Li Yao immediately returned to Baichuan Market and let Wang Yuanguo go home by himself. She then checked into an inn and stayed there.
After night fell, she quietly went to Zhang Guangsheng's house. As soon as she climbed over the wall, she smelled a strong alkaline odor. She followed the smell all the way to a woodshed in the backyard, where she heard Zhang Guangsheng's voice:
"I've tried dozens of times already. Why isn't it working yet? Can this be done or not?"
"Brother, just give me a little more time. I'm sure I can figure it out!"
"Then hurry up. There'll be a big reward if you succeed, but if you fail, neither of us will get away with it."
After saying this, Zhang Guangsheng walked out of the woodshed. Li Yao gently lifted up a roof tile and saw that inside was a fat man in his thirties that she recognized - Zhang Guanshan, who used to sell pork pancreas in the market. He must be a relative of Zhang Guangsheng's.
He was busily tinkering with pig fat and alkali, trying to make soap. But judging from the "products" he had discarded to one side, he still hadn't figured out the method.
Li Yao watched for a while, then heard Zhang Guangsheng talking with someone in the front yard. She quietly went over to eavesdrop.
"Mr. Huang, don't worry. In a few more days I'm sure we'll have it figured out."
"No rush, no rush. Take your time," Huang Daoming said. "Anyway, I've bought up all the alkali in Yizhou Prefecture, and I've also spoken with the suppliers up north to temporarily stop any shipments down here.
"Mr. Huang really knows how to get things done. But will those suppliers listen to you?"
"Would they dare not listen?" Huang Daoming said. "This is a major endeavor for Prefect Hu. Anyone who pretends to obey while secretly disobeying won't be able to do business in Yizhou Prefecture ever again."
...
Hearing this, Li Yao basically understood what was going on.
Huang Daoming was unable to strike a deal with her last time, so he probably went to Prefect Hu instead. As the nephew of the Minister of Rites, Prefect Hu had to give him some face. Add in the profits from soap, and the two joined forces - Huang Daoming put up the money while Prefect Hu used his connections to temporarily monopolize the alkali supply in the market.
Without alkali, she couldn't produce soap, and eventually she'd have to bow to them.
Humph.
Li Yao's expression was unchanged, but her eyes grew cold.
...
The next morning, as soon as Jia Zhanliang and Liu Yuan received the news, they hurried over anxiously.
Seeing Li Yao still leisurely sitting inside eating breakfast, both men felt their heads would explode.
"Mrs. Li, I heard you weren't able to buy any alkali. How can you still make soap?"
Li Yao finished the last mouthful of millet porridge in her bowl before slowly answering, "Who said there wasn't any?"
"There is?" Jia Zhanliang looked around. "Where is it?"
"You'll see when we get to the workshop."
At that moment, outside the workshop were already gathered several hundred villagers, all holding sickles, axes, and such. Wang Yuangbang's group of young men were even carrying over a dozen huge iron cauldrons on poles over their shoulders, and lugging buckets of water.
This stunned Jia Zhanliang and Liu Yuan. Just what was going on here?
"Li Yao, everyone's here," said village head Wang Jiafu. "As you instructed, 20 cents in wages per person per day. 390 people came today."
"Then let's head out."
Led by Li Yao, the hundreds of people marched mightily toward the hills.
Jia Zhanliang and Liu Yuan really couldn't stand it anymore. Still, they awkwardly followed along at the back of the group.
At the edge of the woods, without Li Yao needing to direct them, the villagers began chopping grass and branches, piling them up in an open area, and setting them on fire.
In a flash, over a dozen massive bonfires were raging, with black smoke billowing straight toward the clouds.
Meanwhile, under Wang Yuangbang's lead, others found many large rocks to prop up the dozen or so huge iron cauldrons over fires, and started boiling water, while more people continuously lugged buckets of water over from the village.
After the bonfires had burned down to embers, Li Yao had them bring over a large wooden tub lined with bamboo strips and white cloth. The ashes from the grass and branches were placed onto the white cloth, and she had them continually pour hot water over it all.
Seeing this, Jia Zhanliang and Liu Yuan really couldn't restrain themselves any longer.
"Mrs Li, just what are you trying to do here?!"
"Don't worry, you'll understand soon."
Li Yao poured the liquid from the tub into the large iron cauldrons, then fiercely boiled it over high heat.
Once all the water in the cauldrons had evaporated, a white substance was actually left stuck to the bottom!
Liu Yuan scraped some onto a stick and tasted it, his face filled with disbelief: "This... this is alkali?!"
"What?!"
Jia Zhanliang didn't believe it either until he tried it himself, also looking shocked.
It really was alkali!
Who knew you could extract alkali from grass and wood ash! This was really eye-opening!
"Mrs Li, how did you come up with this?"
"I heard it from Monk Youfang before."
Monk Youfang?
Nevermind if it was Monk Youfang or Monk Youfang, as long as they could produce alkali they could make soap.
"Mrs Li really is full of clever plans," said Jia Zhanliang, feeling like a huge weight had been lifted from his chest. "This way we won't delay the year-end delivery."
"That's right, now we can head back and rest easy."
"You two can't rest yet," said Li Yao.
"What else does Mrs Li need us to do?"
Alkali extracted from grass and wood ash could only provide an emergency supply. After all, who knew how many thousand pounds of grass and branches had to be burned just to produce one pound of alkali. He Wan village's small patch of woods definitely couldn't sustain this, so they still had to purchase mineral alkali in the end.
But there definitely wouldn't be any to buy in Yizhou Prefecture now. They had to go much farther to buy it, but procurement agent Wang Yuanguo wasn't familiar with those distant places and had never been so far from home before, so they still needed Jia Zhanliang and Liu Yuan's help.
"Don't worry Mrs Li, this is for our own good too. We'll definitely handle this well for you."
Realizing the gravity of the matter, the two immediately set off, one south and one north, departing Yizhou Prefecture to procure alkali.
...
With the makeshift alkali, the soap workshop could basically operate normally again. Bar after bar of soap and perfumed soap were produced, neatly stacked in the warehouse.
At dusk, the managers came with their account books to report to Li Yao.
"Today we produced 12 pounds of alkali and made 1,200 bars of soap and 200 perfumed soaps."
With 400 people, they had extracted 12 pounds of alkali.
The labor cost 7,800 coins. At 650 coins per pound, it was a bit more expensive than purchasing mineral alkali, but still within an acceptable range.
After the managers left, as Li Yao was pondering what to make for dinner, a carriage squeaked to a stop outside.
A servant-looking fellow jumped down and Li Yao immediately recognized him as Xia Quanzi, who had been turned away by Wang San'er last time.
It seemed the person riding in the carriage was most likely Huang Daoqing.
"Mrs Li, our master has come to pay you a visit. Why haven't you come out to greet him yet?"
Li Yao had originally wanted Wang San'er to drive him away, but held back for now.
She wanted to know why Huang Daoqing had come.
"Mrs Li," Huang Daoqing called out without getting down from the carriage, only pulling aside the curtain. "I heard you've been short on alkali lately. I just happen to have a batch on hand. Would you be interested?"
"I could be. How much per pound?"
"2 taels of silver per pound. What do you think?"
Hearing this, Li Yao thought it laughable.
