No war in the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 45 The Gift Ayuan Brought Back
In Taohuawu, the little boy was sitting on the shore and playing.

It only takes a month for crops in Taohuayuan to mature. Three fields not far away have reached the harvest time. Anong is harvesting the crops with two Nongyun boys.

On one side of the farmland is an open-air flower field where red hibiscus flowers are in full bloom and a farmer boy is tending the flower field.

Next to the flower field is a chicken farm. The size of the chicken flock has grown. The chicks that were raised earlier have grown into adult chickens. The free-range chickens are taking a leisurely walk, completely unaware that their time is up.

Next to the paper mill is the ink making workshop, followed by a newly built printing workshop. The skilled craftsman Azhi is working between the three workshops.

The printing house was built by Su Ze according to the structure of a real printing house, using a customized blueprint in Taohuayuan.

Customizing the blueprint was more difficult than Su Ze had imagined. Each attempt cost five points of cultural energy. After using up twenty points of cultural energy, the construction was finally successful.

The printing house was able to be built thanks to Zhang Yaozuo.

Zhang Yaozuo apologized to the government and admitted that he was behind the spread of the evil book.

As expected, when such drastic changes took place in the court, the government did not pursue the incident of the evil book any further, but only ordered Zhang Yaozuo to be fined for half a year.

However, Zhang Yaozuo did not dare to publish any more tabloids, so Su Ze asked for all the printing tools and moved them to Taohuayuan.

Thanks to Azhi's research on these tools, the conditions for the custom blueprint were met, and a printing house building recognized by Taohuayuan was built.

Azhi is worthy of being called a craftsman with the prefix "hardworking". He is busy in three workshops by himself and can actually handle it.

Unfolding the scroll, Su Ze found that of the one hundred points of literary energy he had absorbed from Ouyang Xiu's collected works last time, only eighty points remained. He thought of Wang Anshi's gathering tomorrow, which should allow him to absorb some more literary energy.

[Master of Taoyuan, Ayuan returned to Taohuayuan yesterday and delivered a gift from afar, but he has set off again and the gift is left in Youfang Pavilion!]

Has Ayuan come back?

The reason why Su Ze was able to defeat Lu Yijian was thanks to the scroll given by A Yuan. However, the wandering boy A Yuan had already gone on a journey, so Su Ze had no chance to thank him.

Su Ze didn’t have time to enter Peach Blossom Land yesterday, and unexpectedly missed it with A Yuan again.

Su Ze walked to the Youfang Pavilion and saw a long pole placed horizontally on the stone table in the pavilion. However, when Su Ze saw this thing, he immediately showed joy.

This is sugarcane!

I don’t know how Ayuan managed to travel, but he was able to reach the sugarcane producing area in just one month?
Su Ze recalled his historical knowledge about sugarcane. Sugarcane has actually existed for a long time, but the large-scale use of sugarcane to make sugar did not begin until the Tang Dynasty.

However, sugarcane can only be grown in South China and Yunnan. During the Tang and Song dynasties, these places were not as developed as they were in the Ming and Qing dynasties. No one was willing to go to Lingnan to become an official, so the sugarcane production has always been low.

Moreover, the produced sugarcane had to be transported over long distances to Bian Jing. The transportation costs plus the losses made sugarcane a luxury item.

There were shops selling cane sugar in Bianjing, but the prices were exorbitant. Half a pound of the highest-grade rock sugar cost one guan (a Chinese coin).

But this is normal. Sugar was a luxury until the Ming and Qing dynasties, and ordinary people could only buy some to try during the New Year and other festivals.

What if we could cultivate farmland in Peach Blossom Spring and plant sugarcane? And then extract the sugarcane and make sugar?

Sugar is a product that sells extremely well and is used by people in their daily lives, so there is no need to worry about not being able to sell it!

Su Ze quickly called over Anong who was working in the fields, pointed at the sugarcane and asked:

"Anong, can you grow this?"

Anon glanced and said:
"Isn't it just sugar cane? Of course."

Anong picked up the sugarcane and said to Su Ze:

"Sugarcane can be propagated by dividing the stems, or by harvesting the seeds and planting them later."

Hearing that it could be planted, Su Ze was even more delighted. He said to Anong, "This season you should plant sugarcane instead. Once you have cultivated more seeds, you can expand the scale of planting."

Anong nodded and returned to the field with the sugarcane.

Su Ze looked at Youfang Pavilion. It was indeed a purple building. It was Ayuan's first long journey and he brought back such a useful thing. I wonder what good things he will bring back next time.

Su Ze then came to the three workshops.

There is a bamboo curtain hanging in front of the paper mill, and red paper is pasted on the curtain. This is the colored paper dyed with hibiscus juice.

Because Azhi had to distract himself with making ink and researching the printing house, he only produced fifty sheets of colored paper this month.

It's better not to sell these for money, but Su Ze can use them for himself. In addition, he is going to Wang Anshi's house for a banquet tomorrow, and Su Ze also plans to bring some colored paper with him. After all, Wang Anshi is about to be appointed as an official, and using ordinary paper would be a bit too shabby.

Su Ze came to the ink-making workshop next door.

In the workshop yard, there is a row of pottery jars. The bottoms of these pots have been knocked open, and bamboo is burning underneath, raising black smoke. After passing through these pottery jars, carbon ash will be left inside the pottery jars.

These carbon ashes are the raw materials for making ink. Combined with other auxiliary materials, they can be used to make ink sticks.

These bamboos were cut down from the mountain by Qiao Yun Tongzi. In addition to the bamboos, there are also some bamboo shoots piled up in the corner of the yard. These are all fresh bamboo shoots picked today.

Su Ze had noticed these bamboo shoots the day before yesterday. He took them to the chef in Zhang Yaozuo's home. The bamboo shoots were cooked so fresh and tender that Zhang Yaozuo, who was used to eating Bianjing delicacies, was amazed.

Su Ze planned to take out some more bamboo shoots. In addition, Anong also suggested that the extra bamboo shoots could be cut into dried bamboo shoots and stored.

Su Ze looked at the building scroll in his hand. The grain was about to be harvested, and he really needed a granary to store the grain.

Fortunately, the granary only requires five points of cultural energy, and does not require special care from Lingyun Boy. Su Ze chose to build the granary next to the farmland.

The last one is the [Printing Workshop].

[Simple printing workshop] (green)

Price: 10 points of Wenyu Qi;
Function: Making woodblocks and printing newspapers and books.

Required: papermaking raw materials wood boards, ink, and paper.

When I entered the workshop, Azhi was busy with a carving knife.

As expected of the purple-colored craftsman boy, Azhi’s learning ability is truly amazing.

Originally, he had to copy a draft before carving, but now he can carve directly according to the original sample.

The speed is also much higher than before.

Su Ze picked up the printed page on the side, looked at the clear handwriting and said:
"The ink is really effective."

Su Ze has discovered that all printing houses, including Zhang Yaozuo's, use ordinary ink. The books printed with this ink have blurred characters and often have missing words.

According to his memory, the first movable type printing press used on a large scale in history was the ink printing press used by German inventor Johann Gutenberg.

In addition to making durable lead type, Gutenberg, more importantly, improved the ink used for printing. He mixed rosin and linseed oil with ordinary ink to make an oil-based ink.

Although Su Ze knew the formula of the ink, the specific ratio had to be left to Azhi to study.

Azhi experimented with this formula for more than half a month before finally formulating a stable ink.

At this moment, the guiding boy suddenly reminded:
[Master Taoyuan, a guest has arrived! ]

(End of this chapter)