This is really a case of plans not keeping up with changes.
However, Zhang Fei never expected that Sima Guang would actually have the idea of writing.
This cannot be refused and must be satisfied.
Zhang Fei quickly asked someone to bring pen, ink and paper.
Since Sima Guang was interested in Xu Zhiqian's article, his thoughts were flowing like a spring, so he didn't need to think too much and wrote an article quickly.
"Wow... Grand Secretary Sima is such a great writer. This article is written so smoothly and in one go. It's really amazing. It's so satisfying! It's really satisfying!"
Zhang Fei was holding the article that Sima Guang had just written, and his eyes were filled with tears and he was spitting at the mouth, he was extremely excited.
Sima Guang, however, looked at his sincere performance with a sidelong glance and said nothing.
"Uh...why is Grand Secretary Sima looking at me like this?"
Zhang Fei asked somewhat nervously.
...
...
Sima Guang laughed and said, "Stop flattering me. With your skills, do you know how to appreciate this article?"
I praised you so much, and you belittled me like this, it's really not nice of you. Zhang Fei smiled awkwardly, unable to say anything.
To be honest, apart from the fact that the handwriting was really good, he really couldn't understand what was so good about the article.
As far as his literary accomplishment is concerned, as long as the words are used appropriately and the reading is smooth, it is very good.
Sima Guang stroked his beard and said, "Let's talk about writing. It is true that there is a talent. I cannot beat Wang Jiefu in other aspects, but only in writing... Alas... Even if I spend my whole life trying, I am afraid I cannot write better than him."
As he said that, he tilted his head to look at Zhang Fei again, and changed the subject: "But the early bird catches the worm, and diligence can make up for clumsiness. You can't just stop writing because you can't write well. If you always let Qian'er write for you, you will never make any progress."
His literary attainments are actually very remarkable. He is a great contemporary writer and few people in history can match him. After all, he is the man who wrote Zizhi Tongjian. It's just that he happened to meet Wang Anshi and Ouyang Xiu, and behind him were the two brothers Su Shi and Su Zhe, which overshadowed his brilliance.
In this age of geniuses, Sima Guang could only adhere to the idea that hard work can make up for one's shortcomings.
He did make up for his shortcomings with hard work, but he was definitely a genius.
This is really terrible.
The most demoralizing thing in life is to discover that a genius works harder than you.
Zhang Fei completely gave up trying in this area. His requirement for himself was to practice writing neatly and making sentences coherent so that everyone could understand them.
He wouldn't take one more step.
It really doesn't make sense.
At most, he is just a porter of articles.
That's all.
"yes."
Zhang Fei still responded: "Zhang San will keep Sima Daxueshi's lesson in mind."
Sima Guang saw that his expression was not sincere at all, and knew that he was just perfunctory, so he stopped talking. After all, everyone has their own aspirations. Suddenly, he said seriously: "Don't tell Wang Jiefu what I just said about him, otherwise I will not forgive you."
"Oh...Oh...I know, I know, I will never tell you."
Zhang Fei nodded repeatedly, thinking, what a pair of enemies.
But Sima Guang couldn't leave yet, because Zhang Fei had to take his article to the workshop to compare and see which words in the article did not have movable type. If not, they would have to be modified.
After all, no one here can modify Sima Guang's article, only he himself can modify it.
Fortunately, Sima Guang also paid attention to this and tried to use some commonly used characters. In the end, there were only twelve characters, without movable type, which was even fewer than Xu Zhiqian's article.
After the revision, Sima Guang said goodbye.
"Sanlang, what should we do?"
Hou Donglai looked at Zhang Fei eagerly.
Zhang Fei asked: "What should we do?"
Hou Donglai asked, "Should we print the article of Grand Secretary Sima or that of Lady Xu?"
Zhang Fei pondered for a moment and said, "Print them all. As for Zhiqian, we will keep it as we agreed before, but the price of Sima Daxueshi's article will be increased by ten coins, and the number of copies will be increased by 500. The original copy will also be kept. If it is popular, we will continue to print more."
Hou Donglai nodded, "Yes, I understand."
After giving the instructions, Zhang Fei also went home in a carriage.
When he returned home, he told Xu Zun and his daughter about this matter.
Xu Zun was also a scholar, and could understand Sima Guang. If he were not the person involved, he would have written it himself. Writing articles was the greatest hobby of scholars. He stroked his beard and smiled, "Qian'er, you are just throwing out some ideas!"
Xu Zhiqian complained, "Zhang San, since the Grand Secretary Sima has written it, you should not print my article. People will laugh at me."
She also has self-knowledge. When her articles are put together with Sima Guang's, hers are just shit. The gap is too big.
“It’s different.”
Zhang Fei said: "Sima Daxueshi wrote it completely according to his own ideas, and I dare not interfere. If we really compare them, your article is more to my liking, so I decided to print both."
Sima Guang's articles contained too many personal opinions, and they also promoted his ideas of saving money and sharing wealth with the people. Xu Zhiqian's articles were the result of their discussion, and the two are actually different.
Xu Zhiqian said anxiously, "You...you didn't lie to me, did you? If I'm laughed at, I'll settle the score with you."
Zhang Fei said: "Don't worry, I will place your articles separately. The roadside teahouse will place your articles, and the Baifanlou will place Sima Daxueshi's articles."
Xu Zhiqian nodded: "This... this is more like this."
She didn't want to be known as such.
She felt extremely embarrassed just thinking about it.
If Sima Guang and others were unwilling to write it, she would not mind it, but if Sima Guang wrote it, she would think it was very embarrassing.
......
As the saying goes, raise soldiers for a thousand days and use them in one moment.
The craftsmen at the genuine bookstore have been engaged in research and development and preparation for the past six months. Although they have been paid well, they have not made any money. Everyone is unsure whether they can make money by researching and developing every day.
Now that business has finally arrived, everyone is as excited as ever and is working hard.
Soon, the first paper newspaper in history was published.
At the same time, Zhang Fei also spread the news that he was going to sell newspapers in various restaurants and teahouses.
The owners of all the major restaurants came immediately upon hearing the news.
We are not stupid.
The tabloid mentioned above has been fermenting for many days, and suddenly there is a response, which is really eye-catching.
Full of gimmicks.
If other restaurants have it but yours does not, then the loss may not just be a number on paper, your status may even be affected.
Hou Donglai, who has worked in printing for many years, finally experienced the feeling of being a superior person.
He told the shopkeepers in a very domineering manner to leave the money and send someone to pick up the goods at four o'clock in the morning three days later.
It's that simple.
Inspect goods?
hehe!
You can buy it or not.
Those shopkeepers kept the money honestly without saying a word. They didn’t even know that they were buying Sima Guang’s articles.
"Boss, how's it going?"
Hongjoong asked quietly.
Hou Donglai said: "They are all sold."
"What? They're all sold?" Hong Zhong was shocked. "They're so expensive, are there people buying them?"
This price scared their craftsmen, as it was already ten times the profit.
Hou Donglai said, "Maybe we are selling it cheaply. No one who came to the shop said it was expensive."
Hong Zhong was scratching his head after hearing this. How could a common man like him understand these things? He just felt it was unbelievable.
This is much more profitable than printing books.
This time it's really prosperous.
......
Three days later, Baifan Building.
Early in the morning, Fan Yong and his son, accompanied by more than 20 maids, stood in front of the door in their best attire to welcome guests, because all the elegant seats and private rooms in Baifan Tower had been booked two days ago.
And they all come from prominent backgrounds, including Han Qi, Zeng Gongliang, Cao Ping, Gu Ji, etc.
They are all court ministers and royal relatives.
The lowest ones are the judges of the three courts.
Because this matter involved all the civil and military officials in the court, when everyone heard that the other party was going to retaliate, they definitely wanted to find out what was going on.
There were even quite a few scholars and officials who sent people to place orders themselves, only to be told that the tickets were sold out and they could only go to the restaurant to check.
Han Qi had just sat down, ignoring the beautiful view outside the window and the delicious food in Baifan Building, and directly asked Fan Yong: "Didn't you say there are tabloids to read? Where are the tabloids?"
At his age, he is not in the mood to come early in the morning for breakfast. He just comes to read the newspaper.
"Please wait a moment, Mr. Han."
Fan Yong quickly ordered his maid to fetch him a tabloid.
Han Qi held the tabloid and said, "This...is this a tabloid?"
Fan Yong quickly replied, "Yes, you can open it and read it."
Han Qi nodded and opened the newspaper. It was definitely like opening up a new world!
Fan Yong asked cautiously, "What would Mr. Han like to eat?"
This is a restaurant, not a library. You can't just read newspapers here!
"ah?"
Han Qi glanced at him, then looked at the old servant beside him.
The old servant quickly pulled Fan Yong away and ordered a few of Han Qi's favorite breakfast dishes.
Han Qi was soon fascinated, but as he read on, he suddenly frowned, "This writing style is quite familiar, as if I have seen it before."
He looked to the end and said in surprise: "Sima Junshi? So this was written by Sima Junshi. No wonder it looked so familiar. How come...!"
He quickly called Fan Yong over.
"Sir, how come this article was written by Sima Junshi?"
"In reply to Mr. Han, I don't know either." Fan Yong explained, "We only found out this morning that the official bookstore printed two copies this time, one was written by Madam Xu, and the other was written by Grand Secretary Sima."
"Mrs. Xu?"
"It's Xu Sishi's daughter, Xu Zhiqian."
"oh...."
Han Qi nodded and said, "Please bring me one copy as well."
Fan Yong said, "Yes."
Originally, Xu Zhiqian's article would not be published in Baifanlou, but Fan Zheng used his connections to get a few copies.
Because the protagonist of this matter is Xu Zun, Xu Zhiqian must represent Xu Zun, and this is the real response.
Han Qi is also a great writer. Normally, he would definitely look down on Xu Zhiqian's articles, but today he also wants to take a look.
After Fan Yong left, Han Qi read it carefully again, nodding his head repeatedly and saying, "As expected of Sima Junshi, this writing style is very sophisticated. Not bad, not bad, it's really well written."
Sima Guang's articles are simple and unpretentious in style, but they contain extremely sophisticated techniques. They are many times more sophisticated than those old marketing accounts, although they do the same thing.
He cleverly focused on the landlords' thoughts, that is, they all felt that this beheading was very unfair to the landlords, so this meeting was held.
Let me tell you very tactfully that we are not targeting the landlords, but are thinking about them.
If you don't consider the landlord, then there is no need to discuss it.
As for Xu Zun's statement, it was just mentioned casually during the discussion. He even wrote down the original words at that time, indicating that they did not agree with doing so, and Xu Zun did not say much.
Then he began to expound his own views, saving money, sharing wealth with the people, and governing the world together, and he linked these three concepts to the issue of tenants. For example, saving money and sharing wealth with the people, he also pointed out that the court imposed too many taxes and levies, and it was not entirely the landlords' fault.
As for co-ruling the world, he simply used the tactic of praising to death.
He said that the scholars and officials all regarded the world as their own responsibility, and when there were difficulties in the local areas, many scholars and officials would step forward, so how could they endanger the local stability? He also gave examples to illustrate that Sima Guang read books every day and gave examples, which was what he was best at.
This law had no impact on the scholars and officials; they were just worried that some villains would stir up trouble.
Anyway, it’s full of private goods.
His ideas were in line with those of Fan Zhongyan and others, and Han Qi was one of the gentlemen of the Qingli period, so of course he agreed with them.
I was fascinated by the view, but as I was watching, I suddenly noticed a lot of noise outside.
Han Qi couldn't help but stand up and walk outside the private room. Looking around, he saw that the building was already crowded with people, either court officials or retired scholars at home.
Everyone was holding tabloids and arguing endlessly.
This made Han Qi's thoughts seem to go back to his youth, when he discussed current affairs with Fu Bi and other good friends. Those were so beautiful times.
The cost of eating at the Baifan Building was not cheap, and there were few people in the court who were richer than him. He must have sat in the best private room and enjoyed the best service, but at this moment, he felt very lonely, and he couldn't read the tabloid alone.
Suddenly he saw Zeng Gongliang and others sitting in the private rooms, and he walked over happily.
......
Wang Anshi certainly knew about this, but he would not come to a luxurious place like Baifanlou. He had no interest in food and clothing, and, to be honest, he could not afford it. After all, he still had a mortgage. So he went to a tavern close to the imperial city, ready to take a look, and then go to work, but he saw Sima Guang's article.
This early in the morning...it affects my mood!
"As expected of you, you are the Grand Secretary Sima. This article is really well written!"
"I really don't know why the emperor believes Wang Jiefu, when it is clear that Sima Daxueshi's ideas make more sense."
......
Wang Anshi sat alone in the corner, holding a newspaper and covering his face with it, reading Sima Guang's articles and listening to the flattery of Sima Guang from the people at the next table. It really lost his appetite and he was so angry that he couldn't even eat breakfast.
Is this article considered well-written?
It's really nonsense.
Fuck you!
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