Capital Datang

Outside the Mingde Gate of Chang'an City, there is a straight concrete avenue, and it is also the starting point of the cement road from Chang'an to Songzhou.After coming out of Mingdemen, the concrete road went straight southwards, and it didn't turn around until it was three miles away, according to the terrain. But at the place where it turned, there was an extremely important standard building.

Chang'an Observatory, or as it is called, the Meridian Observatory.This observatory was originally proposed by Li Yin, and Li Chunfeng personally supervised the design of the observatory. It was originally built by Yu Wenhu, but because of the military academy, it had to be handed over to other people. In addition, it collided with the construction of the military academy. As a result, there was a shortage of workers and materials, which made the construction very slow, and it was not finally completed until the day when Li Yin's marine life exhibition started.

Li Yin rode out of Mingde Gate, aiming at this observatory. The three-mile journey almost passed by in a flash. When the straight concrete avenue began to turn, in the direction facing Mingde Gate, a Fortress-like buildings rose from the ground.This is Chang'an Observatory.

The main body of the observatory is a cylinder like a turret, and the top is a hemispherical shape like a pot lid. The whole body is built with the best cement and steel bars. Although the steel bars are a bit extravagant, in order to make the observatory durable , Li Yin didn't care about the cost at all, and he even paid in part of the funds.

In addition, the colors of the observatory are also very interesting. The east side is white and the west side is black, representing day and night respectively. At the place where black and white meet, there is a bronze gate. Metal wires extend from the wall of the main body of the building to the ground.It is just in the middle of the concrete road, and it extends forward tens of meters until it disappears under a high platform.Capital Datang 226

The high platform in front of the observatory is even more interesting. When the observatory was built, there was no such high platform, and even this high platform was just built, and the cement on it had not yet dried out.The reason why this high platform was built.In fact, it is to put one thing on it, which is the skeleton of a whale.

After the Shangyuan Festival, all the whale meat was eaten by the people of Chang'an.However, the bones remained, and even Li Yin had ordered the cooks to try not to hurt the bones when cutting the meat.So the skeleton of this whale is very well preserved.

Originally, according to Li Yin's intention, he wanted to build a high cement platform on Zhuque Square, and then put the whale skeleton on it to commemorate the significant event of the Ocean Exhibition, and in his opinion, such a complete whale skeleton , an incomparable work of art in itself.

It's a pity that Li Yin's advanced aesthetic vision would not work in Datang. As soon as his suggestion came out, not only Li Shimin frowned, but the civil and military officials below even objected.After all, Suzaku Square is a place of great political significance, and it has a sense of sacredness and solemnity. If a bone frame is suddenly placed on it, it would be unseemly, and it would be too unlucky!

Given that all ministers are against it.Li Shimin naturally rejected Li Yin's proposal.But Li Yin is not discouraged. Since you have no vision, then this good thing belongs to me. If you don’t let me go in the square, I will let it go at home. Think about putting a whale skeleton in your garden. Something to save face.

It's a pity that his idea above is good.But it didn't work, because no matter Wenxin or Xijun, even Wen'er and Huaer, who were always well-behaved, objected. The reason was that they would not dare to go to the garden to play in the garden after putting such a scary thing at home.

Well, Wen Xin and the others have good reasons for their objection. After all, the family is not Li Yin alone. Wen Xin and the others are also members of the family, and they are in charge of family affairs, so this matter is not within Li Yin's authority. Guilty, so his fight to keep the whale skeleton at home was also declared bankrupt.

In desperation, Li Yin had no choice but to give away the whale skeleton. Unfortunately, he asked Li Ke and his brothers, as well as Cheng Huailiang and Li Jingye, but no one was willing to ask for it. Come on, I really don't see any artistic value in this bone frame?

Li Yin, who felt that he was somewhat arrogant, was very sad and indignant. He had a good intention, but he couldn't appreciate it at all.Fortunately, at this time, someone took the initiative to come to the door to take the whale skeleton away. This person was Li Chunfeng who lived in the observatory.Li Chunfeng is an astronomer with forward vision and a great mathematician at the same time. Generally, this kind of person has something different from ordinary people. What makes Li Chunfeng different from others may be his aesthetic view. This is exactly what he calls Li Yin. It was bosom friend. Hearing that the other party was selling his whale skeleton everywhere, Li Chunfeng immediately went to the door to take the thing away, and then placed it in front of the observatory.

When Li Yin rushed to the observatory, the first thing he saw was this whale skeleton with its head raised and its tail swaying. If it was normal, he would definitely get off his horse to appreciate this exquisite work of art. Unfortunately, all he thought about today was It was Li Chunfeng who sent someone to inform him of the matter, so he didn't stay under the high platform at all, rushed to the entrance of the observatory, jumped off his horse and rushed in.

"Chang'an, 0 degrees; north latitude 34.33 degrees. Luoyang, east longitude 3.32 degrees; north latitude 34.27 degrees..."

As soon as Li Yin broke in, he immediately saw Li Chunfeng and several officials of the Taishi Bureau recording the latitude and longitude of several cities while reciting, and when Li Chunfeng saw Li Yin coming in, he immediately put down his pen and stood up with a smile: "His Royal Highness, please wait a moment." Wait a moment, the latitude and longitude of several cities around Chang'an will be checked soon."

Although Li Yin was impatient, he also knew that Li Chunfeng and the others were calculating and they could not make any mistakes, so he didn't bother them. He found a seat and sat down by himself. After a while, Li Chunfeng and the others finished the calculation. They all showed a look of ecstasy.

"Your Highness, I am overjoyed. We calculated the latitude and longitude of several cities around Chang'an, then measured them with a newly made sextant, and compared the two results, and finally found that they are almost identical. From this point of view, this The sextant has finally been successfully developed!" Li Chunfeng shouted as he ran up to Li Yin, holding two pieces of paper filled with numbers and symbols.

At the beginning, Li Chunfeng and Li Yin lost the bet, so they had to do two things for Li Yin. The first was to help Li Yin draw up the longitude and latitude of the earth, and the other was to make a sextant to determine the longitude and latitude of the measurer.The first thing is not difficult for Li Chunfeng at all, it's just some calculations that are not too difficult.The second matter is a bit troublesome. Since Dengzhou, Li Chunfeng has been busy with this matter, but unfortunately it has not been successful. Later, when Li Chunfeng returned to Chang'an, he has not let go of the development of the sextant. Now after nearly two years of research , finally got the sextant out.

In fact, the sextant was already made years ago, but Li Chunfeng did not disturb Li Yin at that time. After all, this thing is only theoretically feasible and has not been measured on the spot, so he made the sextant, and then sent a Several groups of people went to the surrounding cities of Chang'an, measured the latitude and longitude of these cities with a sextant, and then sent the results back to Chang'an.

This morning Li Chunfeng finally received the results sent back, and then calculated the previous measurement data of several cities to obtain the actual latitude and longitude of several cities, and compared this data with the measured data, the result The error is extremely small, This also proves the accuracy of the sextant measurement.

"Hurry up, show me the sextant!" Li Yin also rubbed his hands excitedly. With a sharp weapon like a sextant, he no longer has to worry about getting lost at sea, and this is also a symbol of , the prelude to the era of sailing that he was looking forward to is finally about to kick off!

Seeing Li Yin's eagerness, Li Chunfeng laughed, turned around and picked up a weird instrument from the table next to it. It was as big as the palm of two adults, and the whole body was made of brass, which looked extremely beautiful.I saw that the main body of the sextant is a 60-degree sector, and the side of the arc is marked with a scale. The two radii of the sector have a monocular telescope and a small translucent mirror respectively.It's just that Li Yin fiddled with it for a long time, but he didn't know how to "operate", but he didn't really care about it, as long as it was easy to use.Capital Datang 226

"Brother Chunfeng, it shouldn't be difficult to make a sextant, can it be mass-produced now?" Li Yin asked impatiently, and now he can't wait for all the sea-going ships of Datang to use this thing, after all, there are With this magic weapon, maritime merchants will also have a sharp weapon to save their lives. In the future, they will have more courage to sail on the sea, and the chances of opening up new routes will increase accordingly.

However, after hearing Li Yin's question, Li Chunfeng showed a wry smile, and replied with a bow: "Your Highness, the production of the sextant is no problem, but the problem is the operation of the sextant. The requirements for the user are not high, but at least they must have a certain mathematical foundation and be able to do some simple calculations, but there are very few people who sail at sea nowadays, so even if they have a sextant, they It won't work either!"

Li Chunfeng's words can be said to be to the point. Li Yin has never paid much attention to the issue of education. In his opinion, as long as the people become rich, the issue of education will naturally be solved.But now that Maritime Trade wants to develop, it puts forward a requirement on the cultural level of the crew. To solve this problem, it seems that a group of seafarers who understand arithmetic must be educated.

Thinking of this question, Li Yin was silent for a long time, and then he opened his mouth and said to Li Chunfeng: "Brother Chunfeng, I will leave Chang'an soon, but the sextant is very important, so you should discuss it with Wang Zihao in my house first, let He opened a factory first, specializing in the production of sextants, as for the training of the personnel, I will take care of this, but you first send me some people who can "operate" the sextant!"

"That's no problem. I just want to send a few disciples to the sea to experience some experience. Let them go with you. As for how to arrange it, it's all up to His Highness!" Li Chunfeng was also very bold. He vaguely felt that, I am helping Li Yin create a great era! rq! ! !