In the pavilion, Li Si, He Siping, and Li Ang sat beside the stone table, sipping tea.
In the court and public opinion, Li Si was regarded as an excellent prince—benevolent, tolerant, and empathetic to the people’s sentiments. To the common people, not disturbing their lives and not allowing his subordinates to act recklessly were already qualifications enough.
However, one thing not mentioned in his public image was that Li Si was a complete chatterbox.
"Risheng, do you also like drinking Qujiang thin slices? Qujiang is a good place. Though I’ve never been there, I had a teacher from Qujiang in Tan State. He told me it’s often cloudy, rainy, and foggy there. It’s common to see the sun shining brightly high in the sky while the mountaintops are wreathed in churning mist and a fine rain falls below. Indoors, everything is dim. This creates a peculiar sight, especially every spring when clothes tend to get moldy..."
"Speaking of mold, I heard there’s something in Hebei Dao called black rice. It isn’t actually rice, but a type of mold that grows on sorghum and millet. When it’s still young, it’s edible and tastes quite fresh and tender. However, I read in a publication from the Academic Palace that it’s harmful to the soil. If found, it must be eradicated quickly, or the soil will lose fertility for several years..."
"Oh, and by the way, I just received word yesterday that the Philosophy Society in Jiangnan Road has invented a device capable of threshing grain. In just one hour, it can process a thousand jin of grain, which is more than twice as fast as traditional manual threshing. Even the elderly and children can operate it, making it a great boon to the nation and its people. The Philosophy Society plans to initially offer a reward of five thousand strings of coins, and the court will also contribute to the prize..."
Once Li Si started talking, he couldn’t stop, discussing topics from agriculture to mining, from the fall in gold prices to trade routes in the Western Regions, from horse racing to clothing.
However, he carefully avoided mentioning the Royal Family.
The recent demise of Prince Changxiang and his son still cast a shadow, and as the Crown Prince, it was indeed not appropriate for Li Si to express any opinion on this matter.
"Having the Academic Palace is truly a blessing. I recall the early days of Yu Chu, when Yu Country was beleaguered. Facing sudden attacks from the Turkic forces, our ancestors were forced to make a peace pact right under the city walls. And now, three hundred years later, the territory of Yu Country hasn’t changed much, but the population has grown tremendously to over three hundred million, and our national strength far exceeds that of the Turkic."
Li Si shook his head and remarked, "No wonder many people say that the value of ten Doctors of Science even surpasses that of Candle Cloud Cultivators. Maybe one day, we will truly understand the rules governing everything, without having to rely on the will of unknown spirits."
Oh, Crown Prince, that’s a bit politically incorrect. Follow current novels on NoveI-Fire.ɴet
Li Ang calmly took a sip of tea.
In the present Yu Country, annual rituals of worship to the ancestors, the gods, and Haotian were still a major event. The Emperor, the Crown Prince, and all the civil and military officials still prayed for Yu Country’s protection during celebrations.
The time to completely remove the gods from the historical stage had not yet arrived.
On the other hand, the development of Natural Science at the Academic Palace was advancing rapidly, particularly evident in agriculture. From what Li Ang had seen, they had not only promoted fishponds based on sericulture, intercropping, and crop rotation techniques but had also invented and improved agricultural tools.
They had even developed a kind of self-generated nitrogen-fixing bacterial fertilizer based on empirical agricultural knowledge. This involved filling a wooden box mostly with clean river sand, adding filtered fertile soil, and then mixing in phosphate rock powder, Plant Ash, brown sugar, and other substances. This mixture was combined with water until uniform and then kept at room temperature to cultivate nitrogen-fixing bacteria, which would then be buried in the soil to increase its fertility.
Though the principles behind this technology weren’t fully understood, it was effective, and that was what mattered.
Moreover, if one day someone perfected lenses and invented the microscope, discovering the existence of microorganisms, then Agricultural Science, biology, and hygiene would witness tremendous development.
Li Ang was immensely looking forward to this.
Meanwhile, He Siping, who had been calmly sipping tea, smiled slightly upon hearing Li Si’s reflections and said to Li Ang, "Speaking of advancements, I heard that Dr. Su Feng and Master Tantai Leshan at the Academic Palace are developing a new model aircraft? How is it progressing?"
"Well...it should be going smoothly, I suppose?"
Li Ang thought for a moment and replied, "The last time I visited, they were planning to put a lamb inside the aircraft and fly it into the sky."
"A lamb can go into the sky?"
Li Si’s eyes lit up, "Then if we make the aircraft a bit bigger, could it carry people and cargo? Traveling thousands of miles a day might be possible?"
"Simple passenger and cargo transport might be feasible. But if we need to transport many people or goods, we will face many other issues,"
Li Ang answered, "Such as balancing the materials, weight, center of gravity, thrust, and lift of the aircraft.
"And most critically, the Heaven and Earth Gang Wind.
"Once you fly high, the fierce and violent Heaven and Earth Gang Wind can easily tear apart both steel and mortal flesh."
Li Si responded regretfully, shaking his head, "Is that so? I was hoping for an aircraft capable of withstanding the Heaven and Earth Gang Wind, one that could penetrate the Gang Wind Layer and allow us to see the heavens clearly."
"Perhaps in over a hundred years, it might be possible."
Li Ang smiled, his mind filled with myriad thoughts.
The most valuable part of the aircraft Su Feng and the others were developing was not the precious metals or the talismans used, but rather the seemingly primitive engine itself.
Consider a laborer engaged in physical work for ten hours a day. Relying solely on arm strength, they would average only one-fifteenth the power of a horse. Thus, an engine with one horsepower could replace the labor of about fifteen people. A hundred horsepower, then, would equate to fifteen hundred people.
Once the engine solved issues related to energy and supplies and was officially used for production labor, it would undoubtedly cause an unprecedented impact and revolution.