Liu Ji seemed to be a different person, Ma Du had never seen him have so many words, and he spent the morning in the office talking with several gentlemen over fragrant tea.

talked about feng shui celestial phenomena with Zhu Sheng, poetry and poetry with Tao An, legal provisions with Luo Furen, calligraphy and painting skills with Song Ke, debate Buddhism with Yao Guangxiao, and even talked about arithmetic with Ma Du, and even Yuan Jiuli had the opportunity to talk to him about the Four Books and Five Classics.

Pointing to the country and inspiring the words, the high-spirited appearance is not the usual indifferent and proud person at all, and I vaguely see the dashing Qingtian celebrity wandering between the mountains and rivers.

The erudition he displayed was amazing, and Zhu Sheng invited him to teach at the academy on the spot, but Liu Ji smiled and said nothing. At noon, he refused Ma Du's wine and banquet, saying that he wanted to see the famous canteen of the academy.

Liu Ji took the academy's newly made wooden dinner plate, lined up among the students, served two taels of rice, a spoonful of scrambled eggs with green peppers and braised pork, and brought it to Ma Du, "You move fast." ”

"That's right, Mr. has a special window for cooking."

Liu Ji nodded and said, "Respect for teachers and education!" He put a chopstick and green pepper scrambled egg in his mouth, added another chopstick, and chewed the rice slowly.

"This chili pepper tastes so special! I heard that the chili peppers on the market cost five cents a pound, and the dried chili peppers cost ten cents, and the farmers in your Zhuangzi are afraid that they will make a lot of money, no wonder they are rich. The old man went around in the past, and I heard that the old man was looking for you, and an old man gave me steamed buns and salted duck eggs, do you think the old man looks like a beggar? It seems that they are really rich, otherwise they are powerless to do good. ”

"Don't feel ashamed to go to my village to beg, the emperor still came here to have dinner." Ma Du raised his eyes and looked at Liu Ji, "Mr. Liu seems to have a lot of words today, haven't you always adhered to the ancient precept of not saying a word?" ”

"The old man talks a lot, what can you do with the old man." Seeing that Ma Du was choked, Liu Ji laughed, and looked at his somewhat scoundrel and willful appearance, Ma Du felt that Liu Ji must be enchanted.

"Good meal! What a meal! Liu Ji slowly brushed the plate next to the pool, "This meal is more than a star and a half better than when the old man was studying in Fuxue!" What to do, press the water, and then press the water! ”

After washing the dinner plates, Liu Ji's gun pressed the handle of the overpressurized well twice, and when he looked at Qingliangliang, he bowed and held it in his hand, "Well, this water is quite sweet!" How much does it cost to drill such a well. ”

"It's hard to say, in a low-lying place where the land is soft, a well may be drilled in half a day for a dozen taels of silver, like in the academy, which is a stone barren beach, two hundred taels of silver to hit this one, it is not cost-effective, the academy is preparing to use a bamboo pipe to directly lead the spring water on the mountain to use!"

"A dozen taels of silver? It's really not cost-effective, you try to figure out something that isn't practical. ”

"When Daming can produce better quality and more durable steel pipes one day, the cost will naturally be cheaper. Let's go, I'll take you to the academy! ”

The Divine Machine Master is also an ordinary person, and he will unconsciously make a face at the haha mirror, and the little insects in his saliva will also vomit when he finds himself under the microscope, happily open the books in the library that can never be finished with his fingers, and will make a fuss when he sees the steam engine spitting black smoke and dancing his teeth and claws.

Looking at the wooden cylinders that rotated rapidly on the wooden shelves, he asked Ma Du curiously, "What does this thing do?" ”

Bo Qi came up and said: "This is the threshing machine that the old man just made, give the two of you insight!" He took a bunch of rice from the side, the rice grains on which were still blue, eighty percent had just been cut from the ground, and the ears of rice rested on the rotating wooden tube, and the dense iron bars whipped the ears of rice, and the original full rice grains were taken off in a blink of an eye.

Bo Qi smiled proudly: "What do you think the old man's invention is?" ”

Ma Du smiled: "Threshing rice is easy to use, I'm afraid it won't be so easy to use when it comes to wheat." ”

"Don't run on the old man, I will definitely let you see the old man's masterpiece before the wheat harvest next year, but I don't know how much money the academy plans to pay to buy it out!"

"You can't do this thing without a steam engine, I'm afraid that ordinary people can't afford it and have no value."

"Who said that, if you see the flywheel over there, you can use it as long as there is a person who keeps turning it, although it takes some effort than falling on the ground, wait for the old man to stop the steam engine for you to try."

Liu Ji looked at Bo Qi and suddenly asked, "It's ...... to dare to ask Your Excellency."

Ma Du saw that there were other students next to him and hurriedly interrupted: "This is Mr. Bo Qi, who specializes in teaching mechanics in the academy. ”

Liu Ji comprehended: "In the first year of Hongwu, I met Mr. at the celebration banquet, and after six or seven years, Mr. has lost a lot. ”

"The old man is suffering from Changqing's disease, and emaciation is inevitable, and he won't be able to die for a while." Bo Qi said with a smile: "It's rare that the sincerity Uncle didn't hide when he saw the old man!" ”

Zhu Sheng, Tao An and Bo Qi were in the same academy, but they didn't have any contact, and even if they met occasionally, they were like air with each other. Speaking of which, the two of them were just petty officials with sesame mung beans in Mengyuan.

Liu Ji is a Jinshi of Meng Yuanzheng's Eight Classics, and he also served as the deputy promotion of Confucianism in Zhejiang, and it is really strange to see that Bo Qi took the initiative to greet him without the slightest evasion.

"The old man has a thick face and has nothing to hide. I am really envious to see that Mr. has done a lot here! ”

"What is there to envy, the old man is just working for others to earn some money to support his family, if Uncle Cheng is willing to come to the academy to teach, Mahou will definitely spend a lot of money to invite you, hehe......"

As soon as Bo Qi's words fell, he heard a strange sound from the steam engine, and Bo Qi shouted, "The valve of the piston is stuck again, hurry up and close the main valve!" ”

Ma Du was afraid that something would fly out of his head, so he hurriedly pulled Liu Ji and ran, looking at the busy work under the shed, and he didn't know when he would be able to run away on a reliable steam ship.

"Kick it in! Mr. Ma kicks us over! A football rolled in front of the two of them, and the students on the playground shouted at Ma Du, Ma Du raised his foot to shoot, but Liu Ji grabbed him, "Let the old man come!" ”

Seeing that he was interested, Madu gave it to him, "Please!" ”

Liu Ji made enough strength to kick away, and the football flew far away, looking at the shirtless teenager running wantonly, his eyes were full of admiration and longing.

Ma Du felt that the heat was almost over, "If Mr. Liu likes to come to the academy to teach, he will see such a vivid and lively scene every day, which is much better than the dull court and the boring countryside." ”

"Huh...... The old man also thought, but he was afraid that his life would not be long! ”