Liu Xiu knew that Elder Brother did this for him, but he did not want to live under his brother's wings all his life. He murmured in a low voice: "When I make a merit, even if you don't promote me, the Xianwei will promote me!"

"What are you talking about?" Liu Yan didn't listen to Liu Xiu's grunt clearly.

"Nothing, Elder Brother. Zhongbo and I will go sightseeing nearby." After finishing the speech, Liu Xiu ran away.

Looking at Liu Xiu's back, Liu Yan reluctantly shook his head. When he was at home, the younger brother listened to his words. Why did he get an idea when he got outside.

Liu Yan was still too ignorant of his younger brother. Liu Xiu had always been a person with great ideas and opinions.

Liu Xiu had never been to Xiangyang City before. This time he came to Xiangyang City, so he naturally wanted to take a stroll. He and Long Yuan did not dare to go too far, just wandering around the registration desk.

Xiangyang was a big city, and the city was bustling and lively.

The registration office was located in the yamen, and there were naturally many shops nearby. Pubs and inns stood on both sides of the street, and the buildings were luxurious and majestic. The scent floating in them smelled so delicious, making people mouth-watering.

Liu Xiu walked all the way from Caiyang to Xiangyang. On the road, he only ate two pieces of dry food. Now he smelled the fragrance in the air, and his stomach kept screaming. But touching his pocket, he found he id not have too much money.

Long Yuan had no money on him. He raised his eyes and looked around. He saw a casino not far away. His eyes lit up. He pulled Liu Xiu's clothes and whispered, "Lord, let's go to the casino to play. "

Liu Xiu looked helplessly at Long Yuan, took out the money bag from the belt, opened it, and poured out five coins.

During the Han Dynasty, silver was not a universal currency. It could only be regarded as a precious metal, and it could be sold for money.

The currency in circulation on the market was either gold or coins.

There are many kinds of coins, one was copper coin, and there were platinum coin and leather coin.

Platinum coins were divided into three types, called three grades of platinum, namely dragon coins, horse coins, turtle coins.

The platinum mentioned by the ancients was different from the modern platinum and was a silver-tin alloy. A dragon coin was worth three thousand qian, a horse coin was worth five hundred qian, and a turtle coin was worth three hundred qian.

Leather coins were special, made of white deer buckskins raised by the royal family, with a maximum face value of up to 400,000 qian. Leather coins were very rare.

The five copper plates in Liu Xiu's pocket could not buy anything at the current price, let alone went to the casino to gamble.

Long Yuan smiled at Liu Xiu and said, "My lord, my gambling skills are pretty good."

Liu Xiu blinked and smiled, then raised his head and said, "Come on, let's try our luck at the casino!"

After contacting with Long Yuan for so long, Liu Xiu also knows him well. Long Yuan, this person, never exaggerated the truth, especially when talking about himself. Sometimes, he was even over modest.

He said that his gambling skills were good, then he must be quite good at it.

Liu Xiu and Long Yuan came to the casino. The casino was not very big, but there were a lot of people in it. Looking around, black heads were surging, the noise was loud and sounding one after another.

The two of them walked to a gaming table and looked inside. There were several people sitting at the gambling table, each of them piled up a hill of coins in front of them.

Liu Xiu and Long Yuan watched for a while, and they noticed a young man at the same time.

This young man was about the same age as Liu Xiu, and he was about 20 years old. He was dressed in ordinary white cloth, but he was born with beautiful facial features and his face was like a jade. Among this group of five rude gamblers, he was particularly eye-catching and somewhat out of this place .

What surprised Liu Xiu most was that the young man did not have much gambling money every time he bet, but in ten bets he could win seven or eight times. Only a few rounds later, the coins piled up in front of him grew more and more.

After observation, Long Yuan whispered in Liu Xiu's ear: "This person is a master, and lord can follow him to bet."

Liu Xiu had the intention. He squeezed from the crowd to the gaming table, and patted five copper plates in his hands on the gaming table. Like the young man, he bet it would be small.

There were only five copper plates, and the gamblers around didn't look at Liu Xiu at all. Instead, the young man with clear eyes raised his head and looked at Liu Xiu. The two faced each other's eyes, and after watching each other for a moment, each smiled and withdrew their eyes.

The banker opened the big bowl that covered the dice. The three dice were one, one, two, and four, small.

After seeing the result, there were both cheers, excitement and scolding around the gaming table. Even Liu Xiu showed a smile on his face and he took back his ten copper plates.

Liu Xiu followed the youth in white three times in a row, and every time he win. His five copper plates also became eighty.

When the young man in white was betting again, and Liu Xiu was about to continue to bet, someone behind him gently pulled the back of his back.

He changed his mind and took back the copper plates originally he wanted to bet small to bet big.

Upon seeing this, a surprise flashed in the eyes of the young man in white, and he could not help looking up at Liu Xiu.

When the banker opened the big bowl, the three dice in it were four, four, five, big.

The person who originally bet with the white-clothed youth lost a good light, the sound of cursing continued, and two others lost all their gambling money. They got up and left angrily. Before leaving, they did not forget to stare at the white-clothed youth hard.

Liu Xiu looked at the one hundred and sixty copper plates he had won, and the smile in his eyes was even stronger.

In the next game, the young man in white still bet on the small. Many people still used to bet on the small with him. When Liu Xiu also wanted to be small, Long Yuan pulled his shirt again.

Knowing that, Liu Xiu wanted to push the copper plates to the big, but Long Yuan still pulled his clothes.

Liu Xiu showed a surprised look, turned his mind and decided to give up.

As the banker opened the bowl, people took a closer look and suddenly scolded. Banker had made three sixs and he could took all the money on the table.

People followed the young man in white who bet on the treasure almost lost their underpants. Instead, only Liu Xiu had no losses.

Young people in white look at Liu Xiu deeply, and his eyes unconsciously showed surprise.

He thought that his gambling skills were already superb. Unexpectedly, he actually met a person who was comparable to himself in Xiangyang City, and his age was similar to himself.

In the next few games, the young man in white and Liu Xiu won several more in a row. The gambling money in front of Liu Xiu also accumulated more and more. When people began to bet with them, Long Yuan whispered beside Liu Xiu Said: "Lord, it is enough."

Hearing Long Yuan 's reminder, Liu Xiu, who was playing happily, calmed down immediately. He no longer continued to bet on the money, gathered all the copper plates on the table, pocketed them, and turned away.

Seeing that Liu Xiu was gone, the youth in white didn't gamble anymore, gathered up his coins and left with Liu Xiu.

The banker looked at the back of the two of them, squinting his eyes, and a fierce light flashed in his eyes. He glanced aside, and the guy who was not far away immediately noticed, and quickly walked away.

In the casino, if you lost money, no one would care about you, but if you won money, and won a lot of money, it was not so easy for you to leave.

Liu Xiu walked to the counter where the shopkeeper was, placed all the winning coins on the counter, and exchanged them to turtle coins for portability. A turtle coin was worth three hundred qian and it was much more convenient to carry on the turtle coins.

After the inventory, Liu Xiu did not expect that, in this time, he actually won thousands of qian. He exchanged them fro three turtle coins, and left more than two hundred copper coins.

He had just exchanged money, and the young man in white also came over. He won much more copper coins than Liu Xiu. He wrapped them in a big piece of cloth, and when put them on the counter, made a loud noise.

Opening the package, there were copper coins and turtle coins in it. The shopkeeper could not help but be astonished. He was about to let the intern count the coins. The young ,man waved his hand and said casually, "Should it be enough for a dragon coin? "

The shopkeeper's face was ugly, but there were so many people watching them nearby. He could not play tricks. So he could only exchange the money for him. The shopkeeper slowly reached into his clothes, took out a beautiful kit from it, opened it, and took out a dragon coin.

The dragon coin, which weighed eighty liang, was round. It had the design of a dragon pattern, named 'Baizuan', was worth three thousand qian. — Book of History

After Wang Mang came to power, although he had made a series of currency reforms and introduced many new currencies, in fact, the new currency's own value had been greatly reduced, and the old currency of the Western Han Dynasty was still in circulation in large numbers among the people, including the copper coins (Wuzhu coin) and platinum coins in Western Han Dynasty.

Seeing that the shopkeeper took out the dragon coin from the kit, even Liu Xiu, who was not far away, couldn't help but glance at it twice. This was the first time he saw the dragon coin.

The young man in white weighed the weight of the dragon coin in his hand, and looked at its design. It was indeed true. And then he nodded and squinted it into his clothes, saying, "Thank you."

While talking, he turned and walked away. When passing by Liu Xiu, he smiled and asked, "Don't dude leave?"

Liu Xiu smiled and walked out of the casino with the youth in white. Outside, the young man in white smiled at Liu Xiu and said, "Dude's gambling skills are very good! I don't know Xiongtai's name?"

"I am Liu Xiu."

"My name is Li Tong." Liu Xiu and the young man exchanged their names, and then bowed to each other to salute.

Li Tong, a young man in white, turned his eyes, looked at Long Yuan beside Liu Xiu, and asked with a smile: "This is?"

"I am the Long Zhongbo!" Long Yuan casually arched his hands.

Although Long Yuan's attitude was a little arrogant, Li Tong still greeted him politely, and then he smiled and said: "Long, this surname is rare. If I remember correctly, a criminal wanted by the court a while ago surnamed Long. Coincidentally, the wanted criminal is like Brother Long, has a scar on his forehead, but the shape of the scar is not the same. "

He did not not mean that. But Liu Xiu and Long Yuan felt shocked, and they looked at Li Tong strangely.

The portrait was not a photo, only a rough picture . And now Long Yuan had a beard on his face, and he looked quite different from the portrait, but Li Tong still could quickly linked him with Long Yuan.

Seeing the expressions of them were a little unnatural. Li Tong waved his hand with a smile and said, "I just said it casually. Brother Liu and Brother Long would not blame me?"

Note:

1. liang: a unit of weight, equals to 50 grams