The world's big cities are Chang'an, and below Chang'an is Luoyang. These two big cities are both written by the architect Yuwen Kaizhi. They can be said to be sister cities. The scale and even layout of the two cities are very similar. The only difference is that, as the capital of the Sui and Tang dynasties, Chang'an has been affected by too many political factors, which has always surpassed Luoyang's permanent population, and commercial and other economic activities are also stronger than Luoyang.

However, since the Turks were destroyed, there were no strong enemies outside the Tang Dynasty, domestic politics were clear and industry and commerce had also developed vigorously. Especially Luoyang, which is close to the heart of the Central Plains, has developed at an extremely fast speed. This place is not only a necessary way to Chang'an, but also a gathering place for industry and commerce. Many merchants open workshops here, such as Li Xiu's canned workshops, tea making workshops, etc., and the scale in Luoyang has even surpassed Chang'an.

With the help of the development of industry and commerce, Luoyang's population and economy are also in a steady increase. Although it is not as good as Chang'an for the time being, it is recognized by the Tang Dynasty and the only city that may threaten Chang'an's status as the largest city.

On the east side of Luoyang is the heart of the Central Plains. It has a large population and fertile land. It has always been a fertile land of the Tang Dynasty. In addition, the transportation here is developed, and Luoyang is the most important transportation hub in the Central Plains. It is precisely for this reason that the Tang Dynasty court also set up many institutions in Luoyang, such as the Money Cricketing Bureau.

The Money Making Bureau is now classified as a subordinate institution of the Financial Management Supervision Commission, which is similar to that of the banks. Previously, due to the different management of the Money Making Bureaus in various places, the quality of the mowned copper coins could not be guaranteed. Finally, after Liu Rengui's rectification, a considerable number of Money Making Bureaus were laid off and merged, leaving only some large-scale and guaranteed production quality.

Luoyang is close to the heart of the Central Plains and is also a major transportation road. The industry and commerce itself are also very prosperous, which has led to a great demand for copper coins in the local area. Therefore, the coin minting bureau here has naturally been preserved and the scale is also very large. Even the coin minting bureaus in Chang'an and Taiyuan are not as good as the Luoyang coin minting bureaus, and can be regarded as the largest coin minting bureau in the Tang Dynasty.

The Luoyang Coin Casting Bureau is not in Luoyang City, but in a valley south of Luoyang City. It is said that this place was an ancient copper mine before and started mining since the Han Dynasty, so a coin casing bureau was built here. The copper mined was directly cast into copper coins. Later, although the copper mine was mined, the coin casing bureau was retained. Of course, the copper used could only be transported from other places.

"Your Majesty, what you want has been cast!" In a public room at the Money Making Bureau, Liu Rengui personally placed a heavy tray in front of Li Xiu to report the report. However, when he said these words, his face was full of doubt, because he still didn't know what Li Xiu wanted to cast these strange things himself for?

"Are you okay?" Li Xiu was also excited when he heard Liu Rengui's report. He stood up and lifted the red cloth on the tray. As a result, there were rectangular rectangles made of brass placed on the tray, with almost exactly the same size. There was also a reverse Chinese character engraved on the top of each brass body, which looked like a seal.

"Mr. Prince Concubine, here are only some commonly used characters. In addition, there are a large number of other characters that have been cast in the warehouse. Moreover, some commonly used characters have been cast according to your requirements, and each of them has been cast multiple. But I still can't figure out what is the purpose of asking the officials to cast these seals?" Liu Rengui finally couldn't help but express the questions in his heart.

Li Xiu came back from the south some time ago. Liu Rengui was not in Luoyang at that time. As a result, after Li Xiu came to Luoyang Money Making Bureau, he found the responsible officials and immediately asked them to cast this group of strange "seals". The officials of the Money Making Bureau did not dare to refuse, so he could only send someone to notify Liu Rengui while casting. After all, Liu Rengui was their immediate boss. As a result, when Liu Rengui was until Luoyang, these seals were already half cast. It was too late to persuade Li Xiu to stop. In addition, Li Xiu's attitude was also very tough, so he could only helplessly let someone continue to build them.

"Haha, this is not a seal, but copper movable type. Its function is a bit complicated to explain. But I want to ask, how did you read when you were young?" Li Xiu did not rush to explain, but asked with a smile.

"Reading?" Liu Rengui frowned when he heard Li Xiu's question, and then asked again in confusion, "Why do you ask this question, Prince Concubine?"

"Don't worry about why I asked this for now. You can answer me first, how did you study at the beginning?" Li Xiu asked persistently.

Seeing Li Xiu's persistence in his attitude, Liu Rengui could only think helplessly, and then replied: "When I was young, my family was poor, so it was not easy to study. Fortunately, our Liu family was a big family before, and there were some books in the clan, so I often read the books in the clan, but these books were not borrowed. So when I encountered some good books, I could only copy the contents of the books with paper and pen. Later, the war at the end of the Sui Dynasty, our Liu family also suffered a great disaster, and the collections of the clan were destroyed by war. At that time, I could no longer find books to read, and could only write the contents of the books by reminiscing to consolidate the knowledge I learned."

When he said this, Liu Rengui seemed to have touched some sad things. He sighed and continued, "It's a pity that my talent is not very good. I remember that many of the contents in the book were wrong, and my knowledge was not as good as others. There was definitely no hope for the imperial examination. It was not until he met Ren Gui, the ambassador of Henan Province, who received his recommendation, and later he met the prince-consort, which led to his current official position!"

When Liu Rengui spoke at the end, he bowed to Li Xiu very respectfully. He met two noble people in his life. The first was Ren Gui who recommended him to enter the officialdom, and the second was Li Xiu who promoted him to the throne. However, his face still showed a bit of regret, because he was the recommended official, not the official who was passing the imperial examination, which made him feel a little lack of confidence when facing those officials from the imperial examination.

"If there were enough books for you to read, with your personality, I believe you would definitely take the path of the imperial examination?" Li Xiu also heard the regrets in Liu Rengui's words, and sighed at the moment. If you miss it, you will miss it forever. No matter how hard you try in the future, you will not be able to make up for it.

"Yes, as long as you are a scholar, you are more willing to go to the imperial examination if possible. Unfortunately, the collection of books in the clan was destroyed by war. However, our family's collection was limited. Even if it was not destroyed, it would probably not be enough to support me in the imperial examination." Liu Rengui sighed again at this time. Although their Liu family is also a big family, it has long been defeated. It is very rare for the clan to leave some collections, so he cannot be demanding.

"Do you read? It's never too late. Now you should have collected a lot of good books?" Li Xiu suddenly changed his mind at this time, and then asked with a smile.

However, when he heard Li Xiu's words, Liu Rengui smiled bitterly and said, "Son-in-law, don't joke. Although I have an official position and my salary is quite generous, I can't afford books casually. After all, the books on the market are too expensive, especially some neatly copied books, which are very valuable. I now have old mothers and young children to support me, and I really can't afford too many books. Now the collection of books at home is not even full of bookshelf."

Liu Rengui was not crying for poverty, and his salary was not low. In fact, he was already a middle-level official in the Tang Dynasty and his salary was very generous. But even so, it was a very luxurious thing to buy books. After all, a book can cost dozens of strings, which is thousands of kilograms of food.

"Books are indeed a bit expensive, but have you ever thought about what would happen if the price of books is reduced?" Li Xiu smiled again and guided. What he asked Liu Rengui to make was not a seal, but a real copper movable type. movable type printing is exactly what he had always wanted to make. The purpose was to reduce the price of books now. After all, books now can only be copied by manpower. Not only are they slow and high in price, but they are also prone to errors.

"Reduce the price of books? How is this possible?" Liu Rengui asked in surprise when he heard Li Xiu's words. It was not a big deal that he didn't understand. In fact, in the early Tang Dynasty, not to mention movable type printing, even engraved printing was limited to printing some rough Buddha statues, Buddhist scriptures, etc., but no one thought of using this printing technology for the printing of books.

"Of course it's possible. Look at the copper movable type on this tray!" When Li Xiu said this, he reached out to adjust the copper movable type in the tray. Because they are all common words, he easily adjusted the sentence "The Master said: Isn't it a good idea to learn and practice it from time to time?"

"Look, this is the first sentence in the Analects of Confucius. If there are enough copper movable type, I can sort out the entire Analects of Confucius and then use paper to copy the Analects of Confucius. At that time, I will print as much as I want. Wouldn't it be much faster than copying?" Li Xiu said with a smile again.

Hearing Li Xiu's words, Liu Rengui only felt a "boom" sound in his mind, and his whole body seemed to be inspired by someone. He suddenly understood the function of these copper movable types, which made him shout ecstatically: "Yes, yes, why didn't I think of such a simple method?"

Liu Rengui was excitedly tearing his hair while talking. After all, this movable type printing had a great impact on him. He even thought that if he could print books on a large scale, everyone in the world could afford books. In this way, wouldn’t he achieve the goal of "educating all people"? You must know that this is the biggest dream of no one in the world!

Seeing Liu Rengui's excited appearance, Li Xiu smiled calmly. Even a person as calm as Liu Rengui can lose his composure due to movable type printing. I wonder what would happen if Li Shimin knew about this? 8)
Chapter completed!