The new era of chaos begins in the Song Dynasty

Chapter 105 Salt essence!Can drive away evil spirits

The lobby of the private inn is always lively, but it has never been full of laughter like it is today.

Accompanied by pairs of tender chickens and ducks being delivered to the dining table, the diners sitting around the table said thank you to the two dogs without opening their mouths, while tearing apart the chickens and ducks with their hands and feet, and then holding their own Some of the meat and bones of chicken and duck were greedily chewed and swallowed, and some were tasted carefully and slowly, and some were even reluctant to eat after a few mouthfuls, so they were wrapped in cloth and ready to take For the family to enjoy.

Due to the large number of people in the inn, many people couldn't get a seat, so the staff had to temporarily add seats and served delicious food several times, so that they could barely accommodate these many people.

By the way, the traditional Eight Immortals table has basically taken shape in the Northern Song Dynasty, but it is slightly smaller than the mature Eight Immortals table of later generations. It can only seat one person on the serious side, and it can just sit four people. If you squeeze it, you can add one or two people at most.

For Ergou's extravagant act, all the beneficiary diners are naturally grateful to Dade, but the innkeeper is a little bit bitter and can't tell, and he often sees the world's coldness, and he knows what it means to do bad things with good intentions.

After more than 30 pairs of young chickens and drunk ducks were served, the shopkeeper went to Ergou with a grimace and said aggrievedly: "This young guest is so extravagant, but this old man has only seen him in his life, and I admire him very much. I am the only one in this shop. We have limited chickens and ducks, so we can’t spend them like this, and we really can’t spare any more for our little guest.”

Ergou took a sip of the light yellow wine and said to the shopkeeper with a smile: "Why, the shopkeeper is worried that I can't afford so much money for food? Don't worry..." As he said this, Ergou took something out of his cloth bag. He took out a snow-white silver collar and slapped it on the table, laughing and saying: "I only keep this ingot of silver in your cabinet, but if it is used for food, you can deduct it from it. If you don't get enough, you can come back to me and ask for it!"

From silver ingots, the small one is judged (less than a catty), the big one is a collar, and the silver ingot of Ergou is not worth the scale in the eyes of experienced people such as innkeepers. Just by looking at it, you can estimate that it's pretty much the same, at least 30 taels upwards.

Of course, this method of judgment is also tricky, because people are used to casting larger silver ingots, which are basically made according to integers, such as ten taels, 16 taels (one catty), 24 taels, 32 taels, 64 taels and so on.

The ingot of silver collar that Ergou took out was made of 32 taels.

As soon as the silver came out, everyone in the hall was shocked.

Do you know why?

However, the common people of the Song Dynasty mostly used copper coins, but they only used a few coins and beans for silver. Even silver coins of three to five taels were very rare. How could they get such a large amount of silver?

It's like our daily expenses, three to five hundred, four to five thousand more, but the top spender who spends only tens of thousands of dollars, eats other people's hospitality for nothing, and the big hand suddenly throws out a small The target's pile of money can only be said in terms of weight.

The guy even said boldly: "Spend it as you like! Use it as you like! If it's not enough, I'll have more for you!"

Are you surprised when something like this happens?
Not to mention anything else, when this happened to me, I couldn't help but feel a little jealous in my heart. Is this guy going to dig my waist, cut my heart out or something?
Fortunately, the people of the Song Dynasty are simple and honest, so many bad thoughts can't be avoided, but there are all kinds of mysterious guesses about Ergou's identity and origin.

The shopkeeper wiped his hands with the lapel of his clothes, carefully picked up the silver collar, smiled so hard that he frowned, and said repeatedly: "That's enough, that's enough! It's more than enough! Wait until the little man takes the star to weigh him with the guest officer." It’s easy to make money!”

The so-called star scale is a measuring instrument specially used in ancient times to weigh gold, silver, spices, and precious medicinal materials. Its scientific name is a scale.

This exquisite weighing tool was handed down from the royal tribute treasury of the Song Dynasty. The smallest possible accuracy is about [-] grams. Before the appearance of the balance, it was the most accurate weighing tool in the world.

The shopkeeper held the silver collar, and carefully returned to the cabinet, but put the silver collar on the money board (the board where the money is collected, with a scale on it, which can assist in calculating the amount of money), and took out an ebony the size of a folding fan from a hidden place. Flat strips, and a small cabinet.

The shopkeeper made a mistake and divided the flat ebony bar into two parts. There was an exquisite small scale embedded in it. The jade-white ivory was used as the rod, the copper was used as the scale pan, the twisted wire was used as the lifting thread, and the silver pendant was used as the weight. It was very delicate. It's that scale.

The shopkeeper carefully took out the scale, first took the silk cloth and stroked it carefully, then put the silver collar in the astrolabe, carefully weighed it several times, and wrote down each time on the coin board with a pen, His movements and expressions look as solemn as devout believers worshiping God.

After the shopkeeper finished weighing, he carefully put away the scale, opened the small cabinet, and put the silver collar into it, but saw that the small cabinet had risen by an inch, and some scales were exposed.

This small cabinet is called an elephant scale, which is a tool to measure the density and volume of objects with the help of liquid buoyancy, and to calculate the purity of gold and silver. It is said that its principle comes from the allusion that Cao Chong, the son of Cao Cao, Emperor Wu of Wei during the Three Kingdoms period, called the elephant, so it is called Make like a scale.

The shopkeeper carefully looked at the scales on the small cabinet but nodded with satisfaction. Then he just mentioned the mechanism, fished out the silver collar, wiped off the grease attached to it with linen cloth, and placed it on a copper plate.

The shopkeeper took an account book, wrote down the numbers on the money board, and then used the abacus to "snap" for a while, and then wrote notes on the account book.

Finally, he carried the silver collar and the account book on a copper plate, came to Ergou, and said respectfully: "The young guest's large silver totaled 32 taels and four cents and nine cents. Because the silver is of high quality, it is full." Snowflakes are good silver, which can be exchanged for 63 xiaoping coins (meaning that one tael of silver can be exchanged for 610 copper coins). In this way, it can be used as enough Mo Si Shi Jiu Guanyu [-] Wu Wen, which is actually [-] Guan Yu. [-] five cents, do you have any doubts about this as a small guest?"

Ergou's mental calculation is very fast, but he can't estimate the exact weight of the silver collar. The data given by the shopkeeper is very detailed, and it fits Ergou's estimate very well, and even exceeds it. I know that this store is honest.

Ergou said with a smile: "The store owner is a real person. I have confidence in you. The money is kept on the cabinet. If I have entertainment, I will count it with you."

The shopkeeper bowed and said yes, then stepped back.

The inn ran out of chickens and ducks, so Ergou asked the innkeeper to serve another big steamed bun to share with everyone. This big steamed bun had fillings, and later generations called it steamed buns. The real steamed buns were now called cooking cakes. In the future, or at this time, This is what Qinghe Wu Dalang sells.

With Ergou's large ingot of silver as the backing, everyone ate more happily and at ease, because they didn't have to worry about the petty official not being able to pay for the food and drink in the end.

Such a group of people were full of food and drunk, and the wild man who sold the plaster among them took advantage of the wine and suddenly said loudly: "The little official invited me, just now we heard the little official said that he can make alchemy." Dharma, but I don’t know how well a petty official can refine it?”

As soon as these words came out, the room was filled with silence.

　Chapter 1 arrives!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)