Xu Qilin smiled and nodded, indicating that he had received it. Xiao Gong retreated and asked for the second, it seems that he still knows something about his laziness.

Cheering up and shaking off distracting thoughts, Xu Qilin hurriedly stepped forward to greet him.

His Majesty Li Er didn't come by himself, Fang Xuanling, Wei Troll, Ma Dami, Cen Wenwen, and Yu Wenshi also followed. I don't know if there was a political discussion, or if I was specially called to observe the demonstration.

After Xu Qilin met the emperor, he greeted the five important ministers again, and his attitude was very respectful.

Although he already knew these people when he was on duty. But except for Ma Zhou, the other four didn't even speak. It is estimated that these four people don't know him very well, who made him just a small background and a small person in the court!

"Captain Zhiguo, this is the artifact you made?" His Majesty Li Er stood under the eaves of the main hall, stretched out his fingers, and asked, "Do you want to move into the main hall for a demonstration, or is it right here?" ”

Xu Qilin bowed down and said: "This place is wide, and there is also shade from trees, so Wei Chen thinks that he can demonstrate it immediately, and he doesn't have to go through the trouble of moving around." ”

"That's right." His Majesty Li Er immediately agreed, and ordered the palace people to move out of the couch and stool, and sit down in front of the palace with the prince and ministers.

Xu Qilin instructed Zhang Cheng and the craftsmen to remove the linen cloth, revealing the wheel typesetting rack, typesetting and printing workbench, and placing paper, ink, brushes and other tools.

Then, he picked up an engraving and walked in front of everyone, and after asking His Majesty Li Er, he began to talk about it briefly and popularize a little science.

The so-called engraving is to choose fine and solid wood, such as jujube wood, pear wood, etc. First, the wood is sawn into pieces of plank, the words to be printed are written on thin paper, and then pasted on the board, and then carved into yang script with a knife, so that the strokes of each word protrude on the board.

After the wooden board is carved, brush the ink on it, then cover the board with white paper, and take a clean brush and gently brush it on the back of the paper, take the paper down, and a page of the book is printed.

"A kind of book can be printed many times faster than handwriting with only one carving on a wooden board, which is many times faster than handwriting. It takes a lot of time and labor to engrave, and the whole version will be scrapped if one word is wrong; A book with a large number of words may require thousands of engravings, and it will take years to carve them all. ”

Xu Qilin put back the engraving, pointed to the movable type printing utensils, and said loudly: "Weichen pondered and made some improvements to the art of book printing, which is called movable type printing. ”

As he spoke, he took out a few pieces of wooden movable type from his body, stepped forward and presented them to His Majesty Li Er, and explained: "This is a wooden movable type mold, and Weichen made craftsmen make a total of more than 14,000 pieces, flexible splicing, and printing when you see the draft, which is very fast." ”

His Majesty Li Er fiddled with it a few times, and then was snatched by the little son next to him, and he played with it in his hand with a smile.

For his beloved daughter's little naughty, His Majesty Li Er smiled and waved Xu Qilin to continue the demonstration.

Xu Qilin took out a whirlwind book from his body and showed it to everyone, he said: "This is the "Tao Te Ching" written by hand, with a total of 5,162 words, divided into 81 pages according to chapters. If the engraving is printed, it will take a year or two for these 81 engravings alone. ”

After a pause, Xu Qilin said aloud with a look of pride and pride: "Now, let's demonstrate the speed and convenience of movable type printing." ”

After speaking, he walked to the workbench and asked Zhang Cheng and the craftsmen if they were ready to stop, and then opened the handwritten "Tao Te Ching" and placed it in front of Zhang Cheng.

In fact, there is no need to put it, how can Zhang Cheng not even know how to memorize the Tao Te Ching? Li Er was pitiful, and was pulled by the old Li family to worship his ancestors.

Zhang Cheng turned the roulette, found the words according to the five rhymes, picked them out one by one, and handed them to the craftsman beside him.

Xu Qilin took the movable type handed by the craftsman, typeset it in a prefabricated iron frame, and the more than 60 words in the first chapter were quickly arranged, and then pushed it to the craftsman from the workbench, and then took an iron frame and began to arrange the second chapter.

After the craftsman takes the iron frame and checks whether the mold is flush, he uses a special cork strip to plug the gaps of the movable type, so that the movable type is fixed and does not move up and down, left and right.

The iron frame is passed to the final process, which is to brush the ink and cover the paper and then brush, and the printed pages are removed and completed. More than a dozen sheets have been printed here, and the selection and typesetting of the second chapter have also been completed, and they can be fixed and printed.

Xu Qilin stopped, walked to the other end of the workbench, watched the craftsman print the second chapter, then reached out and took the two chapters, and stepped forward to present them to His Majesty Li Er.

His Majesty Li Er opened his mouth slightly, both stunned and stunned, completely frightened by this super speed of printing.

Xu Qilin has already explained and foreshadowed before, and engraving printing is less than one or two months, and more than several years. Now that the effect of movable type printing is out, how can people not be shocked when they are compared?

After taking the two printed papers, His Majesty Li Er took a brief look at it, nodded with satisfaction, and recovered from a slight gaffe, and praised: "Good, very good." Qi Lin made this great achievement, which is worthy of a reward. Hehehehehe, hahahaha......"

Complimenting and laughing heartily, His Majesty Li Er passed the printed paper to several important ministers present, and his face was irrepressibly joyful, which showed how happy he was.

"The whimsical ideas of Captain Zhiguo have helped His Majesty achieve unprecedented educational achievements, and it is also the gospel of students all over the world." Ma Da Qiang suppressed his excitement in his heart, and arched his hand: "Weichen congratulates Your Majesty." ”

Ma Zhou was born in poverty, although he has the talent of the world, but he has a bumpy career. And the children of the scholar clan are not as good as him, but they can rely on the shade of the door and the connections to go smoothly. If it weren't for the coincidence that he was appreciated and respected by His Majesty Li Er, how could he have his current status?

Therefore, Ma Zhou had a natural hostility and antipathy towards the Shi clan in his heart. Anything that helps to weaken the scholars and help the poor students, he raises his hands to support it.

Indoctrination is different from education, and it is a comprehensive use of political and religious morals, education and probation, environmental impact, and other means. There are not only the emperor's proclamations, but also the ears of officials at all levels to mention the face and behavior guidance, as well as meritorious monuments, tree archways, dissemination of books and other forms.

Since ancient times, all knowledgeable emperors and imperial courts have attached great importance to the role of education, and regarded education as an important national policy for upholding customs and governing the country.

Ma Zhou talked about the merits of education and the students of the world, but he did not specify that he was a poor student, let alone revealed that paper-making and printing books were a sharp weapon to suppress the scholars.

But the important ministers here are all human spirits, and they can smell the meaning from some of the recent measures of His Majesty Li Er. Isn't "Chronicles of the Clans" clearly derogatory to the scholars?

The movable type printing in front of us, both in terms of speed and cost, will greatly increase the number of books in society, thereby weakening the monopoly of knowledge on the scholars.