Chapter 118

In any case, Ye Tao was granted the vacation. He stayed in Danyang for another three days, hoping to talk to Tan Weixin. But his request to see the princess was rejected three times in a row. And these three rejections came from Tan Weixin's maid Sisi, the chief steward of the Princess Manor Liu Yong, and Li Mian, who represented the grand eunuch Li Sishu. Seeing the increasing distance in these three rejections, Ye Tao knew that Tan Weixin's anger would probably not subside so quickly. So, on the morning of the fourth day, Ye Tao finally set off for Yicheng to complete the construction that had never appeared in this era.

"Well, let's do that. Don't forget to send Ye Tao the usual letters and messages. Remember to send back any replies you receive." After the guard of the Princess Manor reported to Tan Weixin that Ye Tao had left Danyang, Tan Weixin gave a faint instruction. This instruction puzzled everyone.

Wasn't Tan Weixin feuding with Ye Tao? But it didn't seem like it.

The Princess Manor continued to send a lot of information to Ye Tao. The part about daily affairs of the court was especially brief because Ye Tao was not an official, usually just personnel transfers and what people were impeaching Ye Tao for and why. The rest was about the affairs of the Two Armies Review Office, such as the results of a new round of internal war game deductions, and the list of rewards and punishments within the two armies. There were also some reports on the operation of related industries.

Tan Weixin successively rejected Ye Tao's audience, and then Ye Tao suddenly left Danyang for Yicheng. This gave many people room for speculation. Tentative impeachments began to appear the day after Ye Tao set off. In the letters sent to Ye Tao every day, the space occupied by the titles of the impeachments became larger and larger, but they were also becoming less and less novel. At this moment, neither the Princess nor Ye Tao himself had much interest in this kind of boring noise. But if those who thought that the relationship between Ye Tao and Tan Weixin had deteriorated and that Ye Tao was no longer favored by the princess knew about this continuous exchange of letters, what expressions would they have?

For Ye Tao, the most direct result of the conflict with Tan Weixin was that his steward Lu Dan's work state was much worse. Lu Dan had many opportunities to contact Ye Tao every day, so he quickly jumped out of the exaggerated misunderstanding that Ye Tao and the princess had broken up, and understood that the two were just having a bit of a quarrel. He was originally a guard of the Princess Manor, and he had to manage Ye Tao's behavior along the way, deal with incoming and outgoing mail, and also rack his brains to figure out how such a small person like him should reconcile the relationship between the two. It was really difficult for him.

On the contrary, Ye Tao simply didn't think about it anymore. He urged the carriage to Yicheng at the fastest speed, and then threw himself into the construction of the now-burgeoning Yicheng Clock Tower "Seven Seas Pagoda" with extremely vigorous spirit.

The scaffolding of the Seven Seas Pagoda was already being dismantled. The copper lightning rod at the top of the Seven Seas Pagoda finally fixed the height of the clock tower at two hundred and eighty-seven *chi* (ancient Chinese unit of length). As long as there was some sunshine, looking up at this magnificent tower, most people would not be able to see the lightning rod clearly from the backlight of the bright sky. The construction of the clock tower was so fast thanks to the cooperation of many parties, especially the almost unlimited capital investment of the Seven Seas Trading Company. The iron nails used to build the scaffolding during the construction of the clock tower alone numbered in the thousands of pounds. Now the various materials including wood and bamboo used for the scaffolding that were gradually dismantled were piled up like mountains in the port area. Starting from the foundation, the Seven Seas Trading Company actually paid for everything that could use a human wave tactic to shorten the construction period. According to statistics, at the peak of the entire Seven Seas Pagoda and supporting project construction site, almost ten thousand people were working at the same time, and that happened last year, about a month after the project started. As the clock tower continued to extend upwards, the actual manpower invested was gradually decreasing. But even so, when installing the clock face and carrying out sculptural decorations, it still set a historical record of one hundred and seventy-four people working at high altitude at the same time.

The main construction of the building has been completed, and the remaining is mainly the internal decoration and the installation of the clock tower's core components. As the scaffolding gradually receded, the clock tower's handsome face became clearer and clearer. The towering tower rising from the ground to the clock face had only a small window on each side. It was more to balance the air pressure inside and outside the clock tower than to facilitate internal staff to view the scenery. In order to prevent the entire towering giant pillar from appearing rigid and monotonous, the external surface was still layered in a pagoda style, but this layering had a greater visual meaning than practical effect. The greatest significance lies in providing twelve carving positions on a circle of stone foundations on each floor. These heights divided into fourteen floors gave the artists plenty of room for expression.

In a certain version of the detailed design drawings, Ye Tao had originally drawn several gargoyles with different shapes. However, considering that such images of demons and ghosts would be difficult for him to explain why, and would certainly not be popular with everyone, he finally gave up this extremely spoof idea and instead let his eldest brother Guan Haishan, who had returned to Yicheng for the clock tower, handle it himself.

Although Guan Haishan was good at construction and liked architecture and gardens, he did not study stone carvings and the like in depth. He threw this problem back to the headquarters of Ye's Workshop. Unexpectedly, not only the lower pillars, but even around the clock face and on top of the clock tower, the apprentices and workers in the workshop, led by Ye Tao's fourth brother Qian Shun, came up with a set of extremely gorgeous exterior decoration schemes that were astounding.

The stone carvings in the twelve positions on each floor were all animals or mythical spirit beasts, divine beasts, and the like. And from the bottom to the top of the fourteen floors, the sculptures in each identical position must ensure that the content of the fourteen sculptures on a line from the bottom to the top would be considered by most people to be within a system. For example, if the bottom layer was a bird, then as the floors rose, the circle of sculptures below the clock face would eventually be fixed on the phoenix.

Because there was no picture-and-text version of the *Shan Hai Jing* (Classic of Mountains and Seas) or anything like that to refer to in this time and space, during the four-month decoration design period, the various books that everyone consulted, the folk legends they collected and recorded themselves, and various imaginary drawings, concept drawings, and basic design drawings filled a room.

The area around the clock face and the towering spire were another theme of design.

They associated the circular surface with the sun, and everything around it was this world. From bottom to top, it was from the ground to the sky, and different content was selected according to the different spaces being described. The clock faces in the four directions represent plains, mountains, oceans, and cities respectively, which fit the geographical location of Yicheng very well. The reliefs, which combined the characteristics of freehand brushwork and realism, were exquisitely gorgeous and breathtaking. The uppermost circle of the four faces expresses the content of clouds and sky, forming an integrated whole to express the essence of the sky that envelops all things. Above it was the circle around the edge of the spire. On this circle, in addition to carving magnificent cloud patterns, there were not too many decorations. Perhaps, everyone did not want to imagine the appearance of heaven in this world too presumptuously. On the four corners of the pyramid-shaped roof, there were statues of the Four Heavenly Kings, the legendary guardians of the four directions of the Heavenly Court. At that height, statues in the same proportion as real people were really too extravagant. The tiles covering the spire were specially designed. After all these glazed tiles were installed, the fit between each piece and the two pieces next to it was quite perfect, and each round of tiles looked like undulating curves from a distance. Each glazed tile was engraved with different characters on the back. If you start from the top one and follow a certain order, the words on the back of the glazed tiles on the entire spire are connected together, it is the sacrificial text of the Holy Ancestor Emperor who founded the country and unified the mainland praying to heaven and praying for blessings for all the people. By the way, although the lightning rod is made of brass, at the top of the spire, the place where the lightning rod is installed is a pure gold base weighing five pounds.

The high degree of unity in concept, form, and content is enough to make the Seven Seas Pagoda a monument in the history of art in this time and space. In fact, most of the many beautiful sculptures are invisible to the naked eye. From the funders to the most basic craftsmen, they were actually pouring their ideals of perfection into their work to make their own interpretation. Not only the speed of completion of the building, the quality of the building, and the artistic level of the sculptures were unbelievable. On the edge of the spire, the Heavenly King facing south was recast six times before everyone was satisfied. You must know that each time the original statue was knocked down, the stone was transported to that height and reinstalled, it would take at least a whole day. The unpredictable dangers of high-altitude operations could not stop everyone's pursuit of perfection.

As the creator, chief designer, and general contractor of such a great building, Ye Tao could not help but feel proud. And his enthusiasm quickly turned into motivation for work. Running up and down the clock tower dozens of times every day was just the most basic condition for the work to proceed.

Under the guidance of Ye Tao, the core part of the clock chamber, which was made as a whole according to the design drawings, was installed in two days. The connection parts with the pendulum, the hands, and the connection and initial debugging of the parts such as the weight hammer that served as power were also completed one after another within ten days. With the help of the pulley block specially designed by Ye Tao, it only took two days to hoist the striking clock. Although everyone who made a living on the construction site was familiar with pulleys, only pulleys could allow them to easily transport and lift materials when building slightly taller buildings. However, the pulley block designed by Ye Tao still surprised everyone. The pulley block composed of more than twenty sets of pulleys of various sizes can automatically adjust the center of gravity of the striking clock and distribute the pulling force to different ropes, so that the striking clock always maintains a delicate balance when lifting. After the lifting is in place, only a slight adjustment of the position is required for hoisting and fixing. Although it was just a small trick, Ye Tao's ideas were so surprising.

After a month of busy work in Yicheng, the world's first clock tower, the "Seven Seas Pagoda," was finally completed before the typhoon season. Although there were still some small supporting projects around, such as the greening and granite flooring of the small square around the clock tower, and a circle of two- to three-story small buildings around the square for opening hotels and shops, it could no longer obscure everyone's adoring, admiring, admiring, and incredible gazes at the clock tower.

After several days of precision debugging of the clock chamber and other components, the clock tower finally started operating on a certain morning, at the moment when the first ray of sunlight shone on the spire of the clock tower, making the blue glazed tiles begin to shine. In Yicheng, only a small number of people knew the time when the clock tower started operating, and only they quietly carried out the smallest scale celebration.

Including Ye Tao, Qi Zhentao, Peng Detian, and Min Yue, a total of twelve people were in the room above the clock chamber, the astronomy room that was scheduled to be used for installing equipment for time correction. The servants ran all the way to deliver the breakfast they bought, which could still maintain a little residual warmth. This was not a comfortable revolving restaurant, but it did not prevent everyone from watching the entire Jin Guanglin of the Luohe estuary in full view, watching the densely packed houses and streets at their feet while drinking soy milk and eating "Fengyu Fried Buns", and what reached their ears was the regular clicking sound of the gears turning.

After people began to move around in the market, someone finally looked up at the clock tower occasionally, and then exclaimed and reminded everyone that the clock was moving. It was not until noon that the striking clock rang for the first time.

The first ringing of this long-publicized clock tower shook the entire city. The clear chimes were amplified by the special resonance room inside the clock tower, and could be heard as far as a dozen miles away. Although the clock tower located in the port area was not in the center of Yicheng, the chimes could cover the entire city. The only ones who might have felt bad about this first chiming were the two apprentices from Ye's Workshop who were too curious about this matter and ran to the resonance room when the chimes were ringing. The sound waves shook them so much that they vomited and diarrhea, and their heads were dizzy. It took several days for them to recover.

Needless to say, among the crowd waiting for this absolutely major event of this era, in addition to the local residents of Yicheng, in addition to those who had been making a living on the shipping routes and trade routes to the outside world from Yicheng Port, in addition to those merchants and officials who had been extremely concerned about this clock tower, there were also a large number of spies from other countries. Landmark buildings in this era are closely related to national strength and a country's technological level. And Yicheng's Seven Seas Building fully possessed the qualifications to be regarded as the political achievements of the lord of a country.

Muhammad, who was already on fire with the major merchants in Yicheng, and even secretly joined the Seven Seas Trading Company, had another kind of joy about the operation of the clock tower. With him was a Persian fleet that he had cleverly swindled from the port of Funing in the Chun Nan Kingdom. He did not mention business matters at all, but said that he was here to see the clock tower. But if he could open a direct shipping route from Yicheng to Persia, the benefits he would extract from it would be enough to keep him from asking about business matters from now on. Although running singles in the Red Sea, the Nanyang, and between Yicheng for many years had made him a famous figure in the Persian merchant circle, his unique vision had also made him feel tired.

The clock tower did not disappoint everyone in the fleet, and the chimes were so clear and so sacred that it almost made people want to worship. The largest share in the fleet was occupied by a man named Kuritan, whose family had such strong financial resources in the Persian region that those nobles, royal family members, and even the monarchs of some small countries had to rely on them. And the handsome clock tower he saw in Yicheng today, and the prosperous yet tranquil and suitable atmosphere of Yicheng, moved Kuritan's heart. While allowing him to have the idea of perhaps doing some business here, it also made him yearn for having such a clock tower in his hometown, Dubai Port, the origin of their Samir family.

In his opinion, it was not necessary for so many merchants and clans in Yicheng to fund this clock tower together. With the financial resources of their Samir family, there was absolutely no need for that. Immediately, he ordered the painter from the fleet to come and depict this magnificent scene.

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Continue to ask for votes. Where are the monthly tickets? How come the web game book behind is catching up? How embarrassing.