The Xiaoqing River flows slowly from east to west from the north side of Sanshui Village, turns a bend from the west side of Nanshan to the south, and joins Bishui at Tangzidu after more than ten miles.

Every year in the beginning of spring, the ice and snow melt, so that the water of Xiaoqing River rises much better than in winter, but the river is too narrow to sail, which also makes it more troublesome for people in Sanshui Village to travel. It's called Sanshui Village, but in fact there is only Xiaoqing River, a river that can't be navigated, which is really a bit unworthy of the name.

However, for Sanshui Village, the Xiaoqing River has been a great help, and the thousands of acres of fields around the village depend on it for irrigation. Because it is connected to the water of the Han River, as long as the water of the Han River is not dry, the Xiaoqing River will not have to worry about breaking the flow.

The fields around Sanshui Village are full of ditches, all of which are connected to the Xiaoqing River and are used for irrigation.

However, recently, the young patriarch Zhang Miao said that the patriarch Zhang Yu mobilized 200 township soldiers and dug a new ditch. It passes through the west of the village and is about one zhang wide. Next to the ditch, there is a new waterwheel, which rotates with the water.

The waterwheel rotates, driving the wooden shaft to rotate, which is then connected by wooden gears to transmit the force to the house next to the waterwheel.

In the house, there is a huge basket, driven by the water force, the thick log is raised high, and then it falls heavily, and in the sound of impact, the bamboo that has been soaked in lime water for a winter is beaten as soft as catkins.

Throughout the late autumn and early winter, Du led the women of the village to cut thousands of bamboo poles, cut them into five feet long, and threw them into quicklime ponds for the whole winter. And now it's finally time to make paper.

The bamboos are removed from the lime ponds, washed, and then cut into smaller pieces, then put into a basket and repeatedly hit with a wooden mill driven by a water wheel until it is beaten into powdery yellow and clear bamboo powder. These bamboo dust are poured into the sink to form pulp. The next process is papermaking, a mat made of bamboo silk is gently swung in the pulp pool, and the water is filtered out, leaving a thin layer of pulp film, which is a piece of paper when it dries.

When the copied paper is 1 meter high, it is necessary to use external force to press the moisture in the dry paper, and then cut the paper one by one, which is the process of papermaking.

It's easy to say, but in fact, there are as many as 72 processes in the whole process. And many processes are very technically tested. For example, when making paper, the thickness of the paper copied with great force is absolutely different.

Zhang Miao spent two days writing out the complete artificial papermaking process, and each process was very perfect.

However, the process can be easily written, but it is not so simple to successfully create high-quality paper according to the process. Because Zhang Miao has no skilled workers at all, let alone skilled workers, he doesn't even know how to make paper, and Zhang Miao himself can only say that he can't do it!

There is no way, only a little bit of groping.

Zhang Miao found Zhang Fu, who has the most stable but ingenious personality in the village, to serve as the manager of the paper mill. Zhang Fu was originally a carpenter in the village, one of the few craftsmen, and the most ingenious.

Then Zhang Miao allocated more than a dozen strong men and twenty young women to Zhang Fu and asked him to take everyone to make paper.

"Uncle Fu, you do it slowly according to the process I wrote, don't be afraid of failure, as long as you can successfully master the papermaking technique, you will make a great contribution to our village." Zhang Miao comforted.

Zhang Fu smiled bitterly: "Ah Miao, I have never heard of papermaking before, so I can only say that I can do it reluctantly." ”

Zhang Fu has no confidence, but Zhang Miao is very confident, because he knows that the papermaking process he wrote is detailed enough, as long as he can follow the process, he can make paper sooner or later. And there is no fear of waste, that is, the paper produced is unqualified, and then turned into pulp and remade.

The reason why Zhang Miao did not personally supervise the entire process of papermaking was because he was really inseparable. As soon as the beginning of spring, news came that the thief commander Zhou Cang led thousands of thieves from Tongbai Mountain to kill and kill Huyang again.

Zhou Cang's troops advanced quickly, and when Sanshui Village received the news, Zhou Cang led the thieves to Huyang and surrounded Huyang County.

"This time, the thief commander Zhou Cang dispatched troops quickly and with a clear goal, that is, to capture Huyang County. He came out all the way from Tongbai Mountain, did not harass the countryside too much, but went straight to Huyang to kill, according to the sentinel sent to report, this time Zhou Cang brought as many as 5,000 troops. Xu Shu introduced the information he heard with a very serious expression.

"Obediently, this posture has to take Huyang City!" Zhang Qi shouted.

"In the autumn, Zhou Cang robbed almost all the villages in Huyang, where is there still food in the countryside, Zhou Cang is not stupid, he naturally knows that if he wants to get money and food, he can only go to Huyang City." Zhang Jin said with a relaxed expression.

With the increase in the number of people in Sanshui Village, and with the increase in the scale of the township soldiers, the self-confidence of Zhang Jin, Zhang Qi and others has also increased a lot, and they are no longer the panicked when they heard that the thief army was coming.

"There are only three or four hundred county soldiers in Huyang City, even if you add the officials and officials at all levels, the number of people who can be called by the Huyang Order is less than a thousand, I'm afraid that Huyang City is in danger." As a wanderer, Changyu undoubtedly thinks more.

"Brother Yu, do you mean to rescue Huyang?" Zhang Jin heard the meaning of Zhang Yu's words and asked tentatively.

"Of course it must be rescued!" Before Zhang Yu could answer, Zhang Miao stood up and said categorically.

"That, Ah Miao, we only have 500 village soldiers, but the thief army has as many as 5,000, which is ten times that of us." Zhang Jin reminded.

Zhang Miao smiled coldly: "If there are many people, it will be useful, when Taiping Dao just started, there were hundreds of thousands of soldiers at every turn, and Zhang Jiao would have overthrown the Han Dynasty as the emperor a long time ago." ”

"That ......" Zhang Jin touched the back of his head, not knowing what to say.

In the current Sanshui Village, although the patriarch and the township soldier are all Zhang Yu, Zhang Miao's prestige is no less than that of his father. Because the reason why Sanshui Village is now is because Zhang Miao brought it single-handedly.

Moreover, the villagers have a kind of blind trust in Zhang Miao, who continues to bring miracles, and Zhang Miao, who has been left by Hou Suhui.

"Yes, send troops!" Zhang Qi shouted, "We are strong now, I'm afraid he will do something!" ”

"But if we come out of the nest, once we are a little careless, what will happen to the thousands of fathers and elders in this village?" Zhang Jin said again.

Zhang Miao smiled slightly: "It's very simple, as long as we defeat Zhou Cang quickly, the soldiers of Sanshui Township will definitely shock Huyang, who else dares to fight our idea without long eyes?" ”

Zhang Jin sighed, the number of thieves is ten times that of himself, how easy is it to defeat?

Zhang Jin, who has always been cautious, stopped talking, and the others naturally had nothing to say, so the decision to send troops was decided.

While Xu Shu breathed a sigh of relief, he couldn't help but sigh at Zhang Miao's status in the village, which was simply a taste of words.