The north wind brings snow, the plum blossoms bloom in the cold year, and the city of Peiping is covered with snow due to heavy snowfall for many days. However, the Spring Festival is approaching, and the festive atmosphere is not diminished at all. The children are wearing newly made sweaters and happily having snowball fights in the snow.
Some quiet girls couldn't bear the loneliness and played together making snowmen on the snow, with happy smiles on their pink faces.
Houhaizi has a thick layer of ice, so there are naturally no fishermen, but there are still many people visiting the lake. These people are attracted by a tall building under construction next to Houhaizi. This
The building is seven to eight feet high and is entirely made of masonry. From a distance, you can see people on the top floor hanging some copper parts for installation. The onlookers didn't know what they were doing.
This is the century clock designed and built by Chi Xin and others. As a gift for the first year of the new century, it must be tall and majestic so that the people in the whole city can see it, and they can know the accurate time at a glance, so
He said that this bell tower is not only an image project, but also a convenience project.
To build this century clock, Shuntian Mansion spent nearly two tons of copper, thousands of glass, cement, masonry, wood, etc. The total cost was no less than 20,000 taels of silver. However, this is the landmark of Peking City.
The traditional architecture plays a role in uniting people's hearts and enhancing their sense of pride, so no matter how much money you spend, it is worth it.
"Passed the test? Must it be on time?" Wan Lei asked Chixin and Chicheng. After all, this cost a huge amount of money. If there was an error in the timing, it would be a slap in the face.
"It's been half a month since the test, and the error every day will not exceed half a minute." She patted her chest with bare heart and assured.
"Well, that's good. Let the workers install it carefully and don't damage the parts." Wan Lei had to explain a few more words. After all, this project cost a huge amount of money.
"Nephew, this is the new style of government flag and emblem we designed. Do you want to choose one?" Tie Xuan was also present. He unfolded several drawings in front of Wan Lei.
"Such a major event must be decided by a vote by all citizens. As for the party flag and emblem, it is also based on the government flag and emblem, with an edge added." Referendums are an effective means to unite people's hearts and cultivate citizen awareness. Wan Lei will give the opportunity whenever he has the opportunity.
Just use it.
"Referendum? I'm afraid it will be difficult, there are so many people in Beiping City." Tie Xuan was afraid of trouble.
After all, the Chinese New Year is coming soon, and the people have to buy a lot of things. As the chief official of the first government, in order to let the soldiers and civilians have a peaceful and peaceful New Year, not only must they prepare various New Year goods for the people to purchase, but they must also prepare some New Year entertainment programs for them.
Therefore, administrative officials at all levels, headed by Tie Xuan, are extremely busy and have no time to gather the people together for any referendum.
"It's not difficult. Send these samples to the House of Representatives, let the members be responsible for door-to-door statistics, and then compile the data. It's done. Anyway, those members are idle when they are idle. They should do something practical, otherwise the people will be
I don't know about them anymore." Wan Lei gave his idea, Tie Xuan had nothing to say, so the matter was settled.
At the end of the year, the New Year is a heavy burden for Wan Lei. For more than half a month, he has either held various year-end summary meetings, checked money and food accounts for filing, or walked around the streets visiting people to express condolences to the orphans, widows, poor and weak.
.In short, he was so busy that he realized firsthand that being a "public servant" of the people is not that easy.
In fact, the most popular festivals in the Ming Dynasty were not New Year's Eve and Spring Festival, but the Shangyuan Festival. When Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, established his capital in Jinling, he built colorful buildings in the city and put thousands of water lanterns on the Qinhuai River to celebrate.
The practice followed, and this custom soon spread throughout the Ming Dynasty.
The Shangyuan Festival in the Ming Dynasty was not only the lively day of the Lantern Festival. Starting from the eighth day of the first lunar month, lanterns and festoons began to be decorated inside and outside the palace. Various lanterns decorated the night of Beijing city like a sea of stars, and these lanterns had to be hung.
It lasted for ten days, and it was not until the seventeenth day of the first lunar month that the lights were turned off.
Beiping City was originally the fiefdom of King Yan, and they used to put out lanterns every year, so watching lanterns during the Lantern Festival has become one of the customs of Beiping City residents. And this year is the beginning of the founding of Shuntian Prefecture, so Wan Lei discussed it with the officials
, everyone agreed that the lantern festival should be held in a glorious way to celebrate, and no extravagance and waste would be spared.
Therefore, Wan Lei came back from the Century Bell Tower construction site and went to the ice sculpture construction site at Houhai to inspect. Since it was freezing cold in Beiping City, there was ice everywhere, so he used ice to carve various exquisite images, and then hung lanterns on them.
Above all, it is crystal clear, saving money and being beautiful.
Dozens of masons are busy in front of a huge piece of ice. A huge ice sculpture of a soaring dragon has begun to take shape. There are also many small ice sculptures such as chasing horses, flying eagles and jumping rabbits. They look lifelike, which shows the sincerity of these masons' craftsmanship.
Yes, Wan Lei must praise them a few words.
After coming out of the ice sculpture field, you have to go to the salute platform to see the Lantern Festival, because the Lantern Festival is not just about setting off lanterns, but also fireworks, that is, fireworks. Since gunpowder is a dangerous product, the production of fireworks must be careful to prevent the fire. Wan Lei first
No matter how the production is going, we just remind the workers again and again to pay attention to safety.
In fact, Wan Lei can guarantee without asking that this year's fireworks will definitely be the most beautiful, because he asked people to add additives such as copper sulfate and ferrous sulfate to the gunpowder, which will turn into bright colors such as blue, green, and yellow after being ignited.
It looks like flowers blooming in the sky, dazzling people to see, and ensuring an unprecedented grand event, which will completely explode the small fireworks in the imperial capital of Jinling.
After inspecting the fireworks production site, Wan Lei dragged his tired body back home. He was so busy preparing for the New Year that the assembly of steam engines was put aside for the time being.
After two months of experimental exploration, Wan Lei updated and improved several sets of design plans, and a small steam engine model has been created. However, it still encounters two major bottlenecks: the power is too low and the energy conversion rate is too low.
It needs to be greatly improved. According to Wan Lei's most optimistic estimate, it will not be finalized until this time next year. There is no rush.
Of course, he also thought about letting people from the research institute study the steam engine project, but he gave up the idea as soon as he thought about it. After all, the steam engine was the booster of the industrial revolution and the main technological advantage of Shuntian Mansion in the future.
If the technology is leaked, I believe that the Ming Dynasty will soon be able to copy it, which will be very bad.
Because the comprehensive national power of the Ming Dynasty is there, the Ming Dynasty has tens of millions of people and countless resources. If there is a scientific and technological competition at this time, Shuntian Mansion will definitely be completely defeated. Therefore, key technologies must be kept strictly confidential and must be returned to the Ming Dynasty.
Before suddenly waking up, you must have an absolute advantage and let it be unable to catch up no matter how hard you try. Only then can you maintain your undefeated position.
"Brother, do you look good?" As soon as I entered the house, I saw a little girl in a leather coat. She also had a diji combed on her hair and wearing warm ears. Her face looked full of spring breeze, and she couldn't be Zhao Xueer.
"You are dressed so neatly, are you going on a blind date?" Wan Lei asked with a smile, because this little girl is getting better and better at dressing up, and she is less and less "invested" in her body. But it's no wonder, this little girl is getting better and better at dressing up.
After all, Nizi is now a junior officer, leading the army's pay, and earns more than her father every month. Spending some money to make a few sets of body-fitting clothes can be regarded as a wise use. Anyway, there is no shortage of woolen cloth and fur in Beiping City.
"What kind of blind date are you talking about? You are so eager to drive me away?" Zhao Xueer flattened her mouth and said with a sullen face: "I'm going to go shopping with Sister Zhang to buy some New Year's goods. Everyone has almost bought all their New Year's goods. It's just our family.
There’s nothing, you all don’t care about such an important thing, so I can only handle it.”
"Go, go, sell more food." Wan Lei waved his hand, signaling her to leave quickly.
In fact, at the end of the year, it is really difficult to go through this period. Not only Wan Lei is busy, but Fu Wei is also busy. On the twenty-sixth of the year, she and Mrs. Tie and other official wives also followed the example of the male master and visited various industries.
Women elites from all walks of life, after all, Shuntian Mansion's success today is inseparable from their support.
ps: I can’t complain about the Spring Festival Gala. I personally feel that the Spring Festival Gala is the executioner that castrates folk culture.
Regardless of other things, I will just say one thing: the bell should ring at 11 o'clock for the Chinese Spring Festival, but at 12 o'clock for the Spring Festival Gala. This has seriously misled the people across the country and caused serious cultural misunderstandings, because the deepest level of Chinese culture
The key factor is that everything starts with "zi".
The Chinese Spring Festival should ring the bell at 11 o'clock, which represents the beginning of the new year. International time is a unified standard time in the world, and it is not based on China's customs and geographical environment. If a purely traditional festival like the Spring Festival,
Using international standard time seems to be neither Chinese nor Western.
Although the earth is relatively offset, this one-hour difference does not seem to matter. However, the time alternation in China is derived from the celestial stems and earthly branches based on natural changes, which should be about 11 o'clock in the evening. We can think of the foreign as the middle.
But you can’t seize everything to use foreign things for China. You can seize Christmas to have fun, but you can’t seize international time to replace “Chinese time”.
Things in China must be done the Chinese way! The revival of China's most traditional culture, which has lasted for five thousand years and thousands of years, should begin with the adoption of "Chinese time" during the Spring Festival.