primitive survival evolution

Chapter 229 Papermaking
A month has passed, and autumn is getting stronger.

The No. 12 Primary School is officially in operation. There are seven classes in it, five of which enroll children in the age group from seven to [-] years old, a total of [-] students.

In fact, the number of children at this stage of the tribe is far more than this.

However, these one hundred children were carefully selected by Li Yan, and they were all children with normal intelligence and obedience.

The tribe's education resources are insufficient, and Li Yan doesn't want to waste them. It is better to select most of the elites for education and weed out those children with poor learning ability. In this era, fairness is not advisable.

The remaining two classes are dedicated to tribal people with special positions such as department heads, factory managers, and soldiers.

This is the population that the Jiang tribe needs to learn now. Li Yan passed on his knowledge to ten teachers, and those ten teachers, as the tribe's teaching staff, passed on to more tribesmen.

The rest of the peasants, workers and other ordinary people have no chance to learn, and now the tribe has no conditions for education for everyone.

The tribe's education is slowly on the right track, but Li Yan feels that if he wants to popularize education, he must invent paper and pen.

This is an example in ancient China. Emperor Sui Yang created the imperial examination system so that ordinary people could read books and have the possibility to become officials. However, this was based on the popularity of paper.

Before the popularization of paper, the cost of reading was very high, and only rich families could afford it. It was not until Cai Lun in the Han Dynasty improved papermaking (the mainstream theory is an invention, but it is actually an improvement), which made paper popular and the cost of reading was reduced. All kinds of books It was widely disseminated, and only then did Emperor Sui Yang have the conditions to start the imperial examination system.

It can be seen that the role of paper in education is very huge!
Therefore, Li Yan planned to make paper, firstly, it could be used by the clansmen for learning, and secondly, it could say goodbye to using leaves to wipe their buttocks.

The composition of paper is plant fiber. Li Yan was an archeology major before crossing over. He had studied this area before, and he also knew a thing or two about papermaking.

So, he took five clansmen to study in the industrial park for more than a month.

After several failed attempts, I finally figured out some clues today.

In a yard, there are various tools, including stone mills, mortars, pottery pools, cloth grid paper-making nets, and even some pressing tools.

Having summed up a lot of experience before, Li Yan believes that this time it will be successful.

I saw that he and his tribe chose some dried kudzu vines, grasses, rotten fishing nets and other materials, and washed and soaked these materials first.

Then, put these materials into a pestle and pound them until they are smashed, and then put these plant residues into a large pot and boil them over high heat.

hours later.

Li Yan opened the lid of the nest, only to see a large pot of yellowish-brown thick porridge inside the pot, still steaming.

I took a wooden stick and stirred it a few times. There are a lot of debris in the thick porridge, and there are many fine fibers.

This is the pulp stock solution.

These are the main materials of paper, but this is not finished yet.

Li Yan also ordered someone to bring a pot of rice washing water, that is, the water where the wheat was boiled. The rice water has the function of binding.

After adding a pot of rice washing water, it started to cook on high heat.

The concentration of the pulp must be appropriate, and some boiled rice pulp must be added to the powdered pulp as a binder.

When the cooking was almost done, Li Yan ordered people to turn off the fire. After the pulp in the pot cooled down, Li Yan and the others poured the pulp into a large pottery dish.

This large pottery dish is square and inlaid on the ground, like a pool.

Under a square wooden grid, a piece of linen is glued, which is the net for papermaking.

The people around were looking at Li Yan. Li Yan took the square net and gently submerged the net into the paper pool.

The yellow pulp water slowly submerged the net, leaving a shallow layer of paper on the beige net.

This process is called papermaking.

The more you copy, the thicker the paper that comes out.

Li Yan copied three times, and basically filled up the grids in the net before he stopped copying paper, and dipped the net diagonally to drain the water inside.

Take this copying net, walk to a table, and then carefully turn it over, and separate the paper in the copying net to the table.

This table is a wooden table covered with wooden boards. The wooden board is brushed with cooked tung oil, and the surface is smooth and flat. The advantage of the wood board brushed with tung oil is that it will not stick.

A wet layer of paper was laid flat on the table. The thickness of the paper was about 2 mm, and the surface was beige, like a piece of bread.

Then, Li Yan fetched another big board.

The surface of this large wooden board is also brushed with a layer of cooked tung oil, which is very bright, but the thickness is relatively thick, and it is a thick wooden board.

Li Yan and his clan members carefully pressed the board on the wet paper, and then pressed it down.

Use the weight of the plank itself to press out the moisture in the paper, and at the same time make the thickness of the paper thinner and more compact.

After pressing for a few minutes, Li Yan moved the board away.

The paper is still wet, but the paper has become very dense and the thickness is much thinner. Li Yan thought it was okay after looking at it.

After two hours, the paper was dry.

Li Yan picked it up and shook it. The paper was not damaged, it was very strong, but the color on the surface was beige.

"It may need to be bleached a bit, or quicklime added."

Li Yan looked at this piece of paper and thought for a while, finally nodded in satisfaction, and said with a smile: "Well, the yellow is a little yellow, but it is qualified, the problem of bleaching the paper may not be easy, and I will use this kind of paper for writing in the future." paper."

The clansmen who helped around came to touch this piece of paper one after another. The more they touched it, the more excited they were. This kind of thing called paper is thinner and lighter than animal skin. This is a new product, and it is the first time they have seen it.

Li Yan looked at them and asked, "Do you know how this kind of paper is made?"

"Yeah. I know."

"We know how to make it."

These people nodded one by one. They had made paper with Li Yan before, and they all knew the process.

Li Yan thought for a while, and then said: "In the future, bamboo will be used to make paper. The bamboo will be soaked in water three months in advance, and when it is soaked, it will be used to make paper."

"Yeah." The tribe nodded.

Li Yan continued: "Also, in the future, when making paper, we will make two kinds of paper, one is made of grass or weeds to boil the pulp, it doesn't need to be pounded so badly, just enough to make a piece of paper, it is used to replace leaves to wipe buttocks , you don’t need to spend too much material and time to make it, this kind of paper is called papyrus, and it can be mass-produced.”

"The paper we are making now is made according to the previous process. It is the best paper and is used for writing and recording. I will add a paper workshop. After you make the paper, send it to Go to that workshop to produce all kinds of paper books."

"Understood!" The clansmen nodded one by one. For them, the papermaking process is no stranger, and it is not difficult to recreate simple straw paper.

After the paper was made, writing tools were needed, so Li Yan planned to make some ink.

(End of this chapter)