Because these books were all priced slightly lower than market value, especially the “Thousand Character Classic,” which was cheaper than many primer texts, and she had them mass-printed without any reservations, the Shu region, the two lakes region, and the Jiangnan area—wherever her Yuzhou merchant caravans could reach—all received this book to be sold in various places like a local specialty product.
This massive dumping earned Zhao Hanzhang considerable goodwill from scholars, and also made her name more firmly remembered.
The aristocratic families monopolized knowledge, but at present, there were not many aristocratic families consciously monopolizing knowledge. They were more simply protective of the books passed down from their ancestors, unwilling to let knowledge spread outside.
They were unwilling to let their own family’s knowledge spread outside, but they were quite willing to let other families’ knowledge spread.
So later, with the “Thousand Character Classic” came various primer books like the “Analects.” Not only were they willing to collect a copy of the Zhao Family Book Bureau’s printed edition themselves, they were also willing to explain them to others along with various lecture notes.
But Zhao Hanzhang believed it was not enough.
She needed more talent and prestige.
She was also quite bold, directly pulling out several agricultural books, craftsman skill manuals, and military texts to bring to the book bureau.
Now the Zhao Family’s book bureau and paper mill had opened in Chen County.
Unlike other workshops, the book bureau and paper mill currently only existed in Xiping and Chen County. Books in other places were mostly supplied from these two locations.
Zhao Hanzhang handed the books to the book bureau, saying, “Print these, print three thousand copies of each one, and deliver them to the Treasure Pavilion’s manager.”
The Treasure Pavilion’s manager would have merchants on various routes deliver them out.
Fishing requires using appropriate bait to catch specific fish.
But this was still not enough. While watching her people work hard digging the great dam and water channels, Zhao Hanzhang sincerely wrote a memorial to the emperor.
Under natural disasters, no place could be spared. Starting next year, the regions north of the Central Plains would face wave after wave of calamities.
Including the Bingzhou and Jizhou areas occupied by Liu Yuan.
The greatest disaster would even be in Jizhou.
The drought would begin from Youzhou and Jizhou, and the locust plague would also begin from Youzhou and Jizhou. The great locust armies would fly westward and southward from Youzhou and Jizhou, leaving nothing growing in their wake.
The disaster would affect Bingzhou, Sizhou, Yongzhou, Qinzhou, and the northern Yuzhou region. The people of the six provinces and the Han people in northern Yuzhou would suffer unbearably. Having already suffered several years of food shortage, after this wave, not even one in ten Han people would survive.
Logically speaking, the Zhao Han regime would not fare well either, but at that time, the Zhao Han would become ruthless, not only forcibly requisitioning grain, fodder, and horses, but also forcibly conscripting soldiers, raising a great army to attack southward, taking advantage of the severe locust plague in the Central Plains to directly destroy the Eastern Jin.
Therefore, the Yongjia era only lasted five years.
But now, the Prince of Donghai had died two years early, and the emperor had also moved the capital away from Luoyang. She did not know what fate would follow.
However, people could migrate, and Luoyang could change hands, but natural disasters would not change.
So she had to prepare. Not only did she prepare, but the emperor should also have all provinces prepare.
But what she wanted to write about was not just natural disasters. Even if she had aspirations to contend for the realm, she did not want to seize the emperor’s position. She hoped he could continue sitting steadily in that position.
As long as he remained there, the realm would temporarily be stable for another day.
So Zhao Hanzhang wrote to the emperor about the situation of the realm, telling him: although Liu Yuan was wildly ambitious, you also have me and General Gou Xi. For now, he cannot break through, so we should take this opportunity to greatly develop agriculture, appease the people, widely accumulate grain, and fortify city walls to prepare for the day when the Zhao Han attacks south again.
She also told him: you are the supreme lord of the realm. Right now the people are still suffering from famine, so we cannot spare the time, but it doesn’t matter. We should first appease the people, let them cultivate in peace, store more grain, and when we are strong enough, we can launch a northern campaign together to reclaim the lost territories.
Round and round, it still came down to one thing: greatly appease the people, store more grain, save more money.
Zhao Hanzhang wrote her suggestions, hoping the emperor would issue an edict to appease all the people in the realm, especially the people of Yanzhou, to eliminate their fears, reduce corvée and taxes, cultivate more farmland, and store plenty of grain as a precaution…
Zhao Hanzhang wrote extensively, and finally first delivered the memorial to the book bureau, saying to them, “Carve this out, print more copies, and distribute them to the various schools. Have them use these when they go to support water conservancy construction in various places to appease the people and encourage agriculture and sericulture.”
The book bureau received the memorial in bewilderment, asking, “How many copies should we print?”
Zhao Hanzhang said, “Let’s start with a thousand copies.”
The book bureau breathed a sigh of relief. That was quite a lot to print. They were rather worried, afraid the print run would be too small and not cost-effective.
The craftsmen carved following the memorial. Zhao Hanzhang couldn’t help but worry, “In the future, whenever I have official documents I want to publish to the schools, will I have to carve them block by block like this? Not only is it time-consuming, it also wastes materials.”
Fu Tinghan said, “Movable type printing requires many literate people. It cannot be widely applied yet. Let’s wait another two years.”
He said, “In another two years, the first batch of students will graduate. They will recognize the vast majority of characters and can work in the book bureau.”
Zhao Hanzhang stroked her chin, saying, “After three years, haven’t they finished learning all the characters yet?”
Fu Tinghan just looked up at her.
“Alright, I’m being too impatient. Fine, I’ll wait another two years. But has the book bureau mastered movable type printing?”
Fu Tinghan said, “Hu Jin has tried wooden movable type and clay movable type. I had people find tin, lead, and copper for him, and am having him try them one by one.”
Regarding movable type printing, both Fu Tinghan and Zhao Hanzhang knew the general principles, but actually making it was not easy. After all, the detailed aspects—whoever does it knows.
He could only hand it over to Hu Jin to lead the craftsmen in research. How far they could get would depend on themselves.
“Right now the clay movable type can be used, but because there aren’t many literate people, typesetting is also quite difficult. Currently it’s only being used in Xiping. There’s no one in Chen County who can do it yet.” Fu Tinghan said, “I’ll have Hu Jin train two craftsmen to send to Chen County.”
Zhao Hanzhang had been just about to mention this matter, but unexpectedly Fu Tinghan brought it up himself. She looked at him approvingly and asked, “What do you think about me also establishing a book bureau in Luoyang?”
“Not a good idea,” Fu Tinghan said. “I can help you set up a paper mill, but as for a book bureau, I truly cannot spare any more manpower.”
Book bureau craftsmen were the hardest to find and the hardest to train.
Zhao Hanzhang could only express regret, then continued staring blankly at the youths in the schools—these were all talented people needed by all walks of life.
The book bureau took two days to finish carving the memorial, then began polishing, inking, and printing…
When Zhao Hanzhang’s memorial was sent to Yuncheng, the printed copies were also distributed to schools in each commandery and county, and simultaneously circulated outside the schools, being copied and sent to various places.
Her students had learned well from her. After reading the memorial, they immediately grasped her meaning. When sent out to support water conservancy construction, they worked while talking to the corvée laborers and short-term workers about why their governor was developing water conservancy at this time.
They told them that the governor wanted everyone to farm more conveniently, so that if natural disasters occurred in the future there would be more ways to cope. To help you store more grain, the governor would reduce taxes and so on and so forth…
However, outsiders’ focus was different from Zhao Hanzhang’s and her students’. Their eyes immediately fixed on the first half of Zhao Hanzhang’s discussion of the situation in the realm.
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