Jinyi Town Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 4 The Taste of Silver

Since it was a house raid, not only gold and silver were copied, but also various antique treasures.

The copied gold, silver, and precious banknotes were all handed over to Taicang under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Households, that is, the national treasury.Antiques and treasures were handed over to the emperor's private treasury - the inner carrier warehouse.

There is a problem here.

Since famous calligraphy and painting are worth a lot of money, there is no shortage of fake masters.Some arty and corrupt officials will inevitably accept a few fakes.

If the emperor had a whim and went to the inner carrier to check the handed-in calligraphy and paintings of famous artists, and found fakes, would Longyan be furious?
How to match the counterfeit goods in the shipping warehouse?
What do you Jinyiwei do to eat?Are you blind?Can't even tell the real thing from the fake?
Therefore, Jinyiwei's inspection of hundreds of households must not only know how to search their homes, but also know how to identify antique calligraphy and paintings.

Twenty years ago, when He Liu inherited his father's job, he worshiped Xu Yanping, the old shopkeeper of Duanguzhai, as his teacher.Until now, every ten days off, He Liu would go to his master Xu Yanping to appreciate the new good things in Duanguzhai, and to sharpen his eyesight.

Lao Hu asked He Liu: "Lao Liu, how do you know this painting is fake?"

He Liu replied: "My master Xu Yanping said that "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" was copied by Fujian painters in the late Yongle Dynasty. It was used to entrap others, so all marks were added in the imitation."

Lao Hu looked carefully at "A Picture of Rising the River during the Qingming Festival", he was at a loss: "Mark? I didn't see it."

He Liu pointed to the middle of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival".Where he pointed, there were four gamblers throwing dice.Two of the dice are sixes, and one is spinning.

He Liu pointed to the mouth of the dice-thrower in the painting, and said: "The mark is on the mouth of the dice-thrower. To bet on dice, three sixes are called leopards, and the dealer who rolls dice can kill all leopards. In the painting There are already two sixes, and one more six, this dice thrower will be able to kill! So he must have shouted "six". This "A Picture of Shanghe During the Qingming Festival" depicts the scenery of Bianliang, Bian people in the Northern Song Dynasty Say 'six' with an accent. In the painting in front of us, the person in the painting has his mouth open, and Fujian people say 'six' means opening his mouth. So this painting was forged by a Fujian painter."

Lao Hu looked at the painting, and saw that the dice-throwing man in the painting really had his mouth open.

Lao Hu clapped his hands: "Hey, old six, you are really successful. After you report to the boss in Jinyiwei, you can go to Duanguzhai to be a locker master who collects antiques."

The old servant collapsed to the ground with a plop.He served Wan Anliang, Wan Yong and his son for two generations.

Who would have thought that his old man would spend all his wealth in exchange for a fake painting?
He Liu said to the old servant: "Get up and walk with us to other rooms."

The three entered Wanfu's kitchen.

He Liu opened the rice vat in the kitchen, and the rice vat turned out to be yellowed coarse rice.

He Liu asked the old servant: "Your master was a dignified third-rank official before he was convicted. Do you usually eat this?"

The old servant burst into tears: "We can afford this!"

Old Hu Qi said: "The right servant is the official of the Six Departments. On the top is the salary silver, in the middle is the fire consumption silver from the headquarters, and on the bottom is the festival and ice charcoal silver from the governors of each province. How could it be reduced to eating coarse rice?"

The old servant almost choked up and said: "Our master is a rare official in the world! He never accepts any money for fire consumption, boxing ceremony, or ice and charcoal silver! The limited salaries are often given by him for three or five dollars. The alms given to the poor beggars. Our family can only eat coarse rice and green vegetables. We only buy a chicken during the Chinese New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival, Shangyuan Festival, and the old lady’s birthday—sometimes there is no money for even a chicken Go buy it!"

He Liu said to the old servant: "Oh, I see. You can go down."

Old Hu said: "It looks like we're going to take a few tattered clothes and a scroll of fake paintings back to meet business."

He Liu picked up a few grains of coarse rice from the rice jar, chewed them in his mouth, and said, "Let's listen to the land. Go and get it."

Lao Hu nodded, went to the innocence box, and took out a strange utensil like a bamboo tube.

The name of this thing is: Earth Listening.

Officials hide silver, and they like to set up hidden compartments under walls and floor masonry.

This ground listener is specially designed to find the hidden compartment under the floor tiles.

"Listening to the land" is a jargon for checking hundreds of households. In fact, it is to find the hidden compartment under the floor tiles where money is hidden.

He Liu put the ground ear on the ground, and put one ear on the ground ear.

Old Hu stomped his feet fiercely.

"Okay, step back five feet!" He Liu said to Lao Hu.

Lao Hu stomped his feet. If there was a hidden space under the five-foot-square floor tiles he stomped on, he could hear something strange from the ground.

"Okay, let's go back another five feet." He Liu said again.

He Liu and Lao Hu spent an hour listening to the plots of the twelve houses.

No hidden compartments were found.

After working for an hour, He Liu and Lao Hu came to sit down at the stone table in the middle of the courtyard.

The commander of the Wucheng Bingma Division had already prepared tea for the two officers.

He Liu drank tea, while Lao Hu still drank.

Lao Hu took a sip of the Fen wine in the tin flagon: "I don't think there is anything to copy in this broken courtyard. You can't even take the stone chair and stone table back to the Beisi Yamen. Today, I will go to Xu Laoqi's." Fifty wrestlers were dispatched. Heh, it seems that these fifty brothers are going to make a futile trip today."

He Liu shook his head: "We have to finish the cutscene. Old Hu, let's rest for a while and scrape the wall before we talk about it."

"Listen to the ground" is to find the hidden space under the floor tiles, while "scraping the wall" is to find the hidden space behind the wall.

The two sat on the stone bench and rested for a while.

He Liu said to Lao Hu again: "Take the tiger from the wall."

Lao Hu opened the innocence box and took out a strange hammer.This hammer is called "tiger on the wall".The hammer head is made of refined iron into the shape of a tiger's head.The hammer handle is made of a large iron pipe with a small iron pipe, which can be stretched.

He Liu and Lao Hu walked into the main room.

He Liu put his ears to the wall, and Lao Hu pointed his wall tiger towards the wall: "Boom", knocked once.

He Liu said to Lao Hu: "Move up three feet. Knock!"

Lao Hu stretched the handle of the hammer, raised it three feet, and hit it again.

If there is a hidden compartment behind the wall, He Liu's ears that are more sensitive than bats will be able to hear the strange sound if he is knocked by the tiger on the wall.

"Move five feet horizontally! Knock! Move three feet up, knock!"

Lao Hu and He Liu spent another hour knocking on every wall of the courtyard.

Just like listening to the land, scraping the wall will get nothing.

Old Hu sighed: "This Wan Anliang is really an upright official. I said, the sixth, we can go back to Beisi for business. Heh, it saved a meal for Wucheng soldiers and horses."

He Liu nodded: "The wine and meat of those sycophants in Wucheng Bingma Division are not very tasty. I went back to Beisi to make a job. At noon, I will invite you to eat donkey meat at Wanfuju."

He Liu, the inspector of hundreds of households, is an official who steals money.In the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, it was an unwritten rule to pluck the feathers of geese.

If you don't take some money, you are breaking the rules and you will be called a target of public criticism.

Every time a criminal official's house is raided, the commander, the commander, the commander, and the North and South Division governors eat meat, and he, a small family, can also drink soup along with him.

Therefore, He Liu's hand is still abundant.After working in Jinyiwei for 20 years, he saved 8000 taels of silver in Longtai Bank in Xicheng.

A meal of donkey meat in Wanfuju doesn't cost him much money.Lao Hu is his father's godbrother, and He Liuchang "respects" his subordinate Lao Hu on weekdays.

He Liu said to Zhaji Zongqi who was leading the team outside: "Brothers, you worked hard this morning. The whole team should go back to Beisi."

The general flag clasped his hands: "What is Liu Ye talking about. This is the duty of humble officials."

Seeing that the officers of the five cities were about to leave, the commander of the Wucheng Bingma Division hurried over and asked He Liu respectfully: "The officer, do you see this house and the family members of the criminals?"

He Liu replied: "The offender's family members will be detained in the prison of your Wucheng Bingma Division first, and will be dealt with after the order. The house will be affixed with the seals of our Jinyiwei, your Wucheng Bingma Division, and the Ministry of Punishment."

He Liu suddenly remembered something: "The old lady in his family is almost seventy. Take care of her. She's an old man. She can't stand the trouble."

The conductor said submissively: "I would like to obey the orders of the superior officer! The superior officer is really a bodhisattva."

He Liu and Lao Hu walked to the courtyard gate.

Just as He Liu's left foot stepped over the threshold, it suddenly retracted.

"What's wrong?" Old Hu asked.

He Liu said: "I always feel something is wrong. I seem to smell... the smell of silver just now."

(End of this chapter)