I really don't want to be a rebel [infrastructure]

Luo Shixing really didn't expect that in order to make banknotes, he had to find supporting facilities first.

But this is not too difficult, since there are seals these days, it is not difficult to explain the principle of engraving and printing.

So Luo Shixing said directly: "Carve out the entire pattern on a board, just like our seal, and when the time comes, just use the whole board to print it out?"

Cheng Jingwei understood what he meant in an instant, couldn't help rubbing Luo Shixing's head and said, "Yes, this method is really good, the lynx cat is really smart."

Luo Shixing patted his hand away angrily: "Okay, okay, this is not too difficult to think of."

In fact, the reason is not difficult to think, the reason why it has not appeared is probably because there is no need.

The progress of science and technology generally only progresses when the demand is particularly large. There is also a rapid progress catalyzed by capital competition for survival or market share.

It is now in the early Tang Dynasty, and the imperial examination has just begun. Before that, it was very difficult for children from poor families to get ahead. Those so-called children from poor families recorded in history can at least be able to read books. They are culturally poor, but in terms of wealth It's not a poor family.

The real poor children have not yet started to study, and the demand for books is not that great.

Aristocratic families have their own books that circulate within them.

The reason why the aristocratic family has always been hated by those in power is because they monopolize many things, monopolizing resources, money and land is one aspect, and the most terrifying thing is that they monopolize knowledge.

For example, some ancient books, because they were hand-copied in the past, there are very few surviving copies, and many of them are orphans. If these orphans fall into the hands of aristocratic families, others will not even think about reading them.

Not to mention ordinary people, even the emperor would find it very difficult to borrow. There was once a story that a certain emperor liked a dish from a certain family and wanted his recipe.

It's just a recipe, and the aristocratic family insisted on not giving it, which shows the aristocratic family's confidence and monopoly on those things that are unique to them.

But at this moment, even if you want to borrow ordinary books, it is very difficult. Even if you borrow them with great effort, you cannot copy them. Unless the owner allows it, otherwise, it is considered theft, and you will be charged with imprisonment for this crime.

The aristocratic families may communicate a little bit, but the problem is that they are natural allies, and they are in the same class after communicating for a long time. They have not spread out at all, and the knowledge is still firmly in the hands of the aristocratic families.

The top rich families have their own technologies, some of them may not be owned by others, but they must have some of the small and medium-sized families and ordinary people, and they will even find ways to buy them out.

In order to ensure the continuity of their family, the children of the aristocratic family will inevitably deepen these monopolies. They are the only ones in the world who understand these knowledge and technologies. Who else can the emperor use without them?

But the emperor was forced to use them, and these people did not give the emperor face because they had something in their hands.

So what the emperor wants is to promote knowledge, while the aristocratic family wants to monopolize knowledge.

Luo Shixing suspected that engraving printing had actually appeared, but because the technology was controlled by the family, it has not been promoted.

Because woodblock printing can be regarded as an existence no less than the four great inventions, but there is no record of who the inventor was. The most clear historical record is that in the late Tang Dynasty, Feng Dao used this technology to print the "Nine Classics". For the first time in the history of the florist, large-scale printing was based on official finances.

As we all know, by the end of the Tang Dynasty, the aristocratic family had basically declined. At this time, the things they monopolized must have fallen into the hands of others. Among them, the imperial court must have obtained the most, so they will be used.

Of course, this is also Luo Shixing's own guess. If you want to prove it, you can only see if the bosses know about this engraving.

It's normal for Cheng Jingwei not to know, his family is a family of officials and eunuchs, but it's not a real family.

Luo Shixing thought about these things, but he didn't forget what he should do.

Before that, he needed to draw the pattern before he could make the engraving.

Painting was not difficult, Luo Shixing even used paints, which were all sent by Alezhen.

Some pigments such as blue, black, green, and white are local colors, while other pigments such as red, yellow, and blue should be collected by Alezhen from other places.

There is a high probability that they came from the Central Plains, because these three pigments should all be minerals. For example, red is cinnabar, yellow is loess, and blue is malachite.

These minerals are considered precious, especially malachite. People who don’t really have mines in their family would not use this as a pigment. It just so happens that Ale really has mines in his family.

The problem was that he bought it back, but he didn't know how to use it, and he had to worry about the paint getting damp after it was left for a long time, and he had to be kept carefully every day, so he simply gave it all to Luo Shixing.

After Luo Shixing got it, he rarely used it. After all, it was very precious. He used it this time because he had other purposes.

With the three primary colors red, yellow and blue, it is not so difficult to mix other colors.

So a "Summer Time Scene Picture" appeared, and the whole picture included the whole manor and the surrounding mountains.

From drawing to coloring, Luo Shixing pursued the realistic effect of later generations.

When he drew this picture, the bigwigs were even amazed at whether someone came to watch.

They have never seen such a painting method, and in their words, it looks the same as the real thing.

However, based on their aesthetics, they can't tell whether the painting is good or not. If it's not good, the painting is indeed the same as the real thing. If it's okay, it's not the same as the artistic conception they were pursuing in the past.

However, they took a serious look at Luo Shixing's use of color, and they couldn't appreciate anything else, but the use of color is basically one-size-fits-all.

After finishing drawing the pattern to be printed on the banknotes, Cheng Jingwei and Luo Shixing got together to make the engraving.

Luo Shixing's painting is not very big, because the six banknotes are designed in different sizes, and the largest one is a little bigger than the palm of an adult. After all, it is too big and it is not convenient to carry

When Cheng Jingwei was engraving according to the landscape map, Luo Shixing said: "When the time comes, divide the engraving block, make several copies of each part, and put them in a frame. This version will be printed with a kind of banknotes. , otherwise it would be too troublesome."

Because the banknotes of each denomination are of different sizes, if they all have to be in one picture, the later cutting will be very troublesome. It is better to print the same pattern directly on one plate.

When he said that, he already meant printing with movable type, but Luo Shixing didn't have the idea of ​​printing with movable type.

Although movable type printing is more flexible, it is prone to skewing caused by unevenness in the middle.

Even if the "movable types" produced at that time were all the same size, the wear and tear caused during use would make these "movable types" uneven.

Anyway, the pattern they printed is fixed, and there is no need to adjust it flexibly. It is better to use a whole engraving block directly.

After Cheng Jingwei carved the picture on the clay board, he wiped his hands and said, "How do you plan to print it next?"

Luo Shixing said directly: "First dry the clay tablet, and then paint it with ink!"

Apply ink and put it on paper for rubbing and then peel it off.

The whole process is not difficult, but the difficulty lies in the rubbing.

If you want the clay tablet to be able to rub the pattern, then there must be Yin engraving and Yang engraving, and the Yang engraving is the part that is painted with ink and printed on the painting.

It is also because of the problem of engraving in Yin and Yang that there must be gaps in the middle of the clay tablet, that is to say, there must be blank parts in the rubbing pattern.

This is unavoidable, Cheng Jingwei has tried to keep the pattern as much as possible, but because of too many ink marks are fused together in some places, the pattern is naturally not so clear.

In addition, there is another problem that the pattern printed in this way is completely black, which conflicts with the color required by Luo Shixing.

Seeing Luo Shixing's frown, Cheng Jingwei said, "It's because I don't have experience. I haven't engraved some places well. I'll do it later."

This matter can only be done by him himself. Although they have a lot of people, none of them know how to carve.

After all, the carving skills of the people here from the Ouluo tribe are not very good. It is okay to ask them to carve rough things, but it is not good to let them carve some fine things.

But the Han people are all descendants of officials, and sculpture belongs to the ranks of craftsmen, and their status is relatively low, so they don't know how to learn it.

If it wasn't for Cheng Jingwei's previous life where he had a downturn and learned a lot of ways to make a living in order to survive, he probably wouldn't know this stuff.

Luo Shixing shook his head: "It has nothing to do with you, it's because this method is not good enough."

Cheng Jingwei took a look: "I think it's good enough."

Luo Shixing said: "No, you have to print all the pictures and colors, so that no one can copy it."

The most important thing about coins is anti-counterfeiting. Because Tongbao uses copper, and the minerals can generally be traced back to the holder, even most of them belong to the imperial court, so it is almost impossible to mint coins privately.

From collecting second-hand copper mines in the market to mint coins, in the end it is very likely that [-] Tongbao will be minted and [-] Tongbao will be spent.

But banknotes are different. If banknotes are not protected against counterfeiting, they are too easy to be counterfeited.

In particular, the Central Plains is actually a big copycat from a historical point of view. As long as they make money, smart people in the Central Plains can copy everything, and Chinese antiques are the hardest hit.

Think about it, even ancient paintings that have been stored for so long can be imitated almost the same, so that people can't see the difference, let alone banknotes.

In fact, Cheng Jingwei has thought about this problem before, but the banknotes have not yet been made, and it is useless to think about anti-counterfeiting in advance, one has to take it step by step.

It turned out that the little lynx had already thought of the anti-counterfeiting link in the pattern.

But it seems that this anti-counterfeiting is indeed very useful, because even if they stop it, it is likely that if the printing problem cannot be solved, this banknote cannot be promoted at all.

But how could Luo Shixing let the banknotes die like this?

He stayed in his study for many days, and finally came up with a solution - multi-color printing!