Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

When Qian Qianyi came to visit, Wang Chengen was arranging the layout of the third issue.

The current "Beijing News" cannot be called a daily newspaper. The distribution strategy adopted is to start from the first day of the new year and issue one issue every other day.

In this way, the frequency of odd-numbered day releases is much higher than before. Naturally, you cannot rely on reprinting the content from Di newspapers, you have to collect and edit the news yourself.

In the first two issues, because Liu Zongzhou came to Beijing, relying on the reputation of this Confucian master, the articles in the "Beijing News" attracted a lot of people's attention. Many scholars don't mind spending a few pennies to read the articles or remarks of this Confucian master.

But Liu Zongzhou will not have big news every day, and the Beijing News cannot completely rely on him. After learning that Liu Zongzhou was going to give music at the next sutra banquet, Wang Chengen had decided not to let him appear on the front page until then.

On the front page of the third issue, he had originally prepared something about a trial. Because February 15th will be the third audition. For those who did not take the Mingfa and Mingshu exams, the exams ended after this one.

In this way, these people will have a leisurely atmosphere, and they should buy some newspapers as a pastime before waiting for the results to be released.

For them, Wang Chengen prepared a lot of content according to the emperor's instructions. For example, a review of the imperial examination, a preview of the general examination, an inventory of candidates who are most likely to pass the examination, etc., in order to attract them to buy the newspaper.

Some of these manuscripts have already been written, and Wang Chengen even had wax plates carved and lead plates cast.

However, an order from the emperor allowed him to change the front page.

Qian Qianyi's revised "On Constant Property" will undoubtedly be the front page of the third issue.

Wang Chengen naturally supports this matter.

Because Qian Qianyi's reputation among scholars is no less than that of Liu Zongzhou, and even more people know about him because of his literary name.

His article will undoubtedly attract many people to read it. Don’t worry about the third issue of “Beijing News” not selling out.

So he quickly followed the emperor's instructions and put "The Theory of Constant Property" on the first page, and also arranged for someone to write an interpretation article to make it easier for ordinary people to understand.

Even after reading this article carefully, Wang Chengen found that there were many controversial points in it. There will definitely be many people discussing this theory next.

As long as its popularity does not go away, the Beijing News will basically have no worries about selling. Even other newspapers of the Beijing News Group can take advantage of the opportunity to sell them.

This made Wang Chengen feel that Qian Qianyi was really lucky. The Beijing News can gain a firm foothold by relying on the debates he brings.

Therefore, when Qian Qianyi came to inspect on the emperor's order, Wang Chengen hurriedly greeted him with a very cordial attitude:

"Mr. Qian, are you here to see the layout of the newspaper?"

"It hasn't been decided yet!"

Congratulations also to Qian Qianyi, not only for being lifted from the ban, but also for regaining the emperor's appointment.

Obviously, even if Wang Chengen did not know about Qian Qianyi's appointment, he guessed that Qian Qianyi would continue to use Qian Qianyi after the emperor ordered the publication of "Lun on Constant Property". Even more reusable than before.

In this way, Qian Qianyi's so-called case will naturally not have any big problems. With Qian Qianyi's reputation and his experience in the Hanlin Academy, he has a bright future. Being pushed into the cabinet by the court is almost certain.

Wang Chengen certainly did not dare to despise this prospective cabinet minister, and even respected him very much.

Qian Qianyi was also very polite to Wang Chengen, knowing that the man in front of him was one of the emperor's most trusted eunuchs. The palace's treasury, finances, and industries are all in charge of the inner palace supervisor who is under his control. I even heard people say that Wang Chengen is likely to join the ceremonial department in the near future and directly serve as the eunuch Bingbi.

This position is usually referred to as the internal minister. Compared with the cabinet bachelor, he has as much power and power.

The reason why Qian Qianyi was willing to co-run the "Datong News" with the Beijing News Group was to make friends with Wang Chengen, the eunuch.

Both of them were willing to make friends, and they had the emperor's order. They didn't have to worry about being charged with making friends with the officials, so they naturally had a good time talking with each other.

After learning about Qian Qianyi's intention, Wang Chengen quickly patted his chest and promised to make "Datong News" a newspaper controlled by the Beijing News Group, which would be a higher level of support than "Beijing News" and other newspapers. Qian Qianyi was very satisfied with this and went to inspect the printing of newspapers in order to write supporting theories according to the emperor's requirements.

At this time, in the printing research workshop inside the Institute of Arts and Sciences, Lu Xiang was looking at the discarded lead plates and frowning.

These stereotypes are previously determined layouts. However, after the appearance of "Eternal Property Theory", the order was moved.

There is no error in the content of the article. It is because of the layout adjustment that the printed version will be discarded.

This situation made Lu Xiang extremely unwilling. Because every piece of lead plate was carved into a wax plate by the craftsmen of Wensi Institute, and then the wax plate was used to make a mold and cast.

Now that a newspaper is not printed, these plates are useless. All the hard work before has become useless. Wensi Academy will also have to bear losses and pay extra costs.

So he thought about how to adjust the layout more conveniently, instead of changing the front page and all the prints.

As an admirer of Kuai Xiang, Lu Xiang is also good at carpentry. So he looked at the window lattice and quickly thought of a way to discuss it with the craftsman of Wensi Academy:

"Can you make a frame for the layout, with divisions like window lattice, and put the articles that need to be printed into small pieces of lead?"

"As long as these clichés and frames can be fixed in place, we can print one page at a time, just as fast as before."

"If you want to adjust the layout of the article, you only need to take out the corresponding typeface and put it in another layout."

This method of dividing an entire large version into multiple small versions sounds easy to understand and is agreed by many people.

Especially the craftsmen who carved wax plates were most in favor of this.

Because it is too difficult to carve an entire wax plate at one time. As long as there is a slight mistake, the entire layout will be re-engraved.

Nowadays, a large version is divided into multiple small versions. Even if an error occurs during engraving, only one small version needs to be re-engraved. They naturally welcomed this matter very much.

So this idea was quickly adopted. Although there are still some problems with how to fix the small version, all the craftsmen feel that it can be solved and it is not difficult.

Some people even praised Lu Xiang, saying that he had come up with new ways to improve the printing technology so quickly when Kuai Xiang was still alive.

Lu Xiang, who was focused on his work, naturally ignored this kind of flattery. After hearing the engraver mention that as long as there was a mistake in engraving, he would have to re-engrave it all at once, he frowned and said:

"If there is a mistake in the carving, can it be discarded without any remedy?"

A carving craftsman named Li said:

"If you print tabloids, of course there are remedies."

"You can add wax and re-engrave it, or you can leave it alone."

"Leaving a typo is nothing."

"But our Beijing News must be shown to His Majesty after printing."

"It won't work if you don't correct the typos. It's easy to leave traces if you fix them with wax, which looks unseemly."

"So after a few touch-ups with no results, I re-engraved everything."

"A newspaper now requires many more engravers than before."

"Often several people carve a block together and choose the best one to make the mold." (End of Chapter)