During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a fisherman named Zhang Deyan in Jiangxi. He got up early and found the darkness on the carp beach all day and slept on the boat, but because the local government's fish tax was too heavy, he could only make a living.

This year, on April 15th, Zhang Deyan set up a bamboo hedge on the carp beach, set up a fish-misting formation, and prepared to take advantage of the night's fish flood to catch more fish. After everything was ready, Zhang Deyan saw that it was still early, so he took a nap on the boat to recuperate. But soon after closing his eyes, Zhang Deyan dreamed of an old man with two long beards hanging from his mouth, standing in the water and talking to him: "I am the carp king. I will lead my children and grandchildren to Poyang Lake to lay eggs tonight. I will pass through here in the future. Please withdraw the fish-misting formation."

When Zhang Deyan heard this, he was very anxious and replied, "King Fish, I also want to promise you, but the government will come to collect the fish tax at the beginning of next month. If the fish tax cannot be paid, the government will collect my fishing boat, and my livelihood will be gone."

After hearing this, the Carp King said, "You're right, then I'll give you a silver carp as our road money." After saying that, he took out a silver carp from his arms and handed it to Zhang Deyan. Zhang Deyan quickly reached out to pick it up, but accidentally, the silver carp fell into the river. Zhang Deyan was startled and woke up.

Zhang Deyan took the silver carp and took a closer look, and saw that the scales of the silver carp were meticulous, and the eyes were lifelike, as if they were made of live fish. He held it in his hand and estimated that it weighed one catty. Then he recalled the scene in his dream, secretly amazed, and thought to himself: It seems that this carp king bought the road. Looking at the moon again, it was approaching the center of the sky, and the ion time was not far away, so Zhang Deyan quickly withdrew from the lost fish formation.

Zhang Deyan sat on the bow of the boat to see what was going on. After a while, water splashed all over the beach. Under the leadership of a big carp, thousands of carp went down the beach along the river.

The next day, at dawn, Zhang Deyan quickly wrapped the silver carpets and rushed to the county seat to find a pawn shop. The owner of this pawn shop was Zhao Xing, and he was a genius. He had taken the silver carpets, and seeing that the workmanship was very exquisite, it was estimated to be worth 100 taels of silver. Looking at Zhang Deyan's ragged clothes, he suddenly had an idea and said, "I see this silver carp, the workmanship is sloppy, and the texture of the silver is also a little poor. It is worth ten taels of silver."

Sure enough, Zhang Deyan didn't understand the market of gold and silver jewelry at all. As soon as he heard that it was worth ten taels of silver, he was already elated and hurriedly replied, "Okay, that's the number."

Zhao Xing hurriedly ordered the shopkeeper to take the broken silver and give it to Zhang Deyan. After sending Zhang Deyan away, Zhao Xing played with the silver carp carefully, thinking that such an object was only available to a large family, and somehow it fell into the hands of a poor man like Zhang Deyan. But curiously, he saw that the silver carp was not a rare treasure, so he didn't think too much about it.

Moreover, after Zhang Deyan paid the fish tax, he used the remaining silver taels as daily expenses, and his life was finally much better. In the blink of an eye, on the fifteenth day of April next year, the King Carp came to borrow the way and gave Zhang Deyan a silver carpets again, and Zhang Deyan took it to Zhao Xing's pawnshop for silver.

When Zhao Xing saw that Zhang Deyan came to be a silver carp again, he got up his mind and took the opportunity to invite Zhang Deyan to the restaurant to drink and ask about the origin of the silver carp. Zhang Deyan was a simple person, and he was interested in drinking, so he told the origin of the silver carp.

When Zhao Xing heard about the silver carpets, he had a bad idea. The next day, he took the silver and found the local fisherman to take care of it, asking him to chase Zhang Deyan away, and bought a fishing boat to occupy the carp beach.

On the fifteenth day of April the following year, Zhao Xing hired someone to set up a lost fish formation on the beach early, and when it was almost dusk, he fell asleep on the bow of the boat according to Zhang Deyan. Zhao Xing really saw the Carp King who came to buy the road in his dream, and he said excitedly to the Carp King, "Now that the beach belongs to me, you have to give me the golden carp, so that I can make way for you."

The Carp King thought for a while and said, "Alright, I'll give you a golden carp this time, and it's alive." When Zhao Xing heard that, he was overjoyed and immediately agreed to make way for the Carp King.

At this time, the Carp King continued, "It's just that this golden carp needs to be fed with gold chips, otherwise it will starve to death." Zhao Xing did not take this seriously and only urged for the golden carp.

After waking up, Zhao Xing quickly picked up the torch and went to check the Missing Fish Array, and saw that there was really a golden carp swimming around in it. Zhao Xing quickly found a jar and filled it with water, returned home with the golden carp, and specially bought an exquisite fish tank to keep the golden carp in it.

Looking at the golden carp swimming happily in the fish tank, Zhao Xing suddenly came up with an idea. It turned out that during the Jiajing period, due to Yan Song's power, he sold officials and bribes, and Zhao Xing wanted to use this golden carp to curry favor with local officials and make himself a small official.

Thinking of this, Zhao Xing couldn't help but feel proud. But suddenly he found that the golden carp's belly was facing up and sank to the bottom of the fish tank, looking like it was dying.

This scared Zhao Xing. He didn't know what to do for a while, and he was so anxious that he circled around the fish tank. Suddenly he remembered what the King Carp had said about feeding gold chips, and quickly found a gold ingot, scraped off the gold chips with a knife, and threw them into the water.

Strange to say, as soon as the gold crumbs were thrown into the fish tank, the golden carp, which was still dying just now, immediately turned around and ate the gold crumbs. After eating, it regained its vitality.

Seeing the effect of feeding the gold scraps, Zhao Xing heaved a sigh of relief, but after a while, he found that the golden carp was half dead again, and only after feeding the gold scraps did it return to normal. In this way Zhao Xing kept feeding, and at the end of the day, he fed a ingot of gold ingots.

Zhao Xing wanted to keep the golden carp at home first, and then send it to the top when he saw the opportunity, but when he saw this battle, he couldn't hold on to one ingot of gold a day, so the next day, he brought the golden carp to the local prefect to offer treasure.

The prefect saw that the golden carp could swim and move, thinking that in three months Yan Song would go home to save his relatives and pass through his own jurisdiction. When the time came, he would definitely win favor with Yan Song. Maybe he would rise to the top and rise all the way. The more the prefect thought about it, the more beautiful he became, and he directly praised Zhao Xing for doing things and leaving the golden carp behind.

Zhao Xing was afraid that the golden carp would starve to death and make a mistake, so he told him that the golden carp had to be fed an ingot of gold chips every day. When the old and cunning prefect heard this, his eyes dripped and he said to Zhao Xing, "This golden carp is in your foster care. I will pick it up in three months. During this time, you can take care of it. I am only your question if it is lost, dead or a scale is lost."

Zhao Xing was dumbfounded when he heard that "Plop" knelt down and said, "My lord, my small business is thin, and I can't afford to raise this golden carp at all!"

When the prefect heard this, he was unmoved and said, "Although it costs money to raise this golden carp, I will definitely be able to please him when I give it to the head assistant. When I get promoted, can I treat you badly? You can rest assured to raise this golden carp for me, and I will definitely compensate you when the time comes!"

Zhao Xing wanted to say something else, but when he saw the prefect's face and issued an order to evict the passengers, he could only return angrily with the golden carp.

Zhao Xing's family was wealthy. In order to raise gold to feed the golden carp, he could only sell the house today and the store tomorrow. Everything valuable in the family was sold out.

After raising the golden carpets for three months, Zhao Xing had already ended up bankrupt. Finally, when Yan Song came to Jiangxi Province to kiss, Zhao Xing quickly followed instructions of the prefect and carefully delivered the golden carp to the prefect.

As soon as Yan Song heard that the golden carp could swim with gold, he felt amazing in his heart, so he led his staff to take a look. When he opened the lid of the fish tank, he saw no golden carp swimming around, only a stone carp lying motionless at the bottom of the tank. Yan Song felt disgraced and furious, thinking that the governor was deliberately teasing him with this gift, so he found the governor of Jiangxi and ordered him to deal with it. How dare the governor of Jiangxi ignore it? He sent someone to weave a crime that day and arrested the governor and put him in prison.

Pity this Zhao Xing, wearing ragged clothes, hungry, eagerly waiting for the prefect to rise and make up for himself, how could he think that the news of the prefect being imprisoned had come? With nothing and despair, he had to beg along the street for a living.

After hearing about Zhao Xing and the prefect's story, Zhang Deyan returned to the carp beach to fish. The local fisherman heard the story of the carp king and felt that he was protected by gods and monsters, so he no longer dared to bully him, and even the government did not dare to levy a fish tax on him. However, Zhang Deyan never dreamed of the king carp again, but every April 15th, Zhang Deyan would automatically remove the fanfish formation on the beach. Over time, local custom formed, and on the 15th day of the fourth lunar month, fishermen no longer went into the river to fish.