Chapter 17: Ming Dynasty Silver Ingots

Cao Chuan understood immediately. What else could he say? He could only thank the old brother for his painstaking efforts. Sun Jian also explained some common-sense rules to him, like never pointing the muzzle at a person. Only after he felt his arm had recovered a bit did they resume practice.

From then on, they loaded one bullet every five minutes. After each shot, a certain someone was also required to sum up his experience and identify shortcomings. Fortunately, Cao Zong was also a man who had risen from hardship, so he followed every instruction without fail. By the time they finished for the day, although his accuracy was nothing special, his basic skills — shooting stance, aiming habits, wind adjustment — had already been mastered to a passable degree.

In Sun Jian's view, Cao Chuan had only ordinary aptitude. He was far behind some gifted recruits and still needed diligent practice. A certain someone, however, was quite satisfied with himself. He felt he had learned some real skills today, and besides, his eyesight was good. After firing a few more cases of bullets later, his marksmanship was bound to develop.

After settling the bill at the end, Cao Zong wanted to treat him to a meal again, but Sun Jian had matters to attend to that evening. The two agreed to find time to come shoot again. After saying goodbye, Cao Chuan drove straight back to his residential compound. He first went to the property management office to rent a large garage downstairs, parked the car, then went back upstairs to search online.

He wouldn't have known if he hadn't looked, but once he did, it was truly marvelous. It turned out that so many countries in the world had gun shops. These capitalist countries really were decadent. When he had browsed the internet before, he had never been interested in how to buy a gun. Now that he looked, the matter didn't seem too difficult to handle.

In less than two hours, after reading the explanations and real-life photos shared by many experienced people online, he had already decided on his destination — Thailand.

Originally, in his mind, if you wanted to get guns, it had to be the Great Beacon Country, no question. But after checking, he learned that the Beacon Country had also been cracking down recently, because yet another vigilante had gone on a school shooting spree. The calls for gun control were loud, and right now you couldn't even buy bullets. Besides, getting a visa for the Beacon Country wasn't easy either.

Thailand, on the other hand, offered visa on arrival, the renminbi was welcomed, and guns apparently weren't too hard to get. When he read the line stating that Thailand had over ten million illegal firearms while legal firearms numbered only 3.8 million, he made up his mind to take a trip to Bangkok.

As for the netizens' complaint that you could only play with guns abroad but couldn't bring them back even if you bought them, a certain someone felt zero pressure: the ring's space was made for exactly this. Besides, the guns he was buying were for use in the Great Ming Dynasty; he had no intention of messing around in a harmonious society, so there would be no lasting trouble.

Leaning back in his chair and thinking for a moment, Cao Chuan picked up his phone and dialed his mother's number: "Mom, are you and Old Cai still together? Haven't divorced, right?"

"You wretched child, how can you talk to your mother like that? Didn't you go to Africa? It fell through?"

"Africa was too chaotic, it fell through. Now the Company wants me to go to Thailand. The problem is I need to get a Passport. I remember that Uncle Hu who used to visit our home works in Public Security, right? Get someone to help me process it quickly."

"Oh, Thailand is better than Africa. You don't need Old Hu for the Passport, just go to your uncle. I still have to go to your dad's place to get your household registration booklet. Is it urgent?"

"Urgent. The sooner the better. Just send me a Text Message when it's done, I'll come pick it up."

After chatting with his mother a bit more, Cao Chuan hung up the phone.

At nine in the evening, he was just about to call Li Douzhan when, who knew, the guy was already ringing the doorbell.

As soon as he entered, Li Douzhan said smugly: "This afternoon I sold another three pieces of Ming material, brought in five million. I'll keep the money with me for now. Tomorrow I have to buy a car, look at shopfronts, and go to Suzhou to deliver goods. Busy, so busy. The life of a rich man is truly fulfilling!"

Cao Chuan smiled, shook his head, and crooked a finger: "Mr. Fulfillment, come here, come here."

Once Li Douzhan walked over and sat down, Cao Chuan pondered for a moment, then asked out of the blue: "Can you make Ming Dynasty Silver Ingots?"

Li Douzhan blinked hard, stunned for a long while, before finally managing to shift mental gears: "What ingots? From which dynasty?"

"Ming or Qing, I guess. The kind stacked up on plates on TV."

Li Douzhan put on an expression of utter defeat: "Silver ingots are easy to make. Find a mold and you can cast them. The large ingots are Official Silver, fifty taels each. The problem is that every dynasty had too many styles of Official Silver, and each province was different. Which kind exactly do you want?"

"You decide on the style. Just make it Ming Dynasty, the most widely circulated type."

"In that case, we need to find a mold from a large private bank. Privately minted ones circulated widely. Official Silver wasn't allowed to be traded in public settings."

"Mm, you handle it. Make fifty first."

"Ha? The market's flooded with fakes right now, even genuine goods can't fetch a good price. Fifty, you say? Even five would be hard to sell. Do you have no sense of reality at all?"

"These aren't for selling. They have a special use. I can tell you for certain, fifty won't be enough. There will be another batch."

This time Li Douzhan truly knelt in surrender: "Fine, fine, fine. You're the Great Lord. Then let me calculate the cost for you."

Saying this, he took out his phone and started calculating: "The current silver price is over three yuan per gram, but you generally can't buy a lot at that price. I'll still need to get someone to buy privately with a markup. Hmm, one Ming tael is 37.3 grams. One ingot at seventy percent silver content is thirty-five taels. That means the pure silver cost for one ingot alone is over four thousand, not counting other auxiliary materials. Fifty of them is two to three hundred thousand. Spending that much money, I'd be better off making some Copper coins instead."

"What's this about seventy percent silver content?"

Li Douzhan helplessly began to educate him: "Silver content above ninety percent is Tribute Silver, exclusively for the Ministry of Revenue Vault and the Imperial Palace. It rarely circulated on the market. The Official Silver from various provinces and the privately minted silver from banks was above seventy percent, with limited circulation."

"Mm, then that's the one. Get on it quickly." Cao Zong waved his hand magnanimously.

Li Douzhan shook his head: "If we're doing this long-term, we still need to buy the shopfront first, then I'll build a separate workshop. On top of that, I need to buy a ton of Tools, crucibles, welding torches, air compressors, etcetera etcetera. I also need to research Ming Dynasty bank records, then pay a senior in the trade to make a set of molds. The cost is going to rise quite a bit more."

"You handle all that. When the time comes, We only want the ingots."

Li Douzhan still wouldn't give up. Silver ingots had no technical sophistication, so he desperately pushed his own ancient coin craftsmanship, grabbing Cao Chuan to explain the thirty-step process of making ancient coins, and was ultimately ignored.

With the ingot matter arranged, he felt sore all over. After applying some safflower oil, Cao Chuan went to bed early. On one hand, he lamented how a fine young man like himself had been forced by this ring into a charlatan and a compulsive liar. On the other hand, he felt it was still worth it — at least he had transformed overnight from a broke loser into a legendary Success Person.

Early in the morning, Li Douzhan went out to handle affairs. Cao Chuan lazed in bed until nine before crawling out, mainly because his whole body ached and he didn't want to get up. He understood this was the aftermath of yesterday's shooting practice.

Going downstairs, he drove straight to the entrance of a costume shop. He had been to this shop before, helping a props master carry things, and remembered they had a full range of ancient costumes. Today he intended to do as the locals do and pick out a few long robes to wear.

Once inside, he went on a buying spree, purchasing several pieces each of monk robes, Daoist Robes, long robes, and short robes, along with lined garments, shoes, and hats. He also picked out two types of hairpins. If he was going to play the part, he'd go all the way. Don the Daoist Robe, tie up the hair in a topknot — who would dare say Brother Cao didn't have a Ming Dynasty household registration?