When they heard that it was presented by Sun Simiao, everyone had different expressions.
Changsun Wuji, Qin Qiong, Yuchi Gong, and Cheng Yaojin showed their thoughtful expressions. They knew many inside stories that others did not know, and they immediately thought of Chen Jingke.
But since the matter was confidential, they naturally wouldn't say anything more and pretended not to know.
The others were surprised and showed their original expressions, and accepted this statement smoothly. The gunpowder itself was made by Taoist priests who made alchemy, and Sun Simiao's identity was completely consistent.
As for cannons and gunboats... isn't it normal for old gods to make some inventions?
Sun Simiao unknowingly took the blame for his apprentice again. I don’t know what future generations will think when they see these historical materials, but it will definitely be interesting to think about.
Next, everyone discussed how to build cannons and gunboats, and finally decided to work separately.
"Build shipyards in Dengzhou and Hangzhou respectively to build new-type sea-going ships and practice high-sea navigation skills. At the same time, we also found out the water conditions in Liaodong and the southern states."
Everyone seemed fine after hearing the first half of the sentence, but their eyes suddenly changed when they heard the second half. They were all old foxes. The emperor emphasized these two places in particular, obviously planning to do something.
Think about who is here. Goguryeo and Baekje are in the east of Liaodong, and the Feng family is in the south... Then this matter will be clear at a glance.
Zhang Daliang wanted to dissuade him, but thought of the artillery and gunboats and held back, so he had to wait and see the actual effect. If it is really so powerful, it is not impossible for Goguryeo to defeat it.
Li Shimin knew that his thoughts could not be hidden from others, and he had no intention of hiding them.
Some things need to be communicated with confidants in advance to prepare everyone mentally, so that if the war actually starts, the subordinates will not be confused and have no clue.
"Choose a secret place in the mountains near Chang'an to make gunpowder and cannons, and leave this matter to Daliang."
Li Daliang stood up and said respectfully: "Here, I will live up to your majesty's trust."
…
On the other side, Chen Jingke was studying Taoist classics with Sun Simiao in the backyard. Halfway through the course, Yang Tianlu sent a letter.
Sun Simiao opened it on the spot, with a happy smile on his face.
Chen Jingke was very surprised, who wrote the letter? It actually made Master so happy.
Just when he was confused, Sun Simiao read the letter and handed it to him, saying: "You should also read it."
Chen Jingke was not polite and immediately took it and looked through it.
He saw that the prefix at the beginning was "Brother Si Miao", which made him speechless.
Sun Simiao is already over 70 years old, and those who can call him brother are at least 60 or 70 years old. It seems that they are old acquaintances.
The content of the letter is not complicated. The first half reviews the friendship of the past and expresses the feelings of longing. The middle part talks about some current situations, such as children and grandchildren who are unfilial will make people angry.
The second half laments that time is not forgiving, and in a blink of an eye, he has turned gray-haired and wonders how many more years of good life he has left. He wanted to see his old friends before leaving, but unfortunately he is too old to travel, so he can only write letters to reminisce about the past.
At the end, I heard that Brother Simiao was in good health and I was very envious, and I was very happy for him. If he travels around the world and comes to Jinyang, he must come and see me.
The final signature is: Brother Wang Yu.
No matter how you look at it, this is just a letter reminiscing about old times. Chen Jingke is even more confused, why are you showing it to me?
At this time, Sun Simiao said lightly: "This letter was written to me by Wang Yu, the head of the fourth house of the Wang family in Jinyang, and Wang Xiuqi is a branch of his house."
Chen Jingke's eyes widened immediately. He knew that his master had a good reputation, but he never expected that he would be so famous. The head of the Wang family even wrote a letter calling himself his 'brother'.
But then he asked doubtfully: "Then why didn't he mention Wang Xiuqi's matter?"
Sun Simiao said: "It's not shameful for a kid to get jealous and start a fight over a woman."
"Uh..." Chen Jingke felt a little ashamed, because he was being trained as well.
Although he felt that he was unjustly accused, he also knew that he had indeed caused trouble. If his master hadn't been so proud, Wang would never have given up so easily.
So there is nothing to defend after being reprimanded.
Accept criticism honestly and devote yourself to learning.
In the afternoon, he went to the backyard to check the casting condition of movable lead type and the phonetic notation in the dictionary.
Practice makes perfect, craftsmen have mastered the casting technology of movable lead type, the efficiency has increased many times, and the yield rate has also been greatly improved.
The manufacturing technology of ink has also made great progress. After so many days of exploration, we finally found the formula with the best cost performance.
They even came up with three different colors of ink. If it weren't for the lack of color, Chen Jingke would have wanted to develop color printing technology.
The pre-processing technology for movable lead type has matured, but the only thing missing is the type blocks.
But this is really not urgent. The workload of 200,000 words is huge and cannot be completed in a short time.
The dictionary compilation work is progressing even more smoothly. Elaine and the others have mastered the application of pinyin. They cannot do other tasks, so simple phonetic notation is still no problem.
Depending on the situation, the phonetic notation work will be completed in a few months. Chen Jingke is naturally very satisfied with the progress of their work.
He immediately said: "After the task is completed, each person will be rewarded with ten pieces of money and a piece of silk."
But instead of cheering in response, everyone looked hesitant, as if they had something to say.
Chen Jingke was also very curious and asked: "If you have anything to say, you can tell me directly. You all know my temper. I will adopt any reasonable suggestions as appropriate."
Everyone looked at me and I looked at you. Finally, Elaine mustered up the courage and said: "Master, you once said about a dictionary... We want to try to compile a dictionary."
Chen Jingke looked at everyone in surprise, and then smiled: "Writing a dictionary? It's really... do you know what a dictionary means?"
Elian knew what he meant, and she quickly explained with a blushing face: "We just want to combine the dictionaries compiled by our predecessors. And then use pinyin and radicals as indexes as you said, so that it is easy to browse and search. "
Only then did Chen Jingke understand what they were thinking. It would be much simpler to just make an index without changing the pronunciation and meaning of the words. The key is that predecessors already had many dictionaries, so just synthesize them.
This is really not that difficult. The only trouble is that it may be extremely tedious and the workload is huge and it will take a long time.
However, these investments are not a problem at all for Chen Jingke. One day’s income from Zixiaoguan’s incense money is enough to support their project.
Considering that the new index dictionary was indeed an epoch-making tool, he made the decision without much thought.
"Okay, I'm sure, but I need to finish the phonetic notation first."
"Oh." Everyone cheered.
"Thank you, real person."
"Thank you, Zhenren, for helping me."
Looking at the people who were immersed in joy, Chen Jingke was also sincerely happy for them. Being able to find his own career and work hard for it is indeed a matter worth being happy about.
He himself is not like this.
In the next few days, Chen Jingke devoted himself to making fireworks. In order to keep up with the progress, he also found several ingenious people to help him.
The gunpowder formula needs to be kept secret, but that is not necessary for the production of fireworks.
In order to make New Year's Eve more lively, he told the pilgrims a few days in advance that the Zixiao Temple would set off fireworks to celebrate New Year's Day that night, and he hoped that everyone could come and watch.
Many people said they must, especially the rich and powerful.
Time passed by unconsciously, and New Year's Eve came soon.