Mr. Wang said he could do alchemy, which is very interesting.
"Which gold are you good at?" Emperor Zhao laughed dryly. He didn't understand for a moment and thought that he was pretending to be profound. "Is it the gold of the golden spear or the gold of the Jin army? The gold of the golden spear means that you have new weapons to offer? The gold of the Jin army means that you have a strategy to deal with the Jin people? Whatever it is, please tell me and I will reward you generously."
When Mr. Wang heard the official's words, he was a little at a loss.
At this time, Wang Shuzhan, the Minister of the Imperial Household, may have felt that the emperor was a little confused, so he took the initiative to explain: "I, the Minister of the Imperial Household, Wang Shuzhan, would like to inform you that I have personally seen that this Hermit Wang can use a special method to turn cinnabar into gold, and it is indeed real gold... I think that during the Jingkang period, the Jin people were greedy and violent, and took all the gold and silver in Tokyo and abandoned copper coins. Now it is not just Nanyang, but all parts of the world are short of gold and silver. If Hermit Wang can make good use of them and promote them, it will be enough to benefit the world."
Emperor Zhao was silent for a moment, and no one knew what he was thinking, but he didn't utter any curse.
However, on the other side, several ministers and important officials all reacted... Lu Haowen turned pale with embarrassment; Yuwen Xuzhong covered his face and turned away; Xu Jingheng was almost about to get furious, but he held it back after taking a look at Lu Haowen and Wang Shuzhan, two colleagues with whom he worked closely on a daily basis; Wang Boyan was calm, after all, it was a joke made by the East Palace across the street, the emperor had returned from a great victory today, the Privy Council had made contributions and had no faults, so he was happy to watch the fun.
Zhang Jun, the Minister of State, who was ranked below the four ministers and whose status was considered half-prime minister, also reacted quickly. He immediately turned his head and stared at Li Guang and Hu Yin who were standing beside him. It was obvious that he wanted the two palace censors to see the situation clearly and not cause trouble. If they wanted to impeach them, they had to wait until they returned.
In other words, from Emperor Zhao down, all the wise people have woken up.
However, in this kind of situation, those who understand it truly understand it, and those who believe it truly believe it. Just as Emperor Zhao and several other officials were so annoyed by the drama that they did not want to talk, under the urging and encouragement of Wang Shuzhan, the Minister of the Ministry of Rites, Mr. Wang reluctantly began to demonstrate in public.
He saw a bunch of bottles and jars and stoves being carried up, and then Mr. Wang actually started to roast cinnabar in the closed furnace to get mercury... Emperor Zhao came to his senses and wanted to kill someone, but he also knew that with the level of technology at that time, the old man and Uncle Wang did not deserve the death penalty, and might not even be guilty; he wanted to kick over someone's alchemical equipment, but he had to remember that mercury vapor is highly toxic; and more importantly, this was a ceremony prepared by Lu Haowen with good intentions, and all the civil and military officials and at least the specially selected talents from western Beijing and Lianghuai were watching with curiosity. He had to give some dignity to the innocent Prime Minister Lu and the Song Dynasty, which already had little face!
To put it bluntly, it is difficult to popularize science at this time.
With this thought in mind, Emperor Zhao could only ask Feng Yi to move the chair he had sent back, and then ask everyone except Uncle Wang and Mr. Wang to move away.
The sun was slightly setting in the west, but Emperor Zhao had already guessed this man's method by following his steps - burn cinnabar to produce mercury, and then use some sleight of hand to secretly put objects containing gold ore or even ready-made gold foil into it, dissolve the gold with mercury, and finally use distillation to evaporate the mercury, and gold will naturally come out.
The counterintuitive thing here is that these days it is difficult for almost everyone to understand how gold, which represents the greatest stability, can be dissolved by mercury, a liquid that can be directly evaporated... and in the traditional Eastern feudal era, apart from alchemists pursuing immortality, let alone coming into contact with liquid mercury and gold at the same time, even mercury itself was generally only produced mysteriously by these people, and then commonly used for mysterious purposes such as burials.
In fact, seeing this Hermit Wang pouring clean mercury into a clean white porcelain basin, and then putting it into a special pottery with a strange tube to distill it, and finally taking out the mercury and gold, the men were all shaken! As for Feng Yi and Yang Yizhong, no matter how clever, smart, and sophisticated they were on weekdays, they were also overwhelmed by such things... These eunuchs and military generals were in a trance, and their eyes could not leave the gold and utensils.
At the same time, Zhao Guanjia felt that he had encountered the most insulting thing in his life. When he just went to college, he was asked to pay ten yuan by an aunt with a child at the train station. This was ridiculous... But for the sake of the overall situation, he couldn't expose it!
Because Mr. Wang was just in the process of smelting, the emperor had already discussed the matter through Lu Haowen and Xu Jingheng, the prime minister who secretly passed the note, and decided on the final outcome of the matter.
"Come here, give Mr. Wang ten pieces of silk and ten stones of grain as a reward. Also give him these objects, together with the gold and this... what?" Emperor Zhao forced himself to swallow the word mercury, but pointed at the bottle of liquid and looked at Wang Shuzhan.
"Spiritual liquid." Wang Taichang, who was more knowledgeable, quickly gave the emperor some scientific knowledge.
"Oh, spiritual fluid." Zhao Jiu suddenly realized, but finally said the word again in a stern voice. "All these utensils, gold, and spiritual fluid, sink them all into the White River with me! I would rather perish my country than use such fake things to deceive the world!"
The people around were unable to react in time.
Xu Jingheng, on the other hand, stepped out immediately and said solemnly, "Your Majesty's move is truly a magnanimous one!"
"Mr. Xu." The Minister of the Ministry of Rites was terrified and puzzled for a moment. It seemed that it was not fake. "This is real gold!"
"Who is the gold for?" Xu Jingheng turned his head and said coldly. "Is it used to pay the army or to reward the ministers? I don't know whether this gold is real or fake, but no matter whether it is real or fake, as long as the emperor accepts these objects today, will people in the world still trust the gold given by the emperor in the future?"
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