History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 690 "Iron Tire Silver" (Monthly Ticket Rewards and Additional Updates)

Murong Yanchao also opened many businesses in Yanzhou, including a pawnshop business.

The pawnshop was doing a booming business because a mysterious tycoon had pledged a large amount of silver ingots and did not come to "redeem" them after the expiration of the period. According to the pawnshop's rules, those who did not redeem their silver ingots after the expiration of the period would be considered "dead pawns", which meant that the pawned items would belong to the pawnshop. Murong Yanchao's pawnshop became rich overnight.

The image of pawnshops in Chinese history is not glorious, and they have basically become synonymous with man-eating machines. Usually, pawnshops will suppress the value of the collateral very low, and then give a very low discount on this basis before lending money, and the amount of money is far from the actual value of the collateral. This is the first knife of pawnshops to exploit and kill people.

High interest rates, horrific compound interest, and the like are the second way pawnshops use to cheat people.

If the principal and high interest cannot be repaid on time, the pawnshop will sell the collateral and make a direct profit. This is the third way the pawnshop uses to cheat people.

Whether in storytelling or novel interpretation, ordinary people will not go to the pawnshop unless they are forced into a desperate situation, and if you take something to the pawnshop, you basically can't expect to redeem it. It's better to say that it's sold to the pawnshop at a very low price than to put it in pawn.

It is precisely because those who go to the pawnshop are in urgent need of money that the price offered by the pawnshop will be even lower, taking advantage of others' misfortune and making ill-gotten gains.

Therefore, pawnshops have always been serious man-eating machines for the poor people, killing people invisibly and eating them without leaving any bones.

Since the silver ingots of "Murong's Pawnshop" became "dead pawns", the mysterious man has not appeared for a year, as if he doesn't care about the huge sum of money at all. This aroused the suspicion of the pawnshop manager.

Based on his years of experience, even if there is a contract in black and white and signed in advance, if such a huge sum of money is to become a "dead pawn", the parties involved will definitely come to the pawnshop to ask for flexibility, such as being willing to add interest, requesting a few days of grace. In short, they will negotiate with the pawnshop to recover certain losses.

The pawnshop manager felt more and more guilty, so he went to the warehouse to check. As a result, a horrifying truth was laid before him: all the silver ingots were fake!

The core of these silver ingots is iron, and the outside is silver, commonly known as "iron-rimmed silver". When the history books recorded this story, the introduction of this counterfeit coin was "iron-rimmed silver". When many people translated and recounted it, they simply said that the core was made of iron and the outside was wrapped with a layer of silver. However, through the subsequent explanation of the story, we can make a very reasonable inference: "Iron-rimmed silver" is not that simple, it is not a lump of iron wrapped in silver.

If it was just a lump of iron wrapped in silver, it would be easily detectable based on weight. The density of iron is very different from that of silver.

铁的密度是7.874g/立方厘米。如果细分的话，钢铁的密度最大，可以达到7.9；而白铸铁则在7.4到7.7之间；而白银的密度则高达10.50g/立方厘米。（数据来源于度娘）
The density difference is nearly half, but it can easily deceive professionals in the financial field, which shows that its production process is by no means simple.

The pawnshop manager quickly reported the matter to Murong Yanchao.

Murong Yanchao was furious, but then he calmed down and used the "hook and square method" to catch the criminals who minted counterfeit coins.

Murong Yanchao ordered his men to move the valuables from the warehouse overnight and hide them properly. Then he chiseled a hole in the wall and threw some worthless items on the ground in a mess to fake a theft scene. The next day, a cordon was set up at the scene, and the government detectives went to the scene to investigate in a formal manner. At the same time, Murong Yanchao posted a notice to reassure the people, which read as follows:
"As a local official, I should serve the people and make decisions for them. However, I was not careful enough and seriously neglected my duties. I was patronized by bold thieves and caused great property losses. I am really ashamed! Of course, some people may say that I am stealing from the public and deliberately defrauding the people's property. This is a big mistake! In order to give justice to the people and to prove my innocence, I solemnly promise: within three days, anyone who pawns property in this pawnshop can hold the pawn ticket or lose the pawn ticket. Please verbally state the relevant information of the pledged items. Once verified, I will double the compensation! Finally, I deeply apologize for the inconvenience caused to you."

The people were half-believing and half-doubting. Was the stingy man turning into a spendthrift boy? With a try-it attitude, the people took the pawn tickets to exchange them. As expected, as Murong Yanchao promised, the compensation was doubled. The people were delighted and praised him.

The next day, the suspect who had pledged the "iron-fetal silver" walked into the trap in the hope of making another fortune. He was immediately captured by the officers and soldiers and sent to Murong Yanchao.

The suspect regretted his decision and thought he would definitely die this time. Unexpectedly, Murong Yanchao not only did not kill him, but instead arranged a job for him and consoled him with kind words.

"You are a talented person! Come to work in the Marshal's Mansion. I will give you a dozen people. You can lead them to make this kind of counterfeit money. If you need any materials, just let me know."

The counterfeit suspect disguised himself as the technical director and workshop director of the Mint...

The history books only say that they are "all made of iron and covered with double silver". Obviously, the historians deliberately did not introduce the detailed process to prevent people from imitating. As mentioned earlier, the density of iron and silver is very different. It is definitely not a simple "roujiamo" process, otherwise there would be no need for such professionals; and his method of cashing out is not to circulate in the market, but to defraud the pawnshop of money by turning it into a "dead pawn". In other words, the real cost of this counterfeit currency should be very low, so low that after being "cut in half" or "cut off at the heel" by the pawnshop, there is still a lot of profit space.

Therefore, this person must have mastered some unknown special formula and technology.

The greedy Murong Yanchao had a keen sense of smell and sensed the huge business opportunity. Although he could make money by opening a pawnshop and lending money at high interest rates, making money directly was even more brutal.

Soon, there were mountains of "silver ingots" in Murong Yanchao's warehouse.

When Yanzhou was besieged by Guo Wei, Murong Yanchao personally climbed the city wall to encourage the morale of the soldiers defending the city, saying to them: "I have a mountain of silver. As long as you defend Yanzhou City, I will reward you with all of it, so that you will have no worries about food and clothing for the rest of your life!"

The soldiers were very pleased at first, but when Guo Wei tried to persuade them to surrender, they cursed at him and vowed to live and die with Yanzhou.

But soon, well-informed officers and soldiers leaked the secret of "iron-rimmed silver", saying that Murong Yanchao did have a large amount of silver, but it was all "iron-rimmed silver". What use did we have for that stuff?

"So the troops heard this and began to disband a little, but the city had not yet fallen."

According to historical records, after Guo Wei entered the city, he massacred tens of thousands of people, possibly in revenge for their foul language. After checking the Yanzhou treasury, it was found that 80% of the "silver" in Murong Yanchao's hands was this kind of "iron-clad silver".

(End of this chapter)