Yue Guanchao recalled the mechanism platform he saw, from golden monkeys to toads, from gears to copper shafts, and described the many details to Song Siyuan and Master Mao in detail.
"Macaque, Golden Toad, is this the Jin Shen Bronze Toad Instrument?"
Song Siyuan understood the meaning of Mr. Cat's words and continued to ask, "Do you know this thing?"
"We know each other, I guess. When I was young, I always liked to tinker with various pins. This Jinshen Tongchan Instrument is the most sophisticated hydraulic mechanism in Tianji Pavilion. It relies on the precise operation of gears and copper shafts. As long as there is enough water power, It won’t be a problem if it rotates for millions of years.”
"I heard from Yue Xiaoyou that there is a lot of tung oil in it. As long as the tung oil loses its fluidity, the entire machine will become useless. They are in trouble at this step."
Song Siyuan probably understood what Master Mao said. They were facing the most sophisticated instrument from a thousand years ago, and they had to take it seriously: "Do you have any way to stop the flow of tung oil?"
"Hey, the things in Tianji Pavilion follow the concept of Bagua. There are vertical and negative. Let me look through the things in Tianji Pavilion first."
After saying that, the old man took out a yellowed copybook from his cloth pocket. It was covered with ink stains and the large characters "Tianji Jinghuo Lu" were clearly visible.
"Yes, here it is."
Master Mao turned to the page of the Jinshen Bronze Toad Instrument and handed it to Song Siyuan. She browsed the meticulously copied instrument carefully, looking at the curved lines and vague mechanisms. The person who copied them was very careless, but she could clearly see the general outline of the mechanism.
"Master Cat, may I ask what Jinshen Bronze Toad means?"
Song Siyuan had no clue for the time being, so she decided to look for more information to find the right trap!
Mr. Cat recalled the many traps he knew, exhaled and slowly explained:
"Jin Shen is a macaque, and Bronze Toad is a toad. The ancients believed that apes and the like are the most flexible animals, and what machines pursue is also flexibility. The ancients often shaped the mechanical arms into the shape of ape arms in order to obtain the flexibility of apes. .”
"As for the toad, the toad spits out water, which can be regarded as a symbol of attracting wealth. In Feng Shui, water is wealth, and spitting out water means spitting out wealth. The ape has always been greedy, and the toad needs to lure it with money to be willing to act diligently."
"The golden monkey is on top and the copper toad is on the bottom. This mechanism means to use water as a source of wealth and to lure apes. The statement is indeed a bit superstitious, but it contains the ancients' wish that the mechanism will always move. It can be regarded as a Feng Shui tool. !”
"I don't know, what did Song Qianjin think of?"
Song Siyuan carefully stroked the mechanism, her eyes flashed, and she looked at the old man:
"Perhaps, the secret lies within the golden monkey and golden toad. They are the only ones exposed and can serve as the secret key to the mechanism."
"Master Cat, look!"
She kept up her efforts and asked Mr. Cat to look at these drawings:
"I remember you said that the institutions of Tianji Pavilion are all based on the Nine Palaces and Bagua. So the eight golden monkeys and eight golden toads can be counted as the eighth palace, and the center of the copper pillar is where the middle palace is. Is that possible? The mechanism is hidden in the tung oil!”
"Song Qianjin, if you say that, it makes sense. Why don't we let Yue Xiaoyou try it?"
"You can give it a try."
Later, Song Siyuan conveyed her and Master Mao's intentions to Yue Guanchao. After learning their thoughts, he took Ma Chang back to the palace and looked at the government platform again.
"The climbing rope has been used in advance. Why don't you let me go up and have a look? If there is really a mechanism, it won't be too late for you to go up again."
Ma Chang stretched out his arms and swung his hands upwards. His wrists flew out of the hanging wire and hung firmly on the palace beam. He relied on his strong arms and stepped on the bronze beast that was half a man's height and jumped upwards, as easily as an ape climbing a tree. Song jumped onto the rafters.
As he approached the platform, Ma Chang's eyes changed from curiosity to shock. He waved to Yue Guanchao:
"My benefactor, there is a black lump in this copper furnace. I wonder what it is?"
Yue Guanchao didn't talk nonsense. He took Ma Chang's hand and jumped onto the rafter. The tung oil in the furnace flowed loudly, making the gear behind the golden monkey's butt buzz.
The black lump that Ma Chang refers to is something like a medicine pestle. It is slightly wider than the copper basin, thin at the top and round at the bottom. The top chain is buckled into the caisson and goes straight into the tung oil.
"Try to see if you can pull it up!"
Yue Guanchao and Ma Chang each stood on one side of the beam, pulling the chain upwards. This thing was probably solid, as heavy as a thousand pieces of gold, and they couldn't shake it even even with a lot of strength.
"It seems that such a mechanism can only be managed through clever techniques."
Yue Guanchao stood on the beam and observed the eight golden monkeys. Everything else was perfect except for the golden monkeys' eyes that were special.
Most of the eye sockets of these macaques are hollow, with sapphire eyeballs embedded in them. When flashed by a flashlight, the monkeys immediately seem to be alive, with a strange light shining in their eyes.
Yue Guanchao understood that there might be something fishy about the Golden Monkey's holeless body but its eye sockets.
Then, he took out a dagger and dug out the golden monkey's eyes. There was nothing behind the eyes, it was obviously a hexagram composed of black and white lines!
He followed the same method and dug out the eyes of other golden monkeys. Except for the middle palace, all the other gossips were carved into the eye sockets one by one.
"There is gossip in the eye sockets, but what does it mean?"
