Chapter 714: Knowing astronomy from above and geography from below (continued)
Ying Zheng is now the King of Qin, not the First Emperor of Qin yet. Naturally, he has never been to Langya and has never seen the sea.
I have seen boats before. There are many of them on the Wei River, but they don’t even have sails.
After the previous experience of looking at the moon, Ying Zheng was very curious, "Da Qin is located in the western border, so it may be difficult to see the sea. I wonder if you have other ways to verify the theory that the sky is round and the earth is round?"
"Has your Majesty ever seen a chicken (egg)?"
"I've seen it before." Ying Zheng was like a child with a strong desire for knowledge, and continued to ask, "Do you have any explanation?"
Li Yunze reached into his sleeves and took out a feather fan from his sleeves in full view of everyone.
Friends who have read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms all know that this is the same feather fan that Zhuge Liang sells for 19.9 yuan with free shipping online.
Shaking the feather fan in his hand, Li Yunze said, "The sky is like a chicken's egg, and the earth is like the yolk of an egg. Living alone inside, the sky is big and the earth is small."
Ying Zheng repeated the story softly, nodding his head, indicating that the chicken was somewhat similar to Li Yunze's description.
After a while, Ying Zheng asked again, "Besides going to the beach, is there any other way to verify this?"
In an era when hundreds of schools of thought are contending, each school does not just talk nonsense, it is enough to produce practical results.
The various reforms that various countries continue to implement are actually the practical applications of each school's doctrine.
Since Li Yunze proposed that the sky is round and the earth is round, he must at least prove his theory.
"It's not difficult either."
"You can find a high mountain to the top of the mountain, look out over the earth and look at the horizon at the end of your sight. If you look at it, you will know that it is not only short, but also curved."
"Of course." Li Yunze said with a smile, "You can also use the telescope to enhance the effect."
Since there was no way to verify it immediately, Ying Zheng had no choice but to focus on the wooden ball with a stand in front of him.
The wooden ball is not big, about the size of a basketball. There is no basketball in Da Qin, so in Ying Zheng's opinion it is as big as a human head.
"Globe..." Ying Zheng looked at the shapes drawn on it carefully and asked curiously, "May I ask, sir, what are these?"
"map."
"The map." Ying Zheng laughed, "It's so small."
"Small?"
Li Yunze also smiled, stretched out his hand and marked a point on the map, "This is Da Qin."
"Sir, you are joking." Ying Zheng looked at the dot the size of Li Yunze's finger and immediately shook his head, "Our Daqin is a fertile land thousands of miles away, how can it be so small? Impossible, absolutely impossible."
"Your Majesty." Li Yunze responded, shaking the feather fan in his hand, "This is a good thing."
"A good thing?" Ying Zheng was puzzled. "What do you mean by this?"
"The fertile land of the Qin Dynasty is only a few thousand miles away, which proves how big the outside world is." Li Yunze's words were full of confusion. "This also means that the places that the Qin Dynasty can conquer are so huge!"
The stunned Ying Zheng was silent for a long time, and then nodded, "Sir, please tell me about this ball for me."
"It's the Earth."
Li Yunze stretched out his hand and pointed on the globe, "This is the State of Qin, this is the land of the Three Jins, this is the State of Yan, this is the State of Qi, this is the State of Chu..."
"To the north is the prairie, which is vast and vast. Now the Donghu people and the Da Yueshi divide the world equally."
The famous Xiongnu tribe in later generations was just a small tribe attached to Donghu.
Touman Chanyu, the father of Maodun Chanyu, is probably not as old as Ying Zheng.
Li Yunze's finger continued to move north, crossing the grassland and landing on a place that was more than half the size of his hand. "Here is a huge forest of frozen soil tens of thousands of miles across. The endless stretch is so vast that it makes people despair."
At least for people of this era, the size and climate of Siberia are indeed disappointing.
His finger finally landed on the top of the north. "This is the ultimate place in the north, called the North Pole. It is daytime for half the year and night for half the year. There is also a dazzling aurora, covering the sky like a canopy."
"What nonsense." Mr. Changping couldn't bear it any longer. "This is ridiculous. How can there be a place with half a year of daylight and half of a year of night? Even the quacks wouldn't dare to talk nonsense like you."
"I've been there and seen it. It's not nonsense." Li Yunze explained, "You can go and see it if you have the chance. If you live there for a few more years, you will naturally know whether it is true or false."
Changping Jun still didn't believe it and didn't bother to tell Li Yunze. He simply closed his eyes and acted lazily.
Ying Zheng didn't believe it either. After all, he hadn't seen it with his own eyes. Seeing wasn't believing. Of course he didn't believe it.
However, he did not say it directly. Instead, he motioned to Li Yunze, "Sir, please tell me about other places."
As the saying goes, up north and down south, Li Yunze's fingers naturally skipped Chu State and headed south. "The misty land in the south. South of Chu State there is a country called Yelang. Further south, there are mostly high mountains and deep forests. The fingers continue
Heading south, we rowed across the ocean and landed on a series of islands."
"This is the Spice Islands."
"spices?"
In fact, there are records of the use of spices in China very early. For example, "Chu Ci" records Guo Jiangli, Pi Zhi, Youlan and other local spices. Even as early as the Yin and Shang Dynasties, there were Xun Liao, Ai
Records of steaming and brewing fragrant wine.
Then there are the spices used in sachets and orchid soup used in bathing.
Of course, most local spices are mainly used in sacrifices and other aspects.
Foreign spices had to wait until a hundred years later when the south was developed and spices such as sandalwood, agarwood, and borneol were obtained. After the opening of the Western Regions, caravans from the Western Regions finally brought foreign spices produced in the Middle East.
Ying Zheng didn't pay much attention to this, because spices were not widely used in Daqin at this time, and he didn't care when he heard about the Spice Islands.
"Your Majesty."
Li Yunze stretched out his hand into his sleeve again, and then took out a package from his sleeve in full view of everyone.
This scene is really dumbfounding.
Everyone has the same idea, are your sleeves a magic weapon from the immortal family? How can you hold so many things?!
Li Yunze opened the package regardless, and a faint aroma suddenly filled the air.
Ying Zheng was not afraid of being poisoned, so he stepped forward curiously and sniffed, "What is this?"
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "When I traveled to the island where the mountains and plains were full of spices, I picked them casually."
In fact, they were bought from the market, but Li Yunze acted as if they were real: "This is clove, this is cinnamon, this is cardamom..."
After some introduction, Li Yunze said, "You can ask the chef to add these spices when cooking. The taste will be so delicious that it is indescribable."
Ying Zheng immediately ordered the eunuch to arrange for the chef to cook.
The introduction to the round ball continues.
Li Yunze's fingers continued to move south, drawing a circle on a leaf-like land. "This is the land of Xilan. It is said that it was a place of prosperous civilization ten thousand years ago. Unfortunately, there was a great flood later, and most of the land was destroyed."
It sank to the bottom of the sea, and the part left behind at this time is mostly desert Gobi, which is very desolate."
Ying Zheng looked at it for a while and asked curiously, "Is anyone there?"
"Yes, they are just man-eating savages."
After hearing this, Ying Zheng immediately showed disgust on his face, "How can we call him a human being with such evil behavior?"
"There are quite a lot of dragons (crocodiles) here, and there are also oversized rats." Li Yunze reached out and tapped Mr. Changping. "When he stands up on his legs, he is almost as tall as Mr. Changping."
Changping Jun ‘(╰_╯)’
What do you mean, using a mouse as a metaphor for me?!
Ying Zheng was also surprised, "There are such big rats in the world?"
Fortunately, he was just surprised. After a moment of wonder, he urged Li Yunze to continue the introduction.
The finger on the globe slid down again, and finally came to a place that was painted white.
"This is the far south of the world. It is frozen all year round and has a cold climate. It is similar to the far north, with half the year of daylight and half of the year of night."
"There are no people here, but there are many Kunpeng (whales) and shrimps in the sea, and there are many fat flightless birds on the snow."
Ying Zheng was just amazed for a while, and then lost interest.
Not many people are really interested in a place covered in ice and snow.
Just when he was about to let Li Yunze introduce him to another place, an eunuch walked in quickly from outside the palace and reported to Ying Zheng, "Your Majesty, the chef said you don't dare to use unknown things."
This is about spices, something I have never seen before. The chefs in the palace dare to use it directly, and I heard that it is still given to the king, so I don’t dare to go but have a relationship with it.
Ying Zheng, who felt that he had lost face in front of Li Yunze, immediately grimaced.
However, the status of the cook was very high, at least before Confucianism flourished, and the reason was very defensible. Of course, you could not give anything you had never seen before to the king.
So although Ying Zheng was very angry, he didn't know how to deal with it.
"Go and get the ingredients and cooking utensils." Li Yunze, who was waving his feather fan, ordered, "Just arrange it outside the palace and I will do it myself."
Seeing the eunuch standing there in a daze, Ying Zheng shouted dissatisfiedly, "Hurry up and go!"
He never thought that Li Yunze would take the opportunity to poison himself.
The reason is very simple. If Li Yunze really wanted to assassinate him, he could definitely pull out a short sword from his magical sleeve.
They are so close now, just one sword attack is enough, there is no need to bother.
At this time, Ying Zheng was convinced that Li Yunze was a great sage with real abilities, and his interest had been piqued.
While he was busy outside, Ying Zheng urged Li Yunze to continue popularizing science stories for him.
That's right, before he confirmed the authenticity, Ying Zheng regarded everything Li Yunze said as just a story.
It doesn't matter if you listen to the story, as long as it's interesting, you can listen to it naturally.
For the ancients who lacked knowledge, the stories about the world told by Li Yunze were undoubtedly very exciting.
"This is a vast ocean, spanning tens of thousands of miles."
Li Yunze's hand only covered the entire ocean, and it was not enough. "Even if the wind goes smoothly, it will take several months to cross the other side. This has to be done under the premise of choosing the right direction. If you are here
If you lose your way in the vast sea, you can only wait for death."
What he hasn't said yet is that the shipbuilding level of this era cannot be achieved, and special sea-going ships must be built.
"Then where is this place?" Ying Zheng stared at the land of America like a curious baby, "It's so big."
"This is America, and there are people living there." When he said this, Li Yunze's eyes moved and he said with a smile, "They are the survivors of the Yin Shang Dynasty a thousand years ago."
‘Hiss~~~’
Everyone in the hall who was listening to the story gasped involuntarily.
How did the survivors of the Yin and Shang dynasties cross the tens of thousands of miles across the ocean?
Could it be that it is water-based?
Ying Zheng was about to ask when he heard a commotion outside. It turned out that the chef had arrived with ingredients and people eating.