Mein erster Ehemann nach der Transmigration

Kapitel 52

"So you let He Sucheng steal it?!" Sucheng said through gritted teeth, "Do you know that Granny Sun has memorized all these things? If I ever have a hard time in the future, she'll nag me every day, and you'll see if I don't drag you down with me!"

He Su Shi, looking as if he understood my sentiments, said, "So, you also know the immense destructive power of nagging on a normal personality..."

Chapter Sixteen, Imitation

The "Propaganda Officer" function is now open! What are you waiting for? Join now!!! Su Shi sat for a while and then hurriedly left, saying he had important business to attend to. The entire household was in chaos. The old physician's wife of the Wu family was furious to hear that her granddaughter had been injured by villains shortly after arriving in the capital and hadn't been able to visit her these past few days.

Although she was just a woman, Physician Wu had saved countless lives, including many soldiers. She often had close relationships with the wives of officers, so she secretly told a few old women she knew about it, without her husband's knowledge. She then asked for some strong and capable soldiers to be stationed at the He residence.

Although He Qufei had passed away, as a powerful minister of two dynasties, he had left behind countless intricate connections. He Zian, while not particularly capable, was not so intimidating as to inspire fear. He managed a portion of the power that Tang's mother had delegated, and most of that power happened to be located in the capital. Although he was currently in Zhejiang, he was the first to learn of this matter through an urgent dispatch, which he viewed as a provocation.

My brother's residence was broken into, my niece was injured by the villains, my nephew was injured while capturing the villains, my brother's residence was partially burned down, the home of the Privy Councilor who was on my side was also burned down, the stables of the prince who was neutral were burned down, only three of his beloved horses were rescued, another minister who was also neutral but recently leaned towards the Crown Prince's faction had most of his home burned down, and five servants died.

Although they were just servants and not worth much, who knows what they might do next.

The Emperor has been exceptionally gentle lately, preoccupied with the newborn prince. Liu Jinshan, having been transferred to the border and thrown the frontier into chaos, finally managed to impeach him, but the Emperor's actions were more bark than bite, merely imposing a six-month salary penalty. Power has been shifting in the capital recently, with many senior officials replaced by the Emperor, some from his own faction, others from the Emperor's brother-in-law's faction. No one dares to guess the Emperor's true intentions. Or perhaps, everyone dares to guess, but privately, they can't fathom his intentions.

Prince Cheng's beloved daughter, Zhenzhu Ji, has been kidnapped and her whereabouts remain unknown. It seems that the whereabouts of Duke Xiangmin's son have been found, but he has been hidden away. He pondered this in secret and discussed it with his advisors. They all felt that if they did not make a gesture or action at this time, some of their own people would inevitably be frightened. If this continued for several months, their morale would eventually be low and they would suffer great losses.

So he mobilized his troops, sending capable people from the capital and selecting about a hundred soldiers to guard the He residence. They ran into the group led by Physician Wu. The two groups worked together and surrounded the He residence like an iron barrel.

Even Su Chen, who spends most of his time recuperating in his room, rarely goes out. He only strolled around the garden twice, but he still encountered several patrol teams.

The poor He Ziyuan and his wife left the mansion overnight to run errands, and when they returned home on the third day, the house was no longer the one they recognized.

The garrison soldiers on leave in Kyoto changed into their uniforms and became thirty well-trained guards standing in neat rows at the gate; the border guards, fresh from their shift change in Tibet, still had the flush of the high altitude on their cheeks, patrolling the mansion every half hour; the retired coroners and constables, dressed in their uniforms, became servants cleaning the courtyard, searching everywhere for any possible clues; and the new recruits, still damp from disaster relief efforts thousands of miles away, were sent here because the garrison commander thought it would be good training, and they were stationed at the entrances to the various rooms and courtyards.

When He Ziyuan returned, he was nearly given another heart attack from the shock. A model scholar, He Ziyuan was known for his approachable and gentle demeanor. How could he possibly accept that his home had been turned into a military camp…?

Despite his repeated attempts to dissuade them, no one backed down. Finally, Emperor Huizong issued an edict, assigning one hundred cavalrymen to guard the He residence, which finally suppressed the matter.

What a farce!

This farce was nothing more than the Crown Prince's faction displaying their power, letting people know that they were still untouchable for the time being, and warning them not to be so arrogant. However, the effect seemed to be quite good.

The cavalry guarding the residence of a high-ranking official was a rare occurrence throughout history. No matter how high He Ziyuan's status and prestige, this incident brought renewed attention to his extreme favor with the emperor. Although he didn't take sides, his brother was, after all, part of the Crown Prince's faction. This subtly enhanced He Zian's already elevated position.

However, this didn't affect Su Chen much. She obediently stayed in her room reciting poems and lyrics, repeatedly reading the dry "Admonitions, Precepts, and Virtues for Women." Because of her injured hand, this could now be considered lucky; she didn't have to practice the zither, calligraphy, painting, or needlework. Madam Wu was too busy to visit her for several days in a row and was often not in the mansion. He Su Shi also rarely came to see her; the entrance exam was still far off, and no one knew what he was doing.

She painstakingly studied the poems and lyrics, and also had to find time to look up maps. The names for the same place in ancient and modern times are very different, and there are many more completely different ones. Most of the famous tea-producing areas she remembered were unknown at this time. If she really wanted to find them all, who could do it without ten or eight years and hundreds of people?

Just as he finished his midday nap and was about to painfully while away the afternoon with a book of Bai Juyi's poems, He Su Shi rushed over. He held a stack of papers in his hand and said, "Take a look and see if there are any problems."

"

Su Chen put down the poetry collection in his hand and took it with his left hand. It was a stack of simple lines drawn with a carbon pen, probably a simple sketch. The first page had three shapes drawn on it: one looked like a bundle, one looked like a broom, and the other looked like the long thing that uncles and aunts used to carry to stick candied hawthorns, with straw at the top and a wooden stick at the bottom.

"What is this?!" Su Chen was completely baffled.

"Fire extinguisher!" He Su said firmly.

“I knew you wouldn’t understand.” He pointed to the paper with great interest and explained, “See this?”

"burden?"

"No, they are water bladders and water bags. This long, broom-like thing is a hemp sack, and the last one is a pump."

"I don't understand at all..." Su Chen directly admitted that his scientific literacy was very low.

“It’s normal not to understand. These are all modern technical terms, and I don’t understand them very well either.” He Sushi shrugged. “But you just need to know that it’s a fire extinguisher. I’ll explain the principle and structure to you, and you can see if there’s anything wrong with it.”

"This fire extinguisher is made of long bamboo with a slit at the bottom. A cloth is used to wrap the nozzle, creating a cylindrical water pump that dispenses water from the slit. The cloth must be tightly wrapped around the nozzle, acting as a piston. If we pull the nozzle back and forth by hand, it immediately creates positive and negative pressure within a sealed container, roughly at 200,000 atmospheres." He said uncertainly, "I'm not entirely sure; my calculation is rudimentary, but the pressure will definitely draw water in and out of the bamboo tube through the slit..."

"Stop!" Su Chen shouted, his head aching. "I've never scored above 58 in physics since I started high school. I only managed to get 10 points on the graduation exam by luck. Telling me this is like casting pearls before swine!"

He Sushi said helplessly, "But now, besides me, you're the only one who knows about this. If we don't want endless experiments, we can only improve the design. Can you take a look and see if there are any problems?"

“I don’t know how to do this unless you bring out a prototype.” Su Chen thought for a moment and said, “I was in the school’s fire performance team during my military training, so I have a feel for this. You can make a finished product and let me try it out.”

"You used to use carbon dioxide fire extinguishers, right?" He Su Shihu asked. "What does that have to do with this?"

Su Chen ignored his words and asked, "Why use cloth to wrap the water pole?" Of all the materials inside, besides embroidery, she only recognized cloth.

“Cloth absorbs water and is relatively inexpensive,” He Sushi replied.

"Then why not use cotton wadding? Cotton wadding is more absorbent and cheaper, right?" she thought for a moment and said.

He Su Shi paused for a moment, thought for two minutes, then pulled out a ballpoint pen from his pocket and quickly crossed out the section on fabric in the materials, changing it to cotton wadding. He then asked, "Anything else?"

"This is all we have for now." Like a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse, how many times do you expect it to stumble upon us?

She flipped to another picture, which showed a large cart with ladders, water pipes, and other items on it. Su Chen was stunned again, and couldn't help but ask, "What's this?"

He Su said with a smile, "What I modified should originally be called a cloud ladder, but it can still be called a cloud ladder now. It was originally used for attacking cities during battles, but I modified it to put out fires."

He spoke at length: “I have visited and investigated various places in the capital. There are fires almost every month in the capital, some big and some small. A major fire seven years ago burned down an entire street. It was only after that that Emperor Huizong of Song established fire-fighting teams to put out fires. Fire-fighting societies also sprang up in every street and alley. The tools for putting out fires have been improved many times, but they are still very rudimentary. If my experiment is successful, not to mention anything else, it can at least reduce the losses in the capital by more than half. This is indeed a very meaningful thing.”

He pointed to the picture and said, "The lower part of this ladder is a cart, and the upper part holds a foldable ladder. Inside the cart, you can carry fire-fighting tools such as forks, fire hooks, flint and steel, willow tinder, and iron anchors. There's also vinegar liquid to cover your nose. When the fire gets too big, you can pull this cart over and pour water down from top to bottom. See this? This is a pipe. Inside, you pull bellows manually, and the bellows also pump water in. You can also use this ladder to pour sand and other materials on top, which is perfect for extinguishing fires." Seeing that Su Chen's head was full of mush, he wanted to explain in more detail later.

Su Chen put down the paper, slowly looked at it for a long time, studied it for a while, and then said, "Are you sure you can succeed?"

"We should give it a try, right? But the success rate is very high," He Su said confidently.

"If it succeeds, how will you promote it?" Su Chen said slowly. "Have you forgotten Emperor Huizong of Song? This thing is completely similar to a fire extinguisher. If you want to promote it in the capital, you have to go through Emperor Huizong. As long as he sees it, he can immediately tell how many modern elements are in it. If I can see it, how can you hide it from him?"

She looked up at He Su Shi seriously: "Are you really going to take this risk?"

(The following rambling is not counted in the word count)