Chapter 499: Foundation

"Your Highness, I have found a way to make Your Highness not have to copy books in the future. Reading"

Seeing Zhao Xu, Mi Wen said hurriedly, as if he was afraid that his credit would be taken away.

Zhao Xu heard this and suddenly remembered that there was something he had not done for a long time.

However, with Mi Wen in front of him, he decided to listen to what Mi Wen said first.

"What method, tell me." Zhao Xu sat down on the stone bench in the front yard. His feet were a little sore from running around.

"Your Highness, do you know that there is a printing method that carves calligraphy and paintings on wood boards? Just carve the words in the book on a piece of wood, and this piece of wood can continuously print the words on paper." Mi Wen was beaming with joy.

Zhao Xu asked him to be the head of the Propaganda Department, and he immediately got busy.

At this time, he found that the Propaganda Department needed to post a lot of notices, and there would be a lot of repeated text in them.

If you copy it, it will take a lot of time.

Especially the newspaper mentioned by the King of Yan, if you copy it page by page, you can't deliver the newspaper in time the next day.

After thinking hard, he suddenly remembered that when he was in the capital, some dandies had said that the erotic paintings were carved on wood boards and then printed.

So he walked around Yancheng and found that there were indeed merchants who made a living in this business.

Zhao Xu heard this and nodded gently, "Yes, it seems that you have thought deeply about it. What you are talking about is called woodblock printing, but this printing technology has great disadvantages. It is time-consuming and labor-intensive. It is also inconvenient to store a large number of book plates, and the slogans have to be changed frequently. The woodblocks are useless after use. In short, it is too rigid."

After a pause, he said, "In two days, this king will take you to see the real printing technology."

"Real printing technology?" Mi Wen was stunned.

Now, he finally understood why the officials and generals of Yanzhou were like well-behaved students in front of the King of Yan.

Because the King of Yan was reminding them how ignorant they were all the time.

"Yes, Your Highness." Mi Wen suddenly became excited again.

He could learn a lot from such a King of Yan.

After Mi Wen left, Zhao Xu went to the study, wrote and drew on a piece of paper, and then asked someone to send it to the workshop.

On the morning of the third day, Mi Wen arrived as scheduled.

He waved to Mi Wen and took Mi Wen to the workshop.

Today, the workshop area and the Armory Department have been completely separated.

The Armory Department is equivalent to a military factory, and the workshop is under the responsibility of the business.

All civilian things are developed here.

The printing technology mentioned by Mi Wen is exactly the technology he has forgotten.

When he arrived at the workshop, Zhao Xu met Yang He.

After a salute, Yang He said a few words in a slick tone, and then led the two to a workshop in the northeast corner.

At this moment, the craftsmen in the workshop are casting metal cubes, and the standard fonts of Dasong Kingdom are engraved on these metal blocks.

This is the typeface of movable type printing that Zhao Xu wants to show Mi Wen.

Next, he will let the business build a new workshop in the workshop area.

This workshop will be directly handed over to Mi Wen's Propaganda Department.

However, this workshop will not use the old wooden molds and clay molds, but will adopt more advanced lead printing.

After all, the molds of the original movable type printing are easily damaged and have a short service life.

This improved version of movable type printing originated in the fifteenth century of the contemporary era.

Once launched, it made printers at the time a lot of money.

Because lead type not only saved them materials, but also increased the speed of printing.

If his estimate is correct, lead printing can allow a movable type plate to print 500 sheets of paper a day, which is definitely enough for the current Propaganda Department.

Even if there are ten movable type workshops, 5,000 newspapers can be printed a day.

Mi Wen walked around the densely carved movable type.

Now he finally understood why the King of Yan said that the woodblock printing he talked about was slow and very rigid.

At this moment, the scene in front of him would surprise anyone who saw it.

The molds at the hands of the craftsmen are not only numerous, but also of various specifications.

Some fonts are large, some are small, so that different sizes of characters can be printed on the same piece of paper according to requirements.

"Your Highness, I am really ignorant. I didn't expect that there is such a magical printing technique in the world. In my opinion, this is the gospel of the poor scholars in the world!!" Mi Wen was excited.

The scholars in Dasong, like contemporary scholars, are a little bit noble in their hearts.

So, although he was surprised that the King of Yan could make so many strange things and earn a lot of silver through trade.

He admired it in his heart, but he didn't worship it.

But this movable type printing is different. He can see the great value of this printing technique.

With this, there is no need for scholars to copy books.

They will be able to have the ability to print a large number of books, making books cheap.

As a poor man, he has experienced the hardship of not having money to buy books.

Zhao Xu smiled. Mi Wen's reaction was not unexpected. He said, "I know what you mean, but if we want ordinary people in Yanzhou to be able to afford books, there is still one thing missing besides printing technology."

"What is it?" Mi Wen suddenly became nervous, as if he was afraid that a beautiful dream would suddenly break.

"This thing is paper. Without paper, how can we print books? Paper is not cheap, and the price of books cannot be reduced either." Zhao Xu said.

In addition to printing technology and ink, printing also requires qualified paper.

While Zhao Xu asked Yang He to build a printing workshop, he also did not neglect the construction of a papermaking workshop.

From ancient times to the present, the core of papermaking technology has basically not changed much.

The quality of paper produced by the ancients is also good.

Xuan paper is a unique skill of contemporary my country.

Therefore, the technology of papermaking is not a problem, the problem is how to improve the efficiency of papermaking.

Simply put, papermaking is divided into four papermaking processes: degumming, pulping, papermaking, and drying.

Degumming is to use steaming and soaking methods to make the grass and wood fiberized in alkali solution.

The subsequent pulping is to beat the fiber into paste, which is the most complicated and labor-intensive process.

The third step of papermaking is to use a screen to scoop out the pulp and form a thin layer on the net, which is wet paper.

Finally, these wet papers are placed in the sun to dry.

Therefore, in the current Dasong, the craftsmen in the papermaking workshop can only beat the grass and wood into pulp manually or by animal power.

This is the biggest problem.

However, if there is a steam engine, the most laborious problem in the papermaking process is no longer a problem.

When he told Yang He to make movable type, he asked Yang He to buy a private paper mill.

At present, everything in the paper mill was moved to the workshop area, in a separate workshop, and paper was temporarily made according to the old method.

Once the steam engine arrived, the paper production of this workshop would increase dramatically.

The foundation of education was laid.