"Something must have gone wrong"

On the evening of November 24, the sixth year of Qingli, eight days after the return of the ocean-going fleet, the capital of the Great Song Dynasty, Kaifeng Mansion was in the back garden.

Zhao Zhen, the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, was looking at the finished rubber products in the hands of the inner servants in frustration.

In less than ten days, he made hundreds of pieces of rubber in the ratio of oil and carbon black.

After these rubbers are sorted in different proportions, they are poured into molds to form rubber products, which are then used for various tests such as friction, tearing, falling, and cooking.

In the end, Zhao Zhen selected the most suitable proportion among hundreds of pieces of rubber, and found the most durable, frictional and suitable finished product.

But unfortunately, although he has worked diligently and diligently, the finished product has not met his requirements.

Some of them have attained the standard of wear resistance, but they can be quickly softened by steam and hot iron for a long time. Some can withstand high temperatures, but they are not wear-resistant, and they will be worn out quickly after rubbing them on the ground a few times.

Although the steam engine only needs to withstand high temperatures, Zhao Zhen wants to solve the problem of tires once and for all.

Imagine that.

What kind of experience was it for tens of thousands of Great Song soldiers, riding bicycles and carrying spears behind them, chasing the Liao soldiers who were riding horses in front?

Zhao Zhen wanted such a picture too much, so he simply kept trying to create a perfect proportion of rubber.

But there seem to be some barriers in front of us, and the experiment has been unable to find a breakthrough for a long time, which is very frustrating.

It was already the beginning of the evening, and it was already dark.

The Faculty of Chemistry was lit with candles.

Several chamberlains were on standby, and the room was filled with a variety of raw materials.

In the middle of the room is a pot for boiling rubber.

There are still a lot of rubber products left in the pot.

That is, the fleet came back this time with several ships, estimating dozens of tons of rubber raw materials, otherwise it would not have been so tossed.

There was a pungent smell of rubber in the air, and there were all kinds of black rubber stains on the ground.

Zhao Zhen sat on the chair next to him, as far as his eyes could see, there were finished rubber products discarded at will all over the ground, and there were still some black rubber residues in more than a dozen long molds.

He looked at it for a moment, then closed his eyes tiredly and sat down in his chair to rest, rubbing his temples with his hands, wondering what was wrong.

Under normal circumstances, he was already sleeping in the harem at this time.

However, in the last few days, he has often worked until the end of the hour, but he still has to go to the morning court two hours later.

For this reason, Zhao Zhen has already pushed off the work of the early dynasty for a few days, and asked the hundred officials to report to the prefect.

But even so, it still can't be done.

Let Zhao Zhen's head hurt.

"Officials, the so-called speed is not reached, and you can't rush for quick success."

On the side, Wang Shouzhong tactfully persuaded: "If it's too late today, or today."

"Nope."

Zhao Zhen took a long breath, stood up again and said, "I said that I must come up with the finished product within ten days, how can I not believe it." ”

"Just."

"Okay, bring the materials again, you go out first, and I try it myself."

"Yes"

Wang Shouzhong had no choice but to go to the warehouse to get some of the materials, and everyone withdrew from the room.

Zhao Zhen felt that the problem might be with the waiter.

After all, the attendants have not undergone mathematics, physics and chemistry education, and although he is watching from the side when he puts things, it can be said that there is a problem that the proportion is not well adjusted.

This time he decided to try it for himself.

As in the previous process, water is poured and boiled, then rubber and petroleum are added, and after the rubber is completely dissolved, a certain proportion of black charcoal is poured in.

After about half an hour, Zhao Zhen picked up the cooled rubber poured into the mold again for testing.

But the results are still unsatisfactory.

The rubber is quickly worn off during the friction process, and it quickly softens when placed in the steamer during the steam test.

This time it didn't work as well as before.

"What the hell is going on? I have read all the history, and there is no complete rubber formula in it, so I can only explore it myself, but I have tried so many times, but it has not succeeded. ”

Zhao Zhen sat on the chair next to him dejectedly, he often went to the farmland to do biological experiments, and also conducted physical experiments, so his hands-on ability was no problem.

But why hasn't it been successful?

This made Zhao Zhen wonder if he really had the talent to study mathematics, physics and chemistry.

Could it be that something else is going wrong?

Never mind.

Try again.

At this point, it's almost time for the sub-hour.

Dark clouds obscured the moonlight, leaving the world in total darkness.

Only the Faculty of Chemistry was still lit with candles, and the house was full of light.

Just when Zhao Zhen was preparing for a new round of experiments, Wang Shouzhong outside suddenly knocked on the door, opened a crack, and whispered inside: "Your Majesty, Miao Guifei and Zhang Guifei ask to meet." ”

Miao Guifei is the previous Miao imperial attendant, who gave birth to Zhao Zhen's third son, Zhao Xi, last year, and was promoted to a concubine.

Zhang Guifei was the previous Zhang Cairen, that is, the later Empress Wencheng Zhang, who also gave birth to two daughters for Zhao Zhen in recent years and was promoted to a concubine.

Zhao Jun had just crossed over at that time, Zhao Zhen was twenty-seven years old, and his wives were relatively young at that time, several of them were in their teens, and the youngest of them was eleven-year-old Feng Xiurong.

followed by the twelve-year-old Zhang Cairen and the thirteen-year-old Miao Guifei, now ten years have passed, they are all around twenty-two or three years old, which is the most beautiful age.

Therefore, he was favored by Zhao Zhen.

It's just that Zhao Zhen was indulging in experiments and didn't want to do color, so he said casually: "No." ”

"Yes."

Seeing this, Wang Shouzhong went back to the courtyard and told the two concubines.

I didn't expect it to take a while.

"Official."

"Official, let's see you."

Soon there were two soft women's voices outside the door.

Although they were stopped outside the courtyard, how could the chamberlains and palace maids dare to stop them?

Soon they broke in.

Immediately afterwards, the door of the laboratory where Zhao Zhen was located was pushed open, and Zhang Guifei's beautiful face poked in.

Miao Guifei pushed Wang Shouzhong away, and the two of them forcibly squeezed into the house and rushed towards Zhao Zhen.

Wang Shouzhong had no choice but to retreat, and then the door closed.

Since the third year of Jingyou, Zhao Zhen has no longer accepted the harem, so the number of concubines in the harem has basically been formed.

Among them, Zhang Cairen and Miao Yushou were very favored by Zhao Zhen because they were young and beautiful.

Except for Empress Cao, the two of them can be said to be lawless.

Wang Shouzhong can't afford to mess with them.

"Official, don't you want to see your concubines so much?"

"Yes, the official family, it's been nine days, and the concubines are counting the days."

The second daughter was wearing a wide silk palace robe and long skirt, and after walking in, she threw herself into Zhao Zhen's arms left and right.

Zhao Zhen felt the fragrance on their bodies, and the experiment was immediately forgotten, and he said with a smile: "Concubine Ai wants to see her." ”

As he spoke, he was a little discouraged and said: "Alas, it's a pity that I have been trying to make this rubber all this time, and you also know that this is a major event for the benefit of the country and the people." ”

Miao Guifei said with a smile: "The official family can't just rush to do things, maybe it can be done one day." Didn't the official family always want to make that black silk before? Official, take a look. ”

As she spoke, she lifted the hem of her long skirt, revealing her slender thighs.

On the thighs, he actually wore a pair of black stockings with suspenders on them.

And Zhang Guifei smiled slightly, also showing her long legs, revealing a pair of white stockings.

Zhao Zhen's eyes were about to fall.

Ever since he watched the film, he has been thinking about inventing black and white silk that haunts him.

However, a simple nylon stockings, but the process is extremely complex, involving chemical, mechanical and other aspects of engineering, by no means so easy to get out.

So after Zhao Zhen, he could only retreat to the second best thing and use silk to make it.

But silk has no elasticity, and it is not realistic to use pure manual to achieve the tightness of later generations of machinery, so it can only be done by hand weaving, and the effect is unsatisfactory.

Eventually, he managed to get some fishnet stockings.

These net stockings soon became the exclusive property of the harem concubines, and even many palace maids secretly learned to make and dress to seduce the emperor.

The Northern Song Dynasty itself was not poisoned by the imprisoned thoughts of the women of science, and the stockings were intimate clothes like belly pockets, so they were not rejected by the harem concubines.

Except for Empress Cao, in order to please Zhao Zhen, most of the concubines would wear them when serving Zhao Zhen.

Only the style of stockings made Zhao Zhen dislike.

Unexpectedly, his two concubines secretly carried out research and development in private, and really came up with two stockings.

Although it was a suspender stocking, it was enough to make Zhao Zhen's blood spurt and almost spurt a nosebleed.

In just two or three seconds, Zhao Zhen couldn't hold back at that time, his breathing became extremely short, and his hands trembled and touched it.

Feel the silkiness, and all rubber tests are forgotten.

Zhao Zhen laughed quickly, his mouth was almost to the back of his head, and his two hands touched upwards dishonestly, wrapping around the waists of the two concubines, and said in his mouth: "The two concubines have a heart, it's late at night, go to the dormitory with me to rest." ”

Saying that, he hugged and kissed them, pushed open the door of the laboratory, and left the Academy of Chemistry under the gaze of a group of nonsensical eunuchs, laughing and playing along the way to the dormitory.

Because he was afraid that the buildings in the palace were poisonous, Zhao Zhen's bedroom was now on the west side of the back garden.

They soon returned to the dormitory.

About two or three quarters of an hour passed, less than half an hour.

In the dormitory, after some applause of love that could not be detailed, Zhao Zhen was sweating profusely, holding the two young concubines who had been fully satisfied left and right, panting.

To be honest, as an old skin, Zhao Zhen's waist at this time in history is estimated to have been broken a long time ago, and he has never been able to give birth to a son.

is also lucky, Zhao Jun's appearance allowed him to learn to forcibly temper, and he often takes kidney tonic medicine.

In addition, it helped him develop hobbies and hobbies, and he was able to be distracted from national events and mathematics, physics and chemistry research, so that Zhao Zhen would not only think about colors all day long, so his waist is still healthy now.

But the essence of the old color skin is still there, and after the happiness, the air is filled with a beautiful fragrance.

Zhao Zhen enjoyed the residual warmth, and his hand was not honestly touching the thighs of the two concubines, with a satisfied expression on his face.

"This black silk and white silk are so silky, I have always wanted to make it before, but the weaver girl in the palace can't do it well, and she can't do it so densely."

Zhao Zhen asked curiously: "Where did the two concubines find the Weaver Girl?" is even more powerful than the Weaver Girl in the palace? ”

Miao Guifei and Zhang Guifei glanced at each other, then covered their mouths and smiled: "Official, this is not made by the Weaver Girl, we first took out the shuttle, and then applied it to a round roller similar to our legs. ”

"Shuttles and rollers?"

"yes."

Zhang Guifei also said: "The concubines used to see that the official family only wanted to weave by hand, but the hand-made ones were not very close. Later, I thought, if the loom can so easily shuttle the silk that fits the seams, why can't it be used to weave silk? ”

"Loom? But I've used it before. ”

"The general loom is indeed too rough as the official family used to make, so the concubine and Sister Miao just used the method of the loom, and the threads were wound to the drum one by one in order."

"That's it, it's like this."

In an instant, a casual sentence unraveled Zhao Zhen's doubts.

He was like an initiation, muttering to himself.

This process is actually similar to the principle of the hosiery factories of later generations, with eight silk threads wound around the cylinder and then woven upwards along the veins.

The difference is only in the production of one manual and one machine.

And if placed on rubber.

Oh, yes.

The rubber process itself must be very complex, and it is not as simple as dissolving and then adding carbon black.

The eldest grandson didn't know much about this kind of thing, so he could only do it in a limited space.

Both boil the rubber raw materials, pour oil to dissolve, and then add carbon black.

But is the rubber of later generations really that simple?

The answer is clearly not.

In that case, why did he stick to these steps?

It's like stir-frying.

Just put the oil, the eggs, then you can only fry a few fried eggs.

But if you put oil, eggs, rice, chopped green onions, soy sauce, and salt, it's a pot of egg fried rice.

Since the friction is not enough, put something that adds friction, such as sand and stone powder.

Since it's not elastic enough, put something elastic, such as resin.

You can even add some glutinous rice, sawdust, glue, paraffin wax and other things, you can also experiment.

Thinking of this, Zhao Zhen couldn't help but suddenly realize, and said happily: "The two concubines really helped me a lot and made me suddenly enlightened." ”

As he spoke, he kissed it alone, and then planned to get up and say, "I still have to go to the Academy of Chemistry." ”

"Official, no, it's hard to take a break."

"Since the official family has an idea, let's talk about it tomorrow. Rest and rest today, so that you don't get tired. ”

The two young concubines were at the age of dissatisfaction, so they were naturally reluctant to let Zhao Zhen go.

Zhao Zhen originally wanted to go, but his legs were weak and he felt that he couldn't walk, so he had to lie back again, and continued to hug the two concubines and said, "Okay, okay, then let's talk about it tomorrow." ”

After resting for about half an hour, he began to kiss and hug again.

"It's done, I'm finally done."

Two days later, in the early morning, in the palace chemical college, with an excited shout, the relatively good quality rubber was finally baked.

(End of chapter)

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