Chapter 110

After Ma Benqi left, Yin Qi took out a roll of blank silk to write a letter to Princess Longji.

This letter was, of course, a love letter, with all sorts of mushy words coming easily to his lips.

Only at the end of the love letter did he mention that he hoped to obtain the refining method for the communication jade bead; it would be even better if there were various secret manuals for the hundred professions of immortal cultivation.

After writing the love letter, Yin Qi waited patiently for the ink to dry completely.

"Writing on this silk is inconvenient and expensive, making it impossible to promote comprehensively. It seems that next, I need to bring out papermaking," Yin Qi whispered.

Papermaking is the foundation for popularizing education, and it can also build prestige and fame among the people.

Regarding how to make paper, although he had never done it himself, the process was firmly memorized in his heart.

Previously, when he was in the Republic of China world, he had specifically visited the production processes of various factories, such as papermaking, soap, salt drying, soy sauce, matches, glass, etc., and remembered the production methods.

Because these can all be moved to the Fengshen world, they can greatly improve the living standards of the commoners.

Of course, they can also be like papermaking, building prestige and fame among the people.

However, there are too many of these things, and they need to be done step by step.

After the ink on the silk dried completely, Yin Qi rolled up the silk and tied it with a silk cord.

Afterwards, he found Zhang Shaokang and said: "Shaokang, this letter is for the Fairy of Phoenix Mountain. The matter is urgent; you go on a trip for me personally."

"Yes, Prince!"

Zhang Shaokang's expression became solemn, and he took the silk with both hands.

With the identity plate being refined, the Tiance Mansion also completely got on the right track.

According to Yin Qi's requirements, each hall began to recruit talent from the outside.

However, the actions of each hall were very careful and not done with great fanfare, because Yin Qi is not even the Crown Prince yet.

If the actions were too ostentatious, it would easily invite criticism.

In fact, according to Yin Qi's plan, before becoming the Human Emperor, the Tiance Mansion would develop steadily, focusing on absorbing high-level talent, and would not expand its influence recklessly.

Of course, the Tianluo Hall is an exception.

Each hall and department was busy, and Yin Qi was not idle either.

He found a remote and vacant courtyard in the Prince's Mansion, transformed it into a papermaking workshop, and instructed a group of craftsmen to make paper.

Traditional papermaking has cumbersome procedures and a long process; just soaking the papermaking materials takes two or three months, and only then can it be made into pulp through a series of steps, which is also the most time-consuming and energy-consuming part of the papermaking process.

Yin Qi wanted to adopt modern papermaking, which is mechanical pulping.

Using the friction and tearing action of the mechanical rotating friction surface on the fiber raw materials, as well as the heating, softening, and plasticizing effect of the heat generated by friction on the lignin in the intercellular layer of the raw materials, the raw materials are ground, torn, and separated into single fibers.

Mechanical pulping hardly dissolves the lignin in the raw materials, so the pulp yield is very high, generally around 95%.

This technology not only greatly shortens the papermaking cycle but also has extremely low costs.

With the artifact refining means of the Artifact Hall, manufacturing this kind of machinery is not difficult; one must know that he has someone under his command who is adept at mechanisms and puppets.

That Gongsun Shu can even manufacture puppet people, let alone this kind of rough and simple machinery.

However, in order to speed up the process, he directly found someone who was adept at wood-element spells.

In just a moment, the wood was made into pulp.

If it were mechanical pulping, this pulp would still need to be left to settle, because there would still be many impurities in it, such as wood fragments that had not been ground into pulp.

But this spell-made pulp did not need it; it was very clean and thorough, and the pulp was very delicate.

Of course, bleaching was still needed.

Limited by conditions, Yin Qi could only find a mixture of lime and wood ash water for bleaching, pour it into the pulp pool, and wait a few days for the pulp to turn white before paper could be made.

Using these few days, Yin Qi instructed the bamboo weaver to weave the fine mesh used for papermaking.

Afterwards, papermaking began.

Sheet after sheet of wet paper was stacked together, and after being pressed to dry the moisture, they were opened again and placed on racks for drying.

Fortunately, the February sun was not scorching, otherwise, it would have needed something to cover it.

After a day of drying, the paper finally took shape.

Yin Qi touched it carefully; the surface was very smooth and full of toughness.

The only drawback might be that it was not white enough, slightly grayish.

But slight flaws do not matter.

After cutting the paper, Yin Qi left with more than ten reams of paper.

Before leaving, he ordered the craftsmen to continue making paper and rewarded each of them with ten taels of silver.

Zichen Hall.

"Your son pays respects to the Emperor Father."

"Rise!"

"Thank you, Emperor Father!"

"My son, what brings you here?"

Yin Qi nodded, held up the ream of paper in his hand, and said: "Emperor Father, this is an object I have recently created, named 'paper'. This paper is made of wood, has low production costs, and can replace silk and bamboo slips as writing material. This is the first batch of paper, so I have specifically come to present it to the Emperor Father."

"Paper?"

Di Yi was surprised in his heart; not only surprised by the "paper", but also surprised that it was created by Yin Qi.

He was quite curious and said: "Bring it over for me to see."

The old eunuch Bing Zhui hurriedly stepped forward, took the ream of paper from Yin Qi's hand, and placed it in front of Di Yi.

"So smooth!"

Di Yi gently brushed his fingers over the paper and agreed endlessly.

Afterwards, he picked up a brush and quickly wrote a few characters on the paper, discovering that writing was extremely smooth, the experience was better than silk, and the ink did not smudge.

Di Yi was both surprised and happy, and continued to write.

Although he wrote the characters smaller, they were still clearly visible.

This is definitely not something that silk can compare to.

Di Yi put down the brush and said with burning eyes: "Qi'er, you said this thing is called paper, right? Good thing, truly a good thing; it can completely replace silk, not only making writing easier but also being lighter. By the way, you said this paper is cheaper than silk, so how much cheaper is it exactly, and can it be promoted comprehensively?"

Having been the Human Emperor for nearly thirty years, he instantly thought of the value of paper.

Silk is too expensive; even though he is the Human Emperor, except for important matters, other documents are carved on bamboo slips with knives.

He is getting old, and carving characters on bamboo slips is also somewhat beyond his strength.

And then there are books; the books passed down by the ancient sages often require carts to carry them. If he wants to finish reading a work, the bamboo slips often amount to hundreds of scrolls, piled up on the ground in a large heap, and thus reading has become a luxury.

But if there is paper, everything will be different.

Education alone would be a merit of immeasurable proportions.

Yin Qi smiled slightly and said: "Of course it can be promoted comprehensively. The price of this sheet of paper is very low; if mass production is carried out, the price can be reduced to ten wen per ream. By the way, a ream is one hundred sheets of paper."

"Ten wen for one hundred sheets, how can it be so cheap?"

Di Yi was shocked and said excitedly: "You must know that silk of this size, even the worst, would cost one hundred wen!"

That is to say, this paper is a thousand times cheaper than silk.

Yin Qi explained: "Emperor Father, the raw materials for this paper are cheap; not only wood, but bamboo, tree bark, and even straw and rags can be used to make paper, and this production process also uses machinery, which can greatly reduce its cost."

Di Yi did not quite understand Yin Qi's words.

But none of this matters; what matters is that Yin Qi did not lie to him.

"Good, good."

Di Yi said excitedly: "Qi'er, this paper was created by you, so the task of papermaking will be handed over to you. I have only one request: present one million sheets to the palace every month. As for the rest, you can handle it yourself."

"Yes, Emperor Father!"

Yin Qi nodded; one million sheets of paper would only cost one hundred taels of silver.

Di Yi touched the paper again and couldn't help but write some more characters, only then putting down the brush and saying: "Qi'er, you can leave the papermaking matter to the people below; do not spend too much energy on it. I plan to set the spring hunt for the third day of next month; you should also take this time to practice riding and archery well."

The spring hunt in the third month has always been a tradition of the Yin Shang, focusing on cultivating the martial spirit of the nobility.

And every spring hunt, Di Yi holds competitions to reward the winners.

If it were previous years, Yin Qi might not care.

But at the critical juncture of competing for the Crown Prince, if Yin Qi performs too poorly, he will definitely lose face.

Yin Qi nodded and said: "Your son understands."