Signing in to Datang: Rebellion at the beginning

Chapter 115 Typography

I saw Li Ke continued to speak again:

"As for the existing printing technique, there is actually a lot of room for improvement. The existing printing is too rigid and the cost is too high.

Now, I want to propose a method of movable type printing.It is similar to the principle of engraving printing, but there is a difference.

Woodblock printing is the engraving of a whole page on a stereotyped board. Such a stereotyped board can only be used for one book or one page.

But if you want to continue to use it again, it is obviously impossible in other books.So, I want you to make a similar set of templates.

And this set of templates carves out each character separately, making a separate small square, and making all the characters that need to be used into independent small squares.

Then make more, and when you need to use them, put these modules together one by one according to the content of the book and print them.

In this way, after this book is used, the words on the template are classified, and when the next book needs to be used, it is adjusted according to the content of the next book.

This is much simpler than remaking a set of engravings. "

As soon as these words came out, Man Chao was shocked.

This is actually a well-understood method.

However, no one came up with it.

And this method only needs to make engraving and printing books more flexible, so that every word can be adjusted.

It's that simple, but it can greatly save countless manpower and time, and it becomes more flexible and convenient.

This made the ministers very excited, because such a reform is bound to be a huge improvement for the entire Dragon Kingdom.

Ministers of the Ministry of Industry, write down all Li Ke's words.

Immediately after returning, he immediately practiced papermaking and printing according to Li Ke's method.

A few days later, according to Li Ke's method, many kinds of plants that can be used to make paper have been found.

According to what Li Ke said, after upgrading the papermaking tools, it became more and more convenient.

At the same time, movable type printing was born.

After the experiment, thousands of characters produced in a few days were used flexibly, and a book was easily printed by switching positions.

In this way, the cost of papermaking and printing has been greatly controlled.

Li Ke was also very happy, so he immediately ordered that the imperial court set up various printing factories and paper factories, and mass-produce paper and printed books.

Li Ke even opened the imperial library, allowing officials from the Ministry of Industry to select books that are useful to students all over the world, print them in large quantities, and then sell them at cost prices.

Originally, an ordinary book cost a few taels of silver at least.

With such a price, the aristocratic families made a lot of money.

However, now, the cost of books produced by the imperial court using simpler papermaking and printing methods is basically controlled at two to three hundred cash.

Even lower.

Therefore, most of these books are sold for about two hundred articles.

On the day when the imperial court's bookstore officially opened, the whole Chang'an was a sensation.

All the scholars never imagined that the books they crave are so cheap now.

There used to be countless people who wanted to read books, but because the price of books was simply unaffordable, many people dared not even think about it.
But now, I heard that the books only cost about [-] Wen, and even many illiterate people have taken out copper coins to buy some.

All of a sudden, all parts of Longguo vigorously developed papermaking and printing, and the imperial court sold books at low prices locally.

In a very short period of time, the entire Dragon Kingdom quickly set off a wave of reading.

After all, reading was beyond the reach of many people before, but now books are so cheap that even farmers who plow the fields can't help but want to buy some to study.

Naturally, it also brought up the reading style in the entire Dragon Kingdom.

The aristocratic families from all over the world who were originally disdainful of Li Ke's proposal to deal with the aristocratic family were no longer calm after hearing the news.

Originally, the emperors of all dynasties wanted to deal with the aristocratic family, but they all failed.

This time, these aristocratic families thought that the emperor of the Dragon Kingdom was just talking and would not do it.

But now, when they discovered the low prices of those books, they fully realized that their position and status were really about to be shaken.

Books are their background, but now the background they rely on has become so cheap.

This advantage is no longer an advantage.

As a result, various aristocratic families became low-key one after another.

Li Ke saw this, but did not take any further action.

Because he knows that once there are more books and students in various places, the books in the hands of the aristocratic families will only fall into their hands.

The literati they cultivated are no longer so expensive.

And the power they established will quickly disintegrate and be replaced by the younger generation who will rise later.

Some civil servants in the imperial court who are related to the aristocratic family, seeing this situation, also understand that the aristocratic family will not have any advantages in the future.

So in order to protect himself wisely, he took the initiative to break off relations with these aristocratic families.

As a result, the influence of the aristocratic families in the court quickly disintegrated.

There is no way to continue the book business in many places.

From beginning to end, Li Ke did not implement any violence or any coercive actions.

But in more than a month, they cut off the retreat of the aristocratic families, allowing them to collapse automatically in the near future.

And at this moment, people in the world really saw how powerful this emperor is.

(End of this chapter)