Cheung Lok Street.

The hoop bucket alley is narrow and gloomy, and it is lined with low tiled houses. Most of the alleys are bamboo craftsmen who make bamboo strips, bamboo tubes, and bamboo slips.

There is only one family surnamed Sun who makes hemp paper.

The tiled houses on both sides of the alley are covered with thick white snow, and ice cubes are hung from the eaves.

The windows are not breathable, the inside of the house is dark and damp, and the outside is a cross-drain of sewage.

Fortunately, it is the cold winter season of the lunar month, and the snow covers the earth, but it does not smell fishy.

The status of artisan households is low, and in a place like Jinling City, where every inch of land is valuable, it is already quite good to have a house to shelter from the wind and rain, and the living environment is naturally not demanding.

Chu Tianxiu was led by Zu'er and entered the depths of the alley, frowning.

As a modern person, he doesn't feel that the hygiene is poor in the palace, but it is inconvenient for the thatched house to have no paper.

But when he entered the civilian area, he immediately instinctively felt that the old alleys of the civilians in Jinling City were very inappropriate, densely populated, and the ground was too dirty, and it was easy to have accidents.

I have to talk to Jinling Mansion Yin and renovate the sewage ditch in Jinling City.

But today he is here to run a hemp paper workshop, and this matter is not in a hurry.

They came to a hemp paper mill.

This hemp paper workshop, which is said to be a workshop, is actually a civilian house.

The inside of the house is quite simple, and there are a lot of shabby hemp heads, broken hemp shoes, and broken linen clothes piled up inside and outside the house. In the middle of the house is where the craftsman's family sleeps.

There was some dried hemp paper hanging on the wall.

The innermost part of the house is in the paper workshop.

There are knives, stone mortars, paper washing beds, and other paper-making tools.

But it was covered by a rag and could not be seen from the outside.

This small hemp paper workshop is home to five people. An elderly couple in their forties and fifties, as well as their three sons in their twenties and thirties.

A family of five lives on this hemp paper craft.

"Little Old Master Sun, I've seen Little Hou Ye and Miss!"

A shriveled old man in a torn black jacket stood at the door of the low house, his face was nervous and restrained, and he was flustered when he saw the son and lady in brocade clothes and luxurious clothes in front of him.

On weekdays, those big nobles and nobles are all in the bamboo bookstore on Changle Street, and they will not come to this alley at all.

Zu'er had already told him that the little marquis and the county lord of Danyang would spend a sum of money to buy his hemp paper workshop, and their Sun family would all enter the food household of the county lord of Danyang.

The hemp paper craftsmanship of this family surnamed Sun is good, but unfortunately the hemp paper has not had much business, and he has raised three sons in his twenties and thirties, so he can barely make ends meet.

Old craftsman Sun had heard of the reputation of the little marquis and knew that this little marquis was a famous gentleman in Jinling.

The little marquis wants to buy it with someone and the hemp paper workshop, and he has doubts.

But the advantage is that you can join the county lord's food and yi hukou, and you don't have to pay taxes and conscription to the imperial court in the future, which is something that many people can't envy.

Old Craftsman Sun did not hesitate and happily agreed.

Chu Tianxiu glanced at a few people behind him.

Old craftsman Sun hurriedly introduced, "This is the villain's mother-in-law, who usually helps to peel hemp skin or something." These are the villain's three sons, who are not yet married, and follow the villain to make paper and pound pulp. It's all a lot of strength, and it's a good job! ”

The three men were shabby, honest, hiding behind their father, unable to utter half a word.

"How much does your hemp paper cost and how does it sell?"

Chu Tianxiu asked flatly.

"For a one-foot-long piece of hemp paper, the cost of raw materials for buying hemp skin is three copper coins, and it is five copper coins to sell it to a book shop. The price of the store is 10 copper coins.

These ten Wen can buy ten large cooking cakes, and no one buys them in ordinary people, so they can only sell them to rich and noble families in Jinling.

But those rich and noble people only use it occasionally, and they dislike our family's hemp paper is rough and easy to penetrate ink.

After a month of hard work, our family can make about 100 pieces of hemp paper. A piece of hemp paper costs money, and earns 200 copper coins, and can only barely make ends meet. ”

Old craftsman Sun said honestly and quietly.

He didn't know what Xiao Duhou bought his hemp paper workshop for, so he could only tell the truth.

Chu Tianxiu frowned slightly, and he could also see that the hemp paper business of this old craftsman Sun was not good.

The family of five was all dressed in tatters, and the house was also dilapidated, with rotten wood and earthen walls. If the hemp paper business is good, life will not be so embarrassing.

I can't produce more than 100 pieces of hemp paper in a month, and it's okay to feed two people. But it's enough to feed three adult men who can eat.

"You make hemp paper, how is the process?"

Chu Tianxiu said casually.

He wanted to know to what extent the Sun family's hemp paper craftsmanship had reached, so that he could point out and improve it into real Caihou paper.

Old craftsman Sun was startled, and hurriedly leaned over, hurriedly bowed his hand, and pleaded with a pleading face, "Little Marquis, this~, this hemp paper making technique is the secret technique of the villain's ancestors for generations, and the rice bowl for eating." Don't ask. ”

Chu Tianxiu understood Old Craftsman Sun's panicked thoughts at the moment.

Craftsmen have no land, so they rely on their own unique crafts to earn a living.

Old craftsman Sun eats this bowl of rice, and his three sons, and even future children and grandchildren eat this bowl of rice.

The techniques of ancient craftsmen are often passed down from generation to generation, and they are the ones who eat.

Let him leak his job, causing more people to make hemp paper to compete, wouldn't it cut off the way of life for his children and grandchildren? Old Craftsman Sun entered the county lord's food estate, but he still had to work and rely on this papermaking craft to eat.

Even if he beats him, he won't say half a word about how to make hemp paper.

Cai Lun's papermaking technique is public, which is another matter.

Cai Lun dedicated the papermaking technique of "Caihou Paper" directly to the imperial court, because he was a high-ranking official of the imperial court with 2,000 stones.

His main business is an official, and papermaking is just a way to gain fame, so naturally he doesn't care about the money of papermaking at all.

Chu Tianxiu didn't ask again, and said directly: "After you mashed the hemp skin with a stone mortar, the pulp was degreased, but you used quicklime?" Cutting, washing, soaking, steaming, pounding, beating, copying, baking, and unmasking, are there any gaps in these eight or nine papermaking steps? ”

Old Craftsman Sun's eyes suddenly widened, and his heart was shocked.

The process of making hemp paper is quite complex, and the quality of the paper depends entirely on the technical details. And what to use to degrease the pulp is the most important step in making hemp paper.

Every time he slurry with quicklime, he did it himself, and he didn't even tell his three sons how much he used. Afraid that they will be deceived stupidly, they will only let them do the rough work of pounding hemp skins.

Hemp paper is not a deep secret... Once you understand the key points, everything else is simpler.

The little marquis even knows the whole process of papermaking.

Chu Tianxiu's expression was flat.

He knew more than that, and even knew that the ancestor of Sun Laojiang should be a silkworm smasher.

The most important thing in hemp skin papermaking is to pound the skin and pulp, and use quicklime to remove grease.

Without degumming grease, it is made of oiled paper, which can be waterproof and cannot absorb ink for writing.

The ancients first mastered the technique of pounding silk and degreasing, and then inadvertently discovered that this technique could be used to pound hemp skin, so they made hemp paper.

This small number of silk pounders also switched to hemp paper.

"You don't have to worry about your job. This little marquis still doesn't look down on your hemp paper. I bought your hemp paper workshop to transform the hemp paper technology and make better paper! Just do what I tell you to do!" ”

Chu Tianxiu smiled faintly.

"You say."

Where did the old craftsman Sun dare to pretend to be a senior papermaker in front of Chu Tianxiu, his heart was numb and his mouth was full of bitterness.

He will also be able to claim to be a senior papermaker in front of those who do not understand the key process of hemp paper. Little Hou Ye knows all this, and his little family secrets are obviously worthless in the eyes of Lord Hou.

Chu Tianxiu waved his hand and asked Old Master Sun's mother-in-law and three sons to step down, leaving Old Master Sun alone.

"The purchase price of hemp leather is too expensive, and the cost of competing with others for linen clothes and shoes is extremely high. Benhou plans to use very cheap bark, bamboo, etc., as a material for papermaking, and carry out large-scale papermaking. ”

Chu Tianxiu said in a deep voice.

Hemp is a high-value cash crop, and the cost of the material alone is extremely high. It is used to make paper, and the paper produced is, of course, expensive.

Few people can afford it!

Large-scale papermaking must use the cheapest materials, cheap materials that can be found everywhere and no one is competing for. The bark and bamboo, which are used in large quantities, are not enough, and they are very suitable.

The cost of raw materials has dropped to one percent of the original, and the large workshop has made it in batches, which has greatly reduced the cost of paper.

When Old Master Sun heard this, he was stunned, and hurriedly persuaded: "Little Marquis, don't do this."

Do you know, the villain has tried to mash and beat the pulp with the bark, but the glue of this bark is much thicker than the glue of hemp bark.

Pulping and degreasing, always not clean.

As a result, the paper was too oily to absorb the ink, and it couldn't even sell a sheet. If it is built on a large scale, the cost is huge, and it cannot be sold, then it will be a big loss. ”

The little marquis has lost a lot of money in papermaking, and he, a papermaker, can still benefit? I'm afraid my job will be smashed.