Playing intrigue is worse than engaging in infrastructure

Why didn't he ask a few more questions out of curiosity?Song Qingyuan looked at the big vat in front of him with regret.

It was useless to consult Jiang Qing, the heir of the paper mill, so Song Qingyuan had no choice but to use the most primitive method, dividing one of the vats of pulp into several parts, and adding different amounts of talcum powder to each.

The bamboo curtains for papermaking are prepared in advance.But he didn't have the technology to make paper.

The person in charge of papermaking, although a craftsman in name, is actually just a tenant farmer in Zhuangzi.After all, the current papermaking technology is still firmly controlled by several aristocratic families, and it is strictly forbidden to leak it.

Song Qingyuan, who couldn't find relevant records of papermaking skills at first, naturally can't find craftsmen who can make paper now.

His physical condition did not allow him to experiment with his own hands.Song Qingyuan had no choice but to let several people in charge of papermaking practice repeatedly, wasting half a tank of pulp before he mastered this technique.

The copied wet paper pages were stacked together, and Song Qingyuan had someone make a wooden card, which was fixed to the side of the board where the paper was placed.In this way, the paper copy can be accurately buckled upside down on the position of the previous paper.

Before beating, he asked people to pour the juice of wood ginger into the pulp. The juice of wood ginger can ensure that the wet paper piled together can be separated one by one after being squeezed to remove the water, and will not stick to each other.

Neatly stacked wet paper is covered with wooden boards, and heavy objects are placed on top.The craftsmen in the west courtyard had a clear division of labor, pulping, papermaking, water pressing...every step was carried out in an orderly manner within Song Qingyuan's plan.

Qin Zizhen left Huijing the day after the banquet, so he didn't know Song Qingyuan's papermaking plan.After returning today, he went straight to the study.Song Qingyuan usually spends most of his time in the study, but he didn't expect to miss it this time.

The servants who cleaned the courtyard told Qin Zizhen that His Highness had been staying in the west courtyard recently, saying that he was going to live in a different environment, and more than half of the guards in the residence also followed.

After listening to the servant's words, Qin Zizhen was full of doubts.

The servants in the mansion all have their own mansion, and these people don't go to the back on weekdays, so they may not know the situation in the west courtyard.But Qin Zizhen is clear.

No one lived in the west courtyard since the palace was built, and no one was arranged to take care of it.The weeds in the yard were almost half a meter high, and they couldn't live in people at all.Why did His Highness suddenly want to go to the West Courtyard?

However, he did not show doubts about these servants.After slightly nodding his head, he turned and went to the west courtyard.

Qin Zizhen just walked through the long corridor, and before he got close, he saw Jiang Duo standing at the door with two young men who often served in the study.

Seeing Qin Zizhen approaching, Jiang Duo hurriedly waved to him, "General Qin, enter through this door." Jiang Duo called him in a low voice.

"What's going on here?" Qin Zizhen asked.

Before he finished asking, Jiang Duo said with an inscrutable expression: "You will know when you go in."

As soon as Qin Zizhen entered, he was shocked by the scene in the courtyard.

The originally desolate West Courtyard is now full of all kinds of tools.There are also several large vats in the courtyard. The craftsman dressed as a farmer is holding a square shelf. Under the command of His Highness, he dipped into the vats and quickly scooped them up again.There are also people holding long sticks, stirring something in the vat.

Jiang Duo quickly walked towards Song Qingyuan, who was the only empty-handed person in the courtyard, and asked in surprise, "Your Highness, what are you doing?"

Song Qingyuan turned his head and saw Qin Zizhen with a dazed face, staring straight at the large tanks in the courtyard.This was the first time he saw such an expression on Qin Zizhen's face, it was a little funny.

Song Qingyuan thought of teasing him a little.Pretending to be calm, he pointed to the neatly stacked wet paper next to him, "Paper making, can't you see it?"

"Papermaking?" Qin Zizhen repeated subconsciously in a daze.

"Yes." Song Qingyuan nodded as a matter of course.

Perhaps because of Song Qingyuan's calm emotion, he suddenly felt that making paper... It didn't seem so difficult.

"Can it be done?" Qin Zizhen asked in doubt.

It's not that he doesn't believe in Song Qingyuan, it's just that papermaking technology is not something that people can learn casually and want to learn in this era.

Qin Zizhen once heard that among those families in the south who have made paper for generations, there are paper craftsmen in the family who have never stepped out of the paper factory's rules for a lifetime.

In the past few years, he has never seen His Highness come into contact with related people or skills.Now Song Qingyuan not only said that he wanted to make paper, but it seemed that more than half of the progress had been made. He really couldn't treat it with a normal heart.

"It should be successful." Regarding this matter, Song Qingyuan actually didn't dare to hold too much confidence, but judging from the wet paper copied out now, it should be considered relatively successful.

"Then what does Your Highness need me to do?" Qin Zizhen was so full of thoughts about whether the papermaking business could be successful, he completely forgot his original purpose of returning home.

"There is really something." Song Qingyuan pointed to the stacks of wet papers that had been squeezed out of the excess water next to him, and ordered: "I had someone buy a house a month ago to build a fire house. That house is next to the south gate. The south gate It is close to the West Market, and people who live nearby often make tofu and sell it in the West Market on weekdays, and the fire house will not attract attention if it is built there. You can send these papers there to dry later.”

Qin Zizhen took the order and left with a lot of half-wet paper.

The drying speed of the fire room is very fast.In just half a day, the wet paper sent out turned into rolls of soft paper and was sent to Song Qingyuan's study.

What was sent was sample paper made by adding different amounts of talcum powder. The quantity was not too large, mainly to determine the proportion of talcum powder added.

To Song Qingyuan's surprise, the quality of the paper made by adding different proportions of talcum powder to the pulp was actually not bad.

The pulp filled with about 5.00% talcum powder makes the paper slightly thinner, but sufficient for daily writing.The pulp with a filling amount between 10-15, the finished product is a bit like the glossy paper of later generations with one side smooth and the other rough.The pulp with a filling amount of more than 20, the paper produced is slightly thicker, but it is stronger.

As for the higher proportion of filling, Song Qingyuan didn't try it, just thinking about it knew it was unreasonable.In the end, he still decided to control the addition of talcum powder to about 20%.Although slightly thicker, it is stronger and more suitable for window paper.

After confirming the amount of talcum powder to be added, Song Qingyuan asked the craftsmen in the west courtyard to process the remaining cylinders of pulp according to this ratio.

The finished paper was spread out by Song Qingyuan on the desk.Even after careful rinsing, it still has a faint yellow tint.

This is also impossible, after all, there is no bleach to bleach the paper at this time.

The smooth and white rice paper that appeared in the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty was completely bleached by the sun after hundreds of days of sunlight.Therefore, the production cycle is also extremely long.

Song Qingyuan didn't have so much time to wait for the paper to turn white, so he could only accept the reality that the paper turned yellow.

But this was enough to surprise everyone. When Qin Zizhen sent the paper back, he was in a state of bliss almost all the way. It wasn't until he saw Song Qingyuan that he felt that his feet were on the ground.

Even Jiang Duo, who had always worshiped Song Qingyuan blindly, showed a look of surprise when he saw the paper delivered. He didn't expect that His Royal Highness actually made this precious paper, and the quality was so good.

Song Qingyuan ignored everyone's shock, because he had been thinking about how to try his best to turn the paper white.

Bleach is definitely not a consideration.

Making chlorine in this day and age?

Sorry, he only dared to think about such things when he was daydreaming on a goose down pillow.

Song Qingyuan stared at the paper on the table all afternoon without thinking about eating and drinking, and finally had an idea at sunset.It may be feasible to apply white mineral powder such as lime and clay to the surface of the paper, and then grind it.

There was still a lot of limestone left when building the walls of the mansion, Song Qingyuan asked Jiang Duo to take some and grind it into powder, and carefully spread it on the paper.

He didn't bother to look for grinding tools, so he picked up the paperweight made of ivory on the table and began to polish.

Jiang Duo looked at the tooth carving that was used to grind paper, and gasped in distress.

It may be that the ivory is really easy to use. Half an hour of polishing not only solves the problem of yellowing of the paper, but also makes up for the defect that the paper is slightly thicker due to the addition of talcum powder. The surface of the paper is also smoother and denser, and it is not easy to bleed.

After confirming that this method was feasible, Jiang Duo led his men and spent three or four days grinding and smoothing the remaining paper.

Of course, ordinary stones are used.

Within three days, all the papers were dried and polished, and delivered to Song Qingyuan.

The author says:

More than half of the progress in papermaking...