"Typography, that's what you call ink." When Kong Yingda and the others followed Murton to the ink magazine, they couldn't help frowning when they saw the rows of printing tools.

"That's nature! Most of the books in the Confucian Mansion are unique, so they naturally have to be printed so that they can be borrowed by people all over the world. Merton nodded in acknowledgement.

"Having said that, when you don't know how to print, every time you print a page, you need to be stereotyped, the Confucian family has countless books, and you are going to engrave it until the Year of the Monkey." Kong Yingda shook his head and said, how could he not understand printing, that is, it happened under his nose, engraving printing is extremely labor-intensive and time-consuming, only suitable for a large number of printed books and publications, such as ink and Confucian periodicals or best-selling books of the Four Books and Five Classics, that can be printed in large quantities after the stereotype, but the amount of those solitary books is not much, if it is a large number of stereotypes, only a small amount of printing, even the capital is not enough, plus the collection of books that need to be printed is more than 10,000, it is the wealth of the Confucian family, I am afraid it cannot be supplied.

Even Kong Desheng looked at Merton unkindly, not knowing whether this kid was here to help the Kong family or pit the Kong family.

Mo Dun laughed and said: "Master, don't worry, if the ink skills of the Mo family are so simple, then the kid will naturally not be ugly, this time the kid recommends the latest printing technology of the Mo family, movable type printing." ”

"Movable type?" Kong Yingda was puzzled.

Merton said proudly: "I wonder if Master still remembers where the inspiration for engraving printing came from?" ”

"Looks like it's from a seal!" Kong Yingda thought for a while.

Morton nodded and said: "Yes, it comes from the seal, and the original idea of us was to engrave the words on the wooden board, like a seal printed on the paper, this is the engraving printing technique." ”

Kong Yingda and the others couldn't help but nodded, engraving and printing technology seems simple but it is a great thing, which directly solves the problem of copying books for students all over the world, and the price of books has dropped significantly.

Merton continued: "Engraving printing is easy to use, but it is only suitable for printing books in large quantities, and the more you engrave a print, the lower the cost of printing. However, for some books that do not sell well, it is not cost-effective, and many unique books are precious but the sales are not high, so the bookstore is not willing to lose money at all. ”

Kong Desheng nodded, what Merton said was indeed the truth.

"In the printing of ink periodicals, the ink journal is generally divided into several columns, respectively carved wood board printing, several carvers at the same time, can save several times the engraving time, and then these small engraving plates can be integrated together, just enough to raise a page for printing, which is the reason why the ink journal can be printed quickly." Merton broke the news.

"I see?" Kong Yingda suddenly realized that in addition to the down-to-earth content, the most important reason for the popularity of ink magazines compared to Confucian magazines is that the number of pages of ink magazines is one-third more than that of Confucian magazines, which naturally appears sincere.

"Master, you can think about it, since we can divide an engraving into several pieces, why can't we let this small engraving be divided into one word at a time, and then assemble it into one piece, which is movable type printing." Merton Road.

"One word, one word!" Kong Yingda was suddenly enlightened, a craftsman may need half a day to carve a carving, but I am afraid that it only takes a moment to carve a word, as long as there are enough carvers, enough to be carved out in a short time.

"No, the benefits of movable type printing are not the only one, once the engraving has been fixed, after printing this page, it is necessary to re-engrave, but the article in the world is not the same, the words of the article are the same, once the movable type printing is made, after a page is printed, these engravings can be re-disrupted typesetting, no need to repeat the stereotype, which will greatly save the printing cost."

After Morton finished speaking, Kong Yingda's eyes suddenly lit up, and at this moment he really realized the power of movable type printing, that is, there is no need to repeat the stereotype, just carve all the words at once, it is enough to print any book in the world, and save time and effort.

"It's a genius idea." Kong Yingda exclaimed that a block printing technology has already caused the price of books in the world to drop significantly, and movable type printing is a cross-era technology, once it is born, it will definitely detonate the spread of knowledge in the world.

"With this secret technique in the world, the old man finally believes that the era of everyone can read has arrived, this is the general trend of the world, and those who go along will prosper and those who rebel will die." Kong Desheng said happily.

Once a large number of books can be printed, which of the Confucian family's collections of books will definitely be able to reappear, even ordinary people can have a large number of books to read, and those educational resources in the hands of the family will be flattened, which makes the two more convinced that the day when the family will control education is not far off.

The two of them were immediately full of pride, and they had full confidence in defeating the family for the first time.

Morton nodded slightly, the reason why he threw out the stunt of movable type printing is to cheer up Confucianism, once Confucianism sees the hope of defeating the family, it will naturally not easily fall to the five surnames and seven hopes, as long as Confucianism persists, the pressure on the Mo family's side will be much easier.

"Mo San, are you ready for the gift to the master?" Merton said loudly.

Mo San, who had been following silently behind, suddenly stepped forward and said, "Young master, two seniors, please come here!" ”

Under the leadership of Mo San, everyone walked out of the room and came to a huge workshop, only to see that a Mo craftsman was typesetting according to the handwritten manuscript, and a small movable type the size of a bean was assembled on a template in the dexterous hands of the Mo family's children.

"Each movable type in movable type printing is the same as the dictionary created by Brother Confucius, arranged according to the sound and strokes, which is convenient for the children of the Mo family to find, and after the use is completed, it can be put back in its original place." Merton pointed to the movable type.

"This is an inscription, not wooden?" Kong Desheng picked up a movable type casually and said in surprise, engraving printing has always been woodcut, but the engraving in his hand is obviously cold and heavy, obviously made of metal.

Merton laughed and said, "Woodcut writing is certainly okay, but it is easy to wear out, and with too long use, it is easy to be bitten by insects!" However, the biggest advantage of movable type printing is that the lettering can be reused, so Mo sought new materials, which can be printed and not easy to damage. ”

"This method works!" Kong Yingda nodded and said, pottery is not afraid of corrosion, and it can indeed be reused.

Morton nodded and said: "Of course, the pottery movable type can be used, but it is too large, and it is easy to break if it falls, so it was finally abandoned by the Mo family." ”

"It's not made of iron!" Kong Desheng looked at the movable metal type in his hand and said thoughtfully.

Merton shook his head and said: "Iron cast movable type is also available, but iron is easy to rust, too hard and not suitable for engraving movable type, the movable type seen by the predecessors is lead movable type, which is cast by the pure lead refined by the Mo family and the Taoist Wai Dan lineage, which is not easy to rust, and the texture is soft, easy to carve, and it is the best material for movable type printing." ”

Kong Yingda nodded in agreement, not only did he be amazed by the creativity of the lead type in front of him, but the process of the lead type itself used the ink skills to the extreme. The metal movable type font in his hand is extremely small, with the front engraved with orthography for easy finding, the reverse side engraved with reverse characters, and the delicate buckle in the middle, which can make the two movable types just stuck together, so precise that it is difficult to even see the small gap.

"The Mohists are really extraordinary, and the movable type printing has been perfected in terms of creativity and craftsmanship." Kong Yingda couldn't help but sigh.

"Lead type! This gift of the Mo family is indeed heavy enough! The Kong family got it. Kong Desheng said solemnly.

Morton couldn't help but smile embarrassedly and said: "The predecessors misunderstood, at present, there is only one set of lead movable type, if the predecessors take it, I am afraid that the ink journal of the Mo family will be stopped immediately, and what the boy prepared for the Kong family is the pottery movable type made by the Mo family before." I believe that it will be enough for the predecessors to print books. ”

With a wave of his hand, Mo San opened a warehouse, revealing a mountain of movable pottery type.

Kong Desheng blew his beard and said: "Feel that your kid has ink skills that the Mo family can't use, and come to the Kong family to ask for favors!" ”

Merton hurriedly explained: "Seniors are not strange, it takes a lot of time to make a pair of movable type, there are tens of thousands of Chinese characters alone, plus some commonly used words, there are thousands, it is necessary to engrave according to its different frequency of use, plus the time used for lettering, if the predecessors are willing to wait for more than a month, the kid will definitely present a complete pair of lead movable type." ”

"No need, the movable type is enough!" Kong Yingda said with a final word, the Kong family has had enough of the family's nest, he is not willing to wait for a moment now, and in his opinion, the font of lead movable type is too small, and the ink journal used to carry more text is naturally the best, but for Kong Yingda, who is used to reading brush words all his life, the slightly larger font printed by movable type is the most suitable text for the library, after all, the library is facing the readers who are used to reading large characters in the world.