As soon as Li Hong returned to the East Palace, he saw the chamberlain Wei Zhiqiang stepping forward and whispered in his ear, "Your Highness, in the afternoon, Niangniang asked her to send a few maidservants, saying that she would let them serve His Highness's daily life in the future, I don't know how to arrange it?" ”

"Handmaiden?" Li Hong frowned and said, "You can hand them over to Yan Zhuang to arrange!" ”

He knew very well that Empress Wu did this not to be good to him, but to put more eyeliner around him and better monitor himself, but he couldn't refuse now, so he could only arrange these people in positions that were not very important.

It's just that after Li Hong finished speaking, he was about to go to the study, when he saw Wei Zhiqiang following him with a bitter face, as if he still had something to say.

"What, what else do you have?" Li Hong asked in an unhappy tone.

Wei Zhiqiang is twenty-eight years old this year, and he has been serving Li Hong since he was sixteen years old, and he has been serving Li Hong for thirteen years, and he is one of Li Hong's henchmen.

"Your Royal Highness, Niangniang said that there is a maid named Zhao Hongskirt who was specially selected by her to serve you personally, you better go and have a look!" Wei Zhiqiang said in a low voice.

As the prince's confidant, how could he not know the purpose of the Empress Wu?

Maybe the other handmaidens are assigned to the East Palace, as long as they are properly arranged, let them do some work of serving tea and pouring water, it is not enough to find out the prince's secret, but this personal handmaid is different, as long as the prince marries the princess in the future, she as the prince's personal maidservant, she can be named the prince's inner palace concubine in the future.

Therefore, Wei Zhiqiang did not dare to be negligent in such an arrangement as Empress Wu.

"Zhao Hongskirt?" Li Hong sneered.

He didn't know what the Empress Wu heard, so he would forcibly arrange a personal maid for himself, but as his mother, Empress Wu was not wrong to arrange it like this, he had no reason to refuse, so he asked curiously, "How is the posture of this maid?" ”

"Uh..."Wei Zhiqiang was stunned by Li Hong's question, this is not the style of His Royal Highness the Prince! But he was just stunned, and he immediately replied, "This woman has the reputation of a half-step red dress when she was in the Ting Palace, and she is proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and she is a rare woman with both talent and appearance." ”

"What half-step red dress?" Li Hong asked puzzled.

Wei Zhiqiang said with a little fascination, "It means that she dances very well - within half a step, she can dance a red dress, and she will be called a half-step red dress." ”

"Then let her wait for me in the Chongjiao Temple!" Li Hong said lightly.

"No-!" Wei Zhiqiang bowed down to receive the order in a bit of a trance, and left with small steps muttered.

Li Hong still had important things to deal with at this time, so he no longer paid attention to the matter of the maidservant, but returned to the Cheng'en Hall to bathe, and came to the study of the Chongwen Palace. In addition to Yan Zhuang, there were four other people in the study, and it was he who asked Yan Zhuang to go to the Shaofu Supervisor to find a few technicians who knew how to engraving and engraving.

Today, through Zhou Xing's reading experience, he learned that it is not easy for scholars from the poor family to read, and he has seen and heard in the "Lu Ge" in Dongshi, and he is very aware of the importance of books to the current Tang Dynasty readers, so he is ready to tell the technicians of the Shaofu Supervisor about some ideas about movable type printing that he knows, so that they can improve the existing printing technology and invent movable type printing as soon as possible.

Because among the nine temples and five supervisors of the Tang Dynasty, the Shaofu supervisor is the yamen who is in charge of the politics of hundreds of skills. And the Zhongshang Department of Shaofu Supervision is also the department that is in charge of the suburbs to worship Guibi and the Son of Heaven, and the concubine's clothing carving is intricately colored, and the carving skills of the bad technicians are exquisite, as long as you can tell it, there is nothing they can't do, so Li Hong will let Yan Zhuang go to the Shaofu Prison to find someone.

"Young Mansion Supervisor and Young Eunuch An Liangchen see His Royal Highness the Prince!" Just as Li Hong walked into the study, a middle-aged man about forty years old immediately bowed down and saluted. Immediately, the three old and two young people beside him who were dressed as Shaofu Supervisor technicians also bowed down and saluted Li Hong, "See His Royal Highness the Prince!" ”

"Don't be polite," Li Hong gestured slightly. When he saw that An Liangchen, the young eunuch of the Shaofu Prison, and the three technicians, one old and two young, looked cautious, he said straight to the point, "Don't be nervous, I came to you today to ask you to make something." Have you ever heard about engraving? ”

The Shaofu Supervisor has one supervisor, from the third grade; Two young eunuchs, from the fourth grade.

The fact that a poor disciple like An Liangchen was able to climb to the position of a young eunuch step by step is enough to show that he has learned excellent skills himself.

Therefore, as soon as Li Hong said engraving and engraving, An Liangchen hurriedly said, "This Weichen has understood, as long as the money is enough, it is not difficult to let the Zhongshang Department engrave a few books." I just don't know what book His Highness wants to engrave? ”

"The cost of engraving is too high, the cost of engraving a book is too high, have you ever thought about improving the engraving technology?" Li Hong asked inducingly.

Regarding movable type printing, he only wanted to give some advice to the technicians of the Shaofu Supervisor, but he didn't think of saying it himself and letting them do it directly, because he wanted to deliberately cultivate the consciousness of the Shaofu Supervisors' technicians to be good at thinking and dare to study inventions through movable type printing.

What's the point of letting them do everything after he says it? After all, he doesn't know a lot of things, and he will finish it one day, how can he compare to letting everyone invent and create together?

"The old minister has thought about this problem, and has thought of a way to improve it, but-" An Liangchen didn't speak, but the old man next to him suddenly said, "If you want to improve the engraving, you need a lot of money, so..."

When the old man said this, he caught a glimpse of An Liangchen's unkind gaze, and closed his mouth in amusement. Li Hong saw An Liangchen's actions in his eyes, but he didn't break him, but continued to ask, "What method do you have?" Let's hear it! ”

"At present, engraving is to carve the reverse character of Yang script according to the text on the planed Nanmu board, and then apply ink on the plate, lay the paper, brush it with a brown brush, and then lift the paper and bind it into a book. In this way, the engraving can only print one part of the contents of a book, and then the engraving can only be invalidated except for the continued printing of the book. The old man replied, "The old minister is thinking, if we carve out the words in the books that need to be printed one by one, and then according to the contents of the book, they are typeset and stained on the wooden board, and then the words are taken down when the publication is finished, and when the words need to be printed in the next book, and then rearranged and pasted on the wooden board, wouldn't it be more time-saving and labor-saving?" ”

After the old man introduced his improvement methods, Li Hong was stunned.

It's not that the old man just said how clever the method was, but the improvement method that the old man told him wasn't the wooden movable type printing invented by the inventor Bi Sheng of the Northern Song Dynasty in the future?

Hearing the wooden movable type printing technique that the old man came up with, Li Hong was both happy and sad.

Happily, the current Datang technicians have come up with wooden movable type printing, which shows that they also have the consciousness of invention and creation; Sadly, because of the shortage of money, this technology, which affects tens of millions of scholars and affects the development of the Tang Imperial Examination, was completely stillborn.

Thinking of this, Li Hong's face sank, and he asked in a serious tone, "Your method is good, I think it is feasible, I give you ten days, can you make a sample?" You don't have to worry about money. ”

"As long as there are enough people, there is no problem in making a sample in ten days." The old man replied in the affirmative.

"What is your position as the Young Governor?" Li Hong asked suddenly.

"The old minister An Jianliang is the Cheng of the Zhongshang Agency." The old man bowed and replied, adding another sentence, "However, the old minister will be the official next year." ”

The Zhongshang Department is a department of the Shaofu Supervisor, which is a yamen that specializes in painting and carving the vehicles and ships used by the royal family, and making miscellaneous wax torches for the palace. Five people, from the eighth grade.

In addition to the wooden movable type printing technique that the old man came up with, the old man, as a Zhongshang Cheng from the eighth grade, and only one of the five Zhongshang Administration, came to the East Palace to see him at such an old age, which in itself made Li Hong very strange, but he suddenly thought that the young eunuch of the Shaofu Prison was called An Liangchen, and the old man's name was An Jianliang, Li Hong seemed to understand something.

At this moment, a smile flashed at the corner of his mouth, and his cold gaze moved to An Liangchen and said, "Young Eunuch An, this matter will be handed over to you, you must meet all the requirements of An Zhicheng in these ten days, and you must see the sample after ten days." When the sample is qualified, it can be used, you will be promoted to your position, and you will be given a knighthood, if the sample cannot be used, it will cost tens of thousands of dollars in vain, don't do it as a young eunuch, just go home and farm! ”

An Liangchen's body was shocked, but his face immediately showed a look of joy, and he hurriedly bowed down and said, "No! ”

……

After An Liangchen and An Jianliang and his party left, Yan Zhuang asked, "Your Highness, this method was thought up by An Jianliang, why should An Liangchen be responsible?" ”

"An Liangchen is just a son of a poor family, and today he can climb to the position of the young eunuch under the fourth rank of the young eunuch, don't you think this person is very talented?" Li Hong asked rhetorically.

"Does Your Highness mean that improving the engraving is a method that An Liangchen came up with?" Yan Zhuang said in disbelief, "Then why did he let An Jianliang come out again?" Could it be that he was afraid that the improvement method he came up with would not work and he would bear the blame, so he would let An Jianliang replace him? ”

"An Liangchen is only in his forties this year, and he is already a young eunuch from the fourth grade, if his method of improving printing technology succeeds, he can go further with this credit, and then he will become a third-grade master wearing a purple official uniform and a goldfish bag on his waist." Li Hong said lightly, "But do you see how many children of the poor family in the court can wear a big purple robe and a goldfish bag on their waists?" ”

"And An Jianliang is different, he is a Cheng from the Zhongshang Department under the eighth grade, even if you give him a third-level promotion, he is just a seventh-grade petty official, who can make him blush?" Li Hong said coldly, "This father and son are well versed in the way of officialdom!" ”

"They turned out to be father and son?" Yan Zhuang was even more surprised when he heard this, his face immediately became a little gloomy, and he said fiercely, "Their courage is not small, they dare to deceive His Highness, or the minister will immediately arrest them and ask them for guilt." ”

"Hey!" Li Hong sighed slightly and said, "Forget it!" When the time comes, it will not be too late to hold them accountable if they fail to produce qualified samples. ”

Li Hong knows that this is a bad habit in the current Tang Dynasty officialdom, as long as the children of the poor family are in a high position, they will be suppressed and excluded by the children of the Shi clan, so it is useless to punish the father and son of the good ministers, if you can't break the control of the family gate valve to control the selection and recommendation of officials, it is to kill hundreds of An Liangchen father and son, and the children of the Han family will still be as wise as An Liangchen and his son.