After broadcasting the ancient times live, I handed the system over to the state.

[If you were to time travel and need to scrape your bowels with a bamboo stick when you don't want to poop, you'd definitely need to master this skill!]

[I know that. They used to use bamboo strips. I think these are called toilet sticks?]

[When I was little, I even used clods of dirt. I thought they were better than leaves, but they always got stuck in my bottom!]

[You mean scraping wood oil? I've also used leaves, once I used the hairy kind, and then...]

[Please tell your story in detail!]

[We used roof tiles and bamboo strips; after each use, we washed them clean and put them back for reuse.]

[That's considered civilized; it's like the knotted ropes used by kings and nobles in Europe, and it was an honor to share the same rope as the king.]

[Please, I'm eating, ugh~]

"...Rude!" One of the teachers blushed. "This canopy is getting more and more rude!"

"How precious is paper? These people are actually making paper for such a thing!" A student from Luoyang wanted to cover his face and leave.

"The words on the sky are getting more and more absurd and outrageous!" A minister felt like vomiting when he saw the words on the sky, especially the thing about using the same rope.

You still want to publicize such things so widely? You really don't bother to cover it up for future generations, do you?

I wonder how many people felt disgusted, as if their throats were choked, after reading this, but had no choice but to keep reading.

"The bark of the paper mulberry tree is quite tough and very suitable for papermaking. The bark is peeled from trees at least two years old and then cleaned thoroughly."

Workers on the canopy peeled off the bark of the paper mulberry trees, scraped away the inner pulp, removed some rotten parts, soaked them in water, drained them, and then hung them in the courtyard to dry.

"Once the bark of the paper mulberry tree has naturally shrunk, we can proceed to the next step."

The people under the canopy carefully remembered every scene that appeared on it, and they even saw those people pounding the prepared paper mulberry bark with wooden hammers, just like they were pounding rice.

Then the paper mulberry bark is pounded until it becomes a paste.

"Nowadays, papermaking is all automated, using machines directly, which greatly saves time and labor in papermaking."

If manually pounding wood only produced a tiny amount of pulp, the machine produces a visibly flowing river of pulp, a stark contrast.

"Is this what a machine is..." Li Shimin sighed. "Back in the Qing Dynasty, apart from weapons, things were pretty much the same as they are now. Why have things changed so much in just a hundred years?"

They didn't understand this question and were very curious about it; no monarch doesn't want his country to be strong.

Must we really overthrow the emperor?

Qin Shi Huang once said that the emperor was a product of a limited time and that the present was the most suitable time. So why did later generations no longer need emperors?

However, many countries in Europe still have queens.

Many people can't understand it.

"After being hammered so many times, the bark of the paper mulberry tree becomes finer, but its toughness remains undiminished. However, it is still not fine enough, so it needs to be stirred in water with a bamboo pole until it dissolves into a paste-like consistency."

"The next step is the most important one, which is scooping, also called paper scooping or screen placement."

They stared intently at the movements of the people on the sky, and saw one of them take out a tool that looked like a board, then spread a small bamboo mat on it, put it in the water, and scoop it up.

Then the water can be filtered out, and the pulp will remain in the papermaking vat.

The workers will come back several more times, repeatedly shaking the bamboo mat to ensure the paper fibers are evenly spread across it.

After laying out the bamboo mat, press it down with a roller to squeeze out the water from the paper.

Then, tear open the bamboo curtain, and you'll see a piece of paper folded flat on top of the previous stack of papers.

"The thinness of the paper depends entirely on the craftsman's skill; if the paper is rolled too lightly, it will be too thin; if it is rolled too heavily, it will be too thick."

Place a board with weights on top of the small mountain of paper you just built, and leave it for several hours to squeeze out the excess water.

Then carefully tear the paper off the pile and hang it up to air dry in the shade.

"After air-drying, it can be peeled off, cut, and packaged. However, ordinary people don't need this kind of paper; it was cherished by ancient literati, calligraphers, and painters."

[This paper isn't soft at all; it would definitely be uncomfortable to use it to wipe my bottom.]

[writer of sensational headlines.]

[I don't even recognize the paper mulberry tree, you're really making things difficult for me.]

[Anyway, the method is here. Just try a few different approaches. The principle remains the same. You could try adding some spices, or try to remove the yellowing, etc.]

[There are many details that haven't been mentioned, such as steaming and boiling. However, steaming and boiling are also for breaking down the bark, allowing the fibers to be extracted more easily.]

[Huang didn't say much...it's just that he's afraid you guys might actually time-travel and learn it.]

The ancients were speechless. But we wanted to learn!

Paper only began to be widely used during the Song Dynasty; before that, paper was very expensive.

So the reason why Bu Tianshou's teacher was buried with his student's work was probably because paper was very expensive, and it was to avoid waste.

"It's so simple..." Ying Zheng said, "If we had paper, then a small book like those in later times could hold many words. I wonder how later generations managed to put pictures in those books, and how the paper in later times is so soft and smooth..."

Since the heavens have not provided any information, it is up to the Mohists to explore.

Ying Zheng still looked forward to the arrival of farmers, as food was a matter of national importance.

Zhuge Liang stared at it in a daze, "There was also Cai Hou paper in the old days, which was worth a thousand pieces of gold. I didn't know that the papermaking technique was so simple."

Zhuge Liang knew that even if they didn't produce it, Cao Cao's camp and Jiangdong would, because paper was a very complex commodity, and whoever produced it first would gain some intangible benefits.

Therefore, papermaking is something that must be done.

For people in the Song Dynasty and later, it was just something new to see; their papermaking process was even more complex.

They also have Chengxintang paper, which is delicate and white as jade; pepper paper used for printing books, which is soaked in water containing pepper and Sichuan pepper to prevent insects; Huang paper, Jinsu paper, and so on.

The Song Dynasty had many scholars, and the imperial examination was the fastest way for a scholar to cross social classes. This was not only because there were no aristocratic families, but also because the advanced papermaking technology meant that knowledge was not limited to one family or household.

Every explosion of knowledge and technology, and every advancement of civilization, is closely related to the carriers of information.

For example, from tortoise shells and bone fragments to bamboo slips, then from bamboo slips to paper, and then from paper to modern mobile phones and computers, and so on.

The era of using bamboo slips was already eager to enter the next new era.

That is, paper.