After the playback ended, the light screen that had gone dark slowly brightened once more.
Sensing Empress Zhangsun tension, Li Shimin chuckled softly and gave the Empress's wrist a reassuring squeeze.
"It will be fine."
This time, Li Shimin had suddenly decided to summon the Empress to watch together for two reasons. First, nearly all the generals were campaigning westward against Tuyuhun, leaving Ganlu Hall unusually empty. Second, the item being shown to later generations this time had been presented by the Empress herself, so it felt only right that she be present to see how it was received.
Although the previous incident, when His Majesty had angered her into fainting, had already let Empress Zhangsun watch half a session, she still could not help feeling nervous now.
She focused her gaze, only to see that the small object she had been idly turning over in her palm yesterday had now transformed into a vivid, lifelike image on the glowing screen.
[Hello, hello. This illiterate uploader bows early to all the honored viewers here.
The closer it gets to year's end, the busier things become, but even so, the big shots' donations never miss a beat. This definitely deserves a heart gesture.
The calligraphy piece is excellent. Both the content and the signature are interesting. At this rate, in another two months the uploader could probably host a Three Kingdoms celebrity calligraphy exhibition. It would almost certainly get shut down as fake, though.
As for the other item, it is very obviously modeled after a Tang dynasty national treasure. If this were in the Tang, I would say it was divine craftsmanship. In modern times, though, I can only say one thing. Long live 3D printing.]
Li Shimin leaned forward, eyes fixed, and immediately spotted the striking calligraphy scroll.
Four bold characters were written across it: "Mighty Grace Spreads Far"
The signature below was exactly what he expected.
"Lu Su of Dongcheng, Linhuai. Spring of the eighteenth year of Jian'an."
Beside it was a small private seal.
Seeing that the signature listed no official post, Li Shimin let out a quiet sigh.
"So it truly is Lu Su."
Based on what the Marquis of Wu had said and the items sent to later generations, Li Shimin could roughly infer that the course of history in this world differed greatly from what the Records of the Three Kingdoms described. Even so, every time he saw such an object with his own eyes, the sensation remained dreamlike.
Yet the untouchable but ever-present light screen before him reminded him again and again that what he saw and heard was real.
Because of this, Li Shimin grew increasingly curious about what the Marquis of Wu must have experienced upon first seeing the light screen.
As for the other item, receiving even a single "divine craftsmanship" from later generations already left him more than satisfied.
[Good heavens. Lu Su personally inscribing "Mighty Grace Spreads Far", Big shot really knows how to have fun.
True enough. Last episode we just mentioned that the horizontal plaque on Lu Su's tomb bears these exact four characters. Did not expect this to show up immediately.
And you know what, the more you look, the more you see it. This handwriting is completely different from earlier Zhuge Kongming pieces. The effort shows. High marks for the performance.
Paper, though, minus points. This is clearly xuan paper, and the earliest it shows up is the Tang, around Li Zhi's time. Lu Su definitely never saw this stuff. Then again, he also never saw his own tomb, so fair is fair.
Honestly, if xuan paper had existed in the Han dynasty, we would probably have a lot more national treasures today. Compared to hemp paper, this stuff lasts forever.
That is just wishful thinking. Making xuan paper is a pain. By the Ming, the process was fully developed. Alkaline steaming, then alum coating to turn raw paper into finished paper. If you really time-travel, trust me, just go make soap. Way more profitable.
Anyway, I have gone off-topic again. So what is this so-called divine craftsmanship?
Official museum name is the Grape and Floral Silver Incense Ball. This thing is legitimately Tang dynasty black technology. The gimbal structure inside would not appear in the West for another thousand years.
The whole thing is only four and a half centimeters across, yet Tang craftsmen managed to build a two-layer, dual-axis concentric ring mechanism inside. Riveted connections allow it to roll freely while keeping the incense upright. Calling this divine craftsmanship is absolutely fair.
Correction. According to Records of the Western Capital, similar devices already existed in Emperor Wu of Han's time, though much larger. They were used as bedding incense burners.
This thing is complicated to explain. It looks amazing, but its applications seem limited. That said, once this rotating base structure made its way west, it gave rise to two major inventions.
First, in the seventeenth century, Hooke created the universal joint, allowing shafts to rotate in any direction. This became foundational for modern vehicles.
Second, in the nineteenth century, Foucault combined the gimbal with the gyroscope, inventing the gyro. From navigation to aviation to spaceflight, gyroscopes are everywhere today.
I do not understand all that. I just want to ask one thing. Is this expensive?
Hard to say exactly how expensive. But if the one in my hands is real, then let us just say prison time is very much on the table. Conservatively speaking, I would never have to worry about food or drink for the rest of my life.]
Du Ruhui and Fang Xuanling's eyes shone as they wrote furiously, brushes flying.
Yan Lide, for the first time, felt that the Directorate of Works might need to be split in two. Otherwise, there was simply no way to handle all that needed to be done.
Yan Liben, however, paid little attention to the incense ball. His gaze lingered on the xuan paper, and for the first time, a powerful yearning stirred within him.
A work that could endure for a thousand years.
Could he perhaps petition His Majesty for some?
But recalling how His Majesty had last time casually taken away his "Laughing to the Point of Stomach Pain" painting, Yan Liben immediately hesitated.
Li Shimin observed all of this calmly. Although much of the latter explanation flew over his head, he still extracted a simple and brutal conclusion.
Infinite uses.
If not for the ministers filling Ganlu Hall, Li Shimin would have liked nothing more than to scoop Guanyinbi up and spin around three times in sheer excitement.
So what if this object had existed in the Han?
In the end, it was his Empress who had recognized its brilliance. Only today did the world learn that this was an artifact to benefit a hundred generations.
…
Zhuge Kongming, for once, voiced a complaint after watching the light screen.
"With such marvelous uses, why not show a diagram as well?"
In truth, this was little more than venting. The existence of the light screen itself was already a blessing. To learn even a fragment of the function of an object resembling the bedding incense burner was fortune piled upon fortune.
Still, the feeling was like peering through a door crack at a mountain of treasure. Knowing its value yet lacking the key was enough to make one claw at their heart.
Carefully and meticulously copying down the later generations' casual remarks, Zhuge Kongming finally sighed. The balancing ring felt all too similar to his own situation.
Invented nearly a thousand years early, yet the door remained unopened. Understanding what it did, but not why. Only for others to later forge the key and walk straight into the treasure mountain.
"Could it all depend on axiomatic thinking?"
His thoughts immediately turned to later discussions of Elements. Compared to these feats of engineering, foundational scientific classics now seemed even more important.
Yet the realm was still not fully pacified. If he wished to seek out Elements, to build ships and send envoys westward to retrieve such texts, it would require immense time and effort.
While Zhuge Kongming's thoughts churned, Pang Tong gently tugged at his beard, eyes gleaming with interest.
"Alkali and oil make soap?"
"This is easy."
Having resolved to catch up with Kongming, Pang Tong had visited nearly every workshop in Chengdu. Some were complex, such as papermaking and metallurgy, but others were as simple as alkali production.
Now free from the constant demands of frontier warfare, Pang Tong found himself eager to try his hand at creating this later-generation substance.
He, Pang Tong, would also devote himself to engineering.