Disturbed by many things, Li Congyi also gave up the idea of stepping into spring with Xu Meilan, and immediately put up a pot, boiled water, moved stones, and put some things on the floor to prevent the cold a little, then sat up in a circle and started a tea party. And Shen Deshui, Du Chengyin and others also came one after another.

Even Xu Leshui also appeared suddenly, but he didn't dare to squeeze out the inner circle, but he couldn't stop looking outside. However, it took Li Congyi a long time to realize who this person was.

"You, come and talk." Taking advantage of a slight gap in the middle, Li Congyi pointed at Xu Leshui, "How is your paper?" ”

Xu Leshui walked out, and someone gave him a place so that he could sit and report.

As I said before, Li Congyi wants to make some cheap paper, especially soft and cheap toilet paper, to improve his toilet comfort. Originally, Xu Leshui thought that this matter was not difficult, so he felt that five hundred taels of silver was enough, and went to Jing County, only to find that it was not easy.

As early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, under the invention of the big cow Cai Lun, the papermaking technology was mature, and the papermaking technology was quite complete by the Song Dynasty. It can be said that papermaking and porcelain making are the two leading high-tech industries in the world that China has mastered at that time. Xuanzhou Jing County has already formed a large-scale paper industry. At that time, the main products in Jing County were high-end white paper. The paper used in Li Yu's poems, calligraphy and paintings in Jing County was produced in Jing County, but it was not ordered to be rice paper at that time.

After Xu Leshui arrived in Jing County, he quickly hired a few skilled craftsmen and began to make paper. With the idea of reducing costs, they experimented day and night, but the results were not ideal. On the one hand, in terms of raw materials, whether it is straw, bark, or even bamboo and weeds, it seems to be much lower than the materials of rice paper, but when it comes to each piece of paper, it is not much cheaper. On the other hand, the core process of papermaking is pulping, which relies on manual labor, and the requirements for pulping of different raw materials are completely different, and this labor can not be saved.

At the beginning, Xu Leshui only considered balancing the quality of paper to achieve cost performance, also because he had not been deeply involved in this industry before. Xu Leshui also saw the opportunity quickly, and when he saw that he couldn't do it, he immediately hired a master craftsman with a lot of money, and wanted to use the master craftsman to do technical research. It's just that in this way, I am afraid that the silver in my hand will not last until the day when the results will be produced. Therefore, Xu Leshui came here to ask the patriarch Xu Heguang for help, but unexpectedly, Jiang Guogong was also there, and he couldn't hide, so he could only bump into it if it was a blessing or a curse.

Xu Leshui was quite ashamed, but he just served more than a dozen kinds of paper with different hardness, flexibility, finish, and bleaching, and said that he was still testing how to better control the cost of paper.

The crowd looked at the papers and were amazed. Li Congyi is more concerned about the difficulties mentioned by Xu Leshui. "Can you use a waterwheel at the outlet of the reservoir to drive the knives to beat the pulp?"

A sentence hit Xu Leshui's brain like a thunderbolt, and it was really like an initiation.

At the moment, he discussed the transmission of waterwheel power and the setting of pulping tools, which is the difference between grass pulp, bamboo pulp and wood pulp, and Li Congyi also discussed with Xu Leshui a little.

Xu Leshui took advantage of the situation and proposed to Shen Deshui to rent the waterwheel of the third reservoir, the Heshangzhai Reservoir, to him for operation, and Shen Deshui kicked the ball to Xu Heguang. Hui's Trading originally planned to use a third waterwheel to extract oil, but agreed to transfer it out immediately.

Shen Deshui also pointed out that these three reservoirs are still a little insufficient as a source of power, mainly because the drop is not high and the amount of water is limited. Therefore, it was proposed to build a reservoir on the Jianhe River. Clearly, Shen Deshui can't wait to find a breakthrough in dam building technology.

However, Li Congyi needs to consider the economic interests, in the lower reaches of the Jianhe River is already basically ripe fields, damming can raise the water level, add some terraces to the downstream, but the reservoir is located to flood a lot of paddy fields, and the output of mature fields is twice that of new fields, so in a few years, the gains may outweigh the losses.

"My subordinates have recently taken the time to investigate the upper and lower parts of the river, but considering that the valley of the river has been fully developed, the results from damming are limited. Today, I have something to gain, and I will wait for my subordinates to talk slowly. "Originally, in the middle reaches of the Jianhe River, there is a village called Tangbian Mountain, and there is a concave mountain outside the village, which is actually the official road built in the Tang Dynasty, and the stone field was abandoned after breaking the mountain and taking stones. The quarry is excavated from the top of the mountain, and after the top of the mountain is cut, the stone is crushed layer by layer, and the stone is extracted, and finally a crater-like pit is formed. Shen Deshui's idea is to sort out the abandoned stone yard slightly, and cover the pit wall layer by layer with green bricks to prevent collapse, so as to form a semi-natural reservoir; Then build a dam on top of the Jianhe River to raise the water level and use a diversion canal to introduce water into the Shichang Reservoir.

This reservoir does not have much irrigation function, but the Jianhe River has a considerable drop in this section of the river, and after the water is stored in the Shichang Reservoir, it will be diverted down by a special drainage canal, which will form a very stable waterwheel power.

Li Congyi thought about it for a while, but still vetoed it, "It is better to study the construction of a large waterwheel directly on the bank of the Shuiyang River in Xuancheng." Although Li Congyi rejected the proposal, he also gave the direction of the next step. Shen Deshui was not too discouraged.

"Can Xu's Trading raise money to build this quarry reservoir, and then lease it by Leshui Paper?" But it was Xu Leshui who made a suggestion.

Xu Heguang hesitated slightly, but Xu Heguang's eldest son, who was waiting outside the circle, coughed a few times, which seemed quite harsh. Xu Heguang sighed in his heart, and also knew that his eldest son was unwilling, in this kind of mentality, if the gamble is successful, it can be said that he dares to fight, but if he loses, he is blindly impulsive.

"Patriarch Xu doesn't have to be in a hurry to settle down, Leshui Paper is still in the exploration stage at this time, it is better to use a period of time to calculate the cost and benefits of this stone quarry reservoir, and then decide how to repair, including how to cooperate."

————

Since he couldn't take a vacation, Li Congyi had no choice but to go back to his home and go back to Xuancheng overnight, after all, the matter of Xuanyao training the army over there was the most important thing on his mind.

When he got on the boat in the middle of the night, Xu Le'an came over again, saying that when he arrived in Xuancheng, he would leave directly and go to Huaishang to find Wu Feixing and others.

Li Congyi is not allowed.

Xu Le'an didn't leave, paused for a while, and said: "I look at the use of people by the Duke of the Kingdom, and he is eclectic. It was the yellow light one, I folded on this person, and I was very convinced; However, I want Lord Guogong to be promoted to the post of deputy director of the Security Department, but I admire the knowledge and employment of Lord Guogong even more. ”

Li Congyi snorted, and was about to say that this guy was also making a sycophant, and suddenly understood what he was doing.

"I take Huang Guangyi as the deputy director of the Security Department, and even Xu Shiming does not object, for three reasons: first, Huang Guang helped his cousin Huang Guangwu to study at a young age, which is enough for his good nature; Second, as soon as Huang Guangyi found an external general manager for Xuanzhou Commerce, it can be seen that his vision and pattern are not bad; The third is that although Huang Guangyi said that he made a big oolong for you, this matter has nothing to do with him, which shows that he is meticulous and loyal to his father. When justice is to employ people, how should he not be promoted? ”

Li Congyi paused and said, "Commander Wu was the battalion deputy before, and when he came to Bengong, of course Bengong wouldn't just want to use him as a battalion deputy." But there are two reasons why the military commander does not give a clear promise, one is that the military commander always needs to temporarily change his name, so the past things cannot be mentioned for the time being, and the other is that he always has to show his skills to calm the field, so that the prince can easily give a seat, right? ”

Li Congyi went straight in, Xu Le'an was a little ashamed, and wanted to kneel down to ask for guilt, Li Congyi stopped him and said: "You vote for my father, my father will give you a group of excellent soldiers, and also give you a hope, that is, one day go north to Jianghuai." Everyone is willing to believe in this father, and they will come; If you don't believe it for the time being, just wait and see, and come back later, my father is also welcome. ”

gave it to Xu Le'an, and Li Congyi brought Zhou Yuanqing again. This week, Yuanqing returned to the pit mouth and has been taking a team composed of Zhou clansmen to secretly carry out coarse salt purification tests and constantly improve the process. This time Li Congyi came to the pit, and Zhou Yuanqing took Zhou Yuanxiong back to Xuancheng together.

Zhou Yuanqing is active, much more flexible than Zhou Yuanying, and relatively speaking, it also makes you feel that he is not as stable as Zhou Yuanying, but Zhou Yuanying is bent on joining the army and establishing a career, and Li Congyi is inconvenient to always arrest him to do chores.

Li Congyi thought about letting Zhou Yuanqing take the lead and dig out the silver hidden in Su Anping's private house in Yangzhou. At that moment, he and Zhou Yuanqing roughly discussed how to design the route, arrange personnel docking, and transport silver, Zhou Yuanqing also said clearly, Li Congyi arranged for him to discuss manpower with Gu Dazhuang, draw up a plan, and get ready.

The next morning, everyone disembarked at the ferry, Xu Meilan and others returned to the city, while Li Congyi continued to take a boat to the East Gate Ferry.

At noon, I saw that I was about to reach the East Gate Ferry, but I saw a fast horse chasing after me on the shore.

After waiting for a while, Li Congyi got the express letter, and after just a glance, Li Congyi's face couldn't help but sink like water.

It turned out to be a group of smuggler salt dealers who cooperated with Xu's business and trade and crossed the border from Wuyue through Guangde County, but somehow leaked the news, and was surrounded by the Wuyue Huzhou Corps in a small village in Guangde County last night.

Guangde County borders Wuyue Huzhou, so there are two battalions of state soldiers, but I don't know what the situation is. It's just that Li Congyi is now disbanding the Guogong Mansion Guards and using them to train soldiers; At this time, there was a team of guards around him, and he was also casually caught from the Xuanyao military camp, and he was not effective.

But this time it will not work, first, since it is worth the Huzhou soldiers to pursue across the border, presumably the amount of illicit salt this time is not small, if you give up like this, it may not be conducive to the next stage of the plan to sell refined salt; The second is that the Xu Zhou family has already regarded themselves as the backbone, and this time they came to find themselves for the first time is an example, if they are also helpless, then it will be exposed.

After thinking about it left and right, he immediately took the guards and spared no horsepower, and went to Guangde. At this time, it is 200 miles to Guangde County, and nearly 30 miles to the vicinity of the county border.

Everyone rushed all the way, and when they met the post station, they changed horses, and it took a full day and a night to arrive at the scene.