Liu Bei: My younger brother is a deity.

Chapter 16 The Price of Paper in Lousang

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it was the fifth year of the Xiping era (176 AD).

Lousang Village is no longer the ordinary village with only a hundred or so households it was five years ago.

Along the Juma River, wisps of smoke rise from chimneys, and houses stand side by side. It takes almost half an hour to walk from the east end of the village to the west end.

The village's population has increased more than fivefold since then. There are locals, outsiders, people who have come to stay with relatives, people who have come to stay with friends, and merchants who have moved from Zhuoxian County. They have made this place lively and vibrant.

The liveliest place in the village is the three streets.

One street is Tofu Street, lined with shops selling tofu, tofu pudding, bean curd, and dried tofu, all steaming hot and fragrant with the aroma of soybeans.

One street is Straw Weaving Street, which specializes in selling straw sandals, straw mats, straw hats, and straw baskets. Liu's Straw Weaving Workshop is located here, occupying half of the street's storefronts, where hundreds of women are busy working.

Another street is the newly opened Zhifang Street, which specializes in selling a novel item called "grass paper".

This draft paper was written by Liu Quan.

Five years ago, Liu Quanrang started a tofu workshop and a straw weaving workshop, and the business flourished.

But he always had something else on his mind—papermaking.

This is a craft that has the potential to change the world.

If paper becomes widely available, knowledge can leave the secluded mansions of powerful families and spread to ordinary people.

That's a thousand times more important than straw sandals and tofu.

However, papermaking is not like making tofu; it involves more processes and requires higher technical skills, so it cannot be rushed.

It took Liu Quan two years to build a small paper mill on the back mountain of Lousang Village, and another year of repeated experiments before he produced the first batch of usable paper.

That paper was naturally inferior to the white paper of later generations.

It uses rattan and bamboo as raw materials, and the resulting paper is light yellow, has a coarse texture, and only average ink absorption, making it somewhat rough when writing.

But it has one huge advantage—it's cheap.

Cai Lun's "Cai Hou Paper" had many processes, low output, and high price, making it unaffordable for ordinary people and only popular in the vicinity of Luoyang.

The paper made by Liu Quan cost less than one-tenth of the cost of Cai Hou's paper, making it affordable for every household.

Moreover, this toilet paper has an unexpected and ingenious use.

What do ordinary people use after using the toilet these days?

Toilet paper money.

It's a smooth bamboo or wooden strip; you wash it after use and reuse it next time.

Even the more particular families would simply prepare a few extra.

As for the powerful and wealthy, some used silk or cotton, which was much more comfortable than toilet paper, but the price was far too high.

While Liu Quan's straw paper wasn't ideal for writing, it was soft and absorbent, making it far more comfortable to wipe than toilet paper.

When the first batch of straw paper was produced, Liu Quan asked Liu Yuanqi to arrange for some to be sent to several powerful families in Zhuo County for trial use.

Less than half a month after the news was released, orders started pouring in like snowflakes.

The most urgent need was among the women in the inner quarters of each household.

Those noblewomen, having used toilet paper once, could never go back to the days of using toilet sticks.

They gossiped among themselves, saying that the straw paper from Lousang Village was simply the most thoughtful invention in the world, more practical than any silk or satin.

As a result, the reputation of Liu's paper mill spread far and wide, and within half a year, it had spread throughout the entire Youzhou.

Liu's paper mill is working day and night to keep up with demand.

Liu Quan then had Liu Yuanqi set up a branch in Zhuoxian, Fanyang, and Jixian to sell straw paper. The business was so good that the door panels were almost broken from the crowds.

Lousang Village thus became prosperous day by day.

Today, Lousang Village, though called a village, is actually like a small county.

There are seven or eight restaurants and teahouses in the village, more than a dozen general stores, as well as pharmacies, cloth shops, blacksmith shops, and carriage and horse shops, you name it.

At the entrance of the village stands a stone tablet with the three large characters "Lousang City" engraved on it, which were personally inscribed by the magistrate of Zhuo County.

On market days, people from all directions flock to the area, crowding the streets. The sounds of vendors hawking their wares, haggling, and children laughing and crying mingle together, creating a lively atmosphere like the Lunar New Year.

The Liu family's life naturally improved as well.

Liu no longer weaves mats, nor does she work as a cook in restaurants.

She became the general manager of several of Liu's major workshops. She spent her days at home listening to the managers of each workshop report on their accounts. Occasionally, she would go out to socialize with the wives and mistresses of powerful families in Zhuoxian and Fanyang. She was considered a person of some standing.

Needless to say, Liu Yuanqi was originally the village head of Lousang Village, but now the title of "village head" is no longer worthy of his status—the magistrate of Zhuo County has to politely address him as "Lord Liu" when he sees him.

The Liu family of Zhuo County, a clan that may have been prosperous a few hundred years ago but had long since fallen into decline, has now once again joined the ranks of powerful families in Youzhou.

On this day, the autumn sky was clear and crisp, and the sky was so blue it looked as if it had been washed.

At the foot of Xiaolang Mountain, on the banks of the Juma River, a large horse farm sits quietly on the grassland.

The horse ranch was surrounded by stone walls, about half a person high. Inside the walls was a vast grassland that stretched as far as the eye could see, with lush green grass and several horses grazing leisurely in the distance.

On the east side of the horse farm is a row of stables, with blue bricks and black tiles, kept clean and tidy.

Next to the stables were several rooms, which served as the manager's quarters and the accounting office.

This is the Liu family's horse farm.

The "Liu family" here does not refer to the entire Liu clan, but rather to Liu Bei and his entire family.

Five years ago, Su Shuang gave eight horses to the Liu brothers. Liu Quan then fenced off a piece of land at the foot of Little Wolf Mountain, built a few simple stables, and hired an old man to look after them.

Who would have thought that in just a few years, this horse farm would grow to its current size?

From afar, the sound of horses' hooves could be heard rolling by like muffled thunder, interspersed with the neighing of horses, rising and falling in waves.

Three boys stood in front of the gate of the horse farm.

The person in the lead was tall and slender with broad shoulders and a straight back. He wore a moon-white silk robe with a blue silk sash around his waist and a small bamboo crown on his head.

He has a handsome and dashing appearance, clear and bright eyes, and large earlobes on both sides, exuding an air of elegance with every glance.

This person is Liu Bei, who is sixteen years old this year.

The former Liu Sanpang has now grown into a spirited and robust young man.

Standing beside him was a burly young man, as tall as a black tower, two inches shorter than him but a whole size wider.

He had a dark face, thick eyebrows, bulging eyes, high cheekbones, and bulging muscles all over his body; he stood there like an iron tower.

This is Zhang Fei, who is twelve years old this year, but his physique is already stronger than that of many adult men.

He wore a short, dark blue tunic, with a leather belt about the width of a palm around his waist, from which hung a sharp dagger, making him look imposing.

Liu Quan stood at the very edge, dressed in a simple blue cloth robe with no other adornments, his hair casually tied up with a wooden hairpin.

But his features and temperament were so stunning that even dressed casually, he could stand there and make it impossible for anyone to ignore his presence.

A young man stood in front of the three people.

The young man was about seventeen or eighteen years old, of medium height, with a thin face, slightly high cheekbones, and long, bright eyes that exuded a shrewd and capable air.

This person's name is Yan Rou.

Three years ago, Liu Quan followed the Su family's caravan out of the Great Wall and traded with a group of Xiongnu people on the grasslands.

Among the Xiongnu troops were several Han slaves, Yan Rou being one of them.

He was disheveled and dressed in rags at the time, but his eyes were surprisingly bright.

Liu Quan spoke with him for a few minutes and discovered that this man could not only speak the Xiongnu language, Xianbei language, and Wuhuan language, but also a few words of Qiang and Di language, and was fluent in the languages ​​of almost all the tribes on the grassland.

Liu Quan cherished his talent, so he bought him back and brought him, along with his younger brother Yan Zhi, back to Lousang Village.

At first, Liu Quan only thought of Yan Rou as a translator who could help do business with the tribes on the grasslands.

But after spending more time with him, he discovered that this person's abilities went far beyond that.

He is knowledgeable about horses, knows how to judge them, raises them, trains them, and can even treat their illnesses.

He was extremely organized and meticulous in his work, keeping clear accounts. His male prostitutes were completely under his control.

Liu Quan then appointed him as the manager of the horse farm, entrusting him with full authority over horse breeding.

Yan Rou lived up to expectations.

In just three short years, he grew the horse farm from the initial eight horses to over a hundred.

If these horses were transported to the Central Plains and sold, they would fetch at least 200,000 coins each.

The total value of all the horses in the entire horse farm is enough to buy a prefect with a salary of two thousand bushels of grain.

Yan Rou bowed to the three men with clasped hands and said with a smile, "Master, the accounts for the horse farm this month have been sorted out. There are currently 123 horses, including 87 adult horses and 36 foals. Last month, we sold five horses, earning 1.1 million coins. We bought eight new horses, spending 920,000 coins. The net income is 180,000 coins."

Liu Bei felt dizzy listening to this and waved his hand, saying, "It's no use telling me these accounts; I don't understand them anyway. Just tell me whether we made a profit or a loss."

Yan Rou smiled slightly: "I made a profit."

Liu Bei grinned: "That's fine then!"

Liu Quan, however, did not laugh.

He took the account book from Yan Rou and flipped through it page by page.

He had lived for hundreds of years in his previous life, read countless books, and knew that people's hearts were like a restless monkey, and one could not let go of the reins.

"Manager Yan," Liu Quan closed the ledger, looked up, his eyes clear, "the eight horses you bought from the grasslands last month cost 920,000 coins, averaging 115,000 coins per horse. That price is considerably higher than a few months ago."

Yan Rou nodded and explained, "Second Master is right. The situation on the grasslands is not peaceful this year. The Xianbei people seem to be gathering strong horses and young men, and the price of horses has risen quite a bit."

Liu Quan pondered for a moment, then asked, "How much do the foals we breed ourselves cost?"

Yan Rou said, "From birth to adulthood, the cost of feed, labor, and veterinary medicine for a foal is about 30,000 coins. That's 70,000 to 80,000 coins cheaper than buying it from the grasslands."

Liu Bei's eyes lit up: "Then why don't we breed more ourselves and buy less from the grasslands?"

Liu Quan explained, "It's because the stallions aren't good enough. Most of the stallions in our horse farm are ordinary draft horses; they're not fast and have poor stamina. Although the finest horses from the grasslands are expensive, they have good frames, are fast, and are less likely to collapse during long runs. To raise good horses, it's not enough to rely solely on our own breeding; we must continuously introduce superior bloodlines from the grasslands."

Yan Rou nodded in agreement.

Liu Bei suddenly realized.