The director couldn't help but say: "Your Highness's plan is not impossible, we only need to make a special engraving sleeve and fix it, and we can completely engrave one word at a time, but will it be difficult to make tens of thousands of small wooden squares of exactly the same size?" ”

Guo Song smiled slightly: "You think it is difficult for professionals to do professional things, but carpenters think it is very simple, a skilled carpenter can make hundreds of them a day, and tens of thousands a month." ”

This plan is really good, and an old craftsman excitedly said: "We can also make a special movable type wood carving plate, there are many grids in the plate, and then put a movable type in each grid, and the plate is fixed." ”

Another craftsman also couldn't bear the excitement in his heart and said: "We can also screen out some commonly used words, and then specially let the apprentice engrave, each word engraved a hundred, specially put a plate, encounter these common words do not need to engrave, take a spare one, this will also save a lot of energy." ”

Another craftsman sighed: "Many of our boards are only printed once, like books that are privately commissioned to print, after printing once, the boards are put on the shelf, there are thousands of sets of such boards, they cannot be reused at all, they are completely wasted, but if they are movable type, these words can be reused in other books." ”

Another craftsman had a flash of inspiration in his mind, and immediately said: "Cut all these useless engravings into small squares, won't they all be used?" ”

The main officer slapped his fist, "Everyone is so right, so you can save a lot of money." ”

The more the craftsmen talked, the more excited they became, but the accompanying officials around them looked at each other, no one expected that a suggestion from King Jin would bring such a great effect.

At this time, Guo Song threw out an even more shocking suggestion.

"I think this is a very good business, in the future, the printing business will be handed over to the private sector to do, you will only do one thing, special engraving, the private printing shop will come to ask you to buy a board, no, it should be said to lease movable type."

Guo Song turned back to the director of the printing workshop and said: "Recruit more than a dozen people to be responsible for putting together the boards, and put together the boards for them according to the manuscripts provided by the printing shop, and then they will return the boards after the printing is over." ”

The director said for a while: "Will there be so many guests coming to rent boards?" ”

"There will definitely be, in the future, every state will publish the "State Di Bao" every ten years, and a Di Bao will print hundreds of copies, and after this kind of "Di Bao" is used up once, the board will not be used, which is just suitable for rental."

At this time, Guo Song suddenly realized that the idea of leasing movable type would lead to an explosive effect, and that ordinary private individuals wanted to print their own poems, and they could not do it without a few hundred yuan, and the main cost was that the rigid fee was too high, but if it became a rental movable type, then it might be enough for dozens of dollars.

There is no need for so many experienced old carvers, the world only needs one movable type rental shop, dozens of letterers, and then open branches in all states of the world, so that one of the biggest obstacles to cultural transmission disappears.

In the future, there will also be copper movable type and lead movable type, which will be more durable and more refined.

Guo Song suddenly thought of newspapers, leasing movable type is especially useful for newspapers, newspapers have to be printed every day, it is impossible to engrave a pair of engravings every day, so leasing movable type to spell out movable engravings, printing newspapers has become a reality.

With newspapers, all kinds of business information, all kinds of advertisements, all kinds of market news, all kinds of government and opposition events, every common person can see it, their wives and daughters also have a window to understand the outside world, and newspapers can also carry out public opinion supervision, this is a huge social change, and the civilian society of the Song Dynasty will come ahead of schedule.

Thinking of this, Guo Song said to the principal: "In the future, there will be only one movable type rental store in the world, and you can open branches in all states in the world, and from now on, there will be no need for engravers in the world."

The principal was also shocked by this huge prospect, and he stammered, "But there is not so much paper!" ”

A sentence reminded Guo Song that paper is also a big problem, but as long as there is a demand, it should be easy to solve.

.........

Guo Song has wanted to start a newspaper for a long time, but he has been waiting for a more suitable time.

This visit to the government-run printing workshop made him realize that the idea of starting a newspaper had matured in technology.

Therefore, after Guo Song put forward the idea of running a newspaper in the Counselor's Hall, he got two different opinions.

First of all, the official "Di Bao", everyone agreed, especially the "Zhou Di Bao", which helped the imperial court to strengthen its control over the localities.

As for the establishment of a movable type rental agency, it is not a problem at all.

However, after Guo Song put forward the idea of allowing non-governmental newspapers, everyone did not make a clear statement, and everyone's attitude was ambiguous, and their refusal to support it was actually opposition.

This mainly involves the issue of the control of the power of public opinion, and all the counselors are scheming politicians, so how can they not know what the consequences will be if they allow non-governmental newspapers to run newspapers.

Guo Song glanced at everyone and said slowly: "Non-governmental newspapers are a new thing, for new things to appear, we can't look at it with suspicion or even hostility, we should learn to be tolerant, we should allow it to appear, if one day it endangers the regime, we will consider whether to restrict it, but in any case, we should face it first!" ”

Guo Song's attitude is very clear and resolute, everyone understands, it seems that the newspaper must be done, Pan Liao said: "Your Highness, it is precisely because it is a new thing that everyone is more cautious, and the humble position does not object to the emergence of private newspapers, but at least set some rules, or draw a bottom line, as long as this bottom line is not violated, I believe everyone will show tolerance." ”

"What does Pan Changshi think the bottom line should be?"

"I think there should be three bottom lines, first, no enemies; Second, no personal attacks, no matter who is targeted, should not be publicly abusive in the newspaper; Third, sarcasm and ridicule are allowed, but only for officials below the third rank, and it is not allowed to attack His Royal Highness the King of Jin, the princess and their children. ”

Du You said: "It's actually difficult to grasp this, for example, my son bullies the people, the newspaper will mention it, then this is not a violation of Article 3, and another example is a businessman in Luoyang who sells goods, he publicizes it in the newspaper, if someone has a heart to grasp this point, saying how this businessman is in Luoyang, the newspaper violates the article that it is not allowed to be an enemy, it is really not clear."

In fact, I think that as long as you grasp a bottom line, you must not attack the King of Jin and the princess, and everything else doesn't matter, if the newspaper dares to make something out of nothing and talk nonsense to me, I'm sorry, I have a lawsuit with you, and I won, you have to publicly apologize to me in the newspaper, I think the newspaper has grasped some bottom lines and won't make trouble for yourself.

As His Highness just said, newspapers are all about the short and interesting things of the family, publishing the poet's new works, whose family is about to marry whom, or the businessman spending money to shout in the newspaper, it is an entertainment newspaper itself, and it does not involve political commentary, so we should not regard it as a flood beast, like a great enemy. ”

Pan Liao groaned and said: "Du Sima has a point, then turn the bottom line into one, you must not attack the king and princess of Jin, and everything else can be tolerated." ”

At Guo Song's strong insistence, the Counsellor's Hall finally reached an agreement to allow the private sector to run the newspaper, which was managed by the Ministry of Scholars, and two registration quotas were released first.

...........

On Xi'anmen Street, in an elegant room on the third floor of the Pearl Restaurant, Zhang Lei and Li An both came from their respective shops, and Guo Ping was sitting next to them.

Guo Song told them about the Counselor's Hall's decision to allow the private newspaper to run, Zhang Lei was at a loss, he didn't have any concept of the newspaper, Guo Ping didn't care, since her brother asked her to take some part, she just paid for it.

However, Ang Lee had participated in the publication of "Di Bao" thirty years ago, and he was more familiar with this industry, he was taken aback, and said for a while: "The imperial court really allows private newspapers? ”

Guo Song nodded, "This is a decision I have been thinking about for a long time, and today the Counselor's Hall has already talked about passing and releasing two places." ”

"Senior brother, you explain to me a little bit, what is a newspaper?" Zhang Lei said unbearably in his heart.

Guo Song took out a copy of "Di Bao" and handed it to him, "Just look at this." ”

Zhang Lei took the newspaper and read it for a long time, and understood a little, "Do you want us to comment on the government and release the news of the court?" ”

Guo Song shook his head, "This is the official newspaper, your newspaper is to collect interesting things in Chang'an, such as whose white sheep gave birth to a black lamb, Li Yuanwai married a daughter, married 3,000 acres of land, Xi'anmen greenhouse staged the latest military drama tonight, Zhang Sima married another housewife, the original match led the crowd to the door, and so on, anyway, the ordinary people like all kinds of street and alley news, of course, it is not nonsense, you have to send people to collect all kinds of anecdotes everywhere, and then print tens of thousands of copies of them, five cents each, to ensure that every household has to buy." ”

Zhang Lei's eyes lit up, "This is a good way to make money." ”

Guo Ping said with a smile: "This kind of newspaper is good, women must like it, and they will know all kinds of things that happen in Chang'an without going out." ”

Li An pondered for a moment and said: "It's very troublesome to be rigid every day, the cost is very large, there are hundreds of spies, and you have to ask someone to write articles, I'm afraid you won't make money, you will lose money, and more importantly, you will cause trouble. ”

Guo Song said slowly: "I advocate that there are three intentions for running a newspaper, the first is to advocate reading and literacy, ordinary people are not interested in reading, but they are definitely interested in newspapers, they will join the government-run literacy club, and after reading "Enlightenment", "Urgent Chapter" and "Thousand Character Text", they can basically read the newspaper.

The second intention is to promote business, and your income from running a newspaper is not only to sell newspapers, but also to publish all kinds of business information, such as renting a house, selling a house, moving, exchanging money, eating, opening a store, buying and selling goods, and so on.

The third intention is to control public opinion, I don't want to hear all kinds of rumors flying all over the sky, generally speaking, the people of Chang'an will accept your conclusions, as for the engraving that Uncle An said, this problem has been solved, you don't need to be stereotyped in the future, just go to rent movable type, and spell it into a carving. ”

Guo Song said to Li An about movable type printing, Li An suddenly realized, he was full of praise, this is really a wonderful way, all of a sudden the big problem of engraving is solved, if the spelling is proficient, half an hour can be completed.

"But we also need to make our own paper!" Next to him, Zhang Lei hit the nail on the head.

Guo Song said lightly: "Just buy a paper workshop and expand its output." ”