Samuel Clark inadvertently let it slip: “Yes, the clay jars and pots that the lord instructed us to make are extremely popular. Now, the pottery of my The Carter Family clan is considered the best in the country, and it’s already being sold in Qi. Soup cooked in these pots is indeed delicious, far beyond the ordinary.”

William Carter threw his head back and laughed heartily, answering proudly, “My skills are by no means limited to pottery.”

This time, Samuel Clark quite agreed, nodding repeatedly: “These past few days, I’ve organized the various utensils the lord created, and I’m preparing to compile a ‘Compendium of a Hundred Utensils’ for the lord. I wonder if the lord will permit it?”

William Carter blurted out, “How to print it… I mean, how to draw it on bamboo slips? Wait, I have an idea.”

Paper—everything comes down to paper.

Thinking of printing, a flash of inspiration struck William Carter. He recalled a travel program introducing the process of making Korean paper (Goryeo paper). It’s said that this technique was passed on by the Song people, and the paper is said to last a thousand years. At first, Koreans called it “Song paper.” By the 21st century, it had become one of the “World Cultural Heritages,” a “Korean national treasure,” and was hailed as “the pride of Asia.”

This papermaking technique came from the Song dynasty, without any modern technology mixed in. In this Spring and Autumn era, reproducing it would be easy, but to do so brazenly… Well, William Carter had invented too many things recently. If this continued, the ancients might just burn him as firewood to be done with it. So, better to wait for now.

“Use parchment,” while William Carter was lost in thought, Samuel Clark offered a solution: “In the past, Qin once traded five pieces of sheepskin for Baili Xi. Back then, Qin liked to use sheepskin to make maps and books. Why not use sheepskin for our ‘Compendium of a Hundred Utensils’ as well…”

William Carter thought for a moment and instructed, “I saw craftsmen making bronze, and someone used wax to make a model… Find a bronze caster, have him carve the designs directly onto wax, then make copper plates from them. Next, press the copper plates onto the sheepskin to create indentations, and then we just need to trace them by hand. Wouldn’t that work?”

William Carter spoke casually, but he didn’t realize that in this era, bronze was a precious metal, basically equivalent to currency. And printing the ‘Compendium of a Hundred Utensils’ would require at least a hundred copper plates, consuming a vast amount of bronze.

Chapter Six: Striving to Invent for a Better Life (Part 2)

Samuel Clark listened to him, looked at William Carter with curiosity, and seeing William Carter still gazing intently at the mountains, reluctantly replied, “Very well, I’ll go find someone…”

William Carter immediately added, “And find some blacksmiths as well, I have use for them.”

Samuel Clark immediately advised, “It seems the lord likes to tinker with ‘evil metal’—although my The Carter Family clan can make ‘evil metal,’ people generally believe ‘evil metal is inauspicious’ and brings disaster to its user, so the nobles avoid it like the plague. Therefore, the lord had best not display ‘evil metal’ in front of the court, lest it bring unforeseen calamity.”

In the Spring and Autumn period, people called “iron” ‘evil metal.’

In this era, every clan had its specialty. The The Carter Family clan was famous for horse breeding and iron casting. The “First Iron Cauldron of China” was made by William Carter’s grandson, Robert Carter. It’s clear that by this time, the The Carter Family clan had already accumulated enough iron-casting experience to be able to forge large iron objects decades later.

However, because people in the Spring and Autumn period disliked iron and called it “evil metal,” the The Carter Family clan, despite having advanced iron-casting techniques for the time, did not profit from it.

William Carter didn’t care. He replied nonchalantly, “We’ll have to get there eventually—you haven’t tasted food stir-fried in an iron wok yet, that’s the real deal…”

Samuel Clark was a bit dissatisfied, but William Carter had already swung himself onto his horse. Sitting high above, he said, “There are workarounds, for example, we can gild the ironware with gold or bronze. On one hand, it prevents rust, and on the other…”

Suddenly, William Carter remembered that when Simon Clark explained the situation of various states, he mentioned the King of Wu and that Chu was busy fighting with Wu. Scratching his head, he recalled, “I heard the King of Chu has a famous swordsmith, seems his name is Jack Green, and his wife is Mark Reed, right? I heard his sword-making skills are extraordinary.”

Samuel Clark replied with disapproval, “The famous swordsmith of Chu should be Owen Young. I heard Owen Young has a young apprentice, maybe called Jack Green. But swordsmiths in every state are national treasures. I think the King of Chu would rather kill his swordsmith than let him forge swords for another country.”

When William Carter thought of the King of Wu, it wasn’t the famous swordsmiths Jack Green and Mark Reed that came to mind, but the Sword of the King of Wu (or the Sword of the King of Yue). The rustproofing technique of the Sword of the King of Wu unearthed in modern times was so perfect that it remained sharp even after 2,600 years, astonishing even modern people. And William Carter happened to be living in this era…

William Carter thought of the Sword of the King of Wu because he believed its rustproofing technology didn’t appear out of nowhere; there must have been technical accumulation before its creation. Since King Shoumeng of Wu had already appeared, the sword-making technology must have basically taken shape. But what he didn’t know was that Owen Young was the founder of the “Longquan Sword,” and had established the “Longquan” brand in Chu over a hundred years ago.