George Village was built on the east bank of the Silver Moon River and was the southernmost administrative village of Randall.

From the south gate of George Village, walk another 17 kilometers south along the riverbank to see the estuary where the Yinyue River meets the Jinshui River.

More than a dozen paper-making workshops were built behind the fish-proof wall, one of which belonged to the Sid family.

Sid's family has been in business for four generations, and by Sid's generation, they have saved up a large fortune, owning 5 grocery stores, 1 butcher's shop, 1 tavern and 2 hostels in Weststock City, as well as a group of men and freeman craftsmen.

Behind every Freeman merchant is a behind-the-scenes boss, and the Sid family is no exception. Sid's grandfather wanted to give up his family property in exchange for ten acres of fiefdom from the village chief behind the scenes, which was also agreed in advance. But the village chief did not agree, but only comforted him and let the family continue to do business.

It was not easy for the superior to raise a capable freeman trader, and it was clear that the harvest had not yet arrived. But when the time came, Sid, who had a big family, was not happy again.

No matter how fat a pig is, it can't escape the butcher's palm. Just when Sid was in a panic, the Duke of Wellington sent people to seize the shop resources of Wild Willow City. Sid seized the opportunity, first bribed the trade steward of Weststock, moved his family to Wildwillow City, and funded 20 public carriages to obtain the shelter of the Willow City Church.

Wild Willow City has a lot of money, it is easy to make money, and the expenses are also large, especially the 20 public carriages are losing money every day, and Sid's behind-the-scenes boss has cut off his supply in Vistock. Sid, who can't make ends meet, is as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, and at this time, the villain leader of Wild Willow City introduces him to Jack, the owner of the car dealership.

Boss Jack has great powers and actually knows the sheriff of Pinghu Town. Jack tells Sid about Randall's purchase of the house, and claims that as long as Sid comes up with 500 gold soles, he will help him buy a Randall's family membership, and with the status of a citizen, he can get the goods that Randall received.

In order to grasp a stable supply of goods, Sid was very happy to hand over 500 gold soles. When he arrived in Pinghu Town, he found that many of his peers had already purchased houses in Randall.

After a period of drilling, Sid figured out the Randalls' policies.

Viscount Randall performed a pre-divine notarization to declare the protection of the private property of the freedmen, supervised by the Pinghu Town Church. RAND has two policies: building a house and buying a house. The person who built the house could serve as stewards and deacons, or as soldiers. Families who buy houses only enjoy the right to property protection, and can purchase goods and open shops in Pinghu Town, but Pinghu Town has to charge a certain percentage of transaction tax.

This meant that merchants could transfer their property to Randall's territory without fear of being robbed.

However, the shrewd Sid believes that the transaction tax is the focus.

Viscount Randall stipulates that bulk commodity transactions must be delivered at the yard, which charges the seller 7% of the total amount of the goods as a transaction tax. There is no transaction tax on the purchase and sale of small commodities, but shops are required to pay 5% of the gross income of the month as a circulation tax.

This means that the vassals of Randall's domain do not need to secretly resell the property of the commons, and it means that the free folk traders are no longer led by the vassals. Randall's business is above board.

Sid rejoiced at this discovery, and after consulting with his family, he decided to transfer his accumulated wealth to Pinghu Town, some of them to continue their business in Yehliu City, while others to serve the lord as his soldiers, deacons, stewards, and even village chiefs.

Sid bought a public carriage in Randall, opened a shop, bought a house for his brother and son, and gave his beautiful daughters and nieces to vassal families as personal maids. He tried his best to win a few places to build a house.

Sid was apparently not the only freeman merchant who thought the same thing, and they also had many relatives and children, all of whom could write and calculate, and who had mastered several excellent craftsman's trades. The second and last batch of houses are only 200 places.

Businessmen have to compete not only with their peers, but also with other families, and 200 places are simply not enough. However, they have money, craftsmen, and connections, and in addition to building houses, they can also hire skilled craftsmen from other places to please the lord through inventions.

Randall's hottest invention project at the moment is papermaking.

The afternoon sun was bright and scorching, and although the paper mill was located in a col near the river, the temperature was still very high. Cali hid in the shade of the trees, staring at the road at the mouth of the valley, which was empty and not half a human figure. He sighed, turned his head, and saw the servant boar gnawing happily with an oily pork knuckle, and kicked him in anger.

"Eat, eat, eat, know how to eat, useless idiot!"

The boar had a silly smile on his face and said indistinctly, "Hungry." Then he buried his head and continued to deal with the pork knuckle.

"Cali, if you can't make paper, you don't have to be stupid. ”

In the shade of another tree, Jon grinned and sneered, "What?

Cali grimaced and turned his head away, afraid that he would not be able to smash Jon's nose. This slut's uncle is richer than Sid, and he has a relationship with Mo Lin, the first village chief, and is one of the best among the merchants in Pinghu Town.

Cali, Sid's fourth son, is 32 years old and specializes in making parchment and vellum. Sid told Cali that the family had only won two places to build a house, one for himself and the other for Cali's second uncle. But building a house is not as good as making paper, as long as Cali can make paper, he can ascend to the sky in one step and become a vassal of the lord.

Cali listened enthusiastically, and he took a few men, two craftsmen, and a foolish boar to the place designated by the lord and set up a paper workshop.

However, skin paper and straw paper were two different things entirely, and Cali's craftsmanship did not help in the slightest for making wheat straw paper. Luckily, the lord gave me the basic process of making paper. It is divided into steaming, pounding, soaking, seeping, and drying into paper.

Every household designed a paper workshop according to this process, but no one actually made paper, but no one gave up.

The Viscount had high expectations for papermaking and personally gave the method. Isn't giving up to say that the Viscount's method is wrong? Isn't it just spending some money and raising a few people? But who lacks this little money for anyone who can build a paper workshop?

Who would dare to quit now? It's a matter of attitude!

As a result, Cali was trapped in the paper workshop for more than half a year, as did everyone else. After a long time, Cali had other ideas.

Since he couldn't make paper himself, why didn't he borrow from other people's ideas? He began to rent out his own paper workshop, and the rent was set at a very low price, not even enough for the cost of straw pulp. The villagers of George's Village were indeed interested in making paper, and they came to try their luck one after another, but they did not perform as well as the craftsmen in Cali.

For this, Cali was taunted by Jon, but the more he did, the more he insisted.

"Hey, someone is coming. Jon said suddenly.

Cali quickly turned his head and saw three men walking towards here with backpacks on their backs.

"Severin, I thought you weren't coming. Cali stepped forward and greeted him warmly. Trapped in a paper mill and uninformed, he didn't know the background of Wright and Tunan, thinking they were recent outcasts.

"Brother Kali, I'm about to succeed, how can I not come. Severin said triumphantly, he waved his hand at the boar again, and teased: "Silly big man, you haven't eaten enough?"

The boar is more than two meters tall, weighs at least 500 pounds, has an ugly appearance, and has a pair of large and small eyes, which looks very vicious. But Saverin knew that he was actually a good-tempered fool, and he was not annoyed by being beaten and scolded, and if he was really beaten, he would only hold his head and cry there.

"Hehe, then I would like to congratulate you on your successful papermaking. Cali laughed dryly, kicked the boar, and rebuked, "Stupid pig, put down your elbows! ”

The boar stuffed the half-eaten pork knuckle into his mouth, leaving only one bone outside, and stretched out his big hand to catch Severin's back basket.

"No help, we'll take it ourselves. ”

Turnans brushed away the boar's big hand, and the giant man took two steps back to the side, making way for the way.

Cali was secretly frightened, the boar had been abandoned in the orphanage since he was a child, he was stupid by nature, he could not pray, he ate too much, and even the priest of the orphanage hated him. Sid adopted the boar according to the priest's wishes, and expected him to be a thug, but he didn't expect this fool to be beaten rather than fight back, and he was completely a rice bucket.

The boar is stupid, brute force is not fake, as long as he stands firm, five or six strong men can't push it. But the bald head easily lifted the boar aside...... It seems that these two people are not good at stubble...... I don't know what their relationship is with the Robert family...... Cali was silent on the surface, and many thoughts had already turned in his heart.

The paper mill leans against the river, a small warehouse, a wooden shed. When a few people entered the shed, Cali spoke: "It's still the old rule, tools, straw pulp, and charcoal are all ready-made, whatever you want, and my people will do it for you." When it's over, give me eight copper soles for rent. But no poisonous grass must be added!" he said, winking at his old craftsman.

The old craftsman bent down and glanced at the back basket brought by Severin: "Sea buckthorn root, fire leaf grass, blue heart grass...... He raised his head and said in embarrassment: "Poison is not poison." However, the grass juice of the fire leaves and blue hearts are very hot...... Paper is used to wipe people's butts...... Cali, do you think this works?"

"Just give it a try and you'll find out. ”

Clement said lightly: "Mash the fire leaf grass and blue heart grass together, put it in the straw pool to ferment 10 hourglasses, grind the sea buckthorn root, boil it into a gelatinous form, mix it into the pool according to the ratio of 1:20, and then pour the fermented grass pulp into the pool according to the ratio of 1:4, stir it well, and then try to dry the pulp." But be careful, the fermented straw can burn the skin, it is better to wear a leather apron and deerskin gloves. ”

The middle-aged man's determined tone made people believe him, and Cali's heart was pounding, and he felt that this papermaking was very likely to succeed.

But what should I do if the paper is successful? Cali hated that he hadn't checked the backgrounds of these two men in time last time, so he gritted his teeth and said to the old craftsman and a few fellows, "Do it!"

The boss spoke, and the guy complied. They burned the fire, they took the water, they grinded the grass, and before long it was as hot as a steamer in the workshop. Clement occasionally made a few remarks, but Severin was like an outsider, stupidly clubbing there, doing nothing.

Cali accosted the two several times, but they were all dealt with without any useful information.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it is evening. Clement looked at the sky and said, "I'm afraid we won't see the results until tomorrow morning, and we're going back to the village church for evening prayers now." Severin, what are you going to do?"

"I ...... I want to stay here. Severin said weakly.

The Pope stared into the boy's eyes and asked softly, "Vespers are not attended." Won't you attend tomorrow morning's morning prayer?"

"This ...... I ......" Saverin's heart was filled with guilt, and his expression became extremely entangled.

Cali's eyes lit up, and he persuaded with a sad face, "Severin, you better go back to the prayers." If it weren't for the fact that we couldn't get out of it, we didn't want to miss a single prayer of light. In order to alleviate the sins of ungodliness, we donated 50 gold soles to the church for the atonement offering, and Father Miller specially presided over the prayer for our sins. ”

Severin was reassured by these words, saying, "If I can make paper, I am willing to donate all my bounty to the church." If not, I will serve the church for half a year and ask the merciful Lord of Light to forgive my sins. ”

The Pope sighed inwardly, nodded and said, "Good luck, child. ”

"Uncle Wright!" Severin chased to the door, embarrassed, "Can you tell my parents that I will stay here tonight and not go home." ”

"I will. ”

Clement touched Severin's head with pity and turned to walk out of the workshop. As he was leaving, Tournans glanced back at Severin.

"Robert boy, you should go back with them. Cali leaned against the wall and said quietly. Shadows obscured his face.