The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

In early July of the 26th year of Emperor Qin Shihuang, when the five chancellors of the Shaofu gathered in the government office, they talked about the recent strange things that happened.

"The newly appointed fake chancellor Heifu..."

The Shaofu General Zuocheng deliberately dragged out his words, and waited for several colleagues to come over before continuing: "He sent people to take away all the hemp heads, rags, and scraps from the East and West Weaving Rooms!"

The chancellors looked at each other, and the Shaofu Neicheng was the first to laugh: "What does he want these rubbish for?"

The Shaofu Neicheng was in charge of the palace's clothes, treasures, and delicacies. He dealt with the Wanzhu hairpins, Fu Ji earrings, A'ao clothes, and brocade ornaments looted from the six countries all day long. He didn't care about ordinary silk and linen, let alone hemp heads, rags, and scraps. In his opinion, they were all useless things.

"Is it to make patchwork clothes?"

The prison official in charge of the prisoners saw that the poor servants and concubines had no clothes to wear, so he sewed the rags he collected together to make clothes, which were called "patchwork clothes". In his hometown of Yong, there is even a custom: children who often get sick and suffer disasters must eat food from thousands of families and wear patchwork clothes, so that they can get rid of diseases and disasters and grow up smoothly.

Apart from this, they really can't think of what Hei Fu will do with a pile of rags?

Everyone is somewhat repulsive to Hei Fu, who came to the Shaofu temporarily to be in charge of papermaking, especially the general secretary. The bamboo slips and silk used in the palace were all supervised by him. Even if His Majesty wants to make new things, he should be the one to take the lead. But His Majesty let Hei Fu, an outsider, start from scratch. What's this?

The Minister of Works did not dare to question the Emperor's determination, so he took out his anger on Heifu. Although he granted Heifu everything he wanted, he secretly wanted to make fun of Heifu...

He sneered, "For more than ten days, Heifu has done nothing except asking the Minister of Gardens for trees to soak in water and collecting rags everywhere. I want to see what he will come up with to report to the Minister of the Imperial Household and Your Majesty at the end of September!"

...

It was the seventh day of the seventh month. Although it was already autumn, the sun was still scorching. According to the customs of Qin, today was the day for families to dry clothes, cloth and bamboo slips.

Neishiteng's family was no exception. Her stepmother was ill, so Ye Zijin was in charge of all matters at home. She had people move cloth, clothes, and the heavy bamboo slips from her father's study to the yard to dry in the sun, but she heard a long shout from outside the mansion...

"Collect the rags!"

As soon as she heard the voice, Zijin knew that it was the clerk under Heifu who came.

This matter has become a joke in Xianyang City. Heifu, who was the fake Shaofucheng, did not do his job, but sent people to collect rags in Xianyang City. It was really funny.

"This gentleman never does things without a purpose. A few years ago, he proposed to build public toilets and promote composting in Nanjun, and he was also laughed at by many people. But at the end of the year, the fact that the per-acre yield doubled left everyone speechless..."

Some people think it's luck, but in a few years, whether by military merit or by taking advantage of the situation, he has gradually become a close minister of the emperor from a clerk in Nanjun, and ranked as a lower minister. How can a mediocre person do it?

So although this matter seemed to be out of the blue, Ye Zijin could not help but feel curious and wanted to know what wonderful ideas Heifu had. She asked the people around her, "Fu Mu, do you have any rags or hemp at home?"

The mansion of the Nei Shi was very large, with more than a hundred retainers, servants, maids, cooks, and craftsmen living in it. There was also a special weaving room, where they bought high-quality cloth from outside to make clothes. Ordinary maids also wore silk and shoes, and only grooms and grooms wore linen.

But no matter how good a tailor is, there will be errors in cutting cloth, so there are quite a lot of rags and scraps in the mansion. The Nei Shi's wife was extravagant and could not bear to see the servants at home patching up, thinking it was a shame, so no one cared about the rags and scraps, and the tailors were reluctant to throw them away, so they were piled up in the warehouse, and there were actually several baskets.

Zijin asked two maids and maids to follow him, and asked the servants to carry the rags out of the mansion. He happened to see the black-robed clerk who collected the rags parked the ox cart at the neighborhood, and explained the price of the rags to the women and men who came to ask about it...

The clerk said: "Ragged cloth, rags, and hemp heads are one penny per catty."

"One penny!?"

A woman in a thorny hairpin and cloth skirt made an exaggerated sound, and her smiling face was suddenly full of unhappiness:

"My family is not a wealthy family, but just an ordinary official and a good-looking family. There is a saying in the neighborhood, called new uncle, old middle son, and broken uncle. It means that a piece of clothing is worn by four brothers, uncle, middle son, and uncle. Winter clothes are changed into summer clothes, wide sleeves are changed into sleeveless, big repairs and small patches are made, and new clothes are worn into old clothes, and then worn into rags, until they can no longer be worn. Until then, they have to cut off the bottom of the shoes and make jackets..."

"So, this rag is also useful. You actually want to buy it for one coin per pound. I might as well keep it as a rag!"

After saying that, he twisted his waist and was about to leave.

The clerk of the Shaofu was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. He fiddled with the abacus that Zhang Cang taught them and calculated the account for the fierce Xianyang woman: "A large brown coat uses 18 pounds of hemp and is worth 60 coins; a medium brown coat uses 14 pounds of hemp and is worth 46 coins; a small brown coat uses 11 pounds of hemp and is worth 36 coins."

"According to this calculation, a pound of good linen is only more than 3 coins. Now buying a pound of rags and rotten cloth for one coin is like exchanging three pieces of rags for a new dress. Isn't it a loss?"

The fierce woman thought about it carefully. The clerk's words seemed to make some sense. The linen was rough, and it hurt her chest to cut it into small clothes. Instead of using it, it would be better to exchange the rags for money to buy new cloth. So he gave the clerk several pounds of rags he had found at home to weigh, and went home happily with a few coins in his hand.

Looking at the clerk's cart again, there were already a lot of rags and scraps.

In fact, he didn't quite understand why the Shaofu Cheng collected these, but since the order was so, and the Nei Shi and Xianyang Ling also allowed it, he could only bite the bullet and do it.

In the huge Xianyang City, there were many similar clerks' ox carts. With the jingling of cowbells, the slaves who led the cows opened their voices and shouted "Collect rags and scraps!" which also echoed in the neighborhood...

When dusk was approaching, most of the ox carts that collected rags returned fully loaded, and joined the horse carriage from the Shaofu near Weiqiao, and drove to Haochi together.

...

In late July, Cheng Shang, Zhang Han and others were amazed at the rags and scraps piled up into several small hills by the Haochi, but Heifu was not surprised.

As the capital of the empire, Xianyang has 150,000 households. Recently, 120,000 households have been relocated to the pass, half of which are settled in the suburbs of Xianyang. What does it mean to have more than 200,000 households? Collecting half a catty of rags from each household is enough for 100,000 catties!

Not to mention that the Shaofu also sent a large amount of scraps. Since the raw materials are complete, Heifu plans to make hemp paper in August, and then start making bark paper in September after the craftsmen are familiar with the process.

The plan is on track, and Heifu is in a good mood. Until Zhang Cang, who stayed in Xianyang City to settle accounts, also rushed to the workshop and happily told Heifu that he had a new nickname.

Zhang Cang's fat face was full of mischievous smiles, and his chubby hands bowed to Heifu: "Congratulations, didn't Heifu complain before that you were just a fake Shaofu Cheng, without clear powers, but now it's not the case. You have been called Shaofu Rags Cheng by all Xianyang people!"

Zhang Han couldn't help laughing and turned his face away to laugh, while Cheng Shang felt sorry for Heifu.

"Making paper with rags does not cost money, does not require people to work hard, and can also promote new benefits. This is a move to save money and benefit the country and the people, but it has been misunderstood by the people. I really feel sorry for the Minister of the Household!"

They, the Mohists, pay the most attention to "saving money". Take clothes for example. They do not require everyone to wear brown clothes like Mohists. As long as the dark blue clothes in winter are warm and the fine hemp clothes in summer are light and cool, that's enough.

The Qin State in the past was indeed like this. Even Qin Xiaogong and Qin Huiwang wore hemp clothes to the court. They were extremely close to the people and frugal. This is also the reason why generations of Mohists were deeply attracted to Qin and chose to take root here.

But now it is not the case. After the demise of the six countries, their wealth and silk were all taken into Qin. The emperor's palace is full of Wanzhu hairpins, Fu Ji earrings, A'ao clothes, and brocade ornaments, which are not very regrettable to discard. With the emperor taking the lead, the wind of pride and extravagance has been growing in Xianyang. The maids of officials also wear silk shoes and beautiful ornaments...

The Mohists feel sad and feel that this is no longer the simple and frugal Qin that they know.

In such an environment, Heifu can do the opposite and turn waste into treasure, reusing the rags that were discarded like grass in the palace. Cheng Shang admires it very much. He decides to tell Tang Fuzi, Tang Duo and other Qin Mohists what happened here, and let all Mohists come to help Heifu and make this happen!

Heifu thanked Cheng Shang for his kindness. He was not depressed at all. Compared with the various nicknames before, this was nothing.

"Let's call him Rags."

He smiled faintly, picked up the long knife used to cut linen, and took the lead to the hemp heads and rags that had been soaked in the pool for a long time.

"You can laugh and scold me, but I must do this work that will benefit future generations!"

...

At the beginning of August, with the raw materials ready, the papermaking workshop officially started, and Haochi began to become lively, attracting the attention of many people in Xianyang City.

Meng Tian, the Shaoshangzao who had just returned from Qi State, came to Haochi in person to see what the "Shaofu Pobucheng" was doing...