"Have you heard the will clearly? Although you are all young, you are all selected from thousands of miles away to come here. Your skills are not much worse than those of the masters who have been there for many years!"
As soon as classes started today, Shen Zhongming, the dean of the School of Engineering of Huangming University, came to the master craftsman training class.
Zheng Kui sat at the bottom and looked at the dean on the stage in a daze.
Shen Zhongming was only a small director of the Ministry of Industry, but he was really obsessed with various utensils and principles. He is nearly fifty years old, but he is still just a manager. You Xi is sent as a foreign missionary to a factory under the Ministry of Industry.
When Huangming University was looking for the dean of this engineering school, Li Kai recommended him. Now Shen Zhongming feels that this is a very good opportunity.
"Where can we find so many skilled craftsmen from all walks of life in the entire Ming Dynasty now?" Shen Zhongming was very excited. "In the college, there are also professors and worshipers who developed the Huangming Bell. This dean believes that in addition to your studies, you will do more You can take this opportunity to participate in this matter. If you gain something, you will get extra points in the performance appraisal!"
He was talking about improving printing technology.
But these young craftsmen are still confused: in the past, they only followed the tasks assigned by the superiors and used their own skills to complete the required quantities.
It's enough to come here and learn Chinese characters, arithmetic, and listen to all kinds of miscellaneous truths every day. Now you have to get involved in this?
Of course, they have heard the decree clearly. If there is a good method that is effective after being used, they can ask His Majesty to confer a favor or even a meritorious title.
Shen Zhongming is very familiar with what the craftsmen are like, so now he just assigns tasks to them: "You can do it, but you must also be able to think. After today's class, I will come here again in the evening and work together to come up with some ideas. If there is something feasible, If there is a way, the dean will arrange trial production."
After coming over to announce this, the young craftsmen in the master craftsman training class could only suppress the wails in their hearts.
I can't show my dissatisfaction, but my homework is very heavy every day.
The hands that used to wield hammers, shovels, and various tools now have to practice calligraphy and do calculations every night, which is already very difficult.
Engraving this kind of thing... most people are not in this field!
But they did not dare to ignore the matters arranged by the dean.
At noon, there was a lot of discussion in the dormitory.
The center of the crowd was Wu Erqi from the Sili Supervisory Factory.
He is a printer.
The Director of Ceremonies began to engrave books and periodicals during the Yongle period, and later even had a special engraving factory to meet the needs of the royal family. The Si Li Jian's engraving is one of the more authoritative collated editions of some books on the market.
In the printing factory, there were 150 printers, 312 printers, and 58 printers.
"So it's just me who can't do it!" Wu Erqi has never been surrounded by so many people before, "I don't know how to carve or mount clothes!"
"You know how to do it more or less." Someone said, "The dean said, what your majesty wants is to be able to print faster than before. Now everyone is thinking of a way. When it gets dark, the dean asked, is it possible that it has been printing all the time? Are you going to lock us up and think of something? Do you still need to write on the copybook?"
"It's not that easy!" Wu Erqi shook his head, "I'll tell you how to print now..."
He began to talk about the craftsmanship of book engraving in the factory.
The first step is to engrave.
In fact, there are still engravings in the scripture factory, which are high-quality editions for imperial viewing. The engraved characters are first written by people with excellent calligraphy, and then carved by the most skillful calligraphers.
If it is movable type, it also depends on what kind of material it is. There is a lot of good wood that can be used in the business, and wooden movable type takes up a little more. In addition, if there is clay movable type, you have to carve the master mold first, and then put clay into it and bake it. As for the copper movable type, there are two sets.
If printing with movable type, the next step is to select the type and make the plate.
Not to mention that picking words is time-consuming and labor-intensive. When the picked words are arranged, they must be very stable and firm on the board. The method used now is to first put a layer of soft grease made of rosin and wax on the bottom of the board, which becomes soft when heated and solidifies after being flattened.
After the board is finished, the next step is to add ink.
"I won't talk about the ink preparation. You must be skillful and careful when applying ink. It must be even and the ink should not be too much or too little. After covering the rice paper, use a brown brush to carefully sweep the back of the paper. When you see ink marks on the back of the paper, The rice paper must be peeled off gently. Let me tell you, the force of peeling off the paper must also be very skillful..."
Wu Erqi emphatically talked about the techniques and difficulties involved, wanting to show how powerful he was, and finally said proudly: "Now do you know how difficult it is? Think about how great the "Yongle Dadian" was when Grandpa Taizong was there. How long did it take to finish printing? I heard them say that it took us more than a year to print out 10,000 copies of the new dictionary. It took many craftsmen from the Economic Factory, the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Industry. It was done during the night shift.”
They are all knowledgeable. Although they don't know how to engrave, but after listening to Wu Erqi's emphasis on the skill and tenderness required in this process, I know that this can only rely on a large number of experienced hands.
How else can this get up faster? Experienced people are the hardest to teach.
After the paper is laid flat, if the movable type on the board has unevenness as small as a hair, some words will be printed clearly, and some words will not be inked at all.
If you use too much force, the paper will break easily.
Wu Erqi added: "To be honest, the dictionary is not bad. Anyway, the words have been sorted and the boards have been made. In the future, only some of the character stencils will be broken and need to be replaced. But in the newspaper, every article is different. It’s really difficult to select words and make plates again every time!”
At this moment, the small engraving room in the editorial department of Gongli Mingbao was filled with experienced workers from the original factory. The master craftsman in charge was kneeling in front of the manager of the engraving department who was in charge of them.
"Mr. Lu, I have been working day and night to select characters and make plates. There are tens of thousands of movable types in this issue. To print so many copies, I have to pick out a dozen plates. One issue will be published in fifteen days, and this issue I can barely deliver, but the kids really can’t handle the next issue. There are two word pickers, and their eyes suddenly can’t see clearly.”
"This is the emperor's order!"
"My lord, please forgive me, but we really need more manpower."
"Your Majesty, have mercy. Haven't we already mobilized some manpower?"
"But they are not in this business. There are always mistakes and omissions in the word picking, and we don't dare to let them do the plate making. Even if they are inking and printing, the samples that come out cannot be used. There is also an oracle in this issue, and it will be printed out by then How can a newspaper have double images or no clearly printed words?"
"... seize the time to teach them."
"Sir, can't you issue one issue every month first, and then change it to half-monthly issue after the new engraving factory is built and the number of experienced people is sufficient?"
"Your Majesty wants a half-monthly issue, that is, a half-monthly issue! If you want manpower, I will hire manpower for you. If you want paper, ink, I will give you whatever you want. But the newspaper bank requires a half-monthly issue, and this matter is not negotiable! "
The master craftsman could only wipe his tears and go back to the engraving room helplessly.
Naturally, the movements in the palace could not be hidden from Zhu Houcong, especially now that this matter was one of the major events that concerned him.
After listening to Huang Jin's presentation and looking at his helpless and intolerable expression, Zhu Houcong also let out a long sigh.
In today's era, too many things can only be done with manpower.
But Zhu Houcong also knew nothing about the technology and craftsmanship in the field of printing.
If "Jiajing Dictionary" can control the responsibility for the engraved glyphs, it might not be able to authorize it after Ming Pao Bank establishes a local franchise branch.
With the emergence of new characters, strictly controlling the emergence of various variant characters is an extremely important part of successful promotion. What this thing requires is unity.
After listening to the difficulties reported by Mingbao Bank, Zhu Houcong allowed them to carve more engravings.
This is also due to Zhu Houcong's lack of understanding of the current technical details. In his understanding, he naturally believed that movable type printing was more advanced, so new characters, dictionaries, and newspapers were all clearly marked from the beginning. New simplified movable type.
But once the dictionary is determined, engraving can better control the way each word is written in the future after engraving or authorizing it - just provide it for engraving.
Only newspapers cannot avoid movable type. As the volume increases, the printing cost of a single newspaper will certainly decrease, but the consumption of manpower, typefaces, etc. will double, and the shortcomings of today's movable type printing will also be magnified exponentially.
"Tell the newspaper office that the newspaper does not need to be exquisite, just like the many books that were submitted for imperial review in the past. There are some double images and some unclear words. It is not a big problem, as long as the words are correct."
Zhu Houcong knows that everyone's standards are different.
What he wants is for the newspaper to be published regularly, but the newspaper bank will still say that this is "something the emperor asked to do," so he will naturally pursue excellence.
For Zhu Houcong, newspapers are all he needs to read. As for printing quality, that doesn’t happen overnight.
From rough to fine, Ming Pao has this pressure, which also motivates them to optimize the process.
"In this case, don't push the craftsmen too much." Zhu Houxuan warned, "In the future, they will have to rely on them to guide the new employees of the newspaper and engraving factory. Each one is precious. Tell them clearly that I don't need this newspaper to be so beautiful. , People who read newspapers only need to understand the meaning. Occasionally, a few words are not clear, so why can’t you guess which word it is?”
After Huang Jin went out, Zhu Houcong sat in a daze for a while.
Regarding this line of work, he could only think of two words in his mind: typeface and printing press.
Later, lead type was used. What advantages did lead type have over the current wooden, clay, and copper types? How to cast it?
There is also the printing press. How can the current printing process be integrated into a printing press after the plate making is completed to improve the efficiency of the printing process?
After Huang Jin arranged for someone to go to Mingbao Bank to pass the news and come back into the Yangxin Hall study room, Zhu Houcong said: "Go and call Alfonso. I'll ask him if he has any experience in this regard in Europe."
…
Comrade Alfonso has blended into the Ming Dynasty, wearing the robes commonly worn by his other colleagues.
As one of the devotees of Huangming University, he is now living well in Huangming University, and he especially likes the many delicacies of the Ming Dynasty.
After all his experience and knowledge in shipbuilding, naval warfare, guns and many other aspects were drained away, Alfonso had not yet gained complete "freedom", let alone any other opportunities.
Last year, there was a rebellion in the Eastern Emperor's land, and Comrade Alfonso's "contribution" also had a small credit in it - those new Eastern artillery and warships were said to have played a big role in the war. .
But he never expected that His Majesty the Emperor would summon him and ask about printing.
"Your Majesty, I...oh no, I need to recall it carefully."
Zhu Houcong didn't rush him either.
"... I remembered that my wife once asked someone to buy a Bible. I heard that it was from Germany and was circulated. It is very beautiful. I didn't ask anything about it. My wife may know a little bit about it."
Zhu Houcong nodded: "Huang Jin?"
"My slave, I will send someone to ask her to bring that sutra."
Really, who dares to call it the "Holy" Bible?
Huang Jin didn't expect Zhu Houcong to be so concerned about this trivial matter, and immediately arranged for someone to go to Huangming University.
Alfonso hesitated again, and then asked carefully: "Your Majesty, I wonder if we can meet Carolina?"
"Of course you can, there's no rush."
When Zhu Houcong heard him talking about the Bible, a name vaguely came to his mind: Gutenberg.
But it's useless. This is all miscellaneous and scattered knowledge from when I was a student. At this time, I have no impression of anything useful.
However, with this inspiration, Zhu Houcong and Alfonso chatted about Alfonso's current memories in Europe, and instead remembered some scattered situations.
When Alfonso's wife came over, she listened to Alfonso's still chattering questions to her, and she also responded in a chattering manner - for her, learning the Ming language seemed to be more difficult.
Zhu Houcong was looking at the thing she brought over. It was made of paper and had two volumes.
Alfonso listened to her words, and then reported to Zhu Houcong: "Your Majesty, I heard that it was very rare, one of less than two hundred copies printed at that time. My wife did it out of status considerations. I spent a lot of money to buy it for collection.”
After saying this, Zhu Houcong only saw his wife's slightly angry eyes, and he didn't know if Alfonso had scolded a prodigal woman.
"Does she know how this book was printed? Since it is a collection that shows identity, it should be worth bragging about, right?"
Alfonso asked again, and after receiving the answer, he said helplessly: "She is just because of the beauty and the special font on this book."
Zhu Houcong took a closer look and saw many letters with sharp edges and corners.
He also had no idea about the fonts of Western characters, but this Bible did have flower and plant patterns on every page, which looked more exquisite.
This is very ladylike, just because it looks good.
At this time, Alfonso's wife hesitated for a moment, and then babbled a few words.
Zhu Houcong looked at Alfonso curiously, only to see Alfonso's face darken, and then he asked a few questions with a rather unhappy expression, but his wife spoke plausibly.
Alfonso's face changed again and again, and finally he said: "Your Majesty, she said that she heard a friend who visited her home mention it. She heard that it was stamped with a special machine."
"Press?"
"Yes, I don't know exactly how to do it."
Zhu Houcong looked at him and then at his wife, who saw his wife looking at him expectantly.
"...Are there any details that haven't been mentioned?"
Alfonso's wife chirped, but Alfonso shook his head.
"...Go and ask Carolina to come."
Zhu Houcong ordered Huang Jin, and Carolina, who had already learned Ming dialect from Wen Suyun, came.
The family was reunited, and Carolina was very happy at first. When Zhu Houcong asked her, after listening to her mother's words, Carolina hesitated and said: "My mother wanted to ask... if I could give you some more details, could I... …Give my father a title?”
"What details are you unwilling to tell?" Zhu Houcong looked at Alfonso curiously.
But Alfonso looked embarrassed and angry, and so did Carolina.
After a long time, Zhu Houcong looked at Alfonso with a strange expression.
"...This is not a useful detail." Zhu Houcong waved his hand, "Serve me well, and you will gradually get a title. I'm afraid you won't be able to reunite and reminisce now, right?"
Alfonso muttered something under his breath, and then took his leave without his wife.
And his wife didn't say goodbye to her daughter. Instead, she chased after her, still chirping plausibly. Zhu Houcong could faintly hear Alfonso scolding her in a low voice.
But what does a juicer have to do with a printing press?
Zhu Houcong didn't care about the behavior of Alfonso's wife and a certain male duke, and they had an interesting conversation about the principle of the printing press.
Alfonso's head is green, isn't that normal?
Improving typography is important, but it’s really hard to figure it out these days.
(End of chapter)
