The tun chief guarding the door took Meng Tian's talisman and looked left and right, and found no problem, so he let him in, and called a small official to guide the way.

"Take this official to see Shaofucheng!"

Meng Tian was dressed in ordinary black, neither a crown nor a ribbon, and went out with only two entourages, so others couldn't see his identity.

From the time he arrived at the pickaxe pool, Meng Tian had already passed three sentry posts, and he touched his beard and smiled knowingly as he looked at the spear-wielding soldiers patrolling the workshop.

"Heifu is worthy of being born in the military, and this workshop is heavily guarded."

Come to think of it, if Heifu can really do what he threatened, it will be a great benefit of the country, and it cannot be easily divulged.

However, judging from the style of this camp and outpost, there is a bit of General Wang Qian's style, and it seems that Heifu has learned a lot from him.

"It's still General Wang Jian who has a discerning eye." Meng Tian sighed.

On the other hand, Meng Tian had also seen this bronzed-skinned Nanjun guy by Li You's side back then, but he didn't recognize that this was actually a piece of black jade hidden in a stone......

Compared with the first time four years ago, Meng Tian has experienced a lot of vicissitudes, and he is the same age as the First Emperor, and his sideburns have grown a trace of gorgeous hair.

But compared to Li Xin, who is ashamed and angry, has gray hair in his early thirties, and often vomits blood, what is it?

That defeat almost crushed the two of them, lost 100,000 soldiers, and killed seven captains, this is a great defeat that the Qin army has never had since the siege of Handan, and if any monarch is replaced, they will definitely die!

But His Majesty was benevolent and gave the two a chance to atone for their sins, and after guarding Shangjun and Yanmen for several years, Meng Tian helped Wang Ben to destroy the dynasty, and then followed him to destroy the country twice, so that he and Li Xin both returned to the position of Shaoshangzao.

More fortunate than Li Xin, who was transferred to Beidi County to guard the border, Meng Tian was actually recalled to Xianyang by Qin Shi Huang! This is to reuse his sign, when Meng Tian came back from Qidi, he was so excited that he traveled day and night, and went directly to Lin Guang Palace to meet him......

Qin Shi Huang gave Meng Tian the position of Shaofu Shaofu with a rank of 2,000 stones, which is an important position, and the "one coin, weights and measures, cars on the same track, and books on the same text" to be implemented throughout the world this year and next year must be presided over by the Shaofu! If it can be done well, Meng Tian will only be one step away from Jiuqing!

But his first errand after taking office was to inspect the pickaxe pond for the emperor.

"Go and see for me, how is the paper that Shaofu rag Cheng said?

In Lin Guang Palace, the emperor was still thinking about this matter while reading the four seal and subordinate articles presented by Li Si, Zhao Gao, Hu Wujing and Cheng Miao.

Although it is said that Heifu will be given three months, there are many imperial histories that have impeached Heifu for his perverse behavior recently, and the Shaofu generals Zuocheng, Neicheng and others have also poured bitter water, saying that Heifu will use most of the hundreds of thousands of money given to him by Shaofu to buy rags and hemp heads, and I really don't know what to say.

So there was Meng Tian's trip to the pickaxe pool.

……

The workshop was built along the pickaxe pond, and the first thing Meng Tian saw after entering it was a small artificially built embankment on the edge of the pond, dividing the lake water on the shore into clear and shallow small ponds, half of which were soaked in wood and bark, and the other half were soaked in hemp, rags, and hemp stalks.

Hundreds of people gathered on the shore, chopped up their swollen hemp rags with axes, washed them in the water, and carried them onto ox carts along a straight road to the depths of the workshop.

Meng Tian found that the whole workshop was long and narrow, built along the pickaxe water, and every few hundred steps in the middle was a process, and each process was clearly separated, and different craftsmen were responsible for different areas.

"This is built by Shaofu Cheng Ling Ru and others?" Meng Tian was surprised, he only knew that Heifu had the talent of a captain, but he didn't know that he really knew how to make a craftsman.

The little official said with a smile: "Shaofu Cheng just shook the pu fan, came up with ideas everywhere, and the specific planning still relied on ink and craftsmen, and Zhang Jun made people build it." ”

"It turned out to be a laborer." Meng Tian understood.

When they came to a place that emitted a faint strange smell, the little official pointed to the broken hemp that had been soaked again in the stone pond and said, "This is soaking in lime water." ”

Folk women often use or grass and wood gray water to degum kudzu, so Meng Tian is not strange at all.

The little official pointed to the workshop that was more than 100 steps ahead, with steam smoke and said, "That's the steaming place, and the broken hemp has to be boiled before it can be used." ”

Meng Tian was silently watching all the way, passing through the steaming earthen stove steaming barrel, and came to the water mill room full of the sound of pounding, where the boiled broken hemp was pounded by the water driven by the water force, and after hundreds of thousands of hammers, it became a viscous paste......

According to the officials, this degree is called pulping, and the viscous pulp is transported to dozens of large stone troughs in the rear, mixed with clean water, and some people wearing short brown hold a smooth square bamboo sieve to gently scoop up the pulp in the water.

Meng Tian stopped and looked at it for a while, and it could be seen that their techniques were not very skilled, and they often had to try many times to get the paper film of moderate thickness and evenly distributed.

And among them, the fast and accurate, turned out to be a few gray-haired old men......

"The elders are also coming to serve?" Meng Tian frowned and looked at Soap Li.

"The Superior has misunderstood."

The little official hurriedly explained: "This process is called slurry, the most important, but there are not many craftsmen who do well, or Shaofu Cheng thought of an idea, and hired a few old fishermen who fished in pickaxe ponds and Weishui with bamboo baskets to catch fish for a living, and they caught it steadily and well!" Ten dollars a day is really worth it! ”

Meng Tian was basked, looking all the way, the rags and hemp that were originally thought to be by the people of Xianyang were collected because of Heifu's hysteria, but they were put into the process one by one, and he looked forward to the final product more and more.

"Where are Shaofu Cheng and the others?"

The workshop was very long, and Meng Tian had been gone for a moment, and he was almost at the end, and he didn't see Heifu or Zhang Han.

"Right ahead."

The little official pointed to the front and said: "The diviner has calculated according to the "Book of Days", today is the day when the first batch of paper is dried, and all the officials are waiting there!" ”

Meng Tian saw it, and after walking through the stone ponds soaked in pulp, he saw a sea of light yellow......

……

Fishing the paper film together with the bamboo sieve together concentrated exposure, today is a good weather, the blue sky is open, the autumn sun is sprinkled on this poolside highland without reservation, hundreds of thousands of bamboo sieves absorb the heat of the sun, the water on it slowly evaporates and rises, only a thin dry paper remains......

The craftsman carefully peeled off the exposed linen paper, pressed it with ashlars, stacked it together, and sent it to the table.

And Zhang Han, Cheng Mo, and even Zhang Cang and others are crowded around the desk at the moment, Heifu is standing in the middle, he is holding a smooth pebble, calendering the crumpled paper, and after the calendering, he gently wipes it on the paper with his hand, although the back is still rough, and there are even visible hemp heads and cloth sticking to it, and the front is smoother.

"Became ......"

After more than a month of hard work, he finally had a fruit, and Heifu was very happy, he rubbed his hands, and was about to try to write on this piece of hemp paper, but a small official led a tall middle-aged man with a thick beard under his chin and a tiger's eye and swallow forehead to them.

"Shaofu Cheng, this is an official from Shaofu, who said that he was ordered by the Shaofu Supervisor to inspect."

Heifu took a look, only felt that this person was a little familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it, Zhang Han had already stepped forward a few steps and said, "General Meng!" ”

"General Meng?" Heifu was stunned, and the little official was even more frightened.

How many Mongolian generals are there in this world? Heifu immediately reacted, it was Meng Tian who had seen a few glances from afar when he was fighting Chu for the first time!

"Gentlemen are exempt."

Meng Tian bowed his hand to everyone: "Tian Chu was appointed as the young eunuch of the Shaofu, and on the orders of His Majesty, he came to inspect the pickaxe pool. ”

While speaking, he also walked to the front of the case, picked up the light yellow hemp paper, pinched it, and it was as smooth as silk cloth, and it was made of rags and hemp heads, and the cost was not high, so he praised: "Good! Shaofu Cheng, is this paper? ”

"Exactly!"

Hefu replied in his mouth, but his heart calculated.

In terms of political origins, he was promoted by Li Si and his son, because the first time he made Li Youdian the queen of Chu Mengtian, Li and Meng were not very harmonious, and it stands to reason that he should not get too close to Mengshi.

But on the other hand, the first time he cut Chu, he was considered a subordinate of Meng Tian; the second time he attacked Chu, and he was in the Mengwu army; came to Xianyang to be the Zhonglang household order, and Meng Yi happened to be the Zhonglang general; Now that he has been transferred to Shaofu, Meng Tian has become a young eunuch in Shaofu again......

"I really have a relationship with the Meng family!"

Heifu secretly slandered that it was inappropriate for him to be too cold, and that it was more appropriate to be a normal subordinate.

So Heifu said with a straight look: "The subordinates are ordered by His Majesty to make paper here, and now that the paper has been formed, it should be tried with pen and ink." ”

He raised his hands and offered a brush.

"The new Jane must be matched with a new pen, and the same is true for paper, we are trying to use the pen and calligraphy made by Shaoshang in Shangjun and Yanmen, since the general is here in person, the subordinates dare to ask Shaoshang to make an inscription to try it!"