Chapter 76                                                             �

As this eunuch said, the people here are just literate, and there is no more cultural level.

Of course, this does not mean that there are not many cultural eunuchs among the big eunuchs. In fact, there are quite a few, but the problem is that all the eunuchs who come out of Nei Shutang have sharpened their heads and drilled them up. Who would have thought of coming here to host the business factory?

Compared with the official printing of the Imperial College and the folk printing in the south, there is never a shortage of scholars in both the Imperial College and the folk in the south of the Yangtze River.

In this way, how can the factory books be compared with these books?

The simplest point is that there are few original books in the Jing Factory. They are reprinted books that are widely circulated among the people. Even during the reprint, there are always mistakes such as these.

However, Zhou Mengchen was not responsible for this matter. He just wanted to see if he could borrow skilled printing workers in the Jing Factory and copper movable type. Zhou Mengchen did not care about these shortcomings of Jing Factory at all. Not to mention that Zhou Mengchen could find a group of scholars to proofread and print the manuscripts for them. Each of these doctors was not illiterate.

To be honest, the famous doctors in the Ming Dynasty were even better than some literati in terms of cultural level. After all, some literati can make up for the numbers, but famous doctors rarely make up for the numbers. Therefore, Zhou Mengchen did not think that it needed to proofread the manuscripts of these people.

Zhou Mengchen did not go into this matter in depth, but said, "Do you have copper movable type here?"

The eunuch in charge was slightly stunned and said, "However, the Jing Factory is also responsible for the production of the printed letters. During the Chenghua period, after there were copper movable types in the south, the Jing Factory also tried to make several batches, but the effect was not as expected, so it was sealed. I wonder if there are any more?"

Zhou Mengchen said: "How could it not be?"

When the eunuch in charge heard this, his face changed slightly and said, "Yes, there must be. How could it not be?"

Copper movable type is copper.

In ancient China, it was a country that lacked copper. Copper could be used as money directly. The sealing of copper movable type means that a large amount of money was sealed. With the degree of management of the big internal area, it is absolutely not uncommon, or even a high probability of reselling these copper movable type.

During the Kangxi period, the large-scale printing of "Ancient and Modern Books" was used for copper movable type. However, the end of this batch of copper movable type was sealed and stolen by ants, like rice transfers, and was stolen bit by bit.

But the eunuch in charge remembered the fire Huang Jin had just set, but it burned countless people to death. It also made him frightened. Fortunately, the Jingchang was an inconspicuous existence in the entire building and did not attract much attention.

Now Zhou Mengchen was introduced by Huang Jin again, which forced him to do more associations.

So, whether it really exists or not? You must have it now.

Zhou Mengchen didn't know the rich inner activities of the manager, so he said, "Then go and have a look?"

The eunuch in charge said carefully: "Okay, it's just that I haven't used it for many years, and it's hard to find it for a while. Can it be ------?"

Zhou Mengchen said, "It's okay, I'll just wait here."

The eunuch in charge said, "Then please wait for a moment." Then he ignored the others and went to look for them immediately.

After a long time, more than a dozen boxes were brought out and he said, "Sir, the copper movable type is here."

Zhou Mengchen asked someone to open the box and pick up the font to check it out.

It is actually a bit wrong to say that it is copper movable type. The correct statement should be metal movable type. Zhou Mengchen took out the font mold and saw that it was definitely not pure copper, but it was impossible to tell for a while, and it was mixed with metal. However, this doesn't matter. As long as it can be used, it's fine.

Then Zhou Mengchen checked some other things, including the copper movable type, and a series of tools such as picking up characters.

Zhou Mengchen looked over one by one and speculated on the use of these tools.

The eunuch in charge said carefully: "Mr. Zhou, what do you want to print? Wooden movable type is not worse than copper movable type at all, and even wooden movable type is better. But copper movable type has only been used on a large scale for decades. Whether it is ink, overprinting, or other technologies, there are some problems. Otherwise, we would not put these movable type aside."

Zhou Mengchen didn't know much about this, but when he thought about it, the application of new technologies was like this. When the new technologies were just beginning, they might not be able to completely defeat the old technologies.

For some folk printing workshops, it can bring cost advantages. Other problems are tolerant.

The biggest problem with copper movable type is that wooden movable type is easy to make, but it is not durable, it can easily crack over time, and after mixing with various medicinal liquids, it is easy to have problems of one kind or another. These problems are not available in copper movable type.

But the problem is that if it is not used for a long time, movable type tolerate higher costs, movable type may not be worse than copper movable type that has just been used on a large scale for decades.

The style of the Jing Factory is to strive for excellence in printing quality. The printing process of wood movable type has been experienced for many years, and they have their own methods for handling many unique technologies, but copper movable type is different. Zhou Mengchen was also lucky to read two copper movable type versions during the Chenghua period, which did have a strong experimental style. There are even some places where deinking is deformed. Although it has been improved in later versions, it may not be comparable to wooden movable type in some top technical performance.

For example, the overprint mentioned above is a color printing technology that can print four or five colors.

Because wood movable type is carved, it is more flexible and accurate, while copper movable type is cast, so it is inevitable that it is a little lacking in this.

In short, from the perspective of the factory, copper movable type may be available in the future, but it cannot be used now.

However, for Zhou Mengchen, is this a problem?

The journals run by Zhou Mengchen do not need this top-notch printing level. They can read them in general. Even if they adhere to supporting the development of new technologies, Zhou Mengchen will support copper movable type.

Of course, Zhou Mengchen also had some small thoughts.

That is to establish a business for the Zhou family.

Although Zhou Mengchen was not very interested in money, he was definitely not as noble as he was tortured by himself. What he said was that he did not love money was just because of money, so he could not exchange what he wanted. However, Zhou Mengchen also remembered the matter of buying an industry for his family.

After thinking about it, he thought the bookstore was a good business.

First of all, the folk printing industry in the Ming Dynasty was very developed. For example, the Huajia and Anjia mentioned earlier were both wealthy people in this area. Just in terms of business, it was very profitable.

Secondly, the printing industry is also considered a high-tech technology of this era, and it is also possible to pass on family members in the future. Maybe it cannot be rich, but it can last forever. It is much better than other businesses.

Besides, it is the convenient conditions in front of you.

The Jing Factory has various problems and shortcomings, but one thing is beyond doubt, that is, there is a large number of skilled and even superb technical workers. How could Zhou Mengchen not have the intention to poach? Not to mention that this medical journal or even future academic journals cannot always let the Jing Factory do private work for him.

If it is used as an industry, copper movable type is a little more expensive. A set of copper movable type has to be worth tens of thousands of characters, which costs at least tens of thousands of taels of silver. However, it will be very thin for a few decades or even hundreds of years of operating costs.

Zhou Mengchen had this intention to say that the eunuch in charge was not up to the question, and said, "Print a booklet for me to read." Zhou Mengchen thought for a while and said, "Just just a book of "Thousand Characters" and I will want it tomorrow. Is it OK?"

The eunuch in charge felt troublesome. If it were the set of wooden movable type they were using, they would be made in minutes. However, now this set of copper movable type has just been moved out of the warehouse, and there are actually a lot of things missing. It’s just that Zhou Mengchen is an outsider and doesn’t know much about it.

It was debugged overnight, a bit too urgent.

The eunuch in charge said, "Mr. Zhou, this is a bit too tight."

Zhou Mengchen pondered for a moment and said, "Five days, there can be no more."
Chapter completed!