Chapter 35: The Mountain Stronghold Master in Folklore

  Huai'an City is divided into old city, new city and sandwich city (also known as Liancheng), commonly known as "Huai'an Three Cities". The Huai'an Prefecture City is the most solid and majestic, easy to defend and difficult to attack, with a reputation of "Iron-made Huai'an City". In the Ming Dynasty's Hongwu years, the old city was renovated with a circumference of 11 miles, east-west and north-south diameters were both 525 zhangs, basically square in shape, with brick and stone walls, and four city gates were built around it. The city wall is 30 feet high, with five city gates: Dongmen (East Gate), Nanmen (South Gate), Ximen (West Gate), Beimen (North Gate) and Qingfengmen (Clear Wind Gate). Each gate has a sub-city, and there are three corner towers, 53 watchtowers, and three water gates. The layout of the city is similar to that of the inner and outer cities of Beijing, with the main roads leading to each city gate being the widest. The residential areas inside the city are divided into different "fang", which were later changed to "pu". There are 18 fang in total, with a population of around 200,000 people.

  The next morning, the soldiers guarding the city gate were shocked as soon as they opened the gate. Outside, it was a sea of black, all crowded heads. Soon, other soldiers came to report that the situation at the other gates was the same. Seeing the frenzied expressions on these people's faces, the soldiers suddenly realized that this must be related to the betting match that had been the talk of the town for two days.

  Crowds surged through the streets, people coming and going, rubbing shoulders. But the most crowded, the most eye-catching place was Nan Street, where the lottery drawing took place. As one walked further forward, countless streamers with slogans hung from the trees on both sides of the street, the crowd slowly moving forward, occasionally someone asking a scholar in the queue to explain the meaning of the slogans, the scholar gesturing and inevitably explaining it again, the streets were like a sea of fire, people surging towards the lottery stage like waves, the ground covered with discarded lottery tickets marked with crosses, a gust of wind blowing by, as if standing in a forest on a deep autumn day, or amidst the rolling snowflakes of the northern country.

  In a dimly lit room in the high-end gaming area, Yang Bo sat leisurely on a taishi chair drinking tea, and now he was the most leisurely person in the whole scene.

  "There aren't enough people over there, and the line is too long!" Yang Bo stood up to observe the situation, furrowing his brow as he spoke to Li Guanshi.

  Li Guanshi put down his cup and beckoned to the back, several waiting servants followed him and rushed towards the crowded low-end area.

  After a while, Zhang Gou'er also came running over with several people, panting "Young master, it's all taken care of, Zhang Gou'er is back to report"

  Yang Bo nodded and said, "The dog is tired from running around, go drink some water and take a break, then go help Tie Niu later?"

  For the planning of the gambling activities, Yang Bo put his focus on publicity. Zhang Gou'er and Xiao Moqiu were both sent out by him to take charge of this aspect. Gou'er led a group of beggars, aunties, and idlers to promote the gambling activities in the city streets, while Xiao Moqiu was running around in the nearby villages. Due to the varying distances, Xiao Moqiu had not returned yet. Yang Bo glanced at the several guys beside him with a slanting eye; they were busily counting the large silver pieces and neatly putting them into the sandalwood box, locking it up and sealing it with a strip of paper.

  Yang Bo's leisure did not last long, as various betting areas were extremely short-staffed. During this time, several counters had some disputes and shoving matches. If it weren't for the fierce house guards maintaining order, who knows what would have happened?

  Yang Bo walked while checking the surroundings, a fat aunt hired by Zhang Dogzi was telling a ghost story about overnight wealth in the crowd. The segment was instructed by Yang Bo, and it was nothing more than a beggar picking up a discarded lottery ticket on the ground, unexpectedly winning the jackpot, and from then on, wearing silk clothes and eating fine food, with three wives and four concubines...

  Auntie's speech had a direct impact on the discarded lottery tickets being picked up, only to be abandoned again in a cycle of fate. Some people were hesitant to mingle with those beggars, but looking at their passionate faces, Yang Bo knew that Auntie's words had struck a chord with them. Of course, the best promotional effect belonged to those who won the lottery. They all wore red and toured the lottery area amidst firecrackers, while trumpeters waiting on the side blew festive horns and beat drums, congratulatory voices rising and falling in waves, further stimulating the crowd's frenzy.

  The shops around the area started to set up their stoves and carry their baskets to the lottery district as soon as it was dawn, and more and more shops opened for business, with a trend of spreading to another main street.

  "If I had known, I should have charged them a management fee." Seeing the bustling stalls, Yang Bo, who was patrolling here, shook his head regretfully. Even a mosquito is meat, after all.

  "Yang Gongzi, Yang Gongzi..." Just then, a hurried voice sounded from behind.

  Yang Bo turned around and a housekeeper-like person beckoned to him. He was blocked in the gaming area and couldn't get out, so he anxiously shouted towards this side.

  Yang Bo knew him, he was under Li Guanshi.

  "What's going on?" Yang Bo pushed and shoved all the way, forcing a bloody path through the crowd.

  "There's a problem with one of the prize coupons, the manager asked me to come find you and take a look..." The house servant said while wiping sweat.

  "Oh?" Yang Bo was shocked and hastily followed the house servant towards the dark room.

  When they arrived at the dark room, Li was already waiting there. In addition to a few familiar people in the house, there was also a rustic-looking local tyrant who was smiling and sweating profusely. Yang Bo glanced at him and roughly understood what was going on.

  "Master Yang, take a look at this... um, lottery ticket." Li the manager didn't bother with formalities and handed over a lottery ticket.

  Yang Bo took a look and saw that the paper quality was quite good during the Ming dynasty. At first, when Yang Bo made the prize coupons, he used relatively expensive colored paper. The prize coupon consisted of two pieces of paper glued together, with a seal of "Huai'an Lottery" in bold font on both sides. After separating the papers, there were several notes inside. This rich man's paper had written on it: "Second Prize, White Jade Stationery one piece, Number: 1123". On the side, there were two lines of small print, which read: "Number: 1123, one-o"

  Yang Bo took a few glances and looked up at Li Guanshi, saying: "Send someone to check if the prize with the number 112 has been redeemed?"

  An accountant took down the number Yang Bo said and rushed to the prize area for the first prize, the local tyrant had already started to pale, forcing a smile on his face, Yang Bo knew what was going on in his heart and didn't bother with him.

  Yang Bo had considered the possibility of counterfeit coupons from the beginning, so he made multiple preparations. All prizes were categorized using heavenly stems and earthly branches, each category was numbered, and to ensure the authenticity of the redemption coupons, he also used a combination of Arabic numerals and English words for labeling. The coupon held by Tǔ Cái Zhǔ is clearly fake, if Yang Bo's judgment is correct, it should be a counterfeit of the coupon with the number 112.

  As expected, the accountant returned quickly and whispered a few words in Li's ear. Li waved his hand, and several fierce-looking housemen stepped forward to bind the peasant landlord with ropes and dragged him out for a good beating.

  "The prize for No. 112 has already been exchanged... and the prize corresponding to this voucher is also inconsistent" Li Guanshi saw Yang Bo's dark face and quickly explained to him.

  "Let's investigate and find out who is imitating whom. We must catch this person," Yang Bo said viciously.