After breakfast the next day, Gwen took out the proposal he had written the night before and showed it to Heti.
Although it was called a proposal, its content was far more detailed than a proposal. Gwen not only had to write down the plan for the newspaper and the manpower and material resources needed, but he also had to use a lot of space to explain what a newspaper was and what it meant. Lastly, there were a lot of things that might be encountered in the preparation of a newspaper and a lot of things that could be solved …
There was no other way to write such a detailed plan. It was a lesson that Gwen had accumulated since he uncovered the coffin. He found that the biggest problem he had to face when he proposed a new concept in this world was often not whether people would accept it or not. Because he was the founder of a country and had the combat strength to blow off the head of anyone in his territory, he never had to consider the implementation of his words. The real trouble was that most of the time, people did not necessarily understand what he was describing.
When he proposed a new concept, he had to come up with more new terms to describe it, and these new terms might need to be explained in more languages. Some things that he took for granted might require two or even three layers of "translation" in the eyes of the people of this era and world to understand what it was. After encountering such problems several times, he had to write a detailed document before he proposed a new thing, and explain the basic concept and function of the new thing in the document.
Of course, it would take a lot of time in the early stages, but it saved him the effort of explaining the new thing to everyone later. And with a clear document for everyone to read, it could also prevent these things from going wrong after a few rounds of passing through people, which would cause the final realization to be thousands of miles away from his expectations.
"Newspaper?" Heti carefully read the document handed to her by the ancestor. She was now familiar with this kind of information and knew that every time her ancestor took out a stack of things, she had to work hard to understand something unprecedented but quite miraculous. But this time, the thing proposed by her ancestor was more different than usual. It did not seem to be a new arcanotech device, nor a new management concept, but a kind of … extremely cheap … book?
"You can think of it as printing thousands of copies of the things on the bulletin board in the town center and adding some content such as general knowledge of life, new things in and out of the territory, price changes, popular science knowledge, and finally forming a kind of cheap, time-sensitive reading material," Gwen explained and also explained what time-sensitive meant. "Time-sensitive means that the content is recent and only effective in the near future. After a long time, it will lose its usefulness. For example, the price of grain in the last two days, this is time-sensitive information. "
Heti thoughtfully tried to understand Gwen's words. At the same time, Amber, who had been strolling in the dining hall after eating and drinking, suddenly came up to Gwen and looked at him in surprise. "Whoa — after you've driven those pharmacists, alchemists, and miners to their deaths, you've finally decided to kill the information peddlers in and out of the territory?"
Gwen was baffled by her sudden words. "What does this have to do with the information peddlers?"
"Isn't that nonsense? You've printed all these information on this thing called 'newspaper', obviously you want to monopolize the information industry — I learned the word monopoly from you," Amber said, shaking her head. "You really don't leave a way out for others!"
"If these things in the newspaper can be counted as information …" Gwen understood Amber's words. He shook his head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Well, then I'm going to drive these so-called 'information peddlers' to their deaths."
"The role of the newspaper is to let the people learn about the new things around them faster, and at the same time help to spread popular knowledge, general education, and the new regulations and systems of the government office, strengthening the power of the words of the territory's ruler …" Heti did not mind Amber's interruption. Instead, she read the content written by Gwen seriously. She could understand every word, but she could not imagine why the newspaper could be so useful. "Ancestor, don't the bulletin boards in the town have this function?"
"Yes, but the bulletin boards are too limited." Gwen shook his head. "Our population is increasing, and the city is getting bigger and bigger. The efficiency of only relying on the bulletin boards to spread information is obviously too low. And there's one more thing — the number of literate people in the territory is increasing. Being able to read means that they have a stronger ability to accept knowledge and learn skills. The information provided by the bulletin boards is far from enough. "
Heti suddenly remembered what she reported to Gwen yesterday. She asked tentatively, "This … is also related to improving the public security environment?"
"Yes." Gwen nodded slightly. "Reading can make people discern things. The more they know, the more rational they can think about problems and break free from ignorance. I know that many nobles in this era think that the civilians are born barbaric, so they fight, drink, and gamble, but in fact, no one is born barbaric. They just lack the correct correction and the right way to consume energy. "
Amber slipped behind Heti and poked her head out to look at the information written by Gwen. At this time, she suddenly looked up and asked, "But then again … you are really obsessed with letting the civilians' know more '… Is it really necessary to do this?"
Gwen smiled. "Of course it's necessary. I not only want to let the people live a full and warm life, but I also want to let them know why they can live a good life and why they used to be hungry and cold. Only in this way, they can sincerely support Cecil's new order and identify with this land."
Amber looked up with curiosity in her Amber eyes. "Your way of thinking is really different from others."
"I know that no lord has ever thought about this before because they think that the civilians are a weak and ignorant group. As long as the sword and staff are in their hands, they will never worry about the civilians' lives and thoughts. But I don't think so." Gwen smiled. "You have all seen the machines in the factories controlled by the civilians, and you have also seen the new guns and bombs. You should know that when wisdom is used in the right place, the civilians still have the ability to shake the Extraordinary. It's just that for thousands of years, no one has paid attention to their power."
At this time, Rebecca, who had been listening for a long time, suddenly reacted. She stared at Gwen and said, "Ah! Ancestor, I understand now. So the printing machine you showed me yesterday is for this purpose. No wonder you have been emphasizing on convenience and editing … "
"It is indeed for this purpose." Gwen nodded. "Only the new printing machine that can print continuously and quickly meet the requirements of mass circulation and timeliness."
Rebecca scratched her head. "Then it's over. I don't know when the printing machine will be built …"
"It's okay. Don't worry. You can study it slowly." Gwen smiled and waved his hand. "Since we can't do it in one go, let's take it slow. Let's not insist on a daily issue of the newspaper. We can use the method of block printing and start with a weekly issue. For the territory at this stage and the people who have never had cheap reading materials, even a newspaper published every ten days is of great significance. "
This world also had the concept of a 'week', but a week was not seven days. Instead, according to the legend of the earth rising from the sea in ten days in ancient mythology, a week was set as ten days. In this way, there were sixty days in a month, which was exactly six weeks.
In Gwen's view, a 'daily newspaper' was a good thing, but if it could not be realized in the early stage, there was no need to force it. The traditional Ansu engraving printing technique required at least two days from engraving wax plates to making Yangwen clay plates, then printing the paper and drying the ink. Coupled with the lack of experience in the early stages of starting a newspaper, it was difficult to guarantee efficiency and other problems. The time required for a single issue of a newspaper would be even longer, so he simply used the calendar of this world to launch a "weekly newspaper" every ten days. That was completely possible.
In this era, except for Cecil's territory, the development of most areas was slow and monotonous. There was almost no news to speak of outside the territory. Moreover, due to the relatively elementary literacy level of the people in the territory, there was no need for overly complicated and difficult newspaper content. Plus, the territory was only so big, so the news and changes that happened were limited. So, it was reasonable to publish a weekly newspaper.
If there was really any special news, it could also be published as an 'extra'.
"A newspaper is something that needs to be published for a long time, so we need to set up a special department to do this." Gwen saw that Heti had realized the significance of a newspaper, so he continued, "The department that publishes the newspaper can be called a 'newspaper office.' In theory, if the newspaper office develops in the future, and even private newspapers among the people, we will set up a special management department in the government office to deal with cultural and publicity matters. But at this stage, it is enough to set up a newspaper office directly controlled by the government office. There should be editors responsible for the content of the newspaper, 'reporters' to collect news, and … "
Gawain explained everything to Heidi. In fact, these things were also mentioned in the information he had given to Heidi. However, after he explained it in person, Heidi found it easier to understand.
"This needs some learned people to do it." Heti rubbed her eyebrows and began to think of candidates in this regard. "There are certainly no talents in this field among the civilians who have just learned to read and write … The group of scholars that Santis brought back can be considered."
"Those the Captical scholars …" Gwen pondered for a moment. "What are they doing now?"
"Some of them have gone to teach in the school, and I heard that they are doing well. After all, they were selected by Santis, and they are very comfortable here. Some of them are learning runic logic from Jenny and Carmel," Rebecca said. "Some of them are in the Institute of Magical Engineering, and they are very interested in the magic engine. I told them that it was a 'lost ancient technology' from my ancestors, and they are all learning it so hard that they have forgotten to eat and sleep. Other than that, there are a few people who have not been assigned. "
Gwen's mouth curled up. "Not bad. I was worried that the Captical people would not be able to adapt after coming here."
"They're getting used to it." Rebecca giggled. "There are so many new things here. Every one of them is enough for them to study. Also, many of them carry the title of 'lost ancient technology'. Not just the scholars, even the official sorcerers and apprentices are behaving themselves, fearing that I won't let them into the lab. Of course, I think the more important reason is that they have seen Kamel running around the territory with sparks and lightning. They are all stunned … "
Gwen saw that the topic was about to go off track and quickly pulled it back. "Ahem, well, then select a few people from the Captical scholars to prepare the first issue of the newspaper that Cecil received. Heti, I'll leave this matter to you. "
Heti put away the thick stack of information and bowed her head deeply. "Please rest assured."
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