Song Zhong frowned and said nothing more to Yuan Shu.
He really wanted to go one step further and go to Taixue to make a wine ceremony, but it was useless to say these words to Yuan Shu, he would only make fun of him.
"Have you just arrived in Wancheng?"
"Well, we just entered the city less than half an hour ago."
"Then do you know that many people were forced to go west today?" Song Zhong snorted. "Including your disciples, brother Yuan Tan."
Yuan Shu was stunned. "Leaving today?"
"Already gone, I just went to see Zong Shilin off..."
Before he finished speaking, Yuan Shu had already turned around and rushed out. Song Zhong opened his mouth, watching Yuan Shu's back disappear outside the door, and shook his head after a long while.
"This tough guy is almost fifty years old, but he's still so incompetent."
Yuan Shu left the county school, jumped on his horse, and led his entourage to gallop out of the west gate and caught up with Yuan Tan and Yuan Mai.
Seeing Yuan Shu chasing after him, Yuan Tan was surprised and happy, and couldn't help but shed tears.
This time when he was exiled to the Western Regions, he never thought about the possibility of coming back. Before leaving, the person he wanted to see most was Yuan Shu. Mrs. Yuan said that she had sent a letter to Yuan Shu, but she couldn't say whether Yuan Shu could come.
allow.
He was already on the way, but Yuan Shu arrived anyway, and his wish was fulfilled.
The uncle and nephew held hands and looked at each other with tears in their eyes. For a moment, they didn't know what to say.
After a long time, Yuan Tan wiped away his tears. "I am really ashamed that I have caused trouble to Ah Heng."
"Oh, no matter what, it's all one family." Yuan Shu waved his hand, signaling Yuan Tan to stop talking.
He was also confused about this matter and didn't know what was going on. He wrote a letter to Yuan Heng and asked about the reason, but he has not received a reply yet.
However, the benefits are obvious. This time he came to Wancheng, many people on the road had a good attitude towards him, at least they were much more polite than the last time he came to Nanyang.
At least according to public opinion, Yuan Heng should have played some role, but he didn't know it clearly.
"Can your body hold up?" Yuan Shu patted Yuan Tan's shoulder and looked up and down.
"It's not bad." Yuan Tan said with a wry smile: "These four years of hard work have paid off."
Yuan Shu glanced at him and wanted to laugh but didn't. Of course he knew why Yuan Tan had worked so hard for these four years, but he didn't expect that it would be used for this in the end. From here all the way to the Western Regions, it's really hard not to have a good body.
no.
He turned to look at Yuan Mai and smacked his lips. "Who is responsible for escorting? Do I know him?"
"Uncle, please be at ease." Yuan Tan whispered: "The emperor arranged for Gao Rou to be escorted along the way. He did not mean to embarrass you."
Yuan Shu raised his eyebrows and then understood. He patted Yuan Tan on the shoulder. "When you go to the Western Regions, don't let that boy from the Xun family look down on you. You and Xian Yi go here and there to see who can go further. In the future, I
Your names will be written on the family tree."
"Here." Yuan Tan felt much better and said goodbye to Yuan Shu.
Yuan Shu stood on the side of the road, looking at Yuan Tan and others gradually getting away, thoughtfully.
After a long time, he sighed. "The situation is greater than the person. Choosing the right direction is very important."
——
After returning to the city, Yuan Shu went directly to the imperial camp.
Liu Xie was discussing the gunpowder test plan with Wei Ao, Yu Ji and others in the Martial Arts Hall.
The composition of gunpowder was not complicated, and the proportions were clear, but he did not tell them directly. Instead, he let them slowly experiment, summarize the rules, and find the optimal mixing ratio and processing technology.
For him, scientific thinking and methods are far more important than results.
His greatest contribution was just to change the direction of research, from how to avoid explosions to how to explode more violently, and to turn the elixir of immortality into a weapon for killing people.
Of course, explosives are not only weapons for killing people, they can also be used in mining.
This is already within his plan.
Industrialization is a complete system, not just a few technologies.
Liu Xie was a little surprised when he heard that Yuan Shu had invited him to see him.
He did not summon Yuan Shu to come to Nanyang. Yuan Shu was not a county official and had no task of planning. Why did he come to Nanyang?
Are you here to plead for Yuan Tan, or are you here to cry out for Yuan Heng?
Liu Xie thought for a while, but did not summon Yuan Shu immediately and asked him to wait outside.
Wei Ao finished talking about recent research progress and then raised a question: Why can gunpowder burn in a sealed container?
After many experiments, they have come to the conclusion that gunpowder has extremely strong burning ability, which is essentially the same as burning other things, but more violently.
But what they can't understand is why other things can't burn in sealed containers, but gunpowder can?
What exactly is there?
Hearing Wei Ao's question, Liu Xie almost laughed out loud, and his inner joy was no less than when he heard the news of gunpowder for the first time.
He is worthy of being a genius who wrote "Zhou Yi Shen Tong Qi" and discovered the root of the problem so quickly.
The dawn of the scientific revolution will soon appear with the bang of dynamite.
At the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, there is a new theory that believes that the so-called scientific revolution can be subdivided into revolutions in two disciplines. One is physics, represented by Galileo and Newton's mechanics.
Chemistry, represented by Lavoisier's combustion theory.
The emergence of these two disciplines is inseparable from gunpowder.
The emergence of mechanics was originally to solve the problem of artillery shooting accuracy. The emergence of combustion theory was to solve the performance bottleneck of gunpowder itself.
These are the most realistic issues.
It was practical needs that gave birth to modern science, not some apple falling from the sky.
Now, he has created this need and has completed the birth of science.
The Wei Ao in front of me is the most typical example. Without him, Wei Ao would only become a Taoist priest who made alchemy, not a real chemist.
Of course, Galileo and Newton were also alchemists in essence, and then they were scientists.
"What was the result of your discussion?"
"I believe that for everything to burn, there must be not only flammable wood and igniting fire, but also gas. This gas may be similar to the gas that people breathe in, but the opposite of the gas that people breathe out...
"
Wei Ao's eloquent conversation was completely different from his helplessness when discussing the power of gunpowder.
He explained his findings in detail.
After experiments, he found that the residual gas after the explosion of gunpowder was similar to the gas exhaled from the mouth and the gas generated after burning ordinary wood, which could make clear lime water turbid.
Therefore, it can be inferred that the three substances that make up gunpowder must contain the vitality that can make charcoal burn.
Considering that if the charcoal was smoldering, even if there was any gas, it would be burned away. He guessed that the gas was in sulfur or saltpeter. He planned to test the two things separately to see what results he could get.
Liu Xie was very emotional.
This is the difference between scholars and craftsmen.
Craftsmen only ask about the results, not the reasons. They focus on the accumulation of experience, but do not explore the principles behind it. This is not the case for scholars. Rather than the specific results, they want to understand the principles behind it, which is the so-called Tao.
As an alchemist with both practical experience and theoretical pursuits, Wei Ao was born to be an excellent scientist, but his pursuit was in the wrong direction.
Refining elixirs will not yield results, refining gunpowder will.