Into Unscientific

donkey?

Looking at the things that appeared in his headset, Wang Tong couldn't help but blinked hard.

After a second verification, he finally confirmed that he was not hallucinating - there was really a donkey grinning at him in the side yard.

Wang Tong:

"."

Well, it’s normal if you think about it carefully.

After all, this was a side yard where servants lived and worked. In ancient times, there were no mechanical equipment of any kind. It was not surprising that wealthy families with the conditions would raise a donkey.

Then Wang Tong turned around, pointed at the donkey and asked Li Qingzhao:

"Lord, is that donkey pulling a mill?"

Li Qingzhao followed Wang Tong's gaze and smiled when he saw the donkey:

"You are asking about this donkey, Mr. Wang. To be honest, this donkey is not just a grinder."

Wang Tong was immediately stunned:

"Aha? This donkey also has a story?"

Not so much

Wang Tong could understand that other objects in the exhibition hall had their origins, but what was so special about this mere donkey?

It can't be that it was once the protagonist of a novel, right?

Looking at Wang Tong who was a little confused, Li Qingzhao opened his jade lips and slowly explained:

"This donkey is special for two reasons. The first is that it is the only animal recorded in the "History of the Song Dynasty" - here it refers to an individual with a clear identity, not a species."

"What the hell?"

Hearing Li Qingzhao's words, Wang Tong's eyes widened instantly:

"Householder, please don't lie to me."

"Let me tell you, I have read a lot. The original score of Wudaokou Vocational and Technical College in the college entrance examination was 710, and it was also the top scorer in the city."

Li Qingzhao nodded firmly, waved his left hand lightly, and a copy of "Yongle Dadian" quietly appeared in his hand:

"There are many animals recorded in "History of the Song Dynasty", but most of them are recorded in the name of species."

"For example, in the "Five Elements Chronicles" in the "History of the Song Dynasty", there are many records of elephant taming, and there are also records of tiger troubles, but there is no specific animal."

"The only special case is the record about Su Song."

"Look here, in the fifth year of Yuanyou, I paid homage to Zuocheng, the Minister. One day, Zhezong heard about the illness and immediately sent an envoy to his mansion to inquire about it. In addition to his family members, there were only twenty servants and one donkey in the mansion. The donkey's hair was bright, its appearance was very majestic, and it was hard-working and capable. The messenger returned and reported it to the emperor. Zhe Zongjia gave it good medicine and a thousand taels of platinum for comfort. In April of the seventh year of Yuanyou, Song moved to Zuo Guanglu. , and he is also the right servant of Shangshu and the minister of Zhongshu, and his position is highly respected.]"

As Li Qingzhao said.

There are many records about animals in "History of the Song Dynasty", but almost all of them are recorded from the perspective of species.

For example, regarding tigers and leopards, Song Shenzong once issued an edict:

[There should be tiger and leopard prefectures and counties, and the transfer envoys should be sent to the mountains and forests, and the tiger craftsmen should be recruited, but there are still no other services. When tigers and leopards harm people, they are hunted down and killed. In addition to the silk rewards given by officials, the tigers are paid five thousand and the leopards are paid two thousand, and the leftover money from the service is used as replenishment.

There are also raccoon slaves, cats, dogs, and even eagles and falcons, but no clear individuals of these animals appear from beginning to end.

Even the famous Wang Anshi only recorded "likes to raise insects and fish".

The only exception in the entire "History of the Song Dynasty" is Brother Donkey in Lao Su's family.

At that time, Su Song fell ill just a few days after taking office as Minister Zuocheng, so Zhezong sent an eunuch to visit Lao Su's house to express condolences. During this period, the envoy noticed the donkey.

Perhaps in order to express the image of Lao Su, "History of the Song Dynasty" deliberately gave a relatively rich description of Brother Donkey, making Brother Donkey the only example in a strange and weird definition.

Then Li Qingzhao paused and continued:

"As for the second special thing about this donkey, it's its other job."

After speaking, Li Qingzhao motioned to Wang Tong and others to follow her, and they quickly came to the donkey.

As soon as he got close to the millstone, Wang Tong's ears twitched slightly.

He heard a slightly strange clicking sound, like a wheel axle turning.

Although they knew that the sound was as unreal as the digital person, Wang Tong and Zhang Ying were still curious to find the source of the abnormal sound.

After a few seconds.

Wang Tong fixed his gaze on the stone bearing under the millstone.

The strange sound they heard came from this, and it was obvious that there was something inside Shi Cheng.

Seeing this, Wang Tong turned to look at Li Qingzhao and cast a searching look at her:

"Householder, this is"

Li Qingzhao patted the stone mill a few times like he was patting a watermelon, and there was a faint shadow of Jiu Mengzi:

"Mr. Zhang, do you still remember the sink you saw outside the house when you visited Mr. Su's living room?"

Wash basin?

Wang Tong quickly recalled his earlier memories, and quickly remembered what Li Qingzhao mentioned.

About ten minutes ago.

They visited Lao Su's living room and saw a stone sink on the side wall outside the house.

So Wang Tong nodded quickly:

"of course I remember."

Li Qingzhao glanced at him and Zhang Ying and continued to ask:

"Didn't you find anything unusual about the sink?"

"abnormal?"

Wang Tong was stunned again and subconsciously made some gestures to remember:

"There's nothing unusual about it. I remember you said at the time that the sink was made of ordinary masonry, and only some common marble was used on the base."

"In addition, its height is only a little over one meter. Adults probably need to lean down a little when using it. Hey, wait a minute!"

Suddenly, Wang Tong realized something and looked at Li Qingzhao in astonishment:

"That's not right, layman. With the technology of ancient people, how could you deliver clean water to the sink?"

"The height above the ground is more than one meter. This requires at least a certain level of hydraulic equipment, right?"

Hearing what her boyfriend said, Zhang Ying on the side also thought about it.

Yes

The sink looks like it can be used by just turning on the faucet, but its principles are not simple - these principles may not be considered complex and profound, but in the ancient context, they are enough to be defined as civilizational barriers.

But in Su Song's mansion in 1100 AD, they actually saw a sink that could pump water normally?

Looking at Wang Tong and Zhang Ying with shocked expressions, Li Qingzhao just put his eyes on the stone bearing of the stone mill again:

"That's right, because Mr. Su invented a self-priming pump with a balance spring very early on."

"It is precisely because of this set of self-priming equipment that the people in the Su Mansion can freely access clean water without the need for servants to deliver water, saving a lot of servants' work."

Balance spring?

Self-priming pump?

As a practitioner of applied mathematics, Wang Tong is naturally no stranger to these two concepts - especially the latter.

For example, in March 2022, Wang Tong led his team to participate in nuclear power calculations. Ahem, relevant data calculations for a shaftless water pump drive device for a small domestic fishing boat. You asked him to design a most basic self-priming pump with his eyes closed. It’s not a big problem either.

But precisely because of this, Wang Tong could understand the significance of Lao Su's self-priming pump and balance spring better than ordinary people.

If he remembered correctly.

The self-priming pump in the modern sense was not invented until around 1900, and even equipment with a similar concept was only born in Europe around 1600.

Not to mention the balance spring, Hooke, who fell in love with and killed the calf, invented it in the winter of 1664 AD.

Unexpectedly, in the East earlier, Lao Su actually came up with these two things more than five hundred years in advance?

This is so unbelievable

Note:

I was a little short today, and I had some health problems. I needed to get checked again. There was some bleeding. The doctor judged that I might have gone to bed too early and my body was grinding to the point of surgery. But I obviously followed the doctor's instructions before going to bed when the time was up.

In addition, a classmate recommended me to book W Hotel. Do you have a misunderstanding about my wallet? 600 a night seems expensive to me, but W costs thousands a night.