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Pingyang City had now transformed into a construction site on a colossal scale.
The city walls needed repair and reinforcement. The fields needed to be tilled and planted. The irrigation channels required dredging and clearing. Tools had to be forged and fabricated. Soldiers and armor alike needed drilling and training. An endless chain of tasks descended upon them, one after another, crashing down like an avalanche and utterly submerging Fei Qian, Jia Qu, and Wei Liu.
Fei Qian ground his teeth in frustration and hurled a freshly approved wooden slip onto the discard pile. He massaged his forearms, which had grown swollen and sore from handling these heavy wooden tablets for hour after unending hour. Turning his head, he asked, "Shuliang, have we still not secured any papermaking craftsmen?"
What an era this was!
Paper did exist, but its production output was by no means high. Moreover, for ordinary people, wooden slips had the advantage of being reusable—whenever you no longer needed what was written, you simply took a knife and shaved the surface clean, and it was ready to be written on again. As a result, most people remained accustomed to using wood and bamboo for recording matters. This habit, in turn, meant that the market for paper remained confined to the upper echelons of society, used almost exclusively by the gentry and scholar-official class.
It went without saying that ordinary commoners never touched the stuff, but even the low-level clerical scribes at the grassroots mostly worked with wood.
Just like the scene before the three of them now—Fei Qian, Jia Qu, and Wei Liu were all surrounded by teetering piles of wooden slips…
Jia Qu, with an absent-minded reflex, touched the slightly splayed tip of his writing brush to the corner of his mouth to moisten it, and continued annotating the wooden slip in his hand while speaking. "Two have indeed come, but both of them were previously only junior apprentices. There are certain steps in the process they do not quite understand."
Hmm…
Fei Qian watched Jia Qu's habitual gesture and suddenly felt a faint bitter taste spreading in his own mouth…
Ink during the Han Dynasty was nothing like what would come in later ages. It contained no chemical additives whatsoever, which made it comparatively coarse and thick. Because of this, it also had a tendency to congeal rather quickly. Sometimes, if you dipped the brush in ink and did not immediately begin writing, the tip would dry solid.
Thus, in order to keep the writing smooth and fluid, some people preferred to keep a water dish for rinsing the brush nearby. Others—such as Jia Qu—simply preferred to moisten the tip with their own saliva…
But then again, for people of the Han Dynasty, swallowing a little ink was not considered any great matter. In fact, no, it was actually regarded as rather an elegant and refined practice, something an ordinary person could never aspire to even if they wanted to.
Fei Qian averted his eyes from Jia Qu's mouth, which had already taken on a rather serpentine quality—dark and stained black from ink. He turned instead to Wei Liu and asked, "Menglian, how about it? Can you find me a couple of craftsmen from somewhere else?"
High-quality paper was relatively difficult to produce, and papermaking artisans who understood bleaching techniques were each regarded as precious treasures by their respective clans, not to be casually lent out or shared. Consequently, among the craftsmen provided by the Wei clan as compensation, there were only two former papermaking apprentices. The master craftsman himself had somehow, imperceptibly, shifted his affiliation and quietly become just another subordinate under a different branch of the Wei family…
Wei Liu gave a wry smile and replied, "My Lord, on this matter, I can only say that I will do my utmost to negotiate… If it were ordinary carpenters or blacksmiths, it would be easier to discuss. But when it comes to craftsmen of this particular type…"
Fei Qian nodded. He understood this all too well.
To draw an analogy from later ages, the average carpenter of this era was like someone who had scraped through a fourth-level language exam by cramming in the gutter. After all, among farming households, it was common enough for a man to go into the hills, chop down a piece of wood, and start tinkering with it. Carpenters were therefore relatively numerous. Blacksmiths, constrained by the scarcity of materials, were fewer in number—equivalent to someone who had passed a sixth-level exam. As for papermaking craftsmen, who required both technical mastery and innovative skill, they were essentially on par with those who had conquered an eighth-level examination…
Fei Qian let out a soft sigh. What an era this was...
Even as they spoke, several young maidservants came in, carrying trays with trembling care, and served tea broth to Fei Qian and the other two men in turn.
The Wei clan had also sent over a number of serving girls and maids, as well as some older rough-work women. Fei Qian, seeing that some of the older girls were yet unmarried, had instructed Jia Qu to arrange marriages to a good family for them, settling them into new households. He had kept only these few younger ones behind…
It was not that Fei Qian had a particular predilection for young girls. It was simply that the eldest among them were only around ten years of age, and the youngest were merely seven or eight. If he were to send them away, those rough-and-ready natives of the Han Dynasty would, without the slightest doubt, end up causing fatal tragedies.
Ah, what a world…
And over in the Jing-Xiang region, there was still another girl waiting…
Come to think of it, if all else failed, could he perhaps obtain some craftsmen from the Jing-Xiang area?
His esteemed father-in-law's estate—ah, it seemed to conceal quite a number of master craftsmen within its courtyards…
But the problem was that it would not be convenient for him to go back anytime soon. He simply could not get away from here yet!
Fei Qian was lost in his own musings when suddenly a personal guard arrived at the foot of the hall and announced, "Attendant Clerk Cui has reached a point five li outside the city!"
Cui Hou had arrived?
Excellent!!
All three men in the main hall visibly brightened with delight…
At this current stage, no matter who it was, so long as they were a civilian official, they could take over and share out a considerable portion of the workload! It would instantly lighten the burden from a full one-third of the total to just one-quarter. Actually, no, since Fei Qian himself was only intermittently present, the vast bulk of the work was in reality shouldered by Jia Qu and Wei Liu alone. The arrival of even one more person would drastically reduce their crushing workload…
They were overjoyed.
Thus, all three of them went cheerfully to the city gate to welcome the new arrival.
As it turned out, besides Cui Hou, they also met another person—Chang Huai, courtesy name Bohuai.
Fei Qian froze for a moment, and then recollection dawned on him. This was that man from the Chang family he had encountered back in the vicinity of Wen County!
"Brother Chang, you have actually come here as well? This is truly an unexpected delight!" Fei Qian stepped forward and bowed with clasped hands.
Chang Huai, Chang Bohuai, hurried forward several paces and prostrated himself on the ground. "I dare not accept such great courtesy from the Lord! Chang Huai, Chang Bohuai of Wen County, pays his respects to Lord Fei!" How circumstances had changed, and in so short a time. Just a few months ago, Fei Qian had been a minor figure trailing only a few vague rumors behind him. Now, he had become the governor of a commandery, holding both military and civil authority in his hands…
Cui Hou, who stood to the side, also stepped forward and performed the proper salutations.
Fei Qian smiled and helped both men to their feet, then invited them to accompany him to the government headquarters.
The very first structure in Pingyang County to be repaired and put in order had been the Pingyang government compound, which was also where Fei Qian now resided.
There was no way around this. The social hierarchy in the Han Dynasty was still extremely strict. If Fei Qian's own residence had not been put in proper order first, no one else would dare to take it upon themselves to repair or organize their own houses. Therefore, Fei Qian had simply ordered his men to refurbish several extra rooms within the government compound and had Jia Qu, Wei Liu, Ma Yue, and the others all move in and live there together.
In any case, none of them had their families with them now, and most of these men would probably, in the later stages once Pingyang City was fully restored, gradually move out one by one.
It could be said that at present, Pingyang City lacked everything and needed everything. This was precisely one of the reasons Fei Qian had transferred Cui Hou to Pingyang.
The group had just seated themselves in the main hall of the government compound, and the maidservants had only just brought in freshly boiled tea broth—not more than a few sips had been taken—when from outside the compound came the long, drawn-out cry of an urgent report!
Fei Qian rose to his feet. A soldier came striding in with meteoric haste, dropped to his knees before the hall, and presented a tall staff of authority with both hands, proclaiming loudly, "Report! The Imperial Envoy has arrived thirty li beyond the city! The Lord is requested to hasten and receive him!"
Fei Qian swiftly strode forward and accepted the staff of authority. He examined it closely. The bamboo shaft was smooth, measuring somewhat less than two meters in length. Yak tail tassels had been arranged in three layered tiers as the ceremonial fringe. Judging from both its shape and the specifications of its construction, it was unmistakably the official staff of an imperial emissary!
An Imperial Envoy had actually come all the way here?