Chapter Ten Manufacturing Standards

  This time he made some mistakes in his judgment and missed an important play.

  Song Jiuyi's words almost fooled those nobles, let alone these common people, who were discussing and gossiping. Song Jiuyi gave a signal with his eyes, and Hu Lao understood, also giving a signal to the people below him. His underlings took the lead, first coming over to sign their names and leave handprints.

  The address was not written by Song Jiu himself, but by a few people from the river who could recognize some characters. However, it looked terrible, and when Song Jiu took a glance, he found many typos. He didn't correct them, but walked to the Bian River with his hands behind his back. On the opposite side of the river was the Xia Tu Bridge. The people on the other side of the river didn't know what was happening here, so they stood together on the bridge and watched.

  They see this as scenery, Song Jiu sees them as scenery.

  Looking at each other.

  Suddenly Song Jiu's eyes lit up.

  On the bridge stood a young girl, accompanied by a maid, seemingly from a wealthy family.

  But her figure is extremely slender and beautiful, as lovely as a blooming flower.

  Perhaps it was the light that carried a hint of hereditary factors, Song Jiu's eyesight was very good despite being a scholar, and although the Bian River was wide, it had entered the city after all, not like the Yellow River or the Yangtze River, he could see the faces of people on the other shore clearly.

  So he stared for a few more moments, and suddenly his heart started pounding.

  That girl's skin is as white as snow, her face like powdered jade, her eyes shining like lacquer. Standing there, she is like a lotus flower about to bloom, like beautiful jade, like radiant clouds, like an immortal maiden...

  Is there such a beautiful color in the world?

  Song Jiu was stunned and felt like he had lost his soul.

  The girl didn't notice Song Jiu, she just stared for a while, whispered a few words to the maid, and got on the carriage and left. Song Jiu finally came back to his senses, thinking, how embarrassing, did he really get a good look at the girl's appearance? Was it another case of the old Song Jiu having spring fever again?

  Walk back again, but still have a faint sense of loss in my heart, and can't help but call out a few more times to apologize.

  Humans have a psychology of following the crowd, someone takes the lead, and after careful consideration, Song Jiu's Golden River is no longer credible, but this matter does indeed benefit everyone at present, and more and more common people are signing their names.

  Some people have raised questions about it.

  The contract stated everything, for Song Jiu, it was an original, gruesome crane, but for people now, it's simply a miracle. Not only can it increase efficiency, but also release a large amount of labor force.

  So the contract clearly marked, patrol and defense, accounting and receiving goods, shift maintenance and other division of labor matters. There are also many humanized measures, such as having special circumstances at home, discussing with relatives and friends, swapping shifts, if there is a work injury, everyone contributes money to treat them. Many are outsiders, some will stay later and become new Beijing people, some will return home, and some will seek better jobs or other reasons, the principal paid must be reimbursed by everyone contributing money. Once large-scale operation begins, one laborer may receive two or three yuan, which is not a small number for these hardworking people, but everyone contributes a little, and one person's contribution of one cent solves the problem.

  Not a brilliant idea, but in this era, it's too brilliant, too humanized. In fact, the several elderly household heads and neighborhood chiefs who were invited to see the contract saw dozens of clauses on it, and after reading them, they all looked like wooden chickens.

  The common people asked, and these scribes answered. After hearing the terms, from dozens to hundreds of people lined up to sign their names.

  Old Hu said with envy: "Xiaojiu, scholars have good brains."

  "Don't worry, it won't be long before your child can read books too."

  Old Hu grinned from ear to ear.

  After a while, everyone signed and pressed their seals. Although the seventh brother-in-law was reluctant to give up his share, so many people agreed, and the contract also stated that labor would be released. At present, labor is redundant, and in the future, no matter who it is, they will not be allowed to bring in any more laborers, only out, not in. Once this village is passed, there will be no such shop again. Once this mountain is crossed, there will be no such temple again.

  Old Hu didn't let them go.

  Moreover, the greatest benefit of mechanical replacement of manpower is that it does not get tired. No matter if it's windy or rainy, frosty or scorching hot, it will still produce wear and tear. If one component breaks down, the entire component needs to be replaced together. Wanting to replace a component involves a serious issue - standards!

  In later generations, standards are everywhere, from rockets and airplanes to missiles, household appliances, pots, bowls, plates, and basins. However, in China for a very long time, this standard was quite vague.

  The dou, equivalent to about 340 milliliters in the Qin and Western Han dynasties, was reduced to around 190 milliliters in the Eastern Han dynasty. In the Wei and Jin dynasties it was increased to around 200 milliliters, then to around 590 milliliters in the Tang dynasty, around 660 milliliters in the Song dynasty, around 940 milliliters in the Yuan dynasty, and finally standardized at exactly 1 liter in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

  Qin and Western Han: 258 grams, Eastern Han: about 220 grams, Sui: about 660 grams, late Sui turmoil: about 220 grams, Tang and later: about 590 grams.

  Qin and Western Han, one chi is 27 cm, Eastern Han is 23 cm, Wei is 24 cm, and after Tang it floats between 30 to 32 cm.

  Thanks should go to Qin Shi Huang, otherwise the seven states of the Warring States period would have continued to play their own games and things would have been even more chaotic.

  The system is different, one zhang is ten chi, and one jin is sixteen liang. One is a decimal system, the other is a hexadecimal system. So how many liang are sixteen jin? Those who are good at mental arithmetic can immediately answer 256 liang, but how many liang are 256 jin, can you answer in one breath?

  What's even more frightening is that in the same era and place, the units of measurement were very chaotic. Some large scales could weigh up to 17 or 18 taels per jin, while some small scales only weighed 14 or 15 taels per jin. As long as the difference was not too great, the authorities had no way to investigate. Therefore, shops often used large pecks to buy goods and small pecks to sell them, which was exactly the loophole caused by this chaotic system of measurement. For example, the copper rulers unearthed from the Tang Dynasty in later generations were mostly less than 29 centimeters, with some exceeding 31 centimeters.

  One foot is actually nearly three centimeters different, what a terrible error!

  If there is such an error, Song Jiu's screw is simply unplayable.

  So there is another thing, unifying the weights and measures in the river. The far-reaching impact of unifying weights and measures is that it can make industrial standards, industrialization, mass production, and lay a solid foundation for large-scale mechanization. But absolutely not something Song Jiuzheng would consider, he can't even take care of himself, how can he take care of others?

  Weight in hexadecimal and length in decimal, Song Jiuxiao didn't want to move, although the hexadecimal calculation was troublesome, but at this time the common people were used to it. What moved was the standard of weight, length and volume. A small-scale measurement standardization was made in the river.

  It's not a nationwide promotion, and there's no need to disturb the second-in-command of Kaifeng Prefecture, let alone the martial arts master in the Imperial City.

  It doesn't matter how many centimeters are in a foot, how many grams are in a catty, or how many standard milliliters are in a liter. What's important is the standard itself. With a unified standard, pecks, liters, scales, and feet can be unified. Not only will manufacturing costs decrease, but also produced parts can be replaced. Otherwise, if one part breaks, the entire thing needs to be replaced, which would greatly increase costs.

  Song Ji thought of its profound significance, but wouldn't deliberately think more about it. It needs a powerful figure to promote it, like Song Zhenzong promoted the cultivation of rice in Champa, and Zhu Yuanzhang promoted cotton. Otherwise, it would be like the Jiangdong plow, which has been around for 200 years, yet is still not widely used across the country. Cotton appeared during the Tang Dynasty but was only cultivated in Lingnan and Xiyu, not in the Central Plains. Various miscellaneous grains all emerged during the Ming Dynasty, but due to a lack of powerful figures promoting them, the result was drought and peasant uprisings at the end of the Ming Dynasty, leading to its downfall and the Qing people entering the capital.

  The common people never thought of it, Song Jiu said, and Hu Lao Da also sent someone to Kaifeng County to invite various measurement standards, and took the various measurement standards of Kaifeng County as the standard to manufacture various measuring instruments for size, volume and weight.

  In the river, there was only one blacksmith shop of Li Tiejiang's family. In the Song Dynasty, two taxes were used: summer tax and autumn tax. Summer tax is coming soon, with a large amount to be paid, so various pulleys must be made in advance. Li Tiejiang's family blacksmith shop alone cannot handle it, and several other blacksmith shops need to be found in the city.

  Things have not ended yet, and in the river area, there are no Confucian scholars to discuss and laugh with. All who come and go are ordinary people. Once they gather together, someone must manage the accounts. But how many people can read and manage this account well? Each household has to select some young people for Song Jiu to teach them.

  It's not easy either way.

  First of all, it's about measurement units. Not only unification is needed, but the current tools are also insufficient. Triangular rulers, straight rulers, card rulers and soft rulers are necessary. The first three types of rulers can be made with wood, but what material should be used for soft rulers? Even if Song Jiayan's nine heads were chopped off, PVC plastic and fiberglass still couldn't be produced.

  There are also large calipers, various more precise measurement standards, the length must be accurate to one-fifth of a millimeter, that is 0.6 mm, the volume must be accurate to one-thousandth of a liter, 0.66 standard ml, and the weight must be accurate to one-thirtieth of a liang, which is four-hundred-eightieths of a jin, more than one gram, in order to achieve standardized parts for equipment.

  Teaching students is also not easy, and until now Song Jiu still hasn't thought of a way to teach.

  After Song Jiuzhong finished speaking, the crowd fell silent together. It turned out that this money was also hard to take, and they finally gave up.

  Long before they did, Hu Lao Da was also somewhat unconvinced, but after listening to Song Jiu's presentation of these difficulties one by one, he too could not utter a word.

  Many things come one after another.

  As the sky gradually darkened, Old Hu said: "Let the villagers go back first."

  Song Jiuyi grabbed him: "Hu Xing Tou, don't be in a hurry, you haven't fulfilled your gambling debt yet."

  "Sing a song?" Hu Lao Da hadn't forgotten.

  "Right, you're going to take someone to sing."

  "Xíng", this is a troublemaker, Hu Lao Da also likes it, bringing a group of younger brothers to the front door of Zhu's house, singing loudly and off-key, for a time all sorts of lewd and obscene songs are wailing and howling in front of Zhu's house, lingering on and on. It's still okay during the day, but at night it continues.