I was the emperor in the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 312 Selling Newspapers, Selling Newspapers

Du Zhong, a doctor of the Ministry of Rites, was a Jinshi in the second year of Yongle. He is already over 50 this year. It is not easy to climb to the position of a doctor of the fourth grade in 20 years.

Du Zhongzhong was already in his thirties when he was a Jinshi. In the first ten years of his official career, he still had the energy and mind to climb up the ladder.

Over the years, his desire to climb has been getting lower and lower.

So three years ago, he worked his way up and down, and transferred from the originally busy household department to the relatively leisurely ritual department.

He plans to work as a doctor in the Ministry of Rites for a few more years, then retire and enjoy his old age.

Unexpectedly, a few days ago, an imperial edict completely disrupted his plan.

In a daze, he was called over by Deng Shiyan, Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, and said that he was going to be in charge of organizing a new yamen, called Beijing News Department.

At first he didn't quite know what this new yamen was for.

Although Deng Shiyan explained it to him for a long time, he still half understood it.

After reading the detailed rules of the Beijing News written by Li Tian himself for the last time, he gradually understood.

In the next few days, he was so busy that he didn't touch the ground, and he didn't even have time to sleep.

The Beijing News Department was ordered by Li Tian himself to prepare for the establishment, and all yamen must cooperate with each other. Du Zhong was relatively smooth in finding manpower, and encountered no obstacles.

However, when looking for craftsmen such as engraving and printing, they encountered considerable obstacles.

Since the Beijing News was printed that night, it had to be sent to various busy streets for sale the next day. The workload was huge, and he was in a hurry to find someone.

Even though the Beijing News Department offered a high price, not many craftsmen were willing to come.

In the end, Du Zhong had no other choice, so he had to use various means to forcefully expropriate a library, and only then did the printing matter be settled.

In fact, the printing skills of the Ming Dynasty had reached a peak at this time.

No matter what woodblock printing or movable type printing technology has been developed for hundreds of years, it has become very mature.

However, the size and typesetting of the Beijing News are different from ordinary printed matter, which has led to a sharp increase in the difficulty of printing.

In order to solve this problem, Du Zhong struggled with his brains and finally found a way.

The method he thought of was actually very simple and rude, that is to use a combination of copying, engraving and movable type.

To put it simply, in fact, the fixed content of each issue is made of a general model using engraving.

Then the engraving block is hollowed out in the middle part, and the lead blocks of movable type are filled in.

The advantage of this is that it saves the trouble of engraving every day.

You should know that although engraving printing is the best way of printing quality, it is also the most time-consuming and labor-intensive printing technology.

Every engraving block needs a very skilled engraving craftsman to carve it out stroke by stroke with a carving knife. As long as there is a wrong engraving in one place, the entire engraving block will be considered useless and must be re-engraved.

……

After three days of intense preparations, the first edition of the Daming Beijing News was finally released on the morning of the fourth day.

On the streets of Beijing in the early morning, a large number of children ranging from eight or nine to eleven or twelve suddenly appeared.

They carried crossbody bags one by one, held up newspapers that were four or five times larger than normal pages, and started selling them loudly.

"Newspapers! Newspapers!"

"Today's big news, the labor competition will be held soon, and craftsmen and students from all over the world will join the capital..."

"Shocked, the King of Han has such a hobby..."

"Great news, Beijing Soap Workshop is recruiting new workers, and it is expected to recruit [-] workers..."

All the news that could not be heard by inquiring about it in the past suddenly spread in the streets and alleys.

In a tea house in Dashi Yongfang, several officials from the six departments who were about to go to the six departments' yamen to order their jobs suddenly became interested when they heard the cries of the newsboys.

One of the officials stretched out his hand to call the newspaper boy over and asked,

"What is the price quoted in Beijing!"

Although it was the first time that newsboy came out to sell, he was not timid at all, and said happily,
"It's not expensive. A Beijing newspaper only costs five cents."

The official thought to himself, it's just money for a bowl of tea, it's really not expensive.

"Give me one!"

The officials in the capital are naturally much more informed than ordinary people.

The Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Households have newly established a yamen, and the news that a newspaper is going to be published has long spread throughout the government and the public.

But although they knew that something like this was about to come out, they didn't know what it was.

At this time, after hearing the voice of the newsboy hawking, they somewhat understood.

The official seemed to be in a good mood today, so he took out a few pennies and gave them to the newsboy.

When the newsboy saw that there was an extra penny, he was so happy from ear to ear, and saluted the official vigorously,

"Thank you for the reward, Lord! Thank you, Lord!"

They get a penny for every newspaper they sell, and this extra penny is equivalent to selling an extra copy, which is equal to his extra income today, how can he not be happy.

The official waved his hand casually, and couldn't wait to start reading.

Since the Beijing News was urgently printed that night, some of the ink on it was not completely dry, and some of it got on the official's hands.

But he was not there, and his eyes were fixed on the contents of the Beijing News.

This Beijing News is different from any document of the previous imperial court.

Each piece of information begins with an eye-catching title in bold and bold, so that people can understand at a glance what the information is about.

The first article at the beginning is the news about the upcoming labor competition.

This official was a Yuanwailang from the Ministry of Punishment, and the work had nothing to do with him, so he just scanned it hastily and skipped it.

The following article is about some of Hanwang's little hobbies, such as eating chicken and only breast meat, drinking only old-fashioned daughter red and so on.

The words used are very funny, and the corners of the official's mouth are slightly raised.

He secretly pondered in his heart, although this information about King Han was exposed, it was not a big deal.

But in this way, everyone who has read this report knows the extravagance of Hanwang's private life, and Hanwang might get mad.

"The King of Han is extravagant. This matter is considered an open secret in the capital, but it is the first time that such a capitalized close-up has been publicized. I don't know who the person who wrote it is, so bold!"

After reading this article, the official started to read another article.

Looking at it, his face began to change involuntarily.

This piece of content is very novel, and it actually uses a commentary style.

The title is, "Yang Shoufu Talks about Commercial Taxation"

(End of this chapter)