[Comprehensive History] Clothes are all over the world

Luo Guanzhong has made many choices in his life, but if he is asked to write a memoir in the future, then the choice to set foot on the Shu Road in the late autumn of the 15th year of Hongwu is definitely one of them worth highlighting.

It can be said that his life started to change from that day.

After separating from Mu Bai and others who were still candidates at the time, the old man returned to his hometown and spent a family reunion New Year's Eve at home.

After that, he did not embark on the road of looking for opportunities again, but stayed at home and waited for the good news from these friends from Yunnan.

Communication is inconvenient at this time, and it is common for a breakup to be so close.

Today's letter delivery is already slow, and if he still leaves home, it will be even more distant by person-to-person transmission.

It is also fate that we meet, anyway, he has been delayed for a long time, it is no harm to spend a few more days for a few destined people.

After Luo Guanzhong waited so long, he got a shocking revelation.

In fact, he knew how many of his friends could win Jinshi. These young people were candidates from Yunnan, so he had to give them a bit of face both emotionally and rationally. This was also a friendly signal sent by the imperial court to Yunnan.

And along the way, he also saw with his own eyes how hard these three young people worked. Luo Guanzhong experienced the peasant uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and also helped his lord choose talents during the war, so his vision is not bad. It was obvious at a glance that these three young men must have some achievements in the future.

But he really didn't expect it to be the result now.

The three young men all passed the examination. Of course, this is not too surprising, but the problem is that the identity of the two Mu Xiaolang from Yunnan is actually the grandson of the Ming Dynasty. What happened?

Holding the letter from Ah Tu, Luo Guanzhong felt a little unwell.

Luo Guanzhong has a keen mind, and he has more brains than other scholars, so he started a brain storm all of a sudden, and started a brain supplement mode on the reasons and consequences of the Mubai brothers' exiles in Yunnan.

He didn't believe in A Tu's letter that the Mubai brothers concealed their identities and went to take the exam. The two little brothers didn't look stupid, so how could they go to the war-torn area to take the exam?

Moreover, if it was true as the rumors said, the grandson of the emperor had already learned something and went to take the exam to challenge himself, why would he go to the Kaifeng Academy to transcribe the stone scriptures?

Is there any place in the world that is more complete than the doctrine of saints and educational resources in the palace?Mu Xiaolang's every move at that time was exactly the same as the two silly guys from Yunnan beside him. At his age, it was absolutely impossible to act out.

Mr. Luo dared to bet with the three thousand annoyances he had recently revised, which has become increasingly scarce.

But the truth of the matter is obviously beyond the scope of his inquiries. Even if Mr. Luo is tickled by curiosity, he can only pretend to be deaf and dumb, pretending that he has not noticed anything.

Then he received a letter from Mubai.

In the letter, Mu Bai first apologized for sending the letter later than his friends. He said that he had encountered some accidents, and it was too late to deal with the various matters brought about by the accident.

Immediately, his little friend said that he is now well-off, so he is going to make some investment, and his investment project is Luo Guanzhong's novel.

Mu Bai invited him to re-enter Yingtian Mansion to talk about the publication and subsequent development of the volume "Three Kingdoms" compiled by him with all his life.

Luo Guanzhong, who already knew what kind of "accident" Mu Bai had encountered, really hesitated at that time. He didn't have a good impression of the old Zhu's family, and even had some criticisms about the identity of the emperor and grandson.

But when he learned that the identity of the emperor's grandson is Mu Bai, well, Mr. Luo's mood at the moment is the same as that sentence——

I wanted to refuse, but he gave too much!

For a bookmaker, publishing his own book is an irresistible temptation, especially Luo Guanzhong has traveled to almost every corner of Daming that might be published for him before this time, and he knows very well that if he does not catch If he seizes this opportunity, he may never see his words turn into books with the fragrance of ink lying in other people's hands for the rest of his life.

After tossing and turning for several days, Luo Guanzhong still wrote his name on the contract.

His contract partner is called Chunhe Publishing House. It is a little-known small publishing house. The name is also ordinary. It seems to be unrepresentative, and it is a bit soft. It is completely different from other publishing houses.

But when he saw the deed, Mr. Luo, the insider, really twitched his mouth several times.

Is there really anyone who doesn't know that the name of Daming's East Palace is Chunhe Palace?What is the difference between the name Chunhe Publishing House and Donggong Publishing House?

Looking at the books published by this bookstore again, good guy, there are all sage books, and the figure of "Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms" seems extremely out of place in it.Oh, by the way, Xiao Huangsun felt that there were too many titles in the book, and his memory was too weak, so he deleted the word popular in this book, and now this book is officially renamed "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

Luo Guanzhong lived in the capital for a period of time, and used it for final proofreading with the typesetting master of the bookshop.

Yes, "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" uses the movable type printing method that is already quite popular in the south. This printing method can greatly reduce the labor force during typesetting, but the disadvantage is that some commonly used characters are particularly easy to wear and tear.

The five hundred volumes of the first edition were printed on the back, and the wooden characters engraved with the names of the main characters were all thinned out.

For this reason, the little Huangsun, who was not short of money, waved his hand directly and asked someone to take these characters and make an inversion mold, which was directly made into a metal mold. While the durability was greatly enhanced, the appearance would not be affected by the different fonts.

During this process, Mu Xiaobai, who went around the workshop, also learned about today's printing technology. Qian Duo's imaginative little Huangsun rubbed his chin for a long time, and made a suggestion.

Today's printing technology typesets all the small characters, then brushes ink on the top and lays paper on it. After the paper is peeled off, one page is printed. Although the description of the work is only a few words, it is actually quite laborious to operate. Almost every step has knowledge and kung fu.

The most troublesome thing about movable type printing at this time is that different batches of fonts have different shapes, and the length of wood for small characters will also vary. There will be a few words on the page that are particularly light.

This also means that adjustments have to be made many times for each placement, and even the bookstore has to perform secondary processing on the small characters bought back, all of which increase the cost.

Therefore, except for some small workshops in the south that print small story books, most bookstores do not use movable type printing.

After all, the quality of the book is the signature of the bookstore, and it is a big taboo to have different shades. Most of the books printed by the big bookstore are traditional books. After making a block, they can be used for a long time, and the cost is not high.

Mu Bai noticed this at the scene and immediately proposed to change the printing posture. In the past, the characters were laid down on the paper and covered, but now it is the same as stamping, with the paper lying down and the characters pressed down.

On the one hand, such a change can reduce the difficulty of the craftsman's work, and on the other hand, it can also facilitate the fixing of the seal.

The pressed stamp itself has its own gravity, no matter how abnormal the length of the wood behind the small characters is, it can guarantee its normal appearance when it is printed on the paper with pressure.

The only trouble with this operation is to ink the seal, but this is not a problem for the craftsmen of Donggong Workshop who already have a lot of modification experience.

A few craftsmen came and went around, tapped and tapped, and immediately upgraded this simple book printer - they added a flipper to the plate containing the small print, so that it would will automatically flip.

Then when the reversed small characters rise to the top, they will become face-up, and then meet the ink cartridge to complete the inking work.

To put it simply, after such a change, the printing machine only needs two steps for labor: 1. Press down, 2. Change paper.

The rest of the sorting and inking can be done outside the operation section, and the printing speed has been increased by not one or two points. The most important thing is that there is basically no difference after this operation. As long as the ink is sufficient, the first sheet and the last sheet Sheets of paper play the same way.

The last few volumes of Mr. Luo's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" all used modified printing machines, and the printing speed was more than twice that of the first half.

Later, the workshop also figured out oil-based ink suitable for metal use. In the end, almost all movable type was replaced with metal type.

This move has greatly reduced labor costs, but the consumption of raw materials has risen rapidly.Fortunately, although the cost of metal characters is expensive, the service life and wear and tear are relatively small. As long as the bookstore can maintain a certain amount of printing, it can still be saved.

Cough cough, in fact, this little expense is really not too much pressure for Mu Bai, who has mastered the small treasury of the prince and princess, but Mu Bai has never forgotten his desire to earn money for his younger brother when he was young, and he He also felt that it was not suitable for him to give the crown princess' inheritance, so Mu Bai tried his best not to use that part of the property.

So he embarked on the evil path of the printing industry - using the Donggong collection of Yangchun Baixue to feed the many novels he really wanted to print.

Yes, many.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, many students sneaked into the people with hatred and had to make a living by creating literature. Not to mention others, Mr. Shi Naian, the teacher of Mr. Luo Guanzhong, was a Jinshi of the Yuan Dynasty on the same list as Liu Bowen. The government was forced to sneak into the countryside, and wrote a book "Biography of Jianghu Hawker", which used Song to criticize Yuan.

After reading this book, Mu Bai really wanted to get to know Mr. Shi, but unfortunately, the old man passed away when he was in Hongwu for three years, and he left the unfinished manuscript to his most beloved student.

After Luo Guanzhong finished and corrected it, he renamed "Water Margin" as "Water Margin", which is now the second most popular book in Chunhe Publishing House.

"Water Margin" and "Three Kingdoms" are two novels of completely different nature. One is about the heroism of mountains and rivers, and the other is about family, country and world. They are quite complementary, and they are not afraid of each other's market.

In fact, if you want to grab it, you can't grab it, because the number of words is huge, and when the book was printed, it was serialized. One volume just rested after the popularity, and the other volume immediately caught up. Whether it is a fan of the Water Margin or a fan of the Three Kingdoms, there are enough fans. Wall space.

Therefore, almost every literati who enters Chunhe Publishing House is full of grief. In their eyes, this bookstore must be run by an old literati who is well-educated and has a heart for the world. However, it is a pity that this old man A literati has a prodigal son who doesn't study well and likes to read scripts.

Since no one can find out the details of the boss behind Chunhe Publishing House, coupled with the silence of some insiders, this person has remained in the hearts of everyone for many years.

But now, Mr. Luo, the author of the Three Kingdoms, who is popular in Yingtian Mansion of Ming Dynasty and has gradually spread to the surroundings, received a letter that surprised him.

Xiao Huangsun sent a fast horse to send a message, asking him to select some of the more essential parts of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, cut and simplify them a little, and publish a cut-down version suitable for readers with a low level of education.

By the way, we can focus on the Shu Han camp that defended the imperial power, so a cut version of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" came out gloriously.

Compared with the slightly lengthy full text, although the logic of the simplified version has dropped a lot, the readability has been strengthened a lot. The vernacular text of the whole text is very suitable for ordinary people to read, and this version is actually more popular than the original version.

...Of course, this may also be because the original version is too long, the price of that set of books may eat several feasts, and few are willing to buy it.

Under Daming's deliberate promotion, the simplified version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms soon spread to the other side of the sea along with Toki Manzhen, who was addicted to listening to the story not long after entering Beijing.

Japan was greatly influenced by the Tang Dynasty. Whether it was characters, official positions, titles, or even urban construction, they all borrowed from Tang culture.

Although after the Song and Yuan Dynasties, both sides had major system reforms. For various reasons, Japan began to use phonetic characters, but Chinese characters are still the mainstream culture in Japan. Almost all high-level people can use Chinese characters to complete reading.

The more than 20 copies of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Jane)" brought back by Toki Mansada were immediately spread among courtiers, and even Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the actual ruler of the Northern Dynasty in Japan, took a copy and read it repeatedly.

Even though it is a simplified version, this volume of "Three Kingdoms" contains many classic scenes and major battles. At the end of the Han Dynasty, heroes rose everywhere, and the sky was full of gunpowder. Every battle is a heroic elegy.

Luo Guanzhong is very good at writing, but he can bring readers back to that era with just a few words.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, who killed tens of thousands of enemies, Zhou Yu, who has a romantic and beautiful husband in Jiangzuo, Zhao Yun, who is full of courage, Cao Cao, who is proficient in the art of war, and his strategies are as pure as fire, and Zhuge, who has not collected great honors, and has won his soul from the sky. Kong Ming and Sun Ce, who won all ten battles, unfortunately died young, vivid characters flashed from the paper one by one, some were like shooting stars, leaving a regret after a flash, and some were like stars, shining forever.

The most important thing is that the battles in the Three Kingdoms are even more exciting, whether it is Cao Cao's repeated victories with less, or the Chibi fire by the Sun Liu coalition, or the Yiling battle where Sun Quan couldn't bear to worship the Shu army. It makes the spectators hearty and dripping, not only their backs are covered in cold sweat, but their whole body is full of enthusiasm.

The entire history of the Three Kingdoms is only 60 years, and it seems that the protagonists are only the three kingdoms of Shu, Wu, and Wei, but in Luo Guanzhong's pen, it is a vast and boundless world supported by three fulcrums.

For the Japanese monarchs and ministers who are Japan in name, but in fact there are many countries within the country, and the scale of the war can only be called a city war, the grandeur of it is really convincing and yearning.

After Ashikaga Yoshimitsu closed the book, he couldn't help closing the book, swiped his knife out of its sheath, smashed the wooden stacks in the courtyard, and sighed: "I can't wait to go to the era when heroes are born, and see those who are proud of the world , Take a look at the flames of war."

No matter how well written a book is, it can’t compare to seeing it with your own eyes!

Toki Manzhen gave a dry cough, and was a little bit embarrassed: "Your Excellency, in fact, I bought something from Daming, which allows you to see the style of the Three Kingdoms."

As he said that, he had someone push a small wooden box, "This is extremely rare in the Ming Dynasty. It's called Bai Jinghua. As long as you get close to the entrance of the cave like this, you can see the picture inside. It's... ahem, some expensive."

The author has something to say: Mu Xiaobai: It doesn’t matter if the book is cheap, as long as the surrounding area is expensive!

Mu Xiaobai: (counting banknotes)

The printing method in this article is like a rotary stamp. I don’t know if you have played with it. It is the kind of stamp that you don’t need to add ink yourself, but press down every time you strike the stamp.

One of the reasons why my country's movable type printing has been dated from its invention to its use is that the printing technology still uses the old method of engraving and block printing, and another point is that the movable type is still using the lettering method instead of the reverse mold, so the manpower is strictly controlled. Said it didn't reduce much.Movable type cannot be promoted.

There was a man named Lin Chunqi in the Qing Dynasty. It took him 21 years, more than 20 taels of silver, and hired people to engrave more than 40 copper characters. Not every bookstore can have this fund, not counting the time cost. This word It is 0.5 taels of silver, even in the Qing Dynasty, the price is particularly terrible, not to mention that copper is the raw material of currency.

It may be because the cost is too high, so lead and zinc were changed as raw materials ==