Chapter 177: Hongwu Pinyin was born. The simpler it is, the more reliable it is.

Whatever you were before, I don’t care.”

"But now, I want you to make the structure of the combination lock for me as soon as possible, and then participate in the subsequent improvement of the typesetting machine."

Zhu Gang waved his hand and spoke.

Zhu Gang didn't have the time to delve into the gossip about what kind of instruments Gongshu Qi liked.

After all, for Zhu Gang, the most important thing now is to quickly get his own keyboard to type.

Originally, Zhu Gang was just trying it out, but now with the Gongshu Qi, he has at least a 50% chance of success.

Tread-tap-

Zhu Gang stood up and walked out of the yard, but when he reached the door, he paused slightly.

"Work hard, if you can get what I want in the end."

"From now on, these craftsmen under my command will be under your charge, and I will personally ask His Majesty to grant you a third-rank position in the Ministry of Works."

Zhu Gang put his hands behind his back and said to the craftsmen with his back to them.

"Thank you, Your Highness, the Prince of Jin, for your trust! I will definitely live up to your trust!"

Gongshu Qi said to Zhu Gang.

If it was something else, Gongshu Qi might not dare to make such a boast, but as for the lock, Gongshu Qi was confident that his level was even better than that of his ancestors.

After leaving the courtyard where the machine was made, Zhu Gang fell into deep thought.

Although a lot of money had been obtained from the Mobei grasslands before, the Ming Dynasty was now busy with many affairs, especially the issue of binding the Ming Dynasty's treasure notes to the silver standard had not yet been established.

If the silver-standard treasury silver was deposited there, the Ming Dynasty’s financial resources would be somewhat stretched to carry out large-scale reforms.

"We have to find a way to reduce the cost of typewriters."

Zhu Gang scratched his head slightly.

After all, Zhu Gang didn't get a typewriter just to put it in his home as a tool for quick publicity for the palace.

Instead, the real intention was to promote it and increase the ability to copy and distribute Ming Dynasty knowledge books, so as to reduce the high prices of books and improve the effectiveness of basic education for the people of Ming Dynasty.

Although Zhu Gang had replaced the force transmission rod with wood during the previous debugging, because the gear system must be wear-resistant and precise, it must maintain the material of copper or iron.

Although if the phonetic typewriter is successful, the gear system will be simplified from hundreds to dozens, but the cost is still very high and not something that can be purchased easily.

This is mainly because the typewriter has a complex structure and assembling it requires skilled craftsmen and takes a lot of time.

Zhu Gang can directly cover such costs during the research and development stage, but if it is promoted on a large scale, Zhu Gang cannot always be the scapegoat, otherwise he will lose money on every unit sold.

"Whether or not the phonetic typing can be improved, we have to find a way to turn the typewriter assembly line into an assembly line."

Zhu Gang narrowed his eyes, thinking about something.

Although this typewriter is very complex as a whole, it is nothing more than a gear transmission structure under each key, repeated dozens or hundreds of times.

"Perhaps, I can make the force transmission structure under the button into a separate mass-produced component, so that the transmission components can be directly produced and then assembled together at the end!"

"Inside and out, it's just an extra wooden shell to fix the gear transmission structure!"

"Yes, let's do it this way. Let's go find the boss!"

Zhu Gang suddenly had an idea in his mind and immediately figured out the key to the matter. He immediately decided to go and talk to Zhu Biao.

If Zhu Biao wanted to promote his school throughout the Ming Dynasty, printing books was essential.

Once this printing typewriter appeared, Zhu Biao became the first major customer and the perfect spokesperson to help Zhu Gang promote the printing typewriter throughout the Ming Dynasty.

The two brothers must reach an agreement and work together on this matter.

"Old Third, why are you in the mood to come to me today? Have you finished the final version of your printing and typesetter?"

Zhu Biao looked at Zhu Gang in front of him and couldn't help but smile and asked.

"No, but it should be soon. The most important part is that we have found someone who can solve the problem."

"So, I came here mainly to ask you, Boss, how are things going at the academy?"

Zhu Gang picked up the tea that Chang Qingyun had brewed personally and took a sip.

"The school is progressing very smoothly. After I posted a recruitment notice for craftsmen, farming experts, and skilled female workers, many talented people signed up enthusiastically."

Zhu Biao smiled slightly, feeling extremely proud.

"Oh? So active, are you going to give him an official position in addition to his salary?"

Zhu Gang chuckled and looked at Zhu Biao.

"Hey! As expected, I can't hide it from you. Yes, your method is indeed effective. I just took it directly. Giving a nominal official position can save a sum of money, and it is more attractive."

"By the way, how much does your printing and typesetting machine cost? We should need a batch of them once the school is established."

Zhu Biao coughed dryly, then asked Zhu Gang again.

"I was just about to tell you that."

"If it is the current version, the machine will weigh a thousand kilograms, and most of the weight comes from copper and iron. It is very expensive. I have tested the typesetting efficiency. A typesetter who can find the position skillfully can type out a thousand words in an hour at the maximum."

Zhu Gang put down the teacup and said to Zhu Biao.

"So fast!"

Zhu Biao was slightly shocked.

With the current printing and typesetting capabilities of the Ming Dynasty, even the most skilled worker using a rotary typesetter would need several hours to typeset a thousand words. After all, no matter how skilled you are, it takes time to spin the wheel.

“Is this fast?”

"If my latest printing typewriter can be built, a skilled person may be able to produce 10,000 words in an hour. Most importantly, the weight of the new version will be only one-tenth of the current one."

Zhu Gang looked at Zhu Biao with a hint of smile in his eyes.

"what?"

“How did you do it? Why was it possible to increase efficiency tenfold while reducing material usage tenfold?”

Zhu Biao stared with eyes full of disbelief.

In his impression, if you want to achieve a stronger effect, you need a more sophisticated and complex design, and paying more is inevitable.

After all, there is no free lunch in the world. Is it possible to have your cake and eat it too?
"Isn't that strange? When I design things, my motto is that the simpler, the more reliable."

“The fewer repetitive unit structures there are, the less likely it is that a machine will fail because of a broken part.”

“To put it bluntly, what I did was to update the design of the repeating unit so that one unit could take on more work.”

Zhu Gang had a sunny smile on his face.

"what are you thinking?"

Zhu Biao asked with great curiosity.

"It's actually very simple. I abandoned the design of one word per grid on the operating panel." Zhu Gang raised his head, a gleam in his eyes.

"You abandoned the characters? How can you choose the characters if you don't put them on top? Did you replace the common characters with common words, make a rough semi-finished product first, and then ask people to make up for it? But it seems that there are more common words than common characters, right?"

Zhu Biao was a little confused. For a moment he couldn't figure out how Zhu Gang did it.

"Well, that's a good idea. Characters are fewer than words. Why do you think characters are fewer than words?"

Zhu Gang said with a smile.

"Is there any need to ask? Words are made up of characters. Wait... do you mean you..."

Having said this, Zhu Biao suddenly stopped and looked up at Zhu Gang.

"That's right. I changed the design of the above operation from characters to the basic pronunciation of our Ming Dynasty Mandarin. Every time a sound is typed, the pronunciation lock at the word prompt will be triggered once. When the sound of a character is completely typed out and output, all the ciphertexts will automatically reset."

Zhu Gang said this, no longer in a hurry to keep the secret, and took out a piece of paper from his pocket.

"Look, this is the Ming Pinyin I designed, which represents the basic pronunciation of Ming Mandarin. Once you master this, you can use my printing typewriter to do typesetting."

Zhu Gang pointed at the spread-out Ming Pinyin and said to Zhu Biao.

Swah——

Zhu Biao snatched the Ming Pinyin and looked at it carefully. This version was not for the people below him, but was made specifically for Zhu Biao. Each pronunciation was marked with the same character as that pronunciation, so Zhu Biao could understand it clearly.

"Yes, this is a good thing, a good thing. Even if you don't use it for typing, you can use it to teach people to read and write more easily."

"But there is a problem here. Some characters have the same pronunciation. Is there a distinction?"

Zhu Biao found the problem after a little thought.

"If the tones are different, there will be a distinction. The last ciphertext of each ciphertext lock represents the tone. If they are exactly the same, I plan to design a word storage area before directly entering the typesetting."

"If there is only one character that falls, it will be directly moved to the storage area. If there are multiple homophones, they will be stuck together because of the small layer of magnetic structure I designed on the side of the movable type. After selection, the selected character will be typeset, and the remaining waste characters will be pushed into the waste character area, waiting to be manually sorted into the typesetting font library again."

Zhu Gang began to explain.

"Isn't this something you can choose?"

Zhu Biao was a little dumbfounded. He had originally planned to pat Zhu Gang on the shoulder and tell him that he had done a good job and that it didn't need to be perfect. The imperfections of the machine could be directly supplemented manually.

As a result, Zhu Biao never expected that Zhu Gang could even solve such a problem.

In fact, Zhu Biao didn’t know that the matter of the character storage area was something Zhu Gang had just thought of when he was communicating with Zhu Biao just now.

Otherwise, according to his original idea, he was going to set up a priority cipher lock and let the workers memorize the homophonic priority and pinyin comparison table.

But it seems that this is not necessary now. After returning, he can directly draw the design of the storage area to Gong Shuqi.

"Okay, boss, I've said almost everything I need to say. I should go back and keep an eye on it. I think you should understand the importance of promoting Ming Pinyin to help the people learn to read. I'll leave this matter to your school."

Zhu Gang stood up and said goodbye to Zhu Biao.

"Okay, Third Brother, I'll take care of the Ming Pinyin issue."

Zhu Biao patted his chest and assured.

"Third brother, Gongshu Qi is outside asking to see you."

Just after returning to her room in Prince Jin's Mansion, Xie Yuer walked out and said to Zhu Gang.

"Public Transmission Device?"

"Why did he come to me?"

"Is there something wrong?"

Zhu Gang was a little stunned. He didn't expect that Gongshu Qi would come to him just after he chatted with Zhu Biao for a while.

"Let him in."

Zhu Gang waved his hand, straightened his clothes slightly, put on a dignified attitude, and said to the guards at the gate.

"I, Gongshu Qi, greet His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin and His Majesty the Princess of Jin!"

Gongshu Qi entered the room and bowed deeply to Zhu Gang and Xie Yuer.

"Gongshu Qi, is there any problem with what I asked you to do? How come you have time to chat with me?"

Zhu Gang stared at Gongshu Qi and spoke calmly.

"Your Highness, I have accomplished my mission. I have completed the first version of the combination lock that Your Highness asked me to create. I am here to ask for your advice on how to improve and utilize it in the future."

Gongshu Qi said respectfully to Zhu Gang.

"what?"

"So fast?"

Even Zhu Gang showed a hint of surprise on his face, and even suspected that Gongshu Qi was playing a trick on him.

"In reply to your Highness, I have said before that I have studied the relevant direction, but I was at a loss when it came to the key point. Fortunately, with your Highness's guidance, I have modified the original and got a preliminary version. Therefore, I came here to ask Your Highness Prince Jin to review it."

As Gongshu Qi spoke, he took out a small lock from his bosom and presented it to Zhu Gang.

Zhu Gang took it and looked at it carefully. On the several dials were the numbers "zero" to "nine" in Ming Dynasty small seal script. It was not much different from the combination locks of later generations in Zhu Gang's impression. The only difference might be that its appearance was a lock hanging on the door.

"This... ahem, it really needs to be changed."

"Your idea is great. You can directly produce and sell it after the Ming Dynasty, but you can't participate in what happens next."

"Also, this rotary cipher lock is actually an example I told you. If you want to use it later, you need to change it into a trigger-type cipher lock, which is directly triggered by the transmitted power. If the required cipher triggers correctly, the lock will be unlocked to release the contents. Moreover, the lock cannot be a door lock shape, but must be integrated with the exit as a cipher switch."

"Do you understand it?"

Zhu Gang was a little embarrassed. He didn't expect Gongshu Qi to be so quick. He directly made out the rotary type mentioned in order to explain the principle. But it was not a loss. He could make a lot of money by selling this secret code lock to those wealthy businessmen.

"I will follow your Highness' orders!"

Gongshu Qi bowed and left, but he was already immersed in thinking about how to make improvements.

After all, in his opinion, Zhu Gang's ideas and thoughts were ingenious, but his statements and descriptions were not rigorous, and he needed to work them out rigorously in order to live up to Zhu Gang's expectations.

Looking at Gongshu Qi's departing back, Zhu Gang's eyes revealed a complicated look. History is really a clever and complicated thing.

Gongshu Qi almost invented the combination lock hundreds of years ahead of time, but this very point blocked his original destiny, causing him to waste his entire life and unable to succeed.

"Third brother, it's getting late, let's have a meal and rest."

Xie Yuer pinched Zhu Gang's shoulders and said.

"No, I have something else to do."

Zhu Gang shook his head slightly.

Finally, Gongshuqi was sent away. This guy was so efficient. Zhu Gang had to come up with the design of the word storage area as soon as possible, otherwise there would be nothing for Gongshuqi next time.

Others are bosses who take advantage of their employees, but he is taken advantage of by his employees because they are too aggressive. This is something you have never seen before.

(End of this chapter)