Section 58: Datang's Plan for Enriching the Country III
Today I would like to thank all the friends who gave me tips. I have been writing for so long and I haven’t even thanked you specifically. It’s rude.
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There was no comfort! So, he had to harden his heart. This was the first time Li Yuanxing had hardened his heart in front of girls. In order not to reveal his cover-up, Li Yuanxing immediately changed the subject.
"I want you to lower the price of a book to thirty cents. Is that okay?"
The three girls were dumbfounded. Thirty yuan was too low a price.
The three women all asked for advice from the people behind them, the shopkeepers and stewards they brought with them. Now it was time for these people to give their ideas and come up with solutions.
Wang Yuyan was the first to react, and a shopkeeper stood up: "Your Highness, forty words is only enough for the price of one printing plate. Such a book requires forty pages according to the number of words, not to mention the cost of paper.
, to print 500 volumes, the printing plates alone cost 1,600 words. If divided into each book, that is more than 30 words printing plates, plus labor costs, ink, and paper. The cost of a book is
About forty-five cents."
Li Yuanxing listened silently and nodded slightly.
Qiuxue of the Lu family had just lost a game, and this time the family boss also came out and said.
"Your Highness, if you use this kind of paper, you can't find it and you can't make it. Moreover, the font of this book is very small, and the whole book has about 600 words. So according to the existing technology, each printing plate, that is,
There are about thirty-five words, and this book only has twenty pages of text. I dare not add pictures. The cost of engraving pictures to accompany them is too high. Therefore, the cost of this book is thirty-five words."
"The cost is thirty-five cents!" Li Yuanxing nodded and signaled to continue.
"Your Highness, the entire Analects of Confucius is more than 11,000 words long. The total cost is over 100 words. A fine print would cost at least 150 words. Adding in the store's expenses, selling 200 words is already extremely expensive.
reasonable price!"
After the two shopkeepers finished speaking, they did not dare to sit down and stood there with a bow. Since two people have already spoken, nothing the Wang family can say can be better than these two shopkeepers. Too much nonsense is not good in front of King Qin.
A good thing, so the Wang family didn't stand up.
Li Yuanxing knocked on the table and counted: "It's expensive, it's already worth dozens of buckets of rice!"
The three women looked at each other, not knowing how to answer these words.
Li Yuanxing patted the table lightly: "General Li, I will give you a death order. I will bring out something soon. If one of the foreigners sees it, kill one. If two people see it, kill a pair. Who dares to let it happen?
When the strangers saw him, they killed his whole family."
"Respect the order of the King of Qin!" Li Zhang stood up. At this time, he finally understood. That memorial was simply a trivial matter, and he did not need to write it. The King of Qin just said it to His Majesty the Emperor. The business is now, and the entire Qin Wangzhuang
Everyone praised the King of Qin as being kind and kind. Even the King of Qin said that he wanted to kill his whole family. It was certainly not a small matter.
"Old Wolf!" Li Yuanxing nodded.
The old wolf stood up, clapped his hands, and four sergeants carried in a long desk, several times larger than those tables, and placed it in the middle of the tent.
Then several more sergeants came in and placed some wooden boxes on the ground.
Old Wolf waved his hand to signal the sergeants to go out, then placed a wooden board on the table and placed a wooden frame on it. When continuing the shaft, Old Wolf was so clumsy that he couldn't assemble it for a long time.
Li Yuanxing kicked Lao Lang: "Go and call the foreman Lao Bai!"
Lao Lang was about to agree, but he heard Wang Yuyan say: "Why don't you let my shopkeeper give it a try!"
"Come on!" Li Yuanxing waved his hand and untied his clothes. When he was about to throw them aside, Cui Yingying's two maids took the clothes over. Li Yuanxing actually didn't like this suit with several layers, even if it was silk.
The clothes were also very hot. I took off my outer shirt, leaving only a short shirt underneath.
For a prince, this is already a disgrace.
The thing was finally installed. Li Yuanxing picked up another bamboo tube on the ground and pulled out a piece of wax paper. He was going to tighten the wax paper on the wooden frame. It turned out that Li Yuanxing's craftsmanship was not much better than Lao Lang's, and he always felt that the wax paper was a little rough.
wrinkle.
"Your Highness, let me do it!" Wang Yuyan was very skilled with his hands. Besides, this thing was much easier than embroidering the silk. After Wang Yuyan took over, the wax paper was stretched flat in the blink of an eye.
Li Yuanxing took out a roller, filled it with ink, then spread a piece of white paper on the wooden board, pressed the wax paper on it, lightly brushed the roller twice, and then picked up the wax paper. A pattern appeared on the white paper below.
There are only twenty characters in total in the subtitles. It is written that it is noon on the day of hoeing, and the sweat is dripping from the weeds in the soil. Who knows that every grain of rice on the plate is hard work.
His handwriting is not very good, and Li Yuanxing's ability to practice calligraphy is still far behind.
Even the three women are much smarter than Li Yuanxing.
But this poem is excellent. The twenty simple words describe the suffering of farmers. Cui Yingying also came to the case, took the piece of paper from Li Yuanxing's hand, read it over and said: "Your Highness is pity for the farmers.
This poem should be passed down through the ages!”
"Another stupid girl." Li Yuanxing laughed and cursed again, and Cui Yingying's face turned red.
This time Wang Yuyan really thought that he had the upper hand, and immediately said: "Your Highness is talking about the printing technique, but it is very clever."
"If you don't print a lot, this thing can be used. Print some three-character sutras for the children in the village. This piece of wax paper is enough to print hundreds of copies. Three or five sheets of wax paper are enough for the children in the village." Li Yuanxing first started.
What comes to mind is the children in the village, not the nephews in the palace.
A shopkeeper also tried it and found this method to be extremely clever.
But they did not exclaim, nor did they flatter Li Yuanxing. After coming in for a while, from the way Li Zheng old farmer spoke, they knew that King Qin valued talent, ability, and people who did practical things. He only knew how to flatter.
The King of Qin will hate these people. They are here to save face for their master, so be careful with everything you say and do.
Even if this new printing method makes them as excited as seeing a mountain of silver, they must remain calm.
"Your Highness, it seems that it is not easy to maintain the printed words, and the ink will stick to your hands!" A shopkeeper boldly put forward an opinion.
All the shopkeepers, including the three women, held their breath, waiting for Li Yuanxing's reaction.
Li Yuanxing looked the shopkeeper up and down, making everyone even more nervous.
The shopkeeper felt that his legs were weak. Being looked at by King Qin like this, the next step was probably to punish him.
Li Yuanxing suddenly stretched out his hand and slapped the manager on the shoulder: "Okay!" The shopkeeper felt as if his soul had flown nine days later, and was brought back again by a good word. He was really shocked and broke out in a sweat.
.
Li Yuanxing continued: "This thing is just a little troublesome. It's natural to ask you to come here and you have to contribute. As for this wax paper, can it be made better? Can it save money? Can it be used more times? Besides, can it be made better?
How can this ink be better, how can it not stick to your hands? You..." Li Yuanxing picked up the one printed by Cui Yingying and made a few gestures: "You guys go and think of a way, I just want results."
"Yes!" Li Yuanxing has already proposed a plan, and what they want to do is optimize.
It would be a joke for someone who has been the shopkeeper of a study for decades if he doesn't know how to print. What's more, they have enough craftsmen and they will definitely come up with a solution.
Li Yuanxing looked back at the young eunuch: "You, you must do a good job in communicating with the study in the future!"
The little eunuch suddenly fell to his knees and could not utter a single word. He just kowtowed.
Li Yuanxing ignored the little eunuch. He was somewhat used to how these people went crazy with excitement. He turned to Li Chang and said, "General Li, is this worth killing?"
"It's worth it!" Li Chang understood that Li Yuanxing didn't like foreigners learning the clever things of the Tang Dynasty. Even if the things were ordinary, he would still answer that they were worth killing.
Li Yuanxing was very proud: "This is actually the simplest. Now let me show you the artifact!"
It is unrealistic to bring printers back to the Tang Dynasty. However, there is still no problem with a box of type. There are 3,000 commonly used Chinese characters, plus 3,000 high-consumption frequently used characters, and then 2,000 spaces and punctuation marks, etc., in total
Eight thousand words only fit into a small box, because the font is only modern size 5.
For Datang, this was really too small.
Li Yuanxing was good at killing people in modern times, but in the Tang Dynasty his level of killing people was not top-notch. Li Yuanxing couldn't do this kind of delicate typesetting work, and he was no better than Lao Lang.
Finally, Li Yuanxing took out a full page and stuffed it into the impression.
"Anyway, that's it, just print it." The ink used for type printing is even more special. Li Yuanxing only brought a small bottle. After applying it, he took a piece of modern A4 paper and tried it. A piece of paper was full.
It appeared in eight hundred words.
Although there is no typesetting or format, it represents an innovation.
All the shopkeepers knelt down. They could no longer use words to describe what they saw. The three women's fingers were trembling as they pointed at the template. They knew very well that thirty words in a book was no longer a casual sentence from Li Yuanxing.
A joke, with which everything can become real.
Moreover, they will get double the profits.
How many literati want to write books, but they never save enough money to engrave plates.
Now with King Qin's clever method, anyone can print his own doctrine into a book.
There will be more scholars in Datang.
Li Yuanxing shrugged his shoulders: "I asked you to come here. You didn't run in vain. Now you understand what I want!"
"I will understand what you want to say back to Your Highness!" all the shopkeepers replied in unison.
At this time, Li Yuanxing noticed that among the eleven shopkeepers who came, nine were already in tears. Li Yuanxing pulled up the one closest to him with concern: "Why are you crying? If you have any difficulties, please tell me."
"Your Majesty!" The one crying even more miserably. But the one behind him said: "When I was young, my family was poor and we had no books to read. We couldn't afford to buy books or copy them. At this time, I saw the poor students all over the world.
If you have any books to read, we are grateful to His Highness the King of Qin for his kindness in teaching this magical skill."