Tiger Owl

Chapter 320 The Hundred Craftsmen Project (Part 1)

In the afternoon, Lu Su, Jiang Wan, and Bu Zhi arrived at Gan Ning's official residence.

"I heard that the Marquis of Chu has provided Master Craftsman Li with top-grade supplies?"

Everyone was used to their lord's endless stream of creative ideas, but the fact that the Marquis of Chu actually provided Li Zhuan with first-class supplies still surprised them greatly.

Grade A material supply refers to the highest level of material supply, which mainly refers to the three principles of unconditional, unlimited quantity, and fastest response. Such Grade A material supply is rare. In the past, when developing weapons such as oil and catapults, only silver-level supplies were provided.

So far, this type of Class A material supply has only occurred twice. The first time was for the planting of Jiaozhi rice, which required full cooperation and supply. The second time was for the defense of Queyue City, where Gan Ning also provided Class A supplies, which were of great strategic significance and time was of urgency.

The fact that a Class A supply appeared again today made all three of them sense something unusual.

"Please have a seat!"

Gan Ning asked the three to sit down and continued, "I originally planned to tell you all when things were looking up, but since everyone wants to know, I won't hide it from you anymore."

Gan Ning took a thick stack of rubbings of documents and said, "Everyone knows these rubbings, right?"

All three nodded. They were all scholars who had heard of and seen rubbings.

"What do you all think? Why is it so difficult to promote rubbing?"

Bu Zhi was quite familiar with rubbings, and he said, "Rubbings are very troublesome. They require quarrying, and this kind of solid granite is not much to begin with, making it difficult to mine. Making it into a stone tablet is even more difficult. Even the imperial court can only quarry a few hundred stone tablets at most in a year. In addition, rubbings consume too much paper, and where is there so much paper to supply for rubbings?"

"What are the benefits of making rubbings?" Gan Ning continued to ask.

"The biggest advantage of rubbing is that one set of stone tablets can be used to make rubbings of countless scrolls, as long as the paper supply is sufficient."

At this point, all three understood. Jiang Wan tentatively asked, "Does our lord intend for Master Li to make the rubbing?"

Gan Ning shook his head, "I want to upgrade the rubbing technology!"

"Upgrade?" The three were stunned, their eyes filled with confusion.

Gan Ning took a wooden board from the table. It was a little larger than a book, which he had his men find at noon. Gan Ning had carved his name on it with a dagger. The name was raised and in relief. Although the carving was bad, the intention was still understandable.

Gan Ning handed the wooden board to the three men. Lu Su took the board and looked at Jiang Wan and Bu Zhi in bewilderment.

“This wooden board can be carved with three hundred characters. A complete Analects can be carved with sixty wooden boards. We can make rubbings on the wooden boards continuously. A set of woodblocks can last for decades without breaking. It can print tens of thousands of copies of the Analects. I call it woodblock printing.”

Woodblock printing!

The first appearance of this specialized term made a flash of light in the eyes of the three men. They seemed to have been enlightened and understood what I meant: to use wood carving instead of stone carving, and to use raised characters instead of recessed characters, so that hundreds of characters could be printed on a small piece of paper.
"This is simply...this is simply..."

Lu Su's lips trembled, and he couldn't finish a sentence for a long time, "This is simply an epoch-making creation!"

Jiang Wan and Bu Zhi were equally excited. They understood that this meant books could be widely distributed, and that culture and education would flourish. Gan Ning waved his hand to calm them down and said slowly, "One woodblock is far from enough. We need enough craftsmen and enough paper. Gentlemen, my purpose in creating woodblocks is not to print more books. I want to preserve all culture, build the largest library in the world, open it to all scholars, attract scholars from all over the world to Chaisang, and make Chaisang the cultural center of the world. I want our every word and action to be noticed by the world."

After a while, the three of them calmed down from the huge shock. Gan Ning continued, "Cao Cao compensated us with 600,000 shi of grain. We should make full use of this wealth. I have an idea called the Excellent Craftsmen Plan. We should search for outstanding craftsmen from all walks of life in the north, bring them to Yuzhang County, let them live and work in peace and contentment, and let them give full play to their intelligence and talents."

As soon as Gan Ning finished speaking, Bu Zhi's eyes suddenly lit up. He did not interrupt Gan Ning and waited for him to finish before slowly saying, "A few years ago, Lord Wu also had a similar plan called the 'Hundred Craftsmen Plan,' which aimed to recruit one hundred of the best craftsmen from the north. I was in charge of this plan, and I prepared for it for a long time, sending people to investigate and learn about famous craftsmen in various parts of the north. After I left, this plan was also aborted."

Gan Ning asked urgently, "Is the list of the hundred craftsmen still available?"

"The list is still there, but several years have passed, and I don't know if those master craftsmen are still around."

Gan Ning readily agreed, "It's not like we can't find all the master craftsmen. We can give it a try; we'll see how many we can find."

The following day, with the Changshi Mansion taking the lead and the Sima Mansion cooperating, a "Hundred Craftsmen Plan" was officially drafted to recruit and introduce outstanding craftsmen from the north.

In Xuchang, in a small alley near Dingshengmen Street, lived dozens of poor families. Every house was low and dark, and sewage flowed everywhere in the alley, which reeked. At the very end of the alley lived a middle-aged man in his fifties named Zheng Chu. He was somewhat hunched over and was taciturn all day long.

Zheng Chu was from Luoyang. His father and grandfather both worked in the Shaofu Baigongfang (a workshop for craftsmen in the imperial treasury). He was in charge of making Caihou paper in the paper mill. Due to Dong Zhuo's chaotic rule, their lives were also turbulent. Later, Cao Cao took them to Xuchang, where they finally settled down.

Zheng Chu's son died ten years ago. He only had one daughter who married his apprentice. Last year, the capital was moved to Ye City. Cao Cao stipulated that no one over fifty years old was allowed to move. His daughter and son-in-law went to Ye City, while Zheng Chu was left in Xuchang to live with his wife.

Zheng Chu worked in a small paper mill, earning a meager wage that was barely enough for him and his wife to make ends meet.

That afternoon, Zheng Chu returned from the small workshop and found several men sitting at his door, who looked like businessmen.

The dilapidated mud house was dark and messy. The other party seemed unwilling to go in, and the old wife was pouring water for them.

"Honey, who are they?" Zheng Chu asked in surprise.

The middle-aged man at the head of the group stood up and smiled, saying, "My name is Song Kuan. I came from Yecheng. I met your daughter and son-in-law in Yecheng and only then did I realize that you were still in Xuchang."

Upon hearing news of her daughter and son-in-law, Zheng Chu asked anxiously, "Are they alright?"

"It's not very good. Your son-in-law's craftsmanship level is not high, and his income is meager."

Zheng Chu was not surprised. They were civilian craftsmen, whose income was far less than that of military craftsmen. Back in Xuchang, his daughter and son-in-law were already struggling financially and had accumulated a lot of debt.

"Mr. Song, is there anything I can do for you?"

Song Kuan nodded. "I am actually an official of Western Chu. Our paper mill lacks experienced craftsmen like you. We are hiring you to go to Chaisang for twenty strings of cash a month, and we will provide you with a courtyard of two acres. How about it? Are you interested?"

Zheng Chu slowly raised his head, and his cloudy eyes gradually brightened.

Are you guys serious?

(End of this chapter)