Qizhou, Hubei, this place may not have been heard of by many people in later generations, because the name of this state was abolished later, but if it is said that the name of later generations, it is a big name, especially for people who have taken the college entrance examination in high school, and its name in later generations is called - Huanggang, I believe that many people born in the 80s should still be able to recall the fear when they were dominated by the sea of questions when they were teenagers when they heard the name of Huanggang test papers.

Qizhou is known as the head of Wu and the tail of Chu, is the intersection of Wu, Chu and Han cultures, which also makes a variety of customs and human feelings here, and in the period of the Great Song Dynasty, the printing industry here in Qizhou is very prosperous, and countless books are printed every year, of course, compared with the four major printing centers of Beijing, Zhejiang, Shuzhong and Fujian, it is still worse.

Qizhou is named because it is close to Qishui, and in the north of Qishui, there is a county named after Qishui, called Qishui County, there is a small printing workshop in the northwest corner of the county, and Bi Sheng is the owner of this workshop.

Bi Sheng is a native of Zhihe Township, Qishui County, he was poor since he was a child, so he was sent to the printing workshop as an apprentice when he was a teenager, because he was smart and clever, so he quickly mastered the skills of engraving and printing, and later after the apprentice, he worked in a workshop to earn money, and finally finally saved some money, which opened this small printing workshop.

Although Bi Sheng's workshop is not very large, Bi Sheng's craftsmanship is exquisite, especially the craftsmanship of the carved plate is very famous, and he has been famous in the circle long ago, so after he opened a printing workshop, he did not worry about business, and he also relied on this workshop to marry his wife and have children over the years, and even received a lot of apprentices.

But now Bi Sheng's face is full of sadness, the workshop did not open, he sat alone in a room in the backyard, looking at the room full of clay movable type stunned, this was originally his most proud invention, but now it has forced him into a desperate situation, because after using the clay movable type for a period of time, because of the long-term staining of ink, resulting in damage to the clay movable type, many of the movable type on the words have fallen off, and can no longer be used.

Bi Sheng is also over 60 years old this year, his hair and beard are half white, and his face is full of wrinkles, the most conspicuous thing is his big hands like old branches, some fingers are deformed, this is a common problem of the master who has been carving plates all year round, and even some old craftsmen will be completely crippled after they are old, and they can't even use chopsticks.

Bi Sheng is getting older and older, and he slowly feels powerless when carving plates, and his fingers are not as flexible as when he was young, but he doesn't care about these, because he invented movable type printing the most, and he thought that with this set of movable type, he and other carved plate craftsmen would not have to work day and night as before, but now he found that he still took it for granted, these clay movable types have only been used for a year and have become like this, although they can be replenished, but there are too many damaged clay movable types, and they almost have to be done all over again.

"If you use metal to make movable type, you don't have to worry about this problem, but metal is too expensive!" Bi Sheng suddenly whispered to himself at this time, his brows furrowed even tighter, of course he thought about using other materials to make movable type, but the wood swelled when it met the ink, and it could not be used for a long time, although the metal was good, but he couldn't afford it, even if it was the cheapest iron material, the cost of making so many movable types was not something he could afford.

In addition, there is another problem with making movable type in metal, that is, how to engrave words on metal, although he is a carver, but mainly engraving on wood, in contrast, it is much more difficult to engrave on metal than on wood, and even he once went to a blacksmith, but even the blacksmith felt that it was whimsical to engrave words on iron, and even the blacksmith said so, which made Bi Sheng almost give up the plan to use iron movable type.

"Dad, why are you still here, don't look at it, these movable words are broken, it's a big deal, I'll help you make a new set!" At this moment, I suddenly saw a short man push the door and walk in, and when he saw Bi Sheng staring at the movable type and sighing, he couldn't help but persuade him.

This short man is named Bi Jia, the eldest son of Bi Sheng, who is also in his forties this year, and now he has taken over his class to take charge of this printing workshop, and he also has three sons, as well as several apprentices are working in the workshop, the business is not bad, but limited to the scale, the income of the workshop can only ensure that the family is fed and clothed.

"I'm not reconciled, I made a clay type before, and I proudly taught this method to others, at that time, many people praised me for not hiding my secrets, but now this kind of thing happens, how can you let me have the face to meet people?" Bi Sheng said to his son with a slightly red face at this time.

Last year, Bi Sheng invented clay type, after the test felt feasible, so he passed on this method a lot, mainly some friends he knew, he didn't think so much at the time, just think that this method is good, but improve the efficiency of printing, but I didn't expect the clay type to break so quickly, if others use his method, maybe now also suffered a lot of losses.

"Dad, you think too much, you were kind to pass on the movable type, no one expected to encounter this kind of thing, even if someone lost something because of it, but you can't be blamed!" Bi Jia spoke again at this time to persuade, he knew that his master was a stubborn person, and if he didn't let him think about it, he would definitely not be able to get out of the horns.

"Even if others don't blame me, but I still feel uncomfortable, why didn't I expect the clay type to break down so quickly?" Bi Sheng knocked on his forehead at this time and said in distress, he has been thinking about a way to solve the defects of movable type recently, but there seems to be no other way than to change materials.

"Dad, I recently thought of a way, the clay movable type is not good, we can only change other materials, the metal is too expensive, but what do you think if the clay is burned into porcelain movable type?" At this time, Bi Jia suddenly opened his mouth and proposed again, Qizhou is not only famous for printing, but also rich in porcelain, so Bi Jia will think of this method.

"I have long thought of this method, it is okay to burn porcelain, but the porcelain is too brittle, it is also easy to be damaged, and the porcelain is easy to deform when firing, even if the movable type is only deformed a little, the content of the typesetting is not good-looking, and the porcelain firing is also not cheap, and our family can't take out this money." Bi Sheng shook his head when he heard this.

Bi Jia couldn't help it when he heard this, in fact, he had long known that there was also a problem with porcelain type, and he just said this in order to persuade his old father, but now that he saw that his father was not easy to fool, he didn't know what to say?

"Big ...... Big brother is not good, someone broke in outside! At this moment, I suddenly saw a young man running in in a panic and shouting loudly, which made Ye Bisheng and his son turn their heads together.