Chapter 346: Chapter 217: Never Underestimate Xiao Shi
Zhao Yao knew the emperor’s rewards were not given with good intentions because the emperor gifted him several new books authored by the emperor himself and required him to memorize them all. If he couldn’t, he would be punished with copying them.
Because of this, Zhao Yao hated the emperor, his annoying father, even more. If possible, he genuinely wished he could have a different father.
The emperor loved teasing his youngest son, and every time he saw his little son’s angry face, he found it amusing.
Sun Kui felt that the emperor was always bullying the tenth prince, and the more he bullied him, the more the tenth prince would hate his father. He kindly reminded the emperor not to bully the tenth prince too much, but the emperor didn’t care at all. He even said that it’s best to bully him while he’s young because once he grows up, it wouldn’t be as fun.
In the emperor’s words, sons are only fun and easy to bully when they’re young; once grown, they’re no longer fun.
Among all the princes, only Zhao Yao, the youngest son, was frequently bullied by the emperor. The other princes weren’t subjected to such malicious teasing from the emperor. Sun Kui couldn’t figure out whether the emperor liked or disliked the tenth prince.
Some might say the emperor liked the tenth prince, yet he always bullied him to the point of almost tears. But if you say the emperor disliked him, the emperor had given his Jade Pendant to the tenth prince.
Regardless of whether the emperor liked the tenth prince or not, the tenth prince was so pitifully bullied. Sun Kui felt quite sympathetic towards Zhao Yao in his heart.
Zhao Yao had lost hope in the emperor, his annoying father. He only wished to grow up quickly, become an adult, then be appointed a noble title and move far away from his annoying father.
A few days after the new paper was made, Xiao Fengzi had created all the characters used in daily life, and soon Zhao Yao developed the movable type printing technology.
The emergence of movable type printing caused quite a stir.
The fourth prince and eighth prince didn’t expect that Zhao Yao’s mysterious work during this time was actually the printing technology. With printing technology, books no longer needed to be painstakingly transcribed by hand and could be directly printed into books.
The biggest drawback of movable type printing is that it wasn’t cost-effective for printing a few books, but it became very economical and labor-saving when printing hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of books.
The ministers couldn’t believe that the movable type printing was developed by the tenth prince because Zhao Yao had always seemed like a not-so-bright prince when it came to studying. Though the tenth prince had previously created the stirrup, movable type printing was... well, making a stirrup required just two iron rings and a rope, whereas movable type printing was exceedingly complex.
Regardless of whether the ministers believed it or not, movable type printing was indeed produced by Zhao Yao.
Thinking back to when he created new paper, and only received a few new imperial books as a reward, Zhao Yao wasn’t hopeful about receiving any reward for the movable type printing. However, this time the emperor was a bit reliable and rewarded Zhao Yao with plenty of gold and silver jewelry, as well as a villa, though it wasn’t a hot spring manor.
All the hot spring manors on the outskirts of the capital had already been given away by the emperor.
Although it wasn’t a hot spring manor, it was at least a Royal Villa, and Zhao Yao was already quite satisfied.
Speaking of the manor, his manor in Dahua Village had been completed. Recently, the children adopted by Liang Run at the health center had all gone to the Dahua Village manor.
Although Liang Run wasn’t in the capital, he had already entrusted these matters to Liang Guan to arrange.
Liang Guan did not disappoint Liang Run and Zhao Yao, arranging everything in an orderly manner.
Mr. Xiao’s three friends also went to the Dahua Village manor, continuing to educate those children in literacy. Mr. Xiao’s three friends were responsible for teaching the children to read and write, while other teachers instructed them in various other skills.
He Lianfang assigned two people to train the children at the Dahua Village manor, training them as soldiers. Apart from teaching them martial arts, they also taught them horseback riding and archery, and even taught them military strategy.
Earlier, Zhao Yao had asked Liang Run to find a few old doctors to teach some children medicine.
Some of these children had talents in medicine, some in studying, some in martial arts, some in military strategy, and some in business... They were taught according to their talents.
He Lianfang also sent his people to gather many orphans without parents for Zhao Yao. The qualifications of these orphans had been assessed by He Lianfang’s people and were found to be quite good.
Moreover, He Lianfang also assigned people to train some children to become spies, including both boys and girls. Additionally, He Lianfang sent people to train some children to become a suicide squad.