Chapter 362: Cao Datou

The contents of the Accommodation Guide were divided into several parts.

The first part introduced the hotel and the facilities in the suite. The writing in this booklet was the same as all the writing Master Bo had seen since arriving in Dayuan — all of it was in those vulgar-form characters with missing and simplified strokes.

After fluently reading through the first part of the booklet, Master Bo immediately put what he had learned to use, directing the Servant to go to the bathroom and run hot water for him... His Old Man wanted a bath.

Lying in the pristine white bathtub, feeling the fine, smooth touch of the white porcelain, accompanied by the rising steam, Master Bo let out a long, comfortable sigh.

A large bathtub over a meter long naturally could not be fired from porcelain — the difficulty was too high, and even if fired, the porcelain could not bear the weight of the water and a human body. In fact, Master Bo had mistaken the enamel surface for white porcelain. When Ming People bathed, they used either wooden tubs or stone-built pools, so it was normal that Master Bo had never seen a bathtub from later generations.

This most ordinary bathtub of later generations had a considerably high technology content in this era. Due to the lack of a welding technology tree, the sanitary ware factory needed to shape a whole piece of thin Steel Plate into a bathtub form using sheet-metal techniques first, then spray glaze onto the surface to enamel the inside and outside of the bathtub, before they could produce a finished product.

A bathtub that would be utterly unremarkable in later generations, at present, due to many technical difficulties and a high rejection rate, was therefore not exported except for personal use — this was also the reason Master Bo had never seen one.

After comfortably finishing his bath and calling the Servant in to scrub his back, Master Bo discovered the only regret was that he had not brought a maidservant on this trip — normally these tasks were all done by the girls.

Changing into a moon-white inner robe and the hotel-provided rush-grass sandals, Master Bo sat down on the single sofa, took a sip of the orange-flavored soda from a classic Coca-Cola Glass bottle, and then opened the Accommodation Guide to continue his careful study.

The second part of the guide marked out in detail all the scenic spots in Tainan. These scenic spots included the famous Taijiang Night Market, Kiln District Industrial Tourism, the beautifully scenic Ran Xie Lake, as well as some local high-end restaurants, shopping malls, and other places.

The guide not only marked the locations and provided simple maps of the above places, but also clearly wrote out strategies for various bus stops, private car rentals, and walking tours — extremely thoughtful.

"They're certainly not afraid of people figuring things out." After muttering this one line, Master Bo turned to the next page.

This page contained various points of notice. Including hotel stay requirements, hygiene inspection requirements, emergency help requirements, and so on.

When Master Bo had finished reading all the contents, he again summoned Chang Sui and the Servant, instructing them to go down to the service counter and exchange all the silver they had brought for local currency.

Although Master Bo deeply despised the Cao Clique in terms of ideology, this did not mean he lacked life wisdom. On the contrary, the old cynic understood the principle of "when under another's eaves, bow your head" very clearly, especially as a man of upright character accustomed to following rules and procedures.

So when he saw the currency exchange instructions in the guide, he promptly complied: during their stay in Dayuan, outside merchants and travelers were required to exchange the silver money they carried at designated locations for local currency before they could spend it. This exchange was two-way; travelers could also exchange the currency back to silver before leaving.

This rule was essentially the monetary policy of Abandoning Liang for Yuan, implemented after the Transmigrators held their General Assembly earlier this year: starting from January 1629, within the Empire's directly governed territory (Taiwan Island), the daily consumption of citizens no longer permitted the use of old-system silver money, forcibly transitioning to a mixed currency system of Silver Coins + paper notes.

Chang Sui and the Servant responded, picked up the bundle containing the silver, and went downstairs. The Ministry of Finance had designated many locations for silver and money exchange, including banks in the commercial district, savings points in the Residential Area, and the front desks of foreign-related establishments like the Taijiang Hotel, all of which could handle the transaction.

So the two household staff returned after about an hour.

With a "Hualala" sound, the long-term servant Bo Gui poured the banknotes and silver dollars from the bundle onto the tabletop in one go: "Master, it's all exchanged."

"Mm, let me see." Master Bo set down his Tea Bowl at this, sat up straight, and used two fingers to pluck a gleaming Silver Coin from the pile of money and notes on the table.

What met Master Bo's eyes was a walnut-sized Silver Cake with no hole in the middle.

First, the edge of the Silver Cake had a circle of densely packed straight teeth. Next, on the outer ring, a flying dragon with full horns and claws was engraved inside; this lifelike dragon, with its scales and whiskers flaring boldly, wrapped exactly once around the Silver Coin, head and tail meeting — it looked extremely exquisite.

Below that was the design that made Master Bo gasp in shock: right in the center of the Silver Coin was the profile of a man around thirty years of age. This man wore a flat-topped crown on his head, and a dragon robe was visible at his neck; his resolute gaze slanted into the distance, solemn and domineering, awe-inspiring without a trace of anger.

Although Master Bo normally used copper coins and silver ingots, his keen political instincts immediately allowed him to guess the purpose of this profile: this was a proclamation of the reign title, the same principle as the "Tongbao of the Emperor" characters on copper coins!

Forcefully suppressing the waves in his heart, Master Bo used trembling fingers to flip the Silver Coin over to the reverse side.

The outer ring of the reverse side likewise had a flying dragon, only the dragon's head and tail were opposite to the obverse. The design in the center of the Silver Coin was simple and clear: the traditional characters for "One Yuan," surrounded by ears of Wheat and rice.

Below the two large vertically written characters "One Yuan" were the Arabic Numerals "1850" in the new calendar, which Master Bo did not recognize.

"This money was exchanged at the counter? Does it have a name?" After carefully examining the Silver Coin, Master Bo first closed his eyes and regulated his breathing for a while, then slowly opened his eyes and asked.

Chang Sui Bo Gui, seeing his master ask, hurriedly replied: "Reporting to Laoye, it was all exchanged at the counter. According to the assayer, the official name of this money is Silver Ocean, and it has a nickname called Cao Datou."

"Cao Datou... heh heh... Cao Datou." Master Bo was instead angered into laughter at this: "Can't escape that Cao Jiangjun, what a perfectly fitting name!"

The Servant Bo Mo at his side was young, so his ability to read the situation was still lacking. Seeing his own master laughing, the boy thought Laoye truly liked this exquisite Silver Cake, so Bo Mo quickly used two fingers to pick up a Silver Ocean, puffed out his cheeks and blew hard near his mouth, then placed the Silver Coin by Laoye's ear as if presenting a treasure: "Laoye, listen to this tone! The assayer said this is for anti... oh, anti-counterfeiting. No other house can cast one that rings like this."

"Is there even a need to listen for the ring?" Master Bo shook his head, driving the lingering echo of the Silver Coin from his ear, then stared at the fine, individual strands of hair molded onto the image of a certain Cao, and said leisurely: "Just this pattern and design — which craftsman in the Great Ming could cast it? Hmph, this one coin can be exchanged for one tael of silver, right?"

Chang Sui Bo Gui had by now sensed his master's displeasure, so he hurriedly replied with utmost respect: "Yes, this One Yuan Silver Ocean has a Total Weight of seven mace and two candareens. The counter exchanged it for one tael of our silver."

Master Bo gave a cold snort and said: "No loss. With this workmanship, seven mace is worth one tael."

This remark, made unconsciously by Comrade Bo Daxing, precisely pointed out the real price of the Silver Ocean at present. In fact, ever since this "Cao Datou" was issued at the beginning of the year, its exchange ratio against ordinary silver had never fallen below 110%.

That is to say, in private exchange activities outside of official exchange points, each Silver Dollar could always be exchanged for one tael and one mace or more of broken silver; for a period at the very beginning, it could even be exchanged for one tael and three mace.

The exquisite design, the precisely uniform individual weight, the anti-scraping teeth on the edge, and that unique humming sound — this technology content added to the Silver Coin, much like a Zippo windproof lighter compared to a flint and steel, was quickly discovered and recognized by the Ming People, causing the price of Cao Datou to remain strong for a long time.

After inspecting the Silver Coins, Master Bo then looked through the pile of colorful paper notes on the table one by one.

The designs on the paper notes were largely the same as the Silver Coins, with minor differences: the obverse all featured a half-body portrait of a certain Cao, and the reverse had the note's denomination in traditional characters along with various flowers.

Only, depending on the denomination, these images also changed attire accordingly — marshal's uniform, Western Suit, Zhongshan suit, and other clothing; a certain person's hairstyle also constantly switched between styles like the slicked-back look, the three-seven part, and the center part... It seemed Cao Zong had truly put his heart into it this time, fearing that later generations would lack material when issuing new banknotes, so he had taken N many high-definition electrotype digital photographs.

Master Bo quickly discerned the pattern from this pile of notes: the larger the denomination, the larger the physical size of the note paper. Except for the smallest "One Fen" denomination, which featured a middle-aged man in his forties with a slicked-back hairstyle as the design, the designs on all other yuan, jiao, and fen denominations, though the clothing changed, were still that Cao Jiangjun.

After carefully examining all the note papers, Master Bo chuckled "heh heh" twice once again.

However, Laoye was not angered into laughter this time. Master Bo was a Scholar-Official, and he knew in great detail the series of disastrous operations that followed the Great Ming's issuance of "Treasure Notes" back then. Including the brainless behavior of the government refusing to accept the Treasure Notes they themselves had issued when collecting taxes, and the quiet demise of the Treasure Notes — Master Bo was clear on the whole story.

So when he saw these paper notes on the table, he easily connected them to the essence of paper currency: this was just "Treasure Notes." No matter how exquisitely printed, they were evil instruments used to extort the wealth and fat of the people.

"Let's see how you lot end up!" After laughing sinisterly twice, Master Bo's mood couldn't help but improve considerably. He was already fantasizing about the scene of these unlearned and incompetent sea-bandit officials being battered and exhausted in the future.

After inspecting the paper notes, Master Bo's mood turned quite good. He stretched lazily, turned his head to look out the window, and found the horizon filled with Red-Baked Clouds; Taijiang was already shrouded in golden light — dinnertime had arrived.

"Lock up the Silver Oceans, bring some note paper, let's go eat out!"

After knocking on the suite across the hallway and calling for Fang Tangjing and his master-servant pair, Master Bo's group went downstairs to seek food.

Taking out the Accommodation Guide from his sleeve and following the map the whole way, Master Bo very easily found the nearby food street. Then, at Fang Tangjing's urging, Laoye entered a century-old Xingang Society native shop called "Kende Chicken," which had a white-bearded old man as its signboard.

This fried chicken shop run by naturalized Xingang Society people had very good business. Master Bo's group sat in the novel train-style booth seats and ate the signature Wildman Ancestral Fried Chicken, ate hamburgers, ate Old Xingang Chicken Rolls, also drank Homemade Cola and Coffee, and finally ate ice cream.

In the aftermath, everyone unanimously expressed: it seems the naturalization of these Xingang Society savages was meaningful after all; the fried chicken tasted quite good.