The Workshop of Operations: The Court Ministers' Astonishment

Along the banks of the Fengshui River, the newly completed honeycomb briquette workshop was bustling with activity. Cart after cart of freshly delivered coal was crushed into powder. Workers swiftly mixed the coal dust with clay, adding water and stirring it together. Next, someone would immediately use molds to shape the mixed coal mud into honeycomb briquettes, placing them onto the conveyor belt. The conveyor, powered by a waterwheel, carried these briquettes to the nearby kilns. In just a single hour, hundreds of honeycomb briquettes were dried and then neatly stacked by another group. There were ten such sets of equipment, capable of producing thousands of briquettes daily.

Not far away, another workshop manufactured honeycomb stoves and chimneys. Large quantities of pig iron were remelted into molten iron and poured into prepared molds. After cooling, the parts from different molds were assembled, quickly forming the outer shell of the honeycomb stove. Someone then lined the firebox with refractory clay, completing a stove. Some workers forged wrought iron plates into chimneys of varying lengths, thus easily assembling a complete honeycomb stove.

Only a small portion of the workforce was utilized here; many more were assigned to other workshops. Some specialized in making flat glass, intended for windows. Others fired cement, bricks, tiles, and ceramic tiles, all essential building materials. Pei Mingli was vigorously promoting these products. With the model settlement as a showcase, there was no worry about sales.

More workers were led by Li Zhi into the city of Chang'an, tasked with paving all its roads and alleys with cement. The women were equally busy; Li Zhi had made numerous spinning machines and purchased large quantities of wool from Turkic merchants. This wool was spun into yarn. Li Zhi specifically had the craftsmen of the Garment Workshop illustrate and woodblock print instructions for knitting sweaters, selling these alongside the yarn. He also improved the existing spinning machines, increasing their capacity from two threads to sixteen, and switched the operation from manual to foot pedal. This not only produced finer, tighter yarn but increased efficiency dozens of times over.

Li Zhi hired workers to build more than a dozen jacquard looms, dedicated to producing high-end silk fabrics. He did not monopolize this venture, but instead invited his three teachers—including Fang Xuanling—and more than twenty families to invest together. To show the importance he placed on kinship, Li Zhi also brought in his brothers, even Li Chengqian and Li Tai joined the partnership.

He acted thus mainly out of necessity. Silk was Tang’s hard currency, directly usable to pay officials’ salaries. Originally, it was produced by commoners and then monopolistically purchased at low prices by the great clans, who profited enormously by buying low and selling high. What Li Zhi was doing now was akin to digging up their ancestral graves. Weighing his own slight stature, he thought it best to form an alliance by involving as many people as possible; otherwise, he was certain another assassination attempt would soon come his way.

The only disappointment for Li Zhi was that, at present, he alone had contracted over a hundred acres to cultivate cotton in the entire Tang. All of it was donated to the palace. Otherwise, cotton cloth could also have become a hot commodity.

With these profitable ventures, Li Zhi’s previous efforts were finally beginning to pay off. Next, he embarked on another earth-shattering undertaking: using the printing press to produce a large number of books, and establishing a school within the settlement, hiring teachers to freely instruct children in literacy. This move left all the ministers, already stunned, completely dazed. Even Emperor Taizong had to summon Li Zhi to the Hall of Supreme Harmony, wanting to know just how much money Li Zhi really possessed.

When Li Zhi arrived at the hall, he found not only Taizong but more than ten others, including Fang Xuanling, all seated and staring at him as if he were a monster. After Li Zhi had finished greeting them, Taizong could no longer restrain himself and asked, "Zhinü! Tell your father honestly, just how much money do you have?" Li Zhi calculated silently and replied, "I’ve spent quite a lot lately, but I should still have several hundred thousand strings left." A collective gasp sounded throughout the hall.

After building nearly half of Chang'an in the west of the city, Li Zhi still had hundreds of thousands left? How much did he have before all this? And how had he earned so much? Li Zhi’s words were almost lethal. Everyone present felt as though much of their lives had been lived in vain.

Taizong was the first to recover from his shock. He asked again, "Well… Zhinü! How much have you spent so far?"

Li Zhi answered, "Not that much, just a bit over four million strings."

Bang… Thud… "Oh dear!" Li Jing, Changsun Wuji, and Dai Zhou all nearly collapsed to the floor at once. The others looked as if their jaws had fallen off. Now, it was not merely feeling they’d lived half their lives in vain; they were convinced their lives had been wasted entirely.

Li Zhi had just established his residence a little over a year ago and already amassed a fortune of five million strings. Meanwhile, they had toiled their entire lives and barely saved tens of thousands, or at best a few hundred thousand. They were all among the highest ranks of Tang, with not only salaries and rewards but also their own businesses. Yet even so, their earnings could not match the merest fraction of Li Zhi’s wealth. How could they not feel utterly embarrassed?

In truth, Taizong, sitting on the Dragon Throne, felt even more mortified than the others. Ever since ascending the throne, he had scrimped and saved relentlessly. Even his Empress Changsun and the concubines had to weave their own silk. Only in the past year, thanks to Li Zhi’s filial offerings, had life improved in the palace and for the retired emperor. Yet even so, his own private treasury was so empty it could starve a mouse. But Li Zhi had managed to earn five million in just over a year; the blow was devastating.

Zhang Anan stood in the corner, his right hand gently stroking the jade ring on his left thumb, eyes glancing at the two jade pendants hanging from his waist. Around his neck hung a Guanyin jade pendant—all gifts from Li Zhi. He had once thought these gifts too precious and felt guilty accepting them, since Li Zhi had never asked him for anything. Now, it seemed, such things meant little to Li Zhi.

After a long silence, Taizong finally remembered the main issue. He asked Li Zhi, somewhat puzzled, "Now that you only have this bit of money left, how will you sustain road construction in Chang'an and future grain purchases?"