The principle of the steam engine is not complicated, Zhao Zhen even gave this principle to his son as a physics class, when Wang Yuyan saw Zhao Zhen press the lid of the kettle tightly and cover it with layers of paper, and the wooden cork of the spout shot out like a sharp sword and pierced the lantern hanging from the main hall.

This kind of power conversion is amazing for people who don't know about physics, but in the eyes of Zhao Zhen and his sons, this is a sparse and ordinary thing, and it is naturally not strange for Zhao Xu and Zhao Yun to know the principle.

The Great Song Dynasty did not have rubber, and this magical sealing material was still in the distant Amazon River basin of South America, and Zhao Zhen hoped that the ancient and mysterious North American natives could preserve the seeds of the rubber tree, so that the explorers of the Great Song Dynasty could exchange them through trade.

The ships of the Great Song Dynasty sailed along the coastline of Asia, and if they went all the way north, they could see the frozen Bering Strait, an important marker and their only reference, and a land bridge between Asia and the Americas.

Compared to crossing on foot, the Great Song Sea Ship, which has conquered the sea, is fully capable of making long sea voyages and dealing with bad weather, after all, the ship sails along the coast, and once it encounters extremely bad weather at sea, it can always find a place to hide.

It is not impossible for the Great Song Dynasty to manufacture a steam engine, even if there is no excellent sealing material such as rubber, and there is a cheap fiber material such as paper, before the discovery of rubber, the steam engine has always been sealed with fiber and then assisted by casing technology, so that the sealing problem can be easily solved, but the effect of rubber is better and more convenient to use.

Once the Ordnance Department builds a steam engine, Zhao Zhen intends to make these steam engines miniaturized, the train is a powerful means of transportation, the development of transportation is related to the lifeblood of the whole country, the rapid transportation of resources, the exchange of goods, the supply of military supplies, the speed of transporting troops, etc., these are all a qualitative leap.

Zhao Yun was obsessed with things, and he was originally hyperactive, but he actually sat in front of Zhao Zhen and listened to an afternoon of class, which was the most unexpected thing for Zhao Zhen, after all, compared to Zhao Xu, Zhao Yun didn't like to study.

It seems that every child has their own interests and hobbies, and in terms of things, the eldest son Zhao Xu is not as good as the younger son Zhao Yun, and the daughter Ling'er is the favorite poetry.

I have to say that Zhao Yun is very smart, or that their mother and son are very smart, Yang Caiwei devoted herself to cultivating her son's other talents after her son had no hope of becoming the prince, Zhao Yun is also very aware of this, he sees everything clearly at a young age, the child's thinking is always very sensitive, maybe he can't express it, but he doesn't know his position anymore.

In fact, he doesn't have to deliberately show that he is not interested in things related to the position of the prince......

Every afternoon, Zhao Zhen has to take a little time to tell his sons about the knowledge of Gewu, more or less, deep or shallow, and has a specialization in the art industry, and Zhao Zhen never interferes with the children's cultural classes, after all, Zhao Zhen's own understanding of the Confucian classics is not as good as those who have studied the Confucian classics all year round.

After waking up in the morning, Zhao Zhen started a new day, and today was a little different, he was going to meet the envoy from the Abbasid dynasty, that is, the cunning Jewish merchant Taliban.

Now that he had changed from a merchant to an envoy, the Great Song needed him to contact the Abbasid dynasty, and the same Abbasid dynasty needed him to contact the Great Song.

This is an empty glove white wolf spelled with courage and wisdom, and the Taliban had almost nothing at the beginning, except for Zhao Zhen who bought Vera for 100,000 yuan and obtained the chart, there was almost no other loss.

Of course, if it weren't for his carelessness, maybe he wouldn't even lose the charts and become a big businessman who traveled back and forth between the Great Song Dynasty and Abbas.

It's a pity that he underestimated Vera's intelligence, and after following a cunning businessman for a long time, Vera should learn a little self-preservation.

But even so, the Taliban still relied on and used Zhao Zhen's identity and the benefits of poor information to win the greatest benefits for themselves, and he was fluent in Chinese and Arabic, so he naturally became Zhao Zhen's first choice, and he was also the first choice of the caliph.

In this way, he became the envoy of the two countries and was courteous to the emperors of both countries.

The financial support of the previous Great Song Dynasty enabled the Abbasid dynasty to successfully tide over the difficulties and avoid the fate of being destroyed, and there is no doubt that the candidate for the envoy must be the Taliban.

After the normal court meeting, the ministers retreated, this was a gift between the emperor and the emperor, they didn't have much interest in watching the ceremony, and with the wealth of the Great Song Dynasty, what else had they not seen?

In the impression of the courtiers, the gifts of the great cannibals were just some precious stones, spices and other things, which were not considered to be the top of the Song Dynasty. Besides, the yamen where they are working now is not in the outer court of the palace, but in the Yuqing Zhaoying Palace near the West Water Gate, which is not close......

The Taliban were accustomed to the high level of Song officials, but he was confident that the gift would surprise the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty.

Sancai brought a large box with the Guard, which was crystal clear at the moment it was opened, and even Sancai, who was accustomed to seeing the treasures in the palace, couldn't close his mouth, and the crystal bottles of different colors and translucent emitted refracted colorful light in the sun, and the colorful light was called the auspicious light in the Great Song Dynasty.

Zhao Zhen stretched out his hand and took a glass bottle and looked at it, there were all kinds of seeds inside, Zhao Zhen was very interested for a while, but he turned a blind eye to the glass bottle, and sniffed a little spice seed everywhere in the Taliban's surprised gaze: "These are spice seeds, right?" The caliph did what he said! ”

The Taliban recovered from the shock, and everyone was amazed when they saw the glass, and treated it as if it were a treasure, why did the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty ignore it and care so much about the seeds inside?

He didn't know that in China there was already a firing technology for glass as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, but it was mostly opaque lead-barium glass, and later in the Tang Dynasty, high-lead glass and potassium glass appeared, but these glassware were not transparent.

Zhao Zhen has naturally seen countless glasses, and he has also mastered the manufacturing skills of transparent glass, but there is no large-scale production, and the transparency of these glass bottles in front of him still cannot reach the level of whiteness and imperfection.

Looking at it, Zhao Zhen was stunned, the seeds in the glass bottle in front of him were so familiar, the red fruit revealed playfulness and cuteness, Zhao Zhen hurriedly poured out a piece and opened it, and there was something white like a walnut inside, but it didn't have as many ravines as walnut kernels.

Coffee seeds?! It's actually coffee seeds!

This is the most unexpected thing for Zhao Zhen, in his impression that the earliest coffee also appeared in the fifteenth century, why do Arabs already have coffee seeds now?

It was priceless, and in the 16th century coffee plants became a valuable resource that could not be traded, and the coffee trade was the most profitable trade.

Zhao Zhen decided to promote this mellow drink in Asia, which could make more money for the Great Song Dynasty, but before that, it was necessary to cultivate excellent coffee first, and strictly manage it and never allow it to flow into other countries.

Thinking about the taste of coffee, Zhao Zhen couldn't help but swallow his saliva, what a mellow gift this is, and the smile he looked at the Taliban became much warmer......