Tibet.

Chapter 1421: Initial Construction of a Newspaper
At this time, the right prime minister Wei Jiansu and the new Minister of Rites Wang Jin also hurried over, and Li Ye gave them seats.

The two men greeted Gao Shi and sat aside without saying anything else. They obviously knew what the matter was about as the emperor had talked to them about it in advance.

Li Ye then took a scroll of documents from the imperial desk, and Wei Gao hurried forward to take it and handed it to Gao Shi.

Gao Shi took the document and unfolded it slowly. He was stunned. The document turned out to be "Kaiyuan Miscellaneous News".

Kaiyuan Miscellaneous Newspaper can be said to be the oldest newspaper in history, but it was a bulletin that compiled and printed daily court dynamics, such as the emperor's will, appointment and dismissal lists, and memorials, and distributed them to officials from the various local Jinzouyuan in the capital. The Jinzouyuan officials then sent people on horseback to deliver them to various states.

"Kaiyuan Miscellaneous News" can be said to be a symbol of the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, but it was discontinued after just a few years and has never been resumed.

Gao Shi suddenly understood that the emperor wanted him to restore the "Kaiyuan Miscellaneous News".

"Your Majesty, do you want to restore the Kaiyuan Miscellaneous Newspaper?"

Li Ye smiled slightly, "Yes, and no!"

Gao Shi did not dare to speak, and Li Ye slowly said: "I not only want to restore the Kaiyuan Miscellaneous Newspaper, but also surpass it, whether it is for officials to read, but also for the people of the world to read.

Gao Shi was shocked. How could this be done?
Li Ye smiled again and said, "Of course, showing it to the people of the world is a long-term vision, and it may not appear until ten years later, but now restoring the Jiaxing Xunbao is an urgent task."

Gao Shi breathed a sigh of relief and glanced at Wei Jiansu, who smiled and nodded to him. Gao Shi quickly expressed his opinion: "I am willing to share your majesty's worries!"

Li Ye nodded, "Listen to me slowly, don't interrupt me, I will tell you some of my thoughts first."

Gao Shi nodded quickly. Li Ye hesitated for a moment and said, "First of all, this newspaper belongs to the Secretariat. I will also appoint you as the Imperial Counselor. Secondly, this is a ten-day newspaper. Initially, it is planned to print one thousand copies each time. I hope the content will be richer, not only political commentary, but also literature. Then, I hope you can train more young newspaper backbones to create conditions for the publication of various newspapers in the future."

After Li Ye finished speaking, he smiled and asked, "What do you think?"

Gao Shi pondered for a moment and said, "Your Majesty has kept in mind the three points you mentioned. I am just thinking about the printing issue."

Li Ye laughed, "Minister Wang will help you solve this problem. In addition, if you have any difficulties or questions, you can directly ask Prime Minister Wei!"

Li Ye told Gao Shi very clearly that Prime Minister Wei was his immediate superior.

Wei Jiansu stood up and said with a smile: "Envoy Gao, please come with us! Let's go to the official office to discuss the specific details of running the newspaper."

Li Ye is the emperor, he is only in charge of the direction. The specific implementation is the responsibility of those below him. If it is not done well, he will be replaced.

Publishing a newspaper was something Li Ye had wanted to do a long time ago. He had already considered it when he was in Jincheng, Lanzhou. At that time, he wanted to let Li Bai publish the newspaper. Later, this plan was cancelled, not because of Li Bai's ability, but because Li Ye found that it was a double-edged sword that hurt others and himself. Simply put, if the court had learned how to publish a newspaper from him at that time, then with the court's control and influence, the small Helong Jiedushi would definitely have been defeated in the war of public opinion.

Especially if the imperial court had used the power of public opinion to severely criticize the Helong Army's occupation of Bashu and Guanzhong, the current situation would probably not have happened.

So after thinking it through, Li Ye decisively gave up the idea of ​​publishing a newspaper and instead let Li Bai go to Shu to run a school.

Now the time is ripe to publish a newspaper. When Li Ye discussed with the Council of Ministers, they unanimously thought of restoring the "Kaiyuan Miscellaneous News". The "Kaiyuan Miscellaneous News" was not only a symbol of the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, it also had a more important role, which was to communicate between the court and the local areas, so that local officials could better understand the court's dynamics, thereby increasing the court's control over local officials.

But Li Ye wanted to make the newspaper better, not only for officials but also for students, so he had to add literary content. He wanted a poet who had experience as an official and was famous all over the world. Li Ye first thought of Li Bai and Du Fu, but Li Bai was not stable enough and could not sit still, and Du Fu lacked experience as an official. Li Ye then thought of Wang Wei, but Wang Wei was in poor health, so his father Li Dai recommended Gao Shi to Li Ye.

Li Ye immediately issued an edict to appoint Gao Shi as the Left Counselor, in charge of the compilation and publication of the Jiaxing Weekly.

The Minister of Rites Wang Jin took Gao Shi on a carriage to visit the imperial printing house.

Wang Jin and Gao Shi were very familiar with each other because of their brother Wang Wei.

Inside the carriage, Wang Jin said with a smile, "I originally wanted to try to get the newspaper in the Ministry of Rites, but unfortunately I didn't succeed in the end. It's quite a pity!"

Gao Shi also laughed and said, "I also think it would be more appropriate for the Ministry of Rites to run the newspaper. Why didn't it succeed?"

Wang Jin smiled bitterly. "At that time, Minister Pei was not very interested in running a newspaper. I mentioned it to him several times, but he just asked Prime Minister Wei. Prime Minister Wei said that the emperor was still considering it, so the matter was left unresolved. Then a few days ago, I took the initiative to apply to the emperor again, and the emperor replied that he did not want to run the Jiaxing Weekly. The emperor hoped that an independent government agency would be responsible for it."

Gao Shi was startled and asked quickly, "The emperor doesn't want to publish Jiaxing Xunbao. What does this mean?"

Wang Jin said calmly: "The emperor has already given three principles. The third principle is this. Do you remember it?"

Gao Shi thought for a moment and said, "Train backbone personnel and publish many newspapers?"

Wang Jin nodded and said, "The Jiaxing Xunbao is actually just a beginning, or just an experiment. The emperor told me that he wants to publish several newspapers, with new newspapers every day, newspapers for scholars, newspapers for officials, newspapers for ordinary people, etc. Therefore, a special government office should be established to do it. It is not appropriate to put it under the Ministry of Rites."

Gao Shi hesitated for a moment and asked, "Did the emperor ever say that private individuals should be allowed to run newspapers?"

Wang Jin shook his head. "I don't think there is such an idea at the moment. I don't know if there will be such an idea in the future, because it involves public opinion. However, the Tang Dynasty is generally more tolerant. As long as a few red lines are drawn, such as not attacking the emperor, etc., I personally think that in the future, private newspapers may be allowed."

Gao Shi sighed, "How can we print the plates in time if we publish the newspaper every day?"

Wang Jin smiled mysteriously, "That's why I took you to the printing house. You'll know when you go and see it!"

The printing workshop they came to was called Chang'an Printing House, a government-run printing workshop located in Banzhengfang in the west of the city. There were several government-run printing houses in Chang'an, but the one today was the largest one, a large workshop covering an area of ​​five acres.

At present, printing is still mainly based on woodblock printing. For example, literary works, the Four Books and Five Classics, Buddhist scriptures, and examination papers do not require typesetting, the content will not change, and they can be printed in hundreds of thousands of copies at a time. Of course, woodblock printing is very suitable.

But it is different for newspapers. The content is different every day and typeset every day. It would not be suitable to use woodblock printing. First of all, the cost would be unbearable. A set of plates would cost hundreds of coins and would be thrown away after one day. Who could afford that?
Therefore, real newspapers must be based on movable type printing.

But movable type printing can never replace woodblock printing. Take a set of "Three Character Classic" and Buddhist scriptures for example. The content has remained unchanged for thousands of years. Of course, it is better to carve a set of plates, which can be used for decades or even hundreds of years and are easy to preserve. Of course, it is more practical than movable type printing.

The two men walked into the printing house and saw workers applying ink, laminating paper and printing. Every table was very busy.

They walked all the way to the backyard, which was the engraving area. The manager opened the door and saw dozens of carvers sitting inside, each concentrating on carving the wooden boards.

The steward took them to the next small room and pointed to the printed engraving on the table and said, "This is what you two adults want to see!"

(End of this chapter)