General Qin

Qin Shihuang wanted to abolish the scripts of the six countries and promote the scripts of the Qin country in the world to unify the scripts.

This incident may cause an uproar in the hometown of the princes who originally belonged to the Six Kingdoms, and shock countless people from the Six Kingdoms.

But in Xianyang, the capital of Qin Dynasty, there was not even a small splash of water.

Because the local Qin people already used Qin characters, and they did not unify the world's characters, so it had no effect on them Qin people.

Things like the previous unification of weights and measures may cause commotion in Shandong, but not many people paid attention to it in the original Qin.

In today's Xianyang City, most people's eyes are on the new "paper". It is said that the emperor used this new thing to replace bamboo slips for administration.

The emperor's idea is the biggest thing in the world, and this matter naturally attracted the attention of countless people.

Especially as the Shaofu successively produced several batches of hemp paper, in addition to meeting the emperor's personal needs, it also began to be officially put into use by several important departments' government offices, allowing more people to see this novel thing, and at the same time brought There came greater attention.

On this day, Sima Xin, an official of the Tingwei Mansion, met with his friend Dong Zhong when he was resting.

Dong Zhong is a small official in the imperial servant's house, about thirty years old, with a long beard and black face, and he has been friends with Sima Xin for many years.

After the two got together and drank the syrup made from flour, the topic could not help but fall on the latest hot spot.

"Brother Sima, your Tingwei Mansion is the first government office to use paper? I don't know what it's like to write on that thing?"

Sima Xin laughed and said, "What's the taste? It's similar to writing on silk. Sometimes it's troublesome to write wrong characters. Its main advantage is that it's light."

"In the past, we issued decrees to counties or counties, or responded to cases from beggars in counties and counties. Sometimes hundreds of catties of bamboo slips were needed at a time, and they had to be slowly pulled to the place with a horse-drawn cart, but now there is paper, which needs to be pulled by a horse-drawn cart. One hundred catties of bamboo slips, one stack of paper is enough, and you don’t even need to use a horse-drawn cart to transport it. It only takes one ride to take the letter to the local county. The efficiency is really much higher. In my opinion, For this alone, the usefulness of paper far exceeds that of bamboo slips.”

Dong Zhong admired: "I really envy Brother Sima, we servants don't know when we can use paper."

Sima Xin smiled slightly, although the Shaofu made paper, but the quantity is limited, and it is still a rare item.

In addition to the emperor's side, several important departments in the court, such as Ting Wei and Zhi Su Nei Shi, have received a certain amount of use.

Even if a department that manages vehicles like the eunuch wants to issue and use them, it must be put at the end.

Faced with the envy of his friends for many years, Sima Xin said with relief: "Brother Dong, don't worry, I heard that today, I have ordered a large number of paper-making workshops in Guanzhong to make a large amount of paper, which will be used by various government offices in the future. You can also use it sooner or later. Up."

Dong Zhong sighed: "Yes, Shaofu has already expanded the paper workshop. I heard that this paper was made by Zhao Shaofu. Zhao Shaofu is really powerful. He made a huge cannon during the war before, and later he made it. It made Quyuanli, and now it makes paper."

"Hey, otherwise, why would everyone call this paper 'Shaofu Paper' in private, our Shaofu Zhao is really capable!"

Sima Xin followed suit, but he thought of something interesting, and said, "In fact, this paper has other magical uses besides writing documents."

"Oh? What is the magical effect?"

Dong Zhong, as a servant of the imperial court, had never even seen the appearance of paper. He only heard that this thing was good for use, and he was envious. Now he heard Sima Xin say that this thing has other magical uses besides writing. He straightened his ears.

Sima Xin smiled and said: "Although this thing is light, it is far inferior to the bamboo slips in two points. One is that it is not as strong as the bamboo slips and is easy to damage, but this is not a big problem, just use it carefully. The second point is this If something is wrongly written, the whole piece of paper will be considered useless, and it is much less time-consuming than scraping off a wrong word on a bamboo slip with a sharpener and re-writing it, only to re-transcribe it.”

Dong Zhong nodded. The requirements for official documents are very strict, and there must be no typos in the documents to and from.

Thinking of this, Dong Zhong was puzzled again: "Brother Sima, that should be the defect of this thing, how can it be called magical function?"

"It is precisely because the wrongly written paper cannot be reused and is discarded directly, so people discovered its magical effect."

When Sima Xin said this, he frowned and smiled: "To tell you the truth, Brother Dong, I have a friend who saw some wrongly written Shaofu papers piled up in the official office, and thought that some nobles used silk to go to the toilet? Since the silk is useful, the paper is similar to silk, so why can’t it be used? I took some waste paper to the toilet, hehe, that feeling is much more useful than toilet paper, comfortable!"

Dong Zhong's eyes were wide open, and his face was flushed red.

Zhao Shaofu worked so hard to make paper for the purpose of writing characters and benefiting the world.

Because of the limited production, even the officials in our Taifu Office have no chance to use it. Those of you from Tingwei's Mansion, forget about using it first, and even used it to pickle. If Zhao Shaofu knew about it, you would still vomit blood in anger.

Seeing Sima Xin showing off proudly.

Dong Zhong said angrily: "Brother Sima, that friend who uses Shaofu paper to go to the toilet, can't it be you?"

...

Doctorate Palace.

"Pu She, we are doctors, in charge of books and dictionaries, compiling works, mastering ancient and modern times, and imparting knowledge. Now that we have created Shaofu paper, why don't we use it!"

"Yes, I heard that Shaofu paper is good at writing. One piece of paper can be worth several bamboo slips. Compared with silk books, it is such a good thing. As a doctor in charge of books, we should use it. Ask Jinshang!"

Many doctors blushed and made their appeals to doctor servant Zhou Qingchen.

Most of these doctors are disciples of famous masters, Yin Yang masters, and Huang Lao.

As the reputation of paper spread, they were naturally full of curiosity about this novel writing material.

Facing the requests of these doctors, Zhou Qingchen expressed helplessness, and said: "I have written to the emperor about this matter, because the Shaofu paper is newly made, and the quantity is limited, and now it is temporarily used for the office of Tingwei Mansion and Zhisu Neishi Mansion. There are not even other official offices such as servants and Dianke, if you want to use them, you have to wait until they are mass-produced in the future, and you just have to wait patiently, there will be some sooner or later."

Hearing this, the doctors calmed down. This reason really made people speechless. Even the officials such as servants and Dianke, one of the nine ministers, were useless. What do these doctors have to fight for.

Just when the matter was about to subside, Dr. Confucianism, who was watching coldly, spoke mocking words.

"Hehe, why do you need to ask for such expensive and difficult-to-use things with major flaws? In my opinion, this so-called Shaofu paper will be abandoned in a short time. At that time, it is not necessary to use bamboo slips to record things. .”

Dr. Zhuzi looked angrily, and when they saw that the well-known assassin Chun Yuyue was the one who spoke, they became even more angry.

It was this guy who didn't know good and bad, and encouraged a group of Confucian scholars to stop Princess Shang of Zhao Shaofu, and even talked back to Ting Wei Li Si in public in the court hall. In the end, they, a group of doctors, were collectively deprived of the political power to participate in the court.

Immediately, a famous doctor reprimanded: "You Chunyu started talking nonsense again, that Shaofu paper is made of hemp, leather and other things, the price is cheaper than bamboo slips, and it is thinner and better than silk. Why are there major defects? Expensive and difficult to use? In my opinion, you probably saw that this thing was made by Zhao Shaofu, so you held a grudge and deliberately slandered it."

"That's right, apart from being weaker than the bamboo slips, what flaws are there in this Shaofu paper? It's obviously made of cheap things, and the price is cheap, but you, Chun Yuyue, say that it's expensive and difficult to use. You're talking nonsense!"

Several other doctors of Zhuzi also shouted, they had already disliked Chunyu more and more.

"Slander? Slander?"

Chunyu Yue said disdainfully: "Why do you need to slander this thing? You say that the Shaofu paper is cheaper than the bamboo slips. But I want to say that the price of this thing is much more expensive than the bamboo slips, and it is not durable for storage, and it is used for administration. Efficiency is high, but it is actually the most time-consuming.”

"If you promote this thing, it looks convenient and simple, but it's actually just a luxury, far less cheap and easy to use than bamboo slips. In my opinion, this thing will be abolished by the emperor before it's your turn to use it."

Waiting for the rebuttals of several Zhuzi doctors.

Chunyu Yue immediately said: "I heard that Tingwei and Zhisu Neishi used Shaofu paper for administration during this period, and the loss was very high. The paper workshop in Shaofu could barely supply them, so the emperor labored in Guanzhong to build paper. The reason for this is that writing on paper, once you write a wrong word, the paper will be useless.”

"We use bamboo slips to write. If we only write a wrong character, we can cut it off with a knife, and we can continue to use this bamboo slip to write. For a wrong word, cut it once. For a wrong cross, cut it ten times. One bamboo slip is enough to write from scratch. To the end without replacement."

"But the Shaofu paper is different. If you accidentally write a wrong word on a piece of paper, then the paper is considered discarded and cannot be used anymore, and it needs to be replaced with new paper."

The doctors frowned.

What Chunyu Yue said was indeed a practical issue.

When writing, especially when transcribing a large number of official documents and copying books, typos often occur, and no one can avoid it.

When using bamboo slips to write, if they write a wrong word, they can use a sharpener to scrape off the wrong word and rewrite it. This is also one of the benefits of bamboo slips, which has a great error tolerance rate.

But compared to the bamboo slips, this Shaofu paper is said to be extremely thin, so naturally it is impossible to scrape it with a knife. If a word is wrongly written, it will really be a piece of paper that is completely useless.

Seeing the doctors who questioned him fall silent, Chun Yuyue showed a smile on his face and continued to speak.

"Moreover, laws and decrees are often around the number of crosses. If you use a piece of paper to write a decree that counts the number of crosses, there will be most of the blank space on the paper. In fact, only one or two bamboo slips can be recorded. But if you have to use paper that can record hundreds of characters to transcribe, isn’t the price of this piece of paper more expensive than the bamboo slips that record the same characters?”

"If you use a piece of paper to record legal documents with hundreds of words, then I would like to ask you gentlemen, how many of you can guarantee that one word is correct?"

"As long as one word is wrong in the middle, the entire sheet of paper, and even the hundreds of characters transcribed on it, are all discarded, and it needs to be replaced with a new paper to transcribe the previous text from scratch. If there is another typo in the process of transcribing , then we have to start all over again.”

"My lords, in this way, a document written on Shaofu paper seems to use one piece of paper, but in fact it may use ten sheets of paper behind it. Isn't the price expensive? Once written If one word is wrong, all the words written earlier have to be re-transcribed, wouldn’t it be more time-consuming? You are also people who use knives and pens, do you know what I said?”

It was obvious that Chunyu Yue had made preparations for the investigation. As soon as this remark came out, no one from Dr. Zhuzi said anything.

Instead, those Confucian doctors cheered up and talked about the disadvantages of this Shaofu paper.

Qi Diaobi has always held a grudge against Zhao Tuo's public opposition to feudalism before, but now he is merciless.

He sneered and said: "Then Zhao Tuo thought he could please the emperor when he made paper. In fact, it is a waste of people and money. It is far worse than the bamboo slips. We and the people of Xia have used these bamboo slips for thousands of years, and there has never been any inconvenience. This is a relic of the past, and it can be replaced by something that he just arbitrarily drummed up. This matter is just like the fight with us for the distribution of feudal titles and prefectures. It is unheard of for people who do not learn from the past and live forever."

At this moment, not only the doctors who had a quarrel with Zhao Tuo spoke sarcastically, but even Zhou Qingchen, the cowardly doctor servant, was moved by Chun Yuyue's words.

He shook his head and said, "It's been a while since we've been in Qin. People in Qin are the most practical. If they find that this Shaofu paper not only doesn't bring convenience, but also makes administration more troublesome, it shouldn't be long. It will be discarded. Alas, it is a pity that Zhao Shaofu made such a commotion."

"This is our chance. Let the emperor trust us again! Maybe it will restore our political power!"

Chun Yuyue spoke suddenly, which attracted everyone's attention.

Qi Diaobi immediately cheered and said: "What is the opportunity that Dr. Chunyu said?"

Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Chunyu laughed and said, "As Pu She said, people in Qin are more practical. Before, we thought the emperor valued courtesy, but Li Si criticized him instead. Now that we know that the emperor values ​​reality , then you should do what you like.”

"Since we have seen that the Shaofu paper is a waste of money and people, we should write to the emperor to point out the defects of this thing. The emperor pays attention to reality, and when we point out the shortcomings of the Shaofu paper, he will definitely respond to it." We have a good impression of us, and we also know that we are useful for state affairs, maybe we will use this to restore our right to discuss government affairs, what do you think?"

The famous doctor who had reprimanded him before sneered: "What a letter to the emperor, pointing out the flaws of the Shaofu paper. Could it be that Dr. Chunyu forgot, thanks to you, now we have no right to write a letter to discuss government affairs except for the emperor's edict. "

"Yeah, after the incident last time, not only can we not go to the court, but we can't even write a letter to discuss politics. How can we talk about admonishing the emperor!"

All the doctors cried out one after another, remembering the tragedy of being silenced, and glared at Chunyu Yue.

Chun Yuyue didn't panic in the slightest, instead he smiled and said, "What's the rush, gentlemen? Although we can't write to the emperor to discuss politics, Prime Minister Zuo can!"

"We can persuade Prime Minister Zuo to write a letter to the emperor, but if we don't sign our name, it will not be considered a crime. If the emperor listens to Prime Minister Zuo and abolishes the Shaofu paper, then Prime Minister Zuo can mention our contribution , when the emperor is overjoyed, won't he forgive us."

Zhou Qingchen hurriedly said: "Last time when we tried to dissuade Princess Shang, Prime Minister Zuo didn't go with us. I'm afraid he won't help us this time."

"Yes, Prime Minister Zuo is good at Confucianism, but he is not a member of Confucianism. After what happened last time, I'm afraid he won't help us."

The others also shook their heads and said, not expecting to persuade Wang Wan.

Chunyu Yue shook his head and said: "You are wrong, Prime Minister Zuo is not helping us this time."

"Um?"

Everyone looked in amazement.

Chunyu Yue grinned.

"The Shaofu Zhao Tuo made a useless thing. It is a waste of people and money, and a loss of Qin's national power. Prime Minister Zuo is a man of the country. How can he sit idly by when he sees the disadvantages of this thing?"

"Prime Minister Zuo, it's not us who are helping, he is helping Daqin!"

Regarding the fact that some people said that Chun Yuyue and others forcibly lowered their intelligence, it is better for Sima Qian to take the blame. The character design of this book mainly refers to "Historical Records".

In "Historical Records", he dared to confront the emperor face to face when Qin Shihuang was happy: "If you don't enfeoff, what will you do if you encounter treacherous officials who usurp the throne? If you don't learn from ancient enfeoffment, the country will not last long. You are wrong. These people will flatter you. Aggravate your mistakes" and so on, events such as Li Si's biography and Qin Shihuang's biography.

Even the emperor was disgusted. Compared with the history, the deeds in this book are actually much weaker. If you read the history books and look at the reality, you will find that there are too many people who forcibly lowered their intelligence.