Three Kingdoms Swept the World II

Chapter 145 Two-pronged approach
To do business, you must do business with high demand, so that you can make a lot of money.The ancient times are not modern, and there is no large-scale industrial demand at all.Therefore, in ancient times, what was in great demand could only be found from people's daily needs.

Zhou Shan quickly said, "My lord, do you want to open a restaurant?" From his point of view, rich families drink and have fun every day, and opening a restaurant can make money.

Qin Feng nodded. A restaurant is to be opened. This industry can not only provide sources of information for future intelligence guards, but also serve as a cover.But now, Qin Feng doesn't plan to open a restaurant yet.Because if you open a restaurant, one family or two is meaningless, and there are too many. Although the real estate in the Eastern Han Dynasty is not as frothy as in later generations, it is not that Qin Feng's economic foundation can flourish more now.

So Qin Feng said: "Let's not open the restaurant for the time being. If you open one, you won't make much money. If you open too many, it will become an ordinary restaurant."

After Zhou Shan was dumb, he admired Qin Feng very much, and said: "My lord's words are deeply in line with the essence of business. If there are too many, it will be normal, and the elegant people of the gentry want to pursue the only one."

"Then, what can make more money if there are more things?" Qin Feng laughed.

Zhou Shan stroked his beard, but he couldn't figure it out, but after observing his words, he said, "Zhou Shan is dull, please advise me, my lord."

Qin Feng knew that Zhou Shan was good at business, but due to historical limitations, he was not good at innovation.He didn't beat around the bush and said, "Let's make paper."

"Papermaking?" Zhou Shan was very surprised, but he also understood, and said, "My lord, paper is indeed very precious. However, due to the expensive raw materials and complicated production process, the production efficiency is low. I am afraid that such a product is difficult to make.... "

Speaking of papermaking, the ancients had mastered it a long time ago, but it was not until the Eastern Han Dynasty and Emperor Hedi's period that after Cai Lun's improvement, a set of finalized papermaking process was formed.The process can be roughly summarized into four steps: the first is the separation of raw materials, that is, the raw materials are degummed in lye by retting or steaming, and dispersed into fibers.

The second is beating, which is to cut off the fibers by cutting and pounding, and make the fibers broom and become pulp.

The third is papermaking, that is, the pulp is infiltrated with water to make a slurry, and then the pulp is scooped out with a filtering device such as bamboo mats, so that the pulp is interwoven into thin sheets of wet paper on the scooper.

The fourth is drying, that is, drying or drying the wet paper, and peeling it off becomes paper.

After the Eastern Han Dynasty, although the craftsmanship continued to improve and mature, the four steps remained basically unchanged.Even in modern times, in wet papermaking, the production process is still not fundamentally different from the ancient Chinese papermaking method.The development of papermaking technology is mainly reflected in two aspects: one is raw materials, such as rags and bark in the Eastern Han Dynasty.During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, mulberry bark and rattan bark had already been used to make paper.By the time of the Sui Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, bamboo, sandalwood bark, wheat stalks, rice stalks, etc. had also been used successively as papermaking raw materials, thus providing a rich and sufficient source of raw materials for the development of papermaking pages.

Because Qin Feng had the experience of traveling in the previous life, at that time, his empire was huge and advanced in civilization. As the leader of the empire, the studious Qin Feng had mastered many technologies.Even if you have never eaten pork, you can still see thousands of pigs running past your eyes.

Qin Feng proposed to change the raw materials, saying: "Others use bark and rags, we use bamboo, straw and other raw materials."

Zhou Shan was a little dumbfounded.

Qin Feng explained: "Ten years of trees will die without bark. Cloth is more expensive than paper. As for the output of rags, the output is too little. Raw materials restrict the development of papermaking."

Zhou Shan had some understanding that the hemp fiber extracted from cloth is an essential raw material for papermaking.The cloth is so valuable that it can be used as a general equivalent, and its cost is still lower than that of paper.For the general public, there is no such thing as rags, and no matter how rags are, at least they will be left as patches.

Zhou Shan couldn't help asking: "Master, how to deal with the new raw materials?"

Qin Feng nodded, Zhou Shan's question reached a crucial point.New raw materials must have new processing technologies.It is precisely because the people of the Eastern Han Dynasty did not have new processing technology, so they could not develop new raw materials.Without abundant and sufficient raw materials, it is impossible to expand the scale of production.

Qin Feng took out a roll of bamboo slips and handed them to Zhou Shan to read. On them were some key points Qin Feng summarized from his memories of his previous life.

In the later Tang Dynasty, bamboo paper was made from bamboo, marking a major breakthrough in papermaking technology.

In the Tang Dynasty, processing technologies such as adding alum, adding glue, powder coating, sprinkling gold, and dyeing came out one after another in the papermaking process, laying a technical foundation for the production of various craft papers.The quality of paper produced is getting higher and higher, and there are more and more varieties.

In addition to ordinary paper, there are also various kinds of precious paper such as wax paper, cold gold, mixed gold, rib, lacquered gold and silver painting, calendered paper, as well as various rice paper, wallpaper, flower paper, etc.Make paper a necessity in people's cultural life and daily life.

The treatment of bamboo can be roughly divided into the following aspects, first, material selection.Every year in the Grain of Grass season, you can go up the mountain to cut bamboo, and choose the tender bamboo that has just grown leaves.

Second, retting. Cut the material into sections of five to seven feet, open a mountain pond on the spot, and fill it with water for immersion.In order to prevent the pond water from drying up, bamboo pipes are used to guide water rolling in.After soaking for a hundred days, take out the bamboo and beat it with a wooden stick, and finally wash off the rough shell and green skin.

Thirdly, steaming, soaking the soaked bamboo scorpion is like ramie, and then mixing it with high-quality lime to make an emulsion, putting it in a barrel and cooking it for eight days and nights.

Fourth, papermaking, the pulp is infiltrated to make a slurry, and then the pulp is pulled out with a filter device, so that the pulp is interwoven into a thin sheet of wet paper on the paper puller.

Fifth, dry.When baking paper, first use earth bricks to build two walls to form a lane, and use bricks to cover the fire path underneath, leaving a space every few bricks for the bricks in the lane.The fire burns from the furnace mouth at the end of the alley, and the hot air leaks out from the gaps in the bricks and fills the whole alley. When the bricks on the outer wall of the alley are all hot, the wet paper is pasted on it one by one to dry, and then it is peeled off and placed in the alley. in a stack.

Zhou Shan was shocked after reading the bamboo slips.He knew that papermaking at this time was subject to two aspects. The first was cloth raw materials. Since cloth was equal to money in the Eastern Han Dynasty, even rags were difficult to collect on a large scale.Second, the production cycle is long.

After Qin Feng uses bamboo, bamboo can replace the "ramie" that can only be extracted from cloth, and after adding artificial drying, there is no need to wait for the sky to harvest (natural drying).In this way, it not only solves the problem of expensive raw materials, but also greatly shortens the production cycle.

Qin Feng has the experience of the previous life and knows the consumption of paper in the whole country. Now he said with a smile: "Zhou Shan, tell me, if the whole world uses our paper, how much money can we earn?"

"This..., I'm afraid..., I can't count..." Zhou Shan trembled with excitement.He clearly knows that new technology will bring about a "revolution" in the industry, and it is difficult for a monopoly not to make a fortune.

Qin Feng's face suddenly changed, "Making money is second..." He picked up a roll of bamboo slips weighing more than a catty, "A few sheets of paper can replace a roll of bamboo slips. Only with cheap paper can culture be obtained. Large-scale promotion. Only when people have cultural knowledge can a country truly prosper.”

Zhou Shan was moved, and only then did he know that the master made paper not only for profit, but also for the construction of knowledge and civilization in the world.

Zhou Shan fell to the ground and said, "Zhou Shan will definitely go all out to promote paper."

Qin Feng nodded. He knew that the establishment of a chamber of commerce should not have a single product.Although he couldn't spread out too many future products for a while, but at the beginning, no matter what, he had to do both.His first tube is paper.The second tube is sugar refining.

When he crossed over in his previous life, he started his business by making sugar, and sugar making couldn't trouble him.Moreover, things like sugar can generate too many by-products.

So Qin Feng said: "Zhou Shan, our Chamber of Commerce does not want to be a second-hand dealer, but to be original, and only then can we make a lot of money. I am going to sell sugar."

Zhou Shan listened very enthusiastically at first, and wanted to follow Qin Feng to create original works, but when he heard about selling candy, he fainted, and hurriedly said: "My lord? There are too many candy sellers. As far as Zhou Shan knows, there are hundreds of them in Luoyang City." The shop is selling, and there is no money to be made."

Qin Feng had been prepared for a long time, and took out two packets of candy from under the table. After opening, one packet was yellow and the other was black.The black ones are worse, and the yellow ones are the best sugar of this period.

Sugar has long been available in the Eastern Han Dynasty, but due to the lack of advanced purification technology, it is all yellow and black in color.And hundreds of years later, domestic sugar craftsmen invented the "drip method" to decolorize sucrose.The method is to boil the cane juice to a certain concentration and pour it into a funnel-shaped pottery called "waliu", and pour the yellow mud from the top. From the perspective of modern technology, the yellow mud is used as an adsorption decolorizer to make Take white sugar.

Qin Feng pointed to the two packs of sugar, and said, "We sell ordinary sugar, so naturally we can't buy any money, but we sell white sugar, which is white sugar."

"There is still white sugar?" Zhou Shan felt that it was an anecdote at the time, and said in surprise: "Master, Zhou Shan has been standing in the cabinet for more than ten years, and he has never seen white sugar. Is there such a sugar?"

Qin Feng took out another bag, and when he opened it, the snow-white sugar was crystal clear.It turned out that he had been prepared for a long time, and he made "Waliao" a few days ago, and extracted two catties of white sugar.

Dian Wei, who was on duty at the side, his eyes lit up when he saw the white sugar, and he smacked his saliva, thinking that the lord is really amazing, pour the brown sugar water into some "tile", and it will turn white when it flows out.

At first, Zhou Shan didn't believe that the white thing was sugar, so he couldn't help but walk over to it, twisted a little and put it in his mouth, it was so sweet.He was shocked at the time, and after a while, his whole body trembled with excitement.He never imagined that if there is white sugar in the world, how did the lord make it?

Zhou Shan trembled and said: "My lord, how did white sugar be made?" Then he shouted: "Just this white sugar can monopolize the entire sugar industry. It's hard not to make money."

White sugar, this is too difficult for an ancient like Zhou Shan to understand, but it is too simple for Qin Feng.

In order to increase profits and increase product diversification, Qin Feng still has many by-products to do, so he started with the simplest.So, he took out a large bowl, poured in a pot of herbal tea, and added a spoonful of sugar.

After stirring evenly, Qin Feng held the bowl of reddish-brown tea and said to Zhou Shan, "Zhou Shan, do you know what this bowl is called?"

(End of this chapter)