Sui Dynasty: I, Yang Guang, am both scrupulous and stable

Chapter 129 Daxing City Newspaper Industry

Lu Bi came to Yang Guang's house, and Yang Guang told him about the newspaper.

Lu Ben found it very novel to do something like a newspaper, but he had a strong interest in novel things, so he agreed to do it as soon as he was told.

Yang Guang must master movable type printing now. If he wants to make a newspaper, he must master movable type printing.

Hand copying is definitely not possible. Although the current labor cost is very low, reading and deciphering is not a job that ordinary people can do. It is extremely expensive to hire people who can write and write well.

Since Cai Lun of the Han Dynasty improved the production of paper, writing materials have become lighter and more economical than the oracle bones, bamboo slips, gold, stone, and silk used in the past. By the Xiping period at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the methods of copying and rubbing stone tablets appeared. .

At first, we used rubbing method. Later, engraving printing appeared in the Tang Dynasty. We chose wood with fine and solid texture, such as jujube wood, pear wood, etc., and then sawed the wood into pieces of wood, and wrote the words to be printed on them. On thin paper, stick it on the wooden board, and then use a knife to carve it into Yang characters one by one according to the strokes of each character, so that the strokes of each character stand out on the board. After the wooden board is carved, the book can be printed. .

It was not until the Song Dynasty that movable type printing appeared and typesetting was implemented. Before the emergence of new media such as computers, movable type printing had been used in the printing industry and used thousands of years of technology.

The movable type printing technology that appeared in the Song Dynasty used clay movable type, and later developed tin movable type, wooden movable type, copper movable type, lead movable type, etc. Yang Guang is now going to start making metal movable type at once.

The advantage of clay type and wooden type over metal type is that they are simpler to manufacture. Metal type has higher requirements for metal smelting and mold manufacturing, but it is more durable, and Yang Guang has to vigorously promote metal For the smelting industry, it would be a good start to take this opportunity to develop.

Why should we vigorously develop the smelting industry?Naturally it is for future firearms.

Lu Ben's workshop had a high-temperature furnace and many good craftsmen, so Yang Guang cooperated with him.

Lu Ben obviously trusted Yang Guang very much. He agreed to the matter and the two of them came to the workshop.

In the workshop, Yang Guang described to the craftsmen what kind of movable type he wanted.

"The first step is to make clay. Use clay to make small blanks with the same specifications. Carve inverted single characters on one end. The height of the protrusions of the characters is as thick as the edge of a copper coin. They are then hardened with fire to become a single movable clay type."

"For example, if we want to write Lu Ben's name, we need to make movable type of the two characters "Lu" and "Ben", apply ink on it, and print it on the paper like a rubbing. It seems troublesome, but if we want to print a hundred sheets, a thousand Zhang will save a lot of time.”

"The clay movable type is just a transition. Let you see what the movable type blocks look like first, and then you can think of a way to use copper to cast the small square movable metal type in the future. The font will be the most commonly used regular script today."

It was too difficult to ask these craftsmen to make molds to make metal movable type blocks in one step, so we used clay blocks to let them understand what movable type blocks are first.

In this era, metal smelting was backward, let alone mold manufacturing, so historically clay blocks were used at the beginning, which were convenient and fast and could be engraved. Metal blocks were difficult to engrave. In order to achieve the best printing effect, molds had to be directly used to slightly modify them like this Better, this is a big challenge for the current basic metal manufacturing industry.

Yang Guang was working on the clay blocks with the craftsmen in the workshop. The real practice was much more difficult than imagined. At the end of the day, the clay blocks were still not finished, so he asked the craftsmen to continue working on it.

……

When he returned home, Yang Guang received the news that Yu Wenhuaji said that Ashina in the dungeon had revealed who was behind the instigation.

He is a low-level official. There is no doubt that he is a subordinate of the prince. The prince is not stupid enough to carry out these things himself. If you follow the clues and investigate further, you may be able to find the prince, but you should not investigate further at this time. .

Yang Guang asked someone to bring a letter to Yu Wenhuaji. Ashina made a false suggestion to the King of Jin and went to the border to build the Great Wall.

Because the Kaihuang Law abolished many tortures in the previous dynasty, Yang Guang didn't want this matter to be confirmed, so he just followed the law and moved to the border to build the Great Wall. No one would care if anything happened.

After Yu Wenhuaji received the letter, he began to convey King Jin's intention to the people in Jingzhao Mansion. Regarding this kind of person, the people in Jingzhao Mansion were also willing to betray King Jin to save face, and the evidence was conclusive, so he immediately decided to kill him. punishment.

But unexpectedly, a group of barbarians came outside the Jingzhao Mansion Office.

The leader of the Hu people was named Aruru, a Hu man with a yellow face and beard. They clamored to see Ashina and asked for his release.

When Yu Wenhuaji heard the news, he smiled disdainfully: "A group of barbarians are still in a group."

The subordinate next to him said: "Young master, you don't know something. The Hu people in Chang'an City mostly come to do business. The biggest business among them, apart from the products from the Western Regions, is the abducted Hu Ji. In order to maintain their own status in Chang'an City, this group of people Because of their status, they formed gangs, and there are now no less than a thousand barbarian traders in Chang'an City."

Since the Sui Dynasty, the Hu people have been pouring into the Central Plains. The Hu people initially referred to the foreign races in the Western Regions, and now they mainly refer to these people. However, the descendants of the Huns in the north and other foreigners are also collectively referred to as the Hu people. The composition is complicated. Difficulties in management.

In the history of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, foreign generals were also reused, which resulted in the familiar Anshi Rebellion.

Yu Wenhuaji said nonchalantly: "They have all been dispersed, but a group of barbarians are still noisy."

The people from the Jingzhao government office went out to disperse the barbarians, but the barbarians were extremely united and refused to leave at the door. The people from the government office were also reluctant to use weapons. When the time comes, another incident would occur. trouble.

Everything is like this. As long as there are enough people making trouble and they are united enough, they can only deal with it in another way.Seeing a group of barbarians surrounding the Jingzhao Mansion Office, people from the surrounding area also gathered to watch the excitement.

Yu Wenhuaji was in the Jingzhao Mansion Yamen and his teeth were itching with hatred, but he could not offend the public and had to endure it.

Although the Hu people do not have official positions, as merchants in the Western Regions, they are the hub connecting Chang'an City and the Western Regions. The network of relationships in the city is also extremely complex, involving many interests. In recent years, the status of the Hu people has slowly improved, and even among them Some wealthy people spent money to establish connections and bought many local slaves.

Ashina is a strong man from the Hu people and has a very high status among the Hu people, so they surrounded the Jingzhao Mansion Office in order to save Ashina.

Yu Wenhuaji is not a vegetarian. It is impossible to surround the Jingzhao Mansion Office with a group of people and ask him to make friends.

Immediately, a message was sent to Yang Guang to explain that the Hu people had come to Jingzhao Mansion Office to cause trouble, and they went to the city defense camp to directly invite soldiers to control the situation.

There is no doubt that the news of the siege of the Jingzhao Mansion Office reached the palace very quickly.

Yang Jian was furious and shouted: "Jingzhao Mansion Office is the place that manages Chang'an City. How can people surround them? I ordered them to go down, arrest the people who were leading the trouble, and disperse them all."

The emperor gave the order, and soon the army surrounded all the barbarians who had surrounded Jingzhao Mansion. Among them, Aruru and others who took the lead were arrested and imprisoned.

Aruru and others were imprisoned next to Ashina. A group of barbarians who came to make trouble were quickly dispersed, but Yu Wenhuaji looked at the arrested Aruru and others. They seemed not to be afraid at all. expression.

When the matter reached Yang Guang's ears, Yu Wenhuaji also came to Yang Guang to tell him about the matter.

Yu Wenhuaji took a sip of water and said with an unhappy face: "These barbarians really overestimate their capabilities."

Yang Guang looked gloomy: "The Hu people have also reached a certain scale in Chang'an City. To this extent, they must be trying to fight for status and benefits. Maybe they want to use this as an opportunity."

"It's no brainer. This matter made even His Majesty angry."

"No, on the contrary, I think they came to besiege the Jingzhao Mansion Office not just for Ashina."

Yu Wenhuaji was puzzled: "But Your Highness, what good will this do to them?"

"Some people will definitely be punished if something goes wrong, but my father will also care about the cause and consequences. The group of them is quite powerful when they gather together. Maybe they just want to take this opportunity to show their loyalty in front of my father and ask for some power. .”

Yu Wenhuaji didn't expect this. Then he thought that it was too brainless to surround the Jingzhao Mansion Office. If there was nothing hidden behind it, this group of people would be just brainless. But this is a group of shrewd barbarian traders. He is good at bargaining and will not make a loss-making transaction.

"Then what should we do, Your Highness? Ashina will not be rescued."

Recalling Ashina's arrogance, how could Yang Guang spare him: "I didn't want to go into details, so as not to embarrass everyone. In this case, Ashina has already confessed his instigator. I will go find Yu Shangshu. This The matter continues to be investigated further.”

Yu Wenhuaji was obviously very angry about the Hu people's affairs. At this time, he even cursed: "Hu people who overestimate their own capabilities."

Are the Hu people really overestimating their abilities?No, they are too self-sufficient and know clearly their status in Chang'an City.

While Yang Guang was thinking, Wang Yi came to report: "Your Highness, Yang Xuangan, the eldest son of Yang Zhuguo, wants to see you."

"Oh?!"

When he heard Yang Xuangan's name, Yang Guang had a playful expression on his face, thinking that he would be the first person from the family to turn against him in the future.

Now Yang Xuangan is still young, only one year older than himself. Yang Guang didn't understand why he came here at this time.

Yang Su had not had much contact with him during this period because of the emperor's warning, so it was definitely not unusual for his eldest son to come over suddenly.

"Come in quickly."

Yang Xuangan came to the Prince of Jin's Mansion for the first time and met the Prince of Jin in the middle hall. Yang Guang saw that he looked honest and strong. What about his appearance? Yue Yunpeng's eight-point appearance was quite different from that of Yang Su.

"Brother Yang is here today. Is there anything wrong with Zhu Guo?"

Yang Xuangan shook his head: "People say His Highness the King of Jin is handsome. I passed by today and came here specially to take a look."

"The rumors outside are true, slightly better than mine."

(End of this chapter)