Everyone in the newspaper hall was busy, the room and warehouse had been cleaned up, the two old men walked around, sat down in the lobby on the second floor, Dugu Jing hurried from the warehouse, he saluted respectfully, Dou Yi waved his hand and asked, "Where is Dou Hong?" Why don't you see others? ”

"Erlang went to Xishi, and the government-run printing workshop opened an engraving movable type club in Xishi yesterday, and he went to see the situation."

"What about the rest of the preparations?" Dugu Qiu asked.

"Back to the head of the family, the printing has been done, it can be printed at any time, the paper is also negotiated with Daming Lou, they can provide 30,000 newspapers a day at most, now the main thing is engraving and personnel recruitment, clerks are easier to find, there are many unsuccessful scholars in Chang'an, engaged in copying and writing letters and other work in Chang'an, and then news spies, we estimate, about a hundred people need to be recruited, ready to recruit from the idlers on the street, it is estimated that the problem is not big, and there is also a content to publish? Then there is the question of how to sell newspapers? ”

Dugu Qiu groaned and said: "This is the same as selling goods, you can't sell fake and shoddy goods, that is, fake news, in fact, selling goods is the same, if you sell to the general public, you must get cheap, that is, the content should be vulgar, and sell to readers and officials to pay attention to a little, that is, the content should be concise, the literary nature should be strong, or talk about national affairs, but there is a bottom line to grasp, you can't criticize the King of Jin and the princess, of course, praise can also be, pay attention to subtlety, not too direct." ”

Dou Yi said with a smile: "Ordinary people are illiterate, they must be sold to scholars and officials, and we call it Tianxia Xinbao, which is to report on major events in the world, I wrote a few diaries about Anxi, that is, we went to Anxi to check the situation of planting cotton, which can be revised and published as a journey to Anxi."

In addition, I suggested that manuscripts could be solicited and high-level articles could be published, and I agreed with the idea of the head of the Dugu family, that our newspaper should have a high starting point and be aimed at officials and readers. ”

Du Guqiu nodded, "Then you don't need too much to report on, some news can be obtained from the imperial court." ”

"The head of the family, I don't know what route the "Chang'an Express" takes?" Dugujing asked.

"I heard that it was a market route." Alone in the autumn of the bearded road.

Dugu Jing suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, "I think it should be the same, after all, they are all businessmen, and they are all small people in the market, and it is definitely unrealistic for you to ask them to go through literature and current affairs." ”

Dugu Qiu shook his head, "Then you are wrong, what route they choose, it is not up to them to decide, so are we, it is all set by His Royal Highness the King of Jin, understand?" ”

Dugu was quiet, so it was, everything was the layout of His Royal Highness King Jin.

At this time, a noisy voice came from downstairs, and someone shouted, "The second master is back." ”

Then there was the sound of going up the stairs, and after a while, several people came up, each holding a large box, led by Dou Hong, who beckoned his entourage to put the box on the table.

"What is this?" Dou Yi stepped forward and asked.

"This is movable type, a box of 400 movable type, I rented a set, 3,000 commonly used words, not enough to rent, this set of rent a day ten dollars, if a single word rent, it will be a little more expensive, and the font size is different, the price is different, and the pattern mold, the price is a little more expensive."

Hearing that it was movable type, everyone was immediately interested, and immediately opened the box, only to see that it was a very strong square box, which was densely covered with small squares, and each small square put a wooden movable type, 20 rows horizontally and vertically.

"Movable type carved out so quickly?" Dou Yi asked in surprise.

Dou Hong shook his head, "I specially asked, this batch of movable type is not newly engraved, it is cut by a carpenter from the old engraving plate before, and then polished it, and it is made of jujube wood, which is very strong and fine." ”

Du Isoqiu picked up a movable type, squinted at it for a long time, and said with a long sigh: "It's a wonderful idea to make movable type, and the previous engravings can be used." ”

He put the words back, and suddenly found that the corresponding words were also written at the bottom of the box, Du Isoqiu was stunned for a moment, and asked, "Does each word have to have a fixed seat?" ”

"That's the case, it's convenient to take the word after memorization, or you have to find a word for a long time, the people of the engraving movable type club said that it will be classified according to the rhyme foot in the future, a rhyme foot a box, and the word will be faster."

Dugu Jing thought for a while and said: "I think we can rent a room in the movable type club, and we will directly typeset in the movable type club, and after arranging the layout, we will take it back for printing." ”

"And then how do you print the engraving?" Dugu Qiu asked again.

Dou Hong opened another box, which was empty, and he said to everyone: "This is called a printing box, the size is exactly the same as a newspaper, and there is no small grid for separation, otherwise the distance between the words is too large, but there will be small wooden boards inside, according to the layout of the newspaper, three pieces up and down, and the middle can also be separated by a pattern mold, and after the words are arranged, they are coated with ink and printed directly." ”

Du Isoqiu couldn't hold back the excitement in his heart and said: "You can use this movable type method to print a copy of "Di Bao" first, I want to compare, how big is the difference between it and engraving printing?" ”

...........

The newspaper of "Chang'an Express" is located in the East Third Road of Xi'anmen Street, is a three-story building covering an area of nearly five acres, there is a large courtyard behind, the seat here is slightly biased, there are no shops around, it is quiet, the property rights of this shop belong to Guo Ping, it was originally intended to be used as an inn, and the newspaper could not find a suitable place, Guo Ping took it as his investment in the newspaper.

The newspaper building occupies a large area, not only a warehouse, a printing workshop, but also a dormitory for employees to rest and sleep.

The preparation of the Chang'an Express was no slower than that of the Guanlong nobles' Tianxia Xinbao, and although Zhang Lei and Li An were short of their own families, they could hire them from outside with high salaries, and they also hired two deacons.

One is called Li Lian, that is, Li An's nephew, who has been the deputy manager of the imperial business, after the dissolution of the imperial businessman, he has been following Li An, such as demolishing the houses in the old city of Chang'an in the Han Dynasty, building official rental houses, etc., he is responsible for coordination, Li Lian has a strong ability to socialize, is good at solving all kinds of troubles, and he is responsible for the operation of the newspaper.

The other is the chief judge of the newspaper, a friend recommended by Li Lian, called Du Chong, an old scribe in Wannian County, the pen is very powerful, well versed in human feelings, and they have found more than a dozen old writers who write for others, everyone is good at making the living angry to death, and can praise the dead to life.

This is the talent that Zhang Lei and Ang Lee need, market news! It is to make readers interested, to write about the big thing of Sesame in an interesting way, and the story of Zhang's family Li Jiaxiao is interesting.

As for the news spies, Zhang Lei finalized it in one sentence, recruit a hundred idlers on the streets of Chang'an, and pay according to the news they gave, in Zhang Lei's view, giving a fixed monthly salary is to raise a lazy man, run diligently, have more news, and naturally get more money, of course, the news must be true, not made up by himself.

At night, the newspaper hall is brightly lit, and everyone is gathering together to discuss the details of running a newspaper, no one has ever run a newspaper, but thinking about it is what it is, catching the reader's eyeballs and making the reader interested in reading it is successful.

More than a dozen pens each put a pot of wine on the table, two plates of cold dishes with wine, and a few glasses of wine.

"Guys, who are our readers? Ordinary people? In the future, perhaps, but at least not now, they are basically illiterate, and they can only buy newspapers and go back to make a fire and cook. ”

The chief judge, Du Chong, is about fifty years old, not tall, with a burnt yellow goatee under his chin, his eyes are dripping, and his thinking is very active, he drank the wine in the glass, took a sip of food into his mouth, and continued: "Our most important readers are actually the daughters of large families, and most of the women of wealthy families are literate, but they can't go out at will, they are bored in the house, and they are eager to understand the outside world, our newspaper will become their favorite, and they can't leave it every day. So we have to write about what women are interested in, the most popular makeup, the famous rouge, the most popular hairstyles, as well as clothes, jewelry, etc., don't let me say it alone, everyone adds it separately. ”

"And then there's the kids!"

A pen man smiled and said: "The experience of pregnancy, the experience of giving birth, the experience of confinement, the experience of raising children, and the experience of teaching children to read, we can write about how Jinshi is taught, to ensure that a lot of women are interested." ”

Everyone laughed and applauded, and Zhang Lei couldn't help grinning: "I'll interject a sentence!" ”

The proprietor spoke, everyone quieted down, Zhang Lei said: "We can't write all the things that women are interested in, we also have to consider the preferences of men, for example, many stories in the military drama are quite interesting, let's write them, don't publish them in one day, a story will be published in ten days, and ensure that he has to buy newspapers every day." ”

Everyone applauded in unison, Zhang Lei was proud in his heart, and said to everyone: "Also, His Royal Highness the King of Jin told me that he hopes that we will promote tea, let's write about tea, and write that drinking tea can prolong life, for example, in a village at the foot of Mount Emei, all the villagers live to be over ninety years old, why?" People drink tea every day, who doesn't want to live a long life, so as soon as it is written, everyone begins to drink tea. ”

There was no cheering in the lobby, everyone looked at each other, just now the fat man also said that it was strictly forbidden to write false news, and in a blink of an eye, he made it up himself.

Li An couldn't listen to it anymore, he coughed twice, attracted everyone's attention, and said with a smile: "I also say a few words, a newspaper is folded, that is, the front and back, left and right, let's leave one side to publish all kinds of professional news, such as the Pearl Restaurant on a certain month and a certain day The price of food is cheaper, such as Meishou wine buy five bottles and get one bottle free." ”

"This is a good idea!"

Guo Ping said with a smile: "As long as I buy five bottles at a time, I can indeed give one bottle, and the same is true for Pearl Restaurant, every Friday and October every month, the price of vegetables is reduced by two percent." ”

Zhang Lei rolled his eyes, "Lao An, our jewelry can also be published in the newspaper and sold out." ”

Li An shook his head, "No, there is a lot of demand in Luoyang, and I have reached an agreement with two Luoyang jewelers that they will underwrite our jewelry." ”