"A-Ning, are you still struggling with immigration?" On the carriage, Zhu Jie asked with a slight smile.

Fanning nodded and asked, "Auntie, what news do you have about this matter?" ”

"I just heard that this was specially approved by the Son of Heaven, but whether it is true or not, I don't know."

"Specially approved by the Son of Heaven?"

Fan Ning thought about it, there was really this possibility, it was a dream to expect the Zhizheng Tang to take the initiative to grant immigrants to private islands, in addition, there was also the Empress Dowager Cao, but the Empress Dowager Cao would avoid suspicion, and she at most approved this suggestion.

So why didn't the Son of Heaven tell himself about it this morning? Maybe he didn't think about the relevant event.

But in any case, it was a good thing that made him overjoyed.

"A-Ning, there's something I want to discuss with you." Zhu Jie hesitated in the back seat.

Fanning looked back and smiled, "Auntie, just speak." ”

"A few days ago, Qi'er told me that he wanted to go to the North Island."

Fan Ning raised his eyebrows quickly, Zhu Qi is his sister-in-law, he is going to Beidao, isn't his sister going to follow? Why didn't his wife tell herself about this?

"What about Ah Jing? Go with you too? ”

"Of course, they must go together with their husbands and wives."

Fan Ning didn't express his position clearly, so he had to ask with a faint smile: "I studied well in Taixue, why do you want to go to Beidao?" ”

"He said that it was boring to study in Taixue, every day was very monotonous, and he was intrigued, he couldn't calculate others, and the last time Akihito talked to him, he kind of wanted to go to Beidao to run a school."

It's Akihito again, this haunting guy, but Fanning can't say anything, the third uncle's family went, and the fourth uncle's wife and children also went, why couldn't his sister go?

"I'll find an opportunity to talk to them about this matter, and if I really want to go, I don't object to it."

Speaking of this, Fan Ning suddenly had a hint of enlightenment, I'm afraid this is Zhu Yuanfeng's idea! happened to go to 6,000 households, and at least three county towns should be built, and Zhu Qi served as the county commander in the past, isn't it just right?

..........

The carriage slowly stopped at the entrance of the newspaper office, and Zhu Jie walked into the newspaper hall with Fanning, and there were deacons saluting Zhu Jie along the way.

Zhu Jie introduced Fan Ning as she walked, "The newspaper hall is divided into two parts, the front hall and the back workshop, the front newspaper hall is in charge of an archdeacon, there are more than a dozen deacons below, and then there are more than 60 newspaper detectives and more than a dozen miscellaneous workers, and the back is the workshop, which is mainly responsible for engraving and printing, and two stewards are responsible for daily newspaper distribution and raw material purchase.

The newspaper is similar to the newspaper office of later generations, mainly because the function is the same, and someone must do it, such as the newspaper detective is equivalent to the reporter, the deacon is equivalent to the editor, and the archdeacon is the editor-in-chief.

But today Fanning is interested in printing, which is actually printed with a steam engine, which is very advanced!

Zhu Jie saw Fan Ning's expectant face, so she smiled faintly: "You may be disappointed!" ”

"Why?" Fanning asked, puzzled.

"Because steam engine printing is just a gimmick, in actual operation, it is similar to manual printing, the cost is still large, and it is far less cost-effective to use it, we just put it on the street for a few days, create some sensational effects, and then resume manual printing, otherwise a craftsman who only invited to maintain the steam engine will be paid several printers every month."

"Is the steam engine still there?" Fanning asked, somewhat disappointed.

"It's still here today, and they're going to move out tomorrow, Akihito and they're going to transport it to Kitajima, and they need this to grind noodles over there."

Walking to a warehouse, Zhu Jie pointed to a machine the size of a car, covered with oilcloth, and said: "This is the steam engine, a relatively small one, made by a craftsman, and more suitable for installation on a ship of 3,000 stones." ”

Fanning lifted the tarpaulin and looked at it, it was indeed much smaller than the original steam engine, the original steam engine was like a truck, very large, this one was a small car.

Fanning nodded secretly, if he can make the steam engine smaller, it means that the craftsman has eaten it thoroughly.

"What's that?"

Fanning suddenly noticed a mountain of planks piled up inside the warehouse.

"That's engraving, we have to discard twelve engravings a day, and the biggest cost is to engrave the plates, each newspaper has three sides, each engraved four engraving plates are printed at the same time, and they are invalid on the same day, and then new ones are engraved." Zhu Jie said helplessly.

"Then why don't you use movable type printing?"

Bi Sheng invented movable type printing in the Qingli period, and at this time it has been seen in many places, because most of the books of the Song Dynasty are classics, such as the Four Books and Five Classics, such as Buddhist scriptures, such as poetry anthologies, etc., the engraving can be printed repeatedly at one time, and a set of stereotypes will take decades or even hundreds of years, and a small number of official documents will be written by hand.

In addition, the repair of the engraving is very mature, there will not be a word engraving error, the whole engraving plate is destroyed, and the movable type typesetting is very cumbersome, typesetting down, skilled carvers are almost finished, such as printing the "Analects" today, it is easy to finish the typesetting, tomorrow someone orders the "Diamond Sutra", it has to be dismantled and re-typeset, but the day after tomorrow someone wants to print the "Analects" What should I do?

A good set of engraving is the permanent asset of the printing shop, which can be passed down from generation to generation, so the significance of movable type printing in history is not great, the promotion is also very slow, and not many people are willing to use their brains to improve.

But movable type printing is very suitable for Europe, European characters are only dozens of letters, typesetting is very easy, so movable type printing in Europe has been vigorously promoted, to promote the history of Europe, Europeans regard it as China's four major inventions, but in China, movable type printing is only a little record in the Mengxi pen talk, China until the Ming and Qing dynasties, is still using engraving technology.

However, the development of newspapers is precisely the most in need of movable type printing, and the content is different every day, and it is time-consuming, laborious, and extremely wasteful.

Zhu Jie smiled bitterly, "Why didn't we think of printing with movable type, but you can see for yourself." ”

Zhu Jie checked out more than a dozen newspapers from a box next to him, found two of them and handed them to Fan Ning, "You can see for yourself, one is printed with movable type, and the other is printed by engraving, you will understand when you read it." ”

Fanning took the two newspapers and looked at them carefully, both of them had the same content, but one was blurred and unevenly arranged, and the other was clear and neatly arranged, especially when it came to patterns.

Fan Ning groaned slightly, and suddenly understood, now using pottery type, that is, clay type, fired into ceramics, even if the clay is made exquisitely, but in the firing process, it will expand and deform, arranged together, it will not be so tight, easy to loosen, and the words will also be deformed, and the printing will be blurred, and the wooden movable type is too soft, and the printed handwriting is also easy to blur.

Later, it was the use of metal movable type to solve the problem of unclear handwriting, blurred and untidy layout, but it is too expensive to manufacture a set of metal movable type, often thousands of times, small printing shops can not afford it, and large printing shops do not care about the cost of engraving.

Fanning pondered for a moment and said: "You can use copper or lead to cast movable type, and then inlay it on a fixed seal, the color of this seal is classified by rhyme, a color and a rhyme, after printing, according to the color and rhyme to collect and restore."

When you re-use, first find the rhyme, and then find the font, as long as the operation is skillful, at least twice as fast as the carver, and will not waste a large number of engravings, you do fifty sets of movable type, there are fifty boards every day, and you don't have to worry about printing when the newspaper sales increase? Put a few pairs of movable type in the field, as long as the content is sent over, the local can be typeset and printed, my opinion aunt can consider it. ”

Several of the surrounding printing craftsmen all had a feeling of enlightenment, and they all said: "Proprietor, maybe it is really feasible to use copper movable type or lead movable type, you can give it a try." ”

The Zhu family newspaper loses tens of thousands of dollars every year, if it weren't for the fact that it can guide public opinion, Zhu Yuanfeng really doesn't want to continue, Zhu Jie is a little tempted, if the largest engraving fee is saved, the newspaper may not necessarily lose money.

She nodded slowly, "Alright! Make one set each for copper type and lead type, and I'll find someone to do it tomorrow. ”