Tibet.

Chapter 1422 Arrival in Jiaozhou
Gao Shi walked forward and saw clearly the carved block on the table. It turned out that it was not a complete carved block, but a collection of independent small wooden characters.

"This is..." Gao Shi was very surprised. He had never seen such individual words before.

“This is movable type!”

The steward stepped forward and took one, handing it to Gao Shi. Gao Shi took it and looked at it carefully. The type was very small, but it was made extremely delicately, and it was obvious that it had been carefully polished.

He suddenly understood and said to Wang Jin: "When needed, we can put it together temporarily, right?"

Wang Jin nodded. "This is for newspapers. We need to typeset it every day, so we don't have to carve the plates again."

Gao Shi understood, looked at it carefully again, and sighed: "It's not easy to do this!"

The steward nodded and said, "It takes at least half a year to make a movable type. It needs to be repeatedly soaked in oil, dried, and polished. Only then will the wooden movable type be stable and not expand or contract when heated or cooled. His Majesty said that it would be best to use copper movable type. It is currently under development and should be ready."

At this time, Gao Shi suddenly thought of something and asked, "There will definitely be a lot of repeated words in a newspaper. What should I do?"

The steward took out a large plate of typefaces from the drawer beside him and said with a smile, "Reporting to Lord Gao, these are the completed typefaces. We can add to them when needed. In fact, we have prepared a lot of commonly used movable typefaces, with twenty of each. If they are still not enough, we can just add to them."

Wang Jin said, "This is the intention of your majesty to publish the weekly newspaper first, so that everyone can become proficient in movable type printing and practice with the weekly newspaper. Otherwise, the weekly newspaper can also be printed with woodblocks!"

The steward smiled and said, "Minister Wang is right. It does take a process of becoming proficient. Typesetting is very time-consuming. It takes at least several months to become proficient. We plan to train a dozen typesetters so that everyone can be as fast as flying. Moreover, since movable type printing is the first time, we need to constantly accumulate experience and correct mistakes. In a few years, movable type printing can be used on a large scale."

After coming out of the printing house, Gao Shi thought for a moment and said to Wang Jin, "I suggest that schools train students in movable type printing, so that when private newspapers are allowed in the future, everyone will be caught off guard and stuck in the printing process."

Wang Jin nodded and smiled, "Your Majesty has already thought of this question. When the first issue of Jiaxing Chaobao is printed, a message will be published in the corner. Printers who are interested can come to the newspaper office to sign up, and then make an appointment to go together to observe the movable type printing process."

"I see, this is a good idea!"

Wang Jin smiled and said, "The next step is to start preparations. You may need Envoy Gao to formulate a plan, including the number of people, property, and offices needed. In addition, Prime Minister Wei has arranged an assistant for you, Lu Dahui, the chief clerk of Chongwenguan, who is responsible for printing books. He is more professional and can assist Envoy Gao to get things done."

Gao Shi smiled and nodded, "That's great, otherwise I would be really confused and don't know where to start."

Chang'an is already seven points cooler in September, but Quanzhou is still as hot as in summer.

Du Huan arrived in Jiaozhou with 3,000 troops, bringing the total force in Jiaozhou to 6,000.

Jiaozhou has been a place of great importance to the Central Plains dynasties since ancient times. The ancients knew that the land in the alluvial plain was the most fertile and most suitable for human habitation.

Therefore, the two most fertile lands in the Lingnan region are the Pearl River Delta and the Red River Delta. The Red River Delta is Jiaozhou, which is today's Hanoi, Vietnam.

As early as when Zhao Tuo established the Nanyue Kingdom, Jiaozhou was one of the most important agricultural areas of the Nanyue Kingdom.

During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Annan Protectorate was established and Jiaozhou was further developed. Even when the Central Plains was devastated by the An-Shi Rebellion, Jiaozhou was not affected. Instead, many Han people fled to Jiaozhou.

However, the Anshi Rebellion affected Jiaozhou from another perspective. The Tang Dynasty was in financial difficulties and was unable to maintain the garrison in Jiaozhou, causing the military strength of Jiaozhou to drop sharply from 10,000 to 1,000.

The adverse consequences of the reduction in military strength soon appeared. First, they were coveted by Nanzhao. For decades, Nanzhao had been eyeing Jiaozhou's land and seaports, and had attempted to send troops to occupy them several times, but had failed for various reasons.

If Li Ye had not launched the Nanzhao War, Jiaozhou would have been occupied by Nanzhao troops sooner or later, but now Nanzhao no longer has this opportunity.

The second was the invasion of Shanyue and Nanman. Before the Tang army maintained a strong military force, the Shanyue and Nanman never dared to act rashly. But since the garrison was greatly reduced, the Shanyue and Nanman often came down from the mountains to plunder property and people, making the people of Jiaozhou miserable. The third was the invasion of pirates. Pirates from Sumatra and India often invaded the coast of Jiaozhou, raping, burning, and killing.

Fortunately, after Li Ye became the regent, when the situation in the Central Plains eased a little, he sent General Zhang Boyi to serve as the governor of Jiaozhou and added 2,000 troops. The effect was immediate. Zhang Boyi took the initiative to lead his army to attack the Shanyue barbarians, killing thousands of enemies and rescuing thousands of people who had been looted.

Zhang Boyi set up an ambush near the mouth of the Red River. When hundreds of pirates rushed into the river mouth, a thousand Tang soldiers cut off the pirates' retreat and killed all the hundreds of pirates.

Pirates no longer dared to penetrate deep into the hinterland and could only harass the coast.

When Du Huan arrived again with three thousand troops, Zhang Boyi realized that the time had come for the Tang Dynasty to launch a complete counterattack.

In the commander-in-chief's room, Du Huan, as the emperor's special envoy, was explaining the emperor's intentions to the generals.

"The strategic intentions of the emperor and the court are very clear. The first is to protect the strategic land of Jiaozhou and quell the banditry. The second is to take over Champa and use Champa as a base to manage the fertile land of Zhenla. The court needs food."

Zhang Boyi hesitated for a moment and asked, "Excuse me, General Du, is there any naval support?"

Du Huan nodded, "Three hundred warships of the Tang navy will come to support us soon!"

Zhang Boyi was overjoyed. With the navy, things would be much easier. The pirates entrenched in Champa must be wiped out in one fell swoop.

Zhang Boyi immediately arranged for local officials to accompany Du Huan to inspect the situation in Jiaozhou.

The local official was named Yang Shengzhi. His grandfather came to Jiaozhou during the Kaiyuan period to serve as a minor official. He had five sons, and each son had several grandsons. In just three generations, the family became a large one in Jiaozhou.

Yang Shengzhi currently serves as the military officer of the Household Department of Jiaozhou Military Governor's Office and is very familiar with the people's livelihood in Jiaozhou.

Du Huan rode slowly along the ridges of the fields. This was the paddy field south of Jiaozhi County, and also the largest paddy field in Jiaozhou. The green paddy field stretched as far as the eye could see. Yang Shengzhi pointed at the paddy field and said with a smile, "There are more than 6,000 hectares of paddy fields around Jiaozhi County, with three areas east, west and south of the city, which are relatively balanced. We practice a rotation system, cultivating for one year and resting for two years, so we only cultivate more than 2,000 hectares each year."

“Three crops a year?”

Yang Shengzhi nodded, "Three crops a year, one acre of land can produce 1,500 kilograms of rice."

"That's a lot of yield! Two thousand hectares of fertile land can produce more than two million shi a year."

Du Huan exclaimed: "How many people are there in Jiaozhou?"

"There are 150,000 to 160,000 Han people in Jiaozhou, 30,000 households, and most of them make a living by farming."

"On average, each person gets more than 100 dan of grain per year. Food is very abundant!"

Yang Shengzhi smiled bitterly. "What Envoy Du said was the best year. If there were no harassment from the southern barbarians and pirates, we could have produced a lot of food with our joint efforts. But the problem is that when the pirates and southern barbarians come, the people all run away. They steal food, rob oxen, and burn houses. We are lucky to be able to grow one crop a year. For so many years, the food has barely been enough to make a living."

"Don't worry about this problem anymore. This time we will kill all the pirates, and we will also kill all the Nanman and Shanyue people who see the Han people as enemies. This is the will of the emperor. We will not give the Nanman and Shanyue people a chance to forgive. It is impossible to hope that they will become kind. Only the dead are the safest."

Yang Shengzhi nodded, "This is the pragmatic approach. These southern barbarians don't know what is benevolence and righteousness. They only know how to bully the weak and fear the strong. When you are strong, they dare not provoke you. When you are a little weak, they will come with knives. They have killed so many Han people and raped so many women. We all hate them to the core. Only by killing them all can we avenge our dead compatriots!"

(End of this chapter)