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Chapter 89 Mark Six

(PS: There are two changes today, the first one is delivered, and the monthly ticket has only increased by one in a few days. Friends, it’s time to vote after watching the World Cup.)
"I won! The dragon ticket! I won the dragon ticket!" Another lucky man jumped out of the crowd, jumping up and down holding the dragon ticket high in his hand, and he was greeted by hundreds of thousands of envious people look.At the same time, another group of soldiers from the Ming army came over and surrounded him and sent him into the inner circle of the disaster relief lottery sale site. Firecrackers were fired in unison.And on the high platform of the second lottery draw, Song Jin, the eunuch of Dongchang Supervisor, winked at Young Master Zhang, and said in a low voice, "Tanhualang, my own, let him win the first prize."

"First prize?" Young Master Zhang froze for a moment, and hurriedly asked in a low voice: "Eunuch Song, no, the lottery ticket will be sold for three days, and it's only the second day now, and both first prizes have been given out, how can we sell them tomorrow?" what?"

"There's no need to wait for tomorrow." Song Jin said in a low voice, "According to the current momentum, the lottery tickets will be sold out in at most two hours. If you don't let Eunuch Li's people win the lottery, it will be too late."

"Are they all going to be sold out?" Young Master Zhang was stunned——Ying Tianfu issued a total of 800 million lottery tickets this time, raising 15 taels. , but now it’s only the noon of the next day, and after only one and a half days, the 800 million lottery tickets are about to be sold out. 80.00% sold out is Amitabha.

"That's right, our family and Eunuch Li didn't expect it to be so easy to sell." Song Jin wiped the sweat from his fat face, and said with a mournful face: "If we knew that the people of Yingtianfu are so enthusiastic about lottery tickets, we should raise the price of lottery tickets." , as well as increasing circulation, a mistake, a real mistake, and missed such a good opportunity to make a fortune. Don't be wordy, you'll let all of us who haven't won the lottery win the lottery, otherwise it will be too late!"

"Crack, crack, crack!" Ten groups of firecrackers blared together, announcing the birth of the second first prize winner of the first lottery for disaster relief in the Ming Dynasty. Distant relatives and first-prize winners were covered with red flowers, carried on floats, and held glistening silver in their arms, and began to celebrate in the downstream street under the protection of Ming soldiers.The Jinling lottery players present were either discouraged, lamenting that they missed the huge sum of 5000 taels of silver, or rushing to the lottery sales office with silver and copper coins, striving for the last two second prizes and the few remaining third prizes. The fourth prize is in his arms.

With the concerted efforts of countless lottery players, the big prizes began to show a blowout trend. The sound of congratulatory firecrackers kept coming and going, and one after another, the lucky ones came on stage one after another, taking away the last two second prizes—in fact, everyone who received the prizes It was Mao Yilu who was the governor of Yingtian, and the real winners were Mao Yilu himself and Xiao Chuan, a hundred households punished by Dongchang Tie.The remaining fourth prizes were also taken away one after another. When the last fourth prize was left, all the lottery sales tables stopped selling almost at the same time. The reason is very simple, all 800 million lottery tickets were sold out.

"It's sold out? There's still a fourth prize, how come it's sold out?" Countless Jinling lottery players roared angrily, and some even yelled impatiently for cheating, accusing the government of cheating by publicly offering thousands of prizes, Young Master Zhang, Li Shi, Mao Yilu and others People are also peeking at each other. I really don't understand why such an accident happened?Fortunately, a well-known restaurant chef in Yingtian Mansion jumped out in time, waving a dragon ticket and a handful of lottery tickets that hadn't had time to tear off the seal, jumping up and down and shouting, "I won the prize!" Yes, I won, I bought a lottery ticket with all my monthly salary, I finally won the dragon ticket! Hahahaha, now I don’t have to be someone else’s cook anymore, I can open my own restaurant!”

"Huh——!" Young Master Zhang, Li Shi and the others breathed a sigh of relief. In order to win the trust of the people, Young Master Zhang and Li Shi did not play tricks in setting the number of winning prizes this time. Zhang Longpiao, the young master Zhang and Li Shi couldn't tell even if they had a hundred mouths.The Jinling lottery players, who understood what was going on, looked enviously at the cook who took away the last fourth prize, and shouted at the same time, "We still need to buy lottery tickets! We still need to buy lottery tickets! Sell, sell! My lord, please sell more lottery tickets! Some people simply rushed under the high platform and yelled at Young Master Zhang, "Master Imperial Envoy, we still have to donate to the victims of the disaster. You can sell some more lottery tickets!"

"Master Imperial Envoy, Eunuch Li, why don't you just take out the lottery tickets from other state capitals and sell them for another 10 taels of silver?" The local officials in Yingtianfu begged Young Master Zhang and Li Shi in unison—no way, Young Master Zhang and Li Shi stipulated Of the 15 taels of silver, nearly [-] taels must be retained by the local government to be used as operating costs. Local officials have money to fish for, so naturally they hope to sell as much locally as possible.Faced with the enthusiastic and strong demands of the local officials and people, Master Zhang and Li Shi both hesitated, and Li Shi said in embarrassment: "The printed lottery tickets have already been shipped to Suzhou, Yangzhou, Songjiang and Hangzhou. Printing now, even if the engraving and paper are ready-made, it will be too late.”

"It's okay, you can keep the lottery tickets from other state capitals and sell them in Yingtianfu." An official of Yingtianfu suggested.Before the words were finished, Zhejiang governor Pan Ruzhen, Suzhou prefect Hu Zanzong, Jiang prefect Zhang Zongheng, and Yangzhou prefect Liu Duo, who came to observe and study Yingtianfu lottery in person, jumped out at the same time and shouted in unison: "No! Suzhou, Yangzhou, The people and gentry in Songjiang and Hangzhou are anxious about the needs of the victims, thinking about what the court thinks, and are waiting for donations for disaster relief, how can we chill the hearts of the people and gentry in these four state capitals?" ——These four people Even though they didn't know what Master Zhang did in the second lottery draw, they knew very well that this was a rare opportunity to make a fortune, so naturally they refused to let it go.

"Eunuch Li, I think that you should not use the water to catch fish. You should stimulate the appetite of the people in Jinling, which will help us sell the Mark Six lottery—that is a long-term and fixed source of income." Young Master Zhang finally spoke, vetoing the sale of the lottery in Yingtian Mansion. Suggestion for lottery.Li Shi also knew that with the current enthusiasm of the people of Yingtian, the launch of the Liuhe lottery would be very popular, and the money would be abundant. They are all sold out, and in a few days we will hold a disaster relief lottery with bigger rewards, so that the people of Yingtian can rest easy."

"Also." Young Master Zhang added: "Call the big merchants in Yingtian Mansion, I will meet them tomorrow, and discuss with them how to sell Liuhe lottery tickets."

In 15 A.D., on the sixth day of July in the fifth year of Ming Dynasty, the disaster relief lottery launched for the first time since the founding of the Ming Dynasty was sold out in Yingtianfu, raising a total of 5000 taels of silver. Excluding the lottery cost, publicity expenses and local retention, the total was 2000 taels, and the actual fundraising was 3000 taels—a figure that Young Master Zhang announced to the public the next morning to accept public scrutiny.After this incident, the state capitals in the south of the Yangtze River requested to issue lottery official documents. —By the way, let Young Master Zhang eat meat and drink soup by himself.At the same time, the envious Donglin Party spokesperson Yushi is also gearing up, casually preparing to play on the table, impeaching Young Master Zhang, setting up a clever name to search for people's wealth, and openly encouraging the people to participate in gambling...

In the next period of time, the seemingly incorruptible Young Master Zhang made a lot of money, whether it was the purse of the court or Young Master Zhang, it was full - Young Master Zhang led the local officials in the south of the Yangtze River to Suzhou, Yangzhou, Songjiang and The four wealthiest prefectures in Hangzhou held disaster relief lotteries, all of which were unprecedentedly grand and violent. Not only did the hard-earned money of the local people in the four prefectures get a lot of money, even many foreigners heard the news and made a special trip to They ran to these state capitals from other places to buy lottery tickets and participate in gambling. There were even many red-eyed lottery players who followed Young Master Zhang, who issued lottery tickets there, and they bought lottery tickets there. I made a lot of money, but inadvertently became a live advertisement for Young Master Zhang, seducing countless Jiangnan people who dreamed of getting rich overnight to give up their money, scrambling to throw blood-stained copper coins and silver into Young Master Zhang's wolf mouth.In this way, Young Master Zhang made a lot of tricks by copying the second lottery draw of later generations. Naturally, most people can't see it. At the same time, the local government also withheld profits from it and obtained a large amount of money. Since the first year of Tianqi, the Ming treasury, which has been dealing with the Guizhou Miao Rebellion and the Liaodong War at the same time, has also begun to narrow the deficit extremely rarely. It can be said that everyone is happy.

Pink eye disease is everywhere. Master Zhang used the disaster relief lottery to make a lot of money. Countless officials are jealous of it. Needless to say, other prefectures in Nanzhili that did not issue disaster relief lottery are even more coveted, writing letters one after another, Ask Young Master Zhang to issue lottery tickets in their prefecture city, so that the people under their rule can also show their love for the disaster victims in the north.Faced with such a request, Young Master Zhang naturally pushed the boat forward and proposed his long-awaited Mark Six lottery plan to the imperial court, requesting it to be tried out in some state capitals in Nanzhili and Hangzhou.

The Mark Six Lottery plan proposed by Master Zhang is similar to that of later generations. It is 36 to choose six, and the upper limit of the bonus is 1 taels. Officials and their immediate family members are not allowed to participate. The specific implementation method is directly managed by the Jiangnan Weaving Department, entrusted to merchants from all over the country to sell, and the prize is drawn every seven days. , The prize redemption time is January, limited by traffic conditions and communication conditions, so each state capital issues separately and draws prizes separately.The Jiangnan Weaving Bureau’s control method for lottery tickets is lottery paper. Each lottery ticket with anti-counterfeiting patterns is only allowed to use a special seal issued by the government to print a lottery number in order to count the number of sales. Two copies of the issued number book are stamped and backed up so that the authenticity can be checked when winning the lottery. The lottery sales period is six days per period, and the number book is handed over and sealed before the seventh day of the lottery. Those who win a prize of more than one hundred taels must go to the Jiangnan Weaving Office to exchange it. Every once in a while, the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau will send people to check the number book records to prevent local officials from falsifying.At the same time, Master Zhang, in order to curb fraud, reduced the number of small prizes. In addition to the most basic ten small prizes, only one hundred essays and one or two silver medals were set up, which increased the cost of counterfeiting and reduced the benefits of counterfeiting, and curbed local officials from the root. Colluding with lottery sellers to cheat.Of course, Young Master Zhang had to come up with a heavy punishment plan for counterfeiting. For those who counterfeit lottery tickets for profit, all officials will be dismissed from their jobs and their homes will be confiscated.

After the release of Young Master Zhang's rather perfect Mark Six lottery distribution plan, the entire Jiangnan officialdom and business circles were shaken. The local government focused on the 5.00% local interception proposed by Young Master Zhang, and the businessmen focused on the [-]% proposed by Young Master Zhang. Sixth, sales commission—the popularity of the disaster relief lottery is obvious to all. Everyone knows that once the Mark Six lottery is issued, it will open up a long-term and stable source of income for us. Therefore, not only the Jiangnan officials support the release and promotion of the Mark Six lottery. Today, businessmen are even more prepared for a rainy day, giving gifts and bribes to local officials early in order to obtain the exclusive right to sell local lottery tickets.Even the officials of the Donglin Party, the nemesis of Young Master Zhang, acted uncharacteristically. They let go of their estrangement and went to the court to support Young Master Zhang in promoting the Liuhe lottery. .In this way, Young Master Zhang, who is clean on the outside and corrupt on the inside, must be respected by Jiangnan officials, gentry, and businessmen as the most upright official in the world, the most capable official in the world, a rare pillar of the Ming Dynasty, and Guang Wanmin Umbrella gave Young Master Zhang more than a dozen .

Relying on the bright future drawn by the Mark Six Lottery for Jiangnan officials and businessmen, when Young Master Zhang was in full bloom, on July 26, Wei Zhongxian's official document was finally delivered. In the official document, Wei Zhongxian first praised Young Master Zhang fiercely, and then told Young Master Zhang , I can’t scrape any more, and it will be the day of the autumn harvest soon, and I’m afraid it will affect the supply of military rations at the front, so Wei Zhongxian ordered Master Zhang in the official document to immediately escort the relief money and the purchased grain back to the capital, by the way Supervise the distribution of relief food in Shandong, and crack down on the signs of ink corruption that have emerged during the disaster relief process.As for the Mark Six lottery scheme proposed by Young Master Zhang, Wei Zhongxian gave Li Shiying Tianfu a trial run to observe the effect first, and discuss other things after Young Master Zhang returned to Beijing.

"Back to the capital, I haven't played enough in Jiangnan, and Chen Yuanyuan, Dong Xiaowan, and Liu Rushi haven't found them yet. It's a pity to go back now." After reading Wei Zhongxian's official documents and letters, Young Master Zhang scratched his head in regret, but on second thought, Young Master Zhang still sighed and said, "I can't help it. The folks in my hometown are still waiting for my food to save their lives. Go back as soon as you go back. I don't know if Ma Jun and Wu Ershao and his bastards died of starvation. It's a bit strange to say it." Miss them."

On July 29, 30, Zhang Haogu, who was ordered to go to the south of the Yangtze River to raise funds for disaster relief, brought a large number of talents he had found in the south of the Yangtze River, and the second batch of [-] shi of rice for disaster relief. The boat returned to the capital mightily.Before leaving, Li Shi, the number one eunuch in the south of the Yangtze River, personally led all the civil and military officials in the south of the Yangtze River to the pier to see him off. In front of many officials, Li Shi bowed deeply to Young Master Zhang, bowed three times to the end, and said very sincerely, "Thank you." Young Master Zhang was so frightened that he hurriedly returned the gift, and said politely: "Eunuch Li, you must not do this. This time I went to the south of the Yangtze River to raise funds for disaster relief. Thanks to you and all the adults for their full assistance, the person who should be grateful is the lower official. you?"

"Tanhualang, you don't have to be humble." Li Shi said calmly: "Our family knows every move you make in Jiangnan. You have put in a lot of effort to collect taxes for the court and relieve the pressure on our family. My family understands better than anyone else. Don’t say too much about our family, if Tan Hualang needs to come to our family’s place in the future, even if you can ask our family, our family will do our best.”

"Eunuch Li, you don't need to be polite, those are what lower officials should do." Young Master Zhang bowed his hands to Li Shi, and said very sincerely: "Eunuch Li, take care, the court is now facing the Guizhou Miao chaos and the Liaodong war at the same time. I can't live without Jiangnan taxes, and I can't live without you." As he said, Young Master Zhang and Li Shi reached out to each other and held each other tightly, feeling a sense of confidant to each other.Young Master Zhang even had such an idea, "If one day the old eunuch Wei falls or kicks his legs, and Li Shi takes over the old eunuch Wei's position, will he and I cooperate like Zhang Juzheng and Feng Bao? Intimacy? Reinvigorate the country?"

(End of this chapter)