CHAPTER 29 #5
"Yes, electric lights, telegraphs, electric trams!" Columbus shook his head, still in disbelief as he recalled, "Few people use horse-drawn carriages anymore. Most people get into a tin box made of iron instead."
He began explaining the workings of factories with thousands of workers, the machines, and the assembly lines. He talked about his visit to small and medium-sized schools and the full protection of Yangzhou University, which had survived through the war.
— The machine rooms and computers had become postmodern relics, like the remains of a spaceship, now kept in vacuum glass domes as mementos.
As she listened to him speak excitedly, Hedy opened the bilingual document.
A crimson seal was prominently stamped, and the intricate calligraphy appeared as indecipherable as a painting.
"I think I understand now," she said softly. "You can go now."
Dechio, standing nearby, presented Columbus with a generous reward. Columbus, humbled, bowed again and quickly withdrew.
The content of the document was very concise.
First, it expressed a friendly attitude toward diplomatic relations and a willingness to engage in long-term communication and cooperation.
Second, it included a reasonably clear map of some maritime regions, marking not only the territory of the Great Ming Empire but also the basic locations of key trading ports.
...
Tenth, the document welcomed academic exchanges through the dispatch of international students.
Reading through the entire document, one could sense their pride and composure, as well as their warm and welcoming attitude toward guests.
The possibility of sending international students opened up a new realization for Hedy—Florence desperately needed a fresh influx of talent in this area.
The reason they were so open to this possibility was because they needed broader overseas markets to fill the economic gaps left by post-war reconstruction.
Even if their people only went abroad to learn basic skills, they would contribute to the dual advancement of the industrial and technological revolutions in this era.
Europe was already inclined toward overseas trade, and she didn’t mind letting tea and porcelain sweep through Italy, bringing with them cultural and lifestyle transformations.
Everything was falling into place.
At present, although the two children were still very young, she didn’t have much time to tend to them.
There was the selection and dispatch of international students, setting up fleets and organizing their voyages, the progress of intelligence and security agencies, the industrial process, and various domestic trade matters...
Although Leonardo had already helped her shoulder many of these tasks, it still wasn’t enough.
She needed to do much more.
Hedy exchanged a few brief words with Leonardo, and soon enough, she had outlined a plan in the form of a list.
It was at that moment that Niccolo knocked and walked in.
"My lady, perhaps you should head to the study upstairs," he said, his smile full of enthusiasm and delight, as if he had just received wonderful news.
Still not fully recovered from the complexity of her emotions, Hedy instinctively asked, "What’s going on?"
"The power communication line from Florence to Luka is now fully operational," Niccolo replied with a grin. "Would you like to have a word with Mr. Zino, who’s stationed there?"
This line has been under construction for a long time—mainly because digging and filling holes are too troublesome.
From the planning stage around May last year until now, it's not only about properly placing the wires and the reception room in the Old Palace, but also dealing with the numerous pits and hills along the road from Florence to Luka.
But now that the work has started here, future construction in other cities will be much faster.
Scholars from the Florence Academy were still engaged in heated debates even after the circuits were connected—they argued endlessly over the insulation material for the outer edges of the wires and were trying to incorporate their new discoveries into the communication network.
The huge machine was hidden in the wall, with only a typewriter-like platform exposed on one side of the study.
By the time Hedy arrived, many officials and scholars were already there.
They quickly bowed to the queen and the prince, but soon turned their attention to the machine, which was slowly marking the paper with ink dots.
—This was yet another of Leonardo’s masterpieces.
The oil painting for the Florence Cathedral was progressing too slowly, and with the added complexities since the children were born, the “Last Supper” was only about one-third complete.
Leonardo had developed his own unique approach to designing machines and linkages. Though he attended a guild school and never received formal training in this field, his designs for gears and conveyor belts were sometimes more adept than those of the old craftsmen.
They all stood before the control panel, watching as the ink-stained iron ball slowly made marks on the paper.
Nearby, professional coders were already in position, spelling out the letters by matching them with the telegraph code chart at the same speed.
"Greetings to Her Majesty the Queen. — From Luka."
When this message was read aloud, a cheer erupted throughout the study.
From Luka to Florence, even with the fastest horse riding day and night, it would still take at least three days. But now, a message can be delivered in just three minutes!
In the future, whether it’s news of a war or other emergencies, Florence will receive messages at an unbelievable speed!
Hedy laughed as she toasted with the officials, while Leonardo sat beside her, listening to the scholars argue.
Some old conservatives insisted that all of this was a scam, even going so far as to rally a group of people to sign a petition to personally verify whether this invention was real.
He asked about the local weather, the population of Luka, and even posed a simple math problem through the line.
The operator responded promptly from afar, adding a curse from Mr. Zino:
“Damn, which fool of an official is asking all this nonsense?”
The old scholar awkwardly turned his face away and was soon escorted by friends to drink.
To celebrate the official birth of this great invention, they held grand balls at several locations that evening and brought out several large barrels of wine for all the academy's guests to drink freely.
—Now, the technique of aging wine in charred oak barrels has become popular in Florence, and glass bottles with cork stoppers are becoming a common sight.
So, the engineering department called for the recruitment of three major construction teams, alongside researchers from the university, to set up new communication lines—
To Pisa, Genoa, and Rome.
Once these three lines are completed, the technology will likely evolve to an even more advanced level, naturally connecting more ports and cities.
It was at this point that a new trend began to rise in Italy—tea drinking.
This fad was supposed to appear a century later, but due to Columbus' successful voyage, it spread rapidly as soon as it arrived.
The fleet brought back tons of tea leaves, which successfully defeated the once-golden-priced pepper, becoming the most favored luxury item of the nobility.
Although Columbus had personally seen how the Easterners brewed and prepared tea, due to the stock being snapped up by various merchants, he and his crew didn’t have the time to properly educate others on the authentic way to drink it.
Some nobles placed the tea leaves into delicate porcelain teapots for brewing, then poured it into saucers to cool down and drank it as if it were soup.
Others tried adding it to their meals or meat broths, or grinding it into powder to use as a seasoning like pepper, but the results weren’t very successful.
When Hedy leaned forward to brew the tea for Leonardo, he was still inhaling the fresh aroma from the tea jar.
“It seems there’s a lot of nuance to it?” His eyes sparkled as he raised the tea spoon. “Is this for scooping out the tea leaves?”
“No,” Hedy chuckled. “Since we don’t have ice now, I’ll just give you a taste of how the English drink their tea—though the English don’t quite know what this is yet.”
“English-style?” Leonardo asked curiously. “Then how do Americans drink tea?”
“Iced black tea,” she replied, shaking the cup. “We only drink iced tea—although the English view it as a symbol of vulgarity.”
As she presented the hot tea, she placed the porcelain cup and tea spoon down for him, showing how to pour the tea and how to add sugar and milk.
“Generally, the upper class doesn’t add sugar,” Hedy stirred the foam slowly. “They think only the lower-class workers would add two spoons, and they make the tea strong and bitter.”
“There’s even a class distinction for this?” Leonardo laughed. “What about milk?”
“Best to add little, or it becomes ‘builder’s tea,’” Hedy raised an eyebrow and demonstrated the way she held her cup.
The milk-white porcelain cup was delicately picked up, like a noble display piece.
“You should only pinch the handle with your thumb and index finger, and when stirring the tea, it should only move forward and backward, not making the cup rattle against the sides…” She spoke with a slight American accent, tinged with playful sarcasm. “It’s all quite refined.”
“You like iced tea too?” Leonardo took the hot tea she offered, took a sip, and his expression changed. “It tastes quite good—and it’s completely different from wine.”
“Easterners usually choose to drink tea; alcohol is only for banquets,” she said as she sat beside him, propping her chin with a hint of nostalgia for the past. “Americans like a lot of things iced—iced tea, ice cream, even ice cakes.”
“If I have the chance… I should go back to the Alps with you.” She gazed out the window at the warm sunlight, instinctively sighing. “It’s been ten years since I came here, and I haven’t seen a single snowfall.”
The entire border of Italy is surrounded by three mountain ranges, and just beyond them to the north lies Switzerland.
Now, to the north of their territory is Switzerland and Austria, to the east are Slovenia and Croatia, and to the west lies France.
If she were to follow the northeastern direction over that mountain peak, she could return to her homeland—but at this moment, it had nothing to do with her, nor with Mozart and the Blue Danube.
Leonardo took a sip of tea and softly said, “Every time you make that expression, I just feel like giving Austria to you.”
The last time he said this, the entire Gulf of Genoa had fallen under his control.
Hedy smiled and lightly tapped him, gesturing for him to try some other fruits from the East.
When Columbus returned with his fleet this time, he had also bought a large quantity of canned fruits—
This revolutionary product completely redefined the concept of dessert, so much so that it was considered a royal exclusive offering.
When Hedy first saw those ten boxes of canned fruits, she briefly found herself questioning the meaning of life.
To appease and reward the nobles from various regions and local governments, she distributed seven boxes as gifts and sent many jars to the nobles within Florence.
By the time it reached them, only about half a box remained.
It had been a long time since Hedy tasted such sweetness.
At this point, Europe’s sugarcane and beet sugar production techniques were still not fully developed, and people mainly used honey to experience sweetness.
Because of this, such fresh and sweet food felt like a divine gift.
Together, they opened two small cans, one containing lychees and the other tender peaches.
Lychee is a fruit unique to China, with a shape resembling a round white pearl.
When Hedy first opened the can, Leonardo looked at it with suspicion and caution, saying, "This... is really fruit?"
She smiled without answering and forked a piece for him to taste the flavor.
Leonardo instinctively opened his mouth to receive it, and the moment he tasted the sweetness, his eyes widened in surprise.
It was—so sweet!
It was both refreshing and sweet, and it had a particularly strange texture when chewed!
He had never eaten anything like this before, and the sensation was completely different from honey or syrup!
The fructose burst on his tongue like fireworks, and the sweet, smooth taste made him instinctively want more.
Seeing that her lover was almost conquered, Hedy smiled and forked another piece of peach to feed him, saying, "Want to try this?"
Peaches are actually difficult to preserve and transport; whether they are crisp or soft, delicious sweet peaches easily spoil and become infested with insects on the way.
But after being canned, even if opened half a year later, they remain as fresh and juicy as ever, tasting unbelievably good.
Leonardo silently chewed the piece of peach without saying a word, then took a big sip of hot tea to balance out the sweetness.
He remained silent for a while, so much so that Hedy waved her hand in front of his face.
"Darling—" He took a deep breath. "Did you all eat such delicious things in your time?"
"Not only that," Hedy rested her chin on her hand. "After that, canned fruits weren't even that rare—we had even better things and more exquisite wines."
Leonardo covered his face for a moment, his voice tinged with a bit of complaint. "I really want to fly five hundred years ahead... even just for a day."
"This peach is really incredibly sweet," he said, looking at her through his fingers, unable to resist urging, "You should try it—it's really, really delicious."
Hedy smiled and kissed him, with sugar juice on the corner of her lips.
It was incredibly sweet.