I was the emperor in the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1022

In February, the dragon raises its head, also known as the Spring Plowing Festival.

It can be regarded as the first important festival after the Spring Festival Lantern Festival.

The dragon in the three characters of dragon raising its head actually refers to the "dragon" in the 28 constellations.

The dragon is the astrology of the seven dragons and seven constellations in the east. Every year in the second month of spring, the dragon horn star rises from the eastern horizon.

This kind of astrology is called the dragon's head, because at this time of year, it is the time when the spring plowing begins, so the dragon's head on the second day of February is gradually regarded as an important solar term in the year when people expect a good harvest and a year of good weather.

Originally, on this day, Li Tian, ​​as the emperor, was supposed to participate in the sacrificial activities of the Taimiao. Li Tian originally planned to leave for Nanjing after participating in this important event.

But a sudden letter from Nanjing forced Li Tian to give up this plan and set off early.

The letter came from Yang Suwen.

He said in his heart that after their investigation during this period, they found that Monk Puji and others seemed to have fallen into silence, as if they were waiting for something, and there was no movement at all.

However, just two days ago, a lot of people dressed as people from the rivers and lakes suddenly came from outside Nanjing City. These people came in small groups, and hundreds of people poured into Nanjing City every day.

At the beginning, Yang Suwen, together with Zhou Chen and others, carried out a surprise attack on some of them, trying to find out their real intention and specific identity.

But it was discovered that they came because of a rumor.

And this rumor is that an inexplicable treasure map suddenly appeared in Nanjing City, which is related to a treasure with infinite wealth and profound cheats.

People with a discerning eye can see that this rumor is fabricated by someone, but people in the Jianghu who don't know the truth are still dazzled by this news and want to try their luck in Nanjing City.

This also led to the current situation where hundreds of people flock to Nanjing City every day.

When Li Tian just got the news, he immediately thought that this was probably just a cover-up trick by Monk Puji and others to slowly transfer the people under their hands to Nanjing City.

Yang Suwen and others can naturally see this purpose.

However, he has nothing to do with these people now.

In broad daylight, they can't let people into the city.

Li Tian also sensed the urgency of this matter.

If he spends a day in Beijing, the bandits in Nanjing will have more troops.

Once their manpower has accumulated to a certain level, I am afraid they will launch a rebellion in advance before they can show up.

No way, Li Tian had no choice but to give up participating in this sacrificial activity, and set off for Nanjing overnight on a steam ship named Qiming.

Because the boat departed in the middle of the night, not many people saw it, and the whereabouts of Li Tian and others became more secretive.

But also because of this, Zhang Qinghuan and Zhang Qinghuan, who were very excited to take a steamship for the first time, planned to take a good look at the ship, but what they saw was the pitch-black night, and they could hardly see anything, which made them very disappointed.

In addition, after discussing what to bring and what not to bring during the day, they were also extremely sleepy. Not long after boarding the boat, they fell asleep.

Li Tian was also very sleepy at first, but after getting on the boat, he became much more energetic.

Walking up to the bow of the boat under the moonlight, watching the little sparks along the way retreating quickly by his side, listening to the roar of the steam engine and the whistling wind, he actually had a feeling that he was traveling on a certain ship at this time. The illusion of a ship.

"Who would have thought that it only took me more than half a year to make out the steam engine and the steamship.

At this speed, I am afraid that within a few years, a modern warship with a whole body of iron armor and steel plates may also be built.

Modern life is really getting closer and closer to us! "

Under normal circumstances, as long as you are not in a hurry, ordinary ships cannot sail at night.

Because the visibility is too low at night, if you are not careful, you will touch some obstacle, and if you encounter it, the ship will be destroyed and people will die.

Therefore, as long as it is not a fatal matter, ordinary people's ships, no matter how big or small, will find a place to dock and will not take risks to continue sailing.

The Qiming is a steam ship, and it can reach the fastest speed no matter what time of day, day or night, whether there is wind or not, whether the wind is downwind or against the wind, will not affect its sailing speed.

But because of this, sailing at night is even more dangerous.

Because ordinary ships sail at night, and the speed is not much faster than the specified speed, even if something happens, it may be a trivial matter.

But the steamship can be different. It is as fast as a galloping horse, and an accident may be a major event.

But why do they dare to sail at night, and the speed is not slower than during the day.

The main reason is that Tiangong Institute has developed new lighting equipment for them.

It was one by one, kerosene lamps installed in transparent glass.

In ancient times, there was a kind of oil lamp called "qi dead wind lamp", so named because it can still illuminate as usual even when it is blown by the wind while riding on a horse.

Its principle is also very simple, that is, paste a thick layer of paper on the outer wall of the lamp to block the wind, so that the oil lamp will not be blown out by the wind while it is moving fast.

But because the paper that blocks the wind is too thick, the brightness of this kind of lamp is not even comparable to that of ordinary lanterns.

At best, it can illuminate a distance of three or four meters nearby, and it can't do anything further.

But in ancient times, when people had to go out at night as a last resort, this kind of thing that can provide a certain degree of lighting has become something better than nothing.

After all, a little light is better than no light at all.

Once again, Li Tian couldn't sleep at night and wanted to go for a stroll in the imperial garden. Because the lights were too dim, he accidentally stepped on a raised stone and almost fell.

It made him very angry, but after thinking about it, he couldn't blame anyone for it.

So he gritted his teeth and designed a kerosene lamp with higher illumination overnight.

He asked the people of Tiangongyuan to make an upper and lower opening, with a transparent glass lampshade protruding in the middle.

The bottom is used to place the oil lamp base and wick and other things, and the top is opened for ventilation.

Then someone added a shelf for fixing the lampshade outside the lampshade, and a rainproof cover was thoughtfully designed on the lampshade.

In this way, because the lampshade is completely transparent, this new type of oil lamp is not only windproof and rainproof, but its brightness is almost four or five times that of the original lantern.

As soon as this new type of lamp was designed, it immediately became a thing that the Tiangong Academy and the palace rushed to order.

All of a sudden, the Liuli Department of Tiangong Academy, which had almost nothing to do, once again became the hottest department of Tiangong Academy.

(End of this chapter)