Chapter Seventy-Six: Thousands of Miles Away

In any case, he stayed in Danyang for another three days, hoping to talk to Tan Weixin. But his request to see the princess was denied three times in a row. And these three refusals came from Tan Weixin's maid Sisi, Liu Yong, the head of the princess's mansion, and Li Mian, who came forward on behalf of Li Sishu, the head of the inner house. Seeing the sense of distance that was getting farther and farther away from these three rejections, Ye Tao knew that he was afraid that Tan Weixin's anger would not calm down so quickly. So, on the morning of the fourth day, Ye Tao finally set off for Yicheng to complete a building that had never appeared in this era.

"Well, so be it. Don't forget the letters and messages that should be sent to Ye Tao. If you have any reply, remember to send it to see. After the guards of the princess's mansion reported the news of Ye Tao's departure from Danyang to Tan Weixin, Tan Weixin commanded lightly. This command left everyone a little confused.

Didn't Tan Weixin turn her face with Ye Tao? But it doesn't look like that.

There are many things that the Princess Mansion continues to inform Ye Tao of. The part about the day-to-day affairs of the imperial court is particularly brief because Ye Tao is not a member of the officialdom, and it is usually just a matter of personnel transfers, and some people impeached Ye Tao for what reason. Others, that is, some things that the two armies check the government, such as the results of the new round of internal war chess deduction, the internal reward and punishment lists of the two armies, and so on. Others are the operation of some related industries.

Tan Weixin continued to refuse Ye Tao's audience, and then Ye Tao suddenly left Danyang and went to Yicheng. This incident has given many people room to associate with it. Some tentative bullet stamps began to appear on the second day of Ye Tao's departure. In the letters sent to Ye Tao every day, the titles of the bullet chapters that need to be transcribed occupy more and more space, but they are also less and less innovative. And at this moment, neither Her Royal Highness the princess nor Ye Tao herself was too interested in this kind of boring noise. But if those who think that the relationship between Ye Tao and Tan Weixin is in crisis, and think that Ye Tao is no longer favored by the princess, know about this continuous email exchange, I don't know what kind of expression it will be.

For Ye Tao. The most direct result of the conflict with Wei Xin was that his chief manager, Lu Dandi, was in much worse condition. Lu Dan had a lot of opportunities to contact Ye Tao every day, so naturally he quickly jumped out of the exaggerated misunderstanding of Ye Tao and the princess's breakup, and understood that the two were just a little awkward. He was born as a guard in the princess's mansion, and it was really difficult for him to take care of Ye Tao's behavior along the way, deal with the emails that came and went, and at the same time think about how such a small person as him could adjust the relationship between the two.

On the contrary, it was Ye Tao, who simply didn't think much about it. He urged the car to rush to Yicheng as quickly as possible, and then devoted himself to the construction of the Yicheng Bell Tower "Seven Seas Tower", which has now taken a slightly rudimentary shape, with an extremely vigorous spirit.

The Seven Seas Tower is now in the process of dismantling the scaffolding. The bronze lightning rod at the top of the Seven Seas Tower eventually fixed the height of the bell tower at two hundred and eighty-seven feet. If there is some sunlight, looking up at this magnificent tower, most people will not be able to see this lightning rod clearly from the bright sky and backlight. The rapid construction of the bell tower was due to the cooperation of many parties, especially the almost unlimited capital investment of Seven Seas Trading Company. The iron nails used to build the scaffolding during the construction of the bell tower alone are counted in the thousands, and various materials including wood and bamboo for the scaffolding land that have been dismantled one after another are piled up in the port area. Start with the foundation section. Anyone who can use crowd tactics to shorten the construction period, in fact, Nanami Trading Company pays for all of them. According to statistics, almost 10,000 people were working at the same time at the peak of the entire Seven Seas Tower and its supporting construction sites, and that happened last year. About a month after the start of the project. As the bell tower continues to stretch upwards, the actual manpower invested is gradually decreasing. But even so, when the clock face was installed and the sculpture was decorated, a record was set for 174 people working at height at the same time.

The main works of the construction site have been completed. The rest is mainly the interior decoration and the installation of the core of the bell tower. As the scaffolding faded, the tower's majestic face became clearer and clearer. The towers that rise from the ground up to the part of the clock face have only a small window on each side. It is not so much to facilitate the view of the interior staff, but to balance the air pressure inside and outside the bell tower. In order to keep the whole towering huge column from looking dull and monotonous, the external surface is still layered in the form of a tower, but this layering is far more visually significant than practical. The greatest significance is that it provides twelve carved positions on a stone foundation on each floor, divided into fourteen layers of these heights. It gives artists ample room to express themselves.

In a certain version of the detailed design drawing, Ye Tao originally drew several gargoyles in different forms. However, considering that such an image of demons and monsters made it difficult for him to explain why, and he would definitely not please everyone, he finally gave up this extremely spoof idea, and let Guan Haishan, the senior brother who returned to Yicheng for the sake of the bell tower, control it himself.

Although Guan Haishan is good at construction and likes architecture and gardens, he does not have a deep understanding of this kind of stone carving and the like. He threw the puzzle back to the Yip's Workshop headquarters. Unexpectedly. Not only the columns below, but also the perimeter of the clock face and the top of the bell tower. The apprentices in the workshop, under the leadership of Ye Tao's fourth senior brother Qian Shun, came up with a set of jaw-dropping, extremely gorgeous exterior decoration schemes.

The stone carvings in the twelve positions on each floor are all animals or legendary spirit beasts, mythical beasts, and the like. And the fourteen floors from the bottom to the top, each sculpture in the same position, a line from the bottom to the top, must ensure that the content of the fourteen sculptures will be considered by the vast majority of people to be in a system. For example, if the bottom floor is a bird, then as the floor rises, the circle of sculptures below the clock face is finally fixed on the phoenix.

Since there is no such thing as the illustrated version of the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" in this time and space, during the four-month period of decoration design, just the various books that everyone consulted, the folklore that was stored and written down by themselves, and all kinds of imaginary drawings, setting drawings, and basic design drawings added up to a room.

Around the clock face and around the towering spire, there is a different theme.

They associate the circle of the surface with the sun, and everything around them is the world. From the bottom to the top, there is a ground to a sky, and different contents are selected according to the space described. The clock faces in the four directions represent the plains, the mountains, the sea, and the city. It is very suitable for the geographical location of Yicheng. The reliefs, which have both freehand and realistic characteristics, are exquisite and gorgeous, making people breathtaking. The top circle of the four faces represents the clouds and the sky as one, to express the essence of the sky that envelops everything. And on top of it, there is the circle around the edge of the spire. On this circle, there is not much decoration except for the magnificent moire carving. Maybe it's because you don't want to imagine what heaven looks like in this world. On the four corners of the pyramid-shaped roof, there are the statues of the four great generals of the heavenly court who are said to be guarding the four sides of the heavenly court. At that height, a life-size statue. It's just too extravagant. The tiles covered by the spire are specially designed, and after all these glazed tiles are installed, each piece fits perfectly with the two pieces on the side, and each round of tiles makes people have a sense of undulating curves from a distance. The back of each glazed tile is engraved with words, each different, if you start from the top piece, along a certain order, the words on the back of the glazed tile on the entire spire are connected. It is the sacrificial text of the Emperor of the Founding Father, who unified the continent in that year, to pray to heaven and pray for the blessings of all people. By the way, although the lightning rod is made of brass, at the top of the spire, where the lightning rod is installed. It is a base of pure gold weighing five catties.

The high degree of unity of concept, form and content is enough to make the Seven Seas Tower a monument in the history of art in this time and space. In fact, most of the sculptures are invisible to the naked eye. Start with the funders. All the way down to the most basic level of craftsmen, in fact, they have poured their own ideals of perfection into their own work to make their own interpretations. Not only the speed of the completion of the building, but also the quality of the construction and the artistic level of the sculpture are incredible. On the edge of the spire, facing the Heavenly Court Warlord in the Southern Lands. It took six times before and after to make everyone satisfied. You know, every time you knock out the original statue, transport the stone to that height and install it, it takes at least a whole day. The unforeseen dangers of working at height don't stop everyone from striving for perfection.

As the creator, chief designer and general contractor of such a great building, Ye Tao can't help but be proud. And his enthusiasm quickly turned into motivation for work. Running up and down the clock tower dozens of times a day is just the most basic condition for keeping the work going.

The core part of the bell chamber made as a whole according to the design drawings was installed in two days under the guidance of Ye Tao, and the connection part of the pendulum and the pointer. The connection and preliminary commissioning of the hammer and other components as the power were also completed within ten days. With the help of Ye Tao's specially designed pulley block. The lifting of the striking clock took only two days. Although all those who beg for a living on the construction site are familiar with pulleys. When building buildings of a certain height, only pulleys allow them to easily move and lift materials. But. The pulley set designed by Ye Tao still surprised everyone. The pulley group composed of more than 20 groups of pulleys of large and small can automatically adjust the center of gravity of the chiming clock, distribute the pulling force to different ropes, so that the chiming clock always maintains a delicate balance when lifting, and after lifting in place, as long as the position is slightly adjusted, it can be hoisted and fixed. Although it was only a small skill, Ye Tao's idea was still so amazing.

After a busy month in Yicheng, the world's first bell tower, the "Seven Seas Tower", was finally completed before the typhoon season. Although there are still some supporting small works in the surrounding area, such as the greenery and granite floor laying in the small square around the bell tower, and the small buildings with two to three storeys high used to open hotels and shops around the square, it can no longer hide everyone's admiration, admiration, admiration, and incredible eyes looking at the bell tower.

After several days of careful tuning of the chamber and other components, the tower finally started to work one morning, when the first rays of sunlight shone on the spire of the bell tower and the blue glazed tiles began to shine. In Yicheng, only a small number of people know the time when the bell tower began to run, and they are the only ones who quietly carry out the smallest celebrations.

Including Ye Tao, Qi Zhentao, Peng Detian, and Min Yue, a total of 12 people were in the astronomical room above the bell room, which was scheduled to be used as installation equipment for time correction. The little guys ran all the way up the breakfast they bought, and they could still maintain a little residual warmth. It's not a cosy revolving restaurant, but it doesn't prevent everyone from looking at the golden sparkle of the Luohe estuary as far as the eye can see, watching the rows of houses and streets at their feet drinking soy milk and eating "rich and fried food", and what comes to their ears is the sound of the regular clicking of gears.

When people started to move around in the market, someone finally looked up at the bell tower and exclaimed to remind everyone that the clock was moving. It wasn't until noon that the clock struck for the first time.

The first ringing of this long-publicized bell tower made the whole city tremble. The sound of the Qingyue bell was amplified by the special resonance in the bell tower, and it could be transmitted more than ten miles away. Although the bell tower in Minato Ward is not in the center of the city, the bell can cover the entire city. The only people who didn't feel good about this first bell rang were the two apprentices of Yip's Workshop who were so curious about the matter that they ran to the resonance room when the bell rang, and the sound waves shook them up and down, and they were dizzy and dizzy, and it took a few days to recover.

Needless to say, among the people who are waiting for this absolutely important event of this era, in addition to the local residents of Yicheng, in addition to the people who have been begging for a living on the shipping routes and trade routes outside the port of Yicheng, in addition to those merchants and officials who are extremely concerned about this bell tower, there are also a large number of spies from other countries. Landmark buildings, in this era, are closely related to national strength and a country's technological level. And this Qihai Tower in Yicheng is fully qualified to be regarded as the political achievement of the lord of a country.

For the operation of the bell tower, Muhammad, who had already fought with the major merchants of Yicheng, and even secretly joined the Seven Seas Trading Company, had another kind of joy. With him was a Persian fleet that he had cleverly stolen from the port of Funing in the southern part of the country, and he never mentioned anything about doing business, but only to see the bell tower. But if he can open up a direct trade route from Yicheng to Persia, the benefits he extracts from it can simply make him no longer care about business. Although his years of running in the Red Sea, between Nanyang and Yicheng made him a well-known figure in the Persian merchant circle, he also felt tired.

The bell tower did not disappoint everyone in the fleet, and the bell was so clear and holy that it made people feel the urge to worship. The largest share of the fleet was a man named Kuritan, whose family's wealth in the Persian region made it possible for the nobles, royals, and even the monarchs of small states to rely on them. And the handsome bell tower I saw in Yicheng today, and the prosperous but quiet and suitable atmosphere of Yicheng all made Kuruitan's heart move. While he had the idea that maybe he could do some business here, he also dreamed of having such a clock tower in his hometown, which is also the birthplace of their Samir family, Dubai Harbour.

In his opinion, it was really unnecessary for this bell tower to have so many merchants and clans in Yicheng invest together. With the financial resources of their Samir family, there was no need for that. Immediately he ordered the painter to be summoned from the fleet and asked him to paint the magnificent scene.