Chapter 1778 Someone is actually studying the power of water and fire
Instructing the Li family to meet him after tomorrow's court, Yun stood up and left Qianqing Palace. After a while, he arrived at Kunning Palace. Xiyao came out to welcome him and smiled and said a few words to him. The couple walked towards the palace together. But Just as Xiyao was about to tell the servants to pass the news and ask the children to greet them at the door according to the usual practice, Yun suddenly said: "Don't let the servants pass the news. I want to listen secretly today. They usually do this when no adults are around. What to talk about."
"Why, my husband is planning to eavesdrop on Wen Yuan saying which girl he likes?" , Wen Luo, Wen Er and Wen, there are seven brothers and sisters, Wen Yuan would not say this in front of so many people."
"Why, Wenyuan hasn't told you which girl he has fallen in love with yet?" Yun asked. During the Chinese New Year period, all the officials and the female relatives of the honorary family will come to the palace to congratulate the queen. All the royal concubines have a happy new year, Xiyao She created various opportunities for Wen Yuan to see her favorite candidate for the crown princess.
"Not yet. However," Xiyao said in a disappointed tone: "According to my understanding of Wen Yuan, he probably didn't like any of them. Not only did he not like the few candidates for me, but also all the women he saw. He doesn’t even care about the child.”
"This is not a good thing. Although men are not like women, it does not matter if they get married later. There is no precedent in the previous dynasty for the prince to marry his wife after he was in his twenties. However, with the big age difference, it is more difficult for the husband and wife to be harmonious. It would be better to marry a wife who is about the same age." Yun said.
"I think so too, but even Wen Yuan doesn't like it," Xiyao said with a wry smile.
At this time, they had already entered the palace and were close to the pavilion where several children were talking. Yun stopped talking and listened to what they were saying in the pavilion. Xiyao also stood aside quietly without making any sound.
"Wen, you just said that Mr. Cao, Mr. Zhou and Mr. Si are studying why people and everything in the world will eventually fall to the ground, but why do the sun, moon and stars in the sky not fall to the ground?" Min'er asked.
"Yes, eldest sister." Wen said.
"Isn't it because of gravity? Although my sister doesn't study astronomy deeply, I heard Mr. Zhou mention that the earth has gravity, so everything in the world will fall." Wen Luo said.
"Although you listened carefully to Mr. Zhou's lectures in the past, you definitely didn't listen today. Someone also asked this question today, but Mr. Cao said that since the earth has gravity on everything in the world, doesn't it have no gravity on the sun, moon and stars? Everything in the world is due to gravity. Will fall to the ground, why don't the sun, moon and stars fall due to gravity? Moreover, Mr. Zhou and Mr. Si observed the stars and believed that the earth revolves around the sun, inferring that the sun also has a gravitational pull on the earth; but this does not make sense, if the sun also has a gravitational pull on the earth Gravity, why doesn't the earth fall on the sun?" Wen asked again.
"It's indeed strange." Min'er laughed and said, "It makes my head spin."
"Don't talk about eldest sister, even my younger sister who specializes in astronomy will feel dizzy." Wen Luo also said with a smile.
"You are better than my sister, after all, you have learned a lot." Min'er said again.
"That's true. When Brother Six was talking about calculation formulas just now, although I understood why a certain formula was used and I needed to listen carefully, the calculation was not difficult for me." Wen Luo boasted: "And Mr. Zhou has always praised me. I'm smart. Although I'm not good at algebra, I'm very talented in geometry and astronomy."
"Then sister is waiting for a great astronomer to come out of our family, setting a precedent for all dynasties." Min'er said with a smile.
Wen Luo laughed twice more and said: "Stop talking about this, it sounds boring, talk about other things. I finally got to see Gezhiyuan today. I only went to a few places in the first two times. This time I can go with
Behind Brother Six, we almost walked around the entire Gezhiyuan."
"No one realizes that you are a girl?" Wen Qi asked.
"Father will not allow you to travel throughout Gezhiyuan. If he finds out, he will punish you," Wenyuan said.
"I am young and born young, so I pretend to be a little eunuch and no one will notice." Wen Luo answered Wen Qi's question first, and then said to Wen Yuan: "Second brother, my sister will not say anything in front of father."
It's all over the Gezhiyuan. As long as you don't tell me, how will dad know about it? Second brother, do you want to tell dad?"
"How could I tell my father? But you must not do these things that my father does not allow in the future. If there is a next time, I will definitely tell my mother and let my mother punish you." Wenyuan said.
"Okay, okay, sister won't do anything that dad doesn't allow next time." Wen Luo said without sincerity, and continued: "Gezhiyuan is indeed the same as the eldest sister, third brother, and sixth brother said, and they can do everything.
I won’t mention what my brothers and sisters said, but there were actually people who were researching how to make chairs more comfortable, and I couldn’t help laughing at that time.”
"How to make chairs more comfortable shouldn't be studied by outside businesses? How could anyone in Gezhiyuan study it?" Wen Yin said.
"That's why it's funny!" Wen Luo said.
"To study these, how did they approve the funding in the first place? Wouldn't the person responsible for distributing the funds review it?" Wenyuan said.
"He must not have applied for funds in the name of 'researching how to make chairs more comfortable'. Even if he is corrupt, he would not dare to do it so obviously. He must have applied for the funds under other names and had some left to study this." Wen Wen
explained.
"Is there no one taking care of this?" Wenyuan asked again.
"This should be managed, but, second brother, Gezhiyuan is different from other yamen. Except for the envoy, who is an administrative official according to my father, all other officials, including the vice president, are technical officials. They usually focus on their own research.
"On weekdays, we spend 12 hours a day besides eating and sleeping, so how can we bother to check whether others are studying projects for applying for funds? Because there is only one administrative officer, the envoy is very busy all day long and has no time to check." Wen continued to explain.
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"If Gezhiyuan had such a system, it would be just a side job and the servants would handle the chores. But who would do the project review and fund disbursement?"
"Temporary arrangement. If anyone has a new project to apply for, the hospital envoy will temporarily arrange for three officials to review it individually. All three of them will approve the hospital envoy to release the funds according to the funding quota approved by the three people; if there are two or three people,
If it is not approved, the application will be sent back; if one person is not approved, a fourth person will be found to review it. There are not so many projects to review on weekdays. On average, there will be about one new one every two or three days, and it can be reviewed. But everyone
Neither of them is willing to take on the task of reviewing, so they will pass it on to others if they can. My younger brother has even reviewed several projects on behalf of Mr. Si."
"This method is not bad. It would be great if other yamen could do the same. As long as the chief official is an upright person, there is no need to worry about corruption." Wenyuan said, thinking deeply, as if thinking about how to use this trick.
The system was extended to other yamen.
However, he quickly came to his senses and seemed to be raising the issue of supervision and misuse of funds again. But then Min'er interrupted: "Wenyuan, we will talk about your words later. Now let's listen to what the fourth sister said in Gezhiyuan.
knowledge."
Hearing Min'er speak, Wen Yuan swallowed his words and said nothing more. Wen Luo smiled and said, "There is someone who can control the second brother."
She continued to talk about what she learned when she went to Gezhiyuan. "In addition to research on how to make chairs more comfortable, there are also research on improving blacksmith tools, research on how to make whiter paper, and there are so many weird projects. Yes.
Sister, I also went to see a few of the research projects you funded. That's all. One of them is researching how to use the power of water and fire to replace the power of manpower and cattle to drive machinery."
"How is this possible?" she commented to herself. "Water and fire are dead things. People, cattle, horses, etc. are living things. Only living things have the power to drive machinery. How can water and fire make machinery move?"
"It's impossible to tell." Min'er said: "I thought this research was incredible at first, but I didn't think so after listening to the person's thoughts. He said that the reason why he wanted to study the power of water and fire
I started researching the driving mechanism because I saw that water would lift the lid of the pot after it was boiled, so I thought that water and fire also had power."
"And he also said that there is a precedent for using firepower. Why are gunpowder and projectiles stuffed into a gun tube or a gun barrel, and then the projectiles will fly out after the gunpowder is ignited? It's because fire also has power and can push the projectiles out."
"This," Wen Luo was only thinking about joking with his eldest sister when he came back. He didn't ask the man why he studied the power of water and fire. He didn't know how to refute it. However, Wen Yin was very smart and immediately thought of the flaw in Min'er's words.
Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly heard a noise coming from outside the pavilion and asked sharply: "Who is outside?"
"I accidentally made a noise." After hearing Wen Yin's shout, another muttering came from outside. Then the door was pushed open and Yun and Xiyao walked in.
Seeing that it was their parents, the seven children quickly stood up and saluted. However, after the salute was completed, Wen Luo said: "Father, mother, you are eavesdropping outside the attic!"
"This is indeed Daddy's fault. You really shouldn't eavesdrop on other people's conversations. But Daddy thinks this eavesdropping is worthwhile. If I hadn't eavesdropped, how could I have heard what you saw in Gezhiyuan?" Yun said to Wen Luo with a smile.
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"Dad, you won't punish your daughter, right?" Wen Luo immediately changed to a pitiful expression.
"No. Since it was eavesdropped, my father will not punish you on this basis. However, the next time you leave the palace, when you come back, my father will definitely ask the servants who went out with you where you went.
There, if you go to a place without permission, your father will punish you." Yun said with a smile.
"Thank you, dad." Wen Luo said. But even though she said this, she was not happy at all.
Yun didn't notice his daughter's expression. He said to Min'er: "Min'er, among the people you funded, are some of them studying the power of water and fire?"
"Yes, father." Min'er said.
"What does the thing he researched look like? My father refers to the semi-finished product. What does the semi-finished product look like?" Yun asked.
"This," Min'er thought carefully, said, "It's hard to describe the appearance, because it is composed of many things, and the different semi-finished products he made are different. However, the man and his daughter explained the water and fire he conceived.
The machine principle of Zhili. Make a closed machine, but one side is movable. Put a lot of water in the machine, burn firewood or coal at the bottom to heat the water. After the water is heated, it will probably produce steam.
It can push the active side to move. Naturally, this side cannot be pushed forward and will always retract. A reciprocating machine is connected to this side, just like a millstone. Then it can drive other machines.
Already."
'It's really true!' Yun was very excited. The reason why he suddenly made a noise just now was because when Wen Luo mentioned the power of water and fire, he suddenly remembered that there was a kind of power that was called the power of water and fire when it was first introduced to China.
He couldn't help but want to get closer and hear it more clearly. After listening to Min'er's explanation of the principle, he found that it was the same as the steam engine. Although he didn't see the real thing, he was basically sure that someone was really studying the steam engine!
This is a steam engine! It can be called one of the greatest inventions in human history. How could he not be excited when he heard that someone was studying this thing?
"Dad, even if the water emits steam after it is boiled, the steam does have power. But after a pot of water is boiled, it can only push the lid. How much force is this? If you want to pull other machinery, this little force
How is it enough? In order to allow the power of water and fire to pull machinery, such as a blacksmith's furnace, how big a machine must be built?"
"And in order to generate this small amount of force, how much water, wood, coal, and steel are consumed? I'm afraid that converted into fodder for cattle is enough to feed hundreds of cattle, which is not cost-effective at all." Wen Yin said. He did not
He agreed to study this seemingly useless thing, noticed that his father seemed to be very interested in the power of water and fire, and immediately threw out his rebuttal.
"That's right, Fifth Brother is right. Dad, even if you really have the power of water and fire, it's not cost-effective to use and it's not worth studying." Wen Luo also said.
However, Wenyuan and Wenqi, Wen and Wen'er did not speak. Wenyuan and Wenqi had been taught by their father for too long, and they had never seen the skills that their father was interested in being useless. They also found that their father was not interested in the power of water and fire.
Wen and Wen'er did not have such feelings, but they did not dare to refute in front of their father.
But this may not be a bad thing for Wen and Wen'er. When Yun heard his children's rebuttal, he didn't say anything. He just called Lu Yi in immediately and told him: "I will go to Gezhiyuan after the court tomorrow. You can make arrangements."
Li Taiyuan asked him to come to Qianqing Palace in the afternoon."
"Yes, official." Lu Yi didn't understand why Yun suddenly told him to go to Gezhiyuan tomorrow at this time. But he didn't ask, bowed and agreed, and left Kunning Palace to make arrangements.
"Dad, is the power of water and fire really so important? Is it worth going to Gezhiyuan to have a look in person?" Wen Qi asked quickly after Lu Yi went out.
