Ang Lee originally planned to print ten thousand copies of the third issue of the newspaper, but there were more than seven thousand subscribers. Therefore, ten thousand copies were definitely not enough. After thinking about it again and again, he decided to double it and print twenty thousand copies.
Now, the subscribers were generally rich people with better family conditions. They were worried that they couldn't buy the newspaper, so they were willing to pay an extra penny to subscribe. Moreover, they could also enjoy the door-to-door service.
In the entire Tang dynasty, there were definitely a few rich people who didn't lack money. Therefore, it was destined that only a few people were willing to pay an extra penny. Since the subscription could be as high as seven thousand copies, the cheaper retail price would definitely be much higher. Twenty thousand copies of the total printing might not be enough.
In order to speed up the printing speed, many copies of the same page were engraved. In this way, twenty thousand copies of the newspaper could be printed faster.
According to the calculation of printing a piece of paper in three seconds, at most thirty copies could be printed in a minute, which was one thousand and eight hundred copies in an hour. If twenty thousand copies were printed, it would take eleven hours, which was five and a half hours. The time was too long, and it would seriously delay the sales. Therefore, several copies of the same wax paper must be prepared. Everyone began to print at the same time. In this way, the speed would be doubled.
The time to sell the newspaper was eight or nine o 'clock in the morning. The location was in the East and West Markets, as well as near the gates of various squares.
The flow of people in the East and West Markets was large. It was necessary to set up a few more places to sell the newspaper. The number of people in the various squares was less. The newspaper delivery man could be responsible for selling the newspaper, and he would also be paid.
Because the subscribers paid an extra penny, before selling the newspaper, the newspapers of the subscribers had to be sent to their homes first. Then, the five-penny newspapers could be sold.
In this way, the subscribers had a sense of superiority because they could get the freshly printed newspaper first. They could see the content of the newspaper earlier than the poor. They could enjoy the superiority of the rich class.
The selling of the newspaper went very smoothly. There were twenty thousand copies of the newspaper. Except for more than seven thousand copies that were subscribed, the remaining thirteen thousand copies were sold out in one day. There was not a single copy left.
To be able to achieve such high sales was completely within Ang Lee's expectations. This was because the quality of the newspaper was very guaranteed. There were various sections that satisfied the psychological needs of different people. It would be strange if it was not popular.
In particular, the launch of the third volume of The Condor Slayers made the people who read the newspaper very happy, and the number of fans increased sharply. Many readers bought the Tang dynasty newspaper because of the novel that Ang Lee plagiarized. In other words, Ang Lee contributed the most to the sales of the Tang dynasty newspaper. Therefore, Ang Lee had every reason to give himself the highest remuneration. Of course, he could exchange it with advertising, but once he did, he would cancel the remuneration.
A few days later, the sales volume reported by the Tang dynasty increased further, reaching 30,000 copies. Moreover, they were sold out on the first day every time. The sales volume was very good.
In order to further increase the number of readers and improve the living standards of the people in the capital, Ang Lee decided to change the publication of the Tang dynasty newspaper to one issue every two days. In this way, the frequency of distribution increased by 50%.
Every time the Tang dynasty newspaper was printed, the first to be sent to the imperial palace and the major government offices. Then, it was sent to the ordinary subscribers. Finally, it was sold in the market.
These days, because he was busy dealing with the state affairs, Li Longji only read the front content and occasionally enjoyed the poems. He rarely read the advertisements. As for the long story of The Condor Slayers, he did not read it even once.
This time, after dealing with the state affairs, Li Longji had nothing to do. He opened the edition of The Condor Slayers and read it. He was immediately attracted by the wonderful content and could not extricate himself.
"Come on, bring me all the newspapers of the previous issues."
Li Longji read the last issue. He could not figure out the content of the previous issues, but from the last issue, he felt that the story was very wonderful, so he urgently asked someone to bring him the newspapers of the previous issues.
Starting from the first issue, Li Longji read all the stock in one breath. From time to time, he slapped the table and praised the content of the story. He read the last issue twice to deepen his impression.
When he looked carefully at the signature at the bottom, he found that it was actually Ang Lee. In other words, the story of The Condor Slayers was written by Ang Lee himself. It was a short story made up by Ang Lee.
"Little Gao, have you read the content of The Condor Slayers?"
Li Longji's eyes were a little tired. He stood up and walked out of the hall accompanied by Gao Lishi to enjoy the scenery outside.
"Everyone, I've read it all. I've read it many times. The story written by Assistant Minister Li is very interesting and wonderful. "
Gao Lishi woke up earlier than Li Longji every time, so he was the first to finish reading the newspaper. After all, he was a naked eunuch and did not need to serve his wife. As for Li Longji, as the Emperor, he had to work on Yang Yuhuan every night. His physical and mental energy consumption was relatively large, so it was understandable that he woke up late.
"This Assistant Minister Li is really a talent! There is nothing he can't do, and he can actually write the story so well. "
Li Longji was quite surprised. He thought for a moment and said, "The Great Song, the Jin, and the Mongol tribes did not exist, but the cities that appeared were cities of the Tang dynasty. It seems that the background of this story was made up by Assistant Minister Li himself."
"Your Majesty, when I read it at first, I was also a little confused. But after thinking about it carefully, I understood. The Great Song Dynasty was the Southern Dynasty, the Jin Kingdom was the Northern Dynasty, and the Mongol tribes were undoubtedly the Rouran. The specific story was made up."
Gao Lishi said.
Because the Great Song Dynasty was after the Tang dynasty, the Tangs could not know about the Song Dynasty, so they could not feel the unique feeling. They just felt that the story was very well written and wonderful.
"The story written by Assistant Minister Li is very good, but it is too short. I wanted to read the following content, but he said, 'If you want to know the future, please listen to the next chapter'. It's really tantalizing."
Li Longji was not satisfied yet. He was itching to read the whole story in one breath.
"Everyone, now the Tang dynasty newspaper has changed to a bi-daily issue. There will be an update tomorrow."
Gao Lishi said.
"How's the sales?"
"I heard that it has exceeded 30,000 copies. There are still many people who can't buy it."
"Well, that's good. Summon Assistant Minister Li to the palace."
Li Longji wanted to continue reading the following content. He already knew that the novel was written by Ang Lee, so Ang Lee should know the following plot. This was the most fundamental reason why he summoned Ang Lee to the palace. In addition, he could ask about the progress of the Tang dynasty newspaper.
Ang Lee was busy at the newspaper office. Although it was still published every two days, in order to cultivate the reading habits of the readers, it was undoubtedly the best to publish one issue a day. This required the staff of the newspaper office to be proficient in the business. Otherwise, it would be easy to be overwhelmed.
The Emperor's summons naturally could not be delayed. After receiving the order, Ang Lee immediately went to the palace to meet the Emperor.
"Your Majesty."
Li Longji looked at Ang Lee with a kind expression and said, "The Tang dynasty newspaper is doing very well. It has sold 30,000 copies. Haha!"
"30,000 is nothing. The Tang dynasty has a population of millions. The nearby cities, including the eastern capital Luoyang, can publish the Tang dynasty newspaper. In the future, if these areas are included, it will be a piece of cake for the sales to exceed 100,000 copies."
Ang Lee said happily.
"100,000 copies. It's worth looking forward to. By the way, was The Condor Story written by my dear minister?"
Li Longji changed the topic to the novel.
"Yes, Your Majesty. It was all made up by me for the people to read when they are bored."
Ang Lee said modestly.
"I think Assistant Minister Li's story is very good. It's very wonderful!"
"Thank you for your praise, Your Majesty."
Li Longji nodded and asked, "When was this story written? Do you have any manuscripts?"
Of course, Ang Lee would not say that he had plagiarized from his predecessors, nor would he say that he had a lot of manuscripts. Otherwise, Li Longji would ask him for manuscripts every day! If so, wouldn't he be exhausted to death?
"Your Majesty, these stories were all made up by me. I just wrote whatever I wanted. Do you have any manuscripts?"
Ang Lee said with a serious face.
"Oh, I see!"
Li Longji looked disappointed. After a pause, he said, "Assistant Minister Li, you must write the story well. Don't mess it up. I'm still waiting to read the rest of the story."
"Rest assured, Your Majesty. I will do my best to write the rest of the story. I won't let Your Majesty down."
Ang Lee had already memorized all the plots of the Shooting the Condor in his mind. How could he mess it up?
Later, Li Longji chatted with Ang Lee about the plot for a while to understand the source of Ang Lee's inspiration. Then, Ang Lee returned to the newspaper office and continued to work on the optimization of the newspaper.
A month later, the development of the Tang dynasty newspaper was completely on track. The twice-daily issue of the Tang dynasty newspaper was officially changed to a daily issue, thus achieving greater popularity and making the people in the capital more satisfied.
This was especially so for Li An's Condor Slayers. After the frequency of its appearance increased, readers began to enjoy it more. In fact, many literary readers even learned to appreciate book reviews after reading Li An's Condor Slayers. Moreover, the writing was quite good. When the book reviews were submitted, Li Bai saw a few of them and directly published them.
Even book reviews could be published to earn royalties. Many poor literati who thought they were literate could not stay calm anymore. They submitted various articles, hoping to earn some royalties from Weibo.
However, there were still many literati in the Tang dynasty, especially in the capital area. There were as many literati as there were carps crossing the river. The number of submissions was also very large, so most of the manuscripts sank into the sea after they were submitted. This made many literati feel a little indignant. They wrote very well and vividly, but they were squeezed out by people whose quality was worse than theirs.
Therefore, many people felt that there was a conspiracy behind the submission of the Tang dynasty newspaper, and the talented manuscripts were buried. These guys even joined forces in private to speak ill of the Tang dynasty newspaper everywhere, just because they were repeatedly rejected.
Although the power of these literati was extremely limited and could not have a decisive impact on the sales of the Tang dynasty newspaper, Ang Lee, as the person in charge of the Tang dynasty newspaper, could not tolerate others slandering the newspaper of the Tang dynasty. Ang Lee could not tolerate this kind of behavior that turned from love to hate.
Now, Tang Dynasty was just on the right track. Like a child who had just learned how to walk, it was relatively fragile and needed to be well protected and taken care of. It was absolutely not allowed to be maliciously attacked or harmed.
For this reason, Ang Lee deliberately published a rebuttal article, pointing out the problems of these literati who were not good enough. He also said that the selection of manuscripts for the Tang dynasty newspaper was decided after careful screening by dozens of editors. Moreover, the manuscripts would be cross-reviewed, and no high-quality manuscripts would be missed.
The general meaning was to point out that some literati were self-righteous. Although their talent was very limited, they insisted on showing off, as if they were really talented. In fact, their writing level was very average.
The entire article was full of sharp words. It scolded those who did not have much ability to show off. It also warned them that if they wanted to successfully publish an article, they had to practice their own basic skills and learn more from famous writers. It was not something that could be published just by writing something casually.
After writing this criticism article, Ang Lee heaved a big sigh of relief. Although he did not know how the specific effect would be, Ang Lee believed that this article would definitely be a fierce blow to the arrogance of these self-righteous literati. It would make them understand how much they were worth and how big the gap was between them and others.
People were always overconfident, especially literati. Since ancient times, literati despised each other and felt that the other was not as good as them. However, the truth was often not so.
After the newspaper was published, many people saw Ang Lee's sharp rebuttal article. Most of the people were positive about it. Even some of the people who were rebuked began to reflect on themselves and felt that Ang Lee was right. There was still a gap between them and others.
However, there were still some literati who had been rejected repeatedly. They were very confident in their literary talent. They always felt that there was an inside story about the Tang dynasty newspaper, or that the person in charge of reviewing manuscripts was biased against them. Otherwise, how could such a good article be rejected repeatedly?
A bold literati directly wrote an article to refute Ang Lee and sent it directly to the newspaper along with the work he had submitted last time.
After the staff received the newspaper, they immediately read it carefully and then handed it to Du Fu.
Because Li Bai had asked for leave and went to drink with his friends, Du Fu was the only deputy editor left.
After reading the article written by this man, Du Fu could not help shaking his head and commenting, "The whole article is full of beautiful words, but there is nothing to it. You want to submit such an article? Are you out of your mind?"
"Come on, send this manuscript to Assistant Minister Li."
After reading it, Du Fu wanted to throw it away, but he felt that this manuscript was a little interesting, so he asked someone to send it to Ang Lee to make Ang Lee happy.
"Assistant Minister Li, this is the article recommended by the deputy editor. Take a look."
Ang Lee took the manuscript suspiciously. After reading it, he came to the same conclusion as Du Fu. This literati who did not know the immensity of heaven and earth actually did not know the immensity of heaven and earth. He wanted to win the editor's favor with a bunch of beautiful words. It was simply a fool's dream.
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