The next day, when Ye Ping just opened the door, there was a person standing outside.

He recognized the comer at once.

"Du Shangshu, why are you here?"

When looking at Du Ruhui's face full of wind and frost, Ye Ping always felt that this goods had been coming for a long time.

He shuddered, "Can you let me in and have a sip of hot tea?" It's a little cold outside. ”

"Of course, of course! Come in! Ye Ping led him into the tavern.

"Rengui prepares good tea to entertain Du Shangshu!"

Then he asked, "Du Shangshu, have you been here for a long time?" Why didn't you give me an early notice before I came, so I could open the door. ”

"It didn't take long, it was only an hour, and I didn't expect you to open the door so late."

Du Ruhui came directly an hour in advance, but he only waited outside and did not call the door.

Something must be going on this early morning.

"Is something happening? Why did you come looking for me so early? ”

"That's right, yesterday's Wence has been done, I am thinking about sending it to you as soon as possible, I am afraid that you have any special needs."

For the sake of a Wen Ce, this guy won't come here early in the morning, there must be something else.

After finishing, he sent Wen Ce up, Ye Ping took it and took a look, and sure enough, it was all-inclusive, basically everything could be done.

Except for some government-run things such as salt and iron, other industries can be opened, so to speak, some preparations have been made for the convenience of the future.

Ye Ping put away Wen Ce and put it in his sleeve, in fact, it had already been put into the space, and such an important thing naturally could not be discarded.

After finishing, he spoke: "Du Shangshu, we are people who understand, there is no need to say that you don't understand, is there something wrong with you coming here with me?" ”

Du Ruhui laughed dryly.

"Lao Li is right, all this really can't avoid your eyes, I really have something I want to ask."

Xue Rengui delivered the tea, Ye Ping put it in front of him, and then asked: "What's the matter, even if I can help, I won't shirk it!" ”

It's true that I won't shirk it, but I don't say that I won't make money.

As long as he has money, he will do it.

Every time they want to come here, they can't leave without leaving a hundred dollars.

Ye Ping's actions also made Du Ruhui aware of this.

"Hahaha, the shopkeeper Ye is really for pleasure, and I won't hide it, that would be too stingy."

"Please!"

"Your Majesty often tells me that the education of gate valves has seriously affected Datang's selection of talents at all levels!"

"What do you mean by that?"

Ye Ping was puzzled, why did this gate valve affect Li Shimin?

"Because the people can't afford to read, and reading has become a matter for the rich, so the talented people can't read, and the untalented people are holding on to the death to study, so that the court's selection of talents is much narrower."

Du Ruhui said.

Ye Ping understood what was going on.

There are two reasons for this.

First, in ancient times, it was very difficult to read, especially for poor disciples, who didn't want to read!

The main reason is that books are expensive, although Cai Lun invented papermaking in the Han Dynasty, but in the Tang Dynasty, its technology has not been greatly improved, and the price of paper is still very expensive, and ordinary people cannot afford it!

In addition, the current engraving printing engraving layout requires a lot of labor and materials, and the speed of plate making is slow, once the engraving is wrong, it will be invalidated, so the cost remains high.

Maybe many people say that they can borrow books, but they don't understand the reality of the Tang Dynasty.

In the future, as long as you want to read any book, you can find it in the library, and you can even download it from the Internet.

Therefore, it is difficult for modern people to imagine the difficulty of borrowing books from the ancients.

The ancients borrowed books, not only for the long distance to find good books, but also to have a thicker face when they came to the door.

Even so, not every bibliophile is willing to lend books to others, because books are so precious.

Like the family gatekeepers, they swept away the collection of books and treasured themselves, and they were never willing to look at people lightly, let alone lend them to those poor children.

So those poor children from poor families can be said to have no way to study.

According to records, in order to encourage the people to donate books extensively, Tang Taizong stipulated: "There are few books in the three management offices, and those who have accepted them will be given thousands of dollars." ”

That is, the price of copying a book is 1,000 wen.

That is, the price of a penny, that is very high, just copying books has to be so high, let alone printing?

Second, Li Shimin didn't want to hand over his partition to these gatekeepers, and now more than half of the people in the entire court were these gatekeepers, so he wanted to pick out some usable talents from them, and at the moment, it was only possible to do these things by lowering the price of books.

Therefore, Du Ruhui came over with Li Shimin's hope.

"So, what do you want me to help you?"

"The shopkeeper Ye is really happy! I want you to find a way to bring the price of the book down! Make books affordable for the people! ”

Du Ruhui still said the purpose of his coming.

Ye Ping thought for a while, he thought a lot.

Nowadays, the most used is engraving printing, which is too much waste of time and energy.

Some say that it can be replaced with movable type printing, but he has something to say.

Why movable type printing has not been carried forward is that there are still its shortcomings.

The books published at that time can be mainly divided into four categories, with the classics and histories having the largest circulation, but they are all things that have been handed down from history and rarely changed, and classics such as the Four Books and the Five Classics have been passed down for thousands of years.

Publishing these books requires a great deal of effort to engrave a set of plates, which can be used untouched for tens or even centuries as long as they are confirmed to be error-free.

The use of movable type typesetting should often be rearranged, for the typesetter with low culture, the probability of error is greater than that of engraving, and the cost is not economical. If you ask the reader to do it, they can't let go of their body to do it, so it is a dilemma.

And sub, set and other miscellaneous books are small circulation, variety, originally suitable for the use of movable type, but write these are often not rich official eunuchs or talented bachelors, for them, engraving printing can pay attention to the style characteristics of knife fonts, and movable type printing can only use rigid printing.

Therefore, if someone says that movable type printing replaces engraving printing, they really don't understand the relationship and write nonsense.

You must know that what has been handed down from generation to generation are all classic documents.

The cost of printing with engraving is low enough.

But this kind of low is not low to the end, and the labor cost is still high. Add in the bookseller's markup, and the price of the book is even higher.

Therefore, Ye Ping thought of another printing technique, which should be able to solve the current situation.

Regardless of the number or the small, it can be solved perfectly.

His thinking made Du Ruhui very bottomless, because he had been thinking about it for too long.

"Shopkeeper Ye, how's it going?"

He asked.