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 movies and TV dramas. This can be said to be a cliché, but after time travel, he still had to sigh that this sentence really did not mean That's all.
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 run to seek some flesh and blood business, or gather crowds to gamble... The 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 do not like to entertain indoors, I have conceived of several outdoor sports which would release excess energy and make our people stronger and quicker than polo and hunting, which are only What the nobles can afford, I will explain the specifics to you after preparations are made."
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. When it comes to territorial order and enhancing the happiness of the people, they are much more effective than the machines in the factory."
Seeing Hetty nodding repeatedly, Gawain exhaled lightly, 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. It's 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, the ink wheel for transferring pigment and the container for storing ink are connected above the cylinder. 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 according to his memory and guess, but now he has 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’s 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 quickly 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. 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."