My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 227 How far behind are we in Jingzhou?

Sima Hui and Xu Shu and their group were Liu Bei's new benchmark for discovering talents in Jingzhou, so they naturally had to be treated with great respect.

It was similar to what Guo Wei did to King Zhao of Yan, who offered a thousand gold coins to buy his bones to encourage others. Sima Hui's disciples and friends were spread across the counties of Jingzhou. Any advanced things they saw in Wuchang, as long as they were not available on Liu Biao's side, could be used as propaganda material.

Word spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred, and finally the knowledgeable people in the heartland of Jingzhou realized more intuitively the superiority of Liu Bei's rule, prompting them to consider surrendering.

Therefore, before assigning them specific tasks to take office, Liu Bei specifically asked Zhuge Liang to personally arrange a visit so that they could see the new achievements in farming in Wuchang over the past few months.

Zhuge Liang had been prepared for this. When they first arrived in Wuchang in September and October, they began to vigorously carry out construction. It has been two or three months now, and many places have achieved initial results. Zhuge Liang then tailored a plan that would suit their needs.

For the scholars of high moral character under Sima Hui in recent years, we must let them see the lord's emphasis on and achievements in culture and education.

For those who are interested in military affairs like Xu Shu, we should let them visit newly opened iron mines and iron factories to demonstrate the potential of strengthening the country and the army.

……

On the 16th day of the twelfth lunar month, it was the third day after Sima Hui and his party arrived in Wuchang.

Guessing that the guests from afar had rested enough and relieved the fatigue of the journey, Zhuge Liang made careful arrangements and took Sima Hui and others to visit a newly built academy east of Wuchang City and beside Liangzi Lake.

It is a coincidence that the East Lake in Wuhan in later generations is still connected to Liangzi Lake and stretches for more than a hundred miles.

The location of the Wuchang Academy chosen by Zhuge Liang happened to be almost the same place as Wuhan University on the East Lake in later generations.

The construction of the academy began at the end of September, and it has only been underway for less than three months. It is also part of the "talent attraction plan for Jingzhou" that Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang had agreed on before they separated.

When Zhuge Liang arrived with Sima Hui and Xu Shu, only two main buildings of the academy had been topped off, and the rest were still a large construction site.

Although most of the houses were not completed, just from the size of the land and the prototype, Sima Hui and Xu Shu could already feel how much Liu Bei valued education.

There are also several large-scale buildings. Just by looking at their structure, you can tell that they are quite different from traditional academy buildings, and their functions should also be different, which is refreshing.

Xu Shu, carrying his sword, walked to a building that was obviously taller and almost shaped like a palace. He stopped to look at it. He felt that the building was spacious and grand, but it did not cover a large area. There was an indescribable weirdness to it.

After staring for a long time, Xu Shu couldn't tell what was strange, so he nudged Shi Tao next to him with his elbow and expressed his doubts.

Shi Tao was born into a wealthy family and had more travel experiences than Xu Shu. He stroked his beard and thought for a long time before saying:

"This hall is shaped like a palace, tall and spacious. But since ancient times, palaces have no windows, only many doors. This hall has few doors and many windows, and the windows are large, so it always feels strange."

Xu Shu suddenly realized that it was because of his family's poverty that he had never had the opportunity to go to Luoyang to see what the interior of the imperial palace looked like. That was why he felt uncomfortable but couldn't explain why.

In this era, there were not even architectural picture albums. No matter how much you read, it would be difficult to understand something you had not seen with your own eyes.

After Xu Shu realized his own short-sightedness, he asked with emotion: "Sir, may I ask what this hall is used for? Why is it built like this?"

Zhuge Liang waved his feather fan and smiled calmly, "This place should be built like the Lantai in Luoyang. It will be used as a library in the future for students from all over the world who come to Wuchang to study. The General of Chariots and Cavalry said that at least 10,000 volumes of books should be prepared in the first phase. Frequently used books can be prepared in duplicate.

There are many books in the place, and they are stored on wooden shelves, so it is necessary to avoid candles. In order to prevent dim light, stone pillars are specially used to increase the height of the floors, and many large windows are installed to provide ventilation and lighting, making it easier for scholars to read. When the roof is completed in the future, there will be many large skylights on the top, running through the entire hall from north to south. "

Zhuge Liang explained halfway, and then pointed at the ground with his feather fan, signaling Xu Shu, Shi Tao and others to pay attention to their feet. Everyone then saw that there was a white line drawn on the ground with lime. Zhuge Liang pointed at the white line and explained:

"The reason why this academy was located on the bank of Liangzi Lake was to prevent fire. After these libraries were built, deep trenches would be dug around them to bring in the running water from the Yangtze River to Liangzi Lake, and then a bridge would be built over it. In this way, even if a library caught fire, the surrounding running water trenches would block it and prevent it from spreading to the others.

All these plans were discussed in Hefei before my brother and I separated. When I arrived in Wuchang, I will implement them accordingly. "

In the last half of his sentence, Zhuge Liang did not take credit for himself, but clearly stated that the credit for these plans came from Zhuge Jin's idea.

After all, Zhuge Jin had more than a thousand years of experience, and many common-sense optimizations were just casually mentioned by him during conversations, but they could be of great inspiration to the ancients.

For example, how to design a library to prevent fire and take into account the landscape. At that time, he casually said something that Zhuge Liang thought was very insightful and quickly wrote it down.

Zhuge Jin didn't think there was anything wrong with this. There was no need to let Aliang exercise his brain again for such a small matter. "Reinventing the wheel" was not an option. He should just give the answer directly. Anything he could think of was good enough. Aliang should spend his brain on more difficult things.

When the visitors saw these details, they immediately felt that Liu Bei's emphasis on culture and education was far beyond that of other princes.

When building a library, they also thought of dispersing risks and surrounding it with water to prevent fire. This is a thoughtful idea. General Fubo is indeed a genius in the world, knowing everything. Sometimes just one or two sentences can be a stroke of genius to outsiders, while those craftsmen may have to figure it out for half a lifetime.

Sima Hui, who had been silent and just watching, finally couldn't help but ask a question: "Kong Ming, you said that the General of Chariots and Cavalry ordered to collect tens of thousands of books? If there are really so many books, it will naturally attract countless studious people to come and join. But forgive me for being frank, I'm afraid it will be difficult to collect them in such a hurry."

Zhuge Liang smiled wisely, "Since we dare to make such a plan, we must have made preparations in advance. Please move to the workshop behind and follow me for a tour."

After saying this, Zhuge Liang took the lead and walked slowly. The others were all curious and followed closely.

The group quickly moved to a workshop that had just been completed. The workshop was surrounded by a wall, which looked like a city wall, with parapets and battlements. Soldiers were guarding it closely, and there were stone turrets at the four corners, with crossbows deployed.

When Sima Hui and Xu Shu saw this scene, they knew that the workshop inside must be making something extraordinary. After seeing the inside story today, they are afraid that they will have to work for Liu Bei forever and will not let him go easily.

Zhuge Liang led everyone to one of the workshops with ease, and then everyone saw a strange scene:
Rows of carpenters were turning over pages of books with neat official script written on them, placing them back-side up on wooden boards, and then tracing the outlines of the strokes with gray pens.

There were more carpenters nearby, holding carving tools, carving away the excess parts of the wooden board bit by bit, revealing the words completely.

Sima Hui and Xu Shu were all smart people. After a quick look, they realized what these craftsmen were trying to do. Xu Shu couldn't help but ask:

"Since you want these craftsmen to carve the words on the wooden board, why not just have people write the words on the wooden slips and then carve them directly?"

Zhuge Liang: "Write directly on the wood block and carve off the blank part. The printed words will be upside down. Only in this way can you turn the paper upside down and trace on it. The carved words will be upside down but printed out correctly."

As he spoke, Zhuge Liang led a few people to another room next door. The place just now was the woodblock printing workshop, and this place was the printing workshop.

A group of craftsmen took the carved wooden blocks, smeared a layer of ordinary ink on them, and then waited for it to drain a little, and then printed the entire thing on mulberry paper which was better than Zuo Bo paper, just like stamping.

Zhuge Jin was still unable to produce oil-based ink, so Zhuge Liang used ordinary water-based ink, the same as the one used for daily writing, without any improvement in the formula. But since it was printed on a wood block, it was not a big problem.

If you want to make ceramic movable type, or even lead movable type or copper movable type, ordinary ink will not be able to stick to it, and you must use sticky ink.

Fortunately, Zhuge Jin never planned to invent movable type printing in his life. Before he broke up with his second brother, he wanted to think of a strategy to help Liu Bei demonstrate his "attachment to academic research", and the first thing he thought of was printing.

Historically, woodblock printing technology did not mature until the middle and late Tang Dynasty. If we can develop woodblock printing, it will be six or seven hundred years ahead of the end of the Han Dynasty, which is very good.

Eat the food one bite at a time.

Moreover, from the perspective of the market, woodblock printing was not eliminated even in the Ming Dynasty, which shows its strong vitality and good adaptability. Although it appeared in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, it was never put into practical use and promoted in the last hundred years of the Tang Dynasty.

On the one hand, the control of the imperial court declined greatly after the An-Shi Rebellion. On the other hand, the power of the aristocratic families was still strong during the Sui and Tang dynasties. They did not mind the expensiveness of hand-copied books, and they could afford them. They did not need to print the Five Classics in woodblocks to make money. They also thought that after the popularization of this thing, the poor could also afford to read, and the imperial examinations would become more difficult.

It was not until the last dozen years of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, when repeated wars had almost wiped out most of the aristocratic families, that Feng Dao, after becoming prime minister, suggested that the emperor use the power of the court to carve the "Five Classics" and "Nine Classics". This was the first time in Chinese history that the full text of the Five Classics of Confucianism was published and printed.

But those emperors of the Five Dynasties only served for a few years before they were replaced by Zhao Kuangyin, so the Song Dynasty was the first time that common people took part in the imperial examinations.

If Zhuge Jin were to engage in movable type printing now, not only would the technology be too difficult, there would also be no demand for it, and the aristocratic families would definitely hate them even more. It is better to eat one bite at a time, as the woodblocks would be enough for at least several generations.

It is not suitable for the price of books to drop too low all of a sudden. The resistance from the monopoly of the intellectual class would be very strong, pushing too many people to the opposite side at once.

Sima Hui, Xu Shu, Shi Tao, and Yin Mo certainly all knew the power of this thing, especially when they saw with their own eyes a volume of "Mao Shi" with several thousand words printed in just a few strokes. How could they not be amazed by such speed?

Sima Hui showed admiration and respect, and couldn't help but sigh: "Who came up with this magic? Kong Ming, you didn't come up with it alone, did you? Or did you work together with your brother General Fubo?
With this item, who among the other princes in the world would dare to claim to value culture and education... Liu Jingsheng's defeat was not unfair. If this news spreads, not only will the exiled northern scholars in Jingzhou be attracted, but after a year or two, I'm afraid that the scholars stranded in the north will also be attracted. The temptation of this item to scholars is no less than the power of the Xudu court to grant officials!"

Xu Shu and Shi Tao also knew the value of this thing, but after hearing what their mentor said, they were still surprised.

How could the printing press, a technology for obtaining books cheaply, be more attractive than the power of the orthodox imperial court to appoint officials? Or were there many people who hoped to study here first, and then seek official positions in Xudu after they had achieved success?

Zhuge Liang was humble after hearing these compliments: "This is too much, why do you say that? We just want to do our best for the people who want to learn in the world! The original idea of this method came from my brother. I am just willing to follow his footsteps and supervise the creation of the specific things.

The characters on these volumes of Mao Shi were also written by me first, and then the craftsmen were asked to print and carve them in reverse, so they are not worth mentioning. "

Zhuge Liang's calligraphy level was still very high, at least his handwriting was grand and neat. Although his authentic works have not been handed down in history, many people at that time commented and praised them, and they were recorded in history books.

In this life, since Zhuge Liang developed the first generation of woodblock printing according to his elder brother's ideas, he did not bother two masters for the same thing, and directly used Zhuge Liang's own font as the standard "Han style" printing font. There is no need to look for the fonts of calligraphers such as Cai Yong and Zhong Yao.

(End of this chapter)