Lin Xuan is confident that with the shock of explosives, the family will not take action against him in a short time.
Focus on printed books.
When the printing craftsmen were recruited, Lin Xuan placed the printing place in the academy.
Most of the academy's space is still unused, and it is now suitable for printing books.
"Master Liu, how are the preparations going?" Lin Xuan asked.
Liu Shilun said respectfully: "Go back to the Marquis. After yesterday's test, there are no problems. It can be officially printed today."
There is not much difference in printing between movable type printing and block printing.
It's just that before printing, the fonts need to be arranged and fixed according to the book.
Lin Xuan nodded and said: "Then let's start printing today. Remember, the words and punctuation marks must not be wrong."
"Yes!" Liu Shilun responded and began to direct the craftsmen to work.
The content of the first few pages of The Analects of Confucius has already been typed and fixed. I brushed ink on the bottom of the font and printed it on the cut paper. One side was printed.
The craftsmen waiting on the side quickly and carefully took the printed paper and put it on the shelf. After it dried, the other side could be printed on the back.
Lin Xuan walked to the shelf and looked at it. There was no difference between it and the one printed on the engraving. The handwriting was very clear.
…
"Your Majesty, Baiqi contacted the servants brought by the family that day and learned from them that the Marquis of Jingyang County and the people of the family were on the hillside that day. They didn't know what happened specifically, but the loud noise was indeed from Jingyang County.
Hou made it." Li Mu said.
Li Shimin's face darkened and he was a little unhappy. It had been three days since Lin Xuan met the people from the family.
How the loud noise was caused has not yet been found out.
However, he knew that Bai Qi was not to blame. After all, those few people who knew the truth were unable to do anything for the time being.
"What are Lin Xuan doing these days?" Li Shimin asked.
"Back to Your Majesty, the Marquis of Jingyang County has been busy recruiting craftsmen and printing books these days." Li Mu said.
"He is very laid-back." Li Shimin said angrily.
He had been thinking about the loud noise in the past few days, but Lin Xuan was acting calmly. Li Shimin felt unhappy when he thought of this.
As an emperor, if he is not happy, he will naturally not make others happy.
"Call him to me." Li Shimin ordered.
Since the investigation cannot reveal anything, let's ask directly. If this matter is not clarified, Li Shimin will have trouble sleeping and eating.
"Yes!" Li Mu responded and quickly went to find Lin Xuan.
…
I was busy until noon, and the first batch of ten Analects of Confucius was finally bound.
Xu Geng asked doubtfully: "Master Hou, this movable type printing technology only prints ten copies in one morning, which is slower than block printing. It doesn't seem to be as useful as Master Hou said."
Lin Xuan shook his head and said: "Now it's because of the fonts. When there are more fonts in the future, it will be faster. When printing with movable type printing, it will not be faster than engraving printing. Do you know why I still value it so much?
"
If we don’t start the comparison with engraving, but printing, movable type printing and engraving printing are all ink printing, so there is no difference.
But things don't work out that way.
Because of the need to add punctuation marks, the previous engravings needed to be re-engraved.
According to "The Analects of Confucius", a set of engravings of the Analects of Confucius requires several engraving masters and several months of engraving.
The number of words in "The Analects of Confucius" is relatively small among books, and those with more words would even take more than a year to carve out.
There are so many types of books, how long will it take to engrave them all?
Engraving engravings is not only time-consuming, but also very costly.
But movable type printing is different. As long as there is enough lead, it only takes one year to complete what woodblock printing cannot do for several years.
In a few years, it is possible to print a large number of books.
Xu Geng shook his head.
Lin Xuan smiled and said: "Do you know how much the Analects of Confucius costs? It's not more than fifty words. This is because there are not enough fonts now. Only a few pages can be combined at a time. After printing, it needs to be retyped, which wastes a lot of time.
Time. When the fonts are enough, the entire Analects can be typeset at one time, and the cost of a book of Analects should only be about forty words."
"What!" Xu Geng's eyes widened and his breathing became rapid.
How much did a copy of The Analects of Confucius cost before?
Did he remember whether it was four hundred or five hundred cents?
This is a tenfold difference.
He was also a boy from a poor family. If it hadn't been for a coincidence that he became a disciple of Kong Yingda, he wouldn't have been able to study.
Even so, due to his background, he could not hold an official position and could only work as a gentleman to a wealthy family.
Lin Xuan smiled and said: "Do you still think that movable type printing is of little significance?"
Xu Geng asked: "Master Hou, how many copies of this Analects are you going to sell?"
Lin Xuan said: "It will not exceed one hundred Wen at most."
If the Cui family is willing to help sell it, then according to the agreement, a profit needs to be reserved for them, so adding the cost and selling it for one hundred coins will be enough.
Lin Xuan didn't intentionally send money to the Cui family, he wanted the Cui family's sales channels all over the world.
It takes a lot of time and energy for him to build his own sales channels.
There are some aristocratic families in various places who will jump out to create obstacles for him when the time comes.
If we could use the Cui family's sales channels, we would undoubtedly save a lot of trouble.
However, it is unlikely that the Cui family will be able to help him with sales, and they will probably still have to face this when the time comes.
"I lead all the poor people in the world. Thank you very much, Lord Marquis." Xu Geng bowed.
He didn't have any dissatisfaction because Lin Xuan doubled his money.
No matter what, Lin Xuan made books so cheap, and all the children from poor families in the world should be grateful to him.
Lin Xuan waved his hand and said, "I will take these books away first."
He didn't think he deserved this thank you.
Although he wanted to do something for this era, he was not completely selfish.
With the movable type printing technology, it is equivalent to having an additional golden body.
As long as his descendants do not participate in the struggle for power in the future, regardless of the change of dynasties and who becomes the emperor, the Lin family can prosper forever.
Why did the Confucius family thrive so long? In every dynasty, emperors chased Confucius and conferred titles on the Confucius family.
It is because Confucius is respected as the most holy teacher by scholars all over the world. Posthumous titles to Confucius and treating the Confucius family well can win over the hearts of scholars all over the world.
Of course, he never thought about being able to compete with Confucius just by relying on movable type printing, but there is no problem in adding a golden body to himself and the Lin family.
I am sure many people want to ask, Bi Sheng invented movable type printing in history, but Bi Sheng is not famous. Why can you get a golden statue for yourself if you invented movable type printing?
In fact, when Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, the imperial examination was prevalent, and the poor families in the world were not without opportunities to get ahead.
In addition, when Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, it was not widely used due to technical reasons.
After many generations of improvements, movable type printing became widely used.
But Lin Xuan was different. Now that the imperial examination had just been reformed, the poor families in the world were short of books. The complete movable type printing technology would allow a large number of children from poor families to have books to read.
Lin Xuan, who invented movable type printing, will naturally be respected by literati all over the world.
Lin Xuan returned home with the printed books. Just as he was preparing to eat, his servants came to report that someone from the palace was here.
Lin Xuan put down his bowls and chopsticks and came to the front hall, where he saw Li Mu drinking tea.