When the sun became increasingly prominent in the sky, Xi Heng calmly went to the court, surrounded by palace maids and attendants.
Nowadays, there is no longer just one royal chair at the top of the court, but three seats of different shapes, materials, and sizes.
Its colors include purple gold, gold, silver, and black blue, and they are arranged like a championship podium.
Xi Heng sat naturally on the purple-gold dragon chair at the top, leaning against the broad backrest in a rather casual posture, with his elbows resting steadily on both sides.
Not long after, Chu Xiao and Chen Fenghuo also came into the hall and sat on both sides.
The court officials then filed in and saluted first:
"Long live the Emperor, long live the Emperor, long live the Emperor!"
"Everyone is safe."
……
Today's remarks by court officials are mostly ordinary reports.
After all, in recent times, the entire Tianzhao Kingdom has only been focusing on maintaining stability and restoring people's livelihood, and has not been doing anything chaotic.
Within half a year, the Ever-Victorious Army had quelled the barbarian unrest in the west, and after rebuilding the northern fortresses and granaries, it bypassed Yan Meng and attacked the Baekje Kingdom in the northeast, forcing it to surrender and offer many large ships as war reparations.
According to the reports of court officials, although the various places in Tian Zhao could not be said to be thriving, they did have sufficient granaries and grain, and trade and travel were flowing freely.
This can also be seen in the demographic and economic statistics and surveys that were previously conducted with great effort.
In terms of political affairs, Chu Xiao sought progress while maintaining stability, and carried out improvements and reforms bit by bit.
Xi Heng himself has been working on inventions in the past month. He has set up a medical academy, an agricultural college, a military academy, a craftsman academy, a business school, an ordnance academy, etc. in the imperial city to help with innovation and creation.
These various royal academies have just been established and are in the stage of recruiting talents, and they have not yet achieved any outstanding results.
Xi Heng originally planned to develop slowly and achieve something one day.
But today, something happened that was beyond her expectations: a craftsman from the Artisan Academy came to the court meeting, and when the meeting was almost over, he stepped forward to salute and then said:
"Your Majesty issued an order at the beginning of this month that the Academy of Artisans should focus on improving agricultural machinery first. The academy has therefore worked hard for a month to make something that can be displayed. I would like your Majesty's permission."
"Okay." Xi Heng showed some interest.
This was the first time her subordinates had made an invention of this kind since she ascended the throne half a year ago.
Although several doctoral students of mathematics at the Imperial Observatory have made some achievements recently, for Xi Heng, who is not good at mathematics, real objects are more intuitive.
The other party responded and immediately ordered someone to bring in a hand-cranked Fenggu machine from outside the hall.
Xi Heng recognized this object. It was a wooden agricultural tool used to separate chaff and impurities from grains. He just didn't know what improvements his men had made to it.
"Your Majesty, all of these winnowing fans are outward-facing, so the airflow is unstable and the chaff flies everywhere. If they are used indoors or under a shed, the chaff will be scattered everywhere, and the efficiency of separating the chaff is also uncertain. If the force is too weak, it will be difficult to separate. If the force is too strong, half of the empty grains will be blown away, thus wasting some..."
At the beginning of the explanation, the skilled craftsman official was a little nervous under the gazes of hundreds of court officials and the three great superiors around him.
But as the explanation continued, his speaking speed gradually became smoother.
"Today, I, your humble servant, have led the craftsmen in the courtyard to change the fan wheel to radial outlet. The fan wheel column is sealed, and the grain outlet is divided into two parts, one for full grain and the other for chaff. Full grain is pushed out from the main channel, while broken grain and chaff seep out from the bottom, so that broken grain will no longer be wasted. There is a wedge on the top to adjust the feeding rate."
The surrounding officials were not very interested in this. In the eyes of those who had known about this kind of equipment, the fan wheel in front of them had only undergone some slight modifications and was not humane enough.
Officials who did not know about this thing did not think it was anything special.
But Xi Heng clapped his hands and praised, which was rare, and nodded, "Do some demonstrations."
"Yes, Your Majesty." The skilled craftsman naturally had no choice but to say a word. He brought the previously milled rice, loaded it into the hopper himself, lifted the wedge to unload the rice, and cranked the fan by hand.
After a while, rice grains of different sizes and fullness came out from the two outlets. The skilled craftsman held them in his palms, then raised them up with his head down.
"This is a practical thing, and it can be promoted nationwide in the future." Xi Heng asked again:
"There are only eleven master craftsmen in the Artisan Academy now. Was this made by all of you?"
"Your Majesty, this was made by me and four skilled craftsmen. The other six are busy with other things. The creation is more complicated and may take several months to harvest."
"Okay, send someone to the Craftsmen's Institute and reward the craftsman who made this item with a thousand taels of silver." Xi Heng waved to the old eunuch beside him.
Most of the people in the court below were surprised when they heard this.
Since the emperor ascended the throne, she has rarely given out rewards in the court. The last reward was given to the generals and soldiers who had fought with her for a long time.
Now, after half a year, the first person to receive an award from the dynasty is a craftsman. Although a thousand taels of silver is not a lot, a word of praise is worth ten thousand gold.
In the eyes of the civil officials, there is nothing mysterious or strange about what this person created, but His Majesty cares so much about it...
I guess Your Majesty might like this kind of novelty items?
The surrounding officials were silent, and they had a vague idea of trying to curry favor with him.
……
Fifteen days later, someone presented a "Sinan Cart" reproduced from an ancient book to the court. On it stood a small wooden man. Because its arms always pointed in the same direction, it was named Sinan.
According to legend, this car was the ceremonial vehicle used by the emperor when he traveled in ancient times.
Several court officials presented it together, thinking that such a strange thing would surely satisfy the emperor.
But the result was that Xi Heng waved his hand and ordered him to leave without any interest.
This little car just uses the difference in gear transmission to keep the direction of the little man on the car unchanged. It is just a toy like a tumbler.
If the person who built it could explain the principle behind it, she would listen to him a few more words, but the other party was just rebuilding it according to ancient books, and without knowing the principle behind it, it was of little significance.
After being persuaded to leave, the court meeting slowly came to an end, and another person walked out from the crowd of court officials with hesitation and nervousness.
With Xi Heng's consent, this man ordered the servants outside the palace to bring a pair of large scissors with handles that were too long and required two hands to use, and began to speak amid the laughter of other court officials:
"Your Majesty, this item is made by my blacksmiths after I extracted the truth from the Mohist classics. The classics say: When you pull a long and heavy item, it goes down, while a short and light item goes up. The higher the item, the more you gain, while the lower the item, the more you lose..."
"I think that if the handle of the scissors is long and heavy, and the blade is short and light, a lot of effort can be saved. Such scissors can be used for pruning fruit, mulberry, tea trees, etc."
Xi Heng heard that the other party knew the principle of leverage, smiled and clapped his hands, saying: "Very good, what is your name?"
"Your Majesty, I am Li Zaiheng."
"You forged this pair of scissors because you know the reason and the reason. People who understand the truth should be rewarded." Xi Heng used this to say, "This pair of scissors can be used in few places, but the truth hidden in it is the manifestation of Tao, which is infinite and broad."
"You need to learn the principles from your actions, and then use the principles to guide your actions and put the principles into practice - this is a good thing that will benefit the world."
"Everything in the world is the Tao, such as objects floating on water, birds flying in the sky, water turning into ice when it is cold, and turning into gas when it is hot... All these are manifestations of the Tao. The Tao of heaven and earth is not deep and unfathomable. On the contrary, everything you and I see, know, touch and feel is the manifestation of the Tao."
“To understand the principle of one thing is to be one step closer to the great Dao; to understand the principle of all things is to be able to glimpse the great Dao of heaven and earth.”
The ancients had a very high worship for the Tao. According to various ancient books, as long as one gets close to the Tao, one can transcend mortals and become an immortal.
This is especially true for scholars, many poems and essays about the dream of becoming immortal are still circulated among them today.
Now that Xi Heng, as a child of the Mother of Heaven, has shown the mortals of the world a path to the great road, it is natural that all the hundreds of court officials present are yearning for it.
After the girl finished speaking, she glanced at the eunuchs who were recording the court meeting.
After this court meeting is over, she will make some revisions to today's court document and circulate it everywhere.
"Do you have anything else to report?" Xi Heng asked casually.
The many court officials below were still pondering over what the emperor had just said and had not yet recovered.
She waved her hand: "Then, today's court meeting is just a meeting."
The court officials finally reacted and quickly leaned forward to say, "Long live His Majesty, long live His Majesty, long, long live His Majesty!"
Just as the courtiers at the back were retreating, a gray-clothed figure suddenly ran over: "Report!"
Xi Heng looked up and saw that the man was the intelligence officer among the 1,000 elite troops she had left in the capital.
"Why is it in such a hurry?"
The light-armored soldier half-knelt with his fists clasped, and responded loudly: "Today we have found a clue to what your majesty ordered us to find!"
"Oh, have we found the Dragon Locking Well?" She became interested.
"The military found a square well with many chains extending down the side of the well. If you pull the chains, you can hear the sound of a dragon roaring!"
……
Chapter 131: Cloud Dragon Well Frog
Imperial City.
After Xi Heng retired from court, he casually glanced at the memorials at the back of Taixiao Palace. Not long after, he followed the words of the messenger of the elite soldiers of the Ever-Victorious Army and drove to the location where the Dragon Locking Well was discovered.
The second task she gave to the 1,000 Ever-Victorious Army soldiers stranded in the capital was to search the entire capital for the legendary Dragon-Locking Well.
However, because the mission objectives were so elusive, no results were achieved after half a year.
At first, the Ever-Victorious Army focused its search on the Imperial City, but found only a dozen or so wells of varying sizes surrounded by white stone railings.
Most of them are used for fire fighting, washing and irrigation, and there is nothing strange about them.
There are a few slightly special wells because people once committed suicide by jumping into them, so no one has used them since then. They have nothing to do with the rumors about the Locking Dragon Well.
After that, I have no clue.
Xi Heng did not just wait for his men to find it. Over the past six months, he had also searched the royal library for many books and volumes about dragons.
Most of them only described the dragon's appearance and heroic demeanor, or wrote some stories whose truth or falsity was unknown.
The story goes that the dragon understands human nature and language, keeps company with gods, and can call the wind and rain.
If there is a flying dragon in the sky, the world will be prosperous and the dynasty will last forever.
But although there are many stories, none of them tells where in the world dragons are and why dragons are born.
No book has ever said that swallowing a dragon's heart or liver can give one the power of a dragon.
It seems that the Great Zhao's research on dragons is not as good as that of the culturally dull Yan Mengguo.
More importantly, although some books mentioned the Dragon Locking Well, they said that the Dragon Locking Well was left by immortals to suppress the evil dragon. The evil dragon went deep into the ground and turned into a dragon vein to consolidate the world.
But this story was circulated during the previous dynasty of Wu, hundreds of years ago.
The Great Wu Kingdom had long since collapsed, and the Dragon Well, or Dragon Vein, obviously did not have the power to help the emperor stabilize his empire and his regime.
Xi Heng searched everywhere but could not find any description of the location of the Locking Dragon Well.
He could only let his men continue searching in the huge capital city.
I searched for half a year and searched the entire capital but still couldn't find it.
It was not until the second time, when the military carefully searched Penglai Mountain, that they discovered a narrow crack in the cliff in a hidden place in the mountain stream that seemed to have been deliberately created.
Only the thinnest soldiers could squeeze in after taking off their armor.
Inside was a stairway leading to an underground cave. The soldiers held torches and walked for a long time in the terrifying darkness and silence. When they reached the end, they saw a large square well with chains hanging on it.
"I thought it would be in some deserted place in the capital, but it turns out to be on the side of the imperial city..."
On the way there, Xi Heng listened to the report from the foreign messenger.
The soldiers smashed open the entrance to the Dragon Locking Well and walked to the deepest part together. They pulled out the rusty iron lock on the side of the well that was as thick as an adult's waist. It was not until they heard the dragon's roar that they realized they had found the real thing.
So, the captain who led the team excitedly sent someone to report to the emperor.
Xi Hengzuo asked: "You just heard the sound, but didn't actually see the dragon in the well?"
"Yes, Your Majesty." said the messenger on the side.
"That doesn't necessarily mean it's a dragon."
She lowered her expectations first.
The sacred mountain named Penglai was built by Zhao Qianyuan, and the things underneath it may also have been deliberately made by the other party.
Maybe it's just an object that can imitate the roar of beasts during disturbances.
If that guy really got a dragon, he would have done some research on it.
In the past few lives, Xi Heng only focused on refining medicine and practicing Qi, and there was no record of dragons in the diaries and experience books he left behind.
She didn't expect much from this journey.
Gradually, the open carriage stopped at the foot of Penglai Mountain.
When you look up, you can see the intricately carved coal dragon on the mountainside. The coal ore shines like obsidian under the scorching sun.
If you walk beside it on a sunny day, ordinary people will probably squint their eyes because of the brightness.
