154: Chapter 154 Was he seeing things? He actually saw the First Emperor!

After finding no weapons, they finally withdrew.

"I'll go in and announce you."

After Deputy General Pang spoke, he entered Zhao Fusu's office.

In front of Zhao Fusu sat the casing of a kerosene pressure lamp.

The casing had been manufactured, but he had no kerosene, nor did he have the special mantles.

The lighting principle of a kerosene pressure lamp involves using the heat generated by burning kerosene to make a mantle incandesce and emit light.

When in use, air is first pumped into the oil reservoir within the lamp base using a pump to increase the internal pressure.

Under the influence of air pressure, kerosene flows up the wick; once it reaches the top, it is heated by the glowing burner tube and vaporizes.

The vaporized kerosene mixes with air entering from the side of the lamp base to form a combustible mixture, which is then ignited at the mouth of the burner tube.

Once ignited, the flame heats the burner tube, causing the air inside to expand and create an upward draft that continuously draws fresh air and kerosene vapor into the tube, sustaining combustion.

The high temperature produced by the flame causes the special mantle fitted over the burner tube to incandesce. thorium nitrate emits a bright white light at high temperatures, allowing the pressure lamp to produce intense brightness.

Zhao Fusu was not worried about being unable to find thorium ore.

According to the thorium ore distribution map, there were large deposits in Guanzhong, so finding it would be relatively easy.

What Zhao Fusu was thinking about was how to control the temperature while distilling petroleum to obtain the kerosene he wanted.

To control the temperature, a thermometer became particularly important.

Zhao Fusu felt that relying on guesswork was somewhat unreliable.

With mercury available in Great Qin and the glass production line he had established, the conditions for manufacturing mercury thermometers were already in place.

A mercury thermometer is a common temperature-measuring instrument that uses the principle of mercury's thermal expansion and contraction.

Structurally, a mercury thermometer typically consists of three parts: a glass tube, a mercury bulb, and a graduated scale.

The glass tube has a uniform and very fine internal diameter, with one end connected to the mercury bulb containing an appropriate amount of mercury, and the other end sealed.

The graduated scale is etched onto the glass tube for reading the temperature values.

The only difficult part was creating the graduated scale.

How to determine what temperature value corresponded to the height of the mercury in the glass tube's bore was the challenge.

Zhao Fusu's fingers tapped gently on the desk.

The easiest to determine was human body temperature, which is roughly over thirty-six degrees but less than thirty-seven.

Next was the temperature of boiling water, which is one hundred degrees.

Under standard temperature and pressure, toilet paper ignites when heated to two hundred degrees.

The ignition condition for ordinary paper is three hundred degrees.

These few temperature markers were enough for Zhao Fusu to manage the temperature needed for heating and distilling petroleum.

After resolving these few difficulties, a smile appeared on Zhao Fusu's face.

His consciousness entered the system interface; after checking in, Zhao Fusu was ecstatic upon seeing the item he had received.

"Thought Steel Seal!"

He had actually obtained another Thought Steel Seal!

Just how heaven-defying this Thought Steel Seal was could be seen from the troops who were fanatically loyal to him.

"Awesome!"

"This is just too great!"

Zhao Fusu was incredibly excited internally.

Just as his consciousness withdrew from the system interface, he saw Deputy General Pang walking in from outside.

"His Majesty the Head of State, the master of the Black Ice Platform requests an audience outside."

Deputy General Pang bowed and said to Zhao Fusu.

"Mhm."

Zhao Fusu said, "Let him in."

"Understood!"

Deputy General Pang nodded.

He turned and went out, bringing back a tall, middle-aged man wearing a veiled bamboo hat.

So tall!

Zhao Fusu looked at the middle-aged man walking toward him; that was his first impression.

The master of the Black Ice Platform was tall and sturdy.

Then, he felt that the figure of this middle-aged man wearing the veiled hat was somewhat familiar.

"Fa—Father?"

When Zhao Fusu saw the First Emperor take off the veiled hat, his entire body shook.

Were his eyes playing tricks on him? He actually saw the First Emperor!

For Zhao Fusu, his panic was no less than what Zhu Di would feel upon seeing Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhu Di had usurped the throne and pursued Emperor Jianwen; how could he not panic upon seeing Zhu Yuanzhang?

But what Zhao Fusu had done was even more serious than what Zhu Di did.

He had proposed a constitutional monarchy, effectively castrating the once-supreme Emperor into a eunuch.

The imperial system itself had been established by the First Emperor.

This was equivalent to openly opposing the First Emperor.

It would be a miracle if the First Emperor didn't beat him to death.

Zhao Fusu subconsciously touched the two revolvers hidden at his waist, the two tucked into his thighs, the two at his calves, and the two on his chest; the panic in his heart dissipated quite a bit.

"Are you truly Father?"

Zhao Fusu's gaze was fixed intently on the First Emperor.

The man's features merged with the memories belonging to Young Master Fusu; his appearance was ninety percent similar to the First Emperor.

But Zhao Fusu also didn't rule out the possibility that the man was a high-quality imitation of the First Emperor.

It was well known that the Chinese gene pool was extremely comprehensive, so it wasn't strange for someone to look like the First Emperor.

"Fusu!"

The First Emperor looked calmly at Zhao Fusu and said, "You aren't Fusu, are you?"

"What!"

The words spoken by the First Emperor shocked Zhao Fusu.

Had he been that obvious?

Fine.

Zhao Fusu calmed down.

As long as one's IQ was normal, anyone could see he wasn't Young Master Fusu.

"Are you really Qin Shi Huang?"

Seeing that his identity had been exposed, Zhao Fusu stopped pretending.

He curiously sized up Qin Shi Huang and even reached out to poke here and touch there.

"Have you had enough of this nonsense!"

The First Emperor's face darkened.

Hearing that majestic voice, Zhao Fusu was certain the man was indeed Qin Shi Huang.

"Father, please sit."

After merging with Young Master Fusu's memories, Fusu had become a part of him.

In front of the First Emperor, he once again became that elegant young master.

The First Emperor looked at Zhao Fusu; the person was familiar yet strange.

Looking at the First Emperor, Zhao Fusu felt the same.

Compared to before, the First Emperor was much darker and looked like a peasant farmer.

"Why have you become like this?"

"Why did you fake your death?"

The two of them asked almost simultaneously.

Zhao Fusu had truly never considered why the First Emperor would fake his death.

With the First Emperor's intellect, he couldn't have failed to realize that an Emperor faking death would lead to it becoming real.

Almost everyone who becomes an Emperor is only willing to transfer power to their son when they are about to die.

Some people remain Crown Prince their entire lives and never get to be Emperor.

There are even many cases where someone was Crown Prince for so long they tried to usurp the throne, only to be defeated and killed.

Zhao Fusu was very puzzled and truly couldn't understand what the First Emperor's purpose for faking his death was.

The First Emperor began to tell Zhao Fusu about the dream he had.