In the side hall of the Yingtian Yamen, Du Zhongxiao asked Bi Wenzhong: "How did you make movable type before?" ”

Bi Wenzhong said respectfully: "Back to the officials, Xiaomin learned the method from his ancestors, using clay to make character molds and burning them dry into pottery characters. ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded, consistent with what he had learned in history, and asked, "Have you ever tried to make gold and bronze characters?" ”

Bi Wenzhong shook his head: "Our ancestral lettering, but some wages, can only wrap the stomach, where can we use those valuable things." ”

"Now you go to the camp to do things, and the yamen will give you these things." Du Zhongxiao stood up, "You come with me and see if you can use copper to make a lettering mold." I also have a few lettering workers here to do this, but they are not familiar with the technique, and they have not been able to do so. ”

Out of the partial flower hall, Du Zhongxiao ordered Su Shunqin to come, took Bi Wenzhong, and walked all the way to the back office. When I arrived at the back office, I went all the way to a small courtyard. As soon as I entered the small courtyard, I heard the sound of "smack, smack", low and powerful.

When he arrived at a side room at the end, Du Zhongxiao said to Bi Wenzhong: "This is the place where the Yingtian Yamen makes book editions, and this house is the most important place." Once you're here, you're going to do things here. You can rest assured that you are not tired of living here, the money and food are preferential, and the treatment is good, and you will never have such a good thing when you engrave elsewhere. ”

Bi Wenzhong said yes. He was an engraver, and in this era, the government did not need to ask him whether he agreed or not, as long as the wages were calculated according to the market price. didn't know what Du Zhongxiao said just now, he was actually asking him for his opinion, if he didn't want to, he wouldn't go in today.

Seeing that Bi Wenzhong had no disagreement, Du Zhongxiao and Su Shunqin took the lead and took Bi Wenzhong into the door.

The house was very large, and there were several workbenches in it, and seven workers worked on the workbenches in twos and threes. Seeing Du Zhongxiao and Su Shunqin coming in, he hurriedly stopped and saluted.

Du Zhongxiao took Bi Wenzhong to the side of a workbench in the middle, pointed to a large flat steel block on it, and said: "This is where we make copper characters, because the cast characters are always insufficient, so I want to use steel molds to press them out." These people are the ones who carved words on the steel molds. ”

Bi Wenzhong looked at the steel plate, and some words had been engraved on it. Unlike the reverse characters in the weekday version, these characters are normal and relatively small. After thinking about it, I understand that some steel plates will be pressed on the copper mold in the future, and the words that come out will become reversed, and the printed words will be orthography.

When making engravings, soft wood will be deliberately selected, so that it is more labor-saving and carved quickly. If you use a hardwood version, the price is very expensive. It turned out to be carved on a steel plate here, so what kind of hard knife should be used? How much effort does it take?

Du Zhongxiao seemed to have guessed Bi Wenzhong's thoughts, and said, "The carving knife here is different from the outside, and it doesn't require much strength. ”

After speaking, he motioned to a worker and showed Bi Wenzhong the operation.

The worker picked up the engraving pen on the workbench, grabbed a thick rope beside it, and carefully loaded it. I heard a buzzing sound on the pen, and the pen vibrated slightly. The worker took the pen in his hand and carefully approached the steel plate, when he heard a sizzling sound, and many fine iron filings appeared on the steel plate. The pen moves, and it doesn't take much effort to carve a stroke.

Bi Wenzhong was dumbfounded, he couldn't imagine that there was such a miraculous thing in the world. With this kind of engraving pen, what is the difficulty of engraving on the steel plate?

Du Zhongxiao looked at the words on the steel plate, and said: "After practicing for many days, the carved words have been clearly drawn now." It's just that this font always doesn't look very pleasing to the eye, and the printed books are a bit eye-consuming to read. You are a family heirloom lettering skill, and you will work here in the future, and together with these craftsmen, try a new font suitable for movable type. It should be clear, the strokes should not stick, it should be conducive to typesetting, and it should be very pleasing to the eye when the printed book is read. Printing books, unlike writing, does not require famous fonts, and it is best to read books so that you will not notice the good and bad words at all. ”

Bi Wenzhong arched his hand: "If the official is spoken, the villain can save it." The best words used in printing books are that the reader completely ignores the words and only memorizes the content. ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded again and again, sure enough, it is a family of lettering, and he understands these truths at all.

The printed book is not a work of calligraphy, it is not for the reader to appreciate the good and bad words, but only to convey information. Therefore, the font requirements are different from handwriting, and it is best to have a uniform font, no matter what the word, it looks similar, but it is very easy to read. When reading a book, you can focus on the content and not be affected by the font. This is the printed style, which was called Song style characters and imitation Song characters in later generations. The font is named after the Song Dynasty, because it originated in the Song Dynasty and was perfected little by little in later generations.

In the past, the wooden carved books had a larger font and were generally imitations of famous regular scripts. Famous fonts, when used for writing, will naturally be pleasing to the eye. But when it comes to printing, it's actually a bit inappropriate. When the word is big, it is meaningless, and the smaller and denser the word, it will appear discordant.

The Song font of the printing font has just begun to emerge at this time, and it is far from perfect. Movable type made of copper is not suitable for too much, and now all fonts are not suitable, and a new font must be studied according to practice. Now the technical conditions for movable type printing have been met, and they are stuck here. As for the legend that the Song character was created in Qin Hui, it is completely nonsense attached to the association, and the prime minister will not be laughed to death when he writes this kind of character.

Bi Sheng first created movable type, and once made some changes to the font, Bi Wenzhong naturally knew it. I understand why Du Zhongxiao let me come here, and the lettering workers here, although they are also proficient, do not have a deep understanding of movable type. Bi Sheng's hometown, Qizhou, is a place rich in lettering workers for historical reasons. The craft has been passed down from generation to generation, and those who practice well can make a living by crafting along the waterway to Xuanzhou and Hangzhou downstream. Bi Sheng's young man also carved words in Hangzhou, and only returned to his hometown in his later years. The principle of printed fonts, the people in their family understand it more deeply than others.

I called the supervisor to instruct him, and let Bi Wenzhong do things here in the future, with preferential money and food, and arrange accommodation outside. If he wants, he can also bring his family in. Anyway, the family members all make a living from lettering, and they don't have to worry about making a living here.

Let Bi Wenzhong stay there, Du Zhongxiao and Su Shun went to a workbench in a corner.

There were three workers here, and when they saw the two of Du Zhong's family coming, they hurriedly bowed their hands.

When he arrived at the workbench, Du Zhongxiao asked Supervisor Yang, who was in charge here, "How is the new version carved?" ”

Director Yang arched his hand: "The officials are roughly ready." After two more days, you can test print it the day after tomorrow. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "This is the printing paper used to collect and store copper coins in the future, and it must be able to prevent people from forging, and it must not be sloppy at all." Be careful not to make any mistakes. After the trial printing, the edition was managed by Su Yinggou. What this version looks like, don't reveal it to outsiders! ”

The three of them said yes together.

Du Zhongxiao and Su Shunqin stepped forward together, and the plates on the stand were already coarse. This is a copper plate, carved with a special carving knife, just like the steel plate. However, the carving knives here are divided into different types and thicknesses, which are much more complicated than those over there. On the plate is a landscape drawing of a section of the Han River between Xiangyang and Fancheng. Because it's the opposite, you can't see it too clearly.

After looking at it for a while, Du Zhongxiao said to Su Shunqin beside him: "It's a pity that the days are still shorter, and the painting skills are not perfect. When there are good painters, these engravers are also skilled, and they can make new editions. ”

Su Shunqin said: "It's only a few months, and it's enough." The technique of this painting is different from usual, it is only for anti-counterfeiting, and when it is used, it is a variety of colors, which is enough to prevent folk forgery. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "As a receipt for a savings bank, it can naturally be prevented." If it is used to print Jiaozi in the future, it is still somewhat insufficient. ”

Su Shunqin smiled: "It's too much to raise. One is that this painting is different, and it is not something that ordinary painters can make. Second, it is difficult to make plates, where do ordinary people have our plate-making equipment? The third is that it is well-printed, it is a variety of colors, out of here, there is no such skill in the world. ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded slightly and did not speak.

When you open a bank, of course, you have to print money, and you can't use copper coins. With the development of commerce, the demand for circulating currency in the market has increased rapidly, and copper coins are far from meeting the needs. It is not necessarily that there are too few copper coins in the world, and no one knows how many copper coins there are at this time.

Money, as a general equivalent, is a measure of value and a means of circulation. As a precious metal currency, copper coins also have storage value. Since the Han Dynasty minted the five-baht coin, the successive dynasties did not know how many copper coins were minted for thousands of years, and they circulated in the market at the same time. Copper coins of rough mint and poor quality were wanted to be spent by everyone, and they were often reclaimed and reminted by the imperial court. And those that are well-cast, many of them are stored and are rare on the market. This is the process of bad money driving out good money, except that the good money does not disappear, but is stored.

To issue banknotes, it is not enough to rely on the credit of the imperial court alone, and there must be sufficient margin. The credit of the banknote is good, and it will slowly lead out the copper coins stored by the people as a deposit for the banknote and support the credit of the banknote. This required that the banknotes were well-made and printed, that they had good credit, and that the monetary policy of the imperial court was effective. It's worth it.

The opening of a savings bank first, then the construction of a very good line, and then the issuance of paper money was planned by Du Zhongxiao. One of the most important is the quality of banknotes, and a lot of thought has been put into this matter. The landscape paintings printed on it are deliberately distinguished by Du Zhongxiao from the current paintings, and are mainly realistic. Specially recruited painters, taught them perspective and other knowledge, and completely opened up a new genre. As for plate making and printing, more thought is put into it.