Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

Everyone looked up and saw that the sky that was originally full of clouds was suddenly rising with the strong wind. At this time, the clouds were torn out huge gaps.

A dazzling light projected through the gloomy clouds.

It happened to be projected on the statue of the immortal on the large altar.

The statue looked majestic and solemn, as if a true god had come to earth.

"The master's rain-praying technique is truly extraordinary!"

Everyone was shocked when they saw this strange scene.

Even the common people showed admiration in their eyes.

They had never thought that the National Master's rain-praying spell was as simple as his words. After releasing six magic weapons, he could summon such a scene. It was so spectacular and beautiful.

These onlookers have no concept of science and hot air balloons in their cognition, so they can only attribute all this to the "magic weapon" and "magic power" of the national master.

And their criteria for judging whether a national master is powerful or not is very simple. If the "magic weapon" can fly, it is quite powerful.

As for what this "magic weapon" is for, no one cares or cares. Most people just watch the excitement and do whatever they should do when they go home.

The expressions of Mei Consort and Jing Qing, who were tied together and thrown to the ground, suddenly changed.

They don't know the function of the hot air balloon. Although they don't think it is a "magic weapon" like some of the more superstitious people, at the moment, whether it is an accidental collision or this strange thing really works, Obviously this is not a good thing because once the wind picks up, it means there is a possibility of rain.

And once it rains, it means their bet is lost!

"What is this thing for? Why are living people placed on it?" Mei Yin asked.

But the remaining clarity in Jing Qing's eyes had long since dissipated. His eyes were full of madness and he was mumbling words.

"Impossible! Impossible! They can't succeed! God's law is clear! God's law is clear!"

But laymen see the excitement, and experts see the door.

Just as the onlookers were cheering, Zhuo Jing, who was on the mound on the other side of the altar, frowned as he looked at the various monitoring instruments in the Qintian Prison in front of him.

As Zhuo Jing was the supporter of the reform who knew the most about astronomy, it was natural that he should communicate with Qin Tian Jian on matters related to astronomical phenomena.

But in fact, the matter at hand is very basic common sense. If the weather is windy, it does not mean there will be rain. You cannot bet on the probability of such a big event.

Since clouds have condensation nuclei, if you want to form clouds and cause rain, the clouds should be more stable. But now, the wind and clouds are suddenly changing, and the clouds have begun to change violently, which will undoubtedly make praying for rain more difficult.

Zhuo Jing silently thought that since the wind was so strong, he might as well let the hot air balloon come back first. If it rained after the wind started, then the hot air balloon would naturally not have to go up. When the hot air balloon goes up, it will still be better than going up against the wind now.

Zhuo Jing informed the officials at Qintian Prison behind him of his thoughts and asked them to inform Jiang Xinghuo.

Jiang Xinghuo stood quietly under the statue, watching the six hot air balloons rising into the sky with difficulty against the sudden strong wind.

Several officials from Qintian Prison hurried over and shouted hoarsely against the wind.

"National Master, please stop!"

Song Li behind him frowned and shouted: "Didn't you say there is no wind today?"

The officials of Qin Tian Jian all looked troubled. The date for praying for rain was set by them. After calculation, there should be no wind today. However, the weather was unpredictable, and a strong wind happened at this time.

The fierce wind blew his green shirt, but Jiang Xinghuo remained motionless as if he were another statue.

Jiang Xinghuo quietly felt the changes in wind direction and force, and finally made a judgment.

"The plan remains unchanged."

This is what I mean when I succeed and when I fail. Since the Imperial Master bears the overall responsibility, everyone at the altar can only pray silently, hoping that if God really exists, he can hear them. The request in my heart will be given a little favor.

Further away, the top of Fengshan Mountain is where the pagoda forest of Datianjie Temple is located.

Zhu Di and Yao Guangxiao's expressions looked a little solemn at the same time.

Unlike the uninformed onlookers, they knew very well that the hot air balloons used to carry people to spread silver iodide in the clouds were not suitable for operation in strong wind conditions.

——————

At this time, as the hot air balloon slowly took off, strong winds were blowing around it, and with the flying sand, the whole world seemed to become dark instantly. Only the heating device of the hot air balloon still shone brightly, like It was as dazzling as the stars in the dark night, illuminating the area several feet around the hot air balloon.

At the same time, as the wind increased, more dust floated in the air, obscuring the view and making the test pilots' control of the hot air balloon more unstable.

“Boom—!”

It seemed that something made a loud noise, and the sound came from the air.

Huo Fei felt that he could hardly stand, but his heart became more and more desperate. In the current state, if the hot air balloon suddenly lost control and crashed, and if the parachute was unreliable, he would probably die without leaving anything behind.

"Hula-!"

Another gust of wind hit, making the person unable to open his eyes and even feeling dizzy. At this moment, a strong wind suddenly pushed the hot air balloon forward from the opposite direction.

The speed of the hot air balloon suddenly increased a lot.

A few dozen feet away, another hot air balloon test pilot next to Huo Fei was also frightened and did not dare to move for fear of falling and being turned into a pulp.

——————

The wind got stronger and stronger, and the whole sky was covered by dark clouds.

Everyone had to cover all the sacrificial things to prevent the wind from blowing over the sacrifices they had worked so hard to prepare.

"Huh?"

The official who was covering the sacrifice with a cloth suddenly noticed that the cloth seemed to be shaking less frequently.

"The wind has calmed down! Prince Consort Mei, the wind has calmed down!"

Jingqing struggled to twist his body that was tied up by Wuhuada. At this time, Jingqing's eyes were filled with madness.

"There is no rain in the clouds! It's done! It's done! Hahahaha!"

Li Zhigang, who had just returned to the tent and took off his complicated sacrificial attire, walked out of the tent and happened to see this scene.

I heard before that the Imperial Master went to prison to see Jing Qing. Jing Qing seemed to have a hint of regret for the pain his desperate behavior had caused to his family. But now it seems that Jing Qing, who is deeply influenced by Neo-Confucianism, is still Keep your head down and rush forward along that dead end road.

But even if Jingqing is not like this, there is no way to survive after all.

Everyone knows that Jing Qing is only alive now to witness the outcome of his blood oath.

Li Zhigang sighed inaudibly.

Mei Yin's expression was not as excited as Jing Qing's.

For Mei Yin, his heart had already died when he heard the news of the defeat of the Southern Army in the decisive battle of Lingbi.

Whether it was his subsequent confinement in the isolated city, his instigation of students to disrupt the political reform in prison, or his curse on Zhu Di, they were all just his final stubbornness.

However, at this time, I saw that the wind was gradually decreasing, and it seemed that it was just a strong wind passing by.

After the clouds in the sky rolled over, they gathered again, but there was no sign of rain.

After a while, the wind completely dissipated.

Mei Yin's mouth still showed a smile involuntarily.

"Zhu Di, you can't beat me in this bet. If it doesn't rain, what will happen to those strange things even if they fly into the sky? Are they human sacrifices? It's ridiculous!"

Jing Qing's crazy laughter came from behind. On the altar, Jiang Xinghuo still looked up at the sky.

The wind has calmed down, which is a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that the hot air balloon can fly into the clouds smoothly to spread silver iodide. The bad thing is that we can't count on God to rain. But in the end, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Regarding Jing Qing, although Jiang Xinghuo felt that he was a little too stubborn to use his wealth and life to obstruct the reform, his conduct was impeccable in the eyes of people of this era. For this kind of moral values ​​that could not be reversed in a short time, Jiang Xinghuo was not interested in competing.

In other words, although Jing Qing had almost unreasonable resentment towards Jiang Xinghuo, Jiang Xinghuo had never regarded Jing Qing as an opponent.

Jiang Xinghuo's opponent was Cheng Zhu Lixue, one of the countless Jiangnan gentry who opposed the reform.

The lift-off of the hot-air balloon actually represents some kind of lashing against Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.

"Celestial induction? Ha."

Jiang Xinghuo shook his head and said, "Bring me a pen and paper."

Behind him, Song Li was startled, and immediately found paper and pen for Jiang Xinghuo.

Jiang Xinghuo simply stopped looking at the hot air balloons in the sky and just stared at the table where the sacrifices were placed, swiping ink.

He had never thought about what article to publish in Di Bao before.

Now, he has thought about it.

Song Li looked over Jiang Xinghuo's shoulder and saw the large characters that were still wet on the paper.

"The empirical role of physics, chemistry and other natural sciences in helping people transform natural processes, taking artificial rainfall with hot air balloons and silver iodide as an example"

The hot air balloon is flying higher and higher. At this time, many people around the altar have not realized the concept of carrying people to the sky. They only think that this is the national master who really has the power to put people in the magic weapon and go to the sky. .

"I underestimated the Imperial Master before. He is such a great man, and he can actually send people to heaven."

"I heard that the Imperial Master developed magical powers at a young age, and now he even uses this magic to pray for rain. This is really a blessing for the country."

"The Imperial Master is indeed worthy of his name. I will definitely have a good relationship with the Imperial Master in the future."

Some of the officials and nobles who were watching the ceremony had already begun to sing praises to the Imperial Master. After all, no one could accomplish such a grand gesture even if we read through the annals of history!

Everyone was talking about it, but the man who was called the National Master by everyone was not affected in any way. He stood quietly in the center of the altar and wrote, as if nothing in this world existed at all.

But there were also people with sharp minds who quickly realized the huge role of hot air balloons.

The Duke of Wei, Xu Huizu, stared blankly at the hot air balloon floating in the sky and suddenly said.

"If the Imperial Master uses this thing properly, wouldn't it open his eyes on the battlefield?"

Xu Jingchang was stunned for a moment and asked, "Let someone stand on top and wave flags?"

"right."

"You don't need to fly so high. Just tie a rope below and fly a dozen or dozens of feet. It will be more useful than the tallest watchtower now."

Xu Huizu gave a virtual hammer blow with his fist. If there had been such a thing during the Baigouhe Battle, he could have seen in advance that Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu personally led the Yan army's elite cavalry to make a detour, and the 600,000-strong army would not have been defeated overnight.

But now that Zhu Di has become the emperor, he would never dare to talk about his thoughts with others, so he can only bury them in his heart.

Mei Yin, Jing Qing and others can ignore their wealth and life, but Xu Huizu still has a huge Wei Guogong government on his shoulders, saying that whether he is just a faggot or endures humiliation and lives an ignoble life, he must try his best to preserve it.

Xu Miaojin listened to the conversation between her eldest brother and her nephew, but she had another thought in her mind.

"How wonderful it would be if I could fly up to the sky in person, like the mysterious goddess of the Nine Heavens, and see the world from the air."

——————

The wind gradually decreased, to the point where there was no trace at all, making people doubt that it was just a dream-like illusion just now, and the test pilots in the hot air balloon were finally able to check their own situation.

Huo Fei first checked his hot air balloon. The basket was intact and solid, and there was no problem with the heating device. The flames were roaring under the fire net. As for the silk balloon, it seemed that one place was hit by the gravel blown by the strong wind. It is broken, but this does not affect the normal operation of the balloon.

For things like hot air balloons, let alone a small hole in the balloon, just a few more. As long as the whole thing is intact, there will be no problem in flying.

Huo Fei felt relieved and turned to look at his companions, only to find that he only saw the other four hot air balloons.

"Where's the other one?"

Huo Fei looked around, but couldn't find anything. When he realized something and stuck his head out of the hanging basket, he found that the earth was already far away under his feet.

The famous places of Nanjing such as the Imperial City, Zhongshan Mountain, Xuanwu Lake, and Shogunate Mountain are just like this from the air.

Regardless of sighing, Huo Fei put his head around and searched carefully, only to find that below, a hot air balloon with two big holes in its balloon was slowly descending.

"It seems to be fine. The loud noise just now was probably caused by it."

These days, test pilots use hot air balloons to fly into the sky more than once or twice. Although they do not fly very high, they understand that the safety of hot air balloons is much better than they imagined.

As long as it can still descend at a normal and constant speed, no one will be killed.

Next, comes the most critical part of this mission.

Looking at the bottle containing silver iodide that was firmly tied to his wrist, Huo Fei took out a small red flag. As the captain, he sent a preset signal to the other test pilots.

The small red flag means that they will fly into the clouds one after another, and then after counting down to ninety-nine, they will sow silver iodide together.

The five hot air balloons, in the eyes of everyone on the ground, have now become five small black dots.

The sea of ​​clouds is surging ahead, and they are about to fly into the clouds and complete a great deed that no one has ever accomplished.

This is also the first time that science has enlightened the world in terms of empirical evidence.