Chapter 301: Communication Watchtower

"Artisan School?"

Li Shimin played with the Yang Sui in his hand, almost without thinking too much.

"Can!"

So all Yan Lide's words were kept in his stomach, without any use.

Li Shimin even took the initiative to help Yan Lide with advice:

"It is certain that being a prisoner will become more and more important. In this case, we can open a craftsman's school."

"Even if you can't enter a workshop yet, you can still learn arithmetic first and then develop craftsmanship techniques."

"Old craftsmen can retire to become doctors and teaching assistants."

So the words in Yan Lide's belly instantly turned into complimentary words for His Majesty.

Li Shimin just smiled and shook his head and said:

"After all these things come to an end, if I build Lingyan Pavilion, I will definitely not forget my love for you."

"And..." Li Shimin hesitated for a moment, but finally made up his mind:

"When the connection with the Western Regions is restored, I would like to erect a monument of Tang craftsmen in front of the Ancestral Temple to honor Zhang Wansui, Yan Lide and others."

"Although you have no great achievements, you are the cornerstone of the prosperous Tang Dynasty."

Yan Lide didn't know how he walked out of the palace gate. He could feel his steps floating throughout the whole process, as if he were stepping on clouds, as if just a gust of wind could blow him up to the sky.

Li Shimin stood at the door of Tai Chi Hall and watched Yan Lide jumping up and down and leaving the palace city.

In fact, from the moment he came into contact with the light curtain, Li Shimin discovered that later generations highly respected craftsmen.

Whether it is the Dongfeng Express, the thing that can reach the sky, or the "Heavenly Palace", you can see that they are all made by craftsmen.

And just talking about the content of the last light curtain, the making of horseshoes, and the improvement of crossbows, which one is not closely related to the craftsmen?

And the infinitely powerful gunpowder... Oh no, gunpowder is the masterpiece of Taoist priests.

But in fact it was not bad. Li Shimin had read the memorial written by Li Jing, and the old generals said that the Taoist priests at Wu Lei Temple were becoming more and more like gunpowder makers.

They no longer clung to those elixirs that were said to have been passed down for thousands of years, but honestly began to try adding or subtracting minerals, lighting fires, and keeping records and summaries.

The overall literacy level of Taoist priests is even higher than that of generals and supervisors. Perhaps this is why they can experiment with gunpowder so quickly.

Although at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, there was a provision for craftsmen to compile separate books, dividing "workers" into apprentices and higher-status craftsmen, but now Li Shimin feels that this is not enough.

At the end of the last private gathering at Ganlu Hall, Du Ruhui privately expressed his conjecture to Li Shimin that the things created by the craftsmen of later generations are so incredible, one can only imagine the level of knowledge of the craftsmen.

Therefore, if we want to seek the technical level of future generations, we must have craftsmen learn the "learning of practical application".

That is arithmetic.

Just when Yan Lide came to look for him, Li Shimin simply described the prospect.

The next step is to see whether these Tang Dynasty craftsmen are qualified to enter Lingyan Pavilion and become famous in the Ancestral Temple.

But what Li Shimin didn't expect was that Du Ruhui was the first to tell him the good news.

"Is the signal tower completed?"

Li Shimin still couldn't believe it.

Semaphores were also used when the world was peaceful, so Li Shimin knew how troublesome the coding of the three rocker arms would be in later generations.

Moreover, the characters of Fanbang are just those symbols arranged back and forth, while the Chinese characters are all different.

He also tried to figure it out, but in the end it was so complicated that he gave up.

"Your Majesty, please come with me."

Li Shimin has always been tolerant of novelty gadgets.

According to what Du Ruhui said, after taking Jin Wuwei on a trip to the imperial city, he saw a watchtower.

"Now there are five watchtowers in Chang'an City, all standing one square apart."

Du Ruhui explained to Li Shimin that he saw that towards the north of the Zhuque Gate, he could vaguely see a watchtower of the same size at a distance.

"Your Majesty, please send a letter." Du Ruhui bowed.

"How to do it?" Li Shimin was eager to try.

Du Ruhui has obviously already thought about it:

"Just write down the words that need to be conveyed and send the Jinwu Guards to the messengers at the Suzaku Gate Watchtower."

"In just a few moments, the messenger in the watchtower here will inform His Majesty of the message."

This method is not difficult to understand, so Li Shimin glanced left and right:

"Jun Xian, get a pen and paper."

Taking the paper and pen, Li Shimin stepped back and wrote down a sentence. After rolling it up, he put it into Li Junxian's hand and said:

"After handing it over to the messenger at the Zhuque Gate Watchtower, we immediately rode back."

Li Junxian got the order, got on the horse with the secret order in hand, clamped the horse's belly with his legs, and galloped away.

Youhuangmen immediately brought a chair to His Majesty, and Li Shimin sat down while silently calculating in his mind.

Chang'an City is thirty and a half miles from north to south, and it is almost twenty-six miles from the Imperial City to Zhuque Gate. It is about fifty miles for Li Junxian to come back and forth.

Of course Li Junxian was riding a good horse, but he couldn't run at full speed in Chang'an City. It would take him a quarter and a half just to get to Zhuque Gate.

After knocking on the brought table, Li Shimin ordered:

"Burn three quarters of incense!"

This is also the most common timing method used by Li Shimin. According to the length, it is divided into one quarter of incense, two quarters of incense, etc., and it can be lit when needed.

And three moments should be the time it takes to go to the Suzaku Gate to deliver orders and back.

Watching the incense burning slowly, Li Shimin was full of curiosity, and Du Ruhui was confident.

Li Shimin didn't let Li Shimin wait too long. After the incense was halfway burned, he saw movement in the watchtower to the north.

They were three huge flags, maybe for convenience, just the simplest red, white and blue flags.

It seemed to be waved in a specific order, from one floor to another, and soon the watchtower in the imperial city waved the red flag twice, and then a lieutenant slid down the ladder from the upper floor.

The lieutenant ran to Li Shimin with excitement, bowed, and handed over a note.

Li Shimin took it and unfolded it, and saw the words "Empress Changsun is in good health" written crookedly on it.

This sentence was written on the note that Li Junxian took away. Li Shimin turned his head and looked at the incense stick, which was only half burned at this moment.

In other words, after the Suzaku Gate Watchtower got the note, it almost took no time to pass the sentence back.

"How did you do it?" Li Shimin was really curious now.

Du Ruhui smiled and told the story.

According to Du Ruhui, he and Fang Xuanling also tried the rocker arm in the light curtain at the beginning, but soon gave up, because the Chinese code book was difficult to imitate this foreign country.

But the two people who were trying to find a solution in the office soon discovered a misunderstanding:

How can the books everywhere around us not be used as code books? The communication tower only needs to transmit numbers, and a word can be completely decomposed into two numbers: page number and sequence number.

Li Shimin pulled his beard:

"But if there are so many books..."

Then he realized that he was stupid: each communication station only needs to transmit numbers, why do we need books?

And even if there are Liao enemies spying, it is very simple to prevent it. You can use Sun Tzu in the first half of the month and the Book of Songs in the second half of the month, or arrange several books in a certain order and rotate them every day.

After thinking about the method formulated by Du Ruhui, Li Shimin remembered the memorial he saw a few days ago, and suddenly slapped his head:

"Wouldn't this thing be of great use to the sea division?"

The sea division has been trying to explore Yizhou, and then encountered fierce resistance from the natives of Yizhou.

Although there are sea vessels, according to the news from the border, the natives can enter and exit the mountains and forests as if walking on flat land, and take advantage of the narrow and long north-south Yizhou to shuttle back and forth between the east and the west. The navy has difficulty communicating on the sea and cannot attack them in time.

"In this way, Yizhou can be included in the Tang this year!"

Thinking back, Li Shimin felt more and more that it was possible, and couldn't help but smile:

"My Tang has expanded its territory again this year!"

I have something personal to do today, sorry for the grandfathers.