Chapter 489 A bright future

Halkin closed the curtain of the carriage window with a grunt, sat back in his seat, and looked calmly at Theodora who was interested.

"Is the Holy Visitation Hall the headquarters of the Salvation Army in Jeanne d'Arc?" Covering his head and face with a gray veil, Theodore pulled the hem of the veil closer to reveal a piece of his white chin.

"Depends on how you define it." Halkin shrugged. "Shengsun works here. The archives and accounting offices are also here. If you want to consult about something, it's still here."

"I just saw a lot of monks wearing the same attire here. If you don't mind... do you have any important matters?"

"We are all here to attend the Cardinals' Council."

Theodora blinked in surprise. "It seems that our dwarf has a high position in the Savior Army."

"Hahahaha." Halkin laughed and shook his head. "I joined early, before the Battle of Pavia, so I know a lot of people. Why did Miss Theodora ask me to come?"

"You introduced me to a hospital before and asked the hospital to treat my back sores. I would like to treat you to a meal to thank you." Theodora pushed a bag of coins to Halkin.

Halkin's smile froze for a moment, but he recovered immediately: "You can eat the food, but you don't need to pay."

Theodora looked at Halkin for a long moment, and only after confirming that he was not being hypocritical did she take back the bag of coins: "Then it is I who is vulgar."

"I like the money, but I can't accept it in this way." Halkin added the second half of the sentence silently in his mind, especially before the next conversation.

When they arrived at the place, Halkin jumped out of the carriage and looked up to see the four huge words "Duke's House".

Theodora also stepped down from the carriage gracefully, stepping on a small stool and holding Mornstein's hand.

Stepping on the wet stone bricks and looking up at the sign in front of her, she smiled and said, “Although they sound arrogant, the chefs here are quite skilled.

The taste of the food they make really does have the feel of Duke’s chef. At least I have never tasted this kind of taste in other restaurants.

I just don’t know why they don’t open the private rooms on the third floor.”

Halkin coughed and said, “Because the cook here is the cook of the Duke of Kush’s family. After the Duke of Kush was beheaded, he came out and opened this small shop.

The third floor is not open to the public because it is a place for receiving royal cardinals and foreign guests.

Theodora paused in her steps. "Just because of a government decree, does the chef have to keep the third floor empty?"

"It's not a decree." Following Theodora on his short legs, Halkin nodded to the waiter at the door. "The Papal States owns shares in this tavern, and Your Majesty is the major shareholder."

"Then why doesn't he keep the chef at home and instead send him out?" Theodora couldn't understand.

"Master Wanpiao is so frugal. What can he eat? Nothing but pies and tea." Halkin lowered his head, not looking at Theodora's butt, and said in a muffled voice, "Your Majesty said that it is better to put it outside to generate income than to let it eat dust at home. The pie is delicious. Why did you change it?"

Theodora, who was walking in front, couldn't help but smile.

They said that Saint Sun Horn was born a farmer, but she didn't believe it.

How could a farmer sweep across the southeast of Thousand River Valley in half a year and defeat the Imperial Order Company, the Church, and Niedsal?

But just this one restaurant made Theodora believe it a little. The way he made money at all costs was very much like an old farmer.

Led by the waiter, the two went upstairs, took their seats, and each ordered a pepper steak and red wine.

Bonatto and others sat at another table nearby and ordered a lot of bread, meat rolls and cheese.

"To be honest, I invited you to dinner not only to thank you, but also because I hope you can help us again." After tying the napkin, Theodora placed her hands elegantly on her knees.

"What help do you need? Just tell me and I'll help you wherever you want." Halkin said carelessly, swinging his short legs.

"We want to buy property here, but it takes a year to become a citizen. Do you have any solution?"

"Simple." Halkin snapped his fingers. "As long as you show your investment ability, the household registration office will approve you. I'll take you there to say hello tomorrow."

"What does it mean to have investment strength? Buy your Jihad bonds?"

Halkin's eyes rolled. "Strength... Ha, let me tell you, as long as you are willing to participate in His Majesty's new industry, I will guarantee it, and you don't need to buy the Jihad Bonds."

"New industry? What new industry?" The Norns were not as discriminatory against craftsmen as the people in the west, and they were happy to participate in the so-called "lowly industries".

“Printing industry.”

Halkin was not making up his mind when he recommended the printing industry to Theodora.

The basis for his statement was in the patent leather box in his hand.

Based on the report of this regular meeting, both the Paint Guild and the Printing Guild gave their report results.

The printing guild designed a set of movable type printing technology based on Shengsun's simplified letters.

To be precise, this printing and casting technology was not invented by a relief craftsman, but by a coin minter named Akyu.

This method was once used by mints to cast stamping dies.

As for why the experienced relief engravers had failed to produce it, Halkin suspected they had done so on purpose.

After all, if movable type printing were to become more popular, their income would probably be greatly reduced and competition would become extremely fierce.

It's just that they couldn't defeat the Holy Sun's army, so they just pretended to obey but actually disobeyed.

To put it simply, this method is to place the engraved copper plate underneath and then erect a circle of clay with a fist thickness on the outside.

Then pour the molten lead and tin water into it, and it becomes a font mold about 20 cm long.

Then just polish the rough edges and the rivets and you can use it. Since the characters used in the empire are all phonetic, they are not two-dimensional but one-dimensional.

Therefore, the typists do not need to recognize words, they just need to sort the letters one by one, which greatly improves the feasibility.

Then the first step towards the feasibility of movable type printing was completed, and the remaining three pieces of the puzzle were only paper, ink and screw press.

Only when all four are available can movable type printing have the possibility of replacing letterpress printing.

The ink has now been developed. The formula given by the Saint Grandson is roughly correct, but it is missing an egg white.

The ink produced by mixing lamp black, linseed oil and egg white works perfectly with lead type.

Of course, due to technical defects, the letters will be slightly misaligned, the handwriting will be a little blurry, and the printing stability is not as good as letterpress.

But its advantage lies in its convenience and large production capacity. A set of movable type printing can be used thousands or tens of thousands of times, while a set of letterpress printing can only be used a thousand times at most.

While engraving a complete relief plate would take days to weeks, this type of movable lettering takes only hours.

Especially when printing multiple books or producing in large quantities, a lot of repetitive work is reduced.

As for paper and spiral presses, the former can be tried with old technology, and as for the latter, His Majesty the Holy Grandson only remembers that it applied the principle of an oil press, but he still doesn't know how it was made specifically.

The spiral stamping machine has not yet been designed, but it can be used even if it is a bit troublesome if it is done entirely manually.

At present, His Majesty the Holy Grandson is preparing to establish a movable type foundry and a printing workshop.

The former produces movable type, ink and printing presses, while the latter prints textbooks, teachings on the salvation of the world, official documents manuals, yearbooks, times and other books that need to be printed on a large scale and constantly updated.

But there is a problem. The cost of a set of movable type with punctuation marks is about 60 to 80 gold pounds.

In order to recoup the cost, you have to print it thousands of times before you really start to make a profit.

This is a new technology and no one is optimistic about it at the moment, so apart from Horn himself, there is no wealthy businessman who dares to invest money.

Especially the engravers in the printing guild, who pretended to obey but secretly obstructed the work.

Before movable type printing replaced these engravers, the Salvation Army government could not kill them and could only drag it out.

So in addition to the government-run printing workshops, Horn hopes to have some privately-owned ones to supplement them, which would save a lot of money and manpower.

For Halkin, after spending hundreds of gold pounds on the giant spider silk project without any results, he urgently needed new achievements to prove himself.

Halkin wanted to make progress so much. He also wanted to live in a big townhouse and be picked up by a special car every day.

He had traveled a lot before and recognized these people in front of him at a glance. They must be the rich and stupid people from Norn.

For these Norns, they are not afraid of any local printing guild.

The Norn guild has an army!

This underworld-style guild organization with no bottom line means that the Norns have no psychological barriers to stealing technology and disrupting the market.

The dwarves, who valued Norn, had their defenses breached several times by the Norns.

But for the reformist dwarf Halkin, even though Theodora is a Norn, they are also the best investors.

Outsiders are not afraid of guilds.

Bookseller, with relevant industry experience.

It's just too perfect. He smiled and greeted me at the beginning, just waiting for this day.

After listening to Halkin's story, Theodora did not continue speaking, but immersed herself in cutting the black pepper steak.

After swallowing the steak in her mouth, she took a handkerchief and wiped her mouth before asking, "Is this inside information?"

"Wait three to five days and you'll see it on the city bulletin board." Halkin chewed the beef in big mouthfuls, with crumbs flying everywhere. "Maybe the bulletin on the bulletin board is printed with movable type."

New printing technology? Theodora silently finished the remaining half of the steak before putting down her knife and fork.

This technology sounds good, but is it as reliable as the dwarf said?
"I can guarantee you that you only need to pay for one set and you can get two sets of movable type."

Halkin immediately understood Theodora's thoughts: "I can get you some orders for literacy textbooks. You don't even need a place. I can find you a free workshop in Gray Furnace Town.

As for the housing issue you mentioned, I can guarantee that if you place your printing workshop in Huilu Town, the mayor will build you a good place to live for free."

"Mr. Halkin, I am very grateful for your invitation and I am willing to give it a try." Theodora took a sip of red wine, "But what can you get?"

As the director of the Industrial Temple of the Gospel Court Business Department, Halkin grinned and said, "If you can come and participate in this, I will get what I want. This is a win-win situation. Come, I'll raise a glass."

After drinking the wine in the glass, a blush appeared on Halkin's face.

Take that, colleagues!
You are a bunch of blockheads who don't know how to get information and have no connections.

The target has not yet been released, but I have completed it ahead of schedule.

What is seniority? What is loyalty? What is implementation? Halkin leaned back on the cushion.

Losers, what can you use to fight me?

(End of this chapter)