Don't blame Li Bi for not thinking of this. It's simply that in that era, apart from a few powerful foreign tribes like the Turks and Uyghurs, the entire area surrounding the Tang Dynasty was proud to be Tang people. Even those exiles who arrived in Chang'an identified themselves as Tang people. That's the allure of the Tang Dynasty at that time. That's the confidence of the Tang people then. Unlike later generations...
“This is feasible. I will inform the Crown Prince immediately.”
Li Bi left in a hurry, while Lu Xuan went straight into a small courtyard that the Jing'an Division had prepared for him. Inside, a group of craftsmen were busy at work.
"How did it go?" Lu Xuan asked casually.
A person in charge immediately came forward to respond.
"Reporting to the captain. The finished product is ready, and the first trial print is underway."
“Very good, take me there to have a look.”
Movable type printing was Lu Xuan's first move against the powerful clans. How could these clans have remained undefeated for a thousand years? Besides the resources they controlled and their vast populations, there was another crucial factor: most knowledge was held solely by these clans and the imperial family. The poor struggled to survive, barely able to eat; where would they find the time and energy to learn?
Even if one wanted to learn, the exorbitant price of books in this era meant that a wealthy family could barely afford to send one child to school, even if they worked themselves to the bone. However, if a child went to school, the family lost a laborer, and the wealthy family might no longer be wealthy. Thus, a vicious cycle was created. The truth always remained in the hands of a small group of people. And so, certain things became increasingly entrenched.
To break through these barriers, Lu Xuan's first task was to lower the price of books. And to print books on a large scale, movable type printing would be necessary.
In fact, woodblock printing wasn't as slow as people imagine. In fact, it could be considered quite fast. However, its drawbacks were too obvious. First, woodblock carving was time-consuming and labor-intensive, requiring a large amount of materials. Second, the large size of the woodblocks made storage inconvenient. Third, even the slightest mistake in the woodblock ruined the entire block. These drawbacks led to the high price of woodblocks, and consequently, the high price of the books.
It is said that some woodblocks carved by renowned artists were even collected. This shows that printing books in this era was an elegant and refined pursuit, not something that ordinary people could afford. However, if books cannot be made more accessible, they lose their meaning.
Cost reduction is a fundamental mindset for every modern entrepreneur. Lu Xuan was no exception. He gathered a group of craftsmen at the Jing'an Division and gave them a general idea, letting them experiment on their own.
Initially, the craftsmen used wooden movable type. However, due to the uneven grain of the wood, it was difficult to carve uniform characters. Secondly, wooden movable type would warp when exposed to water. They then tried using various metals to make movable type, but the cost was too high. Finally, at Lu Xuan's suggestion, they tried using a fine clay.
Several craftsmen were drying clay type and arranging it in an iron frame. At the bottom of the frame, there seemed to be some kind of glue-like substance that held the type firmly in place. It must be said that Lu Xuan had never mentioned these small details, but the craftsmen had already thought of everything.
Afterward, another craftsman carefully brushed a layer of ink onto the surface of the movable type. Then he took out a piece of paper and carefully laid it on top.
When the paper was peeled off, a neat page of printed text appeared on top. A cheer erupted throughout the printing room.
"What brings you such joy?" The Crown Prince's voice came from outside the door. Startled, the craftsmen immediately bowed. Lu Xuan also bowed slightly. Fortunately, kneeling wasn't necessary in this era. Otherwise, he probably would have rebelled long ago.
"Your Highness, the movable type printing technology that I mentioned a few days ago has been successfully developed."
"Oh, you mean the kind of technology that would make all the scholars in the world thank me?"
Lu Xuan led the Crown Prince into the room and explained in detail the advantages and disadvantages of movable type printing. Movable type printing, for small-scale printing, is actually quite troublesome, even less efficient than woodblock printing. However, if used on a large scale, the cost drops dramatically. The more you print, the lower the cost.
Both the Crown Prince and Li Bi were intelligent men, and they quickly grasped the secret behind it. Extending this further, they considered the situation where powerful families controlled books, forcing children from humble backgrounds to live under the thumb of these families in order to obtain education.
After a long while, the two finally came to their senses from a complex shock. Li Bi spoke first.
"With movable type printing, we still need to find ways to reduce the cost of papermaking." He had learned the word "cost" from Lu Xuan. "In this way, one day, books will be as cheap as chaff. Ordinary people will be able to buy them. At that time, even the poorest princes will become the Crown Prince's protégés..."
Li Heng seemed to have anticipated that situation as well. Suppressing some intense emotion, he said, "Okay..."
Chapter Sixty-Eight: Fury
Ignoring the inventive craftsmen was a long-standing flaw of feudal dynasties. Lu Xuan had long tried to reverse this mindset, but with little success. All he could do was try to change some of the circumstances around him.
Every artisan involved in improving printing techniques received a reward of at least ten strings of cash. The leader received fifty strings. This was an unimaginable sum for these artisans. Naturally, their enthusiasm soared, and they worked even harder.
Lu Xuan could offer many ideas about movable type printing. However, he was out of the running when it came to papermaking. He had absolutely no experience with that. In fact, the papermaking technology of the Tang Dynasty was already quite advanced. Due to the development of arts such as calligraphy and painting, papermaking technology in the Tang Dynasty also developed. When Lu Xuan transmigrated, he discovered that the paper they made had exceeded his expectations.
All he could offer was that bamboo could be used to make paper, along with some concepts like bleaching. The rest was up to the artisans to experiment with. In a sense, these people could be considered scientists of the Tang Dynasty. What they lacked was a liberation of thought.
Even now, there is still one crucial aspect of people's livelihood that Lu Xuan has not yet addressed: food. This refers not only to food itself, but specifically to grain. There is very little Lu Xuan can do to increase grain production.
He knew nothing of the various fertilizer formulas used in later generations. Furthermore, crop cultivation requires a long period of time. Or perhaps he needed a Yuan Longping (a legendary Chinese scientist). But neither of these were available.
Fortunately, Lu Xuan still possessed a considerable amount of useful information. For instance, he knew that rice in Southeast Asia could be harvested three times a year. Those yellow-skinned monkeys didn't even need to work; they could lie in the forest all day sleeping, and when they woke up, they would simply eat some wild fruit to fill their stomachs. The land and climate of that region were practically a gift from heaven for an agricultural culture. It was just a pity that it had fallen into the hands of a group of monkeys.
Another powerful food source is the sweet potato. This likely originated in the Americas, specifically the area around present-day Brazil. Sweet potatoes are high-yielding and highly adaptable. They can be eaten as a staple food or a fruit. They're rich in sugar and starch, making them a perfect, hunger-suppressing food. The stalks can even be used to feed livestock, and are even suitable for human consumption.
In his past life, Lu Xuan had heard stories from his elders when he was a child. During the famine years of his early years, his village was the only one in the surrounding area where no one starved to death. This was because the village had grown a large number of sweet potatoes. They sliced them, dried them into sweet potato chips, and stored them as food. Later, they even ate sweet potato leaves and stalks. They successfully survived the famine years by doing so.
Lu Xuan's family thus had a deep affection for sweet potatoes. Even after Lu Xuan came of age and most of the family land had been transferred to others, they still kept a few small plots of land to grow millet and sweet potatoes. (This is my family's actual situation. I can skip other farm work, but I must go harvest sweet potatoes and millet. These are my favorite foods. And they are truly organic, completely natural, without any fertilizer.)
But the exploration of the Americas in the open ocean had far greater significance than that. There lay something even more crucial: rubber. In the realm of transportation—clothing, food, shelter, and necessities—if one were to advance further, rubber would be indispensable. It was practically a core component of modern industry. How to refine rubber, of course, was unknown to Lu Xuan. But that didn't matter; as the saying goes, once a concept is proposed, people will naturally try it again and again until results are achieved.
His only concern was that the Tang Dynasty's navigation technology was not yet advanced enough. Forming such an exploratory fleet was too risky.
As for Chang'an, being inland, its ocean-going navigation technology was naturally not very advanced. Following his instructions, the Crown Prince's office dispatched a team to the coast to recruit sailors and craftsmen in preparation for future exploration activities.
As his business expanded, Lu Xuan began to feel overwhelmed. There were simply too many things he wanted to replicate in this era, but the limited productivity and personal knowledge of the time severely restricted him. This gave him a unique idea: he needed to find some people to organize the knowledge in his mind and then systematically pass it down.
Knowledge only has meaning when it is passed down. Innovation only occurs when minds are liberated. Only through continuous inheritance and innovation can society continuously progress.
To achieve this goal, Lu Xuan alone cannot do it. Even if he became emperor, he couldn't. He needs a group to accomplish this together. In other words, he needs a group of students. Not just one, but a whole group.
The master-apprentice system cannot achieve this. What he needs is a school.
Lu Xuan's thoughts wandered further and further, but he eventually came back to the point. To achieve all of this, the first thing needed was to ensure the continuation of the Tang Dynasty's golden age.
In August, news arrived that didn't make Lu Xuan very happy: Prince Yong's injuries had healed...
"How come such a big horse didn't trample him to death?"
Zhang Xiaojing responded with his head slightly lowered.
"I heard that a horse trampled his thigh, and now Prince Yong is a cripple. After recovering from his injury, he has become even more violent. He punishes his servants severely at the slightest provocation. In the last half month, at least four servants have been beaten to death by him. Also, it is said that he now needs a woman every night, and the next day..." Zhang Xiaojing paused slightly at this point.
"How was the second day? Tell me!" Lu Xuan stared directly at Zhang Xiaojing. There was already a hint of coldness in his tone.
"The next day, that woman will be thrown into a mass grave."