Transmigrated into the book to become the villain prince, the son of the plane to destroy

Xiao Jie's carriage was parked firmly outside the gate of a bookstore, and the plaque on the gate was impressively marked with the word "Tao Ji".

This is the bookshop under the name of the Tao family, and it is also the largest private printing workshop in Luoyang City, apart from the official engraving workshop directly managed by the Ministry of Industry.

Although there were skilled craftsmen who invented block printing in the previous dynasty, nearly a hundred years ago, until now, the vast majority of books in the world are still hand-written, and block printing is more used for printing. Buddhist scriptures are rarely used to print other books.

The main reason is that the engraving process is too complicated and the printing cost is too high.The core link in engraving and printing is plate making, but most of the craftsmen are illiterate. They can't understand the content of the book to be printed, so they can only write stroke by stroke according to the text on the book. If one character is wrongly engraved, the entire engraving block can only be scrapped. Starting from scratch, craftsmen often waste hundreds of wood blocks before engraving a usable block.

It is precisely because of this limitation that even though woodblock printing has been around for nearly a hundred years, everyone from the government to the private sector still generally relies on hand-copying.

The main reason why the Tao family built such a large bookstore was not to print books, but to print silver notes for the bank under the name of the Tao family, and only occasionally did some printing of Buddhist scriptures.

Therefore, when Xiao Jie told the Tao family that he had borrowed a complete collection of Confucian classics for the unfinished academy, Tao Lu originally planned to hire some scholars to copy these Confucian classics in the Hongwen Library, so that they could be prepared before the completion of the academy. What a complete set of Confucian classics books, for the masters of the academy to teach knowledge.

But in Xiao Jie’s view, since he wants the students in the academy to compete with the children of the aristocratic family in the examination room in the future, the students of the academy must also have the students from other aristocratic families, so every student in the academy must have a set of textbooks .

Although Tao Lu understood Xiao Jie's thoughts, he was caught in a dilemma for a while. Even if these invited scholars worked overtime around the clock to copy, it was absolutely impossible to copy so many books in a short period of time.

But Xiao Jie offered to visit Tao's bookstore, and he would naturally find a way to prepare enough books for the academy.

Although Tao Lu didn't know what kind of medicine was sold in Xiao Jie's gourd, he had an almost blind faith in Xiao Jie, and immediately decided to ask his grandson Tao Hui to accompany Xiao Jie to Tao's bookstore.

Tao Hui was actually unwilling to do this, but the order of the Patriarch was hard to disobey.Although his most beloved sister married Xiao Jie, Xiao Jie is now his brother-in-law, but perhaps it was because Xiao Jie's strength left him a psychological shadow, until now he has always had an inexplicable fear of Xiao Jie in his heart He has no courage to face Xiao Jie directly.

Therefore, even though his father Tao Song repeatedly forced him to find Xiao Jie to find an errand, he deliberately delayed going to Qi Wangfu just to avoid seeing Xiao Jie. Xiao Jie wanted to visit Tao's bookstore, and the owner ordered him to accompany him all the way. Tao Hui didn't dare to disobey, so he had to bite the bullet and come to the bookstore early to wait for Xiao Jie's arrival.

Seeing Xiao Jie's carriage parked outside the bookstore now, Tao Hui didn't care to think too much, forcibly discarded the distracting thoughts in his mind, and quickly stepped forward, before Xiao Jie got off the carriage, directly bowed to Xiao Jie across the carriage:

"Crassman Tao Hui, see His Royal Highness King Qi."

Xiao Jie opened the curtain and jumped out of the carriage. It seemed that he was not surprised by Tao Hui in front of him. Instead, he greeted Tao Hui with a smile: "So it's brother, I'm sorry."

Tao Hui is Tao Han's elder brother, and Tao Han is Xiao Jie's side concubine, so it is not a problem for Xiao Jie to call him elder brother.

But when Tao Hui heard it, he couldn't help being shocked, and immediately realized that Xiao Jie deliberately lowered his posture for the sake of his sister, so as not to be too reserved and nervous.

Tao Hui couldn't help feeling a warm current in his heart, and his impression of Xiao Jie changed a lot for a while, it seemed that his brother-in-law was not a bad person, no wonder his sister loved him to death.

But Tao Hui didn't have the guts to call Xiao Jie brothers and sisters, and he didn't dare to put on airs of elder brother in front of Xiao Jie, instead he was a little flattered and said: "Your Highness, this is a Zhesha grassroots."

Xiao Jie laughed, and then walked into the bookstore accompanied and guided by Tao Hui.

In order not to make the craftsmen too nervous and cautious, Xiao Jie did not ask the Tao family to notify the craftsmen in advance, and asked the Tao family not to reveal their identities. Therefore, when Xiao Jie and Tao Hui appeared in the bookstore together, the sharp-eyed craftsmen and The handymen greeted Tao Hui one after another, but turned a blind eye to Xiao Jie who was next to him.

Tao Hui was a little embarrassed, and even more nervous, secretly looking at Xiao Jie from the corner of his eye, seeing that his face was still as usual, he was slightly relieved, and couldn't help secretly admiring Xiao Jie's heart, and his impression of this brother-in-law was different. It has changed a lot.

The study room is divided into two parts, the front yard and the back yard. The front yard is responsible for brushing ink and laying paper on the engraved blocks to print books, while the back yard is the place where craftsmen engrave and make plates.

Xiao Jie didn't stay too long in the front yard, but directly bypassed the front yard and walked quickly towards the back yard. Although Tao Hui didn't know where he was going, he still followed Xiao Jie step by step.

As soon as Xiao Jie entered the backyard, his eyes noticed a corner of the yard, where the discarded engraving blocks were almost piled up into a hill.

Xiao Jie couldn't help but shook his head and smiled helplessly. He finally understood why movable type printing can be listed as one of the four great inventions. Judging from the pile of discarded engraving blocks in front of him, the efficiency and cost of engraving printing are really no better than manual printing. Copy good where to go.

Seeing Xiao Jie shaking his head, Tao Hui couldn't help feeling tense, not knowing what went wrong again.

Fortunately, Xiao Jie didn't say anything, but asked Tao Hui to take him to see the master who carved the woodblock.

Tao Hui didn't dare to disobey, and immediately guided Xiao Jie into the carving room.

The engraving room is very spacious, with excellent light, and unusually quiet. Dozens of master craftsmen are comparing the pages of books spread out on the side, concentrating on engraving and drawing on the engraving block, and no one has noticed the appearance of Xiao Jie and Tao Hui. , maybe they didn't have the time to care about two more people in the room.

Xiao Jie didn't bother them, but just glanced at the craftsmen in the room, then walked gently behind an elderly craftsman, quietly watching him draw strokes on the engraving plate.

The old craftsman didn't feel that there was another person behind him. He just lowered his head and stared wide-eyed. Every movement was extremely cautious. After all, if he was not careful, even if it was just a tiny mistake, the entire engraving would be invalidated. .

But he was afraid of something, the old craftsman only felt itchy nostrils, couldn't help closing his eyes and sneezed, the hand holding the carving knife couldn't help shaking, when he opened his eyes again, there was already too much space for the carving knife A deep scratch broke the words he had just engraved.

The old craftsman looked at the two-thirds engraved block in his hand, and sighed heavily. He was about to throw the bad engraved block aside, but a strong hand appeared behind him, holding the block tightly. , seems to want to prevent him from throwing it away.