"Ladies and gentlemen, although the paper you have made is already good, I am not particularly satisfied, if I can make the surface of the paper smoother, not so rough, it will be better."

Liu Zheng told his opinion to the dozen or so workers, and these workers glanced at each other, and one of them, a middle-aged man, took the initiative to stand up and communicate with Liu Zheng.

"My lord, our Cai's papermaking method can only make such paper, after all, it is a papermaking technique that has been passed down for more than a hundred years, and we will not easily change what our ancestors have handed down."

This middle-aged man is called Cai Kang, is Cai Lun's descendant clan, decades ago Cai Lun improved the papermaking technique, he passed on the papermaking method to his own people, of which Cai Kang is the person who inherited Cai Lun's papermaking technique.

It is precisely because Cai Lun has improved the paper a lot that Cai Kang and others rarely change Cai Lun's papermaking steps, because they don't want to make progress, they can only stick to it.

This kind of thing is normal, just like many companies that Liu Zheng encountered in his later life, these companies have a particularly powerful business, which is the pillar industry of this company, but the company does not want to forge ahead, does not innovate, does not do other business, and sticks to its own profitable business.

And also against other competitors.

However, in the end, the company went out of business, because their technology was backward, and it was not the same competitors who defeated them, but other technological innovation companies.

And Cai Kang is the same, guarding the papermaking technology passed down by Cai Lun, they cannot continue to innovate, but can only be a kind of inheritance.

"No, if you can't innovate, you're waiting for death, your technology will be eliminated sooner or later, and the paper I need is smoother and more conducive to writing, not the current one."

Liu Zheng immediately denied Cai Kang's words.

When Liu Zheng said this, Cai Kang also frowned, suddenly remembered something, and continued to say a word to Liu Zheng.

"My lord, you want smoother paper, I know a little, it is said that there is a person named Zuo Bo in Donglai County, and the Zuo Bo paper he made is a favorite thing of many readers, and it is very convenient to write."

As soon as Cai Kang said this, he immediately attracted Liu Zheng's interest and immediately asked.

"What you said is true?"

"Yes, a few years ago, I got a piece of Zuobo paper, which is indeed smoother, but Zuobo paper is more difficult and expensive to make, which is not conducive to mass production."

"No matter what, you tell me where that Zuo Bo is first, and I'll send someone to find him."

Cai Kang's words made Liu Zheng very interested, and after Liu Zheng's questioning, Cai Kang also told Liu Zheng some information about Zuo Bo that he knew.

Zuo Bo is not a humble title, but the surname Zuo, the name Bo, Donglai County, Donglai County is also a big place for papermaking, the use of paper in the Han Dynasty, part of it is from Donglai.

Liu Zheng also knows this, because the merchant ships under Liu Zheng have a branch in Donglai, and the things produced by Donglai are paper, and the Zuobo paper obtained by Cai Kang is very likely to be sold here through Liu Zheng's merchant ships.

After having the news of this person named Zuo Bo, Liu Zheng immediately sent a message to Yuan Zhou, ordering Yuan Zhou to find this person in Donglai County and invite him to the military academy.

Knowing the name of Zuo Bo and knowing that the location was in Donglai County, it was not difficult to find such a person.

Yuan Zhou immediately sent someone to Donglai to look for a person named Zuo Bo, and it only took a few days to find Zuo Bo, but this back and forth from Donglai to Yichun took more than half a month.

At the end of October, Liu Zheng stayed in the military academy for a full month, and finally met Zuo Bo, a papermaker who was invited by Yuan Zhou from Donglai.

When Zuo Bo was arrested by Yuan Zhou and others, he didn't know what Liu Zheng was looking for him, and he was still a little worried.

It wasn't until Liu Zheng found him and wanted to ask him to make paper, that Zuo Bo was relieved to show this meaning, and began to show Liu Zheng his papermaking skills in front of Liu Zheng.

Zuo Bo's papermaking technology, after some practice, is not much different from the four steps that Liu Zheng understands, the only difference is that Zuo Bo added some other raw materials when making paper.

It makes the originally rough paper smoother and smoother, which is conducive to writing.

It greatly increases the aesthetics of the original paper.

Although there are some differences from modern paper, it is already the best choice. Liu Zheng needs exactly this kind of paper.

"Wonderful, this piece of paper has indeed met my requirements."

The difference between Zuobo paper and Cai's paper is that the raw materials used in Zuobo paper are added mulberry, while most of the raw materials in Cai's paper are linen.

So there is a certain difference between the two, but according to Liu Zheng's knowledge, papermaking in later generations was more made of bamboo, because bamboo has more fibers, which is more conducive to making paper.

There is little bamboo in the north, but there is more in the south, Liu Zheng learned about the papermaking method between Zuo Bo and Cai Kang, and began to lead the workers to use different materials to make different papers.

After experimenting with many other woods and plants, we finally decided on bamboo as the raw material, so that the paper produced is smooth and white, durable, and written on it with an ink pen, which can be bright in ink and has a light pen, which is a good raw material for making books.

And the main point is that bamboo is cheap enough, easy to manufacture, low enough, and able to be produced in large quantities to become popular.

After finalizing the papermaking, Liu Zheng began to toss the printing technology he wanted to do again.

Compared with the difficulty of papermaking, printing is simple for Liu Zheng.

The easiest way is to directly find a craftsman who can carve, let them carve an original engraving plate, and let Liu Zheng print directly with ink board on the engraving plate.

It's just that this kind of board brush is not convenient enough, and it can only print the same thing at one engraving.

After some consideration, Liu Zheng decided to use movable type printing.

It is to first order the craftsman to carve out some commonly used fonts, and then use the Yangwen anti-text mold that is first made into a single word, and then select the words according to the manuscript, arrange them in the word plate, ink and print, and then remove the word mold after printing, and leave it for use again in the next typesetting.

This is very convenient, and Liu Zheng wants to print books.

At the end of November 189, Liu Zheng's paper and everything needed for printing were already available, waiting for Liu Zheng to print the Art of War that Sun Tzu wanted to print.