People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 726: Appreciation from the Crown Prince

Zhu Biao suddenly grabbed a handful of boiled fibers and threw them into the lake, startling the sparrows that were foraging on the ice. "So you divided the anti-counterfeiting pattern into three layers?" When he turned around, the wind from his python robe extinguished the last spark in the charcoal basin. "Leave one layer of waste for merchants to study. The more they study..."

"The more time the imperial court has to spare to upgrade the real secret method." Chen Han continued, shaking out a new note from his sleeve. The note surface glowed with a strange rainbow in the morning sun, forming a sharp contrast with the indigo color boiled in the straw shed. "Just like this pulp water, merchants think they have found a treasure, but they don't know the real mystery is--" He suddenly dipped the new note into the pulp pot, and when he took it out, the fine negative text "Supervised by the Institute of Physics" appeared on the note surface.

The sound of the ice breaking completely came from the center of the lake. Zhu Biao looked at the startled egret and suddenly asked, "What if you all jointly impeach you for leaking the court secrets?"

"Then ask them to go to Songjiang first." Chen Han pointed to the dyeing workshop in the distance where smoke was coming out. Several craftsmen were loading rolls of "Qianqing cloth" onto the boat. "Since the circulation of the leftovers of the vouchers, Songjiang has added 17 new dyeing workshops, and the court has collected an additional 4,200 taels of commercial tax." He suddenly lowered his voice. "What's even more interesting is that in order to find out the formula, the Xu family exchanged all the copper coins they had hoarded for vouchers."

The prince suddenly laughed out loud, startling the sparrows perched on the beams of the thatched shed and causing them to flap their wings and fly away. He grabbed a wooden stick and stirred the pot hard, and brown waves splashed on the hems of the two men's clothes. "What a conspiracy! Let the merchants fight for the 'waste', and it will help the court to digest the accumulated copper coins!"

Chen Han looked across the lake. In a newly built straw shed, several men in shorts were secretly collecting the boiled fibers. The leader had a tattoo on his neck that was unique to the Xu family. He deliberately raised his voice: "Your Highness, please understand. If we boil this starch for another three days, it will be useless. Why not give it to the craftsmen to try to dye summer cloth?"

Zhu Biao understood and suddenly kicked over the pot. The boiling liquid seeped into the mud, startling the eunuch who was keeping accounts and jumping up. "Pass on my order!" The prince's voice was wrapped in the chill of early spring. "From now on, the waste of vouchers will be handled by the Ministry of Industry, and the surplus will be used as funds for the Institute of Physics."

When he turned around, his official boots rolled over the soaked broken coupons on the ground, and the two characters "Hongwu" stained on the soles of his shoes were as red as blood in the morning light. Chen Han knew that this mark would be printed on the bluestone slab leading to the Ministry of Industry, just like the fate trajectories changed by the new looms, which would be difficult to erase.

The sound of the clappers from the Street Cleansing Division came from afar, awakening the sleeping Jinling City. Zhu Biao suddenly stopped and said, "Mr. Chen, how do you think the history books will record this day a hundred years from now?"

Chen Han looked toward the lake. Where the thin ice had melted, a few fish were pecking at the fiber debris floating up from the bottom of the water. The ripples scattered the reflection of the two characters "Hongwu".

"Maybe it will be written..." he said softly, "'In this year, the emperor ordered the creation of a new voucher. Craftsmen learned the method, merchants benefited from it, and the people enjoyed its convenience.'" He paused, "Or maybe nothing needs to be written - just like no one would specifically record the year when people started using iron pots to cook."

The prince was silent for a long time, then suddenly took off the gilded abacus bag from his waist and threw it into the pulp pot. "Go back to the palace," he said to his stunned followers, "Today's morning court, I want to see with my own eyes who dares to stop the Ministry of Works from 'wasting' these 'waste materials'."

The morning light penetrated the clouds, gilding the thatched hut behind the two men.

The words "Hongwu" blurred by the evaporating water vapor are quietly turning into spring mud that nourishes all things under the sunshine of a new day.

The morning light penetrated the mist. Zhu Biao stood under the willow tree by the Xuanwu Lake, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the jade pendant on his waist. The broken ice on the lake collided with each other, making a tiny sound, which was very similar to the account books being flipped in the duty room of the Ministry of Revenue.

"Your Highness, it's time to return to the palace." The eunuch reminded him softly, but the prince suddenly raised his hand to stop him from speaking.

Zhu Biao's eyes fell on the distance - several women wearing blue headscarves were squatting at the back door of the women's workshop, washing clothes with starch water boiled from the leftovers of the vouchers. When their rough fingers wrung the cloth, water droplets splashed on the bluestone slabs, reflecting rainbow colors.

"Chen Qing." Zhu Biao suddenly spoke, his voice so soft that it seemed as if he was talking to himself, "What do you think about this world? Is it true that there are always people who can turn bad things into good things, and ruin good things?"

Chen Han followed the prince's line of sight. A lame old woman was stirring the pulp water in a pottery jar with a wooden stick. The Ryukyu sea sand at the bottom of the jar shone with tiny glints in the sun. It was the "waste" that the Xu family's secret agents had stolen away yesterday, but now it had become a treasure for the poor to wash their wedding dresses.

"Your Highness, do you remember the flood in Zhejiang last year?" Chen Han took out a piece of pine soot ink from his sleeve and slowly ground it in his palm. "The Ministry of Industry reported at the time that '3,000 acres of fertile farmland were destroyed', but when students from the School of Physics resurveyed the area, they found that -" the ink ingot left a deep mark on the inkstone, "the opened river channel instead formed 400 acres of new beach land, which is now planted with water chestnuts that are resistant to flooding."

Suddenly, there was a "splashing" sound in the center of the lake. The two turned their heads and saw a carp leaping out of the broken ice. The sound of the fish's tail hitting the water startled the sparrows on the shore. Zhu Biao looked at the morning light swaying in the ripples, and suddenly remembered the old fur coats that were replaced by new armor when he inspected the border troops three days ago. The items that should have been discarded were now worn by the children of the widows of the northern border.

"I was thinking about this when I was reviewing the memorials yesterday." The jade pendant on the prince's finger turned in a different direction. "The court officials impeached you for 'shaking the ancestral system', but all they used in their palace were new items that emerged after the circulation of the vouchers." He suddenly sneered, "The banquet list reported by the Guanglu Temple, even the porcelain plates for Songjiang Qingtuan, were fired in the improved kiln."

Chen Han paused his ink stick on the edge of the inkstone. He remembered that when the young master of the Xu family was taken away, the fragments of this porcelain plate were stained on his official boots - the young man had proudly declared yesterday that "new porcelain is not as good as the old method."

The sound of looms clacking in the distance came. Morning classes in the Women's Workshop began, and the sound of women workers reciting the Thousand Character Classic mixed with the night watchman's clappers drifted over. Zhu Biao narrowed his eyes and saw Xiao Tao in the front row holding the "Simplified Logarithmic Table" to test her classmates, and the wooden hairpin in her hair drew a golden arc as she shook her head.

"Actually..." The prince suddenly lowered his voice, as if afraid of disturbing this vitality, "What I admire most about you is that you can always turn the 'disaster' in the eyes of others into food in the bowls of ordinary people." He pointed to the "green cloth" that was drying in the sun. The way those cloths stretched in the morning breeze looked like newly pasted window paper.

Chen Han looked further away. Several little boys with pigtails were squatting beside the dyeing workshop's drainage ditch, using branches to stir the iron sand powder that had settled. Their dirty faces were full of excitement, as if they had discovered a treasure - but they didn't know that these "waste materials" were the key to the School of Physics' upgraded anti-counterfeiting technology.

"Your Highness, you are too kind." Chen Han dipped ink and sketched on the bluestone slab, "Just like this voucher, some people see paper, some see credibility, and the hunters in the northern border--" the pen suddenly turned to the other side of the lake, where a man in a fur coat was exchanging mink fur for the voucher, "what they see is salt and iron that can be redeemed at any time."

Zhu Biao's jade pendant suddenly fell to the ground. Amid the crisp sound of the collision, he saw the fine cracks on the jade forming a wonderful pattern - very much like the water flow track that Chen Han had drawn on the sand table.

"Report—" A hundred Jinyiwei rushed over, raising a cloud of dust as he knelt on one knee, "Eight hundred miles from Songjiang, urgent! The Xu family joined forces with thirteen cloth shops and used the stored vouchers to buy up all the indigo on the market!"

Zhu Biao's face suddenly changed, but he saw Chen Han calmly took out a blue booklet from his pocket. On the opened pages, the inventory data of the "Coupon and Invoice Office" of each prefecture and county were densely recorded. "Don't worry, Your Highness." Chen Han pointed at the red seal with his fingertips, "They only robbed the open inventory." He suddenly raised his voice to ensure that the Xu family's secret agent not far away could hear, "The new dyeing method tested by the Institute of Physics uses locust beans and alum to mix a more lasting indigo color."

The prince's eyes swept over Chen Han's cuffs - there were gold thread fragments unique to the women's workshop. He suddenly understood and turned to the captain and said, "Pass on my oral order and order the Guanglu Temple to use 'Quanqing cloth' to cover the table for lunch today!"

After the centurion walked away, Zhu Biao suddenly lowered his voice and asked, "Did you expect the Xu family to rush to buy it?"

"It's like fishing." Chen Han used a branch to draw a simple fish on the wet mud. "You have to let the fish bite the hook first, then you know where to cast the net." He kicked the pattern apart, revealing half of a fish bone buried in the soil - it was the breakfast leftovers discarded by the cook yesterday.

The broken ice on the lake gradually melted away, and the early spring wind wrapped in the steam from the dyeing factory blew across the willow branches. Zhu Biao looked at the smoke rising in the distance and suddenly asked, "Mr. Chen, if someone writes this history a hundred years later..."

"The historian would probably record 'this year, the emperor made a new certificate.'" Chen Han interrupted him, scratching the word "Hongwu" on the mud with a branch. "But what really changed people's lives -" the pen suddenly turned to the cloth hanging out to dry, "was these trivialities that even the history books were too lazy to record."

The prince suddenly laughed, startling the sparrows on the willow branches and making them fly up. He bent down to pick up the cracked jade pendant, and the light leaking through the cracks just happened to fall on the word "Hong" drawn by Chen Han.

"Return to the palace." Zhu Biao threw the jade pendant to his attendant. "Today, during the morning court session, I want to see with my own eyes whether the indigo that the Xu family bought can dye their necks red."

Chen Han looked at the prince's back. In the morning light, the traces of starch on the hem of Zhu Biao's dragon robe gradually dried up, forming a strange pattern - it looked very much like the anti-counterfeiting mark embroidered by female workers in the dark part of the cloth.

Farther away, the sound of morning classes in the women's workshop became louder and louder. Xiao Tao was leading the women workers to recite the newly learned "Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art". The numbers jumped in the morning light, like countless tiny golden shuttles, weaving the most vivid texture of this era.

……

The afterglow of the setting sun shone through the gaps between the sycamore leaves, casting mottled shadows on the bluestone slabs. When Chen Han pushed open the red lacquer door of the mansion, he happened to see a golden leaf swirling and falling in front of the stone steps - very much like the voucher that Zhu Biao casually threw up and caught by the Xuanwu Lake today.

Walking around the screen wall, there was a rattan recliner under the pear tree in front of the west wing. Zhu Youwei was reclining on the apricot cushion, her white fingers holding a blue booklet, with only a carved wooden hairpin in her hair. Her bare feet were curled under her skirt, and there was a half-bowl of iced sour plum soup at her feet, with water drops condensing on the porcelain spoon and slowly sliding down.

This scene made Chen Han subconsciously slow down his pace. Usually at this time of the day, his wife would either be counting spindles in the workshop or arguing with craftsmen about gear speed in the physics department. When had she ever been so relaxed?
"My husband is standing there as a door god?" A pair of smiling eyes suddenly appeared from behind the book. Zhu Youwei pointed at the food box on the stone table with the book. "Li Zhen just sent me the rose cakes. She said that the South Gate shop paid with vouchers and gave me two extra ones."

When Chen Han lifted up his robe and sat beside her, the rattan chair creaked slightly. He noticed that his wife was reading a storybook of The Peony Pavilion, with a few spots of rouge on the edges of the pages - it must have been secretly slipped into her account book by a naughty female worker.

"The workshop is not busy today? Those girls from the Physics Department are actually willing to let you have some free time?" He deliberately picked up a piece of biscuit, and as expected, Zhu Youwei tapped the back of his hand lightly with the spine of a book.

"Ever since you taught them to use Arabic numerals to keep accounts, they have been able to count the number of spindles in the warehouse more clearly than I can count the strands of my hair." Zhu Youwei propped up her chin and drew circles on the edge of the sour plum soup bowl with her fingertips. "This morning, Xiaotao brought the girls from northern Xinjiang and calculated the yarn consumption of the sixty-four looms to the exact degree - guess what they used to count?"

The evening breeze swept across the treetops, bringing down a few early-blooming osmanthus flowers. Chen Han watched his wife suddenly turn over and sit up, shaking out a string of wooden signs tied with colorful ropes from her sleeves. Each sign was painted with strange symbols in cinnabar, which looked like children's graffiti at first glance, but upon closer inspection, they were actually the textile codes created by the female workers.

"The three on top and the five on the bottom represent the threading method, the crooked duck neck is the doubling knot, and the circle with the tail is the self-tightening device..." Zhu Youwei shook the wooden sign and smiled like a cat stealing fish, "Even Aunt Liu has learned to use the number 7 to keep accounts. She just asked me if I could carve the "Key to Speedy Weaving" into dice to play with."

The regular clicking sound of looms could be heard in the distance. It was the women in the workshop making winter clothes in the cool evening. Chen Han suddenly remembered something and took out a yellowed paper from his arms: "The Xu family is in Songjiang today..."

"I knew it earlier." Zhu Youwei fanned herself nonchalantly with a book. "Feng Er sent someone to say that the cloth they dyed with waste vouchers is 30% more washable than the cloth from the government-run weaving bureau." She suddenly leaned in, the scent of osmanthus mixed with the scent of ink in her hair. "Guess what the most amazing thing is? The women workers in the dyeing workshop have spontaneously formed a math class. Now they can even calculate the vertical formula for mixing indigo."

As dusk deepened, Li Zhen came with a lantern and asked if they wanted to light a lamp. Zhu Youwei waved her hand and pulled out a glass-shaded oil lamp like a magic trick. The wick was surrounded by a circle of copper sheets, and if you looked closely, you could see that it was engraved with miniature Arabic numerals.

"It was made by those girls from the School of Physics. They say it can be used for both illumination and memorizing formulas." She flicked the lampshade with her fingertips, and the copper piece began to tinkle. The light and shadow cast on the pink wall actually formed the word "women".

Chen Han looked at his wife's profile outlined by the warm yellow light, and suddenly felt that the copy of "The Peony Pavilion" thrown on the rattan chair was particularly interesting - it turned out that the most sophisticated management techniques were never in the regulations of the Ministry of Households.

Chen Han suddenly embraced his wife. The rattan chair could not bear the weight of the two people and groaned under the heavy load. Zhu Youwei's hairpin fell to the ground at some point, and the wooden carved branches rolled far away on the blue bricks. Her warm palm pressed against her husband's cheek, touching the water vapor from the Xuanwu Lake.

"After I'm done with this..." Chen Han's breath brushed past her ears.

"Let's go to Hangzhou to eat vegetarian food?" Zhu Youwei smiled and interrupted him, her fingertips drawing Arabic numerals on the back of his neck, "Or let's go to Lingnan to see the spinning wheel?"

The iron horses on the eaves jingled again. This time it was the southeast wind that blew, bringing with it the scent of cotton wool and ink from the workshop. When Chen Han lowered his head, he saw the shadow cast by his wife's eyelashes on her cheek, which looked very much like the anti-counterfeiting pattern on the edge of the voucher...

(End of this chapter)