Gu Xiaojun stood outside the tent, bathing in the evening sun, and Aliyi's excited and excited voice came from the Chinese army's tent from time to time. But Gu Xiaojun didn't have the heart to listen to what alchemy was being discussed by the two inside, his mind was all on another tent not far away.

Several Hu girls from the Nine Kingdoms of Zhaowu were bathing and changing clothes for Hu Lingye inside, and he made a bet with Li Ergou. Bet on whether Captain Xiao will eat Hu Lingye tonight.

Xiao Quzhi didn't know their bad taste, and now he was sitting at a table, flickering energetically.

Jabir ibn Hayan is wrong in his view that any metal is a separate substance, not made of a mixture of sulphur and mercury in a certain proportion; And your so-called alchemy, which turns base metals into precious metals, only happens under certain circumstances. For example, after a silver coin is dissolved in aqua regia, we put copper or iron in it, and it can produce silver. But that's only because the solution contains silver, and if there's no silver in the solution, you can't turn copper into silver by any means. Do you understand this? ”

What Xiao Quzhi is talking about is the most popular discipline that has just emerged in Dashi at this moment-alchemy. The discipline was mainly derived from Egypt and Greek culture, and during the Great Eclipse period, the Great Eclipse Caliph ordered the translation of some Greek and Coptic books on alchemy, astrology, and medicine into Arabic.

At that time, this kind of cultural translation activity was only a few scattered activities, and it has not become a large-scale until now. In another time and space, it did not flourish until after al-Mansur ascended the caliphate, and the era of Maimun (reigned 813~833) entered its heyday, and began to translate Greek and Oriental sciences in large numbers under the organization of the state.

This is the century-old translation movement, which is very famous in Arab history, and this movement has changed the course of the development of world culture and technology. And the reason why al-Mansur became caliphate began to flourish is also closely related to the current war. In another time and place, it was the defeat of Gao Xianzhi in the Battle of Talas that some craftsmen were captured, which led to the spread of papermaking to the West. Otherwise, the translation and dissemination of these Arabs would have to be carried out on parchment.

Strictly speaking, this is a pseudoscience, but in another time and space, it is the alchemy that these great cannibals tirelessly pursued, although it did not refine gold, but because of continuous experiments, they developed solutions such as nitric acid, sulfuric acid, aqua regia, silver nitrate, etc., and thus promoted the production of modern chemistry.

Ali Yi was stunned for a moment, he didn't expect that this elegant and handsome general, the deputy envoy of Anxi Jiedu, was still a knowledgeable scholar, and many difficult problems that he couldn't figure out were all answered by him. This boy, who looked less than twenty years old, seemed to know everything.

The knowledge that he was proud of was not worth mentioning in front of him at all. At first, Ali Yi was still a little unconvinced, from arithmetic, to geometry, to physics, astronomy, and even the alchemy that his friend Jaber ibn Hayan had just studied, Ali Yi asked one by one, trying to stump the boy in front of him, but in the end, the answer given by this boy always shocked him.

"I don't really understand this, maybe you're right." Ali Yi said with some confusion: "But, Your Excellency the Honorable Deputy Envoy of Anxi Jiedu, how do you know about these knowledge?" If I'm not mistaken, you shouldn't be more than twenty years old this year, right? ”

"I can tell you why, and I can even teach you all the knowledge you want to know, as long as you promise me a condition."

"On what terms?"

"Follow me back to Datang."

"This won't work, my family is still in Khorasan."

"I can help you get them from and Posilin."

"But, Your Excellency the Honorable Deputy Envoy of Anxi Jiedu, what is the use of you asking me to go back to Datang with you?" Aliyi looked bitter: "I'm just a scholar who specializes in learning, and I can't fight, and my knowledge is not worth mentioning at all in front of you." ”

"You don't care about this, let's tell you the truth, you have to agree to this condition, and if you don't agree, you have to agree, anyway, I won't let you go back." Xiao Quzhi said with a grin.

"You can't do this, you're a robber......"

"Why not, I'm a robber? At least I didn't hurt you, I didn't kill you, I didn't force you to give up your faith in Hu Da. What did you great cannibals do when they enslaved the Sassanid Persians, don't you want me to say? Xiao Quzhi interrupted him rudely. He was referring to the brutal rule of the Great Cannibals over the Persians after the defeat of Sassanid Persia, turning almost all Persians into slaves, robbing them of everything they had, and forcing them to change their language, religion, and so on.

Ali Yi didn't expect Xiao Quzhi to suddenly mention this, and he muttered, "That's because we defeated them." ”

What a strong bandit logic, the law of the jungle of the red fruit, this is the way of thinking of the big cannibal, the strong have everything, dominate everything, and the loser has no power.

Xiao Quzhi smiled: "In other words, if I defeat and Po Xilin, you will be willing to be my slave and do what I say for the rest of your life?" ”

Ali pursed her lips and said after a long time, "Haven't you already defeated and Posilin?" If you can defeat the Abbasids or Mansu, I will be your servant, and if you can, you will tell me the answers, answer my doubts, and let me go. ”

"This can't work, these two are thousands of miles away, how can I fight them. In short, if I defeat him completely, I will either kill him or capture him alive, and defeat or kill all his armies, and you will be my servant. If I can't, is it fair as you say? ”

Ali Yi stared at the diagram drawn by Xiao Quzhi on the table, the formula listed, recalled the several puzzles he had solved for himself, hesitated for a long time, and said word by word: "Fair." I accept. ”

It's really fair, if the other party can really do that, if he doesn't come to the envoy, then the ending waiting for him is either to be killed by the Anxi army, or to become a prisoner of the Anxi army. The captive has no power, and is far inferior to the servant.

"Well, I'm going to win anyway, I'll show you something, my future servant." Xiao Qubing opened the folded world map: "At the beginning, you should have set off from here, right, and sailed for half a year to reach Guangzhou?" ”

Aliyi's mouth was open, and he looked at the map in disbelief, and then looked up at the young man of twenty. Is he a human or a ghost, and even knows this?

Time flew by, and it was getting dark quickly. After dinner, the two talked again, and Ali recounted some of the experiences of sailing and shipbuilding. After Xiao went to the sick and washed up, he came to the tent where he was sleeping, and couldn't help but be stunned, there were people inside.

Xiao Quzhi recalled that at dinner, Li Ergou smiled evilly, shook his head, and entered the tent with a curtain.