Hard to be a good wife

Halfway through, Prince Zhao diverted the motorcade to the suburbs, Tang Yue asked, "Where are you going?"

Prince Zhaozheng bowed his head to study the papermaking method Tang Yuexin gave him. Compared with the previous one, the process is more detailed, each step is clearly written, and even a picture is added, and the order and method of several steps have been changed. It is more feasible.

"Gu can't wait to see what the paper is, and whether it is as magical as you said."

Tang Yue put his hands behind his head, looked at his concentration, and said with a smile: "Tomorrow will be New Year's Eve, Your Highness, don't even forget this."

Prince Zhao put away the things after reading it, "If I can present the paper to my father at the New Year's Eve banquet, I think everyone will have a good year."

He believes that there is no better gift than this.

"Papermaking also takes time. It needs to be soaked and boiled, filtered and pressed, and finally dried. I'm afraid two days is not enough."

"It's more than two days?" Prince Zhao raised his head and smiled slightly, "Don't forget, Guke started preparations more than half a month ago." The motorcade stopped outside a Zhuangzi in the suburbs, and Tang Yue looked around after getting off the car Look, I thought: It's a waste to use such a beautiful Zhuangzi to make paper.

According to him, just build a simple factory in a place with few people. The papermaking method of this era does not use chemicals, and the pollution is not serious.

Wang Dingjun went to knock on the door. Seeing that His Highness the Crown Prince was coming, the porter quickly opened the door, "Your Highness, you are here, please come in quickly."

Tang Yue wrapped up his cloak and watched as he walked. The yard outside was as usual. There were no extra people and equipment. After entering the second gate, he could vaguely hear the sound of labor.

"Isn't this Zhuangzi very big?" Tang Yue walked all the way, and the scenery he saw was quite beautiful, which was completely different from the style of the Prince's Mansion.

Prince Zhao nodded, "This is the Zhuangzi that my mother married as a dowry back then. There is a waterside pavilion to escape the summer heat, and there is also a warm main room, where you can live in the cold winter and hot summer."

"Then after presenting the paper, let the king allocate a piece of land for paper making, such a good Zhuangzi, what a pity."

"That's natural. If paper can be popularized, this Zhuangzi will not be enough, and another large paper mill will be built."

Tang Yue saw that he had made all the plans, so he didn't say anything more.

"Your Highness, it will be Chinese New Year soon. Why are you here?" A steward who looked familiar ran out from the inside, knelt down and said to Tang Yue: "The princess is here too, it's freezing here, hurry up and follow the servants." house."

Tang Yue had some impressions of him. He had seen him in the Prince's Mansion before, and he smiled and said, "No hurry, we're here to see how the paper is made."

As soon as he mentioned this, the steward was full of joy, "You came just in time, the first batch of paper has been made, and the servant is about to send someone to the Prince's Mansion."

"Oh?" Prince Zhao was a little surprised, "Take Gu to have a look."

A group of people walked quickly into the temporarily remodeled factory building. Compared with the cold outside, there was a large pot of boiling water in the factory building, and there was a large pot of charcoal fire, which was very warm.

The steward came over with a plate covered with a red cloth, taking every step carefully.

Tang Yue looked funny, paper can be seen everywhere in modern times, no one would take a piece of paper seriously, but here, it is probably more precious than gold.

Prince Zhao lifted the red cloth and saw a stack of khaki-colored thin papers in the plate, looking over and over curiously.

Tang Yue pulled out a few sheets and rubbed them with his fingers, "No way, it's too rough, and the fibers aren't processed carefully enough, I'm afraid I can't write on it."

The color of the first batch of paper produced is very dark khaki. It may be that the pressing is not flat enough. Some places are thick and some places are thin.

He casually threw the paper into the charcoal basin, and it burned to ashes in the blink of an eye. The steward exclaimed: "Prince Princess..."

This is the treasure they worked so hard to make, and the steward felt that the fire was burning in his heart.

"Don't worry, it's useless to keep such defective products. If you improve some places, it will get better and better."

Tang Yue gave him the improved plan. The steward obviously understood the process, and his eyes brightened after reading it, "Okay, okay! No wonder we always felt that some steps were not right before, but unfortunately we haven't had time yet. Go adjust... You see, this method of throwing materials into the curtain is much simpler and more reasonable than before..."

Prince Zhao stopped his chatter and asked, "Can new paper be made before the time limit tomorrow?"

"The materials are all soaked and cooked. As long as you try the next steps a few more times and rush to work non-stop tonight, it will definitely work, but it's hard to say whether you can make better paper."

"Then before the time mark tomorrow, you will send the new paper to the Prince's Mansion, and you must present it to Father."

When he heard that this thing was going to be a tribute to the palace, the steward became very nervous, "The slaves will definitely urge them to do their best to complete it."

"En." Prince Zhao brought back some papers that he had made before, playing with them fondly along the way.

"Is something so fragile and fragile really suitable for writing?" Prince Zhao asked suspiciously.

"Of course, compared to hardness and storage time, paper is not as good as bamboo slips, but the lightness of paper is unmatched by bamboo slips." Tang Yue dipped some water and wrote two words casually on the slip of paper. As soon as it came into contact with the paper, it melted and the handwriting became a paste.

He crumpled the pieces of paper and threw them into the brazier, saying: "Bound into a book with paper, the weight of a book is only a little bit, and it is very convenient to store or carry. Most importantly, with paper, books It can be promoted on a large scale, and the price will not be so expensive that ordinary people cannot afford it."

It's useless to talk too much. The next day, the manager moved a box of paper into the Prince's Mansion. Tang Yue personally checked and accepted it. He could only say that he barely passed the test, but it was far from the quality he wanted.

Prince Zhao couldn't wait to take out one, and wrote a poem on it with a brush. The ink still melted, but the words could still be perfectly presented on the paper.

He put down the brush, held the paper with both hands and waited for the ink on it to dry, Tang Yue saw his eyeballs staring at him motionlessly, and secretly laughed a few times.

Seeing the manager standing aside with a low eyebrow and pleasing eyes, Tang Yue praised: "You did a good job. It's hard work to make such a paper in such a short period of time."

"The princess is serious. This is what a slave should do. It's not hard work."

Tang Yue was not used to his address, so he asked him to address him like the servants in the mansion, "Housekeeper, give Liao Guanshi ten gold coins, and everyone who contributes to the village will reward three jun of corn and three feet of cloth, let them go home Have a good year."

"Here." Seeing that His Royal Highness did not object, the butler naturally complied.

Liao Guanshi was overjoyed, and hurriedly knelt down to thank him, "Thank you, Your Highness, and thank you, Sir."

"Get up." Tang Yue asked the housekeeper to send him out, then walked to the side of Prince Zhao who was buried in writing, and asked with his chin in his hand, "How do you feel?"

Crown Prince Zhao didn't raise his head, he outlined the words he wrote stroke by stroke, and then closed the pen after the paper was full, "It's no different from writing on sheepskin and handkerchiefs, and I don't know if my father will appreciate it. "

Tang Yue thinks about it too, people who have never seen paper, and those who have never experienced its usefulness, will not feel much emotion just by this piece of paper.

He stroked his chin and thought for a while, then snapped his fingers, "Yes, a piece of paper has no value, so let's bind it into a book!"

"How to bind?"

"Simple!" Tang Yue took out a stack of ten-centimeter-thick paper from the box. Because he said it was for tribute, Liao Guanshi thoughtfully cut each piece of paper into the same size, which saved a lot of trouble. .

He spread the paper on the desk, and asked treacherously: "Your Highness, can you finish copying a book in an hour?"

"No problem within a thousand words."

"Then you can write a Three Character Classic." Tang Yue moved the paper in front of him, rubbed the ink for him, and stuffed the brush into his hand.

Prince Zhao picked up the pen and wrote without hesitation. He had also practiced brush calligraphy for a while, and the handwriting was quite good. The strokes were strong, with edges and corners.

There is not much content in the Three Character Classic, and Prince Zhao finished writing it in only half an hour. Tang Yue collected the papers he had written on the side, and after finishing writing a sheet, he took it to the side and blew on it, and folded it in order when the ink was dry.

"It's short of a cover." Tang Yue thought for a while, took a piece of sheepskin and cut two pieces to serve as book covers, and asked Prince Zhao to write the three big characters of "Three Character Classic".

Fixing the two pieces of sheepskin one behind the other, Tang Yue sewed the book together with a needle and thread. For the sake of looking good, he sewed it very carefully, and the stitches were neat, which made Prince Zhao silently sigh.

"Okay, let's see how it goes?" Tang Yue handed the book to Prince Zhao. The book produced by this method was very rough, but flipping through it page by page had a special taste.

Prince Zhao flipped through it several times from the beginning to the end, and couldn't put it down. He weighed the weight of the book and nodded with satisfaction: "In this way, the future books will be much lighter."

"But this paper can't be made too much at the moment, I'm afraid it will take a long time for it to spread."

Tang Yue nodded, "Yes, there is always a period of time to adapt to the emergence of every new thing. When people gradually get used to the convenience of paper, their development will naturally be accelerated."