Because he couldn't wait for the summons for a while, while Ju Su was running around there, Liu Bei and Li Su were temporarily idle and had a window of one or two days to move freely.

The first thing that Liu Bei thought of was to sell as many as "one man and three horses" of his accompanying soldiers, and exchanged them for 120 horse-hoof golden cakes.

Then, Liu Bei began a brief relaxation and enjoying life in Luoyang, and the details did not need to be expressed.

As for the channels for selling horses, Liu Bei knew many merchants who bought horses in Luoyang. In addition, the Zhen family also did this business all year round, so he happened to ask the Zhen family's people to help him and sell it for a little more.

Before Liu Bei and Li Su set off, Zhen Yan gave them some tokens and literary sects, so that they could cooperate with their business needs and could find people in the Zhen family section of Luoyang at any time.

The so-called "Wen Thorn" is the introduction letter of this era, written on wooden tablets - just like "Famous Thorn" is a business card, and it is also engraved with wooden boards to prevent damage. Who makes the paper of this era too fragile?

The money obtained from selling horses was given to Li Su except for the past few days of enjoying life, Liu Bei was very relieved to give the rest of the money he got from selling horses.

Obviously, Liu Bei also knew some of the current rules in the officialdom and knew that he had to make money when doing anything. Since Li Su was so capable in this area, he would certainly have to use people without doubt.

There is nothing to hide from this - because during the reign of Emperor Ling of Han, not only did the people who bought officials need to pay, but even the officials who were voluntarily appointed by the court because of work also had to give "money to take office", so everyone gave money.

According to the Book of Later Han, the only exception that was clearly recorded was that Liu Yu, the chief minister, changed his position as the governor of Youzhou and presided over the rebellion of Zhang Ju and Zhang Chun. Emperor Ling of Han personally issued an edict saying that he knew that Liu Yu was honest and had no money, and clearly ordered the ten regular attendants not to blackmail Liu Yu's money.

Except for Liu Yu, other officials from the Ling Emperor Dynasty had no record of taking office without paying money.

However, officials who committed suicide because they were indeed honest, could not afford to pay, and could not take office often occurred. Unfortunately, these genuine officials did not have the prestige of Liu Yu, and could not get the emperor to pardon.

Because of Liu Bei's trust, Li Su's money on hand, plus the previous bounty, expanded to more than 200 kilograms of gold, and he couldn't bear it alone. Liu Bei also sent Guan Yu to Li Su to act together, played a guest role in the porter, and protected the money by the way.

...

This day was the second day after they arrived in Luoyang. Early in the morning, Ju Su came to inform them that General He Jin would summon him tomorrow, inquired about Zhang Chun's love for the thief, and asked them to prepare for it, but they could still have a free day of activities today.

Li Su was about to go out. Guan Yu asked with concern: "Where is Boya going? I will protect you together."

Li Su wanyan refused: "No need, I will take the time to go to Taixue Tuanzhuan today. Second brother, just stay and watch the money."

As he said that, he just took three or five golden cakes and pocketed bags from the salute and went out.

When he was selling horses yesterday, he also bought some large pieces of paper, pens, ink, brushes and other items from the Zhen family's business. He planned to go to the square at the entrance of the Taixue School early in the morning to try out the scriptures of a few stone scriptures.

After all, he is still ready to respect Ju Shu's teachings. This is not only good for him, but also closes friendship with Ju Shu.

He also saw the stele of the stele in later generations, so he roughly knew how to operate it.

The stone tablets are now black, and when carved, the intimate characters are white.

In this way, as long as you are careful enough when applying ink, paste and remove it with ink silk that has been completely soaked ink, to ensure that the ink does not stick to the concave characters, it will not affect the reading of the inscription itself.

As for the black stones that are originally black, you can't tell if you touch a little more ink. People who manage the Taixue should not mind or stop them.

Li Su left early, and now that eunuchs are in power, Taishu students can't see anything to stand out, and their studies are mostly abandoned, so there are no people coming and going at the gate of Taishu.

Li Su made a large pot of ink, soaked a few pieces of silk in it, soaked the ink thoroughly, then hanged it a little, and carefully pasted it on a stone tablet.

Then remove the ink silk, and then cover it with a piece of pure white paper in the same place, and the ink on the stone tablet is re-transferred to the paper.

However, the paper seems to be too fragile and easy to seep, and the intimate writing on the stone tablet is too thin. After a while, the white handwriting on the paper was penetrated by the black ink next to it, and turned into the whole piece of paper that was pure black, and it was impossible to see the words clearly at all.

After a few seconds, because there was too much ink, the whole piece of paper was soaked directly.

"Oh no, this Cai Hou's paper is too bad, and even the stele can't be translated." Li Su secretly cried in her heart.

The fiber leakage of this paper made of broken fishing nets and rotten rags is too obvious. If you write with a brush, the amount of ink is small, so it doesn’t matter if you seep it a little, but when you browse the monument, most of the paper is dyed ink and it will suddenly become corroded.

"By the way, when I was holding paper at the Zhen family business yesterday, the Zhen family manager gave me a few pieces of rare good papers, why not try that?" Li Su was a temper who encountered problems and solved the problem, so she didn't feel decadent for long, and immediately started to think of alternatives.

It turned out that yesterday, the manager of the Zhen family gave him some good papers named Zuo Bozhi, which were said to have been transmitted from Donglai County, Qingzhou.

The invention of Cai Hou paper has been more than 70 years ago and was produced in various parts of the Han Dynasty. Zuo Bo paper was invented by a Donglai man named Zuo Bo ten years ago, and it is still only produced in Qingzhou.

The evolution of this paper than Caihou paper is that its raw materials are more particular and must be made of a considerable proportion of mulberry bark, which is similar to later mulberry bark paper (the yellow paper used to wrap steamed buns in breakfast shops when they were young).

Therefore, Zuo Bo paper is much stronger than Cai Hou paper, and it is not easy to become corrupted by too much water and ink, and the price is much more expensive.

Moreover, because only Shandong and Shu were large provinces of silk weaving industry in the late Han Dynasty, mulberry trees would be planted in large quantities. In other states with insufficient sericulture and silk weaving industry, even if they wanted to learn to build Zuobo paper, there would be no sufficient raw materials. (If you don’t raise silkworms, it would be a loss to plant mulberry trees just to obtain mulberry skin to make paper)

Like Jizhou, where Liu Bei is now located, there is almost no silk weaving industry, no one raises silkworms, and it is impossible to promote it in Jizhou with mulberry paper technology.

After Li Su's operation, he did not re-load the ink again. Instead, he re-branded a piece of Zuo Bo paper with Yu Mo who had been stuck on the stone tablet for the first time.

After watching for a while, he found that the paper was not soaked this time, but the problem of the ink leaking and extending in the direction of the fibers of the mulberry bark is still unsolvable.

Although the fonts that were unearthed can be seen vaguely, they were like cracks. It was obvious that the fiber patterns of the bark were absorbed into ink.

"No, it seems that all the papers in the Han Dynasty cannot be printed. No wonder the printing of steles in history started from the Wei and Jin Dynasties. I remember that ordinary rice paper in later generations could be used as steles at will. What is the difference between the formulas of rice paper and Zuobo paper...

I don’t seem to remember the details, but I went to Xuanzhou’s Xuan Paper Museum and said that all kinds of rice paper have mulberry bark as raw materials. Could it be that the difference between the most basic rice paper in later generations and the current Zuobo paper is that the bark chosen for papermaking is different?”

Li Su was thinking silently in her heart.

Before he traveled through time, he was just a liberal arts student who was useless and didn't know much about technology. Even gunpowder only knew the simple formula of "one sulfur, two nitrile, and three charcoal". His understanding of papermaking and printing was also the understanding of liberal arts students.

It’s just that in the Diplomacy Academy, there were many elective courses for art-like aristocratic art, so he liked to wander around in various ancient culture museums, and this knowledge was also seen in the Rice Paper Museum.

"There is no other way. If you want to draw the stele, or even carry out printing in the future, and help the master do publicity work, you must first solve the problem of paper. It is convenient to engrave and print. If you can't get the positive text carving, you can get the negative text carving. Then find a way to find a channel to buy paper bark, and then find a way to try to create new paper in the Zhen family's business workshop."

After making up his mind, Li Su decided to close the stall first.

Today's monument will end in failure.

He just packed up his things and noticed that there were already a few students behind him, and pointed at him: "Hmph, it's really a disgrace to be gentle! I'm so lazy!"

"Scholars all over the world have copied the pilgrimage here by hand. Some people want to make fraud and take advantage of tricks and print their handwriting back directly!"

Li Su didn't bother with them and apologized sincerely: "It's because the boy is not well-educated, he writes too ugly, and he doesn't have time to stay in the capital for a long time, so he wants to print Cai Yilang's words back as it is and learn slowly. He laughed."

"You guy, wash the monument! Otherwise, don't think about leaving today!"

"I'll wash it right away." Li Su didn't feel embarrassed to try new technologies, so she cleaned the stones openly.

Those students saw that he had such a good attitude, and had no excuse to continue to find fault for the time being. They suddenly felt bored and left alone.

...

After returning that day, he found several stores selling wood and other businesses in Luoyang City, hoping to see if there are any mulberry trees - because you can definitely not buy them directly, and no one has discovered the effect of mulberry bark these days.

Fortunately, the mulberry tree itself is also a good construction wood, so after finding a few, I asked about it at a business that specializes in selling Qinlong big wood.

I heard that as long as the bark is bark, there is no wood, the other party directly led him to the pile of material yard behind the business, pointed to a pile of bark that was cut off when processing beams and columns, and gave him a very low price, so he took him away.

"Can you crush the bark? I'll add money." Li Su was afraid that when he was pulled to the Zhen family's business, he would still be recognized as the bark of mulberry trees, so he insisted on spending money to fully crush the bark.

It just so happened that the craftsman from the wood shop was not idle either, so the shopkeeper asked them to crush and process, and charged Li Su some processing fees.

In the evening of that day, Li Su pulled several carts of paper bark and took the car several times, returned to the Zhen family business, and found the manager there.

"What are the instructions for Mr. Li?" The manager of the Zhen family also knew him and was very polite to entertain him.

"I hope to make a batch of Zuobo paper in your papermaking workshop. I will pay as much as possible and add extra money, but you have to use the mulberry bark I brought."

"What's the difficulty? In ten days, Li Shaojun can come to pick up the goods. If it's fast, it's enough for seven or eight days." The manager of the Zhen family was very happy.

Luoyang was originally the cultural center of the world, and the papermaking business is the most prosperous now in Luoyang, and the supply chain responds very quickly.
Chapter completed!