"Have they ever asked about the history of these glazed treasures?" His Majesty Li Er asked again.
"No."
Fang Xuanling shook his head and said with a smile: "They are all fighting over each other to bid. How can they have time to care about this?"
"If it weren't for the tight time this time, I only need to give the old minister five more days, and the old minister will definitely be able to make the auction result at least 20% higher!"
"It doesn't matter. Just sell less this time. There will be a next time anyway."
His Majesty Li Er stroked his beard and nodded with satisfaction.
I don’t know why, but Fang Xuanling now sympathizes with those aristocratic families. It’s really miserable to be targeted by His Majesty Li Er!
In fact, he didn't know that His Majesty Li Er now felt some sympathy for those aristocratic families just like him!
If you want to blame, just blame that bastard Su Chen, who makes him use you as an example every day.
"Well, Your Majesty, if nothing happens, I will take my leave first." Fang Xuanling said respectfully.
"Okay, you go back first."
His Majesty Li Er nodded.
Just when Fang Xuanling was about to turn around and walk out of the imperial study, he caught a glimpse of something that surprised him.
I saw an extra word behind His Majesty Li Er.
Moreover, the wooden frame used for framing is actually high-quality huanghuali wood.
He didn't quite understand the content above.
However, he really saw the person who signed the note.
Su Chen?
Who is this person?
His words were treated so seriously by His Majesty!
Fang Xuanling couldn't help but feel doubtful.
But seeing that His Majesty Li Er was in deep thought, he couldn't help but ask.
When he walked out of the Imperial Study Room, the name Su Chen had already been deeply remembered in Fang Xuanling's mind.
…
"Ah sneeze!"
"Who is it? Why do I feel like someone is always plotting behind my back lately?"
"Is there something wrong with Lao Li?"
At this time, Su Chen, who was far away in Wannian County, sneezed several times unprepared.
Su Chen has been in a very bad mood these days.
Because it seems that I have asked Old Li to hand over the sweet potato cultivation methods to His Majesty Li Er for some time.
However, I wandered around the villages near Wannian County for a long time today.
But I haven’t seen any news about sweet potatoes!
For this reason, Su Chen was very angry!
I have given you such a big treasure as sweet potatoes, Li Er, but your work efficiency is so low?!
In fact, if you really want to talk about it, His Majesty Li Er cannot be blamed for this matter.
Because if you want to vigorously promote a crop across the country, the process is very complicated.
It needs to be tested in the official field for a period of time, otherwise if it is promoted rashly, some problems may easily occur.
But Su Chen didn't know this.
Therefore, he put all the blame on His Majesty Li Er, thinking that he was inefficient!
The same goes for the new salt-making method, but there is no movement at all!
Su Chen couldn't help but feel resentful and decided to promote it himself!
As a result, after a night of careful consideration, Su Chen decided to promote the manufacturing drawings of sweet potatoes, new salt production methods, new pig raising methods, and curved plows throughout the Tang Dynasty!
Just do it, Su Chen immediately called the old housekeeper.
"Old Xu, go and take out all the sweet potatoes from our grain depot."
"Master, what are you doing?"
The old housekeeper was very puzzled.
"The thing is like this, I plan to..."
At the moment, Su Chen explained his plan to the old housekeeper in detail.
"This... Young Master, we can't do this! I don't know how many words it will take to write this way! Let's carve a stone tablet!"
After hearing Su Chen explain his plan, the old housekeeper was almost frightened to death.
Su Chen actually said that he would use paper to promote these things!
"No, it's so slow to carve a stone tablet. You have to use paper!"
"And every family must post a piece of paper!"
Su Chen said firmly.
Listening to Su Chen's generosity, the old housekeeper trembled slightly and said with a sad face: "Master, if this is the case, our money...may not be enough."
"What?!"
This time, it was Su Chen's turn to be jumped!
Isn’t my net worth of several million dollars not enough?!
"Yes, Master, we really can't afford so much paper!"
The old housekeeper smiled bitterly.
"How is it possible! I am still short of money?!"
Su Chen was really careless, but he calculated it carefully and found that he didn't seem to have enough money!
Because, in this era, the price of paper is really too high!
Take "Mencius" as an example. The whole book has more than 30,000 words in total and is divided into fourteen volumes.
At this time, the price of a book in the Tang Dynasty was one thousand yuan, which was consistent!
This whole set adds up to fourteen strings!
What is this concept?!
If this monetary system were transformed into the monetary system of modern society, it would be equivalent to a copy of "Mencius" worth more than 50,000 yuan!
This is still just a book with only 30,000 words!
Su Chen knew that paper in the Tang Dynasty was expensive, but he didn't expect it to be so expensive!!
To give another simple example, if an ordinary person wants to become an official by relying on reading and the imperial examination system, then the value of all his books combined will be at least more than 6 million yuan!
Su Chen now understands why the implementation of the imperial examination system during the Zhenguan period failed.
Originally, the book was really too expensive!
With such astronomical figures, how could those from poor families be able to read?
It's no wonder that officials from aristocratic families account for such a large proportion in the imperial court.
After some inquiring, Su Chen finally figured out why the price of paper is so expensive now.
In this era, although there was papermaking technology, most of the raw materials for papermaking were ivy.
The production of this plant is extremely rare and cannot keep up with the large demand in the market.
However, these problems are not difficult for Su Chen.
"Isn't it just ivy? Since your output is low, I will make it from bamboo. Bamboo is not scarce."
So, Su Chen dove into the newly built workshop and began to improve the papermaking technique.
In less than half a month, Su Chen successfully produced a new type of bamboo paper.
Although the craftsmanship is not very mature, the appearance is not very good.
But the quality of these papers is quite good and can already meet his requirements.
In order to broadcast efficiently and quickly, Su Chen naturally could not use the clumsiest hand, but used movable type printing.
However, when Su Chen worked hard to carve a bunch of densely packed templates, he discovered a big problem!
That is, the words he carved are really... terrible.
Although he is good at calligraphy, painting is really not his forte.
In this era, not many people know Chinese characters, and now these characters are still printed in a crooked way, which is probably not conducive to promotion and dissemination.
"Oh, what can we do? I can't find a few people who know the characters for a while, let alone someone who is good at carving and painting..."