Li Shimin

Chapter 440 Too Many Dark Clouds!
"I have seen Your Majesty!"

When Li Shimin and others walked into the house, Li Xuan came down from the second floor meanderingly.

"It seems that I came here recklessly this time and disturbed Xuan Ba's life!"

Li Shimin has long been used to Li Xuan's attitude.

Even though it has been more than a year, his third younger brother's attitude towards him is still as cold as ever.

"I don't know why Your Majesty ran so far in the cold, why did you come here?" Li Xuan asked.

"Xuanba, I heard that you built a bookmaking workshop in Lijiazhuang?"

Li Xuan asked directly, so Li Shimin didn't go around too much.

"Exactly!"

Li Xuan was not surprised by this.

Li Shimin: "And, in your book workshop, can you make a hundred books a day?"

Li Xuan couldn't help being startled, subconsciously said: "Who said that?"

"Forehead!"

Li Shimin, Fang Xuanling and others were all taken aback.

Li Xuan said directly, "My book workshop can produce five hundred books a day!"

"There are so many?"

Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling were shocked again.

"If Your Majesty wants to see it, I will take His Majesty to have a look!"

Li Xuan said.

"So good!"

Li Shimin said quickly.

Seeing this, Li Xuan didn't say much, and got up directly.

Li Xuan didn't want to hide anything from Li Shimin about these things in Li Family Manor.

After all, since he was named the King of Jin, Li Xuan has never touched the entire mansion of the King of Jin, from the housekeeper to the servants, from the officials to the personal guards. There must be various eyeliners arranged by Li Shimin inside.

Moreover, Prince Li Chengqian also became his disciple.

If you want to hide it, you can't hide it, and there is no need to hide it.

"I have seen the king!"

Soon, several people came outside the paper mill.

The guards around the paper mill quickly saluted after seeing Li Xuan and the others.

"This king brought some of His Majesty inside to have a look!"

Li Xuan explained, before giving the guards a chance to react, he took Li Shimin and the others and walked in.

"I have seen the king, I have seen you gentlemen!"

In the paper workshop, there are still a few ink masters at this moment, carving out printing plates one by one.

In the printing room, Ji Wen and several other ink masters were printing books page by page.

Li Shimin, Fang Xuanling and others who saw this situation for the first time, and even Li Chengqian and Li Baoding could not help but widen their eyes and have strange expressions on their faces after seeing it clearly.

"Swipe like this, and a page will come out!"

"One person can make hundreds of books in one day!"

"No wonder Master can produce two rooms of books in just a few days!"

"..."

After a long while, Li Shimin, Fang Xuanling and others came back to their senses.

"What you saw today, you are not allowed to reveal anything to the outside world!"

Li Shimin said with a serious face.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Fang Xuanling and Changsun Wuji all nodded their heads.

They naturally knew very well that if the things in this small workshop were to be known to those from the family, it would be a big commotion.

"Xuanba, what is this technique?" Li Shimin asked.

This printing technique is obviously different from the block printing technique controlled by the palace.

"Your Majesty, this is movable type printing. Each character is a separate printing plate. These printing plates can be combined to form a sheet of paper, and then printed with ink!"

Li Xuan introduced, "In addition, if you find this troublesome, you can also carve out a slate and print on the slate. However, this requires extremely high lettering skills, and it is very troublesome. If there is a mistake, the entire printing plate will be destroyed. Gotta re-sculpt!"

"Typography……"

Li Shimin looked at the skillful movements of Ji Wen and other ink masters, printing a page with one swipe, and couldn't help nodding slightly.

"As its name!"

On the side, Fang Xuanling and Changsun Wuji all nodded in agreement.

Then, thinking of something, Li Shimin continued to say: "I wonder how Xuanba learned about the art of movable type printing?"

"Ok?"

Li Xuan was taken aback, and looked at Li Shimin suspiciously, "What does your majesty mean?"

He could feel that there was something in Li Shimin's words.

"Xuanba, as far as I know, only the palace and a few aristocratic families in the Tang Dynasty control a printing technique, which is the woodblock printing that Xuanba said." Li Shimin said slowly.

Hearing this, Li Xuan was also shocked.

"Your Majesty knows woodblock printing?"

"It's natural. The books in Tianxia Library are printed with woodblocks. Could it be that Xuanba doesn't know?"

Seeing Li Xuan's expression, Li Shimin felt at ease.

Afterwards, thinking that Li Xuan didn't know that the books in Tianxia Library were also printed by engraving, he was surprised again.

"Not only do I know, even five surnames and seven families have mastered this printing technique!"

On the other side, Fang Xuanling and Changsun Wuji were not surprised at all.

Apparently, they also knew about offset printing.

Hearing this, Li Xuan was startled.

After such a long time, he has already forgotten the Tianxia Library, and as for the engraving and printing, he has already forgotten it!

Then, thinking of something, the look in his eyes became even more puzzled.

"Since that's the case, why doesn't Your Majesty use more engravings to print books and train more officials, so that officials from those aristocratic families control half of the court?"

"Xuanba, do you know that more than half of the officials in the entire Tang Dynasty are from that family!"

Li Shimin smiled helplessly, "In a state, apart from the governor and the governor of the state, from top to bottom, how many people are from poor families?"

"Besides, how easy is it to train an official? It's not that with books, those poor people can read and write. They also need pens, ink, paper and inkstones, three meals a day, all kinds of expenses, no money at home, and no one at all. Dare to read like that!"

As he spoke, Li Shimin thought of the situation in Li's Village, and subconsciously sighed again.

"How many families in the Tang Dynasty are as lucky as these households in Li's Village?"

Hearing this, Li Xuan couldn't help being a little silent.

Indeed, I have never really felt it, and I don't know at all how much influence those aristocratic families have in Datang.

And if you want to study, it costs a lot of money. It can be said that the whole family can provide a scholar!

However, according to what Li Shimin said, since those aristocratic families also controlled woodblock printing, there was no need to worry too much about his movable type printing.

After learning that Li Xuan was indeed using printing to print books, Li Shimin secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Later, in Li Xuan's house, he talked with Fang Xuanling and others about the transport team with Li Xuan.

Now, the only four-wheeled carriages in the Tang Dynasty first went to Lingzhou, Dingxiang and other places to deliver various supplies such as grain, grass and supplies to Li Jing's army.

Therefore, the transportation team prepared for those big families will have to wait until the Shaofu Supervisor and General Supervisor build new carriages.

Li Shimin and others walked around Lijiazhuang with great interest, and left with joy on their faces.

Shonai regained his composure.

……

Soon, it entered the twelfth lunar month.

Since the early morning, the whole sky has been dark.

Sitting in front of the big French windows in the room, Li Xuan felt very depressed, as if the sky was about to fall.

But Li Chang and the others looked worried.

"What's going on here?"

Seeing Li Chang's expression of imminent disaster, Li Xuan couldn't help being a little puzzled.

"My lord, there are too many black clouds!"

Li Chang frowned tightly and said solemnly.

"As much as possible..."

Before he finished speaking, Li Xuan was taken aback, staring closely at Li Chang.

"Big snow?"

"My lord, I remember that there were not so many black clouds during the snowstorm the year before last!"

Li Changdao.

……

(End of this chapter)