No war in the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 27 Reasoning
The three of them walked underground for the time it took to stick of incense, but Su Ze did not see any underground black market. Apart from the deep darkness, the only things he could occasionally see were refugees hiding underground. This was far from the prosperous market that Su Ze had imagined.

The thin military leader walked at the end. He reminded Su Ze:
"Mr. Su, the road ahead is winding, please follow closely."

Li Dutou was seen holding a lamp in his hand, walking through the maze-like underground passage without any hesitation, moving forward quickly as if he had opened a map. When Su Ze was about to get dizzy, Li Dutou stopped and said:
"Mr. Su, we're here."

Su Ze couldn't help but look at this fat captain. To be able to become a captain in the Imperial City Bureau, this Captain Li must have some real skills.

Su Ze exclaimed:
"Captain Li has a good memory!"

Li Dutou showed a smug expression, and the thin general joined in:

"Mr. Su, when it comes to learning, we can't compare to you scholars, but when it comes to knowing the way, no one in the entire city of Bianjing can compare to us."

"Within the countless alleys and lanes of Bianjing, there's no place our Captain Li can't find! Any place we've been to once is etched in our memory, and we'll never get lost!"

Su Ze looked at the fat Li Dutou in surprise. He didn't expect that he had such talent.

But think about it, to be able to be the head of the Imperial City Bureau, he must not be an ordinary person.

Li Dutou was somewhat pleased with himself, but he did not forget his business. He turned a corner and saw two warriors in black clothes coming out from the darkness. They saluted Li Dutou and said,

"Dutou!"

Li Dutou responded, and then said to Su Ze:

"Mr. Su, the underground printing house is just ahead."

"Where are the others in the printing shop?"

"The Black Seal Shop couldn't possibly employ full-time workers. The woodblock carvers were craftsmen from the official printing house under the Imperial Household Department. The printers and book binders were all hired on a temporary basis. The Imperial City Department has them under control, but they haven't been able to get anything out of them."

It is no wonder that the mastermind behind the scenes chose the Black Seal Shop to print the evil book. Afterwards, as long as the owner of the Black Seal Shop was killed, the clues would be completely cut off.

"Let's go in and take a look."

Pushing aside the curtain blocking the entrance, Su Zexian smelled a strong stench of ink, the same smell as the pirated official newspaper he had purchased.

As I recall, this slightly smelly ink was something only the lower-class scholars used, and it became the raw material for these black seal workshops because of its cheapness.

Captain Li clapped his hands, and several warriors from the Imperial City Division stepped forward to light a round candlestick, then pulled the pulley mechanism to pull the candlestick above their heads. Su Ze even saw some reflective stone pieces attached to the top of the cave, which were used to reflect the candlelight downwards.

Su Ze couldn't help but sigh at the wisdom of these workers. After lighting the candlesticks, the entire Heiyinfang was lit up, and Su Ze could see clearly what was inside.

This was originally supposed to be a natural underground cave. After excavation and reinforcement, it is about seventy square meters in size.

The equipment in Heiyinfang is also very simple.

The woodblocks were piled up randomly in the corner of the wall, and there were some tools for making the woodblocks on the ground.

There is paper piled on the wooden rack on the other side. The so-called printing press is actually a frame for fixing the carved blocks. After several carved blocks are fixed, they are evenly coated with ink, and then paper is laid on them and repeatedly flattened with a roller, and the content on the carved blocks is printed on the paper.

Then use a paper cutter to cut the paper, arrange the pages in order by hand, and bind the book with needle and thread to complete the work.

Su Ze was a little disappointed. Shen Kuo once recorded in "Mengxi Bitan" that Bi Sheng invented movable type printing during the Qingli period. He didn't expect that the Black Seal Studio was still using the old method of woodblock printing.

Su Ze picked up the wooden carving in the corner and could vaguely see that it was a popular collection of poems and vernacular novels. There was even a carving with a half-naked woman on it, which should be an illustration of an erotic novel.

Li Dutou said on the side:
"The engravings and unbound books of the demonic book have been brought back to the Imperial City Department. If Mr. Su wants to see them, you can come with me to the Imperial City Department to check them out."

After Su Ze finished flipping through the woodblocks, he went to the shelf where the finished prints were stored and picked up a few uncut prints to look at.

Time passed by minute by minute. Seeing that Su Ze had been looking for half an hour, Shou Juntou showed a disappointed expression on his face. It turned out that scholars were not omnipotent.

Su Ze suddenly said:

"Captain Li, please come and take a look at this." The fat and thin men hurried forward, only to see that Su Ze was holding a piece of unclearly printed paper in his hand. It should have been discarded due to a printing error.

Su Ze said:

"Captain Li, please take a look at what's written here."

Li Dutou took the paper and could barely make out a few words: "Fan Jinglüe wrote this letter to request merit for the soldiers in the northwest."

"Is this a tabloid?"

Su Ze nodded. The style and layout of this scrap manuscript were very similar to the tabloid he had bought, which was a pirated version of the official gazette.

Newspapers published by the public are also called tabloids.

The pirated court gazetteers were not copied completely. This tabloid, which was popular in the city of Bianliang, would also select and layout the contents of the court gazetteers, carefully choose topics that the people were concerned about and print them, and sometimes also provide annotations.

Su Ze asked:

"On what day was the owner of this printing house arrested?"

Li Dutou said quickly:
"Ten days ago."

"Then he's not the owner of this printing house. At least it can be said that there is someone behind this printing house."

Li Dutou quickly asked, "Why did Mr. Su say that?"

Su Ze said:

"Because of this tabloid, I bought the latest pirated version of the official gazette two days ago."

The thin military leader still didn't understand, but Captain Li had already understood a little.

Su Ze explained:

"Looking at this misprinted tabloid, it proves that this black printing house is the place where the pirated court reports are printed. But even after your Imperial City Bureau arrested the owner of the printing house and destroyed the entire printing house, the pirated court reports are still being printed. What does this mean?"

Li Dutou continued:

"This means that this black seal shop has a superior, and this shop is just one of the printing shops responsible for printing."

Su Ze praised:

"Captain Li is truly perceptive! As the owner of this printing house, can he possibly get the latest edition of the imperial gazette from the Imperial Court?"

Captain Li shook his head repeatedly. After all, the Jinzouyuan was a government agency and it was definitely not something that the owner of a small underground printing house could get close to.

Thinking further, since this printing house has a superior, it is impossible for him to print the evil book privately. He must report to his superior.

The claim that he had picked up the original of the evil book and printed it privately was just an excuse made by the deceased printing house owner.

Su Ze's mind gradually became clear. The demon book incident must be related to the struggle among the upper echelons of the court, and only the "big shots" who could get the court bulletins from the Jinzouyuan in advance would participate in such a struggle.

As a scout of the Imperial City Bureau, it is his job to catch the corrupt officials in the Imperial Court who are in collusion with tabloid booksellers. Naturally, Captain Li has his own methods to track them down.

With a direction in mind, Li Dutou bowed to Su Ze sincerely and said:

"Thank you, Lord Su, for your help! If we can catch the culprit, I will definitely report Lord Su's achievements to Li Jiedu!"

Su Ze pointed to the engravings and tools in the corner and said:
"I'm just talking, the final investigation still depends on you two. Can you send these things to my home? I'm quite interested in them."

"That's easy. Have someone deliver the things to Prime Minister Su's residence tomorrow morning!"

(End of this chapter)