Compete for the Song Dynasty

In the Wangchun Tower, Wang Pang chatted with his old friends Shen Kuo and Li Gefei over wine. There is no need to elaborate on the moonlit night at the 24th bridge, the beautiful food in Yangzhou, and the euphemistic singing of beautiful women.In the early morning of the second day, Wang Pang came to the state government office, where Shen Kuo had been waiting for a long time.As soon as he walked into the large meeting room, Wang Pang saw a pile of files on a table in the middle of the meeting room.

Shen Kuo took out the transcript of the fake gold case from it and showed it to Wang Pang, and then told Wang Pang about the case in detail.Later, he asked the guard to take out evidence of fake gold.After a while, a wooden box was brought in by the guards and placed on the ground in front of the table.The box was about the size of an ordinary suitcase, but when opened it was full of gleaming gold.Shen Kuo pointed to the box and said to the king: "Look, can the fake be confused with the real?"

Wang Pang picked up an ingot, weighed it in his hand and said with a smile: "The weight of real gold and fake gold is different. If this box of gold is real, I am afraid that only the divine guards around the emperor can lift it." Put the fake gold back in the chest.Don't look at this take and put, Wang Pang has basically confirmed his idea.The raw material of this fake gold is copper, which is made into the shape of gold through chemical techniques.

However, confirming the idea may not necessarily solve the case.First of all, where the copper comes from is a problem: in the Song Dynasty, copper was used to mint copper coins, so the Song Dynasty prohibited private mining and smelting of raw copper, private buying and selling of copper materials, and the sale of cast copper ware.The strictest supervision was during the period of Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty. At that time, even folk bronze bells and other objects had to be applied for. After approval, they could be cast under the supervision of officials sent by the government; All forbidden.

Since the implementation of hinged banknotes, the imperial court began to print banknotes, and generally chose bright, white, durable high-quality paper specially made for banknotes.Therefore, the trading of copper is relatively relaxed, and there are fewer prohibitions; even so, individuals have to go through official workshops to make copper products.Wang Pang had already gone through this process when he was developing hot pot mutton in Jinxiu Building, Beijing. Of course, he knew that it was very troublesome to make copper products.Not to mention making it look like a gold ingot. [

Therefore, he boldly concluded that if he wanted to help Shen Kuo solve the case, he needed to find the source of the raw materials first.Thinking of this, he turned his head and looked at Shen Kuo, who was standing there in an official uniform with his hands behind his back, waiting for the king to speak.

"Brother Shen, you went to change your clothes, let's go to the street."

"Go to the street? You promised me to close the case within two days. Why go to the street?" Shen Kuo stared at Wang Pang. After searching for so long, he had no clue. What else did Wang Pang want to investigate?

"Haha, brother Shen, are you afraid that I can't help you solve the case? I already know how to make this fake gold."

As soon as Shen Kuo heard that Wang Pang already knew how to make fake gold, he hurriedly turned to Wang Pang: "Then why don't you sue me!"

Wang Pang was not in a hurry, he turned his head back and said, "I know how to do it, it's simple, but I don't want to talk about it now, if you won't accompany me to the street, then I won't talk about it at all."

This would kill Shen Kuo. He stayed away from the capital because he wanted to find out how the fake gold was made. He himself would not cheat, but his curiosity was extremely strong. "Okay, okay, wait for me. Did you agree to tell me?" Don't say that Wang Pang is the prince now, Shen Kuo has to say what he said, even if Wang Pang is not the title, this tricky and weird brother is enough for ordinary people to have a headache .Fortunately, Shen Kuo is also a full-fledged naughty boy, and he doesn't like to stick to official etiquette.

Seeing Shen Kuo turn around and go back to change clothes, Wang Pang shook his head and smiled, since he intervened in this matter, he must thoroughly understand the case.If you tell Shen Kuo now, maybe this guy will return to the capital tomorrow.This Shen Kuo is really not interested in being an official yet in researching new inventions.When Shen Kuo changed his clothes and came out, the hard-winged Putou was replaced by a Confucian scarf to wrap his head, which further accentuated his simple round face; the official uniform on his body was replaced by a tea-brown shirt In this way, the appearance of a state official disappeared, and he turned to a middle-aged official who was blessed.

Wang Pang and Shen Kuo walked out of the mansion side by side, and Zhe Kejun and Han Derong who had been waiting at the door greeted them.These two people are also in casual clothes today, and it can be seen that Wang Pang dragged Shen Kuo to travel in casual clothes and it was also premeditated.When these two people saw Shen Kuo, they hurriedly saluted.Shen Kuo waved his hand: "No, no, your prince insisted that I wear casual clothes to accompany him to the street. Don't call him an official title now." As he spoke, he turned around and shook his hands behind his back towards the bustling cross street in Yangzhou City. go.

Zhe Kejun and Han Derong looked at each other and smiled, the little prince of his family, no matter where he went, he always had to come up with something new.The majestic officials of Yangzhou Mansion asked Wang Pang to drag him to go shopping. It is estimated that Shen Canjun's words just now were somewhat smug.

The corner of Wang Pang's mouth twitched and he smiled slightly: "The two of you will go to Yangzhou City and the vicinity of Yangzhou to investigate immediately. If you are in the copper casting business, go and order a hundred copper pots."

Han Derong asked puzzledly: "My lord, you want to open a hot pot restaurant in Yangzhou? However, if there are several workshops in Yangzhou that can cast copper, will each one order a hundred copper pots?"

Zhe Kejun glared at him and said in a low voice: "You are so stupid. Casting a hundred copper pots requires a lot of copper. Even in the capital, there are few companies that can have so much copper all at once."

"Oh oh oh~" Han Derong seemed to understand: "Then let's go now."

Zhe Kejun grabbed him and said, "Why are you so impatient, the prince hasn't said the time yet. We will leave Yangzhou in two days. Who will we make a hundred copper pots for?" ?”

Wang Bang pointed to Han Derong and said with a smile: "You, you have to learn from your big brother. As long as we can prepare the copper materials before tomorrow, we can pay the full amount first. As for when we want the copper?" pot, don’t worry about it, anyway, the workshop will allow time for making.” He said, took out some banknotes from his body and handed them to the two. "You take it first, maybe today you can meet someone who can do this."

Han Derong took the silver ticket and turned to Kejun and said, "I said the lord is going to open a hot pot restaurant. You think it's March and April, and the weather will be hot in two months. I won't be able to eat it. My lord is planning to go to winter." Come again, so prepare in advance.”

"Go quickly, come back here and wait for me after finishing this matter." Wang Pang waved his hand to let them go, thinking, if you can guess what I think, I will stop messing around.After finishing the arrangement, I turned to look for Shen Kuo again. This short fat man was really hard to find in the crowd. After a while, I saw him standing under a willow tree, looking towards the king with his hips crossed.

Wang Pang walked over quickly and patted him on the shoulder: "Go, take me to Cross Street to see your student." [

"Huo, are you really giving him face?! After all, he is also my student, so why don't I send someone to call him?" Shen Kuo muttered.

Wang Pang tugged at his arm: "Let's go, just treat it as a home visit. Besides, I admire you as a student. Then Liu Bei of the Three Kingdoms of the Later Han Dynasty wanted to invite Zhuge Liang to come out of the mountain and still visit the thatched cottage. It’s nothing to go there.”

Shen Kuo was still not convinced: "Can it be the same? Zhuge Liang helped Liu Bei to pacify the world. Can this Li Jie have Zhuge Liang's ability? If he has this ability, wouldn't I be a better teacher?"

"Do you look stingy? People as teachers wish they could be better than blue. Seeing that you are a student who is looked up to by others, you are envious and jealous? If you don't talk about it, but if you want to talk about learning, you are a student. You are not as knowledgeable as my brother. But you are a person who helps me, or if you resign or apply to the court to come to Yongzhou to help me, see if I will invite you in person."

"Okay, just say that! I'll tell Li Jie when I see him later, the lord has personally invited you here, you can figure it out." Shen Kuo raised his brows unconvinced.

"Haha, that's not going to work. Just say that I'm your cousin and I'm going to get married. So I want to repair the house, add furniture and items, and want to make a set of Yanji like you."

"Why, I'm afraid that my student will just say that he won't help you?! Hey, that's a good student who is better than blue than blue. It's much better than his teacher who is forced to let you drag him shopping."

Wang Pang and Shen Kuo walked towards the cross street while talking and laughing.

The Cross Street is in the southeast of Yangzhou City. The two of them walked through Gujia Lane and saw a neat residential area near the canal.It is no longer as prosperous as Chengzhongxin, but some small shops, pedestrians walking on the street, old people playing chess under the willow trees and children playing, add a tranquility to Yangzhou's prosperity.On the westernmost side of this street, there is a courtyard gate that is closed, and the seal of the government is pasted on the door.Shen Kuo pointed to the yard and said: "This is where the fake gold man lives. Now the case is not settled and the owner of the house is also in custody, so this yard is sealed. We are walking a few steps ahead, and Li Admonish the family."

Wang Bang looked at the sealed courtyard door and said, "When the government sealed it up, did they check whether there were any suspicious chemicals in the courtyard?"

"What are chemicals?" Shen Kuo asked puzzled.

Alas, I don’t know what chemicals are, let alone find evidence. Wang Pang thinks about it, how can I explain it to him? "Well, he turns other things into gold, by means of what he uses."

"I checked, but I didn't find any casting tools. I'm still thinking about it. Could it be that this person has sorcery skills that can turn stones into gold?"

Wang Pang shook his head and said: "It's not stones that he has. Later, you go back and give an order to search this house again. When the time comes, I will come with you."

"Yeah." Shen Kuo nodded vigorously: "This time, if you have to let that foreigner who will be 'troublesome', 'troublesome', bow your head and confess. I have to ask him how he turned himself into that yellow hair I, who knows how to do plastic surgery, can't even make it look weird."

"Hahaha, it's genetics, not plastic surgery." Wang Pang patted Shen Kuo on the shoulder.

Shen Kuo stopped: "Here we are, this family is Li Jie's family, let's do this first, and later I'm asking you what kind of chicken is that outsider."