Chapter 569 [First Update] 569
Liu Che knew that Liu Tan had been tinkering with something recently, but he was already used to Liu Tan's seclusion from time to time, so he simply didn't ask. Anyway, his son was either playing with metal or mud, so he would just wait until his son came out of seclusion before asking.
The most important thing is that if it is really useful and fun, his son will definitely offer it to him on his own initiative.
He originally thought that Liu Tan was going to take the things out tonight, but what did he hear?
His son took him to see the stars?
What's so good about the stars? Most importantly, do I need to bring anything to see the stars?
This is Liu Tan. Although Liu Che is full of suspicion, he is still prepared to follow him to see what tricks he is playing. If it were someone else, Liu Che would probably just kick him out.
Since Liu Tan wanted to present the treasure, he had naturally scouted the most suitable place long ago. If he wanted to see it clearly, the higher the mountain, the better. But the problem was that the higher the mountain, the more difficult it was to climb. Moreover, this was not the future, and there were many wild animals in the forest. Even if they brought many guards with them, it would be very troublesome if they encountered a group of wild boars.
Of course, Liu Tan would not let Liu Che risk his life to go to those places just to see the stars.
So he chose the highest place in the palace, which was originally built for sacrifices.
The simple idea of today's people is probably that the higher the altar, the closer it is to the heavenly world and the gods, and the easier it is for prayers to be heard.
However, since returning from the sea, these altars have rarely been used.
Liu Che seemed unable to face them and didn't even want to hear any news about these altars.
Although the time was not long, these places were naturally abandoned as no one cared about them for several months.
When Liu Tan was scouting the area earlier, he had someone come and clean it up. Someone also reminded him at that time that His Majesty didn't want to hear him go to the altar recently.
Liu Tan accepted the other party's kindness and gave him a silver pill.
In this palace, anyone who can give a reminder is considered a good person. Of course, it may also be related to the fact that he is more favored by Emperor Wu of Han.
As expected, Liu Tan did not tell Liu Che where they were going at first. When he later took Liu Che all the way to the altar, Liu Che's expression was not very good.
Seeing that he had slowed down, Liu Tan reached out and took his wrist, pointing to the altar and said, "Father, do you think the Star-Picking Altar I have arranged looks good?"
Liu Che was slightly stunned: "Star Picking Platform?"
Liu Tan nodded: "It means you can pick the stars with your hands."
Liu Che scoffed, "The stars are a million miles away from here, we can't even see them clearly, and you still want to pick them?"
Liu Tan raised his eyebrows: "Who said we can't see clearly? Let's go up and take a look."
When Liu Che walked there, he found that an elevator had been installed on the altar, or the Star-Picking Platform today.
This was also tinkered with by Liu Tan. Fortunately, he had people prepare all the parts for the elevator in Chang'an, and when we got here, we just had to install it according to the height of the altar.
He originally used this elevator just in case.
To see the stars, the higher the better. At that time, he had his mind set on the altar. If the altar could be used, then the elevator would naturally come in handy.
When Liu Che saw the elevator, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. Without saying anything, he walked in directly. He wanted to see what Liu Tan was up to.
The elevator was not fast, and there was not much scenery to see at night. However, after arriving at the Star-Picking Terrace, Liu Che was impressed by the scenery - the palace below was brightly lit, and in the distance, twinkling lights of Chang'an could be seen faintly.
At that moment, four words emerged in Liu Che's mind: the mundane world.
He raised his head again and found that the stars were indeed much more obvious when he stood here. He didn't know if it was his illusion.
After looking around, Liu Che found that Liu Tan was not by his side. He turned around and saw his son directing people to install something.
He walked over and saw that there were three sticks connected at one end stuck in the ground. He couldn't help but ask, "What is this?"
Liu Tan said, "This is a tripod for placing the telescope."
Telescope?
He had never heard of this word before, but since this word appeared, it meant that his son had indeed come up with something new, and this time watching the stars was also an act of offering treasures.
Liu Che simply sat aside and watched quietly Liu Tan carrying the tripod and looking for the most suitable place to put it down. Then the person who came up behind him brought out a box.
Liu Che was now very good at judging the value of items by the packaging Liu Tan used to place them.
As soon as he saw that the box was made of mahogany and inlaid with mother-of-pearl and other things, he knew that the things inside must be very precious.
Liu Tan didn't rush to place the telescope on the tripod. Instead, he sat down opposite Liu Che and placed the mahogany box on the table. Then he gently opened it and said, "Father, this is the telescope I made recently. It means to see a thousand miles away."
"A thousand-mile view?" Liu Che was a little surprised. "How could such a thing exist in the world?"
Liu Tan smiled shyly and said, "To be honest, it's definitely not achievable, but that's also because the current production technology is not advanced enough. If it were, it wouldn't be surprising."
Not to mention thousands of miles, even tens of thousands of miles will do, and not only can you observe the human world, you can also observe the universe!
It’s a pity that he probably won’t be able to see an astronomical telescope of that level in his lifetime.
However, it's best not to have one, otherwise how many people in the Han Dynasty will have their worldviews shattered? Especially Liu Che. Giving up on the search for immortals had already made him so upset. If he were to tell him that there was no immortal world in this world, that the earth was round, and that there was a dark universe outside of it, he would probably be in trouble.
Science is something that is best developed bit by bit, not all at once. Historically, this kind of gradual development of science has caused countless people to sacrifice their lives for science, countless people's worldviews to collapse, and countless people's lifelong pursuits to become a joke. If we suddenly force-feed all that science to people today and make all kinds of arguments, either the person who tells the truth will be beaten to death, or the entire society's knowledge system will collapse directly.
It's not a good thing anyway.
While Liu Tan was distracted, Liu Che had already picked up the telescope and started playing with it.
"Is this... glass?" Liu Che looked at the two cylindrical parts over and over again.
Liu Tan came back to his senses and replied, "Yes, when using it, just put the smaller part close to your eye and look out."
This was not difficult to understand. Liu Che picked it up and tried it, and then... he gave himself a shock.
When he tried it, he was facing Liu Tan, and then when he looked over, he saw that his son's face was much larger.
Even if Liu Tan's face could withstand such magnification under the telescope, the problem was that it was still quite scary when it happened suddenly.
Liu Tan looked at Liu Che with an innocent face, but Liu Che had reacted after the initial shock. He looked at Liu Tan's face with the telescope, then took it down and looked with his eyes, trying this many times.
He didn't think anything was wrong. Liu Tan was about to collapse: "Father, the telescope can see a lot of things. Can you look at something else first?"
If you have nothing better to do than to use a telescope to look at something, is that still a telescope? It's a magnifying glass!
Liu Che moved to another place with a proud smile and looked around. He found that the telescope was indeed powerful. Not only did the palace under his feet seem to be right in front of him, but he could even see some human figures swaying in the distant Chang'an City.
After Liu Che had looked around thoroughly, Liu Tan said, "Father, a telescope is also very useful for looking at the stars."
Only then did Liu Che remember that when Liu Tan called him over just now, he told him to go watch the stars.
He raised his head to look at the stars in the sky. The moment he looked up, he couldn't help holding his breath and subconsciously stretched out his hand - those stars seemed to fall in front of his eyes in an instant, as if he could touch them as long as he stretched out his hand.
At this moment, Liu Che suddenly understood what Liu Tan meant by the Star-Picking Tower.
With this telescope, it really feels like the stars are within reach at a glance.
However, after taking it down, the stars disappeared again.
Liu Che felt a little lost for a moment. He had just lowered his hand because he was tired. Liu Tan noticed this and immediately said, "Father, the telescope can be placed on this tripod, and then you can watch it at will."
Liu Che handed over the telescope and watched Liu Tan press the telescope on the top of the tripod, and then the telescope formed an inclined angle.
Liu Tan also made this tripod into a retractable type. This function was not difficult for Mo Jiu and Gong Shuchuan, but because they needed it urgently, it would be slower to make a model using metal, so Mo Jiu and Gong Shuchuan simply made a wooden one by hand.
While helping Liu Che adjust the height of the tripod to match Liu Che's sitting height, Liu Tan said, "The tripod should be made of metal, which is stronger. I will have it replaced later. Also, it can be rotated here, so if you want to see the stars in other directions, just turn it."
After installing it, he placed the telescope in front of Liu Che. Liu Che leaned forward slightly, put his eyes close to it and took a look, and the starry sky came into his eyes again.
Liu Che looked at it obsessively for a long time. He was very clear that this telescope only magnified the stars so that he could see them more clearly, not that the stars were really close. However, he still couldn't help but indulge in it.
After a while, he couldn't help but ask, "Is there anyone living above the stars?"
Liu Tan paused and said, "I don't know either, but I think... yes!"
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