Shopkeeper Shen said that although this kind of silver has been around since ancient times, there are very few ingots on the market and it is mostly used to make jewelry, making it quite rare.
"This silver is slightly lighter than silver, but the color is good and not easy to blacken. Some wealthy families cast small ingots for people to play with." Shopkeeper Shen said, "If you want to directly cast such a large ingot, the small one is still the first. See you later.”
"So it's fake money?" Li Ziyu asked directly after seeing him going around and talking for a long time but not telling the truth.
"I dare not say that," Shopkeeper Shen shook his head repeatedly, "Zhu Tiyin has been around since the Han Dynasty and has been circulated in all dynasties. Even in the Guangzhou market, the price of Zhu Tiyin jewelry is higher than that of silver jewelry."
Li Ziyu returned to the city bureau with this information. Wu Xiang heard that this was "not silver" and immediately asked Li Ziyu to take all the gold and silver stolen from Widow Wang's house, including broken pieces, ingots and jewelry, to Jufeng for inspection. The result was that except for the five ingots and ten taels of silver and a few pieces of jewelry that were made of Zhu Ti silver, the rest were all silver and gold of varying qualities.
"These silver and jewelry definitely do not belong to this poor widow. They must have been left behind by the deceased or the suspected murderer." Li Zhenguo said.
"If it is the suspect, I think he is likely to take Zhu Tiyin away. After all, it is not a common thing, and leaving it here may be the source of trouble. I think the silver is likely to belong to the deceased. The suspect thought it was just ordinary silver. ." Li Ziyu expressed his opinion cautiously.
Overall, it seems very likely that he is the deceased. Zhu Tiyin According to Shopkeeper Shen, although it is not rare in Guangzhou, it is not available everywhere. And most of them are in the form of jewelry. Now the deceased actually brought fifty taels of Zhu Ti silver at once, which makes people have to connect the deceased with the Yunnan and Guizhou area.
Wu Xiang recalled several issues that Mu Bureau had recently highlighted at the meeting of naturalized citizen cadres, especially the recent issuance of new currency, and asked everyone to pay close attention to financial and economic anomalies in the market - Zhu Picking up silver ingots is definitely a doubtful point.
He immediately decided to report the situation to Mu Min first. At the same time, the following series of measures were taken: Notices were sent to all police stations and security checkpoints in the city, asking them to search for heads within their jurisdiction; a revelation of corpse identification was published in the "Yangcheng Express" - although the body had no head, he still sent It is hoped that the family members of the deceased can confirm the identity of the corpse through physical description. Finally, continue to investigate the evidence and clues found.
The investigation work inevitably fell on Li Ziyu and Zhao Gui again. This time, their task was to investigate the victim based on his clothes.
There was quite a lot of clothing evidence recovered from the scene. There were seven or eight pieces of men's trousers, jackets and shirts, as well as unburned clothing fragments and shoe soles taken out from the furnace. After comparison, the size was the same as that of the headless corpse, so it should be the victim's clothes.
Although there are clothes, things are not necessarily simple. Guangzhou is a major commercial port and a regional political center with many officials, gentry and businessmen, and "a large number of department stores." Not only are there a wide variety of silk and satin cloths produced in this province, but there are also textiles from all over the country and even Europe, Southeast Asia, and Japan. Various colors, textures, weaving methods... together there are probably thousands of them. Although there are industry associations such as the Yarn Guild and Jibei Office where you can inquire, the workload is still overwhelming - not to mention that the office and guild may not know all the goods that the store purchases. Maybe you have to ask each family. Even if you ask which store the product comes from, the clerk may not remember who the material was sold to. What's more, in order for the material to be turned into clothes, it still has to go through the hands of a tailor. There are twists and turns here, and any link may be broken due to the forgetfulness of the parties involved.
Li Ziyu thought over and over again and decided to start with the two remaining soles of burned shoes.
There are far fewer shops that make shoes than there are shops that sell satin fabrics. It's much easier to check. Li Ziyu immediately went to a well-known local shoe shop and asked the shopkeeper to tell him what kind of shoes the soles were like and where they might have been sold.
The shopkeeper took the two burnt soles, looked at them carefully, and said, "These are not from a small shop."
"Which company is that from? Can the shopkeeper tell?"
"It doesn't belong to anyone. The woman in the family made it herself." The shopkeeper said, "Please look at the thread and tapered stitching on the soles and uppers. They are not made in the shop."
Li Ziyu was greatly disappointed and secretly cursed himself for being confused: not many people know how to buy shoes in stores, and most people still make their own shoes - he used to wear shoes made by his mother.
"...But the soles of these shoes do have a font size." said the shopkeeper.
"Oh, which one is it?"
Not many people wore shoes in medieval society. Most poor people did not wear shoes. Even if they did wear shoes, they were homemade, either straw sandals or cloth shoes. In the traditional craftsmanship of women's red, making shoes is a basic skill. Most of the shoes in shoe shops are purchased by those with money and leisure. However, really sophisticated families also prioritize making shoes for their own female servants and rarely bother with shoe shops.
However, whether shoe shops or wealthy families make their own shoes, the soles are mostly purchased from outside - making soles is a hard job.
The business of making soles is exclusive, and it is commonly known as "the one who makes soles." The shopkeeper hires poor women and gives them rags and paste, which they make at home, and they are paid on a piece-by-piece basis.
To make 袼褙, you need to use scraps of cloth and stick them together layer by layer with paste, and then use a soldering iron to dry them into a thin cloth board like cardboard. Then cut the shoe soles into pieces, then wrap the soles with new cotton strips, and finally glue the multiple layers of soles together with paste and bake them to dry. It’s a finished product that’s ready for sale.
"I can tell at the first glance that the cassocks on the soles of these shoes are from Lao Hou's family outside Xiaonanmen. His cassocks are made of rags with linen in the ends. The soles are only made of six or seven layers. The key is to mix the paste with soil. The straw pulp of the paper is hard and thick when it is not peeled off. When you peel it off, you can even see the straw stems - it is really a real product. It is generally not used by large shoe stores, and is mostly sold to small shoe stores that do rural business. And hawkers, there are also a lot of in-house retail sales.”
Li Ziyu took Zhao Gui to find Lao Hou's house outside Xiaonan Gate. Lao Hou recognized it as his own goods at a glance. As for where he was going, he couldn't say. He sells thousands of pairs of these soles to various shoe shops and vendors a month, and sells hundreds of pairs here and there on the shop floor. Even if you exclude the share of shoe stores that do not retail soles, the remaining number is still considerable. How can vendors and clerks remember who bought them.
What's more, judging from the wear and tear of the soles, the shoes have been made for more than half a year. Many of the hemp threads on the soles are broken, and holes are almost worn out in some places on the soles.
This meant saying nothing. Li Ziyu was disappointed and was about to leave. A shop assistant suddenly interjected: "Aren't these the same batch of shoe soles sold to Changyu?"
When the store clerk said this, Lao Hou also remembered that these were indeed the soles he sold to Changyu.
Why do the shopkeepers and bosses remember it? Because the quality of this batch of soles is particularly poor. The price offered by Changyu was so low that most gauze workshops were unwilling to accept it. In the end, Lao Hou accepted it, but he made it clear that the quality was not guaranteed. Therefore, the soles of this batch of shoes contain a lot of straw pulp. Only five layers of cloth were pasted.
As for why Changyu ordered such a batch of low-quality shoe soles, Lao Hou had no idea. Anyway, he and Changyu had money and goods, so they were done with it. But what he was sure of was that all these soles were sold to Changyu and there were no other customers.
Li Ziyu got this important clue, asked Changyu's address, and quickly took Zhao Gui to Changyu to learn about the situation.
Changyu's store is in Beicheng - on a deserted street near Xiaobei Gate. It is a small shoe shop with a one-room front. The arrival of Li Ziyu and Zhao Gui immediately caused a commotion in the shoe shop, and the shopkeeper rushed out to greet them with a polite nod and bow. When they heard that they asked shopkeeper Xiang Hou about the batch of low-quality rice coats, the shopkeeper's face turned ugly. He offered tea and bowed and took out red envelopes. Li Ziyu finally explained to him that he was here to investigate the case, regardless of whether his shoes were good or bad.
"Did you make these shoes here?" Li Ziyu showed two burnt soles.
The shopkeeper took it, took a closer look and said that it was indeed his product. Except that the soles were imported from the Hou family, the twine used to hold the soles was from his family.
Li Ziyu remembered what the shopkeeper said and asked: "It is said that the soles of these shoes are not made by the shop assistant..."
Changyu's shopkeeper nodded and said: "It's true that it's not made by my staff. My shoe shop is small and all the work is outsourced to others."
Changyu is a small shop with little strength. Apart from the shopkeeper himself, there are only two assistants. Business volume is small and inconsistent. Therefore, the business model is to wholesale the soles, uppers, and twine and outsource them for processing to women from poor families. Pay double.
As for why he ordered such a batch of low-quality 袼褙 soles from shopkeeper Hou, the shopkeeper said with a guilty look on his face: "The price given by the customer is really too low, and the shop really wants to do this business, so he made this move."
It turned out that six months ago, a customer ordered 500 pairs of cloth shoes from him, saying they were a reward for his workers. But the price is very low, only half the price of ordinary shoes.
"...For this price, there is still a 95% rebate," the shopkeeper said with a wry smile. "You have to follow the normal practice and have to pay a small discount to make it. But it is rare for a small shop to have such a big deal. The shopkeeper was confused for a moment and became obsessed with money. Xinqiao, just... just... agreed."
Since it is so cheap and you want to make money, naturally you can only rely on fake products. Fortunately, the other party also said that as long as there are no problems after wearing it for ten and a half days, the sale will be completed. Naturally, he tried his best to think of ways to cut corners.
"Since the store opened, although it is not a time-honored brand, this is the first time it has made shoes like this. I am really ashamed."
Li Ziyu asked: "Who bought these shoes?" (To be continued.)
