Chapter 27
Although cloth and silk can also be used!
But... the cost of cloth and silk is extremely high?
Just one foot requires twenty coins!
With that money, people would long ago have bought clothes to wear; how could they bear to use it to record things?
Even the extravagant royal family and nobles only use cloth and silk when transmitting secret memorials or important edicts.
In daily life?
They simply cannot bear to use it!
And now, this item can replace bamboo slips?
But... upon closer inspection, it is not hard to see that Ying Su is right!
Both serving as recording tools, paper indeed holds far, far more content than bamboo slips!
Yes, even a full cartload of bamboo slips holds no more than one hundred thousand characters.
A single scroll of bamboo slips can record merely a few hundred short characters!
And this one sheet of paper?
The linen paper Li Si sees now, once unfolded, is fully half a person's width and one person's height!
And this single sheet can record nearly one thousand characters!
That is to say, this one sheet can almost carry all the content that two scrolls of bamboo slips can hold!
More crucially, this item is convenient!
Yes!
This single sheet, whether folded in half and carried on the person or rolled up, can be easily picked up, nowhere near as heavy as bamboo slips!
Moreover, even that very large roll Ying Su gave him is just held in the hand!
Yet this very large roll can record the content of five carts of bamboo slips!
"A heavenly treasure!"
"A heavenly treasure!"
"This is a true heavenly treasure!"
Li Si was stunned.
He was very excited!
Yes, no matter how you look at it, he is a scholar!
And no scholar does not love books; the appearance of this item is nothing short of a revolutionary change in the method of recording books!
In that moment, he was excited to the extreme.
But suddenly, he thought of something and said to Ying Su:
"Your Majesty, the cost of this item... how much is it?"
He asked excitedly!
But at the same time, he was also very worried!
Currently, there are two main methods of recording: first, bamboo slips; second, cloth and silk!
Recording and carrying with cloth and silk is also very convenient!
But alas, the cost is too high; one foot of cloth costs twenty coins!
If the cost of this item is higher than cloth and silk, then it loses its potential for promotion!
After all, both serving as recording materials, no one is willing to spend money to buy something more valuable than cloth and silk!
Convenient to carry?
Although it is even more convenient to carry than cloth and silk, the saying remains: no matter how convenient something is, it cannot withstand a high price!
Therefore, Li Si was very worried!
But Ying Su, hearing this, laughed and directly held up one finger: "One coin!"
"One coin, for one sheet of paper?"
He was stunned, and at the same time, even more excited; one coin can buy a sheet of paper, how much lower is the cost of this item compared to cloth and silk?
It is simply even lower than bamboo slips!
"Your Majesty!"
"Your Majesty!"
In that moment, Li Si was about to explode with excitement.
However, Ying Su shook his head repeatedly: "Not one coin per sheet, but... this entire roll, for one coin!"
"What?"
The words left his mouth, and Li Si's head buzzed.
In that moment, his mouth gaped so wide it could almost swallow a duck egg!
Yes!
A roll?
He had not counted how many sheets of paper were in this roll!
But... even with a conservative estimate, there must be a hundred sheets!
A hundred sheets of paper, capable of recording about one hundred thousand characters, yet... yet require only one coin?
You must know, even for heavy bamboo slips, to achieve a recording capacity of one hundred thousand characters, at least one hundred coins are needed!
"Your... Your Majesty..."
Li Si was stunned into numbness!
Yet Ying Su merely smiled: "No need to be surprised!"
"This item is made entirely of grass, wood, and tree bark—worthless things that no one wants!"
"But... I want you to sell it for money!"
"And at a high price!"
"The higher the price, the better!"
"What?"
"A high price?"
Shouldn't this item be promoted nationwide at an extremely low price?
Li Si was completely stunned.
But very soon, he understood why!
A general amnesty for the realm!
A general amnesty for the realm!
Although it would spare the common people from further suffering!
Yet... the Daqinchaotang's tax revenue would become tight!
At first, when Li Si heard this decree, he felt it was utterly foolish!
Utterly foolish!
What kind of fool would issue a general amnesty for the realm?
Returning all Qian Liang to the common people—what then for the Daqinchaotang? What then for the operation of the state?
Without Qian Liang, how could the state possibly operate?
But... upon further thought, he seemed to be able to understand Ying Su.
He wanted to gather the hearts of the people!
And the means to gather hearts is nothing more than bestowing favors.
Ying Su's action was precisely to bestow favors upon the common people and upon the various factions within the imperial court, thereby gathering hearts!
For someone who rebelled to ascend the throne, this counts as a very brilliant tactic!
Li Si was deeply impressed by this!
And besides being impressed by that, there was the rebellion itself!
Daring to rebel with only one person accompanying him, and yet, he forced Ying Zheng to abdicate!
More crucially, he succeeded!
With such ability, how could he not be admired?
Today, coming to him, all sorts of manipulative tactics were used upon him, causing him to shiver with fear time and again!
End of Chapter
