The rise of the poor

Chapter 2189 Surprises one after another

Before the dust had settled, Mao Haifeng rushed over, his voice trembling with anticipation and nervousness, and peered down into the cellar.

Below, dust billowed, but the gate was wide open, with the iron gate half-collapsed in place.

The iron gate was blown open at the junction with the stone wall on one side, but the lock was still on the other side, so the iron gate collapsed halfway, revealing a large gap that was large enough for a single person to pass through.

"Hahaha, as expected of Lord Zhu, you really did blow open the treasure vault door!" Mao Haifeng was overjoyed and laughed heartily.

After the dust had settled slightly, and after pulling the paper up and down with tree branches for a while, and testing that the air below was safe to enter by burning some straw paper, Mao Haifeng couldn't wait to be the first to go down into the cellar, lit a torch, and crawled into Xu San's hidden treasure vault.

"Hahaha, Xu San is such a generous benefactor! I'll have to thank him properly later."

Immediately, Mao Haifeng's loud laughter came from inside, indicating that the hidden treasure vault contained a great many treasures.

Zhu Pingan and the others then entered.

Upon closer inspection, the hidden treasure vault didn't take up much space, only about 15 or 16 square meters in two sections. The first thing that caught the eye was ten large wooden boxes filled with gold, silver, jewels, and ornaments. Mao Haifeng stood in front of the boxes, grabbing a handful of gold and silver ornaments in each hand, grinning and laughing heartily.

The gold, silver, and jewelry inside these ten large wooden chests are worth at least fifty to sixty thousand taels of silver.

Inside the room, there are four display shelves, on which are placed coral ornaments, jade lions, and antique calligraphy and paintings.

Zhu Pingan glanced at the antiques, calligraphy and paintings, porcelain, jade and coral on the shelves. Zhu Pingan was not a professional and could not judge their authenticity, but he did have some ability to appreciate calligraphy and paintings.

Most of these paintings and calligraphy works are fake; only about one-third are genuine.

This fool! There's a painting on his curio shelf with the inscription "Made by the First Emperor Ying Zheng in the Dingmao year," written in regular script. The painting reads, "May the world be unified, may I live forever, I am the First Emperor, and may the country be unified for ten thousand years."

There are too many fake parts.

Xu San is truly a fool with hardly any knowledge, yet he still treasured this painting and placed it in the center position. I guess this painting expresses Xu San's dreams and ambitions.

Apart from these obviously fake paintings and calligraphy works, about one-third of the other paintings and calligraphy works are genuine, mostly from the previous dynasty.

Zhu Pingan roughly estimated that the value of Xu San's treasure vault was around 100,000 taels of silver.

No wonder Xu San refused to speak, even at the cost of so much silver; it would have killed him.

"Oh dear, Xu San, that son of a bitch, he really is a son of a bitch." Suddenly, a loud, boisterous voice came from the corner.

It was Mao Haifeng's voice.

Zhu Pingan glanced over and saw Mao Haifeng pointing to a basin at his feet, saying to Zhu Pingan, "Lord Zhu, come and see! We're in for a treat tonight! There's something good in here."

"Hehe, what kind of good fortune?" Zhu Pingan asked with a smile as he walked over.

"That son of a bitch Xu San actually kept two turtles, and two white turtles at that."

Mao Haifeng's voice came through.

what? !

Two white turtles?!

Upon hearing this, Zhu Pingan quickened his pace and hurried to Mao Haifeng, looking down into the stone basin at his feet.

This stone basin is carved into the shape of a lotus flower, with eight petals. It is concave, about one meter in diameter and about 50 centimeters high. There is about 10 centimeters of clear water at the bottom of the basin. There is a rockery in the water, and dozens of small fish are swimming around. On the rockery, there are two turtles that are slightly larger than the palm of your hand. The turtles are pure white, including their shells.

Seeing the two white turtles, Zhu Pingan couldn't help but feel excited. These kinds of turtles are not uncommon in modern times because they can be artificially bred, but in ancient times when artificial genetic breeding was not possible, these white turtles were very rare.

In ancient times, white turtles were considered auspicious omens.

Not to mention there were actually two white turtles here, how could Zhu Pingan not be excited?

Historically, Hu Zongxian presented auspicious omens to Emperor Jiajing, including a white deer and a white tortoise. Records indicate that Hu Zongxian presented Emperor Jiajing with two white tortoises and a five-colored lingzhi mushroom. Emperor Jiajing was delighted upon receiving them, held a ritual at the Xuantan Altar to inform the ancestral temple, and even bestowed upon Hu Zongxian a crane robe.

I wonder where Hu Zongxian got those two white turtles from in history. Maybe they were also seized from Xu San.

It's quite possible that it really is true.

Xu San is truly a generous and eccentric fellow. Not only did he declare himself king without permission, but he also has two white turtles.

If this were presented to the Jiajing Emperor, wouldn't it surely win his favor?

"Hehe, it seems that Lord Zhu is also a kindred spirit. These two white turtles look perfect for stewing soup. Catch a pheasant and stew them together in the pot. Tsk tsk, Farewell My Concubine Soup, even immortals would drool."

Seeing Zhu Ping'an's excited reaction to the white turtle, Mao Haifeng assumed that Zhu Ping'an was also a kindred spirit. As he spoke, he reached out and grabbed a white turtle's shell, lifted it up, and his mouth watered at the thought of stewing it with pheasant later, bubbling away, making it so delicious.

stew?!

Hey, don't waste this! You're not stewing soup, you're stewing my bright future!

Zhu Pingan quickly waved his hand to stop Mao Haifeng, "General Mao, please wait. I really like these two white turtles, but I don't want them for soup; I want them alive."

"Ah? Lord Zhu wants to raise it himself or give it away? Then I'll keep it for you. It's just a bit of a waste of that pot of soup." Mao Haifeng smacked his lips regretfully and put the white turtle back into the basin.

It was just a pot of white turtle soup, but since Zhu Pingan had already spoken, Mao Haifeng naturally gave up. He was even more greedy than that.

Seeing the white turtle swim away quickly after falling into the water, Zhu Pingan breathed a sigh of relief.

Just live.

I don't know if the white turtle is easy to raise, so I need to present it to the Jiajing Emperor as soon as possible to avoid wasting this great opportunity.

Hmm, we can't just present the white tortoise. Let's see if Xu San has any other good stuff to offer to Emperor Jiajing along with it.

Also, you need to write an application form, preferably on the theme of Qingci (a type of folk song).

The candidate has been chosen.

Historically, the person who wrote the memorial to Hu Zongxian and received high praise from the Jiajing Emperor was Xu Wei. I have a fairly good relationship with Xu Wei, so it wouldn't be unreasonable for me to send him a letter and ask him to write a memorial for me.

We have the white turtle, but what about the five-colored Ganoderma lucidum?

If historically Hu Zongxian obtained the white tortoise from Xu San, then could the five-colored lingzhi mushroom also be here?!

Zhu Pingan searched Xu San's treasure vault again but did not find the Five-Colored Lingzhi. However, he did find an unexpected surprise.

It was Mao Haifeng who discovered this surprise.

"What is this thing? It looks like gray wax, like a pile of shit. Why would Xu San collect this thing?"

Mao Haifeng found a fist-sized, grayish-white, waxy object in a box, which looked like poop. He disliked it and threw it aside along with the box.

What the hell!

It's ambergris!

Zhu Pingan recognized it immediately; it was ambergris. He had seen it in news reports when he was in modern times, and once in the palace after transmigrating. The palace version was much smaller, with an earthy, sweet scent, just like this one. (End of Chapter)