North and South groceries

Luzhou is located in the southeast of Shizhou. From their Lishi County, they must first pass through the Luliang Mountains to reach Fenzhou, then go all the way to the southeast, and then pass through the entire Fenzhou to reach Luzhou. State boundaries.

This group came from Guyao Ridge in Luzhou, which is the northwest corner of Luzhou. According to the straight-line distance, that place is not very far from Lishi County, but Guyao Ridge was originally located in the deep mountains. To get to Lishi County from them, one has to pass Taiyue Mountain first, and then Luliang Mountain. The journey here is difficult, needless to say.

The road was full of dust and dust, and finally came to Lishi County, and was stopped by officers and soldiers at the gate of the city. Although they finally entered the city smoothly, some people still felt uneasy.

Earlier, the Fan brothers from their village came out to work as porters. When the caravan stayed in Xipo Village, Lishi County for a few days, it happened that Luo Sanlang taught others how to make toilet paper. Get up the paper.

Instead of straw paper, hemp stalks were used instead of straw, and a batch of hemp paper was made, and tung oil was applied on it, and sold to merchants in the city, earning some money.

Everyone in the village envied them, but the two brothers were not satisfied. They also said that there were many merchants in Lishi Dinghu area of ​​Shizhou, and there were people from all over the world. There will definitely be people who will go to them to buy goods.

They taught the villagers the craft of making hemp paper, and asked the villagers to come to Lishi County with them to sell oil paper.Because the villagers really wanted to learn this craft, they agreed one after another, but after going out, they felt that the journey was difficult everywhere, and they were afraid of encountering bad people. They suffered hardships and fears every day.

"Dalang, now that we have arrived in Lishi County, how do you sell our oil paper?" After entering the city, someone immediately asked Fan Dalang for advice.

"Let's sell it here first." Fan Dalang saw a few carnation sellers squatting at the base of the wall next to the city gate, and drove his donkey cart over first.

In fact, he didn't have any rules in his mind on how to sell this oil paper. At the beginning, with his enthusiasm, he also wanted to learn from Lishi County and lure merchants to Guyaoling.

However, the constant doubts from the villagers along the way made him more and more uncertain. He wondered if he thought things too simply. Only this oil paper could really make those merchants feel uncomfortable. Did they travel thousands of miles to Guyaoling to buy goods? The hardships of this journey will be in vain in the end...

The young man raised his sleeves and wiped the sweat from his neck. The hot sweat was mixed with mud, leaving a black sweat stain on his sleeves, making his dirty clothes even dirtier.

Under the scorching sun, he suddenly regretted a bit. If he hadn’t rectified these things at the beginning, if he hadn’t taught other people in the village the technology of papermaking, and just closed his house to make paper and sell paper every day, his life would be doomed. will live in peace and prosperity.

"Brother, are you hot?" A young man with a honest face next to him asked him aloud.

"It's okay, I'm a little tired, just take a rest." Fan Dalang smiled, but he couldn't help thinking in his heart, if the market can't be opened, how can people in his village produce so much hemp paper in the future? It sold for a good price.

"How do you sell this oil paper?" Recently, there are often some foreign caravans in Lishi County, bringing in various goods, so many people are staring at the gate of the city, seeing them now. After entering the city, a few people came in twos and threes from nearby restaurants.

"Two cents a piece." Fan Erlang saw that there was a business coming, so he quickly took a piece of oiled paper from his donkey cart and opened it for the other party to see.

The oiled paper they brought this time is a large sheet, with tung oil on both sides of the moderately thick paper, and the paper will look very translucent when it has enough oil, and it will be firm and bright when pasted on the window.

Window paper like this was relatively expensive in the past, and it often cost a few pennies to paste a window, and people who were not wealthy families were not willing to spend this money.Each of the oil paper they brought in this time is enough to paste a window, and it only costs two cents a piece, which should be able to be afforded by a slightly wealthy family. Besides, they also heard that the people in Lishi County They are all quite rich.

"If you buy more, will it be cheaper?" When the few people who gathered around heard the price, their eyes lit up a little, but after all, these people are not ordinary people who live a life, but merchants. They all covered it up.

"We came from Guyaoling in Luzhou. The journey is long and the transportation is not easy. Two cents a piece is the least amount. If you can go to Guyaoling to buy the goods in person, the price will naturally be much cheaper." Fan Dalang He bowed to those people.

"Guyao Ridge? Where is it?" An out-of-town businessman who was not familiar with Hedong Road asked the people next to him.Although he is a foreigner, he also met many people in the restaurants and tea shops in this city in the past few days.

"Guyaoling, to go from here, you have to pass Luliang Mountain first, then Fenzhou, and then Taiyue Mountain." A middle-aged merchant said with a smile.

"Don't talk about those useless ones. The bulging mountains are so far away. If you give me a hundred sheets of this oil paper, it will be counted as two cents per piece." A strong man with a bearded face said loudly.

"You bought that much?" someone asked from the side.

"Since you've caught up, let's buy more. It's not much if you share it with relatives and friends." The man said, untiing a string of copper coins from his waist.

"I want ten."

"I'll just buy two."

"I'll buy fifty."

"..."

As soon as the business started here, some people in the city over there soon got the news.

The people in the city are not so generous, so they usually buy one or two, and then ask people if they accept food, cloth, etc. After learning that the other party only accepts copper coins, some people back down, after all. The window paper is inappropriate to eat or wear, even if you don't buy it, it won't affect your life much.

Copper coins in this era are very valuable. Every copper coin is a solid bronze that weighs one penny. People hoard copper coins at home, not worried that it will depreciate, and there is even a possibility of appreciation. I heard that some people melted copper coins privately. made of copper.

This has led to insufficient circulation of coins on the market, and cloth and grain are more common as currencies.

The reason why these Luzhou people dare to say that they only accept copper coins is because they don’t have to worry about selling oil paper at all. If it weren’t for the insistence of the two Fan brothers, their oil paper would have been sold out on the way before. Not Lishi County.

Two days later, all the oil paper brought by these people from Guyaoling was sold out, and everyone earned a lot of copper coins. The hardships of the previous journey were also diluted by the joy of earning money.

The Fan brothers went to visit Luo Sanlang with a basket of oil paper on their backs.

The two brothers set off before dawn, and walked until the sun was three poles before arriving at the boundary of Xipo Village.

Before arriving at the entrance of the village, I met Luo Sanlang at the edge of Luo's sheepfold, and saw that he was cutting bamboo sticks with a few disciples, and was sitting in the shade of a tree by the side of the road doing something. However, the shape and appearance of the object was something they had never seen before.

"What are you doing?" Fan Dalang and Fan Erlang asked curiously as they approached.

"I just want to use this oil paper to make a lighter hat." Luo Yong looked up at the two brothers and said with a smile.

The bamboo hat is similar to the bamboo hat, except that the bamboo hat is worn on the head, and the bamboo hat has a handle, which is similar to the umbrellas of later generations. Generally, farmers use fewer bamboo hats, and mainly use bamboo hats and coir raincoats.

"Why are the bamboo strips so sparse?"

The practice of fighting hats and bamboo hats is to weave two layers of inner and outer layers with fine bamboo strips, and then fill the middle layer with bamboo leaves and other things. As it looks in the hand, there are only a few bamboo sticks scattered, which are not strong no matter how you look at it.

"You'll know when I'm done." Luo Yong smiled, stopped what he was doing, and looked up at the two Fan brothers: "Did you two bring me the hemp paper today?"

"Exactly." Fan Dalang said, put down the basket on his back, took out a large stack of tung oil paper from it, opened the stack of tung oil paper, and inside was a small stack of hemp paper that had not been brushed with tung oil: " After the two of us learned the craft of making straw paper, we returned to our hometown, and after several attempts, we finally made this kind of hemp paper.”

"I even brought hemp paper that hasn't been brushed with tung oil, which is just right." Luo Yong happened to have finished an umbrella rib at this time, and now he had ready-made paper, so he asked one of his disciples to ride Yan Erfei, I went to Xu's guest house to get some leftover tung oil from when I built the house, dipped some tung oil with a brush, and pieced together a few pieces of hemp paper to make an umbrella surface.

Although it is just a simple umbrella, Luo Yong and his disciples have been groping for almost two days since they heard that the Fan brothers came to their Lishi County to sell oil paper, and several of them were scrapped until this morning. Only then did he finally have an eye.

This is still the case when there are several ready-made umbrellas in Luo's space. If you start from scratch, you don't know how many years of groping.In Luo Yong's memory, umbrellas didn't seem to be used much in the Tang Dynasty. Umbrellas only became common in the Song Dynasty. Of course, this may also have something to do with the popularization of papermaking technology.

What Luo Yong was holding in his hand at this time should be the first umbrella that can be opened and closed in this era. For those seemingly simple small parts, a group of old men have spent a lot of time. They are all very strong, and I have done a lot of things like car chain peeling knives, so I have a relatively solid foundation.

In order to shape the umbrella, they also carefully wrapped some thin twine between the bamboo branches, which is also a technical work.

The Fan brothers did not expect to be able to observe the production process of the first oil-paper umbrella in this era just to deliver a basket of oiled paper to Luo Yong.

Later, when Luo Yong asked them about the process of making hemp paper, the two brothers also had no reservations, and said everything.

The two of them were so excited. Their hometown has bamboo, tung oil, and hemp paper. They can make oil-paper umbrellas at home.

This thing should be more attractive than hemp paper. Even if it is not easy to sell in Guyaoling, it can be shipped to Fenzhou and other places for sale.There is no need to go to Yangcheng, the state county, as long as you go to Pingyao. Pingyao County in Fenzhou is not very far from their Guyao Ridge. Those merchants and tourists who travel between Taiyuan Prefecture and Chang'an City should be impressed by this Just be interested.

The Fan brothers learned the craft of making umbrellas and went home happily.

Luo Yong's side is because of the promotion of this oil-paper umbrella. No matter what era, publicity is very important. I haven't seen the toothbrush and other things that Luo Yong made before, because there is no publicity. Few people care about it until now, and the specially publicized peony cushion has already become popular in Chang'an City.

After waiting and waiting, he finally waited until a rainy day.

On this rare day, Luo Yong patiently went to teach Du Gou to draw sketches for a long time. In fact, they were just learning and selling things. Tell him to buy some buns to eat.

Du Gou lived in Xipo Village recently, and he did not eat less oily steamed stuffed buns from Xu's guest house. Now that Luo Yong said so, he thought he might as well buy some more for dinner. , Luo Yong asked him to use his oil-paper umbrella, Du Gou didn't think much, and went out with the umbrella.

Not to mention, this oiled paper umbrella is really easy to use, it is very light in the hand, and it is lightly closed when not in use, and it does not take up space.

The hemp paper on the umbrella surface has a light amber color after being brushed with tung oil. Although there is no decoration, it looks unique.

On a summer afternoon, amidst the wind and rain, a man in Tsing Yi held an oil-paper umbrella and walked slowly on the green country road. He walked all the way to Xu's guest house, closed the umbrella, and shook the umbrella lightly. rainwater.

Those people in the hall looked at him one after another, Du Gou smiled at them, and went to buy buns from the Xu family brothers.

then……

"Luo Sanlang, do you still have that oiled paper umbrella in your house? It's the same as that of Mr. Du's family."

"Actually, you can also draw some patterns of flowers and birds on it."

"No, no, no need to draw any patterns, I want to be the same as his, exactly the same."

"Okay then, twenty Wen for an oiled paper umbrella."