Datang: From exiled prince to eternal tyrant

Chapter 76

The first mission of the special forces was completed smoothly. The chess pieces that the eighteen Guanlong Group had placed in Shu were all wiped out, and the other party could not even find any clues. This made Li Ke very satisfied.

But what made Li Ke even more gratified was that for completing the assassination mission this time, the system actually rewarded him with an extra 20 points for eliminating the scourge for the people under his rule.

He originally had more than 40 points left, and with these additions, he had already reached 60 points.

Li Ke quickly exchanged the points for the latest papermaking and printing techniques.

Although he vaguely remembered the principles of movable type printing and papermaking, it really took a lot of effort to study it out by himself.

Now that production and military affairs have reached a higher level, since there are points, they can be exchanged for some practical things.

The promotion of textile factories and farms has ensured the basic life of the people in Chengdu.Then, next, he will start to solve the education problem.

In the Tang Dynasty, reading and literacy was an extremely luxurious thing. Except for wealthy families of aristocratic families, almost no one in poor families was literate.

Of course, this reason has a lot to do with the fact that books are too expensive.

So Li Ke decided to solve the education problem of Chengdu people first and lower the price of books.

He invested quickly and opened a paper mill and printing factory on the outskirts of the city.

These things don't require much effort, and the factory building is built in a few days.

But Li Ke is now in trouble again.

"What should I print?"

Books in the Tang Dynasty were extremely scarce, except for a subset of classics and history, there was almost nothing that could be printed.

Of course these books need to be printed, but you can’t print them all, right?
Not everyone wants to take the imperial examination. For many people, these books are of no use.

Moreover, the purpose of printing books is for education, so the role of enlightenment must always be considered!
Wouldn't it be embarrassing for those who don't know a single word to read a subset of classics and history as soon as they come up?
After thinking for a long time, Li Ke thought of a good thing - the "Three Character Classic"!
This "San Zi Jing" was compiled by the people of the Song Dynasty. It hadn't appeared in the Tang Dynasty. This book is very helpful for children's enlightenment and literacy. It is most suitable to use this book as a book of enlightenment.

As soon as he thought of it, he quickly wrote down the "Three Character Classic" in his mind, arranged for people to print it in batches, and asked the officials in charge of education to distribute it.

Because the cost of printing books has been greatly reduced, the cost of this "San Zi Jing" is extremely low, and this book is printed for enlightenment and teaching everyone to read, so Li Ke did not sell this book, but gave it away in large quantities with his own money. .

In the Tang Dynasty, officials' performance evaluation was also an important part of educating the people. The high literacy rate of the people under the rule was a very important achievement.

Whether it is for competition with Li Chengqian or for the quality development of the people, teaching people to read is an extremely important thing.

This "Three Character Classic" is catchy to read, and it contains some simple and easy-to-understand human principles. Once it is distributed, it is widely praised by the people.

The whole of Chengdu is another state capital under the rule of the King of Shu. All the people take this "San Zi Jing" as their enlightenment, to learn and practice calligraphy, and to open up the wisdom of the people.

For a time, the reading atmosphere prevailed throughout Shu.

But as soon as the trend became popular, Li Ke encountered difficulties again. He didn't have so many books to print, so he couldn't let the people read "San Zi Jing" for a lifetime, right?

So, he decided to start a newspaper.

In the Tang Dynasty, people's access to information was extremely limited. Apart from knowing what was going on in their own homes and neighbors, ordinary people had no idea about the world further away.

Publishing a newspaper can broaden the horizons of the people, allowing these ignorant people to see the world in other places and get in touch with some more timely information.

This is very beneficial to opening up people’s wisdom.

Moreover, newspapers can also become an important position for Li Ke to publicize his ideas and win the hearts of the people.

Nowadays, the spiritual life of the people is extremely poor. Once this newspaper comes out, as long as it is not expensive, it will quickly occupy the market and become an important pastime for the people of Shu to kill time after dinner.

As long as the people get used to reading newspapers every day, then Li Ke, who has mastered the content of the newspaper, can decide what the people think and gain the greatest support from the people.

Seeing that the Guanlong Group was unhappy, he published an article in the newspaper scolding them.

If things go on like this, those poor people who only know how to work hard on weekdays, who doesn't know that the Guanlong Group is the moth of the country that oppresses the people and harms one side?
Thinking farther away, if this newspaper is distributed throughout the country, who in the whole Tang Dynasty will not talk about Li Ke's goodness?
Just doing what he said, Li Ke quickly set up a newspaper department, selected those scholars from poor families, and arranged for them to organize and control the contents of the newspaper for him.

At the beginning, the newspaper was not yet accepted by the public. Li Ke set the printing frequency at once a week, and asked his staff to try their best to collect strange gossip, celebrity anecdotes, and publish them in the newspaper.

These celebrity anecdotes, ghosts and ghosts are very attractive to the common people, don't they just talk about these all day after dinner?
In the collection of these stories, his detailed operations can also provide a lot of help. These detailed operations have been dispatched to various places in the Tang Dynasty to collect hidden information.

The secret information collected was useful, so of course Li Ke had to keep it for later use.And those that have no effect can also be published in newspapers to satisfy people's curiosity and attract them to buy newspapers.

Of course, as a newspaper, publishing real-time information is also very important.He also took out a special section to publish the big and small things that happened in the Tang Dynasty every week, such as what new policies the court promulgated, what happened to the recent wars with neighboring small countries, etc...

Of course, since we want to expand sales and trigger a trend of reading newspapers across the country, the price cannot be set too high.

Fortunately, the cost of printing newspapers was not high, so he priced each newspaper at two cents.

This price is not expensive, and the people in Sichuan can afford it, and it has already exceeded the cost of the newspaper, ensuring that the newspaper will not lose money.

Li Ke only printed [-] copies of this first issue of the newspaper.

Everything is still being tested. He can't print millions of copies as soon as it comes out. That would be too wasteful.

After the newspaper was published on the first day, Li Ke waited anxiously in the palace, waiting for the salesperson to report the situation.

"His Majesty!"

In the afternoon, these people all returned to the palace.

"How about it?"

Li Ke was anxious, and hurriedly asked.

These subordinates were all panting with exhaustion, and they all looked at each other at this time.

Then, all these people cupped their hands together and said to Li Ke: "Congratulations, Your Highness, today's newspapers are all sold! Many people who wanted to buy newspapers couldn't squeeze in the places, so they spent a lot of money to let those who bought newspapers hand over their hands." .”

(End of this chapter)