Beijing, as the new year is approaching, the entire capital is gradually entering a sea of celebration.
Major factories, workshops, trading houses, etc. began to pay annual wages and year-end bonuses one after another. After receiving the income they had worked hard for a year, everyone's faces were naturally filled with smiles.
With a bulging pocket in your pocket, you will inevitably feel more confident when you go out.
Merchants in the capital also saw this opportunity. At the end of the year, they decorated their stores to be very festive and also launched year-end promotions.
The streets here are full of people, and the howling cold wind can't stop everyone's enthusiasm for shopping.
In the palace, in the Jinluan Hall, Emperor Hongzhi was also having an early morning meeting with his ministers for year-end review. Seeing that the New Year's holiday was about to begin, the things that should be arranged must be arranged well, so that he can celebrate the New Year happily.
Liu Jin looked at Zhu Houzhao, who was standing at the front. This guy never liked going to the morning court, but today it was extremely inappropriate. He stood there wearing a prince's clothes and attending the morning court seriously. It was really hard to blame him. For
To promote his newly developed clock, he actually came to advertise in person.
Well, after all, this guy is still doing what he likes to do. Going to court is just an illusion. It's the same as when he sold mirrors. It's mainly for advertising and selling his watches.
Liu Jin gently rolled up his sleeves and looked at the watch on his wrist.
This is the latest work of the Ming Dynasty Watch Firm led by Zhu Houzhao - a watch. Well, the watch in Liu Jin's hand can be regarded as the second watch in the Ming Dynasty. The first watch was in the hands of Zhu Houzhao.
There is basically no big difference between the watch on my hand and the watches of later generations. The only difference is that there are four hands on it, and there is an extra hand pointing to the hour.
Therefore, this watch can not only tell the time, but also be able to see the time at once. It can be regarded as integrating the characteristics of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, the exterior decoration is also made of auspicious clouds and Ruicai, which lacks the cold feeling of machinery.
, with more warm colors.
"It seems that no one is in the mood to go to court early. They all want to go to court early to take their annual leave."
Looking at the time, it was just about ten o'clock, but no ministers had come forward to make an announcement.
"If there is something to do, start the show, if there is nothing to do, leave the court~"
After Li Dongyang reported the duty arrangements of various ministries and yamen at the end of next year, no one came forward for several minutes. Xiao Jing also shouted loudly at the top of his voice.
After waiting for a few more minutes, no minister came out to speak. Xiao Jing and Emperor Hongzhi looked at each other and were about to shout at the top of their voices to withdraw from the court when Zhu Houzhao stood up.
"Father, I have a gift for you."
Zhu Houzhao said seriously.
Hearing Zhu Houzhao's words, Liu Jin's eyes suddenly darkened. Don't say goodbye to the bell. Otherwise, although Emperor Hongzhi is not sick anymore, he will probably be half angry to death.
"Oh, what gift does the prince have for me?"
When Emperor Hongzhi heard this, he was slightly surprised. This Zhu Houzhao had already surprised him when he came to the morning court today. He actually had a gift to give to him.
"Not only you, my father, but I have also prepared a gift for everyone above the third rank in the court."
Zhu Houzhao pretended to be mysterious and said.
"The prince also prepared gifts for everyone."
Emperor Hongzhi and the ministers in the court suddenly laughed happily.
"Prince, if you have any gifts, please bring them out as soon as possible. Don't be secretive."
Emperor Hongzhi looked at Zhu Houzhao lovingly. Seeing that Zhu Houzhao was about to reach adulthood, it was rare for him to know how to give gifts to everyone.
"Everyone, come outside with me first."
Zhu Houzhao still pretended to be very mysterious and took the lead to walk to the square outside Waijinluan Hall.
Emperor Hongzhi and the ministers immediately found it interesting, and they all wondered what kind of medicine the prince was selling in the gourd.
Anyway, he has retired from the imperial court now, and there is nothing else to do. Emperor Hongzhi looked at the ministers, nodded, got off the throne and took the lead to walk outside.
The ministers also followed Emperor Hongzhi and soon arrived at the square outside.
At this time, on the tower directly in front of Taihe Square, a drum-tower-like building was covered by a big red cloth.
Well, this was the work of the prince. The only one who could build the bell tower in the palace was Zhu Houzhao. Liu Jin had no choice anyway.
"What kind of medicine is sold in this gourd, Prince?"
After leaving the Jinluan Palace, Zhang Mao came to Liu Jin's side, touched Liu Jin gently and asked.
"We'll find out later."
In fact, Liu Jin had already guessed a lot, but he still had to sell it when it was time to sell it off.
This made Zhang Mao on the side suddenly feel unhappy. Liu Jin was going too far and dared to betray him.
Then he looked at the red cloth on the tower in front of him, thought for a while and said, "Is it related to the thing covered by the red cloth? It has been more than a month."
"Mr. Zhang, you will find out later."
Liu Jin smiled.
"Stinky-->>
Boy~"
Zhang Mao became even more angry, but he had no choice but to look at the prince, looking forward to what Zhu Houzhao would say next.
At this time, Emperor Hongzhi and his ministers came to Taihe Square. Zhu Houzhao looked at it and nodded slightly to Liu Jin. The other party immediately understood and asked the people next to him to wave a small flag.
Soon, under the city tower directly opposite the Jinluan Palace, numerous palace guards, under the command of Xiao Huangmen, slowly pulled down the red cloth.
As the red cloth slowly fell and the sun shone, a huge bell tower appeared in front of everyone. This bell tower was very large, several meters in diameter. It was carved with auspicious clouds and auspicious colors on the outside, and there were several top-quality pieces.
Large emeralds, large jades and many small emeralds, small gems, etc. are used for embellishment and decoration.
Under the sunlight, these emeralds, gems, jade, etc. shine with colorful light.
"What is this?"
Emperor Hongzhi, Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian, Zhang Mao and others looked at the huge bell tower and were all slightly dumbfounded. This thing looked very strange.
A round thing with some words and numbers written on it, and a few needles spinning, strangely.
"The hour is engraved on it and some numbers are engraved on it. What does this mean?"
A minister looked at some words and numbers on it and read them out.
"What time is it now?"
When Emperor Hongzhi heard this, he seemed to have thought of something and immediately asked Xiao Jing.
When Xiao Jing heard this, he quickly winked at the little yellow door next to him. The other party immediately ran to ask questions, and soon got the result. He came back and reported: "Replying to Your Majesty, it's almost four o'clock!
"
"Is it four o'clock?"
Emperor Hongzhi and Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian, Zhang Mao and others around Emperor Hongzhi immediately looked towards the clock tower, and they could clearly see that the shortest pointer was pointing to the position of Sishi.
"Dang~dang~"
At this time, there were bursts of crisp bells from the clock tower. On time, the clock tower automatically rang the bell to tell the time.
Liu Jin rolled up his sleeves and checked, it happened to be ten o'clock.
"Haha, everyone must have guessed it~"
"Yes, this is the gift I want to give to my father, the first machine in the entire Ming Dynasty that can be used to automatically calculate time - the Ming Dynasty Clock!"
Zhu Houzhao looked at everyone and immediately laughed happily.
"Da Ming Bell?"
After hearing Zhu Houzhao's words, the faces of Emperor Hongzhi and all the ministers could not help but darken. This prince was really speechless.
Fortunately, everyone didn't think too much at this time, but were attracted by Zhu Houzhao's introduction. A machine that can calculate time?
"A machine that counts time?"
Li Dongyang looked at the clock tower carefully again curiously.
"We used to rely on clepsydras, hourglasses and the like to calculate time. Generally we could only calculate to a certain moment and could not know the specific time point."
"But the machine I invented is different."
"I divide the day into twelve hours, each hour into two hours, each hour into sixty minutes, and each minute into sixty seconds."
"Look carefully, everyone, the longest hand, it takes sixty seconds to rotate once, which is one minute."
"The hand of the second scene, it takes sixty minutes to complete one revolution, which is one hour or half an hour."
"The third one is the hour hand. One revolution is twelve hours, and two revolutions is twelve hours, which is one day."
"I set noon as the boundary and divide the day into two parts. The upper 12 hours are also six hours, and the lower 12 hours are also six hours."
"The number 1234 corresponds to the hour. For example, if it is quarter to four and it is exactly ten o'clock, the clock tower will automatically ring the bell to tell the time."
"In this way, everyone will be able to know the exact time at all times in the future, instead of needing to use hourglasses, clepsydras, etc. to calculate time, which is not accurate enough."
Zhu Houzhao proudly introduced his work to everyone.
Emperor Hongzhi and the ministers listened carefully and looked at the bell tower carefully.
"This...isn't this amazing?"
"It's really unbelievable that there is such a machine that can calculate time."
“Incredible~”
All the ministers looked surprised.
To be honest, everyone really didn’t have a deep idea about this aspect before. That is to say, they try to come as early as possible for morning service every day. Other than that, they just look at the sun in the sky and roughly know what time it is.
But now, the clock tower built by Zhu Houzhao can accurately tell you what time it is, how many minutes it is, and what time it is. This is very remarkable.