Chapter Fifty-Three: Comparison (Part Two)

  "But no."

  "Big brother, something's wrong."

  "Little sister, don't interrupt. Second brother, think about it, that kid's strange things on the riverbank, and the bread, and the monkey, and other weird stuff. So when he calls, we go together. We're all being teased by him."

  "Yes, this kid is a bad guy," said Weide.

  "Where is that monkey?"

  "Little sister, we brought some fruit, hurry up and go eat it in the living room, if you're late mom will save them all for your fourth brother."

  Pan Lian'er entered the house.

  "Just you wait, next time I'll beat him up."

  "Lao San, you can't beat him, if you fight, I'm almost there."

  "Second brother, don't mess around, I still feel something is off."

  "Something is wrong."

  "Second brother, compare Song Jiu with Zhang Jia's young master."

  "What right does he have to compare them."

  "We don't mention the little sister's marriage, just talk about their heights. First, let's compare their family backgrounds. Song Jiu's father was under my father, and Zhang Bing was also under my father. The difference is that General Zhang is still alive, so his family background is better. Song Jiu's father has passed away, so his family background has declined somewhat. In terms of family background, the Song family is not as good as the Zhang family."

  "Yes, otherwise Mother would not have intentionally let Little Sister..."

  "Second brother, don't be impatient. Family background is just one part of it, we also need to look at the individual... Your Majesty's family background wasn't very good in the past either..." Pan Weigong didn't dare say any more. Zhao Kuangyin had gone through a difficult period when he was young, very difficult indeed. His father was a low-ranking military officer, but after the Khitan people entered the capital, although they didn't kill many people, they plundered and pillaged on a large scale, causing the lives of the common people in the capital to become increasingly difficult. Zhao Kuangyin grew up, Zhao Kuangyi was born, and there were also two daughters. Perhaps Song Taizu couldn't understand this feeling, but in this era, for families with many children, the eldest son was always the most miserable one. The father wouldn't show affection, the mother wouldn't love him, and his younger sister would often scold him a few words. Even later when Zhao Kuangyin became emperor, he was already a great general, but when he wanted to return home to find some warmth, his younger sister chased him out of the house with a rolling pin, shouting: "A great man should make decisions based on his own heart, why come back and scare the women!"

  At home, idle and penniless, with many family members, living in poverty, old and young crowded together, Zhao Kuangyin was forced to leave home and flee. He first went to his father's good friend Dong Zongben in Suizhou, but Zhao Kuangyin's abilities made Dong Zongben uneasy, so he drove him away. Then he relied on his father's former subordinate Wang Yan-chao, who was very pleased to see him, had a meal with him, and directly gave him several strings of cash, sending him off. So this good emperor is not easy to be, Zhao Kuangyin must have thought about this matter with hatred in his heart, but he still had to use Wang Yan-chao, an enemy, Liu Bang had done it before, Li Shimin had done it before, only Zhu Yuanzhang had not done it.

  The world is so big, there's nowhere to go. Zhao Kuangyin had been drifting outside for a whole year. Whether he had stolen chickens or dogs during this year, no one knew. All they knew was that when he appeared in front of Guo Wei with his last hope, his clothes were tattered and his face was pale, making Guo Wei disbelieve that he was the son of an official family. His father's benefactor, who had only met his father once, immediately took Zhao Kuangyin in and even made him a personal soldier.

  Zhao Kuangyin was so unremarkable before the age of twenty-one, even incompetent, not as good as Song Jiu before the age of seventeen. However, once he shone, he began to dazzle people.

  Pan Weigong is not referring to Song Jiu reaching the height of Zhao Kuangyin, they started from different points, one was a versatile talent and the other was a direct spearhead, the latter can produce political power, while the former can only say that he will be able to communicate with a rich and noble road.

  That's enough, did you expect Zhang Zhao to become emperor in the future?

  The two brothers thought carefully, and the paper was good. Song Jiu was born into a family of scholars, but he didn't like to show off his writing skills. Zhang Zhao Yun was from a military background and hadn't participated in the imperial examination, yet he liked to show off his writing skills. One can't evaluate based on personal preferences; it's necessary to have an impartial evaluation, each has its strengths and weaknesses.

  In terms of appearance, Zhang Zhao is slightly better than Song Jiu. However, Song Jiu's tall and sturdy build isn't bad either. For men, as long as they don't look bad, that's enough; what's the point of looking like Pan An?

  In terms of position, Song Jiu is not as good as Zhang Zhao Yun, both are eighth rank, but the nature is vastly different. Adding to that his family background, at first glance, Song Jiu is far inferior to Zhang Zhao Yun.

  However, it can't be seen that way now. Song Jiu is not as good as Zhang Zhao for the time being, but Song Jiu will rise quickly. If the emperor were to evaluate them, Song Jiu would be much more important than Zhang Zhao. Moreover, Song Jiu has many shortcomings, but he has one strong point: he values relationships and is kind to people, including the common folk, his relatives, friends, students, and even those in power. Being with him makes you feel comfortable and happy. As for the rumors about his womanizing, it seems that's not true either; until now, he hasn't touched that beautiful courtesan, and he is quite devoted to one person.

  In comparison, Song Jiu is also a good candidate for brother-in-law.

  Only then did he slap his thigh and say, "It's all over. That Qing servant has a pure and kind personality, is diligent in her work, and treats Song Jiu very well. She's gentle and considerate, and with time, how can they not develop feelings for each other? Last time she held Song Jiu's hand, if it were before, Song Jiu would have definitely shaken her hand off to show me, but he didn't."

  "What are you talking about again!" Pan Lian'er said angrily, holding a bun behind her back.

  "We didn't say anything," and the brothers dispersed in a hurry.

  ……

  Zhao Kuangyi was even more worried. This task of offending people couldn't be done by his elder brother, and only when his elder brother's position was stable could his own position be secured. So he directly told the officials a few reasons. The country wanted to end the chaos of the Five Dynasties and enter a period of stability, and it must vigorously promote culture and education, attach importance to talent, and remember what Song Jiuzi said was most important - talent. This made him recall that in order to have talented people, he had to emphasize education. Not only did he want to educate officials who could do their jobs well, but also some capable minor officials and low-ranking officials. The court must set up a large academy to cultivate these talents. And the academy was located in the capital city, which was also beneficial for concentrating national power and consolidating rule. Secondly, all the docks were together in the city, and the ships came and went on the docks, with personnel mixed together, which was not a long-term plan, so they had to be moved outside the city. The court used the riverbank outside the East Water Gate to build docks and establish an academy, and those graves had to be relocated.

  The effect is not very ideal, and many ministers have expressed their opposition. If it were just a house, it would be easy to handle, but relocating the tomb is too unscrupulous. The matter of Chai Rong's case is still being debated today. Retired Prime Minister Fan Zhi, despite his illness, found Zhao Kuangyi and said that the imperial court wants to repair the academy dock, which is not impossible. With a river as large as this, why can't it accommodate a few isolated tombs?

  Got straight to the point.

  If Song Jiu can now pay 100,000 yuan to the court every year, it's not a thousand or several hundred tombs that can be smashed with money. The key is that there isn't one now, and in the future, Zhao Kuangyi still doesn't quite believe it. He dare not reveal that bet to this honest old master Fang either.

  Zhao Kuangyi also has a way.

  He sent someone to inform Song Jiu, is there a way for you to make that black gunpowder exert its maximum power?

  Song Jiuyi was also annoyed by this tomb, and since Zhao Kuangyi used the power of gunpowder to write an article, he came up with a big one. He agreed to let Zhao Kuangyi command the soldiers to build a five-zhang-long and one-zhang-high city wall on the riverbank, with a width similar to the widest part of the outer city wall in Beijing, and the entire city wall was built with green bricks.

  Zhao Kuangyi was willing to spend a lot of money, just that relocating the tomb might not be worth it, but he wanted to see the greatest power of gunpowder and was willing to pay for it.

  Everything was built in imitation of the strongest city walls, with a foundation two feet deep. This small section of wall took over ten days to build and used up several thousand strings of cash, not counting labor costs. Bricks were too expensive; a single civilian brick could cost several cents, while bricks for city walls had even stricter requirements, weighing as much as eighteen kilograms and costing several tens of cents each. Therefore, when Chai Rong repaired the outer wall of Kaifeng, he transported earth from the Tiger Gate Pass at Tongwan to build the wall, using layers of tamped earth, with brick only used in some critical areas and around city gates.

  It was a bit painful for Zhao Kuangyi to spend the money, but the wall was finally built. He sent someone to inform Song Jiu, "Are you ready?" Song Jiu wrote a long letter, and after reading it, Zhao Kuangyi informed Zhao Kuangyin.

  Zhao Kuangyin led a large group of officials to Hezhou.

  He looked around, the Bian River was right next to him, and boats occasionally sailed by on the river. But no matter how he looked, this place was also desolate beyond compare, not like a golden venue at all. The group walked forward, Song Jiu leading the way with his disciples following closely behind.

  "Relax." Zhao Kuangyin said weakly but firmly.

  He didn't think it would be so troublesome at the time. If he hadn't seen some benefits, he would have thoughtlessly ignored the phrase "no trifling with the king" and regretted this bet.

  Song Jiuxiao did not immediately test its power, set up a table, and on the table used many building blocks to build two city wall patterns, one high and one short. After finishing, he said: "Your Majesty, gentlemen, if you use the same force to push these two city walls, what will be the result?"

  Saying so, he used his hand to push, of course, the higher the city wall is, the easier it will collapse.

  Song Jiuzhe remembered that in the future, many high-rise buildings would be built, and some people would argue that the seismic resistance of a building had nothing to do with its height. But how could that be possible? With different heights, the torsion and pressure would not be the same. If the same materials and construction standards were used, it was inevitable that the shorter the building, the more solid it would be, and the stronger the seismic force would be.

  The metaphor was not enough, so Song Jiulian had the students take away the building blocks. The two doctors looked down on the study of material forms, and Song Jiulian said that it was also impossible to explain, so in this grand gathering, he again brought the students to watch, deepening their impression.

  Song Jiuyou put the green brick on the table and said: "However, with more strength coming from below, the situation will change again."

  He said, and with one punch he hit the bottom of the table, and the green brick bounced up.

  Then he added more green bricks, continuously adding dozens of them, not very high, but arranged in a staggered manner to connect with each other. He then punched the bottom of the bricks and they didn't budge at all. He said: "Why didn't it move this time? Because it has enough weight to withstand the force of my punch."

  Adding green bricks, this time placing them higher up, when they reached a certain height, Song Jiu punched again from below, and with a loud crash, everything fell down. Song Jiu said: "Why is it that this time the weight was greater, yet it was easier to collapse? It's because of the height; when the height reaches a certain point, it will produce a certain amount of torque, as long as there is force striking from below, it will easily collapse."

  He then pointed at the city wall and said: "It is now only one zhang high, but its width is the same as before, so this is the most solid height and weight."

  The following sentence was not spoken, as long as this city wall can be blasted down, all the city walls in the capital can be blasted down one after another.

  To make it more objective for everyone to see its power, Song Jiu gave Zhao Kuangyi a wink, and the prepared soldiers pushed up the assault vehicle, which was a large battering ram placed on a specially designed cart. The force generated by the swinging of the battering ram was used to strike the city wall. This would be effective against ordinary city walls, but against those high and sturdy city walls, its effect was almost zero.

  The soldiers pushed the battering ram with all their might, but the city wall didn't budge.

  Zhao Pu said angrily: "Song Jiu, don't try anymore, let's see the true power of gunpowder."

  "Yes, following the orders of General Zhao." Song Jiu finished speaking, and let the forbidden soldiers push the battering ram back, then let the forbidden soldiers dig a tunnel. Since ancient times, countless brilliant battles have unfolded around this city wall. The Song Dynasty was no exception, and there were also some "professional" tunnel-digging forbidden soldiers.

  Just as a demonstration, they couldn't let these big shots wait for too long, so they started digging about two zhang away from the city wall.

  The speed was very fast, and after one hour, they dug under the city wall.

  Song Jiulang had the students bring over a super-large wooden box, and I don't know how big Hong Xiuquan's coffin explosive was, but it seems that at that time, black powder technology was already quite advanced, with a ratio of about 6:2:1, but the purity of sulfur and saltpeter must have exceeded Song Jiulang's purified sulfur and saltpeter.

  So Song Jiuzhen made a wooden box with twice the volume of the largest coffin, and put more than 300 kilograms of black gunpowder inside. The wooden box was wrapped layer by layer with oil paper, and all the seams were sealed with beeswax to strengthen its sealing property.

  A few people carried large boxes into the tunnel, Song Jiu also made a mouse hole, this also requires technique, must aim at the city wall, the effect can be amplified. The thickness of the wooden box and board also makes a difference, the lid is inward, the top board should be thinner, to keep the air pressure generated by the explosion all upward. This principle can also be used to make the air pressure go left, right, forward, backward, and downward, and it can be used for mining.

  After calibrating the position, the wooden box was put down, and then the mud was used to fill the wooden box, and even a large iron hammer was used to compact it. Song Jiuzai led the forbidden soldiers with bamboo tubes and drilled out of the tunnel. Then let everyone flash back. This is not that day, the explosion into the sky is all wet mud, falling on people's heads at most gray hair and face, no harm will be caused. If the city wall bricks are blasted to pieces, and the stone rain falls, it would be fun, half of these elite figures in the Song Dynasty will be hit. Maybe tomorrow morning, even the emperor won't be seen. But don't expect yourself to survive until tomorrow either.