Take the mall to Datang

And there are still people who want to write a question without a manuscript fee, just for the sake of fame.

Of course, Shi Yi likes this kind of person the most. He can save costs and meet the requirements of publishing a book. He is sure to receive such a submission.

In just over a month, Zhuangyuan Bookstore opened a branch in Luoyang, and sales are still booming.

"It's really thanks to Lord Hou this time, otherwise my Shi family wouldn't have had this opportunity." Shi Yi said.

"Where, doing business is also about chance, and making money depends entirely on Shopkeeper Shi's ability." Yuan Shan said.

After a few words of compliments, the two began to enter into a formal topic. The demand for books such as exercise workbooks increased dramatically, and there were so many contributors that it was impossible to compile all the questions raised by the contributors in the first place. , Reviewing this item takes up a lot of time.

Shi Yi was a little flustered about this matter, but it was a trivial matter, and Yuan Shan didn't intend to pay attention to it. What he cared about was Shi Yi's order quantity, and this was the main topic of their meeting.

This month, I have harvested thousands of coins. Even though the cost is relatively high, it is still profitable. In addition, the bookstore also sells the Four Treasures of the Study, and occasionally holds promotional activities. The store's performance is quite good.

The Yuan family is responsible for the printing business. At present, there are not many printing projects. After setting the number of additional printings of various exercise books, Yuan Shan continued: "Master Shi, I said before that I will sell the Datang Tabloid. What are you thinking about?"

"I've already researched what Lord Hou said. Although this kind of tabloid doesn't make much money, it's still very profitable to sponsor these things with advertising fees. Our Shi family will fully cooperate in the production." Shi Yi said.

"In this case, let's wait for your tabloid manuscript. I said before that you can't be rigid. I still need to remind you how to attract people." Yuan Shan instructed.

"Don't worry, leave this matter to us." Shi Yi said.

Compilation of the Datang tabloid involves a lot of content, especially the literary version and story version, which are all fine, except for the new section that is still being studied.

Today Yuanshan brought up the matter of this tabloid. From the perspective of cooperation, the Yuan family will not participate in the compilation, and will only be responsible for printing.

A few days later, Datang’s first commercial-run tabloid was published. Poems, songs, various legends, and Chang’an news, a lot of information was concentrated on this one piece of paper. Except for these contents, the one that occupied the largest page was Zhuangyuan Bookstore. Promotion dates, and call for papers.

Datang tabloids are very cheap for a penny. There are not only newsboys selling them along the streets, but also places where people can read tabloids for free in teahouses and other crowded places.

The speed of transmission is very fast. The original authors of poems and songs are very happy to see their works reported. It is also very reliable to spend money to buy a reputation, and Yuan Shan also returned the teacher of the Imperial College as a commentator. Anyway, hiring The expenses are all paid by Shi's family, so the influence of the tabloid is quite large.

A bookstore has almost locked in the scholars in Chang'an within two months, and the effect of the branch in Luoyang is not much worse than that of Chang'an students.

Kong Yingda looked at the exercises of each subject and his beard was almost crooked. He saw that these things were summed up, many things were pieced together, and there were basically not many things that could work for candidates.

It’s just that this time he really can’t say anything. Although the exercises may sound novel, Confucius said that one learns the new by reviewing the past. Although these workbooks are not comprehensive, they can still help people review the books. knowledgeable.

Originally, Kong Yingda was just discussing the facts. At first, he boycotted the Romance of the Three Kingdoms because he was afraid that the examinees would go astray and delay their studies because of biographical novels. But this time, not only did they not offend the interests of the scholars, but they also published books specifically for the exam. Such a novel thing is indeed Impressive.

Kong Yingda is not an unreasonable person, but he is a bit old-fashioned. In the end, he can only think that these exercises are all tricks, and when they are not true, he can only advise the students not to get lost and not to rely on them.

But the fact is that the contact book of Zhuangyuan Bookstore is selling more and more popular, and with the emergence of tabloids, many people have made various comments on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms that made people addicted for a while. The good article is published in the tabloids. Then someone joined the discussion.

Even in some taverns, it became a discussion group for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and began to study the story and character differences between Wei Shu Wujuan and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and more people participated in expanding the plot on these basis , to write a new novel.

"Yu Jingming, you are now famous. Your calligraphy was promoted in the three tabloids. I am afraid that it will be a matter of time before you become a famous calligrapher." Yuan Shan joked in the office of Yuanlai Tea House.

"I made Yuan Pushe laugh, it's just writing when I'm free." Yu Jingming said modestly.

"Don't be modest. To be honest, it's very easy for you to be famous with your background. Now letting more people see your calligraphy accomplishments is to prove that you have earned this reputation through your own efforts, so there is What is so modest, you have to have confidence in yourself, and you have to have confidence in the talents of Tang Dynasty." Yuan Shan said.

Hearing Yuan Shan say it so seriously, Yu Jingming also became serious. Just now he was thinking about this matter, like this kind of direct display of his calligraphy in the tabloids, people will naturally comment on it.

But he knew that his calligraphy skills were still lacking, at least much worse than his father Yu Shinan, and he still had self-knowledge, so he knew that he had to work harder.

Chapter 552

In the palace, Li Shimin was sitting at the desk. He had just finished dealing with the publication of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He did not expect Yuan Shan's business to continue under such circumstances.

Moreover, the method used is quite tricky. In Li Shimin's view, this is taking advantage of the examinee's heart, and he doesn't believe in betting questions at all.

In the sixth year of Zhenguan, the weather went smoothly, and King Buyanqi sent an envoy to pay tribute, which made him very happy.

In the past two years, the tributes from the neighboring countries have not been interrupted. This year, not only will there be new interviews, but also the favor of the Tang Dynasty will be spread.

The Tang envoy of Fusang Kingdom has applied to return to Fusang, but Li Shimin has not yet chosen who to call to proclaim the decree.

However, thinking of the Western Turks that gave him a headache, there are still some unstable forces. With such neighbors, Li Shimin has always been vigilant.

"Your Majesty, Xin Liangchou, the chief inspector of military weapons, is already waiting outside the door." Ma He said softly to Li Shimin.

"Tell him to come in." Li Shimin said.

Gunpowder, grenades, and artillery are all combat weapons. The artillery equipment of the Beiya Army has been overstaffed just now. It really needs to expand the artillery force.

"Chen Xin Liangchou sees His Majesty."

"Tell me about the situation of the Military Weapons Supervision." Li Shimin said directly.

Xin Liangchou responded immediately: "Your Majesty, the Military Weapons Supervision is rushing to build artillery every day. After the delivery of a new batch of artillery, the Military Weapons Supervision has never done research on artillery. After passing by the steam locomotive that His Majesty is still providing, it is better to imitate it." Very simple, some special accessories like Yuanjia customization can meet the needs.”

"It's good to be able to imitate steam locomotives. Artillery is always a shortcoming in terms of transportation. If you can successfully combine artillery with steam locomotives, I think the mobile combat power of my Tang's artillery will be greatly improved. It's even good for you as a weapon. It is indispensable for the supervisor to be the supervisor." Li Shimin said.

No matter what the result is, Li Shimin's usual method is to spread a wave of "chicken soup" first.

"By the way, Yuan Shan hasn't asked about the Military Weapons Supervisor for a long time." Li Shimin asked.

"Yes, Yuan Pushe may be busy with business." Xin Liangchou said, and helped Yuan Shan speak.

"That's not okay. If he doesn't go, you should try to lure him to the Arms Supervision. Let him have more ideas about the development and manufacture of new weapons such as improved artillery. Maybe the speed of production and the bottlenecks encountered can be quickly resolved. "Li Shimin said.

Xin Liangchou agreed, saying that he must keep in touch with Yuan Shan.

In fact, Xin Liangchou hates and loves Yuan Shan at the same time. What he hates is that the Yuan family's goods orders make the military supervisor busy every time, and what he loves is that through these processing projects, the military supervisor can become richer. stand up.

But no matter what, Xin Liangchou dared not offend Yuan Shan. Since he is the emperor's man, because the Ministry of Economics and Development is responsible for part of the expenditure of the Military Weapons Supervision, if he is offended, it will be too difficult to get money from the Ministry of Economics and Development.

More importantly, most of Li Shimin's orders were imitations of Yuan's products, which made Xin Liangchou feel a little guilty when facing Yuan Shan.

Just like the imitation of steam locomotives that the military inspectors now want to imitate is not too difficult, but it will still fail on the surface.

It was the same as the table saw imitated for the Ministry of Industry before, but the saw blades were all bought from Yuan's family. It was a bit embarrassing when negotiating.

Just when Yuan Shan wanted to vigorously develop business, Li Shimin attached great importance to the development of weapons.

Yinshan's record of attacking Turks with artillery made Li Shimin's confidence a little inflated.

In order to expand the Forbidden Army in the Beiya, they did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to increase artillery.

After the nature of the Beiya Forbidden Army, Li Shimin has realized the importance of a professional army after mentioning it to the generals of the Beiya Army.

For this reason, Yuchi Baolin wrote many times to propose the expansion of the Beiya Army and the complete replacement of the guards in the imperial city with the Beiya Army.

Many of these theories come from Yuan Shan's discussions with them, and the other is to weaken the local military power.

When Yuan Shan mentioned this matter at that time, he said that Datang's army was too strong, which made it easy for the troops under local jurisdiction to be controlled.