I practiced magic in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 107 The report was made to my father
"I wonder who wrote this 'Mechanics'? My Sima family also has the 'Mo Jing', which doesn't seem to have anything to do with mechanics. Could it be that someone accidentally left it out when they copied it?"

"Haha, that's not the case."

Lu Fang chuckled and explained to Sima Lang, "The contents of the 'Mechanics' chapter were recently compiled by my master, so you, Boda, have naturally never read it."

It was not until then that Sima Lang learned from Lu Fang that "Mechanics" was actually written by Qi Hou Wang Jing himself, and he was deeply shocked.

Even among the philosophers of the Middle Ages, no one wrote books or biographies at the age of 20, right?
Not to mention the "Mechanics", the content is all-encompassing, explaining in an easy-to-understand way the mysteries of the world and the principles of nature, revealing the extraordinary pattern and spirit of a master.

In particular, the scientific methodology of verifying and summarizing the truth through experiments is what everyone agrees on.

Is it possible that there are really people in the world who are born with this knowledge?
Or is it true as the rumors say, that Qi Hou Wang Jing is a god from heaven who has descended to earth?

Although he was quite interested in the way of studying things, Sima Lang was a Confucian scholar after all, so he was very disgusted with the study of "dead things" instead of directly touching people's hearts. Therefore, he said stubbornly: "Qi Hou is so wise, why doesn't he study hard instead of studying such strange and lewd techniques? What benefit will it bring to people's livelihood?"

Seeing that Sima Lang dared to slander his benefactor and idol, Lu Fang was not happy and immediately retorted: "This is wrong! The master not only formulated the three laws of mechanics to reveal the mysteries of heaven and earth to us, but also led us to develop a curved plow based on the principles of mechanics that can greatly improve the efficiency of farming. This weapon can benefit the people more than the knowledge of your saints. Whose knowledge is useless? "

Sima Lang was suddenly speechless and unable to refute.

Even if one can speak eloquently and confuse right and wrong, he will still be powerless in the face of ironclad facts.

Later, under the guidance of Lu Fang, Sima Lang was able to enter the printing factory and saw a row of brand new printing machines. He was immediately astounded and his mind was shocked like never before.

There were rows of machines, mainly made of wood and assisted by manual operation, which were able to print books in batches. The efficiency was so high that Sima Lang, who was used to hand copying, found it incredible.

"Can mechanical technology be so useful?"

At this moment, how could Sima Lang still utter the four words "strange and lewd techniques"?

This scene before his eyes was truly too much of a shock to this Confucian scholar.

Sima Lang picked up a book at random. The ink on the pages was still wet in his palm, emitting a special scent of ink. He carefully checked the contents and found that the words and sentences were extremely clear, and there was no need to break them up. There were special symbols called punctuation marks to assist, making reading extremely convenient.

As for the contents on the pages, it was naturally the Mohist Mohist Classic, and it contained the latest version of the Mechanics chapter. In order to gather the thinking power of Mohists all over the world as soon as possible, condense the holy heart and embark on the road to immortality, Wang Jing spent a huge amount of money to print tens of thousands of Mohist Classics with added ingredients, intending to spread them all over the world.

This is just the first issue, and more will be printed in the future.

"Is this the movable type printing technology that has caused such a stir in the city?"

According to rumors in the market, people all believed that Qi Hou Wang Jing was a star from heaven who descended to earth, and therefore was born with the ability to cast spells.

But Sima Lang was a Confucian scholar, and he did not believe in such absurd things. Confucianism was the most proficient in the art of cultivating spirits, so he knew that there was no such thing as a reincarnation of gods.

As for the stars in the sky, they only project some of their power onto people with special destinies during a specific period of time. They are not the gods of literature descending to earth.

But what he saw and heard made Sima Lang a little less confident.

Without using magic, just by using mechanical technology, books can be printed one by one without people having to go through the trouble of copying them?

Sima Lang had never imagined such a thing before. In her eyes, everything was so incredible.

Movable type printing not only opened his eyes, but also refreshed his three perspectives, making him begin to doubt: apart from Confucianism, are other disciplines among the Hundred Schools of Thought really evil and useless?

After a brief moment of doubt, Sima Lang was filled with excitement, because with the technology of printing, reading would be much more convenient in the future, and Confucianism and Taoism would flourish!

At this time, Sima Lang did not think from the perspective of the Sima family. After all, he was still young and had a passion in his heart, so he was optimistic about the printing of books and the dissemination of knowledge.

Although the Sima family is wealthy, book collections are also extremely precious to aristocratic families. Both collecting and maintaining them are an extremely heavy burden.

Even though Sima Lang was the eldest son in the family, he had to report to his elders if he wanted to borrow books from the family collection. Even for many rare books, he could only read them at home and could not just carry them with him or bring them to the Imperial College. Therefore, it was very inconvenient for him to read. If he wanted to read a book, he could only copy it first, which was very time-consuming and energy-consuming.

But what did he see in front of him?
More than 100,000 copies of the Mohist Classic were piled up into a small mountain. This scene seemed to be imprinted directly in his heart, making him feel indescribably shocked and moved. He couldn't help but say with envy: "If the Confucian school can also have such a large collection of books, how many more scholars will there be in the world? In the future, when I travel outside, won't I have books to read anytime and anywhere?"

But after Sima Lang took a look around, he found that all the printed works were Mohist classics, and there was not a single Confucian work. Sima Lang was immediately frightened and turned pale, fearing that Confucianism in the world would be replaced by Mohism.

The reason why Confucianism can monopolize the academic discourse is that Confucianism has the most scholars in the world today.

But once Mohism was adopted through movable type printing and the "Mojing" was sold to ordinary people at a super low price, within three to five years, the whole world would be filled with Mohism. Where would there be a place for Confucianism to survive?
Sima Lang immediately questioned Lu Fang, and argued: "Why do you only print your Mohist classics here, but not our Confucian classics? Zhengliang, I think this is unfair."

Hearing this, Lu Fang blinked and shrugged helplessly: "Boda, it's useless for you to tell me. Anyway, the printing tasks are set by the master himself. Who dares to object?"

Sima Lang felt lost upon hearing this, and had a bad feeling in his heart. He muttered to himself, "Is the world really going to change?"

The era in which Confucianism dominated thought is about to come to an end.

Sima Lang, who was in the tide of the times, was extremely smart and guessed Wang Jing's true intention through many details in front of him, but found that he had no way to crack it.

It is because this is an open conspiracy, and the other party has such a powerful tool as movable type printing. Even if the Confucians knew about it, what could they do?

Sima Lang was feeling dejected here, while on the other side, in Sikong Mansion, Wang Jing also accepted Wang Yun's invitation to go back to attend the family dinner and get together with his family.

"Father asked me to come here, but does he have something to tell me?"

Although Wang Jing has not officially separated from the Wang family, he has actually become independent from the Taiyuan Wang family and formed his own force. He has great autonomy in many matters.

However, since he was born into a noble family after all, Wang Jing temporarily needs to use the name of Taiyuan Wang family to deal with the noble families. Therefore, he still has to do enough work to save his face, at least he cannot bear the stigma of being unfilial.

Fortunately, Wang Yun was quite satisfied with Wang Jing. Although his second son sometimes acted rebellious, there was always a reason for it and he had a very good reputation among the people. This made Wang Yun feel that Wang Jing was most like him. Both father and son had a hot temper and could not tolerate any sand in their eyes.

Today, Wang Yun is the Minister of Works, one of the Three Dukes. With the blessing of his official aura, he has condensed a terrifying aura. His spiritual cultivation has increased rapidly, and even a single glance from him can suppress masters of the third realm of martial arts and make them unable to move.

In addition, he has the support of Wang Jing and tens of thousands of Northern Army soldiers behind him. When the civil and military officials in the court see him on weekdays, who wouldn't be afraid of him?
At the moment, only Wang Jing could remain calm and talk and laugh freely in front of Wang Yun.

Seeing Wang Jing sitting in such an ungraceful and scoundrelly manner, Wang Yun felt helpless. He felt helpless about his son, who was not loyal to the big principles but not to the small ones.

But Wang Yun was too lazy to care about this little thing at the moment, and threw a pile of memorials in front of him: "Take a look."

"Father, has anyone reported me to you?"

Wang Yun glared at Wang Jing unhappily and said, "They all impeached you in the memorial to His Majesty. Fortunately, His Majesty did not blame you. Instead, he handed the memorial to me and let me deal with it on my own."

After saying this, Wang Yun couldn't help but complain a few words: "I've said it so many times, don't be too ostentatious when doing things. After all, you are a well-known figure in the world, can't you be a little more content? Just because you led troops to the Imperial College to arrest people and were rude to the Minister of Rites, not only the censors, but also the famous scholars in various prefectures and counties have written articles to impeach you."

Wang Jing picked up the memorial and read it with great interest: "This is well written, with brilliant writing and powerful sentences. Which famous writer wrote this?"

When I turned to the end, I found out that it was written by Chen Lin.

Wang Jing laughed out loud and nodded happily: "So it was written by Chen Kongzhang himself. No wonder he can scold people so brilliantly. It's hard for him." Chen Lin used to be the chief clerk in the mansion of General He Jin. After He Jin died and Dong Zhuo ravaged Luoyang, Chen Lin fled with Yuan Shao and now he has become an aide to Yuan Shao.

I didn't expect that he was far away in Jizhou and still wrote a memorial to scold me. I can only say that he had intention. I don't know whether the court will reimburse him for the postage.

"You, you are in such a critical situation, and you still can smile? Yuan Xu, you seem to be in great glory now, but in fact, a tall tree attracts the wind. Yet you still don't know how to restrain yourself. Don't you understand the seriousness of the matter?"

Wang Yun felt a little angry when he saw Wang Jing was so out of tune.

Taiyuan Wang finally became the opinion leader of the New Party, and now the father and son are in the same boat.

If Wang Jing fell, Wang Yun's position as Sikong would certainly be unstable.

What's more, Wang Ling and Wang Hong, who were also from the Wang family of Taiyuan, were able to become governors of prefectures and counties thanks to Wang Jing, so Wang Yun was sincerely planning for Wang Jing's future.

Unfortunately, Wang Jing looked down upon the plans of his biological father, Wang Yun.

Wang Yun's wisdom and strategy are naturally not weak, and can even be said to be very strong. However, in Wang Jing's view, strategies and tactics are just minor matters. The real way to govern a country is to improve productivity, improve production relations, and promote the progress of civilization.

No matter how well-planned a conspiracy is, it will never be acceptable.

But after all, Wang Yun was his biological father, so Wang Jing would not say anything outrageous to contradict or disobey him. He would just accept the scolding, and at most let it go in one ear and out the other, and he would dare to do it again next time.

After Wang Yun finished his earnest words of reprimand, Wang Jing happily put down the memorial in his hand, took out a copy of the Mohist Classic slowly, handed it forward, and said in a coaxing tone like a child: "Father, please calm down. There is no need to worry about a little rumor. Jing brought back a gift today, please take a look."

Wang Yun was so anxious that he blew his beard and glared. He knew that no matter how much he said, this overly competitive and opinionated second son might not listen. So he took the book first, opened it and glanced at it casually: "Why did you give me a copy of Mohist Canon? I have no interest in Mohism."

Although Wang Yun was an open-minded Confucian who did not discriminate against other schools of thought and was even quite interested in military strategy and law, he still believed that Wang Jing's involvement in Mohism was a waste of time and even a heresy.

It was just because Wang Jing had to lead troops to fight, and it was impossible for him to give up the power in his hands to study at home, so he didn't say much.

But now Wang Jing actually wants to devote himself to Mohism?

This is too much!

Wang Yun was a little angry. He was so old, but Wang Jing had the heart to do this to him?

Wang Jing knew that Wang Yun had misunderstood, so he had to explain: "Father, please calm down. I just want you to help check the contents of the book."

Wang Yun then calmed down his anger and read through the book carefully. He was surprised and said, "This book is well copied. The handwriting is neat and there are no mistakes or omissions. The way of punctuation is also very clever. Who wrote this book?"

Wang Jing was also helpless when he heard this. So many people outside knew that he wanted to develop movable type printing and improve papermaking technology, but his own father didn't know about it. He could only say that you are worthy of being his own hand, and you really don't care about me at all!

In desperation, Wang Jing had to explain to Wang Yun: "Father, this book is not a copy, but a printed copy."

Mistakes are inevitable in handwritten books, no matter which famous calligrapher wrote them. After all, human concentration has its limits.

But the Mojing that Wang Jing took out was very clean and neat throughout. It was impossible that it was copied by someone, but printed by a machine.

Wang Yun was very shocked after hearing this. He had been busy running around various counties in Sili Prefecture these days, forming cliques and strengthening the new party. Therefore, he had not paid much attention to the changes in Luoyang City. Therefore, he did not know that Wang Jing had already invented movable type printing with the Mohists of the Mohist school, and secretly funded Shi Zimiao to recruit alchemists within the Taoist school, promote chemical knowledge, and successfully improve the papermaking technique.

The "Mojing" in Wang Yun's hand today is the first batch of products after the combination of movable type printing and new papermaking technology. It is made very beautifully and even has great collection value in terms of historical significance.

In fact, this was indeed a gift given by Wang Jing to Wang Yun.

"This is the first book printed after the invention of movable type printing. I have nine subsequent copies in my hands. This one is the most precious among them, so please accept it, father."

Wang Yun then remembered that after he returned home yesterday, he did hear from his eldest son Wang Gai and third son Wang Ding about what techniques Wang Jing was researching.

He had just listened to it as an interesting story, thinking that it was probably another absurd thing that his careless second son had done, and he didn't take it seriously. But now, when he looked at the "Mojing" in his hand, he suddenly had a strange association: "Could it be that this book was printed using your magic?"

Wang Jing was speechless and had to emphasize: "It is movable type printing. What do you think of the quality, father?"

Upon learning this answer, Wang Yun felt as if he had found a treasure, and could not put down the Mohist Classic in his hand: "It is indeed good, and it is better than many rare and precious copies that cost a lot of manpower to copy."

The advantages of printing are naturally superior to hand copying, and it is far superior in terms of both quality and efficiency.

How could Wang Yun, who had been at the center of the empire for a long time, not know the significance of this?

He began to ask eagerly: "Is printing technology really so magical? I don't know how much it can produce every day, and can it be widely promoted?"

Wang Yun belonged to the open-minded faction among the aristocratic families. He was not keen on monopolizing power and knowledge. Compared with these petty interests, he had greater ambitions and aspirations in his heart.

For example, being a loyal minister will leave your name in history, or educating the people and being admired by all generations!

In the past, Confucius taught three thousand students without discrimination. He eventually became a role model for all ages and his reputation will be remembered forever.

Now Wang Yun naturally wanted to follow the example of his predecessors and use his authority as Sikong to promote printing, leaving a strong mark in history books, and his name would be recorded in history forever.

No one knows a father better than his son. Wang Jing could see Wang Yun's little trick, so he said with a hint of encouragement, "One machine, five people operating it, can print more than 2,000 books a day."

After hearing this, Wang Yun was so shocked that his wine glass fell to the ground.

If the movable type printing press invented by Wang Jing were put into modern society with such high production efficiency, it would probably not be able to compete with even a small printing workshop in a third-tier township that specializes in printing pirated books, and would be forced to go bankrupt.

But in the era of the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms, looking around the world, such production efficiency can only be described in two words.

Invincible!

Except for those special rare books that contain the thoughts of ancient sages, all books can be printed in large quantities. Moreover, paper books are much more comfortable to read than bamboo slips. This generation gap in products is enough to make most people give up their old reading habits.

Wang Jing, who mastered movable type printing and new papermaking technology, was equivalent to mastering the channels for knowledge dissemination.

Wang Yun was a smart man, and he understood what the emergence of these two technologies meant to Confucianism without much advice or suggestion from Wang Jing.

If Wang Jing was more ruthless and only printed books from his own school and not books from other schools, as long as he could withstand the opponent's counterattack, the hostile school would decline quietly in a dozen years.

Isn’t this another form of monopoly on ideas?

Of course, Wang Jing would not do such a thing. He is just a dragon slayer and has no intention of becoming a new evil dragon. So even if he has a powerful weapon in his hand, he is not afraid to compete fairly with his opponent.

Because he firmly believes that truth will eventually defeat ignorance.

(End of this chapter)