People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 524 Zhao Zhen Leaves the Capital
"Can I leave the palace now?"

In the back garden, Zhao Zhen, who was originally doing electromagnetic technology research in the Physics Palace, was puzzled when he heard Zhao Jun coming over suddenly.

Shouldn't the eldest grandson be handling official business in the Constitutional Yuan at this time?
Why did you suddenly come here?

But he did not hesitate and immediately let Zhao Jun in.

As a result, when Zhao Jun came over and told him the good news, Zhao Zhen was stunned.

Over the years, he had only left the palace twice, once for Zhao Jun's wedding, and the other time to go to the South Railway Station to watch the train run.

Although it was much better than the situation in history where he had never left the palace, the two times he went out were just a quick glance. He had never really seen this beautiful land, and he didn't even know what Bianliang looked like.

For an emperor, it is undoubtedly a tragedy to have never seen how big his empire is, what it looks like, and even not know what his capital looks like.

So Zhao Zhen once proposed to Zhao Jun the idea of ​​leaving, but that was seven years ago, so long that Zhao Zhen almost forgot about it.

I didn’t expect that my eldest grandson still remembered it.

"Yes, when I expanded the palace for you, didn't I promise to build you a few more palaces so that you could travel around?"

Zhao Jun walked to Zhao Zhen's workbench and took a quick look. There were all kinds of tools on it. It seemed that his brother was very hardworking and devoted to science, always doing various experiments.

"I almost forgot about this."

Zhao Zhen put down the copper ring in his hand and smiled bitterly.

"Brother, you may have forgotten, but I can't. Although the palace was not rebuilt, we just renovated the original palaces in various places. But it's still okay to live in."

Zhao Jun smiled.

Thanks to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, there are palaces built by Liu during the Southern Han Dynasty all over the country, including Guangzhou. After the establishment of the Song Dynasty, most of these buildings have been preserved, but they have been in disrepair for a long time and are slightly dilapidated.

During the Qingli period, the imperial court proposed a number of policies to revitalize the economy, including a large amount of infrastructure construction, including the construction of roads, railways, houses, canals and other projects.

The work of palace restoration was also being done almost simultaneously.

Maintenance has been carried out on many capitals of separatist regimes in history, including Chengdu in Bashu, Chang'an in Guanzhong, Luoyang in Henan, Beiping in Youyan, and Jinling in Jiangdong, as well as the palaces of the capitals of the great unified regime.

In addition, the railway system connecting major cities across the country has been completed after more than ten years of construction, and now is the time to set off.

"Great."

Zhao Zhen showed an excited expression on his face and said, "I want to go to Chang'an. I have long wanted to see how magnificent the capital of the Tang Dynasty is."

"Don't worry. The emperor's trip is no small matter. We must prepare. When the time comes, you can think about who to take and where to go. We can make a plan together and set off after some time when the preparations are complete."

Zhao Jun smiled, then looked at Zhao Zhen's workbench curiously and said, "By the way, brother, I was just curious, what are you doing?"

There was a pile of messy things on the workbench, including magnets, iron sheets, carbon particles, coils, copper rings, etc., including some black powdery stuff, which made it difficult to understand what was being invented.

Zhao Zhen tapped the copper ring and said with a mysterious smile: "I have always wanted to invent magnetic tapes and cameras. I hope that people in the future can hear our voices and see our appearance."

He continued, "And the microphones before were very simple. You also know how simple the structures of the loudspeaker and the microphone are. The loudspeaker is a sound ring made of some magnets and coils wrapped together. The microphone is also a magnet and coil, with some carbon particles added, and then the sound is diffused by amplifying the current."

"pity."

Zhao Zhen shook his head and said, "It's still too primitive now. The words it speaks are extremely noisy and there's too much noise. It's fine if you're close, but if you're far away you can't understand what it's saying. Compared to the loudspeaker on the notebook, it's simply a world of difference. So I also want to improve its function."

"This is good, this is good."

Zhao Jun nodded repeatedly, praising Zhao Zhen for his efforts in scientific research, but he was puzzled and asked, "What is the relationship between a camera, a tape and a microphone amplifier?"

"The camera is not really related, it is about the photosensitive material, so I asked the School of Chemistry and the School of Physics to buy it together. But the tape is related, they both record sound through magnetism."

Zhao Zhen pointed at the magnet and the black powder and said, "So there are magnets in microphones and loudspeakers. According to my estimation, the magnetic tape should be recorded with magnetic powder, and then the sound is recorded in a special way, and then the sound is played back in a special way."

"That should be a tape player, also called a tape recorder. I saw it when I was a kid and even took it apart."

Zhao Jun suddenly understood.

The tape recorder is very old. It seems that it is no longer common after 80, because it was popular in the 90s and s.

However, as a first generation post-00s, he remembers going to his cousin’s house to play when he was a child, probably in 2007 or 2008, when he was seven or eight years old. He also saw his cousin using this kind of tape recorder to listen to English, which seemed to be called a Walkman at that time.

But it didn't take long for this thing to disappear from the stage of history and was gradually replaced by various MP3s, MP4s, etc., and my cousin's Walkman was also thrown into a corner.

Until one day, Zhao Jun was bored. He was only seven or eight years old, which was the age when people hated him. So when he went to his cousin's house to play, he took it down.

It's a pity that he has absolutely no talent for science.

When others were young, they disassembled various electrical appliances. Those with talent could quickly figure out their structure and then restore them.

Zhao Jun spent a lot of time to restore it, but he found a few extra screws and a bunch of small parts on the ground. In the end, the thing became complete garbage, and he didn't figure out what the structure was.

If he had studied science and had a talent for it, the technological progress of the Song Dynasty would probably be much more advanced than it is now. Maybe televisions would have been invented.

"I already know how to make this tape. I believe it won't take long. Not only the tape, but even the phone should be fine."

Zhao Zhen said proudly: "Their principles are actually similar. They all use magnetism to record sound, and then transmit the sound through electric current. One thing leads to another. What we lack now is to find the right material to serve as the magnetic tape carrier."

"Scotch tape."

Zhao Jun scratched his head and said, "I remember that the magnetic tape my cousin used when I was a child was the same as the adhesive tape, but it was black in color."

"That's it." Zhao Zhen pondered and said, "It seems that I have to try something like resin. As long as I can open up this joint, I think things like tapes and telephones can come into being."

"That should be the case. It was mentioned in high school history class that the telephone was invented as early as the 19th century, which shows that its principle is relatively simple."

Zhao Jun smiled and said, "With my ability, I believe the phone will be available soon."

"Hahahahahaha."

Zhao Zhen was overjoyed by Zhao Jun's praise.

He is 44 years old this year and has everything he should have.

There is the Qingli Miracle in national development. From 1040 AD to 1054 AD, in just 14 years, the national strength of the Song Dynasty has increased more than tenfold.

In addition to the Industrial Revolution, productivity grew explosively, foreign trade was actively carried out, domestic production was accelerated, food grew like a blowout, and the population also increased rapidly, and development was extremely rapid.

As for expanding territory, the Song Dynasty first conquered Yanyun, then destroyed Xixia, and finally took over the Western Regions. Now, half of the Liao Kingdom has been incorporated into the Song Dynasty. The territory of the Song Dynasty has reached more than 900 million square kilometers, which is similar to that of later generations.

Although the later Tibet, Yunnan and western Inner Mongolia were missing, there were more Ferghan Basin further west in the Western Regions and parts of Outer Mongolia, North Korea, Russia and other countries.

Therefore, in terms of land area, it is actually basically the same as that of later generations. If you calculate carefully, it should be only about 200,000 or 300,000 square kilometers less.

If the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Dali are conquered, the territory will directly reach more than 1000 million square kilometers, close to 1100 million square kilometers. If Outer Mongolia is conquered, the country will be truly unified.

Therefore, whether in terms of civil administration or military achievements, Zhao Zhen had reached the pinnacle of history at this time. Even during the heyday of the Han and Tang Dynasties, only the 1237 million square kilometers during the reign of Li Zhi of the Tang Dynasty could be compared with him.

However, the peak territory of the Tang Dynasty was maintained for a very short time, and although its domestic development was second to none among feudal dynasties, it lagged behind industrial countries like the Song Dynasty by more than ten times.

Therefore, throughout history, from the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors to the present, in the nearly four thousand years of Chinese civilization, no civilization or dynasty can be compared with the Song Dynasty at this time.

Zhao Zhen himself often wondered what kind of posthumous title and temple name he should be given after his death.

Common names like Song Shenzong, Song Xianzong, Song Shengzong, etc. are simply not worthy of being used as his temple name.

With such great achievements in expanding territory, he should at least be given the title of Zu. Even Emperor Shizu of Song could not be given this title, so at least a few more characters should be added to his title.

Therefore, in this situation, Zhao Zhen actually had nothing else to pursue.

He only hoped that he could make more inventions and creations, not only to achieve an unprecedented level as an emperor, but also to become a shining star in the scientific community.

In this way, even if there are more powerful emperors or scientists who surpass him in the future, at least he is the best scientist among emperors and the most powerful emperor among scientists.

Now hearing Zhao Jun's affirmation of his scientific research ability, Zhao Zhen was naturally very happy. He was afraid that from then on, his greatness had been established in history.

Zhao Jun then chatted with Zhao Zhen for a while and took a walk in the back garden. At this point in time, his limited science knowledge was actually not as good as Zhao Zhen's, and it was difficult for him to provide academic help.

But he has a wide vision and knowledge. Even if he doesn't know the principles, he can describe its functions and also inspire scientists.

Just like science, in essence, is about tapping into people's imagination.

Science fiction novels before World War I already imagined that people would be able to go to the sky in the future, such as "From the Earth to the Moon" and "War of the Worlds".

There are other scientific products, such as the inventor of the submarine was inspired by "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", the helicopter was inspired by "Robil the Conqueror", the mobile phone was inspired by "Star Trek", and so on.

Therefore, the development of imagination is far more important than focusing on academic research.

It has to be said that many things of Zhao Jun inspired Zhao Zhen. After all, most of his insights came from his notebooks.

But the knowledge carried by the notebook is very limited. Because there is no Internet, all you can get from the notebook are those fleeting shots in the movie, and you don’t even know what they are used for, so it’s difficult to give any hints.

But Zhao Jun knew their functions and the future development direction. This was actually the best result, which could save the Song Dynasty's technological development from taking a few decades of detours.

The next day, Zhao Jun stopped working and worked with Wang Shouzhong and Cao Xiu to make a travel schedule for Zhao Zhen, including the size of the accompanying guard, personnel arrangements and travel routes.

The next few days were spent on the rest of the preparations. A group of elite soldiers were mobilized from the imperial palace guards to serve as the emperor's guard of honor, and another three thousand men were transferred from the Beijing camp to serve as the accompanying guards. They began to pack up their belongings and prepare to set off.

But we can't set off right away, we have to build up momentum first.

So, not long after, the news spread that the Emperor of the Song Dynasty was going to tour the local areas, go deep into the grassroots level and comfort the people.

The civil service group, as well as Bao Zheng, Ouyang Xiu and others, wrote letters of opposition, citing Emperor Yang of Sui as a negative example and saying that the emperor's tours were a waste of money and labor, and they hoped that the Emperor of Song would learn from the Sui Dynasty's lessons.

However, the Constitutional Court suppressed the opposition and issued an official decree. At the same time, newspapers across the country also publicized the matter, focusing mainly on Zhao Zhen's diligence, love for the people, and people-oriented ideas, explaining why he had to leave the capital for an inspection.

As for the issue of time and money, it was certainly a waste of labor and money in the past, but now with the train, the travel speed has increased by more than ten times. It used to take at least two months to travel from Bianliang to Chengdu, but now it only takes two or three days at most.

Take the train to Chang'an first, and then go south from Chang'an to Chengdu. The total distance is no more than 1,000 kilometers. If it is a direct train, it may not even take two or three days. You can leave in the morning and arrive the next morning. It is very fast.

Therefore, this issue was also refuted by the Council of Political Affairs, and the opposition from officials during Zhao Zhen's travel was naturally resolved smoothly.

Soon it was early February. February of the 14th year of the Qingli period was the busiest time in Bianliang. In winter, it sometimes snowed in various sections of the canal, and it was common for the river to be blocked by ice and snow. The government often had to organize people to break the ice, which delayed the journey.

However, when spring arrived in February, the canal became unobstructed again, like a highway during holidays. The more than ten miles from the southern entrance of the Bian River to the Bianliang Wharf were crowded with ships.

And with the construction of multiple railway stations, such as Bianliang West Station, which connects Luoyang, Chang'an and cities along the line, there are also countless people traveling back and forth.

For a time, Bianliang's population and prosperity continued to grow.

Under such circumstances, on February 8, nineteen days before the National Day of the Song Dynasty, Emperor Zhao Zhen of the Song Dynasty officially left Beijing and began his tour around the world.

(End of this chapter)