After Liu Che let go of his hand, Liu Tan couldn't help but puff up his cheeks to express his protest, and then he was rubbed again - Liu Che didn't care much about his crown, so the crown was almost rubbed crooked.
Liu Tan frantically straightened his crown, wanting to protest but not daring to, so he gave a classic look of cowardice and unconvinced.
Liu Che naturally ignored his dissatisfaction. Liu Tan simply turned around and looked at Liu Chuan and said, "Your short sword has been delivered to the Crown Prince's Palace. You can play with it when you get back."
Liu Ju was suddenly surprised. He had never expected that he would get a share.
The following were some special items presented to him, and it was generally assumed that Liu Che was the only one in the world who had them. Liu Ju had long been accustomed to this way of doing things, and he had never even thought that he would have his own share of tourmaline.
Unexpectedly, Liu Tan also prepared one for him. Although it was a short sword, it was an unparalleled sharp blade in the world!
Liu Ju suddenly became restless and wanted to go back and see the sword that belonged to him.
However, he couldn't leave yet, so in his excitement he couldn't help but stroke Liu Tan's soft hair.
Liu Tan: !!!! You two are truly father and son!
He had no choice but to straighten his crown once again. As for the fallen hair... forget it, never mind. He still hadn't learned how to tie his hair up. If he did it himself, he might end up with his hair disheveled. It was better to leave it as it was.
Emperor Liu Che probably felt that he looked bad in this way, so he asked the young eunuch to help him fix his hair.
Liu Tan immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and then asked someone to deliver a dagger that matched the sword.
It is called a dagger, but it is actually a paper cutter. Nowadays, it is used to open letters and so on.
However, it was impossible for Liu Che to do the paper cutting and letter opening by himself, so this thing was given to him just for fun.
Liu Che played with the dagger and said, "Bring up anything else."
Bu Fan had previously reported to him what Liu Tandu had brought into the palace, so Liu Che knew that there were other things.
At this moment, he was really curious. This sword was already a rare treasure, no, it was more to his liking than a rare treasure, but it was the second one sent by Liu Tan. According to Liu Tan's character, the later the things were, the better they were. Could it be that he felt that the next thing was more precious than this sword, or even more precious than the appearance of the hundred-refined steel?
After Liu Tan's messy hair was tidied up, he regained his former serious demeanor. After hearing what Liu Che said, Liu Tan hesitated for a moment and said, "That thing is not good-looking in appearance, and it can even be said to be a bit ugly, but I think tourmaline cannot compare to its value."
There is no need to compare hundred-refined steel. Once the technology level develops, hundred-refined steel can be used to arm the army. The development direction of hundred-refined steel is different from that of coal, so there is no need to compare them together.
As for people's livelihood and infrastructure, tourmaline is certainly not as important as coal, at least not in this era.
Liu Che raised his eyebrows: "Oh? What is that? Bring it up and let me see it."
Liu Tan had someone deliver a very small lacquer box. The outside was black, and after opening it... it was still black.
Liu Che only saw a black stone placed inside. The stone did not look good, at least not as good as tourmaline, but he had never seen a stone so pure black.
After carefully examining the stone, he said, "It's quite unique, but it can't be used as a gemstone."
Liu Tan laughed and said, "This is not a gem, but a treasure. This stone can be ignited."
Liu Che looked up in surprise: "Light it up?"
Liu Tan nodded and asked someone to bring his hand warmer. After opening it, there were several pieces of burning coal inside.
This coal is of course carefully selected anthracite, but there was no coal washing equipment in those days. Even if it was carefully selected, it could only make the smoke less when the coal was burned.
In order to prevent the hand warmer from smoking, Liu Tan put a layer of kapok in the middle, but once the kapok was opened, it could no longer filter the smoke. A wisp of green smoke curled up, indicating that the contents of the hand warmer were still burning.
He asked someone to add some fire to make the coal in the hand warmer burn more vigorously, and then sent it to Liu Che's desk.
Liu Che observed carefully and found that the black stone in the hand warmer was actually burning. Even when he picked it up with a pair of tongs, he could see flames all over the stone.
Liu Che thought of many things in an instant and looked up and asked, "Is this stone newly discovered?"
Liu Tan nodded vigorously: "Yes, I just...found it by accident."
He did not describe the process of discovery. He could find an excuse for the tourmaline, or he did not lie about the discovery of the tourmaline. Wei Buzhi brought it back to him because he thought it was beautiful. As for how he thought of heating it... he could just say that he wanted to remove impurities in the stone.
But he hadn't made up his mind about the coal yet. He couldn't just set fire to the Gobi Desert for no reason, could he? Besides, he must have Liu Che's embroidered messengers with him. However, the embroidered messengers usually reported everything in full only after determining the cause and effect. Unless it was important intelligence, they wouldn't report Liu Tan's tinkering until he had the finished product.
But as soon as the finished product was produced, Liu Tan took it directly back to Chang'an. Even these embroidered robe envoys might not know that the finished product was produced, let alone what it looked like.
So Liu Che may not know the situation now, but as long as he asks the embroidered uniform envoy, the lie will be easily exposed.
Fortunately, Liu Che was not the kind of person who would ask too many questions, or he had learned not to ask too many questions about Liu Tan.
This stems from his understanding and trust in Liu Tan. He knows that if he can tell, his fifth child will tell every detail without missing a single question. Otherwise, don't ask, as asking will not yield any results.
Liu Che had the hand warmer taken away and asked, "How is the output?"
Liu Tan knew what he meant and immediately sent over a document, saying, "I conducted some experiments, and here they are."
From this time on, a serious atmosphere began to appear in the main hall of the Weiyang Palace.
Liu Che was looking at the record sent by Liu Tan. He couldn't help but raise his eyebrows after a quick glance. Well, it was obvious that this handwriting was not written by his son. Looking more closely, the handwriting should be from Huo Guang.
Huo Guang was very rigorous and wrote down all the detailed data in it, and also wrote down some speculations, but he also pointed out that they were just speculations.
When Liu Che read the last part, he paused and said, "Honeycomb coal?"
There was obvious surprise on his face: "There are actually two more kinds, but... why is it called honeycomb briquettes?"
Liu Tan quickly explained, "It's named this because its shape resembles a honeycomb."
As he spoke, he had someone present a piece of honeycomb coal to Liu Che for him to see.
Liu Che observed it carefully for a while with great interest and said, "Is this the shape of a honeycomb?"
Liu Tan: ...Can his father's focus be correct for once?
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