Qin Official

Ten days later, at the Linzi Palace, under the supervision of heavily armed Qin soldiers, several ox-carts drove in from the east gate. Their carriages were loaded with something, but it was covered with linen and no one could tell. This team of oxcarts was escorted by hundreds of Qin soldiers and arrived at a house next to the abandoned garden of Lubenzhitai.

The poet Cheng Shang jumped down from the bullock cart and shouted to the craftsmen behind him:

"Hurry up! Unload the utensils from the car and arrange them properly within an hour. The Jiaodong County Sheriff and His Majesty may come to inspect at any time!"

Cheng Shang was an old friend of Heifu. When he was in Guanzhong, at Heifu's initiative, the Mohist family came forward to help him make water mills, water drainage and other equipment. He also explored a complete set of papermaking techniques and was given the public title. The title of doctor.

However, as the imperial administration became more and more harsh in recent years, which was far from the Mohist pursuit, Cheng Shang became somewhat disheartened. He resigned from his official position and devoted himself to studying techniques and equipment, hoping to use his own meager efforts to contribute to this harsh world. Make a contribution.

This summer, Heifu had invited the farmers to Jimo and wrote to Cheng Shang, saying that Jiaodong was in dire straits and was waiting to be revitalized. It was necessary to reopen the salt field and mine gold mines, and the Mohist family's help was very much needed. He invited him to come to Jiaodong.

When Cheng Shang arrived in Jiaodong, he discovered that in addition to salt and gold, Heifu was also preparing a big project: woodblock printing.

What was loaded on their oxcart was hundreds of engravings that Heifu had carved out in the past few months after recruiting printers from all over the county...

The craftsmen did not dare to neglect, and unloaded the engravings one by one, moved them to the house, and placed them according to different contents. The place for printing was placed on the large stone table in the flower garden. Cheng Shang arranged for others to use it specifically for printing. The cigarette ink is prepared and ready for use.

After everything was ready, half an hour had passed. Cheng Shang just had time to breathe a sigh of relief when he heard a drum beat. It was the emperor's chariot coming!

Lang Wei's army filed in and surrounded the abandoned garden. The Jiaodong craftsmen were a little nervous. Lang Wei asked all the idle people to leave, leaving only Cheng Shang and a few other people who could operate the printing. He also searched them all and went out to report everything. After everything was done, the emperor walked over with his ministers.

Leading the way were Hei Fu and the fat man Zhang Cang. Hei Fu bowed to Cheng Shang and said, "Thank you for your hard work."

Zhang Cang patted his shoulder and said meaningfully: "Zi Yin, you came in time and saved the scholars in the world and the Moh family..."

"ah?"

Cheng Shang was dumbfounded. The book-burning discussion that took place in the Qi Palace in Linzi was a secret and had not yet been spread. Outsiders only knew that a few Confucian scholars were imprisoned for slandering the imperial court.

Zhang Cang knew that the emperor had been hesitant to discuss "book burning" in the past few days, just because he wanted to see whether the "printing technology" mentioned by Heifu was true or false.

"That's not right." Zhang Cang looked at the emperor's chariot behind him and realized something: "It's not that your majesty wants to see it himself, but that he wants to show it to the ministers, the prime minister and others..."

Cheng Shang was a little confused, but there was no time to ask, because the tall figure of Qin Shihuang had already appeared in front of them.

"Is this the printing you are talking about?"

Qin Shihuang walked to the big stone table and reached out to touch the wooden board with Yangwen seal carving: "It really looks like a seal, but there are more words than printing."

After saying this, he didn’t waste any time. He gestured with his hands and ordered: “Print a few copies and show them to me!”

Heifu accepted the promise and did not shy away from it. He personally helped Cheng Shang and pressed a piece of carving for him. Cheng Shang picked up a brush, dipped it in smoke ink mixed with hemp seed oil and smoke, and brushed it back and forth on the carving. After making sure it was even, he took a piece of light yellow leather paper from Zhang Cang's hand and carefully covered it on the engraving. He held the rolling wood and gently wiped the back of the paper to make it completely contact. After a while, he took the paper off, blew it dry gently, and presented it to Qin Shihuang...

Qin Shihuang took a closer look, and in just a moment, the spotless paper was already densely packed with official scripts.

After Qin Shihuang finished reading it, he passed it on to the ministers. After everyone had handled it, he glanced at them and said, "My lords, is there anyone who still has doubts about this matter?"

Wang Wu, the fifth doctor who had previously questioned the authenticity of what Hei Fu said, blushed and apologized to Hei Fu in embarrassment. As for the others, Li Si had no expression on his face, while Ye Teng was amused. He had seen Heifu's cleverness countless times.

Others praised one after another, saying that using this engraving printing method, one can really print out an order quickly, which is dozens or even a hundred times faster than copying it by hand!

"It's papermaking and printing. They're all exams for engineering. The county guard can go in and become a young eunuch." Someone joked.

Heifu said humbly: "I have no virtue or ability. I just asked inkers and craftsmen to combine common engravings and printings to come up with this method."

Heifu didn't lie. Just like papermaking, he only provided ideas, and the rest of the technology was all ready-made.

Every official in the Qin Dynasty had one of these seals. Heifu had a silver seal and a green ribbon. Every time he wrote a document, he had to stamp it. Among the craftsmen affiliated with the government, there are people who specialize in seal engraving. They not only make seals, but also engrave inscriptions on bronze vessels. Their seal engraving skills are superb.

However, the number of words in the seal is small, and the printing area is also small. It can be engraving, but the imprinting experience is insufficient. Heifu turned his attention to the government-run weaving workshops. The mulberry and hemp industry in Jiaodong was prosperous. Most of the beautiful silk clothes on the market were printed in batches using letterpress printing and dyeing technology.

Gather the craftsmen from both parties together, and wait until the Cheng Shang is in place before work can begin.

Mo Zhe is an excellent engineer. Cheng Shang has cooperated with Heifu more than once or twice, and he understands everything. According to Heifu's description, he cut down the local pear trees, boxwoods, ginkgo trees, jujube trees, etc. in Jiaodong. After many processes such as soaking, drying, and planing, it is made into the shape of a ruler, but it is thicker than ordinary rulers.

Then, according to the already mature seal-making technology, the thin paper filled with words was laid on the reverse side, and it took a long time to engrave, so that the wooden seal was densely covered with positive and reverse words. This is what is called " "Engraving", then the printing and dyeing craftsmen develop the special smoke ink for printing, adjust the lightness and density, and the printing time. In just over a month, a set of mature technology has been released!

There are ready-made front-end technologies, and with the ideas he provided, invention is simple but application is difficult.

Can its appearance satisfy certain needs of people in this era? If it is not needed by others, no matter how great the meaning is given by future generations, it will soon be submerged in the long river of time.

Take paper as an example. If it weren't for the massive demand for paperwork from the Qin Dynasty's government, Heifu is certain that paper would have only become popular in a small circle and remained dormant for many years.

As for the current printing technology, if it is to be widely used by people, the premise is that society needs large-scale batch copying of text!

The emergence of woodblock printing in China probably occurred in the Tang Dynasty. It was not used to print books at first, but to print Buddhist scriptures. This is something that almost everyone who believes in Buddhism needs, and handwriting alone cannot meet the demand.

It was similar in Europe. During the Renaissance, Europeans first printed Bibles in large quantities.

For an invention to be widely used, it does not depend on how much it transcends the times, but on whether it is needed by the times.

This is the principle behind Heifu's inventions: choosing what is needed in the world.

He actually felt that printing and the Qin Dynasty went well together... because the Qin Dynasty also needed to copy words quickly and in large quantities on something.

At this time, Cheng Shang had printed the second piece of paper, and Hei Fu presented it with both hands. Qin Shihuang took it and looked at it, smiling.

"The piece of paper just now was printed with the "Miscellaneous Code of Wei", and this one is the "Miscellaneous Code of Internal History"! Heifu, you are telling me that in the future, the Yushi Mansion will promulgate laws for counties and counties. , we no longer need to hand-copy by the swordsman and penman, but can use printing instead?"

"Your Majesty is wise! I originally asked craftsmen to develop this method just to print laws and regulations!"

This is what Heifu means. The most important content in the "Wei Za Lv" is "the law is established by the censor every year", which means that in October every year, Tingwei has to go to the censor's office to check the newly promulgated laws. This is very interesting. Although Ye Teng, Heifu's father-in-law, was a court official and controlled the world's prisons, he only had judicial power, and the legislative power was reserved in the hands of the Yushifu. The Qin Dynasty did not insist on "the laws of the ancestors being immutable". The laws and regulations could be changed at any time according to the actual situation. Therefore, the Yushi Mansion would carry out a "law amendment" every year and ask the Tingwei to send people to observe.

In addition to having people check the newly revised laws, the Tingwei also ordered the swordsmen and writers to copy them and promulgated them to the county judges. The county judges in turn notified the county judges to learn how to copy... This is what is written in "Miscellaneous Laws of Internal History": "Each county will report to the capital officials who are in their county and write down the rules for the use of their officials."

The county judge returned to the county seat with the red-headed documents from the central government and the county, and circulated them to the petty officials and rural misfits. In this way, the law was spread from the central government to the local grassroots.

Heifu was very familiar with the process of the imperial court from legislation to dissemination of laws. After talking about it, he somehow ended up talking about his hometown of Anlu. The judge named "Xi" had been in prison for decades, transcribing The story of Luwen...