Jinling.

Confucius Mansion.

An old man in his sixties and wearing a three-president crown robes was sitting solemnly in the main hall.

The imperial envoy, Kong Hanyou, was a 15th generation grandson of Confucius, and a great scholar of the Great Chu Dynasty.

As one of the three officials in the court who supervised all officials in the world, Kong Hanyou's power has reached its peak and naturally he has no more ideas about getting promoted.

However, as a descendant of Confucius's direct lineage, he devoted great effort to the prosperity of Confucianism in Great Chu. He almost tried every means to promote Confucianism and become the national religion enthroned by the Emperor of Great Chu himself.

But although Xiang Yanran, the wise man of the present, was interested in Confucianism, he had to support the prosperity of Confucianism for more actions.

This made him, the censor, helpless.

Recently, a new paper called "Huanghou Paper" in Jinling City suddenly flourished magically among many family members, officials, and ladies, and many Confucian scholars and scholars flocked to it.

Kong Hanyou accidentally heard about this from the mouths of the children of the Confucius family, and immediately realized that there might be a huge change in the paper.

But before he witnessed it with his own eyes, he still could not determine how effective the humble paper was.

He sent his two most proud disciples, Dong Xianliang and Chao Fangzheng, to investigate Hunhouzhi.

At this time, two young men in their thirties had returned.

Dong Xianliang has a gentle and humble appearance, and there is a lot of black mud on his shoes, so he doesn't know where to return.

Chao Fangzheng was dressed in a gorgeous dress, with an arrogant look and his clothes were spotless.

"Mr.! The disciple has already received the paper you want."

Dong Xianliang stepped forward respectfully, bowed, and presented ten pieces of Huohou paper with both hands.

Kong Hanyou nodded slightly and took the ten pieces of dark marquis papers.

As a great scholar of his generation, he was very familiar with hemp paper and often used it.

He once looked forward and optimistic about the prospects of hemp paper.

The benefit of "lightness" alone is much better than the bulky bamboo slips. A roll of paper can replace hundreds of rolls of bamboo slips weighing thousands of pounds of a ox cart.

It is obvious how big the difference between a scholar taking a roll of paper books to study on a long trip and a ox cart going out to study on a long trip.

However, the disadvantages of hemp paper are also very obvious - it is expensive, rough and poor, and uncomfortable to make books, which led to the fact that after the birth of hemp paper, not many people bought it.

Hemp paper is hard to take on important tasks.

We need better and cheaper paper to "use paper instead of simplicity and create a prosperous era of literary fortune."

And the dark paper in front of you is "white as white as snow, as thin as cicada's wings". Just this look can be called a holy product in a generation of paper.

Kong Hanyou looked at it carefully and his eyes were filled with strange light.

Then, he wrote it himself.

Whether it is a large character or a small character for mosquitoes and flies, after a while, there is no sign of ink penetration and spreading around it. The quality is surprisingly good.

"Good paper, good paper! It's as clean as pink snow, and the fragrance is swaying. No wonder the scholars and scholars in Jinling City flock to it!"

Kong Hanyou's eyes were unbearable and excited, "If this paper can replace the bamboo slips, it will be the greatest achievement in the future. The long-awaited thousand-year literary prosperity of my Kong family is finally coming!

"Huainanzi·Ben Jingxue" records that "In the past, Cang Jie wrote a book, but the sky was raining and millet was crying at night." What a great achievement! Now that Hunhou paper is born, it is second only to Cang Jie's achievements in creating characters!

If this paper can be widely popularized in our Great Chu, our Confucian sages will definitely spread to the world and make it known to the people, women and children.

Xiao Hunhou has made an extraordinary contribution!

I will write to the emperor in the morning tomorrow to commend Xiaohunhou and order paper instead of simplified Chinese to travel all over the world!”

Kong Hanyou became more and more excited the more he spoke.

On this day, he had been waiting for too long and finally waited for a ray of dawn to appear.

He could not wait to witness the arrival of the "cultural prosperity" with his own eyes.

The arrival of the prosperous era of literary fortune is the day when Confucianism is prevalent.

The Kong family should lead the Confucian scholars all over the world, and jointly promote the prosperous era, so that Confucianism can be fully developed.

"Mr., you are so proud of Xiaohunhou!"

Chao Fangzheng bowed and poured a basin of cold water, saying, "Although this paper is good, the price of Pingwang Mansion is as high as 20 cents of copper coins, which is almost a daily ration for five households. After all, this paper is just a luxury that only nobles, officials, and children of the gentry can use.

The family background of many Confucian scholars is impossible to afford.

Bamboo simplicity is much cheaper, only one penny for copper coins per volume.

You can buy twenty rolls of bamboo slips with a piece of humble paper. Although bamboo slips are bulky and inconvenient, it is much better than spending a family’s daily rations to buy a piece of paper.

The disciples thought that after the popularity was over, the freshness passed, and the dark paper slowly became silent."

"Twenty-month copper coins per piece?"

When Kong Hanyou heard the price, he was shocked and couldn't help but fall silent.

The price is twice that of hemp paper... Except for the nobles, not many people can afford it.

However, most of the Confucian scholars in the world are from small wealthy families. It is a bit difficult for people to buy paper at such a big price.

Not many people bought it. No matter how convenient this Hunhou paper is, it cannot replace the bamboo slips in the world.

Kong Hanyou looked at another disciple, "Xianliang, what do you think of the Hunhou Paper?"

"disciple..."

Dong Xianliang bowed and said calmly: "...no opinion."

Kong Hanyou couldn't help but be disappointed, and the excitement that had just risen in his heart disappeared.

Hope is shattered again.

Could it be that in this prosperous era, he could not see any hope in his lifetime?!

"However, the disciple squatted outside the gate of Xiaohunhou's papermaking workshop and observed for two days. He helped Xiaohunhou and slightly calculated the cost of papermaking... which surprised the disciple."

Dong Xianliang said calmly.

"Oh, let's hear it."

Kong Hanyou was surprised.

"A master of the workshop, Sun, a disciple, found out from his neighbors that his income was about one tael of silver per day. The remaining paper workers were about thirty, with a daily salary of thirty cents of copper coins and a total daily salary of about one tael of silver per day.

The raw materials for papermaking are bark, bamboo, etc., which are very cheap. There are dozens of kilograms of bark and a penny of copper coins... which are almost negligible, less than one or two taels.

The charcoal fire money, cow power money, etc. consumed, about two or three taels of silver a day... I guess there is no need to be so much. The wood that has cut the bark is used directly to burn charcoal fire.

The workshop produces about 10,000 pieces of paper every day, and all of them are shipped to the Pingwang Mansion and sold to the powerful and noble families in Jinling City at a price of 20 cents per piece.

The daily expenditure of this paper workshop is at most 5 taels, but the daily income of selling paper is 200 taels of silver... the profit is 40 times the huge!"

Dong Xianliang said in surprise and convinced.

Such a terrifying profit is simply unimaginable.

When he was calculating, he always thought that he had calculated the wrong calculation and calculated the zero less. But no matter how he calculated it, it was still the same result.

Apart from the initial construction of the paper workshop, it cost nearly thousands of taels of silver. This workshop has never spent much money.

It is completely a golden hen, constantly laying golden eggs every day.

"The cost is five taels of silver, and the income is two hundred taels of silver?...How is this possible?"

When Chao Fangzheng heard this, he was also full of surprise.

When investigating the Hunhou Paper, the two of them acted separately.

He did not go to the workshop. He just went to the Pingwang Mansion these days and asked about the various playboy styles of Hunhou Paper and Xiao Hunhou, which made him quite disgusted.

He didn't expect that Dong Xianliang actually went to a paper workshop and asked about the workers' salary and the purchase price of tree bark.

“This means…”

Chao Fangzheng's expression changed.

It means that Xiao Hunhou, the big playboy, is crazy about eating the blood of the clans, officials and ladies, and is doing a huge profit.

Those Confucian scholars knew that they would definitely be excited to write to the emperor and force Xiao Hunhou to offer papermaking techniques or reduce paper prices.

However, this papermaking workshop... is an industry under the name of Princess Li Yu of the Princess of Pingwang Mansion, which will definitely arouse the anger of Pingwang.

Someone may not really dare to force Xiaohunhou.

"The real cost of this Hunhou paper is a half-text copper plate that is enough to make a piece of paper, not even a penny. But the price of bamboo slips is a penny.

Even if Xiao Hunhou reduces the price of Hunhou paper to one penny, he can still eat half of the high profit and make a lot of money... But he actually offered twenty pennies... This is robbing money!

Alas, this big Chu only has Xiao Hunhou, who has the courage to do such a thing."

Dong Xianliang sighed.

Kong Hanyou fell silent again.

The cost of Hunhou paper is surprisingly cheaper, even cheaper than bamboo slips.
To be continued...