Tea Merchants of the Song Dynasty

Jiang Yin was very satisfied with the big step forward in his revenge. He only hoped to find evidence of Zhao Sheng's treason as soon as possible so that the government could punish him.

After all, Zhao Sheng is only a prince and not a royal prince. If he has the intention of treason, the emperor will not show mercy to him.

In addition, it now appears that the other three families in Mengshan have already colluded with Zhao Sheng.

This time when she goes back, she must find evidence as soon as possible and catch them all in one fell swoop.

Hearing Jiang Yin's words, Wang Heng nodded in agreement, but seemed to be hesitant to speak.

Jiang Yin asked doubtfully, "Brother Heng, if you have anything to say, feel free to speak up."

Wang Heng paused and said, "When our people took action, they met Mr. Li, and he helped us."

In fact, they can completely deal with the bearded man with their own people.

But Li Ji intervened, and they had no right to chase him away.

Jiang Yin frowned slightly and asked, "Does he have a hidden identity?"

If other people knew about this, they might say that Jiang was in collusion with Li Ji.

Wang Heng nodded and said, "It's hidden. No one should recognize it."

Not only that, Li Ji also helped with the aftermath.

Hearing this, Jiang Yin heaved a sigh of relief and said, "That's fine, let him go. I'll thank him when we get back."

What else can I do? I've helped.

Jiang Yin was in a very good mood. He tossed and turned in bed until he fell asleep in the middle of the night.

But the next morning, she still met up with Su Shan and Li Qing at the agreed time and went to the Li family's paper mill together.

The Li family's workshop, like the Su and Zhu families', is also located on the edge of the county town.

After all, such a large workshop cannot be built in the city.

Jing County was under the jurisdiction of Xuanzhou Prefecture, so it was called Xuan paper.

Xuan paper is easy to preserve, durable, and will not fade, and is also known as paper that can last for a thousand years.

Jiang Yin couldn't help but ask, "Can this Xuan paper really be preserved for a thousand years?"

"Of course." Li Qing raised his chin and said, "I have one preserved for a thousand years in my house. I can show it to Brother Zhang when I go back later."

The last time I went to the rice paper shop, I only saw papers that were a few hundred years old. As for household registration papers that are a thousand years old, of course they cannot be placed in the shop.

Jiang Yin cupped his hands and said, "In that case, I'll feast my eyes on you when I get back."

Next, just like watching the preparation of Hui ink and She inkstone, Li Qing took them around the workshop and introduced the production process of Xuan paper.

The manufacturing of paper begins with the materials.

In rice paper making, the skin is the backbone and the grass is the muscle.

If there is more skin, the paper is tough and is called pure skin. If there is more grass, the paper is soft and is called cotton material.

Generally, special pure leather is used for painting, and cotton material is used for calligraphy.

The main ingredients of Xuan paper are the bark of the Chinese elm tree and rice straw. The bark of the Chinese elm tree in Jingxian County is the best raw material for making high-quality Xuan paper.

Therefore, the Li family built the Xuan paper workshop in Jing County. Of course, the Li family also started from Jing County.

The process of making Xuan paper includes spreading the raw materials of Xuan paper, pulping with a wooden pestle, scooping up paper, drying paper and cutting paper.

The process of drying the raw materials of Xuan paper is to spread the rice straw and the bark of the Chinese cedarwood tree, which are the raw materials for making Xuan paper, to dry them in the sun, rain and dew to soften them.

The bark and stems of the Pteris tatarinowii are of high quality, tough and easy to peel, and the texture of the sandy rice straw is uniform.

During the long processing process, the characteristics of the two are fully integrated and utilized, so that the paper has better water storage and ink conduction characteristics, achieving the effect of ever-changing ink rhyme.

The leather and grass materials must be soaked in alkaline water and fumigated three or four times to be processed into burnt leather and burnt grass.

This method can remove all impurities from the rice paper raw materials. Combined with the sun and rain during drying, the processing process is slow and gentle.

These are the important reasons why Xuan paper has better painting and calligraphy properties and a longer lifespan.

The wood-mortar pulping process removes the unqualified old bark and goes through the processes of pounding the bark, cutting the bark, treading the material, and bagging the material.

The bark is then hammered and cut, and the bark of the zelkova tree and the rice straw are processed separately to make bark pulp and grass pulp.

The next step is to scoop the paper, which is the first step in making Xuan paper. The thickness and size of the paper are determined by this step, and once formed, it cannot be changed.

The technique of scooping paper is to use one deep and two shallow hands, and to keep the top hand loose and the forehead hand tight. The curtain lifter should be flexible and the curtain keeper should be steady.

If the two people operate well and cooperate well, the paper will be scooped out evenly.

The paper scooping process is complicated and includes several specific steps.

Normally, each piece of paper needs to be scooped twice in a row, commonly known as the first curtain of water and the second curtain of water.

The first curtain of water is mainly used for sizing to form paper sheets, while the second curtain of water is mainly used for filling and smoothing paper sheets.

Except for the production of paper larger than eight feet, all small-format papers are produced by two people.

One person holds the curtain, and the other lifts it. Their movements must be coordinated and in perfect harmony, and the operation must be carried out strictly in accordance with traditional craftsmanship requirements.

The production of rice paper that is eight feet or longer requires the collaboration of several people, and the specific number of people and division of labor are usually determined by the size of the paper.

Take the 3.3-meter-long Xuan paper as an example. This giant among Xuan papers requires 44 people to work together to fish out the paper.

When fishing out similar large-format rice paper, one needs to use ropes and pulleys to pull up and move the curtain bed to perform the corresponding operations, which is extremely difficult.

When the paper is stacked to a certain number, it needs to be squeezed to squeeze out the excess water in the paper and turn it into wet paper.

After that, it will be handed over to the paper drying workers to carry out subsequent operations such as baking and drying the paper.

Drying the paper means peeling the wet rice paper off the paper sheet one by one, and then brushing the thin rice paper with natural pine needles and drying it on the high-temperature lime-baked surface.

The main purpose of paper drying is to dry the wet papers one by one to form rice paper.

In the paper-drying process, baking, pouring, whipping and making paper are all processes before the formal paper-drying.

The purpose is to enable the paper drying workers to smoothly peel off each wet paper from the thick and compacted paper. This process is also called paper pulling.

There are three important lines in pulling paper. To pull a piece of paper intactly requires years of experience and skills.

When drying paper, the paper dryer uses a brush to stick the wet paper to the baking wall, and brush it flat and evenly, and uses the temperature of the baking wall to dry it.

There are usually strict regulations on the brushing path of paper, and the number of brushes is also required to be controlled at about 16 to 18. It is important that the paper does not wrinkle or tear, and the paper is not too hot or too cold when it is dried.

After the paper is dried, it needs to be folded and straightened and handed over to the paper cutter for further inspection and processing.

The last step is paper cutting. The basic steps of paper cutting are divided into two steps. The first step is to inspect each piece of paper one by one, pick out the defective paper, or mark it.

The second step is to align the edges of the stacks of paper.

Paper cutting is not done by cutting with hands, but by pushing the knife with hands.

At this point, Li Qing paused, then tilted his head and asked, "Brother Zhang, do you want to try paper cutting?"

Paper cutting is the last step. Going directly to the last step can be considered as completing the production of rice paper.

Jiang Yin quickly waved his hand and refused, "No need, absolutely not."

Don’t let the paper that I made with so much effort be ruined in her hands.

If she cuts it wrong or destroys it, she will be a sinner.