Wu Peng sat in a high-backed chair in the city lord's office, looking intently at a piece of paper in his hand.

It was indeed a piece of paper, not very white in color, but dull yellow, with a rough surface and a slight prickling sensation on the touch.

He sat in a near-fixed position for nearly two hours. The room was quiet, the attendants were all outside, and the winter was coming to an end, and the sun was appearing in the sky for longer and longer. Old man, light, silence...... Together, they form a picture with a precipitated texture.

There was the sound of footsteps outside, steady and powerful, fast but not running. Wu Peng slowly put the paper in his hand on the coffee table, his eyelids lowered, his right hand raised high, and gently rubbed the corners of his eyes, at this time, the door was pushed open from the outside, and the young Rock City Lord walked in.

"Great Brother." Tianhao stood three meters away from Wu Peng and saluted respectfully.

Wu Peng put down his right hand, pointed to the chair placed opposite, and said lightly, "Sit down." ”

Tianhao sat down as he said, and his gaze naturally fell on the piece of paper.

"I arrived yesterday. I was almost exhausted on the way from Pointe-Noire. Niu Weibang sent someone to send me a message, saying that you should come back in a few days after calculating the time. Hehe...... Pretty coincidental, isn't it? Wu Peng leaned back in his chair, his old face showing a tired expression. People are like this when they are old, and many times they will be sleepy when they sit, but after all, he is a national teacher, and he is above 10,000 people under one person, even if he talks casually, he will exude an inexplicable majesty.

Tianhao didn't speak, maintaining enough respect. He knew very well that the national teacher came from the distant Black Corner City, and it was definitely not as simple as having a family relationship with him.

"Tell me, what is this?" Wu Peng tapped his finger at the piece of paper on the coffee table. His tone was calm, and his gaze was inquiring.

"It's paper." Tianhao is very calm, and there is not a trace of dirt in his pure eyes.

"Paper?" The elderly national teacher frowned slightly. He had heard the word and knew the correct pronunciation, but he had never seen the real thing before.

"Last time I was in Pointe-Noire, I went to the Royal Archives and looked at a lot of mud templates. It says that something called "paper" is said to have been used for writing, just like the animal skin rolls we use today. Paper is thinner and lighter than animal skin, and the method of making it is also very simple, bamboo, sawdust, broken clothes, hay, ...... Mash them and boil them into a pulp, spread them out on a breathable bamboo plaque, and dry them before they can be used. ”

Tianhao didn't lie, he was an honest man.

He did go to the Royal Archives when he was in Pointe-Noire. The concept of that place is the equivalent of a national library. The huge building is dedicated to the storage of knowledge, with countless mud formwork and up to one hundred and fifty professional maintenance personnel. There are many things written on the clay templates, including the legend of the paper and the rough way to make it.

"Old Mama" said that the northern barbarians and the era of civilization that have been destroyed are just at the fault line of history. When an asteroid impact caused the extinction of human beings, intelligent computers connected to satellites cruising in space, analyzed the various environmental indicators detected, and determined that the earth's natural world began to recover from the catastrophe, and the radiation concentration and dust decreased, which started the new human reinvention process.

The northern barbarians had never seen paper, but their ancestors could tell stories about it. This is a miraculous manifestation of the direct effect of genes on the brain of new humans, directly forming historical memories into biological instincts, just like horses are born to run, and tigers refuse to eat grass and only eat meat.

Nothing is absolute. If a foal is unable to stand up for a short time after birth, it will always be a waste of the horse family. The same goes for tigers, if a tiger cub with its eyes open is taken away by a vegetarian animal, it will probably have no meat for the rest of its life, and although it wonders why the grass and leaves taste so strange, it will not even want to try to catch other living creatures and change the recipe.

Instincts can fade or even disappear altogether for various reasons.

The ancestors of the northern barbarians were great because they had the foresight to preserve much of their knowledge through clay templates. They don't really know what this knowledge is for, but the subconscious tells them that they have to. Taking paper as an example, they knew the correct pronunciation of the word "paper" and the general method of making it, but neither the predecessors nor the present have tried to make the real thing.

Isn't it just writing and drawing? Enough of the skin rolls, so why bother?

It's a kind of obstructive thinking. It cannot be said that barbarians are stubborn or ignorant, but that their own environment and society have created such limitations in their thinking. Changing the environment and accepting new things are not as simple as words, not to mention that most of them are still hungry and have not even solved the most basic problems of food and clothing.

The reason why papermaking is so ingrained in the minds of the northern barbarian ancestors may be because it is one of the four brilliant inventions. The phrase "all glory to the ancestors" is often used in ceremonies, and its true meaning is being forgotten with the passage of time and the incomprehension of future generations.

Tianhao has been trying to make paper.

There have been many failures, and there have been obvious technological breakthroughs. After all, he is not a professional engineer in the paper industry, just like most people in the civilized era knew the name "Cai Lun", but he was not the inventor of papermaking in the real sense, but summarized many similar technologies into one.

As a city lord, there are so many things to worry about. It was impossible for Tianhao to put all his attention on papermaking, so he made a start, and the rest was left to Ayi to take care of. The name "Lady of the City Lord" is very loud and has enough power. It's just that even Tianhao himself didn't expect that during the time when he was leading his troops out to fight, Ayi actually created paper in the real sense.

Although it has a rough texture, it is a piece of paper that can be written with charcoal, can be folded, and is quite flexible.

Wu Peng couldn't see a smile on his face, his serious expression was imprisoned by many wrinkles, and a faint aura permeated his body, majestic, or should it be said that it was generated because of power, condescending, and people had to look up.

"Why did you come up with this?" The eyes of the national teacher were full of huge pressure that could not be ignored.

Tianhao sat with his spine straight.

This is not the script I expected.

The National Teacher should stay in Blackhorn City, not Rock City.

Darkness and fire are intertwined in my heart, and I have thought about meeting again with the great power division countless times, shouldn't the first topic of conversation be this war? Wiped out an entire tribe, captured hundreds of thousands of people, killed a clan king, and brought back his venerable corpse...... These are the pre-made scripts that Tianhao is really good at, not tried and tested many times before, and has been in a state of failure, and has to hand over the basic method to the people below to continue to try, and it is only now that it can barely have results, a fluttering piece of paper.

Why did the Great Master appear in Rock City, and why did he ask about this piece of paper when they met?

"It's a waste of all the information that comes and goes." Tianhao calmly raised his eyelids, his gaze met the national teacher from an equal position, his eyes were as clear as water, releasing a sense of superiority and self-confidence mixed with cheerfulness: "This kind of thing called "paper" can replace animal skin, it is very light, the material is simple, as long as the trial production is successful, it can be popularized on a large scale. ”

As he spoke, Tianhao stood up, took out a strip of charcoal from his pocket, and wrote a few words on the piece of paper.

He would always carry some charcoal sticks or chalk made of hydrated lime with him, and as a castle lord, he would always give orders, especially an "ancient" from a civilized era, and strange ideas and ideas were difficult to express in words, and had to be represented graphically on a blackboard or whiteboard.

The gloomy and dreary atmosphere is not suitable for this kind of occasion, in fact, the environment can be artificially controlled, which can play a great role in the change of thinking and logic of both parties.

The Great Master's gaze fell on the piece of paper that Tianhao handed in front of him, and he was immediately attracted. He squinted his eyes, revealing wisdom and thought, and looked at them over and over again for a long time.

"Two hundred thousand prisoners." Wu Peng slowly read out the words on the paper and asked meaningfully, "...... Big win? ”

Tian Hao maintained a strong control over his emotions and replied calmly: "The pig clan no longer exists. ”

Wu Peng's next question was elusive: "What are you going to do with these pig captives?" ”

"Rely on the great masters to decide." Tianhao's attitude is very honest.

Wu Peng stood up and paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back for a few times, and after two minutes, he stopped in front of the coffee table, stared at Tianhao, who was following him with his eyes, and said seriously: "Our respect and understanding of the knowledge left by our ancestors can be traced back thousands of years. They carved out a shelter suitable for survival in this wild land. Without them, there would be no now. ”

Tianhao nodded with the same seriousness. This was the history of all the northern barbarian tribes, and he was impressed by the clay templates that recorded similar content in the royal archives of Black Horn.

Wu Peng's old but powerful voice continued to echo in the room: "We worship the gods, not only because of their strength, but also because of the guidance they give us. In a way, the word "ancestor" can be equated with "deity". ”

Surprise unfolded in Tianhao's mind, he was slightly moved, he didn't need to control his emotions, this was the correct and proper reaction.

"Before you, there were a lot of people who tried papermaking. My teacher, my teacher's teacher, and several of his deceased Majesties before him, all pushed hard for the development and manufacture of paper. This is the most important part of the clay formwork, and unfortunately, all efforts have failed over the long years. ”

"You made it."

Tianhao could hear that this sentence was in a narrative tone, not a question, so there was no need to answer.

He nodded.

"You're luckier than those before you? Or is it because you know more than they do? Wu Peng smiled slowly, and these two questions also did not need to be answered: "This is really incredible, at least in the eyes of some people. ”

"I think you're a little guy who has been favored by the god of luck. I have seen the content recorded on the mud template, and the general practice is similar to yours, the difference is in the treatment of some links. In fact, no matter the previous Majesties, including my teachers, all they lacked was patience and luck. Before you came back, I asked your man in charge of papermaking, and he told me that more than 100 trial tests had been carried out, and this one was the best finished product. And you...... The news is not yet known. ”

"Let's talk about the new armor with excellent quality." Wu Peng flicked his nails and showed a scheming smile: "I went to the river to see the mill, it is very exquisite, and the idea of using the river water to propel machinery is very good. It's not new, it's been documented in the clay stencils of the Royal Archives, but no one, including me, realizes its importance. ”

"If I were to ask you where the homogeneous steel recipe came from, you would tell me about the mud formwork that is also in the royal database." The corners of Wu Peng's mouth rose imperceptibly, although this was a statement tone, it was a question.

"Yes." Tianhao nodded calmly: "The thirty-third storeroom, the eighty-fourth column, the seventh shelf, the ninth row...... I can't remember exactly where it is. ”

On his last trip to Pointe-Noire, Tianhao stayed in the royal database for a long time. The strengthened brain played a remarkable role, and he jotted down the ambiguous text on the clay template. In terms of methodology, there is nothing wrong with it, but it is extremely difficult to do in practice.

He even saw the broken structural diagram of the "J-20" fighter, and the relevant information and data were recorded on more than 200 one-meter-square mud templates, nothing more.

Of course, this cannot be a complete information on the fighter. Not to mention a clay template with a thickness of about a finger, even if it is written on the most resilient paper of the civilized era, a set of technical materials can fill at least several rooms.

Barbarians often see some strange pictures in their dreams, and Tianhao understands this very well.

Ayi said that she dreamed that many people held a piece of metal the size of a palm in their hands, leaned against their ears very close to their cheeks, and talked to themselves like idiots.

Tianhao knew that the so-called "metal" was actually a smartphone.

Celestial madness dreamed of a strange giant iron bird, many people walked into its belly, and then the iron bird let out a strange cry and flew up...... There is also a smaller iron bird that breathes fire on its butt and lays eggs in the sky like a hen.

My sister Tianshuang dreamed of a group of ugly women, their waists were very thin, and their thin bodies were no different from skin and bones. These ugly creatures wore skirts that were as short as their buttocks, and their shoes were supported by high sticks, and they were presumably short, and their heels had to be padded in this way to make them taller. They scratched their heads on a T-shaped platform, walked around, twisted their butts, bared their thighs, and their lips were red as if they were smeared with blood. Countless men stood under the stage, holding a black box with a thick round tube in their hands, and flashed dazzling lights at the ugly women on the platform.