The craftsmen in the Zhongweiqiao Printing Workshop are all skilled, these people are the workers of the Li Family Printing Workshop, and after the bond printing practice, they are now all skilled workers, pattern writers, engravers, not only skilled, but also a lot of them.

Not to mention the printers, bookbinders, these operators do not need too much technical content, there are a few skilled workers, and then there are a large number of newly recruited workers, each process is separated, a person only needs to do their own process things, this kind of thing without any technical content, only a very short time to learn to operate and promote to skilled workers.

In Li Xiao's assembly line operation mode, he doesn't even have to worry about technology leakage.

After all, several important processes are separated, divided into different shed operations, and the key in printing is ink, this ink is not a technology in printing itself, printing ink has to be produced by the Li family's ink workshop alone, and then supplied to the printing workshop.

Writing and engraving can be seen at a glance, but making ink and adjusting ink are not.

In order to dispel the doubts of Chen Laodao and their big financiers, and also to confirm to them the strength of the printing workshop, Li Xiao heard the lofty goal of Lou Guandao from the eldest princess of Tamase, and immediately decided to take them to visit the production operation of the printing workshop.

Tens of thousands of Taoist scriptures, if you can win this order, this is a big deal.

Chen Laodao was a little surprised, shouldn't this printing workshop be closed to outsiders?

"It doesn't matter, we are printing the scriptures for you, and you are the owners of the books, so of course you can visit. At the same time as visiting, you can also make some requests. This is also to let you get satisfactory scriptures, so that customers are satisfied, is the purpose of our printing shop. Li Xiao said with a smile.

The so-called Zhongweiqiao Printing Workshop is actually quite simple.

The felled wood was roughly erected into a long row of sheds, covered with bark and thatch on the outside, and the bottom was actually a large greenhouse, roughly separated by wooden planks as a wall, and the ground was simply leveled.

"Printed on this paper?" Chen Laodao entered the printing workshop, with fresh curiosity everywhere, and he had to look and explore a few times wherever he went.

Li Xiao is not afraid of him to see, in fact, in the final analysis, as soon as the engraving printing thing comes out, it is impossible to maintain a technical monopoly all the time, and engraving printing is not a difficult thing, in the final analysis, it is just a few processes of writing, engraving, printing and binding.

Now the ink technology in Li Xiao's hands can't be hidden for a long time, others can also research the ink suitable for engraving, as long as the workshop is willing to invest money in this direction, there are professional craftsmen to study, in fact, it is not a thing.

"Well, we use bamboo paper for this batch of Tao Te Ching." Li Xiao picked up a piece of paper, this is bamboo paper, made of tender bamboo, good texture, with slender fiber, smooth and flexible, strong tensile force, friction without hair, uniform sheets, clear transparency, easy to dry printing, ink does not fade, durable and not eroded.

This paper is pale yellow in color, similar to jute paper, but the cost is much lower than jute paper. Jute paper is the office paper of the officials of the imperial court, and the price is relatively high, and it is produced in Shu.

And Li Xiao this kind of paper, is purchased from Jiangnan Province, with tender bamboo as raw materials, there is no hemp, skin, etc., this paper has no water resistance, ink absorbs, for the need to use ink for engraving printing, this paper is far stronger than the higher price of hemp paper, leather paper.

On the other hand, this kind of bamboo paper is far less smooth and expensive than hemp paper, and the cost is even less than one-tenth of that of jute paper.

"Paper made of bamboo?" Chen Laodao has also heard of the name of Jiangnan bamboo paper, which has always been famous for its low price. "Why don't you use hemp paper?"

"Dao Chief, you also know the price of hemp paper, it's not cheap, especially the jute paper produced in Shu, it's too late to supply the official court. Besides, the expensive one is not necessarily good, bamboo paper is used to print books, in fact, it is far stronger than hemp paper, and the Taoist will know it with his own eyes. ”

Lao Chen was skeptical, and then asked another question, "Why is this paper cut into such a small piece?" So piecemeal? ”

This involves the style of books in the Tang Dynasty, at this time, there is no common kind of thread-bound books in later generations, and there are two main forms of books today, one is the album style, that is, the kind of chapter style often seen on TV, folded together into a book, and a long one is opened.

Or for the scroll type, that is, like a picture scroll, it is also a long piece of paper, with a scroll at both ends, which is opened when you look at it, and rolled up into a scroll when you put it away.

The style of making a book into separate pages and then binding it has never appeared.

"This is to make it easier to bind, so we've introduced a new thread-bound format that's sturdier and easier to read than albums and scrolls."

Of course, for Li Xiao, the use of wire-bound books can also save and reduce costs. The larger the paper, the higher the natural cost, and the smaller the paper is relatively easy to manufacture, with less waste and low cost. And for engraving, it's not that bigger is better.

Lao Chen was skeptical again.

He always had a bad premonition, and five hundred and three thousand copies of the Tao Te Ching seemed to be unreliable.

Li Xiao led them to the next workshop, which was already a printing workshop.

The printer stands in front of the operating table, covers the carved paper one by one, and then rubs it like a rubbing······

Remove a piece of printed paper and set aside to dry the ink.

Lao Chen picked up one, and when he looked closely, he found that this small piece of paper was divided into two sides, left and right, and more than ten lines of words were printed on each side.

The words are quite clear, the font printed by the engraving is a little dull, but it is very clear and neat, but he read it carefully, and found that the ten lines on the left and the ten lines on the right are not continuous up and down, which is completely disconnected two paragraphs.

"Secretary Li, is the engraving wrong?"

Li Xiaohe explained with a smile, "That's right, our book is bound by thread, but it is not printed page by page, but two pages at a time, then stacked according to the page number, threaded, and finally folded and enveloped." ”

This method is to print two pages at a time, and these two pages are not related to the two pages, this method is the common binding method of printing books in later generations, Li Xiao pointed to a small symbol under the page.

"That's the page number, you see it's a word, it's the first page."

A Tao Te Ching has a total of 32 pages, and Li Xiao uses a double-sided printing method, so a piece of paper is actually four editions, and a total of eight sheets of paper can be printed into a book, eight sheets of 32 pages.

On the same side of the same paper, the first page is on the right side of the front, and the page on the left is thirty-two pages, and the contents of the two pages are of course incompatible, but after the printing is completed, there is no problem.

In fact, this is also to save some paper costs.

After all, whether it is a traditional album or a scroll book, it is only copied on one side, and the other side is blank. And Li Xiao printed the book, of course, he didn't plan to print only one side and one side, if he printed on both sides, it would naturally save half of the paper cost.

One side is printed, let it dry, and then the second side is printed in reverse, anyway, this is not a color overprint, it is not complicated. Although this kind of two-sided printing should be printed twice, one side of the printing may be lost if it is broken, and even after the first side is printed, the second side is broken, and the front is also white, but in general, the cost of paper is greatly saved.