The first legitimate son of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 129 Your Majesty, I want to buy a watch
The work schedule of officials in the Tang Dynasty was as follows: Get up at around three o'clock, servants help wash and dress, and then ride horses to the palace gate to gather and wait to go to court.

As the sky dimmed, the ministers were already standing in the court hall, discussing military and state affairs.As for the time of going to court, every emperor is different.

Li Shimin is a workaholic, and the morning meeting basically lasts until noon.He didn't think there was anything wrong because he was close to his workplace and had time to have breakfast, but the ministers could only attend the meeting hungry.

In the main hall, the stomachs of the ministers were growling, and the sounds kept coming and going.

Employees go to work hungry, and the boss is embarrassed.

Therefore, Li Shimin asked the relevant departments to prepare food (which can be understood as lunch boxes) and place it in the corridor outside the hall.After going to court, courtiers can enjoy a working meal, also called "corridor meal."

The standards of working meals vary according to seasons and official ranks.Officials and Yuanwailang above the fifth rank can eat mutton, the standard is three sheep.If there is a festival, the court will kill an extra sheep to show an extra meal.

In winter it is soup cakes, yellow rice with mutton, in summer it is cold porridge with mutton.

If you are used to eating big fish and big meat, you may think that the emperor of the Tang Dynasty was very stingy, because this kind of work meal is not even as good as your company's canteen.

But you have to know that all these foods were paid for by Li Shimin out of his own pocket and did not go to the budget of the Ministry of Household Affairs.Moreover, being able to eat the food given by Li Shimin, the sense of ritual is far more important than physiological needs.

The emperor's working meals are not that delicious because they require etiquette.

For example, you are walking around with a dinner plate and want to chat with a certain official, or a few people get together to chat and laugh.For example, you are obviously a doctor of the Ministry of War, but you went to the table of the Minister of the Ministry of War.

At this time, the censor will talk to you.If you don't even criticize, the final result will be a deduction of one month's salary.

"Hey, today's food is good." Cheng Yaojin shook his big head and walked to Yu Chigong's side and sat down together with a smile.

"Yes, what happened today? Our Emperor found money. Here comes the fish meat. Not bad, not bad." Yuchi Gong opened his mouth and nodded with a smile.

Yubao is sashimi. People in the Tang Dynasty ate very high-end sashimi. They took the most tender part of the fish, which is boneless, and cut it into thin slices. The thinner the better, and added seasonings. In some places, radish was added. Vegetables such as shredded silk should not only taste good, but also pay attention to appearance and should be arranged beautifully.

In addition to the royal nobles who like this dish, ordinary residents also like to eat sashimi. In ancient times, meat was a relatively precious thing, and fish was more common. Most people would catch fish and pass it on as sashimi. When it came to the public, it quickly conquered everyone's taste buds. After all, in ancient times, the cooking method was simple, usually steaming, and sashimi could give people a novel experience.

The island country learned from the Tang Dynasty. However, you can’t eat this sashimi like crazy. After all, it is raw. If you eat too much of this stuff, it is really dangerous. A prefect in the Eastern Han Dynasty, named Chen Deng, loved raw fish very much. Fish fillets can be said to be my favorite food.

Suddenly one day, he felt chest tightness and no appetite, so he asked the miracle doctor Hua Tuo to see a doctor. As a result, Hua Tuo found that Chen Deng's stomach was full of worms. After taking the medicine, he vomited a lot of live worms on the spot, which made the miracle doctor scared. His scalp felt numb, and Chen Deng himself was very scared. Unfortunately, the delicious food overcame his fear. Later, Chen Deng started eating sashimi again, but this time he was not so lucky. It happened that Hua Tuo went out and could not make it back. Chen Deng also paid the price with his life for his greed.

The appearance of this sashimi not only surprised Cheng Yaojin and Yu Chigong, but also Fang Xuanling, Changsun Wuji, Yu Shinan, Kong Yingda and others, because Li Shimin is a very frugal person, he eats by himself What they eat, they eat vegetarian dishes for supper, so Li Shimin's porch food, which ordinary ministers eat, is really vegetarian.

But today it’s actually mutton, fish dumplings, especially fish dumplings, or sea fish. Forget it if it’s river fish, sea fish is very expensive. Li Shimin is bleeding this time, and why is Li Shimin bleeding today? Hehe. Everyone is surprised. At that time, Li Shimin suddenly appeared here.

"My dear friends, you are all having your meal!" Accompanied by Huang Bao, Li Shimin walked here with a smile.

Seeing Li Shimin's arrival, everyone stood up and saluted. Li Shimin pushed up his sleeves fiercely, revealing the watch on his wrist and said with a smile: "Get up, everyone. No need to be too polite." He gave a little help, Li Shimin raised his wrist and said, "Oh, it's already a quarter past noon. I've wasted everyone's time again this time."

When Li Shimin looked at his watch, Cheng Yaojin immediately noticed the watch on Li Shimin's wrist. He quickly asked curiously: "Your Majesty, what is that on your wrist? It's so beautiful."

"Oh!" Li Shimin chuckled: "Zhijie also wants to know what the object on my wrist is. Then I tell Zhijie that this is a watch." As he said this, Li Shimin revealed his face to the ministers present. .

He followed and said with a smile: "It is used to control time. For example, it is almost two quarters noon now. This watch is much easier to use than the oval hour watch, and it can be accurate to the second."

Ah. Haha, you may not know the concept of seconds, but what I want to say is that the watch can check the time all the time, so that we can feel the passage of time better and better grasp the time. "

"Master time!" Fang Xuanling sighed: "That's really amazing. If we can clearly control time, then we can divide the time, so that we can greatly improve work efficiency."

Fang Xuanling is a really smart person. He saw the true meaning of the watch at a glance. Don’t think that the watch is just a decoration. It is the main line of the development of mechanical mechanics in human history.

In human history, no matter what kind of mechanical device is complex or simple!Windmills, barrel wheels, compass wheels, turning wheels, drum wheels, and water mills cannot carry all the mechanics, only clocks can.

Clocks gave humans a deep understanding of gears.

It laid the early foundation for the Industrial Revolution. Without clocks, there would be no Jenny spinning machine. Without clocks, there would be no modern industrial machine. The steam engine is just the engine that starts the industrial machine, but the mechanical technology developed by clocks is its body.

Without clocks and watches, the ancients' concept of time was a continuous "flow", and it was difficult to have the concept of dividing time. Later, with clocks and watches, everyone can divide time by hours or even minutes, and intellectual labor can also be greatly improved. .

Of course, although Fang Xuanling saw it immediately, Li Shimin's other ministers did not. They only saw the exquisiteness of the watch and the sound of the time.

Yuchi Gong quickly approached Li Shimin and said, "Your Majesty, is this watch so magical that it can control the time? Can you also tell me how you control the time?"

Li Shimin came here to show off his watch, and of course he told him how to read the watch without hesitation. The ministers were so fascinated by Li Shimin that they didn't even have the heart to eat. They were all interested in watches. Qi has a heart of ownership.

Then I heard Cheng Yaojin shout: "Your Majesty, where can I buy this watch? If I want to buy one, I can pay any amount!"

"Yes, I want it too, old minister." Yu Chigong shouted anxiously.

At this time, Fang Xuanling also hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, the watch is of great significance to me and other civil servants. With a watch, we can divide the time, so that we can handle official business more quickly.

So I suggested, could you give me and other civil servants a piece of it? "

"One person is best." Changsun Wuji, Yu Shinan, Wei Zheng and others nodded one after another, but Li Shimin looked at his ministers with absurd eyes and smiled faintly: "One person?
The only watches I know are ten pieces for me, one for the Queen, one for the King of Jin, one for the Princess of Jinyang, and there are six pieces left. It is impossible to have one for each person. "

"Where are your Majesty's remaining six yuan?" Cheng Yaojin asked anxiously with his big eyes widened.

(End of this chapter)