"Mother, brother, look, someone is releasing a sky lantern!"
Guiyi Lane, Meng Wenhao's house.
After dinner, Yaya came to the courtyard and inadvertently saw a bright flame floating in the sky in the northeast direction. The little girl couldn't help but shout excitedly in that direction.
The so-called sky lantern was another name for the Kongming lantern. It was commonly known as the wishing lantern or the praying lantern. It was an ancient handicraft of China. In ancient times, it was mostly used for military purposes, but some people would release it on major festivals such as the Lantern Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival to make wishes and pray.
There were two theories about the origin of the Kongming lantern. One was that during the Five Dynasties, there was a woman named Shen Qiniang. When she was fighting in Fujian with her husband, she used bamboo strips to make a square frame, pasted paper on it, and made it into a lamp. Burning pine resin was placed on the chassis, and the lamp flew into the sky with the hot air as a military communication signal. This kind of pine resin lamp was called the Kongming lantern in Sichuan. The main reason was that this kind of lantern looked like the hat worn by Zhuge Liang, hence the name.
The other theory was that it was invented by Zhuge Liang during the Three Kingdoms. At that time, Zhuge Liang was besieged in Pingyang and couldn't send troops out of the city to ask for help. Kongming calculated the direction of the wind and made a floating paper lantern. He tied the paper lantern with a message asking for help. After that, he really got out of danger, so the later generations called this kind of lantern the Kongming lantern.
No matter which theory was correct, it was an indisputable fact that there were already Kongming lanterns in the Tang Dynasty.
"That's true, but there are still more than ten days before the Mid-Autumn Festival! Why would someone release a sky lantern at this time? "
Meng Wenhao's mother heard her daughter's scream and ran out to see the commotion. After seeing the flame clearly, she said with some doubts.
"Mother, that's not a sky lantern!"
Meng Wenhao said sullenly at this time, and then he gestured with his hands.
"That ball of fire is at least four to five miles away from us. Generally speaking, the farther something is, the smaller it looks. Now that we can see it so clearly from such a distance, it means that this thing is at least dozens of times bigger than an ordinary sky lantern! It's definitely not a sky lantern! "
Meng Wenhao's mother thought carefully and felt that her son's words made sense, but she still had some doubts. "But if it's not a sky lantern, what else can it fly so high?"
"I don't know!"
Meng Wenhao shook his head and said, "But my master definitely knows!"
Meng Wenhao's mother rubbed her son's head, "Yes, yes, yes! Haohao's your master is the best! All of you should go and rest early ~! Hao 'er, you still have to go to Minister Hu's grain store tomorrow to settle the accounts ~! "
Meng Wenhao's father had been out at sea for almost three months. Now that the pillar of the family was gone, Meng Wenhao had no choice but to step up. Therefore, he took advantage of the two-month farmland leave to find a job to supplement the family.
The other party was Squire Hu's family that Mother Meng often worked for. As for his position, he was the bookkeeper. Relying on the glorious halo of being the top scorer in the school of mathematics and the advanced mathematical knowledge in his mind, Meng Wenhao alone was equivalent to ten of the Hu family's original bookkeepers. Thus, Squire Hu not only treated him with special respect, but also gave him an unusually high salary.
"Oh! ..... Nn ~!
Meng Wenhao replied in a muffled voice, but his expression became somewhat strange.
…
"Your Majesty, according to the report, a big ball of fire just flew out of the workshop of the Interesting Pavilion, and it's flying northeast. It should be out of the city soon!"
In the Sweet Dew Hall, Li Er rubbed his sore wrist and was about to return to Zhangsun's place to sleep when Zhao Song suddenly rushed in and reported.
"A flying ball of fire?"
Li Er frowned, and his face became a little strange. After a while, he seemed to have thought of something and suddenly stood up. "Let's go to the Xuanwu Gate!"
The Xuanwu Gate, the North Gate of the Taiji Palace, was located on the slope of the Dragon Head Plain. It overlooked the entire Chang 'an City and was an important gate in the North of the palace. Of course, compared to its geographical location, the Xuanwu Gate was more famous for its political and military position. After all, there was a change of regime here last year.
In fact, in a few years, a bigger and more magnificent building would be built here, and that would be the famous Daming Palace. It could be seen even from outside Chang 'an City. If there were no accidents, Li Er would order it to be built in the eighth year of Zhenguan.
"Your Majesty, look! It's that ball of fire. It should be flying out of Chang 'an City soon! "
Zhao Song pointed to the eastern sky and said to Li Er when they came to the tower of the Xuanwu Gate.
"Mm!"
Li Er nodded and responded, but his eyes were staring in that direction without blinking. Zhao Song did not know why Li Er was so focused, but he did not dare to ask. He just stood at the side with his head lowered.
"Let's go back to the palace!"
After a long time, the ball of fire became smaller and smaller until it finally disappeared. Li Er flung his sleeves and turned to leave. He left a sentence in the air, but it stunned Zhao Song.
"When Li Zexuan returns to the city tomorrow, ask him to come and see me immediately!"
Zhao Song frowned and followed behind Li Er. He wondered, "Isn't Li Zexuan still in the workshop now? Why does Your Majesty have to wait for him to return to the city tomorrow? "
…
"A punch to the left, a punch to the right, I urge everyone to take a punch!"
Li Zexuan couldn't care less about how depressed Zhao Song was. He was busy cleaning up the mess he had made up in the past!
When the hot air balloon flew into the sky earlier, he regretted it. That was because the wind was blowing from the south, and the Qinling Mountains were northeast of Chang 'an City. The wind direction was not suitable at all!
If Li Zexuan did nothing and let the ball of fire fly freely, it would definitely not reach the Snake Spirit Mountain. It would only fly further and further to the north!
Back then, when Kongming made the Kongming Lantern to ask for help, he had already calculated the direction of the wind. Although Li Zexuan was a Daoist, he did not learn the ability to calculate. Hence, he was a little confused when he flew up.
This was really the only thing that he had missed out on!
Fortunately, Li Zexuan was smart enough to come up with this idea. He kept throwing punches to the west. His punches were infused with True Qi. Using the recoil force of his punches and the push of the south wind, Li Zexuan "limped" towards the northeast with the ball in tow.
(Those who had learned force analysis would definitely be able to analyze it.)
"Damn it! Does this count as a rocket with its own gas tank? "
Li Zexuan mumbled gloomily as he worked in the air.
Ahem, I have to admit that his description was very apt!
…
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
