Entertainment in this era was extremely monotonous and rare.
Long before he transmigrated, Gwen had seen various descriptions of the scarcity of entertainment in various movies and TV series. This could be said to be a cliché, but after he transmigrated, he could not help but sigh — this sentence was really not just for show.
In this world, entertainment was not only scarce, but also extremely limited by social class. For the upper nobles, the greatest entertainment in their leisure time should be watching operas, music, hunting, dancing, and so on. Although in Gwen's eyes, it was still considered a rich and colorful life. However, the lower class obviously could not afford such an extravagant life, so the lower the social class, the less entertainment they had access to.
Drinking and fighting in bars, gambling in a few simple ways (and in the end, it often turned into fighting), listening to the street bards' rap (of course, in this world, it was called legendary poetry), these were almost the only ways for the common people to relax after working hard. Other than that, the only thing they could do was to make children at home. But even so, their leisure time was still pitifully little.
Due to the low productivity, and more importantly, the oppression of the lords and nobles, most of the common people almost did not have the so-called "leisure time". They had to use eighty to ninety percent of their energy on work to barely maintain their food and clothing. Most of the people did not have any extra energy and physical strength after filling their stomachs, and this was precisely the scene that most of the nobles and lords were happy to see: the common people buried themselves in work, and other than that, they did not have any "improper thoughts", no one caused trouble, no one was lazy, and naturally, everyone was happy.
But in Cecil's territory, the situation changed —
The people filled their stomachs, and not only did they fill their stomachs, they also had extra money and time to rest.
This situation was a matter of course in Gwen's previous life, but in this world, it was unprecedented and caught the administrators off guard.
"After a period of construction, the various infrastructures are ready. Survival is no longer a problem, and the production pressure of the factories has begun to ease, so we have entered the next stage," Gwen said to Heti as he slowly tidied up the chess pieces on the table. "Before, everyone in the territory had to go all out for survival, and no one had the leisure time, so the order was very good. But now we don't have to do that. The people have begun to have reasonable rest, and the food supply has become abundant. So naturally, the people who are full and have leisure time naturally have to do something to consume their energy. According to the general 'rules', they can only go to bars to drink, and then fight with people in the streets and alleys. If they have more spare money, they will go to seek some prostitution business, or gather people to gamble. In the process, the public security has become worse, worse, but it was not their fault.
"We can't let people work non-stop. The accumulated pressure will only make the public security worse, so we have to give the people some entertainment."
Gwen put away the chess box and looked up at Heti's eyes.
"Chess is a good thing. It can kill time, train one's intellect, and determine victory and defeat. Moreover, the process is very interesting. However, it is unrealistic to expect to rely on chess to solve the security problem. We have to do more.
"We should 'let the people feel satisfied and happy' as a responsibility. This satisfaction should not be limited to simply letting them eat and wear, but also let them enjoy a natural spiritual life.
"In addition to chess, I also improved the rules of the King's Deck. The original King's Deck rules are too complicated, and it is entertainment that only the more knowledgeable can understand. It is not suitable to be promoted to the public, so I simplified it so that the civilians can also master it. I named it the 'Lord's Deck.' In addition, I also thought of several games that can be played indoors. They are not complicated, and they are all very interesting. In addition, we can also remove or limit the gambling elements of the original dice games used for gambling, and promote and publicize them.
"I plan to open a chess room in the fief. It can be integrated with a bar, but it will only provide drinks such as low-alcohol alcohol and sour grass water. Its main function is to relax and entertain the people. In addition, the production cost of these chess cards is very low, and it can be opened to merchants and craftsmen to let them make and sell. This can increase the fief's income, and also make the lives of the people at home richer.
"In addition, for those who don't like to be entertained indoors, I have also thought of several outdoor sports. It can not only release excess energy, but also make our people stronger and more agile. It is not polo or hunting, which are things that only the nobles can afford. I will explain the details to you when I am ready."
Listening to Gwen's ideas one by one, Heti was more and more convinced of these plans in her heart. At the same time, she was deeply aware of the oversight in her previous management of the fief. When the ancestor finally finished, she could not help but ask, "Ancestor, do you mean … you have thought of these things a long time ago?"
"Indeed, I have thought about it a long time ago, but in the early days of the fief, everyone had a problem eating, so naturally, there was no need to consider these things at that time." Gwen smiled and nodded. "Don't underestimate these things. When maintaining order in the fief, and enhancing the happiness of the people, their role is much more than the machines in the factory."
Looking at Heti nodding repeatedly, Gwen sighed softly and said, "Providing cheap and easy-to-satisfy entertainment is only part of improving the happiness of the people and maintaining order. In addition, the construction of the security team is still very important, this is something you should not ignore."
"Yes, I understand."
After Gwen had settled everything, Heti left the living room while Gwen sat alone on the sofa in the living room and quietly pondered.
There would only be more and more people in the fief in the future, and with the continuous development of the magical industry, the resources in the fief would only become more and more abundant. Then, the people would no longer have to worry about their basic livelihood, and enriching the entertainment of the people was a matter of course. After all, entertainment was one of the basic needs of the people after they were full and warm. If you could not provide them with what they want, they would naturally find their own way to satisfy themselves, drinking, brawling, gambling, and so on.
But what Gwen wanted to do was not as simple as promoting a few kinds of entertainment and letting the people have a place to play after they were full.
The population was increasing, the city was expanding, and the number of literate people in the fief was also increasing day by day. It was time to push something that had been brewing for a long time.
He got up and returned to the study.
A large piece of mechanical blueprint was spread out on his desk.
He had started drawing this blueprint a few days ago. Since most of the structure wasn't too complicated, he had almost completed it by now. Only the most important part of it had yet to be completed.
It was a strange-looking machine. It had a transport structure for transporting paper and a large 'cylinder' at the center of the machine. Its transport structure could send the paper to the bottom of the cylinder and let the paper move along with the cylinder. Above the cylinder was an ink wheel for transferring paint and a container for storing ink. It was a simple and primitive printing machine.
A machine that could print continuously and change the world.
Gwen knew that when the people's material life was satisfied, if they could not satisfy their spiritual life in time, then society would inevitably move towards chaos. The greater the mismatch between the spiritual and material life, the greater the chaos.
Therefore, when he realized that the population of his fief was constantly increasing and that the well-fed people needed a spiritual life, he quickly came up with entertainment such as chess, Lord's Card Deck, billiards, and so on to relieve the mental stress caused by the continuous high-intensity work and increase the happiness of everyone living on this land.
But entertainment alone was not enough.
After the forced introduction of general education, there were more and more people with basic reading and writing ability in the fief. At the same time, with the increase in population and the expansion of the city, it was obviously not enough to rely on the original downtown bulletin board and soldier's propaganda to spread ideas. So Gwen thought of the necessity to improve the cultural construction of the fief, increase the strength of propaganda and the means of propaganda.
Since everyone can read, then give them words. This was Gwen's most direct idea.
It was not that the fief did not have printing technology. In fact, this world not only had a mature technology of making paper, but also a mature technology of engraving printing. Currently, the labels on the bottles of the potions produced by the alchemy factory, and the textbooks used by the students in the General College were all made using this printing technology. For the early stage, or even the current cultural construction of the fief, this technology was enough, but for the future Gwen wanted to achieve, this technology was far from enough.
He needed more convenient, easier to edit and implement, and more suitable for mass production to replace these two "workshop technology".
So, he designed such a continuous roller printing press according to his memory and guesses. But now he had to solve a problem — how to make the plates.
How could he use the fastest and most convenient method to convert the edited content into the convex text on the roller, and then print it out?
The traditional engraving process was obviously too slow, and it did not meet his requirements of "easy to operate, easy to edit, and low cost".
To be honest, although Gwen could imagine most of the structure of the printing press, he had no idea how to implement the key technology. Even if his memory was strengthened and he could recall all the knowledge he had seen in his previous life, he could not imagine things that he had never seen before. And he felt that it was useless even if he knew the key technology. Whether it could be implemented in this strange world of physics was still uncertain.
He had to think of a solution from the perspective of magic, but unfortunately, he had not come up with a solution yet.
After pondering for a while in front of the desk, he raised his head and called out to the outside of the study, "Betty!"
The little maid immediately pushed the door open and came in, bowing deeply. "Master!"
"Go and get Rebecca."
A moment later, Cecil's daughter, the countess, came to Gwen's study.
Gwen looked up from the blueprint and saw Rebecca looking at him curiously. The girl's sleeves, hands, and face were full of black stains as if she had just come out of a workshop. He could not help but laugh. "Did you get burned by your own big fireball again?"
"No!" Rebecca quickly waved her hand and explained. "I just came back from the Magitech Research Institute. I haven't had time to wash my face yet. I was studying the 'transmission' you mentioned before …"
"Okay, I'm not blaming you. You were doing something serious." Gwen shook his head with a smile and beckoned her to come closer. "Come here, I have a mission for you."
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