One penny can only buy one vegetable bun in Xiangzhou. Ordinary people may hesitate before buying it, wondering whether to buy two steamed buns instead.
However, now Xu Sheng Fang Yun's letter of challenge to California Pastor Dong Wenchong's student examination guidance only costs one penny, even the poor children who spend no more than three pennies on food a day did not hesitate.
In Xiangzhou today, what is spreading faster than the plague is the news from the Minbao.
Not only the scholars, but even the ordinary people without children, upon learning that Fang Yun had declared war on the Kingdom of Qing, ran to the nearest academy with a penny in hand.
Many strange things happened in various places. Beggars stopped begging, the prostitutes in brothels stopped singing, students stopped attending classes, and everyone rushed to buy the "Min Bao".
Book vendors originally sold books, newspapers and magazines, but today, literary academy bookstores across the country have banned one person from buying more than one copy of Min Bao. Book vendors have no choice but to give up their books and queue up obediently just to buy a copy of Min Bao, or rather, to keep it for themselves.
The supplement of "Xiangzhou Dibao" was only printed in 100,000 copies, but it triggered a scramble among people from all over Xiangzhou. However, people were still queuing up for "Minbao" from morning until noon.
The printing workshop in Baling City worked at full capacity. At the beginning, the bookshop had six people, then twenty people, and finally fifty people when it started publishing Minbao.
Fortunately, the officials had anticipated this situation before the meeting. Since midnight yesterday, various workshops have been printing the "Min Bao" so that it can be sold continuously in various places. However, it was still out of stock near noon, so they had to print batches.
The people of Xiangzhou, from the old to the young, from the male to the female, were all like crazy and had to buy the "Min Bao". Even many sober people were only prepared to buy it later, not to not buy it at all.
Some families didn't need to buy it at all, as their children were only two or three years old, but neighbors and relatives urged them to do so, saying what if Fang Xusheng's guidance on the imperial examination appeared in the Minbao? As a result, no one resisted Fang Yun's teaching and went straight to the local literary academy.
Some people did not live in the city. After buying the "Min Bao", they could not buy more copies or hire a carriage, so they ran to the village and then led the whole village to the county.
At noon, the half-day data was counted. By noon, there were more than 32 million copies of "Minbao" in Xiangzhou, and the total population of Xiangzhou was only more than 130 million.
Some small cities have few people, and local officials thought that 50,000 or 60,000 copies were already good. But who would have thought that when the city residents had almost bought all the copies, people from surrounding villages and towns lined up to buy them.
When Min Bao was first published, Dong Wencong followed Fang Yun's order and published the full content of Min Bao on the discussion board, triggering intense discussions among scholars all over the world.
Under the article in Min Bao, the number of discussion replies exceeded 200 million in half a day, making it the most popular article in recent years. This is because the discussion list can influence the writing list, and according to the setting of the two lists, the first place in the Jinshi list, Hanlin list, University Scholar list and Great Confucian list were all the ones that were ranked first in Dong Wencongfa's "The first private newspaper of the human race, Min Bao, is officially published."
Scholars from all over the country were so enthusiastic in discussing the Minbao that many people had to re-write articles to discuss a specific issue. Some discussed Fang Yun’s declaration of war, some discussed the Song font used in printing, some discussed the sales of the Minbao, and some discussed Dong Wencong’s article on the guidance for the Tongsheng exam…
Soon, the influence of Min Bao spread to all human beings. Some scholars thought that there was also a local version of Min Bao, and gathered at the gate of the local academy of literature. However, the scholars did not want to disperse, so they began to discuss Min Bao.
Many people could not see the "discussion list", and some candidates simply took up their pens and copied the contents of the "Minbao" and placed them at the entrance of the Academy of Literature for other scholars to read and copy.
As a result, something even more exaggerated than the "Paper Price in Luoyang" incident swept across the entire Shengyuan Continent.
Except for Xiangzhou, all the pens, inks, paper and inkstones near the city's academy were bought out by scholars who rushed there. Many scholars flocked to the academy to copy the contents of "Minbao". Some copied everything, some only copied the contents related to the imperial examinations, and some only copied Fang Yun's declaration of war.
Local officials repeatedly tried to stop it, but were met with resistance from many scholars. Some parents whose children were going to take the Tongsheng exam next year even cursed at local officials, leaving them helpless. Finally, local officials had no choice but to start speaking out, slowly reading the contents of the Minbao and letting the local scholars record them.
In the tens of thousands of cities of the human race, officials in more than 30% of the cities recited the "Min Bao" with eloquent voices, forcing historians and scholars from all over the country to pick up their pens to record this unprecedented scene.
Lu Huaijiang, the "Mr. Shi" and the leader of the four great talents of the previous generation who had recently been promoted to a great scholar, said something on the discussion board.
"Saint Fang Xu once again opened a door to the new era, connecting to a new world."
Most of the scholars just regarded it as ordinary compliments, but a very few scholars saw the meaning: Lu Huaijiang was obviously saying that the "Minbao" was broadening the holy path of the human race and might even create a new holy path, thus giving birth to a new semi-saint.
Since the Holy Academy only set up Xiangzhou as the pilot area for the "Minbao", this unique newspaper could not be purchased in other places in the Shengyuan Continent.
The official seals of Xiangzhou officials and scholars were filled with letters from all over the human race. Scholars from all over the country asked Xiangzhou scholars to help them buy a copy of the first issue of "Minbao" as a souvenir. Even people who had never met could find out the relationship in a roundabout way, and some even brought out the friendship that their grandfathers had once met.
Before noon, the government office in Kongcheng was blocked by thousands of scholars.
Unlike other places, Kongcheng is extremely open. Almost every household has scholars. The scholars in Kongcheng are also very active and regard themselves as the center of the human race.
When Fang Yun made reforms in Ning'an County, many Kongcheng residents found them to be very good. As a result, Kongcheng soon became the second city where vehicles and horses must drive in the prescribed direction, the second city with crosswalks, and the second city to increase rewards for workers...
Now, thousands of scholars gathered at the gate of Kongcheng government office and continued to protest.
"We want the People's Daily!"
"As there is no "People's Newspaper" in Confucius City, how can the descendants of Confucius talk about serving the people?"
"Without the People's Newspaper, there would be no people in Kongcheng!"
"If there is no more "Minbao" in Kongcheng, we will go to the entrance of the Confucius Mansion and sit quietly!"
"Don't use the Holy Court as an excuse. If the officials of Kong City are united in asking the Holy Court to lift the ban, will the Holy Court not agree?"
The prefect of Kongcheng was overwhelmed and had to come out in person to appease the scholars. Then he took people to the Kong family to inquire about the Kong family's intentions.
The on-duty elder of the Kong family held a meeting, and disagreements arose.
Some people think that since "Min Bao" was created by Fang Yunxian, it is harmless to popularize it in Kongcheng, but some people think that if "Min Bao" is distributed in Kongcheng, it must be reviewed by Kongcheng. Some people think that "Min Bao" has great potential and is a powerful tool to control the minds of human beings. It must be in the hands of Kong family members. Otherwise, once someone slanders Kong family members through similar newspapers, even if Kong family members have made few mistakes and great achievements, they will be discredited by newspapers, causing those who do not know how to think to mistakenly believe that Kong family is useless or even a disaster to the country and the people.
.(To be continued.)