Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 388 Where to Start
The promise is easy to make, but Fan Ning is still at a loss as to how to do it. In fact, Fan Ning is willing to help Ouyang Xiu no matter whether Ouyang Qian asks for it or not. After all, Ouyang Xiu has an old relationship with him. Action, how should he help Ouyang Xiu?
Fan Ning returned to Fan Mansion with a lot of worries, just as he left the East Courtyard, the little servant girl ran up and said, "Someone just came to look for the officials!"

Fan Ning was upset for a while, waved his hand, and continued to walk towards the study.

When he reached the door, he stopped again and asked, "Who is looking for me?"

"It seems to be someone from "Chao Bao". He left a post, and I put it on the official's desk."

Fan Ning nodded and walked into the study room. This is only Fan Ning's temporary study room. They just came back yesterday, and they haven't had time to tidy up their mansion. Otherwise, ordinary little maids are not allowed to enter his study room.

There was indeed a greeting card on the table. Fan Ning picked it up and looked at it. It turned out to be Li Xiang, the proprietor of "Chaobao". Of course, this proprietor is actually a puppet, and the real controller will not show up easily.

Fan Ning sat down, playing with the greeting card in his hands, and slowly fell into deep thought.
"Who said I wouldn't come back for dinner!"

After an unknown amount of time, Zhu Pei's displeased voice suddenly came from the yard, "Has the official come back?"

"The official is in the study!" the little maid said timidly.

Fan Ning got up and walked to the door. Seeing Zhu Pei's angry face, he couldn't help but asked with a smile, "I went back to my mother's house and got angry?"

Zhu Pei glanced at Fan Ning, walked quickly back to her bedroom, threw herself on the bed, Fan Ning walked in, sat by the bed and looked at her, "What's wrong?"

Zhu Pei covered his head and said unhappy: "Mother is too lenient, I had a big fight with her, and I came back in a fit of anger."

"Why is your mother so lenient? Tell me about it!"

"My mother said that I have not had children for two years of marriage, and that I don't want to pass on the family line to my husband."

Fan Ning suddenly burst out laughing. It turned out that it was because of this matter. He patted his beautiful wife's buttocks and smiled, "You're only 19 years old, so you want to be a mother so much?"

"I want to give birth!"

Zhu Pei suddenly sat up, and said with red eyes: "I also want to have a good daughter, but I just can't get pregnant, what should I do?"

Fan Ning hugged his lovely wife in his arms and comforted her: "There is no rush to have a child, you have to let nature take its course. After all, you are only 19 years old. It is not good for you to have a child too early."

Zhu Pei wiped his tears and said: "Mother told me to make up my own mind. If I can't, I will marry you a concubine. She said that dignified fourth-rank officials have no children of their own. It makes people laugh when they hear it."

Speaking of marrying a concubine, Fan Ning's heart skipped a beat. He quickly changed the subject and said with a smile: "Today, I went to the Ministry of Officials to resign and filled out a letter asking for your order. I just remembered that you seem to be There is no order yet, you should be Feng Shuo."

"I don't care about the madam who ordered me to stand with a bunch of old women. Unless you become a husband, I am a husband and wife."

"I will definitely redouble my efforts to make my wife a husband and wife as soon as possible."

Fan Ning coaxed Zhu Pei, and finally made her feel a little better. Zhu Pei said coquettishly, "Husband, when will we move back to our own home and live here? I'm not used to it."

"We need to recruit some maids and servants."

"Didn't we bring four little maids?"

"They mostly do things in the inner courtyard, but they can't do things in the outer house."

"Or just like before, borrow some maids and servants to go there, and when we settle down, we can recruit our own servants and housekeepers, and then send them back."

This method is also feasible, Fan Ning nodded with a smile, "Then you go to the new house to tidy up tomorrow, and we will move there the day after tomorrow."

Zhu Pei put her arms around her husband's neck and said coquettishly: "I haven't even eaten lunch, and my stomach is growling with hunger, let's go out to eat!"

Now there is more than half an hour before the time for dinner in Zhu's residence, Fan Ning knew that she actually wanted to go shopping with him, so he smiled happily: "Then let's go! Go to Panlou Street for dinner."

The two took Jianmeizi and Aya, left Zhu's mansion in a carriage, and headed towards Panlou Street.

Early the next morning, Fan Ning came to East Street, and he quickly found the "Chao Bao" office. The newspaper office was a large shop, presided over by a big deacon surnamed Sun. There were errand spies, Mr. Wenbi, engraving Kuaijiang has about 50 people.

In fact, "Chaobao" and "Tabolo" are two melons on the same vine, but they deal with different customers. "Tabozao" faces common people and women in deep houses who like all kinds of gossip news. The concubines also like it very much.

The "Chao Bao" is more serious, and the guests are generally literati and officials who care about current affairs and politics.

Of course, the clients of the two also overlap. There are not a few people like Zhu Yuanfeng who read both "Tabao" and "Chaobao". Teahouses, restaurants, and brothels all subscribe to a lot of "Chaobao" and "Tabao". Although newspapers are not as profitable as profiteering industries, their influence is great.

Fan Ning walked into the gate, and a guide came up to meet him, "Is the guest officer going to break the news, or discuss buying a newspaper?"

Generally, people who come to declare at the customs are either whistleblowers who come to provide news and get a little reward, or shopkeepers who open teahouses and restaurants who come to discuss business and want to buy newspapers for a long time.

Fan Ning took out Li Xiang's greeting card, and said calmly, "I'm here to see your boss Li, he invited me to come over in the morning."

The servant didn't dare to be negligent, so he hurriedly ran to look for the chief deacon, and the chief deacon Sun was in the lobby, he hurried up to greet him and said, "Your Excellency, is Fan Zhizhou?"

Fanning nodded, "I am!"

"Master Li is waiting in the inner hall, please follow me."

Fan Ning followed Deacon Sun to the inner hall. Fan Ning looked at the gentlemen who were writing articles, and asked with a smile: "I have to write four pages a day, is there enough time?"

"Division of labor and cooperation, basically in time."

"What about the engraving board? Every day the engraving board needs to be replaced with a new one. Is there enough time to carve so many characters every day?" Fan Ning asked with a smile.

There was no movable type printing at this time. In fact, even if movable type printing appeared, it would not be able to replace engraving printing.

Moreover, even if there is a typo engraved on the engraving board, just dig out the wrong word and add a new character. It is almost impossible to tell that the engraving board has been patched.

Deacon Sun smiled slightly and said, "It seems that Zhizhou Fan doesn't understand the newspaper's way of doing things at all."

"Oh? But hear about it!"

"Fan Zhizhou saw four front and back pages of "Chao Bao". You must have thought that there were four engraving panels, but in fact sixteen engraving panels were engraved, and four engraving panels were assembled into one page, such as this one!"

Deacon Sun picked up a carved board and tore it apart forcefully. The carved board was immediately divided into four pieces, which turned out to be wedged together.

"Four engraving craftsmen are in charge of one layout, and it can be carved in an hour. The engraving is actually very easy. The key is printing. It takes three or four hours to print 10,000+ newspapers, so they can only be distributed before noon."

It was only then that Fan Ning suddenly realized that the carving boards were divided into many small pieces and carved by different people, no wonder the efficiency is very high.

Not long after, Fan Ning came to the inner hall. Deacon Sun asked Fan Ning to wait a moment, and he went in to report. After a while, a tall and thin middle-aged man came out quickly, "My lord, Li Xiang, welcome Fan Zhizhou to the newspaper office. .”

Fan Ning said apologetically, "It happened that I was not at the house yesterday, so let Dongzhu Li make a trip for nothing."

"Where! Where! It's because I didn't make an appointment in advance. It was right to go abruptly. I should be apologizing!"

"Hehe! It's okay, I also want to come over today to see what the newspaper looks like, and I've always been curious."

"Then do you want me to accompany Fan Zhizhou to visit?" Li Xiang enthusiastically suggested.

Fan Ning shook his head, "No need, Deacon Sun has solved the doubts in my heart just now."

"I see, Fan Zhizhou please!"

Fan Ning followed the proprietor Li Xiang into the inner hall, and the two sat down as guests and hosts. Deacon Sun quickly arranged for someone to serve tea, and he sat down by himself.

Li Xiang said with a smile: ""Chao Bao" has always wanted to write an article to introduce Kunzhou and Fan Zhizhou, but I have never had the opportunity. I wonder if we can talk about it?"

Fan Ning nodded with a smile. This is an exclusive interview for later generations, and this is also the main purpose of coming to the "Chao Bao" office. He also wants to use "Chao Bao" to convey a certain message to the emperor Zhao Zhen.

"I don't know what Li Dongzhu wants to ask?"

"Is it convenient for Fan Zhizhou now?"

Fan Ning smiled slightly, "Anytime!"

Li Xiang was overjoyed, and quickly asked Deacon Sun to arrange a shorthand. He wanted to ask Fan Ning some questions himself.

"I heard that Han Xianggong checked the accounts when he visited Kunzhou two years ago, and found that millions of taels of gold and tens of millions of taels of silver passed through the hands of Kunzhou officials, but there was no shortage of one tael. Sensation, why can Kunzhou do this?"

Fan Ning thought for a while and said: "This is because I, as the supervisory censor, have established a complete set of supervision methods in Kunzhou. We not only monitor the amount of gold and silver, but also monitor officials. When problems are found, they should be reminded earlier, lest officials get too deep and end up in jail. This is also the love for officials. Kunzhou officials are indeed very clean, which is obvious to all.”

(End of this chapter)