The pharmacist took out the scale and said, "One catty is divided into sixteen taels, one tael of saltpeter is ten cents, and one catty of saltpeter is one hundred and sixty cents. ”

Zhao Yan saw on the Internet that the soil ice method did not indicate the ratio of saltpeter to water, if it was less, I am afraid that not much ice could be made, thought about it and said: "Let's come ten catties first." ”

The pharmacist looked at him in surprise, but didn't say anything, but claimed to have taken out ten catties of delicate saltpeter and wrapped it in straw paper, and then accepted Zhao Yan's broken silver of one or two or six coins.

Zhao Yan watched the silver leave his hand, and secretly sighed that he was really a loser, if this tael of more silver was placed before, I am afraid that it would be enough for him to live with his cheap father for several months.

When he returned to the Zhao family's courtyard, he saw the little girl of the Li family leading a family member and a maid to peep sneakily outside the door, Zhao Yan couldn't help but laugh and said: "If you are curious, come in, it's just an ancient method of making ice, you really can't do tricks when I can?" ”

With Zhao Yan's permission, Li Yun stopped dodging and dodged, and led Li Er and Xiang'er behind him into the courtyard in a hurry.

After looking around a few times, Li Yun saw that except for a few clusters of moon flowers in the corner, they could not arouse her interest, so he turned to watch intently how Zhao Yan 'transformed' out of ice.

Saltpeter ice making is not an uncommon thing for people who know a little about chemistry in modern times, but in this era when everything is inferior, only in the era of high Confucianism, ice can be conjured out of thin air, which can only be attributed to 'strange skills and ingenuity' or 'evil words to confuse the public'.

But fortunately, the people of the Ming Dynasty are still quite enlightened, and most of the things they don't understand are in awe, unless they involve their own interests, they will not denounce and slander for no reason, and the ignorant ones are just those 'famous disciples' at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

It was very simple to use saltpeter to make ice, Zhao Yan asked Wang Lin to go home and get two copper basins, a large basin and a small basin, and the small basin was put into the large basin, and both basins were poured into the cool well water that had just been taken out of the well, and then about half of the saltpeter was poured into the large basin.

After a while, the big basin really began to appear with bright ice chips, but the speed of freezing was very slow, Zhao Yan saw this, so he poured all the remaining saltpeter into it.

In the end, Zhao Yan got his wish to get the clean ice cubes in the small basin, which can be eaten directly, and as for the ice cubes in the large basin, although they are inedible, they can be used to cool the well water or use it for other purposes until it melts back into water.

Seeing Zhao Yan conjure ice out of thin air, Wang Lin and Li Yun looked at him differently, which meant that modern people tend to see aliens.

Zhao Yan was very uncomfortable under the gaze of several people, and after taking out the ice cubes in the small basin, he took out two watermelons and put them into the large basin, and then took the small basin into the house and tinkered for a while, and when it was brought out, it had turned into four bowls of apricot-yellow crushed ice slag.

"It's just one bowl per person, there is no sugar, no milk, and no spoon, so let's make do with chopsticks." Zhao Yan distributed the chopsticks to a few people, and squatted on the ground to eat homemade simple ice cream.

Li Yun held the bowl curiously, looked at the yellow things inside and asked, "What else is there besides ice?" There seems to be a smell of apricots. ”

"The nose is quite smart." Zhao Yan glanced at the little girl and explained: "Inside is the apricot fruit, picked from outside the wall." I mixed it with ice cubes and called it ice cream, which tasted even better if there was sugar and milk. ”

When Wang Lin heard this, he said, "Senior brother, I have cane sugar at home, but I don't have milk, do you want to get some?" ”

Zhao Yan rolled his eyes at the ice, and only after relieving himself did he say: "Forget it, when you come back, the ice cubes have melted, so let's eat you while the ice chips have not melted." ”

"This ice cream made by Zhao Gongzi is really delicious." The maid Xiang'er, who had never spoken to Zhao Yan, didn't know whether she was eating people with a short mouth or really thinking it was delicious, so she took a small bite of the ice cream in her bowl and praised it.

This little girl Xiang'er looks about twelve or thirteen years old, although she looks heroic, her body looks a little thin, maybe her nutrition can't keep up, maybe she hasn't reached the age of development, but she looks quite good when she laughs.

Li Yun next to him was not angry with his little maid and praised Zhao Yan, and interjected: "What's delicious?" There is no sweetness at all, the ice slag is not smashed, and Miss Ben has a toothache, which is not as delicious as chilled watermelon. ”

Zhao Yan vaguely understood the character of this Miss Li family, no one in her eyes, arrogant, she couldn't see others at all, thinking that others owed her, of course, maybe this little girl still has some cleverness.

To put it simply, Li Yun is spoiled, even if you don't provoke her, she will come up and bite you twice when she sees that you are not pleasing to the eye, and after biting, she will say that the flesh is sour and smelly, which is completely unreasonable.

Zhao Yan has never raised a child, and he can't understand the thoughts of a girl who is very different from a boy, so he can only pretend to be deaf and dumb, hoping that this unruly young lady of the Li family will finish eating and leave quickly.

Li Er, the Li family, was quite steady, finished eating two bites in three bites, thanked Zhao Yan, and then stood there without saying a word, waiting for Li Yun to leave after eating slowly, and then followed the little girl and walked out.

Standing at the gate of the courtyard, after watching the figures of the three masters and servants disappear on the forest path, Wang Lin on the side said angrily: "Senior brother, this little girl is really hateful, if it weren't for the fact that the family named Li Er seems to be a practitioner, I would have wanted to go up and beat her out of anger." ”

"Huh." Zhao Yan turned around and entered the door noncommittally, threw the copper lock to Wang Lin casually, and said without looking back: "I just ate a bowl of cold and oozing ice cream, comfortable...... Senior brother, do me a favor and lock the bronze lock general outside. ”

Wang Lin answered, closed the door stupidly, and buckled the lock, only to find that he was locked out, and was about to climb over the wall to enter again, when he heard Zhao Yan's voice coming out of the courtyard.

"Senior brother, I want to catch up on sleep, why should you go. When I wake up, I still have to read and practice calligraphy, don't come to me if you have nothing to do in the past two days, no, don't come to me if you have something. In addition, you are not allowed to climb over the wall to come in in the future, otherwise the senior brother will not be careful, and it will not be good if you are injured. ”

Wang Lin stood outside the door for a long time, and when he heard no more voices coming from inside, he turned around and floated away, and the air echoed with a mantra from Zhao Yan: Cut ......

"University" is an article on the Confucian idea of cultivating Qi and Zhiping, with a total of more than 2,000 words, and "The Mean", "Analects", and "Mencius" are called the four books.

These days, Zhao Yan has read through more than 2,000 words nearly 100 times, and the so-called book has been read 100 times to see its meaning, combined with the content explained by Li Fuzi, he has already understood this slightly difficult article 8*9 out of ten.

If you want to deal with next year's county exam based on this alone, it is obviously a problem with your brain, and Zhao Yan will naturally not be so naïve.

After Li Fuzi's 'literacy', Zhao Yan already had a little understanding of the imperial examination system at this time.

Strictly speaking, if an ordinary scholar wants to go all the way to the sky and get to the final palace exam, he has to go through a total of four levels from small to large.

Children's test, township test, will test, palace test, children's test is divided into county test, government test and hospital test, after passing can get the fame of Xiucai, also called a student, after passing the township test is to lift people, will try after the Jinshi, the palace test is the Jinshi qualifying battle, the judge is the Ming Emperor.

In addition to these four major checkpoints, there are also small checkpoints such as the annual examination and the scientific examination in the middle, and it is not good to pass these small checkpoints, so as to get the pass to enter the next big checkpoint, which is much more difficult than the test-taking education of later generations.

If you want to pass this level, you can only rely on your own strength, and your strength is mainly reflected in the candidate's eight-strand level.

In the exam, in addition to making a satisfactory and smooth eight-strand essay, the candidate's font is also very important.

There are many rules for the exam, and these Li Fuzi have not yet talked to Zhao Yan, in short, it will not be too easy.

Since Zhao Yan has decided to embark on this thorny road, he naturally can't be slack off on himself, in addition to completing the homework required by Li Fuzi every day, he will also borrow some books about the exam from Wang Dahu's house to read, such as the outstanding Cheng Wen model of the previous exams, the eight-strand system art written by famous masters, etc., Wang Qi, the eldest son of the Wang family, has gone all the way from the white body test to the lifting person, and there are naturally not a few of these books in the Wang family's study.

After ten years of cold windows, no one asked, and he became famous all over the world in one fell swoop, Zhao Yan deeply understood the suffering and thoughts of readers in this era at this time.

Zhao Xin saw that Zhao Yan was like being hooked by a monster, and he either read hard with a book all day long, or practiced calligraphy with a pen, or went to sit by the stream outside the courtyard wall in a daze, and couldn't help but be quite worried, and had the intention to buy a servant or maid to come back to take care of Zhao Yan, but Zhao Yan refused on the grounds that the room was not enough and disturbed the quiet.

Since Zhao Yan can eat and sleep, it is normal when he doesn't read and practice calligraphy, and if he is admitted to Xiucai once, or even lifts people, it can be regarded as winning glory for the Zhao family, and Zhao Xin will also go by him, but he goes out late every morning, comes back early in the evening, and occasionally goes back home at noon.

After Li Yun left that day, he came again after more than ten days, although he was catching up with Zhao Yan Xiumu, but he sat in the courtyard and did not squeak. The unruly girl saw the bronze lock of the general's town gate, led the family Ding Li Er and the maid Xiang'er, and then left with hatred after a circle around the neighborhood.

Zhao Yan vaguely heard Li Yun say something across the courtyard wall: I wanted him to taste the ice cream made by Miss Ben, but who knew that he would come but no one would be seen, and he didn't know where the dirt bun had gone to spread wild, so he was not blessed.

Zhao Yan laughed twice after hearing this, he was about to fall into the devil, how could he have spare time to go wild.