"What is this?"

Lin Jian held these two pieces of jujube wood in his hands, his face full of curiosity.

He came over tonight to say thank you to Zhao Xie in person, and by the way, he came out to walk around, and after entering Lin Zhao's house, he said a few words to Zhao Xie, and he saw these squares sawn from jujube wood in the corner.

The Yin text carved on these squares, he naturally recognizes, and there is no difference between the Yin text on the seal, but the seal is generally three or four words, at least two words, and there are very few seals of one word, not to mention that there is one word on so many small wooden blocks.

Seeing him pick up the mold he had carved for a long time, Lin Zhao coughed and said, "Seventh Uncle, my nephew recently worked in a bookstore and learned some Yin script, so I tried to carve it at home. ”

Lin Jian looked at his distant nephew with a smile and said with a smile: "Can you use jujube wood to carve and play?" It's not cheap. ”

After Lin Zhao was exposed, he also felt a little embarrassed, he hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Since Uncle Seventh asked, I will tell you the truth, this thing is the mold I used to make movable type, and I am going to use it for printing books after it is made." ”

Lin Jian didn't understand for a while, he frowned slightly and said, "How can this thing be printed?" Is it a word by word? ”

"It's similar to an engraving."

Originally, this idea of making money could never be said to others, but the distant seventh uncle in front of him was too different from Lin Zhao's identity, and he didn't necessarily see this small profit, and if he encountered any trouble in the future, if the former household servant could be his backer, then for Lin Zhao, there would be nothing difficult in Yuezhou City.

Thinking of this, Lin Zhao lowered his head and picked up a few pieces of jujube wood, and said: "When you need to print any book, as long as you put these commonly used words together and fix them in a wooden frame, it is equivalent to making an engraving, this kind of thing is not as time-saving and labor-saving as engraving, but as long as you get together a set of commonly used words, you can change everything, and you don't need a set of books to produce a set of engravings." ”

"My nephew called it movable type."

After Lin Jian heard these words, his face also changed, and he immediately squatted down, picked up the jujube wood blocks carved by Lin Zhao, and picked out four words from them, and the four wooden blocks were put together to form the four words "Good as water".

Lin Jian stared at these four words for a long time, and then sighed.

"Sure enough, it is ever-changing, so as long as you carve out three or five thousand words, you can almost print all the books in the world!"

He bent down again, rummaging through the dozens of jujube trees for a while, and then looked up at Lin Zhao with a smile on his face.

"You are a young man, you should be in the city for the first time, and you have never been in contact with the bookstore before, how did you come up with this idea?"

"Because my nephew needs to earn money."

This time, Lin Zhao answered without hesitation.

"In the bookstore, the printed books are generally cheaper, but a set of engraving is too complicated to make, so only a small number of books in the bookstore are printed, and most of them are manuscripts, which are too expensive compared to printed copies."

"A hand-copied copy of the Blue Mountains Collection will be sold for 500 yuan in the Sanyuan bookstore, and some of the more words will be more expensive, and if these books can be printed with movable type, the cost will be greatly reduced."

Lin Jian's word Yuanda, Mr. Blue Mountain, Lin Zhao's "Blue Mountain Collection" is a collection of Lin Jian's poems over the years, this Tanhualang is very famous in the Great Zhou, and the Blue Mountain Collection naturally sells well, especially in Yuezhou Mansion, sales have been very good.

But even so, no bookstore has yet produced the engraving of the Blue Mountain Collection.

After all, the Blue Mountains are sprinkled with tens of thousands of words, and the cost of making engravings is too high, so it is better to ask someone to copy them one by one.

Speaking of this, Lin Zhao's tone was a little excited.

"When my nephew gets this thing out, the cost of printing will be greatly reduced, and when other bookstores sell it for two dollars, my nephew will only sell it for four or five hundred yuan, and he will be able to make a lot of money."

Seeing Lin Zhao's appearance, Lin Jian shook his head a little helplessly: "Most people are middle-aged, and they will only be mercenary, why are you at such an age, you only think about making money?" ”

Lin Zhao smiled at Lin Jian.

"It's probably because I've suffered a little over the years, and I always want to make more money."

Hearing this, Lin Jian didn't speak anymore.

He is not from the main line of the Lin family, Lin Zhao was born in the fourth room of the Lin family, he was born in the third room of the Lin family, and his life was not particularly good when he was a child, but fortunately, he was a prodigy.

Therefore, it is true that he did not suffer too much.

"That's a good idea."

Lin Yuanda was silent for a while, and then said: "Although your original intention was to make some money, this thing you came up with is a good thing, once it is implemented on a large scale across the country, then the price of books will drop by at least two or three times or even more." ”

Lin Jian's face was a little serious: "I still don't know how many readers can't afford to buy books in my big week, many of them can only borrow them and copy them by themselves, and in some slightly poorer rural private schools, there are dozens of Mongolian children, and there is not even a single book." ”

"This thing is done, and the merit is immeasurable."

Lin Zhao smiled at Lin Jian: "Seventh Uncle, I don't want to be immeasurably meritorious, I just want to make some money now, this thing has been shown to you, I also told you the truth, don't spread it." ”

"My nephew is still counting on this to make some money."

"Sooner or later, it will get out."

Lin Jian frowned slightly: "Although your idea is wonderful, it is not complicated, as long as people know about you, they can learn it immediately." ”

"The nephew didn't expect this thing to be kept secret for long."

Lin Zhao lowered his head and said: "But as long as I am careful, it should still be okay in two or three years, and in three years, this thing can earn a lot of money for my nephew, as for whether other bookstores will follow suit after three years, it has nothing to do with me." ”

In this era, there are no patents at all, and what others learn is someone else's, so Lin Zhao didn't plan to eat it for a lifetime, he only planned to use this to get the first pot of gold, and then leave.

Lin Jian found a chair and sat down in this small room, and after being silent for a long time, he looked up at the young man in front of him and asked, "How are you going to make money?" ”

"My nephew is now an apprentice at Sanyuan Bookstore, and the owner of that family has a good personality, and he has a printing workshop at home, and my nephew is ready to work with him to make movable type printing."

Yuan Dagong sighed and said, "That's it, no matter what, if you make this thing, how can you reduce the price of Yuezhou books, I won't stop you." ”

"But after three years, it is best to promote this thing to the world, so that everyone can have a book to read."

Lin Zhao bowed his head slightly, and said with a smile: "After three years, Uncle Seventh will come forward and promote this thing to the world." ”

This is a great merit, if it is said by Lin Jian, then no matter what, he Lin Yuanda is destined to go down in history!

Even Lin Jian's heart was slightly touched at this time, he stood up from the chair, groped out a sandalwood card in his arms, handed it to Lin Zhao, and said: "Outsiders are pure and good, you are a young man who can't see it really, Dali is at present, what Xie Sanyuan will do, no one can tell, you hold my brand, if he insults you in any place, you will report my name." ”

"Whether it's suing the county government or the government office, Uncle Wei can come forward to speak to you."

With these words, even if Yuan Dagong's thigh was hugged, Lin Zhao was overjoyed and immediately bent over to salute Lin Jian.

"Thank you, Uncle Seven!"

"My family doesn't need to be grateful."

Lin Jian picked up another piece of jujube wood, looked at it, and said with a smile: "It can be seen that you have practiced writing for a period of time, but carving is different from writing, it is another craft, the word you carved is really not the same, if you are ready to carve this movable type yourself, I know an old craftsman who carved stones, you can go to him to ask for advice." ”