Chastity Layman 2

Chapter 1200 The Qin Family's Choice

Qin Lang sat in front of the big desk on the stern of the Dabao ship.

He was holding a Huzhou Zishuang brush dipped in Huizhou pine ink in his hand, but he hadn't written for a long time.

"But this lake brush doesn't suit Grandpa's wishes. My son went to find a Xuan brush for Grandpa." The eldest son Qin Jun said while grinding the ink.

Qin Lang just smiled.

"Have you heard about the origin of Xuanbi?"

"I once heard from my teacher that Meng Tian, ​​the general of the Qin State, led his army to conquer Chu in the south. When he traveled to the Zhongshan area of ​​Xuanzhou, he found that the Zhongshan rabbit had long fat hair and the best texture. The tip of the pen is used to make a brush, which is called Meng Tian Brush by the world, and it is the originator of Xuan Brush."

Qin Junchang's tall and heroic figure is like Qin Lang carved out of the same mold. Perhaps he has inherited many advantages of his mother Yuxiao, handsome, gentle, and unrestrained.

Qin Lang deliberately brought his thirteen adopted sons with him when he went to sea this time, and several of his own sons. However, because it was sailing across the sea, for safety reasons, Qin Lang only brought his eldest son, Qin Jun, on board. , and the rest of the disciples came in several batches and boats.

Qin Jun, who is already 16 years old, is as tall as a little man. Qin Lang has now started to cultivate and train him intentionally, letting him learn by his side all the time.

"Actually, before Mengtian, there were people from Chu who made writing brushes long ago, but the method at that time was to clamp the brush head on the bamboo pole head divided into four pieces, then wrap it with hemp silk, and then apply lacquer. Mengtian brushes It was improved and changed to what we see now. One end of the pen holder is hollowed out to make a pen cavity, and then the pen tip is put into the pen cavity. This improvement makes the pen tip fixed in the pen cavity and easy to maintain a round state for a long time, which is good for writing. Then you can maintain a correct position, and then it is more stable."

From the Qin Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, Xuanzhou's brushes were indeed famous, and they became tributes like rice paper.Jingxian County in Xuanzhou also became a prosperous and prosperous place in the south of the Yangtze River for a while.

As the so-called pen and paper from Xuanzhou, ink from Huizhou, and inkstone from Duanzhou are called the Four Treasures of the Study.

This high-quality brush in Xuanzhou is also called Zihao. It uses a small piece of needlepoint hair on the back of the mountain rabbit that is unique to Jing County. profit.

The flowers are white and purple, and there are two flowers, three or four flowers, five or six flowers, seven or eight flowers, etc.

Xuanzhou Zihao is the Hermès in the Tang Dynasty, the first-class brand.There are also Langhao, Yanghao, etc. in the Xuanbi. Every year, the best batch of pens are sent to the palace, and then they are divided by the prime minister, Shangshu and other high-ranking officials in the court. Not much.

Scholars are proud of owning Xuan pens.

There is a well-written doggerel. There is an old rabbit on a rock in the south of the Yangtze River. It eats bamboo and drinks springs and produces purple hair. The people of Xuanzhou pick it for pens. They choose one penny out of thousands of pennies. When Xuancheng buys pens every year, the price of purple pennies is as precious as gold. .

Authentic Shan Zihao from Jingxian County, Xuanzhou, is really more popular than Liaodong sable fur, Liugui country white bear fur, and Yaksha country white velvet.

The real price is as precious as gold.

It is precisely because the market demand is too large, but the supply is small, so there are many new pen-making places in Datang, among which Huzhou Haobi is considered the most successful.

Huzhou is close to Hangzhou, and there are a lot of industries and businesses. The produced Hubi is also called Huying. The so-called Ying refers to the neat and transparent sharp edge at the tip of the pen tip, which is called sunspot by scholars.The depth of the sunspots is the length of the sharpness. It is carefully made from the finest goat hair through nearly a hundred processes such as soaking, pulling, combining, combing, connecting, and combining.

As the saying goes, Mao Ying's skills are the best in the world.

Huying does not imitate copycat Xuanbi all the time, but takes the road of differentiated operation and gives full play to its own characteristics. Therefore, Huying has won an excellent reputation among scholars over the years. Of course, Hubi can quickly become famous among scholars. , and even the scale of the industry can be increased, the most critical thing is Qin Lang.

It was Qin Lang who publicly recruited a large number of experienced Xuanbi craftsmen from Xuanzhou, and then built a complete Huzhou brush industry chain in Huzhou, which is close to Hangzhou Bay. The status of these aspects has set up a stage for Hubi to sing and bring goods crazily.

Qin Lang's thin gold body uses Huying, which established a school in the calligraphy world.

After more than ten years of rapid development, Huying is now as famous as Xuanbi. She has also become a tribute pen in the palace, a must-have pen for high-ranking prime ministers and eunuchs, and even gets a large sum of money every year. Imperial government purchase order.

In terms of output, Hubi came from behind, and Xuanbi can only engage in hunger marketing, but Hubi has developed three categories: soft cents, hard cents, and combined cents, with more than 300 varieties, fine light front, rough light front, yellow Jianfeng and Baijianfeng have strict requirements on quality, such as Yanghao, only use native goats from the Hujiahu area. These goats are mainly raised in captivity, and they mainly eat mulberry leaves.

Although there are also rabbit hairs and wolf hairs in Hubi, the sheep's hair wins. Xuanbi's rabbit hair and Hubi's sheep's sunspot dominate the world.

"I like to use Huying!" Qin Lang said with a smile. On various occasions, Qin Lang used Hubi, and advertised for Hubi all the time.

The Qin family is the founder of the Hubi industry. It took nearly 20 years to raise this cow. At the beginning, it also brought together many wealthy families. Now the success of this industry can bring huge returns to the Qin family every year.

"The Huying in my hand is more expensive than gold of equal weight."

This Huying is the top high-end product in Hubi. Its Fengying sunspots can only be used on the neck of Huzhou goats and the tribal hair that is not easy to rub against the outside. There are only four or two brushes on a strong Hu sheep. Those with sunspots are only one or two or six dollars at most.

And the two or six money sunspot materials have to go through an excellent wool picker, and they are divided into ten grades according to quality and length. Among them, the best Huying is of high quality and quantity and is rare in quantity.

A writing brush is actually more expensive than its weight in gold. It sounds amazing but it is true.

Qin Lang was unable to write for a long time while carrying such a precious Hu Ying. Of course, it was not because he thought the pen was bad and wanted to change the Xuan pen, but because he had a lot of thoughts on his mind.

He was going to give the emperor another form of thanks.

The Yizhou jute paper was laid out, but not a word was left for a long time.

"Grandpa, my child can't figure it out, why do you just admit it like that?"

Qin Lang turned his head to look at the eldest son who was obviously a little unhappy, and simply put the pen on the pen holder. He turned around and looked at his son, "Da Lang, sit down."

"Tell me what you really think in your heart."

The boat was heaving up and down with the waves, and there was no one else in the cabin.

Qin Jundao, "I just think that the imperial court is used to picking peaches. At the beginning, the wild Wu'an was entrusted to my grandfather. My grandfather took everyone to conquer Wu'an's barbarians, recruited those local tyrants, and opened mountains to build roads. , Cultivated fields and opened canals, it took a lot of effort to make it look good, but the imperial court came to pick the peaches."

"But now our Qin family has discovered Treasure Island overseas, invested so much, recruited gold diggers, shipped in various supplies, sent so many stewards, workers, and slaves, and even talked to the islanders. Fighting, what happened to the court? Nothing, the location of this island, the route to here, etc., are all the hard work of our Qin family, but now the court has not done anything. This is set up as the Luzon Governor's Mansion, and we don't send a single soldier, don't send a single official, and don't spend any money and food. We will have to pay one-third of the tax every year in the future. Isn't this too much? "

"Why?"

The young man's eyes were full of disbelief.

The emperor sent envoys to the south and sent an edict to set up Treasure Island as the governor's mansion in Luzon, and enshrine it as the territory of the Qin family.The name Luzon is the original name of San Francisco. The previous name of a Barangay village was Luzon. It came from the fact that these people sailed northward from Boni on a Barangay sailboat and found a cape at the entrance of Manila Bay with high rocks. Shaped like a wooden pestle, they called it Luzon.

Luzon is a transliteration, the original meaning is that the immigrants from Barangay described the promontory at the entrance of Manila Bay, and the original meaning is the meaning of wooden pestle.

The imperial court did not name it after San Francisco, Jinshan, or Gold and Silver. It was also because the imperial court already had the Jinzhou Governor's Mansion, so it finally used the original name of the natives here to transliterate Luzon.

"Do you know how I view this matter?" Qin Lang asked his son patiently.

"Grandfather has worked hard to plant trees. Now that the peaches have grown, the imperial court will directly pick one-third of the peaches, and we will pick them and send them over. In the future, we will ask for so many peaches every year. Grandpa is sure of that." uncomfortable."

"No, I don't feel bad at all."

Qin Jun was stunned, how could this be possible.

"Although Treasure Island is not the old territory of the Han family, our Qin family has always been the minister of the Tang Dynasty. This is an unchangeable fact..."

An imperial edict from the emperor seemed to take away a third of the tax directly, but in Qin Lang's view, this edict was actually something he could only wish for.

With this edict, it is tantamount to permanently solving the legality issue of Treasure Island.

Prior to this, Treasure Island was a gray area that was neither black nor white, nor white. It was the sidelines that the Qin family had been playing. Although it was fine before, it did not mean that it would never be fine. If there is no legality, then it will be forever There is a hidden danger, no one knows when the thunder will explode.

But now the emperor Li Shimin personally made a decree to explain the issue of Treasure Island clearly. This is a piece of secular territory bestowed by the emperor to the Qin family, and it is different from the secular territory of the Central Plains. This is called an overseas territory, and the court does not care about it. , allows you to be self-governing, you can set up your own bureaucrats, have your own army, etc. The imperial court only requires you to implement the imperial court's laws and tax laws in the territory, and then pay one-third of the taxes to the imperial court.

The imperial court does nothing, and has to pay one-third of the tax.

Is it too much?
Qin Lang didn't think it was too much at all. On the contrary, he felt that after the court demanded one-third of the tax, the overseas territory could be regarded as truly safe and stable.

(End of this chapter)