Tibet

Gao Shi stepped forward and saw clearly that the engraving on the table was not a complete engraving, but a splicing of independent small wooden characters.

"This is..." Gao Shi was surprised. He had never seen such individual words.

"This is movable type!"

The steward stepped forward, took one, and handed it to Gao Shi. Gao Shi took it and looked at it carefully. The movable type was very small, but the work was extremely delicate, and it could be seen that it had been carefully polished.

He suddenly understood and said to Wang Jin: "When necessary, the content can be temporarily assembled, right?"

Wang Jin nodded, "This is for newspapers. It has to be typed every day, so there is no need to re-engrav the board."

Gao Shi understood, looked at it carefully again, and sighed: "It's not easy to do this!"

The steward nodded, "It takes at least half a year to make a movable type. It needs to be soaked in oil, dried and polished repeatedly so that the wooden movable type will be stable and will not expand and shrink with heat. His Majesty said that it is best to use copper movable type. It is currently being developed. , it should be possible.”

At this time, Gao Shi suddenly thought of something and asked: "There will definitely be a lot of repeated words in a newspaper. What should I do?"

The steward took out a large plate of type blanks from the drawer next to him and said with a smile: "Reporting to Gao Shijun, this is the completed type blank. You can add it temporarily when needed. In fact, we have prepared a lot of commonly used movable type, and each character has two characters. Ten, if it’s not enough, just add more.”

Wang Jin said from the side: "This is your Majesty's intention to publish the Xun Bao first, so that everyone can become proficient in movable type printing and practice using the Xun Bao. Otherwise, you can also use engraving for the Xun Bao!"

The steward smiled and said: "Wang Shangshu is right. It does require a skilled process. Typesetting is very time-consuming. It will take at least several months to become proficient. We plan to train more than a dozen typesetters so that everyone can be as fast as they are. Flying, and it is the first time for movable type printing. We need to continuously accumulate experience and correct mistakes. In a few years, movable type printing will be used on a large scale. "

After coming out of the printing hall, Gao Shi pondered and said to Wang Jin: "I suggest that we train students in movable type printing in schools, so as not to allow private newspapers to be run in the future, and everyone will be caught off guard and stuck in the printing process."

Wang Jin nodded and smiled: "Your Majesty has already thought of this issue. After the first "Jiaxing Chao Bao" is printed, a message will be published in the corner. Interested printers can come to the newspaper office to sign up and make an appointment. Let’s go see the movable type printing process together.”

"I understand, this is a good idea!"

Wang Jin smiled and said: "The next step is to start preparations. You may need Gao Shijun to formulate a plan, how many people, how much property, official offices, etc. are needed. In addition, Wei Xiangguo has arranged a deputy for the envoy, named Lu Dahui, the owner of Chongwen Hall, is responsible for printing books. He is more professional and can help Gao Shijun get things done. "

Gao Shi smiled and nodded, "That's great, otherwise I would be really confused and don't know where to start?"

It’s already seventy points cooler in Chang’an in September, but it’s still as hot as summer in Quanzhou.

Du Huan arrived in Jiaozhou with three thousand troops, bringing the total strength of Jiaozhou to six thousand.

Jiaozhou has been a place of great importance to the Central Plains dynasty since ancient times. The ancients knew that the land in the alluvial plain was the most fertile and suitable for human habitation.

Therefore, the two most fertile lands in the Lingnan region are the Pearl River Delta and the Red River Delta. The Red River Delta is Jiaozhou, which is today's Hanoi, Vietnam.

As early as when Zhao Tuo established the Nanyue Kingdom, Jiaozhou was one of the most important farming areas in the Nanyue Kingdom.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Annan Protectorate was established, and Jiaozhou was further developed. When the Central Plains was deeply tyrannized by the Anshi Rebellion, Jiaozhou was not affected. Instead, many Han people fled to Jiaozhou.

However, the Anshi Rebellion affected Jiaozhou from another aspect, that is, the Tang Dynasty had financial difficulties and was unable to maintain the garrison in Jiaozhou, which caused the military strength of Jiaozhou to drop sharply from 10,000 to 1,000.

The negative consequences of the reduction in military strength soon appeared. First, they were spied on by Nanzhao. For decades, Nanzhao had been spying on Jiaozhou's land and its seaport, and wanted to send troops to occupy it several times, but failed due to various reasons.

If Li Ye had not launched the Nanzhao War, Jiaozhou would have been captured by Nanzhao sooner or later, but now Nanzhao does not have this opportunity.

The second was the invasion of Shanyue and Nanman. Before the Tang army maintained strong military strength, the Shanyue and Nanman people never dared to act rashly. However, since the garrison dropped sharply, the Shanyue and Nanman people went down from the mountains to plunder property and people from time to time, causing hardship to the people of Jiaozhou. Unspeakable.

Then there was the invasion of pirates. Pirates from Sumatra and Tianzhu invaded the coast of Jiaozhou from time to time, raped, burned and killed, and committed all kinds of evil.

Fortunately, after Li Ye became the supervisor of the country, when the situation in the Central Plains eased, he sent General Zhang Boyi as the governor of Jiaozhou and added two thousand troops. The effect was immediate. Zhang Boyi took the initiative to lead an army to attack the Vietnamese barbarians in Shannan, killing thousands of the enemy. Thousands of people who were robbed were rescued.

Zhang Boyi also set up an ambush near the mouth of the Red River. When hundreds of pirates entered the river mouth, a thousand Tang troops cut off the pirates' retreat and killed hundreds of pirates.

Pirates no longer dare to go deep into the hinterland and can only harass along the coast.

When Du Huan arrived again with three thousand troops, Zhang Boyi realized that the time had come for Datang to make a complete counterattack.

In the coach's room, as the emperor's imperial envoy, Du Huan was explaining the emperor's intentions to the generals.

"The strategic intentions of the emperor and the imperial court are very clear. The first is to protect the strategic land of Jiaozhou and quell the banditry; the second is to capture the Champa State and use the Champa State as the foundation to explore the fertile fields of Chenla. The imperial court wants food. ”

Zhang Boyi pondered for a moment and asked: "Excuse me, Mr. Du, do you have naval support?"

Du Huan nodded, "The 300 warships of the Tang navy will support us soon!"

Zhang Boyi was overjoyed. It would be easy to deal with the navy. The pirates entrenched in Champa must be wiped out.

Zhang Boyi immediately arranged for local officials to accompany Du Huan to check the situation in Jiaozhou.

The local official was called Yang Shengzhi. His grandfather came to Jiaozhou to serve as a minor official during the Kaiyuan period. He had five sons, and each son had several grandchildren. In just three generations, they became a big family in Jiaozhou.

Yang Shengzhi is currently serving as a military officer in the household department of Jiaozhou Dudufu, and is very familiar with the people's livelihood in Jiaozhou.

Du Huan rode slowly along the ridges of the fields. This is the paddy field south of Jiaozhi County, and it is also the largest paddy field area in Jiaozhou. The green paddy field is endless. Yang Shengzhi pointed to the paddy field and smiled, "There are more than 6,000 hectares of paddy fields around Jiaozhi County, three areas in the east, west and south of the city, which are relatively balanced. We implement a rotation system, cultivating one year and resting two years, and only cultivating more than 2,000 hectares each year."

"Three seasons a year?"

Yang Shengzhi nodded, "Three crops a year, one mu of land can produce 1,500 kilograms of rice."

"This is a huge yield! Two thousand hectares of good land can produce more than 2 million shi a year."

Du Huan exclaimed, "How many people are there in Jiaozhou?"

"There are 150,000 to 160,000 Han people in Jiaozhou, 30,000 households, most of whom make a living by farming."

"On average, each person has more than 100 shi of grain every year, and the grain is very abundant!"

Yang Shengzhi smiled bitterly, "Envoy Du is talking about the best years, if there were no southern barbarians and pirates Harassment, everyone works together and can produce a lot of food, but the problem is that when the pirates and the southern barbarians come, the people all run away, they rob food, rob cattle, and burn houses. It's good to be able to grow one season a year. For so many years, the food can only barely make a living. "

"Don't worry about this problem in the future. This time, the pirates will be killed, and the southern barbarians and Shanyue people who regard the Han people as enemies will also be killed. This is the will of the emperor. The southern barbarians and Shanyue people will not be given a chance to forgive. It is impossible to hope that they will become kind. Only the dead are the safest. "

Yang Shengzhi nodded, "This is a pragmatic approach. These southern barbarians don't know what is benevolence and righteousness. They only know how to bully the weak and fear the strong. When you are strong, they dare not provoke you. When you are a little weak, they immediately come with knives. How many Han people have they killed and how many women have they ruined? We all hate them to the bone. Only by killing them all can we avenge our dead compatriots! "