People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 717 Madam, we haven’t had a good rest for a long time!
Li Zhen suddenly rushed out with a mace, and a moment later he brought in a peddler with his neck shrunk: "Princess, this fellow is recording the output of the workshop!" The gold-lined account book was revealed in the opened shoulder pole, which recorded the weaving time of each piece of cloth.

"The secret agents of the Xu family in Songjiang." Chen Han fanned himself with the account book, "Since the vouchers were used to underwrite the workshop's cloth, these rats have..." He suddenly fell silent. Zhu Youwei was using silver scissors to pick open the peddler's collar - the lining was embroidered with the dark pattern of "Hangzhou Weaving Bureau".

The sound of the loom stopped completely. The oldest female worker suddenly spat, "It's the stitches from the Palace Clothing Bureau!" She pinched the fabric with her skinny fingers, "It's an old style from more than ten years ago, with plum branch patterns hidden in the stitches..."

"Very good." Zhu Youwei's scissors moved on the peddler's Adam's apple, "The Xu family hooked up with someone from Prince Yan's Mansion?" Seeing the other party's pupils suddenly shrink, she suddenly put away the scissors and chuckled, "Go back and tell your master that the workshop has just received a batch of Liaodong sable wool..." Suddenly, she whispered in his ear, "Specially used to weave dragon robes."

After the peddler ran away, Chen Han looked at his wife's shining eyes and sighed: "Do you really want to stir up a hornet's nest?"

"So you should go to the Jinyiwei to ask for credit." Zhu Youwei draped the sample cloth over his shoulders, "Just say that you found someone using vouchers to launder money..."

Suddenly I was attracted by the scene outside the window and exclaimed, "Huh?"

In front of the newly opened "Women's Textile Shop" on the other side of the river, several peasant women were exchanging coupons for cotton yarn.

When the shopkeeper was checking the stamp on the voucher, a man in shorts suddenly snatched the voucher and held it up to the sun - the cinnabar pattern of the Institute of Physics was blindingly red in the sun.

"The seventh one." Chen Han counted the plainclothes guards on the shore. "The old man was afraid that someone would destroy the certificate and cause trouble, so he even called in the crossbowmen from the Five Cities Army."

He suddenly pointed to a place farther away where several scholars were arguing in a teahouse, with a voucher sample spread out on the table.

Zhu Youwei's silver scissors snapped shut. "Zhejiang's 'fight for every ticket' is more effective than the Ministry of Industry's performance evaluation system." She suddenly dragged her husband to the storeroom, "I'll show you something good..."

As soon as the door of the warehouse opened, Chen Han was shocked by the maps covering the wall. The provinces and counties were connected by lines of different colors. The emerald purple of Yunnan was connected to the indigo of Liaodong, and the cinnabar red of Zhejiang was connected to the ochre yellow of Gansu. "This is..."

"A summary of the anti-counterfeiting patterns embroidered by the female workers." Zhu Youwei's fingertips traced a golden line, "Every time a new version of the banknote is issued, there are girls who embroider the hidden patterns on it."

She suddenly lifted the tarpaulin in the corner, revealing a half-human-high loom model. "It's newly made by the Physics Department. It can weave cloth with dark patterns."

When the model was running, the six-color silk threads intertwined to form the pattern of "Hongwu Tongbao". Chen Han suddenly knelt on one knee to check the gears: "This transmission ratio... is it based on the principle of a waterwheel?"

"It was Li Zhen's idea." Zhu Youwei put the shuttle into his hand. "She said that since the anti-counterfeiting pattern can be printed on paper, why can't it be woven into cloth?" Suddenly lowered her voice, "Actually... I want to use this method to weave a secret decree."

The sun was setting outside the window, gilding the loom. Chen Han looked at his wife's earlobe, which was pierced by the sun, and thought of the note Zhu Yuanzhang had given him this morning - it was written in tea: "Youwei can be trusted with important matters."

"We need to add a sleight of hand." He suddenly dipped the brush in ink and drew a gear set on the sample cloth, "so that the dark patterns are only at certain angles..." Zhu Youwei bit the tip of the pen, and her teeth left tiny indentations on the ink.

"Like this." She pulled out a golden thread and threaded it into the shuttle. "Add three strands of Yunnan copper wire, and under the lamp it will..."

……

The waves of the Qinhuai River reflected the lights on both sides. Zhu Youwei lifted her skirt and stepped on the fallen leaves on the bluestone slabs, not caring at all that the toes of her shoes were stained with night dew.

Chen Han fell back half a step, his eyes sweeping across the pleasure boats moored on the river - the boat with the "Women Weaving" lantern hanging on it was unloading cargo, and the figures of the female workers carrying cloth looked like silhouettes in a shadow play under the glass lamps.

"Husband, do you remember the rain three years ago?" Zhu Youwei suddenly stopped and pointed at the blurred marks on the stone bridge pier. "At that time you said 'governing a big country is like cooking a small fish', and I laughed at you for using the Tao Te Ching to bluff people."

Chen Han's fingertips touched the uneven marks on the bluestone. Those were the marks they carved when they first arrived in Yingtian to measure the rising water level. Now there are copper nets embedded in the cracks of the stone, and even the floating vegetable leaves are filtered into the wooden barrels on the shore.

"Now it's really like stewing soup." He chuckled. "The old man attacks with a fierce fire, and Your Highness simmers with a low fire. All we have to do is add new ingredients."

Suddenly, a crisp "ding-dong" sound came from the other side of the river.

Several old ladies wearing red armbands pushed a modified version of the garbage truck past, the green and gray partitions in the truck bed glowing in the moonlight. The old lady at the front suddenly waved at them - she was the washerwoman whose wages were deducted three years ago.

"Did you see that?" Zhu Youwei's earrings flashed a golden arc as she turned her head. "Even Madam Liu has become the head of the Street Cleaning Division."

She suddenly lowered her voice and said, "I heard that her granddaughter is studying in a girls' school and can do trigonometric functions."

The sound of stringed instruments came from the pleasure boat in the middle of the river, and the newly composed "Long Loom Ballad" mixed with the night watchman's bangs floated over.

Chen Han took out a piece of pine soot ink and drew on the bridge railing. With just a few strokes, he outlined the transmission structure of the improved waterwheel.

"Those guys from the Physics Department are being lazy again." He pointed to a part of the gear train. "The bearings are not lubricated. I can hear some noise."

Zhu Youwei suddenly pulled his sleeve.

Following her gaze, I saw two men in shorts using coupons to buy pancakes in the shadows at the alley entrance.

The vendor took the voucher and shone it against the lantern, then suddenly picked up a rolling pin and said, "How dare you use a fake voucher to fool your grandfather?" The indigo card did not show the dark patterns of rice ears in the firelight.

"The seventh case." Chen Han counted the plainclothes guards following him from a distance, "The skills of the woodblock engravers in Zhejiang have improved."

The night breeze carried the fragrance of osmanthus flowers across the water.

Zhu Youwei's hair brushed against Chen Han's nose, carrying the scent of indigo from the dye vats in the workshop. "Actually, I found something interesting when I checked the accounts this morning." She suddenly tiptoed close to her husband's ear, "The cotton yarn sent by the Xu family in Songjiang was mixed with 30% Liaodong goods."

Chen Han's eyebrows rose. The newly erected iron plate of "Customs Inspection" at the dock flashed in his memory, with the red ink of "30% random inspection" not yet dry.

"No wonder the old man keeps talking about 'sea ban' recently..." Before he could finish his words, there was a splash on the river. A column of water suddenly gushed out from the drainage outlet of the stone embankment, startling the patrolling lieutenant so much that he held down the hilt of his knife.

"The 'self-cleaning device' newly installed by the School of Physics." Zhu Youwei pointed at the copper mesh spinning in the vortex, "It flushes out the silt every quarter of an hour, saving the labor of the canal cleaner."

When they turned into the dark alley, a little boy with pigtails suddenly jumped out from the wall.

The child held half of the voucher in his dirty hand, looking eagerly at the purse on Zhu Youwei's waist. "Sister, can I exchange it for a piece of candy?" The words "Made in the 25th year of Hongwu" on the voucher were half smeared with mud.

Chen Han squatted down, took out a newly minted copper coin and placed it in the child's palm: "Keep this ticket, you can buy winter clothes in autumn." His fingertips touched the calluses on the child's palm - they were caused by spinning wheels.

The hoarse shouting of the night watchman came from afar.

Zhu Youwei looked at the child's back as he ran away and suddenly said, "The Ministry of Industry submitted a proposal this morning to pilot the 'cotton spinning voucher' in Yongping Prefecture." She kicked away the small stone at her feet, "It is said that it will allow farmers to directly exchange cloth and bypass the middlemen."

"Minister Wang's idea?" Chen Han sneered, "His brother-in-law owns a cloth shop in Tongzhou, right?" The moonlight filtered through the leaves of the sycamore tree, casting a mottled shadow on his lapels, which looked very much like the account book of the Ministry of Revenue that was scribbled with red ink.

When they reached the intersection, they ran into the Wucheng Bingmasi escorting a group of prisoners.

The sound of shackles was mixed with a familiar curse in Wu dialect - it was the fake bill dealer who was arrested during the day. Chen Han suddenly stopped: "Wait." He shook out a real bill from his sleeve and stuffed it into the prisoner's collar, "Look at the difference."

The man subconsciously shone the light into the lantern and suddenly froze.

The red seal with "Supervised by the Institute of Physics" on the face of the certificate glowed a strange purple-red in the firelight, a color that he could never imitate when he was carving the blocks.

"Liaodong cinnabar is mixed with Yunnan copper powder." Chen Han whispered in his ear, "Remember next time, soak the plate in alkaline water before engraving it." After saying that, he gently pushed the man back to the escort team.

Zhu Youwei looked at her husband's profile and suddenly remembered the look on his face when he improved the loom three years ago.

The same moonlight filtered through the gaps in the gear train, drawing similar light and dark lines on the bridge of his nose.

"Actually..." She tugged at Chen Han's sleeve, "The female workers privately call the vouchers 'ladies' money'."

Chen Han was about to reply when cheers suddenly broke out in front of him. It turned out that it was a night market lottery stall, and a peasant woman used a voucher to win the first prize - a brand new six-spindle spinning wheel.

Among the crowd of onlookers, several female workers wearing "Women's Workshop" uniforms were helping with the assembly, and the screwdrivers drew silver arcs in the moonlight.

"Did you see that?" Zhu Youwei suddenly pinched his arm. "The girl in the blue shirt in the third row took the first place in the literacy class last month."

She couldn't hide her pride in her voice, "I can recite the Jacquard Loom chapter of The Exploitation of the Works of Nature from memory."

Chen Han looked at the laughing crowd beside the spinning wheel, and suddenly reached for his sleeve pocket as if he remembered something.

His fingertips touched a hard card - it was the "Special Coupon for Women's Textile Machinery" that the old man had stuffed into his hand this morning, and on the back was written in red ink, "This coupon can be used to offset 30% of the tax."

The sound of the night watchman's clapper floated in from afar, startling the nightingales on the willow branches. Zhu Youwei suddenly turned around, her hair brushing against the hard card in Chen Han's hand: "Go back, we still have to inspect the newly arrived sable wool from Liaodong tomorrow."

She blinked, "I heard that the Chief Secretary of Prince Yan's Mansion also placed an order?"

Chen Han smiled but did not answer, just put the special supply coupon back into his sleeve.

In the moonlight, the anti-counterfeiting pattern on the edge of the card looks like an awakened dragon, faintly visible on the indigo background.

……

Zhu Youwei is also a tough girl. After resting for a while, she went back to the workshop.

The moonlight shines through the window lattice onto the loom, and the golden thread and silver shuttle emit a soft halo.

Chen Han suddenly discovered that the small red mole on his wife's earlobe looked like a grain of cinnabar in the moonlight, appearing and disappearing as she threaded the needle.

"The Yunnan copper wire is too hard and will scratch the silk." Zhu Youwei pinched the gold thread and quickly passed it over the candle flame. The copper wire instantly softened like hair. "The guys in the School of Physics said that it should be quenched like this..." Before she finished speaking, Chen Han suddenly grabbed her wrist and rubbed the calluses on her knuckles with his fingertips - those were the marks left by years of scissors.

"Once we're done with the voucher issue, let's take a year off." His voice was a little hoarse, "Let's go to Suzhou to listen to Pingtan, or go to Lingnan to see lychees."

Zhu Youwei's silver scissors were suspended in the air, the tips of which reflected the moonlight and created a silver arc. "Oh, Duke, you also feel tired?" She deliberately tapped his forehead with the back of the scissors. "Who climbed over the wall into the Physics Institute in the middle of the night last month just to see the waterwheel model?"

Chen Han grabbed her wrist and pulled her, and Zhu Youwei fell into his arms unexpectedly. The unfinished silk on the loom fell off, and the winding branches unfolded under the moonlight, hiding the fine "Hongwu" secret mark.

"I'm serious." His fingertips brushed across the faint green shadows under her eyes, "The last time you slept for four hours was on the day of the old man's birthday party."

The sound of the night watchman's clapper came from outside the window, startling the nightingales on the willow branches. Zhu Youwei suddenly found that her husband had a few white hairs on his temples, which looked like broken silver threads in the moonlight. She reached out to pull them out, but Chen Han grabbed her finger and put it to his lips.

"Li Zhen said that the new girls in the workshop call you 'Iron Lady'." His chest vibrations could be heard through the fabric as he laughed softly, "If they saw you like this..."

Zhu Youwei's silver scissors clicked against his Adam's apple: "What?"

The moonlight cast their shadows on the wall, like a silhouette painting. Chen Han suddenly remembered that on the wedding night five years ago, Zhu Youwei also used scissors to untie the knot of the wedding wine, and ended up splashing the wine all over them.

"Like now..." He suddenly leaned close to her ear, "It's so beautiful that I can't tell whether it's the moonlight or you."

Zhu Youwei's ears instantly turned red, and the scissors fell to the ground with a clang. Li Zhen suddenly coughed outside the warehouse: "Princess, the sable wool from Liaodong has been delivered - uh, I'll come back later!"

The footsteps hurriedly faded away. Chen Han looked at his wife's blushing cheeks and suddenly found that the shadow cast by her eyelashes in the moonlight was like the stamens in a meticulous painting. For the first time in five years, he noticed that there was a teardrop mole smaller than a needle tip in the corner of her right eye.

"In fact, the old man has already seen it." He picked up the silk on the ground and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Last time when he was reviewing the memorials, he suddenly asked me if I knew that you loved to eat water chestnuts from Xuanwu Lake the most."

Zhu Youwei was stunned. She remembered that rainy night when she casually mentioned that she liked tender water chestnuts in early autumn. The next day, the imperial kitchen sent her peeled water chestnut meat every day. It turned out to be him...

The moonlight moved across the window lattice, gilding the loom with a silver edge. In the distance came the singing of women washing clothes, mixed with the sound of oars on the Qinhuai River. Chen Han suddenly pulled out an oil-paper bag from his sleeve, unfolding it to reveal half a piece of osmanthus cake.

"I made it in the kitchen." He broke off a small piece and fed it to her. "It's better than the one from Guanglu Temple. It doesn't have so much sugar."

Zhu Youwei bit the cake, and her lips accidentally brushed his fingertips. Chen Han suddenly felt that the past five years were like a big dream - he had never really looked at the shallow curve behind her neck when she lowered her head, like a half-full moon.

"Lingnan is too far away." She suddenly said, "Why not go to Hangzhou? I heard that the vegetarian food at Lingyin Temple..."

"Okay." Chen Han interrupted her, his fingertips brushing her scattered hair, "Just the two of us, no Jinyiwei, no approval of the petition."

Zhu Youwei suddenly laughed out loud, with fine lines on her eyes: "Then you have to teach me how to swim first - the way you fluttered around holding onto a piece of wood last time in Xuanwu Lake..."

The door of the warehouse was suddenly knocked open. Li Zhen rushed in carrying a mace: "Princess! Someone from the Xu family sneaked into the workshop and hid a blade in the loom!"

Under the moonlight, the tenderness on Zhu Youwei's face instantly faded. She picked up the silver scissors and put them back on her waist. When she turned around, the silk fluttered like a cape: "Order, all looms will be stopped, and let the people from the Physics Institute bring magnets to check--"

Chen Han looked at his wife's straight back and suddenly remembered the girl who stood on the tower and commanded with confidence five years ago. He quickly followed her and held her hand in the shadow of the corridor: "Wait until this is over..."

Zhu Youwei interlocked her fingers with his, rubbing the rough calluses on her palms: "Well, let's go to Hangzhou to eat vegetarian food."

The moonlight shines through the willow branches, casting their shadows on the bluestone slabs, like an unfinished meticulous painting. In the distance, the sound of the clappers of the street cleaning department comes, startling the nightingale perched on the loom...

(End of this chapter)