Traveling through Great Qin: Father Qin Shihuang!

After Zhao Che finished speaking, Meng Yi nodded decisively.

"My son is right, but the question is, how can we make so many ice cubes? If you can find a way, it will be a good thing for my Daqin navy."

"Don't worry, making ice cubes is not very difficult, let's go back first, I'll have someone prepare to make ice cubes, and what I just said, I'll send a batch of vegetables and fruits from Jingyang first. "

"Here!"

The two of them had already returned to the deck while talking.

"Father, it's almost time for shopping, let's go back."

"What? Is this enough?"

"It's almost there. Let's go back first. I have something to tell you."

Ying Zheng was stunned for a moment, and without asking any further questions, he signaled Meng Yi to inform the navy to return.

"Father, how many ice cubes can Daqin store in a year?"

On the way back, Zhao Che asked Ying Zheng casually.

"Why do you ask this suddenly? I don't know the exact number. If you want to know, you can ask Ling Ren when you get back."

Lingren is actually an official position, which has appeared as early as the Zhou Dynasty.

And Ling Ren's task is also very simple, that is to help store and manage ice cubes.

The earliest method of storing ice has existed since the Zhou Dynasty.

During the coldest winter, Lingren would lead people to mine natural ice, and then dig wells, the deeper the better.

The mined ice will be put into the deep well, and this kind of ice is also called deep well ice.

The bottom of the deep well is insulated with straw and reed bedding, and then the wellhead is sealed, and it will not be used until the next year.

For the ice cubes stored every year, it would be good to have about one-third of the ice cubes stored in the next summer.

The most important thing for these one-third of the ice cubes has to be for the royal family and nobles to enjoy.

Such a small amount of ice is not enough to distribute to so many nobles in Daqin, let alone use it to build some ice cellars to store supplies for those sailors.

……

After the building boat landed, Ying Zheng and Zhao Che quickly returned to the palace.

"Father, I need some saltpeter, help me find it!"

"What is saltpeter?"

"Don't you know saltpeter?"

Zhao Che was stunned for a moment. At this time, saltpeter should have been applied to the field of traditional Chinese medicine.

"I really don't know, is it some kind of stone?"

Seeing that Ying Zheng's appearance did not seem to be fake, Zhao Che wondered if he had made a mistake.

Immediately, Zhao Che described the function and appearance of saltpeter to Ying Zheng to see if he had seen it before.

"Young master said, could it be Dishuang?"

"Ground frost?"

Meng Yi on the side spoke up, and Zhao Che finally realized it.

There is indeed another name for saltpeter called ground frost. It turns out that people at this time still called it ground frost.

"That's it, Uncle Meng, do you know where it is? Find some for me."

"Okay, young master, wait a moment!"

Saltpeter is actually not uncommon, and most of the time it is used as medicine.

Therefore, preparations were made in Yingzheng's palace, and soon Meng Yi walked in with some saltpeter.

"I don't know why the young master wants this frost? Could it be refining medicine?"

In Meng Yi's impression, those alchemists who deceived Ying Zheng used to use saltpeter and the like when making alchemy.

But Zhao Che is different, even if he really wants to use saltpeter to refine medicine, it must be the real fairy medicine refined.

But it was obvious that Ying Zheng and Meng Yi were overthinking it.

"Please, Uncle Meng, help me get a wooden barrel. Remember to fill it with water and bring in a clean basin."

"Cher, what do you want these things for?"

Hearing this, Ying Zheng asked with some doubts.

"Ice making!"

"Cure? What disease?"

Yingzheng thought about it for a moment, and Dishuang does have the effect of curing diseases, but who is Zhao Che going to cure?
"It's not healing, it's making ice. To make ice, use saltpeter and water!"

"Can Earth Frost make ice cubes?"

Zhao Che didn't answer Ying Zheng's question, but just urged Meng Yi to find something quickly.

After seeing it with their own eyes, they will naturally know how to make ice with saltpeter.

Meng Yi's movements were not slow, and after a while, someone brought in a large wooden bucket, which was half filled with water.

At the same time, there was also a clean small basin filled with water according to Zhao Che's instructions.

"Father, the weather is quite hot today, why don't I get you something delicious."

"What's delicious?"

"ice cream!"

"Ice unicorn?"

Zhao Che was too lazy to find out whether he and Ying Zheng were talking about the same thing.

After he had the wooden barrel brought over, he threw the saltpeter into the water in a ratio of one to one.

Afterwards, Zhao Che asked people to quickly put the small basin in the barrel.

When the saltpeter fell into the water, a violent chemical reaction occurred immediately.

The water in the bucket seemed to be boiling, with a lot of white gas coming out, and it was still bubbling.

"Cher, what's going on?"

Ying Zheng was shocked by this scene. Everything in front of him was beyond his understanding.

Especially the white qi that kept gushing out of the wooden barrel looked very fairy qi.

At this time, his palace seemed to have turned into a fairy palace in the sky, with a faint fairy air.

Zhao Che didn't know how to explain this chemical reaction to them, so he simply kept silent and let Ying Zheng watch by himself.

Soon Ying Zheng also realized that Zhao Che didn't pay attention to him at all, and he was a little bored. Following Zhao Che's gaze, he realized that he had been staring at the small basin in the bucket.

At this time, a light layer of frost had formed on the surface of the water in the barrel, and the water in the basin had already begun to freeze.

"Hiss, did it really turn into ice?"

Ying Zheng couldn't help but gasped.

It hasn't been long since Zhao Che put the saltpeter into the water, and the water in the basin has already started to freeze.

It is estimated that it will not be long before these ices will completely solidify and become real ice cubes.

Most importantly, the method of making ice with saltpeter is too simple, as long as you read it personally.

In this way, as long as there is enough saltpeter, will they be able to make ice cubes anytime and anywhere in the future?

In previous years, the summer days were always the hottest, and the ice cubes stored in the palace were limited, so even Ying Zheng didn't dare to squander them recklessly.

Well now, with the method of making ice with saltpeter, wouldn't it be possible to use as many ice cubes as you want in the future?

At this time, Zhao Che reached out and brought out the small basin from the barrel.

At this time, these ice cubes have not completely solidified. To be precise, they cannot be regarded as ice cubes, but at most they are called smoothies.

However, if Zhao Che wants to make ice cream, just this level of ice cream is enough.

"Uncle Meng, go get the saltpeter out of the water, it can be recycled and reused."

"Is this saltpeter still usable?"

Meng Yi was even more pleasantly surprised, the saltpeter consumption required to make ice cubes is not a small amount.

Although this consumption is nothing to Ying Zheng, it can be regarded as an increase in the cost of ice cubes, making it difficult to benefit Guishou.