Zhao Mengqi deceived Li Zengbo to regain his fighting spirit.
Later, the imperial court rarely became generous. It promoted Li Zengbo to an official position, made him the founding uncle of Huating County, entered Guanwen Palace as a bachelor, added Prince Shaobao, signed a letter to the Privy Council, served as the establishment ambassador of Guangnan and the pacification ambassador of Hunan, and knew Jingjiang. Mansion.
So Li Zengbo stayed in Lin'an for less than half a month before taking office.
By the first day of July, the long-prepared Tianxia Daily will be officially launched.
Newspapers were nothing new at this time.
The official imperial newspaper of the imperial court was edited and published by the Jinzouyuan and was regularly sent to officials across the country. It was called the "Jinzouyuan Report".
In fact, there are many tabloids among the people. They existed before Nandu, and they are even more common now.
There is a special newsstand in Lin'an City, which starts selling "Chao Bao" every morning in the early morning. It is not hand-written, but printed. There is even a daily issue. In fact, it has formed an industry.
Of course, this was just privately compiled and published by the people under the guise of "Chaobao", and was also called "news" by people at the time.
Although the imperial court established regulatory agencies, they were of little use because the scholar-bureaucrats all pursued "freedom of speech."
Therefore, unfettered tabloids work hard on content in order to gain attention and compete for sales.
They even have people who specialize in interviewing news, as well as yamen middlemen and petty officials who secretly help them collect official inside information. They are called "internal detectives", "provincial detectives" and "yamen detectives".
Political affairs that have not yet been announced by the imperial court, such as those that have not yet been implemented by officials, those that are still being discussed by the central government, as well as certain inside stories, palace secrets, etc., were spread early without a word.
Some even made up orders out of thin air, exaggerated the truth, and falsely reported incidents. Their audacity may exceed the imagination of future generations.
Just like in the fourth year of Daguan, a tabloid published an edict from Emperor Daojun rebuking Cai Jing. However, this edict was completely fabricated by the tabloid. It was a fake edict. In other dynasties, it would undoubtedly be a major crime against the Nine Tribes. But at that time, this incident of "falsely writing edicts" ended up being ignored...
At the beginning of the southern journey, another tabloid newspaper forged and spread Zhao Jiumei's edict, which made Zhao Gou very embarrassed and had to come forward to clarify.
The imperial court also repeatedly issued decrees in an attempt to strictly control tabloids, but the ban was always repeated.
Sometimes, this kind of tabloid becomes a weapon for some people to attack political opponents, and it is usually very effective. Zhu Xi suffered greatly from this.
Zhu Xi has always been a supporter of the economic border policy. When he was sixty years old, he went to Zhangzhou and was responsible for the implementation of the economic border in Quan, Zhang and Tingzhou.
The purpose of this economic circle is not to change the original total amount of taxes, but to equalize taxes based on actual land ownership. The rich pay more, and the poor pay less. This is a good thing that benefits the country and the people, but it will harm the powerful. Landowner interests.
Fujian has always been a place where scientific research flourished in the Song Dynasty. There were many officials in the court, so many bureaucratic landlords formed, and land annexation was very serious.
Zhu Xi wanted to touch their cheese, but he was naturally strongly opposed by these people, so he used various means, including criticizing his academics, attacking his reputation, and discrediting his character...
At that time, tabloids exposed the news that he was having an affair with his daughter-in-law, and soon they said that he was jealous and almost killed the famous camp prostitute Yan Rui, etc.
The story was well written, and the scandals and scandals were always popular among people who wanted to read them. Therefore, Zhu Xi was ranked among the top ten entertainment figures.
As for whether the scandal was true and whether it had happened, it was impossible to verify it. Zhu Xi himself couldn't explain it even though he had ten mouths to explain it, so he was hit by this and was forced to resign.
The case of Fujian Road Jingjie was thus aborted, and it was never implemented again until the fall of the Song Dynasty.
Zhao Mengqi has long been disgusted with these uncontrolled tabloids, but he also knows that it is difficult to control them through coercive means. First of all, the big bandanas will definitely not agree. Sao.
Therefore, Zhao Mengqi simply started his own newspaper and used commercial means to seize the communication market and squeeze the living space of unscrupulous tabloids.
to see
To witness the launch of Tianxia Daily, Zhao Mengqi personally came to the newspaper printing office of the Publicity and Propaganda Department on this day. Wang Yinglin and other officials had been waiting for it.
The newspapers printed overnight exuded a strong fragrance of ink, and Zhao Mengqi picked up one and read it.
The paper is rough but thick, similar in size to later generations. Although there is only one page, it is printed on both sides.
Because lead type and ink are used, the fonts are only as large as a feather, so the paper utilization rate is very high.
In this way, costs can be reduced, which is a huge advantage that private tabloids cannot match.
"Your Highness, do you really want to set the price at only five cents? If you do this, you will not make a profit, and you may even suffer a loss." Wang Yinglin looked a little worried.
The printing industry in the Song Dynasty was very developed. A regular book cost about one hundred liters during the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty. At this time, it usually cost about 400 liters.
It's not that it's really expensive, but it's due to inflation. At that time, one stone meter cost about 500 yuan, but now it fluctuates around 2 guan.
Folk tabloids usually cost 20 cents, and each copy can earn about 30 to 5 cents. Therefore, even if Zhao Mengqi priced the Tianxia Daily at 10 cents, he would still have a big price advantage. In this way, even if there is no profit, there is no problem in maintaining capital.
Zhao Mengqi flipped through the newspaper and said with a smile, "If it is to make money, I can do it tens of millions of times more than this newspaper."
This is true, who doesn’t know that you are the “King of Wealth”?
Wang Yinglin laughed secretly and continued to persuade, "Your Highness, I know that this newspaper is mainly for publicity. In this way, the more it sells, the more losses it will suffer. It's fine in the short term, but over time, this expenditure will be huge." It’s very scary. Once the source of funds is lost, it will be unsustainable. No matter what you do, this loss-making business will never last..."
Zhao Mengqi nodded, "You are right. If a thing wants to develop sustainably, it must have the ability to be self-reliant. The reason why I set a low price is to monopolize the newspaper market."
Wang Yinglin seemed to have thought of something, "What your Highness means is that we first spend money to drive those messy tabloids away from the market as soon as possible, leaving Lin'an with only one newspaper. When there are no competitors, we can then raise the price?... This method It seems a bit unkind, and if we raise the price then, people may not be able to accept it."
This method was very common in later generations and was used by everyone. It is not that no one used it at this time, but it was often called a female businessman. Moreover, Tianxia Daily has an official status. If it gains a monopoly and then cuts leeks, it will be too unfair. It is ugly and detrimental to the dignity of the court.
"In business, there is nothing kind or unkind. Those tabloids are just trying to make money, and there is no bottom line."
Zhao Mengqi disagreed, curled his lips and continued, "Don't worry, the price of this newspaper will not be raised. Even if the number of pages is increased later, it will not be mentioned. It is only five cents per copy. Don't be afraid. You won't lose money. Even if you give it away for free, it will actually be fine." You won’t lose anything.”
"How is this possible? Even if the ink and paper are produced by His Highness's workshop and are supplied to the Publicity Department for free, craftsmen, editors, proofreaders, reporters, newsboys, etc. must be paid..."
Seeing Wang Yinglin's frown, Zhao Mengqi smiled again, "I told you that in business, how can paper and ink be supplied for free? ...Forget it, then I will tell you in advance how to make money."
"The main source is commercial advertising...Secondly, people can spend money to publish revelations, find people and things, obituary announcements, personal poetry works..."
Wang Yinglin was stunned, "Poetry? Shouldn't we polish the writing?"
"Our newspaper must strive to cover as many people as possible, so I ask you to publish more content that the people like to hear, and to use plain language that is easy to understand. As for the imperial decree, after publishing the original text, it must also be analyzed in detail. Be sure to Let the common people understand it thoroughly... Poetry is just a game for literati, and most audiences are actually not interested. When a literati publishes poems in newspapers, it is actually the newspapers that help him become famous. Of course, whoever benefits will pay..."
Wang Yinglin understood Zhao Mengqi's theory, but he still felt awkward.
While talking, the workers loaded bundles of newspapers onto the carriages used for distribution and transportation.
Then the carriage rushed to various stalls in Lin'an City and delivered them to various stalls.
Stations and newsstands, the newsstand is a fixed sales point, and each stall has a varying number of newsboys responsible for mobile sales.
These newsboys are all between ten and twelve or thirteen years old. Most of them are children from poor families in the city, and some are orphans from the Salesian Bureau.
It's not that Zhao Mengqi wants to exploit child labor, nor does he want these half-grown children to make a living in this way. There is no need at all.
After the Salesian Bureau was reorganized, the orphans received real assistance and care, no longer lacked food and clothing, and Zhao Mengqi also set up an elementary school for them.
Letting them sell newspapers can not only train their concepts and abilities to be self-reliant, but also allow them to integrate into society and earn some private money.
In addition, Zhao Mengqi also set up an elementary school in an area with many poor people in the city. Not only was the tuition free, but he also provided two meals, as long as he worked within his ability.
Selling newspapers is one of them, and you still get paid.
The reason for this is that people often do not appreciate things they get for free and develop inertia.
This is not Zhao Mengqi’s conjecture, but something that is actually happening. At this time, one of the shortcomings of social assistance institutions being criticized is “raising lazy people.”
These children sell newspapers for an hour at Chenshi, and then go back to school.
Therefore, they wore uniform blue clothes, which were both uniforms and school uniforms. After picking up newspapers at the station, they put them into special satchels and then quickly ran to their assigned streets.
Almost at the same time, clear and loud children's voices sounded throughout Lingan City.
"Selling newspapers for five cents each, including His Highness Prince Yan's latest lyrics!"
"Tian Xia Daily, Tian Xia Daily! The Mongol army invaded Yangzhou. General Xia Gui led his troops to the rescue. He cleverly set up an ambush to defeat the Mongolian army and relieve the crisis in Yangzhou!"
"Good news, good news, the regular ship from Lin'an to Jiankang has officially opened. The full passenger ship ticket only costs the same! You can also check in large and small cargo, ensuring it arrives on time and safely!"
"Recruitment information, Shengxing Weaving Company is recruiting a large number of weavers and embroiderers. The wages are good, the more you work, the more you get!"
"News news, the wife of the Wang family of Puningfang gave birth to quadruplets, and was awarded thirty gold medals by the court..."
