On the 20th of September, Yang Sichen had his breakfast and went to Ping Bo Xuan with Rong Guang. Ping Bo Xuan was a small courtyard with about half an acre of land. There was an exquisite courtyard in the northeast corner of the courtyard. To the south of the courtyard was a small pond with a few lotus seeds standing sparsely. To the west of the small pond was a corridor. In the middle of the corridor was an octagonal pavilion. A open channel passed through the south corner of the pavilion and flowed out of the residence. The other places were overgrown with weeds. A few plum blossom trees stood listlessly among them. If one did not look carefully, they would not be able to tell. It was probably because no one had taken care of it for a long time and it had been abandoned.
When Yang Sichen entered the courtyard house, the three Du brothers were clearing the weeds in the courtyard house. When they saw Yang Sichen, they quickly put down the things in their hands and came over to greet him. Yang Sichen looked at the courtyard and saw that the weeds in the courtyard had been cleared more than half. He waved his hand and let the three brothers get up to continue working while he let Rongguang accompany him around.
After leaving the courtyard house and stepping onto the wooden corridor, Yang Sichen asked as he walked,""Have you finished cleaning up the three brothers 'rooms?”
"No," replied Rongguang. They had already cleaned it yesterday afternoon, and the window paper that had been pasted last night still needed to be redone with lime powder today to patch up the roof tiles. It would only be finished tomorrow.”
When Yang Sichen heard this, he couldn't help but frown. After a moment of silence, he said,""Get someone to tidy up two rooms for me. I might come here often in the future. Also, get a few more people to pull out all the weeds in Ping Bo Xuan and level the ground. Don't plant anything else.”
Rong Guang agreed, and after Yang Sichen nodded, he went to Xia Zhong.
Yang Sichen walked around for a while and felt that there was nothing else to say, so he returned to the Jade Wave Courtyard alone.
After Yang Sichen went back to the study room to practice a few words, Liu Lan brought Yun Shui and Yun Lan over. The two little girls were dressed in yellowish-green cross-collared shirts, light yellow traditional skirts, and pinkish blue armor. There was also a light yellow net hanging from their waists. They had their hair combed into a double bun, with a few silver hairpins on their heads and a pair of beautiful light pink embroidered shoes on their feet. They looked like young ladies from rich families. Flowing Mist's face was sour, and he had an expression that said,"You're satisfied now."
Seeing Liu Lan's expression, Yang Sichen couldn't help but feel happy. After carefully savoring Yun Shui and Yun Lan, he let the two sisters go out and called Rongguang in, leaving Liu Lan to talk.
When Liu Lan saw the two sisters leave the study, he said to Yang Sichen,""Young Master, it's not good to spoil Yun Shui and Yun Lan like this…After all, our Yang Family is a wealthy family, and the Old Master is an official of the Imperial Court…"
Yang Sichen closed the door and said solemnly,""What I said here today must not be said. Otherwise, if I were to be charged with the crime of not knowing the will of the Holy Emperor, my entire family would be confiscated and exterminated.”
Rongguang and Flowing Mist nodded in agreement.
"My grandfather led two thousand men from the Flying Fish Gang to submit to the imperial court and even made meritorious contributions. In the end, he became a navy admiral and his men were immediately scattered and mixed with other armies after the war. What does this mean?" Yang Sichen glanced at the two of them and continued," This means that the imperial court doesn't trust grandfather. Or rather, the imperial court has an instinctive rejection of grandfather, who was born a pirate! My grandfather also saw it, so he didn't let my father study and become an official. He encouraged me to do business. In fact, he did this to reassure the Imperial Court. If the Imperial Court sees that our Yang Residence isn't perfect, or that our generations are getting worse, they won't pay too much attention to us. It's the same reason why I dote on Yun Shui and Yun Lan.”
Yang Sichen's expression softened and he said,""The Du brothers were originally the children of the commoners in Longyou, but now they were sold to Song Jiang. From them, we learned that there was a refugee riot in Longyou. The Jurchen people in Liaodong had also rebelled. The Mongolian Tartars in the north seemed to be in harmony with the imperial court, but they were actually at odds with it. The Sheng Miao people in the south were also in turmoil…The imperial court could really be said to be in a precarious situation, but what were the officials up to? Cliques! Where is His Majesty? He hadn't attended court for more than twenty years! The reason why the Great Ming Dynasty could still be maintained was all thanks to the whip technique left behind by Zhang Juzheng that had not been completely abandoned. Otherwise, even without someone pushing, the commotion caused by the group of officials would be enough to shatter the dilapidated house of the Great Ming Dynasty.”
Rongguang and Flowing Mist broke out in cold sweat, their faces pale. Yang Sichen had no intention of stopping. He continued,""The rules set by Emperor Taizu are not bad. Emperor Chengzu's Yongle era was still alright. The people of the world could be considered to have some savings. When they encountered small disasters and difficulties, they would just deal with them. More than a hundred years had passed, and the rules had long been rotten. There were not many good emperors in the Ming Dynasty, and there were a lot of bad ones. The savings of the people in the world had long been exhausted, and the resentment accumulated. Coupled with the corruption of officials, the party struggles became more and more serious. From time to time, some eunuchs would jump out to add fuel to the fire. Usually, it was fine, but once natural and man-made disasters occurred, then…haha…a rabbit would even kick an eagle when it was anxious!!!”
"Young Master, at that time…our Yang Residence…what should we do?”Flowing Mist stammered, his face full of fear.
"What should we do? Cold salad!" Yang Sichen sneered.
…………
On the 23rd of September, the pot was delivered. Including the iron lid, it weighed 48 pounds. Yang Sichen gave the shopkeeper of the Tai Ji Blacksmith Shop ten taels of silver, and the shopkeeper left profusely.
Ping Bo Xuan was finally done. The three Du brothers came to the Blue Wave Courtyard to await Yang Sichen's orders. Yang Sichen brought them back to the Flat Wave Pavilion. After walking around, he realized that there was no kitchen in the Flat Wave Pavilion, so he asked the Du brothers to clean up a room and make it into a workshop. First, they built a stove with bricks, then propped up the pot. Then, they removed a few tiles and used wooden planks to make a simple chimney. They covered it with mud to prevent smoke from escaping...
Yang Sichen directed everyone to work the entire morning and finally built the workshop.
…………
The next day, Yang Sichen began teaching the three brothers how to make activated carbon. He instructed the three brothers to spread the dried wood pieces evenly on the bottom of the pot, cover the pot, and cover it with a smoke hood before heating it up. He kept blowing air into the stove and adding charcoal from time to time until the pot stopped smoking.
After about two hours, Du San ran over and said that the smoke was no longer coming out. Yang Sichen asked Du Da to open the lid of the pot and scoop out the carbonized wood with a shovel. He put it into the water and asked Du Er to lay the new wood in the pot. Then, he took out the carbonized wood from the water and filtered it with water to dry it on the stove. Finally, he put the dried activated carbon into the prepared terrine and sealed it.
After repeating the process for a day, the three brothers made a total of ten catties of activated carbon under Yang Sichen's command, which was basically enough to process 120 catties of brown sugar. Yang Sichen was very satisfied and rewarded the three brothers with fifty wen each. The three brothers sent Yang Sichen out of Ping Bo Xuan profusely.
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