In early July of the twenty-sixth year of the First Emperor of Qin, when the five ministers of the Shaofu gathered in the official office, they talked about the strange things that had happened recently.
"The newly appointed fake Prime Minister Heifu..."
General Zuocheng of the Shaofu deliberately prolonged his words, and waited for several colleagues to come over before continuing: "He sent people to take away all the hemp, rags, and scraps from the East and West Weaving Rooms!"
All the prime ministers looked at each other in confusion. The young prime minister was the first to burst into laughter: "What does he want with these wastes?"
The inner minister of the Shaofu is in charge of the palace, clothes, treasures, treasures and food. He deals with Wanzhu hairpins, Fu Ji's Er, Ajin's clothes and brocade ornaments plundered from the Six Kingdoms all day long. He does not pay attention to ordinary silk, silk and linen. What's more, hemp heads, rags, and scraps are all useless things in his opinion.
"Is it going to be used to make hundreds of clothes?"
On the side, the Shaofu Prison Superintendent was in charge of the prisoners. Seeing that the poor officials and concubines had nothing to wear, he sewed together the rags he collected to make clothes, which he called "Bainiyi". There is even a custom in Yongdi, his hometown: children who are often sick and suffer disasters must eat thousands of meals and wear hundreds of robes in order to be able to cure diseases and disasters and grow up smoothly.
Besides, they really couldn't think of what Hei Fu would do with collecting a bunch of rags?
Everyone was a little repulsive towards Heifu, who temporarily came to the Shaofu to take charge of papermaking, especially the general. The bamboo slips and silks used in the palace were made under his supervision. Even if His Majesty wants to make new things, he should let him make them. He is the one who takes the lead, but His Majesty allows Heifu, an outsider, to start a new business. What is this?
Jiang Zuocheng did not dare to question Qin Shihuang's determination, so he put his grievances on Hei Fu. Although he asked for everything Hei Fu wanted, he secretly wanted to see Hei Fu's jokes...
He sneered: "For more than ten days, the black man has done nothing except asking Yuan Cheng to soak trees in water and collecting rags from everywhere. I want to see what he will come up with by the end of September. Please report to the Shaofu Superintendent and His Majesty!"
…
On the seventh day of July, although autumn has entered, the sun is still scorching hot. According to the custom of Qin, today is the day for each family to dry clothes, cloth and bamboo slips.
The Nei Shi Teng family was no exception. The stepmother was sick, and Ye Zijin took care of everything in the house. She had people move the cloth clothes and the heavy bamboo slips from her father's study to the yard to be exposed in the sun, but she heard something coming from outside the mansion. There was a long shouting sound...
"Put away the rags!"
As soon as he heard this voice, Zi Jin knew that it was Hei Fu's subordinates who were coming.
This matter has become a joke in Xianyang City. Heifu, who became the fake Shaofu Cheng, did not do his business, but sent people to collect rags in Xianyang City. It is really funny.
"This gentleman never does things without aim. A few years ago, he proposed to build public toilets and promote fertilization in Nan County, and he was often laughed at. But when the end of the year came, the fact that the yield per mu doubled left everyone speechless..."
Some people think that this is luck, but in a few years, either by virtue of military merit or by taking advantage of the current situation, he has gradually transformed from a minor official in Nanjun to a close minister of the emperor, and the rank of junior minister. How can a mediocre person do it?
Therefore, this matter seemed to be pointless, but Ye Zijin couldn't help but be curious. He wanted to know what Hei Fu had in mind, so he asked the people around him: "Fumu, are there any rags or pockmarks at home?"
Neishi's mansion was huge, with more than a hundred people including retainers, ministers, maids, cooks, and craftsmen living in it. There was also a special weaving room where high-quality fabrics were bought from outside to make clothes. Ordinary maids also wore silk clothes. , only the grooms and men wear linen.
But no matter how good a tailor is, there will be errors when cutting cloth, so there are quite a lot of rag scraps in the house. Mrs. Naishi is so expensive that she doesn’t want to see her servants patching them up. She thinks it is a shameful thing, so she scraps rags.
No one cared about them, and the tailor was reluctant to throw them away, so he piled them up in the warehouse. There were actually several baskets.
Zijin asked two Fumu and maidservants to follow him, and asked Lichen to carry the scraps of rags out of the mansion. He happened to see the soap-coated clerk who collected the cloth parked the oxcart in the inner courtyard, and followed the people who came after hearing the news.
The woman peddler explains the price of rags...
The clerk said: "rags, corners, hemp heads, one penny per catty."
"A penny!?"
A woman in Jingchai and a sarong made an exaggerated voice, and her smiling face suddenly became full of displeasure:
"My family is no more noble than a rich family. We are just ordinary public servants. There is a saying in our neighborhood, called Xin Bozi, Old Zhongzi, Po Shuji. It means that one piece of clothing can be worn by four brothers, brothers, Zhongzhong, and brother Zhongzi.
Wear them from winter clothes to summer clothes, from wide sleeves to sleeveless, from major repairs to minor repairs, from patching, from new clothes to old clothes, then to rags, until you can no longer wear them. Until then, you still have to cut off your shirts.
At the end of the day, I’m going to be a senior citizen…”
"That's why, this rag is also useful, but you want to buy it for a pound, I might as well keep it as a rag!"
After saying that, he twisted his waist and left.
The young officials in the Shaofu were dumbfounded. They fiddled with the abacus that Zhang Cang had taught them on the spot and calculated the accounts for the shrewd Xianyang woman: "A big brown coat costs eighteen kilograms of hemp. A medium brown coat is worth sixty yuan.
Fourteen kilograms of hemp is worth forty-six yuan. A small brown coat is worth thirty-six yuan."
"Calculated in this way, a pound of good linen is only more than three qian. Now buying a pound of tattered linen scraps for one qian is like exchanging three unwearable rags for a new one. Is it still a loss?
Can’t do it?”
The shrewish woman thought about it carefully and realized that the clerk's words seemed to make sense. The linen was rough and even cutting it to make a small coat made her chest hurt. Instead of making do with it, she might as well exchange the rags for money to buy new ones. So she went to her house to find some new ones.
The few kilograms of rags that came out were weighed by the clerk, and he happily went home with a few pennies and a half taels in his hands.
Looking at the clerk's car, there are already a lot of rags and scraps loaded on it.
In fact, he didn't quite understand why the Shaofu Prime Minister was doing this, but since the orders were given, and the Internal History and the Xianyang Order had given permission, he had no choice but to do it.
In the huge city of Xianyang, there are many similar bullock carts for small officials. Along with the jingling of cowbells, the ministers leading the cows shouted at the top of their lungs, "Collect the rags and hemp heads!" which also echoed in the village...
…
When dusk was approaching, most of the ox carts collecting rags returned with full loads, and they met the carriages from Shaofu near the Wei Bridge, and drove together to the Haochi Pond.
…
In late July, Cheng Shang, Zhang Han and others were amazed when they saw the rags and scraps piled up into several hills beside the pickaxe pond, but Hei Fu was not surprised.
As the capital of the empire, Xianyang has 150,000 households. Recently, 120,000 households have moved to the customs. Half of them are settled in the suburbs of Xianyang. What is the concept of more than 200,000 households? Each household receives half a catty of rags.
A hundred thousand kilograms!
Not to mention that the Shaofu also sent a large amount of leftover materials. Since the raw materials are complete, Heifu plans to make the hemp paper first in August, and then start making bark paper in September after the craftsmen are familiar with the process.
The plan was on track, and Hei Fu was in a good mood, until Zhang Cang, who was staying in Xianyang City to settle accounts, also rushed to the workshop and happily told Hei Fu that he had a new nickname.
Zhang Cangpang's face was full of a narrow smile, and he bowed to Hei Fu with his chubby hands: "Congratulations, Hei Fu, didn't you complain before? You are just pretending to be a young man with no clear responsibilities and powers, but that's not the case now.
You have been called Shaofu Pobu Cheng by all Xianyang people!"
Zhang Han couldn't help laughing and turned away to smile, while Cheng Shang felt sorry for Hei Fu.
"Using rags to make paper is a waste of money, and the people's morality is not labored, and new profits can be made. This is an act of economical use and benefiting the country and the people, but it has been misunderstood by the people. I really feel sorry for the Young Master!"
The Mohists pay great attention to "frugal use". Taking clothes as an example, they do not require everyone to wear brown clothes like the Mohists. As long as the cyan clothes worn in winter are warm and the Xige clothes worn in summer are light and cool, this will
That’s it.
The Qin State was indeed like this in the past. Even Duke Xiao of Qin and King Hui of Qin came to court wearing sackcloth and were extremely friendly to the people and frugal. This is why generations of Mohists were deeply attracted by Qin and chose to take root here.
But this is not the case now. After the Six Kingdoms fell, all their wealth and silks went to Qin. The emperor's palace was full of hairpins with pearls, Er of Fuji, clothes of Ajin, and brocade ornaments. They were thrown away without hesitation. Some of them were thrown away.
The emperor took the lead, and pride and extravagance had spread in Xianyang. The maids of the officials' families all wore silk shoes and beautiful ornaments...
Mo Zhe felt sad and felt that this was no longer the simple and frugal Qin he knew.
In such a general environment, Cheng Shang admired Heifu's ability to do the opposite, turn waste into treasure, and reuse the scraps of rags that had been discarded in the palace. He decided to inform Tang Dynasty of what happened here.
Master, Tang Duo and Qin Mo asked all the Mo masters to assist Hei Fu. This must be done!
Heif thanked the process developer for his kindness. He was not depressed at all. Compared with the various nicknames before, what is this?
"Babu Cheng, just Babu Cheng."
He smiled faintly, picked up the long knife used to cut linen cloth, and took the lead towards the hemp heads and rags that had been soaked in the pool for a long time.
"I will laugh and scold you, but I will be responsible for the achievements of future generations!"
…
In early August, with sufficient raw materials available and the papermaking workshop officially started, the Pickaxe Pond began to become lively and attracted the attention of many people in Xianyang City.
The young master Zao Mengtian, who had just returned from Qi, even came to Haochi in person to see what the "Shaofu Pobu Cheng" was up to...