Chapter 105 Papermaking and Printing!

Author: March

Chapter 105 Papermaking and Printing!

Although he could enter the palace directly, Zhao Si still chose to undergo a body search and wait quietly.

"Your Majesty, Zhao Si wants to see you!"

When the First Emperor was in a daze, Zhao Gao's voice rang in his ears.

The First Emperor frowned slightly and almost fell asleep just now. But when he heard that it was Zhao Si, the First Emperor rubbed his brows and sat up from the recliner, waved his hands and said: "Let's get in!"

After that, he rubbed his slightly heavy eyebrows vigorously to relieve the fatigue of his brain. The First Emperor lay down again, too lazy to get up, and felt unmotivated.

The recliner swayed again and again with the Emperor's recliner, and the Emperor's eyes narrowed slightly as he waited for Zhao Si's arrival.

Zhao Si was led by Zhao Gao into the palace.

"Your Majesty, Zhao Si has arrived." Zhao Gao bowed and spoke.

Zhao Si also bowed and saluted. The First Emperor, who was lying on the recliner, did not get up, but just waved his hand. Zhao Gao retreated sensibly, leaving only Zhao Si standing there.

The First Emperor did not move, he just lay on the recliner and swayed slightly. He did not speak for a long time and his eyes were closed tightly, making Zhao Si unable to sit or stand.

When he was wondering if he had come at the wrong time and disturbed the First Emperor, the First Emperor slowly opened his eyes and did not get up. He just asked slightly tiredly: "You are not on duty today, why are you here?"

"I have something to report to Your Majesty." Zhao Si immediately saluted again.

"Say it." The First Emperor propped up his head with one hand and reluctantly stood up slightly.

"I'm here for paper!" Zhao Si said.

"Paper?" The First Emperor raised his eyebrows.

"It's not silk, but paper made from trees! The craftsmen in Lantian Daying have already achieved some success, which can be used for writing." After saying this, Zhao Si took out a wad of hemp leftover from wiping his butt.

The paper is presented forward.

The First Emperor took the hemp paper and rubbed it with his fingers. It was a little rough, but it was not a big problem.

"Is this paper made of hemp?" asked the First Emperor.

"Exactly, but the craftsman is a little impatient. He should be able to make better paper next time." Zhao Si replied.

"How much does it cost? How does it compare with the bamboo slips?" asked the First Emperor with some interest.

Bamboo slips are too flawed.

The cost is not cheap and the production cycle is not short either.

To qualify as a bamboo slip, the bamboo needs to be divided into sections, and the bamboo must be selected well. After the bamboo slips are divided, they must be flattened. After flattening, they must be dried for a few days. After drying, they must be baked. After baking, holes must be drilled.

, and then thread it with thread.

In this way, a qualified bamboo slip can be considered completed and can be used for writing.

Even so, due to material limitations, the writing range of bamboo slips is extremely limited. Usually, the number of words that can be written on a relatively conventional bamboo slip is only about a few hundred words.

Secondly, it is relatively heavy. This thing is genuine bamboo, the kind that can kill someone if you pick it up and hit it.

Generally speaking, a bamboo slip with tens of thousands of characters would weigh dozens of kilograms.

The memorials that the First Emperor reviewed in one day weighed more than one hundred kilograms...

Bamboo slips cannot be mass-produced. They can only be cut manually, cut into pieces, baked, and then threaded, which is a lot of trouble.

As for using cloth, its permeability is too strong and it is inconvenient to write. Silk can be specially used for writing. The other name of silk is paper. It is easy to write and is a silk fabric, but it is expensive. It is generally used except for making imperial edicts or making memorials.

The ancestors of heaven and earth rarely use silk silk the rest of the time.

On the other hand, looking at the paper that Zhao Si handed over, Zhao Si gently lifted one piece of paper. The texture was light and thin, and the area for writing was very large... This was an advantage that could be seen at a glance.

"The cost is much lower than that of bamboo slips. Better quality paper must be made from bamboo trees, but the advantage is that it can be made in batches. Poor quality paper can also be made from hemp. Although it is a bit worse, it is cheaper than bamboo slips. The manufacturing time is not as long as that of bamboo slips.

Even though it is slower, the production volume is much higher than that of bamboo slips." Zhao Si answered.

"oh?"

The First Emperor became interested and put a pen on hemp paper to experiment.

However, he found that the writing effect was not very satisfactory. The ink was still easy to smudge and would come out through the paper if he was not careful. The First Emperor frowned slightly.

"Your Majesty, please forgive me. This is something that I entrusted to the craftsmen in Lantian before. Now that I have left Lantian, the credit cannot go to the craftsmen, so it is inevitable that I am a little eager for success." Zhao Si quickly replied when he saw this.

"I have taken twenty gold coins as a private reward, so that they can calm down and make good work. In addition, they are military craftsmen. In addition to making paper, they will inevitably add sundries to their bodies. This is why I came here." Zhao Si said.

.

The First Emperor nodded and pondered for a moment.

"You have left the Lantian camp, and they are military craftsmen... In this case, those military craftsmen will be transferred out of Lantian and placed under the command of the doctor, and you will be responsible for it." The First Emperor nodded and said.

"How long does it take for the finished product to come out? How is the effect?" First Emperor put away a stack of hemp paper and asked.

"I estimate that it will take three to five months to make paper. If nothing happens, we will be able to make paper that is easy to write on this time." Zhao Si said.

The First Emperor nodded. He did not question Zhao Si's answer. After all, the hemp paper sent this time was barely capable of writing. It was just that the handwriting was larger. Be careful when writing. No matter how troublesome it is, it can still be better than writing.

Having trouble writing on bamboo slips?

Made of hemp, the cost is low. Even if the writing is wrong, you can change it and rewrite it without feeling distressed.

Bamboo slips are expensive to make, so people who don't have much money in their pockets are careful when using bamboo slips. If they write a wrong word, they will use a knife to cut off the wrong word and write it again. This is also the origin of the knife and pen official.

Of course, there is another problem with bamboo slips. The production process of some bamboo slips is not very good, so the ink is easily damaged. Therefore, in order to preserve it for a long time, there is also the habit of re-engraving according to the handwriting on it after writing.

Secondly, a thin layer of bamboo slips can be cut off with a knife to change the font. Therefore, bamboo slips involving official documents basically need to be carved with a knife to prevent someone from maliciously changing the official handwriting later.

The First Emperor nodded slightly. If Zhao Si could make cheap and easy-to-use paper, it would be a great achievement.

At the very least, I no longer have to struggle to review more than a hundred kilograms of memorials a day. At the very least, the transportation of official document backups from various places no longer needs to be measured in units of vehicles.

Bamboo slips are bulky, expensive, have a long production cycle, and are inconvenient to write. Objectively speaking, the emergence of paper has also led to a surge in books and documents and the spread of scientific culture.

But for now, the significance of paper is limited to replacing bamboo slips. It is convenient for transportation, writing, and dissemination...

This thing has to be combined with printing to be truly significant.

Unlock papermaking technology and unlock printing. The combination of the two can unlock new achievements, mass production of knowledge and big price reductions.

At the same time, it is also a major prerequisite for unlocking the achievement of breaking the knowledge monopoly.

Zhao Si didn’t hide it either...

"Not only that, Your Majesty, I also have a way to write a book in batches." Zhao Si said and came to the First Emperor.

"Your Majesty, please take a look. The words carved on the plate are like a seal. Does your Majesty have a seal?"

The First Emperor nodded, took out a bronze seal, and then stamped it on the papyrus paper.

"That's right. If you want to make a large seal, of course, it is not made of gold, silver, copper and jade. The cost is too expensive. You can use pottery. Your Majesty, please take a look. Suppose this bamboo slip is the big pottery seal I talked about. The words above are what is engraved on the seal."

"All you need to do is dip in ink and put it on the paper..."

At first it only sounded whimsical, but when he saw Zhao Si completing that action, the First Emperor instantly realized something.

Simple!

So simple!

Yes, printing one book is nothing, but what if you print a hundred copies and a thousand copies?

If the Qin law is engraved on it, as long as there is enough paper, it only requires a light seal...

How many can be printed?

One thousand copies? Ten thousand copies?

Daqin has been doing legal work.

The First Emperor was not obsessed with compulsory education, and Legalists did not support the popularization of education.

However, both the Legalists and the First Emperor valued the popularization of Qin's laws.

People don’t have to study, but they must know the laws of Qin!

So, with the availability of paper that is cheap enough, is it possible that every household will have a copy of the Qin Code?

Is it possible that the huge army of officials in the Qin Dynasty, which numbered tens of thousands, could easily read a large number of Legalist books.

Da Qin can print whatever he wants and engrave whatever he wants!

Papermaking technology alone was just another tool that could replace bamboo slips for the First Emperor, a writing tool that was lighter and cheaper than bamboo slips.

But if it is related to printing, the meaning is different.

"Your Majesty... Nowadays, most of the books in the world are single copies. I don't know how many noble families from poor families only have one volume that they learned from home... Some even lost all their knowledge at home and can hardly recognize the characters. In order to be able to learn, most of them will become nobles. Disciples... either become knights, or learn from hundreds of schools, and then become officials, or officials..."

"The great nobles support their disciples to learn knowledge, and select the nobles from poor families who they think are outstanding to train. In return for learning knowledge, the nobles from poor families will..." Before Zhao Si could finish, he was interrupted by the First Emperor.

In fact, Zhao Si spoke very implicitly because he didn't know what the First Emperor thought of universal education.

Of course, Zhao Sicai did not have any whims to promote universal literacy and popularize education to the common people in this era.
To be continued...