Chapter 3034: Requesting Person
There is a lot to do to build a paper mill.
Bai Shan and Zhou Man were both busy and couldn't spare the time, while Yin Huo couldn't worry too much, so the matter was finally handed over to Bai Erlang, and the others helped him with ideas and gave him some advice.
Zhou Man said to him, "First, you have to find some craftsmen, preferably those with papermaking experience, but it doesn't matter if they don't have it, as long as they are skillful and clever. Then let them study and make the paper according to the recipe."
Bai Shan nodded: "While we work on the crafts here, we can look for a suitable place to build a workshop over there."
Bai Erlang: "Where can I find such a person?"
Yin Huo thought for a moment and said, "We have to find someone we can trust. If he's not a servant, we'll have to sign a contract to sell him."
Otherwise, it would be bad if you figured out something and then leaked it out.
Bai Shan: "We can look for one among the servants. Another option is to send someone out to find out if there is such a craftsman. If there is one, we can buy him."
Zhou Man: "It's not easy, right? As far as I know, craftsmen with such skills will leave their original owners for various reasons, and the court will confiscate their works and not sell them outside."
In other words, even if the food is sold out, it is not their turn to buy it.
Mingda, who had been silent the whole time, said, "Let me think of a solution."
Everyone looked at her.
Mingda said, "I can ask my father for some slaves and craftsmen from the bookstore." The manpower is ready, and even the recipe is ready, so there is no need to think about it anymore.
So she said, "Once we have decided on a place, we can build a paper mill."
Bai Shan and Zhou Man thought of their previous plan and said, "Then we'll trouble Princess Mingda. However, we should wait until the recipe is developed before building the workshop."
Mingda understood something and asked curiously, "Do you have a recipe? How does it compare to the paper we have now?"
Bai Shan said, "There are two recipes. One is said to be slightly worse than the coarse paper of today, and the other is about the same as the fine paper of today, perhaps a little better."
Mingda hesitated for a moment and then said, "I can ask my father for a few more skilled papermakers. That way, we can produce paper of similar quality to the bookstore."
Bai Shan shook her head and said, "Princess, our goal is to make the paper cheaper, so we don't use the bookstore's original recipe. The recipe that Manbao and I have is cheaper."
Mingda finally understood, and after a moment's hesitation, he said, "Then it will be inconvenient to ask Father for someone."
Bai Shan smiled and said, "Your Majesty is willing to give it to the princess, which shows His Majesty's kindness to her. As for the recipe in the paper mill, it is nothing if it is passed to His Majesty."
At this stage, they only plan to make these two types of paper, which are cheap and easy to promote. He and Manbao originally planned to give this recipe to His Majesty and the Prince.
Of course, this is for the future.
After this recipe is given out, the paper mill will be able to train its own craftsmen, and then they can select a few better and more expensive paper recipes and start over.
For them, the difficulty in building a paper mill has never been money and raw materials, but craftsmen and recipes.
Now they don’t lack prescriptions, they just lack people.
Mingda immediately wrote a letter to the emperor asking for the person.
When the emperor received the letter, he ordered Gu Zhong without hesitation, "Select some papermaking craftsmen and servants from the palace bookstore and send them to Qingzhou."
He thought about it and felt that this was not enough, so he simply said: "I remember there are East and West Bookstores in the capital? Let's register the West Bookstore under Mingda's name."
The former is fine, but the latter...
Gu Zhong couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, would you like to discuss this matter with the Empress?"
In fact, what Gu Zhong wanted to say was whether he should discuss it with the court officials, but he temporarily changed it to the queen.
The emperor thought about it, and during the lunch break he went into the harem to find the queen.
Upon hearing this, the Queen immediately demanded Mingda's letter. After reading it, she rejected it on Mingda's behalf, saying, "If Your Majesty feels sorry for Mingda, just give her some people and let her make her own paper. Although the bookstore is a royal property, it has always printed books for students all over the country. How can you give it exclusively to a princess?"
"What's the point of just making paper? The most valuable thing in a bookstore is the woodblock prints. It would take decades for a new store to accumulate this much." The emperor said, "I already have a bookstore, so what's wrong with giving her one? The prince won't mind."
Queen: "...But Mingda didn't want to open a bookstore, she wanted to start a paper mill."
"How much money can you make from a piece of paper?" The emperor said, "The most profitable thing is printing books."
The Queen looked at Mingda's letter again and said to the Emperor, "I don't know why Mingda wants to build a paper mill, but I know it's definitely not for the sake of making money."
No one knows a daughter better than her mother. Mingda has lived a wealthy life since childhood, but she is not extravagant. She has a broad mind and is not a money-loving person, so she would never build a paper mill simply for money.
Besides, there are many ways for her to make money, so why bother to go through so much trouble to build a paper mill?
After receiving the letter, the Queen said, "Your Majesty, why don't you write to her and ask her why she wants to build a paper mill? If she doesn't want a bookshop, then Your Majesty will only be throwing a burden on her by giving it to her."
She knew the emperor's weak spot and said directly, "If it's about money, why don't we just give her the money? Do you think our daughter is really short of money?"
The emperor thought what the queen said made sense, so he said, "Okay, I'll write a letter to ask her. But since she asked for people, I'll send some people to her first."
The Queen had no objection to this.
Bookstore...
It is said to be the royal family’s property, but it is not really.
Because the books printed by the bookstore were to be sent to the Imperial College, Hanlin Academy, Chongwenguan, and even local bookstores and prefectural and county schools, it was of great importance;
The reason why the emperor was so brazen in saying that the bookstore was the royal property was simply because the money earned by the bookstore went into the emperor's private treasury.
The Queen was certain that if the Emperor said that the Western Bookstore should be registered under Mingda's name, the ministers in the court would definitely transfer the bookstore to the court's name.
This is definitely not a good thing for the royal family, and the queen does not want to cause such a dispute.
But she also loves her daughter. She can't give the bookstore away, but she can give the person away. At worst, she can just build one herself.
Even if she not only wants to build a paper mill, but also wants to print and sell books, that's not impossible. We can send some engraving craftsmen over, or even some woodblocks.
This kind of thing can be done privately, but it would be too conspicuous if an entire bookstore was given away at once.
The Empress persuaded the Emperor, and he temporarily let the matter slip. However, he couldn't help but wonder, "Strange! Isn't Mingda pregnant right now? Why did she think of building a paper mill?"
He frowned again, "Hasn't the people I sent arrived in Qingzhou yet?"
Gu Zhong said hurriedly, "Your Majesty, they have so many people and so much luggage, so their journey will naturally be slow. It's not like sending a letter, where you can reach the capital in a few days by galloping."
See you at 7pm
(End of this chapter)
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