Top Scholar

Chapter 603 Strength Needs No Words
The courtyard was guarded by Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) and a security plaque in the style of the Imperial Household Department stood at the entrance, with eight eye-catching characters: "Confidential Matters, Unauthorized Entry Will Be Executed," strictly prohibiting unauthorized personnel from approaching and spying.

From the very beginning of the preparation for the Mint, the Bureau of Investigation of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices began to maintain secrecy to the highest standards.

Even when Su Lu and his two companions came, they had to fill out a visitor registration form according to regulations before they were allowed to enter.

As we entered the courtyard, Lu Jingchang and Qiu Cheng came out of their rooms to greet us.

"Welcome, Your Excellency." The two men hurriedly knelt and kowtowed. Before, they hadn't understood the situation and genuinely thought Su Lu was just a minor sixth-rank official. Only after spending more time at the Leopard House did they realize, damn it, that he was actually on par with Eunuch Liu…

Upon learning the truth, the two were nearly scared to death. How could they dare to be negligent in the slightest? They risked their lives and, in less than twenty days, replicated the barbarian's technique, presenting the finished product to Su Lu!

"I heard you succeeded, so I came over to see!" Su Lu said with a beaming smile. "Get up, get up! You two are truly masters, you got it done so quickly!"

"You flatter me, sir. These are all readily available techniques; we just hadn't thought of them before." The two men, no longer daring to be arrogant, laughed and said, "Once we've broken through the barrier, all we need to do is rearrange and combine them. How much trouble could it possibly take?"

"Quickly show me what it's like!" Su Lu couldn't wait.

"Yes." After the two stood up and looked at each other, Qiu Cheng asked, "Does the master want to start from the beginning, or go directly to the last step?"

“Of course, we’ll tour from the beginning,” Su Lu said with a smile.

"This way, please." The two master craftsmen then led the three gentlemen into the east wing.

Inside the room, a hand-operated rolling mill stood quietly. Its structure was very simple, consisting of two parallel rollers, a wooden frame, and a manual lever.

"This rolling mill was moved from the Silver Workshop and is specifically used for rolling silver billets," Qiu Cheng explained from the side. "The rolls are forged from wrought iron mixed with steel, and after quenching, they have extremely high hardness, which can easily roll silver ingots into uniform thin sheets."

"To save time, we'll use silver ingots refined by the Silver Workshop directly." After saying that, Qiu Cheng handed a silver ingot to his two apprentices and asked them to demonstrate it to their master.

Two craftsmen together press the lever to make the roller rotate smoothly, and through repeated rolling, the silver ingot is rolled into a smooth, mirror-like silver sheet.

After Qiu Cheng called for a stop, he took off the precision copper ruler hanging around his neck, measured it, and then had his apprentice run it over twice before measuring it again and finally said with satisfaction, "It's acceptable."

He then placed the silver sheet upright on the punching platform and secured the four corners.

Then, his disciple swung a round iron hammer and struck the silver sheet steadily, like hammering iron.

With each snap, a perfect disc was cut off. The young craftsman with the muscular arm hammered twenty times, piercing twenty round holes into the thin silver sheet…

After the Qilin Arm technique ceased, Qiu Cheng presented the round piece to Su Lu for inspection. "My lord, the silver coin blanks are now complete. The remaining fragments can be reused, so there's no need to worry about waste."

Su Lu took the silver coin blank and compared it with the silver coin in his hand. The size and thickness were exactly the same, except that there was no pattern and the edges were somewhat sharp and rough.

He asked curiously, "How did you come up with this idea so quickly?"

"My lord, you may not know this, but at this time of year, our silver workshop has to rush to produce a large batch of gold and silver coins and leaves for the nobles to use as gifts." Qiu Cheng explained with a smile, "The master craftsmen have improved this method generation after generation, making the rolled silver sheets faster and better than those made by hand."

Su Lu nodded. It seemed that the other party was not exaggerating; the technology did indeed exist, but he hadn't thought of using it for large-scale coin minting.

It's not that I didn't expect it, but the main reason is that the Ming Dynasty had never used silver coins before...

~~
After visiting the blank-making workshop, Qiu Cheng led everyone to the mold-making workshop.

Inside the room were several tables, on which were neatly arranged tools such as carving knives, files, and polishing stones. Next to them was a charcoal brazier for quenching. Several craftsmen knelt by the tables, waiting for instructions.

The craftsmen were still Qiu Cheng's apprentices, so he continued, "Sir, molds are the key to coinage and anti-counterfeiting. Fortunately, the metal engraving craftsmanship of our Great Ming Dynasty is already exquisite, so creating precision molds is not difficult."

"Specifically, a silver sample coin is first hand-carved to serve as the master mold, and then the master mold is used to cast the negative mold for stamping," Qiu Chengrang, the lead craftsman, stood up and said.

"This is my third disciple, and also the best bronze sculptor in the palace. The negative mold is made of bronze, so he is responsible for the meticulous polishing. Every line must be polished and calibrated repeatedly to ensure perfection. This ensures that the front mold and the back mold fit together perfectly, so that there will be no deviation when hammering."

He then smiled proudly and said, "This process is complex and precise. Even if a private forger wanted to imitate it, without the skill of a top-notch imperial craftsman, it would be extremely difficult to replicate!"

"Excellent! You've thought this through very thoroughly. You're absolutely capable of being the chief craftsman!" Su Lu praised him highly, feeling that his money hadn't been wasted. He then smiled at the coppersmith and said, "Young master, you're a national treasure! May I ask your surname?"

"My name is Tong, sir." The coppersmith had thick lips and a simple, honest expression. Judging from his accent, he was from the same place as Lu Ying.

"Good, good, you were born to do this." Su Lu couldn't help but ask with a smile, "Master Tong, please feel free to ask if you have any difficulties?" The honest Master Tong then asked without hesitation, "Sir, I have a question to ask you - does this silver coin have to have serrations on the edge? You don't know, we have been thinking about it for many days and have put in a lot of effort to come up with a suitable die, but it still feels like we have gone to unnecessary trouble."

"Shut up!" Qiu Cheng quickly glared at the child, then hurriedly apologized to Su Lu, "Please forgive this child, sir. He has been able to work since he was little but can't speak."

"Don't worry, as I've already said, Master Tong is a national treasure. We're too busy protecting him to worry about anything." Su Lu smiled gently and patiently explained to the young Master Tong, "The edge teeth are essential. Think about it, if there were no edge teeth, wouldn't someone scrape off the silver from the edge of the silver coin and accumulate it little by little?"

"Huh? There are people who are this shameless?" Master Tong was dumbfounded.

"You think everyone's like you, all idiots?" Qiu Cheng rolled her eyes at him, then quickly chimed in, "So the edge teeth are to prevent being scraped!"

Su Lu nodded. "Yes, if we let the scraping go unchecked, it will seriously damage the value of the silver coins over time and even affect their circulation. So we added edge teeth to them. This way, once they are scraped, the marks will be very obvious, and no one will accept them. Naturally, no one will do something that is not worth the effort."

Tong the coppersmith slapped his forehead, suddenly realizing, "My goodness, you're so meticulous!"

Qiu Cheng chimed in, "Yes, Your Excellency is so meticulous! I was only thinking about the precision of the mold before, and I hadn't considered such details."

"Haha..." Su Lu chuckled twice and asked, "So the mold is made of copper? Won't it be hard enough?"

“What you say is absolutely right, sir.” Qiu Cheng nodded hurriedly and said, “Copper molds have many advantages, but they are indeed easy to wear and not durable. So we only use them for trial casting. When it comes to mass production, we will have to switch to steel molds.”

"Don't worry, sir," Lu Jingchang chimed in, "the steel mold isn't complicated. Just make a rough draft and refine it gradually. It won't take much time."

He paused for a moment and explained, "It's just that we can't move the blacksmith shop into the palace, and for the sake of secrecy, we can't ask for help from outside..."

“Yes, secrecy is the top priority,” Su Lu said. “I’ll hire a blacksmith for you when mass production begins.”

“I am a blacksmith by trade,” Lu Jingchang said with a smile. “Gold and silver are inseparable, as are copper and iron.”

"Great, that's perfect!" Su Lu said happily. "The fewer people involved in this process, the better!"

~~
The group then arrived at the last testing room, which was also where the results were verified.

The gavel and sledgehammer in the room was also moved from the Silver Work Bureau... The chief eunuch of the Silver Work Bureau was Zhang Sheng, who naturally fully supported Su Lu's work and wouldn't complain even if the bureau was emptied out for him.

At Qiu Cheng's instruction, his apprentices began to demonstrate 'struck silver coins'. One of them first inserted a smooth silver coin blank into a die ring with a serrated pattern.

The outer ring of the mold is hexagonal, which can fit perfectly into the lower mold; and the lower mold is firmly embedded in the heavy cast iron base, with each ring interlocking perfectly.

The upper die punch is installed in the sleeve directly above, and the punch is engraved with the obverse pattern of the silver coin. Another strong craftsman then pressed down on the lever and slowly lifted the punch, which looked to weigh several tens of kilograms.

"what!"

With a loud shout from the craftsman, the upper die punch crashed down from the height!

With a muffled thud, the craftsman slowly lifted the punch again, and his partner took out the die ring. A silver coin fell into the wooden box next to him.

Qiu Cheng picked up the silver coin, gently wiped it clean with a soft cloth, and handed it to Su Lu with both hands, saying with pride, "The silver coin has been produced. As you can see, sir, it is even better than the silver coins of those barbarians."

Su Lu took it, weighed it in his hand, and then walked to the door to carefully examine the patterns and edges on both sides. They were exactly the same as the ones presented to him before. He nodded in satisfaction and said, "That's really amazing."

He then asked curiously, "Why is this silver coin a bit dull in color?"

He paused for a moment, then pulled out another silver coin, noticeably whiter: "Or perhaps not as bright as this one? Why are there two different colors among the silver coins you gave me?"

"Sir, you are so meticulous!" Qiu Cheng repeatedly praised Su Lu for his meticulousness, explaining, "The brighter color is due to the addition of one cent of tin, but the tin was added to make the silver coin harder and more wear-resistant."

He paused for a moment and said, "But without your permission, I dare not make a decision on my own. I can only do both. Please make the final decision."

"I see." Su Lu then rubbed the two silver coins against each other. Sure enough, the one with tin added won, leaving a clear mark on the one without tin, while the other left no mark at all.

One li of tin is one percent of the total tin content. Su Lu required the silver coins to be 93% pure, so it was still within an acceptable range. He readily agreed and said, "I'll listen to the expert."

(End of this chapter)