Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 260 0255 [Second Base·Jintan Village]

"This small piece of bamboo forest was cut down and a pond was dug from the ground below."

"Build some bamboo houses over there."

"The land by the river has been compacted, and I want to make a water mill to pound the bamboo."

"Dig a retting pond there..."

The management personnel of Daming Village have not yet arrived, so Zhu Guoxiang temporarily directs the construction in person.

Mature bamboo paper manufacturing technology has dozens of processes and hundreds of procedures.

Zhu Guoxiang had two sets of bamboo paper technology, one from the papermaking method of the late Northern Song Dynasty provided by Fujian officials, and the other from the "Tiangong Kaiwu" papermaking method written silently by his son.

The former is extremely immature, while the latter is only approximate.

Comparing the two, it can be seen that bamboo paper in the Northern Song Dynasty was made of raw materials, the technique was extremely rough, and it could not be naturally bleached. In the Ming Dynasty, clinker pulp was used and naturally bleached, which increased fiber toughness, improved the quality of bamboo paper, and made bamboo paper more beautiful.

But even the mature technology of the Ming Dynasty had different details depending on its origin. According to different papermaking processes and different bamboo materials, bamboo paper can be divided into five categories: Lianshi paper, Gongchuan paper, raw edge paper, buckle paper, and core paper.

"Tiangong Kaiwu" only has a general process and does not go into too many details. Zhu Guoxiang needs to explore on his own.

Zhu Guoxiang's advantage is that he can figure out the role of each process through text description. For example, adding lime water and plant ash is based on their chemical properties. The ancients knew this but didn't know why. They could only constantly observe, explore and summarize.

Before formal papermaking began, Zhu Guoxiang already had ways to improve it.

For example, "Tiangong Kaiwu" said that before making clinker pulp, bamboo needs to be soaked for more than 100 days to finalize. Zhu Guoxiang felt that he didn't need to wait that long. He could quickly finish the work with lime by placing a layer of lime, then a layer of bamboo, and then pouring water into it. (This method was not adopted until the Qing Dynasty.)

If the rapid curing method is used, the soaking pool must be constructed carefully to facilitate irrigation and drainage at any time, and the amount of sewage discharge will be greatly increased.

If high-grade bamboo paper is to be made, Zhu Guoxiang also thought of a way.

That is, adding starch water to the slurry improves the suspension of fibers and makes the paper texture more uniform. Starch particles can also remain in the fiber gaps as filler. This is not recorded in "Tiangong Kaiwu", and it did not even exist in the south during the Ming Dynasty. Instead, it appeared in the Hanzhong area during the Qing Dynasty.

Starch water does not need to be specially made. You can set up a vermicelli workshop to make rice noodles or sweet potato noodles. Using the leftover material from making vermicelli, filtering it and adding it to the pulp is equivalent to recycling waste.

Agricultural science is also a science subject, and Zhu Guoxiang is a science student. He does not understand advanced chemical knowledge, but these basic ones are not difficult.

On the other hand, Zhu Ming, who studied history, found it hard to figure it out for a while.

In the open area of ​​the upper reaches of the valley, there is a small natural lake, which was once used for gold panning, so it is called "Golden Pool". The entire river valley is called "Jintan Valley", and the mountains next to the lake are called "Jintan Ridge".

Now, the village in the river valley was named Jintan Village by Zhu Guoxiang, and its population is currently only one-fifth of Daming Village.

Except for some who were busy with farming, the remaining villagers came to help build the papermaking field. The young and middle-aged can earn 30 cents a day for hard physical work; the old, weak, women and children can earn 15 cents a day to help with odd jobs. Two free meals are also provided in the mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

The salary is not high, but the villagers are very happy. They give them money and food. They have never encountered such a good thing before.

Several women and children were also sent to search for plants.

There are several kinds, such as hollyhock and kiwi vine. You can find any one. This is a necessary "paper medicine" when making paper. There are substitutes everywhere, which can be kneaded and mashed into a viscous liquid, which can make the slurry float evenly and avoid sticking when separating paper.

In ancient papermaking workshops, all techniques could be passed on to others, but "paper medicine" was an exclusive secret recipe.

Zhu Guoxiang didn't know much about this. He only knew the raw materials and had to slowly explore the details.

Anyway, there is plenty of time. To make bamboo paper normally, you have to wait until the turn of spring and summer to cut down the young bamboo for greening. Zhu Guoxiang prepares to cut old bamboo in autumn and winter, so that workers can familiarize themselves with the process in advance and practice their skills with old bamboo. If the quality of the paper produced is too low, it will probably be used to wipe your butt.

Anyway, no matter what, the quality is better than the bamboo paper of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Bamboo paper in the Northern Song Dynasty was the same as straw paper. Most of it was fire paper, which was used to burn paper money for the dead. It's hard enough to wipe your butt, and it will break when you prick it with your fingers.

The papermaking mill was almost completed, and Zhu Guoxiang went to visit Min Wenwei again.

"Xiangong Zhu wants to make paper?" Min Wenwei asked in surprise.

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said: "I will not compete with the Min family for business. I only make bamboo paper, not leather paper or rattan paper."

Min Wenwei was immediately reassured and pretended to remind: "Bamboo paper is not easy to use, it is easy to soak in ink, and it is easy to break."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "I also know about this, and maybe the technology can be improved. We just need a few paper fishermen. Can Min's papermaking workshop borrow a few?"

Most of the entire papermaking process can be used by novices, but the papermaking process must be done by experienced hands.

Min Wenwei asked: "How much do you want?"

"Five, only borrowed for one year." Zhu Guoxiang said.

"Papermaking can benefit education, but five paper workers are nothing." Min Wenwei readily agreed.

Only five papermakers were borrowed for one year, and of course they were allowed to train apprentices. If you give them more wages, you can let them teach each other. Anyway, if they are not in the same workshop in the future, they will not be afraid of teaching the apprentices to starve to death.

…

Wen Luan and his sister came to visit the construction site and asked, "I know bamboo paper can be used, but can it really be produced in large quantities?"

"It should be okay." Zhu Guoxiang said.

Of course, there was bamboo paper used for writing in the Northern Song Dynasty. For example, Mi Fu's "Coral Tie" was written on bamboo paper. However, because the technology is immature, the materials used are very harsh, and there are many bamboo tendons visible on the paper, the quality is too low and cannot be mass-produced.

Miss Wen said: "If you can turn bamboo paper into leather paper, you will be respected by scholars all over the world."

"It will take decades for it to spread." Zhu Guoxiang laughed.

Ju Ming improved printing in Tokyo. Today, the new ink has spread, and it spreads very quickly.

But movable lead type still stayed in Tokyo, and it had not even reached Luoyang. The initial investment for this thing was too high, only a few merchants were willing to try it, and it also took a long time to make a set of movable type.

However, the officials are very helpful.

Under the leadership of Cai Jing, Wang Anshi's works were re-edited, using punctuation marks to break sentences, and several volumes have been printed in batches.

This is to occupy the commanding heights. Cai Jing controls the interpretation rights of Wang Anshi's works to consolidate his position as the leader of the New Law.

Next, Cai Jing will compile classics such as The Analects and Mencius. Completely according to Wang Anshi's understanding, he punctuated and punctuated the sentences of these Confucian classics, and then took control of the interpretation rights of all Confucian classics.

Luoyang was closely watched, and the Jiangnan scholars did not dare to make mistakes.

However, some great scholars have already started from remote places. They secretly cooperated to fragment the Confucian classics, and then went to Sichuan and Fujian to make movable type. It is estimated that they will be printed next year. This kind of behavior is illegal because it conflicts with the new learning of sentence breaking, so it can only be done quietly in the local area.

Once reported, many people are likely to be implicated. The bookseller responsible for printing was at least exiled!

Anyway, it's so nonsense. Even Ju Ming didn't expect that his improved movable type printing technology would actually accelerate the spread of it through party struggle.

And the academic dispute will intensify in the coming decades.

In the past, there was no punctuation and sentence fragmentation, and all Confucian classics looked the same. With punctuation and sentence breaking, different schools of thought have to think hard, and they will all say that there is something wrong with the book the other party is reading.

"Ms. sir, we are here!"

Several villagers from Daming Village dragged their families to Jintan Village.

Zhu Guoxiang nodded and said: "It came very quickly. I have designated Jintan Village as Baojia and selected four Baojia chiefs from among the local villagers. Tian San came to be the village chief and usually resolves disputes among the villagers, but don't be too strict. , after all, you are here outside, please listen to the opinions of several security chiefs."

"Yes, I have written it down." Tian San said hurriedly.

Zhu Guoxiang continued the arrangement: "Yu Kan will serve as a scribe, manage the money and food account books, and also set up a village school to teach the children in the village to read."

"yes!"

Yu Kan was recruited into Daming Village by Meng Zhao. He has always been Meng Zhao's deputy, but now he can finally take charge of his own role.

Zhu Guoxiang added: "Liu Shidao manages the papermaking factory."

Liu Shidao is Liu Shiren's elder brother, and Liu Shiren is now working with Ju Ming as his secretary. The Liu family is the most literate family in Daming Village, so of course they must use it well. In the future, if the Zhu family and his son grow up, the Liu family will definitely prosper.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Deng Xia, you are responsible for training the village braves of Jintan Village. There is not a large population here, so it is enough to train two Yuanyang teams, and they are relatively busy. Don't compare their training time with Daming Village. Wait until Zhang Guangdao brings more people over. , just slowly increase the number of village heroes."

"I listen to my husband!" Deng Xia was extremely excited.

After the disaster ended, Hanzhong gradually recovered, and a small number of victims fled into the mountains to become bandits.

The land east of Shaanxi Province is full of thieves.

It was so miserable there. We had been fighting Xixia for several years, and the people were already in a difficult situation. This year there was first a drought, then a flood, and then there were major earthquakes one after another, making it difficult for many people to survive.

Even though the imperial court frantically recruited young men and women as Xiang troops to supplement the losses in the war against Xixia. However, there are always some young men who were not recruited, and there were also young men who became Xiang soldiers but could not bear the oppression and ran away. They looted places in small groups, and many fled into the mountains.

Zhang Guangdao could bring back at least hundreds of Shaanxi refugees during one smuggling trip.

It’s not that we can’t bring back more, it’s that the food can’t sustain it, and the resettlement will have to be slow and steady!

The real chaos was in Hebei, where the Yellow River burst and millions of people were affected. A large number of people died, and those who survived lost their livelihoods. The government had no control at all and could only watch bandits wreaking havoc everywhere.

Let me tell you a little trivia: Liangshan heroes grew up in Hebei...

Most of the leaders of Song Jiang's gang, no matter where their hometown is, first became bandits in Hebei. Song Jiang has already begun to make small fortunes. His initial entrepreneurial environment was Hebei after the Yellow River flooded. He met entrepreneurial partners through traveling around to commit crimes.

There is a giant bandit named Liu Wu in Anhui. He started looting the area last year and has not yet been quelled. The imperial court is deploying troops to suppress it.

There are also a large number of refugees from Hebei who gather in the Taihang Mountains to become bandits.

There is Liu Huasan in southern Gansu, but he is still making small fuss at the moment. It would become a big deal in two years, and its area of ​​activity would be in the junction area of ​​Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Fujian in later generations, which was an old revolutionary area.

Historically, the imperial court mobilized several Xiang armies to encircle and suppress it for two or three years before finally pacifying it, and it was destroyed later than Fang La. The imperial court offered a reward of 13,000 yuan, plus the status of a seventh-grade military attache, just to catch Liu Huasan.

The Sichuan barbarians are about to rebel again.