Ten days later, under the watchful eye of heavily armed Qin guards, several ox carts entered through the east gate, their carts loaded with something, but they were covered by the linen cloth on it, and no one could tell. The ox cart was escorted by hundreds of Qin soldiers to a house on the edge of the abandoned garden of the road.

Cheng Shang, the ink man, jumped down from the ox cart and shouted to the craftsman behind him:

"Hurry up! Unload the utensils on the car, and arrange them properly within an hour, and your majesty the Jiaodong county guard may come to inspect at any time! ”

Cheng Shang is an old friend of Heifu, when he was in Guanzhong, at the initiative of Heifu, the Mo family came forward to help him make water mills, water drains and other equipment, and explored a complete set of papermaking technology, and was given the title of public doctor.

However, as the administration of the imperial court has become more and more fierce in recent years, far from the pursuit of the Mo family, Cheng Shang was also a little disheartened, resigned from his official position, and specialized in studying skills and equipment, hoping to use his modest efforts to contribute to this harsh world.

This summer, Heifu had invited the farmer to Jimo, and wrote to Cheng Shang, saying that Jiaodong was in ruins, and that he needed the help of the Mo family and asked him to come to Jiaodong.

When Cheng Shang arrived in Jiaodong, he found that in addition to salt and gold, Heifu was also preparing a big plan: engraving printing.

The contents of their ox carts were hundreds of engravings carved by Hefu over the past few months after recruiting all the county's printers......

The craftsmen did not dare to slack off, unloaded the engraving plates one by one, moved them to the house, and placed them according to different contents, and the place where the books were printed was placed on the large stone case in the flower garden, and Cheng Shang arranged for others to prepare the e-liquid ink specially used for printing.

After everything was ready, half an hour had passed, and Cheng Shang had just had time to breathe a sigh of relief, but he heard a drum beat, it was the emperor who came!

Lang Weijun rushed in, surrounded the abandoned garden, Jiaodong craftsmen were a little nervous, Lang Wei let the idle people and others leave, leaving only Cheng Shang and other people who could operate the printing, and searched all over the body, and went out to report that everything was in order, and the emperor took the ministers to pacing over.

Leading the way in front was Heifu and the big fat man Zhang Cang, Heifu waved at Cheng Shang and said, "Hard work." ”

Zhang Cang patted him on the shoulder and said meaningfully: "Ziyin, you came in time, saved the world's scholars, and also saved the Mo family......"

"Huh?"

Cheng Shang was stupid when he heard it, the book burning proposal that happened in the Linzi Qi Palace was a secret and had not yet been circulated, and outsiders only knew that a few Confucian scholars had been imprisoned for slandering the imperial court.

Zhang Cang knew that the emperor's discussion on "book burning" had been pending for a long time in the past few days, just to see if the "printing technology" mentioned by Heifu was true or false.

"That's not right." Zhang Cang looked at the emperor's car behind him, and realized: "It's not Your Majesty who wants to see it, but to show it to the ministers, the prime minister and others......"

Cheng Shang was a little inexplicable, but he didn't have time to ask, because Qin Shihuang's tall figure had appeared in front of them.

"This is what Qing is talking about?"

Qin Shi Huang walked to the big stone case, reached out and touched the wooden board carved by Yangwen: "Sure enough, it looks like a seal, but there are more words than a seal." ”

He didn't talk nonsense, he exchanged his hands and ordered: "Print a few for me to see!" ”

Cheng Shang picked up a brush, dipped it in the cigarette ink mixed with hemp seed oil and cigarettes, brushed back and forth on the engraving, and after making sure that it was even, he took a piece of pale yellow leather paper from Zhang Cang's hand, carefully covered it on the engraving, and gently wiped the back of the paper with the rolling wood in his hand to make it completely contacted. After a while, he took the paper down, dried it gently, and presented it to Qin Shi Huang......

Qin Shi Huang fixed his eyes and saw that it was only a moment's work, and the spotless leather paper was densely printed with official books.

After Qin Shi Huang finished reading it, he passed it to the ministers, and after everyone had handled it, he glanced at them and said, "Zhuqing, are there any doubts about this matter?" ”

Wang Wu, the five doctors who had questioned the truth of what Heifu said before, blushed and apologized to Heifu in embarrassment. As for the others, Li Si was expressionless, and Ye Teng was hesitant in his heart, Heifu's ghost cleverness, he had seen it many times.

The rest of the people praised one after another, saying that with this method of engraving printing, they can really print a law quickly, and the speed is better than hand-copying dozens or even a hundred times!

"It's papermaking again, it's printing again, it's all about the work, and the county guard can go in and be a young eunuch." Someone joked about it.

Heifu said modestly: "I have no virtue or ability, but it is only by inviting ink and craftsmen to combine common engraving and printing to arrive at this method." ”

Heff is not lying, as in papermaking, he only provides ideas, and the rest of the technology is ready-made.

The seal is a thing in the hands of the officials of the Qin Dynasty, and the black man is a silver seal and a green ribbon, and every time he writes a document, he must stamp it once. Among the craftsmen under the government, there are people who specialize in engraving, and they not only make seals, but also engrave inscriptions for bronzes, and the carving technique of seals is perfect.

However, the number of words in the seal is small, the printing surface is also small, the lettering can be done, and the embossing experience is insufficient. Heifu set his sights on the government-run weaving mills, where the mulberry and hemp industry in Jiaodong was prosperous, and most of the beautiful silk clothes on the market were made of batch embossing using letterpress printing and dyeing technology.

Gather the craftsmen from both sides together, and then wait for the Cheng Shang to be in place, and then you can start work.

According to Heifu's description, the pear blossom wood, boxwood, ginkgo biloba, jujube wood, etc., which are soaked and dried in Jiaodong, are made into the size and shape of the ruler, but it is thicker than the ordinary ruler.

Then, in accordance with the already very mature seal production technology, the thin paper full of words is paved up, and it took a short time to carve the seal, so that the wooden slip is densely packed with the reverse words of yang carving, which is the so-called "engraving", and then the printing and dyeing craftsman develops the special smoke ink for printing, and the degree of light and thickness, the embossing time, but more than a month, a set of mature technology is freshly baked!

With ready-made pre-technology, coupled with the ideas he provided, the invention is simple, but the application is difficult.

Can its emergence meet a certain demand of people in this era? If it is not needed by people, no matter how great the meaning is given by later generations, it will soon be drowned in the long river of time.

Take paper as an example, if it weren't for the massive demand for paperwork between the Qin Dynasty government, Heifu was sure that paper would definitely only be popular in a small circle and would have been silent for many years.

And if the current printing technology is to be widely used, the premise is that society needs large-scale mass reproduction of words!

The emergence of Chinese engraving printing is probably in the Tang Dynasty, but it was originally not used to print books, but to print Buddhist scriptures, as long as this thing is a believer in Buddhism, almost all of them are needed, and it is not enough to meet the needs by hand.

Europe is similar, during the Renaissance, Europeans first printed Bibles in large quantities.

For an invention to be widely used, it is not how much it is ahead of the times, but whether it can be needed by the times.

This is the principle of Heif's invention: choose what the world needs.

He thinks that printing technology is a good match with Qin Chaoting...... Because the Qin Dynasty also needed fast and many text copies in a certain matter.

At this time, Cheng Shang had already printed the second piece of paper, Heifu offered it with both hands, and Qin Shi Huang took it and smiled.

"The piece of paper just now is printed with "Wei Miscellaneous Laws", and this one is "Miscellaneous Laws of Internal History"! Heifu, are you telling me that in the future, the Imperial History Office will promulgate laws for counties and counties, and there will be no need for the swordsmen and penciers to copy them by hand, but they can be printed instead? ”

"Your Majesty! The minister originally asked the craftsmen to develop this law, precisely to print the law! ”

This is what Heifu meant, and one of the most important contents of the "Wei Miscellaneous Law" is "The Imperial History of the Imperial History", which means that every October, the Imperial Commander has to go to the Imperial History Office to check the newly promulgated legal texts. This is very interesting, although Heifu's father-in-law Ye Teng is a court lieutenant and controls the world's prisons, he is only in charge of judicial power, and the legislative power is in the hands of the Imperial History Mansion. The Qin Dynasty would not abide by the "immutable law of the ancestors", and the laws and decrees would change at any time according to the actual situation, so the Imperial History Office would make a "law amendment" every year, and let the court send people to observe.

After having the newly revised law checked, the court commander ordered the scribe to copy it and promulgate it to the county judges, who in turn notified the county judges to come and learn to copy it...... This is what is written in the "Miscellaneous Laws of Internal History": "If each county sues the capital official in his county, write the law of his official's use."

The county magistrate returned to the county seat with the red-headed documents from the central government and the county, and sent them to the officials and village officials for reading. In this way, the law was transmitted from the central government to the local grassroots.

Heifu was very familiar with the process of the imperial court from legislation to law, and he talked eloquently, and somehow told the story of his hometown Anlu, where the judge named "Xi" had been in prison for decades, copying the law......