Chu Tianxiu set a date for taking office.

Eight days later, before the Rainwater Solar, he and three new county magistrates, including Dong Xianliang, Chao Fangzheng, and the father Yan, went to the four counties to take office together.

Di'er immediately went to purchase a batch of daily necessities needed by his son-in-law.

Danyang County is a remote place, and there is no supplies for Jinling City at all. Basically, the things that my uncle can use must be taken from Jinling City.

Of course, Princess Li Yu and Di Er and Zuer, as the "county magistrate's wife", naturally had to go together.

As Princess Danyang, Li Yu had nothing to do on weekdays. He practiced swordsmanship, riding, reading books, etc., and was quite leisurely.

The things they wanted to bring, including various colors of rouge and jewelry, were naturally more than those of the county magistrate.

I have enough time to prepare these for eight days.

...

Of course, Chu Tianxiu has not been idle these days.

Before going to take office, he must arrange a very important thing properly.

That is the first draft of the first forty chapters of "The Story of Stone", which has been written. It is nearly 400,000 words, a very thick book.

After the Lantern Festival, the smoky and beautiful palace ladies performed "The Story of the Stone", there were already many noble officials and nobles. The clans were eager to buy the manuscript of this book, but there was nowhere to be found.

Taking advantage of this heat, I quickly printed the "Stone Story" and sold books. Otherwise, everyone would copy books, so who would buy his books?

Chu Tianxiu is preparing to divide "The Stone" into two books.

I will first take out the first half of the book I wrote and sell it, and by the way, it will also drive the sales volume of the Hunhou Paper that has almost stopped.

The first half of the manuscript of "The Story of Stone" has been found, and the next step is to prepare for "printing and publishing".

The Great Chu Dynasty had just emerged from the bamboo slip era and had not yet fully entered the paper book era. Only a small number of scholars had paper books in their hands, and of course there was no so-called concept of "printing and publishing".

They are still at the stage of "hand-copying books".

All the scholars of Dachu borrowed books from wealthy families, and then copied them word by word under the light. Whether they were scholars or Confucian scholars, they copied them with their hands.

The only difference is that rich families can hire poor scholars to copy books without having to work on their own.

Such a backward production method has made the scholars of Dachu dying and their hands almost ruined.

There is nothing to say, just apply printing!

Papermaking and printing are both supporting killing techniques, enough to sweep the entire Chu Dynasty.

Chu Tianxiu had no way to explain to others what "carving and publishing" is, so he could only teach it himself.

He took Zuer out of the city and came to the Hunhou papermaking workshop not far from the city to see how the papermaking workshop was produced.

Old craftsman Sun was extremely attentive and took Chu Tianxiu to inspect the papermaking workshop.

Since working with the little marquis, he has a daily salary of one tael of silver, a monthly salary of thirty taels, and an annual income of thirty taels.

Mr. Sun’s wages a day can buy five hundred large pancakes, which is so rich!

This is almost the most valuable craftsman in Changle Street, and he makes more money than those small wealthy and small landlords. It makes all neighbors extremely envious and salivate.

Even Mr. Jia, who taught a private school in the Pingwang Mansion, had an annual salary of less than 100 taels of silver and was far inferior to the top.

They just regretted that they had no chance to work for Xiao Hunhou.

Mr. Sun's three sons who only know how to do stupid work have become the fragrant buns in Changle Street. They have already married their wives and are preparing to build a house next year and have a few big fat babies.

The workers in this papermaking workshop are still busy, with a daily output of about 10,000 pieces of paper.

How to say this production capacity?

In later generations, it is really pitiful.

If ten thousand pieces of paper are made into paper books, it is only one hundred books.

This is already the limit that Jinling City can achieve in sales.

Twenty-month copper coins per piece of Hunhou paper, the number of aristocrats and nobles who can afford it is very limited after all. When their needs are gradually met, the amount of paper they buy will slowly decrease.

The library in Pingwang Mansion has not yet been completed, and a large number of books have not yet begun, so the production capacity cannot be overwhelmed.

However, the cost of each piece of paper is less than one tenth of the copper coins, and the profit is surprisingly generous. The Hunhou Workshop has already made a profit, and it is very... making money.

A month is as high as five or six thousand taels of silver, and an annual income of 60,000 taels of silver is simply a rumbling and sleepless printing machine.

If it weren't for this papermaking workshop, which was the property under the name of Princess Danyang of the Princess of Pingwang, no one would dare to offend Prince Li Rong of Ping.

I'm afraid that many wealthy families are jealous and will try their best to take the papermaking workshop for themselves.

"Laojiang Sun, the production of papermaking is too low. I bought all the hundred acres of wasteland next to the workshop and expanded the papermaking workshop ten times more!"

Chu Tianxiu thought for a while and said.

A daily output of 100,000 pieces should be able to meet the needs of paper for a long time.

"A day produces ten...100,000 pieces?"

Mr. Sun was shocked and swallowed, "Little Marquis, can you increase the output? But can you sell it?"

The output has increased tenfold, and he couldn't imagine who bought so many papers.

"You don't need to worry about selling paper, just do the papermaking work."

Chu Tianxiu smiled.

Hunhou paper has begun to experience a small amount of unsold sales, making it difficult to expand its sales.

After significantly expanding production capacity, he planned to reduce the price of paper by half, or even 20% or 30% off. Anyway, the profit margin of papermaking is very large.

Now he eats exclusive papermaking, eating oil all over his mouth, only making money but not losing money.

However, he planned to go from making money from paper to making money from selling "The Story of Stone".

"By the way, Mr. Sun, do you have any familiar carpenter masters who can carve finely!"

Chu Tianxiu asked.

"Yes, there are many skilled craftsmen in the hoop alley on Changle Street. The villain knows many craftsmen in the city, and has been intimate and honest with neighbors for decades. They are all honest and decent, knowing the roots and working hard."

Mr. Sun nodded quickly, "You little one, go find someone right away?"

"Okay, find a master carpenter who can take his apprentice and a group of workers to work! You must be willing to become a craftsman with a fief under the princess' name."

Chu Tianxiu said neatly.

...

It won't take long.

Old craftsman Sun came with an old carpenter in his forties and fifties. He was full of literary style and rough calluses on his hands. He was also a decent person.

"The little one is named Lu, and the old craftsman Lu bows to the Marquis. The villain is willing to serve the young marquis!"

The old craftsman said excitedly.

With the example of making a fortune by Sun, the craftsman in Jinling City, who was very passionate about becoming craftsmen under the name of Xiaohunhou.

Old craftsman Lu introduced himself.

The old craftsman Lu used to work as carpenters for wealthy families, carving various paintings, carving letters and doing some meticulous work on the seats and screens of the Taishi.

The most important thing is that he did a lot of carving words and actually knew a lot of words. The carved handwriting was not much better than that of the Confucian scholar in Jinling.

This is very rare among the poor craftsmen at the bottom of Jinling City.

However, most of the craftsmen for wealthy families are short-term laborers, which is not very stable, and sometimes there is no work. When there is income, life will be prosperous. When there is no work, the income is often very low.

What craftsmen most yearn for is of course a stable job and long-term work.

"Okay, it's all for you! I'm going to build a printing workshop, and you'll be the owner."

Chu Tianxiu was delighted.

Recruiting this old craftsman from Lu.

And let the old craftsman Lu become a fief under the princess' name, which will not easily cause technical leakage.

He immediately asked Mr. Sun to collect a sum of money from the princess and take people to build a large printing factory, which was placed next to the Hunhou papermaking workshop, which was convenient for paper pickup and security guards.

He asked the old craftsman Lu to start working with some of his apprentices and carve the "Stone Story". The woodblock printing was made of wood, and the movable type printing was made of clay.

Chu Tianxiu explained a little.

Lao Jiang Lu immediately understood what carving and printing and movable type printing are all about.

Engraving and portrayal have existed for a long time in the Great Chu Dynasty, and are not a secret of high-tech for craftsmen.

Seals are widely used in royal and government offices.

It was just because the Great Chu had no paper, only bamboo slips and a small number of brocade and silk books, so people of this era had no idea of ​​carving, printing and making them into books.

Now that I have paper, I can use carving to print words. If I think about it for a moment, I understand that this method is simply... simple and rough, shocking.

Of course.

Carving words is a hundred times slower than writing.
To be continued...