Daqin: When I return from sea, I will offer you a map of the world

Chapter 105 Papermaking and printing!
Although he could go straight to the palace and be banned, Zhao Si still chose to accept the body search and wait quietly.

"Your Majesty, Zhao Si begs to see you!"

When the First Emperor was drowsy, Zhao Gao's voice rang in his ears.

Emperor Shi Huang frowned slightly, he almost fell asleep just now, but hearing that it was Zhao Si, Emperor Shi Huang rubbed his brows, sat up on the reclining chair and waved his hands: "Let's go inside!"

Afterwards, he rubbed the slightly heavy brows vigorously to relieve the fatigue of his brain, Shi Huangdi lay down again, too lazy to get up, bored.

The reclining chair swayed again and again along with Shihuang's reclining chair, and Shihuang's eyes narrowed slightly waiting for Zhao Si's arrival.

Zhao Si was in the palace under the guidance of Zhao Gao.

"Your Majesty, Zhao Si has arrived." Zhao Gao bowed and said.

Zhao Si also bowed and saluted. Shi Huangdi, who was lying on the couch, didn't get up, but just waved his hands. Zhao Gao retreated sensiblely, leaving only Zhao Si standing in place.

The First Emperor didn't move, he just lay on the reclining chair and swayed slightly. He didn't speak for a long time, his eyes were closed tightly, making Zhao Si neither sit nor stand.

When he was wondering whether he had disturbed the first emperor when he came by the wrong time, the first emperor slowly opened his eyes, did not get up, but asked a little tiredly: "I am not on duty today, why are you here?"

"I have something to report to Your Majesty." Zhao Si immediately saluted again.

"Finish." Shi Huang propped his head up with one hand, and stood up slightly.

"The subject is paper!" Zhao Si said.

"Paper?" Shi Huang raised his eyebrows.

"It's not silk, but paper made from trees! The craftsmen in Lantian Daying have already made some progress, so they can make it easier for writing." After finishing speaking, Zhao Si took out the leftover pile of hemp from his bosom after wiping his buttocks. The paper is presented forward.

The First Emperor took the hemp paper and rubbed it with his fingers. It was a little rough, but it was not a big problem.

"Is this paper made of hemp?" Shi Huang asked.

"Exactly, but the craftsman is a little anxious, and he should be able to make better paper next time." Zhao Si replied.

"How much does it cost? How is it compared to the bamboo slips?" Shi Huang asked with some interest.

Bamboo slips have too many flaws.

The cost is not cheap, and the production cycle is not short.

Qualified bamboo slips need to be divided into sections, and the bamboo must be selected carefully. After the bamboo slips are divided, they must be flattened. After flattening, they must be dried for a few days. After drying, they must be baked. , and then thread it up.

In this way, a qualified bamboo slip can be used for writing only after it has been made.

Even so, due to material limitations, the scope of writing on the bamboo slips is extremely limited. Usually, the number of words that can be written on a relatively conventional bamboo slip is only about a few hundred words.

The second is that it is relatively heavy. This thing is a genuine bamboo, the kind that can be smashed to death when picked up.

Generally speaking, a bamboo slip with tens of thousands of characters weighs several tens of catties.

The memorials that the first emperor reviewed in a day cost more than 100 catties...

There is no way to mass-produce the bamboo slips, and it can only be done manually, chopping bamboo, peeling bamboo slices, baking, and then threading, which can be described as troublesome.

As for using cloth, it is too permeable and inconvenient for writing. Silk can be specially used for writing. Another name for silk is paper, which is easy to write. It is a silk product, but it is expensive. The ancestors of heaven and earth rarely use silk in the rest of the time.

On the other hand, looking at the paper that Zhao Si handed over, Zhao Si gently lifted a piece of paper, the texture is light and thin, and the area for writing is very large... This is an advantage that can be seen at a glance.

"The cost is much lower than that of bamboo slips. Better quality paper needs to be made of trees and bamboo, but the advantage is that it can be mass-produced, and poor quality paper can also be made of grass and hemp. Although it is a little worse, the advantage is that the price is low. The production time is not as fast as that of bamboo slips. How much slower it is, but the production volume is much, much higher than that of the bamboo slips." Zhao Si replied.

"Oh?"

The first emperor became interested and took up a pen to write on the hemp paper to experiment.

However, he found that the writing effect was not very satisfactory, and the ink was still easy to smudge, and it would come out through the paper if he was not careful, so Emperor Shi Huang frowned slightly.

"Your Majesty, please let me know that this is something that the minister in Lantian told the craftsmen before. Now that the minister has left Lantian, the credit cannot be given to the military craftsman, so it is inevitable that he is a little eager for success." Zhao Si quickly replied when he saw this.

"I have taken twenty gold as a personal reward, so that they can calm down and make things better. In addition, they are military craftsmen. Apart from making paper, it is inevitable that sundries will be added to them. This is why I came here." Zhao Si said. .

Shi Huang nodded and pondered for a moment.

"You have left the Lantian camp, and they are military craftsmen... In that case, transfer those military craftsmen out of Lantian and place them in the order of Lang Zhong, and give them to you to be in charge." Shi Huang nodded and said.

"How long does it take for the finished product to come out? How effective is it?" Shi Huang asked as he put away a stack of hemp paper.

"Estimated three to five months, papermaking can't save time. If there are no accidents, this time we can make paper that is easy to write on." Zhao Si said.

The First Emperor nodded, but he didn't question Zhao Si's answer. After all, the hemp paper sent this time was barely capable of writing. Trouble writing on bamboo slips?
It is made of hemp, and the cost is low. Even if the writing is poor, you can change it and rewrite it without feeling distressed.

Bamboo slips are expensive to make, and those who don’t have money in their pockets use bamboo slips with care. If they write a wrong word, they will use a knife to cut off the wrong word and write it again. This is also the origin of the knife and pen official.

Of course, there is another problem with the bamboo slips. Some bamboo slips are not very well made, so the ink marks are easily damaged. Therefore, for long-term preservation, there is also the habit of re-carving on the bamboo slips according to the handwriting after writing.

Secondly, a thin layer of bamboo slips can be cut off with a knife to replace the font, so the bamboo slips involving official documents basically need to be cut with a knife to prevent someone from maliciously changing the official script later.

The First Emperor nodded slightly, if Zhao Si could make cheap and easy-to-use paper, it would be a great achievement.

At least I don't have to worry about reviewing more than 100 catties of memorials a day, and at least I don't need to use cars as a unit to transport official document backups to various places in the future.

Bamboo slips are bulky, expensive, long production cycle, and inconvenient to write. Objectively speaking, the appearance of paper has also led to a surge in books and literature and the spread of science and culture.

But for now, besides replacing bamboo slips, the meaning of paper is limited to this, it is convenient for transportation, writing, and dissemination...

This thing has to come together with printing to be truly significant.

Unlock the papermaking process, unlock the printing technique, the combination of the two can unlock new achievements, mass production of knowledge and big price cuts.

At the same time, it is also the major prerequisite for unlocking the achievement of breaking the monopoly of knowledge.

Zhao Si didn't hide it either...

"Not only that, Your Majesty, I also have a way to make books in batches." Zhao Si said and came to the first emperor.

"Please look, Your Majesty, the engraved characters are like a seal. Does Your Majesty have a seal?"

The First Emperor nodded, took out a bronze seal, and then stamped it on the straw paper.

"That's right. If you want to make a big seal, of course, you don't use gold, silver, copper and jade. The cost is too expensive. You can burn pottery. Your Majesty, please take a look. Assuming that this scroll of bamboo slips is the big pottery seal I talked about, The words above are the contents of the seal engraving on the seal."

"Just dip it in ink and cover it on this paper..."

It sounded whimsical at first, but when he saw Zhao Si's action completed, Emperor Shihuang realized something instantly.

simple!
too easy!

Yes, printing a book is nothing, but what if you print a hundred copies and a thousand copies?
If Qin Law is engraved on it, as long as there is enough paper, it only needs such a light seal...

How much can you print?
A thousand copies?[-] copies?

Daqin has been doing legal work.

The First Emperor was not obsessed with compulsory education, and the Legalists did not support popularization of education.

But both the Legalists and the First Emperor attached great importance to the popularization of Qin Law.

People don't need to study, but they must know the laws of Qin!
Then, with the cheap enough paper, is it possible that every household has a copy of the Qin Law?
Is there a possibility that Daqin's huge staff of tens of thousands can easily read a large number of legalist books.

Daqin can print whatever it wants, and engrave whatever it wants!
For the first emperor, papermaking alone was just another tool that could replace bamboo slips, a writing tool that was lighter and cheaper than bamboo slips.

But if it is connected with printing, the meaning is different.

"Your Majesty... most of the books in the world are lonely books. I don't know how many poor families have only one volume of family learning... Some even lost their family learning, and it is difficult to read all the characters. In order to be able to study, most of them will become nobles. Menke...or become a knight-errant, or learn from hundreds of schools, and then become an official, or become an official..."

"The great nobles support their disciples to learn knowledge, and select the poor nobles who they think are outstanding to train them. In return for learning knowledge, the humble scholars will..." Zhao Si was interrupted by the first emperor before he could finish speaking.

In fact, what Zhao Si said was very reserved, because he didn't know what Emperor Shihuang thought about the matter of popularizing education.

Of course, Zhao Si didn't have a whimsical idea to play universal literacy in this era and popularize education to the common people.

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it took small landlords to support a scholar, what about the Qin Dynasty?Why?
The humble nobles that Zhao Si mentioned were real nobles, but their families were in decline, and Baili Xi was one of them.

Poor family, you have to have a door at home, don't you?

This group of humble gentry, because of their low status and poor family fortune, had only three paths to go, one, to become the servants of the nobles, two, to learn various arts, and three, to become rangers.

It is true... most of the books in this era are orphan books, and there must be a collection of orphan books in Qin Palace.

but!

Qin Palace has a large collection of books!
In the past, scholars from poor families were limited by the decline of their families and lost their family heirlooms. They had to become disciples of hundreds of families or become followers of great nobles before they could continue to study and rise.

That is to say, when Qin State needed them, most of them had already been labeled as powerful.

So, is there a possibility that Daqin can try to rely on its rich collection of books, printing technology and papermaking technology to kick out the middlemen and make the difference by itself?

In fact, Qin State has been doing this kind of thing all the time.

For example, the official training system of the Qin State, based on the system of military merits and nominations, when the military meritorious service reaches a certain level, when the war ceases, they may be promoted to be the head of the township, or they may be promoted to be a small official, and the county government will unify them. Conduct staff training.

Qin's grassroots officials are clean, without too many complicated power labels and complex and strong needs are also the core of Qin's ability to destroy the six countries.

All seven countries reformed, but Qin was able to implement it to the end, and the reason was the excellent training and selection mechanism for grassroots officials.

The appeals of this group of officials with clean backgrounds are very simple, rising, and their political appeals are relatively simple, and there are not many complicated human relationships behind them.

And the grassroots officials of the six countries are either the followers or disciples of which family... You must know that the grassroots officials are the executors of the implementation of the reform!
How can the grassroots officials who are labeled with various factions and great aristocrats maintain the reform?

It's a pity... It seems that Emperor Shihuang didn't like what he said?

It shouldn't be... Zhao Si frowned slightly.

(No, I will take a short leave tomorrow to accompany my wife to the hospital. I will see if there is no time after I finish my work.)
(End of this chapter)