The six earlier volumes of Mathematics were printed using engravings.

Not only is the number of movable types far from enough, but more importantly, those Arabic numerals and all kinds of formulas are simply not the movable types of this era can be discharged, so even if he knows that the engraving of hundreds of engraving and printing "Mathematics" is a big loss for himself, Li Yuanjia can only endure the pain of spending this large amount of money.

Because he had a dream, dreaming that one day "Mathematics" could sell thousands, or even tens of thousands of copies, so that he could make back the money from engraving.

Although now it is only sold...... No, it should be said that dozens of copies were sold in a row, but Li Yuanjia still has hope. He hoped that one day, when Li Tai discovered the subtleties of Arabic numerals, he would be able to use them in the Wei Palace, just like the current Han Palace; He also hopes that in the future, the Mansion of Liang Guo, the Mansion of Lu Guo, and the Mansion of Yingguo on his uncle's side can be taken seriously, and eventually become the first batch of bridgeheads captured by Arabic numerals.

At that time, this set of engravings, which have been carefully preserved, will come in handy.

As for movable type printing, to be honest, Li Yuanjia did have a lot of ideas at the beginning, and even had the idea of making every effort to develop papermaking and movable type printing, so as to completely promote the rapid development of Chinese civilization. After all, in the history of Europe, the emergence of movable metal type has changed too much, and Li Yuanjia does not think that putting this technology in China will not play the same role.

Think about what will happen when expensive books become cheaper, only one-fifth, or even one-tenth of the original price?

But unfortunately, Li Yuanjia quickly understood one thing, that is, he thought too simply.

When he asked people to try to make clay movable type and wooden movable type, he found that these things were okay to play with a concept, and it was okay to try a small amount, but if he wanted to print on a large scale and replace the engraving, it was just nonsense.

The only possible thing is movable metal type.

However, in order to make metal movable type truly enter the stage of history, Li Yuanjia must face three major difficulties: one is to find the best ratio of alloy and oil-based ink, which is the basis for metal movable type to be used; The second is several difficulties in the use of movable metal type, including how to quickly typeset, how to make all movable type on a horizontal plane, etc., which takes a long time to explore and try; Of course, the most important point is how to solve the huge cost of movable metal type!

Alloys of movable metal type are inherently costly, not to mention the painstaking effort required to cast them. Even under Li Yuan's loving guidance, the blacksmiths finally found the technique of yin and yang inverted molds, but the cost of each movable type was still huge.

In this case, I am afraid that Li Yuanjia alone in the world will persevere.

But in order not to let himself go bankrupt, he just let Li Zhong and them slowly cast movable type, accumulate experience, and at the same time constantly improve the process and technology to reduce costs as much as possible.

But he never expected that Li Zhong would suddenly propose to use movable type to print a book this time!

So after being stunned for a moment, Li Yuanjia's eyes narrowed and said, "Tell me, why do you want to print a book with movable type?" Also, have the typography and fixing issues been solved? ”

Biting his lip, Li Zhong said in a deep voice: "Back to the king's words, up to now, we have made more than 200 words, more than 4,000 movable characters, and the number has accumulated a lot. But if you keep doing this, it will be difficult to get a full picture of movable type printing, so ......"

"So you want to give it a try and see if it works?"

After listening to Li Zhong's words, Sun Peng understood in his heart, and then asked rhetorically with a smile.

"Goo-dong!"

After swallowing a mouthful of spit, Li Zhong gritted his teeth and nodded: "Yes, my lord, I have the courage to print a thinner book and give it a try." ”

In order to improve the movable type printing technology, Li Zhong and the others also tried a lot, but limited to the number of movable type and the cost of ink and paper, almost every attempt was just a piece of paper.

But if they only printed a piece of paper, they could not see the benefits of movable type printing.

Or in other words, every time Li Yuanjia told them that movable type printing was far better than engraving, but for Li Zhong and others, they couldn't see this at all, and could only imagine it out of thin air.

If you want to give it a try, you can do it.

And Li Yuanjia has always encouraged them to be bold and say their ideas with confidence, so they have today's request.

"Hmm......"

After pondering for a moment, Li Yuanjia raised his eyebrows and said, "If you want to print a book, you have made too few movable types now, right?" ”

Taking a deep breath, Li Zhong nodded and said, "Yes, King, printing ordinary books is definitely not enough." But if we settle for a book with a small number of words, and just make all the words in it, it shouldn't take long. ”

"Well, that's true."

After thinking for a while, Li Yuanjia nodded in agreement.

This is the ancient era, the era of classical Chinese.

In the early days, in order to reduce the workload of lettering, or to reduce the weight of bamboo slips, and later in order to save pen, ink and paper, the ancestors desperately wanted to express the most meaning with the least words, so classical Chinese was born. With classical Chinese, ancient books became very "economical", and often there were not many words in the whole book.

For example, in the Analects, the whole book is only 10,000 words. And even fewer are "Tao Te Ching", "University" and "The Mean", etc., all of which are short essays of several thousand words.

And most of the text in this is repetitive.

In this way, Li Zhong's workload is really not very large. After all, they have already made more than 200 Chinese characters that are most commonly used, and the rest of the ones that have not been made can be used as long as they can cast one.

So after pondering for a while, Li Yuanjia nodded and said, "Since you want to try it, let's find a book to try...... Forget it, you prepare the ink and paper first, and I'll tell you what to print in a few days. ”

With a move in his heart, Li Yuanjia temporarily changed his mind.

However, hearing Li Yuanjia say this, Li Zhong was suddenly a little anxious: "King, we want to find a thinner book with fewer words to print, if there are too many words, the movable type on our side may not be enough......"

"Hehe, it's okay."

Without waiting for him to finish speaking, Li Yuanjia waved his hand and said: "I will find you a book with a lower number of words to try, but since you want to try it, if you only print dozens or hundreds of copies, it doesn't make much sense, it's best to find a commonly used book to print more......