"What have you been doing lately, Mr. Cheng Heifu, the fake young master?"
In the Linguang Palace in Ganquan Mountain, Li Si raised his head and looked at the middle son Li Tong who had just arrived from Xianyang. He did not ask him how his family was doing in the past half month, nor did he ask what the eldest son Li You said in the letter he sent from Changsha County.
But he was inexplicably concerned about Hei Fu, whom he rarely mentioned in the past.
Although Li Tong found it strange, he still held up his hands and said: "Father, after that black man became the Shaofu Prime Minister, he first traveled with Zhang Shaorong to the area near the water around Xianyang, and set up a workshop near the Hao Pond. Then he went to
Shaofu Yuancheng asked for the wood of Wuyuan."
Li Si nodded: "So, the thing he threatened to build in front of His Majesty is made of trees like the slips?"
Li Tongdao: "I also heard people say that all those trees were soaked in the pickaxe pond. But then, Hei Fu actually sent thousands of craftsmen and ministers home, saying that they would come back after planting wheat, leaving only
More than a hundred people."
He couldn't help but said: "Your Majesty only gave Mr. Hei three months, but he is not in a hurry at all? I think he has been too smooth in the palace in the past few months, and he is a little distracted! Otherwise, why would he go to Neishiteng Mansion again and again?
But he never came to visit my house even once? This Guizhou leader has probably forgotten a long time ago. Who did he rely on to support him to be where he is today?"
"Confused."
Li Si scolded Zhongzi. He saw that although Li Tong taught him step by step after coming to Xianyang, his political wisdom was much worse than that of his eldest son Li You.
By command.
Not only Heifu, Zhang Han, Zhang Cang and other people who were protected and supported by Li Si also rarely went to the Li family in private.
Although there are great faults in making friends with many people and cliques inside and outside, they cover too many!
Li Si needs to maintain his image of being "non-Party" instead of being a "honored minister" with a large number of guests and friends and a wide range of party members.
Unlike the confused Zhongzi, he saw that although Heifu did not give him a gift, he was deliberately pulling Zhang Cang, Zhang Han and other people who were deeply imprinted with Li Si to do things.
This was exactly what Li Si wanted. Zhang Cang was just a man of little fame and fortune. Although Li Si admired Zhang Han, he had no reason to promote him beyond his authority. If Zhang Han could take advantage of Hei Fu's achievements, it would be a good thing.
"But Mr. Hei is so carefree, can he really accomplish anything?" Li Tong didn't believe it.
"Brother Ru Bo once said that although this man comes from a humble background, he is extremely knowledgeable, very reliable in his work, and never misses the mark."
Li Si had a vague feeling that Hei Fu was the same type of person as him. They were unwilling to settle for a humble position, and did not want to live like a frightened rat in the toilet all day long! They eagerly wanted to break away from their original class and climb up the mountain of power.
Now that Toilet Rat is in the barn, whether he can succeed or not depends entirely on whether he can seize the opportunity.
"If it is true as he said, paper as thin as silk and as cheap as wooden slips can be successfully produced, it will be a great achievement for Qin!"
As a court official, Li Si knew very well that one major difference between the Qin system and the Six Kingdoms was its insistence on "clerical administration."
Li Si personally added the Miscellaneous Laws of Internal History and pointed out: "If you have something to ask for, you must send it in writing, not verbally or with restraint." No matter how small the matter is, subordinates must report their work to their superiors in the form of written documents.
Report the matter verbally.
In addition, there is a stipulation in the Golden Bull Rules, "If the official loses, the year of payment shall be notified in writing, and the recipient shall be included in the calculation." When the government delivers items, the year of payment shall be notified in writing, and the recipient shall be informed according to the receipt.
Record the time when it arrives, so that you can not only accurately calculate the time, but also trace the responsibility.
This kind of "clerical administration" is widely implemented in counties and counties, so a large amount of bamboo and wooden slips are needed every year. However, the slips are heavy and bulky, not to mention the people who carry them. Even Li Si reviews the legal documents sent by the counties every day, and begs for them.
Ju, they are all exhausted. It is inconvenient to store and transport. The rolls of bamboo books take up too much space. The so-called five carts of learned wealth are only hundreds of thousands of words.
With the unification of the world, the government affairs handled by the central government and counties are increasing day by day, and the inconvenience of slips has become more obvious. The Qin Dynasty, from the emperor to the officials, urgently needed a new writing medium to improve administrative efficiency...
"This is why Your Majesty attaches so much importance to this matter. Mr. Hei, you must have made the right bet!"
Li Si appreciates smart people and is not worried that Heifu will be out of his control after he becomes favored through meritorious service.
Unlike Han Fei, who must be the prime minister if he is used by the Qin Dynasty, Heifu is too low-born and too young. In the next ten years, he will only be a county guard. He will not be a threat to Li Si, but can become an ally of his heirs...
"After you return to Xianyang, you should pay attention to Hei Fu's every move and report to me from time to time."
Li Si told Li Tong so, and then opened the letter sent by Li You from thousands of miles away...
His eyebrows immediately furrowed because the letter was written during the march and also revealed some details that were not described in Dongting County's official documents.
"The Yue people in Dongting County were instigated by the Western Yue and Chu survivors to rebel against Qin with their cities!"
After reading, Li Si sneered and said: "The Dongting and Changsha counties are preparing for a major event, but the Dongting County governor only said it was a small tribal disturbance? It seems that the south is not peaceful!"
…
Haochi is located near the site of Haojing, the old capital of the Zhou Dynasty. Today, the illustrious city-state of Zhou Dynasty can no longer be seen, only foxes wandering on the ruined walls and a patch of golden millet can be seen.
Heifu also set up his paper-making headquarters here because it not only had the advantage of flowing water, several water-breathing houses could be built there, but also a pond where the brought trees could be soaked.
It was July, and the nearby women were harvesting the kudzu grown in the fields and retting the kudzu in the pond to prepare for weaving winter clothes. While they were working, they pointed at the wood in the pond and talked endlessly.
"When building houses and ships, wood must be dried in the sun, but these officials were surprised that they soaked it in water!"
After soaking the trees, Heifu ignored them and even sent more than a thousand craftsmen recruited from nearby areas to move back home and let them finish planting wheat before returning, leaving only a hundred servants on standby.
Regarding this, Zhang Han was so anxious that he almost got angry, but Heifu did not panic and asked Zhang Han to send someone to the East and West Weaving Rooms under the Shaofu. These two weaving rooms were responsible for collecting silkworm cocoons.
Weaving clothes for the suburban temple, and there, I found what Hei Fu wanted...
What was displayed in front of Zhang Han and Cheng Shang was a thin sheet that felt like silk, but was not a complete piece of cloth.
Zhang Han didn't recognize it, but Cheng Shang said: "This thing is called Hexiang in Guanzhong."
"Of course, in Nanjun, it's called Fang Xu."
Heifu laughed: "It seems that in Brother Cheng's house, every summer, the sound of weaving is heard all the time!"
Cheng Shang sighed and said, "My mother raised me in the sericulture and weaving industry. How could I not realize this?"
Hei Fu nodded: "Me too, my father died early, and my mother and sister-in-law got up early to raise silkworms and weave silk at night, but those soft silks were all sold to the county, and they have never worn them..."
The "square wadding" that Heifu got from the weaving room is the product of sericulture. The best silkworm cocoons can be directly spun into silk. The bad cocoons and sick cocoons are not willing to throw away, so they put them into boiling water and use the bleaching wadding method.
Take the silk.
After bleaching the wadding, there will often be some residual wadding left on the bamboo mat. After a few times, it accumulates into a layer of fiber flakes, which is dried and peeled off in the sun. This is the square wadding in front of you.
Zhang Han was born into a wealthy family. He had no worries about food and clothing since he was a child. He had ready-made silk and silk embroidery to wear. Of course, he had no chance to know this thing, and he didn't understand what it had to do with papermaking.
In order to answer his question, Heifu took a pen and ink and began to write on the square wadding meticulously.
Cheng Shang explained: "In the Weaver Girl's House, Hehe is a sacrifice used to worship Lei Zu. Before the sacrifice, literate people are often asked to write some eulogies on it. In fact, they are reluctant to burn the cloth, so they use it.
Come instead.”
He also had a sudden realization: "Heifu said that he wanted to make paper that is lighter than slips and cheaper than cloth. Could it be He He?"
Then Cheng Shang shook his head in self-denial: "I'm afraid it won't work. There are too few hens. I have to float the catkins dozens of times before I can get one."
"It's just that the principles are similar. I got the inspiration from it."
Heifu picked up the Heyang with the writing on it, and slowly tore it open with force in his hands.
The hen was cracked in the center and the silk fibers were torn loose. Heifu put it on the table and asked Cheng Shang to take a closer look.
"If you look closely, you will see that the so-called silk and silk are actually made up of countless intertwined strands, which can also be called silk fibers."
He then pointed to the women who were retting hemp in the pond outside the door: "After the peasant women collected the Kudzu stalks, they soaked the peeled hemp bark in water and left it for half a month. Finally, the hemp bark was loosened and they could be extracted.
The fine flosses from root to root are hemp fibers."
"To put it bluntly, whether it is silk, kudzu, or common mulberry bark or mulberry bark, they are all composed of countless fibers."
"Therefore, since the fine flocculation of silk can be flattened and dried into a silk fabric, which can be used for writing, the same fine flocculation is made of bark, hemp heads and cloth, fish nets are chopped and pounded, and then used as a bamboo mat.
Flatten it and dry it, and maybe you can write! This is my plan!"
Zhang Han suddenly realized: "So you asked us to cut down the wood for retting. What you want is the bark, not the wood!"
Although wood-based papermaking will be the mainstream in later generations, Heifu feels that with the current level of Qin's iron tools, pulping is still a bit difficult. Furthermore, three months may not be enough to rotten the wood, not to mention the many steps ahead.
As for the process, why not start with simpler bark paper and hemp paper...
Cheng Shang also understood, and he patted his thigh: "Zi Mozi said in the Mo Jing that body is divided into two parts. All things can be divided, but there are also times when they are indivisible. This is called Duan. It seems that this detailed
Cotton fiber is the end of silk, silk, mulberry skin, etc., right?"
Heifu was stunned for a moment after hearing this, secretly thinking that Mozi was so powerful, he proposed two hundred years ago that matter is composed of tiny particles?
However, when Cheng Shang was surprised that Heifu actually knew the profound knowledge that Zimozi had learned, Heifu shook his head and said: "This is not profound knowledge, and it is not Heifu's achievement."
He pointed to the peasant women working and joking by the pickaxe pond outside the house, and said with a smile: "It's just a simple idea I got from the Weaver Girl and Piao Mu. It's a simple thing that even the son of the Weaver Girl in Guizhou understands."
Regardless of ancient times or future generations, many inventions have been attributed to saints and great sages. It seems that without the Sui Man, there would be no fire in the world, and the world would live in darkness forever. Without Hou Ji, the people of the world would not know how to grow crops, and would have to drink blood forever.
Meng Tian, the Chinese would not be able to use brushes. Without Cai Lun, paper would not have appeared.
But Heifu thought that was not the case. They were just standing on the shoulders of giants at the right time. To use a cliché expression...
"All of this comes from the wisdom of working people!"