Wang was devastated and distressed. Originally www.biquge.info, he wanted to make a Taishi chair by himself, but he didn't expect that wood was easy to find, but nails were hard to find; he wanted to make some paper, but he only knew how to soak bamboo, reeds or mulberry bark in strong alkali, but he didn't know what strong alkali was. I wanted to get some gunpowder, but I didn't know where to find sulfur and potassium nitrate. Since he can't get anything, then practice calligraphy, but he was ridiculed by Wang An, the third brother of the tsundere man, saying that his pen strength is unstable and his strokes are uneven. Angry, Wang Shu threw away the pen and went to work as a supervisor behind his back.

As soon as I walked into the room that was temporarily turned into a carpentry room in the side courtyard, I saw two carpenters hired with high salaries to specialize in making eight filial piety pictures were in full swing, to say that the labor consciousness of the people in the Han Dynasty was high, and the boss was the same whether he was there or not, but the more Wang Shu looked at these two carpenters, the more he felt that he was a wronged man.

At the beginning, he asked Cangsan, the second goods, to find two skilled carpenters to carve the eight filial piety pictures on the wooden board, but he found these two people who claimed that their teacher was Ding Xuan (1). After these two people heard what Wang Shu was going to do, they opened their mouths and asked for three thousand yuan (2), saying that they should not look at the price, but after they finished it, they promised to satisfy the second son.

If you want to say that this Ding slow, since he crossed over to the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Shu naturally knows who it is, and it is a cow who can make an incense burner and a seven-wheel fan. When Wang Shu saw the incense burner, he still didn't believe his eyes, to say that this incense burner was a good thing, a hollow copper ball, and there was a small ball supported by a short shaft inside, and it became an incense burner when incense charcoal was placed in it. No matter how the incense burner rolls in the quilt, the ring bracket around the incense burner can ensure that the incense burner is placed horizontally, without worrying about the coals capsizing. As for the seven-wheel fan, there is one in the front hall of Wang Mang's reception, and only one person needs to rotate there, which can instantly make people feel that there is a breeze coming, and it is effortless, it is simply an energy-saving and environmentally friendly manpower electric fan.

Therefore, when Wang Shu heard that these two craftsmen claimed to be disciples of Ding Zhuan, he asked them to try it first, and when the first painting of Emperor Shun's filial piety was completed, he was also greatly surprised to see the twenty-four filial piety pictures of later generations. Although even in the Han Dynasty, no one knew what Emperor Shun looked like, but they only depicted Emperor Shun, elephants and birds realistically with just a few strokes. However, when the eight filial piety plans were completed and the account needed to be settled, Wang Yu knew that his monthly pocket money was only 500 yuan, and the third brother Wang An was even less, only 200 yuan. What's even worse is that the two of them usually belong to the lord of Yin's food, and now they don't have a single plant in their pockets. I wanted to ask my grandmother and mother, but they all went to visit Wang Guang's mother. As a last resort, Wang Shucai gave up the original publicity plan and offered the eight filial piety pictures when Wang Mang invited the guests.

When Wang Mang heard that the eight filial piety pictures were made by Ding Xuan's disciples, he immediately rewarded the two craftsmen with a pound of gold, which is at least 300 yuan of real gold per gram in later generations, according to the calculation of 250 grams of one pound in the Han Dynasty, these two craftsmen made a set of eight filial piety pictures, and the reward was enough to 75,000 yuan, which is equivalent to the pocket money of Wang Yu, who is a rich second generation, for a full 20 months. In this way, Wang Shu naturally became angry when he saw these two craftsmen.

Later, Wang Shu learned that the gold mentioned in the Western Han Dynasty was gold, not copper as some bricks in later generations believed. At this time, there were only two standard currencies in circulation, one was five coins, and the other was gold. If anyone in the Han Dynasty wanted to take a piece of copper to buy something to pay the bill, they would definitely be treated as mentally ill. Think about it, the story of Liu Bang trapped in Xingyang is recorded in history, according to the words of those brick families, Chen Ping took 40,000 catties of copper and separated Xiang Yu's monarchs, didn't Xiang Yu's subordinates all become the standard two hundred and five?

Originally, according to Wang Shu's meaning, these two craftsmen should have made the eight filial piety pictures and should have let them roll up and leave immediately after taking the reward money, but Wang An kept these two people and let them make five more sets of eight filial piety pictures.

Who knows, since Wang Shou, Wang An dedicated eight filial piety figures, come to Wang Mang's house to ask for eight filial piety pictures is endless, although Wang Mang's family will only give relatives and friends the lack of Wang Mang's fan pillow Wen Shu of the seven filial piety pictures, plus the market soon appeared copycat goods, but no one is proud of the collection of Wang Mang's family out of the seven filial piety pictures. So there were two more carpenters in Wang Shu's house, but Wang Mang was also generous, and the price he gave far exceeded their psychological expectations, so he lived safely. Only at this time did Wang Shu know that one of the two craftsmen was named Lai Wu and the other was Huang Guang.

As the saying goes, a boss who can't squeeze out the last residual value of his employees is not a good boss, since he takes more money for his own workers than himself, then Wang Shu and Wang An can naturally let Lai Wu and Huang Guang work overtime to help themselves do this and that, in addition to coming over from time to time to supervise the working status of these two craftsmen.

Wang Shu was upset anyway, so he regarded the work of supervising Lai Wu and Huang Guang as a distraction. When Wang Shu came in, he saw that Huang Guang was making a screen in his grandmother's room, which contained the story of Wang Mang's filial piety. Seeing this, Wang Shu had an idea, so he asked Lai Wu and Huang Guang to stop the work in their hands first, and told them about the style and purpose of the Taishi chair, and then let them try to do it.

Not to mention, the ingenuity of the ancients should not be underestimated. Early the next morning, Cang San ran over and said that the things that Wang Shu had arranged for Lai Wu and Huang Guang to do had been done, and the happy Wang Shu couldn't care about anything, so he ran directly to the side courtyard, and then saw a standard Taishi chair with a wide body and a backrest and armrests in the room. Tried to sit down for a while, it was not bad, Wang Shu secretly said in his heart, if the chair was added to the cushion and then dedicated to his grandmother and mother, then everything would be OK. As for why he didn't give Wang Mang a chair, the main reason was that this father was very strict with ancient etiquette, and it was not something that could be done in a day or two if he wanted him to accept the chair.

A day later, when my grandmother and mother sat on the Taishi chair presented by Wang Shu, and listened to Wang Shu's introduction to the use of the chair, it had already made the two elders laugh from ear to ear. In addition, there was a doctor Gao personally invited by Wang Shu next to him to prove that kneeling and sitting for a long time was not conducive to blood luck, and sitting on a chair would not have this concern, hearing what Dr. Gao said, my grandmother immediately ordered someone to call Wang Mang. When Wang Mang saw the Taishi chair and listened to Wang Shou and Dr. Gao's explanation, he personally tried to sit for a moment, and after pondering for a long time, he said to Wang Shu: "You immediately ask Lai Wu and Huang Guang to carefully build such a chair, and I will send someone to present it to the Empress Dowager, the sooner the better, this matter is related to your future." ”

Wang Xu naturally knew that the empress dowager that Wang Mang was talking about was Wang Mang's aunt, his aunt Wang Zhengjun. At the same time, he also knew that this was his father Wang Mang deliberately showing his father and son's filial piety to Wang Zhengjun. Thinking of this, he immediately said to Wang Mang: "Ah Weng's orders are naturally everything, but the minister thinks that the empress dowager is already in her prime, and it is inevitable that her back will be sore when she sits on the wooden chair for a long time, so please think carefully about what should be done." ”

Wang Mang saw that Wang was very thoughtful, so he didn't say anything more, nodded and went to talk to the old lady. Wang was naturally very excited to see that his father was not averse to the chair. At the same time, by making chairs for the Empress Dowager, a large amount of scientific research funds do not have to be used in vain, as long as the most comfortable chair in later generations, that is, the rocking chair, is made out and kept to reassure the father and satisfy the Empress Dowager.

Lack of creation rather than manufacturing, perhaps this is a common problem for skilled craftsmen of any era, so since Wang Huo made a request, it only took five days, Lai Wu and Huang Guang made eight rocking chairs before and after, Wang Huo immediately asked Wang Mang to personally inspect it, after Wang Shu's violent experiment, five were reimbursed on the spot, and then after strict testing, a rocking chair was finally selected. Wang Mang immediately arranged a special person to escort the rocking chair into Beijing, and in order to ensure that the rocking chair was foolproof, the craftsman Huang Guang also became one of the escorts.

(1) Ding Zhuan: A skilled craftsman in Chang'an (now Xi'an) of the Han Dynasty.

(2) 3,000 coins: with five coins as the unit of measurement, 10,000 coins are equivalent to one catty (modern half a catty) of gold.