When it comes to telling the truth, Zhang Yong naturally does his part.
Although Wang Heizi was eager to try, he was clumsy and did not know what the saint cared about most, what should be said and what should not be said. After hesitating for a while, he let Zhang Yong take the lead.
"Your Majesty, when I arrived in Baghdad, I sent someone to a palace called the Palace of Wisdom to ask for books." Zhang Yong said.
"But it was rejected?" Shao Shude asked.
"Yes." Zhang Yong said: "Dashi is arrogant and rude, does not know the power of Da Xia, and is arrogant..."
"Okay, don't talk about this." Shao Shude interrupted him and said, "Let's get to the point."
"Yes." Zhang Yong was excited and immediately stopped talking and said directly: "I asked to see the palace officials later, but I didn't see anyone who kept his word."
"Have you not considered using the money?" Shao Shude asked.
Zhang Yong was slightly surprised. As the emperor of the great dynasty, he was really pragmatic and did not think it was shameful to pay bribes at all.
He said: "A lot of money was spent, but most of them were paid but not done."
Shao Shude laughed.
Zhang Yong was a little ashamed. Of the three ships on the mission, two were lost on the way. The last one also ran aground before entering the port and later sank. Although a large part of the supplies was recovered, the loss was still considerable. In other words,
The funds they can use are actually very limited. If the porcelain, silk, handicrafts, and tea were not sold at a good price, they would be unable to move forward.
"It's normal to go out." Shao Shude said: "Dashi is also a big country, rich and arrogant. It's normal for Dashi to have an arrogant attitude. In the early Tang Dynasty, Dashi envoys entered Chang'an, although history books like to say that they came here
To pay tribute, but is that true? Not necessarily. In fact, even Japan is not here to pay tribute. In their own view, it is a completely equal exchange. What you experienced in Baghdad is ordinary, I know it very well
.”
Zhang Yong was deeply moved. How difficult it was to meet a reasonable emperor.
This mission really broadened my horizons. At least I knew what outsiders thought of Daxia. Otherwise, when I was studying at home, all I would read were things written by my own people, and my understanding would be a bit biased. By comparison, it’s just that
Very interesting.
It turns out that Daxia was not the only kingdom in heaven.
It turns out that there are so many countries and tribes in the world.
It turns out that there are so many wonderful things in the world, and there are also ingenious craftsmen and immortal art in foreign countries.
It turns out that different people have different views on the same thing. If you think about it carefully, it makes sense.
Stones from other hills, can learn.
When he read this sentence before, Zhang Yong thought he had a deep understanding. But after five years of going out, his understanding was even deeper and he had reached a very deep level.
Persisting in external exchanges is useful and of great use.
"Your Majesty, I was looking for people everywhere in Baghdad, and finally the news reached the ears of the Grand Vizier. He ordered the Wisdom Palace to select five hundred books and give them to us." Zhang Yong continued.
"Are these five hundred books copied? Are there any errors?" Shao Shude asked.
"It's not a copy." Zhang Yong explained: "There is a printing office in the Wisdom Palace, and five hundred books were directly printed and handed over to us."
Shao Shude nodded.
It seems that the printing industry in Baghdad should be very good. Come to think of it, the Wisdom Palace was originally a place for translation and collection of books, and sometimes it also distributed books to various places in the world. Without a large-scale printing industry, it is impossible.
I was exhausted from transcribing.
Speaking of which, people may have given away five hundred books as a gift. Even a certain vassal town under the jurisdiction of Dashi, such as Samampos, went to ask for books and received more than five hundred books.
Thinking of this, Shao Shude had to admit that Dashi was indeed very arrogant!
But even if they do this, you won't be able to fight, so what can you do? What's more, maybe in the eyes of the powerful people in Baghdad, their country is also a country ruled by heaven, with people coming from all directions.
In short, people have no obligation to curry favor with you.
"Later, we found many bookstores in Baghdad, searched everywhere for books, and bought more than a thousand books. I couldn't understand them well, so I bought them first and then started to talk. I slowly found someone to translate them, but the translation has not been completed yet," Zhang Yong added.
.
He knew that saints care most about books, so this was the first thing he chose to talk about.
"Fifteen hundred books, that's pretty good. What are they from?" Shao Shude asked.
"It covers everything from astronomy, geography, navigation, mathematics, architecture, music and dance. I even bought a dictionary each of Shiyu, Persian and Turkic dictionaries," Zhang Yong said.
"Very good." Shao Shude praised.
Zhang Yong was overjoyed when he heard this.
The saint first praised "not bad" and then praised "very good". He knew that he had done something right this time and he was very happy at this moment.
"What does Wang Qing have to say?" Shao Shude looked at Wang Heizi and asked.
"I bought that dictionary before I left." Wang Heizi felt that Zhang Yong had finished speaking, and felt unhappy, so he said: "Before leaving Baghdad, I gave money and asked their people to take us to the observatory.
Turned around."
Shao Shude laughed again. This guy's emotional intelligence fluctuated high and low, making people laugh.
"How about the observatory?" he asked.
"I don't understand." Wang Heizi said, "However, I think it is very useful and can be used for navigation. There is also a very big thing in the observatory. They call it a 'quadrant'. It is too big to be loaded on the ship, so
I also used money to have someone draw a picture, and when I get back I can find someone to make it."
Having said this, he felt slightly proud.
"Oh? Quadrant?" Shao Shude's eyes narrowed.
Hearing that the name might have something to do with the sextant, a powerful tool for navigation and positioning, I became interested and immediately said: "Immediately present it to the Shaofu."
"As ordered." Wang Heizi said loudly. After a pause, he added: "Your Majesty, I also copied a star map."
"What is a star map?"
"This is a map of the distribution of stars in the sky." Wang Heizi said: "The results of the observations made by the Wisdom Palace Observatory all year round. I didn't know how they were different from the stars observed by the Qintian Supervisor, so I copied them down. Maybe we can learn from each other's strengths and corroborate each other."
"Okay!" Shao Shude's voice also became louder and he said with a smile.
Star charts are essential for navigation. On the vast sea, you can only rely on the stars to identify your position, so the accuracy of this thing is very important. The Arabs sailed in most seas of the northern hemisphere and did business everywhere, whether in Western Europe or
They go to East Africa, India, Southeast Asia, China, Japan and North Korea, and there are very few problems.
It can be seen that their star maps are very accurate, which may be an important reason why they dared to sail across the ocean.
On the other hand, in China, the merchant ship that set out from Mingzhou to Japan was blown by the strong wind and went directly to North Korea. Shao Shude didn't want to say anything. Without a reference point on land, once it entered the deep sea, its ability to reposition itself midway was too poor.
.
Even if there were ships capable of going to Dali, they would sail along the coastal sea and locate themselves near the coast, but the Arabs dared to cross the ocean directly, traverse the entire deep sea, and take shortcuts.
The gap in technical level is not that big.
"Your Majesty." Wang Heizi said again: "The star map alone is not of use. I also bought some small devices from Dashi. I am still on the road now. They are all used to measure the stars."
Shao Shude nodded curiously and looked forward to it.
For sea positioning, before the sextant appeared, there was a quadrant or quadrant. This object was invented by Arab navigators and later spread to Europe. Before the Age of Discovery, Europeans miniaturized it, and Columbus used it at that time.
Positioning on the sea.
Before the quadrant, there were actually many measuring tools that were slowly invented by Arab navigators and improved step by step over hundreds of years.
For example, the star board invented in the Ming Dynasty was already available in Arabia at this time and has been used for a long time. By comparing it with star charts and nautical charts, you can roughly locate it, but it is not accurate.
Later, the Arabs invented the cross celestial instrument, which was more accurate than the star-pulling board and was a huge improvement. At this time, it had already taken a prototype and was regarded as an upgraded version of the star-pulling board.
Navigation instruments are not achieved overnight. They are improved step by step and iteratively over hundreds or even more than a thousand years. They need to cooperate with the progress of astronomy, mathematics, geography and other disciplines. It is not simple.
If Wang Heizi could buy back these instruments, it would really be of great help.
He had had enough of captains who only sailed offshore.
The last time I saw Zhang Ergou, after leaving Sakhalin Island, he walked northeast along the Kuril Islands chain. Because it was easy to locate, he did not dare to enter the rough and boundless deep sea.
In fact, it is easy to sail along the Thousand Islands and the Aleutian Islands, with the help of ocean currents, convenient positioning, and difficult to get lost, but they are not the core area of the North Pacific Warm Current, and the speed cannot be increased.
If you dare to cross the deep sea, ocean currents, and westerly winds add up, the speed that can be stably provided will definitely be more than four knots, and six to eight knots is not impossible.
But Zhang Ergou did not dare to do this after all. He was afraid of getting lost.
Shao Shude feels that now that he has worked hard to make up for his shortcomings in mathematics, he can train mathematical talents in batches in the future. At that time, some of them may be invested in navigation, and these instruments will be put to use.
Yes, real navigation requires professional knowledge. Even with the aid of various instruments, it still requires calculations. In the Age of Discovery, even pirates always had one or two people on board who could use instruments like sextants to measure, and then
Do the calculations on paper.
Experience is unreliable.
Measure and calculate, reliable.
When Shao Shude was inspecting Dengzhou, he summoned the naval officer Ping and asked him how to sail.
Of course, the Ping Navy also had small instruments such as stargazing. Although they were not as advanced as the Arabs, they could indeed be used reluctantly. As a result, they just observed them and then relied on experience to judge.
Without any math…
This error is not big, but there is something wrong!
This is still a flat navy. If it is a private businessman with uneven levels, it will only be more miserable.
Mathematics is a subject that is seriously underestimated by all time travellers.
Without mathematics, it is impossible to become professional in navigation. You can only try your luck and rely on experience. But how many people have experience? Can every ship be equipped with experienced "masters"? Obviously it is impossible.
Perhaps this is an important reason why the ships going to Japan in the Tang Dynasty got lost and sank at an absurdly high rate - going from Mingzhou and Yangzhou to Japan obviously meant entering the deep sea and no longer sailing near the coast.
"The things Wang Qing brought back are very precious." Shao Shude said: "These things are very precious to the cannibals. If I hadn't gone to Basra, I'm afraid it wouldn't be easy to get them."
"This all depends on His Majesty's blessing." Wang Heizi said happily.
Zhang Yong couldn't help but glance at him.
He never expected that Wang Heizi would steal the spotlight in the second half of the conversation, in which he was firmly in control.
"Your credit is your credit." Shao Shude smiled and said, "Have tea."
The three of them drank tea in silence and fell silent for a while.
"After drinking this cup of tea, tell me about the inside story of Dashi. It is related to the Western Regions and I am very interested." Shao Shude put down the tea bowl and said.
Zhang Yong was refreshed, this was what he was good at, and the initiative was back.