GBP Chapter 26 Cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents.
Chapter 26 Cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents.
The piece of iron that Limpy Five is holding in his left hand is called a flint and steel.
The exact time of the invention of the flint and steel is unknown, but by the Song Dynasty at the latest, it already possessed certain military value. For example, in Chapter 84 of the novel "Water Margin", it is written that "they had tinder, fire knife, flint, fire tube, and soot hidden around them."
The fire knife refers to the flint and steel.
The flint in the lame man's hand was different from the flint used in lighters in later generations.
During the Ming Dynasty, flint generally referred to stones produced on riverbanks that had been washed by river water and collided and rubbed against each other, resulting in a relatively hard texture that could produce sparks when impacted at high speeds.
As for the tinder, it is made by carefully pounding dried mugwort leaves until they are fluffy.
The combination of a flint, steel, and tinder makes it an essential household item for both home and travel.
When a fire needs to be started, people hold the flint with their left hand, press the tinder onto the flint, and hold the fire striker with their right hand. They rub or strike the flint with the iron part of the striker to create sparks. The sparks will splash onto the tinder, causing it to ignite. Then, they use the burning tinder to start a fire.
What solved Yang Shaofeng's anxiety was that striking flint with a flint and steel could also produce sparks—as long as sparks could be produced, did it matter whether the sparks were produced by friction or by striking?
Does it make a difference if the tinder is splashed onto tinder made of mugwort leaves or onto a matchstick soaked in kerosene?
After pondering for a moment, Yang Shaofeng suddenly turned and left, leaving only the words: "You all take your time making the buns, I'll come back later."
Back in his study, Yang Shaofeng took out the drawing he had already completed and continued sketching.
The spring is no longer needed; it can be replaced with a flint.
The grinding wheel is no longer needed; it's replaced with a small iron plate with a small mechanism. With a simple slide or press, the iron plate can glide across the flint below, thus sparking out sparks.
The remaining parts will proceed according to the original plan: if a shell is needed, a shell will still be made; if cotton is needed, cotton will still be stuffed in; if kerosene is needed, kerosene will still be filled in.
Finally, after assembling all these miscellaneous parts, a lighter in the style of Yang Shaofeng, the magistrate of Yang County, was produced.
It may be a bit crude, and it probably won't look good, but no matter how crude or ugly it is, Magistrate Yang's version of the lighter can still completely outclass the three-piece flint and steel set.
A flint and steel set uses tinder to start a fire. In the process of starting a fire, you have to press the tinder onto the flint with your hand. If you are not careful, you will burn your fingers. A lighter, on the other hand, uses a string to start a fire. You do not need to press the flint and string with your fingers, so you will not burn your fingers.
Moreover, tinder is easily affected by the weather. If not stored properly, it can easily become damp, making it difficult to start a fire. Lighters, on the other hand, do not need to consider tinder and are less affected by rainy weather.
The fact that it wouldn't burn fingers and was less affected by rainy weather was enough to attract the Ming Dynasty's army to consider changing their uniforms.
After sketching and drawing for a while, Yang Shaofeng suddenly burst into laughter, looked at the drawings over and over again, and then shouted repeatedly, "Brother Limpy Fifth! Brother Limpy Fifth!"
A short while later, the disheveled and lame Wu arrived and asked, "The magistrate summoned me here. What are your orders?"
Yang Shaofeng gestured for Limpy Five to come closer, pointed to the blueprints on the table, and asked, "Brother Limpy Five, could you possibly understand this?"
As the saying goes, a higher rank can crush a person. The lame Wu, whose status could only be considered a "clerk," stared at the ugly blueprint that Magistrate Yang, a seventh-rank official, had produced for a long time. In the end, he could only say against his will, "Your Excellency, I can roughly understand some of it. This seems to be some kind of organization."
Yang Shaofeng smiled and nodded, saying, "This is something I came up with to replace the flint and steel."
"Look, it's stuffed with cotton. You pour kerosene in, and as long as you don't pour in too much, it won't easily leak out. Then you thread a piece of cotton through the cotton and let a bit stick out from the front."
"Just press here gently, and this iron piece will glide across the flint, and the sparks from the flint will splash onto this cotton thread in front. The cotton thread is soaked in kerosene, and with a little spark, it can be lit. Isn't that much more convenient than a flint and steel?"
"Moreover, this thing is not affected by the weather much—don't forget, kerosene does not extinguish when it comes into contact with water, so it can still be used even on rainy days."
"Do you think Chang Pingzhang and Xu Xiang would be interested if our Ningyang County manufactured these things in large quantities?"
Listening to Yang Shaofeng's description and imagining the scene of using the lighter, Limpy Five suddenly shuddered and exclaimed, "No way!"
Yang Shaofeng was startled by Limpy Wu's sudden outburst and frowned, asking, "Why not?"
Limping Wu glanced out the window, and after confirming that no one was around, he whispered, "Your Excellency, this thing is good, but it's precisely because it's too good that we can't get our hands on it—this thing doesn't replace a flint and steel, it replaces a tinderbox!"
"If Chang Pingzhang and Xu Xiang were to replace all the tinderboxes in the army with these things, those who rely on tinderboxes for a living would inevitably resent the county magistrate. Wouldn't the county magistrate be making enemies out of thin air?"
After hearing Limpy Five's explanation, Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but frown.
For the Ming army, which was equipped with a large number of firearms including cannons and muskets, tinderboxes were already a military supply in extremely high demand.
The supply of firecrackers for the Ming army was controlled by the artisan battalions within the Ming army itself and those under the control of the imperial court.
In other words, the lighter didn't just affect ordinary merchants, but rather the artisan camps controlled by the Ming army and the Ming court, impacting the wallets of a large number of officials.
As the saying goes, cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents, and the hatred of killing one's father is irreconcilable. Simply put, cutting off someone's livelihood is equivalent to an irreconcilable hatred.
The thought of being hated by a group of irreconcilable officials sent chills down Yang Shaofeng's spine.
However, Yang Shaofeng was reluctant to give up the lighter because he couldn't bear to part with the huge profits it brought him. Lighters were fine when they didn't exist, but once they did, they were bound to replace tinderboxes.
After all, the lifespan of a tinderbox is very short, and like a flint and steel, it is also easily affected by the weather, which is not a good thing for the Ming army, which is equipped with a large number of firearms.
In contrast, a lighter can last a long time unless it is intentionally damaged. Its lifespan is at least tens or even hundreds of times longer than that of a tinderbox, and it is not affected by the weather.
It was one thing if there were no lighters before, but now that there are lighters, how could Chang Yuchun and Xu Da, who had been leading troops in battle for many years, resist the temptation of lighters and continue to use tinderboxes?