Zhao Feng laughed loudly. If he suffered this loss in vain, it would be out of character for him.
"Those people raise the price of paper, so you can only buy the paper at a high price, and printing books is impossible without paper. If these people have paper-making workshops, then they can use this method Compete directly with you.”
When Chen Rou heard this, her eyes widened immediately, she nodded quickly and said in agreement.
"Husband, what you said is absolutely right!"
In fact, Chen Rou had encountered such a situation before. Those people saw that newspapers were selling so well and that advertising in newspapers required so much money, so they all raised the price of paper.
However, paper is still the core material of newspapers. Without paper, newspapers would cease to exist.
Therefore, Chen Rou had to buy these papers at high prices before. Fortunately, newspapers did not rely on their own prices to make profits, but relied on the advertisements on them to obtain high profits.
Chen Rou had not dealt with this matter before.
But now they want to start printing entire books, which requires more paper, and the books themselves are based on the original price, with no other income.
After this, if Chen Rou does not want to lose money, she must increase the price of these books, and of course others can use lower-priced books to seize the market.
After listening to Chen Rou's words, Zhao Feng smiled slightly.
"So I want you to learn from the Shen family. Since the paper those people sold you is very expensive, why don't you make some very cheap paper?"
Chen Rou's eyes widened in surprise, then she quickly shook her head and said.
"Husband, I have thought about this before."
"It's just that the papermaking process is too troublesome, and if you want to make paper, you must have very skilled workers. It can't be made by just anyone."
Although the paper of the Zhou Dynasty has reached supply, the papermaking process is indeed very complicated and there are not many people who can master the papermaking process, so the price of paper is also very high.
Chen Rou had considered making paper by herself before, but after learning that the papermaking process was very complicated, Chen Rou thought of finding some workers who knew how to make paper.
But who knows that most of those who know how to make paper are in the family business. It is impossible for them to leave their own business and not help others, but to help others in vain.
Zhao Feng shook his head and smiled, and said to Chen Rou very confidently.
"Others can't, why don't you come and ask me?"
Chen Rou's eyes widened instantly and she looked at Zhao Feng in shock.
"Husband, can you still make paper?"
"Why didn't I know this before?"
Zhao Feng burst out laughing. There were many things that Chen Rou didn't know.
Although Zhao Feng had never made paper before, he knew the process of making paper and had a theoretical foundation.
Next, you just need to try it, maybe you can really make cheap, high-quality paper.
"Don't worry, I don't have anything to do during this time anyway, so I'll help you get this done first."
With this in mind, Zhao Feng called the yamen servant directly, then took a piece of paper and wrote down some raw materials for papermaking.
"Go and prepare these things for me, and call all the people in the government office who have nothing to do. I'm going to make them rich!"
Upon hearing this, the yamen servant happily agreed and hurried out to call for help.
They have no doubts about Zhao Feng's ability to make money. Yu Ruhai said before that Zhao Feng may not be that good at being an official, but when it comes to making money, no one can match him!
Chen Rou saw that Zhao Feng actually planned to start making paper, so she asked Zhao Feng with some doubts.
"Husband, can you really make paper? I heard that the process of making paper is very complicated!"
Zhao Feng nodded. The paper produced by the Zhou Dynasty was still in the early stages of papermaking. Not only were the raw materials difficult to collect, but the process was also very complicated.
Moreover, papermaking requires very skilled workers. If ordinary people want to learn papermaking, it is impossible to make a complete piece of paper without several months of hard work.
But Zhao Feng knew that many of these processes could be solved with the technologies of later generations. Thank you that people like Cai Lun did not appear in the history of this world, otherwise Zhao Feng would not have been able to improve papermaking.
The government officials quickly found the materials Zhao Feng needed, which were nothing more than some vines, bamboos, etc., but the most important thing among them was the caustic soda they bought from the Shen family, which was used to fade the fabric. .
After Zhao Feng helped the Shen family use caustic soda to fade the fabric and make the fabric dyed by the Shen family more uniform and beautiful, the Shen family quietly established the process of making caustic soda.
This caustic soda is actually not difficult to make. All you need to do is find soda ash ore. As soon as the Shen family heard that Zhao Feng needed the caustic soda, they simply sent a large bag to Zhao Feng without even asking for money.
After finding the raw materials, Zhao Feng directly started making paper using the theoretical knowledge in his mind.
The paper currently used in the Zhou Dynasty is all made of bamboo, and the bamboo used cannot be too old, and the fiber cannot be too hard. It must be made from bamboo that has just grown and is less than a year old.
But Zhao Feng doesn't need it. No matter what kind of material it is, it can be made into very short fibers by being corroded by caustic soda.
Zhao Feng first boiled these things over high heat, then added lime to them little by little. As he continued to cook, these things slowly turned into a pot of thick slurry.
It's just that this thick pulp still has some yellow color, which is also the most common papermaking technology in the Zhou Dynasty.
Precisely because they did not fade the thick pulp, the paper produced was naturally light yellow. In order to improve the quality of the paper, Zhao Feng specially used caustic soda to fade the pulp.
Zhao Feng asked the yamen to stir the contents of the pot until a small part of the pulp inside turned into floc. Zhao Feng then asked the yamen to find a stone mortar and smash all the wooden paddles to further increase the degree of fiber fragmentation. .
Finally, Zhao Feng asked the government officials to put all these things into the big pond. He took out the gauze net used to fish out the paper and guided the government officials while fishing out the paper.
"The pulp must be spread flat on this gauze so that a paper with a uniform thickness can be formed."
Zhao Feng guided like this, and then folded the papers he had produced one by one, then found a flat wooden board to press on it, and placed heavy objects on top so that the moisture in the paper could be squeezed out.
Next, you just need to wait for the papers to become semi-dry, you can peel them off one by one, and then dry them in the sun.
