Chapter 245 Wrong Gold Coin
At night, after dinner.

After Zhuge Liang memorized the calculation formulas and finger techniques, he concentrated on studying the abacus and practicing the finger techniques.

He is a focused person. When he is doing one thing, he will not be distracted by other things.

Seeing him like this, Black Bear began to study the engraving of the master coins of gold and copper coins.

There are two types of mother coins. The first type is a carved sample, which he calls the ancestor coin; the one copied by casting the ancestor coin is the mother coin; and the circulating coin made by using the mother coin as a mold is the daughter coin.

If the master coin is used too many times, the outline of the text will become blurred and the weight of the secondary coin will deviate.

And Lu Bu is really suitable for carving.

There is no need for a vise. Lu Bu can just hold the brass plate with his left fingers and it will be stable without any deviation.

Grab the carving knife with your right hand, and then carve it carefully... great force can make miracles happen.

This reminded Black Bear of the T800. This thing was used as the foundation for agricultural development, just like a machine tool, it was the mother of industry.

Now I can't help but regret that I learned to drive in vain and never disassembled an engine. Otherwise, with this knowledge, I could rub some engines by hand, or use this to make a steam engine, and the effect would definitely be outstanding.

After a busy night, by dawn, Lu Bu had carved samples of the five-zhu coins, ten-zhu coins, and fifty-zhu coins.

These are just samples and may require a lot of fine-tuning.

When Zhuge Liang woke up with dark circles under his eyes, he saw that Black Bear was not in the bedroom, but nine sample ancestral coins were placed on the table beside the bed.

They are all golden brass ancestral coins. There is no obvious difference between the Wuzhu coins and the Han Wuzhu coins that Zhuge Liang knew and remembered.

They are the same size and thickness, but the front is engraved with "Taiping Tongbao" and the back is engraved with "Wuzhu".

There are three ancestral coins of Wuzhu, and the calligraphy of each ancestral coin is different, including official script, regular script, and Slender Gold script, which is a simplified Chinese character.

He was speechless for a long time when he looked at the four unique thin gold characters of "Taiping Tong Bao".

He felt that he had misjudged Black Bear. Black Bear was not afraid of trouble at all. He thought it was just a simple coin minting, but it turned out to be such a big deal.

What did the imperial court think of this batch of new money when it was sent to Xudu?
The next ten-cent and fifty-cent coins were both written in the Slender Gold style of calligraphy; the difference between the three ancestral coins lies in their thickness and size.

One weighs half a liang, and the other weighs one liang. If the size is the same as that of a five-zhu coin, then the larger the face value, the thicker it will be. In this case, it is difficult to distinguish the value of the coin based on its size and width alone.

The three types of ancestral coins have three specifications of diameter and thickness.

Almost instinctively, I took a liking to the medium-sized ancestral coins that grew in thickness and width together.

Zhuge Liang observed carefully and saw that there were unpolished burrs on the fine details of the carving on the ancestral coins. He could not help but grit his teeth, amazed at the hands-on ability of Taishi Wengong.

It also felt incredible. It would be fine if he could carve a few ancestral coins in one night, but the other party actually carved nine, and they were divided into three sizes.

After collecting the coins, Zhuge Liang went out to wash up.

I saw several people gathered under the pavilion in the courtyard. Tai Shi Wen Gong was wearing a bronze mask and carving a brass rod as thick as a thumb.

Black Bear was holding a carved copper rod in his hand, which just seemed a bit ridiculous.

This one-foot-long copper rod has a diameter of about one and a half centimeters, and there is a pattern carved on the top. He used the copper rod to press down on the fine pottery clay, leaving an imprint and pattern on the clay.

At the bottom of the seal is a pair of unfolded wheat ears, in the middle is a peach blossom, at the center of the peach blossom are the two characters "五百", and above it are four and a half encircled thin gold characters "太平重宝".

He picked up another carved copper rod and pressed a pattern on the clay. It was a blooming double-petaled chrysanthemum, supported by small circular characters at the bottom: "Made in Guanzhong in the eighth year of Jian'an."

He vaguely felt that he had overcome the technical obstacles in gold coin stamping.

However, we still have to wait a while, as the military craftsmen stationed in Chiyang have already started smelting copper materials and selecting the proportions of copper alloys.

Zhuge Liang didn't bother to wash his face, and came over to salute: "My lord, what is this?"

"The inscriptions on the front and back of this gold coin."

Black Bear handed the clay ball in his hand to Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang looked at it and then looked at the two copper rods on the table.

He flattened the clay ball and used a copper rod to press the seal himself, thinking: "Gold is soft, my lord, do you want to cast or forge a steel mold?"

"I don't have any free time during this period. The craftsmen will work with you to mint copper coins first."

Black Bear glanced at Lü Bu, who was carving a larger copper rod, and said, "I will make some gold coins first to see the effect. I will study this matter when I go to Yan'an after the spring plowing."

Zhuge Liang immediately said: "My lord, I have not accomplished anything yet. I would like to go to Shanglin Garden to specialize in coin minting."

Seeing that there were other people around, he did not mention the matter of Chief Secretary Chen Zhen, and instead said, "The selection of filial and honest officials in the prefectures and states is held in autumn, so this year is not appropriate."

Black Bear nodded after hearing this. Even if Liu Bei was willing to give Chen Zhen a place as a filial and honest official, it was indeed too late this year.

Seeing that Zhuge Liang was not in a hurry to become the chief steward, Black Bear felt a little regretful.

It is indeed tiring to deal with all kinds of problems, no matter how big or small.

Compared with government affairs, he would rather lead thousands of people to fight. Fighting is easy. The relationship between the enemy and us is binary, and all he needs to consider is how to kill the other side.

After thinking about it, he said to Zhuge Liang: "Since you want to go to Shanglin Garden, I will temporarily let you work as a treasurer."

"Liang takes orders."

Zhuge Liang also breathed a sigh of relief. With Black Bear's strong support, it would be just a matter of time before he could mint excellent Wuzhu coins that were no less than the Sanguan Wuzhu coins.

The word "Taiping" on this batch of Wuzhu coins will also cut off his retreat.

These two words were simply not something he could erase.

He also knew that only through such gradual infiltration and oppression could the Guanlong scholars get used to the word "peace", accept and integrate into the word "peace".

At this time, the sculptor Lu Bu suddenly stopped, picked up a brass waist plate from the wooden box, chose a carving knife, and began to chisel and carve on it.

When Zhuge Liang and Black Bear were discussing the ancestral copper coin, Black Bear, who was doing two things at the same time, controlled Lu Bu to carve Zhuge Liang's waist badge. This batch of waist badges were cast uniformly and had the same specifications and sizes.

After Lu Bu carved an identity badge for Zhuge Liang, he picked up a small blank copper seal that was one and a half inches square and engraved a seal on it.

Not long after, the seal of 'Sijin Congshi' was carved, also in the simplified Slender Gold style... Black Bear didn't have any extra ideas about calligraphy. It was just that Zhong Yao's regular script was about to reach perfection, so there was no need to force himself to follow Zhong Yao's track.

Qin seal script and Han clerical script have their own simplified characters, which should use a unique calligraphy.

If we use regular script, it will be difficult to get rid of Zhong Yao in culture and people's cognition. In the Shanglinyuan area, there was a coin minting center in the Former Han Dynasty. Although it was abandoned, it can be reactivated.

If we send Zhuge Liang to hide and do his work, no one will be able to sabotage him.

During this period, he would look for an opportunity to send troops to Liyang to cause sabotage. If Zhuge Liang suddenly rose to a high position and he was not around... It was possible that Zhuge Liang died of an epidemic or fell off his horse.

Competition in official careers is often so plain and simple.

After selecting a black flag hundred-man team to escort Zhuge Liang to office, the black bear led Lu Bu to the blacksmith shop in the city.

Under his instructions, Lu Bu polished the copper rod carved by him with mud and sand to remove burrs.

Two thin copper rods with a diameter of 0.8 centimeters; two medium copper rods with a diameter of 1.2 centimeters; two thick copper rods with a diameter of 1.8 centimeters.

This is the mold for stamping gold coins of three sizes: large, medium and small.

Two sticks in a group, one long and one short, three groups of six sticks, use nine points of white magic power to refine them separately, the long one has two points, and the short one is the base, which only uses one point.

It is then fixed in the mold and heated, and finally, while the coppersmith is puzzled, molten copper is poured into the mold.

Black Bear didn't know how to cast, he only knew some tricks, so he didn't dare to cool the copper casting mold quickly.

After the copper mold cooled naturally, he recalled three sets of bases and punches.

Then the copper mold was formed, like a copper brick with three holes punched in it.

He took the punch and tried the eye hole. Seeing that the punch fit the eye hole tightly, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Restraining his excitement, he began to assemble Lu Bu remotely.

After the base is firmly installed, first take a ball of heated half-liang red gold and put it into the small hole.

Lu Bu held the punch in his left hand and pounded on the gold ball. After pressing it firmly, he raised the big iron hammer with his right hand and smashed it down hard.

In just a moment, the black bear controlled Lu Bu to pick up the copper brick mold, pushed the punch, and pushed out the base and the gold coin together.

The black bear used chopsticks to pick up the gold coin and put it into the basin. After a burst of white air, he reached out and took out the gold coin which was about two and a half centimeters in diameter.

Staring at this high-quality gold coin, what came to his mind at this moment was not the Guanzhong gold coins impacting the West, but a long-lost sense of "standard".

He suppressed his emotions and controlled Lu Bu to forge another big gold coin.

There is a plum blossom on the front of the big gold coin, with "Thousand Yuan" in the middle of the plum blossom, while the back of the coin changes from a chrysanthemum to a big white goose with its neck bent and its head turned back, paddling its paws in the water.

After looking at the two gold coins of different sizes, Black Bear simply controlled Lu Bu to stamp and forge all the remaining gold balls.

Continuously manufactured, the punch and base are refined by white magic power, and the physical deformation can be slowly restored.

The copper brick mold had some slight deformation, and only Black Bear noticed the change after careful observation.

Once you master the technology, you can apply it to any situation. Later, you can make a mold for the wrought iron punch and base. After mass production, you can use the carburizing process to temper the wrought iron.

Then temper or anneal... Black Bear doesn't understand the specific heat processing, but after a few more tests, he can make high-strength punches and bases.

Connect the base and the punch separately to make the base plate and the punching plate, and then refine them with white magic power.

Finally, the base plate and stamping plate are combined to pour molten iron to make the hole mold, which is also refined with white magic power.

In this way, one stamping in the future can produce a set of gold coins.

Such exquisite gold coins will bring great advantages in trade in the future.

By exchanging copper coins and gold coins for gold, and using the gold to mint gold coins, the disposable money will increase.

After working most of the night, Black Bear looked at the three piles of gold coins in front of him for a long time in silence.

It's almost been a year since I came into this world, and there are actually only two things worth praising.

Sleeping with Zhen Mi was just a trivial matter. Thinking about it and worrying about it at first was just a way to divert attention and relieve stress during the long escape.

Later, when they were mixed together, it was even more impossible that it had anything to do with any twisted love story.

When he remotely controlled Gan Ning and the Qingzhou soldiers to defeat Cai Mao, he felt that fighting was more interesting than Zhen Mi.

After running so much and going through so much, there are only two things that are worthy of praise. One is that he rescued so many people, not that he beheaded 100,000 people.

Secondly, we see so many standard gold coins of the same specifications being produced.

The three piles of gold coins weighed a total of 17 Han jin, including 160 large and medium-sized gold coins each, and 128 small-denomination gold coins.

He always felt that something was wrong, so he ordered Lu Bu to get the abacus. He raised his hand and made a few calculations. The black bear looked at the pile of gold coins in shock.

Use two kilograms of gold to make one hundred and twenty-eight gold coins with a face value of 'hundred yuan'?
He couldn't help but close his eyes and think about the conversation with Zhuge Liang. Did he ever say that he wanted to use six zhu of gold to make a hundred-gold coin?
One gold is equal to one catty, which is sixteen taels, three hundred and eighty-four zhu; each zhu of gold is equivalent to twenty-six copper coins; six zhu of gold should be equivalent to one hundred and fifty-six coins.

So he looked at the 128 out-of-print small gold coins with an expressionless face and picked up one.

Apart from the text, the differences are the orchid relief on the front and the word "Bai Yuan" under the orchid; the shield relief on the back and the Fang Tian Ji carved in the middle of the shield.

He grabbed all the small gold coins in his hand, threw out a little white mana to cleanse them, disperse them, and disappear from his sight.

Then he used some white mana to refine the other two piles of gold coins. From then on, he finally had a way to play with the gold coins.

Then, with a bitter face, he ordered Lu Bu to fetch copper plates and tools and start carving the ancestral coins that would serve as hundred-copper coins. He also carved three types in a row, using one and a half taels of copper.

After checking again and again and calculating the cost at random, he put the three ancestral coins into the brocade bag.

He walked out the door and said to the officer on duty, "Send it immediately to Zhuge Kongming, the official in charge of finance."

"Here!"

The military officer responded in a low voice, took a few steps back, and turned around to arrange this matter.

The black bear looked at the night sky. Although it was cold, he could clearly smell the dampness in the air.

Thinking of the battle of Liyang that might break out at any time, he decided to hold back.

(End of this chapter)