After finishing these, Fang Er casually strolled into the printing workshop and found Xue Zhiqian.
"Is the dictionary done?"
Xue Zhiqian quickly put down the work in his hands and stepped forward to greet him.
"My Lord, we've done a trial printing of one version and are currently correcting errors."
He then walked to a bookshelf, took out a thick dictionary, and handed it over.
Fang Er was somewhat surprised.
"How many characters are in this version of the dictionary?"
He recalled that the Xinhua Dictionary of later generations contained 11,700 Chinese characters, not including their definitions.
"With just a few scholars, the first version is being trial printed in less than two months?"
He took the dictionary handed to him. It was a foot square and at least ten centimeters thick.
Holding it, it felt substantial and very heavy!
The cover had four large characters: "Da Tang Dictionary," also inscribed by Emperor Li Shimin himself.
He flipped through it and glanced at the contents, finding them reasonably detailed.
The only inconvenience was its weight!
This was due to technical limitations, specifically the size of the type molds.
Xue Zhiqian explained from the side.
"My Lord, currently, it only includes five thousand four hundred and sixty-seven Chinese characters."
"Many obscure characters couldn't be found immediately. We'll need to supplement them gradually in the future."
"Only one hundred copies of the first version were trial printed."
Fang Er nodded with satisfaction.
"Well done, keep up the good work!"
"You will surely be recorded in history. I, this Marquis, guarantee it."
"I'll take this dictionary with me."
With that, under Xue Zhiqian's excited gaze, he left the printing workshop.
Carrying the dictionary, he headed straight for Chang'an City.
Outside Chengtian Gate, after the guards announced him, Fang Er pulled out a corner of silver and tossed it to them.
Then, he swaggered into the imperial palace.
Inside Liangji Hall.
"Your Majesty, the floods in Jingyang, Sanyuan, and Gaoling counties have been resolved, with no civilian casualties."
"When Cui Yuanzhong was encased in the cement, thousands of citizens cheered and applauded."
"Cui Xu has been imprisoned, and his wife and daughters have been sold to merchants from Dashí."
"It was investigated that due to the dike breach, the Lu and Fan families respectively questioned the Boling Cui clan and the Qinghe Cui clan."
Listening to Qian Feng's report, Li Shimin's heart was overjoyed.
"It seems I truly misjudged Du Yiyang."
"How is the Ministry of Works progressing with its reorganization?"
Du Yiyang glanced at the notebook in his hand, flipped through a few pages, and read its contents.
"Reporting to Your Majesty, all members of the aristocratic families have been cleared out."
"Currently, apart from the officials in Longxi, all others are of clear background."
Li Shimin nodded slightly and said to Qian Feng.
"Good! I understand. You may withdraw."
Qian Feng collected his notebook, bowed, and exited Liangji Hall.
He happened to meet Fang Er on his way out.
The two simply greeted each other.
Li Shimin was in a very good mood. Seeing Fang Er enter, he chuckled and chided him.
"My boy, what brought you out of your estate?"
Fang Er chuckled and then presented the dictionary to the imperial desk.
Lai Yifa, standing beside the imperial desk, closed his eyes as if in meditation, acting as if he saw nothing.
This person was not to be trifled with.
Li Shimin picked up the thick dictionary and, after casually flipping through a few pages, said to Lai Yifa.
"Lai Zi, summon Lord Fang and Lord Du to the hall."
Fang Er was stunned for a moment. "Wow!"
"You are the Emperor, isn't it a bit inappropriate to address them like that!"
But Lai Yifa seemed accustomed to it. He bowed to Li Shimin and then went out to summon them.
After Lai Yifa left, Fang Er ingratiatingly said to Li Shimin.
"Your Majesty, may I ask you for a few people?"
Li Shimin, still flipping through the dictionary, asked without looking up.
"What people?"
"I have a task, and it requires people who can maintain secrecy and are also quite learned."
"I wonder if there are any suitable candidates in the death row?"
Li Shimin frowned and stared at Fang Er.
"What task?"
"Could it be that you don't trust the people on your own estate?"
Fang Er took out a bullet from his怀 and stepped forward, placing it on the imperial desk.
"Your Majesty misunderstands. It's not that I don't trust them, but they are all busy with their own work."
"This task will take a considerable amount of time and is related to weaponry, requiring a lot of deduction."
Upon hearing that it was related to weaponry, Li Shimin readily agreed.
"They are just a few death row inmates anyway."
"You go to the Ministry of Justice's prison yourself and tell them it's my imperial decree. Bring the person back once the job is done."
"If anything goes wrong, you will be held responsible."
Fang Er wanted death row inmates, and his intention was clear: the selected individuals would be silenced once their task was completed.
Fang Er, seeing Li Shimin agree, happily bowed to him.
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
As soon as this matter was concluded, Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui arrived together.
Before they could salute, Li Shimin pointed to the dictionary on the imperial desk and said.
"The person from the Marquis of Liaodong created this. You two should take a look first."
Fang Er, with keen insight, took the dictionary and handed it to Fang Xuanling.
Upon receiving it and seeing the four characters "Da Tang Dictionary," Fang Xuanling's expression became solemn.
"Dian" was not a word to be used lightly.
Since they dared to use this name, it must have an extraordinary meaning.
Upon opening it, the first page contained only one sentence.
"Study for the rise of the Great Tang!"
"Good!"
Fang Xuanling exclaimed, unable to contain himself.
He then continued to flip through, and saw the table of contents and index.
He could still understand the radicals on it.
However, he didn't understand Pinyin at all.
So, he pointed to the Pinyin and asked Fang Er.
"Marquis Liao Le, what are these squiggly things?"
"Daoist talismans aren't drawn like this, are they?"
Fang Er leaned closer, looking at the Pinyin he was pointing at, and said.
"Lord Fang, there are tens of thousands of characters, and learning them takes too much time."
"I have compiled a set of Pinyin with only a few dozen phonetic symbols."
"As long as you learn these phonetic symbols, you can recognize all the characters in this dictionary."
"Come, the Pinyin you are pointing to is 'zhi wu wo'. Try to connect these three syllables and read them."
Fang Xuanling's interest was piqued. He tried to produce the syllables.
"Zhi wu wo, zhuo?"
"This is quite interesting!"
Du Ruhui also leaned in and tried reading it himself a few times. His eyes lit up.
"Your Majesty, this is a treasure!"
"With this dictionary, as long as one learns the Pinyin, reading will no longer be a difficult task!"
"I propose that this dictionary be widely promoted!"