Hearing his words, Ying Su smiled and bent down to help him up:
“Chancellor, please rise!”
“Your Majesty… I…”
Li Si opened his mouth, wanting to say something more!
But… Ying Su waved his hand, interrupting him:
“I came here today because I have important matters to discuss with you!”
“Important matters?”
Li Si was startled and immediately became serious: “Your Majesty, please command, Li Si will dedicate his life to the cause!”
Ying Su smiled and then took something out of his sleeve!
“This… what is this?”
Li Si was bewildered and took the rolled flax paper from Ying Su’s hand!
But he looked and looked, not understanding!
Ying Su, however, remained silent with a smile. He pulled out a sheet from the large roll of paper in Li Si’s hands.
Then he picked up a pen and wrote a single character on it:
“纸!”
And, pointing at the character, he read aloud: “Paper!”
“It can replace bamboo slips!”
“What?”
“Replace bamboo slips?”
As soon as he said this, Li Si was completely stunned!
You must know, those are bamboo slips!
Since the elimination of cumbersome recording methods like oracle bone inscriptions, the method of recording with bamboo slips has been unshakable!
Although silk could also be used!
However… the cost of making and using silk was expensive?
Just one foot of silk cost twenty copper coins!
With that money, people would have bought clothes to wear, how could they possibly afford to use it to record things?
Even the wealthy and powerful like the royal family and nobles, only used silk to transmit secret dispatches and important imperial edicts.
Normally?
They couldn't bear to use it!
And now, this thing can replace bamboo slips?
But… looking carefully, it was not hard to see that Ying Su was right!
As a recording tool, paper was indeed far more efficient than bamboo slips!
Yes, even a whole wagonload of bamboo slips could only hold about 100,000 characters.
One bamboo slip could only hold a few hundred characters!
And this sheet of paper?
Li Si could see that the flax paper, when unfolded, was half a person’s width and a person’s height!
And this single sheet of paper could hold almost a thousand characters!
In other words, this one sheet of paper could hold almost the same amount of information as two bamboo slips!
More importantly, this thing is convenient!
Yes!
Just this one sheet of paper, whether folded and kept in one’s pocket or rolled up, can be easily picked up, far lighter than bamboo slips!
Moreover, even the entire large roll that Ying Su gave him, he could hold it in his hand!
And this large roll could hold the same amount of information as five wagons of bamboo slips!
“A heavenly treasure!”
“A heavenly treasure!”
“This is a true heavenly treasure!”
Li Si was stunned.
He was very excited!
Yes, no matter what, he was a scholar!
And no scholar wouldn’t love books. The appearance of this thing was a revolutionary change in the way books were recorded!
At that moment, he was extremely excited.
But suddenly, he remembered something and said to Ying Su:
“Your Majesty, this thing… how much does it cost to make?”
He was excited and asked.
But at the same time, he was also worried!
Currently, there are two main methods of recording, one is bamboo slips and the other is silk!
Silk is also very convenient for recording and carrying!
But unfortunately, the cost was too high, one foot of silk cost twenty copper coins!
If the cost of this thing was higher than silk, it would lose its potential for promotion!
After all, as a recording material, no one would want to pay more for something than silk!
Convenient to carry?
Even though it was more convenient to carry than silk, but it was still the same, no matter how convenient something was, it couldn’t stand high prices!
So, Li Si was very worried!
And when Ying Su heard this, he smiled and extended one finger: “One copper coin!”
“One copper coin, for one sheet of paper?”
He was stunned, and at the same time, even more excited. One copper coin could buy a sheet of paper, the cost of this thing was not just lower than silk?
It was even lower than bamboo slips!
“Your Majesty!”
“Your Majesty!”
At that moment, Li Si was about to explode with excitement.
However, Ying Su shook his head repeatedly: “Not one copper coin per sheet, but… one copper coin for this whole roll!”
“What?”
As soon as these words came out, Li Si’s head buzzed.
At that moment, his mouth was wide open, he could have stuffed a duck egg in it!
Yes!
One roll?
He hadn’t counted how many sheets of paper were in this roll!
But… even a conservative estimate, it would have at least a hundred sheets!
One hundred sheets of paper, which could hold about 100,000 characters, actually… actually only cost one copper coin?
You must know that even heavy bamboo slips, if you wanted 100,000 characters of recording capacity, it would cost at least one hundred copper coins!
“Your… Majesty…”
Li Si was stunned!
And Ying Su smiled: “Don’t be surprised!”
“This thing is made from grass, wood bark, things no one wants, it’s not worth anything!”
“But… I want you to sell it for money!”
“And, a high price!”
“The higher the price, the better!”
“What?”
“High price?”
Shouldn’t this thing be promoted nationwide at a very low price?
Li Si was completely dumbfounded.
But soon, he understood why!
A general amnesty for the world!
A general amnesty for the world!
Although it allowed the people to no longer suffer!
However… the Qin Dynasty’s taxes were strained!
At first, when Li Si heard this edict, he only felt stupid!
Very stupid!
What kind of idiot would implement a general amnesty for the world?
Returning money and grain to the common people, what about the Qin Dynasty’s court? What about the operation of the country?
Without money and grain, how could the country function!
But… thinking about it later, it seemed like he could understand Ying Su.
He wanted to unite the people!
And the way to unite people was to bestow favors.
And Ying Su’s actions were to bestow favors on the people, to bestow favors on all the forces in the court, in order to unite them!
For someone who had rebelled and ascended to the throne, this was a very clever tactic!
Li Si admired him for this!
And besides admiring him for this, there was the rebellion!
He dared to rebel with only one person, and yet, forced Ying Zheng to abdicate!
More importantly, he succeeded!
Such ability, how could he not admire him!
He came to his place today, all sorts of manipulative tactics were used on him, making him tremble in fear again and again!
And after intimidation, now he’s entrusted him with the important task of selling paper!
What is this called?
A slap followed by a sweet date!
Although Ying Su was so playful with him, Li Si admired him!
What is this?
This is called skill!
Skill in controlling subordinates!
How could Li Si not admire someone with such skill?
At the same time, he didn’t hesitate at all, and immediately bowed:
“Li Si will not disappoint you!”
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