Gao Shi stepped forward and saw clearly that the engraving on the table was not a complete engraving, but a splicing of independent small wooden characters.
"This is." Gao Shi was surprised. He had never seen such individual words.
"This is movable type!"
The steward stepped forward, took one, and handed it to Gao Shi. Gao Shi took it and looked at it carefully. The movable type was very small, but the work was extremely delicate. It could be seen that it had been carefully polished.
He suddenly understood and said to Wang Jin: "When necessary, the content can be temporarily assembled, right?"
Wang Jin nodded, "This is for newspapers. It needs to be typed every day, so there is no need to re-engrav the board."
Gao Shi understood, looked at it carefully again, and sighed: "It's not easy to do this!"
The steward nodded, "It takes at least half a year to make a movable type. It must be soaked in oil, dried, and polished repeatedly so that the wooden movable type will be stable and will not expand with heat or shrink with cold. His Majesty said that it is best to use copper movable type. It is currently being developed.
Yes, it should be possible."
At this time, Gao Shi suddenly thought of something and asked: "There will definitely be a lot of repeated words in a newspaper, what should I do?"
The steward took out a large plate of type blanks from the drawer next to him and said with a smile: "Reporting to Gao Shijun, this is the completed type blank. You can add it temporarily when needed. In fact, we have prepared a lot of commonly used movable type, and each character has two characters.
Ten, if it’s not enough, just add more.”
Wang Jin said from the side: "This is your Majesty's intention to publish the Xun Bao first, so that everyone can become proficient in movable type printing and use the Xun Bao to practice, otherwise the Xun Bao can also use engraving!"
The steward smiled and said: "Wang Shangshu is right. It does require a skilled process. Typesetting is very time-consuming. It will take at least several months to become proficient. We plan to train more than a dozen typesetters so that everyone can be as fast as they are.
Flying, and this is the first time for movable type printing. We need to continuously accumulate experience and correct mistakes. In a few years, movable type printing will be used on a large scale."
After coming out of the printing hall, Gao Shi pondered for a moment and said to Wang Jin: "I suggest that we train students in movable type printing in schools to avoid being caught off guard and stuck in the printing process when private newspapers are allowed to run newspapers in the future."
Wang Jin nodded and smiled: "Your Majesty has already thought of this issue. After the first "Jiaxing Chao Bao" is printed, a message will be published in the corner. Interested printers can come to the newspaper office to sign up and make an appointment.
Let’s go and see the movable type printing process together.”
"I understand, this is a good idea!"
Wang Jin smiled and said: "The next step is to start preparations. You may need Gao Shijun to formulate a plan, how many people, how much property, official offices, etc. are needed. In addition, Wei Xiangguo has arranged a deputy for the Shijun, named Lu
Dahui, Bo, the owner of the Chongwen Library, is responsible for printing books. He is more professional and can assist Gao Shijun in getting things done."
Gao Shi smiled and nodded, "That's great, otherwise I would be so confused and don't know where to start?"
It’s already seventy points cooler in Chang’an in September, but it’s still as hot as summer in Quanzhou.
Du Huan arrived in Jiaozhou with 3,000 troops, bringing the total military strength in Jiaozhou to 6,000.
Jiaozhou has been a place of great importance to the Central Plains dynasty since ancient times. The ancients knew that the land in the alluvial plain was the most fertile and suitable for human habitation.
Therefore, the two most fertile lands in the Lingnan region are the Pearl River Delta and the Red River Delta. The Red River Delta is Jiaozhou, which is today's Hanoi, Vietnam.
As early as when Zhao Tuo established the Nanyue Kingdom, Jiaozhou was one of the most important farming areas of the Nanyue Kingdom.
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Annan Protectorate was established, and Jiaozhou was further developed. When the Central Plains was deeply tyrannized by the Anshi Rebellion, Jiaozhou was not affected. Instead, many Han people fled to Jiaozhou.
However, the Anshi Rebellion affected Jiaozhou from another aspect, that is, the Tang Dynasty had financial difficulties and was unable to maintain the garrison in Jiaozhou, which caused the military strength of Jiaozhou to drop sharply from 10,000 to 1,000.
The negative consequences of the reduction in military strength soon appeared. First, they were spied on by Nanzhao. For decades, Nanzhao had been spying on Jiaozhou's land and its seaport, and tried to send troops to occupy it several times, but failed due to various reasons.
If Li Ye had not launched the Nanzhao War, Jiaozhou would have been captured by Nanzhao sooner or later, but now Nanzhao has no such chance.
Next is the invasion of Shanyue and Nanman. Before the Tang army maintained strong military strength, the Shanyue and Nanman people never dared to act rashly. However, since the garrison dropped sharply, the Shanyue and Nanman people went down from the mountains to plunder property and people from time to time, causing hardship to the people of Jiaozhou.
Unspeakable.
Then there was the invasion of pirates. Pirates from Sumatra and Tianzhu invaded the coast of Jiaozhou from time to time, raped, burned and killed, and committed all kinds of evil.
Fortunately, after Li Ye became the supervisor of the state, when the situation in the Central Plains eased, he sent General Zhang Boyi as the governor of Jiaozhou and added two thousand troops. The effect was immediate. Zhang Boyi took the initiative to lead an army to attack the Vietnamese barbarians in Shannan, killing thousands of the enemy.
Rescued thousands of people who had been robbed.
Zhang Boyi also set up an ambush near the mouth of the Red River. When hundreds of pirates entered the river mouth, a thousand Tang troops cut off the pirates' retreat and killed hundreds of pirates.
Pirates no longer dare to go deep into the hinterland and can only harass along the coast.
When Du Huan arrived again with three thousand troops, Zhang Boyi realized that the time had come for Datang to completely counterattack.
In the coach's room, as the emperor's imperial envoy, Du Huan was explaining the emperor's intentions to the generals.
"The strategic intentions of the emperor and the imperial court are very clear. The first is to protect the strategic area of Jiaozhou and quell the banditry; the second is to capture the Champa State and use the Champa State as the foundation to explore the fertile fields of Chenla. The imperial court wants food.
.”
Zhang Boyi pondered for a moment and asked: "Excuse me, Mr. Du, do you have naval support?"
Du Huan nodded, "Three hundred warships from the Tang Dynasty navy will support us soon!"
Zhang Boyi was overjoyed. It would be easier if he had a naval force. The pirates entrenched in Champa must be wiped out in one fell swoop.
Zhang Boyi immediately arranged for local officials to accompany Du Huan to check the situation in Jiaozhou.
The local official was named Yang Shengzhi. His grandfather came to Jiaozhou to serve as a minor official during the Kaiyuan period. He gave birth to five sons, and each son had several grandchildren. In just three generations, the family became a big family in Jiaozhou.
Yang Shengzhi currently serves as the military governor of Jiaozhou, Cao Shen, and is very familiar with the people's livelihood in Jiaozhou.
Du Huan rode his horse slowly among the fields. This is the paddy field in the south of Jiaozhi County, and it is also the largest paddy field in Jiaozhou. The green paddy fields can be seen as far as the eye can see. Yang Shengzhi pointed at the paddy fields and said with a smile: "There are six thousand paddy fields around Jiaozhi County."
There are three hectares in the east, west and south of the city, which are relatively balanced. We implement a rotational farming system, with one year of farming and two years of rest, so we only cultivate more than 2,000 hectares each year."
“Farming three seasons a year?”
Yang Shengzhi nodded, "There are three crops a year, and one acre of land can produce 1,500 kilograms of rice."
"This is a huge yield! Two thousand hectares of fertile land can produce more than two million shi per year."
Du Huan exclaimed: "What is the population of Jiaozhou?"
“There are 150,000 to 60,000 Han people in Jiaozhou and 30,000 households, most of whom make a living by farming.”
"On average, each person has more than 100 kilograms of food every year, which is very abundant!"
Yang Shengzhi smiled bitterly, "Du Shijun said it was the best time. If there were no Nanman and pirate harassment, and everyone worked together, we could produce a lot of food. But the problem is that when the pirates and Nanman come, all the people will run away, and they will
They robbed grain, robbed cattle, and burned down houses. It would be good if they could grow one crop a year. But for so many years, the grain was barely enough to make ends meet."
"Don't worry about this problem in the future. This time we will kill all the pirates. We will also kill the Nanman and Shanyue people who regard the Han as enemies. This is the emperor's will and will not be punished by the Nanman and Shanyue people."
There is no chance of forgiveness, it is impossible to hope that they will become kind, only the dead are the safest."
Yang Shengzhi nodded, "This is the pragmatic approach. These Southern Barbarians don't know what benevolence and righteousness are. They only know how to bully the weak and fear the strong. When you are strong, they don't dare to mess with you. When you are a little weak, they come immediately with swords. They
How many Han people have been killed and how many women have been raped, we all hate them so much that we can only avenge our dead compatriots by killing them all!"