Sword of Dawn

Page 149

She thought it would be some new magic device, or a new management method that could improve the public security situation. These two things are what her ancestors were best at, but she didn't expect Gao Wen to hold a square After the wooden box came, there were only dozens of chess pieces carved with wood.

"This is..." Hetty watched curiously as Gawain took out a piece of parchment with square lines drawn on it from the wooden box and spread it on the table, and then took out the black and red parchment from the box. The colored chess piece was placed on the parchment, and finally couldn't help asking, "What is this?"

"Chess," Gao Wen pointed to the chair across the table, and asked Heidi to sit down there, "I'll teach you how to play."

"Play? Is this something for playing?"

Hetty sat opposite Gawain with full of curiosity. She couldn't feel any magic fluctuations from the chess piece, and even its material was just ordinary wood. She really couldn't see the difference between this thing and her There was no connection with the deterioration of law and order reported earlier, but with great trust in Gao Wen, she still began to listen to Gao Wen's explanation of the rules of this "game" seriously.

The rules of chess are not complicated, even ordinary people with little education can easily learn, not to mention Hetty, who has a strong comprehension ability, this lady quickly figured out the meaning of these simple chess pieces - Gao Wen made a localized "translation" of the chess pieces, calling the chess pieces "king", "emperor", "guard", "knight" and so on, so that Hetty could understand them.

After figuring out the rules, Hetty tried to play a game with Gawain.

"Is this... a step forward?" She held the chess piece marked "Infantry", and raised her head to ask Gao Wen while carefully pushing it forward.

"That's right," Gao Wen nodded with a smile, "Then it's my turn..."

In less than 10 minutes, Hetty's first chess game in her life ended in abandonment.

However, she felt an unbelievable joy from this first game that was bumpy and eventually failed miserably-these chess pieces can contain so many changes, and something with such simple rules...is it so interesting? !

"Can I do it again...?" Hetty looked straight into Gawain's eyes with excitement and anticipation on her face, "I think I don't need your reminder this time!"

"Of course." It was rare for Gawain to see Heidi showing such a relaxed and happy look, so he naturally readily agreed, "This time you come to place the chess pieces, and I will teach you."

Ten minutes later, Hetty looked at the "king" who was surrounded by chariots and wizards and was already in a dead situation, and clenched his fists unwillingly: "Ancestor, I want...to do it again..."

It wasn't until the sun gradually went down that the sky became dim, and Betty walked into the living room and lit the magic spar lamp. The lady addicted to chess suddenly realized that she glanced at the time, and then at the chessboard in front of her. Ji Ling sat up straight all of a sudden: "Ah! When I forgot... (click)."

There was a loud click on Hetty's shoulder and neck, and the second half of her sentence turned into a cry of pain: "It hurts, hurts..."

"I need to move around after sitting for a long time." Gao Wen raised his eyelids and glanced at the other party. "What, is chess fun?"

"Okay..." Hetty said subconsciously, but then she finally remembered what the real topic was before, "But does this have anything to do with the conflict between the residents in the territory and the deterioration of public security?"

"Of course." Gao Wen crossed his arms, "Why do you think they fight and cause trouble?"

Hetty rubbed her shoulders and neck while trying to think: "Because...they are irritable?"

"There are people with grumpy personalities, but it's impossible for so many people to be grumpy, and it's even more impossible for everyone to be mild-mannered in the past autumn and winter and wait until spring to become grumpy." Gawain shook his head, "The real reason is that Our citizens finally have extra energy. They have enough food and clothing, and they don’t need to exhaust all their energy for their livelihood. But after they are full and warm, they don’t have much entertainment, so fighting is inevitable. Of course, This is not the whole reason, but it is also an important reason."

"No means of entertainment?" Hetty seemed to be thinking about the issue of "civilians' entertainment" for the first time, "But before... and in other territories, why didn't there be such a problem of concentrated fighting?"

Gawain glanced at Heidi: "That's because they never had enough."

Hetty was stunned, half understanding what Gao Wen said, and then she looked at the chess in front of her again: "Then do you think that this kind of game can solve the security problem in the territory?"

Gao Wen's answer this time was even more straightforward: "No."

Chapter 0358 Entertainment and Gawain's Difficulties

Entertainment in this age is extremely monotonous and scarce.

Long before the time travel, Gao Wen had seen descriptions about the scarcity of entertainment in ancient times in various novels and film and television dramas. This can be said to be a cliché, but after time travel, he still had to sigh - this sentence is true. It's not just talk.

In this world, entertainment items are not only scarce, but also extremely restricted by social class. For the upper class nobles, the greatest entertainment in their spare time should be to enjoy opera, music, hunting, dances, etc. Although it is still very boring in Gao Wen's eyes, But it can be regarded as a rich and colorful life, but it is obviously impossible for the people of the lower class to afford this kind of extravagant life, so the lower the society, the rarer the entertainment items that people can come into contact with.

Go to the bar to drink and fight, gamble in several crude ways (and often end up fighting), listen to the Rap of street bards (of course, they call it legendary poetry here), this is almost common people The only way for the common people to relax after work is that the only thing they can do is to make children at home-but even so, their leisure time is still pitifully small.

Due to the low productivity, and more importantly, the oppression of the lords and nobles, the vast majority of civilians have almost no so-called "leisure time". Living with food and clothing, the vast majority of people don’t have any extra energy and physical strength after filling their stomachs, and this is exactly what most noble lords are happy to see: the untouchables work hard, and don’t produce any "unhealthy things" other than that. Think differently", no one makes trouble, no one is lazy, and naturally everyone is happy.

But in Cecil Territory, the situation has changed——

The people's stomachs were full, and not only were they full, they had extra money and time to rest.

This kind of situation, which was taken for granted in Gao Wen's previous life, was unprecedented in this world, and the managers were caught off guard.

"After a period of construction in the territory, various infrastructures have been completed, survival is no longer a problem, and the production pressure of the factory has begun to ease, so we have entered the next stage," Gao Wen slowly packed the chess pieces on the table , while saying to Hetty, "Before, everyone in the territory had to do their best to survive, and no one had leisure time, so the order was very good, but now we don't need this, and the people began to get reasonable After rest, the food supply has also become abundant, so the citizens who are full of food and drink and have leisure naturally need to do something to consume energy. According to the general "rule", they can only go to bars to drink, and then fight with people in the streets and alleys. Either those who have more spare money will go to seek some flesh and blood business, or gather crowds to gamble... Law and order will get worse and worse in the process, but it's not their fault.

"We can't have people working non-stop so that the accumulated pressure will only make law and order worse, so we have to give people some entertainment."

Gawain put away the chess box, looked up into Hetty's eyes.

"Chess is a good thing. It can kill time, exercise intelligence, and win or lose. It is also very interesting in the process, but it is unrealistic to rely on a chess set to solve the security problem. We must do more. .

"Making the people feel satisfied and happy should be regarded as a responsibility. This kind of satisfaction is not limited to providing them with enough food and clothing, but also allows them to enjoy the spiritual life that they take for granted.

"In addition to chess, I also improved the rules of the king's deck. The original king's deck rules are too complicated. It is an entertainment that can only be understood by more educated people. It is not suitable for promotion to the whole people, so I simplified it. , so that ordinary people can also master it, I named it 'Lord Deck'. In addition, I also thought of several games that can be played indoors, which are not complicated and very interesting. In addition, the original, used for gambling We can also remove or limit the gambling elements of several dice games for promotion and publicity.

"I plan to open such a chess and card room in the territory, which can be integrated with the bar, but only provides drinks such as low alcohol and sour grass water. Its main function is to relax and entertain people. In addition, the production cost of these chess and cards is also very low , can be opened to merchants and artisans, allowing them to make and sell, which can increase some income for the territory, and also enrich the life of the people at home.

"Besides, for those who prefer not to entertain indoors, I have conceived several outdoor sports which would release excess energy and make our people stronger and quicker--not polo and hunting, that It is something that only nobles can afford, and I will explain the specifics to you when I am ready."

Listening to Gao Wen's thoughts one by one, Hetty's approval of these plans became more and more in her heart. At the same time, she also deeply realized the omissions in her previous management of the territory. He couldn't help asking: "Ancestor, could it be that...you thought of these things a long time ago?"

"It's true that I thought about it a long time ago. It's just that in the early days of the territory's construction, it was a problem for everyone to eat. Naturally, there was no need to think about it at that time." Gao Wen smiled and nodded, "Don't underestimate these things. Territorial order, when enhancing the happiness of the people, they can play a greater role than the machines in the factory."

Seeing Hetty nodding repeatedly, Gawain exhaled softly, and continued: "Providing cheap and easy-to-satisfy entertainment is only part of improving people's happiness and maintaining order. Besides, the construction of the security team is still a It's very important that you don't ignore this."

"Yes, I understand."

After Gawain arranged things properly, Hetty left the living room, while Gawain sat alone on the sofa in the living room and began to think quietly.

There will only be more and more people on the territory in the future, and with the continuous development of the magic industry, the supplies on the territory will only become more and more abundant, and then the common people will no longer have to worry about basic livelihoods and enrich the people. Entertainment is a matter of course—after all, entertainment is one of the basic needs of people after they are full and warm. If you can’t provide them with what they want, they will naturally find ways to satisfy themselves, drinking, fighting, gathering, fighting and gambling It's all normal.

However, what Gao Wen wants to do is not just to promote a few entertainment items, so that the local people have a place to play after they are full.

The number of people is increasing, the city is expanding, and the number of people who can read and write in the territory is increasing day by day. It is time to promote something that has been brewing for a long time.

He got up and went back to the study.

A large mechanical drawing was spread out on his desk.

This blueprint was drawn a few days ago. Since most of the structure is not too complicated, he has already completed seven or eighty-eight, but the most critical part of it has not yet been seen.

It's a grotesque machine with a transport structure for the paper and a large "drum" in the center of the machine that feeds the paper under the drum and synchronizes the paper with the rotation of the drum Moving forward, above the cylinder is connected an ink wheel for transferring pigments and a container for storing ink—this is a printing machine with simple structure and primitive technology.

A machine capable of continuous printing that could change the world.

Gao Wen knew that while people's material life was satisfied, if their spiritual life could not be satisfied in time, society would inevitably go into chaos.

So after realizing that the population in the territory is increasing, and the people who are well fed and drink need a spiritual life, he quickly came up with entertainment items such as chess, lord decks, and billiards to relieve people's high-intensity The mental pressure generated by continuous work improves the happiness of everyone living in this land.

But entertainment alone is not enough.

After compulsory general education, the number of people with basic reading and writing skills in the territory is increasing. At the same time, with the increase in population and the expansion of cities, it is obvious that ideological propaganda by relying on the original bulletin boards in the city center and soldiers' preaching Not enough, so Gao Wen thought of the necessity of improving the cultural construction of the territory, increasing publicity and publicity methods.

Now that everyone is literate, give them characters. This is Gao Wen's most direct idea.

It is not that there is no printing technology in the territory. In fact, this world not only has mature papermaking technology, but also relatively mature engraving printing technology. Currently, the labels on the bottles of alchemy potions produced in the alchemy factory, as well as the labels used by the students in the General Academy. All the textbooks are produced with this kind of printing technology. For the early stage and even the current stage of territorial cultural propaganda and construction, these technologies are enough, but for the future that Gao Wen wants to achieve, this kind of technology is not enough. Technology is far from enough.

He needs technologies that are more convenient, easier to edit and implement, and more suitable for large-scale industrial mass production to replace these two "workshop technologies".

So he designed such a continuous cylinder printing machine based on what he remembered and guessed, but now he had to solve a problem—how to make plates.

How can we convert the edited content into embossed text on the cylinder in the fastest and most convenient way, and then print it out?

The traditional engraving plate-making speed is obviously too slow, and it does not meet his requirements of "easy operation, easy editing, and low cost".

Frankly speaking, although Gao Wen can conceive most of the structure of this printing machine, he has no idea how to realize the key technology inside. Even if his memory has been strengthened, he can understand all the knowledge he has seen in his previous life. Recalling, but he can't imagine things that he has never seen before - and he feels that even if he knows those key technologies, it is useless. Whether it can be realized in this world with weird physical rules is still a matter of debate...

He has to think about the solution from a magical point of view, but unfortunately, he hasn't figured out a way yet.

After thinking hard at the desk for a while, he raised his head and greeted the outside of the study: "Betty!"

The little maid immediately opened the door and came in, bowing to the end: "Master!"

"Go get Rebecca."

After a while, the young lady of the Cecil family came to Gawain's study.

Gao Wen raised his head from the blueprint, and saw Rebecca looking at him curiously, and there were black stains everywhere on the girl's sleeves, hands, and face, as if she had just left the workshop. He couldn't help laughing, as if he was coming out of it, "Are you being smoked by your own big fireball again?"

"No!" Rebecca hurriedly waved her hands and explained, "I just came back from the Institute of Magic Technology, and I haven't had time to wash my face yet—I'm here to study the 'transmission' you mentioned earlier..."

"Okay, I don't blame you, what you're doing is business." Gao Wen shook his head with a smile, beckoning the other party to approach, "Come here, I'll give you a task."

Chapter 0359 Research Projects

Rebecca was a little apprehensive when she came home dirty—because in fact, she didn’t even notice the stains on her hands and face, and just walked away from the Institute of Magic Technology with the oil on her face. When I came back, I didn’t realize that I didn’t wash my face until I was reminded by the servant after I entered the house. In the past, this kind of behavior would usually be knocked on the head...

But after seeing the things on Gao Wen's desk, all her fears and headaches disappeared.

"New machine design!" The girl jumped up excitedly when she saw the blueprint on the table, and was about to grab it, "Let me see..."

Gao Wen slapped the girl's dirty paw back with a slap: "Look at your hand!"

"Oh!" Rebecca hurriedly retracted her hands and rubbed her body twice (just this action, at least five times in front of Hetty), and then carefully moved to the desk, looking at the weird machine, " What is this for... hey, does it mean to put paper under this cylinder? Print something?"

As expected, Rebecca often dealt with all kinds of machinery and equipment on weekdays, and she also had a certain understanding of Gao Wen's thinking habits. The moment she saw the printing press, she roughly guessed its function, and saved Gao Wen had a lot of trouble explaining, the latter nodded: "This is a printing press."

"Printing, I know about that," Rebecca nodded, "The textbooks used in schools, the paper with grids and stamps used in offices, and the labels used in alchemy factories are all printed...you Did it improve the printing equipment? But this thing... looks completely different from the ones used in the territory."

Rebecca knew what printing technology was currently used in the territory—in fact, it was the technology that Ansu had long ago, using a wax plate to carve characters and patterns on it to form inscribed characters, and then mixed a kind of bitter root The vine powder mud is evenly poured on the wax board, and then heated. After heating, the bitter root vine powder mud will become a hard clay board, and the wax will melt. In this way, a Yangwen engraving block is obtained, which can be used for printing something.

But this plate-making method has a lot of limitations. First, you can’t make mistakes when engraving. If you make a mistake, the entire wax plate will be scrapped. Secondly, after covering the wax plate, the bitter root vine mud needs to stand for several hours to eliminate air bubbles and initially solidify. , Then it can be heated and hardened, and the finally hardened Yangwen board is brittle and fragile, so you must be careful when using it.

Even so, this kind of printing technology can be considered quite advanced - the nobles used this method to print a large number of letterheads and official letter paper with family patterns, which is also its main application method.

However, the use of this improved printing method in printing books is a precedent set by Cecil. The reason is very simple - only here can there be a large number of people who can read and write, and there will be a large number of people who need to read...

In fact, Cecil led this method of printing cheap books in large quantities, printing the text on cheap paper, and the covers of the books were not decorated with any metal and gemstones, and they were not fixed with leather sleeves or ties. In the eyes of traditional scholars in this world, the method of spine is an "insult to sacred knowledge".

Many scholars complained when they came to Cecil Territory and saw those cheap and "roughly made" books. According to their traditional concept, books must be made of delicate parchment paper, or even frost paper at worst. Made, transcribed by hand or shorthand magic, signed by famous scholars, and finally decorated with a lot of gorgeous, complicated, and expensive decorations.

However, Gao Wen completely ignored these pedantic voices - anyway, as the founder of the country, he has more prestige than anyone else, and he is not afraid of any challenge when it comes to the word "right to speak".

Rebecca studied Gawain's design with curiosity. At first, she thought it was an "improvement" of the existing printing technology in the territory, but soon she realized that the working principle and efficiency of this machine were different. Far beyond the traditional printing technology can be compared.

The basic concept of "plate making-transfer printing" is still there, but the working method of this machine is really too advanced - the word "continuous printing" appeared in this girl's mind for the first time.

Sometimes, all the technicians lack is a direction.

"What needs to be solved now is 'plate making', or how to quickly and conveniently transfer text to this printing cylinder," Gao Wen pointed to the most core part of the machine, talking about the problems he is currently encountering. "My requirements are three First, it is fast and convenient. The process of converting text into imprints on the cylinder must be faster than the current plate-making technology; second, it is easy to edit, and it cannot destroy the entire page like a traditional engraving. So this requires that the process of transferring the text to the drum is reversible, or that the text can be modified and reset before the transfer; third, in fact, it is also related to the second item, that is, the drum can be used multiple times , the imprints on it can be erased, not only to reduce the cost, but also to improve the efficiency of the device.”

"Wow..." Rebecca raised her voice, "It sounds... very challenging."

"Yes, it's indeed a bit of a challenge." Gawain looked at Rebecca with a serious face, "That's why I'll leave it to you—or rather, to your Institute of Magic Technology to solve this problem."

Rebecca seemed to understand, "Magic Technology Research Institute..."

"The Institute of Magic Technology exists precisely to solve these application technical problems, and the working method of the large-scale comprehensive laboratory is also designed to solve these problems," Gao Wen said with a smile and nodded, "All kinds of creative Talented craftsmen, mechanism masters, rune masters, and magicians gather in a laboratory as "magic technicians", use their own ideas to create one idea after another, discuss with each other, help each other, realize it together, and verify it together , putting all the resources to work on one project, that’s what those labs are for.”

He paused, and seeing Rebecca's pensive look, he continued: "A person's creativity is limited after all, but many people together can exert a creativity far beyond the sum of the number of people. I give You propose a direction, and then you lead your team to give full play to it—discuss everyone’s ideas, don’t be afraid of mistakes, and then you will find out how incredible the power of a large laboratory is.”

Rebecca's eyes opened wider and wider, and at the end they even sparkled slightly. Suddenly, she happily grabbed Gawain's arm and shook it vigorously: "I understand, I understand! So it's like this... ...This is the correct usage of a large laboratory!"

"Don't shake it first, don't shake it first... You said that you are so strong as a mage," Gao Wen said after knocking Rebecca's head lightly, and easily broke free from the opponent, "before you take the project to the laboratory. , let’s talk about your thoughts first—do you have a solution?”

"emmmmm..." Rebecca tried to think with her finger on her lower lip, and said uncertainly after a while, "Actually, I have a little idea... I thought of the mage's shorthand magic."

Just as Gao Wen expected, after encountering such a problem that seemed impossible to be solved mechanically, Rebecca's first thought was magic—this is also the most normal way of thinking for a mage.Although Rebecca's magic talent is a bit subtle, the outsider's idea of ​​"using magic to solve problems" obviously still works on her.

"Shorthand magic..." Gawain nodded slightly, "I know this kind of spell, it's one of the relatively low-level but very useful official spells, it should be from the Arcane Department, right?"

"Yes," Rebecca nodded while gesticulating, "On the enchanted parchment soaked in special potions, the shorthand magic can directly transfer the clearly remembered pictures in the mage's mind into words or patterns. If there is no If the parchment is enchanted, the mage can also use the enchanted quill to carry out relatively inefficient 'shorthand', this spell has an alias, called transfer magic..."

Gao Wen raised his eyebrows: "Your theoretical knowledge is not bad?"

Amber stuck out her tongue: "When I was a child, if I couldn't memorize it, I would be spanked... My aunt said that as a mage, I can't learn other spells because of my talent, but if I don't even know the theoretical knowledge, then I really don't work hard." Now, you have to be punished properly."

Gao Wen: "..."

"Shorthand magic is probably an idea, but there is still no way to solve the problem of quickly converting text lines into imprints, and I remember that shorthand magic does not have a magic circle-this is a spell that must be released by a mage," Ruibei sighed. After Ka’s life was really not easy when he was a child, Gao Wen said while thinking, “So the current rune logic can’t deal with it, and it doesn’t conform to our principle of ‘making it accessible to ordinary people’. But let’s keep this for now.” Thinking, go back and do some research.”

Rebecca left with the half-finished printing machine drawings and half-finished ideas in his head, while Gao Wen walked to the French window of the study, watching the sunset outside and fell into deep thought.

Just like what he thought before—his own knowledge reserve and creativity are limited after all, even if he has enhanced memory and insights beyond this world and this era, he himself is just a mortal.

He could propose ideas for a new type of printing machine book, but he could not come up with a practical and fundamental technical solution after all.

But he has no regrets about it, because he recognized it from the very beginning.

This world has its own technological system, and people in this world also have their own wisdom and creativity. He does not need to be an all-rounder who can invent all technologies and systems. People gather as much as possible in their territory, organize them reasonably, and give them a "direction".

He couldn't think of how to make a fast and convenient printing equipment that could work continuously, but he could tell the technicians in the territory that he needed such a piece of equipment—he could also share the general idea and technology of this piece of equipment. It is required to describe it in general, which can greatly increase the speed of technology research and development.

He didn't know if this way of development was right, but he thought it was the most suitable way for him, Cecil, and the world.

He withdrew his gaze, returned to the desk, took out a piece of paper, and scribbled a new plan.

The technological breakthroughs of new printing machines cannot be completed in three or two days, but before that, some things can appear in advance, and the efficiency is at most lower.

Under Gao Wen's pen, a line of large characters appeared: