Dao Fruit

In recent days, the northern part of Da Rui has been turbulent. In addition to the war in the grassland country affecting the local area, the biggest change should be the rapid spread of movable type printing.

Even the Meng family, who had expected it long ago, did not expect that this printing method would spread so quickly! In a short period of time, it was beyond their control!

Since the successful printing of Huashe's first book, movable type printing has been officially launched, and then it has become uncontrollable. More than a dozen privately-run book engraving houses have sprung up in and outside the city of Daizhou.

Although the Meng family has made efforts to suppress and control it, it is still difficult to eradicate it. At most, they can only control the book engraving houses in Daizhou City. Outside this range, even if they are willing, they will be trapped by their own manpower, not to mention that the court's laws are there. The Meng family, as a family of nobles, can't stretch their hands too far after all.

Besides, Daizhou City is located in the frontier, and it is a commercial city. There are countless merchants coming and going from the south and the north. These merchants are well-informed and have a keen sense of smell. How could they hide such a big thing as movable type printing?

Not long after, many merchants learned the details, saw the huge business opportunities, and immediately mobilized their own energy.

In this way, the news about movable type printing could not be stopped. Even the servants and servants of the Meng family were mixed with many spies, or were bought with a lot of money.

However, the merchants of this era still knew that there was a god above their heads, and there was still a bottom line in doing things. So while frantically stealing intelligence, they also funded the Meng family and built a pavilion together, and unanimously praised Qiu Yan's calligraphy and placed it in the pavilion, which was quite respectful.

In addition, there are also some measures, such as Huashe, which has been registered as a household. He was invited by many wealthy merchants. If Huashe had not been grateful to the Meng family for taking him in, he would have left long ago.

Even so, without Huashe's participation, the specific method of movable type printing had been explored by the omnipresent spies and gathered in the hands of various wealthy merchants.

With the suppression of the Meng family in Daizhou, more than a dozen newly established book engraving houses were quelled, but the owners and assistants in the book engraving houses would not disappear, and they were plundered by several wealthy merchants.

Then, in just a few days, outside Daizhou, a number of book engraving houses stood up and printed books wantonly. Because of the movable type, the cost was low. On the contrary, the regular book engraving houses were hit and their business was bleak!

As a result, the government was immediately alerted. During the national war, this kind of thing that could shake public opinion and make people's hearts unstable was actually very sensitive, and a certain amount of suppression was inevitable.

However, those merchants were not easy to deal with. The tribute of money eventually made some officials turn a blind eye, and a certain balance was achieved between the two sides.

However, movable type printing was a new technology after all, and there were still many loopholes and drawbacks. For example, the movable type used for printing was not easy to collect and use. When placing it, there was no method such as rotation to distinguish it. The craftsmen responsible for printing did not have the corresponding knowledge. When combining movable type, sometimes it was reversed and sometimes it was wrong. Therefore, the books printed by this method had many mistakes and omissions. In addition, due to factors such as ink mixing, the printed books were ugly.

In this case, it would naturally be resisted by some students. However, because of this, in order to sell it, the price of the books became lower and lower. Many students, Confucian scholars, and scholars could not stand the poverty of their families, and could not find books to copy. They just wanted to read, so they could only compromise with reality.

This also made printers see the profit, and more workshop-style engraving halls were established, and even passed all the way to the capital area and touched the capital.

However, the capital city is no different from other places. It is a gathering place for wealthy families and bureaucrats. There are countless Guanlong nobles and aristocratic families. They control public opinion very strictly. All the book engraving halls in Guanlong and Jingji are firmly controlled by them. How can they allow private printing to happen?

As long as they find a little sign, they will immediately use administrative means to suppress it. Not only will they ban the movable type printing workshop, but also the books that flow out of the workshop will become **.

However, this matter, which seems to have a great impact to ordinary people, did not alarm the emperor at all, and even did not report it to the emperor. The aristocratic families used their own influence to interfere with the government and directly dealt with it.

But on the other hand, the war in the north also involved the main attention of the aristocratic families. The seemingly simple dynasty war was mixed with many factors. Therefore, although they saw the threat of movable type printing, there were priorities. The mainstream and big figures in the aristocratic families just gave a little instruction and withdrew their attention, but only asked the younger generation and the people below to continue to ask.

As a result, the government order had some loopholes.

The merchants who printed books would not be willing to suffer losses because of the government order. The books squeezed in the warehouse must be sold abroad. Moreover, they also had connections with some young people from aristocratic families, which gave rise to another distribution channel -

traveling merchants.

The two books obtained by Meng Mu came from here. The two seemingly simple books could be passed on to her hands, and the twists and turns they experienced were also unimaginable to ordinary people.

However, Meng Sanyi, who often helped in the Hanlin Academy and was very smart and good at thinking, could guess a little clue. When he saw the two books, he felt his mother's concern and a little worried in his heart.

"Did anyone see my mother when she was buying books?"

Hearing her son's inquiry, Meng's mother smiled and said, "I don't have to worry about this. My mother knows that the government prohibits the sale of this kind of book, but it's just an excuse. There are many people buying books. When I went there, If I hadn’t arrived early, I might have returned empty-handed.”

Hearing this, Meng Sanyi felt more worried and a little ashamed. He knew that his family was not rich. These two books printed with movable type may be cheap for ordinary people, but for a family like theirs, He said that if he wanted to buy one book, he would have to save money and save money for at least a few days. However, his mother would buy two books at a time, so you can imagine the cost.

"This is all because you are worried about me." Meng Sanyi knew the reason clearly.

From that day on, he met Qiu Yan again in the Hanlin Academy and heard what he said. Meng San moved back, tossed and turned, chewed over and over again, but couldn't make any sense.

I thought it was Qiu Yan who used his power to help him create a household for the people and become a resident in the capital.

To work in such a place, one must be clean, but since the capital is crowded with people from all directions, not all clean families can settle down and become naturalized, such as Meng Sanqian's family, which is why we made this speculation.

But judging from what Qiu Yan said later, this is not the case.

After thinking about it over and over, until recently, Meng Sanyi found some clues and gradually made up his mind. Unexpectedly, the behavior in this period has made his mother so worried. The more he thought about it, the more guilty he felt. Worry followed him like a shadow. It was just a thought. As a son, I cannot refuse.

After collecting the two books, Meng San moved and said a few words to Meng's mother, but he took the two books under a tree outside the house and came back and said: "I have been uneasy recently, which worries my mother. Is it the child's fault?" , It’s just that I’m really worried, so I’m not sure.”

Meng's mother was not surprised when she heard this. Her son could understand everything at a glance, so she said, "What's wrong with my son? I haven't read a book, so I can't help."

"Now that I have figured it out, I was about to tell my mother," Meng Sanyi smiled, "I hope my mother can pickle some meat for the baby to use in two days."

"Meat," Mother Meng said with a bit of embarrassment on her face, "My family doesn't have enough money, so I'm afraid I have to wait for a few days." In this era, ordinary people couldn't eat meat every meal, but Mother Meng had just bought it with money. After two books, I don’t have any money left to buy meat for the time being.

"My child also knows what's going on at home. It's not about using the family's assets." Meng Sanyi also knew about the situation at home. "I'm not asking my mother to buy it. I'm asking her to prepare some seasonings for pickling. I I have made an agreement with Uncle Li, the head of the village, and I will go with him into the forest in the afternoon to see if I can hunt some game."

The Li family in the east of the village is a famous hunter. When Meng Sanyi's father was alive, he had a good relationship with him. He also took care of the Meng family's mother and son in recent years. Meng Sanyi could go to the Hanlin Academy to help, but he still relied on his help. Only after asking a young man from a wealthy family who loves hunting to talk about it did he get a chance.

However, after hearing this, Meng's mother looked worried and shook her head in refusal: "My son is thin and has only been studying. How can he get into the forest? Could it be that he has forgotten your father's lessons?"

Meng Sanyi's father, who committed crimes at home and was named in the family tree, was even more miserable than ordinary people. He wandered all the way like a refugee. Meng Sanyi had been with him since he was a child, and it was quite bumpy.

After Meng's father settled in this village, in order to improve the family's food, he went into the forest to hunt from time to time, thus befriending Li Orion. Eventually, he died of serious injuries due to an encounter with wild animals, leaving behind orphans and widows.

Meng Sanyi said, "So that the mother will know that the child is not just a temporary fantasy, but to prepare for the ceremony of apprenticeship. Even if the family is poor, the ceremony cannot be discarded."

"Apprenticeship?" Meng's mother was stunned and wanted to ask in detail, but before she could speak, she was interrupted by the voice coming from outside the courtyard.

"This is it. The village woman who bought a house can get into this house!"

As this sound came in, Meng's mother was startled and thought of something. Looking back, she happened to see a scholar from the village, leading several officials, breaking the fence and walking in.

She was no stranger to that scholar either. She had just met him before. He was one of the people who bought books with her.

"Did you buy the **?" The leading officer, a strong man, walked into the yard surrounded by fences, looked around, his eyes swept over Meng Sanyi, and finally fell on Meng's mother, saying in a deep voice asked.

Meng's mother suddenly became afraid. (To be continued...)

ps: Thank you Chumi-chan for the tip!