Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 20 Grandpa Emperor, your grandson is willing to plead guilty!

What's the real use of this thing?
Seeing Zhu Yunhuan's confident look, Zhu Yunwen couldn't help but feel a little doubtful.

Immediately, he shook his head in his heart.

This is impossible.

Although he didn't know what this thing was used for, at best it was just a fun toy.

It is a huge joke to say that it is a great treasure that benefits the country and the people.

"Third brother, how can you say this to Grandpa Huang?"

"Filial piety, humility and courtesy are the basics of being a human being."

"Grandpa Emperor has been very kind to you. He has made you a king at such a young age. You should be filial to Grandpa Emperor. How can you still ask for a reward from Grandpa Emperor? It is totally wrong!"

After saying this, Zhu Yunwen immediately pretended to be sensible and filial, and said to Zhu Yuanzhang: "My third brother is young and ignorant, please don't blame me, Grandpa Emperor."

Zhu Yunxun smiled and said, "It is only natural for me to be filial to Grandpa Huang."

"But as the Son of Heaven, you should also be clear about rewards and punishments. Only in this way can you win the hearts of the people of the world."

"I am asking for a reward not for myself, but for the people of the world, to establish the reputation of the Ming Dynasty that rewards those who have made contributions."

Old Zhu snorted coldly: "You'd better tell me what this thing is and what it is used for."

"If it is really as you said, and it is of great use and beneficial to the country and the people, I will not be stingy with the reward."

"If you lie to me, you will not be rewarded greatly, but severely punished."

Zhu Yunwen immediately said, "Grandpa Emperor, even if my third brother has done many wrong things, he is still your grandson, my brother. No matter how much you punish him, you can't really imprison him for life!"

"At most, at most, you can take away his title, and your grandson can take good care of him for the rest of his life, letting him live a carefree life."

On the surface, he was begging for mercy, but in fact he was secretly reminding Zhu that he wanted to depose him from his title of king.

Zhu Yunhuan, however, did not care at all. Instead, he patted his chest and said, "It doesn't matter. If it really wasn't a great treasure that benefited the country and the people, I would have no complaints even if Grandpa Emperor imprisoned me for life."

He put the things on the table, spread them out, and then slowly began to introduce them.

"This thing is called a drum mimeograph machine, and it is the ultimate tool for printing books and texts."

"You just need to write the text on wax paper, lay it flat on the gauze, put the gauze frame on the paper, and roll the ink roller on the wax paper to make a copy of the text on a piece of paper."

"Printing is simple, convenient and fast. Compared with ordinary movable type printing and woodblock printing, it is probably 10,000 times more powerful!"

"With this item, my Ming Dynasty can even let everyone learn to read and write, and make everyone in the world a scholar."

"What?" Old Zhu was shocked and stood up from the dragon throne abruptly.

Zhu Yunwen's expression also changed, and he immediately said: "Third brother, this is not a joke, you can't deceive Grandpa Huang about this matter."

Zhu Yunhuan shook his head and said, "How dare I lie to Grandpa Huang!"

He took out the wax paper and, in front of Zhu Yuanzhang, wrote a few lines on it with a goose feather pen that he had prepared long ago.

Then, put the wax paper on the gauze net, and put in white paper according to the method just mentioned... Press it hard with a roller, take out the white paper, and the words just written will appear on it.

Then, Zhu Yunhuan printed the second one, and the third one...

"Grandpa Emperor, you see, with this treasure, printing books and texts will be so easy in the future!"

This is the simplest mimeograph machine.

In his previous life, when he was in elementary school, he saw his teacher use this simple machine to print test papers for students.

Later, it was gradually eliminated with the improvement of technology and the popularization of printers.

Because the working principle and operation process of this type of mimeograph machine are so simple, and the machine is so simple, you can know how it works just by taking a look at it.

Therefore, when Zhu Yunhuan thought about what to make, he quickly thought of this guy.

But even so, he still suffered a lot before he completed it.

The industrial level of this era is really too low.

Things that are common and easy to make in later generations are not easy to make in this era.

If he were not the grandson of Zhu Yuanzhang and a prince, he would have everything he wanted and could give orders to all kinds of craftsmen. He would just stand by and give instructions and tell them what to do.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for him to accomplish it alone.

“Is it really that magical?”

Old Zhu snatched the ink roller from his hand, put white paper on it, rolled the ink first, then pressed the paper, took it out and took a look, and immediately laughed out loud.

"A divine object! A divine object!"

Old Zhu danced with joy.

If Zhu Yuanzhang had any ideals in life after becoming emperor, they would probably be two: one was to ensure that everyone in the world could have enough food to eat and not go hungry.

After all, Lao Zhu had experienced hunger since childhood and knew well the sufferings of the people.

This is almost what he did by working diligently for the country.

Second, everyone in the world can go to school and everyone can learn to read.

To this end, Zhu Yuanzhang ignored the collective opposition of all civil and military officials in the court and forcibly established public schools and promoted compulsory education across the country.

That's right!

The Ming Dynasty of this era had the earliest and most complete compulsory education in the world!
For the first time in history, Zhu opened state-run schools in vast rural areas!
In the second year of Hongwu, when the Ming Dynasty had not yet unified the country and wars were still going on in various places, Zhu Yuanzhang was eager to set up public schools.

He wants to make everyone in the world literate.

He wanted every citizen of the Ming Dynasty to be polite and law-abiding.

In the court, no minister supported Zhu's approach.

Whether it was ministers such as Liu Bowen, Li Shanchang, and Hu Weiyong, or those literati and scholars who claimed to be determined to spread the moral articles of saints, they all opposed Zhu's policy.

For the Ming Dynasty at that time, it was somewhat unrealistic to popularize public schools in villages across the country.

But Lao Zhu ignored everyone's opposition and insisted on carrying out his policy unwaveringly.

Historically, this policy was abolished soon after Zhu Yuanzhang's death because it was unanimously opposed by the government and the public.

But at least now, Lao Zhu is still alive, and large-scale public schools across the country are still running.

This is Lao Zhu’s dream.

An emperor's dream!

However, Lao Zhu is also well aware of the difficulty of its promotion.

We also know that this policy is mostly superficial and not well implemented in practice.

But there is no way.

The imperial court could not afford the cost of distributing books to students, and neither could the common people.

It’s nothing, the books are too expensive!
Although movable type printing has been invented a long time ago, in actual use, woodblock printing is still the main method.

Because Chinese characters are pictographic rather than alphabetic, typesetting is very difficult.

The craftsmen who made woodblock prints did not need to know how to read, they just had to carve according to the pattern.

For movable type printing workers to produce Chinese characters for typesetting, the first requirement is that they must be able to recognize the characters.

But unlike the nine-year compulsory education that is popular among everyone in later generations, in this era, reading and writing are still very advanced skills.

Learning is valuable than anything else.

How can't a person who knows thousands or tens of thousands of words make a living or live a good life by doing anything?
Why continue to be a lowly typesetter?

Because of the difficulty in printing, in this era, many books still rely on hand copying.

In fact, it was not until the Qing Dynasty hundreds of years later that Cao Xueqin wrote "Dream of the Red Chamber", which was circulated among the people and many people even copied it by hand.

Every copy of the book could earn dozens of gold coins from selling it.

As a result, many people made a living by copying "Dream of the Red Chamber" by hand to support their families.

It also left behind various different handwritten copies of Dream of the Red Chamber for future generations!

From this we can see that the inconvenience and backwardness of printing technology at the time created profit margins for handcopying.

In comparison, the mimeograph machine was extremely convenient, as it allowed users to simply copy a document once with a quill pen on wax paper and then easily use an ink roller to print thousands of copies.

With the mimeograph machine, it became possible to print millions of books quickly and cheaply, making it a reality for everyone to read and write.

This will realize Lao Zhu's lifelong dream.

How could this not make Lao Zhu extremely excited?
"Grandpa Emperor!" Zhu Yunhuan struck while the iron was hot and said, "My grandson believes that as a ruler of a country, one cannot just read books himself, but must let everyone in the world read books, so that the teachings of the saints and the laws of the country can penetrate into everyone's heart."

"That's why my grandson invented the roller mimeograph machine. With this machine, we can print countless books, allowing more people in the world to read and learn."

"In order to make this, my grandson missed a few days of schoolwork and did not study the sage books properly."

"But my grandson thinks that this is also reading, reading for millions of people in the world!"

"It is far more important to let everyone in the world have books to read and let the people of the Ming Dynasty learn to read and understand etiquette than to let my grandson study alone."

"If there is anything wrong with this, please punish me, Grandfather Emperor!"

"Grandson, I am willing to plead guilty!"

(End of this chapter)