In ancient China, cultural transmission and inheritance mainly relied on word of mouth. Or use oracle bones, slips, gold stones, silk and so on to record knowledge and culture for inheritance, generation after generation.

Books basically exist in the form of simple books, but each book is an extremely precious existence, and it is easy not to show it to others.

Therefore, in ancient China, it was really not easy to read and write.

The Han Dynasty developed papermaking and invented paper, making it much lighter to write words on paper than before. However, even with paper, there was no printing machine. Books are basically copied.

It was not until 172 to 178, that is, until the last ten years, that the Han Dynasty appeared the method of palm prints and rubbing stone tablets to make books.

After that, it was not until the Tang and Song dynasties that engraving printing and movable type printing were invented.

It is a pity that during the Song Dynasty in China, although movable type printing had been perfected, the Song Dynasty did not use it ordinarily, but let the Western German Gutenberg learn the movable type printing in China and improve the clay movable type invented by Buyi Bisheng in the Song Dynasty as lead movable type.

The economical and practical printing of movable type led led to the development of the European publishing industry, as well as the modernization of Europe, which swept the world. If we just stand in terms of the printing industry, the development of Europe in later generations is actually because they obtained the printing technology of China, so it is really not an exaggeration. If there was no movable type printing, how could Westerners quickly popularize cultural civilization? Not to mention that it is not paper, if it were not for the invention of China, Western Europe in later generations would probably still be a barbaric and backward world.

Chinese civilization originally stood on the top of the world, but Westerners obtained the essence of Chinese invention, so that in just a few hundred years to achieve civilization catch-up, especially during the Qing Dynasty of China, truly surpassed China, but also made China fall into suffering...... It wasn't until there were great men in Huaxia and the establishment of New China that Huaxia became strong again before Liu Xian crossed over.

Well, that's a bit of a stretch.

However, it is true that there is no printing technology in the present Han Dynasty, and there are no books that are distributed in batches.

In fact, why don't you have books that are released in batches? In this era, there are no publishing houses, no bookstores and bookstores. Perhaps, there are already shops that specialize in selling paper, pens and ink, but there will definitely be no bookstores.

There may be books for sale, but it is estimated that they are all incidental, and there will be no bookstore that specializes in selling books.

What Liu Xian thought of was to set up a publishing house, open a bookstore, print his own books, and even extend the newspaper industry.

Liu Xian can actually do these by himself, and he doesn't need to bring Kong Rong Kong to the Kong family at all.

Even if the Confucian family has a library and a large collection of classical books. Those classical books are indeed the cultural treasures of China, and if they can be preserved and passed down to future generations, each book may have extremely high research value.

But for now, Liu Xian doesn't think those books will be of much value. Even if it is the original original of some of the academic doctrines of the Hundred Schools of Thought, the things mentioned above may not be suitable for use now. Even if it is printed and sold as a book, I am afraid it will not be too popular.

However, as long as it is something valuable, Liu Xian feels that it is necessary to preserve it and pass it on. Nowadays, it is only the Confucian family collection, and the world does not know the Confucian library, does not know what books are in it, and what cultural inheritance it will have. And until Liu Xian's later generations, I have never heard of any library pavilions of the Kong family.

In other words, the Confucian Library has never existed. This is a loss for Huaxia. If he can, Liu Xian hopes that he can take out all the books in the Confucian Library and print a batch, so that there will be more people who collect them, and then in the future, some of them will be preserved and handed down.

If he hadn't given Kong Rong some benefits to the Kong family, he would definitely not have taken out those books. In addition, since Liu Xian married Kong Xue of the Kong family, it is indeed a family.

Liu Xian also considered that when the time came, he would first seize Jizhou, Youzhou and other places, so what about Qingzhou? Maybe you don't have to take it yourself, you just need to support Kong Rong to gain a firm foothold in Beihai and help him develop, then the entire Qingzhou will fall into his own hands sooner or later.

After Liu Xian, as long as his strength reaches a certain point, at the appropriate time, he will take out the edict of the first emperor, and then come up with the evidence that he is the son of Liu Kui, the king of Bohai, in this way, Kong Rong will naturally be completely submissive to Liu Xian.

In fact, Liu Kui has only been dead for more than ten years, and there must be many people who have seen Liu Kui alive. If those people see Liu Xian again, they will definitely find that Liu Xian and Liu Kui are indeed very similar. These are also circumstantial evidence that proves that Liu Xian is the son of Liu Kui, the king of Bohai.

Anyway, the edict of the first emperor could not be faked, and it clearly stated that the throne of the Han Dynasty would be passed on to Liu Kui, the king of Bohai. Then the genealogy in Liu Xian's hand could not be faked, plus Ma Guiren and people who knew Liu Kui testified for it. Then, Liu Xian is the rightful heir of the Han Emperor.

At that time, after the death of the current emperor Liu Hong, after his son, Cao Cao coerced the son of heaven to order the princes? That's just a joke, I'm afraid. What's more, we ourselves are the Son of Heaven, why use to blackmail the Son of Heaven to order the princes?

Now giving some benefits to the Kong family, in fact, is equivalent to helping himself in the end.

Therefore, after Liu Xian quickly thought about it in his mind, he made a decision and said to Kong Rong: "Father-in-law, the son-in-law plans to run some business with your Kong family. ”

"Oh? What are your thoughts? Kong Rong asked.

"This, your Kong family's main industry is to make books, but how to make money from it is unknown. But it is possible to guess a little. Liu Xian said: "To make books, it was your Confucian family who copied some classics into books, right?" Therefore, copying a book takes a lot of time, so there will not be many books. Right? ”

"Well, that's basically the case, but now that the Confucian family has introduced the art of rubbing, I believe that soon, it won't take so long to produce books in large quantities." Kong Rong did not deny it, but he also proudly revealed the art of rubbing.

"Father-in-law is talking about the method of rubbing stone tablets, right? Hehe, this is still too slow, and this method is only suitable for printing one more book, if you want to print more different books, it is probably unlikely, right? Liu Xian knew what Kong Rong was talking about.

"Oh? Virtuous son-in-law, you also know the art of rubbing stone tablets? Kong Rong looked at Liu Xian with some surprise.

"I know another kind of rubbing, no, it should be called real printing, or movable type printing." Liu Xian said this, but turned to say: "Father-in-law, let's talk about your business model, I guess, it should be some rich families, such as the powerful in the court, the local nobles, and only these will need some books." Most of the books of your Confucian family are asked for books from your Confucian family, and then your Confucian family will copy and produce the books he needs, in exchange for money. Occasionally, you people from the Confucian family will also copy some books and sell them, so this should be the business model, right? You want your Confucian family to follow my caravan to sell books elsewhere, and these books are the books that your Confucian family copied and made in order to increase income. That's pretty much, right? ”

"Xian'er, how do you know? Did Cher tell you? ”

What Liu Xian said was really true, Mrs. Kong was very curious, and suspected that her daughter told Liu Xian.

"No, no, Xue'er hasn't told me about these things, and she never talks about these business things." Liu Xian shook his head and said: "It's not difficult to guess, the Confucian family has the inheritance of Confucius, after thousands of years, even if the world doesn't know that the Confucian family has a large collection of books, but everyone knows that the Confucian family is a scholarly family, and the most important thing for the Confucian family is to read people and books." Rich people pass on the word of mouth to each other, and naturally they will know that they can monopolize the books they want with the Confucian family. I won't talk about the Four Books and Five Classics, because ordinary readers will be familiar with these books, and these books are estimated to be in the greatest demand, and your Confucian family usually copies these books, and those who want to follow the Liu Mansion caravan to sell books should also be these most, and also, what your Confucian family wants to rub and print, it is estimated that these books are also these, right? ”

"Ahem...... Kong Rong coughed twice with a little embarrassment, and said, "Okay, that's roughly it." The movable type printing you just mentioned, this is ......"

"I can't make this movable type printing public for the time being. However, it will definitely be made public in the future, probably within ten years. Liu Xian said bluntly.

Movable type printing must be in your own hands, and it will not be easily made public until you have made enough money and have not really unified the Han Dynasty.

"Uh, well, I can get it, so let's talk about our business together. How are you going to be? Kong Rong naturally understands that some secrets will not be passed on easily.

In this era, a technology is basically passed down from father to son, and it is the norm for men to pass on not to women. Kong Rong thought that Liu Xian meant so.

"My plan is to open some permanent bookstores all over Dahan, which can specialize in selling all kinds of books that we print. Of course, the bookstore can also operate the four treasures of the study together, and can also buy some books, and the books acquired, no matter what kind of books they are, as long as they are not available in the Confucian family, they will be acquired back, and then depending on the value of these books, they will decide whether to collect them or not, and whether to print them or not. Originally, I planned to open these bookstores by myself, but since we are now a family, then these bookstores can be opened by your Kong family. ”

"Bookstores all over Dahan? Xian'er, do you really dare to think about it...... How much does this cost? How hard is it? Mrs. Kong really never had the concept of a chain store, and her eyes widened when she heard this.

What about Mrs. Kong? Even Kong Rong was a little surprised, and looked at Liu Xian in disbelief.

"Well, father-in-law, this is just a plan, but these can be done step by step. Anyway, I can quickly produce a large number of different books, which cannot be sold by others and merchants alone. Therefore, it is necessary to open a store. We can start this shop in our own place, start running it first, and then slowly move on to other places to open a bookstore. ”

"Yes, yes, you can open one room after another, son-in-law...... No wonder you are going to set up a Liu Mansion caravan to do business, it turns out that you are a real business wizard. Kong Rong was also like Mrs. Kong at this time, and the more she looked at Liu Xian, the more pleasing she felt to the eye.

"Don't dare to be, don't dare to be, my son-in-law usually likes to think crankily, and he is also relatively bold, sometimes he does whatever he thinks."

"Well, what about the specifics? This one...... It means that this business is done by everyone, and although it is a family, it has to be made clear in advance, right? You can't let your son-in-law work in vain, right? ”

"These are natural, even if they are brothers, they have to settle accounts." Liu Xian agreed with Kong Rong's words, nodded and said, "The book is provided by your Kong family, and then I will make it in large quantities, and then hand it over to the bookstore opened by your Kong family to sell." I have to recoup the cost of printing the books and the cost of shipping. These can be dividends in a certain percentage from the price of each book. ”

"Pricing? This one...... How do you price books? Kong Rong said a little stunned.

In this era, there is no price for books, and sometimes even if you have money, you can't buy the books you want. It can be said that for some people, certain books are priceless. For example, Liu Xian's Taiping Sutra is really a priceless treasure.

Liu Xian plans that in the future, these books will have to be priced, and he will have to set a reasonable price by himself. But now you don't need it, just make a fortune now, make a lot of money, anyway, those who can afford books for the time being are rich people.

Liu Xian thought for a while, and asked Kong Rong rhetorically: "Father-in-law, what is the price of the books that your Kong family usually sells?" ”

"This one...... I don't know the specifics of this, after all, it's my fifth and sixth brothers who are presiding over these affairs. But generally speaking, if it is a good relationship, we will sell it half-way, and it has nothing to do with it, and it depends on what books he needs, some well-known books, and they are not worth much, but if it is some little-known classics, then a book can be sold for 10,000 yuan, 100,000 yuan, or even more. ”

"Of course, these also depend on the skills of copying, if it is some calligraphy and painting, the more similar and similar to the original, then the higher the price."

Copying, Liu Xian knew that what Kong Rong said was actually copying.

However, this 10,000 or 100,000 yuan is a hand-copied book, compared to more than 3,000 or 30,000 in later generations. It's really a matter of being a little bit more expensive. It is no wonder that the Kong family can maintain the expenses of a large family by making books, and they don't know how much wealth they have gathered.

"Okay, I have the bottom of my heart. But before that, father-in-law, I still have three conditions, and I hope that my father-in-law will agree. Liu Xian doesn't need to know the price of the Kong family's books, because he can calculate his own production costs, transportation costs, and so on.

However, there are some things that must be said in front, if Kong Rong does not agree to his conditions, then it is better to do it himself. Anyway, I have already opened so many stores, and it would be nice to add one more bookstore in various places.