Chapter 22: Efforts to Accelerate the Progress of Civilization
Handan Zhao's "Handan" has been run for hundreds of years, but due to the restrictions of Zhou Li, the city wall is actually only six or seven meters high, and the thickness of the city wall should be only about four meters. It is not a strong city.
In the era when Zhou rites were in effect, the imperial city was nine li wide, the public city was seven li wide, the city of Hou and Bo was five li wide, and the city of Zinan was three li wide.
The "li" in the above several li is about 400 meters, which is generally the perimeter of the four sides, that is, the counting method of "circle".
Handan Zhao was not a duke or a marquis, in fact, he was not even a son or a man. It was a kind of title of "big official", and to put it bluntly, he was a minister under his subordinates.
They want to be grateful that they have an ancestor who once served as the "Qing" of the Jin State. All this is just because the "Qing" position of the Jin State is higher than that of the princes, and the area occupied by the city can be blurred.
So, how many miles is the perimeter of "Handan"? It is actually an irregular length of five miles.
One of Zhao's troops arrived at the city of "Handan" and immediately launched a tentative attack. Naturally, they failed to capture it, and then began to make various siege equipment.
Although we have reached an age where every possible use is being made, there are still very few types of siege equipment invented.
For example, there are no catapults, bed crossbows, ram carts, and ladders, which are only the initial version. Since the city does not have a moat, no one thought of the Hao tools. The fén wēn cart, which is used to block arrows and throw stones, is
Already have it.
It would take at least half a month for Zhao's army to siege the city to produce enough siege equipment. During this period, in addition to repeatedly scolding the defenders to get out of the city to fight, the defenders could only stare blankly once they were unable to hold on.
This time, Handan Zhao withdrew all its troops into the city, unlike the normal city defenders who would deploy troops outside the city. It was clear that they had given up the hope of counterattack and adopted a completely defensive strategy.
In other words, Handan Zhao placed the hope of counterattack on friendly forces such as the Fan family and the Zhongxing family, so it did not deploy troops outside "Handan" city.
Their approach was very dangerous. If Fan and Zhonghang didn't come, they would be trapped in the city and wait for death.
Zhiyao, who lives in "Huang Father", is paying attention to the war trends, but on the other hand, he feels that he cannot be idle.
At present, "Huangfu" is considered one of Zhiyao's bases. Many workshops are placed here. I haven't been here for a year. It's okay to be busy before. I will definitely make inspections when I have time.
Among Zhiyao's many "inventions", the routine of making paper was successfully explored. Once the manufacturing skills were established, the company began to expand production. A year later, it is now able to produce tens of thousands of sheets of modern A4 paper size every month.
Such a small amount of output can be exceeded by any small workshop in modern times. However, this is in 497 BC!
Most of the large amounts of paper produced were used by Zhiyao to educate a certain group of people, and any remaining paper was reserved for printing books.
In terms of printing, Zhiyao certainly knows that there are many distinctions. The general distinction is between engraving printing and movable type printing.
After separate experiments, Zhiyao decided to use engraving printing to print books.
Why? You can know the difference between block printing and movable type printing, and you also need to know what writing is currently used.
The characters used today are large seal scripts, a font with an astonishing number of strokes. Not to mention the difficulty of engraving movable type, do you know how big the size of the "seal" should be to prevent the characters from being mushy when printed?
What? Engraving is also affected by font size? Then you don’t know the difference between the two types of printing.
In fact, even if movable type printing was invented, before movable type printing was mature, people in the contemporary era would still choose engraving printing when they pursue exquisiteness and clear fonts.
At present, Zhiyao has not figured out which ink is most suitable for printing. Of course, engraving printing will be used in the experimental stage. Furthermore, if the books to be printed are not dozens, but hundreds or thousands, it will not waste the time of engraving.
Zigong, who was responsible for researching printing, saw Zhiyao coming and came over looking slovenly.
"Ci, you are like this..." Zhiyao was a little confused.
Zigong was tired and excited, and said: "I have been entrusted by Gongsun to participate in this matter. How dare I neglect it?"
He is a descendant of Confucius and is good at business. How could he ignore the impact of paper and printing on cultural communication?
Zhiyao understood, so he asked: "Danzi wrote many masterpieces silently. I should encourage him."
As the "librarian" of the Zhou royal family, I still stayed on the side of "Huang Father". In addition to teaching the students arranged by Zhiyao, I spent most of the time dictating the works in my memory.
Therefore, I was never willing to come to the Jin Kingdom, and even though I said I wanted to leave several times, my "Huang Father" who still stayed at Zhishi did not leave.
It's not something "really fragrant", it's all the stuff created by Zhiyao that always attracts me, especially knowing the existence of paper and printing. He didn't say anything with his mouth, but in his heart he made up his mind to transfer what he still remembers. The classics were written out and then copied or printed on paper one by one.
After all, I still feel very guilty for failing to prevent the princes from taking away the books from the Zhou royal family's collection.
The classics fell into the hands of the royal family of the Chu Kingdom. As expected, the other countries in the Central Plains would never see them again. If they had not re-produced them before, the amount of work would have been too great. Carving words on bamboo slips with a carving knife would not be as easy as writing with a pen.
Knowing that as long as I write one book silently, I can use printing technology to print countless copies very quickly. I feel that I can stay in Jin for a few more years. I feel that my body and bones are dying and I will just go east to "turn into a Hu".
"As Gongsun said, 'plates' made of scouring, copper, and iron are all being tried out, and copper is the best at the moment," Zigong said.
In fact, Zhiyao knows that it is best to use clay. The key is that this is the era before BC, and 99% of things have not been invented and created, let alone going to department stores to buy them.
In addition, during the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhu Xia had already discovered "lead", but they didn't know what its use was.
Zhiyao did not forget "lead", but he was more aware that it was a strategic material and would be used in large quantities when making bronze weapons.
It’s not like printing has to use lead anyway, right?
Therefore, Zhiyao simply did not pursue lead in particular.
Because Zhiyao had already worked on briquettes and accidentally discovered the technique of washing coal, they made some breakthroughs in smelting technology.
After the temperature is high enough, it is still a little difficult to melt iron, but it is possible to melt copper into liquid.
Can copper turn into liquid? The assembly line production process can be arranged!
"Use pottery as a mold and pour copper water to make arrowheads." Zhiyao went to see the papermaking workshop and then came to another place.
Not only arrowheads can be mass-produced, but as long as the molds are made one by one, the main bronze components of weapons such as daggers and spears can also be mass-produced in a more time-saving and labor-saving manner.
Then again, Lao Zhijia's major is related to textiles, but Zhiyao is doing this. He is only studying smelting and manufacturing of armor. In fact, he is taking Wei's major. Is it appropriate?
