Fang Zheng kept his word!

In the following days, Banshan District saw a wave of new plays with changed skins, but there were also quite a few exciting plays that the commoners loved to watch.

Scholar Yan Fails the Exam, Scholar Yan’s Part-Time Job at Xianheng Restaurant, Scholar Yan’s One Night of Passion, Little Yan’s Adventure… A series of eye-searing plots spread through the capital.

The commoners in the capital frantically asked around about who exactly Scholar Yan and Little Yan were, and why this father and son pair were so despicable.

Reportedly, in those few days, Yan Guoan and his son smashed quite a few precious pieces of porcelain at home, but they didn’t make a scene in the imperial court.

After all, Fang Zheng didn’t explicitly state that the Mr. Yan and Little Yan in the plays were them…

Yan Guoan also had no face to go to court and complain. Wouldn’t that be admitting it was him? Although everyone in court knew what was going on.

During this time, Fang Zheng wasn’t idle either. He bought up a large number of shops in the surrounding backward districts to use as lottery ticket sales points.

Of course, the lottery wasn’t called a lottery anymore. It was renamed the “Number One Scholar Ticket”!

The lottery method chosen was the dual-colored ball drawing method from Fang Zheng’s previous life. There were a total of forty-nine numbers. The winning numbers were determined by a drawing machine. During the drawing, six red ball numbers were drawn first, followed by one blue ball number.

The first prize was two thousand taels of silver. The second prize was two hundred taels, and it decreased until the sixth prize was just a few dozen copper coins.

The anti-counterfeiting problem of the lottery tickets was solved through encryption technology from Taoyuan County. In the short term, it was unlikely anyone could counterfeit them, and they were constantly being iterated and upgraded.

The Taoyuan Paper Mill compressed three sheets of paper into one, inserted two different specially made anti-counterfeiting lines on the left and right, and printed complex patterns. At the bottom, there was also a row of Arabic numerals compared with Chinese characters.

As for the problem of printing numbers on the lottery tickets, that was also simple to solve. They could be directly stamped on using a seal and special ink.

The lottery ticket paper, ink, and seals were all strictly managed by dedicated personnel.

The pre-printed numbers on the lottery ticket face could be self-checked by the buyers, which also happened to promote Arabic numerals.

As for the most exciting part, it was the one hundred specially trained lottery ticket salespeople from Taoyuan County.

Every single one of them was educated and could even recite quite a few classics from memory.

According to the initial idea, such a rare job opportunity should have been provided to a hundred poor people.

But externally recruited personnel were not reliable.

Fang Zheng had many concerns, the main one being that poor people had a strong gambling mentality! Educated people and wealthy people were most likely more rational. Even if they might chase after it for a while, in the long run, they would definitely realize that the so-called lottery was actually a kind of “scam.”

Therefore, these one hundred people from Taoyuan County were crucial.

People buying lottery tickets needed to temporarily take a literacy test administered by the sales staff on the spot. They just needed to read aloud a simple passage taken from a book. If they could recognize the characters and read it, then they could buy it. If they couldn’t even recognize the characters, then sorry, don’t buy it.

Illiterates and poor people were not allowed to buy!

Of course, even the most rigorous design couldn’t stop the infiltration of scalpers.

It was imaginable that there would definitely be poor people buying lottery tickets through scalpers at a markup.

But when claiming prizes, a literacy test was also required. The distrust between people would greatly weaken the scalpers.

At most, there would be some small-time scalping left, which shouldn’t affect the overall situation. It wasn’t a big concern.

Fang Zheng directly threw this part of the problem to Lord Ji Er. To deal with small-time scalpers among the people, there was probably nothing more suitable than these ruffians and hooligans.

…

Subsequently, the lottery business started with great fanfare.

The sales cycle was once every half month, with the drawing taking place in Banshan Square!

For fifty copper coins, one lottery ticket gave a chance to win the huge prize of two thousand taels of silver! The winners could be worry-free in terms of food and clothing.

Countless people discussed it. The court officials naturally also realized what was going on… So it turned out this dog Fang Zheng was planning to monopolize it… No wonder he inexplicably presented such a memorial to the emperor!

Li Yuanzhao squatted by the roadside with his hands in his pockets, watching the crowded lottery ticket booth across the street. He couldn’t help feeling a bit puzzled.

He nudged Fang Zheng beside him. “Old Fang, do you really think this method of yours can make money? Buying a lottery ticket is so troublesome. If you ask me, it’s better to let everyone be able to buy it.”

Fang Zheng took a bite of candied haw, staring at the crowd and counting the number of people. He mumbled unclearly, “Your Highness, guess how many people can win the first prize?”

Li Yuanzhao counted on his fingers for a moment, then frowned. “I think there must be at least a hundred and eighty! With just those few dozen balls… Tsk~ Aren’t we going to lose money then!?”

Fang Zheng chuckled. “If everyone thinks like you, that’s just right. As long as you calculate it yourself, you’ll know. Even if everyone in the world buys our Number One Scholar Ticket, there won’t be more than a few dozen first prize winners.”

“The probability of the first prize is one in 17.72 million. It’s unlikely for the entire city to produce a single first prize winner in a year.”

“What’s probability?”

“It’s the odds. Out of 17.72 million combinations, there can only be one first prize… Do you think anyone can win?”

Li Yuanzhao widened his eyes and looked towards the lottery ticket booth. “Then… like this, if no one wins, who will still buy our Number One Scholar Ticket?”

“How can there be no winners? Whoever I say wins, wins!”

“I knew you were going to cheat people again.” Li Yuanzhao looked disdainful.

“Heh! If no one buys it, we can only do this. Think about it. If no one wins the first prize for a whole year, won’t it be useless the second year?”

“So every once in a while, we must arrange for a few winners… Besides, how can this be called cheating people? This is called marketing. I dare to guarantee that even two thousand years later, those selling Number One Scholar Tickets will do the same!”

Li Yuanzhao smacked his lips, still feeling a bit disdainful in his heart.

Nonsense! People two thousand years later are still this shameless? Can this world still be good then?

Then he hesitated and said, “With the prize money so high, what if the people buying tickets are especially lucky? Won’t we lose money? Can we really make money?”

“I did a rough calculation. Half a month per cycle. If everything goes smoothly, we can probably make over six thousand taels per cycle. Deducting operating and material costs, and half of it going to His Majesty, we should be able to keep about three thousand taels.”

“Like this… six thousand taels a month shouldn’t be a problem. No matter how lucky the commoners in the capital are, it’s absolutely impossible for three first prize winners to appear in a month.”

Li Yuanzhao started counting on his fingers again, then suddenly stood up, looking resentful. “There’s actually this much! Damn it, what does Imperial Father need so much money for? He doesn’t even spend it!”

Then he turned his head and said, “Old Fang, let’s hurry then! Have the Number One Scholar Tickets sold throughout the country. Won’t that bring in a steady stream of wealth? Before long, forget about just renovating Banshan District, we’ll be able to transform the entire capital!”

Fang Zheng finished eating the candied haw. Just then, a child wearing open-crotch pants happened to pass by. He casually stuck the stick between the child’s butt cheeks.

He stood up and said, “No, in the early stage, we’ll definitely make a lot of money. But later on… We’re selling to smart people. They react very quickly!”

“I’m afraid the profits will decline in less than two months.”

“Later, we still have to teach the commoners to read and write. Then we won’t be able to do this anymore! It’s fine to make some quick money for a year or two.”

“We can still control this thing in our hands. If it’s released outside, who knows what troubles it will stir up!”

“Let’s take advantage of the more than a month we have to renovate Banshan District and crush Yan Guoan!”