The stems of plants contain sugar, not only sugarcane and other sweets, almost all plant stems and leaves contain sugar, but the content is different, among them, sugarcane is undoubtedly the highest sugar content, so it is selected by humans to make sugar.

The rest of the herbs have relatively little sugar, and even when you taste them with your tongue, you can't feel the slightest sweetness, so most people think that these grass plants have no sugar, but in fact, these plants also have sugar, but the content is less.

As for why soak for a week to eliminate the sugar inside the papyrus, it is because the sugar will destroy the performance of the coarse fiber of the inner stem and reduce the durability of the papyrus, so it must be removed, and because the sugar is soluble in water, but the fiber is insoluble in water, it needs to be soaked in water, so that the sugar can be removed without losing the vital fiber.

This method is very ingenious and very cost-effective, after all, Egypt is close to the Nile, and the workshop is in the lower reaches of the Nile, there will be no shortage of water, and the water source is quite sufficient, which can fully meet the needs of the workshop.

Li An picked up a thin slice, put it in front of Li Xiaolu's eyes, and said with a smile: "Maybe it's sweet!" Or maybe you try it and see what it tastes like. ”

After saying that, let Li Xiaolu taste it, the eyes of the Ottoman subordinates next to him widened, but the inner stem of the papyrus is non-toxic, even if you eat it, there is no big problem, so it is inconvenient for him to talk more.

Li Xiaolu looked at Li An curiously and asked, "Li Shilang, is this thing really edible?" Is it really sweet? You won't lie to me, will you! ”

Li An nodded and asked her to taste it, in fact, whether the inner stem of this grass is sweet or something else asked, anyway, Li An has never eaten it, and he doesn't know what it tastes like, so let Li Xiaolu taste it, at least let Li An know what it tastes like.

In order to please Li An, Li Xiaolu put the inner stem flakes of the papyrus in her mouth without resisting, chewed it casually, first showed a painful expression, and then showed a happy expression, smiled at Li An, and said: "It's really sweet, do you want to taste it too." ”

Looking at Li Xiaolu's bitter and then sweet expression, Li An always felt that there was fraud in it, and seeing the expressions of the Ottoman subordinates in the back, Li An immediately understood that Li Xiaolu was frying herself, and the flakes of papyrus were definitely not delicious, and the taste was very disgusting.

However, since Li Xiaolu has let herself taste it, if Li An is completely unmoved, it will be too boring, at least there must be a certain response.

"Okay, then I'll try it."

Li An took a small piece of thin slice and put it in his mouth, then pretended to chew it, and said with satisfaction: "Well, the taste is really good, so sweet!" ”

This scene made Li Xiaolu and the Ottoman subordinates behind him widen their eyes in surprise, because this was not the truth.

Li Xiaolu frowned suspiciously: "How can it be sweet?" Could it be that the one Li Shilang tasted was sweet? ”

After speaking, he took a large slice from Li An's hand, took a section and put it in his mouth, chewed it a few times casually, and frowned: "Why is it still bitter, why is this happening." ”

Looking at Li Xiaolu's painful expression, Li An smiled, took out a small piece of flakes from his hand, and said with a smile: "Look at what this is, you only saw me stuffing the flakes into my mouth, but have you ever seen me really eat the flakes, haha!" ”

"Oh, Li Shilang is so smart, he was deceived by you."

Li Xiaolu didn't get angry, but felt that Ang Lee was very smart and a very interesting man, which made her fall in love with her.

Osman's subordinates, seeing that the situation was like this, immediately breathed a sigh of relief, he was under a lot of pressure now, for fear that he would not serve Li An well and make Li An unhappy.

After soaking, the next process is to arrange and beat, which is also a very important step, but also the most critical step, after this step, only the sun is left, and after the sun drying, the product is made, and it can be sold on the market.

Because this is a major process, there are the most craftsmen who do the work, and the whole production place is full of noisy sounds, including the shouting of the head of the craftsmen, and the sound of various beatings.

Ang Lee walked in and took a look, and there were many table-like platforms on the production site, and the top of the platform was hard wood, which was the workbench where the craftsmen pounded papyrus.

When Li An walked over, two craftsmen who cooperated with each other were placing the papyrus sheets, and I saw that they spread a layer of thick gauze evenly on the platform, and then the papyrus sheets were neatly placed on the thick gauze, arranged into a tight square, and then, continuing to rotate 90 degrees, another layer was arranged on top of the flakes, so that the two layers of flakes could be tightly combined.

This process is very simple, but the technical requirements are also relatively high, that is, the arrangement must be tight, no leaks and no overlaps, otherwise, the made papyrus will be uneven, which will greatly affect the performance of the papyrus.

After arranging, the two craftsmen checked it, and then very carefully covered it with a thick layer of gauze again, and after gently compacting it with their hands, the two men each picked up a large wooden hammer, the hammer was flat-headed, and the cross-sectional area was relatively large.

The two craftsmen worked together, one of them hammered first, and after picking up the hammer, the other craftsman continued to hammer, and then kept rotating like this, knowing that they felt that it was almost the same according to experience, and only then would they stop hammering, and gently untie the layer of gauze on it to see how the flakes inside were beating.

If it is qualified, it will be removed, and then continue to make the next one, if it is not qualified, they will continue to beat until it is qualified, of course, if it is made into waste, then they will be finished, not only will they be scolded severely, but also, there may be deducted wages, and even beaten is very likely, because in this era, the life of a craftsman is very worthless, in the eyes of many nobles, craftsmen are like animals, they can be abused at will, and they can abuse as much as they want. No responsibility at all.

Maybe there is a beauty like Li Xiaolu standing next to him, the two craftsmen were a little distracted, and they actually beat them a few times but they didn't qualify, and even caused the scrapping of the paper because of too much force, and this is a serious accident and will be punished, but because Li An is next to them, they are not good at beating and scolding directly, so as not to have a bad impact.

"Haha! It looks like it's going to be scrapped, but I'm interfering with the craftsman! ”

Ang Lee said with a smile.

"Scrapping is a common thing, it is inevitable, it is inevitable, and it has nothing to do with Li Shilang."

Ottoman's subordinates hurriedly spoke.

Li An smiled and said, "I want to give it a try, too, but the papyrus I processed myself is mine, and I want to take it back as a souvenir." ”

"No problem, as long as Li Shilang likes it, it's good if he likes it."

Ottoman's subordinates said politely.

Li An waved his hand and asked the two craftsmen to put down their tools and just stand aside and watch.

"Xiaolu, let's make paper together! I don't know if you can wield a wooden hammer. ”

Ang Lee said with a smile.

Li Xiaolu hurriedly went to get the wooden hammer, lifted it up and tried it a few times, and felt that there was no problem, so she said: "Li Shilang, I can, look, I can pick up the wooden hammer, the wooden one is not heavy at all." ”

"Okay, since it's not heavy, let's get started! Let's take it one step at a time, and then beat it last? ”

Li An said and began to lay thick gauze, before laying, Li An deliberately washed the thick gauze with clean water, only in this way can the best paper be made, if it is dirty thick gauze is not good.

After laying the thick gauze, Li An and Li Xiaolu laid the papyrus flakes together, because it was the first time to work, and no one gave the task, so the two of them worked very seriously, when laying the papyrus flakes, almost all of them were bent over, bit by bit, as long as there was the slightest gap and overlap, it was unqualified, and it had to be done again, only in this way, the papyrus produced was the most qualified.

Of course, the papyrus made in this way can be called the best, and in the actual production process, it is generally not pursued too high, after all, if the pursuit is too high, the output will be difficult to go up.

It takes a certain amount of skill to put all the flakes together neatly, and this skill requires a long time of practice to master, and it is difficult to arrange these flakes together without practice.

One of the biggest problems is the problem of hand trembling, the first few have been arranged neatly, but as long as the hand shakes, it will mess up the thin sheets that have been painstakingly arranged in front of them, and then they need to be rearranged, of course, this is because their requirements are too high, in fact, this so-called messy is just a little touched, so that between the originally neat and tightly knit sheets, there is a little gap and overlap, that's all, if the requirements are not high, it can be completely ignored, as long as the paper can be made.

"It's been sitting for a long time, but it hasn't even been paved on one floor, and it seems that this job is not so easy! Ha ha! ”

Ang Lee had a lot of fun and thought it was quite interesting.

"Why are we always out of line, should we get some glue and glue all these flakes together?"

Li Xiaolu was a little anxious and said.

Li An smiled: "Glue, I'm afraid that the glue won't stick to you, and, in this way, after we beat it, the gauze on both sides and the flakes inside will be integrated, where can we still make paper." ”

"That's right, it seems like it's too much trouble."

Li Xiaolu shook her head, looking very helpless.

Li An fiddled for a long time, and found that there was always something unsatisfactory, looked at the Ottoman subordinates next to him, and asked, "Why can't I always put it up, what is the reason for this?" ”

Osman's subordinates, of course, didn't dare to tell the truth, and said perfunctorily: "Li Shilang is a person who does big things, he shouldn't come to do such small things, this kind of small things can't be done by big people." ”

The words are very beautiful, and anyone who listens to them will be tempted, which also makes Li An feel very comfortable.

"In that case, you can find someone with good skills and help me arrange these flakes, or there will be no gaps or overlaps."

Li An opened his mouth to ask.

When the Ottoman men heard this, they nodded, and soon the most skilled craftsmen were brought in, and they arranged the flakes of papyrus in order until they were covered with thick gauze.

"Okay, Xiaolu, let's beat it, I'll come first."

Li An picked up the wooden hammer and fought, the movement was not bad, and it can be regarded as presentable.

Although Li Xiaolu is a woman, Western Europeans are naturally stronger, and there is no pressure to pick up a wooden hammer, and her appearance is not bad, and she even has a different sense of beauty.

The craftsmen in the workshop couldn't help but watch Li Xiaolu's thrashing action, even if it was them who beat it, they were willing.

After beating dozens of times, Li An didn't feel anything, he didn't even have to gasp, but Li Xiaolu was different, after dozens of beats, he was tired and sweaty, and the faint fragrance emitted by his body suddenly became more intense, making the people around him a little drunk.

"Alright, it should be about the same."

Li An felt that the beating time was long enough, so he gently uncovered the thick gauze, and because the beating was more violent, the gauze and the flakes inside were glued together, and they needed to be carefully separated.

After spending half a day's effort, Li An and Li Xiaolu finally removed the layer of gauze on it, but the effect of beating was obviously not very good, and it was not as good as ordinary craftsmen.

It's no wonder, after all, Ang Lee has just started, and these craftsmen have been working here for a long time, and the technology is naturally much more skilled than Ang Lee, it seems that using a wooden hammer is very simple, but the strength in this is really difficult to grasp, and you need to contact often to be able to master it well.

When taking off the thick gauze underneath, because he was not too careful, Li An actually broke the papyrus he had worked so hard to make, which was originally a complete papyrus, but turned out to be three or four broken pieces of shredded paper, which caught Li An a little off guard and looked a little embarrassed.

However, Ang Lee is a person who does not admit defeat, and will never take the initiative to admit defeat, since the first one is not done well, then it must continue to be manufactured, and those few pieces of broken paper can't go back to commemorate it! That's too cold, at least you have to make a whole piece of paper.

Subsequently, Li An continued to make a few more, because Li Xiaolu couldn't move the big wooden hammer, so the next few papyrus sheets were hammered out by Li An himself, but there was a craftsman to help when they were placed.

When the second piece of paper is made, it can already be guaranteed not to break, and the effect of the third chapter paper is even better, and the next few sheets are all qualified products, even better than those made by ordinary craftsmen, which is enough to reflect Ang Lee's super learning ability, as long as he studies hard, he will soon be able to surpass ordinary people.