Transmigrated into a female county magistrate during a famine, leading her country to prosperity

After showing off the glass from the previous furnace, Shen Zheng started blowing the plaster: "Just think about it, the whole wall of the house is snow-white, and even the roof can be painted white! Wow, especially when the light is dim, lighting a lamp or a candle will get twice the result with half the effort!"

After he finished speaking, he did not receive the approval that Shen Zheng had expected.

She turned her head slightly and looked at Liang Fu.

what happened.

Where is the supporting actor?

Liang Fu held his chin and sighed softly: "I have tried it, Lord Shen."

"What have you tried?" Shen Zheng responded: "Painting the wall with plaster?"

Liang Fu nodded, "That won't work. It will fall apart when it rains."

When people first discovered gypsum, the first thing they thought about was whether it was edible.

But after many attempts, I found that this thing is not very edible. At most, it can be used to make tofu or noodles.

After that, people started to think about other things - excluding food, could it be used in construction?

Then someone thought of what Shen Zheng said - apply wall plaster.

This thing is as white as snow. If it could be used as wall plaster, the house would look so tidy!

But the facts also told them that this stuff cannot be used to plaster walls. It is no better than wood ash - it becomes damp when it rains, changes color when it gets damp, becomes brittle when it dries, and falls off when it becomes brittle.

What's the point of using such a useless thing? !

"In fact, there is a way to prevent it from falling apart." Shen Zheng winked at Liang Fu, "In the future, this method will gradually become popular. But using gypsum to apply wall plaster is actually just a small supplement. The great use of gypsum is elsewhere."

"Is it still useful?" Yu Shizhang became curious.

"Of course." Shen Zheng took out a piece of straw paper from her arms and shook it at them.

Xu Zhubu was the first to react, "Your Excellency, are you thinking that gypsum can be used to make paper?"

"That's right!" Shen Zheng twisted the thin straw paper in her hand, "Adding gypsum during the papermaking process can increase the thickness and whiteness of the paper, and also make the paper smoother. I estimate that the paper made in this way may be similar to the celtis bark paper."

Phellodendron bark paper?

Everyone's pupils shrank.

The bark paper of the Chinese elm tree is a high-quality Xuan paper known as the "king of paper". Looking at the entire Great Zhou Dynasty, there are not many scholars who are willing to write with the bark paper of the Chinese elm tree.

If you use ordinary plants and add gypsum, you can make high-quality paper...

Then who would be willing to write on straw paper that is easy to seep through ink and easily torn?

Yu Shizhang was silent for a moment, then looked at Shen Zheng with a complicated expression: "Such an important matter, you just said it casually here?"

Don't they have to keep this a secret and secretly set up a paper mill in the county to make paper?

Shen Zheng pointed helplessly at the blast furnace room which was still hot. "I am busy. And we in Tongan County cannot take on everything. For example, the grass and trees in our county are only enough for the people to burn firewood and cook rice. If they were all cut down to make paper, we would really have trouble making ends meet. So... some things should be left to our allies."

ally?

Yu Shizhang was slightly stunned.

When did Tong'an County have allies? Could it be the neighboring counties?

its not right.

The vegetation in the next door is not necessarily much more abundant than that in Tongan County, and is not enough to support papermaking.

The place with the most vegetation is the nearby Fuzhou Prefecture, which has a vast area, many mountains and many trees.

Shen Zheng suddenly asked: "What do you think of the fifth family?"

"The Fifth Na Zheng?" Yu Shizhang snorted and curled his lips slightly: "It's just so-so, not as sensible as his granddaughter."

This statement seemed to be disparaging Diwu Nazheng, but in fact he also felt that the Diwu family was a suitable papermaking ally.

"Then let's decide on the fifth one for now." Shen Zheng made the decision: "Let's ask the fifth Tanwei to come over in two days to discuss in detail."

Yu Shizhang snorted softly, but didn't say anything else.

He also knew that the Fifth Family, this "grasshopper", was now firmly tied to their Tong'an County boat. With the "papermaking" strengthening the connection between the two parties, the Fifth Family would have to attack wherever Tong'an County pointed.

Hey, Yu Shizhang suddenly became happy.

——When you think about it, it’s actually not bad.

From now on, won’t that old thief Diwu Nazheng have to obey my orders obediently?

Mo Qingwan, who had listened to the whole thing, sat in the corner, trying hard to reduce his presence.

She didn't understand why Lord Shen asked her to come here. She only knew that she couldn't say a word of what she had heard here in the past few days.

——Glass, iron smelting, steel smelting, paper making…

Picking any one of them out at random would be a major event that could cause turmoil, but at this moment these things are placed in this small printing house like cabbages for people to choose from.

Just as she was secretly admonishing herself, Shen Zheng called her: "Mo Qingwan."

She was startled and stood up immediately, "My little girl is here!"

"Sit down and talk." Shen Zheng smiled and pushed her back. "You have heard what I said just now. Go back today and think carefully about how we can cooperate with the fifth company to make paper. The key point is, what benefits this method can bring to our printing house."

Mo Qingwan's eyes suddenly lit up, and she couldn't help but straighten her back even more: "As you command! I will think about it carefully when I go back today, and I will definitely not let our printing house suffer any loss!"

"Okay, I'll wait for your news." Shen Zheng patted her shoulder.

Mo Qingwan secretly clenched his fist.

Our printing house...

we……

Hey.

……

The weather is nice today, with sunshine but not glaring, and windy but not annoying.

Before the sunset, the people in the printing house took back the paper drying rack on the dam. They were very careful during the whole process, for fear that the straw paper drying on the rack would fall to the ground.

At the entrance of the blast furnace, Shen Zheng was talking until his mouth was dry. He took the tea handed to him by Xu Zhubu and drank it all in one gulp.

"Do you understand everything?" She handed the teacup to Xu Zhubu and gestured for another cup.

After she drank the second cup of tea, Shen Xingjian silently raised his hand, "Sir Shen, I... have some questions."

"Very good!" It was time for Shen Zheng's favorite question-and-answer session again.

"Then let Lord Shen Xingjian raise his doubts, and then we can discuss them together."

Everyone's face was filled with anticipation.

No one present was stupid. Whenever someone asked a question, it was bound to be a difficult problem to solve. Only by speaking it out could everyone pool their wisdom.

"Okay." Shen Xingjian stood up, "Then I will ask, and I hope you can... enlighten me."

"Sir Shen, you let those cloth merchants choose their own path. Either they can use their cloth advantages to compete with our cotton cloth in terms of cost performance. Or they can make luxury high-end products to earn money from the rich. But Sir Shen, I still don't understand. Even if the truly wealthy buy luxury goods, they will not become poor, and the corresponding money will also fall into the hands of the merchants who sell them."

"In this case, the money still only flows among the rich. Aren't the rich always the same people?"

"Pa pa pa—" After Shen Xingjian finished speaking, Shen Zheng clapped sincerely, "Very good, Lord Shen immediately raised the main problem of luxury goods."

She smiled at Shen Xingjian, stood up and wrote a word on the wooden board.

--"Tax".