As soon as Tianxia Daily was published, it caused a sensation among Lin'an citizens.
A total of 50,000 copies were printed. Wang Yinglin and others thought that if they could sell half of them, they would be considered successful.
After all, "Calendar" published by the Taishi Bureau only sold for 70 copies. It was needed by every household, but it only sold 20,000 to 300,000 copies, and it was still sold one after another.
Most ordinary people save money when they can. Even if the "calendar" can be used for many years, they are still more willing to spend only two or three pennies to buy a small calendar printed by the people for one year.
Although the literacy rate in the Song Dynasty was high and there were many scholars in Lin'an City, not all of them were willing to spend money to read newspapers. In the eyes of ordinary people, although five cents was a small amount, they could still buy two vegetable buns.
Moreover, this is the first time it has been put on sale. No one else knows about this daily newspaper. How many people will buy it? The sales volume will definitely be limited.
It is correct to think so, but Wang Yinglin and others still underestimated the power of King Yan's Ci.
For no other reason than to see King Yan's new words with their own eyes, countless people were willing to spend the five cents.
As a result, 50,000 newspapers were sold out within an hour, and some people even bought all the newspapers in the newsboy's bag.
Maybe some people want to bring it to relatives and friends or collect something, but more people actually resell it at a higher price, making a small profit several times. I have to admire their business sense.
After I bought the newspaper, I was a little uncomfortable with the horizontal version at first, but then I discovered the benefits of punctuation.
In the past, whether it was writing or printing, it was usually continuous one word after another. Therefore, to understand the article, you not only need to be literate, but also need to be able to read sentences, that is, segment sentences yourself.
Even though Mengtong has learned the words, he still has to rely on the teacher to segment sentences for them when reading.
If the sentence segmentation is inaccurate, it is very easy to create ambiguity, and even one sentence can have many completely different meanings.
The ancients were not unaware of this problem, so it was best to use neat sentence patterns, or parallelism, or duality, or symmetry, to help readers break up sentences.
There are also some special words that often appear in the writing, which are also used to break sentences.
Generally speaking, '曰' and '云' are used to summarize the following, 'gai' and 'husband' are mostly at the beginning of the sentence, 'yue', 'er', 'ze', 'yi' are generally used as transitions in the middle, 'ye', 'zhe', 'nao', Heng, Sui' means pause, 'zai' is used at the end of the sentence to express exclamation, 'ye, hu' expresses question, and '矣, er' expresses the end.
However, there are still some places where ambiguity is easy to occur. Some people will draw a slash, or symbols such as dots, triangles, and squares, which are considered primitive punctuation marks.
Nowadays, as long as you read the instructions in the newspaper, you can use this standardized and complete set of symbols to easily segment sentences.
"This punctuation mark seems simple, but with it, it makes reading the text much easier. How wonderful!"
"Haha, it seems that this is my first time seeing this punctuation mark. In fact, Qiushi Bookstore, a subsidiary of Prince Yan's Mansion, has published many books and has been using them for a long time."
"Qiushi Bookstore? What masterpieces have they printed? I'll buy a few too."
"Well, the books printed by Qiushi Bookstore are a bit special. They are all about practical miscellaneous subjects, including new arithmetic, elementary geometry, introduction to accounting, and Qi Ming Yao Shu, etc.
"Aren't there four books, five classics, and selected poems?... Well, I love books. No matter what kind of book they are, go buy some and talk about it."
"These books are very cheap, so it doesn't hurt to buy some, and they should be knowledge that His Highness Prince Yan attaches great importance to. It is not without benefit to understand some of them."
"It makes sense. Thank you for your advice... Your Highness, King Yan, is indeed a great talent. This new song is about Qin E... The majestic pass and the long road are really like iron, but now I'm crossing them from the beginning... It's really heroic and exciting!"
"His Royal Highness, King Yan, is always able to introduce new things from the old. Let's just say that this newspaper is much more interesting than ordinary tabloids. You see, there are also romances, legends, anecdotes, stories, and celebrity anecdotes..."
"I think the most wonderful thing is this political commentary. It analyzes the pros and cons of the Economic Realm Law. Finally, it says that if you have different opinions, you are welcome to contribute. If you choose to use it, you will be paid..."
Tianxia Daily has rich and novel content, and you can even spend half a day reading it carefully. It has caught the appetite of most people at once, and the price is much cheaper than tabloids.
As a result, the tabloids on the market began to be ignored, leaving people in the industry scratching their heads and trying every means to win back customers. They even lowered the price to five cents a copy, but it still had no effect.
The vendors at the newsstands were okay, and they could still maintain their business by selling Tianxia Daily, but the bookstores and newspapers that compiled and printed the tabloids were dumbfounded.
There is such a bookstore specializing in tabloids in Xingqingfang near Xiawazi, called Bamin Jiyinfang. The owner is Chen Shilin, a native of Jianyang, Fujian.
Jianyang, Fujian, Bianjing, Lin'an, and Chengdu were the four major book printing centers in the Song Dynasty. Now that Bianjing has fallen, Chengdu is also a war zone, so the books on the market at this time are basically Lin'an official and private editions and Jianyang editions.
There is a saying that "Jianyang edition books travel everywhere and reach everywhere."
Although the quality of Jianyang edition books is relatively poor due to problems with paper and engraving materials, it is cheap.
The essence of books is to spread knowledge, and the cheaper price has greatly promoted local education in Fujian, thus becoming an 'imperial examination factory'.
During the three hundred years of the Song Dynasty, a total of more than 30,000 Jinshi were admitted, of which a quarter were from Fujian, which shows how impressive it is.
Chen Shilin's family also opened a bookstore in Jianyang earlier. Chen Shilin himself passed the preparatory examination and came to Lin'an to take the exam, but unfortunately he lost his name in Sunshan.
However, he discovered that the tabloid industry was very lucrative in Lin'an. After returning home, he persuaded his father to move to Lin'an. He worked there for thirty years and became the leader of Lin'an's tabloid industry.
Relying on the tabloid, the Chen family has also saved a lot of money, and their life is prosperous. However, as soon as the Tianxia Daily came out, the Bamin Ji Seal Shop was plunged into the cold winter.
More than ten days later, it was so poor that not a single copy could be sold. Even if it was distributed to newsstands at a reduced price and on credit, it was still returned after two days of storage.
Looking at the piles of returned newspapers in the yard, Chen Shilin's face was as bitter as a bitter gourd, and he complained to himself, "You are a dignified King of Yan. You don't enjoy the glory and wealth. You don't care about many important affairs of the country. Why should you?" Are you going to make a daily newspaper to compete with me and other common people? Just make it, and sell it so cheaply, leaving no way for people to survive at all!"
He lamented, picked up the Tianxia Daily on the desk and studied it. The more he read, the more he thought about it, and the more puzzled he became.
"Although this paper is rough, it is still better than what we use. News pays attention to timeliness. I guess it uses the same movable type as us, but how can the font be so small and clear? The ink is actually stable and does not bleed. , so both sides of a piece of paper can be printed... It stands to reason that to achieve these fine workmanship, the cost must be far more than ours. Why can it be sold so cheaply? Could it be that King Yan was used to spreading his wealth away just for fun? "
Movable type has been invented a long time ago. It has obvious advantages, but there are also many disadvantages. A rough summary is that wooden type is easy to deform, clay type is rough and fragile, and metal type has poor inkability and is expensive.
Moreover, the structure of Chinese characters is complex, and the method of manufacturing character molds at that time was hand carving one by one instead of casting. The requirements for technicians were very high, and it was no more labor-saving than full-page carving.
The most important thing is that the printed book can be read, but the quality is not high, there is no sense of exquisiteness, and it does not meet the requirements of readers.
Moreover, the Song Dynasty already had strong woodblock printing production capabilities and a corresponding woodblock printing industry class, which could fully meet market demand, so there was no urgency for new printing technology.
Therefore, movable type is generally only used for printing Buddhist scriptures, almanacs, tabloids and the like.
Zhao Mengqi guided the craftsmen to overcome the problems of type casting, type checking, and ink. The new printing technology formed by this was so low-cost that Chen Shilin could not figure it out even if he squeezed his brain.
Just when Chen Shilin was so worried that he was about to eat the newspaper in his hand, several subordinate staff came in.
"Commissioner Chen, my brothers have sent you another message. There is a lot of news today..."
Chen Shilin smiled bitterly, "It's not like you don't know Chen's current situation, so it's useless to receive your information."
The subordinates were also very distressed and laughed sarcastically, "Of course we know the difficulties of the members, but considering that we have cooperated with each other for so many years, you can just accept the news. This time I will only charge you half the price of the head office. You Our family is big and our business is big, so we don’t need these three melons and two dates, but my brothers are still waiting for money to buy rice to put into the pot..."
One thing to say is that the Chen family's tabloid can become bigger and stronger thanks to these 'part-time reporters' who can always deliver juicy secrets.
Chen Shilin hadn't given up completely at this time, so for the sake of maintaining the relationship, he said, "Okay, Chen will grit his teeth and fight this difficulty alone. He can't treat his brothers badly. Tell me, what kind of material it is."
Seeing that Chen Shilin agreed, the 'part-time reporters' were all relieved. News is worthless if you can't find a seller, and it expires quickly.
"It was reported by our friends in the palace that Concubine Yan secretly summoned a singing and dancing troupe yesterday afternoon..."
"What's so strange about this? Doesn't the palace often hire entertainers from the market?"
"Hehe, don't worry, Mr. Chen. This time is unusual. The troupe was called by Concubine Yan, but it was actually a performance for the officials. The officials were very happy after watching it and gave him a heavy reward. The key is …”
"What's the key, don't show off."
"Hehe, the key point is that the singing and dancing troupe came out before the palace was locked, but one person was missing, and the missing person is most likely Tang An'an."
"Tang An'an!?"
"It's probably her. Since she didn't leave the palace, she must have been stayed by the officials. Others, you know, hehe..."
Chen Shilin couldn't help but feel moved, "The government is keeping prostitutes in the inner palace!? Wow! It's really exciting news... Hey, if it was half a month ago, with this news, I could have made at least a few hundred coins! What a pity..."
If such a secret was published in a tabloid, it would definitely anger the officials, but if it could make money, it wouldn't hurt to take some risks, but now that newspapers can't be sold, it would be a bit silly to do so.
I spent five guan on this melon, but in the end I had to keep it for myself.
When Chen Shilin returned home in the evening, his son Chen Huang came up to him with excitement on his face, "Dad, our printing shop is saved..."
Seeing his son who had always been out of tune, Chen Shilin subconsciously wanted to scold him, but he saw a scholar following his son.
"My Excellency, Sun Yuanzheng, is friends with Chen Huangnai and is also from Fujian. I would like to take the liberty of asking Uncle Chen to find a clean place to discuss the printing workshop."
Chen Shilin was suspicious, but after hearing about the Yin Fang, he still had patience and led Sun Yuanzheng to his study.
The three of them sat down, and Sun Yuanzheng looked serious. "I have a way to bring your seal shop back to life, but there is a condition. I must not reveal my relationship with you to anyone..."
After the Chen family and his son made the guarantee, Sun Yuanzheng said slowly, "Tomorrow, I will ask someone to send 10,000 yuan. What your printing shop has to do is to continue printing tabloids, and then give them to the vendors for free, so that they can Only sold for a penny..."
Ten thousand guan, based on the price of 20 cents a piece, is half a million copies, which is already the sales volume of the company in the past two or three months.
When Chen Shilin heard this, he naturally would not disagree, but he also knew that pie in the sky would not fall into the sky, so he frowned, "Ten thousand guan is not small money. I wonder how you want me to repay you for doing this?"
Sun Yuanzheng chuckled, "Uncle Chen is also a transparent person, so I will open the skylight and speak frankly. What I have to do is not complicated, and you often did it before. As for the specific content to be released, you will naturally know when the time comes. Don't worry, It won’t be more serious than the ones you published before. What you have to do now is to maintain the channels of your tabloid..."
Chen Shilin understood what Sun Yuanzheng meant. Although he was still a little uneasy, if he gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, as long as the content does not cross the line... It is not difficult to maintain the channel. There is no way that vendors will not want free things. It's just right. I have what I have." Got a big ingredient..."
But after Sun Yuanzheng asked about the content of the aniseed, he stopped him, "No! If this causes trouble, it will affect my plan!"
"Well, you bought these newspapers anyway, you have the final say." Chen Shilin shrugged.
The two sides agreed on some details, and finally Sun Yuanzheng said before leaving, "Ten thousand guan is not enough, and you can add more when the time comes. As long as your seal shop survives a month or two, it will definitely be able to come back to life."
