Zhu Yuanzhang followed the village chief and Hanhan, plus Zhu Biao, Zhu Chong and guards, all the way to the village's sacrificial hall.
Outsiders were not allowed to enter other people's sacrificial halls. Only the chief and Hanhan went inside, and Hanhan helped move a box out.
This box was brought from the Xiaqiu Village Shrine Hall outside Chaoyang Gate when I came back. Wherever the person is, the box will be there.
The box was filled with various drawings drawn by Hanhan, including letters and question books written by the previous teacher.
This box plus its contents weighed one hundred and fifty-six pounds. Hanhan didn't even need to thread a pole or rope through the loops. He carried it directly on his shoulders.
The chief inside held a roll of cloth under his arm. He spread the cloth on the concrete floor outside and folded it back and forth into four layers. Then he asked Hanhan to put the box on it.
The leader then took off a rope from his neck. There was a key on the other end of the rope, and he used the key to unlock the door.
He opened the box carefully, and everyone smelled a scent, which was obviously used to prevent moths.
There is a layer of satin on the top, and the satin is lifted up to reveal what is underneath. There is a separate large box in it.
He picked it up with difficulty, put it on the mat next to the box, opened the box, and revealed bundles of paper, the best rice paper that is less likely to rot than silk.
There is a saying to describe this kind of rice paper: the charm of ink is ever-changing, and the life of paper is thousands of years.
Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao and Zhu Xi naturally knew that this was the best paper in Xuancheng and it was expensive.
"Your Majesty, wait a moment." The chief turned around and ran into the sacrificial hall. After a while, he brought out a basin of water.
"Your Majesty, Prince, Prince Qin, and Hanhan, wash your hands first." The chief handed over the soap and hand towel.
"Okay, wash your hands." Zhu Yuanzhang was not angry, but he just felt uncomfortable with sweaty hands.
After all five people washed their hands, the chief took out a rolled piece of paper and asked Hanhan, Zhu Biao, and Zhu Feng to show it to Zhu Yuanzhang together with him.
Zhu Biao and Zhu Xi held their hands and looked at each other, and were stunned for a moment.
Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were obviously wider, and a picture with the names of places, mountains, and the directions of rivers and lakes appeared in front of him.
The boundaries of each state capital are marked, including the pass locations.
He looked at it, suddenly staggered, quickly adjusted his feet, squinted his eyes and took a deep breath. After a while, he opened them again and continued to look.
"Dad, this picture is great!" Zhu Ping said next to him.
Zhu Yuanzhang glared at him: "Do we still need you to tell me? Oh! Huh~~huchi~~huh~~this picture..."
Zhu Yuanzhang never thought that one day he would see such a map. Compared with the maps in front of him, the maps of previous dynasties were simply useless paper.
He stretched out his hand to touch it, but as soon as his finger touched the paper, he quickly retracted it: "Be careful, don't use too much force, or damage our picture."
His two sons nodded and relaxed a little, fortunately the paper was of good quality.
Nowadays, the paper used for drawing maps is the same size as silk and satin, but of course cannot be compared with Shu brocade and Su embroidery.
But now the things drawn on this paper are much more valuable than Su embroidery and Shu brocade.
"Yichang, what are the little strips on it?"
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the map and found that there were small bars on the top and left, the ones on the top were vertical and the ones on the left were horizontal.
"Your Majesty, that is a scale. The ratio on this picture is one to 500,000. The distance of one grid on the picture is equal to the actual distance of 500,000.
The current distance between this grid should actually be nearly ten miles, there may be a deviation, but thinking about it..."
"Don't be afraid of deviations. If we had this map and started a war... oh!"
Zhu Yuanzhang did not expect that this map not only marked the names of mountains, states and counties, the locations of rivers and lakes, but also distances.
This is obviously for war. I have never seen it since I was a child. No, I have never heard of such a map.
How did you get the distance? It feels like painting high in the sky facing the ground.
oh! This grid on the picture is actually half a million grids long.
Then with two rulers, one on the top and one on the left, you can accurately know the distance from which place to which place.
"How many houses are these? Three, no, more than four. In the end, it will be..." Zhu Yuanzhang looked at it and found that it was incomplete, that's all?
"Dad, there's more in the box!" Zhu Xi said again.
"Yes, put it away. Put this one away first. Be gentle and don't break it."
Zhu Yuanzhang directed everyone to re-roll the picture.
The reason why it is rolled is because I am afraid that the folding position will be worn, which may break the folding part, or the words and lines may be worn away.
After one picture is rolled up, take out another roll and unfold it. It has the same layout as the previous picture, but the place names and rivers have changed.
Zhu Yuanzhang took a look: "Okay, okay, put it in. That... should be long! There are pictures of how many places in the box."
"Your Majesty, they are everywhere where the Ming Dynasty is." the chief replied.
"All of them? The entire Ming Dynasty? It's a priceless treasure! It's really a priceless treasure. We're going to put this in..."
"Your Majesty, the original manuscript must be placed in the Xiaqiu Village Sacrifice Hall. You can find a copy master to draw it. You cannot take it away from the village."
When the mayor saw that Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to take it away, he immediately became anxious. If you take this precious thing, how long will it take to get the next one?
As for a certain picture being accidentally destroyed, Hanhan can draw another one. The picture is in Hanhan's heart.
"Uh!" Zhu Yuanzhang was stuck. He looked at the scroll in the box, then looked at the box. He took out a letter from the box and opened it. He had an impression, but the words were different.
"Good calligraphy, it's the same as the characters on Picture Reading! Huh? This is not regular script, but running script. This regular script is beautiful, and I think my running calligraphy skills are also very good.
ah! These are the original pictures for reading and writing. They actually used them for engraving and made them dirty. Here, there are black ones.
We discovered that the things in this box are all treasures! All right! Let's find someone to copy it and send back the original drawing. "
Zhu Yuanzhang took a look at the contents of the box and immediately knew what they were.
In the past, when experts wrote and drew things that could not be drawn, they could only send original manuscripts, such as drawings of open-hearth furnaces for steelmaking, and those who could read and read pictures.
If it is simple and the director can draw it, the director can draw it himself, put the manuscript into a box and send it to the shrine.
The head of the village nodded repeatedly, yes, these things in Xiaqiu Village are very precious.
"Zhu Lichang, I see that once you go out in large numbers, you will bring this box with you. Do you think the sacrificial hall with the box is the real sacrificial hall?"
Zhu Biao had seen this box several times, being moved around in Xiaqiu Village. This time, everyone came out and moved the box to the village's sacrificial hall.
There should be four sacrificial halls in Xiaqiu Village. One is the place where lunch boxes are sold and there is a memorial tablet. I couldn't go back here before, so I wrote a memorial tablet.
One is outside Donghua Gate, the other is outside Chaoyang Gate, and the last one is naturally the original place, the sacrificial hall here.
The head of the village heard the prince's words, but shook his head slightly: "His Royal Highness, the real sacrificial hall in Xiaqiu Village contains a box. It is not where the box is that is the real sacrificial hall.
When looking at the memorial hall in Xiaqiu Village, we don’t look at the box, but at the people. The real memorial hall in Xiaqiu Village is the one where the village guardians live. Wherever the village guardians are, the memorial hall will be there. "
"Xiaqiu Village, village guard, Hanhan! I, um! Hehehehehe!"
Zhu Wentian interjected. He hadn't spoken for a long time.
(End of chapter)
