"Okay! Can you come over and make your own choice then?" Lu Chen looked at Cheng Yaojin and said with a smile.
While talking, several people came to the paper mill again. When they saw the papers in the paper mill, they were shocked again. They had seen the paper mills outside, but they were not as efficient as Lu Chen's paper mill. , plus Qu Zhao is still here in the "Five Mohists". Qu Zhao has studied papermaking and has improved a lot on the original basis.
Therefore, the efficiency of the entire papermaking workshop was much higher than what Lu Chen had originally designed. Naturally, several people were shocked by the tall piles of paper.
"Brother Xian, what are you planning to do by making so much paper?" This time it was Chai Shao who asked the question. Everyone was shocked when they saw the pile of paper. They knew very well what these papers could represent. Just with this mountain of paper, I don't know how many copies I would need to copy. And it's not just that much paper. Lu Chen's papermaking shop can obviously produce it continuously. This is very scary. This is It means that Lu Chen can get out a steady stream of books.
"It's definitely not for going to the toilet!" Lu Chen said with a smile, but as soon as he mentioned going to the toilet, Lu Chen remembered that he asked Qu Zhao to study toilet paper a few days ago. I don't know what Qu Zhao did with his research. Well, after all, he gave the other party the sample paper.
"Where's Qu Zhao?" Lu Chen asked, looking at Cai Jing who was already in front of him.
"Qu Zhao is outside!" Cai Jing replied, pointing in the direction of the soaking pit outside.
"Oh! Go find him. I have something to ask him!" Lu Chen said looking at Cai Jing. Cai Jing followed the order and hurriedly left the papermaking workshop.
With little effort, Qu Zhao, whose face was covered with a soap handkerchief, followed Cai Jing. Qu Zhao took off the soap handkerchief on his face and saluted Lu Chen and several other gentlemen.
"Qu Zhao, has the toilet paper I asked you to develop been developed?" Lu Chen looked at Qu Zhao and asked.
"Back to you, Gongye, I've made it initially, but if you want to reach the level of master Gongye, I'm afraid you have to try a few more times!" Qu Zhao said with some guilt as he cupped his hands.
"Do you have a sample?" Lu Chen didn't mean to blame Qu Zhao. After all, it would be too difficult to make paper by hand if it could reach the level of the later assembly line.
"Master! This is the sample!" Cai Jing went to the side and took out a stack of soft paper, and handed it to Lu Chen with both hands. Lu Chen picked up one and looked at it.
The paper was a little yellowed, and the softness was obviously not as good as later generations of toilet paper, but it was pretty good. Lu Chen pulled it and it came apart easily.
"What is this paper used for?" Cheng Yaojin asked curiously, looking at the soft paper in Lu Chen's hand.
"It's for toilet use!" Lu Chen said nonchalantly.
"What?!" Everyone else was shocked when they heard Lu Chen's words. You must know that there is no toilet paper in the toilet at this time. Rich people use silk and satin. After use, the servants are responsible for cleaning it and then using it next time. Normally There were tiles, stones, or even branches. Paper was a precious thing in this era, but Lu Chen actually wanted to use paper to go to the toilet?
"Such a precious thing, Brother Lu Xian, you actually use it to go to the toilet and perform rituals?" Qin Qiong, Chai Shao and others also looked at Lu Chen in surprise, and at the same time looked at the paper in Lu Chen's hand with pained expressions on their faces.
"There are a lot of these things, and besides being used in the toilet, this kind of paper has no other uses!" Lu Chen said, grabbing a few pieces of paper and stuffing them into the hands of Chai Shao and others, "This kind of paper will rot when exposed to water and cannot be written on. What else can you do if you don’t use it to go to the toilet?" Lu Chen said with a smile.
"Sure enough, extraordinary people do extraordinary things!" Qin Qiong and others could only smile helplessly.
Lu Chen looked at the scattered papers and pondered for a moment, "The texture needs to be a little tighter, otherwise it will fall apart easily!" Lu Chen turned his head and expressed his opinion to Qu Zhao and Cai Jing.
"Yes!" Qu Zhao and Cai Jing accepted the order in unison, "By the way, how is the printing going?" Lu Chen looked at Cai Jing and asked. The book printing workshop is next to the paper making workshop. For convenience, Lu Chen asked Qu Zhao Take care of both sides at the same time. After all, Qu Zhao's sculpting skills are pretty good, but among the "Five Mohists", Xu Gaofeng has the best sculpting skills. Second only to Xu Gaofeng is Lian Ming. Lian Ming still recommends Xu Gaofeng. It was given to Lu Chen, and Qu Zhao took care of both sides because movable type printing required a lot of engraving parts, and Qu Zhao also had to go over from time to time to help.
"Back to my father-in-law, I have tried to print two editions. They are both at the printing shop! Lian Ming is leading people to print the book!" Qu Zhaohui reported.
"Brother Lu Xian, do you have a printing shop here?" Hearing Lu Chen mention the word "printing", everyone was surprised again, but it was obviously just a moment of surprise. Then they thought about it, Lu Chen even made so much paper, what if It would be weird if there was no engraving or printing, so everyone was just a little surprised. After all, they had seen a lot of amazing things along the way, and now they felt that they were not surprised.
"Yes!" Lu Chen responded casually, "Let's go and have a look! I haven't seen it since this printing shop started printing books!" Lu Chen led everyone away from the papermaking shop with a smile. Under the leadership of Qu Zhao, everyone came to the printing shop not far from the papermaking shop. The printing shop was valued very much by Lu Chen, so it was heavily guarded here.
When these guards saw Lu Chen coming, they all saluted Lu Chen. Lu Chen nodded and led people into the printing shop.
The printing workshop is obviously much larger than the paper making workshop and the Liulician workshop. In addition to the three main rooms facing the entrance, there are also one wing room on the left and right. There are many craftsmen carrying paper from the wing rooms to the main room. , after seeing Lu Chen coming, these people put down the papers in their hands and saluted Lu Chen.
"It's your business! I and others are just here to take a look. What should you do?" Lu Chen waved his hand at the group of craftsmen, who continued to work.
"Master, you are here!" At this moment, Du Chengze, who heard the commotion, walked out of the main room and saluted Lu Chen and several other masters and said.
"How's the progress?" Lu Chen looked at Du Chengze and asked. After all, Liu Laosan was still in the stage of learning to read, and the printing shop was very important. Du Chengze, a scholar with a family of scholars, naturally took charge of the printing shop.
"Samples of two books have been produced, please take a look at them!" Du Chengzehui reported.
"Really? Let's take a look!" Lu Chen ordered. Du Chengze turned around and entered the back room. With little effort, he came out with two bound books and presented them to Lu Chen with both hands.
"Not bad!" Lu Chen took the book and flipped through it casually. Although Lu Chen was also learning traditional Chinese characters and knew a lot of traditional Chinese characters, it would be difficult for him to fully understand the book "Enlightenment Training". It was quite difficult, so Lu Chen just pretended to read through it.
"Brother Chai, can you help me taste it?" Lu Chen flipped through another "Thousand Character Essay" and handed both books directly to Chai Shao.
"Huh?" Chai Shao flipped through it for a while and realized something was wrong, because the writing on it was obviously smaller than the writing on the books in his home. Chai Shao also had a lot of books in his house, including both handwritten and engraving printed books. , but the handwriting printed on Lu Chen's book is not only the same size, but also the distance between the words is fixed. This is obviously different from woodblock printing. Woodblock printing is carved on the same board, but the spacing between the handwriting But there is a difference.
"Brother Xian, this book of yours..." Chai Shao flipped through it for a while and looked at Lu Chen with a strange look on his face. Several other princes were also men of both civil and military skills. When Chai Shao was flipping through the pages, they all joined in curiously. Come over and take a look, not only Chai Shao has a weird expression at this time, but several other people also have weird expressions.
"Brother, are you such a good woodblock craftsman?" Cheng Yaojin looked at Lu Chen and asked. They all said that Cheng Yaojin was from a smuggling salt trade, and he was rude, straightforward and informal. That was only in "The Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties" and "Shuo". According to the fiction in "Tang Dynasty", Cheng Yaojin actually came from a scholarly family, and was not an ordinary proficient in writing.
"Who said Yudi is doing engraving and printing here?" Lu Chen looked at several people and said with a smile.
"Isn't this how hand-copying works?" Qin Qiong also looked at Lu Chen curiously and asked.
"How many books can engraving printing print in one day? Can you print one book at the same time?" Lu Chen hesitated and asked several people directly.
Although they did not have a woodblock printing workshop at home, these father-in-laws still knew what woodblock printing was about. Therefore, when Lu Chen asked back, they all nodded, indicating that what Lu Chen said was not wrong.
"Foolish brother, if you say that I can print several books at the same time here a day, and each book can print hundreds of copies, do you believe it?" Lu Chen asked with a very proud smile, "Of course, if we have enough manpower, we can print hundreds of books in a day. A thousand copies won’t be a problem!”
"Brother Xian, although what you have here is surprising, if you say so, I'm afraid it's a bit exaggerated!" Hearing Lu Chen's words, Cheng Yaojin retorted to Lu Chen unconvincingly.
"If Brother Yu can do it, how about you guys promise Brother Yu something?" Lu Chen looked at several of the uncles who had expressions of disbelief on their faces and said with a smile.
"Okay! But this matter can't be something that risks the disapproval of the world!" Qin Qiong directly agreed first, but still reminded Lu Chen, after all, what if Lu Chen asked how many people to help him rebel? Of course, judging from the time spent with Lu Chen, Lu Chen had no intention of rebelling at all, but Qin Qiong still mentioned it.
"That's natural!" Lu Chen nodded. As for what happened, Lu Chen only thought of it when he heard that these gentlemen were going to lead the soldiers in the reserve battalion to conduct a unit exercise.
