In the next few days, coupled with the fact that the first day was approaching, there were not many things to deal with, whether it was the East Palace or the court, and most of the officials were still on the way back to Chang'an in Luoyang, so Li Hong took them to Taiyi City after meeting the seventeen Chongwen Pavilion scholars.

Taiyi City has now expanded a lot, compared to the beginning, today's Taiyi City is more prosperous, more advanced, and there are more and more permanent residents, and it is about to become a real city.

But it was such a big city, but there was no place for these seventeen students to develop the thing in their hands that Li Hong named the steam turning ball.

However, all this, after Li Hong took them back to Taiyi City again, earth-shaking changes took place, and their treatment was further improved, and even the families of their seventeen people were placed in Taiyi City by Li Hong.

Bai Chun and the others also saw His Royal Highness the Crown Prince so serious and persistent for the first time, like a paranoid and crazy person, putting themselves with the seventeen students, and even forgetting to go back to the manor every once in a while when they even slept at night.

And when Bai Chun didn't come back, after looking for him a few times, he was reprimanded back by Li Hong every time, so Bai Chun had no choice but to arrange Wei Tuqi in the forbidden area of Taiyi City to take care of Li Hong at any time.

In front of more than a dozen students, what Li Hong was able to teach and what he could teach was some prototypes, as well as a hint of inspiration at that time when the steam engine was developed.

The only thing Li Hong knows is that the prototype of the steam engine was slowly developed because it had to help drain the water in the mine, and as for other aspects, he only vaguely remembered that it was because of the spinning machine, and then the steam engine was slowly used in other fields in the process of improvement.

So in just a few days, they followed the principle of this steam ball, under the guidance of Li Hong, and designed an alternative steam ball, but this steam ball can hold more steam, and according to Li Hong's design, two pipes were added at the same time that it was said to be used for entry and discharge, one pipe stretched into a huge pool, and the other was extended into an equally huge pool without a little water.

As the steam was slowly poured into the steam ball, the horn-like copper pipes on both sides of the steam ball were also closed, and when the steam was filled, another valve was also closed, and the huge steam ball, which was more than one person high, contained abundant steam.

The seventeen students looked at each other, not knowing what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince wanted after sealing the copper pipes on both sides and filling them with steam.

Li Hong looked at their puzzled eyes and motioned for them to start spraying cold water on the outside of the steam-filled hollow ball, while explaining to them what little knowledge he knew.

The cold water condenses the steam in the container to form a vacuum, and then the person is ordered to open the water inlet valve, and the water at the bottom of the mine is sucked into the container through the inlet pipe under atmospheric pressure.

Then close the water inlet valve, reopen the steam inlet valve, and press out the water in the container through the drain valve by steam pressure. When the water in the container is emptied and filled with steam, close the inlet and drain valves and re-spray the water to condense the steam.

In this way, the intake and exhaust water pipes unconsciously discharge all the water in the pool into another pool under the action of the steam ball.

And the seventeen students, looking at everything in front of them incredibly, only to say why they had the inspiration to design this steam ball, but in Qujiang Pond that year, they saw that the water cup in Li Hong's hand was covered by a thin piece of paper, and turned the water cup, but not a drop of water flowed out, so they were curious, wanting to see if this steam could also be called pressure, so they set up the steam ball.

The days passed day by day, and seventeen students accompanied Li Hong, unconsciously spending almost a month, but the progress was still in the original stage.

However, Li Hong suggested that they try to take this thing and do it in the mine, and maybe they can find some inspiration.

The students, who had been in high spirits, were overjoyed when they heard Li Hong's proposal, so after receiving Li Hong's approval and help, they decided to go to a mine after the first day to continue their in-depth research.

At this time, in the East Palace of Chang'an City, everyone in the East Palace, headed by Bai Chun, knelt at the door of the Lizheng Hall in pieces.

His Majesty and the Empress returned to the palace, Li Xian, King Pei, Li Zhe, King Li Dan, and Li Dan, King Yin, together with all the ministers of the six departments of the three provinces, the nine temples and the five eunuchs, including the Jingzhao Mansion of Chang'an, and the ministers headed by Zong Chuke, all ran to Baqiao to meet the wise and martial majesty and the queen who returned triumphantly from Liaodong, but only the crown prince Li Hong was missing!

As a result, the emperor and queen of the Tang Dynasty began to have no good faces in Baqiao, and their faces were sullen, as if someone owed them money and did not pay it back, and all the next etiquette was hastily ended, and the honor guard simply returned to Daming Palace.

As for the celebration banquet of the ministers in the evening, although it was still held as scheduled when the crown prince Li Hong failed to arrive, every minister and the emperor's relatives could see that because of the absence of His Royal Highness the prince, it was still difficult for His Majesty and the queen to be happy.

So, in the early morning of the second day, the entire East Palace became like this, one by one turned into kowtow worms, kneeling all over the ground with their heads bowed, and no one dared to speak in the face of the queen's coercion.

"Bai Chun spoke, what the hell is going on? Don't any of you know to warn the prince? Wu Mei's face was pale, and she usually let him Li Hong mess around, but yesterday's incident, Li Hong was too much!

His Royal Highness the dignified Prince of the Tang Dynasty, when the emperor and the queen returned to Chang'an, when the Manchu Dynasty's civil and military ministers and princes were all in Baqiao, he was the only one who was missing, which made the royal family lose face and became a joke in the court!

Bai Chun was also trembling by Wu Mei's strong coercion, knelt on the ground and trembled and replied: "Back to the queen, the slave and maid went over in person ten days ago, but...... The slave is incompetent, and there has been no way to see His Royal Highness the Prince. ”

"What? Can't even see him? Wu Mei was shocked, originally thought that Bai Chun knew what the prince was doing now, but he didn't invite Li Hong back.

But when she heard Bai Chun's words, she didn't expect that even Bai Chun wouldn't be able to see Li Hong, which made Wu Mei even more surprised, if she couldn't even see Bai Chun, the most important person in his heart.

Li Hong will never be absent from such an important occasion for no reason, although the etiquette system is something he has never been interested in, but he will never disregard the etiquette system so much, not to mention, several imperial histories have supervised him and urged him.

But as Bai Chun said, Li Hong locked himself up in Taiyi City, and no one could see him, and the prince's personal guard, Wei Tuqi, did not recognize his six relatives with a straight face, no matter who wanted to ask to see the prince, he was rejected by his expressionless sentence "The prince has an order, no one will see him".

Curiosity overwhelmed the anger that had been suppressed since yesterday, Wu Mei was patient, looked coldly at Bai Chun, who continued to kneel, and asked again: "Then do you know what he is doing in Taiyi City?" ”

"I'm working on something called a steam ball." Bai Chun replied with his head down.

"Steam Ball? What's that? ”

"Back to the queen, the slave doesn't know ......."

"Nonsense! Bastard stuff, you don't know either! As a person close to the prince, you don't even know what the prince does, the prince has never gone to Baqiao, you can't even tell the reason, how do you let this palace spare you! Wu Mei was suddenly furious by Bai Chun's answer, looked at Bai Chun who was kneeling on the ground, and scolded for the first time.

"The slave and maid are guilty, the slave and maid deserve to die, please ask the queen to condemn ......."

"Now is not the time to condemn you, and you can't take it, and you're not qualified to let this palace deal with you! What the hell did he say, repeat it to Hongu from beginning to end! Nothing is missing! Wu Mei was dressed in a queen's palace dress, and her face was pale, but it did not reduce her graceful and luxurious, peerless demeanor, and the majesty of the queen of the world.

So Bai Chun recounted to Wu Mei the steam turning ball and the students of Chongwen Hall that he brought back from Taiyi City a month ago.

And to Wu Mei's surprise, it turned out to be a month! Li Hong actually locked himself in Taiyi City for a month and never showed up, and he never even walked out of the forbidden area! This made her more curious about what Li Hong wanted to do.

"Did he say anything else?" Wu Mei asked again, but in her tone, there was a lot less anger and became much calmer.

"Back to the queen, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince once said that if this thing can be truly used by my Datang, then it will not only bring me endless economic wealth, but also an unprecedented and powerful weapon for my Datang to explore the sea, and it will also raise the entire strength of my Datang to an incredible height." Bai Chun still kept his head down, and Xiao Xue and the others beside him, because they were often in the Lizheng Hall and wore very little, were already kneeling on the ground and trembling at the moment.

"Steam Ball? As you said, something as big as that can bring such huge benefits to my Datang? Did he tell you when it will be developed? When will you be back? Wu Meixiu frowned and asked lightly.

"Back to the queen, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said that it is just a prototype, it will become bigger in the future, and it will be used in more ways, and it can do things that cannot be done by manpower, saying that its strength is not even comparable to ploughing cattle and war horses, and if it is developed, it will not run ...... speed than war horses."

"What? Can you still run? Wu Mei looked at Bai Chun in surprise, if she didn't know, Bai Chun would definitely not lie, she could order her to kill her immediately in the name of inciting people and exculpating in the name of ghosts and gods!

Bai Chun was also embarrassed, and Xiao Xue and the others were even more so, because when His Highness told them, they felt as if they were listening to His Highness telling them myths and stories like before.