The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

The guard took Meng Tian's token and looked at it from left to right. He found nothing wrong, so he let him in and called a clerk to lead the way.

"Take this clerk to see the Minister of the Ministry of Finance!"

Meng Tian was wearing ordinary black clothes, without a crown or a seal, and went out with only two followers, so others could not tell his identity.

Since arriving at Haochi, Meng Tian has passed three sentries. Looking at the spear-wielding soldiers patrolling the workshop, he stroked his beard and smiled knowingly.

"Hei Fu is worthy of being a soldier. This workshop is heavily guarded."

Come to think of it, if Hei Fu can really make what he claims, it will be a great benefit to the country, and it cannot be easily leaked.

However, judging from the style of setting up camp and setting up sentries, there is a bit of the style of General Wang Jian. It seems that Hei Fu has learned a lot from him.

"General Wang Jian is still a wise man." Meng Tian sighed.

On the other hand, Meng Tian had also seen this bronze-skinned young man from Nanjun beside Li You, but he did not recognize that this was actually a piece of black jade hidden in the stone...

Compared with the first attack on Chu four years ago, Meng Tian has become much more vicissitudes. He is about the same age as the First Emperor, but his temples have grown a little gray hair.

But compared with the shame and anger, Li Xin, who was in his early thirties with white hair and often vomited blood, what was it?

That great defeat almost defeated the two of them, with a loss of 100,000 soldiers and the death of seven lieutenants. This was the biggest defeat that the Qin army had ever experienced since the siege of Handan. If it had been any other monarch, they would have died without a doubt!

But Your Majesty was kind and gave the two a chance to atone for their sins. After defending Shangjun and Yanmen for several years, Meng Tian helped Wang Ben destroy Dai and followed him to attack Qi. The merits of destroying the country twice made him and Li Xin return to the position of Shao Shangzao.

More fortunate than Li Xin who was transferred to the border of Beidi County, Meng Tian was actually recalled to Xianyang by Qin Shihuang! This was a sign of his re-employment. When Meng Tian came back from Qi, he was so excited that he traveled day and night and ran directly to Lin Guang Palace to meet the emperor...

Qin Shihuang gave Meng Tian a position as Shaofu Shaojian, which was equivalent to the rank of 2,000 stones. This was an important position. The "same coin, same weights and measures, same track for vehicles, and same writing for books" to be implemented throughout the world this year and next year must be presided over by the Shaofu! If he can do it well, Meng Tian will be only one step away from becoming one of the nine ministers!

But his first job after taking office was to inspect Gaochi for the emperor.

"Go and see for me how the paper that Shaofu Broken Cloth Minister mentioned is made?"

"In Lin Guang Palace, the emperor was still thinking about this matter while reading the four seal and official articles presented by Li Si, Zhao Gao, Hu Wujing and Cheng Miao.

Although it was agreed that Heifu would be given three months, there were many censors who had impeached Heifu for his erratic behavior. The Shaofu Jiangzuocheng and Neicheng also complained that Heifu spent most of the hundreds of thousands of dollars given to him by the Shaofu on buying rags and hemp heads, which was really meaningless.

So Meng Tian went to Haochi.

…

The workshop was built along Haochi. After Meng Tian entered, the first thing he saw was a small dam built by hand on the side of the pool, which divided the lake water on the shore into clear and shallow pools. Half of these pools were soaked in wood and bark, and the other half were soaked in hemp heads, rags, hemp stalks, etc.

Hundreds of people gathered on the shore, cut the swollen hemp heads and rags into pieces with axes and mills, washed them in water, and sent the washed rags to ox carts, and sent them to the depths of the workshop along a straight road.

Meng Tian discovered that the entire workshop was long and narrow, built along the Hao River. Every few hundred steps in the middle was a process, and each process was clearly separated, with different craftsmen in charge of different areas.

"Did the Shaofu Cheng order you to build this?" Meng Tian was surprised. He only knew that Heifu had the talent of a lieutenant, but he didn't know that he really knew craftsmanship.

The clerk smiled and said, "The Shaofu Cheng just waved a palm-leaf fan and gave advice everywhere. The specific planning still relied on Mohists and craftsmen, and Zhang Jun had people build it."

"So he is a hard-working person." Meng Tian understood.

When they came to a place with a faint strange smell, the clerk pointed to the broken hemp soaked again in the stone pond and said, "This is soaking in ash water."

Women often use plant ash water to degummed kudzu, so Meng Tian was not surprised at all.

The clerk pointed to a workshop with steam and smoke coming out of it more than a hundred steps ahead and said, "That's where the hemp is cooked. The hemp must be cooked before it can be used."

Meng Tian watched silently along the way. He passed the steaming earthen stove and came to the water pounding room full of pounding sounds. The steamed hemp was pounded by the continuous water pounding driven by water power. After hundreds or thousands of times of pounding, it became a sticky paste...

The clerk introduced that this level is called pulping. The sticky pulp was transported to dozens of large stone troughs in the back and mixed with clean water. Some people in short brown clothes held a smooth square bamboo sieve and gently scooped up the pulp in the water.

Meng Tian stopped and watched for a while. It can be seen that their techniques are not very skilled. They often have to try many times before they can get a paper film with moderate thickness and uniform distribution.

Among them, the ones who were fast and accurate were actually a few gray-haired old men...

"Elders also come to perform labor service?" Meng Tian frowned and looked at the jailer.

"The superior official misunderstood."

The junior official hurriedly explained: "This process is called scooping, which is the most important, but there are not many craftsmen who can do it well. It was the Shaofu Cheng who came up with an idea and hired a few old fishermen who made a living by scooping fish with bamboo baskets in Haochi and Weishui. They actually scooped fish steadily and well! The ten cents a day is really worth it!"

Meng Tian was surprised. He looked all the way. The rags and hemp heads that were originally thought to be collected by the people of Xianyang because of Heifu's hysteria were actually put into the process in a serious manner. He also looked forward to the final product more and more.

"Where are the Shaofu Cheng and others?"

The workshop was very long. Meng Tian walked for a moment and was almost at the end. He didn't see Heifu or Zhang Han.

"It's just in front."

The clerk pointed to the front and said, "The fortune teller has calculated according to the "Daily Book". Today is the day when the first batch of paper is dried. All the senior officials are waiting there!"

Meng Tian saw it. After walking through the stone ponds soaked with paper pulp, he saw a light yellow ocean...

...

The paper film that was fished out was exposed to the sun together with the bamboo sieves. Today was a good day with a clear blue sky. The autumn sun sprinkled unreservedly on the high ground beside the pool. Hundreds and thousands of bamboo sieves absorbed the heat of the sun, and the moisture on them slowly evaporated and rose, leaving only a thin and dry paper...

The craftsman carefully peeled off the hemp paper that had been exposed to the sun, pressed it with a square stone, stacked it together, and sent it to the table.

Zhang Han, Cheng Mo, and even Zhang Cang were all crowded around the table. Hei Fu stood in the middle. He held a smooth pebble in his hand and polished the wrinkled paper. After polishing, he gently wiped the paper with his hand. Although the back was still rough, and there were even visible hemp heads and cloth threads attached to the paper, the front was smoother.

"It's done..."

After more than a month of hard work, Hei Fu was very happy that he finally got results. He rubbed his hands and was about to try writing on this hemp paper. A clerk led a tall middle-aged man with a thick beard under his chin and tiger eyes and swallow forehead to them.

"Shaofu Cheng, this is a clerk from the Shaofu. He said he came to inspect on the order of the Shaofu Supervisor."

Hei Fu took a look and felt that the man looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him. Zhang Han had already stepped forward and bowed, saying, "General Meng!"

"General Meng?" Hei Fu was stunned, and the clerk was so scared that he fell down.

How many Meng generals are there in this world? Heifu immediately realized that it was Meng Tian whom he had seen from afar during the first attack on Chu!

"No need to be polite, gentlemen."

Meng Tian bowed to everyone: "Tian has just been appointed as the Shaofu Shaojian. I came to Gaochi for inspection under the order of Your Majesty."

As he spoke, he walked to the table and picked up the thin light yellow hemp paper. After squeezing it, he found that it was as light and smooth as silk cloth. Since it was made of rags and hemp heads, the cost should not be high. He praised: "Good! Shaofu Cheng, is this paper?"

"Yes!"

Heifu answered in his mouth, but he calculated in his heart.

From the perspective of political origin, he was promoted by Li Si and his son. Because of the fact that Meng Tian asked Li You to cover the rear during the first attack on Chu, Li and Meng were not very harmonious. Logically, he should not get too close to the Meng family.

But on the other hand, he was a subordinate of Meng Tian during the first attack on Chu; he was in Meng Wu's army during the second attack on Chu; he was the Zhonglang Huling in Xianyang, and Meng Yi was Zhonglang Jiang; now he was transferred to Shaofu, and Meng Tian was the Shaofu Shaojian...

"I really have a connection with the Meng family!"

Heifu secretly complained, thinking that it was inappropriate for him to be too cold, and it would be more appropriate to be a normal subordinate.

So Heifu said in a serious manner: "I am here to make paper by the order of your majesty. Now that the paper is ready, we should try it with pen and ink."

He raised his hands and presented a brush.

"New bamboo slips must be matched with new pens, and so is paper. We are just about to write with the pens made by Shaoshang in Shangjun and Yanmen. Since the general is here in person, I dare to ask Shaoshang to make an inscription and try it!"