plumnovel Chapter 79 My God, who is the time traveler?
Chapter 79 My God, who is the time traveler?
Yang Yan showed no sign of it on his face, but instead revealed a perfectly appropriate curiosity and excitement that belonged to a young man. He obediently helped Yang Jun up and said, "Since Third Imperial Uncle is interested, then your nephew will naturally feast his eyes on this."
The two walked through the winding corridors and headed towards the back garden of the palace.
It was late autumn, and the cold wind outside carried a hint of desolation.
However, as soon as you step into the back garden of the Qin Prince's mansion, a warm feeling washes over you.
Yang Yan was surprised to find that the stone path beneath his feet was also warm. There was actually an underground heating system here!
In order to grow flowers, they actually laid the heating system in the outdoor garden?
This is no garden; it's a den of iniquity built with mountains of gold and silver!
The rocks are piled up to form a mountain, and the clear spring flows into a stream. Various precious flowers and plants compete for beauty, with peonies and peonies blooming out of season, obviously grown using a special greenhouse cultivation method and then transplanted.
This wealth and dedication made Yang Yan realize once again the extent of his third uncle's "spendthrift" nature.
No wonder Yang Jian beat him up. If that old emperor, who couldn't even bear to eat meat, had seen this, he probably would have drawn his sword and killed him.
The two walked to a wooden platform overlooking the water, which was called a waterside pavilion.
A breeze blew across the lake, carrying a slight chill, which helped Yang Jun regain some of his senses.
He paused, raised his hand, pointed to the center of the pond in the distance, his face showing a proud, boastful expression, and even a childlike expectation of praise.
"Nephew, look over there! Can you guess what that is?"
Yang Yan looked in the direction he was pointing.
In the center of the garden, on the vast lake, there were no typical artificial hills or pavilions, but instead a huge, uniquely shaped wooden structure.
The thing was over ten meters tall, and its main body consisted of several thick wooden pillars, firmly anchored to the bottom of the lake.
At its top are several huge, sail-like blades.
The wind was strong at that moment, and the huge blades were turning slowly in the wind, making a deep and powerful "creaking" sound.
Below it is a very complex waterwheel structure.
As the upper fan blades rotate, they drive the central axis to rotate, causing the waterwheel below to turn as well, automatically scooping up lake water bucket by bucket and sending it into the wooden pipes high up.
The clear lake water flows through pipes to the top of the garden, forming artificial waterfalls that flow in all directions, irrigating the delicate and exotic flowers and plants.
Yang Yan stopped in his tracks.
The feigned curiosity and excitement on his face froze in an instant.
Instead, there was an unmasked horror that came from the depths of one's soul.
Even his hand, which was hidden in his sleeve and was originally ready to help Yang Jun at any time, unconsciously clenched tightly, his nails digging deep into his palm.
Wind-powered waterwheel!
Moreover, it's a vertical axis wind-driven keel waterwheel!
Yang Yan felt a surge of electricity rush from his tailbone to the top of his head, making his scalp tingle.
He unconsciously held his breath, staring intently at the enormous thing spinning in the wind.
As a history student, he knew all too well what this meant.
Although irrigation systems during the Sui and Tang dynasties already had waterwheels (dragon bone waterwheels) and water pipes, the power sources were still very primitive.
Either rely on human footsteps, which is extremely strenuous physical labor; or rely on the impact of rushing river water, which is limited by geographical location.
But what's in front of me...
It utilizes the wind!
Although Yang Yan is not an engineering structural engineer, he has a basic grasp of physics and he also liked things like racing car models when he was a child. He can still imagine what some simple bearings and steering wheels look like.
Although the internal structure of the windmill is not clearly visible, the blades rotate horizontally, while the water-drawing tipper moves vertically.
This means that at that connection point, there must be a set of gears that can change the direction of power!
This is a complex machine that converts the rotational force of a windmill into the lifting force of a waterwheel through complex gear meshing, thereby achieving fully automatic and unattended irrigation!
This is fucking...
Yang Yan cursed inwardly.
This is not something that should exist in this era!
In official historical records, similar mature records did not appear until the Song Dynasty, or even the Ming Dynasty's "Tiangong Kaiwu" (The Exploitation of the Works of Nature), several hundred years later.
Now, in the seventeenth year of the Kaihuang era, in an era when straight-shaft plows were still in use and curved-shaft plows were just beginning to be promoted, it actually appeared so openly in a prince's back garden!
And all for the sake of watering those flowers and plants?
"How are you? Were you scared?"
Seeing Yang Yan standing there dumbfounded, Yang Jun assumed he was a country bumpkin and became even more smug, bursting into laughter.
"This is my masterpiece! I originally wanted to build a huge waterfall for the view, but the servants were too slow at carrying water and always slacking off. So I thought, since the wind can puff the sails, why can't it help me carry water?"
"So I found a few carpenters, and after tinkering for more than half a year, changing dozens of gear meshing methods, I finally managed to make this thing!"
Yang Jun patted the railing, his face full of pride: "With this, as long as there's wind, these flowers and plants in the garden won't need anyone to tend to them! I can lie here drinking, listening to the sound of water, and watching the waterfall—how delightful!"
Listening to Yang Jun's boasting, Yang Yan felt an even greater sense of absurdity.
How could this be a useless prince?
This is clearly an engineering genius whose vision was limited by the times, who put all his talent points into "laziness" and "enjoyment"!
In order to enjoy a bite of crisp, refreshing green vegetables, he improved steelmaking techniques and created a high-carbon steel wok.
In order to see the waterfall and save manpower, he handcrafted a wind-powered gear set that would not be available for hundreds of years.
If this kind of person were in modern times, he would definitely be a prodigy sought after by MIT, Tsinghua University, or Peking University.
But in this era, all his talents were seen as "strange skills and frivolous tricks" in Yang Jian's eyes, and as "playing with things and losing one's ambition" in the mouths of his ministers.
Yang Yan took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the surging emotions within him.
He turned his head, and his gaze towards Yang Jun became incredibly complex.
fear?
No, it's not just fear.
If the pot he just saw only made him think that Yang Jun was a usable craftsman, then this wind-powered waterwheel made him realize that what Yang Jun held in his hands was a fragment of the key to unlocking the door to the First Industrial Revolution!
Since that gear set can be used to lift water, could it be used for forging? Could it be used to drive larger machines?
If this technology were applied to the military...
Yang Yan dared not think any further.
He only knew one thing: this seemingly harmless, even somewhat simple-minded, Third Imperial Uncle was definitely an untapped gold mine!
Moreover, this gold mine is currently unattended and even disliked.
Yang Guang looked down on him, thinking he was a good-for-nothing.
Yang Jian looked down on him, thinking he was a rebellious son.
Only he himself, the time traveler with the vision of the future, truly understood his value!
"Third Imperial Uncle..."
Yang Yan's voice was somewhat hoarse, and he had to try his best to control it so that his voice wouldn't tremble.
"This...this is truly a masterpiece! Even if Mozi were alive today, or Lu Ban were reborn, they probably couldn't have achieved this!"