Prince Li You of the Great Tang Dynasty begs the noble families to their deaths!

Liu San cursed his bad luck, so he stuffed the "Essential Techniques for the Common People" back into his arms and found a corner in the study to hide for the time being.

Cui Chong pushed open the door and walked in.

He took a book from the shelf, placed it on the table, and began to study it carefully.

This was tough on Liu San, who was hiding, and he didn't dare to even breathe loudly.

We can only wait until Cui Chong is done before we figure out how to escape.

A full hour later, Cui Chongcai stood up and stretched.

"Jing, Jing!"

A Jing is a servant in Cui Chong's household.

"It seems the study has been burgled; two books are missing."

Upon hearing this, Liu San's heart tightened immediately.

"Sir, did you put it somewhere else? Would you like me to help you look for it?"

Ah Jing's words calmed Liu San down for the time being.

Go, hurry up and go find some books!

"No need to look anymore. Go to my thirteenth great-grandfather's house and borrow the second volume of 'Qimin Yaoshu' and 'Lunheng'. Take them to Song Jingsheng and ask him to recopy them for me. After a few days, when they are copied, go and get them for me."

"promise."

After explaining the matter, Cui Chong put the book he was reading back in its place, blew out the lamp, and left.

Liu San was finally able to stand up and move around.

He cursed and swore, "That damned Cui bastard, making me stay cooped up for so long... Ah... my old back..."

As people get older, the quality of their lumbar spine deteriorates, and this is exactly what happens to Liu San now.

Feeling the sharp pain radiating from his back, Liu San was furious. Besides taking all the copies of *Qimin Yaoshu*, he stuffed over a dozen more books into his arms: "Copying books, huh? I'll teach you to copy! Copy them properly, copy them until you die!"

……

Liu San presented the books he had obtained to Li You and reported to him the last words Cui Chong had spoken.

Li You thought to himself, "Copying books..."

He spread out all the books he had in his hand and compared them.

However, the fonts in each book are different.

Li You asked doubtfully, "Were all these books copied by hand, stroke by stroke?"

Chao Yang said, "My lord, woodblock printing is very expensive, and not all books can be printed, so there are many copyists. I myself have copied books, and some people with good handwriting are even invited by temples to copy scriptures."

Chao Yang's words gave Li You a deeper understanding of the difficulties faced by scholars at that time.

"Was the Song Jingsheng that Cui Chong described just a book copyist?"

"Yes, the profession of copying books has various names, such as 'copying scholar,' 'book worker,' or 'book clerk.'"

Li You tapped his knuckles on the table, then suddenly said, "Quickly, send someone to follow that servant and see where this copyist surnamed Song is, and what books he's still copying!"

Chao Yang frowned, pondered for a moment, then his eyes suddenly lit up: "What my lord says is quite right. If we find the scribes, we might be able to find all the books!"

The soldiers received their orders and went to search around.

This investigation revealed that there were over a thousand "copyists" in Boling City who specialized in copying books.

This is a massive industry.

In truth, this was the helplessness of all scholars at that time.

As Chao Yang said, printing technology was difficult to popularize at the time, and it was also difficult to print out a large number of all the books.

Instead of pinning their hopes on woodblock printing, which is still developing and has high costs, it would be better to simply pay someone to copy the book.

Some impoverished scholars were able to earn a living by doing this kind of hard work.

The book copyists in Boling City were different from the aforementioned impoverished scholars.

Many of them had been copying books for the Cui family of Boling for hundreds of years, essentially becoming professional book copyists.

Some scholars even went to these aristocratic families specifically to copy books in order to "read" their favorite ones.

In short, as long as these books remain a scarce resource, copyists will never lack work.

After the soldiers' diligent investigation, it was discovered that among the thousands of book copyists in the city, more than two hundred were copying the "Confucian Examination Manual".

Now things are much easier, and we don't need to try and take over the library of the second branch of the Cui family anymore.

In the following period, the manuscripts copied by the scribes who copied classics such as the Book of Documents, the Classic of Filial Piety, and the Zhaoming Anthology would always disappear without a trace.

All of these manuscripts were gathered here with Chao Yang.

"I see, I see!"

Chao Yang sighed as he organized the manuscript.

The Confucian classics he had read before were almost identical to these manuscripts in their original texts, but the annotations by famous scholars were vastly different.

When exchanging knowledge with other scholars, especially scions of prominent families, there were some things they said that Chao Yang could not understand, and at the time he could only grit his teeth and listen to them.

Now, I've finally gotten the original, correct answer. Reading through it all, I feel like I've had a sudden awakening.

Chao Yang secretly resolved to compile these manuscripts as soon as possible, use movable type printing, and distribute them to scholars throughout the land, so that they too could be immersed in the precious annotations accumulated by the sages over hundreds of years and receive the teachings of the saints.

Li You could not empathize with Chao Yang's sense of sacredness, which was deeply immersed in the wisdom of the ancients.

In Li You's view, books like "Qimin Yaoshu" are much more useful than those Confucian doctrines that are full of philosophy.

However, the main purpose of this trip was to obtain commentary from these renowned scholars, whose expertise had been monopolized by generations of families for a long time.

Each stage has its own tasks, and right now the most important thing is to find an opportunity to curb the arrogance of the powerful families.

Li You immediately instructed Yin Hongzhi and Wang Fangde to refer to the situation in Boling and focus on investigating the distribution of copyists in Qinghe, to see if they could learn from Boling's methods and obtain those precious Confucian classics as soon as possible.

……

Beizhou, Qinghe City.

Yin Hongzhi and Wang Fangde also led their troops into the city. At this time, the two were playing chess.

When the King of Qi's letter arrived, the two stopped playing chess. Yin Hongzhi opened the letter, read it once, and then clapped his hands and laughed.

Wang Fangde took the letter, glanced at it, and sighed.

"We racked our brains to devise this fire attack plan, thinking it was ingenious, but we never expected that our lord... Alas... I'm old and useless now!"

In fact, Yin Hongzhi and Wang Fangde had also noticed the book-copying activities of the scribes in Qinghe City.

However, they decided to take a more direct approach: first, they set fire to various parts of the Cui family's house in Qinghe, and while the Cui family was putting out the fires, they rushed into the place where the Cui family kept their books from another direction, forcibly seized them, and then quickly withdrew from Qinghe.

Both sides agreed to exchange information every ten days and act simultaneously.

Now that the King of Qi has a ready-made solution, there is no need for a direct attack; he can simply go to the scribes in the city to "borrow" the books.

Moreover, Chao Yang had already completed the compilation of historical commentaries on the "Zhaoming Wenxuan" and "Shangshu", and had also obtained most of the manuscripts of the "Gongyang Zhuan", "Guliang Zhuan", "Zhouyi", "Daodejing", and "Xiaojing".

The soldiers of Huang Chao's army in Qinghe only need to pay attention to the remaining six books, and their workload will be halved.

Wang Fangde said, "Brother Yin, according to our lord's approach, three or four hundred men are enough to do this. Let Zhang Lan take the extra troops back to camp."

"Okay, we'll do it your way."