Liu Damazi was also invited to the Hu Yasi. He never expected that after his technological innovation, the fake silver notes were so good that even he could not tell the difference, and he was caught.
Last night he had a dream in which he became a wealthy man, sleeping on banknotes and jewels. He also dreamed that he was spending huge sums of money in a casino without blinking an eye, and that he was surrounded by people and looked very glorious.
No wonder people's dreams are always the opposite, and now they have landed in the Tiger Court. Liu Damazi knew very well what kind of crime he would face, but he did not expect that he would be personally interrogated by the emperor.
Liu Damazi didn't have a name; a poor, illiterate boy like him couldn't even have one. He had a pockmarked face, a lucky escape, but it naturally became his nickname. He did have a nickname: Er Gouzi.
He couldn't be called Ergouzi in official records, so his name was recorded as his nickname, Liu Damazi.
It was such an illiterate guy, who was so poor that he didn't even have a pair of pants and was naked until he was fifteen years old, who managed to forge fake silver notes that even Zhao Huan was amazed.
Zhao Huan sat in the Hu Ya Si, a place that always gave people a gloomy and terrifying feeling.
"Liu Damazi, I'm here to ask you a question. Where are you from? How did you print these fake banknotes? Tell the truth!"
Liu Damazi knew that he was going to die, but he didn't want to suffer any more before his death because he had heard about the methods of Hu Yasi. So he told everything he knew and confessed everything he had done.
Liu Damazi had never met the emperor, but he had heard the story of Emperor Minghuang's visit to the Moon Palace. So, just as in the opera, Liu Damazi knelt down and said, "Hey, Your Majesty! I'm from Liujia Village west of the city. Both my parents died when I was young. I've learned the art of making clay figurines. Wow..."
The opera about Emperor Minghuang of Tang visiting the Moon Palace was adapted by people in the Ming Dynasty from the Yuan Dynasty opera The Peony Pavilion. Opera did not exist during the Song Dynasty. However, this story had long been circulated in storytelling performed in teahouses and taverns.
The scholar stood on the three-foot-high podium, shaking his head with a folding fan in his hand. The wake-up wood was slapped: But that...
So Liu Damazi learned it and sang it exactly like the character in the storytelling meeting the emperor.
The more Zhao Huan listened, the more confused he became. It felt like the trial was reminiscent of a storytelling novel. This guy was surprisingly methodical. Zhao Huan flew into a rage and slammed the table, "What a human being!"
Liu Damazi hurriedly stopped the gesture he was about to make, and then he explained everything in detail: "I learned the craft of clay modeling and also learned to paint New Year pictures from an old painter in Beijing. These are all ways to make a living. Although I can't read, I learned the art of drawing lines from painting New Year pictures.
In recent years, with the increasing number of foreign merchants in Beijing, people have become less willing to continue making these New Year paintings. So, they started to have evil ideas and began to draw fake silver bills, using these fake silver bills to deceive those foreign merchants.
Zhao Huan frowned. He wondered how upset these foreign merchants would be after receiving counterfeit banknotes. They had all come from far away, some to learn about culture and technology, others to do business. This fellow was using counterfeit banknotes to defraud people; his crime was truly unforgivable.
Zhao Huan looked at him coldly: "How many people have you deceived? How many of these fake banknotes have you sold?"
Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Damazi Liu became dejected again: "Your Majesty, those fake banknotes are really crude. The paper and color are obvious at a glance. I can only deceive new merchants, but new merchants are all cautious and more difficult to deceive. To be honest, I barely make back the money I spend on writing."
At this point, Liu Damazi's eyes lit up again: "But who would have thought that a few months ago, a palace eunuch came and didn't mind that the banknotes were fake, so he gave him three taels of silver to buy more than a dozen."
He was the eunuch Erlangzi. Zhao Huan picked up a banknote on the table and asked, "What's the matter with this banknote?"
Liu Damazi hesitated for a moment, then finally came out: "It's not a festival, and the New Year picture business is not doing well. Making fake banknotes is not profitable, so I really have no choice but to resort to robbery."
"What?" Zhao Huan didn't understand. Robbery? What did robbery have to do with fake banknotes?
Liu Damazi actually blushed a little: "I have another problem, that's gambling. I really have no idea what to do. Last month, someone was hanging around the door of Pufeng Bank, thinking of robbing a rich man or something. He waited for three times in a row, and you didn't expect him to be caught."
Zhao Huan slammed the table again: "I'm asking what happened to your banknotes, not what you call robbery!"
Liu Damazi shuddered with fear. "Your Majesty, please listen carefully. Someone saw a wealthy, pot-bellied man walking out of the Pufeng Bank, followed him into an alley, and then pulled out a knife to force him to hand over his money."
At this point, Liu Damazi slapped his thigh in despair: "I never expected this! I went to Pufeng Money House to deposit money, not to withdraw it. That guy was so strong that he snatched my knife and arrested me in a few seconds."
Zhao Huan was attracted by the funny story of this stupid thief: "And then?"
Liu Damazi was a chatterbox on weekdays, and when he heard Zhao Huan ask this, he immediately became interested: "Then that guy told me not to move.
I couldn't possibly not move, otherwise I'd be a coward. This guy wasn't afraid at all, and in no time at all, he tied me up with my belt and sent me to Kaifeng Prefecture.
But Lord Meng of Kaifeng Prefecture was formidable. After investigating the cause, he gave me twenty lashes of the cane, as I was attempting robbery. The pain was excruciating. Hehe, but I also knew who the local tycoon was: Huang Lao Xie, the papermaking king of Beijing.
After leaving Kaifeng Prefecture, I was getting angrier and angrier. I didn't get the money, but was instead sent to the government and beaten. So I found Huang Lao Xie's house and snuck in in the middle of the night, intending to hit him in the back with a club to avenge my actions.
Who would have known that as soon as I climbed over the wall and entered his yard, a big yellow dog rushed out and bit me. I'm not bragging, I, Liu Damazi, am no pushover either." In his excitement, Liu Damazi actually stood up, completely forgetting that the person in front of him was the current emperor.
The guards around Zhao Huan were stunned with shock. They looked at Zhao Huan and were about to speak out to stop him, but Zhao Huan stopped them with his hand.
Unexpectedly, this Liu Damazi didn't treat himself as an outsider. He actually found a stool and sat down, gesturing with his hands: "I tell you, this trip was not in vain. I tell you. Huang Laoxie has an exclusive secret recipe for making paper, and I stole it." Liu Damazi laughed again.
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