The workshop also uses star fruit vine to extract juice to make paper medicine for separating paper, and the paper medicine for ancient paper fishing is star fruit vine, and the separating agent is a very important part of the paper fishing process.

Several large lime pits are dazzlingly white in the verdant green of the mountain, and the tall round grass pile stacked next to it is steaming, and a huge iron pot is steaming and cooking the hay under a fire, preparing materials, weaving the paper, scooping paper, drying paper, inspecting paper, cutting paper...... A piece of paper, 72 manual processes are completed within a radius of several miles.

The ancient method of paper material is to decompose the nature of paper material through sun and rain, and the material removes plant elements, proteins and other substances to obtain clean paper fibers, which is a long process, and the white of the fiber is the natural whitening of photosynthesis.

In his previous life, Li Zhi had seen the skin of the plants by the stream drifting in the water in the primitive natural forest, and the stream combed it into flexible, white fibers.

Right now, you can see a thread of fiber dancing in the water tank, slowly swinging the flexible body, and the posture is myriad.

Next, it is pounded into a more subtle chuff ingredient in the pulp pool, and soil alkali is added, which is to burn the shell of the sycamore tree seeds into ash, wash and filter it with water to form tung alkali for alkali treatment in the paper paddle making process.

Put in this tung alkali to make the paper, warm, soft, soft luster, the whiteness of the paper shows a white similar to the moonlight, the appearance of this paper itself is a priceless work of art, although the white yellowing variegation, can not be compared with the paper of later generations.

"The area of the workshop is large enough, you and I need to develop rice paper in three or two days, although the current green sandalwood bark, straw, far from the quality I think, but I have ordered people to scatter to find more suitable materials, with the current conditions to produce far more than hard yellow paper of rice paper is still possible!" Li Zhi looked at Chang Yubo beside him.

Rice paper materials are naturally not only green sandalwood leather, but also other materials such as mackerel, wolf, hemp, cotton, rattan and other materials, which are also necessary for the existing papermaking process, and these things are not lacking in the current small workshop.

"What better material than at this point?" Chang Yubo obviously had doubts in his heart.

"If you want to make the best quality rice paper that is most in line with the millennium standard of paper life, you need a perennial mild climate, abundant rainfall, abundant light resources, and a four-season environment to provide abundant water and abundant sunshine for the production of rice paper raw materials. Among them, the growth environment of green sandalwood trees is mainly hilly and low mountains, and the plains occupy less active area. Mountains and hills are mainly erosion and denudation hills, which are ideal planting places for green sandalwood trees, an important raw material for rice paper. Qingtan is an indicator tree of limestone, and only after the growth of such mountains and hills can it have the characteristics of fine fiber, uniform and high pulping rate of papermaking. Another important process of rice paper, natural bleaching, must rely on a rocky beach similar to a mountain, on which the raw materials are dried, and the solar bleaching process of the raw materials is completed by the sun and rain. ”

Xiao Hou Ye's explanation, inevitably with the geological terms in the later judgments, fortunately, although Chang Yubo has been immersed in the paper industry for decades, his outside knowledge and related theoretical knowledge are equal to blank, this unfathomable and profound speech will only increase his admiration for his people, and will not have other ideas.

"These are the things in the books? Or the literati have a wider range of contacts, and they are more insightful than those of us who are immersed in hard work! ”

"The future of rice paper not only has the characteristics of easy preservation, long-lasting and not brittle, will not fade, etc., it can also withstand the arbitrary pen power and heavy color dyeing, but also retain the artistic conception of calligraphy and painting charm! Calligraphers and painters pay attention to the five colors of ink, that is, one stroke is completed, the depth and shade, the texture is visible, the ink rhyme is clear, and the layers are clear! This requires the use of rice paper ink wetting, how to control the proportion of ink and water, the pen speed and achieve an artistic effect, the quality of rice paper can not be ignored. In addition, it is resistant to aging, does not change color, is less moth-eaten, and has a long life, so I have the idea of making it the king of paper and the millennium of paper. In my mind, skin like an egg membrane, as clean as jade, thin and smooth, should be the ultimate state of rice paper. Li Zhi said patiently.

Hearing this, Chang Yubo no longer has the slightest sense of superiority in his heart, even if he does not agree that the ideal state said by the little marquis is easy to achieve, but only from the professional interpretation far beyond him, he can realize that there are many deeper cognitions of the existence of rice paper, as well as calligraphy and painting.

"Don't dare to hide it from the little marquis, your words have clearly pointed out to me the future development direction of rice paper, such a clear and vivid guidance will never be accessible to ordinary small workshop operators hiding in the depths of the mountains!"

"I also gained more knowledge from the westbound road, no matter what kind of papermaking process, it is nothing more than the raw materials are soaked, steamed, washed, bleached, sieved to remove impurities, beaten, stirred to separate the fibers, and then diluted with water. However, how to put the most suitable adhesive or dispersant into a slurry before scooping paper is the exclusive recipe for our Zhengqing Wenqitang rice paper. However, the weaving quality of the paper curtain can determine the quality of rice paper, and some characteristic varieties first start from the curtain weaving, such as ribbing, tortoise, single silk road, double silk road and watermark paper, do you have any candidates for relevant curtain craftsmen? ”

"We have an ancient weaving craftsman in Liujian Village who is called the Seventh Uncle, and I have heard of the ribbing, turtle and other texture weaving mentioned by the little marquis, but I think he should be able to understand it!"

"Then let's meet him, if this person can really weave out, he might as well be recruited into the paper mill and hired as a special person with a high salary, which can be regarded as a relatively generous pension environment for the elderly."

"It's still the little marquis who has a good heart! As you guessed, Uncle Seven has been lonely all his life, without a son or daughter behind him, and he does have a good place to retire and send him to the end of his life! Bah, babaa, I'm talking this unavoidably, look at my stinky mouth! ”

Li Zhi was happy, "What you say is the truth, how can I mind!" Moreover, this curtain weaving technique is also one of the secret recipes, and it is also a protective measure to be able to support the elderly. ”

"It's rare that Uncle Seven has met a good person, so I'll send someone to invite him!"

Li Zhi hurriedly shook his hand and said, "Let's go for a trip, I think that Uncle Seven will not be less than fifty or sixty years old, so don't bother the old man's legs and feet." ”

The average life expectancy in the Tang Dynasty was only about 40 years old, and if you were fifty or sixty years old, it would be considered a high life.

When he came to Uncle Qi's rather dilapidated home, the old man looked like he was afraid, thinking that Li Zhi, the little marquis, was already the first so-called big man he had only seen in his life.

Uncle Seven was indeed in his 50s, his skin was dark and rough, his hands were dry and cracked, his fingernails were stuffed with black mud, his clothes were plain and shabby, his shoes were covered with dust, and his weather-beaten face was covered with deep wrinkles.

However, after Li Zhi said the purpose of weaving the curtain, as soon as professional knowledge was involved, the old man's words quickly faded away, and the interest in talking gradually became high.

Although a very authentic country language is very obscure, not to mention the mouth of an elderly person with mutilated teeth and breathing everywhere when he speaks.

Through Chang Yubo's translation, Li Zhi finally understood the meaning of Uncle Seven's words, but from his slightly shining eyes, the little marquis could see a trace of arrogance in the old man's body skills.

As he guessed, once the weaving pattern was told, the old man quickly said the specific weaving method, you must know that there are several new textures that only appeared in later generations, which shows the authenticity of his craftsmanship.

"Uncle Seven, in the future, you will always be the specially appointed gentleman of the paper workshop, I will give you one or two lines of silver in January, and you can move to the Li family compound with Chang Yubo's family, but you can always weave more curtains for my workshop!"

"Then how can I make it, I am a widow and a widow, I can write ordinary crafts, but I don't dare to undertake such a huge favor!"

Uncle Seven doesn't eat or drink for ten years, and he doesn't necessarily have to save a tael of silver, and there are many craftsmen who can weave, but if anyone in the mountains doesn't know this thing, it is a person who needs to spend money to weave, and a few baskets may be used for the first half of his life, and no matter how high-end bamboo tables and rattan chairs are, there are corresponding formal workshops on the market, and there will not be many businesses in a year, not to mention that this is still a poor country.

Seeing that Li Zhi gave himself a look, Chang Yubo hurriedly explained something to the seventh uncle in a low voice, and the little marquis was not good to watch from the sidelines, so he found an excuse to go out of the house and wander around the same dilapidated yard.