Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 1218 Postscript Seventy-Four: Bachelor Xie’s influence is still increasing

Yellow River, passenger ship.

Zhu Shirong was invited to Luoyang for a meeting. This temporary chemistry meeting was only attended by scholars from the east and west capitals.

Those further away need not come but can express their opinions by telegram.

The scholar who was on the same boat with him was named Shi Fu, whose courtesy name was Bai Lu. But he was not a chemist, but a railway engineer from Beijing.

"Brother Bailu is coming to Beijing now to be promoted and transferred back to the Ministry of Industry?" Zhu Shirong asked.

Shi Fu said: "The imperial court plans to build the railway and restart the Taiyuan line plan."

"A technological breakthrough?" Zhu Shirong asked in surprise.

Shi Fu said: "Xie Consort invented a kind of Qin cement. I heard that the quality is better and more stable. The imperial court asked us to go to Luoyang to test it and see if it can be used in railway bridge construction."

Zhu Shirong laughed dumbly: "It's Bachelor Xie again. I went to Luoyang for a meeting this time because of his new paper."

The "Zhen-Taiyuan Railway" Shi Fu mentioned is exactly the "Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan Railway" of another time and space - Shijiazhuang to Taiyuan.

Taizong wanted to build it in his later years, but the construction was too difficult and has been delayed until now.

Over the past 100 years, engineers have conducted many on-site inspections and changed more than a dozen plans. But the best solution is still a headache. For a railway less than 500 miles long, more than 20 tunnels need to be dug and more than 1,000 railway bridges need to be erected.

At this time, it was very expensive to build a railway bridge because the cement was never strong enough. Therefore, reinforced concrete is not used, but traditional bridge-building materials are used.

The river is too wide to build a railway bridge at present.

Therefore, Ming Dynasty’s plan for national transportation has always been to connect waterways across the country with railways. When encountering a river that is too wide or too deep, railway bridges are often not built. Railways and train stations are built on both sides of the river, with ships in between to transfer goods and passengers.

The ultra-long railway to the Western Regions is also intermittent.

For example, there is no railway in Xingxingxia, which has complex terrain.

Gansu trains can only go to the oasis closest to Guyumen Pass, and then rely on camels or mules for transportation. Then, 170 miles southeast of Yizhou (Hami) City, take the train again and head westward through Hami, Turpan and other places.

The east, north and south directions of the Ili River Valley are all blocked by high mountains, which also requires camels, mules and horses for transportation. Then, within the Ili Valley, take the train again to the Qihe Protectorate.

The railway to the northern grasslands is similar.

The first section is from Beijing to Zhangjiakou, which is the route of the Zhan Tianyou Herringbone Railway.

Zhan Tianyou's herringbone railway design was really forced out of necessity. First, the construction period was insufficient, and second, there was insufficient funds. When Emperor Dingtai ordered the construction, he did not care about the construction period and funds. Tunnels were built when tunnels were needed. Where tunnels were not easy to be built, a piece of the mountain was cut off.

"Shanxi has a lot of coal. If we want to transport it overseas, we must build a railway." Shi Fu lamented.

Currently, there is only one railway in Shanxi that runs through the Fen River Valley. It is very convenient to transport coal to Shaanxi, but it is difficult to transport coal to provinces with greater demand for coal.

Emperor Dingtai built two extra-long railways and fought several wars, which drained the national treasury and even had to issue national debt to relieve financial pressure. Now that the Ming Dynasty's finances are slightly better, the cabinet ministers are planning to build railways again.

The first one is from Taiyuan to Zhending.

The second one is from Jincheng to Jiaozuo.

They are all built along the Eighth Route of Taihang, and the geographical conditions are extremely complex.

But no matter how difficult it is, we still have to repair it, and we have to transport coal from Shanxi!

Next, a railway from Beijing to Liaoyang will be built to connect Northeast China with North China. There was no construction there before because the area in western Liaoning was full of swamps.

Now it can be repaired.

Water conservancy projects and population growth in western Liaoning have caused the area of ​​swamps to shrink, providing reliable conditions for the construction of railways. Xie Yan's improved cement also greatly reduced the construction cost of railway bridges.

Today's central ministers all regard Xie Yan as their treasure. What they value is not balance and chemistry, but Qin Guo cement that has been repeatedly verified by the Ministry of Industry!

In the past two months, officials from the Ministry of Industry have repeatedly traveled to the southern suburbs to test the various properties of cement in various ways.

Especially corrosion resistance!

The cement that was popular before was not only not strong enough, but also had poor corrosion resistance. It was easy to cause problems if it was soaked in water for a long time.

Shi Fu said with emotion: "If Qin's cement can really be used to build railway bridges, Prince Consort Xie will be called an unparalleled scholar in the country, and he will be qualified to be directly awarded the Emerald Bachelor's Degree. You may not know that the most expensive thing in building railways nowadays is not the rails, but the Those bridges and tunnels!”

Zhu Shirong burst into laughter: "Brother Bailu probably doesn't know what Xie Xie's paper means this time. He threw out three definitions and a conjecture, as well as standardized expressions of molecular formulas and chemical equations. If these are approved, they will be used in the future. As long as you study chemistry, you are his disciple and grandson. Haha, I am also his disciple and grandson.”

"What a huge impact?" Shi Fu said in surprise.

Zhu Shirong said: "Confucian works are divided into Jingshu and Weishu. Xie Xie's results are equivalent to Jingshu, and our future research results will either be annotations for Jingshu or wefts around Jingshu."

"He's only seventeen years old." Shi Fu couldn't imagine it.

"There are people in the world who seem to know it from birth," Zhu Shirong said. "Didn't Emperor Taizong also learn the Six Classics before he was even weak? Many of the theories left by Emperor Taizu are still in use today. Unsolved mysteries.”

…

Bachelor Xie, who was born with knowledge, was living a carefree and comfortable life.

I only teach two classes during the day, and the rest of the time is spent reading books and writing lecture notes for chemistry classes.

The night is even more joyful than a fairy.

Ever since Xie Yan cleared the door for the princess, Zhu Tangxi seemed to have been opened to a new world, and she was always excited amidst the shame. After only two days, the princess learned to help Xie Yan.

Now, these two moves have evolved into a combination technique for men and women.

"Sister, can you kneel down and do it today?" Xie Yan asked.

Zhu Tangxi, who was helping his counterpart, raised his head in confusion: "Aren't I kneeling here?"

Xie Yan said with a bad smile: "It's not that you're lying on the bed, but that you're kneeling on the ground."

"You know how to mess with me, how can any princess kneel down for the prince-in-law!" Zhu Tangxi was ashamed and annoyed.

"Then forget it." Xie Yan's expression was a little disappointed.

Zhu Tangxi couldn't bear to see her lover like this. She was afraid that her man would be wronged, so she coyly said, "Close your eyes and don't look at it!"

"Okay, I definitely won't watch it." Xie Yan couldn't help but turned over and sat on the edge of the bed.

Soon, the first princess to kneel down to the consort since the founding of the Ming Dynasty was born.

Throughout the night, Xie Yan was so excited that he felt powerful.

So much so that she couldn't get out of bed the next day. Qingluan urged her several times and took the bus to school without even having breakfast.

After putting Xie Yan on the carriage, Qingluan returned to the dormitory and asked curiously: "Your Highness, why was there so much trouble last night? It hasn't been like this since the wedding."

Zhu Tangxi was catching up on his sleep, and his face turned red when he mentioned this: "Don't ask!"

"oh."

Qingluan thought: Even if you don't tell me, I will know in the future.

Xie Yan was sitting in the carriage and yawning profusely. He fell asleep before leaving the city. When he woke up again, he was already at school.

This reminded him of when he was a construction worker, he didn't go to bed until midnight the first night, and rushed to the construction site bleary-eyed the next day. It's just that, in the past, we were playing games, but now we are playing princesses.

It's better to be a princess, it's much more fragrant than a two-dimensional paper person.

"Thank you, maester!"

"Professor He!"

After getting off the carriage, after walking a few steps, I met a school teacher who bowed and greeted me.

Check out the 16-9 book bar and see the correct version!

Xie Yan returned gifts to teachers and students all the way, and finally arrived at the office.

The teaching assistant has already made tea and even arranged the newspaper, spreading the more important news at the top for easy reading.

It's a pity that it's not a female teaching assistant, so it loses a lot of interest.

Xie Yan didn't want to do anything to the female teaching assistant, but it looked more pleasing to the eye if she was replaced by a beautiful woman.

Alas, Xie Laoliu has become even more depraved.

Today we are still talking about the content of the previous few days. We did not talk about molecules or atoms at all. We just changed the lectures in two classes.

It is entirely possible to let the teaching assistant do the teaching, but since school has just started, Xie Yan must first get to know his students.

This morning, I was teaching the "Siqi Class", which ranked third among the 80 classes in the outer building.

Li Dunshi was in the Siqi class. He was a middle-class student, but he was diligent and willing to learn, so he still had hope of being promoted to the inner house.

"Not bad," Xie Yan walked into the classroom, glanced at it and praised, "As expected of the third-ranked class in the outer building, not a single person was joking before class. You study hard, and I teach hard. I wish you all a bright future. Brocade.”

"Students meet sir!"

Twenty-five students all bowed and saluted.

The students are obedient and eager to learn, which makes them naturally comfortable as teachers.

Xie Yan sat on the podium, asked these students to introduce themselves, and then began to repeat what he had said in the past few days.

As he was talking, people came outside and were waiting outside the door.

After the class ended, the person outside the door immediately came in: "Thank you, Bachelor, Peng Zhixue has invited me."

Zhixue is the principal, the abbreviation and honorific title for the governor of Taixue.

Xie Yan quickly came to the principal's office.

Peng Huanzhi personally made tea for him, made some casual remarks, and gradually got to the point: "I heard that Bachelor Xie asked all the students in the outer dormitory to close their books and listen to the lectures?"

"Yes," Xie Yan said, "Many contents of previous chemistry textbooks have been overturned in the past few months."

Peng Huanzhi asked: "Scholar Xie plans to teach foreign students about molecules and atoms?"

Xie Yan nodded: "We will talk about that later."

"Can a foreigner understand?" Peng Huanzhi asked.

Xie Yan said: "As long as they study hard, they will definitely understand."

Peng Huanzhi said: "I understand. I will remove the students who come from the feudal states to study in Ming Dynasty from Bachelor Xie's class."

"Afraid that my knowledge will be spread overseas?" Xie Yan said with a smile, "I'm afraid I can't prevent it. Even academic journals are sold to other countries by businessmen."

Peng Huanzhi said: "If you can't guard against it, you must guard against it."

"It would be better to ban students from feudal states from studying science in the Ming Dynasty." Xie Yan said.

Peng Huanzhi said with a smile: "It's not necessary. Most of the students from the feudal states first laid a foundation in Piyong, at least mastering Chinese characters and Chinese language. Then they studied in a foreign school. It only takes a few years for them to be promoted, but they cannot be promoted in four years. The house will be cleared."

Okay, Xie Yan finally understood.

There are no teachers who will teach foreign students advanced courses, so foreign students from the feudal state can learn whatever they want. Xie Yan is an exception and is a bit out of line.

Xie Yan asked: "What if there are really talented and intelligent students from the vassal state who are promoted to the inner palace?"

Peng Huanzhi said: "Two appeared before, one was a Japanese aristocrat, and the other was a Chola aristocrat (a mixture of Indian natives and Aryans). The governor of Taixue personally talked to them, and finally they took their wives to settle in Nanjing and Guangzhou. , both of whom made contributions to Ming Dynasty’s scholarship.”

This is picking the best.

Those who can come to the Ming Dynasty from overseas vassal states to study are either the descendants of the powerful or the descendants of wealthy businessmen. Most of them just live a lazy life, and those who are willing to study will be dazzled by the world.

And those who can be drawn from the outer house to the inner house must be extremely talented and determined, and such people can be directly absorbed as citizens of the Ming Dynasty.

Don't want to bring your wife and children to the Ming Dynasty?

Then you'd better not study in the inner house of the Imperial Academy!

"Is Mr. Xie going to attend the Chemistry Conference tomorrow?" Peng Huanzhi asked again.

Xie Yan nodded and said, "Yes. Maybe the future chemistry textbooks will also be revised according to the results of tomorrow's meeting. But revising textbooks is not a one-day job, and more experimental results are needed to provide content."

Peng Huanzhi began to think.

Xie Yan said again: "In fact, there is no need to guard against those vassal state students. The basic knowledge of molecules and atoms may become the content of the imperial examination in just a few years. By then, not all students of the Imperial Academy can learn it."

"Is that so." Peng Huanzhi had a headache.

Although he didn't know much about chemistry, he had heard about Xie Yan's new paper and was planning to have Xie Yan teach the top students in Shangshe.