In the Funing Palace, in front of the emperor and empress, the news of the Liao's strategy spread throughout the capital later that day.

After a month of different opinions, a conclusion has finally been reached. And after Han Gang left the palace, he went straight to Dutingyi, which was like the most unscrupulous ultimatum, which also added a sense of reality.

The war was sudden and imminent, and at the same time it was no longer confined to the northwest border, but closer to Hebei, the capital. The upper and lower levels of Tokyo can no longer stay out of the matter, and regard the war as something else thousands of miles away - once the Liao division breaks through the three levels, the next obstacle between them and Kaifeng Mansion will be the Yellow River except for the soldiers and horses of the Daimyo Mansion.

When Han Gang returned home, both inside and outside the house also heard the news early, and during the meal, Wang Yi couldn't help but ask a few more questions.

"Peace of mind, the Liao people can't hit the capital. Guo Zhongtong went to the Daimyo's Mansion, and he sat in Hebei, and the Liao people inevitably had to suffer some hardships. The imperial court has been preparing for this battle for many years, and the armor and bows are transported to the north every day, and if the Liao people don't come again, the treasury will not be able to fit it! ”

Han Gang knew that tomorrow, some of the wives who were good friends with Wang Yi would come to the house to inquire about the news. It is not a bad thing to spread the word through the mouth of the lady and appease the people's hearts.

"It's all money." When Fang was released, Han Gang also met Zhang Qi, but they chatted a few words. Zhang Qi's complaint is not unreasonable.

When the border affairs gradually rose, what Kaifeng Mansion needed most was stability, but Qian Zao is now a prefect who has gone to work, even if the imperial court wants to stabilize the capital and let him stay until Lu Jiawen arrives in Beijing before leaving, how can he make those uncles in the mansion move?

Disobedience to Kaifeng Mansion and filial piety to the Imperial Historical Observatory. The character of the officials in Kaifeng has always been well-known.

So on Han Gang's side, a little responsibility also needs to be shared.

After eating, he used the time to ask his children about their homework, and for the rest of the evening, Han Gang came to his study as usual.

Sitting at the table, leaning on the back of the chair, looking at the things piled up on the table, Han Gang was a little lazy and didn't want to move. He doesn't have much to deal with every day, but there are so many things to think about that he is a little tired.

In the study, on the table more than six feet wide, half of the table was occupied by various books and papers. Right at Han Gang's hand, on one side is the textbook for preparing for class, and in a few days, when Cheng Hao and his party arrive in Beijing, the prince Zhao will start to study in the cabinet. On the other side is the final draft of the first issue of Nature that Han Gang brought back, and these days, he has used his bits and pieces of time to re-review and revise it.

Guozijian's printing workshop is already ready to be stereotyped, just waiting for the manuscript to be sent. The first issue of Han Gang is only going to print 300 copies, and it will be almost finished when it is distributed to relatives and friends. If there is still a demand, it is not difficult to reprint, after all, it is an engraved engraving, not a movable type that needs to be retyped.

However, the cost of engraving is not low, and the labor of good carvers is higher. This is also the reason why the books of Jingshi, Hangzhou, and Fujian, the three centers of the printing industry, are more expensive than the books of the Hangzhou version, while the Fujian version is the cheapest. In the Beijing Division, the quality of the Guozi Supervision Edition is the highest, and the carving workers in the prison have carved out the characters on the woodblock block, which is the standard Sanguan regular script.

If there had been a great development in the printing press, the price of books would have dropped considerably. The significance of the development of culture and science is self-evident. Han Gang naturally will not forget what kind of practical significance the word 'big' in the four great inventions contains.

However, Han Gang was not ambitious at the beginning. Typesetting and printing is not his area of expertise, only a little rough common sense. All that can be done is to point out a direction and let the craftsmen work hard. Just like he did in the Armory. And the so-called direction, naturally, is movable type printing.

Han Gang had heard the name Bi Sheng from Shen Kuo's mouth with his own ears, which he had heard when he introduced the topic to printing—because it happened to be Shen Kuo's cousin, who had collected a bunch of clay movable type left by Bi Sheng. In Shen Kuo's published notes, there is also this record, and even a conversation with Han Gang is also recorded, which is a lot more than the other "Dream Creek Pen Talk" in the air.

Bi Sheng was a printing workshop opened in Hangzhou when Renzong was in the past, and he was no longer alive at this time, and the inheritance became the collection of the Shen family, but the technique was still spreading. Decades have passed now, not to mention Hangzhou, there is more than one movable type workshop in the capital. Booklets of Buddhist scriptures and sutras printed with movable type are sold outside the gate of Xiangguo Temple, and the Keju Express is now printed with movable type.

It's just that it's not a cement type, but a wooden type, basically cork, manufacturing and typesetting are very convenient, but the printing quality is not good, worse than the worst Fujian version, typos and omissions are normal, and uneven typography is a feature of movable type printing. Because of the wear and tear of the movable type, the font of one or two characters every few lines is blurred, and it has always been unavoidable.

As for the lead type, it has not yet been found. Han Gang remembers that lead is an alloy of three metals that seems to be able to avoid heat. The problem of expansion and contraction. But he only remembered lead and tin, and he completely forgot what the rest was, so Han Gang considered using lead-tin alloy to make do with it first.

However, the first priority of printing is ink. Today's printing inks are difficult to use with movable metal type, and oil-based inks are required.

Han Gang is no stranger to ink, and remembers that in his previous life, he was often blackened by the ink on the exam papers and handouts, and even helped the teacher brush the exam papers with wax plates.

With mimeographing technology, with lead movable type, it has great potential, and if it continues to develop, it should be the standard movable type printing technology of later generations.

When Han Gang returned to the capital last year and was ready to work hard academically, he began to take precautions and wrote to Feng Congyi to ask him to find someone to set up a stall. Although he doesn't know much, the name ink is the most crucial hint, and the rest is to let the craftsmen experiment a little bit.

This matter, it only took more than half a year to go back and forth to have a result. Just a few years ago, Han Gang received the finished ink products from Gongzhou. Subtracting the time spent on the road and Feng Congyi's delay in finding craftsmen, only one or two months were really spent on research.

However, when Han Gang opened the package and saw a few ink blocks that had fallen on the table, his mood could only be described as ridiculous.

How is ink going to be done? It's very simple, it is to collect carbon black, mix it with glue, and make it into a black and hard ink block like a stone. That's the general process, and the rest of the quality is just a matter of detail. Among them, the carbon black, which is the body of the word ink, is mostly made by burning wood rich in grease, and there are also coal blocks, and the ink workers recruited by Feng Congyi saw the word ink, so they cleverly burned oil to make charcoal.

The craftsmen Feng Congyi was looking for were naturally first-class ink workers. Because Han Gang said in the letter that he would try several more oilseeds to find out the most suitable recipe, he creatively mixed vegetable oil, lard, pine oil, and oil together and burned them. Feng Congyi also said in the letter that the mixing ratio is indeed very important, and the ink workers he hired have found an excellent formula ratio through a large number of experiments, and the carbon black burned is first-class. If you can find a few old ink workers from Shezhou [Huizong when it was renamed Huizhou], you can even create ink that is not inferior to Li Tingju's father and son.

And in the letter of the parents, this matter was also mentioned. In the letter, his wife also lamented that Han Gang finally looked like a literati. Finally began to make a fuss on pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, and no longer to invent weapons and armor to fight and kill.

What else can Han Gang say? Go directly to Feng Congyi and ask Feng Congyi to take care of it, if you can make ink also become a specialty of Longyou, just let him go.

As for the idea of making ink, I decided to find a printing workshop in the capital in a few days to find a way. Xihe Road is too far away, and many words are not said clearly, and the misunderstanding is big, and it is not something that can be clarified in a day or two.

After taking a sip of hot tea, Han Gang sat up straight.

The new printing technique is a matter of eternal generations, and its weight is thousands of times more important than the confrontation at the border gate, but after all, it is not the urgent task at hand, and what needs to be considered now is the battle in front of us after all.

Unfolding the paper and lifting the pen, Han Gang began to write a letter to Li Xin.

This is the second letter he has written to Li Xin in this time. Regarding the necessity and significance of this battle, Han Gang felt that he needed to explain it to his cousin.

The Song people were afraid of Liao, because from Sanguan in Hebei to Kaifeng in the south, it was a flat river, and only the Yellow River could barely be regarded as a natural risk. After the Liao State, he captured Kaifeng once and attacked Kaifeng again. The fear of the Khitan iron cavalry was deposited over more than 100 years.

And the threat from the Western Xia side is not at all on the hearts of the soldiers and civilians in the capital. At the peak of the Western Xia army, the Iron Harrier never reached the Guanzhong Plain, and even the border cities such as Yanzhou and Gyeongju were never captured. After the defeat of Sanchuankou, someone once wrote to Renzong to fortify Tongguan, but it was immediately refuted and regarded as a joke.

If you want to recover Yanyun in the future, you must first reverse your fear of the Liao.

In a sense, this battle is a good thing. Yelu Yixin was caught off guard, and the military action under the haste was relatively easy to deal with. Take this opportunity to gradually dispel the fear of the Khitan cavalry.

Naturally, the premise of everything is that you have to win. Li Xin, who guarded the city of Guangxin, his position in the battle of Yuliao will be extremely crucial.

……………………

"Is this a letter from Senior Minister Han?"

Song Xian stretched his neck and looked at the letter paper in Li Xin's hand with envy. Search the army, which military general has a cousin who is a stable prime minister? And the relationship is so good.

"It's a pity it's late." Li Xin was as silent as ever, and his expression was also plain. He folded the letter and put it away, got up and walked out of the hall door.

In the courtyard, there were four human heads in a horizontal row at this time, either baring their teeth or staring, with strange expressions.

All four heads are hairy, with the top shaved and braided all around.

It's the Khitans.

"The guests are already here......" Li Xin sighed softly.