Emperor Renzong of the Great Song Dynasty

Xia Yuqi's steamboat traveled twenty miles back and forth in the Bian River, and now it is quietly moored on the pier outside the school gate.

It was the hottest time in the afternoon when the onlookers had dispersed, only sand gulls and waterfowl flew by by chance.

Zhao Yiyi was so irritated by the strong light reflected from the water that he couldn’t keep his eyes open—he worked at his desk all year round, but his eyesight was actually not very good.In the afternoon, the storm was quiet, and the entire water area was as clear as glass, reflecting the scorching sunshine of July onto his face.

Liu En used his sleeves to cover him from the strong light, and after he got used to it for a while and was able to open his eyes, he took off the sleeves.

Zhao Yiyi squinted his eyes and looked at the big boat in the river: "From the bow to the stern, how long is it?"

Xia Yuqi said: "62 meters and two feet."

Zhao Yiyi asked, "Where is Kuan?"

Xia Yuqi said: "20 meters."

Zhao Yiyi pointed to the middle part of the hull: "You installed a boiler there, right?"

Xia Yuqi said: "It's just under the chimney. I removed the mast and sails, and installed a coal-fired boiler underneath."

Coal is coal.

Zhao Yiyi said: "The boiler is a bit bigger, taking up almost one-third of the interior space of the cabin. It seems that it is not economical to transport cargo. Can you reduce the size of the boiler, or make the ship bigger?"

Xia Yuqi shook his head: "The boiler can't be any smaller. If it's smaller, it won't be able to carry such a big boat. In fact, if the boat is repaired a little bigger, such a big boiler can still be moved, and there will be more space. Carrying people and cargo. It's just..."

He pointed to the position next to the boiler: "Guan, do you see it? The keel there is almost unable to withstand the weight of the hull. The boiler is made of iron, and such a large piece of iron is added to the ship. The pressure was extremely high. The keel here was about to break, but I wound it with iron bars to strengthen it, which kept it in its current shape. Otherwise, the whole ship would break right in the middle during the sea trial. Come on. Such a big ship is already the limit, if you want to make the ship even bigger, I'm afraid..."

He shook his head: "I can't find such a strong keel."

The keel is the skeleton of the hull, mostly made of giant wood.

Shipbuilding technology in the Song Dynasty was extremely developed, and large ships tens of meters long could be built.But compared with the tens of thousands of tons of ocean-going ships in the steam age, they are simply dwarfs.

The reason is the limitation of materials.

It is very convenient to use giant wood as the skeleton of the hull, but the growth of trees is extremely slow, and there are relatively few woods suitable for use as keels—it must be straight, thick, and tall, and it is not suitable for rot.

And no matter how strong wood is, it has its limits.Wood is much weaker than steel.Once the ship's self-weight and cargo weight exceed a certain limit, the keel will be broken from the middle, and the whole ship will be useless.

Zheng He's treasure ship was the pinnacle of wooden sailing ships, with a length of 150 meters and a width of 60 meters, and a displacement of thousands of tons.

But this fleet was built and supported by the whole country, the purpose is to show off the country's prestige, and it has no economic effect.If this treasure ship is put into the market——

Zhao Yiyi did the math, and estimated that the cost would not be recovered throughout its entire service life.

Moreover, apart from the emperor himself, there is no second person who has the capital to build such a treasure ship.

The wooden giant ship is not economically beneficial at all, just a costly and futile toy.

If you want to build a steamship that is suitable for entering the shipping market and driving the economy of the entire Song Dynasty, you have to change the shipbuilding materials.

Zhao Yiyi asked Xia Yuqi: "Senior Xia, are you saying that if the ship is made bigger, the entire hull will not be able to withstand its own weight and will break apart?"

Xia Yuqi nodded: "Exactly."

Zhao Yiyi said: "So you reinforced the keel of the boat with iron bars?"

Xia Yuqi said: "That's right, I wrapped the iron bars around the keel to ensure that the keel won't break suddenly."

Zhao Yiyi asked: "In this case, why don't you just use iron to build ships?"

He pointed to the ship in the water: "The entire hull is made of iron so that there is no risk of breaking. As we all know, iron is much stronger than wood."

Xia Yuqi was dumbfounded: "How is this possible?"

He said: "Wood floats on water, so a boat made of wood can float on the water. But iron will sink to the bottom of the water. How can a boat float when you build a boat out of iron?"

Zhao Yiyi said in his heart, come, let me teach you a junior high school physics class.

He said: "The water here is too deep, let's go, let's find a place with shallow water."

Liu En pointed to a nearby shoal: "The water there is shallow, go there."

Zhao Yiyi nodded and walked to the shallows.

It said it was a shoal, but in fact the water near the pier was quite deep. Zhao Yiyi took Liu En's saber to test it, and the water was about one meter deep.

He squatted by the water and picked up a dead branch: "Senior, look after it. This is a piece of wood."

Zhao Yiyi soaked the wood in the water and let go.The wood floated on the surface of the water and drifted away with the waves.

Xia Yuqi, Bai Yutang and Liu En all squatted beside him.He said to Xia Yuqi: "As the senior said, wood floats on water. The wood floats away."

He groped around again, trying to find a bigger stone.Just nearby is a white stone the size of a watermelon, which has been washed smooth and dense by the river.

Zhao Yiyi weighed it in his heart, and found that with his own strength, it would take a lot of effort to bring the stone over.

He just wanted to ask Liu En to fetch the stone, when Bai Yutang stood up without saying a word, and brought the stone over.

Such a big stone seemed to be as light as a feather in his hands.

Zhao Yiyi smiled and said, "Young Hero Bai is here."

Bai Yutang put the stone by his hand.Zhao Yiyi patted the stone: "Senior Xia, tell me, can this stone float in the water?"

Xia Yuqi shook his head and said, "I can't."

Zhao Yiyi winked at Liu En.Liu En picked up the stone and threw it into the water, only to see that the stone sank to the bottom of the river without hesitation.

With quick eyesight and quick hands, he fished up the stone again.

Zhao Yiyi smiled and said, "Senior Xia, take care."

Liu En drew out his saber, cut the stone in half, and hollowed out the core of half of the stone like chopping melons and vegetables.

Zhao Yiyi sighed in his heart, is this the magical internal power of people in the Jianghu? It is as easy to dig out a stone as a watermelon.

Not long after, that half of the stone had been dug into a thin stone bowl.

Zhao Yiyi put the stone bowl in the water, and the stone bowl stood firmly on the water.

Xia Yuqi was thoughtful.

Zhao Yiyi handed the stone bowl to Xia Yuqi: "Senior, not only things that can float on water can be used to build ships. Just like this stone, it will sink to the bottom of the water. But if it is hollowed out and made into a A stone bowl can still float on water."

Xia Yuqi suddenly said: "When I was in Yangzhou, I planted a whole yard of flowers and plants in the backyard of the Bai family."

Zhao Yiyi smiled: "And then?"

Xia Yuqi said: "Some flowers and plants were brought from Lingnan, where there is more rain than in Yangzhou, and the flowers and plants need to be watered every day. I put a big water tank in the yard and used a gourd ladle to water the flowers and plants every day. Once, I don't know where to put the scoop. When I watered the flowers the next day, I took a porcelain bowl instead. After watering the flowers, I put the porcelain bowl into the water tank. The porcelain bowl is also like a gourd But the porcelain bowl was a treasure of some kind of kiln. Yutang’s brother wanted to use it to entertain guests, so he took the porcelain bowl back. I took another ordinary porcelain bowl, but this bowl was nowhere to be found. It can't float on the water anymore."

He asked Zhao Yiyi: "Why?"

Zhao Yiyi said in his heart, because F float = ρ liquid gV row.

He said, "Perhaps the second bowl is thicker."

Xia Yuqi asked: "How thick or thin should it be so that things that can't float in water can float on water? If they can float on water, how can they carry heavy loads?"

Zhao Yiyi spread his hands: "I don't know either."

He took the silk handed over from Liu En and wiped his hands: "Senior, don't worry. Before September this year, you only need to complete this ship."

Pointing to the wooden steamboat moored in the river: "As for the matter of using iron to build the boat, there is no rush."

One is that before you deduce the buoyancy formula, it is nonsense to talk about building iron ships.two is……

I don't have so much iron now...

Zhao Yiyi felt bitterness in his heart.

Today's iron is a valuable item. Farmers use it to make plowshares, and soldiers use it to make weapons.In addition, in the past two years, the northern land reclamation has to be encouraged, probably because the government has to pay for the people to make farm tools—otherwise, how can the people who have been left impoverished by the flood get the money to make farm tools?

He also needs to rectify the army. The so-called workers must first sharpen their weapons if they want to do a good job. If they want the army to be strong, the first thing is to build a set of good weapons for them.

What arrows, bows, knives, armor...

The more Zhao Yiyi thought about it, the more his heart ached.What my emperor did was really poor.

He patted Xia Yuqi on the shoulder: "Senior, don't worry, think about it carefully."

Think about it, anyway, there is not so much iron in the society to promote iron ships.

Let's talk about this matter again when I promote the blast furnace and raise the steel output.

Before that, you go to push the buoyancy formula first.

Xia Yuqi said: "...obey the order."

After assigning tasks to Xia Yuqi, Zhao Yiyi went back to Yan Shu for a meal, and learned about the progress of Yan Shu's written conversation.

Yan Gong's pen talks are imitated from Mengxi's pen talks that have not yet been born, and are divided into stories, dialectics, melody, imagery, personnel, government affairs, wit, art and literature, calligraphy and painting, skills, utensils, magic, strange things, fallacies, ridicule, magazines, There are several articles on medicine discussion.Yan Shu has already edited the chapter on calligraphy and painting, which has been printed and published by the publishing house.

According to Zhao Yiyi's plan, Yan Gong's written talks should be used as a teaching material for promoting basic education.Now because the written discussion of the whole book has not been completed, it can only be used for teaching in Qingbei University. After Yan Shu has compiled the whole set of books, it can be promoted to the whole country.

Qingbei University has gone through more than two years, and there are tens of thousands of students. Under Yan Shu's earnest teaching, they have grown into talents who are both civil and military.

At least he can read and write, he can count, he understands the general situation, and he can run for several kilometers with sandbags tied.

For his current needs, these people should be enough.

Zhao Yiyi counted the days and had a bottom line in his mind.

What he plans to do in the next few months is bound to offend a large number of vested interests.

He was not afraid of these people threatening his personal safety - if he wanted to assassinate the emperor in Bianliang City, he had to ask the Privy Envoy and his 30 new army for an answer.

What he is afraid of is that these people will engage in non-violent non-cooperation for him and go on strike directly.

He is not afraid of the dozens or hundreds of senior officials in the Chongzheng Palace.There are only a few individuals in total, their life history, family structure, and any shameful things they have done are clearly put on the emperor's case. If they dare to go on strike, believe it or not, Eunuch Liu took your criminal evidence to raid your home that night?

For the broader middle and lower-level officials, he has some headaches.

The social economy of the Song Dynasty was unprecedentedly developed, in other words, there were too many people.When there are more people, there are more things to do, and more officials are needed.

The bureaucratic team of the Song Dynasty was so complex that it was far ahead of the previous generation.

With so many middle- and lower-level officials, especially the bottom-level Zhima officials, Zhao Yiyi really didn't have the energy to beat and restrain them one by one.

With so many people, it would take a year and a half to search even the house.

If they go on strike, the safest way is to let them step down and find someone else to replace them.

At this time, Yan Shu and his students came in handy.

Although he positioned Tsingbei University as a comprehensive university, it was still in its infancy, and most of its students were traditional scholars who came to Bianliang from all over the country for the name of Yan Shu.

Anyway, these people's inner values ​​have solidified, and it is estimated that they cannot accept a way out other than being an official.Then give them an official position, which can be regarded as making the best use of everything.

After Zhao Yiyi finished his meal with Yan Shu, he asked him to pay attention among the students. There was nothing wrong with their personalities and knowledge. They compiled a list and gave it to him. It might be useful after a while.

What a perceptive person Yan Shu was, he immediately sensed that the situation was about to change, so he geared up and began to sort out the list.

The emperor is finally going to make a big move, and his Qingbei University is finally going to be famous all over the world!

Hiss... a little excited!

Returning to the palace after dinner, Zhao Yiyi and Liu En sat in the unattractive pony carriage that they took when they left the palace, and said with a smile: "By this time, Empress Li should have returned to the palace, right?"

Liu En nodded: "I should have arrived at Fengchen Palace and met the Queen Mother."

Zhao Yiyi imagined the scene where Liu E suddenly saw Concubine Li.

In Liu E's mind, Concubine Li had already died in the cold palace fire that year.

Although she didn't see Concubine Li's body with her own eyes, she always felt a little uneasy, but the uneasiness never came to fruition.

Now if he suddenly finds that Concubine Li is standing in front of him in good condition...

Zhao Yiyi smiled without conscience: "I really want to see the expression of the Empress Dowager with my own eyes."

Thinking about Liu E's generation of kings—although she did not become the king in the end, but she has been in charge of the government for so many years, in fact, she is exercising the power of the king—suddenly found that her old enemy who had been framed to death by herself was standing on her side. in front of you.

Don't do anything bad in your life, and don't be afraid of ghosts knocking on your door in the middle of the night.The truth is that Liu E has done too much to Concubine Li. Concubine Li suddenly appeared in broad daylight, so Liu E must not be scared enough.

This is also the reason why Zhao Yiyi didn't tell her that Concubine Li is still alive when he had a showdown with Liu E before - how can the news heard from other people be more impactful than a real person?

He sighed: "It's a pity that I'm really busy with official duties, and I don't have time to visit the Queen Mother."

There are still piles of memorials taller than one person in Yuchen Palace, and he has finished all the approvals today, so that he can prepare for tomorrow's court meeting.

If he wasn't so busy, he really wanted to see Liu E's current situation with his own eyes.

Witnessing the collapse of the enemy is still not as important as work, Zhao Yiyi said with a little regret: "After returning to the palace, you ask someone to go to Fengchen Palace to have a look, and report it to me after returning."

If you can't witness it with your own eyes, it's okay to listen to the broadcast.

However, his plan immediately fell through.

As soon as he and Liu En returned to Yuchen Palace, before they could sit down and start working, they saw a little eunuch running over panting: "The official! The official! Something is wrong!"

Zhao Yiyi didn't treat the palace people harshly, and he always had a pleasant face towards the palace ladies and eunuchs. After a long time, the palace people didn't have any fear in front of him, and it was common for them to start calling him two miles away.

Liu En hurriedly said: "The officials are going to deal with state affairs, so let's talk about what's going on tonight!"

Zhao Yiyi just took a sip of tea to moisten his throat when he saw the eunuch running up to Liu En and tugging at his sleeve: "Eunuch Liu, this can't be delayed, tell me to go in and meet His Majesty!"

Zhao Yiyi vaguely saw that this person seemed to be the eunuch next to the queen, and hurriedly said, "Liu En, tell him to come in."

The queen usually would not take the initiative to look for him, unless it was something urgent.

Liu En flashed and called the little eunuch to come in, and the little eunuch ran to him: "The official! It's not good! Something happened to Fengchen Palace! The empress is so angry that the empress fainted! Our empress is already presiding over the situation, please the official Let's go!"

Zhao Yiyi was dizzy by his talking about his empress, and said with a wry smile: "Don't be too busy, speak clearly. Why are your empresses in Fengchen Palace?"

The little eunuch said: "Our empress heard that the empress of Fengchen Palace fainted. At that time, the official family had not returned to the palace, so our empress had to rush over to preside over the situation."

Zhao Yiyi understood. The queen heard that someone in Fengchen Palace had fainted. At this time, the emperor was not in the palace, so she, the queen, could only go and preside over the situation.

but……

"The queen mother just said it was the queen mother. What is the empress of Fengchen Palace? It's a mess, and it will only cause misunderstandings."

The little eunuch showed embarrassment and shook his head: "It's not the empress dowager, it's a new empress from Fengchen Palace. The empress dowager fainted from that empress, so our empress rushed over."

Zhao Yiyi frowned.

The new bride?

Do you mean Concubine Li?

Liu E made Concubine Li faint from anger?

Zhao Yiyi sighed: "Forget it, I'll go and have a look."

I didn't want to watch Liu E's jokes and concentrate on my work.It turned out that things backfired, and he had to go and see how Liu E made Concubine Li faint in anger.

He didn't expect Concubine Li to do anything to Liu E, but he just wanted her to respond to Liu E.In the end, she actually made herself faint...

"Let's go, drive Fengchen Palace."

In Fengchen Palace, Kou Yaoniang was staring at Liu E.

The medical officer has arrived and carried Concubine Li to the inner room for diagnosis and treatment.

In the living room, only Liu E and Kou Yaoniang were left.

Liu E took a sip of the sweet and sour ebony soup, and suddenly looked at Kou Yaoniang and smiled: "You really don't look like your father."

Kou Yaoniang said: "I am more like my mother."

Liu E shook her head: "It's not like Mrs. Song either."

Kou Yaoniang said: "I am the son of a concubine, like my biological mother."

Liu E asked: "What does your biological mother do? How did you raise such a..."

She considered the words: "A daughter who doesn't care about everything?"

Just now she was so angry that Concubine Li fainted. Chen Lin wanted to inform the emperor, but the emperor was not in the palace, so she had to go to inform the empress.

Although Concubine Li's identity has not been made public, Chen Lin expressly hinted that this person's identity is extraordinary, and that the emperor himself said that he would send her to live in Fengchen Palace.

When Kou Yaoniang arrived, she first asked if the medical officer had been called, and after learning that the medical officer had arrived, she said: "Since there is nothing wrong, I will go back."

Chen Lin was in a hurry, and said how could nothing happen, this is the Empress Dowager will—will—

Kou Yaoniang still wanted to leave, or Liu E asked her to stay, saying that the emperor couldn't stay outside the palace anyway, and it would be fine to invite the emperor when he returned to the palace later.The queen should wait for the emperor here together with the palace.

So Kou Yaoniang sat here with Liu E, each holding a cup of ebony soup, drinking while waiting for the emperor.

Liu E laughed and said, "You don't care about who that Empress Li is?"

Kou Yaoniang said: "Who is she, and what does it have to do with me? The Empress Dowager is so powerful that she can make people dizzy just by meeting her face, but the officials still send her to Fengchen Palace. It can be seen that the officials don't care much about it." This person. I am the queen of the official family, someone who the official family doesn't care about, why should I care?"

Liu E smiled: "You can think about it."

Kou Yaoniang is a queen, and she has also been a queen.

Kou Yaoniang doesn't care about things that the emperor doesn't care about, but she...

Liu E sighed secretly.

If she is like Kou Yaoniang who regards her husband as the sky, I am afraid that the Great Song Jiangshan would have...

Song Zhenzong had been dead for several years, and Liu E still gritted his teeth when he occasionally thought of him.

As long as you can live up to your expectations and be an ordinary monarch without merit, the two of us can become an empress couple no less than Tang Taizong and Empress Changsun.

How did it come to this point!Your son sent his own mother in front of me to anger me!

...Although in fact it was his own mother who was stunned by me.

She looked up at Kou Yaoniang.

...Your daughter-in-law is still acting as if she has nothing to do with her.Tsk, the daughter-in-law of your old Zhao family is lucky enough, look who are married in.

She put down the ebony soup: "However, there are some things that the queen should take care of."

Liu E said: "For example, your father..."

Kou Yaoniang said: "My father is now teaching and educating people at Qingbei University, and he is living a good life, don't worry about it."

"However, I do have one thing I would like to ask the Empress Dowager."

Liu E said, "Say it."

Kou Yaoniang thought about it: "The empress used to be the regent of heaven and held the monarchy. Then you think, in this world..."

She stared into Liu E's eyes: "Is there any possibility of a heroine?"