Liu Tan coughed lightly. "Last year, time was tight. There was nothing we could do. Regarding this ship... didn't I tell you? There's no rush this year. Besides, even if you designed it now, there wouldn't be any craftsmen capable of building it. Even if you built it, you wouldn't be able to test it."
The craftsmen are all on vacation, and Liu Tan doesn't mind paying them overtime, but there is no need for it.
Moreover, those craftsmen have been busy for a whole year and it is difficult for them to reunite with their families. It is not right to order them around like this.
What's more, it is still the dry season of the Yellow River. The water level in the river has dropped sharply, and large ships may run aground if they go down.
And large ships need docks, what should we do without docks?
This series of supporting facilities have not been completed yet, so there is no need to rush.
After hearing this, Mo Shi said awkwardly, "It's...it's my fault for not thinking things through, Your Highness..."
Liu Tan was helpless: "Forget it, let me take a look first."
Liu Tan asked Miao Rui and Big Gao to unfold the drawings. It must be said that Mo Shi and the others really put in a lot of effort in this regard, and the pictures on the drawings were all very clear and concise.
What surprised Liu Tan the most was that they actually drew according to Liu Tan’s drawing habits!
Liu Tan's drawing habits were completely different from those at that time, even incompatible with them.
In Liu Tan's opinion, his drawing is of course clearer. After all, each line is reduced proportionally. When working on it, you just need to enlarge it according to the markings. As long as the final shape is the same as in the drawing, there will be no problem.
However, the painting style of this era is more abstract.
However, Liu Tan never forced his own way of drawing because the time was not yet ripe. Both Gongshujia and Mohist schools have formed their own schools and people are used to this way. If you say yours is good, you can't ask them to change it. Even the princes cannot be so overbearing.
And they can completely ignore it. After all, they are the ones doing the work in the end. Why do you care how they work?
Liu Tan glanced at Mo Shi in surprise: "Changed the painting method?"
Mo Shi said seriously, "We went back and carefully looked at your drawings. We found that your drawings were clearer and simpler, so we tried to learn from them. We found that it was indeed immortal... ahem, your method was easier, so we changed the way we drew."
In fact, what Mo Shi said was half true and half false. At the beginning, they were half curious and half to please Liu Tan, so they figured it out. If they used the same painting method, the King of the Northern Territory would be in a good mood after seeing it, and maybe he would not mind the stupid things they had done before?
And since it has been determined that His Royal Highness the King of the North is a god who has descended to earth, then the unheard-of painting method he uses must also be popular in the fairy world.
They don't dare to attempt to become immortals, but there should be no problem in learning the methods of immortals, right?
What if you suddenly get the hang of it while learning?
After everyone figured it out, they found that this painting method is indeed very useful.
After all, these disciples from the Mohist School are all young people. Young people are always quicker to accept new things because their values are not yet too deeply rooted and can even be completely overturned at any time.
So they worked together to produce this batch of drawings.
Liu Tan smiled and nodded. "I didn't tell you before because I was worried you wouldn't be used to it. It's great that you've learned it on your own. You truly are worthy of being an elite disciple of the Mohist School."
After Liu Tan said this, he thought about it and felt that this name sounded like a monster in a game.
Mo Shi naturally didn't know what the monsters in the game were. When he heard Liu Tan praising them like that, he immediately became happy and thought that he really had to please His Royal Highness the King of the North.
After Liu Tan praised him a few words, he started to take a serious look and found that these people had indeed added sails to his boat and also opened holes in the hull to place long oars.
Overall, it does have the style of an ancient ship that Liu Tan had in mind, but he doesn't know what it looks like in detail.
He nodded and asked, "The blueprint looks good, but no one knows what it will look like until it's made. Let's make a model later."
Mo Shi immediately said, "We have made a model, but the model can only simulate the situation when the sails are the power source. We don't know if the oars are suitable."
Liu Tan was a little surprised: "Are you also used to making models?"
Gongshu Jia seldom made models before, and he learned it from Liu Tan. Could it be that the disciples of the Mohist School were so good at this?
Mo Shi said a little embarrassedly: "This...we also learned it from your Highness's habits after inquiring about them. I have to say that these things invented by your Highness have indeed benefited us a lot."
Models are not easy to make, after all, it is not easy to reduce them proportionally, but the existence of corresponding models can save a lot of manpower and material resources. For the Mohists, or people like them, who are not too wealthy, the existence of model demonstrations is really a great help.
Liu Tan raised his chin and said, "Then bring your model over and let's see what's wrong."
Mo Shi immediately asked someone to bring the model.
In Liu Tan's impression, models are generally small, and the ones made by Gongshujia before were also small. However, he did not expect that the children of Mohism were more generous. Their so-called models were actually half a person's height!
The boat plus the sail is half a person's height, which is just a little bigger at most. However, if you want to test whether such a boat can sail, you need a larger pool.
Mo Shi originally had a relatively large square water tank, but no matter how big it could be, it was limited. Once the ship went down, it occupied 30% of the area of the water tank. What could be tested with this?
Liu Tan glanced at the ship and found that no matter what, the craftsmanship of these Mohist disciples was really good. At least the things they made were very delicate. You could tell at a glance that they put their heart into them.
Seeing the water tank looked so small against the backdrop of the boat, he waved his hand and said, "Don't try here. Tie a rope to the boat and let's go to Kunchi."
Kunchi was the largest pond in his palace, the one where the glass house was once placed.
However, the glass house is not placed underwater unless it is in use.
In fact, according to the climate here, the pool should be drained in winter to prevent it from freezing.
It's just that Liu Tan was rich and powerful, so he kept the water in the pool and used geothermal energy under and around the pool to prevent the Kun Pool from freezing.
There was no other way. The winter in the Northern Kingdom was already quite desolate. After the pool was drained, the entire palace would look much more desolate. So Liu Tan wanted to keep the pool water even if it cost money. Otherwise, the palace was already empty enough, and if it became even more desolate, it would be a bit unbearable for someone like him who rarely felt sad about the passing of time.
After arriving at Kunchi, Liu Tan had someone tie the front of the boat with a long enough hemp rope to ensure that it would not affect the boat while allowing the boat to be brought back at any time. Otherwise, I'm afraid I would have to ask someone to carry a real boat over to retrieve the boat, which would be too troublesome.
After the boat was put on the water, Mo Shi discovered the advantage of demonstrating here - there was wind outside, so he didn't have to think of ways to fan the sails to make the boat move.
The winter wind in the Northern Kingdom is definitely not to be underestimated.
As soon as the boat was stabilized, the sails were blown up by the wind, and the boat shot out as fast as an arrow. The speed caught everyone off guard.
Liu Tan stood on the shore and watched for a while, then turned to look at Mo Shi and asked, "The sail can be adjusted in direction, right? I don't think it was drawn on your drawings just now."
Mo Shi was stunned after hearing this and asked, "Adjust the direction of the sail?"
Liu Tan turned to look at him in surprise and said, "Yes, the direction of the wind is not fixed. If the sail cannot adjust its direction, what if the wind is not blowing in this direction? Wouldn't that make the sail useless?"
Mo Shi was a little bewildered: "No... no, we have learned very little about ships before. I only saw a ship with sails when I was very young, so..."
Liu Tan had no choice but to add: "Then remember that the sails must be able to flexibly change direction in order to change according to the direction of the wind and better utilize the wind to propel the boat forward."
Mo Shi nodded seriously, and Liu Tan said, "And this ship has too few sails."
Mo Shi was a little surprised: "Ah? Still not enough?"
Liu Tan nodded and said, "The mast is too high, causing the entire ship to be a little unbalanced. Lower the mast appropriately and add sails to the bow and stern. Sails don't necessarily have to be on the mast; they can be added elsewhere. How to add them depends on your ingenuity."
Mo Shi hesitated for a moment and said, "There are records about sails. The family may have books on this subject, but we don't have enough authority to read them."
This time it was Liu Tan's turn to be surprised: "Aren't you from the Mo family?"
Mo Shi smiled bitterly and said, "Actually, my original surname wasn't Mo. All of us who came out this time were orphans adopted by the Mo family from all over the place. We were given the surname Mo because we were homeless and because we had talents."
Liu Tan's thoughts instantly diverged: "Then...what if there is no talent?"
Mo Shi was stunned for a moment: "Then go and do something else. After you finish your studies, if you feel that you can't make any further progress, you can leave your apprenticeship and find something to do on your own."
After hearing this, Liu Tan suddenly realized that although the word "Mohist" has the word "Jia" in its name, they have actually formed a school of thought. To explain it in a more understandable way, they have formed a sect.
There are both family children and other disciples within the sect.
From this perspective, it is not unfair for Gongshujia to lose to Mojia. After all, Gongshujia was only a family unit, while Mojia had disciples all over the world.
Liu Tan then asked, "Who can read the records about the ship?"
"Only the most core disciples of the Mohist School can see it."
Liu Tan frowned. "You're already good enough, and you've taken the surname Mo, yet they still don't consider you one of their own?"
Mo Shi immediately said, "No, it's mainly because many records about ships are related to war. Ordinary manned ships are not worth the Mo family's record and shelving. Because they set many conditions for fear that barbarians would learn from them, if Your Majesty ordered it, then all these conditions would no longer exist."
Liu Tan understood. He looked at Mo Shi and asked, "So what do you want from telling me this?"
Mo Shi said frankly, "I've never come into contact with a ship before, and I have no interest in it. These days, through making this model, I suddenly feel that a ship is a culmination of mechanical engineering, and it also conforms to the principles of heaven and earth. It is very attractive. I also want to see the information, but I am not qualified, so I can only ask Your Highness to help me."
Before Liu Tan could say anything, he suddenly heard Lu Xuan beside him say, "The boat capsized!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
