Hydraulic mills appeared as early as the Western Han Dynasty, and now they have been considered a mature technology after two or three hundred years of development.

However, Lu Bu tried so hard to run to this remote place, not as simple as building a hydraulic mill grinding surface, but to build a paper mill.

Reeds are everywhere here, and reeds are processed with stone pounding and stone milling to make paper and pulp. If all of them are used, the labor consumption will be too high.

Therefore, Lu Bu decided to use hydraulic power as power, with hundreds of stone pounding and stone milling, which can process five or six thousand kilograms a day, and it can also be used day and night. It is far more cost-effective than human and animal power.

Mo Jun reminded: "Just counting as fifty stone pounds and fifty stone mills, you can grind 50,000 kilograms of powder a day and night. Is this amount a bit large? You must know that the sales volume of paper is not that large."

The population decreased very significantly at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Lu Bu planned to make daily paper, writing paper, and high-end painting paper. Even if the price of domestic paper is kept to the lowest, the sales volume will not be much larger, and the population is too small.

Not counting other places, Xuzhou has only 2.8 million people. The three counties of Youzhou have only 500,000 or 600,000. It is difficult for businesses to grow and grow in this era, with a small population and low consumption.

The target group of people using paper for daily use is only one of the few large households, gentry, and wealthy businessmen. However, with the development of production, more and more people will use paper.

"It doesn't matter. So many stone pounding and stone mills can divide a part of them to process grain. The consumption of the farm alone is very huge, with tens of thousands of kilograms of grain a day."

Mo Jun secretly said that he had made a mistake. Isn’t the biggest use of a hydraulic mill to grind grain? If you can’t use up all papermaking, you will naturally be doing your job.

There are still difficulties in starting construction in cold weather, but what Lu Bu is most afraid of is the difficulties. A small reservoir is only 100 acres, and a dam is only more than 100 meters long.

Lu Su asked: "The lord doesn't need to transfer more people, just transfer a thousand from the training infantry. Hundreds of chariots and hundreds of wheelbarrows are enough. Work hard for a few days to build the dam in the dry season. After the main body is completed, the lord will arrange for the craftsmen to handle it carefully."

"Very good. A small dam is enough. Another thousand people are sent to dig the canal next to it. However, the supervising craftsmen have to send them from the beginning, and construction is not fast. The dam must be strong regardless of size."

"Okay lord."

Lu Su is responsible for the general dispatch of this project, and also the water conservancy supervisor craftsmen are dispatched to supervise the quality.

Lu Bu turned around and asked Mo Jun: "Is there any problem with making water mills?"

Mo Jun nodded: "No problem. Although no one has made it for many years, there are ready-made drawings and ready-made technology. I wrote the specifications of the supporting stone mortar and stone mill to the adults, and the adults arranged for the stonemason to build it so that they can be put on the horse and used immediately when the water wheel is completed."

"Okay, but just writing the specifications is not enough. This is easy to cause problems. After the construction is done, you will not be able to match the stone millstones and pound them. You will supervise them at any time, so there will be no problems. In the process of the canal construction, you can communicate with Lu Su at any time to ensure the smooth completion."

"Yes, sir."

Lu Bu immediately ordered the construction to start. The new recruit camp trained by Lu Su dispatched 2,000 people, 1,000 people to build dams and 1,000 people to build canals.

The construction site is relatively small and people are still very concentrated.

Now is the dry season, and it is very convenient to build dams. Rammed earth reinforcement, hundreds of wheelbarrows take soil from the ridge not far away to build dams. People can work much faster than beaver. In just half a month, the dam was built very strongly, with the bottom five zhang wide, and gradually narrowing as the height increases, while the top is only two zhang wide.

The canal was also dug, but the weather was too cold and there was no way to use cement construction. The construction period was suspended. I only waited for the spring to strengthen both sides of the canal. Water wheels were set up in the canal to drive the hydraulic mills, and a series of hydraulic mills were enough.

The more Lu Bu thought about it, the more beautiful he became. Even if he didn't use it to make paper, it would be great to use it to grind the noodles.

In the era without machinery, processing food is a very painful thing.

When wheat is ground into powder, it requires stone mills to rotate continuously, either manpower or animal power. Whether it is human power or animal power, it consumes a lot of energy, and the purpose of hydraulic mills is still very huge.

Before the papermaking workshop started construction, the reeds, which are the main raw materials for papermaking, began to prepare.

After harvesting, the leaves are neatly stacked. According to the supply process designed by the papermaking workshop, when starting papermaking, first cut short, cut the reeds into sections, pound them on stones and crush them. After breaking them into coarse particles, they enter the stone mill, and the powder is ground through the stone mill and becomes fine grass powder.

The grass powder pulp is soaked in the pulp pool, and the pulp is bleached after lime and filtered.

Put the curtain, press, dry the paper, scrape the paper, pack, cut the edges, and the finished product will come out.

Reed paper is not better than bamboo paper, but better than wheat straw paper.

Domestic paper is mainly napkins and toilet paper for tableware. Paper in this era is very expensive, but it feels hard, far from being as good as modern toilet paper.

Lu Bu pointed casually: "Build a paper mill, workshop, factory, and drying site in this slightly higher terrain, just about 300 acres in total, and it doesn't have to be too big."

Lu Su reminded: "Lord, I agreed to be low-key. It's too conspicuous to build such a large factory."

"The main reason is that the place where the paper is drying is big. In fact, the workshop is not very big, and three or five hundred workers are enough. Zijing should not think that paper is just for life. I'll tell you a secret."

Lu Bu lowered his voice and put it on Lu Su's ear: "The iron armor is prone to rust when it reaches the excess areas in Jiangnan. I plan to make paper armor."

Lu Su was stunned at that time and did not recover for a long time: "Can paper make armor?"

"Yes, and the protection is pretty good, you can defend against swords and feather arrows. I did a test a few days ago, and I couldn't shoot a fifty-step bow and arrow."

Lu Su was shocked. Lu Bu could not make a joke about such a thing.

He quickly bowed and bowed: "The lord is really a chosen person like Emperor Guangwu. He is well-versed in history and history, and no one can match him."

"Zi Jing is cautious in his words, this is very disrespectful."

Although the emperor has been in name only, his majesty is still there.

Lu Su is more likely to compare with Lu Bu than Guangwu.

Lu Su quickly changed the topic and said, "I've been speechless, I've been speechless. There is another problem with this dam. What if it's dry season and there's no water in the canal?"

The canal is only about 200 meters long. Lu Bu pointed to the end of the canal: "A drop in the end of the canal, install two water wheel pumps to raise the water several meters, so that the water can flow back into the pond, so that it can be recycled."

"A good idea, design it when digging a canal."

"When the water volume is large, we will work day and night, so we will keep the raw materials well. The same is true when we take them out in the dry season. If we don't have enough energy, we will have animal power and human power."
Chapter completed!