"Back to the king, there is a little progress."

Taking a deep breath, Wang Pu hurriedly replied in a deep voice: "Now that there is coal, it is much easier to boil both bark and bamboo, and it can save a lot of time compared to before...... Of course, the cost will increase slightly, but I think it will be a big gain compared to the time saved. And in the second half of making paper from bamboo, we also have a lot of experience now, and although the paper made is yellow, it is also useful. ”

"Well, so what's the problem?"

After a moment of deep groaning, Li Yuanjia asked lightly.

"The problem is that the bamboo is too hard, and it's too hard to break them."

Taking a deep breath, Wang Pu smiled helplessly and said, "For example, we can throw tree bark into the river and soak it in just one day, but bamboo must take more than ten days!" And the soaking time is too far away, the bamboo ...... Ahem, we tried it many times, and it took at least a hundred days for it to work. ”

Although Wang Pu's words were expected, after listening to him, Li Yuanjia couldn't help frowning.

Sure enough, as he thought, the difficulty of making bamboo paper was too high.

However, after wrinkling his head, Li Yuanjia quickly stretched it out and chuckled: "Hehe, it's really quite difficult to do, but no matter how difficult it is, you must insist on improving...... This king will also come to think of a way to see if he can make some sharper knives for you, or let Chen Mu and them try it too, and see if they can make a tool to break bamboo chips with water power. ”

After listening to Li Yuanjia's words, Wang Pu was immediately overjoyed, and hurriedly bowed deeply, and thanked loudly: "Yes, thank you, Wang!" ”

"Huh."

With another chuckle, Li Yuanjia didn't say anything.

It's very difficult, but he will definitely continue to work on this thing of bamboo paper, and he must do it!

Bamboo paper will be a big killer of the paper industry in the manual era.

The reason is simple, the raw materials are simply too cheap.

In these years, papermaking often requires the bark of specific plants to provide fibers for papermaking, which is not easy to come by, and a large number of people have to be organized to collect it every spring, which is very troublesome and hard; Second, some things are scarce in quantity and high in price, which often leads to the high price of the final finished product.

If the price is too high, don't think about popularization.

Therefore, in Li Yuanjia's view, low-cost bamboo paper is the solution, so almost all of them were used to make paper in the Ming and Qing dynasties. And bamboo is a fast-growing, inexhaustible, inexhaustible, and definitely not like many famous papers in history, some kind of bark will become extinct after harvesting, so that the price is low and even protects the environment, it is simply the best of both worlds.

With bamboo paper, there are more readers in Datang.

Although it is not as easy as more than 1,000 years later, the country can easily popularize compulsory education, but like the Ming and Qing dynasties, there is still a little hope that the price of books will no longer be unattainable.

Merely......

As Wang Pu said, compared to the bark of trees, bamboo is too difficult to clean.

With Datang's current technical conditions, it doesn't mean that there is no way to take him, but if you want to split the bamboo into thin strips one by one, and then break it and cook it thoroughly, the difficulty is too great, and the cost is too high.

Not to mention anything else, the mere fact of splitting into thin strips can exhaust the craftsmen and handymen to death!

It's true.

Perhaps in the eyes of people in the 21st century, it is very ridiculous to give up using bamboo as a raw material for papermaking just because it is relatively hard, but after really coming to this era, Li Yuanjia understands that the development of each technology in history does not exist independently, and there are too many things involved.

For example, using bamboo to make paper, the first is to chop bamboo, chopping bamboo tools, where is there any good steel and iron in these years? Even if there is, it is for the nobles, where are the craftsmen qualified to use it?

Another example is boiling bamboo chips, Wang Pu They have to insist on at least ten days and ten nights, how much do they need to prepare for firewood? And there is no iron pot, only firewood is used to burn the fire, and the boiling temperature cannot go up at all, and the efficiency is terrible!

Repeated boiling, rinsing, and beating can slowly separate the bamboo fibers and eventually become the raw materials for papermaking.

In ancient times, paper was expensive, and these are the root causes.

Otherwise, bamboo papermaking actually appeared quite early, but it became popular very late, because it was too difficult.

So after thinking of the bamboo paper, Li Yuanjia immediately thought of the thing he only thought of yesterday - if he reported to the emperor, how about really studying iron and steelmaking?

Not only do you need sharp tools to split bamboo, but you also need a large pot to boil tree bark and bamboo chips on a large scale, and you also need a lot of iron......

Li Yuanjia fell into deep thought, and Wang Pu didn't dare to speak, so he asked cautiously after a while: "King, do you have any other orders?" ”

"Huh? Oh, that's gone. ”

Li Yuanjia, who came back to his senses, smiled slightly, shook his head and said, "But there is one thing I want to tell you, that is, about the daily rinsing materials in your workshop...... There is such a small river in Zhuangzi, even if you use the downstream section, it is not appropriate to always occupy the river surface! ”

"This ......"

After a pause, Wang Pu suddenly smiled bitterly again.

I see!

Zhuangzi has indeed had an opinion about the fact that they float on the river with large bundles of bark and bamboo pieces every day. Although the papermaking workshop is downstream, in order to prevent these materials from being washed away by the river, Wang Pu and his team built a small embankment in front of them, which still has some impact on others.

Seeing Wang Pu's embarrassed appearance, Li Yuanjia was also happy: "Okay, this is also a trivial matter, but it does affect others...... Wang Pu, dig some ponds by yourself! ”

"Huh? Digging ponds? ”

After a pause, Wang Pu blinked his eyes and asked, "King, is this...... Is that so? ”

After waving his hand, Li Yuanjia said with a smile: "Anyway, it won't cost a lot of money to dig a pond, it just needs manpower." Go back and talk to the managers of the various workshops, borrow more people from them, and I'll send you some more!" It doesn't seem like it's going to be like that, but your workshop isn't going to be gone after a few years, and you can use it forever by digging a few ponds. ”

After listening to the king's words, Wang Pu's eyes suddenly moved, he bit his lip and suddenly said: "King, in fact, our paper is very popular in Chang'an City, otherwise...... We're also like a glass workshop, looking for a bigger piece of land? ”

"Yo, are you ambitious?"

After listening to Wang Pu's words, Li Yuanjia was immediately happy.

It's a good thing to be ambitious, at least Li Yuanjia didn't mean to hit him on this, but after thinking about it for a while, he still shook his head and smiled: "I know what you want to say, but...... Wang Pu, I let you take charge of this papermaking workshop, but I didn't let you think about making more blank paper to make money......"