Ever since returning from the Chu Family that day, Zhao Yuanxi had not frequently visited Lüge Dock.
After the Quyuan Plow was completed, Zhao Yuanxi had Li deliver it to Yongcheng, entrusting the matter to the magistrate and engineering officials of Yong County to promote its use. Such a tool benefiting both the state and the people naturally deserved to be utilized to its fullest potential.
With Zhao Yuanxi, the Empress Dowager, overseeing the matter, the magistrate of Yong County dared not neglect it. They quickly discovered the remarkable utility of the Quyuan Plow.
After that, Zhao Yuanxi left them to handle the rest on their own.
As the paper mill was newly established and required many workers, Zhao Yuanxi decided to keep Li with her. After all, a skilled carpenter was invaluable.
She still had many tasks that required Li’s assistance.
This pencil was something Zhao Yuanxi had asked Li to casually make. Its appearance was similar to the eyebrow pencils used by ancient people, but it was longer and more akin to a modern pencil.
Zhao Yuanxi casually picked up a piece of paper and sketched a few lines with the charcoal pencil. “It works very well. Thank you for your trouble.”
Li’s sun-darkened, ruddy face flushed with rare embarrassment.
“Is there something else you’d like to ask?” Zhao Yuanxi inquired, noticing he hadn’t left yet.
“Madam previously gave me two blueprints. Although I’ve completed the Quyuan Plow, I still have many questions about the waterwheel.”
Zhao Yuanxi set down the pencil in her hand and chuckled softly. “Then go ahead and ask. If I know the answer, I’ll share it without reservation.”
Li’s initially anxious heart relaxed when he met Zhao Yuanxi’s calm gaze. “Please follow me, Madam.”
The backyard was where the workers rested. Since Li needed space for his craftsmanship, a separate area had been allocated for him, filled with various pieces of wood and stones.
In the center of the yard stood the most basic form of the waterwheel.
A large wooden wheel in the middle was hung with bamboo tubes, and beside it was a diversion channel. It looked almost identical to the water-driven bucket wheels Zhao Yuanxi had seen before.
Li looked troubled. “I followed the blueprint you provided, Madam. But when I tested the waterwheel in the water, although it rotated, it couldn’t draw water steadily.”
Zhao Yuanxi gently pushed the waterwheel’s rotating wheel, and the bamboo tubes turned along with her motion. She quickly identified the problem.
“The issue isn’t with you.” The blueprint she had drawn wasn’t detailed enough, and it was already quite an achievement for Li to have built the device. Minor discrepancies in the details were to be expected.
“Adjust the orientation of the bamboo tube openings to this angle,” Zhao Yuanxi demonstrated. “This will make it easier to draw and pour water. Additionally, you could replace the bamboo tubes with wooden buckets of the same size and specifications. This will stabilize the waterwheel’s rotation speed and improve its durability.”
In this era, the concept of standardization had not yet been established. Although Li had instinctively chosen bamboo tubes of similar sizes for aesthetic reasons, there were still slight variations between them, and these differences could affect the waterwheel’s operation.
“You could try making a small-scale model of the waterwheel first. If it succeeds, you can then adjust this larger one.”
Building such a large waterwheel was no easy task, and Zhao Yuanxi didn’t want to see him take unnecessary detours.
Li nodded repeatedly, deeply grateful to Zhao Yuanxi.
Suddenly, Zhao Yuanxi asked, “Li, do you know any Mohists?”
Ever since she began planning to comprehensively enhance productivity, Zhao Yuanxi had been preoccupied with recruiting specialized technical talent.
The first target she set her sights on was the Mohist school. Unfortunately, successive Qin kings had valued the Legalist school and did not think highly of the Mohists. Although the Qin state’s Shaofu (imperial treasury) employed some Mohists, they were only used to help the King of Qin construct palaces, and their techniques were never applied for the benefit of the common people.
When Zhao Yuanxi first met Li, she already suspected he might be a Mohist.
A mere craftsman from Qin couldn’t possibly have learned techniques from distant Chu State unless he had connections there.
Li wanted to deny it, especially after becoming suspicious of Lady Zhao’s identity – he didn’t want to expose himself.
Yet he didn’t want to deceive this lady either.
“What does my lady seek from the Mohists?”
“I wish to have them help me create some things.”
“Anything my lady wishes to make, I can help you with.” Li spoke with great certainty.
Zhao Yuanxi laughed, “I certainly believe in your capabilities, but human energy is limited. Just like today when I wanted a writing brush – though you were busy with the waterwheel project, you still had to take time to make one for me.”
“Has my lady deduced that I’m a Mohist?”
“Quite obvious, really, since you haven’t been deliberately hiding it.” Zhao Yuanxi nodded.
Li looked somewhat embarrassed, “But I still don’t know who my lady truly is.”
“Haven’t you figured it out? I thought I was quite obvious too.”
Though she wasn’t wearing the elaborate robes of a queen dowager, she used only items from the Qin royal household, and all her subordinates were guards from the Qin palace. Was it really that hard to guess?
Her identity was indeed something one shouldn’t speculate about, but ordinary people wouldn’t dare guess in that direction. After all, who would believe that the queen dowager of a state, instead of staying properly in the Qin King Palace, would come out to mingle with farmers?
“Your Majesty is truly the Queen Dowager?”
“Genuine as can be!”
“Then why would Your Majesty…”
Zhao Yuanxi continued his question with her own answer, “You want to know why I’m farming? I recall your Mohist school advocates universal love. You can view my actions as an expression of that universal love – I want to try to ensure all people under heaven have enough to eat.”
“To feed all people under heaven, we must increase grain production. But simply planting improved varieties isn’t enough. I need to create tools that can improve farming efficiency – exactly what you’re working on!”
“If you don’t believe—”
“I do believe. Since my elder brother was willing to trust you, I’m willing to trust you too. I’ll send word to my fellow disciples, though I can’t guarantee they’ll come.”
“That’s already very good!” Zhao Yuanxi smiled sincerely.
She was truly short-handed, especially after expanding her enterprises. Her available personnel had become insufficient.
Now just one paper mill had completely drained her human resources.
Gao Sheng had to travel back and forth between Xianyang and Yongcheng. Though her guards obeyed her commands, they were nominally still guards of the Qin King Palace – it wasn’t good for them if she kept transferring them for her own use.
That left only the few people given by her nominal son—
They were quite useful, she had to admit. She even considered asking her nominal son for more people.
Or perhaps she could consider cooperating with her nominal son, transforming the paper mill into a state-owned enterprise and sharing some profits with him?
While Zhao Yuanxi was hesitating whether to contact her nominal son, Ying Zheng had already received the news.
Ying Zheng looked at the paper in his hand, the ink still not fully dry, his mind already considering many things. “Was this object truly made by the Queen Dowager?”
Lü Le replied, “Her Majesty the Queen Dowager made it secretly with several eunuchs and palace maids from the Qin palace. It seems Her Majesty intends to sell these to officials in Xianyang.”
“Sell?” Ying Zheng was astonished. Was the Queen Dowager of Qin so short of money? Why would she consider engaging in merchant activities?
Qin implemented a policy of emphasizing agriculture while suppressing commerce, where merchants held extremely low status. Merchants and their descendants were even prohibited from holding official positions. Anyone of respectable standing would avoid associating with merchants.
Ying Zheng couldn’t understand why, ever since moving to Yongcheng, the Queen Dowager seemed like a completely different person.