"Your Majesty, what do you think of this blast furnace?"
When Du Yu smilingly showed Cao Mao the blast furnace before them, Cao Mao jumped in fright and hurried forward. "Master Ma! Come down! Come down!"
At that moment, Ma Jun was standing on top of the blast furnace.
Cao Mao gauged its dimensions by eye. The furnace was over two meters tall and over three meters long.
Seeing the emperor arrive so suddenly, Ma Jun scrambled down from the furnace in a fluster.
"I, I, I pay my respects to Your Majesty. I did not intend to overstep my station. I beg, beg Your Majesty's forgiveness!"
According to ritual law, Ma Jun could not stand higher than the emperor. Even the buildings in Luoyang could not exceed the Imperial Palace in height. In short, looking at the emperor from a high place just now had been an act of overstepping his station.
But Cao Mao was not taking issue with that. He had been afraid Ma Jun would fall.
The man was already so old. If he took a fall, he could knock Great Wei's scientific standards back more than twenty years.
He hurriedly said, "What are you saying, Master Ma? I was worried you would fall and hurt yourself. Please don't do anything dangerous again. Didn't I assign people to help you?"
"Yuan Kai?!"
Cao Mao abruptly turned toward Du Yu, displeasure in his eyes.
Du Yu hastily lowered his head. "Your Majesty, I failed to make proper arrangements..."
Ma Jun stammered, "It isn't Secretary Du's fault, it isn't Secretary Du's fault. I wanted to do it myself. The young, young fellows lack... experience in their work, so I did it myself. The, the people Secretary Du assigned are all very good."
Holding his hand, Cao Mao sternly