Another new business that Li Yu is preparing to start is papermaking.

Hides (mainly sheepskins) and papyrus are still used to record writing on the continent of Brattis.

Not to mention, although the hides are strong enough to withstand wear, can be stored for a long time, and can even be waterproof, they are expensive to produce.

A sheep or cow can usually only make one piece of paper, and the skill of the skinners is very high, they must peel the skin completely without any damage in the middle, and the skin itself must be free of blemishes.

After that, it is washed, depilated, scraped, and air-dried by special craftsmen...... A set of tedious processes can be used to produce a piece of parchment.

For example, in the case of the Silver Moon Church's "Silver Moon Holy Codex", the entire book uses a total of 469 pieces of parchment, and the paper alone is a large expense.

In addition, the weight of the whole book is very impressive.

In contrast, papyrus is much cheaper, papyrus is made from the stem of papyrus, and the process of making it is relatively simple, as long as the papyrus is peeled, cut to about the same length, and then flattened and soaked.

Then take it out of the water, squeeze out the water, arrange it horizontally and vertically, press it, use the sugar mucus inside to connect it with each other, dry it, and then smooth the surface to complete the production.

But papyrus also has many disadvantages, first of all, the texture is relatively brittle, easy to damage, can not be folded, at most can only be rolled up, in addition to the damage is also more troublesome, must go by water.

Then there is the fact that it is not easy to preserve, especially in a humid environment, which will quickly become moldy. Don't believe in the papyrus unearthed in ancient Egypt, there is no such thing as papyrus that cannot be preserved for thousands of years.

In addition, like cotton, the raw material papyrus also has environmental requirements.

It generally grows near tropical and subtropical swampy lakes and cannot be cultivated due to the low temperatures in the west.

Li Yu had conducted a market survey when he was in Yanxue City before, and the price of a piece of papyrus was almost equivalent to a loaf of bread, and the price of animal skin paper was twenty times that of papyrus.

Like Miss Rabbit, she usually writes letters, and uses papyrus to deal with government affairs and everything, which is much cheaper than animal skin.

But Li Yu is still not satisfied with this price. At this stage, it is obvious that Shuangxiu Church is not able to achieve paperless office, and the upgrade system he has established needs to keep a lot of files, and the consumption of paper will be very amazing.

In addition, he also opened a school, and it was impossible for students to write only on the ground all the time.

To sum up, Li Yu felt that it was time to make his own paper.

Like textiles, papermaking is also a traditional art of the descendants of Yan and Huang, and tutorials on ancient papermaking abound on the Internet.

The principle of modern papermaking technology is no different from that of ancient times, which is essentially the decomposition and remodeling of plant fibers, but the intermediate links are mechanized, and there are some adjustments to the formula.

Plant fibers are easy to understand, tree bark is the most common plant fiber, in addition to Li Yu's hand, flax, rattan, and even wheat straw can be reused to make paper.

As long as these raw materials are soaked and hammered, lime is added, the process of fiber decomposition can be completed, and then these fibers are collected from the pulp with a screen, pressed and glued, and then dried to obtain paper in the modern sense.

Of course, it just sounds simple, but it can be quite troublesome to do, but the final product will prove that all the hard work is worth it.

The production of modern paper requires about the same amount of manpower as the production of papyrus, or even a little more, and does not have too many advantages in terms of production costs.

However, the bulk of the papyrus was not originally produced, but in the transportation link, and the transportation cost was ten times the production cost.

The toughness of modern paper can greatly reduce its transportation costs, whether it is land or water, and the quality of the paper is far superior to that of papyrus.

In short, a paper that combines the advantages of lightness, cheapness, toughness, and ease of transportation, there is no reason why it cannot beat other competitors.

In addition, with the massive prestige that comes with slaying dragons, and the status of the only female knight in the empire at the moment, the Arias family and the Shuangxiu Sect have also begun to have the ability to retain the huge benefits of the new goods.

This is also the reason why Li Yu decided to launch several new products. When the first batch of linen and paper is produced, he will invite the largest chambers of commerce in the West to discuss the distribution of goods.

And just when Li Yu and Ilea were developing behind closed doors, the Silver Moon Church on the other side broke out a major event that made everyone in the Western Realm pay attention to it.

Herodotus, who was also a high priest, accused Martina and her associates of colluding with the Church of Peace, which eventually led to several defeats of the Church in Greenfield.

As soon as the news came out, the entire Western Realm was shaken.

High Priest Martina was revered both inside and outside the Church, and could even be said to be the most prestigious of the seven High Priests.

The vast majority of the Silvermoon cultists could not believe that she would betray the church and betray Picia.

However, Herodotus then threw out a series of "ironclad evidence", including that High Priest Martina instructed her disciple Adele to deliberately lose to Li Yu in a medical competition, and also carried a fake holy coffin to damage the reputation of the church.

High Priest Martina then went to meet with Ilea in private, where she plotted to betray the Church.

Before the initiation ceremony of the female lord, a group of devout believers in the goddess spontaneously gathered to assassinate the prophet Merlin of the Church of Shuangxiu, for which they were willing to die.

In order not to leak the news, they even hid from their wives and children, and only told High Priest Martina about their plans before they started.

Unexpectedly, the latter revealed their plan to the Arias family and the Shuangxiu Sect with a backhand.

This led to the defeat of those righteous men, which led to the merciless slaughter of the Church of Shuangxiu that had been prepared for a long time, and also brought shame on the church again.

Herodotus later led people to raid the residence of High Priest Martina, and found several secret letters written by Li Yu to her, in which the two reached an agreement that High Priest Martina would stop at all costs from forming an army of its own to resist the Church of Shuangxiu.

While the crowd was still doubting the truth of these news, a great man stepped forward and confirmed the statement of Herodotus, the archpriest, who was the eldest high priest in the church, Kircuon.

And the High Priest of Kircuon not only testified against High Priest Martina, but also revealed her accomplice, High Priest Hesiod, and this is not the end, High Priest of Kircuon then broke another shocking news.

It is said that the late High Priest Reeves most likely did not die by suicide, and that he had been investigating the crimes of High Priest Martina and High Priest Hesiod before his death.

(End of chapter)