Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

After listening to the question raised by Craftsman Li, Lu Xiang thought about it and thought of the movable type printing that another group of craftsmen were studying, and said:
"Then have you ever thought about temporarily cutting out the erroneous words from the wax plate, casting the lead plate, and then filling it in with movable type?"

"Just like a small version forms a large version, treat the missing typos as a smaller version, and finally combine them into a complete version for printing."

This is what he came up with by dividing the large edition into small editions. If the small edition is divided into smaller editions, it will be movable type one by one. It can be said that the technology of plate splitting has moved closer to movable type.

He had already studied the method of movable type printing and knew its advantages and disadvantages.

Putting aside the advantages, the biggest disadvantage of movable type printing is that it requires checking the characters one by one and then typesetting them.

This kind of typesetting and typesetting cannot be done by illiterate craftsmen. It's not like an engraver who just carves the written words.

Therefore, movable type printing cannot be used for the time being. Only when the printing industry develops and wages are improved, and many literate people are willing to work as typewriters and typesetters, can the adoption be promoted.

Today's supplementary writing also requires a literate person to check the characters and then add them. It’s just that there are very few people needed, and one or two literate people can take charge.

If that doesn't work, you can also ask the engraver to carve out the missing characters and cast the lead characters to make up for it.

Therefore, Lu Xiang believes that this method of filling in characters is very practical and can reduce costs.

While he was thinking about this, Craftsman Li pondered the method Lu Xiang said and slowly figured it out.

This solved a big problem for their carvers. He was so excited that he slapped his thigh and praised Lu Xiang:
"Gong Lu is such a genius, no wonder His Majesty made you the director!"

"With this method, there is no need for several people to carve a wax plate at the same time."

"Everyone can carve one, and the job will be much easier!"

He praised Lu Xiang repeatedly, thinking that he had solved a big problem and lightened the burden on the carving workers.

Wang Chengen and Qian Qianyi came over at this time and heard that Lu Xiang had solved another problem, not only reducing costs, but also reducing the burden on workers and improving efficiency. Qian Qianyi was curious and asked about the details.

Officials from the Wensi Academy would not dare to neglect such high officials. In addition, Qian Qianyi came to inspect on the emperor's order, and some confidential places were also made public to him.

However, because of the regulations set by the emperor, Wang Chengen and Qian Qianyi did not let the craftsmen welcome them, nor did they disrupt production. Even Lu Xiang ignored them because he was still thinking about the problem. The reception of inspections shall be in charge of officials from the Ministry of Industry.

Qian Qianyi felt quite unhappy about this. But after hearing that Lu Xiang understood the method of dividing large editions into small editions from the window lattice, he immediately put aside his unhappiness and said excitedly:
"Studying things to achieve knowledge, this is studying things to achieve knowledge!"

"Every plant and tree contains the ultimate truth."

"Gong Lu drew the truth from the window lattice and then used it to make plates."

"This is the correct way to study things and gain knowledge!"

For a while, I was full of literary thoughts and conceived an article.

Starting from the four words "investigating things to achieve knowledge", it is proposed to understand the principles contained in things and apply them to technology to improve production.

Lu Xiang's incident is a typical example. Not only reducing costs and improving efficiency, it also reduces the burden on workers.

Everyone has benefited from this and should be greatly praised.

After the article was conceived, Qian Qianyi easily completed the tasks assigned by the emperor, and naturally looked at Lu Xiang with great kindness.

After learning that newspapers in the capital are now printed here and using Lu Xiang's typesetting technology, Qian Qianyi listened to the introduction by officials from the Ministry of Industry and deeply felt the power of technological progress.

"In the past, the entire newspaper copying business in Beijing could only copy and print tens of thousands of copies at most."

"Now one cliché can print tens of thousands of copies, which is a huge improvement."

"Only after seeing these did I understand why His Majesty said that developing production would allow more people to have permanent property."

“The more things we produce, the more people can own them.”

“Newspapers are going to be in every household!”

While muttering in his mouth, Qian Qianyi thought of other aspects from the newspaper.

If there is a new technology that can increase the yield of grain from two dan per mu to four dan, the output of one hundred acres of land in the past can now be achieved with only fifty acres. Can the standards for land ownership by freeholders be lowered?
This thought made Qian Qianyi's mind wander. I even came up with the idea of ​​writing a "Theory of Production"——

Combined with "Lun on Constant Production", it forms a more complete theory towards great harmony.

This thought made him focus more on observing all aspects of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, especially Lu Xiang.

At this time, Lu Xiang was discussing another method of filling in characters with a mold worker:

"Shen Gong means that the engraver can fill in the words on the mold without having to cast it into a lead plate and then fill it in."

"Is this method really possible?"

"After your mold is finalized, can you continue carving?"

The mold worker named Shen Fan said:
"The wax plate is recast from the lead plate, using the lost wax method."

"First carve the characters on the wax plate and wrap it with fire-resistant mud to make an outer mold."

"Then it is heated to melt the wax and solidify it into a mold that can be used to cast lead plates."

"During this process, if the clay model is cut open with a sharp knife after the wax has been lost and the clay model has not yet solidified, the side with the characters can be carved and the missing characters can be filled in."

"Finally, the two clay molds are put together and can continue to be used for casting."

Lu Xiang understood this idea clearly. But he was not a craftsman who specialized in making molds, so he didn’t know if it was feasible, so he ordered:
"Find an abandoned wax plate and experiment with your method."

Let Shen Fan make the mold to see if it is feasible.

This kind of experiment is something that Wensi Institute often does these days. Their workshop, named Printing Research Workshop, is an affiliated workshop of the Printing Research Institute. In addition to workmanship, various researches and experiments must be done.

For example, with the lead-type technology proposed by Lu Xiang, countless experiments were conducted before the materials of wax plate, clay model, and lead plate were finally determined and successfully used for printing.

Now this test is commonplace for the craftsmen of Wensi Academy. Soon a literate person came over to record the experiment.

After Qian Qianyi saw it, he stood aside curiously and watched these carefully.

Because when the emperor bestowed upon him the eight words of "applying practical application to the world and seeking truth from facts," he told him to carry out more practice and experiments to verify the theories he knew.

Now that Lu Xiang and others were conducting experiments in front of him to verify an idea, of course he had to observe them carefully.

Soon, Craftsman Li found a wax plate that had been discarded because of wrong words. According to Shen Fan's request, he cut out the wrong words and used it as a test wax plate.

Shen Fan wrapped the wax model with clay and began to make the clay model.

After lighting a fire to bake the clay mold and melting and draining the wax plate inside, Shen Cheng picked up a razor blade and cut open the clay mold. Let Craftsman Li take the carving knife and fill in the missing words.

At this time, the clay model has not yet completely solidified, and Craftsman Li can still carve it with the carving knife in his hand.

Just be careful not to damage the clay model during the carving process.

And unlike the raised yang characters on the wax engraving tablets, what needs to be carved on the clay model now is the sunken yin characters. After filling in the exact text, Shen Fan continued to bake, completely solidifying the clay model, and then put it together for the caster to cast.

The final cast lead plate, like the intact lead plate, has no traces of additions and can be used for printing.

This made Craftsman Li very happy, and he had another way to make up characters.

Shen Fan was also extremely excited, knowing that this technology was feasible, and as long as it could be promoted, he would be able to make contributions and obtain patent fees.

Lu Xiang sighed and said:

"This is clay plate printing!"

"It turns out I ignored this road before!"

Because of the success of wax plate recasting, most of the energy of the Printing Research Institute of the Academy of Arts and Sciences was focused on this.

The attempts in other aspects are naturally somewhat inadequate.

Even Lu Xiang only knew that the clay tablet research team was not going well, and now he is mainly studying clay type.

But he didn't understand the specific areas that were not going well.

Now that he saw the method of filling in characters proposed by Shen Fan, he discovered that the technology of clay plate recasting was very simple. He only needed to carve inscriptions on the clay model that was not completely solidified, and then it could be used to cast the lead plate.

This also let him know that the method proposed by the emperor could really work.

Even, think about the words on the coins and the sanding method used to make the coins. Lu Xiang took out a discarded lead plate and asked Shen Fan to make a semi-dry clay mold and press the lead plate onto it.

Suddenly, handwriting appeared one by one on the clay model. Lu Xiang asked people to pour molten lead for casting lead plates.

This practice of recasting the lead from the lead is confusing to others. Lu Xiang patted the lead plate and explained:

"What do you think about replacing this lead plate with a plate made of movable lead type or wooden movable type?"

"Can type plates made of movable type be turned into engravings?"

This made many people understand, and Shen Fan even more excitedly said:
"This is a combination of movable type, engraving and printing!"

"Even with wooden movable type, you can use this method to make lead plates. You don't have to worry about the number of uses."

"Gong Lu, you have made another great contribution!"

He was convinced by Lu Xiang and admired him deeply.

Based on his experience in making molds, he thought that when making molds, he would have time to fill in the characters.

However, Lu Xiang came up with the idea from his method of filling in characters that he could engrave blocks on clay models or even use movable type plates to press molds.

This made him unable to feel the difference between the two of them, and he admired Lu Xiang so much.

And this is not over yet, Lu Xiang thought of the papier-mâché the emperor mentioned again.

He had never figured out how to use papier-mâché to cast lead plates before. At this time, I understood that the so-called paper model is a paper model, which replaces the clay model. It is cheaper to use and more convenient to save and carry.

Picking up a few pieces of white paper and stacking them together, Lu Xiang asked someone to press hard on the lead plate, and soon he saw the inscriptions left on the paper.

If the paper was not afraid of molten lead, it could be used, like clay models, for casting lead plates.

It can be said that at this time, there was no longer any doubt in Lu Xiang's mind about the conversion of clay tablets to lead printing and papier-mâché printing. He fully understood the combination of movable type and engraving technology.

The rest is to keep experimenting, find suitable materials, and train literate workers to be responsible for typesetting and typesetting.

This made Lu Xiang sigh, feeling that he had lived up to the emperor's kindness and the hundred households reward that the emperor had given him in advance.

Qian Qianyi stood aside and witnessed Lu Xiang comprehending all this, and he was even more convinced of the theory of studying things to gain knowledge——

Lu Xiang just figured out the truth from things, so he made rapid progress in technology and made great improvements.

If people who are scholars can also understand, then they can advance by leaps and bounds academically.

Deeply inspired, he had already planned to write an article on this matter as an example of studying things to gain knowledge. From then on, his practical learning was based on the method of studying things to gain knowledge.

Wang Chengen also saw all this, and excitedly pulled Lu Xiang and took him to the emperor to report the good news.

Although Lu Xiang felt that it had not been successful yet and there was nothing worthy of good news, but Wang Chengen insisted on this, so he could not object.

After all, this prince and father-in-law supported him very much. The reason why the officials of the Ministry of Industry respected him very much was not only the emperor's praise, but also the reason why Wang Chengen, the eunuch, took care of him.

In the palace, Zhu Youjian heard the good news from Wang Chengen and was very surprised to learn that Lu Xiang fully understood the printing method he proposed and even began to improve the technical details.

He had been prepared for a long time for someone to understand this, but he didn't expect that Lu Xiang, a genius, gave him a big surprise.

Judging from Lu Xiang's explanation, this person already has a comprehensive understanding of printing technology. Be able to explore and test the ideas you have proposed.

Such people have an innate sensitivity to technology and are not only suitable for specific research, but can also build a scientific research system under their own guidance.

So Zhu Youjian looked at him as if he had discovered a treasure, and immediately appointed:
"Lu Xiang, director of the Printing Research Institute of the Institute of Arts and Sciences, has repeatedly made new achievements while in charge of the Printing Research Institute."

"He serves as the acting director of the Wensi Academy and the Prime Minister of the Shaofu Temple."

"The awards will be officially awarded after the breakthrough in printing technology."

Lu Xiang was put in charge of the entire Wensi Academy, and the position of Shaofu Temple Prime Minister was also added.

This appointment made Lu Xiang overjoyed and even felt that he saw an opportunity to catch up with Kuai Xiang——

Although the salary of the fifth-ranking Si Cheng is still far from Kuai Xiang's third-ranking official, Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Industry, and the first-rank Shi Cong. But he has the confidence to continue to make achievements and get the chance to be rewarded.

Opportunities for meritorious service are many and come quickly. After Zhu Youjian appointed Lu Xiang to act as the head of the Wensi Academy, he added another burden:
"Bi Maokang, the Minister of Ordnance in charge, told me that the Ordnance Department was recently established and there are insufficient craftsmen and officials, making it difficult to carry out many tasks."

"I decided to separate the ordnance research area separately, with the Ordnance Department of the Ministry of War as the main body, and the Institute of Literature and Thought of the Ministry of Industry and the Internal Affairs Bureau of Supervision and Warfare as assistance."

"Lu Qing is the head of the Wensi Academy. I appointed you to take charge of this matter. Combine the efforts of the three yamen to establish the Ordnance Research Institute."

Speaking of this matter, Zhu Youjian said:
"Lu Xiang, the president of the Wensi Academy, also serves as the president of the Ordnance Research Institute."

"Set up a Cold Weapons Research Institute, a Light Weapons Research Institute, an Artillery Research Institute, a Protection Research Institute, etc. to test the combat effectiveness of various weapons and equipment and determine standard weapons."

"From now on, Ming Dynasty's weapons will mainly be standard weapons, and the manufacturing specifications of various weapons will be determined."

"The quality of ordnance must also be guaranteed. The Ordnance Research Institute should establish a quality inspection department, and together with the Ministry of War, send military representatives to relevant workshops to inspect the quality of ordnance."

"I will leave all matters related to ordnance research and ordnance quality to you."

"Lu Qing, can you take on this important task?" (End of Chapter)