People in Hongwu, from heavenly master to emperor master

Chapter 516 The world’s first newspaper, a unique business

Zhu Yuanzhang naturally would not bother Zhang Yi on this matter.

If the newspaper was just a commercial activity, Lao Zhu would not even look at him.

But the meaning behind the media is to break the bridge between scholar-bureaucrats and the people, so that information can be directly conveyed to the people through other channels.

This is a century-old project.

It is also one of the most important things in the emperor's mind.

Is it okay to ask Jin Yiwei to send some marginal information to the newspaper?

And according to Chen Ke, Zhang Yi's information about Jin Yiwei was not in vain.

He and Chen Ke paid for it, and they each held [-]% of the shares, while the remaining [-]% ​​was given to Jin Yiwei, which was regarded as protection fee and information fee.

This money was said to be for Jin Yiwei, but in fact it was left in Lao Zhu's hands.

Zhang Yi is so meticulous and considerate in his work.

"Mao Xiang!"

Lao Zhu shouted, and Mao Xiang quickly knelt down:

"His Majesty!"

"Ask Zhou Tong to handle this matter with Zhang Yi and cooperate fully!"

"It's Your Majesty!"

After Lao Zhu gave his instructions, he turned to Chen Ke.

Chen Ke did not dare to look at Zhu Yuanzhang, but just stared at the ground in front of him, kneeling still.

"You can be regarded as having made great contributions to the country, I am very optimistic about you!

This matter is very important to me. If you do it well for me, it will naturally benefit you in the future!
At present, I cannot expose your existence, so I will give your son the reward you deserve..."

Chen Ke was very excited when he thought of the son he had not yet had the courage to recognize.

"My lord, thank you, Your Majesty!"

"Go ahead and show me the results I want. When you succeed and retire, there will be a place for you in the court!"

Chen Ke left the imperial study with tears of gratitude. He was still in a state of disbelief until he left.

He is a low-level person. Although he has presided over part of Qianyuan's intelligence network, this still cannot change his fate.

He failed the imperial examination, and his social status as a businessman was not high.

Coupled with his identity as a mouse, he has an inexplicable yearning for power and status.

Now, Zhang Yi seemed to have really opened a door for him that he had dreamed of.

This time, he couldn't miss it again.

The year is approaching!
Winter snow is falling!
Zhang Yi and the students at Spring and Autumn College were very busy.

Guanyin slave first came to Chunqiu College. Before he could feel the freedom outside, he was treated as a social beast by Zhang Yi and started to spin around.

The teaching tasks of the college are very heavy, especially since there are no suitable female teachers.

Most of what Zhang Yi taught could only be taught by himself, the girls of the Xu family, Meng Yao, and the Taoist priests on Longhu Mountain.

But fortunately, after several months of cycles and Yao Guangxiao's management.

Chunqiu College has gradually embarked on a virtuous cycle.

During this period, Zhang Yi was able to recruit a group of people to study new letterpress printing machines with him.

After knowing the principles of these things, and adding in the mechanical knowledge of later generations, it is easy to make some improvements.

Zhang Yi is tinkering with machines here, and Yao Guangxiao, together with Chen Ke and others, has opened the printing factory.

Send the machine to the printing factory and assemble it.

Yao Guangxiao and Chen Ke began to discuss supply issues.

The price of paper remained high, so Zhang Yi simply improved his papermaking technology, further reduced the cost of papermaking, and opened a papermaking factory.

In addition to these, he was also busy starting to write the Ming Dynasty, and even the world's first newspaper.

No one else knew how to edit this newspaper, so Zhang Yi could only edit it himself, with the help of three girls from the Xu family and Guanyin slaves.

Zhang Yi reviewed the information sent by Jin Yiwei and compiled anecdotes and news from far away that could be told to the outside world.

Let the Xu family girl, Guanyin slave and others write articles.

After he killed several articles written by the three women, he personally taught them how to write press releases.

The most important thing about news is gimmicks and attraction.

This kind of writing in completely vernacular, which is not even the same as vernacular, made the three girls of the Xu family miserable.

However, with everyone's efforts, the first newspaper of the Ming Dynasty was finally compiled by Zhang Yi.

Then he went to the printing house, and Zhang Yi only printed a thousand copies of the first edition of the newspaper.

These newspapers were distributed to every corner of Yingtian Mansion through Chen Ke's channels.

……

Day two!
People in Yingtian started their busy day as usual.

Because it is winter, there are fewer people on the street.

The businessmen are already preparing to return to their hometowns, while many people in their spare time are either looking for a job in their rare leisure time,

Or just like others, prepare some New Year’s goods.

They suddenly discovered that they were in places with a lot of people, such as wine shops, bookstores, and publishing houses.

In the corner of the store, some strange papers appeared unknowingly.

They are about a dozen pages long and consist of densely packed text.

These words are large and small.

It is written clearly in the middle position.

"Dragon and Tiger News"

This strange name always makes people take a second look.

There is also a huge headline at the bottom of this newspaper called "Longhu News".

"The Imperial Expedition, the grudges of the second year of Hongwu are about to be settled!" 》

In later generations, this title may not reach the level of entry into a certain shocking department, but in this conservative era, it is already attractive enough.

Imperial expedition?

Military newspaper?

Jinling Bookstore, a person who looked like an official saw this title and had a horrified expression on his face.

He reached out to get it, and the waiters around him said:
"Sir, this newspaper costs only a penny..."

Want money?

But in his mind, a penny was not a big deal at all. He paid it casually and took the newspaper away.

Although the Ming Dynasty's upcoming expedition to Japan is not a secret, it is not known to everyone.

When the official was holding the newspaper, he was still thinking whether the person who started the newspaper was talking nonsense.

But after reading the headlines, he was almost certain that the news was very accurate.

But why do things about the imperial court, which only the upper echelons know, appear in newspapers that are readily available in the market?

He read the front page and then looked at other pages.

Most of the above are things that happened in various places.

Part of it is political current affairs. Although it is not a big deal, the summary of these news is shocking.

He moved to other pages and found a variety of information.

There are jokes that make people laugh and information about products from various places.

A wealthy businessman from Yangzhou Prefecture got into a fight over a brothel girl, which also made headlines.

He also saw an edition where a novel was being serialized.

"Break Through the Sky"

After taking a look, he frowned slightly. This novel was completely different from the current novels. Even the power system was not from traditional culture.

Not worth reading!
This was his original evaluation in his heart, but after reading the serialized part, his anger was aroused.

break off an engagement?
This kind of mindless plot is inexplicably captivating.He didn't know that when Zhang Yi decided to imitate Mr. Jin Yong and use serialized novels to increase newspaper sales and reader stickiness, he had considered many novels.

Of course there are books in history that are better than Doupo, but he has copied all the books written by Jin and Gu.

As a master of short-form Internet articles, the artistry of Internet articles may not be very good, but in terms of stirring up emotions, this book is very effective.

What Zhang Yi wants is a novel that stirs up emotions at the beginning to attract readers to continue ordering newspapers.

There is no book more suitable than Dou Po!

After the official finished reading, he felt an urge to know the following contents.

He discovered that this thing called a newspaper was actually a good recreational read.

It’s cheap and you won’t feel stressed even if you buy one every day.

He turned around and asked the waiter:
"Will this newspaper be available next time?"

"Sir, this newspaper currently seems to be published once every seven days, but if sales are good in the future, it may be published once a day!"

"One serving a day?"

The official thought that it would be great if he could have one portion a day.

"I will take ten more copies of the newspapers you have here..."

The same thing is happening in many places in Yingtian Mansion.

A businessman saw a business opportunity when he read in the newspaper about the shortage of goods in a certain place.

On the streets of Yingtian, a craftsman from Chaotian Palace found a book that was actually published in simplified Chinese and that he could understand, so he gritted his teeth and bought a copy.

He returned to the village and gained great vanity satisfaction in the process of reading newspapers to the villagers.

In just one day, some people in Yingtian Mansion experienced subtle changes.

The feedback to Zhang Yi was a thousand newspapers, which were sold out on the first day.

Even Zhang Yi himself did not expect this speed.

In his expectation, he was able to sell half of the newspapers for the first time, which was thank God.

Chen Ke came to him with an expression that didn't know whether he should be happy or depressed:

"The newspaper was selling like crazy, and those people told me they hoped we could print more!"

"Then we will print more copies. This time we will print two thousand more copies. Let's first try to see how many readers Yingtian Mansion has."

"We sell one copy, but we will lose two cents..."

Chen Ke was full of tangles in his heart!

Zhang Yi chuckled:
"Wrong, because we printed an additional two thousand cents, so we may only lose a penny!"

Chen Ke understood the truth, but when he heard about losing money, his face became somewhat distorted.

"Looking at the top of this newspaper, I secretly bought a copy. I also think our business can be done...

I'll go to the printing factory right away and ask people to rush the work..."

When Chen Ke heard this, he quickly went to do his work. Only Yao Guangxiao and others were still with Zhang Yi.

The newspaper sold well, and Zhang Yi himself was very happy.

He was also worried at the beginning that if the newspaper was born in advance, it would be acclimatized.

As it turns out, it can!

Seeing Zhang Yi's happy look, Yao Guangxiao fell into deep thought.

Starting today, Zhang Yi seems to be creating another miracle.

Miracles gradually unfold!

The next day, Chen Ke asked people to work overtime and failed to print two thousand newspapers.
1200 newspapers were sent out and sold out in an instant.

He himself was stunned by the newspaper's popularity.

Is it really that good?

On the third day, he was prepared and delivered another [-] copies. This time, more businessmen were willing to come to him to ask for the sales rights.

The businessmen also discovered that many people seemed to be looking for this newspaper.

Selling newspapers itself has become a means of attracting traffic.

Fifteen hundred newspapers were issued, but the upper limit of sales was still not reached. Chen Ke began to work overtime, recruiting people for the printing factory, and letting people from Chunqiu Guan make printing machines.

On the third day, Zhang Yi had already started thinking about making a second newspaper.

The ancients did not have the concept of a week, but Zhang Yi was ready to publish content according to the rhythm of a weekly report.

Jin Yiwei provided material, plus some jokes and comments on current affairs...

Zhang Yi believes that even if there is no exclusive condition from the emperor.

He can also compete to kill a group of people.

The sales volume of the first issue of Dragon and Tiger News was finally fixed at more than 8000 copies. The newspaper office received a payment of [-] yuan, or up to [-] taels of silver.

These eight taels of silver are not yet profits. In fact, they can barely evenly spread the current costs.

But this sales volume has exceeded Chen Ke's expectations.

He is a bookseller, and he can probably count how many scholars there are in Yingtian Mansion.

Generally speaking, their best-selling books are good if they can sell a few thousand copies, and [-] copies are considered a big hit.

In Yingtianfu, [-] newspapers were sold in just four or five days!

This potential is endless.

Zhang Yi understood Chen Ke's confusion. When Chen Ke calculated consumers, he probably did not consider the potential consumer groups brought about by his promotion of simplified Chinese characters.

People who bought novels in the past were not necessarily all Ming Dynasty scholars.

There are many people who still cannot afford a relatively expensive novel.

In recent years, with the popularity of simplified Chinese characters, many people naturally have a need to read after they can read them.

He estimated that the increase of these people would be coupled with all the groups who could read before but did not have the financial ability to consume books.

For example, which businessmen and shopkeepers can read.

The sales of their newspapers should increase two or three times!
But even if you calculate it this way, newspapers are still not a profitable business, at least not as profitable as Chen Ke imagined.

But Zhang Yi asked him:
"Do you feel that your Runyutang's business has improved recently?"

"There really is..."

As a shareholder of the newspaper, when Chen Ke had no advertisers, Zhang Yi put his Run Yutang and auction house on the newspaper.

The business in Chen Ke's store has become worse than before due to the impact of events in the north.

Who would have known that since the newspaper was put on sale, many more customers would come to inquire about it.

"This is the power of advertising, to attract traffic...

This is where we really make money!

Be prepared, Longhu Bao will not only be sold in Yingtian in the future! "

Zhang Yi patted Chen Ke on the shoulder to encourage him.

The second issue of Dragon and Tiger News came out as scheduled.

This time, more than 7000 copies were sold on the same day!

This speed really made many people who didn't know about the Dragon Tiger News suddenly realize the terrifying spread speed of this newspaper.

And many businessmen seem to have seen business opportunities.

Booksellers, in particular, were so impatient that they immediately dared to publish their first newspaper.

Who knows, as soon as the sales start, people from the back will get in.

There is an example of killing a chicken to scare the monkeys.Only then did people discover that the newspaper needed His Majesty's personal approval...

If you open a newspaper privately without His Majesty's approval, it will be a capital offense!

However, considering that these people were first offenders, they were only fined a large amount of money.

Only those who care about newspapers know this. It turns out that this business is a separate business.

Or, most likely, His Majesty's business.

In Hu Mansion, Hu Weiyong held a newspaper and fell into deep thought.

(End of this chapter)