The work of craftsmen was skilled labor, but some crafts were more difficult than others. Anything involving fire was particularly troublesome.
The human eye could observe the changes water underwent, and people could record those changes, compare them, and distill them into knowledge that everyone understood. Fire was different. Its transformations could not be fully grasped by sight alone—especially when an object had to remain inside the flames to be fired or refined, rather than being held above them and roasted by hand.
How large should the kiln for firing bamboo salt be?
How much bamboo salt could one firing produce? How many jin of firewood would it consume? How fierce should the flames be throughout the process? Would the heat need to change midway through? If so, when?
And how, precisely, was a thousand jars of tooth powder to be measured? What capacity constituted a jar? One jin? Half a jin?
If they had to produce a thousand jin of bamboo salt within ten days, small kilns would never suffice. How many kilns would they have to build?
Yet if they simply constructed larger kilns, no one had any experience operating them!
Wu Gongzhu and her attendants knew only how to fire bamboo salt in small stoves and little furnaces. They had never built or used a large kiln. The Shaofu’s craftsmen would still have to begin experimenting from the very beginning.
Time was short and the assignment urgent. No one had the leisure or patience to wait while the Shaofu’s craftsmen conducted trial after trial from scratch.
Wu Gongzhu herself had come all this way. Why should they still have to start over?
Ying Yang waved a hand with a beaming smile.
Duan Lun stepped forward, presenting with both hands the bamboo slips and silk documents recording the process of firing bamboo salt.
The master craftsmen watched them hungrily. Unfortunately, they had to wait while their superiors received the documents and passed them from one official to the next, each making a show of examining them, before the records finally reached men of the craftsmen’s rank.
A Gongshi was not merely an ordinary artisan or laborer. He was a minor supervisor in a state-run workshop, an official on the government rolls—something akin to the manager of a production facility. Such men possessed extensive practical experience in manufacturing, inspecting finished goods, and training apprentices.
Qin’s Jungong Lü, the law governing the organization of craftsmen, required a Gongshi to train the artisans and apprentices under him properly. An apprentice with previous experience had to complete his training within one year; an inexperienced beginner had two years.
If the appointed period expired and the apprentice had not mastered his trade, master and apprentice were punished together. If he qualified ahead of schedule, both were rewarded.
Consequently, although state-registered craftsmen might occasionally conceal a trick or two while teaching, such behavior was uncommon—or at least not particularly serious.
Private workshops followed a much older custom.
A craftsman first taught his sons and nephews, then his daughters and sons-in-law. Only after them would he consider an apprentice from another family. Such an apprentice often had to serve as unpaid labor for years, working for the master’s entire household and proving his sincerity before the master might graciously impart a little of his skill.
Noblemen and scholars behaved much the same way when passing knowledge or techniques to outsiders.
That was one reason no one in the Shaofu had understood why Wu Gongzhu had come in person.
Not one of them had imagined that she truly meant to help!
She had actually written and illustrated the production methods for both ingenious objects, setting out the essential steps and difficulties in detail, and explaining everything clearly!
She had even prepared a list roughly breaking down the tasks involved in making toothbrushes and tooth powder, complete with preliminary estimates.
The bamboo tubes used to fire bamboo salt had to come from mature nanzhu bamboo that had grown for three years.
Three-year-old nanzhu could reach more than eighty *chi* in length. The thickness of its stems varied, but tubes about three cun across would be best. Each section should be cut to one and a half chi long, with two-thirds of its interior filled with sea salt, rock salt, or well salt, and the remaining third packed with fresh bamboo leaves.
On that basis, a single suitable bamboo stalk could yield forty to sixty jin of bamboo salt, fired in twenty small furnaces over one day and one night.
Taking the middle figure, one bamboo stalk, twenty small furnaces, and one day and night of firing would produce fifty jin.
Over ten days, that amounted to five hundred jin!
Xianyang was the capital of Qin. Craftsmen gathered there in great numbers, and both public and private workshops were plentiful. Finding fewer than a hundred kilns to use would be no great difficulty for the Shaofu.
The Gongzhu had untied the knot at the heart of their seemingly impossible assignment. The tightly drawn brows and faces of the Shaofu officials gradually relaxed.
The officials were not useless fools living off government salaries. Given time to think and organize their resources, they would undoubtedly have devised a solution themselves.
But a ready-made solution, offered freely by the Gongzhu, was deliciously welcome!
Zao Hu, the Shaofu’s chief official, rubbed his thumb over the whiskers of his eight-shaped mustache and chuckled.
“Many thanks to Gongzhu for taking pity on your humble servants. Now I won’t have to shamelessly act spoiled before Dawang.”
The enormous, dark-skinned man was built like an iron tower, and his voice boomed like a great bell.
Hearing him speak of acting spoiled was rather like watching a huge black bear tilt its head and try to look adorable.
It was not adorable in the slightest.
Everyone present, Ying Yang included, shuddered.
So this is the sort of Shaofu Qing you are!
“Act—act spoiled?” Ying Yang could not resist asking. “How? Would you roll around on the floor? Sit down and cry?”
An image flashed through her mind: a two-hundred-jin, black-faced giant wearing a coy expression and murmuring, “I want a huggy-wuggy!”
Zao Hu roared with laughter.
“Would I ever behave like a little child?”
His idea of acting spoiled was merely to report his difficulties to Dawang, plead for mercy, and request permission to change the unit used to measure the tooth powder from “jars” to he or “bottles.”
Tooth powder was unquestionably a luxury.
Its ingredients included the finest blue-green salt, and even the fuel used for firing had to be pinewood and pine resin. The cost of producing one jin of bamboo-salt tooth powder could easily exceed a thousand qian.
When the materials were costly, the method intricate, and the finished article rare, the Qin king would hardly seem stingy if he bestowed a few small bottles or he upon his guests.
It would not disgrace him.
Of course, completing the ruler’s assignment in full, without cutting it down, would be best of all.
Zao Hu thanked Wu Gongzhu for her assistance with genuine feeling.
【Ding! One hundred popularity points obtained!】
【Ding! Fifty popularity points obtained!】
All that extra trouble had been worthwhile.
Ying Yang happily accepted the steady increase in her popularity points.
And there was another unexpected reward.
【Reputation function unlocked!】
She opened the explanation.
Once her popularity points reached one thousand, a new map would become available. If she then obtained at least three hundred popularity points on that new map, the reputation function would be activated.
Now that a new feature had appeared, Ying Yang was itching to explore it.
She left Duan Lun and A-Liao in charge of the maids and eunuchs helping the Shaofu with its work, while the remaining attendants gathered around her and escorted her to a hall that the Shaofu had already swept and prepared for her rest.
She had someone bring in a rectangular wooden stand, place a smaller stand upon it, and set a wooden support on top. A blank willow-wood board rested on the support.
Holding a charcoal pencil between her fingers, Ying Yang pretended to draw while sinking her awareness deep into her mind.
An ancient-looking scroll map slowly unfurled.
A small palace complex lit up upon it.
【Xianyang Palace: 15 (Friendly)】
Ying Yang: “??”
My popularity points are so high, but my reputation in the palace is only fifteen? And that barely counts as friendly?
When she saw that the Shaofu’s reputation score was eighteen, her doubts about the System only grew.
Has it made a mistake calculating these numbers?
The System gave no answer.
Ying Yang pursed her lips, returned to reality, and began drawing plans for a stone mill, a funnel, and a tofu mold.
Perhaps it was because she had helped the Shaofu. Perhaps her personal presence had placed pressure on the officials.
Whatever the reason, while Ying Yang sat enjoying the fragrance of her peppercorn tea, good news finally arrived.
Xia Wuju appeared.
And with him came a stone mill.
“Xia Shiyi, what does Gongzhu intend to do with this stone wei?”
The young man who had unearthed the stone mill from a storeroom of the Kaogong Shi quietly approached Xia Wuju and asked in a low voice.
“Most people don’t even know what a stone wei is. I don’t see any wheat here. Surely Gongzhu doesn’t intend to grind wheat flour with it?”
The young man came from the Xiangli branch of Qin’s Mohist school.
Unlike the members of his family, who devoted themselves to studying military engineering and tools, he had a carefree disposition. He loved the work of craftsmen but disliked concentrating on any one subject for long. After spending some time making one kind of implement, he would want to move on to another.
The moment the novelty wore off, Xiangli Ji became reluctant to work.
After his wandering attention led him to make several mistakes, his family began to fear that Qin’s severe laws would eventually cost him either his life or his status.
They therefore called upon acquaintances and connections to have him transferred from a Gongshi’s position to a clerical post in the Kaogong Shi, where he was responsible for storing and maintaining a great variety of tools.
The arrangement had been made out of desperation.
Unexpectedly, it suited Xiangli Ji perfectly. He took to his new work like a fish to water and found it thoroughly enjoyable.
“Who are you? How dare you be so rude!”
A maid’s sharp rebuke made Xiangli Ji jump.
“Must Gongzhu report her intentions to you before she may do anything?”
How strange.
He had deliberately found an empty spot to ask a physician he knew about the matter. How had an unfamiliar woman managed to overhear him?
“This humble one was careless and spoke out of turn. I meant no offense…”
Xiangli Ji instinctively began stammering apologies.
“You little wretch! Your eyesight grows worse by the day!”
Xia Wuju smacked Xiangli Ji on the back of the head, then cupped his hands toward Wu Gongzhu with an apologetic smile.
“I beg Gongzhu to pardon Xiangli Ji’s thoughtless words. Though he is still young, his eyes have aged before their time. He has difficulty seeing people and objects clearly…”
*Oh. He’s nearsighted.*
No wonder he had behaved as though he could not see her, even when she was standing right in front of him.
Ying Yang glanced at the young man with his little mustache. He was straining to open his eyes wide, yet still looked utterly bewildered.
She waved a hand and let the matter pass.
“Wash the stone mill thoroughly.”
Clear water was poured over the dusty mill.
Its surfaces were scrubbed roughly twice with dried loofah fiber. Not only the grinding faces but also the holes between the two circular stones had to be cleaned: cloth was threaded through the openings and pulled back and forth to wipe them out.
Just as the stone mill was finally clean, the people Ying Yang had sent to fetch the soaked beans returned.
Washing the mill had caused quite a commotion. There had been water to carry and water to splash, and the noise drew a number of curious idlers.
They came to the courtyard to watch.
And they certainly did not stand there in silence.
Author’s Note
I’m working hard to hang on until the VIP chapters! These few chapters are a little short~ Once we reach the paid chapters, there will be some wonderfully long ones!
Translator’s Notes
– Gongshi (工师): A supervisor or master craftsman in a state-run workshop.
– Jungong Lü (均工律): The Qin regulations concerning the training and assessment of craftsmen.
– Nanzhu (楠竹): A large bamboo species used here for the bamboo-salt process.
– Chi, cun, jin, he, qian: Historical units of length, weight, volume, and currency.
– Kaogong Shi (考工室): A government workshop or office concerned with tools and craft production.
– Xiangli Ji (相里继): A young clerk from the Xiangli lineage associated with Qin Mohism.