After leaving the palace gate, I thought for a while and said, "Meng He, go and call Li Si. Also, go and get all the saltpeter from Taoyao."
Not long after, they arrived at Jiangzuo Mansion, where Li Si was already waiting.
Seeing that Li Si was a little nervous, I smiled and said, "Li Xiang came quickly enough."
Li Si quickly bowed and said: "Your Majesty has summoned me, and I dare not delay even a little bit."
"Let's go." I walked towards the house.
Li Si followed beside him, was silent for a while, and then said: "Your Majesty, regarding the academy..."
I waved my hand: "You are all advocating for the country. There is no right or wrong. You are all loyal ministers. But in the future, if you have ideas, you can say it directly without having to tell it through other people."
Li Si quickly thanked him and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty. I obey your order."
Feeling at ease, he realized that Lu She had indeed failed to consider the matter. Everyone knew that Lu She was his personal attendant, so asking Lu She to speak was not because there was no three hundred taels of silver in this place. However, he was helpless and rarely interacted with other people in private. In his opinion, the only person he could trust was Lu She.
'Well, since I had already contradicted His Majesty in the General's Office at that time, I should have spoken out bluntly at the court meeting, and maybe I could even get the title of a direct minister. Now we are no longer human inside and outside...'
Regardless of what he was thinking, Gongshu Jin was already waiting for me at the house.
I didn't sit down and ordered: "Gongshu, come in and prepare a few clay pots the size of which can be folded between your hands, some stone flow yellow, charcoal powder of saffron stalks, and a ten-foot-long twine. It doesn't need to be too thick. Prepare a Five or six rods, in addition to the solidified grease, bring an accurate scale and a pound, a tael, or a baht of copper weight."
Gongshu Jin cupped his hands and said, "Back to Your Majesty, there are not many Shiliuhuang in Jiangzuo's Mansion, only one jar. It was the one left by the alchemists back then. They were all placed in Jiangzuo's Mansion. I wonder how much your Majesty wants?"
"One can is enough, go and prepare." Sulfur does not account for a large proportion, one can is enough.
Not long after, Gong Shujin came over with a few people carrying things. I looked at them and saw that there was nothing wrong with them.
"Let's go to Shanglin Garden."
Gongshujin glanced at Li Si strangely. Although there was a huge disparity in status between the two, Li Si knew that I valued Gongshujin very much, so he could save his face. He shook his head and said that he didn't know what he wanted to do.
After leaving the mansion, the people sent by Meng He had already brought back the saltpeter. There were three jars, and the mouths of the jars were sealed with mud seals. I nodded. It seemed that the Qin Dynasty had indeed begun to use saltpeter. I didn't explain anything too detailed. They sealed the clay pots themselves.
"Meng He, find another carriage and have one person drive it. Put the saltpeter in another carriage, far away from my car. Be careful when driving and don't make it too bumpy." I don't dare to put these three jars of saltpeter in the carriage. If there is an explosion nearby, not to mention casualties, Fusu's appearance is still relatively handsome, don't disfigure it...
Li Si was startled, pointed at the jar and said in panic: "Your Majesty, is this saltpeter?"
The horror of saltpeter I told Feng Jie and the others last time was still fresh in his memory. He didn't expect to be so close to the saltpeter, and he trembled with fright.
I smiled and said, "What are you afraid of? It's not that easy to explode. Just get in the car."
If pure saltpeter was so easy to explode, there would be no need to add charcoal and sulfur.
Li Si glanced at the saltpeter jar suspiciously, and quickly followed him into the carriage. Gong Shujin had obviously heard of saltpeter and was not that afraid.
Not long after, the group left Xianyang City and arrived at a hillside near Shanglin Garden. Afang Palace was built in Shanglin Garden.
Looking up, I saw that the Tianzi Temple of the past dynasties, which was being built not far away, had completed the ramming of the foundation and started erecting pillars. A group of people were laughing and pulling a piece of thick wood onto the high platform.
With the help of pulleys, the manpower required is reduced a lot. More people are kneading mud next to the brick kiln, preparing the mud required for firing green bricks. Some fired green bricks are already piled next to it.
The saltpeter has not yet arrived, so I stopped at the top of the artificially built mountaintop, pointed to the Tianzi Temple of the past dynasties, and said: "Li Si, when you go back, tell Baichong that the main building of the Tianzi Temple of the past dynasties uses blue bricks, and the Shinto uses stone as usual, but the one from Tianzi Temple to Xianyang Instead of using blue bricks for roads, use red bricks.”
Li Si cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, we originally planned to use rammed earth to build the road. Do you want to change it to brick paving?"
I nodded: "I think this Tianzi Temple Fair will play a great role in gathering the hearts of the survivors of the Six Nations, so everything must be done to the best of its ability."
"In that case, just use blue bricks instead. Why use rough red bricks?"
I sighed softly: "If possible, I would like to use stone, but how much food and manpower will it cost? Red bricks are more convenient to make, although they are not durable. At most, they will be laid once every two years in the future. The effect will be the same with more layers. . If Great Qin can really become as prosperous and powerful as I imagined in the future, it will not be too late to rebuild it."
Li Si praised: "Your Majesty is concerned about the head of Guizhou, and I can't wait to see you."
"In addition, please discuss with Baichong. The land in Xianyang City is not enough now. I hope to choose a piece of land outside the city to build a new city. The roads in Xianyang City should also be repaired. Envoys from the Western Regions may come next year. , to show off the majesty of our Great Qin."
Li Si cupped his hands and said: "Yes, your majesty hopes that the emperor will do it. The emperor has long planned to expand Xianyang City, but Lishan and Afang Palace have too many people, so they can't do it."
"There is no need to expand the city now. The Huns are far away, the world is stable, there is no big threat to Xianyang, and the government offices are all in the city. Let's solve the problem of land use first. If the test is successful in a while, the role of the city wall will be limited."
My plan is to expand Xianyang according to the ideas of later generations, Geng Gong developed Datong, and build one axis and two cities. In this timeline, the Wei River passes through Xianyang City, and the area is larger than in history. To the south is the Qinling Mountains. There is no threat. You can build a new city to the south. It will be too expensive to rebuild the old city. When Shanglin Garden is demolished, the Tianzi Temple will be located in the center of the axis, and the overlook will be perfect.
Li Si was a little curious: "What is your Majesty trying to test? Can it threaten the city wall?"
I smiled, and just as I was about to speak, the carriage transporting saltpeter was slowly approaching.
"You'll know in a minute."
The carriage drove slowly at an extremely slow speed, for fear of exploding the saltpeter. By the time we got down the mountain, several people had already brought down a bunch of broken pieces.
I said to several craftsmen: "Let me first explain the concept of percentage. For example, when saltpeter, charcoal, and stone salt are mixed, the total is one hundred kilograms. Then the proportion of seventy-eight kilograms of saltpeter is called one percent of the mixture." Seventy-eight, if saltpeter is fifty kilograms, then it accounts for fifty percent, can you understand?"
Gongshu Jin thought for a long time and asked: "Your Majesty, what if the total of the three of them is less than a hundred pounds?"
I explained patiently: "The concept of percentage refers to dividing something into one hundred parts, and then the proportion of something in it."
