Chapter 479: Side Story 30: What Yang Yizhong Discovered — LiaWind

Side Story 30: What Yang Yizhong Discovered — LiaWind

"You stay here and keep watch. Don't let anyone idle come near."

Yang Yizhong gave his men an order, then tightened the rope at his waist and climbed down the well mouth.

The well was not deep, but no daylight reached in, making it especially dark. Yang Yizhong vaguely felt that the bottom of the well seemed to lead to some unknown place, then thought the idea too absurd, shook his head, and took out a fire striker he had prepared, blowing it alight.

The faint flame flickered, reflecting a few metallic glints at the bottom of the well. Yang Yizhong groped around and picked up several small discs.

Before he could examine them closely, his men above were already leaning in to ask. Realizing he had been down too long, Yang Yizhong answered them while stuffing the found items into his pouch. He turned around once more to confirm nothing was left behind, then signaled his men to pull him up.

"Sir, why were you down there so long? Did you find something good?"

One of his men asked ingratiatingly, but Yang Yizhong was already prepared. He fished two silver ingots from his pouch and said with a laugh, "What? Want them?"

On closer look, they were the ones bestowed on officials and officers when His Majesty ascended the throne. Not worth much, but hard to spend. The man who asked felt displeased inside but put on a fawning smile, saying he dared not.

"Pathetic."

After cursing, Yang Yizhong took out some more bits of silver and had the men split them. Everyone cheered their thanks and then dispersed.

Letting out a silent breath, Yang Yizhong squeezed his pouch and returned to his own tent. When no one else was around, he poured out a dozen or so small discs, some yellow and some white, from the pouch. He found a cloth rag and wiped off the clinging dirt one by one, revealing their true appearance.

Three or five of the yellow ones were probably made of brass, with some verdigris; one of them was so corroded that its pattern was completely illegible. But as for the rest, the white ones, Yang Yizhong was uncertain. Judging by hardness, they should not be silver. In fact, their luster reminded him of a treasured blade he once had, forged from fine steel that could cut through iron like mud. But if they were steel, without maintenance, how could they remain bright and new? After all, the copper found together was already rusted and stained.

After thinking for a while without figuring it out, Yang Yizhong simply found a lodestone and placed the metal disc on it—it actually stuck.

It really was steel! He had no idea what method was used to make it impervious to rust. If it could be used to make weapons, they would be divine blades rarely seen in the world!

He tested the rest, but a few could not be attracted by the magnet and felt light when he weighed them. Yang Yizhong could not tell what they were at all and had to set them aside for now.

Yang Yizhong picked up one disc, only to find it was already hard to see clearly. He hurriedly lit an oil lamp and brought it close to the flame for a careful look. When wiping it earlier, he had noticed the pattern on it was extremely fine; even the top craftsmen's silver incense pouches he had seen in the palace were probably no better. The key point was—Yang Yizhong took another disc of the same design and compared it with the first; the two were almost identical, without the slightest difference.

—Could human hands really achieve this?

—Was the current His Majesty a god, a ghost, or a demon?

Thump, thump, thump, thump...

Heavy footsteps startled Yang Yizhong from his deep thoughts. It was a patrol of soldiers. Only after the footsteps faded did he get up to trim the lamp wick and continue examining the items.

Regardless of material, just looking at the patterns, the discs could be divided into two types.

One type included all the copper discs, the extremely light metal discs, and about half of the largest steel discs. On one side, at the upper center, was an intricate pattern, below which were the characters "X and Common People X of China," with two of the seven characters unrecognizable and the reading not smooth; around it was a ring of patterns—perhaps because he was in the Mingdao Palace, Yang Yizhong inexplicably thought of the tadpole script Daoists spoke of. On the other side, centered at the top was a larger tadpole character, with "Yuan" and "Jiao" characters of unknown meaning on the right, along with more tadpole script; at the lower left were carved various flowers.

The other type included all the remaining steel discs. The intricate pattern was missing; only one side had flowers and tadpole script carved, while the other side had tadpole script with "Yuan" and "Jiao" characters—Yang Yizhong carefully compared them and found they were identical to those on the other type—and at the very top were the six characters "Bank of the People of China."

While comparing the tadpole script, Yang Yizhong realized that the text direction on these small discs might be reversed: the same symbols were arranged vertically on one side and horizontally from left to right on the other. He vaguely remembered hearing somewhere that everything in the underworld was the opposite of the mortal world. So he tried reading the characters he knew in reverse, and it did seem smoother. But with "People" and "Republic," it hardly looked like the realm of ghosts.

Though not a great scholar with a cartload of learning who could recite the classics backward, Yang Yizhong still knew that these two uncommon terms referred to the common people and the "Gonghe Regency" of the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Shao. And his political sensitivity, being at the center of power, made him aware of the incongruity of these two terms being juxtaposed.

How could the common people be placed before the "Duke"?

But thinking of Mencius's saying, "The people are the most important; the state is next; the ruler is the least," it seemed not entirely incomprehensible.

Only, looking at it that way, the unrecognized character "Guo" later on might well be...

After careful thought, Yang Yizhong still dismissed this guess. After all, among these thirteen Chinese characters, most he recognized. The character "Yin" was basically a running-script "silver"; the character "Hua," judging by half the phonetic and half the form,

was probably "Hua." So there was no reason for a completely unrelated character.

Then what could this character "Guo" mean? Yang Yizhong traced the "mouth" radical with his finger,

"Wei," "Kun," "Qiu," "Yuan," "You"... "Guo"!

In this world, what could be called "Zhonghua" or "Zhongguo"? What other country was there? Could these not come from ghosts or gods, but be relics from some ancient dynasty? But if they could make such exquisite things, how could they have left no name in the history books?

Yang Yizhong dared not think further, but he did have a guess about the two characters "Bank." Although it would be four or five hundred years before large amounts of American silver made silver the legal currency, precious metals were naturally money by nature. Considering the size of the discs, they were indeed suitable for use as coins. Then "Bank" was very likely the government office responsible for minting coins.

But if they were everyday, mass-produced coins rather than a small batch, the technical skill shown by the fine patterns was even more astonishing!

The various flowers were all common ones, nothing more than peonies, orchids, and the like. But the pattern on the national-character coin was even more intricate and detailed.

In the center was a tall city tower with five gates. Generally speaking, the more city gates, the greater the defensive pressure; if any city were actually built that way, it would be a joke. But if not for defense, then the only thing that could have such a majestic tower with five gates would probably be the imperial city, right? And one that the "cramped" imperial city of Kaifeng could not match. Above the tower were not the sun and moon, but five five-pointed stars—one large and four small—with the large star in the center and the small ones surrounding it. Thinking of the term "Republic," could it mean one ruler and four advisors? If stars were used as symbols, the possibility of it originating from star palaces or celestial courts seemed higher.

Further outward were encircling wheat, and below was a toothed disc, connected by cloth or silk. The wheat was easier to understand—like the "ji" in "sheji," it was grain. But that disc, Yang Yizhong did not recognize. After racking his brains, a flash of inspiration struck: perhaps, maybe, it seemed he had seen something similar in the Imperial Observatory?

He felt invigorated by this thought, believing he had finally glimpsed the heavenly secret.

Were the constellations in the sky coming to aid our Great Song?

Yang Yizhong carefully put away the coins.