Chapter 147 Settling Accounts After the Autumn Harvest

The New Year is always a joyous and festive occasion. Everyone takes their annual leave and rushes back to their hometowns to reunite with their families, celebrating the New Year together in a lively and happy atmosphere, enjoying the excitement, relaxation, and joy of the New Year.

Unlike last year, this year's New Year coincided with a severe drought in Zhili Province. In addition, the Dzungar Khanate remained relatively calm, so Emperor Kangxi took a rare holiday. He not only stopped writing on the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month, but also planned to continue his holiday until the third day of the first lunar month.

Because Emperor Kangxi extended the annual holiday by two days, the ministers were also able to take a long break and relax during the festival, enjoying time with their families without worrying that the holiday would end immediately.

In contrast, the princes who were still studying in the Imperial Study were much more miserable. They only had one day off for the New Year and the Spring Festival.

After spending a night in their birth mother's/adoptive mother's palace, and enjoying a brief reunion with their birth mother, the princes returned to the Imperial Study to continue their studies, immersing themselves in the ocean of knowledge.

Of course, the officials in the Imperial Study also had to be on duty during the holidays, but at least they weren't as miserable as the princes, who had to work three weeks and seven days a year during the New Year.

With sufficient staff, the officials could take turns working, and there were always times for rest during festivals. However, the princes could not be absent for even a day, unless they wanted to challenge the authority and patience of their strict father, Emperor Kangxi.

After the Imperial Study reopened after a one-day break, the first two days were uneventful except for the princes being absent-minded, listless, and somewhat lethargic in class.

But on the third day, after the first day of the Lunar New Year, the vengeful Emperor Kangxi still settled scores, and the long-awaited punishment finally arrived; he could not escape it after all.

The person punished most severely by Kangxi... as expected, it was the Fifth Prince, just as Yin'e had predicted.

At the family reunion banquet, when Emperor Kangxi was acting like a playboy, serving everyone... no, when he was showing concern for everyone, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince were the first to slip away. However, at that time, Emperor Kangxi's attention was firmly focused on the Third Prince, so he did not notice that the first to slip away were Yin'e and the Ninth Prince.

Without knowing who the real culprit was, the blame was ultimately placed on the Fifth Prince, the eldest of the six princes who had fled.

The older princes were more favored by Emperor Kangxi than the younger ones, but they also had to shoulder greater responsibilities. Nothing is ever all good; everything has two sides, advantages and disadvantages.

The Fifth Prince was wrongly blamed, and Yin'e and the Ninth Prince felt deeply sympathetic, but they would never step forward to take the blame: "Better to sacrifice a friend than myself, Fifth Brother, I'm sorry!"

The Fifth Prince was the Empress Dowager's most beloved grandson. With the Empress Dowager's support, Emperor Kangxi, who needed to win over the Mongols, had to consider his stepmother's feelings.

Emperor Kangxi wouldn't punish the Fifth Prince too severely, otherwise the Empress Dowager would feel sorry for him and be unhappy.

After Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang passed away, the Empress Dowager always stood with Emperor Kangxi on important matters and never used her status as Empress Dowager to cause trouble for Emperor Kangxi or seek personal gain for the Khorchin. Emperor Kangxi, of course, also reciprocated by going along with the Empress Dowager in these minor matters.

When it came to Yin'e and the Ninth Prince, there was no one who could both suppress Kangxi in terms of seniority and be of political help to Kangxi to support them. The Fifth Prince was severely punished, but he was only sent back to the Fifth Palace in the East from Ning Shou Palace and was punished by copying the Four Books and Five Classics ten times.

If it were Yin'e and the Ninth Prince who took the blame, they wouldn't just be forced to copy books; they might even be physically punished. They wouldn't necessarily be beaten with a board, but their left hands, which weren't used for writing, would certainly be hit with a ruler—Kangxi would absolutely have been capable of that.

In the realm of education, and in his ability to be ruthless towards his son, Emperor Kangxi can always be trusted.

Although they weren't wrongly blamed, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince weren't lucky enough to escape punishment, just not as severely as the Fifth Prince—they were punished by copying the Four Books and Five Classics three times.

The eleventh and twelfth princes were also punished by copying the Thousand Character Classic and the Standards for Being a Good Student and Child once each.

The only one who escaped punishment was the Seventh Prince. Whether out of pity or guilt, Kangxi chose to ignore the "mistake" the Seventh Prince had made, selectively turning a blind eye, as if the Seventh Prince had never wandered off and had always stood still in the same place.

After his short one-day annual leave ended, while studying in the Imperial Study, Yin'e once again began to tinker with wool and fats in his spare time after school.

Previously, Yin'e had already produced pure alkali, and the next step was to try using alkali to wash wool.

Yin'e had Xiao Linzi find a large wooden basin, fill it with water, and then sprinkle in a handful of plant alkali extracted from tea leaves that had a slightly burning sensation when touched. This would be enough to wash the small basket of raw wool shaved directly from the sheep.

That's why they say knowledge changes destiny. Those greasy, smelly, and slightly yellowish raw wool fibers just won't get clean no matter how you wash them with water. But if you put them in water with dissolved plant alkali, the oil stuck to the raw wool fibers will quickly come off and they will be washed clean.

Sitting on a small stool, he quickly washed the first clean bundle of wool in a wooden basin sprinkled with plant alkali. Xiao Linzi, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, stared at Yin E with wide eyes, his gaze filled with astonishment, surprise, and confusion.

Both of them had taken elementary school science classes. Although Yin'e's experiments were not that rigorous, he at least set up a control group. Before washing the wool with pure alkali, Yin'e had tried washing the wool directly with water. He did this with Xiao Linzi.

And the result, naturally, was a complete failure. Xiao Linzi was convinced by the undeniable facts that raw wool was simply unusable—if it couldn't be washed clean and the odor and greasiness removed, even a person with a normal sense of smell couldn't accept wool fabrics.

Xiao Linzi witnessed and participated in the extraction of pure alkali firsthand. However, he did not understand why the impure white powder extracted from the ashes of burnt tea leaves had such a miraculous effect; just a small handful sprinkled into water could clean wool that could not be washed clean with plain water.

However, not understanding the principle doesn't stop Xiao Linzi from doing it.

Yin'e only watched as Xiao Linzi washed a handful of wool, and once he confirmed that the alkaline wool washing method was feasible, he patted his behind and left.

There was still a pile of homework waiting for him in the study. After finishing his homework as quickly as possible, Yin'e should go to bed. Otherwise, if he didn't get enough sleep, he wouldn't be able to get up at three o'clock the next morning to go to the study.

The remaining task of washing and drying the other wool was left to Xiaolinzi—the sun hadn't been out for the past few days, and it was hard to imagine how long it would take for the washed wool to dry completely by simply air-drying it; Yin'e certainly didn't have the patience to wait that long.

For mass production, air drying would be more cost-effective in saving costs. But since this is an initial experiment, we'll disregard costs for now and prioritize efficiency.

There were about ten palace servants in the three palaces of Ganxi. Besides Xiaolinzi, there was Granny Wang, the wet nurse in charge of the princes' quarters and storeroom, four palace servants serving in the small kitchen, two needleworkers, two maids cleaning the rooms, two eunuchs running errands, and four old women sweeping and guarding the courtyard at night.

Even excluding Haha Zhuzi who followed Yin'e, there were enough people in Ganxi San Suo for Xiao Linzi to use. The series of tasks, such as washing wool, drying it, and collecting lanolin, would not take much time.

The next day, when Yin'e returned to the prince's residence after school, Xiao Linzi presented him with a basket of clean and dried wool. The wool, which was originally dirty, smelly, and slightly yellowed, became clean and fluffy after being washed and dried. It felt soft and warm to the touch, and its appearance was quite good.

In addition, Xiaolinzi also collected the pale yellow paste-like substance that settled in the large wooden basin after washing the wool and put it in a white porcelain tea caddy that had been emptied of tea leaves, only covering the bottom slightly—after all, only a small basket of wool had been washed, yet half a palm-sized amount of lanolin had been extracted.

As for whether the wool washing business might be leaked due to so many people handling it, Yin'e didn't care.

First of all, this is a feudal society where imperial power is absolute. Not everyone dares to provoke a prince. Putting aside the potential profits from such a scheme, would anyone really think they could be so easily bullied as to copy Yin'e's ideas, offend him, and the Consort and Niohuru behind him?

Secondly, knowing that wool can be cleaned is useless; not knowing how to clean wool is equally pointless.

Besides Yin'e and the Ninth Prince, only Xiao Linzi knew that pure alkali was needed for washing wool and how to extract it (he only knew about tea leaves). He was the personal eunuch chosen by the Consort for Yin'e, the most trustworthy, and ensured that the core formula would not be easily leaked.

Finally, even if the formula were unfortunately leaked, it wouldn't be a big deal.

Currently, Yin'e has only used tea leaves to extract pure alkali. Even the cheapest tea leaves are more expensive than wool. Small-scale production is manageable, but if they still use tea leaves to extract pure alkali for large-scale production, how can they make any money? The cost is several times the output value, which is completely not worth it.

Touching the fluffy, soft fur, Yin'e nodded in satisfaction: "Go and invite Ninth Brother over, let him see the cleaned fur."

A clever eunuch standing behind Xiao Linzi responded and immediately ran out the door, heading towards the neighboring Ganxi Fourth Detention Center.

There were two eunuchs in Ganxi San Suo responsible for running errands, and they were both very diligent in their work.

The reason was simple: running errands was a lucrative job. By delivering messages and items to various parts of the palace, one could always earn a small tip, which, little by little, added up to a sum comparable to one's monthly allowance.

If they went to the Fourth Palace of the Western Regions, the Fourth Palace of the Eastern Regions, the Fifth Palace of the Eastern Regions, and Yongshou Palace, the Ninth Prince, the Fifth Prince, the Seventh Prince, and Consort Niohuru would receive even more rewards.

Of course, in return, if people from these places came to deliver messages or gifts, Yin'e would be equally generous in giving them rewards.

Before the Ninth Prince arrived, Yin'e tossed a tuft of wool he had picked out to test its texture back into the basket and asked Xiao Linzi, "Is the comb I asked for ready yet?"

Even before washing the wool, Yin'e had instructed Xiao Linzi to find a craftsman to make a comb for combing wool.

He didn't expect that the current craftsmen's technology could produce a highly automated comb barrel. He just wanted a basic comb: similar in appearance to a brush in later times, only with a longer and wider comb plate, and metal comb needles nailed to the comb plate, nailed as neatly and orderly as possible.

If a suitable comb needle cannot be made in a short time, it is acceptable to temporarily use an iron nail of the same length. With the pointed end of the nail facing upwards, and the tip of the needle blunted to prevent injury, it becomes a suitable comb.

"It's done." Xiao Linzi nodded and immediately took out the comb that the craftsman had made.

The finished pin comb that Yin'e received was better than he had expected. Overall, it looked very similar to the combs used to groom large animals in later generations: the iron pin comb was of suitable thickness and uniform length, and was neatly nailed to the comb board with a very smooth surface; the handle connected to the bottom of the comb board was very sturdy and easy to hold.

Yin'e picked up the comb and played with it for a moment. It was a bit big for him to hold, but it was just right for an adult. It could easily comb the wool into wool fibers.

However, the pin comb is too small and not very efficient at combing hair. If mass production is required, a pin plate is more suitable. Compared to the pin comb, the pin plate is easier to make. You can simply take a wooden board and nail the pin comb on it neatly. You don't even need to attach a handle.

Just as he handed the comb back to Xiao Linzi, hurried footsteps sounded outside the door. The Ninth Prince rushed in excitedly and asked, "Is the wool washed? Let me see!"