Chapter 316 Shocking the Emperor Again
Qin Lang invited two of the most famous carving masters in Chang'an, and asked them to each carve a book version.
The old master surnamed Zhao carved three-character editions, and the old master surnamed Qian carved a thousand-character edition, one with seven sheets and the other with eight sheets.
The two masters were very excited to receive the invitation from Yi Guogong and the prince, and immediately devoted themselves to it after receiving the copy.
The master craftsmen are exquisite and skilled, and they perfectly restore the writing board with every stroke.
In order to ensure the quality, the two master craftsmen only carved one plate a day. At the beginning, both of them were a little nervous. When Lao Zhao made a mistake in the last few words of the first edition, Lao Zhao kept improving and asked for a new one.
Then the board is abolished and engraved again.
Originally, Qin Lang thought that there was no need to re-carve it, just dig out the word, make up a piece and re-engrav the word, but Lao Zhao thought that such a wrong version would damage his reputation, so he still asked to do it all over again.
Lao Liu also scrapped a version in the middle.
It took ten days, and the two handed over their nearly perfect works to Qin Lang.
In order to avoid the wear and tear caused by printing, the engraver chooses hard jujube wood. The engraved block is heavy in the hand and has a very high quality. What is even more rare is the two illiterate master craftsmen. The engraved block is exactly the same as the block written by Qin Lang Chengqian, without a single stroke of the difference.
Qin Lang carefully checked all the boards. In fact, it's not that he can't trust the skills of the two masters, it's just a proper procedure.
Under normal circumstances, you should check the manuscript before writing the version, and then check it after writing the version, and then hand it over to the engraver for engraving, and then check after engraving.
It is best to have two or three people review each link repeatedly from manuscript review to manuscript writing to engraving, so as to ensure zero mistakes to the greatest extent, and prevent the subsequent processes from being wasted due to previous mistakes.
Although Lao Zhao is illiterate, he has been sculpting for half his life, and has seen all kinds of characters. It is the first time he has seen Qin Lang's font, so he spent a lot of time on carving, but after carving, he also feels that this font is very good. Looks good, these editions look much better than Chengqian's Wang Fa's Xingkai edition.
"The craftsmen are so exquisite, we deserve a reward."
Qin Lang was very satisfied after the inspection, and he paid ten dollars a word.
The Three Character Classic has 800 characters, plus the title of the book, etc., but less than 1,000 characters, Qin Lang directly gave 10,000 yuan. The thousand-character inscription carved by Lao Liu was less than 1,100 characters plus pages, and Qin Lang gave 11,000 yuan.
This price is already very good. After all, it only takes ten days before and after, and the food and drink are entertained. This day's co-authoring can make a consistent profit.
No matter how old the master is, he is only a craftsman, not a scholar.
"Don't dare to take this heavy reward!" The two masters shook their heads again and again.
Qin Lang smiled and said, "This is a reward from the crown prince, please accept it."
The two declined for a long time before happily accepting it.
"I don't know if the two masters are willing to stay and do things? If they are willing, I can invite the two masters to join the Chongxian Museum Printing Bureau and give the two official status as engravers. From now on, they will be members of the East Palace."
"Each person earns 10,000 yuan per month. In addition, there is a commission for engraving. If you bring apprentices, there is also a subsidy. If you do a good job, there will be rewards, how about it?"
In order to keep these two old masters, Qin Lang offered very good conditions.
The old two were surprised and very happy.
It is of course good to be able to enter the Eastern Palace to eat imperial food. Although entering the Eastern Palace is also a job of old age, there is still a big difference.
The two excitedly agreed.
What Qin Lang valued was the craftsmanship and serious attitude of the two of them. The bookstore was just starting up, and it needed this kind of master to check it out.
"Teacher, now that the engraving is finished, what should we do next?"
"Of course it's printing books!"
In Qin Lang's villa in Changlepo, Qin Lang and Master Cheng Qian got together, looking mysterious.
A bottle of newly researched ink, which is oily compared to ordinary ink, is specially developed for engraving printing. Qin Lang invested hundreds of pennies in it, awarded a heavy reward, and called many Master, finally broke through the technical difficulties and successfully mass-produced.
Take a brush, dip it in ink, and evenly brush ink on the jujube wood carving board. Then, take a piece of bamboo paper with a slightly yellow color, and cover the bamboo paper on the ink-painted board.
"Take another clean brush and dab on the paper backing!"
This is the same as rubbing.
The engraved board is in Yangwen, so after brushing ink on the board and then laying a paper brush, the ink from the engraved Yangwen can be printed on the paper.
Qin Lang was very careful, with even force, brushing all over.
Take off the paper, and sure enough, all the characters on the engraving block have been printed on the paper.
"It's amazing!" Cheng Qian exclaimed.
"This is actually the same as stamping a seal, but the method has been changed."
There is nothing magical about woodblock printing. The only problem that limits this technology is the ink. It is difficult to transfer ordinary ink on the engraving block to paper, and there will be many problems, resulting in poor printing effect or waste.
Ink is a difficult problem, but as long as it is targeted for research and invested in money and people, it is not difficult to solve it.
It’s just that no one has done it in the past.
Now, the ink is solved, and the bamboo paper is completely integrated with the ink. The bamboo paper has strong water absorption, and the ink is displayed clearly and completely on it.
There are only seven editions of the Three Character Classic, except for the title page and the preface page, there are only five editions. Qin Lang compiled the preface and the text of the fifth edition into three front and back pages.
After the ink on one page is dry, the reverse side is printed.
The last three pages of content, then a page of titles, plus a blank page on the back.
The three-character scripture with a total of five pages is completed.
Arrange the five pages of paper, arrange them, punch holes, and bind them with thread, so a brand-new thread-bound Three-Character Classic exuding the fragrance of ink is completed.
"Amazing!"
Chengqian took this newly printed book, flipped it left and right, and finally read it word by word from the beginning. He could memorize the Three Character Classic long ago. After reading it carefully, every word is indeed correct.
Although this word was printed, the version was written by Qin Lang, so it is the same as Qin Lang's manuscript, it is very comfortable to read, and the ink marks are even.
"It's hard to imagine that this was actually printed."
Qin Lang smiled, "This book costs a lot, but as long as it is printed more, the cost will be greatly reduced, especially the processes of writing, engraving, and checking are no longer costly, laborious, and time-consuming. .”
Chang’an’s handwritten books are not cheap, with thousands of words and thousands of dollars for a volume, a book copyer may not be able to copy a book in a day.
If they were asked to copy a thousand volumes, they would have to be copied for a long time by many scribes who could write well, but engraving and printing were different. You can also take out the plate and reprint it at any time.
Chengqian couldn't wait to see how his thousand-character script would look after it was printed in ink.
Spreading ink, laying paper, brushing paper, and then finishing and binding...
Holding the thousand-character text with only six pages, Cheng Qian was very excited, especially after seeing the words Li Chengqian and Li Chengqian written on the pages of the book, he was even more excited.
"It's done, we're done!"
"Well, it worked."
Cheng Qian wanted to show it to the emperor immediately, but Qin Lang told him not to worry.
“Two copies of one copy can’t explain anything, it can’t prove the success of engraving and printing. If we want to get it, we need to get more.”
With the engraving board, the subsequent printing is actually very easy. There are only a few pages of the Three Character Classic and the Thousand Character Classic. Qin Lang printed 10,000 copies of each in a few days.
The Qin family’s villa in Changlepo became a temporary bookstore for the Donggong Chongxian Library Printing Bureau, and the Qin family’s servants also became printing and binding workers.
After a few strokes of a plate, it will be printed into a one-page book.
Qin Lang established a printing assembly line.
Specialized for ink brushing, paper delivery, ink dispensing, paper brushing, paper picking, and ink drying.
A version is a pipeline group.
Also equipped with a special quality inspection.
Ink distribution workshop, paper preparation workshop, printing workshop, binding workshop.
In a few days, 10,000 copies of the Three-Character Classic and the Thousand-Character Classic were completed.
It is a small volume, but like some product manuals of later generations, the thick ink fragrance is refreshing.
Ten thousand volumes, each volume is exactly the same, with exactly the same handwriting.
This is a miracle accomplished by dozens of servants of the Qin family. They are illiterate, but they printed so many exquisite articles and books in just a few days.
10,000 volumes each, adding up to nearly 20 million characters. If the scribes in Chang’an were to copy the books, even if one person copied 10,000 words a day, one person would have to copy two thousand days, and ten scribes would have to copy two hundred words. One hundred copyists had to copy for twenty days, and two hundred copyers had to copy for ten days.
And their copying has not yet achieved such a perfect effect, and it must be prone to typos, etc., and it will not be so exquisite.
"Let's go, present these to His Majesty the Emperor!" Qin Lang said with a smile to the Crown Prince who had long been unable to restrain himself.
Chengqian nodded desperately.
"Walk!"
Twenty thousand pamphlets filled two carriages.
Tai Chi Palace.
Li Shimin saw Qin Lang and Chengqian who had disappeared for a while.
"I still know to come back."
Holding the emperor's hand as if offering a treasure, "Father, it's a success. The engraving and printing technique of my teacher and I have succeeded."
Li Shimin flipped through the two booklets, and they were really exquisite, with clear handwriting and nice fonts, and the thread binding method was also good.
"It took you half a month to print these two books?" Li Shimin said lightly.
"Father, it's not two books, but 20,000 books, 10,000 books of the Thousand-Character Classic, and 10,000 books of the Three-Character Classic. It only took half a month and dozens of people were involved." Cheng Qian said excitedly.
"What?"
Li Shimin was surprised.
How can this be?
But when he followed Cheng Qian to the two piles of books, looked at the booklets one after another, picked up one book after another, and flipped through one after another, when he found that they were all the same thousand-character When I read the scriptures and the three-character text, I was really shocked.
"You said it only took dozens of people to print these, half a month?"
"Yes, I was not very proficient at the beginning. With the current proficiency, it won't take so long at all. Ten days will be enough."
"How much did it cost?" Li Shimin turned to Qin Lang and asked.
Qin Lang handed over a list, which listed the cost details in detail. Li Shimin looked at it carefully, and the more he looked, the more surprised he became.
If you calculate it, how much is that booklet?
"How can this be?"
"Your Majesty, if it is reprinted, the cost can be deducted from the cost of writing, engraving and proofreading, and it can be even lower."
"You didn't lie to me?"
"How dare the minister and His Highness the Crown Prince deceive the emperor!"
Qin Lang proposed to sell these three-character scripts and thousand-character scripture booklets in Chang’an and Luoyang’s surrounding areas, “just ten coins per booklet!”
This price really surprised Li Shimin.
"Paper, ink, writing block, engraving, and labor costs, is it enough?"
"Your Majesty, the cost of this edition of the book is about 1 yuan per page. If you sell it for 10 yuan a book, you can actually double the profit. You can earn 5 yuan for a book, and you can earn 100,000 yuan for 20,000 copies."
Li Shimin was stunned. Although one hundred thousand dollars is nothing in the eyes of the current emperor, the key point is that this is just a small test. Even according to the current book price in the market, it can be sold at a higher price.
After all, copying a book requires thousands of characters and thousands of texts, and the price of this thousand-character text is a hundred dollars, so even if Qin Lang sets a price of one hundred dollars for a thousand-character text, or a high point or a low point, it’s fine. Didn't the profit increase by twenty times at once?
What if it is a tome like the Nine Classics, often dozens of volumes of scriptures?
Isn't it possible to earn dozens of copies by printing a copy?
Li Shimin was silent.
Once Qin Lang's printing technique came out, books would no longer be so precious, and books would no longer only be owned by the gentry.
This will bring about a huge change.
"This book can't be sold for ten yuan a copy. Let's sell these books for a hundred yuan a copy. The money sold will be rewarded to you and Chengqian."
"Your Majesty?"
Li Shimin shook his head, "This is a big event, a big event, and the impact is bound to be huge. I still need some time to make proper arrangements, otherwise the direct disclosure will bring too much impact. If I can't prepare , I'm afraid the consequences will be unpredictable!"
(end of this chapter)