Rome Must Fall

The face in front of him was quite similar to that of the Iberian pirate captain, but without the vicissitudes of life, and unusually young. Maximus blinked his eyes: "Of course I believe you, but your father took the initiative to mention this matter a month ago. Is your village so far from here?"

As soon as these words came out, the boy's high spirits were immediately deflated. He didn't dare to look at Maximus again, and stammered: "Actually... I set out a long time ago, but when I was about to reach your camp, I happened to encounter the Pannonian army surrounding your camp, so I... I lived in Uncle Budokaribas's village for a while.

I finally waited until the Pannonians retreated, and I wanted to come to you, but Uncle Budokaribas said that you had experienced a long battle and had a lot of things to do, so I... I waited for a few more days, but I didn't expect you to move here soon, because moving would be even busier, so I... "" Rojimnishus, 伱 is a child who can consider it! You do this right. If you have a problem, I ca n’t explain to your father. Tell me, "Roomnishus did not feel guilty, and immediately showed a look of eagerness:" You can rest assured, I can reach the village of my house within 7 days. For the time being, you will take him to the situation of the tribe these days. …

Just then, Capito walked into the hall: "Chief, what's the matter that you are looking for me so urgently?"

Maximus put away his thoughts and said: "Oh, it's like this. I forgot something at the meeting of the Political Affairs Hall the day before yesterday, and you forgot it too. Today I suddenly remembered it, so I hurried to find you to discuss it."

"What is it?"

"Paper, paper for writing! Whether it is for the offices of various departments, the work of various workshops, or the children's study, if there is a large amount of paper, it will become very convenient. Since we can no longer get papyrus, we will make paper ourselves."

Capito then remembered what he mentioned before, looking at the confident young leader, he asked doubtfully: "What do we need to do to make paper?"

Maximus did not answer immediately. He looked around: "Cassius, Minas, Wallace, the three of you go out first."

The three teenagers left the hall obediently.

Then Maximus said solemnly: "According to my method, it should be faster and more labor-saving to produce a large amount of paper with much better quality than papyrus. It will become the unique wealth of our tribe, so the process of making paper will be the most important secret of our Nix tribe!

You must not only keep this secret strictly yourself, but also let those craftsmen who are selected to make paper keep this secret. Once someone violates it, the tribe will impose severe punishment. Can you do it?!"

Maximus said it very solemnly, which made Capito feel a lot of pressure, but he was excited in his heart: because the more Maximus showed his importance to this, the more it showed that he really had a way to make paper!

Capito also responded solemnly: "Chief, I understand. After I go back, I will immediately formulate a set of methods to prevent the leakage of papermaking process and submit it to you for review. If this really happens one day, I will have no complaints no matter how the tribe punishes me!" Maximus looked at him for a moment and said in a deep voice: "Very good, I will do as you say!" Maximus asked Capito to sit down first, and then said: "The reason why I want to take precautions first is that the process of papermaking is relatively simple, but no one has thought of it before..." Capito sat upright and listened to Maximus with expectation. He was educated since childhood and realized that if the method mentioned by the chief could succeed, it would greatly facilitate the dissemination of knowledge in the tribe. "The whole process of papermaking is like this..." Maximus searched for the memory of his previous life in his mind, and said slowly: "First, collect pieces of bark, boil water, and then wash the boiled bark in the river water to remove the hard shell and impurities on the surface of the bark... Then put it in a pool filled with lime water to soak for two or three days, then pick it up and use water to wash the lime water in the bark, then chop the bark and mash it into paste... Then pour the pulp into a stone trough filled with clean water, and stir it repeatedly with a wooden stick to mix the pulp and water evenly... Then we have to make some wooden frames, stretch the finely woven linen cloth on the wooden frames, put the linen wooden frames into the stone trough and pick them up, the water will automatically flow out, and the pulp will be spread in the wooden frames... Next, spread the felt on the wooden frames, press hard for a while, so that the water in the pulp is absorbed, and the pulp will be more tightly bonded... Finally, take the wooden frames to the sun to dry, and gently peel the pulp from the wooden frames. At this time, it has become a piece of paper that can be written..."

Capito listened attentively while remembering. After listening, he recalled it carefully and said: "Chief, can you say it again? I don't remember some parts clearly."

Maximus patiently repeated it again, and after Capito said it was completely clear, he reminded: "There are several points that need to be paid attention to during the papermaking process... One is the choice of bark, here There are many kinds of trees on the mountains. You need to explore which trees are suitable for paper making and which are not.

My suggestion is that the bark is white, slender, soft, and tough, and should be the best material for making paper. The other is that we need to add a binder to the tree pulp—"

"Adhesive?" Capito was confused by this unfamiliar term.

"Uh...it's a sticky liquid like snot. Mix it into the tree sap, so that after the tree sap is mixed with water, it will not sink to the bottom of the water, but will float on the water surface, making it easier for us to pick it up with a wooden frame. And with this kind of adhesive, the texture of the paper will be tighter and less likely to break after it is made into paper...

Uh... you can send people to search the mountains to see which grasses, flowers, shrubs and other plants have thicker sap and are easy to pick. Then you can extract it and use it as glue for paper making. mixture.

By the way, you can also ask Emmerich. He is a Druid and is familiar with every plant and tree here. He should be able to tell you the correct answer...

In short, what I am talking about are the basic steps of papermaking. If you want to make paper and make good paper, the craftsmen responsible for papermaking need to work tirelessly to practice and explore! You can tell them that if they successfully create paper that can be written on, the tribe will promote them all to one level as recognition of their significant contributions! "

"Chief, don't worry, with these papermaking processes and suggestions you gave, I believe that the craftsmen will be able to make paper!" Capito was not complimenting, because after listening to Maximus's words, he felt that this The young leader was not just talking casually, but had very careful steps and very high feasibility, which made him very curious: "Chief, I would like to ask where did you learn this method of making paper? "

Maximus smiled mysteriously: "If I said that a god told me in my dream, would you believe it?"

Capito was stunned for a moment, but when he thought about it carefully, a storm surged in his heart...

After getting along day and night for more than a year, he knew the details of this young leader very well: he was a domestic slave of a Roman civilian noble, and later became a gladiator slave. He had never left Campania since he was a child, and There is no one in Italy who can make new paper. Rome has to import a large amount of papyrus from Egypt every year. Where did an ordinary young slave learn the papermaking technology? !

...If you think about it carefully, Maximus's life in the first nineteen years was no different from that of thousands of domestic slaves in Rome, but since he followed those gladiators to launch a riot, he has become completely different from other people. . When other leaders were plundering everywhere, he calmed down and reformed his troops; when other leaders were afraid of attacking the city, he repeatedly made clever plans to capture two cities in a row; when other leaders were dazzled by victory, At that time, he clearly saw the general trend and came here resolutely with his team; not to mention the political hall meeting, the twenty-nobility system... these unprecedented systems he created for the tribe!

Is this what a slave who has just grown up can do! Maybe he was really loved by the gods and taught by the gods? !

The way Capito looked at Maximus became different.

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"Hi, my name is Akago, what's your name -" Akago asked enthusiastically as soon as he left the hall, but then he stopped because he realized that the other person could not understand Latin, and he had not yet He learned the Illyrian dialect, so he scratched his head in embarrassment.

Unexpectedly, the young man replied in a slightly stiff Latin: "Hello, Akago, my name is Logimnisius."

Seeing Akago's surprised look, he explained slightly complacently: "My mother is Latin, and I can speak Latin, otherwise my father wouldn't have sent me here."