In the museum, Du Gao, the envoy of Zhou State, was talking to Xu Ling, the assistant minister of the Yellow Gate of Liang State who was in charge of the reception. As he spoke, he talked about the reign of the Liang State.

Not long ago, the Liang Kingdom changed its reign, so this year is the first year of Tai'an.

Tai'an means "the country is peaceful and the people are safe". Last year, Emperor Liang led the army to fight back, recovered the Qingzhou area, and repelled the Qi army's counterattack. In addition, the discovery of a large copper mine in Le'an, Raozhou, two major events led to the change of the era.

Du Gao actually had no interest in the reign of Liang State, but in order to find out truly valuable news, he had to talk about it.

At the end of last year, the Liang army captured the Qingzhou area. Yuwen Hu, the Duke of Jin in Zhou, realized that the situation in the Henan region of Qi took a sharp turn, and Liang State would likely be fully occupied by Henan in a few years.

He sent an envoy to Jiankang to explore the Liang people's tone.

When Du Gao came, he was shocked after finding out a lot of news.

First, the young emperor of Liang State wanted to station in Huaiyin, take Huaiyin as his position, and prepare for the Northern Expedition.

Therefore, Liang State not only wanted to take over Henan, but also became concerned about Hebei.

Secondly, Li Li, the famous general in Liang State, became the emperor's father-in-law.

Last year, the emperor personally led the army, and the actual military affairs were chaired by Li Li.

It was Li Li's opinion that the emperor stayed in Huaiyin.

Third, a large copper mine was discovered in Le'an, Raozhou, Liangguo. It is said that after several years of mining, the annual copper output can reach nearly 10 million kilograms.

All signs indicate that the Liang Kingdom already had the intention to annex the world and gradually had financial resources, so it would definitely put its intention into implementation.

The evidence is that the emperor would leave Jiankang, cross the river and head north, and stay in Huaiyin on the south bank of the Huai River for a long time to prepare for the Northern Expedition.

But in fact, it should be the famous "Poyang Li Li" who, with the help of his relatives, began to prepare for the title of emperor in the two Huaihe Rivers to capture Henan and spy on Hebei.

This is an extremely dangerous omen. Zhou State cannot sit idly by. The previous strategy of "connecting Liang to attack Qi" may have to be changed.

The Zhou State must take over Luoyang, otherwise once Liang State controls Luoyang, the Zhou State will lose the opportunity to compete for Henan and even Hebei.

After all, with Li Li's ability and the emperor's guise, he can master more power and resources. The more he goes, the stronger the Liang Kingdom is, the greater the chance of winning the Northern Expedition.

By then, not only Henan, but also Hebei will be swallowed by Liang State in one mouthful.

At that time, even if the Zhou State took over the Bingshuo area and confronted the Zhou State east and west, facing the "Poyang Li Li" who held great power, the situation might be bad.

Du Gao ordered people to bring the information they had heard back to Chang'an immediately, but he and other envoys could not leave immediately. They had to stay in Jiankang and see what happened.

If the Emperor of Liang really left Jiankang, stationed in Huaiyin, and really learned from Zhou to implement the system of military service, it would mean that within the next two or three years, the Liang army would inevitably launch an offensive against Henan.

Du Gao was thinking about things in his heart, but he was chatting and laughing with Xu Ling on his face.

Xu Ling came here today, not because he was empty-handed, but because he brought a generous gift to the envoys of Zhou State.

That is the large-scale book - "Hualin Bianluo".

During the Tianjian period, in order to demonstrate his civil affairs, Emperor Gaozu (Xiao Yan) organized many literary scholars to compile a large-scale book "Hualin Bianluo", which took many years to achieve.

As soon as this book is completed, it is regarded as a "strange product" and is sold by bookmakers everywhere, making a lot of profits.

This was a generous gift, and Du Gao and others were excited. When they saw the books, they were even more surprised: these books were not just volumes, but a "book" and "book".

And there are quite a lot of them, with a total of ten sets.

Xu Ling ordered someone to come up with a set of "Hualin Bianluo". Du Gao couldn't wait to read it, while Xu Ling introduced it aside.

First, let’s introduce books. This kind of book is bound in the form of “line binding”, so it is also called “line binding book”.

Although the book is called "Volume No. 3", it is actually "book", corresponding to "volume".

Du Gao looked through carefully, and the more he looked, the more he couldn't put it down.

Line-bound books, well-made, good paper quality, and handwriting...

The handwriting is neat and the gestures are very detailed.

He looked over and over again and suddenly realized something was wrong: the same word in the same "book" had exactly the same handwriting.

It seems not handwritten, but...

What can that be?

When Xu Ling saw that something was wrong with Du Gao, he looked "unable to understand" and explained it.

"The text of this book is not handwritten, but printed, to be precise, printed."

"Printing?" Du Gao became interested when he heard this, and the others were the same.

Xu Ling said slowly: "The principle of printing is the same as a seal, which means carving words on the woodblock. Of course, the characters are reversed. Carved into a piece of text, which is the content of a page of books."

"Then brush the woodblock with ink, like printing, printed on white paper, and there will be handwriting on the paper."

So that's it, Du Gao nodded. He was quick-thinking and soon thought of a new problem:

"It may take a lot of time to make a plate? But the same character in the book has the same handwriting, and it is not easy for the carving to achieve the same text as the same one."

"That's why we further improve it, using movable characters instead of carved characters." Xu Ling smiled, and Du Gao and his colleagues looked at each other: "Volatile characters?"

"This is movable type printing technology, which was only practical last year." Xu Ling said, becoming proud. This is an extraordinary thing. From now on, the price of books will drop significantly.

The principle of printing books is the same as that of seals and seals. Each character is made into a seal, and then "typed" the content, and then printed one by one.

Because the Chinese characters in the version can be changed at any time, just like a living one, it is called "movable type". Such printing technology is called movable type printing technology.

"Volatile type" is made of lead and is made in batches based on model, so the production cost of "Volatile type" is not high.

With this printing technique, books can be printed in large quantities just like using a large quantity of money minting.

Printing replaced manpower copying (commissioned books), and because the price of paper is cheap, the cost of making books has dropped significantly, and the content of the books is guaranteed.

There will be no typos, missing words, or multiple words (proofread when typing). For books in the same printed batch, the content of each page is exactly the same, and there are page numbers on both sides of each page, which is very beneficial to teaching and education.

Xu Ling just briefly introduced it, and Du Gao understood how important the significance of this "movable type printing technique" is: it can make books cheaper!

Books are cheap and the number of books has increased sharply, which means that more and more people can afford books and buy books, and the cost of learning knowledge has dropped significantly.

Du Gao was excited, but soon thought of two key points revealed in Xu Ling's conversation: paper with good quality and low price, and lead type.

Paper with good quality and low price involves improvements in papermaking, not to mention it for now.

Du Gao knew from his own life experience that lead is not very touched by ink.

So, how to mark the ink on the paper with lead movable type to form characters with full strokes?

"Indeed, ink is the key." Xu Ling did not avoid doubts. The court wanted to show off his literary tradition to the Zhou State, so movable type printing technology had to be praised.

"Ink, unlike ordinary ink, is produced in Poyang, Raozhou. It is said that many ink craftsmen have spent nearly ten years trying to get it out."

"If there is no such ink that easily stains the lead type, the movable type printing technique will not work."

The answer is a bit vague, but it does answer Du Gao’s question: It turns out that the key lies in Mo.

And he noticed a place name "Raozhou Poyang" and then thought of a person.

"Could it be that Poyang in the hometown of your country's general?"

Xu Ling nodded: "That's right, this ink was produced in the hometown of Poyang, the general, and it was only tried last year."

"Also, Poyang craftsmen have improved papermaking technology and made paper from bamboo, which is of high quality and low price, and has many uses."

Poyang, again Poyang!

Du Gao sighed in his heart that he was increasingly wanting to meet him. The famous "Poyang Li Li" in Chang'an capital, and this was also a wish of the Duke of Jin.

The one who captured Hou Crooked alive, the one who claimed to have never lost his battle for more than ten years;

The one who broke the Wuguan Road and caused the court to lose Li Li, Mianbei;

The Li Li, who conquered Xuzhou, defeated the Qi army one after another, and was in charge of Huaibei.

The name of Li Li in Poyang is well known to civil and military officials in Chang'an.

This person not only has great martial arts, but also has a good reputation for operating. Therefore, the Duke of Jin often sighed: What kind of virtue is the king of the southern country? If such a genius serves the country and maintains peace and stability.

Du Gao wanted to meet the famous "Poyang Li Li", but Xu Ling smiled and shook his head: "I can't make the decision in this matter."
Chapter completed!