Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 140: The birth of movable type, Lao Zhu asks Wen Zhong

The Lead Type Project Group, as the name suggests, is affiliated to the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Industry.

Nowadays, some scholars in the society have some criticisms about the policy and even Zhu Yuanzhang himself due to the reform of the content of the imperial examination.

At this time, Liu Kuan, as the actual leader of the Science and Technology Department, had to supervise the development progress of the lead movable type project team and express his position.

In addition, the lead movable type project team has been established for more than a month, and Liu Kuan has begun to copy down all the relevant information on his mobile phone, computer and in his mind as reference materials for the project team.

For example, the mature lead movable type in later generations is an alloy of lead, antimony and tin, in which lead accounts for the largest proportion, followed by antimony and then tin.

People in the early Ming Dynasty naturally did not know what antimony was, and Liu Kuan did not know what antimony was called at that time.

He simply asked the relevant craftsmen to find various metals, describe their characteristics, and let him identify them. Only then did he learn that antimony was called Lianxi at that time and had been used since the Qin and Han Dynasties.

Therefore, the main task of the project team is to find the alloy ratio suitable for making movable type through repeated comparative experiments.

The second important task of the project team was to equip ink suitable for lead type printing.

Liu Kuan happened to have information on this topic in his computer, so he gave the answer directly and asked the project team to copy it.

Years ago, the project team produced trial-produced printing ink based on the data.

However, lead movable type had not yet been invented, so there was no way to verify whether this ink could be used and whether it was easy to use. We could only wait.

As for the third problem that lead movable type printing needed to solve, that is, how to make lead movable type with flush surfaces when placed together - this might be a difficult problem for Westerners who improved printing technology in later generations, but for the Ming Dynasty at that time, it was not a problem at all.

After clay movable type, pottery movable type and wooden movable type came into being one after another, people came up with ways to solve this problem.

That is, first make a mold frame for carving movable type, and then carve the movable type in the mold frame.

If you switch to lead type, you only need to make some improvements to this method.

Of course, the testing of this technology also relies on lead movable type, which is currently impossible...
outer city.

Inside the compound of a printing house affiliated with the Ministry of Industry.

Upon learning that Liu Kuan was coming, Shen Dong, the project team's head official, immediately came to greet him with several officials.

"This humble official greets Vice-President Liu."

Shen Dong and several officials bowed to Liu Kuan.

Liu Kuan returned the greeting and then asked directly, "Director Shen, how is the progress of the lead movable type development? When will it be available?"

It is said that Shen Dong's ancestors were able to trace back to Shen Kuo through various channels, but it is not known whether this is true or not.

This person also came from a craftsman background, but he was quite ambitious, had a good level of education, and had some political acumen.

As soon as he heard Liu Kuan's question, he knew that most likely their superiors were dissatisfied with their slow progress.

So he said, "With the reference materials provided by Deputy Liu, we actually experimented and found a usable ratio of lead movable type materials before the Lantern Festival."

"It's just that I wanted to develop a more effective movable lead type, so I didn't report it immediately, but continued to develop it."

Liu Kuan frowned slightly after hearing this, but didn't blame him. Instead, he asked, "How does your current optimal lead movable type printing compare to other movable type and woodblock printing?"

Shen Dong said, "The printing effect is better than the previous clay movable type, copper movable type, and wooden movable type. As for the comparison with the woodblock print, if it is not accompanied by pictures, the printing effect is slightly better; but if it is accompanied by pictures, the effect is actually a little worse than the woodblock print."

Liu Kuan felt that the current performance of lead movable type was slightly better than that of woodblock printing, which was already quite good. He asked, "Do you have any printed materials to observe the experimental results? Bring them to me to see."

"Of course there is."

After Shen Dong finished speaking, he personally took Liu Kuan to the room where a set of experimental lead movable type was stored. In front of Liu Kuan, he used this set of lead movable type to print an article of "Thousand Character Classic".

Liu Kuan compared it with the fine woodblock books he had in mind and found that the effect seemed to be a little better.

But if you don't pay attention, you probably won't be able to see this little bit.

Shen Dong then printed another one with pictures. This time, the difference in effect compared with the fine woodblock book with pictures was more obvious, and it was indeed slightly inferior.

Liu Kuan paused for a moment and said, "Your Majesty has reinstituted the imperial examination system and will promote culture. Therefore, he intends to expand the printing volume and lower the price of books."

"So, for the imperial court, the main purpose of developing movable lead type was to reduce printing costs."

"As for the printing effect of the lead movable type, as long as it is better than the other types of movable type, it will be enough."

"Of course, your idea of ​​continuing to improve movable type is correct. Therefore, even if you submit your current research results, the project team will not be disbanded. Instead, it will be renamed the 'Printing Project Team' and tasked with continuing to improve movable type printing."

Shen Dong was slightly pleased at first, "I understand."

Then he frowned and said, "However, the biggest cost of movable type printing is the production of movable type. If we present our current barely qualified research results and let the officials use this ratio to produce a batch of lead movable type, when lead movable type with a better ratio appears in the future, wouldn't this batch be wasted?"

The reason why Shen Dong had delayed reporting the research results was that he was worried that the project team would be disbanded after the report and there would be no opportunity to continue improving the lead type.

Secondly, he felt that doing so was a waste of the court's money and grain.

Once the imperial court thinks so, according to past practices, this project team will probably no longer exist.

Liu Kuan was slightly surprised. He didn't expect that Shen Dong would actually consider the court.

He immediately said, "It's indeed a waste, but compared to having movable type introduced a day earlier, wasting some money and food is nothing." "Besides, the project team can wait until the development of movable type has made some progress before submitting new results."

"As for whether the court will use these new discoveries to create a new batch of movable lead type, that is the business of other court departments and officials. Do you understand?"

Shen Dong nodded thoughtfully.

"Then submit the report on the optimal lead movable type ratio currently under research as the first phase of research. I will commend the entire lead movable type project team."

After leaving these words, Liu Kuan walked out of the room.

Shen Dong finally caught up and said, "Thank you, Deputy Liu, for your advice!"

···
Two days later, Liu Kuan received the "Report on the First Phase Research Results of Lead Movable Type" submitted by Shen Dong, and read it with great interest while sitting in his office.

Today, this "report-style" official document originated by him has become popular in various departments of the Ministry of Works, and even in the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Taxation, and the Ministry of Finance.

The reason was, of course, that Zhu Yuanzhang had shown the report form he had asked Qiuyue to copy to other officials many times so that they could learn from it.

Since Old Zhu has spoken, how dare these officials not learn?
As for the officials of the Ministry of Works, they now regard Liu Kuan as the representative of the Ministry of Works, and naturally highly praise the "report style" and other memorial styles derived from Liu Kuan.

These people have writing skills ingrained in their nature in classical Chinese, and now it seems quite interesting to see them using classical Chinese to write report-style articles.

Therefore, every time Liu Kuan saw other people’s report-style articles, he would carefully appreciate and “learn” from them.

"This Shen Dong's literary skills are indeed quite good. He might be a descendant of Shen Kuo."

When Liu Kuan was thinking this, an official came to report that someone had come from the palace.

Liu Kuan came out to greet him, but it was the eunuch who came to convey Zhu Yuanzhang's oral order, asking him to pay tribute and meet the emperor.

Everyone in the Science and Technology Department was used to this, including Liu Kuan.

He followed the young eunuch to Fengxian Hall and found Zhu Biao was also there, so he saluted both of them.

The ceremony is over.

Zhu Yuanzhang got straight to the point and said, "I've been considering the selection of candidates for the Navy Governor's Office recently. One of the people involved is someone I need to ask you about his history in later generations."

Liu Kuan immediately stated, "I will tell you everything I know."

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and did not take Liu Kuan's words seriously, but he still asked: "Do you know our nephew Wen Zhong?"

After hearing this, Liu Kuan wanted to take back what he had just said.

Because if Zhu Yuanzhang hadn't mentioned Li Wenzhong, he would have almost forgotten about this man.

When Old Zhu mentioned this, he could only say with a slightly bitter look, "Your humble servant knows."

Zhu Yuanzhang seemed not to notice the subtle change in Liu Kuan's expression and said, "The Navy Governor's Office is newly established and we need two capable and trustworthy generals to serve as the left and right governors."

"The selection of the Right Commander is easy, but for the Left Commander, after much deliberation, I think Jue Wenzhong is the most suitable."

"It's just that after the Hu Weiyong case broke out, he repeatedly interceded for Hu Weiyong's followers. As my nephew, he turned his elbow outward and refused to listen to my repeated admonitions. Instead, he made me look like a tyrant like Jie and Zhou. It was really infuriating."

"I even wonder if he, like Zhu Wenzheng, has been blinded by the ill-intentioned words of others."

"So, we will scare him first, and then put him under house arrest to make him reflect on his mistakes."

"I just hope he can repent and come out soon, so that he can deter evildoers and consolidate the Ming Dynasty for us and for our leader."

"Now, he's been confined to his own house for over a year. I suppose he's repented, right? When in history did we ever employ him again?"

After hearing Lao Zhu's last question, Liu Kuan felt his scalp tingling and had no idea how to answer.

Zhu Yuanzhang finally noticed the strange look on Liu Kuan's face, so he stepped down from the imperial steps and took a closer look at Liu Kuan.

Then he frowned and said, "What's with that look on your face? Is there something you can't talk about Wen Zhong's later events?"

On the other side, Zhu Biao looked worried.

He was worried that Liu Kuan would say something he didn't want to hear, and he was also eager to know what happened to Li Wenzhong later.

"If it's a blessing, it's not a disaster. If it's a disaster, it can't be avoided. As I said before - Zhu Di's Jingnan incident has been mentioned, and I'm not afraid that Zhu Di will find it difficult to accept this!"

Liu Kuan encouraged himself mentally and gritted his teeth, saying, "Your Majesty, you did not reappoint Duke Cao because... he died of illness a few years later."

Died of illness?

A few years later?
Zhu Yuanzhang was completely stunned.

He never expected that when he just consulted Liu Kuan about the selection of the naval commander today, he would ask such a question that struck him like a bolt of lightning.

He just didn't understand why all his juniors were ahead of him?
If someone like Wen Zhong had tragically died on the battlefield in the past, as he had fought alongside him to establish the Ming Dynasty, why did he die of illness?!

Gradually, Zhu Yuanzhang's expression became lively again, but his face was full of confusion, unwillingness and anger.

　Second update.

　　Good night~
　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)