News of Zhao Hanzhang’s concern for movable type printing spread to book bureaus everywhere. Before long, the Luoyang book bureau brought good news. Through unremitting research, they had finally developed copper movable type. Currently, 286 copper type characters had been successfully cast, with nine copies of each character cast, barely enough to assemble one book.
Zhao Hanzhang was delighted and immediately ordered accelerated casting.
Shortly after this news emerged, the Yuzhou book bureau also brought good news. Through continuous research, they had mastered relatively stable ceramic movable type and sent someone with a set.
Hu Jin ultimately didn’t disappoint Zhao Hanzhang. He tried several materials. Wooden type was unstable in wood structure—even if character molds could be made, they would crack after a few uses, with too much waste.
Clay type was hard to control temperature-wise, easily damaged during casting, difficult to form.
He also tried iron and copper type, but the former had poor results while the latter was too costly. Finally, he returned to clay type and focused his research there.
For this, he spent time at the glass workshop learning. Ultimately, Fu Tinghan’s temperature gauge played an important role. After a year of experiments and countless trials, he finally found relatively suitable clay and temperature ranges.
Actually, he also had to thank the porcelain workshop not far from the glass workshop. Oh, that was Zhao Hu’s workshop. He used their porcelain-making clay to reconfigure, and with help from porcelain masters, made a set of molds. As long as temperature was controlled, the molds’ success rate was between sixty and seventy percent.
Carving positive-relief character molds on clay blocks was much easier than carving on copper. They just needed to be placed in molds and fired into porcelain. One kiln could fire about three hundred characters. Even with only a sixty percent success rate, that still yielded over a hundred characters—much more convenient than carving.
Now Xiping was already using movable type for printing books. The pity was that ordinary craftsmen couldn’t do this work—it required literate people to arrange the type.
Among the book bureau’s carvers, two-thirds couldn’t read.
So when Hu Jin sent the character molds, he had one more request for Zhao Hanzhang. He wanted the book bureau craftsmen to audit classes at school. Not being able to write didn’t matter—at minimum, they needed to recognize characters to arrange type according to books.
Zhao Hanzhang immediately agreed and personally wrote letters to Xiping and Chen County, telling other book bureaus’ craftsmen to also attend school. She said, “Craftsmen can take turns attending classes, or if they have no time during the day, they can go at night. Don’t begrudge lamp oil. The book bureau should specially allocate funds to support the craftsmen’s studies.”
For this, Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan together wrote to schools everywhere, asking them to establish classes for craftsmen, specifically teaching them literacy.
Book bureau craftsmen were different from other artisans. Although they also couldn’t read, because they constantly worked while looking at originals, they understood both positive and negative forms of characters well. Their character recognition speed would also be faster than other artisans.
Zhao Hanzhang felt that since book bureau craftsmen needed to become literate, why not have all artisans participate in learning? Night school could begin.
Fu Tinghan would naturally handle things in Luoyang. As for Yuzhou, though it also fell under Fu Tinghan’s authority, he was too far away. Zhao Hanzhang entrusted the matter to Zhao Ming.
Zhao Ming glanced at it once and set the letter aside, handing it to subordinate officials to handle. He frowned tightly, looking at a letter Zhao Hanzhang had just sent two days ago.
This was a letter about revising tax laws—not a notification but requesting opinions.
Zhao Ming couldn’t decide for the moment, so he delayed replying.
Yu Shiming knocked and entered. Seeing Zhao Ming looking at that letter again, he came forward and picked up the wine pot in front of him, pouring himself a cup. “Has the commandery governor still not decided?”
Zhao Ming put down the letter. “This law was only promulgated at the beginning of this year. This year is also the first time collecting taxes according to these regulations. Revising it now—wouldn’t that be changing orders overnight?”
“When this law emerged, high officials and aristocratic clans in both Yuzhou and Luoyang had many complaints, privately cursing Hanzhang quite a bit. If we revise it now, they’ll probably become even more arrogant. Managing them in the future will be difficult.”
Yu Shiming said, “But when the law first came out, didn’t you also oppose it?”
“I opposed it, but since the Governor already promulgated it, as commandery governor, I must obey.” Even now, Zhao Ming didn’t agree with this law, but disagreeing didn’t mean it should be immediately changed.
He believed the consequences of revising the law now would be more serious than the consequences of implementing it.
Moreover, the revised law didn’t please him either. He agreed with neither version.
Zhao Ming read the letter again, finally pressed it down, and gritted his teeth. “Tomorrow I’ll depart for Luoyang. I must discuss this matter face-to-face with the Governor.”
Hearing this, Yu Shiming’s eyes brightened. He immediately said, “I’ll go with you.”
“If I leave, Chen County will be in your hands. What are you going with me for?”
“I’ll go see what Luoyang has become. As for Chen County, it can be left to Chen the Fourth Miss. She’s very capable now. You’ve established regulations—following precedent is sufficient.”
“Having precedent to follow is fine. I fear situations without precedent.” Zhao Ming said, “Chen the Fourth Miss may be meticulous, but lacks quick thinking. Now that Zhao Ju has gone to Jingzhou to suppress bandits, Chen County must have someone steady holding down the fort. You’re very suitable.”
Yu Shiming was Zhao Ming’s friend. After Zhao Ming took charge of Chen County, he visited the thatched cottage twice to invite him out to serve as his deputy. Last time when Zhao Hanzhang returned and met him, she wanted to entice him to Luoyang.
But Zhao Hanzhang firstly disliked drinking, and secondly was in a period of frugality. Though Yu Shiming was very tempted by Luoyang, he ultimately chose to stay in Chen County.
Here, though he often received Zhao Ming’s sarcasm, the food and drink were good. Life was still pleasant.
Seeing Yu Shiming looking gloomy, Zhao Ming said, “I’m only going for a few days and will return quickly.”
If he couldn’t go to Luoyang, when Zhao Ming returned was none of his business.
No, it still mattered. Yu Shiming said, “You can stay a bit longer.”
With the tiger gone, he could also be more carefree. A few days wasn’t enough—best would be ten days, twenty days.
Zhao Ming glanced at him and put away the letter. “Follow the law in everything. Shiming, I’m a lenient person, but Governor Zhao isn’t. She likes everything done according to law. If you violate it, my connections won’t help.”
“Your opening statement is already false. You, Zhao Zinian, ask around—when have you ever been associated with leniency?”
Zhao Ming ignored him and began writing work arrangements for the coming days.
Yu Shiming drank wine beside him, watching him write. After a while, he asked, “What will you say when you see Governor Zhao? Actually, this law can reduce high officials’ and aristocratic clans’ resentment. Apart from the drawback of changing orders overnight, I really can’t think of other drawbacks.”
Zhao Ming’s brush tip paused. He said, “If we’re going to favor high officials and aristocratic clans, why be petty about it? Just directly restore the old system and cancel the new tax law promulgated at the beginning of this year.”