In order to carry the military rations, Yuan Shao sent 5,000 people to rush back to the north bank of the Yellow River on almost all the rafts, but after the scheduled time of three days, there was no movement on the river, and not a boat returned.

Yuan Shao asked people to cross the river to urge again, but they were also gone.

Before, Yuan Shao and Xianbei thought that as long as they occupied the white horse, the Chinese army would be able to get a steady stream of supplies from Yecheng and Liyang, and most of the grain and straw that was first brought across the river were taken by Yuan Xi to Yanxian, but now Hebei suddenly had no reaction, and the Chinese army consumed a huge amount of soldiers and men every day, and the remaining military food could only support it for more than ten days.

Could it be that Deng Ji and Cao Cao secretly made an alliance, and the army of Hanoi secretly captured Liyang? Or maybe Pang Zhen sent troops to force Yecheng? The back road was unstable, Yuan Shao, Shen Pei and others were a little panicked, and they were anxious to cross the river from other places, just trying to understand the situation behind them.

The three adult sons at the beginning, now Yuan Tan is using troops to help the north, Yuan Xi and Yu Ban are facing Yan County, and only Yuan Shang is by his side. Since Jinyang was captured and replaced, Yuan Shang is afraid of falling out of favor again, and he rarely dares to speak casually in military affairs, and usually only speaks by the judge, at this time the situation is unclear, so he asked himself: "Ask my father to distribute it to thousands of troops again, so that his son will return to Hebei to ask Guo Tu and be frustrated!" ”

As the chief strategist, he has guarded the rear several times, never made mistakes, and has always been trusted, so it is unlikely that there will be problems in Yecheng, Guo Tu?

Guo Tu had never been in charge of the military before, and there was no food to deliver, so it was the most likely that something would happen to Li Yangsheng.

Sending his son to lead an army back may indeed stabilize the rear, but Yuan Shao was already very worried about Yuan Shang commanding the army again, and did not agree to his request, so he only waited for the return of the scouts who crossed the river for the second time.

And this time. Cao Cao's entire army suddenly came out. Hit the text directly.

Wen Chou holds the three armies of the brave crown. In order to facilitate the humiliation and instigation of Cao Cao to fight, he stayed in the front of the army, so he might as well take the lead in the tiger and leopard cavalry, break through from the front of his army, cut it off from the rear, and be entangled to death, surrounded by Xiahoudun and other infantry regiments.

Wen Chou led nearly a thousand halberders to clash left and right, and was led by Lu Qian to lead the archers. In the end, he was shot with arrows.

In early April, Wen Chou was killed in battle.

————

The ox cart was moving slowly on the street, although it was not bumpy, but shaking was inevitable, Cai Yan hugged Deng Zhen tightly and did not let her walk around in the car.

It wasn't long before little Deng Zhen learned to walk, and it was when she refused to be quiet for a moment, the mother and daughter wrestled for a long time, Deng Zhen couldn't break free left and right, and it was useless to shout. finally resigned himself to leaning on his mother's chest and not moving.

Subduing her daughter, Cai Yan took a breath. He took advantage of the time to lift the curtain of the carriage, glanced out, and quickly found the back of his increasingly incomprehensible man on horseback among several black iron guards.

The curtain of the car was raised, which made Deng Zhen want to go out of the car, and began to struggle again, Cai Yan hurriedly lowered the curtain, leaned back against the carriage to tease her daughter, and diverted her attention.

The team finally stopped in front of Zhen's mansion, Deng Ji got off the horse, went to the ox cart to take over Deng Zhen, and Cai Yan also got out of the car and looked up at the mansion gate of this giant merchant in Luoyang.

After a while, the two brothers Zhen Yan and Zhen Yao, who had to report the news, rushed out and saluted: "I don't know if the king is coming, it's too late to greet you, forgive your sins!" ”

Even Cai Yan didn't know why Deng Ji suddenly brought her mother and daughter to Zhen's Mansion as guests today, and of course the two brothers were even more confused.

Deng Ji laughed and said: "If you want to discuss something with your mansion, don't take the liberty to visit." ”

Zhen Yao is only sixteen years old this year, and everything in Zhen's mansion is still in charge of Zhen Yan, although Zhen Yan was surprised, he still rushed to welcome Deng Ji and Cai Ji into the door.

When he entered the mansion, Zhen Yao wanted to lead Cai Ji's mother and daughter to the backyard, but Deng Ji stopped him: "Today's matter is related to Cai Ji, there is no need to go to the backyard." ”

A woman on board with the men? This is not a way of hospitality, Zhen Yan was a little embarrassed, and hesitated to ask: "If not, please come out with your mother and little sister?" ”

Deng Ji said: "It has been more than seven years since I forcibly moved your mansion into Luoyang, and I haven't gotten to see my mother, which is really disrespectful. ”

Relying on his young age, Zhen Yao laughed: "Although the envoy has not been to the mansion in person, there are gifts for the New Year, and my mother is often grateful, but I hate it but I haven't paid it back." ”

As he spoke, Deng Ji and Cai Yan, who were holding their daughter, were led into the living room, and Zhen Yao went to the backyard to invite his mother and fifth sister out to entertain them.

There are five Zhen sisters, the eldest sister and the second sister, and there are three who moved to Luoyang, among which the third Zhen Dao married Xu Huang, the governor of Zhengbei, and the fourth Zhen Rong married a young master in Luoyang City last year, and now there is only the youngest fifth child in the family, who is also nineteen years old, and is also preparing to choose a son-in-law.

After Zhen Yao invited his mother and five sisters, Deng Ji greeted Zhen's mother as a junior, and couldn't help but look at Zhen Mi standing next to Zhen's mother a few more times, he hadn't seen the daughters of the Zhen family who had been married, and he didn't know if the dazzling woman in front of him was the famous one in history.

After gossiping with Zhen's mother, Deng Ji asked Zhen Yao to call the maid to take her daughter outside the door to play.

Zhen Mi was not at ease, and was even more frightened of Deng Ji's gaze, so she went out with the door, staring at the maid teasing Deng Zhen.

Deng Ji came today to have a business, Cai Yan chatted quietly with Zhen's mother, and he said to Zhen Yan: "I see that the scholars in the world are knowledgeable, and they seek books and literature. ”

The reason in this is very simple, but when Deng Ji opened his mouth to ask, Zhen Yan still explained seriously: "Copying is time-consuming, and it is easy to make mistakes and omissions, so there are merchants who sell it, and many scholars think it is inferior, and would rather ask for another book to copy it themselves." ”

Copying books is time-consuming, laborious, difficult to scale, and prone to errors and omissions, so many readers are reluctant to buy books sold by merchants at high prices, and merchants are not willing to deal in this special commodity. Deng Ji nodded: "That's right!" However, if everyone copies other people's books, there is nothing wrong with it? I heard that in the middle of the Xiping year, Zhonglang Cai Gong stood in front of the Taixue Gate, and the inscription extended the Six Classics as the main text, and the mistakes of the books were surveyed, and there were thousands of people in Luoyang to the Guanshi, and the cars and horses were congested in the road. ”

Hearing Deng Ji mention the past of his deceased father, Cai Yan stopped talking to Zhen's mother and turned his head to look at it.

In the confusion of the Zhen Yan brothers, Deng Ji continued: "It is difficult to find a book for scholars, just because copying books is easy to make mistakes and time-consuming, and there is no businessman to operate. In a certain opinion, why not imitate the seal, from small to large, take the wooden board to carve the word Yang, and then print it on the paper with ink, and make a book with it, if a book is printed, three or five days or can get a thousand copies, to sell the world as a trader, will not get a big profit? ”

In the hall, Zhen Yan, Zhen Yao, Zhen's mother, and Cai Yan were all stunned, and Zhen Mi, who had ears pricked up outside the door, was also stunned.

In fact, printing has already had a prototype in the late Han Dynasty, at least two kinds of copying and rubbing, and even as early as the pre-Qin period, there were patterns printed on pottery.

The reason why such a simple thing as engraving printing did not officially appear until the Tang Dynasty was that paper was scarce and expensive before, and the use was not popularized.

Deng Ji had learned in history books and knew the simple principles of block printing and movable type printing, but he had only hidden it in his heart before, the first reason was that the amount of paper produced in his workshop was still limited, which was used under his rule, and after a small part was exported, the remaining quantity was not much, and the number of books that could be printed in batches was not large. The characters of engraving printing are very different from those copied, and others can understand the principle from the seal as long as they see it, and they can learn it lightly.

The second reason is even more unspeakable. In his previous life, Deng Ji already knew about the four great inventions of ancient China when he was in elementary school, and he was proud of them; But when he was in junior high school, the history teacher criticized him and extinguished his sense of honor, what ancient Chinese inventions are countless, only these four inventions are highly respected by Western countries, what gunpowder shattered the knightly class, papermaking and printing facilitated the spread of new ideas, and the compass helped open up new shipping routes, etc., anyway, the final conclusion learned is that the benefits of the four great inventions did not give China, but made China far behind Western countries. Influenced by that teacher, Deng Ji didn't know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing to make printing technology available.

Of course, what should have appeared will always appear, and there will be no radical change for him personally, and as long as paper is abundant and popular, printing will be invented sooner or later. So when it was needed today, Deng Ji immediately told others about it.

Thinking about the convenience that this technology brings to the scholars, and thinking about the business opportunities in it, Zhen Yan and Cai Yan in the hall all showed excited looks. Deng Ji also said: "In addition to the engraving, it is still possible to make movable type, carve a word in the same square, take the word as needed to form a plate, and then take it after use, and then take it when it takes time, and it will be easier to make the plate." ”

Today, since engraving printing is said, there is no need to hide movable type printing, but what kind of wood, clay, copper, and iron should be used for movable type, and what are the advantages and disadvantages, it is something that craftsmen will worry about in the future, and Deng Ji still can't figure it out anyway.

Deng Ji was silent, and Zhen Yancai praised: "The talent of the king can not only calm the people and help the world, but also through subtle and clever changes, which is difficult for the world to reach!" ”

Hearing him praise him like this, Deng Ji couldn't help but blush with his thick skin, just like when he got a perfect score by cheating in the exam in his previous life and was praised by a new teacher who didn't know the truth.

After Zhen Yan finished boasting, he asked again: "According to what the envoy said, if you make a book and sell it, you will definitely get a lot of profits, how should I, Zhen, act?" ”

Deng Ji said: "Now I have made Luoyang order to hire more people to expand the paper mill and make more paper for backup; For the levy of business taxes, under the rule of the local carving workers are asking the carvers to restructure the waist card, no matter what the county, Henan County carvers, I should order all the collection in Luoyang, to make the engraving plate first, for printing, and then restructure the waist card is not too late. If you get 120,000 books, they will be sold all over the world by Zhen's merchants! ”

For those who have become rich, no matter how much money they have, it is just a number, and in this troubled world, it may become a source of disaster. If the engraving and printing book that Deng Ji said is completed, the profits will be unimaginably rich, but Zhen is not short of money, but he has to worry about being too much of a concern.

Merchants have no sense of security in this era, Zhen Yan thought about it and said: "Zhen's family is loved by the king, and there is no way to repay it, and I heard that the former levied business taxes to make up for the lack of treasury, but it can be seen that the government is still short of money and food." The engraving book is the policy of making the king, Zhen has heard that he has been honored, and he does not dare to share the profits, this is all used to supplement the official temple treasury, in order to thank the grace of the king! (To be continued.) )