Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 98 Lights
The ancients had a very strange theory, that is, less labor is a kind of happiness, and it is a great sin for the monarch to waste the people's effort.

This theory has been extended to the modern society in the Three Kingdoms. The industrious Chinese people can’t understand why they choose to quit work and sleep after earning enough food for a day, but Sun Xiangfu understands now, maybe it was the ancients of China who brought them. The bad ones!
Li Shimin criticized Sun Xiangfu's idea of ​​agricultural reform of breeding two seasons a year in advance as useless, saying that it was a useless waste of people's resources to please the rich. In his opinion, if he has the energy to get these crops, it is better to cultivate more A few acres of wasteland is a good deal, so Sun Xiangfu's reward is gone.

At present, Sun Xiangfu is unable to tell him in a language that Li Shimin can understand that land nutrients have specific values. Without equivalent fertility to improve soil quality, the fields in Guanzhong will become more and more barren, and excessive reclamation will lead to serious soil erosion. Affect the ecological environment of the entire Guanzhong.

He was even more unable to reverse the thinking of Li Shimin and all the ancients that more land means more wealth. Therefore, the first half of this performance was successful because breeding has visible benefits, but the second half failed because Li Shimin felt It is completely possible to reclaim wasteland with the effort of raising seedlings, and the reclaimed fields are fixed assets that can be passed down from generation to generation.

Therefore, Xingfu Village can be used as a breeding base to provide seedlings for the chicken farms, pig farms, and fish farms to be opened by the royal family. However, the fields of the royal farm will still be cultivated as before, and at most a part of the land will be used to grow broccoli and the like fish grass.

Fortunately, there are still some people who trust Sun Xiangfu as always, such as Qin Qiong, who decided to let the farmers in Shiyi go to Xingfu Village to learn breeding and plant the crops that Sun Xiangfu tampered with after the beginning of spring. Under Yu Xiu'er's strong persuasion, she decided to hand over the family's [-] mu of land to Sun Xiangfu for management. Then, with more burials, Sun Xiangfu can plant nearly [-] mu of land after the spring begins.

Among them, Qin Qiong takes the lead. His 6-household real food town has more than 1 mu of Yongye land, plus his own general Zuowei's professional and private land also has more than [-] mu. Seven thousand mu, plus the Yu family's ten thousand mu, is less than a quarter of Qin Qiong's.

"Well, [-] mu is almost enough to meet the demand."

After finishing the statistics in the study, Sun Xiangfu breathed a sigh of relief. Since the Royal Farm cannot be set as an example, the next best thing is to use his own land to set an example for everyone.

"Why is my husband so keen on farming?"

Yu Xiu'er has also stayed at home these few days sorting out scripts and compiling the following plots, watching Sun Xiangfu open and shut, and asked curiously.

"To put it bluntly, our Tang Dynasty is a farming-based society. As long as there is a lot of output in the fields, and the common people have food to eat and clothes to wear, the world will be prosperous and the people will be safe. Only when the country is peaceful and the people are safe can we live comfortably, everyone. , and have more free time to watch our art performances.”

Sun Xiangfu can't tell Yu Xiu'er too deeply. People who think too far ahead are often regarded as lunatics. At present, he can only follow the previous rhythm and do what he can first, and wait for everyone to see the results. It is not too late to compete to imitate, just like the Xingfu Village that was born out of nowhere, now that it has achieved results, no one will be envious of it.

After the snow melted away, the weather was fine every day, and Sun Xiangfu lived a life of leaving early and returning late. In the morning, he went to the East Palace to teach the piano, and in the afternoon, he rode a horse to investigate the conditions in various fields. Sun Xiangfu knew better, when he returned to the mansion at night to rehearse the program for one or two hours, and went to bed before midnight, eight or nine days would pass in a blink of an eye, and the Shangyuan Festival would be here.

"Young master, there is news from the small courtyard that studies papermaking that they have succeeded." Uncle De said after taking the reins from Sun Xiangfu's horse.

"Take me to have a look."

With that said, Uncle De hurriedly handed over the reins to the groom Liu San, and led Sun Xiangfu to an independent courtyard in the corner of the middle courtyard.

After entering the gate of the courtyard, Sun Xiangfu saw a few iron pots with bottoms. Needless to say, these must have been burned through when the pulp was boiled. straw paper, the straw paper is light gray, much thinner than hemp paper, and translucent. Sun Xiangfu gently picked up a piece of paper with his hand, and soon, he saw the cracks on it.

"Village Chief, although the paper is made out, it becomes brittle after drying, and it is easy to rot." Marin explained with some guilt.

"Well, if you can make these papers with grass and wood, you have already succeeded. As for how to make it more practical, you can slowly adjust the raw materials and explore. Give each person in the development team ten pennies. If there is a major breakthrough, there will be rewards."

Although Sun Xiangfu ruined a piece of dried paper, he was in a good mood. There is no craftsmanship in this world that cannot be obtained by spending money. It depends on whether the craftsmanship is worth spending money on.

Knowing that his group had been rewarded ten pennies, the atmosphere in the small courtyard instantly became lively. Everyone racked their brains to think about how to solve the problem of paper softness, and Sun Xiangfu stopped bothering them.

Uncle De, take these dried papers to the study. Aren’t we going to make lanterns on the Lantern Festival? This thin paper is just right for us. "

After a while, Sun Xiangfu found Shi Dalang, and the two picked up the hatchet and started chopping.

"Village chief, are you making lanterns?" Both Shi Dalang and Sun Xiangfu had experience in making fish cages, and they split bamboo poles into thin strips with ease.

"No, I want to make a flying lantern, so you have to chop it thinner and thinner." Sun Xiangfu demonstrated to Shi Dalang by himself.

"Flying lantern, what is it?"

"Of course it's a lantern that flies in the sky. When the time comes, let's make a big one, and then hang a string of small lights below it, and put it into the air like a fire dragon, attracting everyone in Chang'an City."

What Sun Xiangfu wants to do is Kongming lanterns. Of course, people like Shi Dalang who have never read any books naturally don’t know about Kongming lanterns, but I heard that the thing to be made is a magical thing that flies in the sky. The hatchet in his hand A few minutes faster.

At dinner time, a dozen or so cages made of thin bamboo strips were made, and the little ones who ran over to watch the excitement helped paste papers on the cages. Except for the bottom, no air leakage was allowed. Sun Xiangfu was also very funny A smiling face was painted on the pasted lantern with a brush. Of course, the biggest sky lantern, which is big enough to fit an adult, has the three characters of Wangjianglou written on it.

"I'll give you a question. The kerosene in the big sky lantern burns a catty of oil in a quarter of an hour. The kerosene in the small sky lantern can burn a catty of kerosene for half an hour. Now there is one big sky lantern and nine small sky lanterns. Lanterns, if you want the kerosene in the big and small sky lanterns to burn for two hours at the same time, how much kerosene do you need to put in each?"

This is a very simple arithmetic problem, so after a while, some children answered it.

"Brother, a total of 52 catties of kerosene is needed, including 16 catties for the big one and 9 catties for each of the nine small ones."

Sun Xiangfu did not expect that the fastest mental calculation was the younger sister Sun Lili, so he asked the craftsmen to take copper pots of different sizes according to the quantity and fill them with oil, and then fixed the copper pots on the hoops made of bamboo strips. All the big and small sky lanterns were brought to the concrete space in front of the most Wangjiang building, the big sky lanterns were tied with ropes, and the small sky lanterns and the big sky lanterns were strung together and lit at the same time.

"Village Chief, can these lights really fly?"

The children looked at the flames rising from the mouth of the copper pot and said.

"Of course, as long as there are no omissions when you pasted the paper." Sun Xiangfu controlled the rope tied to the largest sky lantern.

"Then what is the principle?" Sun Deshou asked after learning a lot from Sun Xiangfu, using a relatively modern vocabulary.

"This is the principle of hot air rising. It is the same as the underground fireplace in our Wangjiang Building. Charcoal is burned from the ground, and the first to heat is the top floor." Sun Xiangfu explained.

"Oh, the hot air is rising. Doesn't that mean that we can take people to the sky as long as we make this thing big enough?" Sun Deshou continued to ask.

"Theoretically, this is the case, but this thing has poor stability and is too unsafe. It's better not to take anyone with you. You see, just this lamp, I have to control it with a rope." Sun Xiangfu calculated the oil consumption. However, the time difference of heat accumulation was not calculated. Now, the small sky lantern with smaller space and load flew up first, but the big sky lantern was wobbly and hadn't rushed up yet.

"Wow, it's really flying."

The children applauded and cheered as they watched the Kongming lanterns go up into the sky, and the employees of Wangjiang Tower also ran out to watch the fun.

"Quickly, find some more ropes to connect them, and place the lanterns high, so that the people in Chang'an City can see that there will be no curfew tomorrow night, and they will definitely come to see the sky lanterns."

The children's laughter put Sun Xiangfu in a good mood. Tomorrow is the Lantern Festival. He just thought it was a fun for the children, but he didn't know that Li Chunfeng, who was watching Sun Xiangfu making the sky lantern from the sidelines, was already dead. I have been wandering for nine days.

It is such a great feat that a person can go to the sky. If he could go to the sky and have a look, he would be willing to die. Therefore, when the sky lantern was placed several times higher than the city wall of Chang'an City, Li Chun was not in the limelight. He quickly disappeared into the night, even if he violated the curfew, he still had to bring the news back to the Taoist gate and inform Yuan Tiangang.

After a while, the movement in the sky caught the attention of some people in Chang'an City who hadn't slept yet. The guards on duty in the imperial city immediately noticed the abnormality and reported it to the superior. Not long after, Li Shimin also knew about it. Put on clothes and come to Miyagi to watch.

Fortunately, Li Chunfeng rushed back despite the curfew, otherwise, Yuan Tiangang might have made some jokes.

"Your Majesty, if this lamp is used for military purposes, it will have great potential in delivering messages."

After Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng explained the matter of the sky lantern to Li Shimin, they were in charge of Suwei's palace's Dugu seeking Taoism.

"It doesn't stop there, this thing can go to heaven, if it can communicate with heaven and earth, and take things from heaven..."

Yuan Tiangang didn't continue to talk, but Li Shimin narrowed his eyes. In his later years, he was obsessed with alchemy and Taoism. It was not without reason that he sought the art of immortality. If he was too close to Taoist priests, he would be affected to some extent.

"Quickly order Sun Zhengming to present the method of production." Li Shimin gave an order to Dugumou, and then retreated to the left and right, and had a secret discussion with Yuan Tiangang alone at the top of the city.

(End of this chapter)