The current opera troupes are divided into several modes.

One is that everyone's interests are combined and after making money together, they are distributed according to a certain proportion.

Another way is that the troupe owner signs several well-known actors with a large sum of money and builds the troupe with them as the backbone. Whether it makes money or not, it has nothing to do with the actors who receive fixed remuneration. Even if they do well, they will have to give others some benefits.

The last one is that a well-known actor set up a troupe by himself, and all the troupes are mainly him (her), so that they can perform better, but at the same time, the pressure also comes to him (her).

Most of the Nine Immortals in Opera are in the third mode.

Everyone is a top figure and generally won’t make money for others.

Of course, sometimes I will make guest appearances because of favors.

Boss Su naturally has her own opera troupe. She has been to Jiangnan for so long, and everyone in the opera troupe is resting, and then she has to pay on time every month.

Qian Ying was also signed into the opera troupe by her for a total of ten years. During these ten years, all his opera arrangements were decided by Xiao Suqin.

Xiao Suqin is not an idiot, she is very smart.

"Liang Zhu" is an opera that has been passed down for thousands of years, and it will definitely be extremely popular once it comes out.

If Qian Ying becomes famous, starts up again and finds another Zhu Yingtai to act in a role, and plays against him, isn’t it a disaster for raising a tiger?

Now Qian Ying has signed a contract. If she dares to do this, Xiao Suqin can sue the Imperial Courtyard with a lawsuit.

Miao Yan never endured such treason.

For Liu Mingqi, Xiao Suqin came back with Qian Ying, so the next plan can be officially implemented.

This is the narrative of "Liang Zhu".

The narrative book of "Liang Zhu" was released earlier than the playbook of "Liang Zhu", but it has been several months so far, and Liu Mingqi has not published it.

Not to say that it is to prevent piracy.

You can't prevent piracy in both Lighthouse Kingdom and Japan Kingdom, let alone in ancient times.

No matter how well a storybook is written, it can only be sold for one month at the first sale, or even for a shorter time.

When another bookstore gets your book, it will start printing immediately, and then follow you to make money. You can't report to the yamen to arrest him.

Therefore, the most expensive storybook is only a few hundred taels or a thousand taels at best, and the author cannot sell it at a price.

Of course, it depends on who is comparing with.

An ordinary person can earn at most eight to ten taels of silver a year, and one person can earn their income for a hundred years. It is not too bad to think about it.

Besides, outside the Imperial Capital City, you can buy a good yard for three or five hundred taels of silver, or go a little further away, and you can buy hundreds of acres of fertile land.

It is not a fantasy to support a family with one book.

In addition, the long-term stability of the Great Kang Dynasty, everyone did not threaten war or other threats, lived a leisurely life and had a lot of entertainment needs, so there were still many people writing the script.

Can the drama "Liang Zhu" be so heartbroken that people are thinking about it before it has been staged? It must be a step ahead of the story book "Liang Zhu".

As long as those big girls, young ladies, and ladies read the "Liang Zhu" script, they will not be unattracted, and even those scholars and talents will be the same.

After great preparation, as soon as the drama "Brother Zhu" came out, do you think they would chase after him and watch it?

But there is still a time difference problem.

The reason why Liu Mingqi did not print and publish the story book "Liang Zhu" in advance was that she wanted to master the best time.

If you come out too early, maybe there will be a smart opera troupe to rehearse "Battle of Liang" first.

No matter how well they line up, if you take over the reputation of "premiere", that's an extraordinary thing, Boss Su will cry to death.

Now Xiao Suqin is on the boat back to the capital, she has already asked Qian Ying to start reading the script and script of "Liang Zhu", and then put him in her shoes and lead him into the role.

When they returned to the capital, they would immediately gather the troupe staff and start formal overall rehearsals.

According to Boss Su's estimate, it will take about two months to achieve perfection.

Now it is August, and Liu Mingqi only needs to publish the books one month in advance, which is enough to give people time to be fascinated.

If you want to publish a book, Liu Mingqi naturally has to go to the printing workshop.

As long as a society with developed literature, the printing industry will inevitably be very prosperous.

There are hundreds of printing workshops in the capital.

Yes.

You read that right, there are hundreds of schools.

They can print various vernacular books, various collections of poems, Confucian, Legal and Mohist classic works, etc.

However, the biggest business that supports these printing workshops is to print various Taoist scriptures and Buddhist scriptures.

Due to Taizu's strict orders, monks and Taoist priests were not allowed to spread. There were not many temples and Taoist temples in the Dakang Dynasty, but people still had a deep belief in Taoism and Buddhism.

For example, in the capital city, Daxiangguo Temple, Baoen Temple, Puji Temple, Yuhuang Temple, Laojun Temple and other dozens of places, there are crowds all day long, and the strong incense breath hits the sky.

Temples and Taoist temples also want to expand their influence as much as possible, so they print a large number of Buddhist scriptures and Taoist scriptures every year to send them to good men and women.

The cost of large-scale printing is not high, and it can continue to attract the families of these good men and women to become believers. Such a transaction is absolutely cost-effective.

In this way, countless printing workshops have made their lives much better, and they have also supported such a large printing scale in the entire capital.

But Liu Mingqi went to several stores in a row, but she was not very satisfied.

Because their printing is still on very original woodblock printing.

Woodblock printing refers to carving positive words on thick wooden boards, so that the gestures of each character stand out from the page. Then dip them ink with a brush, brush them on the carved page, then paste the paper on it, and brush them with a clean brush from behind to deepen the mark, and then take them off and complete them.

This can be repeated thousands of times, but the problem is that it takes a lot of time to carve the text, and then the words carved from wood are also troublesome to maintain.

Even the entire carving wooden plate sometimes has problems. For example, during the printing process, more ink drips on the wooden board and then drips on the paper.

But nowadays, people are very grateful to have a book to read, so how can they complain so much?

You know, the days when I read books with bamboo slips have not been hundreds of years.

Even before the invented woodblock printing, ordinary people had no chance to come into contact with various books.

Liu Mingqi knows the entire process of printing development.

After engraving and printing, movable type printing, followed by mimeograph printing, round barrel lithography printing, laser printing, etc.

Liu Mingqi can't do laser printing, so mimeo printing may work hard for the rest of her life.

But printing movable type is not difficult.

It can be made in minutes.

For example, Bi Dashen’s clay-type movable type printing can actually be thought of as long as he opens his mind.

He carved all the characters with soft mud, and then burned them hard with torch.

When you are about to print, stick each corresponding clay character on an iron plate with preheated rosin and wax, so as to fix it so that you can print it directly.

After printing, heat it again to soften the rosin and wax, and you can take out the clay characters and combine them to print again.

Therefore, this kind of printing is called "live" printing.

This printing method is very close to ink printing before laser printing, but the materials and patterns have changed a little.

From reference to many books printed in the Song Dynasty, we can see that the printing of this kind of clay character is very good, with clear handwriting, thick ink, and no stains.

Movable type printing not only improves printing efficiency, but also lowers the threshold for printing, making our secretary and knowledge dissemination more and more extensive and long-lasting.

So after returning home, Liu Mingqi immediately found Tian Rong and asked him to find a reliable carving craftsman for himself.

It happened that there was a carving master in the family. His name was Sun Laosi, who also gave birth to a son from the family who came from Qinhaibo's mansion.

In places like the royal palace, many talents are actually available, not only carving craftsmen, but also making clothes, shoes, and repairing houses.

Sun Laosi is in his forties. Because he often does stone carvings, wood carvings, rockery repairs and other work in the mansion, he has a very strong body.

When he heard Liu Mingqi's request to engrave his letters on the mud of uniform size, he thought that His Royal Highness liked to play, so he agreed to take the manuscript of "Liang Zhu".

There is still one month left, and he can even write alone.

It will be convenient to print at that time.

It is said that the master Bi of that year, he and his apprentice, had already completed the entire printing process.

If you want to print "Brief Zhu" in advance, you should make it more convenient for yourself.

As for the later part, even if this type of movable type printing is leaked, it doesn't matter.

The development of the entire industry must be focused on collective efforts, and the wisdom and persistence of countless people must be concentrated.

This is why the development of the West is that many people continue to improve on the basis of their predecessors, which ultimately makes these technologies better and better.

Whether it is gunpowder, soap, medicine, or medical methods, it has developed in this way.

And our country's decline happened to be because it was contrary to the West.

Everyone likes to cherish their own skills. Not to mention outsiders, even if they are daughters and sons-in-law, they will not pass on them. Therefore, many skills have disappeared and they cannot be improved.

The most heartbreaking thing is our medicine. Hua Tuo had invented anatomy and craniotomy surgery back then, which was more than a thousand years ahead of the West.

As a result, because Hua Tuo was not trained enough students, it was lost after he died, which made us continue to introduce various medical technologies from the West.

Such bad habits must be changed so that the current Dakang Dynasty will continue to move forward significantly!

...

Note: After checking the novels of Tang poetry, Song lyrics, Yuan lyrics, Ming and Qing dynasties, I found that especially in the Ming Dynasty, the novels were really peak, and their scale and audience were not worse than that of now. Basically, the divine books we see today were all written by them at that time. I don’t know whether online novels can be circulated for a hundred years, but theirs will definitely be circulated for another 1,000 years.
Chapter completed!