Mythical Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1908: Chapter 1742: Piercing the Window Paper (Part 2)

Xun Yu and Zhou Yu both recalled the great battle in Yuzhou those years ago and couldn’t help but sigh; time truly flies.

”But that’s not an issue. Gong Youu has already submitted the materials. We will soon produce a finished product, and this time there won’t be as many mistakes as before,” Chen Xi said with a smile. ”Let’s do a collective assessment to save some trouble.”

Zhou Yu and Xun Yu exchanged a glance, then Xun Yu spoke up, ”We believe it is necessary to first conduct a Grand Craftsman assessment, and moreover, assess the three families simultaneously. After that, the lower assessments should be conducted locally. While the Grand Craftsman standards are the same, the assessments in various places won’t differ significantly either.”

”No problem.” Chen Xi nodded. He understood their concerns, but if they were unwilling, he didn’t intend to probe into it either. He did this to prepare for the upcoming standardization; a production line can only be developed post-standardization.

During the late Han, different regions had different measurement standards, which nearly drove Chen Xi to explode. Although the local deviations were small, they were enough to give him a headache.

It was supposed that taxes were collected by the bushel, but each area’s bushel was different. Once, Chen Xi raged in front of Lub Su, berating those prefectural governors, ”You scoundrels think I don’t know what’s meant by ’small bushel out, big bushel in’? Don’t you know the Chen Family ancestor did it the other way around?”

However, it was essentially meaningless. After all, there were deviations in measurement standards across different regions. The so-called inch was derived from the length of ten millet grains laid side by side, something Chen Xi had no way to control to reach his desired result.

There was a time when Chen Xi was obsessed with finding a way to define the meter as a standard unit. Given a definitive length, he could quickly calculate standard weight, and from there create many universally used units.

Unfortunately, without any tools at hand, producing an accurate meter was unreliable through methods like pendulum experiments and speed of sound calculations. In the end, he almost resorted to measuring Liu Bei’s long arm out of frustration as a standard length.

But just as Chen Xi was about to use Liu Bei’s arm for the standard length, he saw Liu Bei playing foolishly with mercury.

Immediately, Chen Xi thought of an experiment: the barometric pressure experiment with a mercury column. On a fine day passing through Qingzhou, he conducted the experiment and produced a seventy-six centimeter mercury column, instantly establishing a standard unit.

Afterward, he had a large-scale balance constructed, using Inner Qi to distill one cubic meter of water. Although it wasn’t pure water, the deviation wasn’t large. A ton of gold was directly melted into a counterweight shape and thrown onto the balance; when balanced, it was the standard ton...

After this was done, Chen Xi achieved it all in one go, producing one cubic decimeter and one cubic centimeter of distilled water.

Naturally, the golden counterweights for each unit were also produced. A one-meter long golden meter prototype was crafted by Chen Xi, hardened to the extreme using Inner Qi for high-effect nourishment, ensuring it didn’t deform. Since gold doesn’t naturally oxidize, its weight and shape wouldn’t change. When light speed is measurable thousands of years later, this will utterly be a divine artifact.

Of course, Chen Xi never disclosed how he measured the meter unit. When future generations can measure the unit by spectrum, whoever obtains that original golden meter prototype will certainly be baffled.

A meter prototype with a precision deviation of less than one ten-thousandth could definitely become one of the future’s unsolved mysteries. Thinking of this, Chen Xi felt quite pleased, creating an unsolved mystery for future generations wasn’t too bad either.

”Later, I’ll give you a standard unit so everything from taxes on down is the same. By the way, how much exactly is one bushel in your regions?” Chen Xi asked Xun Yu and Zhou Yu with a hint of curiosity.

With those words, the two visibly froze, probably having already noticed this issue, but having never managed it because it was a historical legacy. Even when the First Emperor of Qin unified measurement standards, he couldn’t prevent varying bushels.

”Aren’t you guys silly? Why use the size of ten millet grains as a unit of length? Can you tell me if the length of ten millet grains is the same everywhere?” Seeing the two frozen, Chen Xi asked irritably.

Everyone present had twitching mouths. They finally saw the problem with varying bushels: it’s all rooted here, where differing sizes of ten millet grains led to issues in the smallest unit, the inch, and all subsequent units deviated in multiples.

”So, let’s first remove that line in the Book of Han about measurement standards: ’Started from the length of the Yellow Bell, with the middle-sized millet, one millet’s breadth of it, ninety of the Yellow Bell’s length equals one division,’ and then create a new standard measurement!” Chen Xi said irritably.

The civil servants all nodded; understanding the root cause, they knew how to reform. Although, truth be told, it’s amazing that such a simple problem wasn’t recognized by anyone present.

However, some issues are hidden in plain sight. Measurement standards were like this in China for thousands of years, and nobody ever thought there was a problem.

”So, what should we use as the length?” Xun Yu asked with a frown.

”Later, I’ll send a letter to Ye City providing you with the standard ruler. You can use this as a basis to create new rulers for distribution to the provinces and counties. Remember to make an original version using the nourished gold, and check if there’s a problem,” Chen Xi instructed Xun Yu and Zhou Yu, who were speechless.

”Having a length also allows you to cut the standard unit of gold for the standard weight,” Chen Xi continued, as by this time, Xun Yu and Zhou Yu had nothing more to say. Breaking that barrier made many things surprisingly simple.

”That’s about it for measurement standards; you can proceed like this. If it’s troublesome, I can provide you with a standard weight as well.” Chen Xi asked as he saw their silence, realizing that by now they couldn’t refuse.

”Thank you, Marquis Chen,” Zhou Yu and Xun Yu said somewhat despondently.

”Hey, hey, hey, don’t use that tone. My standard weights are all gold blocks worth several million coins each and might be worth even more in the future,” Chen Xi said to Zhou Yu and Xun Yu, who immediately scoffed. To this group of people, several million coins were nothing!

”Zichuan, you should move on to the next item and stop dwelling on this.” Jia Xu waved to Chen Xi, fearing he’d waste more time on this subject, which, though important, might not be a concern for some.

”Okay, where was I?” Chen Xi asked.

”You were talking about animal husbandry; time to discuss other things,” Jia Xu said calmly.

”Oh, then it’s time to talk about roads, bridges, and post stations.” Chen Xi nodded, ”First, the bridges—I plan to build bridges over the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. The bridge over the Yellow River is under construction and is expected to be completed by the end of next year by Gong Youu. Once there is one, the other ones will be relatively simpler. Of course, I’m saying, don’t you dare demolish this bridge.”

Zhou Yu and Xun Yu both rolled their eyes at Chen Xi. Once Sunx Qian finishes building a large bridge over the Yellow River, future generations won’t demolish it unless they’re crazy or have no choice. After all, such a bridge can’t be compared to small ones. Destroy it, and you might wait centuries before someone’s capable of recreating it.

”Oh, right, I realized something I forgot to mention earlier,” Chen Xi suddenly remembered that he had left out part of his plan earlier.

”What part was missing?” Xun Yu asked curiously since he hadn’t noticed any gaps in Chen Xi’s plan.

”The distribution of infrastructure and various livelihood investments, Zichu, Zizhong, you two understand money, roughly calculate how much the things I just mentioned will cost,” Chen Xi said with a smile to Liu Ba and Mi Zhu.

”Approximately seven hundred and fifty billion.” ”Around seven hundred fifty billion.” The two spoke almost simultaneously, and upon hearing that, everyone couldn’t help but be surprised.