Entertainment in this era is extremely monotonous and scarce.
Long before the time travel, Gawain had seen descriptions of 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. ——This sentence is really not just talk.
In this world, entertainment items are not only scarce, but also extremely restricted by social class. For upper-class aristocrats, the biggest entertainment in their leisure time should be enjoying opera, music, hunting, and dancing. It is still very boring in the eyes of the people, but it can be regarded as a rich and colorful life, but it is obviously impossible for the lower class people to afford such a luxurious life, so the lower the society, the fewer entertainment projects people have access to.
Go to the bar to drink and fight, gamble in a few crude ways (and it often turns into a fight in the end), listen to the rap of street minstrels (of course, people here call it legend Poetry), this is almost the only way for ordinary people to relax after work. Apart from that, the only thing they can do is probably have children at home - but even so, they still have little leisure time. So pitiful.
Due to low productivity, and more importantly, the oppression of the lords and nobles, the vast majority of civilians have little so-called "leisure time", and they have to spend **10% of their energy on work. In order to barely maintain their food and clothing life, the vast majority of people do not have any extra energy and physical strength after filling their stomachs. This is exactly what most noble lords are happy to see: the untouchables are busy working. Don't have any "unreasonable thoughts" outside of this. No one is making trouble, no one is lazy, and naturally everyone is happy.
But in Cecil Territory, the situation has changed -
The people have filled their stomachs, and not only their stomachs are filled, they also have extra money and rest time .
This situation, which was natural to Gawain in his previous life, is unprecedented in this world and catches the managers off guard.
“After a period of construction in the territory, various infrastructures are in place, 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 said slowly He tidied away the chess pieces on the table and said to Hetty, "Before, everyone in the territory had to go all out to survive. No one had leisure time, so the order was very good, but now we don't need this. , the people began to get a reasonable rest, and the food supply became abundant, so the citizens who were well fed and had leisure naturally needed to do something to consume their energy. According to the general 'rules', they could only go to the bar to drink. Then they fight with people in the streets, or if they have more money, they go to seek some flesh-and-blood business, or they gather together to gamble... The public security becomes worse and worse in the process, but this is not their fault.
" We can't let people work non-stop. The accumulated pressure will only make public security worse, so we have to give peopleSome entertainment for the people. "
Gawain put away the chess box and raised his head to look into Hetty's eyes.
"Chess is a good thing. It can kill time, exercise intelligence, and determine the outcome. And it’s fun in the process, but it’s unrealistic to expect that a game of chess can solve public security problems. We must do more.
“It should be regarded as a responsibility to make the people feel satisfied and happy. This kind of satisfaction is not limited to as simple as letting them have enough food and clothing, but also allows them to enjoy the spiritual life that they take for granted.
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"In addition to chess, I also improved the rules of the King deck. The original rules of the King's deck are too complicated and are entertainment that can only be understood by more knowledgeable people. They are not suitable for promotion to the whole people, so I simplified it so that ordinary people can also master it. I named it 'Lord's deck'. Card'. In addition, I also thought of several games that can be played indoors. They are not complicated and are also interesting. In addition, we can also remove or limit the gambling elements of several original dice games used for gambling to promote and publicize them.
“I plan to open such a chess and card room in the territory, which can be integrated with the bar, but will only provide drinks such as low-alcohol wine and sour grass water. Its main function is to provide people with relaxation and entertainment. In addition, these The production cost of chess and cards is also very low, and it can be opened to merchants and craftsmen for them to make and sell. This can increase some income for the territory and make the lives of the people at home richer.
"In addition, Besides, for those who do not like to entertain indoors, I have also conceived several outdoor sports that will release excess energy and make our people stronger and more agile - not polo and hunting, that is only for nobles I will explain to you what you can afford and the specifics when I'm ready. ”
Listening to Gawain’s thoughts one by one, Hetty became more and more aware of these plans. At the same time, she became deeply aware of her omissions in managing the territory before. The ancestor finally came to an end, and she couldn't help but ask: "Ancestor, could it be said... that you thought of these things a long time ago? "
"I have indeed thought about it a long time ago, but in the early stages of the territory's construction, everyone had problems eating. Naturally, there was no need to consider these things at that time," Gawain smiled and nodded, "No. If you underestimate these things, when it comes to maintaining order in the territory and enhancing people's happiness, their role is much greater than the machines in the factory. "
Looking at Hetty nodding her head, Gawain breathed out softly, and then said: "Providing cheap and easy-to-satisfy entertainment is only part of improving people's happiness and maintaining order. In addition, In addition, the construction of the security team is still very important, and you should not 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 thought quietly.
People in the territory There will only be more and more in the future, and as the industrialization of magic continuesWith development, the materials in the territory can only become more and more abundant, and what follows is that civilians no longer have to worry about basic livelihoods. It is a matter of course to enrich people's entertainment - after all, entertainment is when people satisfy themselves. It is one of the basic needs in the future. If you cannot provide them with what they want, then they will naturally find ways to satisfy themselves. Drinking, fighting, gatherings, and gambling are all normal.
But what Gawain has to do is not just to promote a few entertainment projects so that the people can have a place to have fun after having enough food and drink.
The number of people is increasing, the city is expanding, and the number of people in the territory who can read and write is increasing day by day. It is time to promote something that has been brewing for a long time.
He got up and returned to the study.
A large mechanical drawing is spread out on his desk.
This drawing was started a few days ago. Since most of the structures are not too complicated, he has completed seven or eight of them by now, but the most critical part of it is not yet clear.
This is a strange-looking machine. It has a transmission structure for transporting paper and a large "roller" located in the center of the machine. Its transmission structure can send the paper to the bottom of the roller and make it The paper advances synchronously with the rotation of the roller, and above the roller is connected an ink wheel for transferring pigments and a container for storing ink - this is a printing machine with a simple structure and primitive technology.
A machine that can print continuously and 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 move towards chaos. The more serious the mismatch between spirit and material, the more chaotic it would be. It will get worse.
So after realizing that the population in the territory was increasing and that the well-fed territory residents needed spiritual life, he quickly came up with entertainment projects such as chess, lord decks, and billiards. In this way, we can relieve people's mental pressure caused by high-intensity continuous work and improve everyone's happiness in living on this land.
But entertainment alone is not enough.
After the compulsory implementation of general education, more and more people in the territory have basic reading and writing skills. At the same time, as the population increases and the city expands, people are relying on the original city center bulletin boards and soldiers preaching. It was obviously no longer enough to carry out ideological propaganda through various methods, so Gao Wen thought of the necessity of improving the cultural construction of the territory and increasing publicity efforts and means.
Now that everyone is literate, give them writing. This is Gawain'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 and printing technology. The labels on the bottles of the alchemical potions currently produced in the alchemy factory also have There are textbooks used by students in General College that are all produced using this printing technology. For the early stage or even the current stage of territorial cultural propaganda and construction, these technologies are enough, but for what Gao Wen wants to achieve, the futureHowever, this technology is far from sufficient.
He needs technology that is more convenient, easier to edit and implement, and more suitable for large-scale industrial production to replace these two "workshop technologies".
So he designed such a continuous cylinder printing press based on what he remembered and guessed, but now he had to solve a problem - how to make plates.
How to convert the edited content into embossed text on the roller in the fastest and most convenient way, and then print it out?
The speed of traditional engraving and plate making is obviously too slow, and it does not meet his requirements of "easy operation, easy editing, and low cost".
To be honest, although Gawain could conceive of most of the structure of this printing press, he had no idea how to implement the key technologies inside. Even though his memory had been enhanced, what he had seen in his previous life He could recall all the knowledge he had ever learned, but he couldn't imagine things he had never seen before - and he felt that even if he knew those key technologies, it would be useless. In this world with weird physical rules, could it be realized? Still talking about it...
He has to think about the solution from the perspective of magic, but unfortunately, he hasn't come up with a solution yet.
After thinking hard at the desk for a while, he raised his head and greeted outside the study: "Betty!"
The little maid immediately opened the door and came in, bowing to the end: "Sir!"
"Go and call Rebecca."
A moment later, the Countess of Cecil's family came to Gawain's study.
Gawain looked up from the drawings and saw Rebecca looking at him curiously, and there were dark stains everywhere on the girl's sleeves, hands, and face. He looked like he had just come out of the workshop. He couldn't help but laugh: "Did you get hit by your own big fireball again?"
"No!" Rebecca He quickly waved his hands and explained, "I just came back from the Institute of Magical Technology, and I haven't had time to wash my face yet - I was studying the 'transmission' you mentioned before..."
"Okay. , I don’t blame you, you are doing the right thing,” Gawain smiled and shook his head, beckoning the other party to come closer, “Come here, I will give you a task.”