Chapter 280: Expanding the Scale

Fan Jun was a little far away, so on the third day of departure, Song Yan returned with the money and food he had collected from Fan Jun's treasury.

With the money and food of the two counties, there is no need to worry about food and army salaries for at least three months.

At the same time, the caravan that Song Yan ordered Song Xiu to set up has set off two days ago. The main products for sale are various books printed and bound by movable type printing machines, and paper that can be used for writing and painting.

Ordinary paper is priced at 1 yuan a piece, and fine inkstone paper is priced at 100 yuan a piece.

After an eight-day long journey, the caravan came to Shangdang County, the state of Chu.

Among Qi, Chu, Yan and Zhao Qin, the state of Qi that perished was the most extensive, the state of Chu had the most prosperous style of writing, the state of Yan had the most cavalry and the most powerful, and the state of Zhao was rich in various types of weapons and armor. .

Jiang Kui, the leader of the caravan, is a very intelligent person.

After entering Shangdang County, he did not go to the market to sell books and buy paper, but planned to visit Mo Fei, the dean of Jixia Academy first.

Jixia Academy is the most prosperous place in Chu State and even Shenzhou Continent.

Its dean, Mr. Mo Fei, is also known as the number one poet in mainland China. Therefore, even the King of Chu should treat him with courtesy.

It was not easy to meet Mo Fei, and it took a full amount of gold for Jiang Kui to get through the relationship before meeting Mo Fei.

"what is this?"

Looking at the brocade box that Jiang Kui presented, could it be that he was very displeased. He was a person who cherished his reputation very much and did not like to receive gifts from others.

Jiang Kui hurriedly said, "Don't get me wrong, Mr. Mo, this brocade box contains a Book of Songs. This Book of Songs records more than 200 poems."

Hearing this, could it be that he is suspicious, how can a small brocade box hold more than 200 poems.

With such a trace of curiosity, could it be that he took the brocade box and opened it.

Suddenly, it was a book with a light yellow cover, and the word "Book of Songs" was written in small seal.

Picking up this thin Book of Poetry, and opening it, the white characters, black marks, and extremely neat fonts came into view. He, who was originally indifferent, became extremely excited.

Turning the pages of the book continuously, they are all the same white characters and black marks, and the recorded content is the Book of Songs.

"What, what is this made of?" Mo Fei asked in a trembling voice.

Jiang Kui said proudly, "Mr. Hui, this piece of paper was invented by the general of my family!" As he spoke, he offered another thing with both hands.

"What is this?"

Holding this snow-white, smooth paper, could it be that he asked again.

"This is called inkstone paper, which is specially used for great literati like Mr. to leave ink treasures."

Jiang Kui explained.

"Good! Good! Good!" Mo Fei looked at it for a while, and couldn't help but praised loudly: "How is this thing made."

"Mr. Hui, this thing was made by my general, and I don't know what it was made of!"

Could it be that he was a little disappointed, and then asked: "How much is this thing?"

"Mr. Hui, this time I brought 2 million pieces of white paper, 100,000 pieces of inkstone paper, and thousands of books of various kinds of classics."

"How much is it worth?" Could it be that his eyes lit up and his tone was a little urgent.

Jiang Kui respectfully said: "Before leaving, my generals ordered that if a great writer like Mr. buys it, one piece of plain white paper, one hundred dollars for inkstone paper, and one thousand dollars for the collection of the Books of Masters bound in volumes. Book."

"Good! Very good, I bought this batch of papers and scriptures at Jixia Academy!"

Two million pieces of white paper for one piece of paper, a total of 2 million dollars, 10,000 pieces of inkstone paper for a hundred dollars, a total of one million dollars, and a thousand-fold collection of the classics for a thousand dollars, a total of one million dollars.

In other words, this time the total income is 4 million dollars.

Those who can enter Jixia Academy to study are the sons of princes and ministers. Therefore, Jixia Academy is quite rich, and millions of dollars are just a drizzle.

After the paper and books were delivered to Jixia Academy, Jiang Kui received 4 million after the handover.

After receiving four million dollars, he ordered his men to take the money to buy food.

Nowadays, the wars are continuing, and the price of grain is increasing year by year. Each liter of corn is about 4 yuan, 4 million yuan, and one million liters of corn can be bought.

1 million liters of corn is not a small amount, and it will not be available for a while.

It took nearly ten days to buy one million liters of corn, and during these ten days, the paper also caused a sensation in Shangdang County of Chu State.

Before the advent of paper, bamboo slips were the cheapest carrier for writing text, and a piece of bamboo slips cost about five dollars, while the expensive ones were white silk. Those who could afford silk were nobles.

Therefore, after the appearance of paper, a cheap and easy-to-carry carrier, it has swept the entire Shangdang County in just ten days.

And Jiang Kui, a paper merchant, has also become famous, and he is visited by countless people every day.

And signed orders for tens of millions of blank sheets and hundreds of thousands of inkstone sheets.

Jiang Kui signed an order at the Shangdang Congress, and Linshui County is also stepping up the production of ordinary white paper and inkstone paper.

At the same time, the 30,000-strong army led by Gu Min, together with auxiliary troops and civilians, totaled 50,000 people came to Yi'an County.

After reaching Yi'an County, Gu Min's army of tens of thousands of grain was only enough for three days. When he proposed to ask the governor of Hetai for grain, the other party directly opened the treasury.

Looking at the empty treasury, Gu Min was dumbfounded.

No food, how can there be no food.

Gu Min couldn't help being furious, and ordered Hetai to be taken down on the spot. Then, while interrogating where Hetai's grain went, he sent people to Fan County to ask for grain.

That night, the fact that Hetai and Ye Ye first personally escorted hundreds of cars of money and grain out of the city simply could not stand the investigation.

Therefore, in just one day, Gu Min investigated the whole thing clearly, and Hetai actually sent food to Qi.

After learning the news, Gu Min couldn't help but get furious. Just when he was about to give the order to kill Hetai and Yexian, Song Yan appeared.

Then he enslaved Gu Min and the nine soldiers who won the prize with his puppet magic power.

Then, just like Zhao Yan, Gu Min carried out a major purge of the army, killing all the stubborn members who were loyal to Zhao, and then took the army to defect to Qi.

The Qi State's soldiers also increased from 26,000 to 56,000.

Song Xiu and Shen Du were even more in awe of Song Yan, and Meng Bozhao's attitude was even more respectful.

And Song Yan also took the opportunity to take the entire territory of Yi'an County and the entire territory of Fan County.

In this way, the three counties can each form a corner and jointly defend against the enemy.

For ordinary Qi civilians, it is worthy of joy and encouragement to have three counties in Qi, but for Song Yan, it is a troublesome matter. Having three counties means that many more people will follow him to eat. .

Fortunately, Jiang Kui returned with a million liters of food not long after winning the army of 30,000.

There were also some businessmen from Dongdang County.

Jiang Kui's return made Song Yan very happy, and he rewarded the entire caravan.

What excites him even more is that the merchants who came back with him all need to buy paper.

To this end, Song Yan also personally met these merchants and sold each merchant 2 million pieces of plain white paper and 100,000 pieces of inkstone paper, for a total of 22 million pieces of plain white paper and 1.1 million pieces of inkstone paper.

Revenue reached 33 million dollars.

However, after satisfying these merchants, Song Yan put forward a request that if he wants to trade next time, he has to exchange grain, and every liter of corn can be exchanged for five sheets of ordinary white paper.

After the paper was sold in Chu State, Song Yan ordered Jiang Kui to take the caravan to Qin State, and at the same time arranged two other caravans to go to Yan State and Zhao State.

After the caravan set off, Song Yan further expanded the paper mill, because the current paper mill can only support the sales of Chu State. If the sales of Yan State and Zhao State are opened, the output will not keep up with the sales volume.