Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 251 245. Movable Type Printing

The future Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu once wrote a poem "Happy Rain on a Spring Night" praising:
"In the morning, I see the red wet place, and the flowers are heavy in the Jinguan City."

By now Feng Xi had gotten used to the sweetness of life, and on the second day after his wedding he woke up slowly at almost noon.

All the officials in Jingzhou knew that Feng Xi had just gotten married. Besides, all matters, big and small, had already been arranged by him in advance, so naturally no one was so blind as to harass him.

"嘤咛......"

Guan Yinping, who was beside Feng Xi, was also woken up by Feng Xi's standing up. She was a little sleepy as she had just woken up from a dream. She unconsciously glanced around the unfamiliar environment and finally saw Feng Xi. She sat up as if she had just woken up from a dream, and then realized that she had married Feng Xi yesterday.

"That...husband...husband..."

Guan Yinping was obviously still a little shy about the current situation. She pulled up the quilt to cover her face and called Feng Xi softly with some shame.

"Madam, you were exhausted last night. You can rest for a while today. I will ask Xiaochun to come in and serve you later."

Feng Xi teased Guan Yinping a few words. After all, Feng Xi had those unspeakable memories of later life. Although he had never experienced such matters between men and women, he had seen a lot, so he was relatively calm. However, Guan Yinping was indeed a new wife, so it was normal for her to not be able to cope with it.

Xiaochun was naturally the maid that Guan Yinping brought as a dowry.

"Well...husband, do you still have to go to work on official business today?"

Guan Yinping nodded, and was a little surprised to see Feng Xi changing his clothes. On the second day of his wedding, Feng Xi was going to work?
"Yes. Some things have come to a critical juncture, and I have to check them myself. Although I am married, Sun Quan and Cao Pi will not wait for me for a few days just because I am married."

Feng Xi smiled gently, then pushed the door open and walked out. He called Xiaochun and gave her some instructions, then he went out to the Jiangling Governor's Mansion.

"Huh? Xiu Yuan? You're here to handle official business today?"

Feng Xi took a carriage to the governor's mansion. Officials of all ranks were a little surprised that Feng Xi showed up on time today. Ma Liang looked at him with an expression as if the sky had fallen.

"Yes, Jingzhou is in a period of great development. How can we delay it because of our children's affairs?"

Feng Xi was somewhat puzzled by Ma Liang's behavior, and always felt that he had something to hide.

Finally, Ma Liang looked left and right, and when there were not too many people around, he pulled Feng Xi to a corner and whispered:

"Xiu Yuan, if you don't understand the relationship between men and women, I can lend you a few books..."

"No, Ji Chang, what do you take me for? A virgin chicken?"

Feng Xi's face was full of black lines, thinking that Ma Liang thought that because he was a novice, he did not do any serious work last night, which resulted in him having the energy to handle official business today.

"Isn't it?"

Ma Liang was even more surprised. In this era, unless one had been through many battles, one would have to follow the instructions in ancient books. How could Feng Xi learn it on his own?
"Okay, okay, you don't have to worry about this anyway. I understand. How was the papermaking thing going?"

Feng Xi was speechless when he saw Ma Liang's old lady-like look, and quickly brought the topic back to the point. "Bamboo pulp is indeed cleaner than hemp and rags. The pulp produced is also extremely white and tender. The finished product has been distributed to various departments for use, and officials of all ranks are full of praise for it."

Ma Liang praised Feng Xi's previous proposal for papermaking using bamboo as raw material. The actual finished product of Caihou paper was better than nothing, with a yellowish color and a rough surface. However, by replacing bamboo pulp, filtering out impurities and drying it, the finished product was pure white paper.

As for bamboo, it is not difficult to obtain in Yizhou and Jingzhou, and they have everything in stock, so the output is gradually increasing.

"By the way, the master craftsman you found earlier came to see you and said that the printing technology you talked about is now available and asked you to come over."

Ma Liang talked incessantly, and finally mentioned something as if he had thought of something.

"Well, in that case, if you need to find me for anything, just go to the armory."

Feng Xi gave a few instructions, then confirmed the task he had assigned earlier, and after seeing that there was no one needed him in the governor's mansion, he immediately went to the armory.

"Grand Commander, the movable type printing tool you mentioned earlier has been prepared."

As soon as Feng Xi entered the armory, Fu Zixun came to greet him. Feng Xi took a quick look and found that Fu Zixun had changed a lot since he first came.

Fu Zixun, who originally had the temperament of a fair-faced scholar, had a dark face because he often worked in carpentry, metalwork, machinery, chemistry and other fields, but his eyes were still sparkling.

Feng Xi often came up with things he had never heard of, and due to the limitations of his personal level, Feng Xi could sometimes only explain the effects of this thing, and occasionally explain the principles. Fu Zixun had to figure it out on his own most of the time.

But the process of exploration is the most enjoyable one for him, just like a top student solving a complicated math problem. The feeling of success after unravelling the mystery is difficult for ordinary people to understand. So although Fu Zixun spends almost every day in the arsenal, his mood is getting happier and happier.

Seeing that Fu Zixun was enjoying himself, Feng Xi put all these thoughts behind him and walked into the yard of the arsenal with Fu Zixun.

"Look, Grand Commander, as you said, we can make individual blocks of characters with clay, and then lay a mixture of resin and wax on the bottom base. When we need to inlay characters, we can heat them to fix them, and then apply ink to print them on paper."

Fu Zixun picked up an iron tray with many word blocks fixed on it with wooden grids. It was obvious that Fu Zixun and his team had already conducted an experiment.

Fu Zixun picked up a brush dipped in ink, applied ink to the character block, picked up a wooden board with paper on it, pressed hard on the template, and then took off the paper.

Lines of words immediately appeared on the originally spotless white paper. It was the Three Character Classic. It seemed that Fu Zixun had copied the contents of the woodblock directly to make the movable type blocks.

Fu Zixun blew on the ink to dry it, and handed the paper to Feng Xi. Feng Xi took the paper. Although the printed words were a little crooked because the movable type template was just a prototype, it was still good enough.

"Okay, very good. You should spend some time to improve this template and make the characters a little neater. I will go to find Governor Huang."

Feng Xi gave Fu Zixun a new goal. Of course, both Fu Zixun and Feng Xi knew that it was not a big deal to just make the printed words neater. Then Feng Xi hurried away with the paper.

With the invention of printing, he was able to do some of the things he had always wanted to do.

(End of this chapter)