Daming: Wanted to be a small landlord, but was forced to ascend the throne

Chapter 189 This gift is too useful
"Don't you like it? It's no use keeping them in the warehouse. I see you staring at those things for so long, you must like them. Isn't your bookstore about to open? This is the opening ceremony I will give you when the time comes! "

Lin Tong smiled disapprovingly.

He is a direct and simple person, whoever he likes and makes friends with, he will serve others wholeheartedly.

Although Lin Tong works in Baofang, his family is not well off.

He came from a hereditary military family.

After Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor, he used the army to implement guards to garrison fields.

Three points are for guarding the city, and seven points are for farming; in the interior, two points are for guarding the city, and eighth are for farming.

Said to be a soldier, not only to defend the city, but also to farm the land and pay rent, his status is very low.

Lin Tong's father died early, and his mother raised him while farming. Life was not easy.

However, he is tall and strong, and he liked to practice martial arts since he was a child, and he was extremely brave.

His uncle, Lin Yue, was Jiang Bin's uncle. Seeing his bravery and pity for his family's easy life, he introduced him to Jiang Bin, who was still the commander of the Weizhou Guard at that time.

After Jiang Bin was recommended to Shangjing by Qian Ning, Lin Tong also followed.

Now that Jiang Bin is in power, Lin Tong's life is much easier.

It's just that he is only Jiang Bin's distant relative, even if Jiang Bin will use him to help him in his official career, it won't help him directly financially.

Lin Tong is good at fighting and killing, but knows nothing about family financial management and business management.

His annual salary is 120 shi. There are only him, his wife and a little maid in the family, which is enough for eating and drinking.

In fact, eating and drinking don't cost much, and most of the expenses of officials in Beijing are on entertainment.

Many Beijing officials earn six or seventy taels of silver a year, and spend nearly one hundred taels on entertainment, and some even reach two or three hundred taels.

Therefore, many people looked bright and became officials in the capital.

In many cases, I have to rely on the help of my old family.

Even though Lin Tong doesn't spend that much on socializing, he has the character of getting drunk today if he has wine today, and drinking cold water without wine tomorrow.

At the end of the month, it is basically empty-handed.

He has been in Beijing for several years, and now he still rents a house.

But Mrs. Lin Tong is frugal, and basically doesn't buy anything except food and drink.

She still retains the habit of farming in her hometown.

He rented a big yard, and other people's houses were planted with flowers and grass, while his wife planted melons, fruits and vegetables in the yard, and the yard was also a mess.

Jiang Bin felt sorry for Lin Tong in the house he was renting now. The place he rented was too remote, and it took him an hour to check in every day, so he recommended him a yard at the corner of his own alley.

Although the yard is not too small, but because it is located in a corner triangle, the original seller felt that the feng shui was not good, so he could not live in it after buying it.

People who pay attention to renting houses are not willing to rent, and it has been abandoned for a long time.

The homeowner couldn't sell it, so he simply said that he just needed to give some silver to help keep the yard from being abandoned.

Lin Tong didn't pay much attention to those things, so he rented it.

Qin Shao is very generous. He was born in Han Jinrong's family, and he likes to pay attention to details and etiquette in communication.

From time to time, I often send various food and drink gifts to Lin Tong's family, and sometimes there are rare things in the south.

Those things were brought from Anlu Prefecture by shopkeeper Wang Yaowang sometimes for them.

The caravan led by Wang Yao mainly travels from the south to Shangjing.

Zhang Gouzi found out through Qin Shao's letter that every time Shopkeeper Wang went to Shangjing, he would drive over and deliver the things collected at home to Qin Shao in Shangjing when they passed by Huguang.

Mrs. Lin Tong used to be a farmer, so she didn't understand these things at all, and she didn't know how to return gifts.

If you charge too much, you will feel a little uneasy.

I often chatter with my son, always take things from others, and feel embarrassed if I don't return them.

Lin Tong asked his old mother to accept it, but he thought in his heart that he must give something in return.

It's just taels of silver, and he doesn't have a lot of money, and he wouldn't ask Qin Shao for it, and he didn't return the gift like that.

Ordinary everyday things feel out of hand.

Today, seeing Qin Shao staring at the fonts carved from copper blocks, he guessed that he must like those things.

When the two of them came out, he abducted back directly, even coaxing, deceiving and adding a little deterrence, he directly got out those loose-type font molds.

"Brother Lin, is this going to be all right? After all, it belongs to the Supervisor of Ceremonies, in case... in case someone pursues it..."

Qin Shao felt that this kid was too bold. After all, it was a public property, so why did he just get it out?
"Don't worry, I've asked, they don't use it at all now, they've been putting it away for several years! There are so many engravers in the ceremonial supervisor, if it's really needed, they can make it again!"

"You don't know about the common things of the various departments of the imperial court. When you have the opportunity to go in and be on duty in the future, you will know. If you lose it, you will report it to the damage. It is not difficult to do it again. Anyway, it does not cost your own money. "

Lin Tong laughed.

Qin Shao thinks about it too.

The cost of making these trapezoid fonts is not a small expense for ordinary private people.

There are 4000 characters in commonly used fonts, and it is quite labor-intensive and financially consuming to carve them out one by one with a small mold.

When Qin Shao first started thinking about opening a bookshop, he made a comparative study of movable type printing and engraving printing in this era.

In terms of convenience, movable type printing is actually more practical and convenient.

Block printing, that is, engraving the characters on each page of a book on a wooden board, then applying ink, and covering it on the paper like a seal.

The advantage is that the first book, that is, the process of making molds is more troublesome, and the rest of the books are simple, just stamp and print one by one.

The bad thing is that if you just write an article and only want to print four or five pages, you have to carve it into a template, which may be useless after one use.

This is too costly and wasteful.

For example, in the newspaper office in the previous life, there was a new edition every day, and after that, it was useless. If you want to engrave a new edition, what a waste!

This is also the reason why the newspaper industry in Ming Dynasty was not very developed.The cost is unreasonable!

There is only one kind of newspaper in Ming Dynasty today, and that is "Di Bao".

"Dibao" is actually official documents such as the emperor's decree, imperial edict, officials' memorials, and political information related to court events.

There are not many copies of this kind of document sent to various places. There are many scribes in Shangjing, who generally use copying, and occasionally engraving and printing.

In the early stage, it was estimated that printing with movable type was also considered, but it was estimated that it was too troublesome, so it was gradually given up.

Movable type printing is to engrave those Chinese characters one by one with abrasive tools. If you want to print a page of writing, pick out those typefaces, arrange them into a plate, and then print.

If this method is used for printing books, some are too troublesome.

There are so many words in a book, you arrange them one by one.

After finishing it, it is too labor-intensive to rearrange the next chapter.

And the people who line up must be literate and educated, which puts higher requirements on those engravers, and the labor cost is a great test. This is why after Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, it did not receive great attention in the era after Daxia. Reason for range propagation.

But for Qin Shao, these movable type molds are very useful!
These things that Lin Tong "stealed" can be said to have saved him a lot of expenses.

"Brother Lin, it's very useful for me to give you these gifts. I don't want to thank you for your kindness. In this way, the store will make money in the future, and I will give you some share."

Qin Shao was very grateful, this saved him a lot of money.

"I didn't pay for the opening of your shop, what kind of share do you want? If you want to thank me, I just took a rest these two days, and then I will set up a few tables in your house and invite my brother to have a good drink! Don't say it, this is a big restaurant in Beijing. Quite a few, after all, I had a good time at the banquet at your house last time!"

"Then what's the problem! A few days ago, you, brother Wang Yun, took care of me and said I'd treat you to a drink, but I've been busy lately! Since you're off for the past two days, tomorrow, tomorrow, I'll invite you to our house for a drink!"

(End of this chapter)