And for the best effect, Li Yuanjia had his cotton-padded clothes made very thick. In addition, there were so many coal stoves in the "Royal Study Room". After a while, beads of sweat began to appear on Li Shimin's head.
After feeling the lightness of the cotton-padded clothes, the emperor hesitated and asked, "Is this really stuffed with kapok?"
Today's incident simply subverted his common sense.
Kapok is that white, lumpy thing. In addition to looking special and can be placed in the garden for viewing, it can also be used to make clothes? And the clothes made are so light and warm.
?
Li Yuanjia was naturally not surprised by this. He respectfully asked him to take off his clothes, put on the original fur, and tore the cuffs of the cotton-padded clothes with force: "Second brother, look, is there kapok in this?"
Li Yuanjia specially asked the tailor to leave this opening, and it was opened as soon as it was torn.
After taking a closer look, Li Shimin immediately exclaimed: "It is indeed kapok, it just looks like this..."
Before the emperor could ask, Li Yuanjia quickly replied: "The seeds in the kapok were removed, and they were beaten with bow strings to make them fluffy, softer and warmer. Everyone thought that the kapok was just superficial, apart from being beautiful.
There is no other use, but he just doesn’t understand..."
"Um?"
"Ahem! Ahem!"
Seeing that the emperor's eyes suddenly became unkind, Li Yuanjia's heart suddenly suddenly realized that he had said the wrong thing, and he quickly added: "My brother also found relevant records from a book called "Travel Notes to Tianzhu", and then I found out.
It turns out that kapok can be used to make cotton-padded clothes..."
""Travel to Tianzhu"? Is it the book where you learn that... that kind of numbers?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Hearing this, Li Yuanjia smiled slightly and nodded calmly: "It contains many wonderful ideas of Tianzhu people, which really inspired me a lot. In addition, there are also some books from the Western Regions that also contain records of wood.
The use of cotton, so I spent several years collecting these things and letting the tailors in the family figure out how to use them..."
After saying these words, Li Yuanjia secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
In the past few years, he had put so much effort into "writing" so many books, wasn't it just for this day?
Whether it is "Travel to Tianzhu" or "Travel to the Western Regions", including those eccentric travel notes to Rome, they record many historical features, myths and legends, as well as customs and customs of various countries in Li Yuanjia's memory.
It is a ridiculous thing that modern people in the future will laugh at after reading it, but it also records a lot of useful things.
For example, Arabic numerals... no, they should be called Tianzhu numerals now, and cotton is no exception.
In fact, if someone goes around King Han's study, he will find more surprising things. For example, in terms of crops alone, there are potatoes with a yield of thousands of kilograms per acre. Dry lands can also produce high yields.
corn, and spicy but delicious chili...
It's just that the source of the book is no longer known, and the author has never been heard of.
But just when Li Yuanjia was complacent about his rainy day preparation, the emperor smiled softly and suddenly asked: "What about movable type printing? Which book did you read it from? Tianzhu? Or Persia? Or further west?
country?"
"Ah? Movable type printing?"
After hearing this word from Li Shimin, Li Yuanjia suddenly felt shocked, but his face showed a look of surprise: "Second brother, do you also know that I am doing movable type work over there? But that is really not what I learned from the book.
What you see is just something that suddenly occurred to me when I was using a seal one day... Really, let me demonstrate it to you!"
As if he was afraid that the emperor would not believe it, Li Yuanjia apologized, took out the seal of the King of Han that he carried with him, and explained to Li Shimin: "Look at this, if there is only one word on a seal, we will separate each word.
If you want to engrave a seal, you just need to arrange them in the order in the book, brush them with ink, and cover them with paper..."
Patiently and meticulously, Li Yuanjia explained the concept of movable type printing to his second brother.
Li Yuanjia never thought about keeping things at home truly secret, at least not things outside the inner house. Because he knew that his identity was extraordinary, especially before the death of the Supreme Emperor two years ago, the best thing to do was to keep it secret.
Everything about yourself is laid out openly in front of outsiders.
It doesn’t mean that you should tell others in a big way, but you don’t want to be afraid of people who are interested in exploring it.
For example, Wang Pu and his colleagues improved papermaking, and the movable type printing technology, as well as the previous tables and chairs, coal stoves, and curved shaft plows, etc. Anyone who is interested in asking can always find out relevant information in the palace.
information.
It's just that they can know what Prince Han's Mansion is doing, but they can't figure out how to do it.
Therefore, Li Yuanjia was not surprised at all when the emperor knew that he was making movable type. He even took the initiative to explain the principles of movable type printing to him. He had explained this to many people, such as his younger brother Li Lingkui and his uncle Yuwen.
Shiji and so on.
It's one thing to know the principle, but it's another thing to be able to do it.
Movable type printing was invented in the Song Dynasty, but why was engraving still dominant in the following hundreds of years? Is it not because movable type printing requires high technology and high cost, making it simply impractical?
This is just like Thirteen Incense. We all know that it is made by grinding various spices, but what is the ratio of various spices? Which ratio gives the best results?
You want to figure it out without passing hundreds or thousands of tests?
Give me a break!
Since Hanwangfu no longer sells thirteen incense, why do people still come to Hanshan from time to time even though there are several companies selling it on the market? Isn’t it because the things they make don’t taste as good as the original version?
The few blacksmiths and ink makers under Li Yuanjia spent several years and wasted thousands of pieces. Up to now, the effect of movable type printing is unsatisfactory. Is it really possible to imitate it after hearing the concept? And you can do it even if you don't care about the money.
It’s the same as Prince Han’s Mansion, what’s next?
Do you know what movable type is? Do you really use wooden movable type or clay movable type? Even if you get the metal movable type, can you make the ink? And even if you make the metal movable type and the ink, there are so many Chinese characters, how do you solve the problem of character checking?
Question? How to solve the problem of crooked typesetting? How to solve the problem of inverted and horizontal characters? How to solve the problem of inconsistent font styles?
Isn’t it that Li Yuanjia looked down on his ancestors and couldn’t solve things in the next few hundred years? Can he just listen to his words and solve them?
This is a systematic project and cannot be realized with just one idea.
Otherwise, even if someone can make so-called movable type printing, this epoch-making technology will become useless due to printing quality problems, literacy problems of type inspection workers, and of course, the most important issue is cost.
Being shelved by them...
Okay, I'm going too far.
Of course, Li Shimin didn't know the twists and turns that flashed through his brother's mind at that moment. He just asked someone to bring out a dozen seals with great interest, tried them out himself, and then raised his eyebrows and asked: "
Shishilang, you have spent so much time and effort on making this thing, what is its use? Compared with engraving, what advantage does it have?"
"this……"
Although there was a moment of hesitation in his heart, Li Yuanjia soon gritted his teeth and said seriously: "It's actually very simple. I hope that after solving all the problems, the price of Datang's books can be reduced, so that more people can
If you can afford books, you can afford to read books!”