"You men, stay here and keep watch. Don't let any unauthorized personnel through."

Yang Yizhong instructed his subordinates, tightened the rope around his waist, and climbed down into the well.

The well wasn't deep, but it didn't let in any daylight, making it seem particularly dark. Yang Yizhong vaguely felt that the bottom of the well seemed to lead to an unknown place, but then thought the idea was too absurd. He shook his head and took out the prepared fire starter to light it.

The faint light flickered, reflecting several metallic glints at the bottom of the well. Yang Yizhong groped around and found a few small, round pieces.

Before he could take a closer look, his subordinates above were already leaning over and asking questions. Realizing he had been down there for too long, Yang Yizhong responded while stuffing the items he found into his pouch. He circled around again, made sure he hadn't missed anything, and then signaled to his subordinates to pull him up.

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

One of the subordinates asked playfully. Yang Yizhong, already prepared, took out two silver ingots from his pouch, and said with a smile, "What? You want some?"

Upon closer inspection, they were rewards given to the officials and generals when the current Emperor ascended the throne. They weren't worth much, but they weren't easy to sell. The subordinate who asked the question felt a little displeased, but still said obsequiously, "I wouldn't dare."

"Worthless."

After scolding him, Yang Yizhong took out some loose silver and distributed it among the men. The men cheered and thanked him before dispersing.

Silently exhaling a 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, round pieces of varying yellow and white colors from his pouch. He found a cloth and wiped off the dirt that had accumulated on them, revealing their true appearance.

Three or five of them were yellow, probably made of brass, and had a green patina. One of them was so corroded that the pattern was completely illegible. But Yang Yizhong wasn't sure about the white ones. Judging by the hardness, they shouldn't be silver. In fact, the luster reminded him of his old treasured saber, which was made of the best steel and could cut through iron like mud. But if it was steel, how could it remain so shiny and new without maintenance? After all, the copper pieces found alongside it were already covered in rust.

After thinking for a while without coming to a conclusion, Yang Yizhong simply found a lodestone and placed the metal pieces on it one by one. To his surprise, they stuck.

It really was steel! He didn't know what method was used, but it was resistant to corrosion. If it could be used to make weapons, it would be a divine weapon rarely seen in the world!

He tested the remaining pieces, but a few couldn't be attracted by the magnet and felt light when he weighed them in his hand. Yang Yizhong couldn't figure out what they were and had to put them aside for now.

Yang Yizhong picked up one of the round pieces, but found that he couldn't see it clearly anymore. He quickly lit an oil lamp and brought it closer to the light to examine it carefully. When he wiped it earlier, he thought the pattern on it was very delicate, comparable to the silver sachets made by the top artisans he had seen in the palace. The key was that Yang Yizhong picked up another round piece of the same style and compared it to the original one. The two were almost identical, with no difference at all.

Could this really be done by human hands?

Was the current Emperor a god, a ghost, or a demon?

Tap, tap, tap, tap...

The heavy footsteps startled Yang Yizhong, who was lost in thought. It was the patrol soldiers. After the footsteps faded away, he got up, trimmed the wick of the lamp, and continued to look at the objects.

Regardless of the material, the round pieces could be divided into two categories based on their patterns.

One type, including all the copper pieces and the extremely light metal pieces, as well as about half of the largest steel pieces, had an intricate pattern in the upper center of one side, below which were the characters "x and gong min ren x zhong". Two of the seven characters were unrecognizable, and the phrase didn't make sense. Around it was a circle of patterns. Perhaps because he was in the Mingdao Palace, Yang Yizhong inexplicably thought of the tadpole writing that the Taoists spoke of. On the other side, there was a larger tadpole character in the center of the upper part, with the characters "yuan" and "jiao," of unknown meaning, and more tadpole characters on the right side; various flowers were engraved on the lower left.

The other type, including all the remaining steel pieces, lacked the intricate pattern. Only flowers and tadpole characters were engraved on one side, while the other side had tadpole characters with "yuan" and "jiao" - Yang Yizhong carefully checked and confirmed that they were identical to those on the other type - with the six characters "xing yin min ren x zhong" at the top.

When comparing the tadpole characters, Yang Yizhong realized that the direction of the text on these small round pieces might be reversed: the same symbols were arranged vertically on one side, but 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 seemed to make a little more sense. But with "people" and "republic" in the text, it didn't seem like the realm of ghosts at all.

Although he wasn't a learned scholar who could recite the related meanings of these two words from memory, Yang Yizhong knew that these two uncommon words referred to the common people and the "republican rule" of the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Shao. And his political sensitivity, which was necessary in the central government, also made him realize the incongruity of these two words being placed together.

Why were the common people placed before "public"?

But thinking of Mencius's saying, "The people are the most important, the state comes next, and the ruler is the least," it didn't seem impossible to understand.

But if that's the case, wouldn't the unrecognized "guo" character at the end be...?

After careful consideration, Yang Yizhong still rejected this guess. After all, he recognized most of the thirteen Chinese characters. The "yin" character, for "silver," was basically a cursive form of "銀"; the "hua" character, based on the sound and the shape of half the character, was probably "華." So, it didn't make sense to have a completely unrelated character.

What did this "guo" character mean? Yang Yizhong traced the character with the "mouth" radical with his finger, "wei," "kun," "qiu," "yuan," "you"... "guo"!

In this world, what other country could be called "Zhonghua" or "Zhongguo"? Could these things not be from ghosts and gods, but relics from some ancient dynasty? But if they could create such exquisite objects, how could they have not left their name in history?

Yang Yizhong didn't dare to think too much, but he had a guess about the words "yin xing," for "bank." Although silver wouldn't become legal tender until the large influx of American silver four or five hundred years later, precious metals were naturally currency. Considering the size of the round pieces, they were indeed suitable for use as coins. The "bank" was likely the government office responsible for minting coins.

But if they were coins for daily use and mass-produced, rather than made in small quantities, the technical skill displayed by the exquisite patterns on them would be even more astonishing!

The several types of flowers were all common, nothing more than peonies and orchids. The pattern on the "guo" character coins was more complex and delicate.

In the center was a tall city gate with five doors. Generally speaking, the more city gates there were, the greater the defense pressure would be, and it would be a joke to build a city like that. But if it wasn't for city defense, then the only thing that could build such a majestic building with five doors would probably be the imperial city, and one that even the "small" imperial city of Kaifeng couldn't compare to. Above the city gate 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 stars surrounding it. Thinking of the word "republic," did it mean one ruler and four advisors? If the stars were used as symbols, the possibility that they originated from the celestial palace seemed even higher.

Outside of that were ears of wheat, and below was a serrated disc, connected by cloth. The wheat was easy to understand, like the "ji" in "sheji," it represented grain. Yang Yizhong didn't recognize the disc. After racking his brains, a flash of inspiration suddenly struck him. He seemed to have seen something similar in the Imperial Astronomical Observatory?

This idea invigorated him, and he felt that he had finally glimpsed the secrets of heaven.

Were the constellations in the sky coming to help my Great Song?

Yang Yizhong carefully put away the coins.