Xian does not pay attention to what worthless treasure money looks like......

When Wang Xian looked at the treasure money in his hand, Zhou Man was also looking at it carefully, and when Wang Xian raised his head, Zhou Man also raised his head, and the two of them looked puzzled. "Lord Xue, why are you showing us this?"

"One of these is counterfeit money......," Xue Juzheng sighed.

"Really?" Wang Xian hurriedly took a banknote from Zhou Man's hand, and compared it with the one in his hand, he couldn't see the difference. "Which one is a counterfeit?"

"This." Xue Juzheng also needed to distinguish it carefully, so he pointed to the one in Wang Xian's left hand and said: "This, you see the color of this treasure banknote, it is slightly yellower, and the feel of the two banknotes is also a little different." ”

Wang Xian took a closer look at the light, the colors were really different, both were brand new banknotes, the paper on the right hand was whiter, and it felt tougher, with a little bit of the texture of banknotes in later generations. The left hand is a little more yellow and softer to the touch.

"I secretly consulted with the Ministry of Households, and the Daming Treasure Banknotes are all printed by the Household Treasure Banknote Lifting Division, and the banknote paper bureau is responsible for the banknotes." Xue Juzheng said: "The banknote paper used by the bureau is mulberry paper made of white mulberry produced in a certain place in southern Anhui through special technology. It has always been considered difficult to fake. However, the counterfeit banknotes seized this time were also mulberry paper made of white mulberry in southern Anhui, but because of some slight differences in the manufacturing process, they still could not reach the level of genuine banknotes. But it's enough to mess with the real, especially the old banknotes, and it is impossible to distinguish the real from the fake. ”

"Hmm." Wang Xian nodded and said, "In order to reorganize the banknote law, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is ready to order the banknote bureau to trade in the old for the people free of charge. In this way, criminals can only make the counterfeit banknotes old and exchange them for real money......"

"Yes." Xue Juzheng nodded heavily and said, "That's why I hurriedly invited my brother and asked His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to urgently stop the method of pouring money." ”

"No, this will make His Royal Highness the Crown Prince lose his trust in the people...... Wang Xian frowned and said, "How did these counterfeit banknotes be discovered?" ”

"It was the arrester of this province who was chasing a thief, but he didn't expect to hit the horse and mule and startled the other man so much that he turned around and ran away. After interrogation, I learned that his name was Wang Si, and he bought counterfeit banknotes from a merchant, and when he was about to use them, he was scared when he saw the catcher, so he ran away...... "Xue Juzheng said."

"Did the merchant catch it?" Wang Xian asked.

"No, Wang Si didn't know where he came from, so I sent people to search everywhere and arrested no less than thirty merchants, although I didn't find the one who sold the goods to Wang Si. But from several of the merchants, this kind of counterfeit money was found...... Alas, somehow, it seems to have come out of nowhere! Xue Juzheng said: "Originally, the common people refused to accept the treasure money, but this time the prince reorganized it with a heavy hand, and it finally improved a little, but this kind of thing happened again......

"This is really worse," Zhou Man also said with a worried face: "If the news spreads, the people will be even more repulsive to the treasure money...... Let the banknote law be completely abolished. ”

"I'm afraid I can't hide it......" Wang Xian sighed: "Even ordinary merchants can get the goods, which shows that this batch of counterfeit banknotes has fully spread." ”

"Yes, so I have to ask the prince to stop pouring money." Xue Juzheng looked at Wang Xian and said, "Then ask my brother to help, find out the source as much as possible, and eliminate it......"

"Don't worry, Lord Xue, you have helped me so many times, I will definitely help with this favor." Wang Xian nodded angrily and said, "It's just that this case, we can only investigate it privately, so as not to make a fuss." ”

"That's nature." Xue Juzheng nodded......

But nine times out of ten, things don't go as planned. At this time, Wang Xian quickly reported to the prince without delaying for a moment. In the meantime, the news of the appearance of counterfeit banknotes in the capital spread throughout the city overnight. The next day, not only the officials and wealthy businessmen knew, but even the street vendors and the old mothers who did the laundry at home also knew.

All of a sudden, Bao Qian was completely sentenced to death. Ordinary people take treasure money to buy things, and almost without exception they are rejected for sale, and the reason is the same, it is difficult to verify the authenticity, and they dare not accept it! Some bold shops even simply put up signs, 'Refuse to accept counterfeit banknotes, prove the truth and falsehood'! Buyers naturally say that the treasure money in their hands is real, but who can come up with evidence to prove that their treasure money is real?

The treasure money in the hand can't be spent, and the people are even more anxious, so they can't watch the hard-earned money completely turn into waste paper, right? Almost unanimously, the people took out all the treasure money and poured into the household warehouse to ask for food! In the eyes of the people, this treasure banknote is issued by your household, and you can't say that you can't check the authenticity and refuse to accept it, right?

But the household warehouse really refused to accept it...... Ambassador Cang said to the people: "The banknotes are issued by the household department well, but we are from the treasury department, and we are only responsible for warehousing, but we don't know how to check money." You'll have to go to the Treasure Lift Division. ”

"No way!" The people were angry and said, "You will recognize the money you have issued!" Otherwise, we won't leave today! ”

"That's it!" The rest of the people chimed in: "Don't try to kick us as a ball, you have to give an explanation today!" ”

"It's just, do you think that we ordinary people are easy to bully?" The common people were already depressed and dissatisfied, and at this moment, this arrogant petty official was excited, and it had the potential to explode.

Seeing the excitement of the crowd, Ambassador Cang was also so frightened that his face turned pale, and he hurriedly ordered someone to close the door. As everyone knows, he took another wrong step, and the people were already desperate, how could they not have a complete desperate anger when they saw him close the door at this time? The people in front of them pushed the door hard to prevent them from closing. The people behind are desperately squeezing in, and there are only a few small officials inside, how can it be worth the strength of the people outside? It was completely pushed away, and the common people flocked in......

The ambassador of the cang was so close that he was trampled to death by the people, and he even crawled to the side to look stupid. The common people are stupid to rush in, because they have no purpose at all, they just rush in out of a moment...... But soon, I don't know who shouted, let's keep the money and carry the food ourselves! As soon as everyone heard the right thing, they stuffed the treasure money into the arms of the ambassador and those little officials, and then began to fight against the grain in a swarm.

Seeing that the bags of grain were carried away by the common people, the ambassador of the warehouse came back to his senses, hurriedly stepped forward to stop him, and shouted: "Put it down, you are robbing the treasury!" ”

But the people have been short of food for many days, and at this moment, they are red-eyed when they see food, and they all have a heart that the law does not blame the public, how can anyone listen to his nonsense? Most people still go their own way, and the man who was pulled by Ambassador Cang said angrily: "You don't care about others, how can you pull me, let go!" As soon as he turned around, the heavy grain bag on his shoulders swept the barn ambassador to the ground.

Ambassador Cang was caught off guard, fell on his back to the sky, and the back of his head hit a brick, and he kicked his legs and broke his breath when he landed...... The little officials hurriedly stepped forward, and when they saw that the ambassador Cang had rolled his eyes, they probed his snort, and then screamed: "Dead! The adults were killed by the rebels! ”

It didn't matter what this shouting was, the scene suddenly became a pot of porridge, and the people fled one after another, completely unable to stop it...... Besides, seeing the fate of Ambassador Cang, those little officials didn't dare to stop him. Everyone is just eating a bowl of rice, who can work hard for the court?

Therefore, when the Tianfu official arrived when he heard the news, the common people had already fled cleanly, only to see the looted warehouse, and the already dead ambassador of the warehouse......

The news that the rebels ransacked the warehouse of the household department and killed the officials of the imperial court spread throughout the capital. The officials couldn't bear it anymore and gathered in the East Palace again to ask the prince for his life......