Great Han Arrow God

Chapter 502 Useful
After Liang Xiao became Marquis, the Liang family moved to live in Qili in Chang'an City, and the house in Maoling was given to the Tu family, and there was no place to live in Maoling County.There are also houses in the farm, which were originally used for the slaves who farmed the land. Generally, the houses are relatively simple and simple, but Liang Xiao has always loved the slaves and was willing to spend money, so the building is not bad. It has been expanded, and now Liu Ling is here to live, so it's passable after tidying up.

It was the slack season, so Liu Ling asked Tu Tian to find some slaves, and under the command of Deng Guobin, he built a laboratory according to Liang Xiao's practice in Bailu Jingshe.When the house was built, colored glaze from Huainan was also shipped in, and the glazed windows were installed. The outside of the house was sunny, and the inside of the house was bright. Even Liu Ling was delighted to see it.

Everything was ready, Deng Guobin and others put into work again, making ship models and conducting experiments without distraction.

Liu Ling had already studied "The Elements of Geometry", and now that he had a lot of time, he picked up "The Elements of Geometry" again and pondered it carefully.After several months of marriage with Liang Xiao, even though they got together less and separated more, Liang Xiao still used the time as much as possible to answer Liu Ling's many questions.He used to cover up a bit, and sometimes he used Dongfang Shuo as a cover, but now that the two of them have become one, he no longer has any scruples, wishing he could tell Liu Ling everything he knew.

Liu Ling's attainments in this area have far surpassed that of ordinary people.Deng Guobin's practical ability is relatively strong, but in terms of mathematical derivation, Liu Ling has a clear advantage.They showed their strengths and cooperated with each other, and soon gained a deeper understanding of shipbuilding, and accumulated a lot of seemingly insignificant skills, but actually condensed a lot of painstaking efforts. bookshelves.

Liu Ling lived a fulfilling and regular life, either reading by the window or taking a walk in the manor.Except for occasional visits to the vegetable fields, he basically does not leave the door, like a hermit, hiding in the outskirts of Chang'an.

Until one day, an honored guest came to visit and broke her tranquility.

When the figure of Princess Guantao appeared at the door, Liu Ling blinked, showing a relieved smile, and then greeted her with a happy face, bowing and saluting.

"My lord, why are you here? If you have anything to do, just say hello. I'll just go and visit myself. How can I make you tired."

Princess Guantao smiled and waved her hand. "Okay, don't coax me anymore. If I don't come, will you see me?" She held Liu Ling's hand affectionately, spoke slowly, asked about Liu Ling's recent situation with concern, and then said The gossip between some women is like a friend in a boudoir whom I haven't seen for a long time, without losing the love of the elders.

Liu Ling accompanied her into the room, and was about to welcome her into the lobby.Princess Guantao stopped in her tracks, and turned her head to look at the west courtyard with its closed gate.

"You closed the door to thank the guests, hiding here, what kind of knowledge are you doing, can you show me around?"

"The Grand Master has orders, how dare you not obey?" Liu Ling smiled, and then said half-jokingly: "It's just that when did the Grand Master become interested in these little tricks?" door, leading Princess Guantao to walk over.

"Because your husband and wife were the first to make people popular, now talking about literature and reasoning is the most popular elegant thing in Chang'an City. Of course, the men never get tired of it, but the women feel a bit outdated when they meet and don't talk about their latest discoveries. It's just that I'm old and lazy, and I can't compare to those young people. Without your help, I would be helpless. No, today I came here specially to learn from you."

"Hehehe——" Liu Ling raised his sleeves, covered his lips and smiled, and said a few words modestly.She led Princess Guantao into the model making room, and asked Deng Guobin to take out the finished ship model for Princess Guantao to appreciate.

Seeing the exquisite and realistic ship model, Princess Guantao was very surprised.She stretched out her well-maintained fingers, picked up a piece of wood as thin as a toothpick on the desk, and looked at the model ship again, unable to believe her eyes. "Are these ship models assembled with such pieces of wood?"

"Yes, each part is made in strict accordance with the requirements, and there is no tolerance for a single error. The so-called error is a thousand miles away, even if the error is the same as a hair, if it is magnified, it may lead to incorrect installation."

"Hair?" Dong Yan, who was accompanying Princess Guantao, was speechless.He curled up a lock of hair at the temple with his fingers and looked at it, with suspicion in his eyes. "How much error can a strand of hair have?"

"It's not just a strand of hair, even half a strand of hair is not acceptable." Deng Guobin asked Liu Ling for instructions, turned around and took out a delicate wooden box, opened it, took out a caliper from inside, and held it carefully in his hand . "Guobin has the guts to ask the Tailord to give me a blue silk."

Princess Guantao was puzzled, but still lowered her head in high spirits, and asked Dong Yan to pull a hair from her head and hand it to Deng Guobin.

Deng Guobin asked Dong Yan for a few more hairs, and measured them together with Princess Guantao's hair one by one, then put them on the case together, turned around, and asked Dong Yan to change the positions of these hairs.Dong Yan understood what he meant and changed immediately.He stared at Deng Guobin intently, wanting to see if Deng Guobin could detect the difference between these strands of hair.One strand of hair is thin enough, how can he measure the difference between two strands of hair?
This is incredible.

Deng Guobin measured the diameter of those few hairs again, and then picked up a strand of hair with confidence. "This is Tailord's blue hair."

Princess Guantao exclaimed, "How is this possible?"

Deng Guobin put away the caliper and smiled proudly.Liu Ling took the wooden box from Deng Guobin and entrusted it to Princess Guantao. "My lord, this ruler was designed by my husband, and carefully crafted by craftsmen. It can distinguish one-third of the hair. Dong Jun is still young and has thick hair, so he can still distinguish it."

"Really?" Princess Guantao took the ruler, held it up in front of her eyes, and praised repeatedly. "Simply exquisite, unheard of, I have never heard of such a precise ruler."

"If workers want to be good at their work, they must first sharpen their weapons. This is their weapon, and naturally they will never tire of finessing it." Liu Ling took the caliper from Princess Guantao and handed it to Deng Guobin, and said: "The Grand Master is not an outsider. , I am not afraid that you will laugh at me for being superficial, we are still developing a more precise ruler, when the time comes, we can not only distinguish the thickness of two hairs, but also accurately measure the size of the hair."

"Really?" Princess Guantao was dubious. "When will it be finished, I want to take a look."

Liu Ling smiled and said, "It's not easy. I've invested nearly a hundred gold, but I haven't been able to make it yet. When it's done, I'll definitely invite the Grand Master to appreciate it."

"Spend a hundred gold to make a ruler?" Princess Guantao smiled and shook her head. "My lord, you are really rich and generous."

"My lord, although my Liang family is not richer than my lord, it is favored by His Majesty and has a little wealth. Besides food and clothing, we have to do something serious. It seems wasteful to spend a hundred gold to make a ruler, but if If you can discover something, how can it be worth a hundred gold? Just like those two sages in your family, if they didn’t spend thousands of gold to buy the iron smelting place, how could they be able to make a lot of money now?”

Mentioning the matter of the Chen brothers making knives, Princess Guantao was in a good mood.The brothers Chen Xu forged the first-class sword and dedicated it to the emperor. Not only did they get the common sense of the emperor, they were able to join any idle position in Shangfang to make swords for the emperor. After earning the thousand gold, there is still a lot of profit, which can be described as both fame and fortune.

Using this example as a metaphor, the persuasion will naturally increase.

Liu Ling took Princess Guan Tao around for a tour.Princess Guantao was eye-opening and full of praise.The two returned to the hall, where the host and guest took their seats.Liu Ling also ordered someone to fetch some radishes that had just been pulled out of the ground, cut them into thin slices, and brought them up, asking Princess Guantao to taste them.

Princess Guantao talked for a long time, but she felt her mouth was dry, she tasted a piece, she felt her mouth full of saliva, and the fragrance remained on her teeth and cheeks, she couldn't help eating a few pieces in a row.

"what is this?"

"This is the fruit and vegetable my husband brought back from the Western Regions. It's called radish." Liu Ling said with a smile, "It's the first time the Grand Master eats it, so you can't eat too much. Some people are not used to it, and their stomachs will feel uncomfortable. If you get used to it , but this is a good thing.”

Hearing what Liu Ling said, Princess Guantao didn't dare to eat more, but she was envious of Liu Ling, and teased: "No wonder you don't want to go back to the city. Living here is really quiet and comfortable. If I have time, I will Come and stay for a while, okay?"

Liu Lingjiao couldn't stop laughing, but shook her head. "My lord misunderstood. I live here not entirely because I live comfortably. The things you saw just now were originally my husband's errands. He was ordered to go to South Vietnam, and I couldn't take care of it for a while, so I had to reluctantly , took it over, so as not to delay the business. If not, how could I, a lively person, stay here. "

Princess Guantao put away her smile.She had heard from Dou Ying about Liang Xiao's mission to South Vietnam, and she knew the danger.Hearing what Liu Ling said, she couldn't answer for a while.She thought for a while, and then said: "The Champion was sent to South Vietnam, but the affairs of the Yuzhang Shipyard did not stop. His Majesty has arranged for someone to take charge. Why do you have to work so hard?"

Liu Ling laughed softly: "Not everyone in the shipyard can do well. In front of the Tailord, I am not afraid of your jokes. In my opinion, as far as the matter of supervising the construction of warships is concerned, there is no one in the world. People can catch up with my husband. Even I, I'm afraid I can't catch up, so I can only fly first, spend more time, and hope not to fall too far behind."

Princess Guantao's eyes flickered slightly. "Champion Hou has indeed seen people, but this task of supervising the construction of warships, other people can't do it?"

Liu Ling did not argue.She thought about it and smiled. "Well, when the lord leaves later, just pick a ship model and take it away, and then I will make the same ship model, and all the parts can be interchanged with the one you took away. Three If you can build a model ship like this within a month, I will lose you a thousand dollars, how about it?"

Princess Guantao hesitated.

Liu Ling raised his eyebrows. "Does the Taizhu feel sorry for the daughter, or does he not have the confidence?"

Excited by Liu Ling, Princess Guantao also became interested. "If I ask for help, isn't it a violation?"

"Who can you ask for help?" Liu Ling was full of confidence. "Even if you beg in front of the queen, I have enough confidence to win you."

Princess Guantao laughed and clapped her hands. "Well, it's a deal."

-

Princess Guantao returned home and immediately invited Dou Ying to explain her bet with Liu Ling.

Dou Ying looked around the model boat, and finally shook her head. "My lord, I'm afraid you will lose this bet."

"You don't have confidence in me either?" Princess Guantao was not convinced. "Even if my Chen family can't find such a skilled craftsman, isn't there any in the palace?"

Dou Ying glanced at her and laughed silently. "Do you think Liu Ling is betting with you? She is betting with the emperor."

Princess Guantao was puzzled and kept asking.Dou Ying explained: "Have you read "Mountain Wood" in "Zhuangzi"?"

Princess Guantao nodded.Although she is not good at learning, when the Empress Dowager was alive, she asked them all to read Taoist books. Naturally, she had read "Zhuangzi", and "Shanmu" also had some impressions.

"Then what do you think, is Liang Xiao a useful goose alive, or a useful tree dead?"

Princess Guantao did not hesitate this time. "Of course it's useful to be alive, what's the use in death. Oh, right." She suddenly realized. "Liu Ling wants to tell the emperor that although Liang Xiao is rebellious, he has talents beyond the reach of ordinary people and is useful to the emperor, so he cannot die."

Dou Ying laughed out loud, then shook her head again. "Huainan Wang is a scholar, but he gave birth to a good daughter, which is really enviable." He thought for a while, and then said: "However, Liang Xiao is the smartest. I want to marry Liu Ling as my wife. This is a truly virtuous wife. With Liu Ling in Chang'an, even if he moves left to the end of the world, he will not be reduced to a fish. This kid has insight."

Seeing the always conceited Dou Ying praise Liang Xiao and Liu Ling so much, Princess Guantao couldn't laugh or cry. "This treacherous woman is worried about why her husband doesn't just say it. I just let the queen beg His Majesty. It's really annoying that she took such a big detour and cheated on my daughter."

Dou Ying laughed even more happily after hearing this.

The two discussed again, and Princess Guantao followed Dou Ying's instructions and sent the ship model to the palace and handed it over to Empress Chen.Empress Chen understood and found an opportunity to ask the emperor.The emperor's mind was obviously much more sensitive than Princess Guantao's. As soon as he saw the ship model, he understood what Liu Ling meant.

However, he didn't say anything, and smiled nonchalantly: "Okay, I'll take this bet for my aunt. If I lose, I'll pay the thousand gold. If I win, hehe..." He chuckled twice, Pick up the ship model and look at it carefully. "I'm not in a hurry. When Liang Xiao comes back, let him personally send the daughter to the palace, and then let him build me a boat for a lifetime."

Empress Chen said with a playful smile: "That's right, only a knight as smart as His Majesty can subdue a wild horse like Liang Xiao. With a little trick, let him serve Your Majesty obediently."

The emperor crooked the corner of his mouth and said with a soft smile: "It's actually very simple to train a horse. You only need three things: a whip, a paddle and a knife. At the beginning, you will whip the body, if you don't obey, you will smash the bones, and if you don't obey, you will cut off the head. So three times." Step, what kind of fierce horse cannot be tamed?"

Empress Chen shuddered, and a ray of uneasiness flashed in her eyes.
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(End of this chapter)