Chapter 505: Foundations

The latest website: "Your Highness, this official has found a way for Your Highness to no longer need to copy books in the future."

Upon seeing Zhao Xu, Mi Wen spoke hurriedly, as if afraid of having his credit stolen.

Hearing this, Zhao Xu suddenly remembered one thing that had been delayed for too long.

However, with Mi Wen present, he still decided to listen to what Mi Wen had to say first.

"What method? Let's hear it." Zhao Xu sat down on a stone bench in the front courtyard; having been running around, his feet were a bit sore.

"Does Your Highness know there is a method of printing that involves carving calligraphy and paintings onto wooden boards? One only needs to carve the characters from a book onto a wooden board, and this board can then continuously print the characters onto paper." Mi Wen was beaming with excitement.

Since Zhao Xu had appointed him as the head of the Propaganda Department, he had immediately become busy.

At this time, he discovered that the Propaganda Department needed to post a great many notices, and among them, there would be a large amount of repetitive text.

If they were to be copied by hand, it would consume a vast amount of time.

Especially regarding the newspaper mentioned by Yan Wang; if it were copied page by page, it would be impossible to deliver the newspapers in time the next day.

After racking his brains, he suddenly remembered that when he was in Jingshi, some playboy youths had once said that erotic pictures were carved onto wooden boards and then printed.

So he took a stroll around Yancheng and discovered that there were indeed merchants who made a living doing this trade.

Hearing this, Zhao Xu nodded lightly, "Not bad, it seems you have pondered this quite a bit. The thing you speak of is called Block Printing, but this type of printing has major drawbacks; not only is it time-consuming and laborious, but storing large batches of book blocks is also inconvenient. Moreover, propaganda slogans need to be changed often, so a carved block is essentially useless after one use. Simply put, it is too rigid."

After a pause, he said, "In two days, this King will take you to witness true printing technology."

"True printing technology?" Mi Wen was stunned.

Now, he could finally understand why the officials and generals of Yanzhou were like obedient students in front of Yan Wang.

Because Yan Wang was constantly reminding them of how ignorant they were.

"Yes, Your Highness." Mi Wen suddenly became excited again.

Following such a Yan Wang,

he would be able to learn many things.

Mi Wen left, and Zhao Xu went to the study, wrote and drew on a piece of paper, and then ordered it to be sent to the Workshop.

On the morning of the third day, Mi Wen arrived as promised.

He beckoned to Mi Wen and took him to the Workshop.

Nowadays, the Workshop District and the Armaments Department were completely separated.

The Armaments Department was equivalent to a military factory, while the Workshop was managed by the trading firm.

Anything for civilian use was researched and built here.

The printing technology Mi Wen mentioned was precisely the craft he had forgotten.

Upon arriving at the Workshop, Zhao Xu met Yang He.

After performing a salute, Yang He spoke a few glib words and led the two to a workshop room in the northeast corner.

At this moment, in the workshop room, craftsmen were casting metal cubic blocks one by one, and on these metal blocks were carved the standard characters of Da Song.

This was the type mold for the Movable Type Printing that Zhao Xu wanted to show Mi Wen.

Next, he would have the trading firm establish a new workshop in the Workshop District.

This workshop would be handed directly to Mi Wen's Propaganda Department.

However, this workshop would not adopt old wooden molds or clay movable type, but would instead adopt the more advanced Lead Type Printing.

After all, the type molds of primitive Movable Type Printing were easily damaged and had a short usage cycle.

This improved version of Movable Type Printing originated from the contemporary 15th century.

Once launched, it allowed the printers of that time to earn a large sum of money.

Because lead type allowed them to save on materials while also increasing the speed of printing.

If his estimation was correct, Lead Type Printing could allow one movable type press to print five hundred sheets of paper per day; for the current Propaganda Department, this was absolutely sufficient.

Even with ten movable type workshops, they could print five thousand newspapers a day.

Mi Wen walked around the movable type that had already been carved densely.

Now he finally understood why Yan Wang said the Block Printing he spoke of was slow in efficiency and very rigid.

At this moment, the scene before him would surprise anyone who saw it.

The type molds at the craftsmen's hands were not only numerous but also came in various specifications.

Some type molds were large, and some were small; in this way, they could print characters of different sizes on the same sheet of paper according to requirements.

"Your Highness, this official is truly ignorant; I never imagined there was such a miraculous printing technique in the world. In this official's view, this matter is a gospel for the poor scholars of the world!!" Mi Wen's expression was agitated.

The scholars of Da Song, like the scholars of the contemporary era, were all slightly aloof in their hearts.

Therefore, although he was amazed that Yan Wang could create so many strange and peculiar things and earn a large amount of Silver through trade,

he admired him in his heart, but he did not revere him.

But this Movable Type Printing was different; he could see the immense value of this printing technology.

With this, there was simply no need for scholars to copy books.

They would be able to possess the ability to mass-produce books, thereby making books cheap.

As a child of a poor family, he had experienced the hardship of not having Silver to buy books.

Zhao Xu smiled; Mi Wen's reaction was within his expectations. He said, "This King knows what you mean, but to allow the ordinary families of Yanzhou to afford books, besides printing technology, one thing is still missing."

"What is it?" Mi Wen suddenly became nervous, as if afraid that a beautiful dream would suddenly shatter.

"This thing is paper. Without paper, how can one mass-produce books? If paper is not cheap, the price of books cannot come down either," Zhao Xu said.

Besides printing technology and ink, printing also required qualified paper.

While Zhao Xu had Yang He establish the printing workshop, he had not neglected the construction of the Paper Mill.

From ancient times to the present, the core of the technology of papermaking had basically not changed much.

The quality of the paper produced by the ancients was also quite good.

Xuan paper is a unique specialty of our country in this era.

Therefore, the papermaking technique is not the problem; the problem is how to improve the efficiency of papermaking.

Simply put, papermaking is divided into four processes: degumming, pulping, sheet forming, and drying.

Degumming is the use of boiling and soaking methods to make plant fibers break down in an alkaline solution.

The subsequent pulping is to beat the fibers into a paste; this process is the most complex and labor-intensive.

The third step, sheet forming, is to scoop the pulp out with a screen, forming a thin layer on the mesh, which is the wet paper.

Finally, just place these wet sheets under the sun to dry.

Therefore, in the current Great Song, the craftsmen in the Paper Mill can only use manual labor or animal power to beat plants into pulp.

This is the biggest problem.

However, if there were a Steam Engine, the most laborious problem in the papermaking process would no longer be a problem.

When he instructed Yang He to create movable type, he had Yang He buy a private Paper Mill.

At present, the equipment in the Paper Mill has been moved to the Workshop District, into an independent workshop room, where they are temporarily making paper according to the old methods.

Once the Steam Engine arrives, the paper production volume of this Workshop will increase by leaps and bounds.

The foundation of education will then be firmly established.