I believe that everyone has seen Zhang Weijian play Shen Wansan, that is, the TV series "Cornucopia" that swept the country that year, this TV series depicts the story of Shen Wansan starting from scratch to falling down, and then starting from scratch, of course, it is also the scene of Ming Taizu who has Zhu Yuanzhang. In fact, Shen Wansan was a famous rich man in the southern generation in the early Ming Dynasty, he was very bold, his eyes were also very thief, and many of the businesses he looked up to could make money. For a while, he saw the opportunity to help Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang build one-third of the city wall of Nanjing City, but what he did not expect was that Zhu Yuanzhang crossed the river and demolished the bridge, and after he repaired the city wall, he was assigned to Yunnan.
Today we want to talk about an interesting incident that happened between Shen Wansan and Zhu Yuanzhang during the Ming Dynasty and taizu in the early Ming Dynasty, zhu Yuanzhang lent Shen Wansan a copper coin.
After 30 days, Shen Wansan had to give Zhu Yuanzhang 500 million, what was going on? Let's take a look.
It is recorded in the "Bili Miscellaneous Storage" that after Zhu Yuanzhang set the capital in Nanjing, because he spent too much manpower and financial resources and lacked silver in the national treasury, he started Shen Wansan's idea. Once, Zhu Yuanzhang summoned Shen Wansan and said to Shen Wansan: You are a money bank, and I heard that the reputation is particularly good, and I will put a copper coin here with you to generate interest. Although it was only a piece of money, Shen Wansan was not easy to refuse, so he accepted, when he asked for interest, Zhu Yuanzhang said: Starting from the next day, the principal of the previous day had to be doubled. At that time, Shen Wansan could only agree, in fact, according to Zhu Yuanzhang's algorithm, the daily doubling of interest was terrible, 30 days later, Shen Wansan remembered this matter, carefully calculated, helplessly can only return most of the property to the treasury, to make up for the emptiness of the treasury.
Later, after Shen Wansan repaired the city wall, Zhu Yuanzhang still rewarded him with a piece of money to commend his merits, but Shen Wansan finally accidentally gave this copper coin to the person who asked for food, and Zhu Yuanzhang was furious after hearing this, so he sent Shen Wansan to Yunnan. Although it is said that this is a record of miscellaneous matters, I don't know whether it is true or not, but the wisdom in it is also thought-provoking. I remember a fable I heard when I was a child, saying that a long time ago, a peasant made a bet with the emperor, and the emperor lost, and he agreed to a request from the peasant, and this peasant demanded that the emperor give the peasants grain every day, one on the first day, and doubled the day before, and the emperor thought that such a request was very worthless, so he agreed with great joy, and who knew that before long, the emperor committed suicide because he could not afford to pay the peasants' interest.
Although it is a small fable, it contains profound truths and proves how excellent the wisdom of the ancient people of our country is. There must be many more such stories, have you heard of them?