When engraving printing requires the repeated printing of thousands of large quantities of books, the cost is actually not higher than that of movable type printing.

It's just that the initial investment is relatively large, and all the contents of the book to be printed have to be engraved again, so ordinary people can't do this kind of thing, and the start-up stage takes a long time.

The advantage of movable type is mainly that it starts quickly, and if you want to print some new content, you can start work in a few days, unlike engraving that often requires several months of preparation. Therefore, when printing the Thirteen Classics of Confucianism, which is in great demand, the engraving is completely sufficient.

And these shortcomings, when Liu Bei Zhuge Liang invested in the printing industry with the official power of the local princes, they could all be made up. They have money, and they are not afraid of a large initial capital investment and a slow return on investment. I don't care when I finish carving.

Now that this technology has just been experimented for more than two months, even if the number of carpenters is piled up, only a "Erya" with very few words in the Thirteen Classics has been engraved, as well as a small half of "Mao's Poems", but Zhuge Liang can afford to wait, and put it out little by little, even if it takes a few years to attract readers in Jingzhou and the north, it is enough.

Sima Hui and Xu Shu came to this conclusion after roughly estimating the efficiency of the printing workshop.

And Zhuge Liang was not satisfied with ending the visit immediately, since he had come to the capital, of course he had to fully show his muscles, show his potential, and explain the details and ingenuity to Xu Shu:

"This engraving method looks simple, but there are actually many details to pay attention to. The wise man should see the small things and take precautions. For example, if you finally engrave a plate, perhaps after printing hundreds of volumes, some words will wear out. If you don't take precautions, wouldn't it be a pity to scrap the whole block directly? ”

When the engraving is printed on the Thirteen Classics, the only obvious disadvantage compared with movable type is that it is more troublesome to replace it after wear and tear in the future. If a word is worn out by movable type, just replace the broken word.

After a few words are broken in the engraving, it is possible to replace the whole page.

But for these shortcomings, Zhuge Liang has Zhuge Jin, the big brother of the traverser, to help him check and predict the pain points in advance, so the problem is not big.

Even if laymen like Sima Hui and Xu Shu didn't see the doorway for the time being and didn't ask him, Zhuge Liang had to take the initiative to show off.

When Xu Shu heard this, this question was really prescient, he thought about it himself, but he didn't think of a solution, so he humbly asked for advice: "Since you have expected this problem, what should you think of as a solution?" ”

Zhuge Liang proudly swaggered, like a villager who can walk a fuel tank in the village after catching a big fish: "Actually, there is nothing difficult to point through, first, in the future, we plan to make the version smaller, and now a large plate is printed in a whole volume, often thousands of words, not flexible enough." In the future, it will be reduced to two or three hundred words per page, and the paper should be cut smaller, and slowly run into a size that is the most efficient in general.

And when I first engraved, I asked the craftsmen to choose harder, more wear-resistant wood, and at the same time to carve the characters deeper, generally making sure that the strokes protrude two points (about four millimeters) from the back plate.

The higher the protruding handwriting, the more it can be worn. After printing hundreds of times, if you find that a considerable part of the handwriting is worn, you can also use sandpaper to polish the other words with less wear to ensure that all the words return to the state of almost convex height again, and you can print it hundreds of times.

In the end, it really can't be done, but also the individual words with particularly serious wear and tear are dug out separately, and then carved a single word square wooden block of the same size into the gap to fill and glue, in short, it is to use low-cost methods to repair and extend the durability of the engraving. ”

Zhuge Liang explained, while taking Sima Hui and Xu Shu to observe the past one by one, and there were indeed two or three carpenters in the workshop who were carrying out the repair work, re-repairing the plates that occasionally appeared to be worn and missing.

Xu Shu looked at it at first, and didn't think how difficult the work of these carpenters was. After listening to the explanation, he learned that the carved wood was relatively hard, and he couldn't help but pick up a piece of wood to look at it carefully, and broke it with his hands.

Finally, he took out his original saber and made a hard cut on the wooden slab, feeling the difficulty of carving, which was slightly discolored:

"These woods are really hard, why can those craftsmen carry knives like flying, is it possible that even the carpenter's carving knives here in Wuchang are particularly good?"

Zhuge Liang was asked again about his pride: "The carving knives originally used by the craftsmen are naturally not sharp enough to carve hardwood. However, in the past two months, I have been digging Daye iron ore in Exian County and innovating the process of using steel filling and forging knives.

The original intention of mining and smelting iron and steelmaking over there was to strengthen the whole army, but before the large-scale production of knives and guns, I first asked people to forge and polish a batch of carpenter carving knives with a new method.

These knives are in high demand and do not use much steel. Originally, the most laborious part was grinding, and it was too slow to reciprocate with a stone, and I also pondered a kind of grinding wheel for this purpose, which can resharpen the dull carving knife in a few breaths - Brother Xu looks at it here. ”

Xu Shu looked in the direction of Zhuge Liang's finger, and there was indeed a sharpener in the corner of the wall providing supporting services for the carpenters.

The sharpener was stepping on something similar to a bicycle pedal (Xu Shu didn't know about it, of course), and the pedal shaft was thick, and it was covered with a taut belt. The other end of the belt is attached to the shaft of the grinding wheel, which is very thin.

In this way, depending on the ratio of the thickness of the shaft, it is possible to achieve a shifting effect similar to that of a bicycle chain gear set, but it is easier to slip than a bicycle, but it is not a big problem. Basically, if you step on the pedal with your foot, the grinding wheel can be rotated more than a dozen times, and you can use it again after a few seconds of grinding with a dull carving knife.

"These are the right way to strengthen the whole army, in such a troubled world, how can it be enough to attract scholars only by culture and education? Mr. has so many wonderful ideas that he is really fascinated. Xu Shu sighed from the bottom of his heart.

Zhuge Liang: "What's so difficult about this, in a few days, I will invite Brother Xu to go to Exian County to observe, and when the time comes, you can also choose your own responsibilities at the beginning of your career according to your strengths." ”

When the people next to him heard this, Shi Tao immediately said that he would also go with Xu Shu for a long time.

And Sima Hui, Yin Mo, Li Ren, these pure academic talents, are not interested in weapons to build smelting steel and other things, so they said that they would stay in the Wuchang Academy and start work on the same day.

Zhuge Liang naturally would not be reluctant, and he could be regarded as a diversion of this wave of talents.

……

Three days later, Sima Hui, Yin Mo, and Li Ren initially adapted to the environment in Wuchang, and Sima Hui decided to open a school in Wuchang School Palace to accept apprentices.

Yin Mo and Li Ren themselves did not complete their studies completely, so while studying, they helped their teachers do some auxiliary work - similar to the part-time teaching assistants of graduate students in later generations.

The school palace houses have only been built two, and all the grass creations have to start with publicity and attracting scholars, and it is estimated that in the last ten days of this year's lunar month, there will be no one to be received. At least after the Shangyuan Festival next year, it will be on the right track.

And Xu Shu and Shi Tao were also taken around by Zhuge Liang in the past few days, all the way to Exian.

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In Exian County, Xu Shu saw a small stream flowing from Jutie Mountain to the middle of the Yangtze River, which was intercepted and impounded. Then dig an artificial canal into the river to ensure that the water level difference of each section and the water energy impulse are average.

On both sides of the aqueduct, there are dense new waterwheels, which carry containers similar to cement mixing tanks in later generations, and there are countless freshly excavated iron ore in the containers, which are rolled by gravity and collide with each other and broken, and then manually rough to remove impurities and waste rocks, and then transport the part of the relatively concentrated ore to the smelting area.

In the smelting area, Xu Shu saw an iron-making furnace that was two or three zhang high, more than double in size than the tallest furnace he had seen before.

A higher furnace also means a better heat storage environment, and the internal furnace temperature rises further when the blast is sufficient.

However, with the enclosure of the new refractory bricks, even if the furnace temperature is high enough to make the molten iron flow out quickly, the inner wall of the furnace does not soften at all, and the pressure resistance is still strong.

After the molten iron flows out, there is a huge and heavy container directly at the tap hole of the furnace, which is filled with preheated reddened wrought iron rods of soybean thickness in the air, and after the molten iron is poured up, the raw wrought iron carburizes each other, but after more than a quarter of an hour, after complete condensation and solidification, it is already filled with steel.

In contrast, at this time a year ago, when Zhuge Jin first figured out the steel filling method, in order to increase the reaction contact surface area, he had to draw the wrought iron more slender and the number of roots more.

At that time, wrought iron could only be as thick as mung beans, and no matter how thick it was, it would not have time to complete the reaction before cooling and solidifying. Now it can be added to the thickness of soybeans, which is one or two points thicker, from "iron wire" to "iron rod", and it also greatly reduces the pretreatment workload of drawing iron wire with perforated wire drawing plate, which is a great progress.

All of this is due to the higher furnace temperature and lower carbon content of molten iron.

Seeing that steel was directly produced at such a rapid speed, without repeatedly forging and stir-frying raw wrought iron, Xu Shu was simply dumbfounded.

In particular, he saw that a circular track was built in front of the furnace so that the trolleys containing the molten iron containers could circulate and connect the molten iron before the furnace taphole.

After receiving a large square basin, the car was directly dragged forward by the blacksmith with a caliper, giving up a place for the next one to follow and continue to pick up.

The track for the trolley to travel is undoubtedly cast directly with cast iron, so as to ensure that when the molten iron is connected, the container on the car is limited, and it will not be too close or too far, causing the molten iron to splash out.

For the sake of such a simple process standardization, even the tracks are cast in iron! It can be seen that the general of the chariot cavalry here, how worthless iron is.

What surprised Xu Shu the most was that after the steel was poured and refined, it was forged and processed by various never-before-seen processes in the forging area.

In the past two months, Zhuge Liang has also made the prototype of the hydraulic forging hammer, and then forging the steel, thinning the steel hot forging, and shaping it, so that there is no need for the blacksmith to pick the sledgehammer throughout the whole process.

The blacksmith still has to be used, but it is the final refinement stage, and the rough forging that has produced miracles in the early stage can be completely handed over to the water power.

It's a pity that the difference between the two banks and tributaries of the Yangtze River on this side of Ezhou is generally not big enough, and the water energy is not strong enough, which is not as good as the impact of the water energy of the Minjiang River around Dujiangyan in Shudi. The size and location of the hydraulic forging hammer are also very limited.

But this is also no way, who makes the rivers in the plains fall off, it is not as good as the country of mountains, the new forging hammer is at least five or six times more efficient than the old man-powered sledgehammer, and it is enough. Later, when I entered Yizhou, I would consider more than ten times.

Steelmaking, forging, quenching, grinding...... The four links of weapon forging, under Zhuge Liang's drastic rectification, each link has made good progress.

From the refractory furnace, to the hydraulic forging hammer, to the cold quenching guided by modern chemical thought, to the grinding wheel driven by the pulley, the four-pronged approach. The quality of Liu Beijun's newly forged knives and guns is obviously not comparable to that of a year ago.

Xu Shu witnessed all this, and was secretly glad that he had voted for a master, with such an all-round development, the general of the Che Cavalry obviously had the potential that Yuan Cao did not possess in the matter of ending the troubled times.

In the end, after some running-in, Zhuge Liang also helped Xu Shu and Shi Tao to select their respective positions in the initial stage of their careers.

Xu Shu temporarily served as the county magistrate of Exian County, while Shi Tao served as the county magistrate on the other side, presiding over the local construction work for a year and a half, and if he performed well, or in the follow-up war, he would naturally be transferred to another post if he could make a contribution to the military strategy.

Yin Mo and Li Ren wanted to continue their education with their teachers, so they first became Cao Peng and Cao of Cao related to education such as Li Cao of Jiangxia County.

As for Xiang Lang, who has not yet come, I heard that he needs to first refuse Liu Biao's position as the county commander of Zigui, and then come to Liu Bei to find a lower position than the county order, so as to show that he "came to Jiangxia not for glory and wealth, but for better study", Zhuge Liang will naturally fulfill him, so he said that when Xiang Lang comes, he can serve as the county governor of Wuchang County.

Although the county is much lower than the county order level and rank, Wuchang County is more valuable and is a county at the county governance level. Moreover, Wuchang will be better developed in later generations, and it is simply a provincial-level hub and a thoroughfare of several states.

Using the county magistrate of a large county for the county order of a small county, Xiang Lang actually did not lose at all, but he took care of his reputation.

And as long as this news is transmitted back to Xiangyang, let the other Jingzhou exiled northern scholars know that Liu Bei cares so much about the face of the person who went to defect, and naturally they will yearn for Liu Bei even more.

However, although Zhuge Liang's plan was done well, there were some small problems at the implementation level-

He took Sima Hui and Xu Shu to visit the school palace and printing workshop in Wuchang, plus the iron ore smelter and forging factory in Exian County, and five or six days passed. Counting the days, the second batch of Xiang Lang and others, as well as his father-in-law Huang Chengyan who is in his hometown, should also come back.

However, when it came to the expected day, Zhuge Liang did not wait for anyone to come, but was called back to Wuchang by Liu Bei and told him an unexpected news:

"Sir, I recently heard an emergency report, Liu Biao actually closed the river indiscriminately! Although Liu Biao's excuse was to prevent Cao Cao's meticulous work and the infiltration of the envoys, and to prevent the recurrence of Cao Cao's persuasion of Zhang Xiu.

But in fact, this clearly wants to prohibit the flow of Jingzhou scholars to my Yangzhou! For this reason, what should our army do? ”

When Zhuge Liang heard this, he was indeed slightly surprised at first, but he was not worried at all, but was happy: "Why did Liu Biao do such a foolish act? Isn't this harming Jingzhou's merchants and streamers, and destroying their reputation as good and virtuous?

He should know that the return of the Magi to the Lord is like the return of water, and it is better to be blocked. Liu Biao is so jealous of our army that he wants to block us at the cost of his own reputation? ”

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