Li Xiaolu was a prostitute. She went to high-end places, so she had seen a lot of strange things. For example, she had seen almost all the rare things sold from the Tang Empire to overseas, including the mirror that could clearly reflect one's face.
However, due to the difficulty of transportation and the insufficient production of large mirrors, there was no chance for large full-body mirrors to be sold overseas. Therefore, Li Xiaolu, who had never been to the Tang Empire, naturally had no chance to see a full-body mirror. Moreover, even if she went to the Tang Empire, she might not be able to see a full-body mirror. After all, there were so many powerful people in Chang 'an, and there were not enough for them to compete for. How could she have a chance to see a full-body mirror? Generally, the mirrors in brothels were only half-body mirrors. Only when she was lucky enough to enter a noble's house could she have a chance to see a full-body mirror.
The essential difference between a half-body mirror and a full-body mirror was that one could only sit and look in the mirror to see the upper body, while a full-body mirror could stand and look in the mirror to see the whole body. There was an essential difference.
After all, a half-body mirror could only show what one's face looked like, while a full-body mirror could show one's figure and see what one's figure was like.
Since Li Xiaolu entered the cabin, she had been twisting her body in front of the full-body mirror, constantly observing her figure. At the same time, she also rotated her body to see what her usual movements were like.
In short, Li Xiaolu was very happy. She liked this full-body mirror very much, and even liked it very much. This was also a woman's nature. All women liked the mirror and liked to show off. This would never change, not even in ten thousand years.
Ang Lee did not have the habit of looking in the mirror. He cared more about whether this room was clean enough and whether it was comfortable to live in. This was what he cared about most.
The materials for the decoration were all personally selected by Li An, so there was definitely no problem with the quality. The cleanliness was definitely the same, so there was definitely no problem.
Ang Lee only checked the room once and praised his subordinate with satisfaction, saying that he had done a good job. The room was decorated beautifully and cleanly. The lighting was also very good. The privacy and soundproofing were also very good. Overall, he was very satisfied.
Next to the living room was the bathroom. There was only a narrow aisle in the middle, and in the middle of the aisle was a toilet bowl, which was also the place to relieve oneself.
Such a design was not only convenient for daily life, but at the same time, the air in the bathroom and toilet would not pollute the living space, thus satisfying Ang Lee's need for a healthy life.
When Ang Lee entered the bathroom, Li Xiaolu also followed in. As a frequent bathing person, she was most familiar with the bathroom. However, it was the first time for her to see such a luxurious bathroom. She ran around excitedly.
"Assistant Minister Li, this bathroom has just been renovated. There is still a lot of work to be done, and the air is not very good."
His subordinate said.
Looking at the construction rubbish on the ground, Li An already knew that the work here was not completely done. Many of the renovations were not in place yet. Even so, in Li Xiaolu's eyes, this was already a top-notch bathroom configuration. With such a huge bathtub, it would be too comfortable to take a bath.
There were more than a dozen craftsmen working in the kitchen. There was too much construction waste piled up in it, so it was not suitable for people to enter for the time being. Ang Lee just took a look outside and left.
Because it was under construction, the smell in all the cabins was not very good. Staying in a cabin with a bad smell for a long time was a great harm to the human body. Therefore, Ang Lee soon pulled Li Xiaolu to the deck. The place here was big enough, and the air was fresh enough.
Although it was inevitable that there would be a fishy smell by the sea, standing on the tall deck, there was no such smell at all. Because the sea breeze blew from the depths of the sea, there was no smell of the sea at all, but only the fresh smell of the depths of the sea.
Shelves were being built on the deck. The main load-bearing part was steel, and the secondary part was wooden shelves. This was to prepare to put flower pots. Sailing on the sea was very boring. The feeling of not seeing the land was very bad. If you could see green plants on the ship, it would make people feel very happy. It would make people feel happy, which was good for people's physical and mental health.
Not only was Ang Lee's ship equipped with a lot of flower pots, but all the other ships also had flower pots on the deck. Various kinds of land plants were to be planted in them. Of course, the scale and quantity of the allocation were definitely different. It was impossible to make all of them on such a large scale. Otherwise, the consumption would be too great.
Ang Lee equipped his ship with a lot of flower pots and green plants. As for the rest of the ships, each ship only had a few flower pots and plants. The smaller ships only had a dozen flower pots. At least ten soldiers were responsible for one flower pot. In this way, ten soldiers could definitely take good care of a pot of plants. The plants would not die, and at the same time, the consumption of fresh water would not be too much.
The flowerpots on the other ships were smaller, and the plants in them were all small and hardy plants. On Li An's ship, not only were there more types of plants, there were also many large plants of all kinds. There were even two coconut trees on the lower part of the rear deck. The coconuts on these two coconut trees were still there, and they could be picked to quench their thirst at any time.
"Coconut trees, Assistant Minister Li actually moved coconut trees onto the ship. Haha."
Li Xiaolu was very excited. It was probably the first time she saw coconut trees on a ship. Naturally, she was very surprised.
Ang Lee was also very humorous. He smiled and said, "It will take a long time to reach land. When you want to drink coconut juice, just pick one. There are dozens of them on the two trees. It should be enough for the journey."
Li Xiaolu looked at Ang Lee in confusion and said, "If Assistant Minister Li likes to drink coconut juice, just pick more coconut fruits. Coconut fruits can be preserved for a long time after they are removed from the coconut tree. They won't spoil quickly. Why not just bring coconut fruits?"
"Wouldn't that be fresher? Freshly picked fruits are always fresher than those that have been stored for a period of time!"
Ang Lee continued.
"No, there's not much difference. You can't feel it at all."
Li Xiaolu was very familiar with the taste of coconut fruits. Whether it was freshly picked or stored for a period of time, she had drunk them all. Therefore, she knew that the taste was not much different.
Ang Lee smiled and said, "What's the difference between touching the hand of a young beauty and touching the hand of a young ugly woman?"
"I understand now. Assistant Minister Li must have felt that the freshly picked coconut fruits were delicious, so he planted coconut trees on the ship, right?"
Li Xiaolu said with a smile.
Ang Lee patted Li Xiaolu's head and nodded, "You're very smart. That's what he meant. Besides, don't you think that the ship looks beautiful after planting two coconut trees on the ship? How uncomfortable would it be to drift on the sea without seeing a single tree? With the company of coconut trees, your mood will be much better. "
After that, he walked to a cluster of tall water plants and asked, "Do you know what kind of grass this is?"
"There are many such water plants on the banks of the Nile River. I really don't know what they are called."
Li Xiaolu answered truthfully.
Ang Lee introduced, "This grass is very famous. This is Egyptian papyrus. It's a very important plant in Egypt. Do you know what important uses papyrus have?"
"I don't know. Can it be eaten?"
Li Xiaolu didn't stay in Egypt for long, so she naturally didn't know what papyrus was used for.
The so-called papyrus was originally a kind of herb in the lower reaches of the Nile River in Egypt. This kind of plant was relatively large, hard, upright, and tall. Its main characteristics were its height. Just like the reeds of the Tang dynasty, it lived underwater.
The shorter papyrus could grow to a height of one meter, and the taller papyrus could grow to a height of four or five meters. It was simply a giant among the grasses.
This kind of grass was different from the ordinary annual herbs. It was a perennial evergreen herb. The stalk was upright and clumped. It was triangular in shape and did not have branches. The flowers were small and light purple. It was a kind of aquatic plant that could be considered beautiful.
Papyrus was distributed in swamps, underwater lakes, and streams in wet parts of Africa. In deeper water, papyrus was the main plant that formed the vegetation. Nowadays, wild papyrus was distributed in parts of Africa. Even in many underwater lakes of the Tang dynasty, there were traces of papyrus.
This kind of grass was very tenacious. Whether it was in a wet forest or a dry desert, as long as the average temperature was over 20 degrees and the soil was not acidic or alkaline, it could grow well. The flowers of papyrus bloomed in late summer and tended to bloom in a semi-cool environment with full sunlight. Like many typical tropical plants, papyrus was very sensitive to frost. It absolutely couldn't encounter frost, or it would easily die.
In the future, many rich people would choose to decorate their private gardens with papyrus. It was very beautiful to plant tall papyrus in the garden. Most importantly, this kind of grass was very strong and didn't easily get infected. It could even be used to prevent water pollution.
Ang Lee smiled and said, "It can be eaten? How is that possible? You're really a little foodie. The first word of papyrus is' paper ', which means that this grass can be used to make paper. The paper used for writing in Egypt was made of this kind of grass. However, after the advanced paper of the Tang dynasty entered Egypt, papyrus was eliminated. Now, only the poor in Egypt still use this kind of backward paper. "
"Oh, so that's it! I didn't expect this kind of grass to be used to make paper. Then how does it become paper? "
Li Xiaolu asked curiously.
Ang Lee naturally knew the process of making papyrus into papyrus, so he explained it very patiently. He didn't stop until Li Xiaolu completely understood.
This so-called papyrus really couldn't be called paper in the modern sense. It was directly hammered out of the stems of plants. Its performance was very poor. It could be regarded as bamboo slips, but the process of making it was much more complicated than bamboo slips.
The process of making papyrus was very interesting. The selected material was the stem of papyrus. First, the hard green outer skin of the papyrus was cut off, and the light-colored inner stem was cut into strips of about 40 centimeters long. Then, it was cut into thin slices.
After the slices were cut, these slices needed to be soaked in water for at least six days to remove the sugar contained. After that, these strips were lined up side by side into a layer, and then covered with another layer. The two layers of slices had to be perpendicular to each other.
These slices were spread out between two layers of linen and beaten with a wooden mallet while wet. The two layers of slices were pressed into one piece and squeezed out the water. Then, they were pressed with stones and other heavy objects. After drying, they were polished with a pumice stone to obtain the finished papyrus.
Since only one side of the paper was used, the writing side had to be treated with sizing so that the ink would not seep out when writing.
At first, the ancient Egyptians rolled the paper into scrolls. Later, for convenience, they cut the paper into sheets to make copies. In this way, books appeared. Even in later generations, papyrus was occasionally used for painting, but the water pigment would deform the paper.
Papyrus could be preserved well in the dry climate of Egypt, but it was easily destroyed by mold in a humid environment. Therefore, many papyrus introduced from humid areas of Europe was destroyed. In dry Egypt, however, papyrus that was thousands of years old was still preserved. It was simply a miracle.
Ancient Egypt invented papyrus very early. It had been invented in 3000 BC, three thousand years earlier than Hua Xia's papyrus technology. Of course, Hua Xia's papyrus technology was real paper, and Egypt's papyrus was not paper. There was an essential difference.
After the invention of papyrus, it became the main writing medium. Not only did the Egyptians use it, but it was also widely exported to Europe for more than 3000 years. It was not until Hua Xia's advanced paper entered the overseas market that Egypt's papyrus began to fade.
In other words, Egypt's backward papyrus was glorious for a full 3000 years. This showed the status of this paper in ancient Egypt.
Even now, Ang Lee could still see a lot of papyrus in Egypt. After all, the Tang dynasty was too far away from Egypt. The cost of transporting paper from the Tang dynasty to Egypt would increase a lot. In this way, the advantage was not obvious.
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