Tang Dynasty: The beginning of the game is to touch the Princess Changle

"Brother-in-law, look, suppose I'm holding a bamboo slip and reading now."

Li Chengqian gestured with his hands to hold the bamboo slip, and said:

"People usually hold the scroll with their left hand and write with their right hand, and the same is true when reading, slowly unfolding from right to left, and naturally writing from right to left."

After Li Chengqian finished speaking, he blinked and looked at Su Chen, "Do you know?"

Su Chen nodded while imagining, "What you said makes sense, but I think people should change with the times.

How about this, go back and call Li Tai, and we will discuss it together."

"Okay, I've also read the book you gave Qingque, and that book is read horizontally from left to right." Li Chengqian nodded in response.

...

"ang...eng...ing...ong"

Su Chen and his group returned to the manor, and walked to the door of the living room and heard the voices of four or five women reading.

Li Lizhi, Jin'er, Changsun Yao and Fang Jingyi, with their backs to the door of the living room, looked at the pinyin letters written on the blackboard.

They were practicing pinyin, and Su Chen instantly felt that she was in the wrong place.

It sounded a little strange for a girl of her age to read these pinyin.

Su Chen was about to turn around and leave to find Li Tai, but Li Chengqian had already walked into the living room.

"Go find the King of Wei and tell him that I have something to ask him." Su Chen told Zhang Long, and then followed Li Chengqian to the living room.

"Greetings to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

"Hello, Master Su!"

Li Chengqian smiled and said nothing, but Su Chen, who was walking behind Li Chengqian, said awkwardly: "Uh... Hello, you are practicing pinyin!"

The two girls covered their thin lips and smiled.

"Where did you eat at noon!" Changle asked with a smile.

"Lunch with my father and the heads of the five surnames, in the big private room on the third floor of Leshan Restaurant." Li Chengqian replied.

"In Su Chen Manor, no need to be polite in the future!"

Li Chengqian looked at Changsun Yao and asked with a smile: "Yaoyao, Miss Fang, how are you learning pinyin?"

"Prince cousin, we just learned it today!" Changsun Yao replied speechlessly.

"Haha, that's right."

...

Not long after, Li Tai hurried to the living room, and the mud on his hands was not washed clean.

"Brother, Su Chen, you are back. I wonder what's the important matter for calling me here?" Li Tai came to the living room, nodded and greeted several people and asked.

"Qingque, Su Chen's brother-in-law has something to discuss with you."

Su Chen pointed to a long table in front of the blackboard, on which were the four treasures of the study, "Brother-in-law, write a passage of the Analects for us to see."

Li Chengqian stood up after hearing this, came to the long table, picked up the pen and dipped it in ink, turned his right hand outward from his chest, and held his right sleeve with his left hand.

This posture looks quite elegant, and he bent down to write seriously.

After Li Chengqian wrote about three or four columns, Su Chen suddenly spoke:

"Wait!"

Li Chengqian and everyone looked at Su Chen.

"What for?" Li Chengqian asked in confusion.

"Why are you holding up your sleeves?" Su Chen asked deliberately.

Before Li Chengqian answered, everyone laughed.

"The ink has not dried yet, and if you don't hold up your sleeves, it will definitely be stained with ink." Princess Changle answered correctly.

"Oh, then why not write from left to right? That way you don't have to worry about rubbing the ink."

Su Chen stepped forward and took out another piece of paper and cut it into the size of modern A4 paper.

"Try writing from left to right."

Li Chengqian wrote again as he was told, but he still habitually held up his sleeves when writing.

"Brother-in-law, you don't have to hold up your sleeves, just write boldly." Su Chen reminded him from the side.

Li Chengqian put down his sleeves and continued writing.

It is true that the ink will not be stained, but Li Chengqian feels uncomfortable. It is difficult to change the writing habit of so many years in a short time.

He always subconsciously lifts his sleeves.

"Brother-in-law, writing from left to right can indeed solve the problem of sleeves being stained with ink, but this long-standing writing habit is difficult to change in a short time. The same is true for reading."

Li Chengqian said truthfully after filling the papers.

Su Chen nodded. It was okay to be unaccustomed to writing, but if the reading habit suddenly changed, it would be difficult for people to accept it for a while.

Not to mention using horizontal lines.

What should I do with printing books in the future?

Do it my own way? Just print horizontally from left to right? Let people accept it slowly?

Su Chen frowned and touched his chin in thought.

"Su Chen, is there any problem?" Li Tai asked Su Chen, who looked constipated.

"Well, I originally planned to print all books from left to right and in horizontal format.

You used to print vertically, so the paper utilization rate was not high." Su Chen nodded and replied.

"Like the books you showed me before?" Li Tai asked.

"Yes, but the characters are a little bigger than those."Su Chen guessed that the type blanks produced later would definitely not be as small as the text in later books.

"I'm worried that students and people will not be used to it."

"Hahaha! Su Chen, you worry too much. When I first read those books, I was indeed a little uncomfortable, but soon, I thought that the horizontal reading method was the most reasonable.

In addition, we are not going to replace all the previous books, but just print new books. People who need it will naturally adapt to it.

Every new thing has an adaptation process, and the same is true for books.

The most important thing is that we print books for teaching, not for great scholars."

Li Tai analyzed it in an orderly manner for Su Chen, who cursed himself for being stupid after listening.

"Hahaha! King Wei's words make sense, I am stupid." Su Chen laughed.

"After the paper mill starts working, get a batch of paper out first, trim the edges and make it this size."

Su Chen picked up the A4 paper that Li Chengqian had just written the Analects and said.

He secretly made up his mind to make a ruler, using centimeters as the unit.

Su Chen suddenly saw the mud on Li Tai's hand and asked, "Li Tai, were you making a typeface just now?"

"That's right. A batch of clay movable type has been fired today. I plan to make a few more sets in case a single word appears multiple times on the same page.

And I made a lot of commonly used characters with high frequency of use."

"Hahaha! King Wei is indeed the smartest person, and he is very thoughtful." Su Chen praised from the bottom of his heart.

"By the way, you should also take the time to learn this pinyin. For example, when you are selecting characters for printing and typesetting in the future, if those single characters are placed in the order of initial pronunciation, it will be much more convenient when selecting and typesetting, right?"

Su Chen suggested to Li Tai, who quickly understood it after hearing it.

Those typefaces contain all the commonly used characters known so far, more than 3,000, and there may be some that are missed.

It took Li Tai several days to sort out those more than 3,000 characters. Fortunately, he has always been interested in literature, otherwise it would be impossible for ordinary people to collect those 3,000 characters.

"By the way, workers will come to the manor tomorrow. How many people do you need?" Su Chen asked.

"A hundred people are enough! The main reason is that more manpower is needed for the raw materials of papermaking in the early stage, but not so many people will be needed later." Li Tai replied after thinking for a moment.

"Okay, I will give you 150 people tomorrow, and the others will be arranged to go to the school construction site." Su Chen estimated that in addition to skilled carpenters and bricklayers, at least 500 prisoners will be sent tomorrow.

"When do you expect the first batch of paper to be produced?"

Li Tai replied: "Half a month!"

"That's good!" Su Chen nodded and said.