Volume 2: Residence in the Capital Chapter 191: Secretly Crossing Chencang
For Zhang Kang, Tingyu Cottage was not a way to make money, but had other uses. Although he was not a person who sympathized with women, after the twelve beauties of the Rain had grown old, not many of them entered the homes of nobles and officials. Except for a few who chose to practice Taoism or Buddhism, most of them stayed in Tingyu Cottage to teach the younger generation. When he thought of the efforts he had put into training these people in the past, he naturally felt a little sad.
If they can still perform on stage in the future and continue to be pursued by others, it will certainly be more useful than wasting their talents!
So, when he and Zhang Shou walked out of the courtyard one after the other, walked slowly to the backyard, crossed a small lotus pond, and stood in the middle of the wooden bridge, he glanced at the remaining lotus leaves in the pond, turned around and looked at Zhang Shou and asked, "Doctor Zhang, what do you want to say to me?"
Zhang Shou shook his sleeves lightly, revealing the watch on his right wrist. Seeing Zhang Kang was stunned for a moment, then raised his eyebrows, obviously remembering where this thing came from, he said bluntly: "Do you believe that Weinan Bo has figured out the function of this thing?"
If someone else said this in front of him, Zhang Kang would definitely sneer at it, but Zhang Shou really showed extraordinary talent in many areas, so after hesitating for a moment, he finally said half-truthfully: "Of course I believe what Dr. Zhang says. It's just that only the emperor looked at it for a while that day, but I didn't look at it carefully. Can Dr. Zhang open my eyes for me?"
Seeing that Zhang Shou did not hesitate at all, he took off the thing on his wrist and handed it to him with a smile. Zhang Kang was not polite and took it and looked at it carefully. Although he was a barbarian in the eyes of others, he was actually a die-hard follower of Emperor Taizu's ideas, so he fiddled with the buckle of the strap over and over again, and then stared at the even scale on the round dial.
After a long while, he finally returned the item in his hand to Zhang Shou intact, and then said thoughtfully: "Look at the scales on this round plate. Could it be that this thing was used by Emperor Taizu to calculate when he set the key to the secret box?"
Uh, Lord Weinan, you have a very rich imagination...
Zhang Shou was so amused that he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. However, he couldn't despise him, because in this era, how could most people imagine how prosperous the world would be hundreds of years later? He coughed lightly, then took a step closer to Zhang Kang, and seriously showed him the spring on the right side of the dial, and then demonstrated how to wind it.
"I fiddled with it by accident and found that the needle on the watch started to move. I observed it for a while and found that one needle went around in a circle in a short time. The other two needles moved forward at different speeds. I didn't know what this meant, but when I passed by the sundial in the Imperial College, I suddenly had an idea and wondered if this could be a timepiece."
After hearing Zhang Shou's explanation, Zhang Kang looked at the disc that he had been confused about, and immediately felt as if the fog had been lifted: "You mean to say that the scale on the disc, which looks like a cloth shop ruler, represents the time?"
He carefully looked at the dial again and laughed unconsciously: "I see there are twelve large scales in total, which should represent twelve hours... However, one hour is four quarters, how can there be five small scales in one large scale?"
It's just a minor issue of the difference between Chinese and Western timekeeping methods. Weinan Bo, don't be too picky...
As soon as Zhang Kang discovered the twelve scales, he instinctively associated it with the twelve hours. Zhang Shou didn't know whether the emperor had never made this connection after looking at the watch and the notebook, or had never thought about it carefully, or perhaps he thought he had a talent for this and just threw everything to him to decipher. He could only cough again.
"For each rotation of the fastest needle, the long needle moves a small scale. And for each rotation of the long needle, the short needle moves a large scale. And this does not take an hour. I have observed the sundial and it should take half an hour. In other words, within a whole day, this short needle will rotate around the disk twice..."
Zhang Shou knew that in this era, the Western watch industry had just begun to develop, and pendulum clocks and pocket watches had not yet been invented, so he patiently explained his "observations" to Zhang Kang.
Sure enough, Zhang Kang took a deep breath and nodded heavily, saying, "I understand what you mean. If this is true, then this thing is really an extremely precise timer."
He paused, stared at Zhang Shou and said with a half-smile: "At the beginning, Han Shantong, the father of Queen Han, once claimed that Emperor Taizu was a descendant of Emperor Huizong of Song. After Emperor Taizu ascended the throne, he posthumously conferred the title of king on Han Shantong. Doctor Zhang, do you think that Emperor Taizu is a descendant of the royal family of the Song Dynasty?"
"Of course not. Our dynasty is called Ming, not Song, and Emperor Taizu never changed his surname from Zheng to Zhao. Moreover, just for such an exquisite item, Emperor Taizu must have had an extraordinary origin." Seeing Zhang Kang showing an expression of approval and satisfaction, Zhang Shou continued, "This item is a relic of Emperor Taizu. Although the emperor gave it to me, I cannot dismantle it just because of its exquisite timekeeping function. But because of this item, I thought of something else."
"Oh, what is it?"
Zhang Shou bluntly said: "The lights in the Daming Palace of Guo Shoujing during the Yuan Dynasty were leaking."
Although Zhang Kang had shown him a globe last time, there is still a gap between a globe and a real astronomical instrument. If Weinan Earl Zhang Kang even knows about this kind of thing, then this person definitely cannot be called a northern barbarian!
"The Daming Palace Lamp Leak? Is it the Daming Palace Lamp Leak mentioned in the Astronomical Records of the Yuan Dynasty, which was used for timekeeping?" Zhang Kang raised his eyebrows at first, and then laughed, "Now that Dr. Zhang mentioned this, I also remembered that the Astronomical Records of the Yuan Dynasty praised it very much and also recorded other strange things. I remember that the Daming Palace Lamp Leak was powered by water, which is different from the one in your hand."
At this point, he sighed and said, "Emperor Taizu said that one of the reasons for the chaos in the late Yuan Dynasty was because those greedy Semu people amassed countless wealth, causing the people to live in misery. After the chaos, these guys either fled to the northern desert or were killed by the rebel forces in various places. Therefore, many Western astronomical instruments in the Yuan Dynasty history have been lost. The lanterns and leaks in the Daming Palace in Yuan Dadu were also burned down long ago."
Zhang Shou smiled and asked, "What about the astronomical instrument tower like the one in the Song Dynasty?"
"That's something the Imperial Observatory is responsible for. I don't know about that."
Zhang Kang laughed in silence, then put his hands in his pockets and looked at Zhang Shou and said, "Speaking of which, Grand Tutor Ge and Grand Minister Qi both managed the Imperial Observatory, so the historians there were quite respectful of them. But they couldn't stand the fact that a young man like you was promoted because of his mathematical skills. So, if you want them to provide you with tools to unlock the secret of the timepiece in your hand, it will probably be difficult."
Zhang Shou didn't expect Zhang Kang to be worried that the people from the Imperial Observatory would embarrass him. Not to mention the Imperial Observatory of that time, even if all the mathematical geniuses in the country were exhausted, it would not be easy to decipher the working principle of a mechanical watch. Although New China claims to have built the first car purely by hand, that is because at least there were lathes and other processing equipment. With the theoretical and technological level of that time... hehe!
At that moment, Zhang Shou smiled and shook his head: "I don't ask for help from the Imperial Observatory, I just want to improve the current timepieces. So, I want to say hello to you, Weinan Bo. I will probably ask Lu Sanlang to invite two or three young and smart craftsmen to go back for research. Of course, not from the Military Equipment Bureau."
Zhang Kang did not ask such a stupid question as why he had to inform me about such a thing. After all, he had paid close attention to the last time Lu Sanlang detained a few craftsmen in that bookshop.
At this moment, seeing the faint smile on Zhang Shou's handsome face, thinking of how he was a boy of a foreign race, but was trusted and valued by Emperor Ruizong, and eventually became an earl, and then studied like crazy for half his life, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly that one must be crazy to live, and then smiled and said: "Since you have such a refined taste, Dr. Zhang, I, an outsider, wish you success in the future!"
"I hope to receive the good news from Master Bo!"
While trying desperately to recall his pitiful knowledge about clocks, Zhang Shou deliberately talked to Zhang Kang about a long series of seemingly plausible principles with great interest, even directly explaining the formula of the simple pendulum principle to Zhang Kang. Of course, he did not expect the other party to understand it. Seeing Zhang Kang's eyes gradually flickering, and clearly wanting to end this conversation quickly, he could not help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief.
In fact, a pendulum clock, in addition to the simple pendulum principle and escapement structure, requires a lot of parts. It is definitely not something that can be made quickly, and it would be a luxury if it was made. Instead of wasting time, it would be better to find a few craftsmen to get quartz sand and alkali and spend time experimenting with burning glass.
But because it takes a long time, this research is very suitable for deceiving outsiders and making them relax their vigilance against him who is obsessed with strange instruments and tricks. It is also an explanation to the emperor who gave him the things. Of course, if the pendulum clock can be made in the end, it will be a great joy. During this period, he can certainly use the craftsmen for other purposes.
When Zhang Shou and Zhang Kang returned to the door of the house they had been in before, Zhang Shou heard Lu Sanlang yelling, "Very good, Qingyu, it's you. Everyone agrees that you will play Li Xiangjun! But, it's not that I look down on you. If you want to write this story in its entirety, it will probably take more than a day or two. So why not just write it all at once? Write a segment and then act it out!"
Lu Sanlang paused, then smiled and said, "You act out a scene, and then have the bookstore print out this story you wrote and distribute it all over the city. It won't cost any money in the first few days. With your fame and this unique story, you won't have to worry about no one buying it in the future. Not to mention anything else, just look at those newly published eight-part essay anthologies, and with this story of the peach blossom fan, the book will definitely sell better!"
"And when your play and book become popular, I will invite drama masters to sing the lyrics and have them sung all over the city. That will be truly popular and a big hit!"
Zhang Shou had this thought when he and Lu Sanlang joked in the carriage that books were not as good as dramas. Now that he found that Lu Sanlang was so able to draw inferences from other cases, he couldn't help but laugh. Zhang Kang was both amused and confused. He glanced at Zhang Shou and joked, "Dr. Zhang, you are obsessed with arithmetic and strange instruments, but Lu San is obsessed with making money. Like teacher, like disciple!"
