The great hero of the Silk Road, starting from a farm farmer

Chapter 200 A delicious and lazy invention!
Outside the gate of the Yungu City Lord's Mansion in Taoyang Town, a long table was set up with several rough pens standing on it.It's not entirely true that it's a pen. Not much steel and iron are used in these pens. The key pen tip is made of copper, and the other parts are mostly wood.

A bunch of people gathered around the long table chattering about the pens on display and the reward order for pens that the city lord's palace had just issued.

If you can make a pen that is better than the one on display, you will receive a generous reward, and you can also open a pen-making workshop with the funding of the city lord's palace, and there will be a large purchase order.Listen to this, as long as you come up with this thing, you can make a fortune.

It's a pity that there are many people watching the excitement, but not many people are really tempted to give it a try.If you want to get rich, you have to have that skill. Not everyone can do the most common craftsman's work, not to mention that the fountain pen is a delicate job at first glance, and not just anyone can do it.

Among the onlookers, there was a man named Shen San, who was called Shen Xiaoxiao because he claimed to be a craftsman who could make suona.With his skills in making speakers, he was able to rent a yard for free in the workshop area of ​​Taoyang Town.

Squeezed in the crowd, looking at the pens on display, Shen San's eyes wandered around.This pen looks like it’s not difficult to make, right?It seems easier than learning to make suona reeds from the master.

Shen San told the people in the Guangongfang District of Taoyang Town that he was a suona craftsman, but in fact he was not a master in making suonas.I worked as an apprentice with a suona maker in Chang'an City for more than three years. Later, I was kicked out by the master because I was too lazy to work.

Shen San, who failed to learn his craft but had a lot of idle habits, wandered around Chang'an City for a few years. After being unable to survive, he went to Qinzhou to earn a living by playing the suona for the opera troupe.

Being a trumpeter is actually a way to earn a living, and those who are good trumpeters earn a lot of money.It's just that Shen San's habit of being lazy and lazy has become more serious since he became a trumpeter.This industry has an irregular life and unstable income, and Shen San has many problems. As he works, he is precarious and has no meal at all.

What should I do if I don’t have enough to eat?Shen San, who was poor and wanted to change, turned to theft. This business can make money quickly.He was so good that he just started a second-hand business and got into big trouble. He stole the wallet of the Qinzhou magistrate's son without seeing anything. All the government officials in the city looked like they were crazy and hunted down this bold little thief.

Fortunately, Shen San didn't have time to sell the stolen goods after he got it. He didn't have much contact with his peers on the streets of Qinzhou soon after he started in the industry, so he hasn't exposed his flaws yet.If things go around like this, I don’t have the guts to stay in Qinzhou any longer.Carrying the wallet stolen from the Qinzhou magistrate, Shen San quickly ran away.Yungu is not particularly far from Qinzhou, and it is an outlying area, so it is Shen San's first choice for escape.

After arriving at Yungu, Shen San saw that as long as he was a craftsman, he could rent a house in the Gongfang District for free, so he took the idea and lied about being a craftsman who made suonas. He deceived the trust of the officials in Gongfang District and moved into the Gongfang District. Fang District.

The officials in charge of the Gongfang District were able to be deceived by Shen San. On the one hand, this guy was a good talker, and on the other hand, he felt that he could not deceive people in this matter.If you don't have skills, the yarn workshop you open will be exposed sooner or later.As everyone knows, there are people like Shen San who don't care about anything just to take advantage.

After moving into the Gongfang District, everything felt good at first. I lived alone in a big yard and didn't have to spend a penny. It was much better than living in Chang'an and Qinzhou.But as time went by, something went wrong. Other craftsmen started to work one after another and began to make money, and people came and went in front of the door.Only here, after moving in for more than a month, there is still nothing to do.A few days ago, someone from Yungu's army even came to the door and said that he wanted to order some suonas from him for military use.

Shen San, who couldn't make the suona at all, had no choice but to find reasons to excuse himself.You can prevaricate once or twice, but you can't do it all the time, right?In addition, the wallet he brought from Qinzhou has been almost spent.If he doesn't get any more money, he won't be able to live his life anymore.

"Shopkeeper Shen, are you interested in making these pens?" Just as Shen San was looking at the fountain pen stall on display and wondering if he should try making something like this to fool around with, a neighbor who also ran over to watch the fun came over to help. Start talking.

"That's natural. The city lord is offering huge rewards. How can we, the craftsmen, not be tempted? There are only a few people in my suona business, and it hasn't opened yet. If we can do something that attracts the attention of the city lord, It can be regarded as a way out. I just wonder if I have the ability to receive the reward from the master." Shen San shamelessly pretended to be an old craftsman and boasted to his neighbors.Anyway, no one has done this before, and if it doesn't work well, it won't be revealed. Shen Sanzhen plans to try making a fountain pen.

Samples of fountain pens have been on display for several days, and samples appeared on Song Yingkui's desk one after another.Looking at the pens made by craftsmen of different systems, Song Yingkui was very patient and took them out one by one to try out.There are not many that are satisfactory. Either the workmanship is too rough, or the work is completely imitating one's own ideas and styles.Especially in terms of water absorption, it is basically not good enough.

Although water-immersed pens do not need to absorb and store a large amount of ink like self-absorbing pens, they must have a certain ability to absorb water, otherwise they will not be able to write.In terms of physical principles, water-immersed pens must also have the application of capillary siphon effect.

Why?This is interesting.Suddenly, Song Yingkui became interested in a sample of a fountain pen.The first thing that makes this pen different from other pens is that the material is very simple. It does not use processed wood or copper and iron materials to make the pen barrel.Instead, they directly used a very common material called pearl rod here in Didao.Pearl poles are somewhat similar to bamboo, with a floccule in the middle that can be hollowed out.The hollow pearl rod was directly used as the penholder, and then a small copper hoop was made at the front end.Then use copper sheets and water to remove the pen tip and nib made of willow wood.

If that's all it is, it's not that amazing.The key is that on the pen barrel, it has a water-absorbing piston device that can suck water into the pen barrel through the pen tip, and then you can press the piston rod at the back of the pen to spit out the water.This idea is very similar to a self-absorbing fountain pen, right?The material and craftsmanship are not complicated, but the idea is unique and practical, and the writing feeling is very good, which is very satisfying.

"Ying Xiao, find the craftsmen of these three pens, give them a reward of 20 silver dollars each, and place an order for them to make another hundred pens for the city lord's palace. Tell them that they must Carefully, if these hundred pens are made well, there will be a steady stream of orders in the future." In addition to the most satisfactory pen, Song Yingkui chose two more pens with relatively exquisite craftsmanship to make these three pens. The pen craftsman placed the order.

The pen that satisfied Song Yingkui the most was made by Shen San.The main reason why he chose pearl rod as the pen holder was that it was easy to process and the craftsmanship was simple.Afraid that the city lord would take notice of it because it was too simple, he thought of the scene when he used bamboo poles to make water-squirting toys when he was a child, and made a superfluous water-absorbing device to show that he was ingenious when making this thing.

(End of this chapter)