Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 1220 Postscript Seventy-Six Railway Development

On the second day of the chemistry conference, discussions began on the compilation of new textbooks.

This should have been led by the Ministry of Rites, but the final implementation had to rely on chemists. Today's chemistry world is in chaos, and the general teaching content must be finalized as soon as possible, otherwise chemistry teachers across the country will not be able to teach at all.

After ten days of discussion, everyone finally finalized the textbook outline.

During these ten days, Xie Yan stopped teaching and left the teaching tasks to the teaching assistants. In fact, it didn't cover anything important, just teaching the foreign students how to use the experimental equipment correctly.

Old students like Li Dunshi who studied hard had already mastered it before entering Imperial College, so they could only find something to do by themselves.

"After these ten days of heated discussions and telegram proposals from scholars across the country, the chemical community has unanimously decided to establish a new chemical research and teaching system. I will submit the results of the meeting to the Royal Society, which will then forward them to the Ministry of Ceremonies."

Chemistry President Ma Changnian announced: “The new chemistry teaching syllabus is as follows——”

“The chemistry courses before Taixue, that is, the chemical knowledge that science students need to master during the imperial examination include: changes and properties of matter, molecules and atoms, molecular formulas and chemical equations, air and oxygen, water and hydrogen, carbon, Sulfur, nitrogen.”

"Due to well-known reasons, Taipei students also need to re-learn this knowledge. Therefore, in the next six months, in the national chemistry curriculum, both Taipei students and non- Taipei students must learn the above content first."

"Until the end of this semester, we will hold another chemistry conference to summarize and discuss the lecture notes of chemistry teachers across the country, as well as the upcoming experimental results, and use the spring break to compile new chemistry textbooks as soon as possible. The specific process is subject to the official documents of the Ministry of Rites."

Xie Yan was delighted to hear this and mourned for the science students in his heart.

Whether they are science scholars or civil servants, the chemistry knowledge they have must be overthrown and re-study before they can continue to take the imperial examination.

After this news was announced, not only science students but also chemistry teachers across the country cried.

Because those chemistry teachers also have to learn again along with the students!

Fortunately, it's not a trap for the poor.

Most poor scholars often choose liberal arts.

They receive their education in five types of schools: village school, private school, ethnic school, free school, and social school. If their grades are not enough to be admitted as government-funded students and they have no money to enroll in private colleges, they may not be self-funded students in government schools. Then, they can only continue studying in ethnic studies, voluntary studies, and social studies that have advanced courses.

Ethnology is not bad and I have family support.

However, the teaching quality of volunteer studies and social studies is worrying, and without exception they all focus on liberal arts. They only teach purely theoretical science knowledge. It is possible that the entire school cannot find a balance or a beaker, or even one teacher is responsible for the three subjects of mathematics, physics and chemistry in the entire school.

Free schools are private charity schools, established and run for a long time by donations from gentry and wealthy people.

Although social studies are public schools, they have limited teaching staff and are purely funded by local government funds. Some social studies even only have literacy courses. This kind of school focuses more on publicity and enlightenment, so that common people can write and do calculations, and let common people understand law, etiquette and morality.

As a result, poor scholars who had studied in volunteer schools and social studies for a long time were forced to choose to become liberal arts students. Their dropout rate is extremely high. They study for two or three years and then go to work. Those who can pass the examination are rare.

This type of poor scholars mostly came from small bourgeois and yeoman farmers families who had no worries about food and clothing for the time being, but did not have much surplus wealth. They lacked the long-term support of their families and wanted to transcend social classes.

As evening approached, Xie Yan returned to the city by car.

Li Dunshi caught up and said, "Sir, do all chemistry courses need to be changed?"

Xie Yanxiao asked: "Your information is quite good."

Li Dunshi said: "It has spread all over the Imperial Academy, saying that the meetings held in succession these past few days are just to discuss how to re-edit chemistry textbooks."

"It's okay, just listen to the class carefully." Xie Yan said.

Li Dunshi added: "In the past few months, officials from the Ministry of Industry have visited my cement factory seven or eight times. They also soaked the concrete (concrete) poured with new cement into acid and alkali solutions to observe the corrosion resistance. Previous Another group came two days ago and bought several hundred kilograms of new cement produced by my family for testing. I heard that they are all experts in railways and bridges. "

Xie Yan nodded and said, "I know, they want to use Qinguo cement to build railway bridges."

"Then our cement sales will increase significantly?" Li Dunshi said happily.

Xie Yan said: "There is a huge demand for cement when building railways. Once the newly built railway route is determined, a cement plant will be built nearby to supply it. If you want to use the cement from our two companies, you will have to build the Luoyang-Zhengzhou-Kaifeng railway. ”

"That's it." Li Dunshi was immediately disappointed.

Luoyang, Zhengzhou and Kaifeng are connected by Luoshui, Yellow River and Bianhe River. It is impossible to build a railway in a short time.

First, there are still many places where railways are more urgently needed.

Second, the number of people who rely on water transportation in these three cities is at least 100,000, and related practitioners may exceed 200,000. Once the railway is connected, many people will be unemployed. This is the unemployed population in the core area of ​​Ming Dynasty!

…

cabinet.

Chen Wenzhao, Minister of Industry, was giving a report to the cabinet ministers in front of a map:

"Due to the improvement in the performance of steam trains in recent years, the previous construction plan for the railway from Taiyuan to Zhending can be changed. The railway will have more bends and the slope of the railway will be steeper. The number of tunnels can be reduced to 20 and the railway bridge can be reduced to 20. Reduced to more than 1,100 seats.”

In another time and space, this section of the railway was built in the late Qing Dynasty. In order to meet the construction deadline and save money, it was built with a total length of 243 kilometers, 23 tunnels, and more than 1,200 large and small bridges.

Cabinet Minister Yang Zhengfu frowned and said: "There are more than 500 miles of railways and more than 1,100 railway bridges. There are still too many bridges. I look at the plan you have given. Many bridges are designed to be very short and span very narrow areas. It’s just a ravine, can we just fill it up?”

"It cannot be filled, otherwise it may cause flash floods and siltation," Chen Wenzhao said. "In the past few decades, scholars have been inspecting along the line, and many bridge construction stones can be obtained locally. In addition, Xie Xueshi's new cement, and Wan Xueshi's The converter for steelmaking, the Zhentai Railway can be built.”

There are a lot of high-quality stones in the Taihang Mountains.

Historically, when the Zhengtai Railway was built in the late Qing Dynasty, the piers of many railway bridges did not use reinforced concrete, but high-quality stone materials along the line were used locally. In order not to damage the internal structure of the stone, explosives were not even deliberately used, and the most primitive wedge method was used to remove the stone.

Cabinet minister Zhang Yu asked: "Isn't it said that the steel produced in the converter has many impurities, is not strong enough, and has a short lifespan?"

Chen Wenzhao said: "So the converter cannot be promoted for the time being and can only be used in Xuzhou and Zunhua. Even if the converter is used in these two places, a lot of scrap steel will be produced. The iron ore in Xuzhou has a lower phosphorus content, and the iron ore produced by the converter is better. Steel is enough to build railways.”

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

"Can cement production keep up? I may need to build several cement plants along the route first," Deng Gongwu said.

Chen Wenzhao said: "Xie Xueshi has contacted Cizhou Steam Engine Factory to jointly develop a ball mill, which is said to improve cement production efficiency. This ball mill can also be used to grind other ores such as iron ore, as well as glass and ceramics Grinding of raw materials before firing.”

Yuan Huaiyi, who had been dozing, suddenly asked with a smile: "Can he do tricks? He just invented a machine if he said it."

Chen Wenzhao cupped his hands and said: "I have seen the drawings. The structure is relatively simple, but the idea is a different way. Today's machines for crushing iron ore all use steam engines. But Xie Xie's ball mill uses centrifugal force, gravity and friction. "

Deng Gongwu asked: "Do you think it is feasible?"

Chen Wenzhao said: "The feasibility is very high. But according to Xie Xueshi, when different materials are ground, the speed of the ball mill must also change accordingly. It cannot rotate too fast or too slow. Experiments must be done to determine the details. Sure."

Deng Gongwu said: "If the Zhentai-Taiwan Railway can be successfully completed, I think the two-Beijing (Luoyang, Kaifeng) railway can also be put on the agenda."

"No."

"I agree. The Beijing-Beijing railway should have been built long ago."

"Once the railway between Beijing and Beijing is completed, what will happen to the people who rely on river transportation for food? I am afraid that more than half of the people will not be able to switch to relying on railways for food. That is tens of thousands, or even a hundred thousand, mouths waiting for food! Each of them There is also a family behind it, and if you include all the family members, the number of people involved is even greater!”

"It needs to be built after all. When the water rises in summer and autumn, once there is a flood from the Yellow River, the water transportation between the two capitals will be temporarily cut off. After the railway is built, the two capitals will all be connected, and Luoyang can still be connected to Xiangyang through the railway. ”

"Immigration, increase immigration! All those people who have no food to eat will be shipped overseas. The railway between Beijing and Beijing must be built!"

"..."

Although the cabinet ministers of this generation were secretly corrupt and allowed their relatives to get involved in industry and commerce, they were all ambitious officials after all.

If the Beijing-Beijing Railway is completed, it will surely be one of their most prominent political achievements.

The unemployment of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people in the Central Plains is just a temporary pain of development. There are various ways to solve the hidden dangers. And as long as there is crazy immigration, those who bring hidden dangers can be solved.

Among the seven cabinet ministers, four agreed to build the Beijing-Beijing railway. Two others objected and one abstained.

"Very good," Deng Gongwu was very happy and said with a smile, "When the Zhentai Railway is completed, we will issue national bonds and build the Beijing-Beijing Railway and the Ji (Prefecture) Liao (Yang) Railway at the same time!"

At this time, there was already a Yan-Zun railway connecting Beijing and Zunhua, passing through Jizhou in the middle. Then build a railway from Jizhou to Liaoyang, connecting Beijing and Liaoning.

Zhang Yu asked: "After the railway is completed, there will be so many unemployed people in the Central Plains. Where do you plan to immigrate?"

Ge Congxin, who had always had some conflicts with Deng Gongwu, supported Deng Gongwu in building the railway this time: "Didn't the Governor-General of India destroy a new country? Throw all the Indian natives into the swamps at the mouth of the Ganges to reclaim wasteland. The freed land will be used to resettle immigrants from the Central Plains! Anyone who dares to rebel will be suppressed by force, and more natives will be killed, even the cost of transporting them to the mouth of the Ganges will be saved. "

This move harmed the peace of the world, and the cabinet ministers no longer discussed it, but all acquiesced to this approach.