Chapter 222 From the Great Road to the Simple
"So you are the former general of the State of Han and the junior mentor of the State of Zhao who defeated the Qin army not long ago." After hearing Yang Chong's self-introduction, Mo Ban walked forward and looked at Yang Chong with curiosity.

Although Yang Chong's activities were limited to Han and Zhao, his reputation had already spread to the Seven Kingdoms and various schools of thought.

Apart from anything else, whether he was the former general of the Kingdom of Han or the current junior teacher of the Kingdom of Zhao, they have actually stood at the pinnacle of power in a country. No country can ignore such high-level bureaucrats. Of course, if it were just these, it would not attract too much attention from the various schools of thought, but Yang Chong's identity is not just as simple as an official.

Paper and printing technology came into being through Yang Chong. The emergence of these two technologies was too important for the various schools of thought that competed with each other for dominance in the cultural world. Paper and printing technology alone were enough for them to treat Yang Chong as a guest of honor.

As for the reason?

If the various schools of thought wanted to spread their doctrines more widely, recruit more disciples and have greater influence, they needed the support of paper and printing. The emergence of these two things allowed them to reduce the cost of training disciples to a minimum, and the reduction in costs meant that they could recruit more disciples with the same resources.

Although the competition among the various schools of thought took various forms, including literary and physical battles, from the imperial court to the underworld, in the final analysis, all the struggles between them were struggles among people.

With people, you have everything.

There is strength in numbers, and this is not an exaggeration.

"It's just a little fame, not worth mentioning." Yang Chong looked at the people in front of him and was quite satisfied.

This team of Mohist disciples consists of more than sixty people, and they are led by Mohist masters such as Mo Ban and Master Xu. It can be seen that the Mohist school attaches great importance to his invitation.

Nowadays, there are not many people in the Mohist school who can concentrate on studying the various skills left by the founder Mozi. Mo Ban and Master Xu are considered to be the best among them, and the skills they are proficient in are exactly what Yang Chong needs.

Mo Ban is proficient in Mohist mechanical techniques. Although many of them are secrets that are not passed on, Yang Chong does not want those top technologies of Mohist now. He invited Mo Ban to come so that he can use his foundation to manufacture various farm tools that exist in his memory.

In Yang Chong's memory, when he was a child, he had seen various machines used in agricultural production. Those machines were made of simple wood and iron sheets, and had everything from sowing to harvesting. Although they were not very advanced, they were definitely many times more efficient than manual labor.

Yang Chong invited Mohist School to come just for the agricultural machinery that existed in his memory.

The use of machinery can allow more young and strong people to step out of agricultural production. At that time, it will be a good choice for Yang Chong to use this extra manpower, whether for combat or for the construction of various projects.

As for Master Xu, he is equally important to Yang Chong. Master Xu is honored as the Sword Master in the Mohist School, and this title is also recognized by all the schools of thought. He is the only living person today who can forge a famous sword.

What Yang Chong needed was certainly not a so-called famous sword. He already had some Taia swords, so it was useless to have a so-called famous sword. What he wanted was another technology that Master Xu mastered: smelting.

Master Xu is a master swordsmith, but that doesn't mean that Master Xu is not good at smelting. On the contrary, if you want to forge a sword, it's not enough to just hammer it in the sword furnace. That's just one step. In addition, sword-making has to go through a smelting process. After all, the materials for sword-making are not naturally that way. No matter what material is used to forge the sword, smelting is a necessary process to convert ore into metal.

It would be strange if Master Xu, a master swordsmith, said that he did not know the art of smelting.

Although Yang Chong did not need a famous sword, he needed a huge amount of fine iron. Iron is an important criterion for measuring a country's strength even two thousand years later. Its importance is self-evident.

In Yang Chong's memory, there are also many smelting techniques, but Yang Chong only has a general understanding of those techniques. He does not know the specific details. People who are not professionals really do not know those things.

To put it in a less nice way, Yang Chong is good at everything, but he is not good at anything.

Fortunately, Yang Chong does not have to do everything himself. For many things, he only needs to use his knowledge that far exceeds this world. After drawing a direction, he can recruit talents in related fields and use professionals to do professional things.

Just like now he invited all the Mohists to Dong'a City.

When Yang Chong was looking at the Mohist people, they were also looking at their employer Yang Chong.

The young Mohist disciples saw Yang Chong's success and their eyes were filled with envy, while Mo Ban and Master Xu looked at Yang Chong with scrutiny.

Although they accepted Yang Chong's invitation, they were in a collaborator relationship. However, their status in this relationship was equal. As team leaders, they had enough reasons to get to know Yang Chong clearly.

The Mohist School has collected a lot of information about Yang Chong. After all, Yang Chong is now famous all over the world, and it is impossible for the Mohist School not to pay attention to Yang Chong.

It was also during this investigation that Mo Ban and Master Xu learned a lot of things, but they did not know that Yang Chong had killed a leader of the Mohist school in Xinzheng, South Korea.

Back then, Yan Dan intervened in the Nong family's action against Yang Chong without authorization, hoping to win the Nong family's favor. However, he never imagined that Yang Chong, whom he regarded as the prey, was the real hunter. Almost all of their people were wiped out. If it were not for the Mohist leader Six-Fingered Black Knight who was sent by his side to protect his safety, he would have lost his own life.

Although Yan Dan saved his life, the leader of the Mohist School was killed by Yang Chong. Yan Dan could only tell his master Six-Fingered Black Knight about this matter. As for the other people in the Mohist School, Yan Dan did not dare to tell them. Not only him, but even his master Six-Fingered Black Knight did not tell the Mohist disciples about this matter, but chose to conceal it.

As for the reason? We have to talk about the dispute over succession within the Mohist school.

The Six-Fingered Black Knight accepted Yan Dan, a crown prince, as his disciple, and even had the hidden intention of training him to be the next great master. Regarding this matter, there were more people who opposed it than those who supported it within the Mohist school. Even if the Six-Fingered Black Knight used his authority as a great master, he could not unify the voices within the Mohist school.

After so many years of development, the Mohist School is no longer like when it was first established, with disciples coming from the lower classes. Even today, it has recruited children from the royal families of the seven countries, but it has never accepted a crown prince as its disciple, and even wants to train him to be the heir of a giant.

Because ordinary royal disciples and a prince of a country are two completely different creatures. Royal disciples are just good words, but whether they can get involved in the power field is still a question, but a prince of a country is different, he is the one who will inherit the throne of a country. If a prince of a country becomes a leader of the Mohist school, when he inherits the throne of his country, doesn't it mean that the ruler of a country becomes the leader of the Mohist school? At that time, the Mohist school is no longer the Mohist school, but a vassal of the king. This kind of thing is unacceptable to most people in the Mohist school.

Although the various schools of thought had cooperated with the Seven Kingdoms, and many of their disciples served as officials in the courts of the Seven Kingdoms, none of them became a complete subject of one country.

At this time, there were too many people within the Mohist school who were worried that once Yan Dan became a leader of the Mohist school and inherited the throne of Yan, the Mohist school would be completely tied to the Yan state.

That is a situation that none of the Mohist leaders want to see.

Because, when he learned that a leader loyal to him died at the hands of Yang Chong because of Yan Dan, the Six-Fingered Black Knight chose to conceal the matter. He knew very well that once the matter was known by the leaders of the Mohist School, regardless of whether Yang Chong would be hunted down by the Mohist School or not, the leaders who were already opposed to Yan Dan would have even more sufficient reasons, and it would be even more impossible for Yan Dan to inherit the position of the leader of the Mohist School.

As for revenge, the six black heroes, as the last masters who may become masters in the Mohist school in the past fifty years, have enough confidence to take down Yang Chong without the help of the Mohist school.

Therefore, in the eyes of Mo Ban and Master Xu at this time, Yang Chong is a real young talent and someone who can become their Mohist friend.

However, they could hear arrogance in Yang Chong's humble words at this time. Of course, they did not care about it because Yang Chong had enough capital to be proud of.

"If the young master is just a bit of a name, then we, who are already old, would be ashamed." Mo Ban joked. He was a humorous person by nature, not to mention that their Mohist school and Yang Chong would have a lot of cooperation in the future.

"Okay, let's not waste any more time. You all have come from far away, and I have prepared a banquet. If you have anything to say, we can talk while we eat." Yang Chong stepped aside to make way.

“Then it would be disrespectful to refuse.” Mo Ban took two steps forward and seemed to be on par with Yang Chong, but in fact he lagged behind by a little. It can be said that he accepted Yang Chong’s invitation, but did not want to take the place of the host.

It has to be said that a person who has lived to such an old age knows everything. Even if he is a cynical old man in his daily life, it is just that he has not met someone who can make him serious.

The former palace of the King of Qi had been transformed by Yang Chong into an official residence in front and a mansion in the back. The front hall and the attics were the official residences of the six ministries, while the back hall and the palaces were Yang Chong's home.

The place where Yang Chong entertained all the Mohist disciples was in the side hall on the east side of the mansion.

As the host, Yang Chong directly arranged Mo Ban and Master Xu to sit beside him. He knew very well that these two were real technology fanatics. To them, fine wine, delicious food and beautiful women were not as interesting as a few blueprints.

Therefore, although Yang Chong arranged fine wine and delicious food, he did not arrange any beautiful women. Instead, he prepared to use a few drawings to liven up the atmosphere.

"This is..." Mo Ban looked at the simple blueprint in his hand and was quite unimpressed. The machine in the blueprint was too simple. It could only be regarded as a simple machine. Even a disciple who did not need to learn the basics of Mohist mechanical engineering could draw such a blueprint. He was a master of mechanical engineering who could turn decay into magic. How could he take such a childish machine seriously?

However, his indifference lasted only for a moment, and soon he noticed the unusualness in it. If he didn't see it, he would be unworthy of his title as a master of mechanical engineering.

The machine in the drawing was too simple, but its simplicity forced Mo Ban to be more serious.

His attainments in mechanical engineering were certainly very good, but if he wanted to build a mechanical beast, he would have to spend a lot of energy and various precious materials. The mechanical beasts produced by him must be the best of the best.

Mo Ban is very clear about this. There are two reasons why mechanical engineering, a technology that can turn decay into magic, cannot be mass-produced. One is that it is restricted by materials, and the other is that the technology is too advanced and cannot be mastered by ordinary people.

However, the blueprint Yang Chong showed at this time had no such restrictions. The mechanical structure in the blueprint was simple, and the most precious material used was just a few pieces of iron. However, its use...

Mo Ban's eyes subconsciously turned to the several annotations on the corners of the drawing.

This is actually a machine used for farming?
Various information echoed in Moban's mind. Based on his experience, he quickly came to the conclusion that this was indeed a machine used for sowing.

Although Mo Ban had never farmed before, he knew what the farming process was like. He knew that once this kind of machine was really manufactured and promoted, its influence would be much more far-reaching than the mechanical beast he created that was at the level of the Four Sacred Beasts.

"What is this?" Mo Ban looked at Yang Chong suspiciously. How could Yang Chong have such a thing?
"They are just some small designs, but some of the details cannot be perfected by my imagination, so I have to trouble Master Ban to perfect them and help me turn them from fantasy into reality." Yang Chong said frankly.

"I wonder how many people will benefit from Young Master's fantasy." Squad Leader Mo sighed. For a moment, he felt that he had lived a dog's life for most of his life.

These people seemed to have misunderstood the original intention of the founder Mozi in creating the mechanical arts. They only wanted to create mechanical beasts as advanced as the Four Sacred Beasts, and regarded them as the highest realm of the mechanical arts.

But they forgot that the original intention of the founder Mozi in creating mechanical technology was to serve people and to make people live a better life. They also overlooked a truth.

The more advanced and complex the mechanical technology is, the better it is.

As the saying goes, the truth is simple, and the same is true for mechanical engineering.

Over the years, the Mohist mechanical arts could not reproduce the heights that they had when their founder Mozi led the Mohist school. Instead, they lost a lot. Their eyes were only looking upwards, but they ignored the foundation, so that the influence of the Mohist mechanical arts became smaller and smaller, and there was even a trend of being overtaken by the Gongshu school.

Only then did Mo Ban realize that the Mohist mechanical technology had become out of touch with reality.

(End of this chapter)