Datang: Empress mother-in-law sent Li Er to test me

He said anxiously: "Brother Zhang, I will go with you as a consultant too?"

"What do you think?" Before Zhang Dun could speak, Cheng Yaojin couldn't help laughing out loud.

Zhang Dun smiled and said, "Brother Hu, why don't you go back first?"

Hu Guang looked at him resentfully, "I'm just a tool man, throw it away when you're done using it?"

----

"Damn!"

The Chen family, in the courtyard.

The gentry all had ugly faces and shouted one after another:

"This Zhang Dun, how can he come up with so many tricks?"

"That's right, he burned the bamboo forest, and he actually made a paper!"

"Hurry up and send someone to learn papermaking!"

"On the way back, I have sent someone there!"

Chen Ran suddenly said: "No, we can't send others. Whether we can get a blessing in disguise depends on this matter."

Hearing this, a dozen gentry looked at him in astonishment.

Chen Ran went straight to the stone table, sat on the stone bench, and said in a deep voice, "Did you see the piece of paper that Zhang Dun, who was standing on the wooden table just now, took out?"

"That piece of paper is snow white."

"Where did the paper on the market in my Tang Dynasty have that color?"

"If we learn how to do it, what if we return all the victims' fields?"

Chen Ran pursed his lips, but with a touch of excitement in his tone, he said, "We can make enough money just by selling paper!"

"So, the method of making paper is the most important thing. Do you think it is possible to send ordinary people there?"

A dozen gentry looked at each other, and someone said cautiously: "Old Chen means..."

Chen Ran said: "We will go by ourselves!"

The gentry suddenly realized, nodded and said: "Listen to Mr. Chen."

Chen Ran made a decisive decision, raised his head and shouted at the housekeeper who was standing not far away: "Housekeeper, get some clothes for the victims immediately!"

"No!" The butler hurriedly responded.

----

A camp workshop outside Jinyang County.

After Zhang Dun arrived with his eldest grandson Wuji, Du Yan and Cheng Yaojin, he went straight to a large tent.

This was arranged in advance when the workshop was built. The big tent is very simple, with only one clean and dust-free table.

Zhang Dun spread his palms and told everyone to sit down first, and then said loudly to Han Xing and Wang Feng who were standing at the door of the big tent: "Vice General Han, Vice General Wang, you can bring in what I asked you to bring."

"No!" Han Xing and Wang Feng walked in, carrying small wooden boxes in their hands, and gently placed them on the table.

Changsun Wuji asked curiously, "Zhang Shaoyin, what is this?"

"What it is, you will know when you see it."

As Zhang Dun spoke, he opened two small wooden boxes.

In the wooden box, there are some white papers and some small cubes.

Changsun Wuji picked up a small cube with great interest, and looked at it carefully in his hand.

The word "thousand" is engraved on the small square.

Changsun Wuji asked in surprise, "What is this for?"

Zhang Dun didn't say a word, but took the small cube from his hand, arranged it neatly with other cubes, and put it in a book-sized box.

Changsun Wuji, Cheng Yaojin, and Du Yan watched his movements curiously.

Zhang Dun's movements were very gentle, and he took out two brushes and an inkstone from another wooden box.

When ink came out of the inkstone, Zhang Dun dipped a brush into the ink and painted the squares in the frame.

Then put a piece of clean white paper on top, and then use another brush that is not dipped in ink to gently brush on the paper.

"almost……"

After a long time, Zhang Dun put down the brush and gently peeled off the white paper.

When they saw the blank paper, Changsun Wuji, Du Yan, and Cheng Yaojin's expressions changed drastically, and they stood up all at once!

Chapter 286 Is it possible to sell books to illiterate people?

The white paper is full of inked words.

"Let the old man see it!"

Du Yan said anxiously, walked over to pick up the white paper, looked at the words on the white paper, couldn't help but gasped.

On the white paper, there is a chapter of "the heaven and the earth are mysterious and yellow, and the universe is prehistoric".

"This is... a thousand-character script?"

Changsun Wuji walked up to him, and seeing the words on the paper, his eyes widened a little.

"Thousand Characters" was written by Zhou Xingsi in the Southern Dynasty.

The whole text is a rhyme composed of a thousand Chinese characters.

It is also one of the three major readings of traditional elementary school.

In the Tang Dynasty, people who could read and write would read and write "Thousand Characters" by heart.

But it takes some effort to write these thousand words.

If there is no half an hour, it will take three quarters of an hour.

However, Zhang Dun just brushed the back of the paper with a brush for a while, and the handwriting came out!

At this time, Zhang Dun did not stop, but picked up a blank piece of paper again and repeated the action just now.

This time, there is less time for words to appear on the white paper!

Changsun Wuji, Cheng Yaojin, and Du Yan watched in amazement.

Fast, too fast!

Quickly leave them dumbfounded.

"How did you do it?" Cheng Yaojin couldn't help asking.

Zhang Dun raised his head and smiled, knowing what kind of technique he was asking about, he said in an unhurried tone: "I call this movable type printing."

Typography?

Hearing this, Du Yan murmured to himself: "Now that I am in Tang Dynasty, the only thing I have heard of is engraving and printing."

"The old man has heard of it too." Changsun Wuji nodded slightly, looked solemnly at the book-sized wooden frame on the table, and said: "But the movable type printing technique created by Zhang Shaoyin is obviously much better than woodblock printing. gone."

Du Yan and Cheng Yaojin nodded approvingly.

Block printing is to engrave pictures and texts on the printing plate in advance.

However, woodblock printing takes a long time from engraving pictures and texts to printing them on paper.

And it cannot be changed.

Once changed, it must be done again.

It is far less flexible than Zhang Dun's movable type printing.

Zhang Dun just took out a square frame and arranged the carved small square wooden blocks in order to print the book.

If you need to change it, you only need to take out the place that needs to be changed and replace it again, which is extremely convenient.

"Your thinking is unconstrained."

Du Yan looked at Zhang Dun and said with emotion: "If I were an old man, I'd think about it too hard, and I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to think of such a way."

"However, the old man doesn't understand."

Du Yan showed a little confusion, pointed to the white paper and asked, "You asked us to come here to give us advice, but what do you want us to do?"

"Mr. Du has hit the mark."

Zhang Dun looked serious, and said: "I want to use movable type printing, combined with papermaking, to completely end the matter on Hedong Road."

"You mean..." Changsun Wuji hesitated and said, "You want to use these two methods to help the disaster victims make money?"

Zhang Dun hummed, and said, "Right now, the chief manager's mansion is selecting manpower, and 2000 people will be selected, and they will be able to come to the workshop to make paper tomorrow."

"In terms of papermaking, with the current scale of the workshop, 2000 people are more than enough."

"However, there are more than 2000 victims in Hedong Road."

Zhang Dun sighed, and said, "If you want to help all the victims, just a paper-making project is not enough."

"I then thought of seeing if movable type printing could be used to involve more disaster victims."

"only……"

Zhang Dun looked at the three of them seriously, and said, "Now we are faced with a problem, which is how to use movable type printing."

Cheng Yaojin said without hesitation, "Isn't this simple?"

"I made the paper, and then used movable type printing to make some characters on the paper, such as this "Thousand Characters", bound into a book, and sold out?"

Zhang Dun shook his head, "If it's that simple, then it would be great."

Changsun Wuji frowned and said, "Are you worried that selling books like "Thousand Characters" won't meet your expectations?"

Zhang Dun smiled and said, "Eldest grandson knows me."

"..." Changsun Wuji resisted the urge to cast his eyes at him, thought for a while and said, "Your worries are not unreasonable."

Whether it is "Thousand Characters" or other articles, it is not difficult to sell such books.

Even, it will be very hot.

But no matter how popular it is, it is only limited to scholars.

Compared with the number of scholars in the world and ordinary people who cannot read, one can be said to be in the sky and the other is on the ground.

The difference between clouds and mud!

To put it more clearly, the Tang Dynasty is full of illiterates!

Changsun Wuji frowned, and Du Yan frowned too, and remained silent for a while.

Cheng Yaojin scratched his head and said, "Can we speak more clearly? The old man doesn't understand. What are you worried about?"

"Now that we have papermaking and movable type printing, making books for sale is not the best way?"

Changsun Wuji glanced at him, and sighed: "I told you to read more books on weekdays, but if you don't listen, now that the books are used up, you will hate less, right?"

Cheng Yaojin stared at him with wide eyes and said, "Grandpa Changsun, let's talk about it, don't go around cursing people!"

Changsun Wuji pointed to Zhang Dun and said, "If it was as simple as you said, Zhang Shaoyin wouldn't have called us here as a staff officer."

"If my guess is correct, Zhang Shaoyin's real intention is to sell the characters printed on paper not only to scholars, but also to illiterate people!"

"Ah?" Cheng Yaojin's jaw almost dropped to the ground, he looked at Zhang Dun in surprise, and said, "Zhang Shaoyin, what do you think?"

Zhang Dun nodded solemnly and said, "That's right, we have to earn money from scholars. I want to earn money from scholars, too."

"Is this possible?" Cheng Yaojin asked in confusion.

impossible!

Two words came to Changsun Wuji and Du Yan's mind.

People who can't read and write, what's the use of buying this?

Are you offering it as a family heirloom?

Moreover, most of the illiterate people are farmers.