Because they couldn't wait for the summons for a while, while Fu Zhu ran back and forth there, Liu Bei and Li Su were temporarily idle, and they had a window period of one or two days to move freely.

The first thing Liu Bei thought of was to sell the war horses of the entourage of his relatives and soldiers as many as "one person and three horses", and exchange them for 120 horseshoe gold cakes.

Then, Liu Bei was in Luoyang and began a short period of relaxation and enjoyment of life, the details of which do not need to be listed.

As for the channel of selling horses, Liu Bei already knew a lot of merchants who collected horses in Luoyang, and the Zhen family also did this business all year round, so he happened to find someone from the Zhen family to help him mediate and sell it for some more money.

Before Liu Bei and Li Su set off, Zhen Yan gave them some tokens and thorns, so that they could cooperate with them if they had business needs, and they could find someone with the Zhen family's branch in Luoyang at any time.

The so-called literary thorn is the letter of introduction of this era, which is written on the wooden slab - just like the business card of the "famous thorn", which is also engraved on a wooden board to prevent damage, who makes the paper of this era too fragile.

And the money from the sale of horses, in addition to the necessities of enjoying life in the past few days, the rest of Liu Bei was handed over to Li Su very easily.

Obviously, Liu Bei also understands a little bit of the rules of today's officialdom, and knows that he has to make money to do anything. Since Li Su is so capable in this regard, of course he has to employ people.

There is nothing to hide about this - because in the Han Ling Dynasty, not only the people who bought officials needed to give money, but even the officials appointed by the imperial court because of their work needs also had to give "money to take office", so everyone gave money.

According to the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, the only time there is an explicit exception is when Liu Yu of Dazongzheng was reappointed as the pastor of Youzhou and went to preside over the rebellion of Zhang Ju and Zhang Chun, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty personally issued an edict, saying that he knew that Liu Yu was honest and had no money, and explicitly ordered the ten permanent servants not to extort Liu Yu's money.

Except for Liu Yu, other officials of the Lingdi Dynasty have never seen any record of being able to take office without giving money.

However, officials who commit suicide because they are really honest and cannot come up with money and cannot take office happen from time to time. It's a pity that these true officials don't have Liu Yu's prestige, so they can't get the emperor to grant amnesty.

Because of Liu Bei's trust, Li Su's money in hand, plus the previous bounty, swelled to more than 200 catties of gold, and he couldn't carry it alone. Liu Bei also sent Guan Yu to Li Su to act together, make a cameo appearance as a porter, and protect the money by the way.

……

On this day, it was the second day after they arrived in Luoyang, and early in the morning, Fu Zhi came to inform them, saying that the general He Jin was going to summon them tomorrow, ask Zhang Chun about the thief, and let them prepare in advance, but they could still move freely for a day today.

Li Su was ready to go out. Guan Yu asked with concern, "Where is Boya going?" I'll protect you. ”

Li Suwan excused herself: "No need, I will take the time to go to Taixue Tuobei today, second brother, you just stay and watch the money." ”

As he spoke, he only took three or five gold cakes and flowers from his salute, and went out.

When he was selling horses yesterday, he also bought some large pieces of paper, pens, ink, brushes and other things in the Zhen family's business, and prepared to go to the square at the entrance of Taixue early in the morning today to try his hand at the scriptures of the stone scriptures.

After all, he is still ready to respect the teachings of Frustration, which is not only good for himself, but also can get closer to Frustration.

He had also seen the rubbings in later generations, so he roughly knew how to operate them.

Today's stele stone is black, and when it was carved, the characters in Yin were white.

In this way, as long as you are careful enough when applying the ink, you can use the ink silk that has been completely soaked in ink to paste it once and then remove it, so as to ensure that the ink does not stick to the concave characters, and it will not affect the reading of the inscription itself.

As for the stone that is originally black, it can't be seen at all if it is dipped in more ink, and the people who manage Taixue should not mind and stop it.

Li Su went early, and now that the eunuch is in charge, the Taixue students can't see anything to come out of, and there are many wasted readings, and there are no people at the gate of Taixue.

Li Su made a large basin of ink, first soaked a few pieces of silk silk in it, thoroughly soaked the ink, then dried it slightly, and carefully pasted it on a stone tablet.

Then the ink silk is removed, and a piece of pure white paper is taken and covered in the same place, and the ink on the stele is transferred back to the paper.

However, the paper seems to be too fragile and permeable, and the Yin script on the stele is too thin. After a while, the white handwriting on the paper was infiltrated by the black ink next to it, and the whole paper was pure black, and the words could not be read clearly.

After a few more seconds, the whole paper was soaked in too much ink because of the excessive ink.

"Oops, this Caihou paper is so bad that it can't be extended." Li Su secretly screamed in his heart.

The paper made from broken fishing nets and rags is too obvious for fiber leakage. If you write it with a brush, the amount of ink is small, so it doesn't matter if you seep a little, but most of the paper is dyed with ink when rubbing, and it will seep out all at once.

"By the way, when I got the paper in the Zhen family's firm yesterday, didn't the housekeeper of the Zhen family give me a few rare and good papers, why don't you try that." Li Su has a temper that solves problems when encountered, so he didn't lose much time and immediately began to think of alternatives.

It turned out that yesterday the housekeeper of the Zhen family also gave him a few good pieces of paper named Zuo Bo Paper, which are said to have been passed from Donglai County, Qingzhou.

The invention of Caihou paper has been more than 70 years ago, and it has been produced all over the Han Dynasty. Zuo Bo paper was invented by a Donglai man named Zuo Bo only ten years ago, and it is still only produced in Qingzhou.

The evolution of this kind of paper compared with Caihou paper lies in the fact that its raw materials are more particular, and it must be made of a considerable proportion of mulberry bark, which is similar to the mulberry paper of later generations (the post-80s generation should have seen the yellow paper used to wrap steamed buns in breakfast shops when I was a child).

Therefore, Zuo Bo paper is much stronger than Cai Hou paper, and it is not easy to erode due to excessive immersion in water and ink, and the price is also much more expensive.

And because at the end of the Han Dynasty, only Shandong and Shu were large states in the silk weaving industry, a large number of mulberry trees would be planted. In other states where the sericulture and silk weaving industry is not developed enough, even if you want to learn to make Zuobo paper, there are not enough raw materials. (If you don't raise silkworms, it is a loss to plant mulberry trees just to get mulberry skin and make paper.)

Like Jizhou, where Liu Bei is now, there is almost no silk weaving industry, and no one raises silkworms, and with mulberry paper technology, it cannot be promoted in Jizhou.

After Li Su's operation, he didn't re-ink, so he relied on the remaining ink stained on the stone tablet for the first time to re-expand a piece of Zuobo paper.

After looking at it for a while, he found that this time the paper was not soaked, but the problem of the ink leaking and extending in the direction of the mulberry bark fibers could not be solved.

Although the font can be seen vaguely, it is like cracking, and it can be seen that the bark fiber lines have absorbed the ink.

"No, it seems that all the paper in the Han Dynasty can't be rubbed, no wonder the historical tablet rubbing printing started in the Wei and Jin dynasties. I remember that ordinary rice paper in later generations can be used as rubbings casually, what is the difference between the formula of rice paper and Zuobo paper......

I don't seem to remember the specifics, but I went to the Xuan Paper Museum in Xuanzhou to see it, and said that all kinds of rice paper are made of bark. Could it be that the most basic rice paper in later generations is different from the current Zuobo paper, because the bark selected for papermaking is different? ”

Li Su was silently thinking in his heart.

Before he crossed over, he was just a useless liberal arts student, and he didn't know much about technical things, and even gunpowder only knew the simple formula of "one sulfur, two nitrate, and three charcoal". His understanding of papermaking and printing is also that of a liberal arts student.

It's just that when he was at the Foreign Affairs Academy, there were a lot of elective courses in vassal elegance and aristocratic art, so he liked to go to various ancient culture museums, and these knowledge were also seen in the Xuan Paper Museum.

"There is no way, if you want to expand the monument, and even engage in printing in the future, and help the lord do propaganda work, you must first solve the problem of paper. It is convenient to engrave, and if you can't get the Yang engraving, you can first get the Yin inscription of the rubbing. After a while, I will find a way to find a channel to buy the bark of the tree, and then find a way to try to make new paper from the Zhen family's business workshop. ”

With such a plan in his heart, Li Su decided to collect the stall and go back first.

Today's topography has ended in failure for the time being.

As soon as he packed up his things, he noticed that there were already a few students behind him, pointing there: "Hmph, it's really insulting!" Too lazy! ”

"People from all over the world come here to make a pilgrimage, and they are all copied by their own hands, and there are still people who want to deceive and opportunistically, and directly print the handwriting back!"

Li Su didn't care about them either, and apologized very sincerely: "It's because the kid is not knowledgeable, his writing is too ugly, and he doesn't have time to stay in the capital for a long time, so he wants to print Cai Yilang's words back as they are and learn them slowly, and I laughed." ”

"You guy, wash the monument! Otherwise, don't want to leave today! ”

"I'll wash it right away." Li Su didn't feel ashamed to try new technology, so he generously washed the stone again.

Seeing that his attitude was so good, those students had no excuse to continue to find fault for a while, and suddenly felt bored, so they walked away.

……

After returning that day, he slyly found a few shops in Luoyang City that mainly sold wood, etc., to see if there were any trees - because it was definitely impossible to buy bark directly, and no one had discovered the role of bark in these years.

Fortunately, the tree itself is also a good building wood, so after looking for a few, I asked at a business that specializes in selling Qinlong big wood.

When he heard that as long as the bark was not wood, the other party led him directly to the stockyard behind the firm, pointed to a pile of bark cut down during the processing of beams and columns, gave him a very low price, and let him take it away.

"Can you crush the bark? I add money. Li Su was afraid that when he got the Zhen family's business, he would still be recognized as the bark of the tree, so he insisted on spending money to fully crush the bark.

It just so happened that the craftsmen of the wood shop were not idle, so the shopkeeper let them crush and process, and charged Li Su some more processing fees.

In the evening of the same day, Li Su pulled several carts of bark, turned the car upside down several times, returned to the Zhen family's business, and found the steward there.

"What does Li Shaojun command?" The housekeeper of the Zhen family also knew him, and he was very polite.

"I want to make a batch of Zuobo paper in your paper-making workshop, and I will pay as much as I want, and I will add extra money, but you have to use the mulberry bark I brought."

"What's so difficult about this, after ten days, Li Shaojun will be able to pick up the goods, and if you dry it quickly, it will take seven or eight days." The housekeeper of the Zhen family is very refreshing.

Luoyang is the cultural center of the world, and the papermaking business is now the most prosperous in Luoyang, and the supply chain response is very fast.