Chapter 356 Paper is expensive in Hanyang (please vote and subscribe)
In short, the main materials of pencils are wood, clay and graphite. There are plenty of wood and clay. Although there are no minerals nearby, Luo Chong once bought a piece of graphite at the Spring Meeting of Rumeng Water Valley. At that time, he also bought a piece of borax ore, which was sold by the Xue Tribe.
Now that the Xue Tribe has been integrated into the Han Tribe, it means that Luo Chong has mastered the origin of these two minerals. Then the next step will be easy. Just let the people of the Xue Tribe lead the way to mine.
As soon as he thought of it, Luo Chong immediately found Shu Da and the former leader of the Xue Tribe to come and explain the mining matters to them.
"Leader."
"Leader, what's the matter?" The two heard the summons and came to Luo Chong together.
"Well, there is something you need to do. Chief Xue, do you remember the two stones I exchanged from you at the Spring Meeting of Dream Valley last year?" Luo Chong said straight to the point.
"Stones? Are you talking about the black and gray ones?" Chief Xue also said with recollection.
"Yes, those two kinds. I need these two kinds of stones now. Do you remember where you found them? Are there many of them locally? Are they easy to dig? I need a lot." Luo Chong continued to ask.
"A lot. The black soft stone is only a day's journey from our previous residence. We found it when we were hunting. It's easy to dig. The stone is not solid at all, but you have to dig a hole in the ground to dig it.
The other gray stone was found on a stone mountain. The mountain is bare and there are no plants at all. The gray stone is also everywhere, but it's not a good thing. I tried it before. As long as you put the gray stone in one place, the surrounding grass will all die." Chief Xue continued to explain the local situation.
Borax can be used as a permanent herbicide. Luo Chong knew this, but he would not be stupid enough to use borax to weed farmland. In that case, the grass would be gone, but the food would also be destroyed. After all, food is also a plant, and borax can't distinguish between useful and useless.
Moreover, Luo Chong wanted this thing not for weeding, but as a rust remover for metal welding, so he didn't need a lot of it. The main purpose this time was to collect more graphite.
"Well, just remember the place. The task I'm going to give you this time is to go mining, that is, to collect those two kinds of stones.
I'll let Shu Da send people to protect your safety. You also have to collect more. We don't have time to go often, and it takes a while to collect them once.
Shu Da, and you, you immediately dispatch two small flag teams, let the archer flag Tan Jian lead the team, and escort 20 people from the Xue clan, bring five carts and digging tools, and food for the road. This time, you will directly ship back four carts of graphite ore and one cart of borax. Go early and come back early. Oh, by the way, bring a flying eagle and report back to me directly if there is any situation." Luo Chong immediately ordered the two.
"Yes, leader." The two said yes in unison, but they didn't ask Luo Chong what he was going to do with these stones. They went out to select people and prepare personnel and vehicles.
Now the pencil issue is settled, the only thing left is a raw material that has already been collected: white paper and pencils. That’s the last thing left, and then there’s an official writing pen.
Why do I say that? Because pencils are convenient for drawing and doing arithmetic, but they also have many disadvantages. They are not easy to preserve. The writing written with pencils can be easily erased. When I was a child, I wrote with pencils and leaned on my homework book. After a while, my arm was covered with words, and the words on the book became much lighter.
In other words, pencil writing is not suitable for recording important documents, books, letters, orders, etc., so in the end, the Han tribe still needs a pen that uses ink to write, black words on white paper, and will not go bad for hundreds of years.
Speaking of ink, since the feather pen is too unreliable, the only option is to use a brush.
Luo Chong can write calligraphy, but his writing is just so-so, or even a little bad. People who are used to writing with hard pens suddenly find it difficult to learn this kind of soft brush with "no focus".
But fortunately, there is a new invention in the 21st century, the soft fountain pen, which greatly solves the problem of writing calligraphy.
Well, actually, this is a product that combines a fountain pen and a brush. The structure of the fountain pen and the pen body can be unscrewed at the back half, and there is an ink sac inside for holding ink, but the front nib is a brush nib.
The nib of this soft fountain pen is very thin and small, with a diameter of no more than three millimeters and a length of no more than one centimeter. It is made of relatively hard materials, either artificial chemical fiber or natural wolf hair. The nib is short, thin, and relatively hard, and it is no problem to use it as a fountain pen for writing.
And because the nib is very small, it can only be used to write small characters. Although it is not as exaggerated as the small characters of a fly head, it is still okay to control it to the size of a fingernail, which just meets Luo Chong's original intention of saving paper.
This pen is actually similar to the small characters of ancient times, but it is one size smaller than the small characters, and the pen has an ink storage function, which is very convenient to carry. When you go out to do things, you can just take out the pen and use it when you need to write.
But Luo Chong didn't expect to meet this requirement. He just needed to make an ordinary brush according to this size, and usually just dip it in ink. As for the black technology that can store ink, it's not that it can't be made, but it's very laborious. Making such a pen is as delicate and troublesome as making a piece of jewelry, and the cost is definitely not low, which is not affordable for ordinary people.
As for other types of large brushes, of course they have to be made, but they are only used for children to practice calligraphy, and are not promoted among adults. Adults can use small regular script pens, which saves ink and paper, and really saves money.
This is not because Luo Chong is so stingy and reluctant to give up that little thing, but he didn't know until he did it. He was shocked when he did it. The paper is really too expensive.
The Han tribe still made paper by themselves. Several people worked for several days and made more than 500 sheets of paper. They spent so much manpower and material resources to make such a thing.
Of course, this is because it is the first time to make it, and many tools have to be made by myself. But now we have the tools. Two people copying paper at the same time, working all day and night, can only make 1,800 sheets. If you want to supply a school of students with daily use, including books and calligraphy exercises, I am afraid that an entire paper mill cannot supply them. The cost is too expensive.
Alas! As expected, from ancient times to the present, no matter which dynasty, education is an expensive expense. Even in modern times, the education expenses of a child from childhood to adulthood are probably hundreds of thousands.
(End of this chapter)
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