Chapter Sixty Guan Jian (First update, three more updates later)

  Zhao Kuangyi arrived at the Song family home, where many people were present.

  At least seventy or eighty officials, and more than twenty young ladies, yesterday's seven paintings almost shook the entire capital, who wouldn't be curious? There were also servants and maids, including Yu Ping, Song Jiu's older sister, over a hundred people scattered in the front yard or back yard of the Song family. In between was Pan Lian'er, Yu Ping was in the back yard, Pan Lian'er was in the front yard, using her big eyes to curiously look at the Song family and the students in the classroom.

  Song Jiu is teaching and has not come out yet.

  So these people gathered in twos and threes, discussing and gossiping.

  Zhao Kuangyi arrived, and Song Jiu couldn't be slow. He announced the end of class and paid his respects to Zhao Kuangyi. Zhao Kuangyi got straight to the point and asked: "Song Jiu, I ask you on behalf of the emperor, how can humans ascend to heaven?"

  This question made Zhao Kuangyi feel suffocated and uncomfortable. In fact, it was a question that shouldn't be asked at all. How can people go to heaven?

  Song Jiudao said, "Don't be in a hurry."

  Having greeted all the officials one by one, he came before Pan Yu and said: "I've seen Miss Pan."

  A group of young girls giggled.

  Pan Lian'er's face turned red with anger as she pointed at Song Jiu and shouted: "You scoundrel, you're always deceiving people!"

  "Pan Xiaoniang, I am not a bad person, don't believe me? Ask the people by the river. I won't cheat anyone, when I told the Second Prince that I could increase the iron ore production of our dynasty, ask the Second Prince if I fulfilled it?"

  "Speak to the point!" Zhao Kuangyi shouted, thinking in his heart that Pan Mei's three sons were useless. How could they bring Pan Lian'er over? This was like sending fish into a cat's mouth!

  "Two kings, and you, come with me," Song Jiu led them to a classroom that was packed full, and then called out to a student, whispering a few words. The student ran into the back room and brought out several things. Song Jiu first placed a box on the table, poured water into it, and then took out a stone, saying: "What will happen if I put this stone in?"

  A group of officials are going to raise their middle fingers together, does this result need to be asked?

  "Everyone knows it's going to sink, so I won't test it," Song Jiu poured out the water and took out a porcelain bottle, pouring in a white substance. Some people recognized it as mercury, which had been present in China for a long time but was not very useful, either used to harm people or by Taoist priests to refine small pills for people to eat. In the Ming Dynasty, many emperors were killed by it, and according to legend, Li Shimin was also killed after eating a pill given by a monk from Western Heaven. In reality, it had a wide range of uses, and if Song Jiu became interested in Lei Gong, he would need mercury, which was also necessary for the current experiment - a thermometer. It could also be used as various catalysts, and when next year's lesson got deeper, they would use it to conduct experiments in class.

  I prepared a bit, not too much, just enough to fill this box about half full.

  Song Jiu put the stone back in, and together they exclaimed in surprise. The stone was actually floating on top. Song Jiu said: "Everyone take turns to look, but don't touch it, it's mercury, it's poisonous, I'll go get something."

  Another iron spoon was brought, and it still floated when put in. Several copper coins were also thrown in, but they too remained floating. The stone, copper coins, and iron spoon were scooped out, and a student was ordered to wash them clean before pouring the mercury back into the bottle. "Why do they sink in water but not in mercury?"

  Who can answer?

  "The reason is simple, various fluids have buoyancy and the buoyancy is different. The heavier the object, the greater the buoyancy; the lighter the object, the smaller the buoyancy. Therefore stones and copper coins will sink to the bottom of water but float on mercury. This is also why ships can carry heavy loads on water. Not only water and mercury, gases also have buoyancy, but it's very light and invisible. If designed properly, objects can be carried in mid-air. For example, Kongming lanterns. But if the design is even more ingenious, the weight that can be carried is not just a lantern, but heavier objects, including people. Therefore, humans can go to heaven."

  "Really?" Zhao Shou asked.

  "I won't pretend, once I've clarified the steel problem, I'll conduct such an experiment, and then let you go to the sky to see."

  "I'm going," Pan Weizheng shouted loudly as he squeezed through the crowd.

  "It's okay, it will be better in winter." Song Jiu patted Pan Wei Zheng's little head, who was his future third uncle. As time went on, as Pan Wei Zheng said, Yu Ping would often come to visit and Song Jiu got used to it, plus he was very busy, so he gradually forgot about Pan Lian Er a bit. But when Pan Lian Er came, Song Jiu's three souls were hooked again.

  "Can people really go to heaven?" Zhao Kuangyi muttered.

  "The two great kings, not only can people go to heaven, but also like birds flying, however that technology is too complicated, I estimate it can't be done. Can only achieve carrying people to heaven for a look."

  "Why can you jump from the sky down?"

  "Where there's a way up, there's a way down."

  "Jump up and down on your roof."

  "Two Big Kings," Song Jiu swallowed, can this jump? After a while, he said: "That's different, this downward jump requires some design, and it needs height, the higher the safer, the lower the more dangerous. At least 70-80 feet away from the ground to jump down, otherwise there is danger."

  "Nonsense."

  "Look," Song Jiu wrote out the formula for the law of conservation of momentum with chalk, only halfway through, and this formula was written in infinitesimal calculus; even if all the people on Earth were gathered together, not a single person would be able to understand it.

  "Really can go up to heaven, really can jump down?"

  "Two great kings, where is the imperial street? How dare I speak jokingly?"

  "In jest, Song Jiu, do you know how many words I have spoken in impeaching the Emperor's brother?"

  "Your Majesty, please let him enjoy himself in the palace. Think about it, I use this to provide entertainment for the people, and put it on the court? When attacking cities and passes, not understanding the enemy's situation often results in heavy casualties. But in front of the two armies, a thing is raised, rising to dozens of feet high, isn't the situation in the enemy's city clear at a glance? This river development will involve countless technologies, involving military and civilian aspects, and I will only gain a small profit, while the court will be the biggest beneficiary."

  "Halt, halt! I ask you, where are the rest of the paintings?" Zhao Kuangyi said. Only eight paintings have appeared, and they have already shocked heaven and earth. Are there more? There are a total of twenty paintings!

  "Two Big Kings, only this playground is fun, the rest are commercial or civilian uses, paste them out and Two Big Kings will know."

  "Are you using this to make money from heaven?"

  "It's expensive to build and requires a dedicated team of at least four or five people to serve it, just in case. We have to charge some cost."

  "How much does it cost?"

  "Now where did I know," Song Jiu laughed.

  Zhao Kuangyi realized that since ancient times, the sky has been a dream, and it can even fly down from such a high place in the sky. A loaf of bread dares to sell for one yuan, and this price will be an astonishing number.

  As for Zhao Kuangyi, he didn't care much, as long as there was no theft or robbery. Even if "flying" once earned 1,000 yuan, that was between Song Jiu and his customers, and had nothing to do with the imperial court. What he cared about was something else: "Song Jiu, are there any other skills?"

  "There is, once researched, as long as it's necessary for the imperial court, I will proactively hand it over to the imperial court. Ah, Second Prince, you've arrived, just in time for me to mention two things. The first thing, send people to Xuzhou, Shouzhou, and Huaiyang to search for coal, wherever there should be some, only that they are buried relatively deep. Later on, iron smelting and steel refining will require a large amount of coal, in the north without water transportation, transporting it to the capital city will be very costly."

  This has a prerequisite, that is, the use of gunpowder, in order to deeply mine.

  In later generations, there were large coal mines in Huainan, Huaibei and Xuzhou, but not now. At the beginning of using coal, it was very backward, including Song Jiuyi last winter still used charcoal for heating instead of a coal stove. This is a backward way of heating, one is that charcoal is expensive, two is that charcoal is more likely to be poisoned. Of course, finding coal is not enough, we must find smokeless coal to truly replace charcoal. The significance is not trivial, just the amount of charcoal burned by the common people in a year, it's unknown how many forests were destroyed.

  Moreover, the technology was backward, and most of the coal that could be found were those near-surface coal mines.

  Song Jiuren taught the students and officials to use gunpowder, which cannot solve the problem of gas, but can be replaced by some methods. For example, in a mine that is inclined downwards, instead of using long bamboo tubes, use some flammable long lines wrapped around small balls and throw them down, then ignite the long lines, so as to cause a gas explosion, keeping the workers at a distance and avoiding life danger. The efficiency of using gunpowder will be very high, but it is more likely to trigger a collapse, which can be avoided by adopting secondary or tertiary empty blasting. First blast the ore, secondly transport out part of the ore, then ignite the gunpowder, utilizing the sound and force of the gunpowder to cause the loose ore body to collapse in advance, thus avoiding the collapse when miners are working underneath.

  We cannot ignore the wisdom of ordinary people. Once the principles and various reasons are disseminated, there will be more clever people who come up with various methods to improve efficiency and strengthen safety.

  But before the promotion, the current coal in Song Dynasty is mostly found in Hebei, Shandong, Hedong and a small amount in Shaanxi. Although it's easy to mine, because most of them are located in mountainous areas, it's not easy to transport out. To achieve large-scale advanced iron smelting and steel making, we must find the big coal mines from Xuzhou and Huai River, and then rely on the convenience of Bianhe River to transport to various places.

  He also said: "The Second King, go to the banks of Bian River in Chenliu County again and find a saline-alkaline land to build a smelting site for coke, blast furnace and steelmaking."

  "Charcoal?"

  "Further carbonize the coal and raise its combustion temperature."

  "How much money will be used?"

  "It will take some money to start, but at first it will only be a small amount, not a lot of money. Once the technology is fully matured, the court can promote it. At that time, the court will get a large amount of high-quality steel every year. Even its technology can be used to burn out good porcelain, build more solid and practical fire-resistant houses, reduce the cost of bricks and tiles, so that most areas in the country can warm up in winter, alas, one spark can set off a prairie fire."

  "If you can really accomplish this for the imperial court, I can take charge, and the imperial court will undertake to pay the principal for the repair of bridges, warehouses, docks, and academies."

  "That's great," Song Jiu said excitedly.

  The bridge is the least expensive, but it's also the most important one; only after the bridge is built can everything else be implemented one by one.

  The most expensive use of money is not for civilian houses, but for docks, which occupy too much land. If the court takes over, it will reduce the burden on Song Jiuzhen by half.

  Zhao Kuangyi wanted to say something else, but seeing Song Jiu's smiling face, he didn't say it in the end. He stood up and left with Liu Yue and the bailiffs. On the way, Zhao Kuangyi still asked a puzzled question: "Liu Judge, can people really ascend to heaven?"

  Liu Yue replied: "Prefect, whether a person can ascend to heaven or not is secondary; what's crucial is where Song Jiu got the original capital from..."