"Selling newspapers! Selling newspapers! Three coins for today's newspaper! Selling newspapers! Selling newspapers!"
On the morning of the eighth day of May, a large group of children appeared in Chang 'an. They carried canvas bags and waved newspapers in their hands as they ran around the streets and alleys.
They were children whose parents were not in good condition, or children who had lost their relatives in Grief Field Square.
Li Yi had asked them to help sell newspapers, and now the time had come.
One child sold 50 newspapers. With 400 children, there were 21,000 copies of Chang 'an every day, no more than that.
The other 300,000 copies were sent by the farmers to the entrance of Honglu Temple, waiting for the foreigners to buy them.
They also handed 1,000 copies of newspapers to the people in the Imperial City.
The people of Chang 'an, no, the people of the Tang dynasty saw a newspaper boy for the first time.
They were more interested in the children selling newspapers than newspapers.
"I'll buy one." A manager of an inn stood at the door. He was curious when he saw a child run past, and then another one ran over.
"Three coins." A girl of seven or eight years old, wearing a new dress, stood in front of the manager and handed him a newspaper.
"Let me have a look. If it's well written, I'll buy it. If it's not well written, I won't buy it," the manager joked.
The little girl was stunned, and tears came out of her eyes. "No, no, I, I have to tell, tell Li Family Zhuangzi."
"No, I'll buy it. Don't cry. I'm just joking. Don't tell anyone." The manager was about to cry.
After saying that, the manager ran in and out as fast as he could. He took the little girl's hand and slapped five coins on it.
"Here, five coins. I'll give you the extra two coins." The manager tried to save himself.
"Thank you." The little girl wiped her tears and suddenly smiled. She put the three coins in the compartment of a bag and put the other two separately.
Turning around, she hopped around and yelled for the newspaper to find the next person who wanted to buy it.
A little boy selling newspapers was stopped.
"How much do you get for selling a newspaper?" The manager of the inn was curious.
"I get 15 coins for selling 50 newspapers and a lunch." The boy handed over the newspaper.
The housekeeper gave the child three Kaiyuan Tongbao and stuffed a steamed bun into his mouth. "Did the Li Family Zhuangzi give you these clothes?"
"Here, or else we won't have any clothes to wear." The boy smiled embarrassedly.
"Alright, it's good to earn your own money," the shopkeeper said again, shaking his head as he went in.
The people in Chang 'an soon discovered that the Li Family Zhuangzi was doing charity again.
In their eyes, the children's labor was the Li Family Zhuangzi helping the children.
"Look, it's written in the newspaper that the Li Family Zhuangzi continues to purchase large quantities of wormwood. Five catties of wormwood can be exchanged for one set of incense for mosquitoes and flies. One set of ten."
The people reading the newspaper saw the advertisement again. It was about the exchange of wormwood for mosquito repellent incense.
"There's one more thing. Buy a large amount of elm skin at a high price. What's the use of elm skin?"
Another person opened his newspaper and found the advertisement.
There was no newspaper at the side, so a man in his forties who was waiting for someone to read it out said, "Elm bark powder is used to make incense. Otherwise, we have to use honey, otherwise the incense won't take shape."
"If that's the case, ordinary people can also use incense."
"It's different from the incense used in temples and monasteries."
"There's nothing different. It's just that the price is different. Five catties of wormwood can be exchanged for ten sets of incense."
The people found something good again. It was the first time they heard about the mosquito repellent incense, so they went to cut wormwood to try it out.
"Print out the instructions I wrote on how to use the mosquito repellent incense. Put one in each set." Zhuangzi gave Li Yi a piece of paper when he went to the printing workshop.
It was written on the paper that the mosquito repellent incense should not be placed near the head. There was a baby at home. It was best to light the incense in the evening and close the doors and windows in the house.
After half an hour, go in and open the doors and windows. You can put out the incense. Be careful not to put anything around the mosquito repellent incense that could easily catch fire.
These words could be printed on a small piece of paper. Li Yi was afraid that someone would get sick from the smoke.
There were only wormwood and elm bark powder in the incense. It looked natural, but as long as it was burned, there would be smoke.
If someone had a baby at home and got sick from the smoke, Li Yi felt that this …
At noon, a merchant called Yang Xin came running over. He was a merchant who specialized in transporting elm bark powder to Chang 'an to sell.
He was preparing to contact other incense making shops and temples to negotiate a price. While he was waiting at the pier, he received a newspaper.
He saw that the Li Family Zhuangzi was buying at a high price. The main bridge was the Ba Shui pier, so he ran over to inquire.
Song De did not go. He sent a small steward to the other side of the Ba Shui bridge to negotiate with the merchant.
Both sides negotiated a price that was 5% lower than selling to temples and other places. It was cheap and not a high price at all.
However, Yang Xin bought all the 10,000 catties of elm bark powder at once. This way, Yang Xin could save a lot of time.
He could buy the goods at Chang 'an and ship them back. He could save time to ship more elm bark powder to sell.
Elm bark powder was made from the bark of elm trees and was used as a binder.
When collecting the materials, the branches of the elm trees were usually cut off. There were also small elm trees that were specially planted in the mountains.
Peeling the bark of a big tree once would kill it. The elm bark on the branches was enough. If the bark was cut off this year, it would grow back the next year.
The leaves and flowers of the elm trees could be eaten. It was called elm tree money. There were also rice and cakes made from elm tree money.
The small steward and Yang Xin negotiated the price and quantity of the goods. Yang Xin made a new request. The small steward could not make the decision and ran back to ask Li Yi.
"Dongzhu said that the next time he comes over, he wants to bring other goods. He wants to leave a space in our newspaper. Help him tell him."
The small steward reported the situation.
Li Yi thought for a while: "Tell him, but only in the newspaper of the capital. Every word is printed. The punctuation marks are not counted."
The small steward turned and ran to tell Yang Xin.
There were punctuation marks now, but some people did not write them. Everyone wrote them in a different way.
The newspaper was printed horizontally, not vertically. At the same time, it was read from left to right.
Li Yi followed his own habits and wrote from right to left. Unless he was left-handed, he had to use his other hand to hold up his sleeve.
The people who read the newspaper easily adapted to it. It was amazing. At the same time, they could understand the punctuation marks.
Commas and periods were now used by people. Quotation marks, dashes, book titles, exclamation marks, etc. When people saw it, they could understand it.
The small steward told Yang Xin the price. Yang Xin did not say whether it was okay or not. He only said that he would take a look at it the next time he comes.
Yang Xin had discovered the secret of the newspaper. The other businessmen were not stupid.
They realized that this newspaper was very useful in promoting the news. At the very least, the entire capital would know about it.
The small steward came back with a look of regret. He wanted to settle the matter: "Dongzhu probably thinks the price is too high."
"It's okay. Wait for me to produce a set of color printing. The advertisements can be more conspicuous. We have to adjust the ink."
Li Yi comforted the small steward. He had a way.
The words on the newspaper were now black. If they wanted to print the words in color, one more color would mean one more page.
One page was printed first. The space where the words in color were needed was left empty.
The other page was specially filled with words in the empty space. The printed newspaper was brought over, the mold was aligned, and the page was printed again.
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