In the eyes of Emperor Wu of Han, Li Guangli was probably no different from a miner. He looked at Li Guangli differently because of his favorite concubine. Li Guangli had no other skills except being eloquent. He was not as good as his younger brother Li Yannian in this special skill.
Liu Che just sighed and put the matter behind him. He had too many things to do every day, so why would he waste so much energy on this?
After Liu Tan finished writing the letter, he became calm.
Although every day was the same as before, he spoke much less and even started to lose weight rapidly.
Huo Guang and Jiang Chong felt extremely regretful when they saw him like this.
They couldn't quite understand why Liu Tan acted like this, but if they had known this would happen, they would have used more subtle means.
You have to know that he had suffered a lot during this mission to the Western Regions, and the baby fat on his face had disappeared a lot. Now, his features have become more angular, and he looks more imposing than before, especially when he looks at people silently without saying a word, his extremely dark eyes can even make people feel a chill down their spine.
This time, Liu Tan received a notice from Liu Che. Liu Che did not mention the matter of Li Guangli. It was not known whether he did not want to mention it or wanted to talk about it after returning.
However, when he saw that the person who took over was Li Xi, he felt relieved.
If nothing else, Li Xi at least wouldn't hold him back.
But he still called Li Buyan and asked him to go back and tell Li Xi about Li Guangli's affairs, so that Li Xi would know that if he dared to touch the gold mine, he would die.
Li Buyan was not very happy when he learned that Li Xi was coming. In his opinion, he had made contributions now and should have a place in the court. Why did he need to let his father come here to suffer?
Every young man with dreams wants to replace his father and become the pillar of the family when he achieves some success.
Liu Tan simply said, "General Li is more familiar with this place than you are. Don't let your ignorance of the world come to you after just one battle. Back then, General Li and his men fought against the Xiongnu."
Li Buyan seemed a little unconvinced, but he also knew that Liu Tan was telling the truth. He could only reluctantly say, "The old man went north of the Hetao area back then. We are in the Western Regions, not in the same direction. He may not be familiar with this place!"
Liu Tan was startled. "Huh? Not together? Does that mean I won't be able to see Wolf Mountain anymore?"
Li Buyan: ?????
For a moment, Li Buyan was completely confused. He had thought that Liu Tan, who had developed the latest method of drawing maps, must be very familiar with the road. How come he couldn't even tell the directions?
He trembled and said, "Your Highness, you... don't recognize the map or remember the way?"
Liu Tan said calmly, "Of course I know the map. North is up, south is down, west is left, and east is right. Whether you can remember the route depends on fate."
Li Buyan took a breath and suddenly felt a little scared. The army was able to reach Jie Country smoothly... This was really a blessing from God, right?
This city is a transit station. It is not very close to the robbery country and there are no official roads. Not only are there no official roads, but most of the road is desert. However, the army did not get lost!
You should know that it is usually the job of the commander-in-chief to give directions, because no one knows the strategy and tactics except the commander-in-chief and other generals.
This is also why Li Guang led his army lost. Otherwise... didn't any of his men know the way? But they were all led into a ditch by Li Guang. When they wanted to find their way back, they were already in an unfamiliar place, and the guide was useless.
Li Buyan couldn't help but sigh: "God really bless me, the Han Chinese."
Liu Tan couldn't help rolling his eyes at him, but Li Buyan reminded him that he hadn't yet figured out the compass.
With the map and the compass, marching and fighting should be easier.
To be honest, the Si Nan has actually appeared a long time ago, but it has always been very large. The earliest one was in the Warring States Period, which used natural magnets to carve a ladle-shaped object, and then placed it on a smooth flat plate engraved with directions. It used the principle of magnet compass. The army also had Si Nan carts.
However, this thing is still very precious, so it will only be distributed when there is a real war. Although Liu Tan has many soldiers coming this time, their main purpose is to protect him, so they are not equipped with it.
In fact, Liu Tan was also very puzzled. Since everyone knew that magnets could guide the south, why did people have to be so stubborn and insist on carving magnets into shapes?
If you do this, the magnet will not be able to indicate the direction correctly unless it is of a certain size.
Especially Luan Da. When Luan Da was fooling Emperor Wu of Han, he used magnets to play chess, which pleased Emperor Wu of Han so much that he gave him the title of General Wuli.
You said that if Luan Da had used magnets to make a compass at that time, Liu Che would have been happier and he would not have been beheaded in the market!
Liu Tan sighed and asked someone to bring some magnets and iron sheets.
The iron smelting technology in those days was just average, but Liu Tan originally wanted to make an example for his father to see, so the quality didn't have to be very good. If he really wanted good quality, he could just let Liu Che give the order when the time came.
When all the raw materials were placed before Liu Tan, he was completely stumped. He vaguely remembered that he had only made a simple compass using an embroidery needle. That kind of thing was just for children to understand the principle, but it was completely unusable. He couldn't go out to war and carry a basin of water with him to find his compass, right? What if the water froze in cold weather?
Or if the water spills, then you can't tell east from west or north. Isn't that a bummer?
Liu Tan chose to simplify it. First of all, the compass needle cannot be fixed and must be flexible, so Liu Tan first cut a thin silver column, then cut a piece of silver sheet into a circle, poked a hole in the middle and fixed it on the thin silver column, and then rubbed the iron sheet used to point the south back and forth on the magnet. When the iron sheet formed a non-natural magnetic pole, he took it off, poked a hole in the middle and placed it on the silver column, but it could not be fixed, and then fixed another round silver sheet on it.
Except for the main part of the compass, the rest of the parts are basically made of silver. This is because pure silver itself is very soft and easy to plasticize, and it is not easy to affect the magnetic poles.
Liu Tan fixed this part on a round wooden block, then ran out to determine the direction. After confirming the direction with others, he carved the words east, west, south and north on the wooden block.
A simple compass is basically completed here.
To be honest, Liu Tan thinks that saying this thing is simple is a compliment. It is not simple at all, it is crude!
It's simple, so what? Liu Tan didn't think of using this version directly. He was still thinking of using the magnet version.
Because iron sheets are non-natural magnets, they are easily demagnetized when exposed to high temperatures and impacts. What if they become demagnetized during a fight?
Even if there is a spare, such a fragile compass can only be given to civilians for fun, not for military use.
So Liu Tan used the same poles of two magnets and polished them into cone shapes. After adsorbing them together, he used the previous method to make a rotatable silver tray. After testing, this compass had no difference in function from the previous one.
Liu Tan looked at the two equally crude compasses and felt that if he handed them over to Emperor Wu of Han, he would probably despise them. After thinking about it, he decided to ask someone to make a gold shell with a thin layer of transparent crystal on the outside, and then wrap the compass in it.
Well, he also had to slim down the humble compass in the process.
As for how the army will use it, that will be something the people below need to worry about.
He knew that neither of these two compasses was perfect, but... they were always better than the Sinan car, right?
This is all he is capable of. Now that the samples have been made, can't the people below use their clever little brains to improve them?
When Liu Tan thought of this, he felt no psychological burden at all.
No one came to disturb him while he was doing all this. Even Huo Guang and Jiang Chong wished he would do something else to divert his attention.
When Liu Tan took out the compass to show off, everyone was amazed at his genius idea, but what they were thinking more about was - would His Highness think of the Li Guangli incident again when he came out of seclusion?
Jiang Chong even glanced at Huo Guang implicitly: Do you want to find something else for His Highness to do?
Huo Guang felt somewhat helpless. Liu Tan's ideas in this regard were so wild and imaginative that most people couldn't follow his train of thought, let alone find the direction that interested him.
But he soon remembered something and asked, "Your Highness, you wanted to make some kind of cake before. Do you want to continue?"
After hearing this, Liu Tan looked at Huo Guang in confusion. "Bread? What kind of cake?"
After a while, he suddenly realized: Huo Guang was talking about compressed biscuits, right?
He felt heartbroken when he thought of the compressed biscuits, but he could only wave his hand: "Let's talk about that when we get back. The conditions here are not enough."
In fact, the conditions may not be sufficient after returning. As for the by-product fried noodles... there is actually no way to promote it.
Oil is so precious nowadays. How many times a year can an average family eat it? Not to mention the poorer ones.
The Han Dynasty's military expenditure was already very tight, so it was even more impossible to do these things.
Liu Tan thought of this and said sadly, "When we return to the interior, these soldiers will probably go back to their homes. I'll give them some rewards then, so that they won't have risked their lives following me in vain."
Huo Guang felt somewhat helpless. Since these soldiers followed Liu Tan, they would receive some rewards from time to time. Oh, in Huo Guang's eyes, the meat Liu Tan prepared for them as a snack was also a reward. In addition, the court had rewards for military merits, and Liu Tan paid for rewards out of his own pocket, and now he had to do it again.
Huo Guang was not stingy with the money. He was just worried that after giving these rewards, the treatment of these soldiers would be much worse when they returned to their original places, which would easily breed resentment.
However, if it were in the past, he would definitely have advised, but now... forget it, there's no point in persuading, as long as their fifth prince is happy.
Liu Tan was indeed happy. He regretted what had happened to Li Guangli, but he couldn't keep regretting it. After all the pain, he had to remember that he still had to lead his troops back to the capital. What was the point of always looking so gloomy? When the time came to award the prizes, no one dared to be happy. That would be a shame, wouldn't it?
Just when Huo Guang and Jiang Chong were worrying about how to find something for Liu Tan to do, Li Xi finally arrived late.
It doesn't seem quite right to say that he was late. After all, Li Xi had come here through wind and rain, and he didn't even dare to rest on the way. He just wanted to get his biological son and the adopted son he had raised for a while back as soon as possible.
To be honest, winning a battle is certainly worth celebrating, but the Western Regions is not a peaceful place. It would be fine if no action was taken, but once a action is taken, it will be very unsafe. As an elder, Li Xi wishes that these two would fly back to Chang'an within a day.
Li Xi finally arrived at the new city and first saw his son coming out to greet him.
After this trip, Li Buyan's temperament changed a little bit, but the bigger change was in his appearance. He became a little darker, but looked more sturdy and strong. Apart from anything else, he looked like a fierce general.
Li Xi was very happy. Li Buyan's image was still very popular with Liu Che. Liu Che would also look at the appearance when selecting people to lead the troops. Otherwise, how could Li Guangli lead the troops out of the pass?
Li Buyan was naturally happy to see his father, but he kept his mouth shut. Apart from reminiscing about the past with his father, asking about his mother, and asking about his younger siblings, he didn't say anything else. He took him directly to see Liu Tan.
After Li Xi saluted Liu Tan, the smile on his face slowly disappeared as he looked up, and he almost cried: "Your Highness, how did you become so thin?"
Liu Tan was stunned: "Huh?"
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