In the autumn of the fourteenth year of Zhenguan, because of Li Kuan's return, there were many things in Chang'an City.

With the trees on both sides of Suzaku Street turning bare again, Li Kuan began to think about cotton planting next year.

Li Shimin has made it clear that he does not agree to the large-scale occupation of fertile land in Guanzhong Province to plant cotton, so Li Kuan's choice is not many.

Those nobles who have tried the sweetness will basically not need to agitate much, and will consider how to expand the cotton planting area.

However, how to let ordinary farmers in Chang'an City, or ordinary farmers in Guanzhong Road, trek through mountains and rivers to plant cotton in other places, this is something that Li Kuan needs to consider.

"Lord Wang, I think it should be the most feasible to focus on promoting the planting of cotton in Hedong Province next year, and it can also achieve the purpose of stabilizing the situation in the northern part of Hedong Province."

Wu Meiniang is very clear about many of Li Kuan's arrangements, so how to promote cotton planting, Li Kuan will also discuss with her.

"Hedong Road is indeed the first choice, Chang'an to Luoyang, then to Jinyang, and then to Shuozhou, all of them are through cement roads, if you want to immigrate, it is very convenient. Except for those state capitals in the south, which are slightly more populated, the farther north they are, the smaller the number of Tang people, and large swaths of land are borderless, and there is very little resistance to promotion. ”

In later generations, Shanxi, Henan, and Hebei were all major cotton-growing provinces, and Li Kuan naturally would not stupidly go to Jiangnan to promote cotton planting.

Besides, it would be great if this cotton promotion could be combined with the grassland strategy.

"If these farmers are willing to go to Hedong Road, it is best to let the people spread the various benefits of planting cotton in Hedong Road, and let the scholars speak for us, otherwise the effect will not be very good."

In these days, information in many places is relatively closed.

And where the flow of information is relatively fast, it is nothing more than in big cities such as Chang'an, where there are very few local people who are willing to emigrate.

"As soon as you say this, this king has thought of a method that can effectively guide public opinion."

Li Kuan generally understood what Wu Meiniang meant, which was nothing more than to control public opinion and promote his ideas to others.

"Lord, what can you do?"

Although Wu Meiniang made suggestions, she herself felt that it was very difficult to achieve this effect.

Unexpectedly, Li Kuan heard it, and he immediately had an idea.

She couldn't help but be surprised.

"Mei Niang, don't you think that the people in Chang'an City now have too few channels to get news? Back and forth, it was basically word of mouth, and a lot of the news changed completely in the end. If there is something that can record the main news of Chang'an and even Datang, and then sell it everywhere, wouldn't the speed of message delivery be much faster and more accurate? ”

At this time, Li Kuan finally realized that he had missed something in the past few years.

It's basically something that every traverser does.

"Lord, do you mean to let the printing workshop print a simple book and sell it at a low price? But many people in Chang'an City are illiterate. Besides, even if you are literate, many people can't understand the words in this book. ”

Wu Meiniang was smart and clever, and quickly grasped the key to Li Kuan's words.

"It's not called a book, it's just a few sheets of paper, I call it a newspaper, and I hire people to sell it everywhere for a penny, or simply sell it in the honeycomb coal shops everywhere. As for the literacy problem you mentioned, in fact, in Chang'an City, the literacy rate of the people is not low now.

Basically, the people who work in various workshops know the basic common words, and besides, there is no need for everyone to know how to read, as long as the content of the newspaper is attractive enough, naturally some people will tell the content of the newspaper to the people around them. As for Wen Xuan's words, this can be changed completely. ”

After nearly ten years of efforts by the Chu Palace, Datang has reduced the number of illiterate people by at least one hundred.

Although the literacy rate in this era is still very low compared to later generations, it is already a very big improvement.

"A penny for a newspaper?"

From Li Kuan's words, Wu Meiniang found another problem, "The printing workshop in the palace should be the largest printing workshop in the entire Tang Dynasty, and the technology is also the most powerful, but even so, a newspaper for a penny is a loss, right?" Although it is not a penny, if many people in Chang'an City buy it, it will be very scary to lose dozens of times every day. Besides, there is no way to last a loss-making business. ”

"No, not at a loss!"

A mysterious smile appeared on Li Kuan's face.

"Not at a loss?" Wu Meiniang re-sorted the news of the printing workshop in her mind, and after making sure that what she grasped was not wrong, she said again: "Lord, a penny for a newspaper, unless you only print a very small piece of paper, it is impossible not to lose money." According to Mei Niang's understanding, to include some of the main news of Chang'an City, a small piece of paper is not enough, at least it is equivalent to four or five pages of a normal book. According to this scale, a newspaper has to lose at least two pennies a penny, how can this not be a loss? ”

"Mei Niang, what I'm talking about is not that printing newspapers doesn't lose money, but that we publish newspapers and run these newspapers, so we can do it without losing money."

Li Kuan thought of the newspapers of later generations, which were several thick for one dollar.

If you really calculate the cost of printing, it is estimated that there is no one who does not lose money.

However, in reality, very few major newspapers lose money.

Do you think the ads in there are for nothing?

"Lord Wang, forgive Meiniang for being stupid, printing newspapers is already a loss, if you want to run a newspaper, wouldn't you have to lose more? This requires people to write articles, people to inquire about news, and people to sell, all of which cost money. Of course, if this newspaper is published, it can achieve the goal of controlling public opinion as you said, then these losses are not unacceptable. ”

Wu Meiniang also knows the importance of public opinion, if it is only a loss during the period of cotton planting and promotion, the Chu Wangfu family has a big business, and it can still be lost.

"At the beginning, I lost money for a while, and when I got on the right track, I naturally had a way to make the newspaper profitable. In this way, cotton will be planted in March next year, and if you want to emigrate, it is better to start within this year, otherwise it may be too late. Therefore, the establishment of this newspaper should be as soon as possible, and Benwang himself served as the editor-in-chief of this newspaper, and let the sightseeing take charge of the specific operation of this newspaper, and first launch a newspaper in a few days to see how it went. ”

It's September now, and it's snowing days if we wait any longer.

Although there are cement roads from Chang'an City to Shuozhou, theoretically speaking, as long as four-wheeled carriages are arranged to transport people, the speed of immigration can be very fast.

But no more time can be wasted.

……

The leader said a word, and the following was busy breaking his leg.

Luo Bingwang now has a deep understanding of this.

Fortunately, the matter of the newspaper is very important, and Li Kuan did not let it go.

"His Royal Highness the King of Chu, this newspaper has limited space, if you follow what you said, you will need more paper."

When King Luo Bin heard Li Kuan's request that he publish the current affairs of the imperial court, the important news of the merchants in the eastern and western cities, and the various stories circulating in the market, the head became bigger and bigger.

"Simply talking about the major affairs of the government and politics, the common people may not be interested. You said that the official department has been replaced, or who has been appointed by His Majesty as the assassin of a certain state, how can ordinary people be interested? And those who are officials in the yamen, even if they don't read this newspaper, can know the news. So this proposal of yours is not bad, but it will make our newspaper not sell. If the newspaper cannot be sold, the purpose of this newspaper will not be achieved. ”

Li Kuan's newspaper is not for his own amusement.

If it's really for your own happiness, it's better to let Zixia arrange a few more plays and go to the opera house to watch the drama more interesting.

"It has to be serious and humorous, Lord Wang, this newspaper is so long, it's hard to be perfect."

If Luo Bingwang wants to write an article, he will not frown.

But when he was asked to run a newspaper, he felt a bit pressured.

The key is the newspaper, no one has seen it since ancient times, and now His Royal Highness the King of Chu suddenly wants to engage in this thing, and he is completely black-eyed.

I had no choice but to pester Li Kuan to communicate.

"This is not simple, our newspaper is temporarily divided into four pages, one talks about current political events, one talks about business information and news, and then there is an interesting thing that happens around the people, and the last one is ......."

Li Kuan thought about it and felt that he might as well open a little hanging, so that the sales of the newspaper would be easier to open.

"Let's serialize it for the last one. When the scale of the newspaper increases, we can open two more pages and talk about football matches, polo matches, or opera theater plays. ”

"Serial? Lord, do you have a new work to come out? ”

Luo Bingwang's eyes lit up, and his attention immediately shifted from the newspaper to his body.

In the past few years, Li Kuan has made a lot of them, and he has read every book of Luo Bingwang.

To put it mildly, in Datang, no one dares to say that his writing is better than Li Kuan.

"This king has to think again, you first do other things well, find an editor for each page first, and then you can collect manuscripts externally, not necessarily all of them yourself."

Li Kuan hadn't figured out which one to take, so naturally he wouldn't talk to Luo Bingwang in detail now.

"It's not hard to find this editor, but if it really doesn't work, it's okay to find a few teachers or students from Guanshishan Academy to help. It's just that the first time I made this newspaper, I have no experience, and I will start publishing it in three days, is this time too tight? ”

"Sightseeing, this is the time to test your abilities!"

Luo Bing Wang: ......