Chapter 611: The origin of the winter solstice

Li Yuanba quickly opened the Tai Chi Palace Gate and urgently asked for the Emperor Li Yuan.

Li Yuan did not expect Li Yuanba to urgently ask him to see him at this time, so Li Yuan had to come.

Li Yuanba actually wanted to use this method to ask for him. This was obviously a trivial matter, and Li Yuan didn't dare to ignore it.

"Your Majesty, it's snowing. I asked someone to investigate. There are still many people in my Tang Dynasty who are not ready to keep the cold.

Especially the people outside the city had more than 3,000 households that were not ready to keep warm, which made me, the county magistrate of Wannian County and the parents of the people, feel very worried.

Especially since my Wannian County is a county in Chang'an, the emperor is still like this, so it is really hard for me to estimate what other counties are."

"If so, many people will starve to death.

These are all my people in the Tang Dynasty. I, the parents of Wannian County, can’t bear it, and the emperor is the parents of all people in the world. Wouldn’t the people freeze to death just like their own children? How can they bear it?"

After hearing Li Yuanba's words, Li Yuan also said quite "pretendingly": "Hey, all the people in the world are my people, just like my children. If the people are frozen to death, then how can I bear it? Every year I see that many people are about to freeze to death, I am really heartbroken! Unfortunately, it is because I am incompetent, it is because I am incompetent! I can only watch my people freeze to death. I am very heartbroken!"

Li Yuanba didn’t know whether Li Yuan was really heartache or fake heartache, but this didn’t matter.

The emperor Li Yuan did better than most other emperors, so he was still good at people's livelihood. This may be because he really cared for the people.

But whether it is really heartache, it is unknown.

"Emperor, since that's the case, I came to ask for a meeting overnight. That's why the emperor can save the people as much as possible and prevent them from freezing to death as much as possible. Isn't this great?

We strive to prevent any people from freezing to death this year, at least near our Gyeonggi. This is a good way."

Li Yuanba said.

"oh?

What can you do to prevent the people from freezing to death?”

Li Yuan really paid attention to it seriously.

Every year, people are frozen to death, which is a common example in ancient times.

Therefore, in ancient times, people were no longer surprised by the fact that someone had frozen to death, so Liu Ni'er seemed to be no surprise.

As for Li Yuan's hearing that he could prevent a common man from freezing to death, he really had to care about this.

If it is really possible that no one near the Gyeonggi could freeze to death, then this would be a huge improvement in the prestige of Emperor Li Yuan. In this way, the emperor Li Yuan had just taken office, so he immediately implemented a benevolent government!

It is of great help to consolidate and strengthen the impression of Li Yuan, the emperor, in the minds of the people. This is a very important benefit, and Li Yuan is of course concerned.

Especially Li Yuan has just taken office for less than half a year, so his year name has not changed.

At this time, we are in the stage of "three fires in the new official's appointment". If we don't do anything, how can we be worthy of our just taking office?

There are often two possibilities for any king who has an incorrect position.

One is to completely give up on oneself and choose to anesthetize himself. Anyway, he will not have any good reputation in history books, so he will naturally give up.

Another way is that since you know that you have a wrong position, you want to make some achievements, let history recognize itself, and let the people and future generations know that you have the ability to become an excellent king.

Obviously, Li Yuan is the one who hopes to achieve success and let the people know that they have the ability to become a good monarch.

Now that I have just taken office, I have to do a few "visible" practical things, otherwise how can I let the people know their existence?

"The emperor, the ancients allusions are all about helping us in time.

Of course, I, Datang, cannot bear the timely help.

I won’t talk about whether I have this money at this time. Even if I give all the charcoals in Chang'an to the people, it wouldn’t be enough to share! Moreover, the ancients said that it is better to teach people how to fish than to teach people how to fish.

This kind of charcoal fire can only be used in one go, and it will be finished after burning, which is far less than something that can keep warm for a long time.

For example, a fur coat can naturally keep warm for a long time.”

Li Yuanba said.

Li Yuan shook his head and said, "The more you say it, the more exaggerated you are. How could you have so many fur coats?"

Li Yuanba quickly said: "Your Majesty, I am not saying that I want a fur coat, but that clothes like fur coats can truly warm the people.

But I didn’t say that you must wear a fur coat to keep warm!”

"Don't use a leather jacket to keep warm, do you use silk cloth?

It’s really not suitable to keep warm with silk cloth!”

Li Yuan said.

Silk cloth is good for covering the body and ordinary clothes, but it is obviously not suitable for heating.

Perhaps silk cloth can only cover the coldness of autumn, but the cold in winter cannot stop it.

"Your Majesty, I'm not saying that I'm going to use silk cloth directly, but goose feathers! Use goose feathers to keep warm, such as animals with feathers, can keep warm.

Especially the tiny velvet in the feathers are a good thing to keep warm.

If you use this kind of velvet to fill it into the cloth, it will not only be lighter than a leather jacket, but also cost less.

You can even control the amount of velvet by yourself. Although you dare not say that every citizen can be extremely warm, it can be done if you can't die of freezing."

"I had the habit of eating goose during the Winter Solstice in the Tang Dynasty. Now I have seen that many officials and nobles in Chang'an have also begun to kill goose to eat, which reminds me of the idea that goose velvet can keep warm.

Since geese can rely on goose velvet to keep warm, why can't humans do this?"

Li Yuanba’s method is very simple, in fact, it is to use goose down to keep warm. This kind of thing is very popular in later generations and is called down jackets.

A down jacket is filled with the down in the feathers of some birds, so that it can be filled into the clothes for warmth.

Down jackets replaced cotton coats and quilts, and even became the main material for heating in winter.

Down is warmer than cotton coats and quilts and can be washed, which successfully replaced cotton and became the main material for heating.

As for later cotton, it is no longer used to keep warm, and it is mainly used to make cotton cloth.

So since there was no cotton in the Tang Dynasty, down can be used.

Especially during the Tang Dynasty, eating chicken and geese were popular, but there were not many ducks.

During the Tang Dynasty, chickens and geese were the two most commonly consumed poultry, especially during the winter solstice, goose meat was used to nourish the food.

The Winter Solstice is the New Year of the Zhou Dynasty. In ancient times, the Winter Solstice was the beginning of the year and was called the Winter Calendar.

It later changed into spring as the beginning of the year and was called the Spring Calendar.

However, although the Tang Dynasty had already used the "Spring Calendar", the Winter Calendar still exists.
Chapter completed!