Escorted by 20,000 guards, the convoy of the Great Food Caliph Rashid slowly drove into the city of Samarkand, which was the second Great Food Monarch to inspect the east of the Amu Darya River after the previous caliph Jafar, but without any prior notice and preparation, it came suddenly, needless to say, many Great Food officials guessed that this must be related to the war launched by the Tang Army in Broken Leaves.

The city of Samarkand has been put on temporary alert, and countless people have gathered on both sides of the streets, vying to see the arrival of the supreme ruler of the Great Eclipse, and everyone is pushing, shouting, and boiling, and the heavily armed army has formed a long wall of men, forbidding anyone to cross the line, they control every street and alley, and anyone who attempts to assassinate will be killed.

Still, the 3,000 Guards cavalry kept the caliph's chariot at bay, rain or shine, and Rashid's chariot drove slowly through the streets, surveying with interest the largest city east of the Amu Darya River, where the houses were mostly rammed with mud, low and dense. The city has a population of 200,000 and is famous for its commerce, handicrafts, and paper industry.

As the procession reached the city, King Kang and Samarkand personally came to greet them, and behind them, followed by nearly a hundred high-ranking civil and military officials, Rashid's carriage slowly stopped.

"Your Majesty Amdar sees His Caliph." King Amda of Kang is almost seventy years old, he is the uncle of the previous king, the previous king was killed five years ago for launching an anti-cannibal riot, the big cannibal set up the sixty-five-year-old Amda as the king, one is that he is more pro-Da Shi, the other is that he is old and decrepit, and has no energy to incite the people to rebel against the rule of the big cannibal, he stepped forward and knelt down and saluted, "On behalf of the two million subjects of Kang, we sincerely welcome Your Majesty to Samarkand." ”

Rashid, who is fluent in Turkic language, waved his hand lightly and smiled: "I came to Samarkand only for a temporary inspection. And not an official visit, you all go back! I don't want to disrupt everyone's lives. ”

Speaking of this, he gave a look to Agush next to him, and Agush understood, and immediately announced in a loud voice: "The caliph has important military and political affairs to deal with, please disperse immediately, and the specific time for meeting everyone will be arranged separately by the caliphate." ”

He made two announcements in a row, and the officials who had rushed to hear the news gradually dispersed, and the people along the street also returned to their homes under the expulsion of the soldiers. The streets soon fell silent, and Rashid was accompanied by Agush to the Doge's Palace.

"Have you ordered the Tocharian army to support the Qarluqs?" Walk into the conference room and sit down. Rashid immediately asked quietly.

Agush hurriedly bowed down and replied: "The day before yesterday, the courtiers have ordered the 50,000 troops of Tocharian to immediately go north to support Qarlu, if the Qarluqs can support it for five days, the Tang Dynasty will be forced to withdraw."

Agush was a little apprehensive in his heart, and he gave the order for Tocharian to send troops two days late. Will it be a big mistake because of this, Rashid calculated the time, and then slowly breathed a sigh of relief and said: "It's okay! It should be too late, and I also gave an order on the road yesterday, ordering the Tocharian army not to support the Qarluqs, and not to act rashly. ”

Agush was stunned, why is that? Ordering the Tocharian garrison to support the Qarluqs was not a strategy devised by Rashid himself? Why did he change again, and he still negated his decision in the military, so who will carry out his orders in the future? Thinking of this, Agush was slightly dissatisfied in his heart. But he didn't dare to show it.

Rashid glanced at him and smiled coldly, "Are you mesmerizing me?" Question: Why should I veto my plan and change it all the time? ”

"The younger brother doesn't dare, and the younger brother is only carrying out His Majesty's orders from the Caliph, and of course His Majesty has the right to change his decision."

Rashid looked at him for a long time, then suddenly snorted and said, "Take me to your war room." ”

Rashid's war room was next door, and Rashid strode into the room, and he went straight to the map, brushing the floor and pulling back the curtain covering the map, revealing a huge woodcut map, which Rashid stared at for a long time. Suddenly, he asked, "Do you know what unusual things have happened around Tocharo lately?" ”

"The subordinate only listens to the newspaper. The Tibetan army had 20,000 troops in Little Bolu, and there were signs of attacking Tochar. However, the minister's brother believed that the Tubo people were at the end of their crossbow and could not pose a threat to Tocharo, so the minister left half of the army and only sent 40,000 troops north. ”

Rashid nodded, "Not bad! I am talking about the fact that the Tubo people are stationed in the army of Xiao Bolu, and you also know that the Tubo people are at the end of their strong crossbows, and they are unable to compete with us anymore for Tocharo, so in this case, why do they still have to station troops in Xiao Bolu? Do they have to do this? Since their defeat in Anxi, the two sons of Trisong Detsen have been fighting for the position of Zampu for three years, although the Mudi Zampu who is still supported by the end of the year won in the end, but the strength of the Tubo people is not even 30% of the previous one, where do they still have the conditions to deploy 20,000 troops thousands of miles away, and they still want to attack Tochar, don't you think their actions are very strange? ”

Agush carefully looked at the position of the Tubo people's troops, and it was indeed in the offensive position, and he couldn't help but gasp, "Does Your Majesty mean that the Tubo people are hiding something?" ”

Rashid didn't answer, and pointed at Kumi in northern Tocharo with a wooden pole and said, "What are you going to do if the army you sent to Broken Leaf is suddenly ambushed by the Tang army here?" ”

"I'll send another Tocharian army to support me at once." Agush replied without hesitation.

Rashid threw the wooden pole and said coldly: "Then if Shule's Tang army suddenly attacks Tocharian at this time, what should you do?" ”

Agush froze, staring at the map for a moment before muttering, "It won't be like this!" Isn't the main force of the Tang Army in Broken Leaves? Shule is only 10,000 people. ”

"Then what do you think I've come all the way to Samarkand?" Rashid turned his head and looked at him with blazing eyes and said: "Let me tell you, if I were the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, I would also use broken leaves as bait to attract the Tocharian army to the north, and then send troops from Shule to occupy Tochar, so that we will completely lose the strategic advantage east of Eminem, do you understand?" The Tang Army's real purpose is not to teach the Qarluqs any lessons, it is to take advantage of our expectations of the Qarluqs. Lead us out of Tocharo, if I guess correctly, the Tang army has already assembled a large army in Shuletun, and the Tubo people are just a means used by the Tang army to divert our attention. ”

It dawned on Agush that he had to admit that Rashid had seen more and farther than he did, and after a moment's hesitation, Agush added, "The Qarluq."

Before he could finish speaking, Rashid interrupted him with a wave of his hand, "I have never taken the Qarluqs to heart. It was nothing more than a wild dog sandwiched between two giants, and it could be kicked away with a single kick. ”

Speaking of which. He slowly walked to the window, stared into the distance and said: "I care about the Hui people, if the Hui people can put pressure on Datang in the north, then Datang will most likely withdraw from the battle for the west of the Green Ridge." Since ancient times, the enemies of the Orientals have been the nomads of the north, and I hope that the Great Food will form a strategic alliance with the Uighurs. ”

Agush was silent, he now knew that Rashid had never told him his true intentions, and that he, the governor of Samarkand, was nothing more than a puppet of Rashid.

Rashid seemed to sense Agush's displeasure, and he turned around and smiled slightly, "Are you complaining that I am hiding the truth from you?" ”

"Brother don't dare!" Agush replied stiffly.

Rashid smiled, not taking Agush's displeasure to heart, and he said slowly: "Don't think that I sent you to Samarkand for no purpose, in fact you are doing a good job. This time you put down the large-scale uprising that Kangguo was about to set off, and I am very satisfied. We have not changed the purpose of promoting Islam east of the Amu Darya River, but the method must be changed, as in the past, the forced method will push the Turks to the Tang Dynasty, so I will send you to be the governor of Samarkand, to use literary and artistic means to subtly change the life of the Turks, such as using our cannibalistic building culture, schools, public libraries, only let the Turks accept our culture, they will accept our religion, and finally will they really become cannibals. It's not something that can be done in a year or two. This is a long-term process of ten or twenty years, and perhaps it will only happen in the next generation of the Turkic people. I hope you understand my good intentions. ”

It was only at this moment that al-Qagush truly understood the caliph's vision, and he could not hold back the excitement in his heart and fell to his knees, and said aloud: "The courtiers will never fail to live up to the expectations of His Majesty the caliph!" ”

"Get up!" Rashid's gaze gradually became sharper, and he said in a deep voice: "But the Battle of Broken Leaves in September still has to be fought, and I must not tolerate the Tang Dynasty people unscrupulously sitting on Broken Leaves." ”

Agush also nodded, and said sincerely: "With Your Majesty's foresight, Wang Siyu will never be Your Majesty's opponent. "Wang Siyu?" Rashid shook his head and said with a faint smile: "Wang Siyu is just a hunting dog, he is not worthy of being my opponent, my opponent is in Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, at the moment, and it is said that he is the same age as me." ”

Rashid turned his head and stared at the far east, wondering what his peers were doing at this moment.

Chang'an Chongren Fang, Zhang Huan in the Ministry of Industry and will be the supervisor and other more than a dozen officials accompanied, is full of joy to visit a new invention of the Hongyin Fang, he has a special engraved disc in front of him, usually a carved disc can only print one page, like the "Book of Shang", "Analects" such a book needs hundreds of engraved plates, these officially designated classics are better, almost every printing workshop has a set, but if it is a new book, or other new prints, it must be re-engraved, the carver is slightly negligent, will be wasted, Moreover, after being used once, it is often discarded, resulting in a waste of manpower and material resources, and the cost is extremely high, which is extremely unfavorable to the promotion of books.

But the engraved disc in front of us is different, it is actually composed of one hundred and twenty independent character molds, and after printing, the word molds can be taken out and put together into another page of content, so that as long as the printing workshop has a complete set of word molds, any book can be printed, which greatly saves the printing cost and is conducive to the promotion of books.

The cause of this major invention is that Hongyinfang took over a big business of the imperial court, printing 10,000 copies of the Dazhi Mansion newspaper every day, which is the imperial court after the opening of the Yuan miscellaneous newspapers and began to print official newspapers again, not only to the imperial court departments and provinces, but also to the three hundred and sixty states and 1,500 counties of the Tang Dynasty and the garrisons in various places, and even the retired elders of the Tang Dynasty also sent a copy, and the newspaper has the major events that occur in the Tang Dynasty every day and the new decrees.

Printing 10,000 copies of the newspaper every day, at least every day can make a steady profit, Hongyin Fang received this big business that made all printing workshops jealous. But the problem also came out, printing a newspaper had to engrave at least twenty plates a day, and the Ministry of Rites sent the manuscript in the afternoon, and the next day at dawn, that is to say, except for the printing time, there were only two hours of engraved plates, which only the best old craftsmen could do, and no other business could be taken during this time.

In order to be able to eat this big business independently, Huang Ascetic, the proprietor of Hongyin Fang, offered a reward of 3,000 silver coins among the craftsmen. Whoever can solve the thorny problem of lack of manpower and time to engrave the plate will be rewarded with the three thousand silver coins. It was under the encouragement of these 3,000 silver coins that an old craftsman with 40 years of experience in engraving quickly came up with the method of movable type, which not only solved the thorny problem of printing newspapers, but also solved the bottleneck of high costs and lack of lettering craftsmen that had plagued the printing industry for decades.

This major improvement in printing technology immediately caused a sensation in the government and the opposition. Many people realize that this will play a vital role in the development of Tang culture, and even the Tang Emperor Zhang Huan is also busy and personally came to Hongyinfang to inspect. "Your Majesty, please see, this movable type is carved out of hardwood, and it is the same size." The proprietor, Huang Kuxing, carefully placed a box full of character molds in front of Zhang Huan, "There are a thousand movable types here, all of which are made of iron and wood, and the grass people also prepare clay to burn them into pottery molds. This can increase the weight of the font mold, which is conducive to arrangement. Some craftsmen also proposed to use copper molds, and grass farmers also planned to give it a try. ”

Zhang Huan took out a word from the dense character mold with great interest, but it was a clear word, and he smiled and said: "It is also a technical job to take out the words from so many character molds!" ”

"Returning to Your Majesty, this is not difficult, each character has its own fixed position, as long as practice makes perfect, a skilled typesetter can arrange a page in the time of a pillar of incense, which is much faster than it used to take at least two or three hours to engrave a page."

Zhang Huan nodded, and said with a smile: "Where is the craftsman who invented this movable type." I want to see him. ”

Huang Ascetic hurriedly found an old craftsman in his sixties. "Your Majesty, this is the old craftsman who invented movable type. ”

The old craftsman hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed three times. Cheng Cheng said with fear: "Cao Min Chang Ping knocked to see His Majesty the Emperor, and I wish His Majesty long live, long live." ”

"Old man, please get up!" Zhang Huan ordered someone to help the old craftsman up, so he asked him curiously: "How could the old man think of using movable type?" ”

In front of the emperor, the old craftsman didn't dare to lie, he secretly glanced at the proprietor, and said timidly: "In fact, the method of movable type was thought of by the grass people ten years ago, once the plate I carved fell to the ground and fell into pieces, I put it together, so I had the idea of movable type." ”

Huang Kuxing heard that the old craftsman invented movable type ten years ago, he rolled his eyes, how much cost he had lost in the past ten years, but he didn't dare to say anything in front of the emperor, Zhang Huan was also very surprised and asked: "Since you thought of it ten years ago, why did you say it now?" ”

The old craftsman opened his mouth, but he couldn't say a word, he looked very embarrassed, Zhang Huan saw it and smiled slightly: "If you are embarrassed, don't say it, I won't force you." ”

The old craftsman knelt down again, and finally said the reason, "Your Majesty, the reason why the grass people refuse to say it is very simple, if you say it, the carving craftsman's rice bowl will be smashed, I believe that other craftsmen can actually think of it, but in order to protect their own rice bowl, everyone refuses to say, this time if it is not for the proprietor to give three thousand silver coins, I will not say it, but in this way, I am the graver's sinner." ”

The old craftsman lowered his head with shame on his face, Zhang Huan nodded silently, personally helped him up, and comforted him softly: "Although you have lost an industry, the cultural prosperity of my Datang may be due to you, you should be proud!" ”

After that, he said to Huang Ascetic: "Since this movable type technology has been invented, I will not allow you to keep it secret, you have to promote it to all your peers, this matter is related to the prosperity of my Tang culture, do you remember?" ”

Huang Kuxing secretly smiled bitterly, it was all published in the newspaper, where can he hide this, he didn't dare to slack off, and quickly knelt down and kowtowed: "The grass people will obey Your Majesty's will and will never hide it from their peers." ”

"Alright, I'll visit here today." Zhang Huan was about to receive the first batch of Japanese envoys to the Tang Dynasty since he ascended the throne, so he left Hongyinfang, but as soon as he walked out of the door, he saw a messenger rushing over, kneeling down and reporting loudly: "Your Majesty, the broken leaves are urgent, it is about Ashi Bulai City." "To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to qidian, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading! )