I

Henglin Bookstore was born in the late years of Zhengde.

Because the Fei family did not cooperate with King Ning's rebellion, their ancestral graves were dug up and their ancestral home was burned down.

At that time, there was only Hanzhu Private School, not Hanzhu Academy. Fei's collection of books was placed in the ancestral house, but it was also burned down by a fire.

Fei Hong, who became an official at home, personally set up a bookstore, purchased imperial examination materials from Nanzhi and Zhejiang, and specially printed teaching aids for his children to study.

Over the past century, Henglin Bookstore has grown and developed, publishing more and more content. It mainly operates three types of books: teaching aids, anthologies, and opera scripts.

In the last years of Wanli, he even began to secretly print pornographic novels...

"Just carve a few sentence break symbols. Isn't it too much for you to pay too much?" Zhao Han was very unhappy.

Fei Yu, the shopkeeper of the bookstore, said with a smile: "Only a few carvings? There are dozens of them for one article!"

Zhao Han pointed at the two pieces of manuscript paper on the table and began to reason seriously: "Shopkeeper Fei, let's speak with conscience. Is it easier to read only the sentence breakers, or is it easier to read the ones with commas and colons?"

"It's all convenient," Fei Yu said.

"The same novel, two sentence break symbols, which one would you like to buy?" Zhao Han asked.

Fei Yu said ambiguously: "Anything is fine."

Zhao Han was so angry that he laughed: "Well, your bookstore is not the only one in Qianshan. I will get the book printed by another bookstore. After they print the book, the movable type of the sentence breakers will be retained, and other books can be printed."

Fei Yu stretched out his hand to stop him: "Don't leave in a hurry. When discussing business, you should talk slowly. How can you finish a few sentences?"

"I shouldn't pay for the new sentence breakers and engraving of movable type," Zhao Han insisted. "Let's talk if we can. If we can't, we'll break up."

Fei Yu saw that he couldn't get any cheaper, so he smiled and said, "Okay, I won't charge any extra money."

The publishing industry in the late Ming Dynasty was extremely prosperous. In addition to the advancement of printing technology, there was also the complete formation of "Song Ti".

Song font should actually be called printed font, which is especially suitable for movable type printing.

Color overprinting technology even appeared in Nanjing. Several colors can be printed on the same page, and illustrations can also be attached.

Printed materials in the late Ming Dynasty, especially popular books, basically had sentence break marks.

There is only one black dot, which is both a comma and a period.

Zhao Han requested not to add many punctuation marks, just commas, periods, colons, and quotation marks, in order to make it easier for the lower class people to read.

Another half month has passed, and the first issue of "Ehu Xunkan" has finally been published.

President: Zhao Han.

Vice President: Pang Chunlai.

Main writers: Zhao Han, Pang Chunlai.

Editors and proofreaders: Pang Chunlai, Xu Ying, Fei Yuanjian.

Section 1: Zhao Zi said.

The second section: Liaodong theory.

The third section: Selected Ancient Prose.

Section 4: Poetry Appreciation.

Section 5: Opera scripts.

Section 6: Serialization of novels.

Section 7: Thai and Western Mathematics. (The first few issues will not be printed, the start-up funds are not enough, and mathematical symbols will cost more)

…

It was the first day of October in the fifth year of Chongzhen.

Dingsheng Building.

Fei Yuanlu took a Confucian scholar to choose a private room on the second floor, and said with a smile: "Long Ru, you are new here. I will take you to try Qianshan's new dishes."

"It cost the mountain chief." Zheng Zhongkui said with cupped hands.

Zheng Zhongkui, courtesy name Longru, was born in Shangrao. He lost his father when he was young and was raised by his elder brother.

Although this gentleman could not even pass the examination, he was praised as "unparalleled in talent and erudition". He had published books such as "Qing Yan", "Earing the Heart", "Occasionally Notes", and "Juan District".

"Qingyan" is also known as "Lanwanju Qingyan", which can be called the Ming Dynasty version of "Shishuoxinyu".

The rest of the books are mostly essays and novels, covering politics, economics, ethnicity, diplomacy, literature, art, and customs. Historically, "Odd Records" and "Juan District" were also listed as banned books by Qianlong.

In the past few years, Fei Yuanlu had been reorganizing the academy, which greatly improved the academic style of Hanzhu Mountain.

He also invited famous teachers to teach him. Zheng Zhongkui was the third one. He wrote more than ten letters and finally invited him.

Food and wine are served.

Fei Yuanlu introduced: "This is the red oil chicken, which is spicy and refreshing. This is the Dongpo pork elbow, which is fat but not greasy. They are all new products from Dingshenglou. Let's try them, Long Ru."

Zheng Zhongkui picked up a piece of elbow meat, put it in his mouth, chewed it carefully, and immediately exclaimed: "This is a rare treasure in the world!"

Fei Yuanlu opened the window next to the aisle and said with a smile: "Dingshenglou has a new opera troupe. The Yiyang accent is excellent. Long Ru can enjoy the delicious food and the opera with wine."

"The master of the mountain treats me so well, I am really ashamed of myself." Zheng Zhongkui said quickly.

Fei Yuanlu said: "Long Rucai is famous far and wide. Who doesn't know about it in Guangxin Mansion? I hope you will pay more attention to the academic affairs of the academy."

"We must do our best." Zheng Zhongkui responded.

Suddenly, Fei Chun's voice came from outside: "Quiet, quiet, before the troupe starts performing today, I will tell you a legendary story."

"Don't listen to the book, let the troupe come on stage!"

"Who are you? Your hair has not even grown yet. Go home and nurse!"

"Get out of here, get out of here!"

"..."

Fei Yuanlu immediately closed the window, and most of the noise dissipated. He smiled and said, "Eat the food and don't worry about him."

At this moment, Fei Chun was standing on the stage, holding a paper tube loudspeaker in his hand, looking too embarrassed to speak.

Zhao Han could only go up to the stage by himself, grab the loudspeaker and say: "Hey, hey, hey..."

The diners noticed that there was one more person, and the noise became slightly quieter. They were all curious about what Zhao Han wanted to do.

Zhao Han took the opportunity to shout: "Red oil chicken and Dongpo elbow are dishes passed down from my ancestors. Can you tell me whether these two dishes are delicious?"

"tasty!"

"Hey, Ganqing is the little chef in the kitchen."

"Was your ancestor an imperial chef?"

"..."

The topic changed instantly, and it all focused on food.

Zhao Han held up a loudspeaker and continued shouting: "Everyone, be quiet. After listening to the story, you can eat the third new dish tomorrow. Okay?"

"good!"

Many diners laughed in unison.

Zhao Han handed the loudspeaker to Fei Chun: "Let's get started."

After all, Fei Chun was a monk on the way, and his voice had not been practiced. When speaking at large events, he had to use a loudspeaker. He raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet: "This story happened during the reign of Emperor Ningzong of the Song Dynasty. But it is said that there was a Niujia Village by the Qiantang River..."

Gradually, the noise became smaller and smaller, and the diners were immersed in it.

Some people even finished eating, but refused to leave and continued to sit there and listen to the story.

When it was mentioned that the Jin State killed people in the Song State, and the officers and soldiers of the Song State actually helped, the audience were filled with indignation, pounding the table and calling the Song emperor a coward.

When Qiu Chuji talked about killing corrupt officials and killing those Jin soldiers, the audience cheered and applauded.

Then, Fei Chun said: "If you want to know what happened next time, let's listen to the explanation next time!"

"anything else?"

"Don't talk about it anymore?"

"Little brother, do it again!"

"..."

Damn, this fragment of chapter is simply immoral.

After the two loyal and righteous men, one was killed by the Jin soldiers, and the other's life and death were unknown. Their wives were still pregnant, and one of them seemed to have been saved, but who saved her? What about the remaining one? Can the child be saved?

Stop suddenly and do nothing!

Fei Chun took out a copy of "Ehu Xunjian" and said with a smile: "If you want to know about the funeral, you can also buy this book. Each copy only costs one cent (0.01 taels of silver)."

During the Zhengde and Jiajing years, due to the imperfection of movable type printing, the price of books at that time was very expensive. A set of "Collected Poems of Li Shangyin" was worth 4 taels of silver.

During the Wanli period, the price dropped a lot, and a set of "The Romance of the Gods" was worth 2 taels of silver.

During the Tianqi and Chongzhen years, printing became more developed, more and more publishing houses were added, and book prices continued to fall.

The paper used in Zhao Han's "Ehu Xunjian" is relatively cheap, and it is close to the paper production area. It can be said to be sold very cheaply... Well, to put it more bluntly, it is about the same as a pound of chicken.

Those who can eat at Dingshenglou are not short of a pound of chicken.

Although they were dissatisfied, they still wanted to know the follow-up, and more than ten people bought the magazine on the spot.

Then, he yelled...

They bought the novel to read, but who knew that after they got it, only one third was a novel, and what the hell was all that stuff in the front?

"Money back!"

"Money back!"

Zhao Han rushed to the stage and shouted even more fiercely than the consumers: "Whoever yells again, I will stop writing, and I will not produce new dishes in the future!"

Everyone was speechless, ignored the previous content, and turned to the back to read the novel.

There are also restaurant waiters serving food in the private room on the second floor, all carrying a magazine in their arms.

A waiter came into the room to refill the wine and asked: "Mr. Fei, is this gentleman interested in buying the ten-month issue? There are poems, prose, opera and novels, everything you want. It's very beautiful."

"Let's take a look." Zheng Zhongkui said with a smile.

The clerk hurriedly handed over the "Ehu Xun Issue". Zheng Zhongkui did not pay him immediately, but opened it and browsed it first.

The title page has no opening words and is directly the table of contents for this issue.

The first section is "Zhao Zi said", the author Zhao Zi said, the title of the article is: "All people in the world are created equal".

Zheng Zhongkui's eyelids twitched and he quickly read the text:

"...The first is that men and women are equal...the second is that all walks of life are equal...the third is that good and bad are equal..."