The Yongle Dadian Publishing and Printing Workshop was officially opened, located opposite Yongqinghou.
Li Qing took advantage of this excuse to not go to court, and spent most of his time at home. He occasionally went to the East Palace to see Fatty, and his life became more and more comfortable.
The workshop is not large, covering an area of only two acres, and was completed in just two and a half months.
Then, Li Qing posted a recruitment notice and went to the library where the great collection is stored.
~
"Yongqing Hou, you can't take this away." When the little eunuch saw that Li Qing was going to take the original copy away, he immediately quit. "The emperor said, you can see if you can take it away."
"Presumptuous." Li Qing said with a straight face, "The emperor asked me to print the ceremony. How can I print it if you don't take it away?"
"That won't work either." The little eunuch said with a grimace, "If you take the prince away, something goes wrong during the ceremony, and I won't be able to explain it to you!"
At this time, Ji Gang, the commanding officer in Jinyi, came over and said, "I have met Marquis Yongqing."
After a pause, he held his head high and said: "The Holy Father said: If you want to publish it, make a copy of it. Do not bring out the original copy. I think you are dishonest, so put away your little ninety-nine. If you dare to try to authenticate the ceremony, I want you to nice."
Li Qing: "..."
When did he notice it? Did I show it so obviously... Li Qing sighed helplessly, "I obey the order."
Looking at the grand ceremony in the room, Li Qing was so greedy that he thought: "It seems that we can't do it now. Let's wait until the fourth child is gone."
Not long after the ceremony was released, Laosi was so precious that there were strict restrictions on reading them, let alone taking them out.
There was no way Li Qing could copy all these great texts, and he didn't have the patience to do so, so he went to the Hanlin Academy and found many calligraphers who were good at it, and asked them to copy them while he watched from the sidelines.
Zhu Di regarded the Yongle Ceremony as very precious. The eunuchs would cleanse their hands and turn the page page by page throughout the whole process, not letting outsiders touch it at all.
Seeing this, Li Qing gave up all his thoughts, knowing that with the fourth child here, there was no hope of getting involved in the ceremony.
…
A few days later, a total of 100 volumes of the canon were copied, with the content mainly focusing on poems and songs.
At the same time, the craftsmen who carved the typefaces and the printers were also ready. They began to carve and sort according to the content. After working for several months, they were finally able to officially publish it.
In order to change things in the future, Li Qing deliberately spent his own money to buy the same top-quality rice paper as the one in the main hall, and asked the craftsmen to print extra.
After finishing all this work, Li Qing had some free time and went to the workshop to punch in every day and check the production progress. He spent the rest of his time either listening to music and fishing or taking his three daughters shopping.
After living comfortably for too long, Li Qing felt embarrassed, so he often went to the palace to help Xiaopang handle some government affairs, or chat with Zhu Di.
I have to say that the emperor Lao Si is still very comfortable, much more comfortable than Lao Zhu.
Although Lao Zhu also has a big son, he pays attention to both big and small things, and he doesn't even have much time to spare.
The fourth child is different. He is really in a semi-abandoned state. In other words, he and his eldest son have separated their families. He is in charge of martial arts and the eldest son is in charge of literature.
The second son looked at the eldest son with eager eyes.
Under this model, the country operates more smoothly.
In fact, Zhu Di did this not because he was lazy, but because the conflict between him and the civil servants was too deep.
The main reason was maritime trade. Civil servants hated him deeply. Although they did not dare to show it on their faces, they were quite repelled in their hearts.
Unless Zhu Di can stop his voyages to the West, the relationship between the two parties will not be good.
Fortunately, Xiaopang is here to mediate, and the country's governance has been very stable.
In fact, in a sense, Xiaopang is more like the Ming Emperor, because he implements policies and exercises more power than Zhu Di.
For this reason, Zhu Di often put on little shoes for Xiaopang.
Little Fatty is not Zhu Biao, and he doesn't spoil me either. He skips work after being scolded, which makes Zhu Di lose his temper at all.
There is no way, the current Ming Dynasty really can't survive without Xiaopang.
It's not that Zhu Di is incompetent, but that he is very capable of doing things, such as opening the canal, building the capital, and the Northern Expedition... The Ming Dynasty's finances have always been in a state of tension, and he is not good at finance.
If it weren't for Xiaopang's mediation and Xia Yuanji and others' cunning, the Ming Dynasty might even collapse.
Of course Zhu Di understands this, but it does not prevent him from taking a liking to his elder son.
~
Royal study room.
Li Qing handed the printed "Yongle Dadian" to Zhu Di, "Your Majesty, please read it."
Zhu Di took it, opened it and took a few glances at it, then nodded and said, "It's well printed. What's the cost price of this volume?"
"Five hundred articles." Li Qing said, "However, with the printing, the cost will become lower and lower, but in order to ensure continued benefits, we cannot print too many."
"Hmm." Zhu Di asked again, "How much does it cost?"
"Fifty taels, and it has to be silver."
"Ah? This..." Zhu Di said guiltily, "Isn't this too dark?"
The price that was ten times the cost, even the dark-hearted fourth thought, was too dark, "Will anyone buy it like this?"
"Of course." Li Qing smiled and said, "First of all, Xungui is not short of money. They don't know many Chinese characters themselves, but they attach great importance to their children's education, so they are naturally willing to spend money on it;
Secondly, although the salary of civil servants is not high, the vast majority of civil servants come from affluent places in the south such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Jiangxi. Most of their families are not short of money and they can afford it. "
Li Qing confidently said: "Your Majesty, this is the Yongle Ceremony. Although it is a printed copy, they will definitely flock to it with the status of being produced by the royal family."
After a pause, "If the emperor is not afraid of hard work, you can also increase the price several times more!"
"Oh?" Zhu Di is very interested in money, because without money, he can't do all the big things. "What can I do?"
"Limited edition signature of the Grand Ceremony." Li Qing said, "If the cover of the Yongle Grand Ceremony is inscribed with the word 'Yongle' in the emperor's own hand, its value will be even higher. Shouldn't officials treat it as a family heirloom?"
"Is my writing two words so valuable?"
Li Qing smiled and nodded: "The Emperor is the Supreme Being, so the inscription is certainly valuable."
Hearing this, Zhu Di couldn't help but grinned. He immediately felt that it was unbecoming of an emperor. He cleared his throat and said: "I'll leave this matter to you. If you make money, I will reward you..."
Balabala drew the cake for a while, and Zhu Di added, "After the ceremony is released, someone will definitely copy it, and it will probably be worthless by then."
"It doesn't matter. There are so many volumes in the canon. When they are no longer valuable, they can be replaced." Li Qing said with a smile, "Actually, the canon is valuable, and the more important thing is that it is a royal product."
He picked up and pointed at the lower left corner of the cover of "Yongle Dadian", "Please see, Your Majesty, just the four words 'Produced by the Royal' cost dozens of words. It is difficult to imitate, and few people have the courage to imitate it. "
Zhu Di looked at it carefully. The four small characters looked delicate and majestic. He smiled happily and said, "I always feel at ease when you do things..."
Another burst of big cakes made Li Qing roll his eyes as he choked.
Li Qing interrupted his spellcasting and said, "Your Majesty will grant me some more money. I'm going to open a royal bookstore to facilitate sales."
"You want money again?" The joy on Zhu Di's face faded, "How can you be so good at making it?"
"...Are you going to give it to me?"
"You..." Zhu Di was angry and hummed: "If we can't recoup the cost by then, I want you to look good."
"Your Majesty, you can rest assured that the Yongle Ceremony will definitely be a hit." Li Qing was confident.
"Ang." Zhu Di said in a low voice, "As for the inscription...how many do you think is appropriate?"
Li Qing thought for a moment and said, "Ten copies of each volume are sufficient. Any more will be worthless."
"Well, I'll send you the printed ceremony later." Zhu Di waved his hand, "Go and do your business. Ask the prince for the money."
"...I retire."
——
Unlike Zhu Di, Xiaopang approved the payment very readily.
Seeing how cheerful he was, Li Qing asked casually, "How much money does the treasury have now?"
Xiaopang sent the eunuch away and then whispered, "I'm telling you, don't tell my father."
"Don't worry, I'm the strictest."
The little fat man nodded and said proudly, "I'm not nervous now. The national inventory is more than three million taels of silver and more than 18 million shi of grain."
"Hiss~ so many?"
"Shh, keep your voice down." Xiaopang rolled his eyes at him angrily, "Let Father know that he will have to intensify efforts to repair the project, or go on an immediate Northern Expedition, and he will not be able to have money."
Li Qing nodded amusedly, "I understand."
~
Li Qing built a bookstore next to the printing factory. The store was small, covering an area of only half an acre, but the decoration was exquisite.
The bookshelves are all made of mahogany, and the bookstore uses a lot of bright yellow accessories for decoration. The academy is royal, so there is no problem in using yellow.
Li Qing's main focus is the golden signboard of the royal family, so he naturally wants to exaggerate the royal style.
The academy as a whole gives people a feeling of being unattainable, which invisibly filters out the customer base.
After the academy was built, Li Qing immediately spread advertisements all over the capital. In addition to civil servants and nobles, local wealthy gentry were also within his sales scope.
Jinling was originally a prosperous place. Since Lao Zhu established his capital here, Jinling has become even better, not inferior to Suzhou and Hangzhou.
There is no shortage of wealthy people in the capital, and the bookstore soon attracted a large number of wealthy people.
…
