Chapter 437: Broken Leaf Fengyun (2)

Under the escort of 20,000 guards, the convoy of Dashi Caliph Rashid slowly drove into the city of Samarkand. This was the second Dashi monarch to inspect the east of the Amu River after the former Caliph Jafar, but without any prior notice or preparation, it suddenly arrived. Needless to say, many Dashi officials guessed that this must be related to the war launched by the Tang army in Saiye.

The city of Samarkand has been temporarily alerted. Countless people gathered on both sides of the streets, rushing to watch the arrival of the supreme ruler of the Great Food. Everyone pushed and shouted, and the noise was booming. The fully armed army had been pulled into a long wall of people, forbidding anyone to cross the line. They controlled every street and alley, and anyone who had attempted to assassinate would be killed.

Despite this, the three thousand guards cavalry protected the caliph's carriage, which was not covered by wind and rain. Rashid's carriage slowly drove on the street. He looked at the largest city east of the Amu River with great interest. Most of the houses were rammed with earth, low and dense. The city has a population of 200,000 and is famous for its commerce, handicrafts and papermaking.

When the team reached the city, King Kang and Samarkand came to greet each other in person. Behind them, Rashid's carriage slowly stopped after nearly a hundred senior civil and military officials.

"My servant Amda, please see His Majesty the Caliph." King Kang Country Amda is almost seventy years old. He is the uncle of the former king. The former king was killed five years ago for launching an riot against the great cannibals. The great cannibals made Amda, who was sixty-five years old, the king. First, he was more close to the great cannibals, and second, he was old and had no energy to incite the people to resist the great cannibals' rule. He stepped forward and knelt down and saluted, "On behalf of the two million subjects of Kang Country, sincerely welcome Your Majesty to Samarkand."

Rashid was proficient in Turkic language, and he waved his hand and smiled: "I came to Samarkand just for a temporary inspection, not an official visit. You all go back! I don't want to disturb everyone's lives."

Speaking of this, he gave a wink to Agush next to him. Agush understood and immediately announced loudly: "The Caliph has important military and political affairs to be handled. Please disperse immediately. The specific time for meeting with everyone is arranged separately."

He announced twice in a row, and the officials who rushed to the scene gradually dispersed. The people along the street also returned home under the expulsion of soldiers. The street quickly became quiet, and Rashid came to the Governor's Mansion accompanied by Agush.

"Have you ordered the army of Tochar to support the Gloro people?" Rashid asked immediately without saying a word when he walked into the conference room.

Agush quickly bowed and replied, "My brother has ordered the 50,000 Tocharian troops to go north to support Geluo. If the people of Geluo can support five days, the Tang Dynasty will be forced to withdraw its troops."

Agush was really uneasy. He issued the order to send troops to Tochar for two days. Will it be a big mistake? Rashid calculated the time and slowly breathed a sigh of relief: "Fortunately! It should be too late. I also issued an order on the road yesterday, ordering the Tocharian army not to support the Gloru people and not to act rashly."

Agush was stunned. Why is this? Wasn’t the strategy formulated by Rashid himself by ordering the Tocharian garrison to support the Gloro people? Why did he change again? And the military denies his decision. Who will execute his orders in the future? Thinking of this, Agush felt a little dissatisfied, but he did not dare to reveal it.

Rashid glanced at him and smiled coldly, "Are you dissatisfied with my intervention? Do you ask me why I want to reject my plan and change my orders every day?"

"I don't dare, I am just carrying out the orders of His Majesty the Caliph. Of course, His Majesty has the right to change his decision."

Rashid looked at him for a while and suddenly snorted, "Take me to your war room."

Agush's war room was next door. Rashid strode into the room. He went straight to the map, pulled open the curtain covering the map, revealing a huge woodcut map. Rashid stared at the map for a long time and suddenly asked: "Do you know what unusual things have happened around Tochar recently?"

"I only heard the news that the Tubo army stationed 20,000 troops in Xiaobolu, and there were signs of attacking Tocharo. However, I believe that the Tubo people are at the end of their power and cannot threaten Tocharo. Therefore, I left half of the army and only sent 40,000 troops north."

Rashid nodded, "Not bad! I'm talking about the Tubo people stationed their troops in Xiaobolu. You also know that the Tubo people are at the end of their strength and are unable to compete with us. So, why do they still have to station Xiaobolu? Is it necessary for them? Since their defeat in Anxi, the two sons of Chisong Dezan fought for the position of Zanpu for three years. Although Moudizanpu, who was supported by Shang Jiexi, won the last last year, the strength of the Tubo people was not even enough for the past. They still have the conditions to deploy 20,000 soldiers thousands of miles away, and want to attack Tucharo. Don't you think their actions are strange?"

Agush looked carefully at the Tubo people's military positions and was indeed in an attacking position. He couldn't help but breathe, "Does Your Majesty mean that the Tubo people are covering up something?"

Rashid did not answer, and pointed the secret from the northern part of Tochar with a wooden pole and said, "What are you going to do if the army you sent to Sailye are suddenly ambushed by the Tang army here?"

"I will send Tochar's army to support immediately." Agush answered without hesitation.

Rashid threw the wooden pole and said coldly: "What should you do if Shule's Tang army suddenly attacked Tucharo at this time?"

Agush was stunned. He stared at the map for a while before murmuring: "Not this! Isn't the main force of the Tang army shattering the leaves? Shule only has 10,000 people."

"Then what do you think I'm going to Samarkand for thousands of miles?" Rashid turned around and stared at him with bright eyes and said, "I tell you, if I were the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, I would use the broken leaves as bait to attract the Tochar army to the north, and then send troops from Shule to occupy Tochar. In this way, we will completely lose the strategic advantage east of Am. Do you understand? The real purpose of the Tang army was not to teach the Gelulu people a lesson. It was to use our expectations of the Gelulu people to lead us out of Tochar. If I guess correctly, the Tang army had already gathered a large army in Shuletun, and the Tubo people were just means used by the Tang army to divert our attention."

Agush suddenly realized that he had to admit that Rashid looked deeper and farther than him. After hesitating, Agush said again: "The Gloru man"

Before he finished speaking, Rashid waved his hand and interrupted him, "I never took the Gloro people to heart. It was just a wild dog sandwiched between two giants, and could be kicked away with one kick."

Speaking of this, he slowly walked to the window and stared into the distance and said, "What I care about is the Uighurs. If the Uighurs can put pressure on the Tang Dynasty in the north, the Tang Dynasty will most likely withdraw from the struggle to the west of the Pamir Mountains. The enemies of the Easterners have been nomadic peoples in the north since ancient times. I hope Dashi can form a strategic alliance with the Uighurs."

Agush was speechless. He only now knew that Rashid had never told him his true intentions that he, the governor of Samarkand, was just a puppet of Rashid.

Rashid seemed to feel Agush's dissatisfaction. He turned around and smiled, "Are you blaming me for hiding the truth from you?"

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

Rashid smiled and did not take Agush's dissatisfaction to heart. He slowly said, "Don't think that I sent you to Samarkand for no purpose. In fact, you did a good job. This time you calmed down the large-scale uprising that Kang State was about to be launched. I am very satisfied. The purpose of our promotion of Islam east of the Amu River has not changed, but the method must be changed. Like the forced method in the past, it will push the Turks to the Tang Dynasty, so I will send you to Sa.

Governor Maerhan, he must use literary and artistic means to subtly change the lives of the Turks, such as using our architectural culture, schools, and public libraries. Only by allowing the Turks to accept our culture can they accept our religion and finally become the great cannibals. This is not something that can be done in one or two years. This is a long-term process of ten or twenty years, and perhaps it can be realized by the next generation of the Turks. I hope you can understand my good intentions."

It was not until this moment that Agush truly understood the long-term vision of the Caliph. He couldn't help but feel excited and fell to the ground, and said aloud: "My brother will never let down the Caliph's expectations!"

"Get up!" Rashid's eyes gradually became sharper, and he said in a deep voice: "But the Battle of Broken Leaf in September is still going to be fought. I will never tolerate the Tang people who are unscrupulous in Broken Leaf."

Agush also nodded and said sincerely: "With Your Majesty's foresight, Wang Siyu will never be His Majesty's opponent."

"Wang Siyu?" Rashid shook his head and smiled faintly, "Wang Siyu is just a hunting dog. He is not worthy of being my opponent. My opponent is now in Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty. It is said that he is the same age as me."

Rashid turned his head and stared at the distant East with his hands behind his back. He wondered what his peers were doing at this moment?

In Chongrenfang, Chang'an, Zhang Huan was happily visiting a new invention of Hongyinfang, accompanied by more than a dozen officials including the Ministry of Works and General Managers. He saw a special carving dial in front of him. Usually, one carving dial can only print one page. A book like "Shangshu" and "Analects of Confucius" requires hundreds of carving dials. These official 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. If the engraver is a little careless, all the previous efforts will be wasted. After using it once, it is often abandoned, causing a waste of manpower and material resources. The cost is extremely high, which is extremely unfavorable to the promotion of books.

But the engraving dial in front of you is different. It is composed of 120 independent font molds. After printing, the font molds can be taken out and assembled into another page of content. In this way, as long as the printing workshop has a complete set of font molds, it can print any book, which greatly saves printing costs and is conducive to the promotion of books.

The cause of this major invention was that Hongyinfang took over a big business from the court, printing 10,000 "big government newspapers" every day. This was after the Kaiyuan newspaper, the court began to print official newspapers again. It not only gave it to the imperial court's supervisory departments, but also to the 360 ​​prefectures, 1,500 counties and garrisons in the Tang Dynasty, and even the veterans who retired from the Tang Dynasty also gave one. The newspaper contained major events that occurred in the Tang Dynasty every day and new government orders.

Printing ten thousand newspapers every day can make a steady profit of 10,000 yuan a day. Hongyinfang received this big business that made all printing workshops jealous, but the problem also arises. Printing a newspaper requires at least twenty plates per day. Moreover, the Ministry of Celebrity will deliver the manuscript in the afternoon, and the next day it will be dawn. In other words, except for printing time, there are only two hours of plates, which can only be done by the best old craftsmen, and no other business can be accepted during this period.

In order to be able to independently eat this big business, Huang Asu Hsing, the owner of Hongyinfang, offered a reward of 3,000 silver coins among craftsmen. Whoever can solve the problem of insufficient manpower and insufficient time for engraving molds will receive the reward of these 3,000 silver coins. It was inspired by these 3,000 silver coins that an old craftsman with forty years of experience in engraving molds quickly proposed a solution to movable type, which not only solved the difficult problem of printing newspapers, but also solved the bottleneck that plagued the printing industry for decades and the lack of engraving craftsmen.

This major improvement in printing immediately caused a sensation in the court and the public. Many people realized that this would play a crucial role in the development of Tang culture. Even Emperor Zhang Huan of the Tang Dynasty was taking the time to inspect Hongyinfang in person.

"Your Majesty, please see, these movable characters are carved out of hard wood, and are as big as the same size." The boss Huang Asu Xing carefully placed a box of font models in front of Zhang Huan. "There are a thousand movable characters here, all of which are made of iron wood. The grass people also prepared soil to burn them into pottery characters. This would increase the weight of the font models and facilitate arrangement. Some craftsmen also proposed to use copper characters, and the grass people also planned to give it a try."

Zhang Huan took out a word from the dense fonts with great interest, but it was the word "Ming". He smiled and said, "It is also a technical job to take out the words you want from so many fonts!"

"Reporting to your Majesty, this is actually not difficult. Each font model has its own fixed seat. As long as you practice makes perfect, a skilled font craftsman can arrange a page in just one incense stick. This is much faster than at least two or three hours before," he said.

Zhang Huan nodded and smiled, "Where is the craftsman who invented this movable type? I want to see him."

Huang Asu Hsiao hurriedly called an old craftsman in his sixties and introduced: "Your Majesty, this is the old craftsman who invented movable type."

The old craftsman quickly knelt down and kowtowed three times, and said in fear: "Caomin Changping bowed to His Majesty the Emperor, I wish His Majesty long live, long live."

"I'm welcome you quickly!" Zhang Huan ordered the old craftsman to help him up, and asked him curiously: "How did the old man think of using movable type?"

In front of the emperor, the old craftsman did not dare to lie. He secretly glanced at the boss and said timidly: "In fact, the way to move movable type was a sensational person. Ten years ago, the dish I carved fell on the ground and fell into pieces. I put it together, and then I had the idea of ​​moving type."

Huang Asu Xing heard that the old craftsman invented movable type ten years ago, he rolled his eyes. How much cost has he lost in the past ten years? But he did not dare to say anything before the emperor. Zhang Huan also asked in surprise: "Since I thought about it ten years ago, why did he only say it now?"

The old craftsman opened his mouth and couldn't say a word, and seemed very embarrassed. When Zhang Huan saw it, he smiled slightly and said, "It's fine if he doesn'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-guard refuses to say is very simple. If he says it, the craftsman's job will be ruined. I believe other craftsmen can actually think of it, but in order to protect their own jobs, everyone will not say it. If the boss had not paid three thousand silver coins this time, I would have definitely not say it, but in this way, I will be the sinner of the craftsman."

The old craftsman lowered his head with shame, Zhang Huan nodded silently, helped him up personally, and comforted him softly: "Although you have lost an industry because of you, the prosperity of my Tang Dynasty's culture may arise because of you, and you should be proud!"

After saying that, he said to Huang again: "Since this movable type technology has been invented, I will not allow you to keep it secret. You want to promote it to all your peers. This matter is related to the prosperity of my Tang Dynasty culture. Have you remembered it?"

Huang Asu Xing smiled bitterly, and the newspapers in the palace were all published. How could this be hidden? He did not dare to neglect it. He quickly knelt down and kowtowed, saying, "Caomin should obey His Majesty's will and never hide it from his colleagues."
Chapter completed!