Chapter 49: Painkillers
Yang Reform returned to the palace with a smile, still laughing in the evening. The Empress asked what she was laughing at, and Yang Reform laughed loudly, saying: "Superior intelligence."
……
One night without incident, on the second day, Yang called Li Laifu again. Preparing to teach him the operation method of welfare lottery and the gameplay of double color ball.
……
"Grassroots Li Lai Fu pays respects to the Emperor, long live the Emperor forever and ever. Li Lai Fu solemnly kowtows to Yang Reform."
"Come on, get up, Da Ban, let Li Lai Fu take a look at these beads."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Wang Chengen replied. Then he instructed the little eunuch to bring over the pearl that had been used to tease those officials yesterday for Li Laifu to see.
Thirty-three sheep fat white jade beads, sixteen green emerald beads, each as big as an egg. The pearls are shining brightly, the green ones are refreshing and captivating.
"Good jade, good pearls!" Li Lai Fu was also a connoisseur, and as soon as he saw these things, he knew their origin and called out in surprise.
"Do you know what these beads are for?"
"Replying to Your Majesty, I don't know." Li Lai Fu was puzzled. Could it be that this pearl wasn't prepared by the Emperor for me to sell? Although this pearl is quite good, but wanting to sell it at a good price is also unlikely.
"Uh, you wouldn't know, which is also why I called you here today. These 33 white balls and 16 green balls make a total of 49 numbers. There's a game, listen carefully... This game is divided into the banker and the player. The player chooses 7 numbers out of these 49 numbers. Among them, the first 6 are chosen from the white balls, and the last one is chosen from the green balls. Then the banker randomly selects 7 numbers. If the numbers chosen by the player match those randomly drawn by the banker, then the banker pays this player 22,000 silver... That's roughly the rules. Did you understand?"
Yang reformer talked a lot, Li Lai Fu was confused. At the age of growth, memory is not very good. Fortunately, I remembered that there were 7749 groups of numbers in total. The rest are vague, and the last two million two will never be forgotten.
Li Lai Fu's face was filled with confusion and his eyes were bewildered. Yang Reform knew that this person did not understand what he had said. He sighed, saying: "Big companion, copy down my words and have Li Lai Fu memorize them."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Wang Chengen was already quite familiar with the emperor's way of playing this game. Yesterday morning, the emperor had even played it with his ministers for a whole day. Thinking about those ministers who were like gamblers who had lost everything, their faces red with shame, tears streaming down their faces, and their dignity wounded as they walked out of the grand hall, Wang Chengen couldn't help but burst out laughing. He thought to himself that the emperor was really too mischievous, and the ministers had been toyed with too badly.
……
Yang Reform drank a cup of tea.
Wang Chengen has explained it to Li Laifu several times, and Li Laifu finally figured out the key things.
"Understood now?" Yang asked after taking a sip of tea.
"Reporting back to Your Majesty, the commoner has figured it out." Li Lai Fu finally understood the rules of these games. He also expressed concern about losing 20,000 taels of silver in one go with a gambler.
"Speak up if you have any ideas or opinions, and feel free to ask if there's anything you don't understand."
"Your Majesty, I think that if one wins and has to pay 20,000 taels, isn't that a bit too much? If someone wins five times, wouldn't they have to pay 100,000 taels?" Li Lai Fu knew that this 20,000 taels of silver was a huge amount of money. It was enough for someone to become rich overnight. [Note: At the end of the Ming dynasty, 20,000 taels were equivalent to about 5 million RMB today, but this is not an absolute value and may vary depending on the reference used.]
"Heh heh, Da Ban, tell Li Lai Fu if he can suppress the Zhong." Yang Gao Xing smiled and said to Wang Cheng En.
"Yes, Your Majesty... Li Laifu, to be honest with you, I think it's not heavy enough. Yesterday... anyway, it's not heavy enough, that is...". Wang Chengen had personally seen the early court session, nearly a hundred officials had been pressing for a day, but not one of them was correct, of course, this couldn't be said in front of an ordinary citizen, otherwise, where would the imperial court's face be? Of course, when no one is around, laughing to oneself is also quite interesting.
"...this...can it really be pressed down?" Li Lai Fu was still uncertain whether he could press it down, what if he couldn't? What if...that would be 20,000 taels of silver! A huge sum of money.
"Alright, don't worry about this matter. It's possible to guess the numbers, someone has to guess them, otherwise who would still play this game? As for the Welfare Lottery Double Color Ball, Yang is very confident in his reform. A game designed by people in the 21st century can be cracked? Can you easily guess the numbers? In the 21st century, guessing the numbers is purely a matter of brute force, using human sea tactics, relying on luck, or directly cheating."
Li Lai Fu was speechless, if it's possible to win big, why play like this? Lose 20,000 taels? Win a few times and even the emperor would be in debt. Must win again? Li Lai Fu's brain was muddled. A mess.
"Uh, so the operation is like this: play once, choose seven numbers as one bet, and each bet costs five cents. Then draw the lottery, if the drawn numbers are the same as the chosen ones, then win 20,000 yuan..." Yang Reform tried hard to recall the gameplay of Double Color Ball.
"Ah!......" Li Lai Fu was on the verge of collapse. Five Wen coins betting 20,000 taels, this is too crazy. What if he wins, it's truly a profit of ten thousand times. He really wants to lose his emperor's pants!
"The key to this thing is the fairness of the lottery, don't worry about that, I'll find someone to host it, and the tools are these sheep fat jade beads and emerald beads here. The lottery process can be placed in a visible place... so others won't suspect cheating, and buyers will definitely be numerous. Five cents per person, my capital has a population of one million, my great Ming has tens of millions of people, if each person buys one ticket with five cents, how much money would that be?" Yang was already immersed in the beautiful imagination, imagining the scene of the people frantically buying lottery tickets.
Not only was Li Lai Fu stunned, but Wang Cheng En was also stunned, staring blankly at the Emperor, unable to comprehend how the Emperor's brain could come up with such a crazy idea.
"Big companion, big companion..." Yang Gaizhi saw Wang Chengen also staring at himself foolishly, stunned, and finally knew that he had said something too crazy.
"...I am here, I am here." Wang Chengen was reminded by the emperor and came to his senses, hastily saying "I am here".
"Thus, Daiben, hurry up and take down My words, otherwise I will forget them in a moment."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Wang Chengen hastily took up his pen and acted as a recorder for Yang.
"This Double Color Ball is drawn once every two months, with one draw at the beginning and middle of each month. This way, there are thirteen draws in a month. If no one wins the jackpot last time, the prize money will be accumulated to the next draw, so the prize money will accumulate more and more, possibly reaching tens of millions. Of course, 40% to 50% of it will be deducted as operating expenses...". Yang recalled the rules of this Welfare Lottery Double Color Ball, which is the most popular and has the highest jackpot among all games.
Wang Chengen was sweating all over, these numbers were simply too powerful. Li Laifu, on the other hand, was like listening to heavenly music, words pouring into his left ear and out of his right, leaving nothing in his brain.
……
"This is just a part of the rules and operating methods that I have thought of, the details, you still need to work hard to figure out." Yang said to Li Lai Fu.
As for why the welfare lottery double-color ball is being promoted, does it necessarily mean that a lot of money can be made? Is it worth the effort? In fact, it's very simple. Lottery numbers are touted as the "pain reliever" for poor people! In this increasingly hopeless end-of-an-era era, giving the masses such a "pain reliever" is something Yang Reform feels is necessary. As a ruler, maintaining social "stability" sometimes takes precedence over making money. As for how much money can be made, that's another matter altogether.
“……This thing is still just my initial idea, and there are some key points that I need to think about. You also go back and think about it, Li Lai Fu, and only when you have fully grasped the concept should we discuss it further... Be careful to keep it confidential......” Yang Gaizhi's words were not finished, but lottery tickets require many things to be perfected - it's not just a matter of scribbling some numbers on a piece of paper. There needs to be an anti-counterfeiting system, production, sales, and prize draws, all of which need to be improved upon. Yang Gaizhi only thought of these things now, and realized that they were the result of many years of effort by many people - not something that could be conjured up overnight. Thinking this, Yang Gaizhi let out another sigh. He waved his hand, dismissing Li Lai Fu. Li Lai Fu was still in a daze, unsure what was going on, and was hastily sent away by Yang Gaizhi. All he had to show for it were some fragmented notes copied down by Wang Chengen.
For these problems, Yang's reform can only be speechless. Think of a solution. First, how to make lottery tickets, how to prevent counterfeiting, and once that is achieved, it is the issue of how to sell them and how to redeem prizes.
Yang Reform rubbed his temples, his head aching terribly. This was far more exhausting than teasing those officials. Times were different, and wanting to introduce the double-color ball in this late Ming era was no easy feat! Yang Reform's headache knew no bounds; he had been too naive.
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