The population of Yuanling County is now several times larger than that of other counties, and Jing Yi also wants to train some manpower, so that it will be convenient for him to use it in the future.

In ancient times, literati were very rare, and most people did not even know the words.

Jingyi asked Lu Tingjie to send someone to do a survey to see how many people in Yuanling County were literate, and there were really few of them. Jingyi decided to set up a school so that school-age children could read and write.

In ancient times, the reason why the poor could not afford to read was because reading was too expensive, not to mention the constraints of the school, even books and paper could not be bought by the poor.

In ancient times, papermaking technology was very backward, and paper was very expensive. Books are generally copied by hand, which is more expensive. A few taels of silver for a book is very common.

In such a situation, the poor simply do not have the ability to let their children study. An average family can provide a scholar with the help of the whole family. Therefore, in ancient times, reading was mostly done by the rich.

Lu Tingjie listened to Jingyi's plan and said: "Yiyi, there are so many people in Yuanling County, and there are many children who need to study, so we can't take care of it." It will not be difficult to find a teacher at that time, but this is a very expensive thing for books, paper, ink, pens and inkstones, and ordinary families may not be able to afford it.

If you don't count the constraints, books and paper are the main expenses, and they are also very high. Many families probably can't even afford to buy a book. ”

Jing Yi said: "Isn't it that the technology of papermaking is too backward and the productivity is too low? There are also books that are copied by hand, which is why books are so expensive. I will find ways to improve the productivity of papermaking, and the printing technology for books will be much faster than manual copying.

I need a craftsman who knows how to make paper and a craftsman who can carve, you can help me find it. When the time comes, I'll improve the papermaking process and increase the output. And books, I'm going to do printing. ”

Lu Tingjie, who had never heard of printing, asked, "What is printing?" ”

Jing Yi said: "I'm talking about movable type printing. ”

Saying that, Jing Yi took out a piece of character mold that he tried to make and said: "You see I made several blanks with the same specifications with cement, and engraved the reverse word at one end, and the height of the protrusion of the character is like the thickness of the edge of the copper coin, which is hardened with fire and becomes a single cement movable type." Then according to the manuscript, the words are selected and arranged in the word plate, inked and printed, and then the word mold is removed after printing, and left for the next typesetting to be used again.

For the needs of typesetting, there can be several or even dozens of commonly used words in case they are repeated in the same edition. If you encounter an uncommon word, if you are not prepared in advance, you can use it as you go.

The advantage of this is that it is easy to make a character mold, the printing speed is fast, the character mold can also be reused, and a large number of books can be printed quickly, so that the cost of the book will come down, and the book can be sold cheaply."

Lu Tingjie watched Jing Yi dip the ink in the inkstone with the word mold engraved with the reverse single word, and then pressed it on the paper, and left a clear big character on the word mold paper.

Lu Tingjie really didn't know how Jing Yi's brain was so long, he could come up with such a good solution, "Yiyi, your method is too good." It is easy to engrave with cement, and after firing, the font will harden and you are not afraid to use ink. In this way, won't you print as many books as you want in the future? And it's also very time-saving. In this way, books are cheaper, and even those who are not wealthy can afford them.

Yiyi, I'll get someone for you tomorrow. If you make it, you must let me see it first. ”

Jing Yi smiled: "I'm going to open a bookstore." In the future, all kinds of paper and books can be sold. We make our own paper, we print our own books, as long as we have manuscripts. ”

Lu Tingjie was excited to send someone to find a craftsman who could carve first, Jing Yi wrote out some commonly used words in advance, and then asked the craftsman to carve the reverse words with clay.

It is not difficult to carve on the clay, and almost anyone who knows some carving skills can do it. It's just that the font is good-looking, then the engraving technology is required to be better.

Jing Yi asked people to take the character mold carved with clay to fire, and finally got a relatively hard word mold.

After firing the character mold and preparing other tools for printing, Jingyi asked Lu Tingjie to come over.

"Applejack, I've got them all done, and I'm going to let you see the process of movable type printing today."

As he spoke, Jingyi used a framed iron plate as the base support, and applied a layer of medicine made of pine resin, wax and paper ash mixture, and then picked out the required cement movable type and lined them up one by one into the frame. Fill a frame to become a version, and then bake it with fire, wait for the agent to melt slightly, flatten the text with a flat plate, and after the medicine cools and solidifies, it becomes a version.

Then Jing Yi brushed ink on the version, covered the paper, and added a certain amount of pressure, and the words of this version were printed on the paper. Jingyi has tried it many times, and she is quite proficient in printing, so the paper is very clean except for the words printed on it.

Lu Tingjie took a piece of paper full of words and looked at it for a long time and was very excited, "Yiyi, this character mold is not very difficult to make, won't it be easy to print books in the future?" Wouldn't you print as many books as you want? That's a lot faster than copying a book.

In the future, we can print more books, and we can sell them at a very cheap price, so that those students can get benefits. ”

Jing Yi nodded and said, "You're right, it's easy for us to print whatever books we want in the future, and as many as we want." You see, in order to be able to print continuously, two iron plates are used, one is brushed, the other is typeset, and the two plates are used alternately. After printing, the agent is roasted over fire, and with a slight shake of the hand, the movable type can be detached from the iron plate, and then stored for the next use. ”

Jingyi has also improved the papermaking process, which has greatly increased the output of papermaking.

Subsequently, Jingyi built a papermaking workshop and opened a bookstore.

The paper workshop specializes in papermaking. Bookshops not only buy books, but also print them. Because of the use of movable type printing technology, Jingyi and their books are published quickly, and the cost of a book is greatly reduced. Jingyi's bookstore was robbed crazy when it started selling low-priced books.

Usually a book costs a few taels of silver or even higher, but now it only costs a few dollars of silver or even less, and those scholars who are usually reluctant to buy books are not rushing to buy cheap books.

Jingyi's bookstore soon opened up the situation in Yuanling County and several surrounding counties, and people from this county and students and scholars from several surrounding counties came to Yuanling County's Yuanda bookstore to buy books.

Some businessmen also saw the opportunity to sell books, and would also buy some books from Yuanda Bookstore to take to other places to buy. This is much cheaper than books from other places, so the profit of selling books is very high. Businessmen certainly won't let go of this good opportunity to make money.

Some merchants even sold books and other goods from Yuanling County to the Jin Kingdom. The few shops opened by Jing Yi can be said to have made a lot of money.

(End of chapter)