After Zhao Jun came out of the Privy Council, he looked at the time and it was only twelve o'clock noon.

His daily schedule now is to get up at 3:30 in the morning, attend the morning court at 4:00, and then go to the Constitutional Yuan and work until 11:00.

Then I would teach the children around two in the afternoon until five, then go to the back garden to talk with the emperor and the prime ministers until seven or eight, go home to do some work statistics on the computer, and go to bed before nine.

I sleep about six or seven hours a day, with a two or three hour break at noon. Fortunately, I am young and energetic now, so I don’t feel tired, otherwise I would be exhausted.

No wonder people in ancient times said that being a prime minister was tiring. His power now is even greater than that of a prime minister. He often feels dizzy after reading official documents from all over the country every day.

In comparison, Zhao Zhen was much more relaxed.

Attend the morning court, then read the notes, listen to lectures in the afternoon, or stroll in the back garden.

However, he was not idle every day. In addition to reading all the documents and handling government affairs, Zhao Zhen also had to attend classes.

In history, Lu Yijian and Wang Zeng were both his imperial teachers.

The other scholars from Tianzhang Pavilion and Longtu Pavilion also had to teach him, all of which were Confucian knowledge.

Therefore, in history, the emperor's teachers were promoted very quickly. The most typical example was the teachers of Zhu Yunwen in the Ming Dynasty. As soon as Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne, he directly participated in state affairs, conspired to reduce the power of the princes, and then ended up in poverty.

But now that Zhao Jun has arrived, Zhao Zhen will read documents in Chongzheng Hall in the morning after attending the morning court, go to the back garden to listen to Zhao Jun's lectures in the afternoon, or do something else. Before seven o'clock in the evening, he will listen to Zhao Jun talk about various things, so his day is quite fulfilling.

There were still two hours left before the afternoon classes, so Zhao Jun could have taken a lunch break. However, he remembered the essay he had written yesterday and set off for the outer city. Since time was tight, he had someone prepare a carriage.

After about half an hour, he arrived at the gate of Qiaobeifang Printing Factory in Xiaohengqiao. At this time, the printing factory was in full swing, with workers coming and going to do their work.

Walking into the printing house, Zhao Jun saw Meng Chengqi sitting on a stone bench under the camphor tree in the yard outside, grinning foolishly.

Zhao Jun bought the entire printing house, so logically it had nothing to do with Meng Chengqi anymore.

But he really liked the lyrics Zhao Jun gave him, so he volunteered to help out at the printing house. At this moment, he still held Zhao Jun's manuscript in his hand, intoxicated by it, and from time to time he clapped his hands and said, "Great lyrics, great lyrics!"

"If Mr. Meng likes it, just take it home and take your time to look at it. Why does he have to come to the printing house every day to help me watch it?"

Zhao Jun walked over and said with a smile.

Meng Chengqi looked up and saw him, and quickly stood up and said, "Young Master Zhao is here."

"Um."

Zhao Jun nodded and said, "Come and see how the printing is going?"

Meng Chengqi said, "Young Master Zhao is very wealthy. He's had all the brick and tile shops in the city make movable type. He's already bought over 10,000 pieces of type. Printing this bulletin shouldn't be difficult. The difficulty lies in whether you're sure you want to use bamboo paper."

"Um."

Zhao Jun said, "Hemp paper and parchment paper each have their advantages and disadvantages. For printing, parchment paper is better, and Korean paper is the best. Unfortunately, hemp paper is a bit rough, and parchment paper is too expensive, so bamboo paper is the best."

Meng Chengqi shook his head and said, "But bamboo paper is still very expensive."

"This is because the bamboo papermaking process has not yet been popularized. It will be much better after it is popularized in the future."

Zhao Jun said.

Paper has existed since the Warring States Period. Cai Lun of the Eastern Han Dynasty improved the papermaking technique and made hemp paper using hemp as raw material.

However, hemp paper has a rough surface, sticks together when wet, and tears easily, making it unsuitable for printing in the newspaper industry. As for newsprint, which later generations used for newspapers, it was made from chemical materials, which was certainly not possible with current industrial standards.

While vellum paper is better, with a smooth and tough surface that doesn't break easily when exposed to water, it's very expensive because it's mostly made from tree bark.

For example, Goryeo paper was introduced from the Song Dynasty. It was made from the bark of a unique mulberry tree in Korea. This paper is as white as jade, with a uniform luster, and resembles a silk cocoon. It is mostly used as book cover paper and is a very rare and good paper.

Unfortunately, the cost is still too high if used to make newspapers.

Because newspapers are aimed at the general public, they must lower costs and sell them at low prices to attract people to read them. Otherwise, they will be no different from the imperial court gazette.

So after much deliberation, I chose the bamboo paper that had just appeared in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions during the Song Dynasty. This paper was called Lianshi paper, which was invented during the Later Han Dynasty of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It is white in color, smooth on the surface, slightly rough on the back, and has no straw or hair sticking to it. It is an excellent material for making books.

However, this thing was not widely popular until the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Therefore, although the cost of making bamboo paper is relatively low, it is mainly popular in Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions and is rarely introduced to the north, resulting in a higher cost than hemp paper.

After hearing what Zhao Jun said, Meng Chengqi had no choice but to say, "The initial investment is still too high. Is it really possible that anyone will buy this thing?"

"As long as the news is what the market wants to see, people will buy it."

Zhao Jun smiled.

"Mr. Zhao is truly generous."

Meng Chengqi gave a thumbs-up and said, "Just buying the printing house would cost thousands of guan, and we'd have to spend a lot of money on movable type, and we'd have to buy bamboo paper. I'm afraid each copy would cost more than 30 wen."

"That's not the way it works."

Zhao Jun shook his head and said, "The printing house has fixed investment. The real cost is the paper, ink, and printing. This bamboo paper costs 5 wen per sheet, and the cost is about 10 wen. If I sell it, I plan to sell it for 12 wen. It's a bit expensive, but the slightly richer people can afford it, and they are the only ones who can read."

There are records of Su Shunqin selling waste paper during the Song Dynasty. At that time, each sheet of Sansheng paper was worth 20 wen, each sheet of Xinguan paper was 10 wen, and each sheet of Zhuxia paper was 5 wen. However, this was the highest quality official paper; ordinary, low-quality paper used by the public was only 0.115 wen per sheet.

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