Let's just talk about the weather forecasting work. Bei Peijia has established three observatories in Nanjing Yuhuatai, Suzhou Dongting Dongshan and Chongming Island in the name of Nanjing Qintianjian to forecast the weather for Jinling, Suzhou and Chongming Island.

Divination about whether it would be sunny or rainy was originally part of the business scope of the Imperial Astronomical Observatory. The oracle bone inscriptions from the Shang Dynasty recorded that "if you do divination on the day of Renyin, it will rain on the day of Gui, followed by a storm."

However, if the Imperial Astronomical Observatory relied solely on divination to predict the weather, they would have lost their heads, so they had many "auxiliary means" to predict weather changes by observing the changes in wind and clouds, and summarized a systematic forecasting method.

For example, Lüshi Chunqiu divides clouds into four types: mountain clouds, water clouds, drought clouds, and rain clouds, and makes a simple classification of clouds that indicate different weather conditions. Later generations also summarized a series of weather and meteorological proverbs based on the thickness and color of clouds.

Such as 'When there are grey clouds in the sky, it will rain continuously', this is 'nimbostratus clouds'; 'When there are black pigs crossing the river, it will rain heavily', this is 'large broken rain clouds'; 'When there are fort clouds, it will rain heavily', this is 'castle-shaped altocumulus cloud'; 'When there are carp spots in the sky, there is no need to turn over the grain to dry', this is 'translucent altocumulus cloud'; 'When there are cotton clouds, it will rain soon', this is 'floccose altocumulus cloud'... The observation and research on clouds have been very thorough.

They also use the behavior of animals and the changes of objects to predict the weather, such as "water tanks sweating and toads croaking, it will soon rain heavily."

They also make their own tools to predict whether it will be sunny or rainy, such as stretching a clean cotton thread on a wooden table. If the cotton thread suddenly becomes loose, it means that the humidity has risen sharply, which means that it will be cloudy and rainy today and tomorrow.

For example, Zhang Heng in the Han Dynasty made the world's earliest wind vane, the 'Wind-Watching Bronze Bird' - a 5-meter-high pole was erected in an open space, on which a flexibly rotating bronze bird was mounted, and the wind direction and wind force were predicted based on the direction of the bronze bird's rotation...

Generations of hermaphrodites have accumulated rich experience, and the old hermaphrodites in charge of this project at the foundation have a forecast accuracy rate of up to 70 to 80 percent.

Based on the knowledge learned in "Elementary Physics", Bei Peijia also introduced the concept of using changes in air pressure to predict the weather, and formulated the "Five-Element Prediction Method", which collects data on changes in temperature, wind speed, wind direction, humidity, and air pressure to comprehensively analyze and predict the weather.

As for the collection of these five types of data, the glass mercury thermometer was already produced by the Xishan Island Research Center.

The migratory bronze bird can measure wind speed and direction.

The hygrometer also existed in the Han Dynasty. The "Historical Records" recorded a balance device with soil and charcoal on both ends. When the weather is dry, the charcoal is light, so the balance tilts towards the soil; when the weather is humid, the charcoal becomes heavy, so the balance tilts towards the charcoal... It is exactly the same as the hygrometer invented in the West in the 15th century.

Bei Peijia made some improvements to this method, replacing the charcoal with dry cotton and the soil with weights. In this way, the water vapor content in the air can be measured based on how much water vapor the cotton absorbs.

As for the barometer, the chapter "Air Pressure" in "Elementary Physics" explains the mercury barometer. The principle is very simple. However, there are still several difficulties that the research center has not overcome, such as the problem of preventing mercury vapor leakage. So for the time being, we can only use the small experiment after the main text as a substitute.

It is to cover an empty bowl with a pig bladder, and stick a long straw on the surface of the cover. Then set up a bamboo ruler next to the bowl as a scale. In this way, when the air pressure changes, the cover will expand and contract, and the straw will move slightly. Through the change in the position of the other end of the straw on the scale, you can read whether the air pressure is rising or falling, and by what extent.

Although this method is not accurate, it is a good auxiliary judgment. With a multi-pronged approach, the accuracy of the weather forecast for the next day by the meteorological station is now quite high, and it has quickly gained the reliance of the people in the three places and has become an indispensable and important information in their lives.

Every evening, the weather station would send people to inform the local night watchmen or the monks who would announce the weather forecast for the next day, and they would announce it during the night watch. Therefore, the night watch words in these places changed from the ineffective "the weather is dry, be careful with fire" to a more accurate weather forecast -

Such as 'bang bang bang', "It will rain tomorrow, it's a good time to beat the children..."

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In addition, the Meteorological Observatory will also issue various disaster warnings, the most important of which is the typhoon warning.

Every summer, typhoons would cause great damage to the Jiangnan region. When the storm came, the governor of Yingtian would move from Jinling to Suzhou to command the typhoon prevention. The damage caused by typhoons can be seen. Therefore, the people in Jiangnan called it "hurricane".

After the grain was transported by sea, the harm caused by typhoons became even greater. Although those ships were as big as buildings, they were as fragile as a leaf in the strong winds and waves brought by typhoons. The proposal to transport grain by sea was repeatedly frustrated, and the most important reason was that "the sea was dangerous and the grain ships could easily capsize."

Master Zhao had no choice but to propose that all losses should be borne by the Royal Shipping, which dispelled the court's doubts. But now the fleet has hundreds of ships and thousands of sailors, each trip carries 200,000 dan of grain and 15,000 tons of cargo, and the return trip carries 30,000 tons of cargo - a typhoon will result in a loss of more than 100,000 taels of silver. No matter how rich Master Zhao and the group are, they can't afford it.

So he ordered Bei Peijia to set up six typhoon warning stations in Chengshantou, Weihai, Shandong, Tamra Island, Chongming Island, Zhoushan, Zhejiang, Nanji Island, Wenzhou, and Penghu Island, Quanzhou, Fujian.

People who live near the sea know that the sea will become agitated before a typhoon arrives. The distance between the waves will become longer, the sound will be heavier, and the beat will be slower, but when it approaches the coast, it will release a huge force, causing the water level on the coast to rise sharply, and the waves will be turbulent!

In addition, there will be the sound of conch horns or distant thunder, which are especially clear and loud on quiet nights. When the sound gradually increases, it indicates that the typhoon is gradually approaching. There is also a cave facing the sea in Zhoushan. A few days before the typhoon arrives, there will be loud sea noises. Fishermen take typhoon prevention measures based on this omen and have never made mistakes.

When the early warning station in the south detects a typhoon approaching, it will release carrier pigeons to report the situation. The speed at which carrier pigeons return to their nests is more than three times the speed of the typhoon center, and the news can be delivered to Chongming Island up to two or three days in advance.

When the warning station on Chongming Island receives the alarm from Penghu, it will issue a blue warning to the Jiangnan area, Tamra Island, and Chengshantou Observation Station. Upon receiving this warning, all ships should return to the port immediately to avoid the wind, and those that have not yet set off should cancel their departure. Governments at all levels and companies of all groups should actively prepare for typhoon and flood prevention, and people should strengthen their doors and windows and store food and fresh water.

Typhoons often cause saltwater tides in the south of the Yangtze River, which means that seawater pollutes groundwater, making the well water in the south of the Yangtze River bitter and turbid for several days and undrinkable. Therefore, fresh water should be stored in advance.

Because the early warning station is under the name of Nanjing Imperial Observatory, it can directly notify and remind the government of storms. Of course, it is another matter whether the government will listen or not... Anyone who dares not to listen will be sealed to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean by the Sea Warrior!

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When Chongming Island receives an alert from Wenzhou Nanji Island, it will issue a yellow warning. All outdoor gatherings in the entire Jiangnan region should be stopped. Port facilities should be reinforced to prevent ships from breaking anchor, capsizing or colliding. All companies in the group will suspend work and production, and all employees will be transferred to typhoon prevention, reinforce or dismantle structures that may be blown away, etc.

The government organized civilians to prevent typhoons and floods. Citizens were not allowed to go out at will, and residents of dangerous houses were moved to safe places.

When Chongming Island receives the alert from Zhoushan, it will issue an orange alert. All non-essential outdoor activities in the south of the Yangtze River will be stopped and the area will enter a typhoon prevention state until the alert is lifted.

When the Chongming Island Early Warning Station also observes that a typhoon is approaching, it will issue a red alert. At this time, the situation is extremely urgent, and everyone must put wind safety first and not go out. Wait until the sky falls before the alarm is lifted.

In addition, when receiving the warning from Chongming, Tamra Island should simultaneously issue an alert of the same level. However, when Chongming issues a red alert, Tamra should still issue an orange alert, and it will not turn to red until the warning station on Tamra Island also detects the typhoon.

As for Chengshantou Early Warning Station, in fact, the Bohai Sea area is rarely hit by typhoons. Their main function is to receive typhoon warnings from various early warning stations and convey them to Tianjin. In this way, Tianjin Port can know about the typhoon coming from the south five or six days in advance.

When shipping fleets pass by Chengshantou, they can also know that a typhoon is approaching through the flags, lights and other signals raised by the early warning station, and then stop moving south and take shelter in the nearby Malan Bay until the alarm is lifted.

It takes three days for the fleet to reach Tamluo from Chongming, and three days from Tamluo to Weihaiwei. The current early warning stations are sufficient to help the shipping fleet avoid typhoons.

Since the early warning station was established last year, it has issued warnings for ten typhoons. Although three typhoons turned around and did not reach Jiangnan, they made advance forecasts for all seven typhoons that affected Jiangnan, which bought precious preparation time for the people of Jiangnan and greatly reduced the disasters caused by the typhoons. From the nobles to the common people, everyone praised it and had a deeper understanding of the role of science.

After almost every typhoon, the foundation would receive many new donations...If there were typhoons in the other three seasons, the foundation would be self-sufficient and would not need blood transfusions from Master Zhao.

The Royal Shipping even set a great record of no shipwrecks for two years, which made the court officials exclaim that it was incredible. Of course, those who opposed for the sake of opposition did not believe it. Instead, they fiercely accused Zhao Hao of having ulterior motives, forcibly whitewashing the situation and concealing the record of shipwrecks in order to prove that sea transportation was stronger than canal transportation!

Their reasoning is simple: one-fifth of the grain transport is lost every year, so how could there not be any shipwrecks? So you must have concealed something.

You said you didn't hide anything and even produced evidence to prove that no ship was lost. But they covered their ears and refused to listen, saying that your evidence was also fabricated...

It is useless to reason with such people. Physical persuasion is necessary. It is simpler to just shut their mouths... Unfortunately, these dogs are raised by Lord Gao. Young Master Zhao and the Jiangnan Gang are beating the dogs and bullying their owner, so they can only be scolded first.

"This is a good thing..." Young Master Zhao comforted the indignant Chen Huaixiu and others, saying, "Defamation will make us more united."

p.s. Sorry, I just finished writing. I cover my face with shame and continue writing...