Xu Zhengming, who could not get close to the emperor's office, placed the flying chair on the street and stepped on the pedals to attract passers-by.
According to the records in "Wu County Chronicles", this flying chair is shaped like a 栲栳 chair. "There is a mechanism underneath, and the teeth are staggered", that is, it is driven by gears. "A person sits on the chair and hits the board with two feet, and the machine moves up and down, turning
"Wind Whirlwind" means using the foot pedal to drive the gear and then let the propeller rotate to take off.
As people in Nanjing watched, the propellers rotated rapidly and the fans blew up dust on the ground.
Even the person and the chair actually flew up.
"What a strange thing!"
"Fly higher, fly to the roof!"
"This place is too close to the royal family. If we fly any higher, we might fall into His Majesty's courtyard."
"Oh, it fell!"
Xu Zhengming got up in disgrace. The skin of his right hand was bruised and his pants were torn at the knees. He patted the dust on his palms and said in poor Mandarin: "Dear neighbors of Nanjing, I, Xu Zhengming, have come here to offer a flying chair to His Majesty. I have no choice but to do so.
Since I can't see His Majesty, I'll offer some treasures to the neighbors first. If you like them, I'll give you a few rewards. To be honest, I've exhausted all my money and haven't even found a place to stay tonight."
"Fly again!" someone shouted.
Xu Zhengming smiled and said: "Well, let's fly it again for the neighbors."
His flying chair has been improved and can fly more than two feet high, which is nearly one meter. Moreover, it also has a small propeller at the tail, which can propel it forward and even control steering.
"The machine that goes up and down makes the wind spin rapidly." The one above is the big propeller, and the one below is the small propeller.
More and more people were watching, and even the patrol police came and stood on the roadside to watch.
Unfortunately, this thing is too strenuous, and you have to pedal like crazy. If you step on your feet more slowly, the flying chair will fall immediately, and it will fall off every time, and it has never landed smoothly.
Seeing the flying chair falling to the ground, the patrol officer immediately stepped forward and yelled: "On the streets here, you are not allowed to perform tricks, let alone gather people to make noise. Leave quickly, otherwise you will be fined!"
Xu Zhengming quickly got up, held up his hands to please him and said: "This official, a common man wants to see His Majesty, so he came from Suzhou to offer this gift."
"If you want to see your Majesty, put a letter in the big mailbox over there and state what's going on," the patrolman said. "If your Majesty is willing to see you, he will send someone to summon you."
Xu Zhengming said: "I have submitted my letter for several days, but there is no news at all."
The patrolman smiled and said, "That means His Majesty doesn't want to see you."
When the mailbox was first set up in Nanjing, people felt it was new and they could write letters about trivial matters.
Gradually, they discovered that the emperor did not care about trivial matters, and over time he became too lazy to write letters.
Nowadays, letters written to the emperor are mostly written by civilian scholars, and their contents are of two types: one is to make suggestions and put forward one's own political opinions, hoping to win the favor of the emperor; the other is to write poems and articles, hoping to use one's literary talent
To impress the emperor.
There is a guy who writes one letter a day, and his name is already familiar to Zhao Han.
As a result, Zhao Han directly asked someone to post a notice next to the mailbox: "No gossip articles are allowed. If you commit the crime again, your descendants will not be allowed to serve as officials!"
At the urging of the patrol police, Xu Zhengming and his son carried the flying chair and tried to leave.
But I saw a strong female officer riding a horse, shouting along the way: "Who is Xu Zhengming? Who is Xu Zhengming?"
"I am, I am!" Xu Zhengming waved his hand quickly.
The female official scolded: "How come I can't find you in the inn? It's so hard to find you that my voice is hoarse."
Xu Zhengming smiled apologetically and said, "It's been half a month since I came to Nanjing. I ran out of money and the innkeeper kicked me out with sticks."
The female officer said: "Come with me quickly and take your belongings with you."
The father and son carried the flying chair and left inexplicably excited.
He heard that the emperor liked strange things, so he took the risk and went to Nanjing.
Zhao Han was in Liu Rushi's courtyard. Liu Rushi, with a big belly, was walking and singing in the shade of the trees. Li Xiangjun, a female official, was sitting next to her playing the pipa to accompany her.
"As the geese march south, the west wind blows urgently, and Hu Tian's voice echoes in the sky. The message is hard to come by, and the situation is smelly for thousands of miles. Who can visit a beauty who has a bad life? There are Wusun sent to the west who have been orphaned all their lives, and there are still graves with smoke and green grass.
…”
This is a Sanqu from Liang Chenyu's "Jiangdong Bailu". The content is about paying homage to the battlefield of Gu Luntai. The style of the music and the lyrics have a desolate and majestic meaning.
Sanqu is different from opera.
Opera can be understood as Chinese opera, and Sanqu can be understood as popular songs from the Ming Dynasty. Once you get used to it, it is still very nice to listen to.
After the song was sung, a female official came over and reported: "Your Majesty, Xu Zhengming has brought you here."
"Let him come in." Zhao Han said.
The moment he saw the flying chair, Zhao Han couldn't help but smile. It was a helicopter with only seats and propellers left.
"Grass people..."
Zhao Han stopped: "You don't have to kneel down, just bring it over and I'll take a look."
The flying chair was moved in front of Zhao Han. Regardless of his image, he squatted down and turned the pedals with his hands, and the two propellers turned.
Moreover, it is an all-wooden structure, even the gears are made of some kind of hardwood, and a lot of sesame oil is applied between the gears for lubrication.
There is not a single nail in the entire "helicopter".
Black technology!
Zhao Han stood up: "Try flying."
Xu Zhengming sat on the flying chair and stepped on the pedals again. In front of the emperor, he was so powerful that he flew more than one meter high, flew forward more than five meters, and then... he crashed due to exhaustion.
This time it flew too high and broke the propeller blades.
"Hahaha!"
Liu Rushi and Li Xiangjun were both amused and at the same time amazed by this thing.
Xu Zhengming's son hurriedly ran to help him up, and the father and son knelt on the ground. Xu Zhengming explained: "Your Majesty, ordinary people can still improve, and they will definitely be able to fly across mountains and rivers in the future!"
Zhao Han said: "Get up, sit down and talk."
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
The father and son stood up quickly and bowed to the female official who moved the chair to express their gratitude.
Zhao Han asked: "Are you a carpenter?"
Xu Zhengming said: "Exactly."
Zhao Han asked again: "How is your livelihood?"
Xu Zhengming said: "Thanks to your majesty, after I lose my craftsmanship, I no longer have to serve the government. I do some carpentry work on weekdays, and I don't have to worry about food and clothing. Even the money I earn is used to make strange things."
, sometimes the family would run out of food and go hungry.”
"How long have you been doing this?" Zhao Han asked.
Xu Zhengming said: "For more than ten years, I couldn't fly at first, and then fell down as soon as I left the ground. Your Majesty, as long as the common people work for another ten years, they will be able to fly higher than the city wall. At that time, I can serve Your Majesty
Build hundreds of flying chairs and fly directly from the tower when attacking the city."
Zhao Han thought of the scene of Datong soldiers and helicopters attacking the city...the scene was too beautiful to look at.
Zhao Han asked: "Do you have a cousin?"
Xu Zhengming said with a smile: "A common man is just a carpenter. Even though he has studied for a few days, how can he pick up the Chinese characters?"
Zhao Han said: "As long as the wood follows the rope, it will be straight, and the burning wood will become the fire, and it will be bright. You are a carpenter, so you might as well take the word Mu De."
"Thank you for the words, Your Majesty!" Xu Zhengming was overjoyed and jumped up from his chair and knelt down to thank him.
"Get up," Zhao Han said, "Let's put this flying chair aside for now. There is no need to go up to the sky as soon as it comes. You can start from the ground. Your pedals are very good, so why not make a car that can run while staring.
"
"Car?" Xu Zhengming looked confused.
Zhao Han asked the female officer to get paper and pen, draw a bicycle, and said: "People can sit on it and step on the pedals to move forward."
Xu Zhengming asked: "Won't it fall? How about making four wheels?"
Zhao Han smiled and said: "If you ride fast, you won't fall down. You can make three wheels or four wheels."
No matter how many wheels there are, a bicycle without a chain is very difficult to pedal. That thing relies entirely on front wheel drive. The front wheel is large and the rear wheel is small. It also bumps and is uncomfortable due to the lack of pneumatic tires.
Zhao Han asked Xu Zhengming to make a bicycle purely because he wanted to exercise.
Zhao Han said: "Take my handwriting, go to Qintianyuan to find Fang Yizhi, and learn mathematics and physics from him."
Xu Zhengming said: "Your Majesty, we belong to the Mathematics Grassroots Association."
"You know math?" Zhao Han said with a smile.
Xu Zhengming said: "Caomin's youngest son is also studying. Caomin took his mathematics textbook and studied it by himself. It is not difficult, as long as you remember the vassal numbers, many things are the same as arithmetic."
Zhao Han was even more satisfied and said: "Then I will give you a job. While learning physics from Fang Yizhi, you can improve the existing spinning machines and looms. It is best to make a large machine that can spin a lot of yarn at one time.
, weave a lot of cloth! When you finish the machine, I will apply for a patent for you. The money earned from the patent will be divided into 70% by Qin Tianjian and 30% by you."
This is not an unfair contract, because the research and development costs for improving the looms are all provided by official funds.
"According to the order!" Xu Zhengming imitated the accent on the stage.
This guy still wanted to continue researching helicopters, but he couldn't make ends meet with the money he earned. So he came to see the emperor and wanted to get some silver reward to live by.
It's even better now. I have an errand at Qintianyuan, and I can make money while tinkering with airplanes.
Moreover, you can use the "leftovers" of good wood for free under the pretext of improving the loom.
With the introduction of water-powered spinning machines in Jiangxi, the spinning speed could not keep up with the spinning speed. Therefore, over the past few years, the spinning machines have also been improved, but the spinning efficiency has only increased by about 20%.
Zhao Han also doesn't understand textile machinery. Now that he has caught someone who can make a helicopter, of course he has to do something serious.
In an era when the power system cannot keep up, developing a helicopter is indeed a "playing with things"!
If Xu Zhengming continues to do this and one day he really can fly a few feet high, he will be thrown to death sooner or later.
After this person left, another female official came to report: "Your Majesty, Hong Chengchou and others have been brought to Nanjing."
"Send them to mine." Zhao Han was too lazy to see these traitors.
There were a lot of things going on in Shandong, and Hong Chengchou and Zuo Liangyu were almost forgotten. It wasn't until Fei Ruhe was ordered to move that he suddenly remembered that there were a bunch of high-level prisoners, and they were quickly sent to the Jiangsu border for isolation, and then sent to Nanjing by boat.
Come.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to kill Hong Chengchou?
Zhao Han didn't like doing Lingchi, and he felt uncomfortable after cutting him off with a knife. Then he was sent to mine and became a working people. How many years he could live depended on the fate of the traitors.