Starting from the Western Han Dynasty

Chapter 10 The First Day of Papermaking

Food and beauty can both bring people a strong desire for enjoyment.

There were no iron pots in the Han Empire, but this did not prevent Li Huan from making stir-fried tiger liver, braised tiger hooves, and braised tiger meat for Huo Qubing...

Naturally, the tiger penis is cleaned and used to make wine.

Looking at the dark wine jar, Li Huan thought about the glass making process, which is not very difficult.

After I stabilize here, I can burn the glass in a very short time.

These delicacies not only made Huo Qubing stop complaining about the damaged tiger skin, but also the soldiers had a little more respect for Li Huan.

After the sun shone on the land the next day, Li Huan and Huo Qubing began to inspect the thousand acres of wasteland.

Large pine forests occupy a large amount of land.

Li Huan discovered that there was hot spring water high up in Lishan Mountain, which flowed into a spacious stream at the foot of the mountain.

This reminded him of water-powered windmills.

Although there are not many crops grown here, most of them need to be shelled after harvesting.

In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, there were no advanced shelling machines. Everything could only rely on human hands or a stone mallet to continuously hit the shells.

But the water-powered windmill can be used as a simple booster.

Li Huan immediately took out a pen and quickly wrote down notes on the bamboo slips on one side.

Huo Qubing thought it was too troublesome: "Just tell me what can be done here?"

"Building water conservancy..."

Li Huan pondered for a moment, and thought about his words: "The hot spring water has many uses, and this spring water cannot be destroyed.

It will be of great use to me to build a cistern and aqueduct here, which will pass through the underground of all my houses. "

Huo Qubing turned his head and glanced at the soldiers following him.

The soldier immediately clasped his fists and left to call for help.

Seeing this, Li Huan also broke the bamboo slips in his hand and threw them on the ground.

It does seem a bit redundant at the moment...

There was no so-called human cost in the Han Empire.

These people are official craftsmen.

What is an official craftsman?
He is a person who serves the royal family, or to be more precise, the emperor for free throughout his life.

Not only are they, but also their children, descendants, and grandchildren, all of them are.

Water-powered windmills required some relatively sophisticated instruments compared to the Han Empire.

Li Huan planned to wait until the papermaking workshop successfully produced paper before drawing these detailed engineering drawings.

So, ten people were assigned to chop bamboo, collect the peeled bark, linen, etc., and after chopping them into pieces, they threw them all into the newly dug puddle beside the stream for soaking.

Li Huan never thought about waiting for all these things to soak. In a few days at most, he would have all ten craftsmen fish them out, chop them into pieces, throw them into a large pot, boil them into a paste, and then cool them. filter.

Finally, it is fished out with a bamboo curtain, and it can be roughly made into a simple piece of paper.

Huo Qubing led Li Huan through the entire thousand acres of land for two days...

The two of them walked around, and every time Li Huan mentioned where and what to do, Huo Qubing would ask the craftsman to come over immediately.

Fortunately, most of the time, Li Huan was talking about digging ditches to divert water.

Otherwise, if he builds a courtyard covering an area of ​​[-] acres.

No matter how talented he was, Emperor Liu Che would chop off his head.

Six days later, the paper mill started working.

Huo Qubing watched Li Huan instruct the craftsmen to take out the broken bamboo, bark, and linen that had become stinky and chop them into smaller pieces.

Huo Qubing, who was watching with great interest, immediately retched and left the paper mill...

Li Huan thought for a while and then shouted loudly:
"This thing is not for eating!"

"Then why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"You didn't ask, why did I say so earlier?"

Huo Qubing's left and right hands each held a large knife that could easily cut a person into two pieces. He was clattering like a perpetual motion machine, chopping various soaked plant fragments into pieces.

Then he watched Li Huan cook these broken things.

But after staring at it for an hour, he lost his patience.

Listening to the report from the soldiers under his command, they said that they found a python while clearing thousands of acres of wasteland and cutting down trees.

Huo Qubing immediately happily led his soldiers to transform into snake catchers.

The craftsman kept adding fire.Cuihua also kept feeding Li Huan water.

The hot tea that he drank immediately turned into beads of sweat.

Cuihua, who had never been abused by Li Huan, immediately felt distressed:

"Master, you can let the craftsmen do such hard physical work. You'd better take a rest!"

Li Huan shook his head and refused: "This is not possible. I have to do this step. If these people are allowed to do it, I won't be at ease.

I used to follow my master in the mountains, study the principles of all things, and make this thing called paper. "

Naturally, these words were not meant for Cuihua, but for the ears and eyes of Emperor Liu Che.

Li Huan knew very well that he wanted to live a stable life in Dahan.

Then the emperor must be assured of himself and know that he has absolutely no intention of harming his rule.

In particular, he wanted Emperor Liu Che to know that these things were unearthed by his own research.

You can do it yourself.

But physical work is really not what Li Huan is good at...

Papermaking has high requirements for plant fibers.

This requires constant cooking and stirring, and the heat cannot be kept high.

After it explodes, it needs to be simmered.

Li Huan was so tired that after rushing into the hot shower and lying on the bed, there was no pain anywhere in his body.

This made him extremely envious of Huo Qubing, the monster who carried two terrifying swords and could spin them like a circle without blushing or panting.

"Master, are you uncomfortable there?"

Li Huan suddenly woke up with the tangy body fragrance, and the burning pains all over his body hit him again.

"I... what's wrong with me?"

Li Huan asked unclearly.

The green flowers are lit with pine oil lamps, the pear blossoms bring rain, and the beautiful eyes are filled with tears:
"The maid was outside the tent and heard her master moaning in pain. The maid hurried in... Is the master in pain?"

"Yes...it hurts!"

Li Huan felt that before going to bed, he should let Huo Qubing carry him to a hot spring. It might be much better...

"Where does it hurt? Little maid, please rub it for Master!"

Her gentle and smooth hands instantly touched Li Huan's arms.

Li Huan's body was a little stiff, but he calmed down immediately.

Objectively speaking, he is a veteran driver who has experienced many battles, so he will naturally not feel embarrassed.

"Try gentler force, the joints hurt the most, they are sore and swollen!"

Li Huan hummed softly: "Perhaps I should listen to you during the day and let the craftsmen do such things..."

Li Huan suddenly noticed that Cuihua's face was as red as blood and her breath became unbalanced.

This... I am an old driver who has experienced many battles, but Cuihua is not!

No matter what, he didn't have any different thoughts about her.

If you want to come, why don't you come with someone who is about the same age as yourself?

"Ah! Yes, that's what the master said, but I don't know how long it will take to cook this thing?"

"It'll be fine at dawn." Li Huan half-squinted his eyes, enjoying Cuihua's unskilled massage.

"Tomorrow, there will be paper to use..."

In a daze, Li Huan fell into a deep sleep.

Under the light of the pine oil fire, Cuihua looked at the handsome face of her master, with a silly smile in her beautiful eyes from time to time.

The massage techniques became lighter and lighter, and finally I fell asleep leaning against Li Huan...

That night, Li Huan had a very sweet dream.

He dreamed that he fell into the water and traveled back to the original world.

His girlfriend got back together with him and reviewed all his previous knowledge.

It's just strange that Li Huan found that his girlfriend was always calling him master...

The dream world was complicated and confusing, but Li Huan only felt that the sound of "master" was vaguely familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere...

(End of this chapter)