"What did you say?" Li Shimin asked loudly like a cat whose tail was stepped on.
Fang Xuanling also asked uncertainly: "Can you solve it? How to solve it?"
Seeing such a big reaction from the two of them, Zhang San touched his nose and said, "How about we go back and talk about it? Look at how uncomfortable I am, go back and wash your face and talk slowly?"
"Okay, go back now and see what you can do." Li Shimin replied.
Out of trust in Zhang San's creativity, the two of them thought that Zhang San might actually have a way.
At this time, only a few villagers by the Wei River were left to watch the operation of the waterwheel. The rest had already left. Seeing Zhang San and others chatting, they did not dare to disturb them, so they went about their own business.
Zhang San, Fang Xuanling, and Li Shimin returned home. Xiaoyu and Xiaomei came forward to salute one after another. However, there was only one room in the house, so the two of them could not spend much time together. After meeting Li Shimin, Fang Xuanling, and Zhang San, they left the two of them.
Arrange to go to the county man's house to prepare for moving tomorrow.
Seeing the two women leaving, Li Shimin asked Zhang San what he could do. Zhang San took out his suitcase, found a small box and placed it next to Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling: "Your Majesty, Prime Minister Fang, let me demonstrate first."
.”
"What is this?" Li Shimin asked curiously.
Fang Xuanling was also very strange, but in front of Li Shimin, Fang Xuanling had always behaved very low-key, and would not speak if he could.
Zhang San opened the small box, took out a few small seal-like artifacts, found a piece of white paper, dipped the seal in ink pad and printed it on the white paper, and the characters appeared one by one.
"Isn't this a seal seal?" Li Shimin said.
He originally thought that Zhang San would come up with something profound, but when he saw that it was just a few small seal seals and the production was rough, Li Shimin was immediately disappointed.
Seeing the disappointed expressions on the two people's faces, Zhang San reorganized his words and said: "Your Majesty is right. This is indeed a small seal made by Wei Chen himself when he was free. The method I mentioned was also inspired by this."
While talking, Zhang San took out all the seals made from five or six small clay blocks, and also took out a small wooden grid. These small wooden grids were just big enough to hold each clay block.
Then he dipped it in his own special ink pad, and then covered it with white paper again. After taking it away, Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling saw six small characters on it: "Zhang San, Xiaomei, Xiaoyu".
Seeing this, although Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling understood Zhang San's intention, they still couldn't turn around for a while.
"What you are doing is very similar to engraving and printing. Although there are some differences, what problem can this solve?" Fang Xuanling asked.
Li Shimin also waited for Zhang San's explanation.
"Xiang Xiang, every time the existing woodblock printing is printed, people need to paste the copied text on a special wooden board, then leave the reverse side of the words on it, and then cut off the areas without words, so that
The text is raised and then printed on paper with ink, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and if typos occur, the engraving needs to be re-engraved.”
"As a result, it will cost a lot to print a volume of text. Even if some old scholars want to publish a book, it will be in vain if they have no money to support it."
Zhang San still knows a little about the engraving and printing of the Tang Dynasty. The last time he went to the city to buy books, he spent a lot of money on it. Therefore, it is very difficult for children from poor families to learn knowledge and culture. At least the money for buying books can be spent on it.
Most people turned away.
The reason why the Qiwang family of the fifth surname, headed by the Zheng family, was able to make waves at this time was because they stood at the commanding heights of knowledge and controlled most of the printing, bookshops, papermaking and other industries of the Tang Dynasty.
In the early years of the Li Tang Dynasty, a large number of civil servants were from these families. In addition, due to the imperfection of the imperial examination at that time, many students also needed to rely on their recommendations to enter the officialdom, which allowed the power of these families to develop further.
, which is also Li Shimin’s biggest headache at this time.
Because Li Shimin came to the throne in an illegitimate way, in order to show that he used talents in an eclectic way and appointed people on their merits, a group of bureaucrats from aristocratic families headed by Wu Xingqiwang, a group of former ministers of the Supreme Emperor Li Yuan, as well as former ministers of Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji appeared in the court.
These people secretly competed with the former bureaucrats of the Qin Palace, and there were many disagreements between them. Li Shimin was particularly dissatisfied with the aristocratic family's overt and covert practices, so he always tried every means to weaken the power of these people.
"I call this movable type printing. You only need to use the yellow clay to make commonly used characters into blanks with the same specifications, engrave reverse single characters, the characters are slightly raised, use fire to harden these blanks, and add special ink
, every time you print, you just need to arrange the text on the board like this as needed."
"In this way, printing books is not only easier, but also takes less time." Zhang San explained.
When Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling heard this, their eyes suddenly lit up. When Zhang San said this, they both understood. Although the method was simple, the idea was indeed wonderful.
"This method is wonderful. With this method, the cultural development of the Tang Dynasty can be rapidly improved." Li Shimin slapped the table and laughed.
This startled Zhang San, who was standing next to him, and thought: "How come people in the Tang Dynasty have such a temper, they are always startled."
"Zhang San, how did you come up with this idea? It's so ingenious!" Fang Xuanling asked.
"Oh, I just went to buy a book one time and felt it was too expensive, so I thought I would come back and print the books and sell them to make some money." Zhang San said casually. Movable type printing was indeed a way to get rich in Zhang San's plan, but later
There were too many things to do, so I put them on hold for the time being.
Hearing Zhang San's words full of businessmen, Fang Xuanling beside him was so angry that he thought this boy had some noble mentality and that his feelings were just over money.
Li Shimin didn't care about this. As long as it was good for the development of the Tang Dynasty, he didn't care what your original intention was. Li Shimin couldn't put it down these little things and started playing with them himself.
"Your words ruin such a good idea." Li Shimin said when he saw Zhang San's crooked words.
"Well, Wei Chen came from a humble background. When I was young, I didn't have money to buy pens, ink, paper and inkstones, so I could only practice with branches on the ground, so this calligraphy is really not very good."
Zhang Sanyi almost got angry when he heard that, I gave you good things and you still killed me. If I couldn't beat you, I would have stolen the table.
Li Shimin did not answer this, put down the lump of clay and said, "I have gained a lot from coming to your place this time, and I will reward you well in the future."
"This sentence again, isn't there something practical about it?" Zhang San complained in his heart, but he didn't dare to say that. "Thank you, Your Majesty, but I don't dare to take credit, as long as I can relieve the Emperor's worries."
Hearing what Zhang San said, Li Shimin was also pleased and said: "It's good if you have this intention."
Fang Xuanling also encouraged Zhang Sanduo to contribute to the country.
Zhang San also expressed his determination: "I will do my best and die."
After saying that, he suddenly said to Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling: "Your Majesty, Prime Minister, why don't the three of us do business together?"
Zhang San's words immediately confused the two of them.
"Business? You want to do business with me and Fang Qing?" Li Shimin couldn't believe his ears. This was the first time someone said he wanted to do business with him.
Fang Xuanling also couldn't believe it. Zhang San actually wanted to do business with the emperor and himself. What did he think?
Seeing the reaction of the two people, Zhang San asked: "What's wrong? Isn't this possible? As long as you have a role, I will take care of the rest. Do you want to listen to my plan first?"
Li Shimin calmed down and wanted to see what Zhang San's plan was. If not for Zhang San's performance today, Li Shimin really wanted to open Zhang San's head and see what was in his head. Do you dare?
He so blatantly told himself that he wanted to do business together.
In view of Zhang San's previous performance, Fang Xuanling also wanted to hear what kind of business Zhang San could talk about.