It seems that I am still too full [travel]

On New Year's Eve, it is still cold, and the master of the Han family is obsessed with plums. Although the west courtyard does not have thousands of plum trees like the Meilinzhai in Dongcang Academy, winter plums can still be seen everywhere. Taking advantage of the chilly east wind, Plum blossoms bloom one after another on the dead branches, red, white, and green. If you step into it, you will feel as if you are in a sea of ​​fragrance, with a faint fragrance on your sleeves.

Xie Shi saw each other one day, and couldn't bear to see the precious plum blossoms all over the place "turned into mud and dust", so he and Han Ning, who accompanied him, called three or two attendants to help, and collected some plum blossoms with the best appearance and the strongest fragrance petal.

Han Ning saw that he ordered the servants to soak and wash the petals in well water, and asked, "Sir, do you plan to make flower dishes?"

Xie Shi said yes, and he asked, "Have you ever eaten flower cakes?"

Han Ning shook his head. Flowers have been used in dishes since ancient times, and they are especially loved by literati. However, Han Ning has eaten candied flowers, flower porridge, flower soup and other flower dishes, but he has never heard of making cakes.

Xie Shi was taken aback, and suddenly remembered that this flower cake was said to have been invented by a Yunnan cake maker in the Qing Dynasty, and later entered the palace and became a court dessert, which was deeply loved by Emperor Qianlong, so Han Ning didn't eat it at this time It's also normal to have flower cakes.Unexpectedly, he made another "invention" creation.

"Then Brother Ning will be able to eat it in a few days. First make the plum blossom sauce, and then bake the flower cake after seven days. Let's eat plum porridge and plum blossom soup cake first."

The plum blossoms that had just fallen to the ground this morning were torn apart one by one, soaked in clean snow water for half an hour, and gently stroked the dust off the petals.The most important thing to cook plum porridge is to use the fragrance of the ingredients into the porridge, so you need to choose plum blossoms with a stronger aroma. Most of the plum blossoms that bloom early are more fragrant than late flowers, so the batch of plum blossoms that Xie Shi picked up this morning are very fragrant. However, in order to keep improving, three varieties of plum blossoms, namely Huangxiang, Gongfen and Lvcalyx, were selected from them.

Put the petals soaked in snow water into japonica rice porridge, and cook them slowly over a slow fire. Slowly, the petal juice soaks into the white rice porridge, dyeing the porridge pink, which contrasts with the white porridge, just like the glow of snow. The color is very beautiful.When the rice porridge is thick enough to have a thick layer of rice oil on the surface, it can be served in a porcelain bowl, and a few small pink petals are sprinkled on it, which is more elegant.

The plum blossom soup cakes that Xie Shi mentioned are actually plum blossom wontons, but they are not filled with flowers, but water and noodles soaked in white plum and sandalwood powder are used to make wonton wrappers, and then they are molded into special plum blossom-shaped iron molds. Cut out the delicate flower shape, boil it and put it into the chicken soup. When you eat it, it has both the shape of plum blossom and the fragrance of plum blossom.

Finally, the remaining plum blossom petals were washed and dried, dried in the sun for a while, then pickled with rock sugar and honey, crushed the petals, stirred evenly, and put them in a cool place for seven days. It can be used to make flower cakes.

During the imperial court, Xie Shi was drinking plum porridge and eating plum soup cakes with Han Ning and Mr. Xie when a young servant came in from the outside and reported, "Master Cen sent some craftsmen over there."

Xie Shi was overjoyed, put down the bowls and chopsticks, and said, "Quickly invite them in."

These craftsmen were found by Xie Shi and asked Cen Yu to help them find them. Although the two of them went straight to the wrong building because of the name of Oceania that day, Xie Shi became furious and sent this dishonest person away.Afterwards, Xie Shi remembered the business, and Xie Shi didn't know much about the sailing, but since it started from him, he felt uneasy if he was allowed to sit on the sidelines.

Xie Shi devoted himself to reading the records about navigation in the Han family library. After thinking about it for a few days, he found that apart from perfecting the charts from his memory, there were two other things he could do to prevent ocean-going ships from arriving when no one arrived. Lost in the depths of the sea, try your best to send this group of historical pioneers to another continent.

The status of craftsmen was not high in ancient times. Although several craftsmen were servants of the Han family, and some of them were craftsmen of the Han family for generations, this was the first time in their life that they stepped into the ancestral house of the Han family. In front of Xie Shi, one by one followed the order of the chief steward, and after performing the ceremony honestly, they stood cautiously.

Xie Shi's eyes were "loving", looking at the group of craftsmen as if they were looking at some treasure, with a very amiable attitude, smiling and asking them to report their families, talk about their respective skills and proud works.

Although Cen Yu is unreliable in some aspects and has occasional convulsions, he is very reliable in business matters. He has always taken Xie Shi's request seriously. The five craftsmen he sent to Xie Shi this time are all in their own fields. The best of the best, three master craftsmen in instrument gear, two master craftsmen and second in command in the glass workshop.

After Xie Shi asked about their resumes, he took out the sketches he had drawn in advance, and first asked the two craftsmen of the glass workshop, "Since both of you are good at making telescopes in the workshop, take a look. Can this thing be done?"

The two craftsmen stepped forward according to Xie Shi's instructions, and carefully looked over Xie Shi's rough sketch over and over again, but they didn't understand what the purpose of this object was.The master master among them saw Xie Shi's friendly attitude, so he boldly asked, "Dare to ask the officials, what is the specific use of this thing?"

Just looking at the things Xie Shi painted, the shape and composition are very simple. They are divided into two parts. The first part is fixed, including the frame, a graduation arc, a telescope and a horizon mirror, and the second part can The moving indicator arm and the indicator mirror fixed on the indicator arm.In the eyes of the two craftsmen, if they are asked to follow suit, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, and the task is guaranteed to be completed, but the key point is that they just sketched a shape without knowing what the noble master is doing for this thing. The things made are useless at all, so the master will blame him!That's why the master asked this trembling question.

What Xie Shi wanted to do was actually the sextant used in nautical positioning and navigation. This thing really crippled many of Xie Shi's brain cells. In the end, Xie Shi picked up a memory from the long-term memory of high school geography extracurricular practice and drew it. Such a sketch.

The sextant is an optical instrument. Its invention is of great significance in the history of navigation. Before that, even Columbus Magellan and other navigators could only rely on star maps full of errors and omissions and some rough conclusions based on previous experience. The estimation method is used to locate in the sea, and after the sextant appeared in the [-]th century, navigators could finally determine the precise latitude of their ships with the help of it, so that it is not so easy to get lost in the sea.

Xie Shi no longer remembers what the specific sextant mechanism looks like. He only recalls the memory of how to calculate the latitude with the help of a simple sextant model in the practical class. A true ancient man described as best he could how it was used and what it was used for.To Xie Shi's surprise, the two master masters said bluntly that this thing is not difficult to make.

"Officer, we don't understand the angle you mentioned, the angle of the sun, and the height of the sun, and we don't know how to calculate it, but if we understand what you want this thing for, we will know how to do it." To put it bluntly, on the premise that the Cen family already has the skills of a telescope workshop and skilled craftsmen, the sextant is not difficult to make. The difficult thing is how to calculate and use it to locate it.