Crossing the wasteland: Farming and peasant girls can't be provoked

Chapter 328 Movable Type Printing
The population of Yuanling County is now several times larger than that of other counties, and Jing Yi also wants to train some manpower so that it will be convenient for him to use in the future.

In ancient times, literati were very rare, and most of them didn't even know the characters.

Jing Yi asked Lu Tingjie to send someone to conduct a survey to see how many people in Yuanling County were literate, and it turned out that there were really very few.Jing Yi decides to run a school to teach school-age children to read and write.

In ancient times, the reason why the poor could not afford to read books was because reading was too expensive, not to mention the repairs in schools, even books and paper could not be afforded by the poor.

The ancient papermaking technology was very backward, and paper was very expensive.Books are generally copied by hand, and the price is more expensive.A few taels of silver for a book is very common.

Under such circumstances, the poor do not have the ability to let their children read books.An ordinary family needs the strength of the whole family to support a scholar.Therefore, reading in ancient times was mostly done by rich people.

After hearing Jing Yi's plan, Lu Tingjie said: "Yiyi, there are so many people in Yuanling County, and there are many children who need to study. We can't take care of them. It's not hard to find a teacher, but it's just books, paper, ink, pens and inkstones. These are very costly things, and the average family may not be able to afford them.

If you don't count repairs, books and paper are the main expenses, and they are also very high.Many people estimate that they can't even afford to buy a book. "

Jing Yi said: "Isn't it because the papermaking technology is too backward and the productivity is too low? There are also books that are copied by hand, so the books are so expensive. I will find ways to improve the productivity of papermaking, and books will be printed with printing technology in the future." , It is much faster than manual copying.

Now I need craftsmen who know how to make paper and craftsmen who can carve, please help me find them.At that time, I will improve the papermaking process and increase the output.There are also books, I am going to print them. "

The advantage of this is that it is easy to make fonts, the printing speed is fast, and the fonts can be reused, and a large number of books can be printed quickly, so that the cost of books will come down, and books can be sold cheaply.”

With excitement, Lu Tingjie sent someone to find a craftsman who could carve first. Jing Yi wrote out some commonly used characters in advance, and then asked the craftsman to carve reverse-style single characters with clay.

Speaking of which, Jing Yi used an iron plate with a frame as the base, and covered it with a layer of potion made of turpentine, wax, and paper ash, and then picked out the required clay movable type and arranged them in the frame one by one.When a frame is filled, it becomes a plate, and then it is baked with fire. After the medicine melts a little, the surface is flattened with a flat plate. After the medicine cools and solidifies, it becomes a plate.

Lu Tingjie took a piece of paper full of characters and looked at it for a long time and was very excited, "Yiyi, it is not difficult to make this typeface. Isn't it easy to print books in the future? Don't you want to print as many books as you want? This is comparable to human Copying is much faster.

After firing the typefaces and preparing other printing tools, Jing Yi asked Lu Tingjie to come over.

Jing Yi said with a smile: "I'm going to open a bookstore. All kinds of paper and books can be sold in the future. We make the paper ourselves, and print the books ourselves, as long as there are manuscripts."

The paper workshop specializes in making paper.The bookstore not only buys books, but also prints them.Because of the use of movable type printing technology, Jing Yi and the others published books very quickly, and the cost of a book was greatly reduced.When Jingyi's bookstore started to sell low-priced books, they were all sold out.

Lu Tinger, who had never heard of printing, asked, "What is printing?"

Then Jing Yi built a paper-making workshop and opened a bookstore.

Speaking of which, Jing Yi took out a font model that she was trying to make and said: "Look, I made several blanks of the same specification with glue, and engraved a single character in reverse on one end. Similarly, it is hardened by fire to become a single clay movable type. Then the individual characters are selected according to the manuscript, arranged in the type plate, printed with ink, and then the type is removed after printing, and used again for the next typesetting.

For the needs of typesetting, several or even dozens of commonly used characters can be prepared for use when repeated in the same version.When encountering rare words that are not commonly used, if there is no preparation in advance, you can use them as you make them.

Jingyi also improved the papermaking process, which greatly increased the output of papermaking.

Lu Tingjie watched as Jing Yi dipped ink into the inkstone with a typeface engraved with reversed characters, and then pressed it on the paper, leaving a clear big character on the typeface paper.

Yiyi, I will find someone for you tomorrow.You must let me see when you have finished. "

"Ajie, I've already asked people to fix it. I'll show you the process of movable type printing today."

Lu Tingjie really doesn't know how Jing Yi's brain is so long, he can come up with such a good method, "Yiyi, your method is very good. It is very easy to engrave characters with clay. After firing, the font will harden. Don't be afraid." Use ink. In this way, you can print as many books as you want in the future. It also saves time. In this way, books are cheap, and even people who are not rich can afford them.

It is not difficult to carve on clay, and almost anyone with some carving skills can do it.If you only pay attention to the good-looking fonts, you need better engraving techniques.

Jing Yi asked people to burn the characters carved with clay, and finally got relatively hard characters.

In the future, we can print more books and sell them at very cheap prices, so that those students can benefit. "

Jing Yi said, "I'm talking about movable type printing."

Then Jing Yi brushed ink on the pattern, covered it with paper, and applied a certain amount of pressure, and the words of this version were printed on the paper.Jing Yi has tried it many times, and she is very skilled in printing, so the paper is very clean except for the printed words.

Jing Yi nodded and said, "You're right. It's easy for us to print whatever books we want in the future and how many books we want to print. You see, in order to be able to print continuously, we use two iron plates, one for additional printing, and the other for typesetting. , the two editions are used alternately. After printing, the potion is roasted with torch, and the movable type can fall off the iron plate with a light shake of the hand, and then it can be preserved for future use.”

Usually a book costs a few taels of silver or even more expensive, but now it only costs a few taels of silver or even less. Those scholars who are usually reluctant to buy books should grab cheap books and buy them quickly.

Jingyi's bookstore soon opened up in Yuanling County and several surrounding counties, and people from this county as well as students and scholars from several surrounding counties came to Yuanling County's Yuanda Bookstore to buy books.

Some businessmen also saw business opportunities in selling books, and would buy some books from Yuanda Bookstore and take them to other places to buy.This is much cheaper than books from other places, so the profit from selling books is very high.Of course, businessmen will not let go of this good opportunity to make money.

Some merchants even sold books and other goods from Yuanling County to Jin State.The few shops that Jing Yi opened can be said to be making a lot of money.

(End of this chapter)