Just after the silkworm disease, the summer flood in the south of the Yangtze River is coming.

The rainfall in Longqing in four years was much higher than in previous years, but the water level of Taihu Lake never rose above the warning line.

This naturally depends on the Taihu Lake Water Conservancy Project, which Haigong built with all his might last winter and this spring. Nowadays, Taihu Lake has six major waterways, namely the Huangpu River, the Wusong River, the Baimao River, the Taipu River, the Wangyu River and the Loujiang River, which greatly guarantees the safety of the flood season along the Taihu Lake.

However, the counties of Susong and Susong provinces still dare not be careless, because the production capacity of the Jiangnan cement plant is limited, and a considerable part of the river embankment is still an earthen dam. In addition, even if the water level is rising, there is still a danger of overflowing the embankment, so if necessary, it is necessary to use sandbags to raise the embankment.

But over time, the new embankment withstood the test, and the berm team spent most of the time in a state of idleness. Therefore, the counties withdrew their strong laborers to work, replaced them with old men and half-grown children to patrol the embankment, and only when they found danger or when the meteorological station on the east mountain predicted heavy rain, the men would go up the embankment again.

Yes, Wuzhong already has a meteorological observatory, the full name is Nanjing Qintianjian Suzhou Meteorological Observatory.

Zhao Gongzi's eldest apprentice, Lao Denuo...... Oh no, Pei Peijia followed him south, and it has been two years since he served as the chief of the Qintian Prison in Nanjing.

In the past two years, Bei Peijia, who has completely gotten rid of the heavy and high-risk work of stargazing and predicting bad luck for the imperial court, can finally serve the young master wholeheartedly and explore the true meaning of the universe to the fullest.

In fact, it is just a cow and a horse for the master......

However, Zhao Hao didn't just let him be a cow and a horse.

Zhao Gongzi asked Bei Peijia to go south to take up his post, but he actually took a fancy to the astronomical students and yin and yang people of Nanjing Qintianjian.

Qin Tianjian was in charge of astronomical divination, formulating calendars, calculating solar terms, selecting days and public opinions, and telling the time, and was a highly technical department. And because of the special task of 'insight into the heavens', he was naturally treated with special treatment by the imperial court-

In the sixth year of Hongwu, the domineering president Emperor Taizu stipulated that the personnel of the Qin Heavenly Prison were never allowed to move, and their descendants were only allowed to learn astronomical calculations, and were not allowed to learn other professions; It is not a scholar in the South China Sea'!

It is the officials of the Qin Heavenly Prison, the 'astronomical students' who are responsible for astronomical divination, and the 'yin and yang people' who are responsible for choosing the day and the public opinion, are classified into the 'yin and yang households', and their family and business will never change.

As a result, the seven Qintian families of Bei, Wang, Ni, Gao, Song, Yang, and Xu were formed, which have multiplied for seven or eight generations in the past two hundred years, and there are thousands of Dingkou......

The children of these families have practiced astronomical calendars and arithmetic divination for generations; There are also foreign languages to compile astronomical almanacs from the Persian eclipse; and mechanical techniques to repair the Qin Tianjian's various complex sky-watching and time-telling devices...... In fact, they know more than the Ming scholars, but they can't be soldiers, they can't take the imperial examination, and their employment path is very narrow...... In addition to the errand service of the Qin Tianjian in the northern and southern capitals, he served as a yin-yang official in the palace of the feudal king, the local government, the prefecture, and the county, and received a meager salary.

The errands are limited, but the population of yin and yang households is increasing, and now seventy percent of idlers can only find ways to make a living on their own. engaged in astronomical calculations for shops as bookkeepers; Those who learn astrology and divination give fortune-telling and physiognomy; Learn to show others feng shui and choose yin houses; Those who learn to draw talismans for others to heal diseases...... It's a lucrative business, but only if you don't kill people.

In fact, these methods of making a living, the professional level is not important, the important thing is to be able to fool, to be rich and prosperous, and not to be fooled to live and die. And human beings with the high-end talent of 'flickering' have never been less than one in a hundred. So ninety percent of the yin and yang households have eaten the last meal but not the next.

Especially in Nanjing, these yin and yang households who were completely forgotten by the imperial court were even poorer to death, and they turned the Gui watch and armillary sphere made by Zhu Yuanzhang into copper and sold them for copper......

When Zhao Hao gave his disciples the first lesson in science in Yuhuatai, he had already learned about the miserable state of these marginalized people in society. After listening to the basic situation of these people, tears of anger flowed down the corners of his mouth...... These are thousands of science students who have studied astronomy and geography, mathematics and mathematics, meteorology and geomagnetism, and mechanical manufacturing since childhood.

In the Ming Dynasty, which only gave birth to liberal arts students, it was as precious as a virgin in the daughter country.

Zhao Gongzi vowed to make everyone happy, so he always kept these yin and yang people in his heart, and sent his disciples to rescue them whenever he had the opportunity...... It's not that they are hungry.

~~

It's just that sometimes, the ideal is very plump, and the reality is very skinny......

Although Pei Peijia was born in the first Pei family of Ming metaphysics, they became Beijing people during the Chengzu period. To be honest, he didn't know the situation of these Qintian families in Nanjing.

As soon as he got to the bottom of Jinling, his heart was half cold. Because they have been marginalized for a long time, most of these Nanjing Yin and Yang people are blind and blind, and the level is quite not enough.

What's even more helpless is the attitude problem, after a long time, people are tired. Even if Bei Peijia wears out his mouth and screams through his throat, he can't wake up these guys who are pretending to be asleep.

As a last resort, he had no choice but to use a killer trick - a big coin!

Pei Peijia applied for a grant from his master to establish the Purple Mountain Astronomical Research Foundation outside the already rotten Nanjing Qintian Prison.

Because private research on the astronomical calendar is taboo, the foundation is not affiliated with the Jiangnan Group, but is a non-profit organization nominally established by Pei Peijia to raise funds to improve the level of astronomical research in Nanjing Qintianjian and Daming Yin and Yang households.

Zhao Hao will allocate 20,000 taels of silver to Pei Peijia every year as his daily expenses for running the foundation. If there is a scientific research project commission, there will also be a special grant, of course, in the form of social donations. In order to make everything more natural, Zhao Hao also pulled Wang Mengxiang, Hua Bozhen and other big dogs as sponsors for Bei Peijia.

Even famous prostitutes in Qinhuai such as Xue Lang and Zheng Yanru were fooled by Zhao Gongzi with a thousand taels of silver each...... At that time, Zhao Hao let out the wind through the Red Chamber Poetry Society, as long as she donated 1,000 taels, the Astronomical Research Society would use her name to name a newly discovered star in the future!

What a romantic thing this is, the Oiran will eventually wither, and the stars will be immortal! A thousand taels can't be bought, you can't be fooled, it's just a few boxes of incense powder, a few sets of jewelry money, and the opportunity to shine with the Weaver Girl Chang'e, how can you miss it?

The female historians of Qin Huai were moved, and felt that Zhao Gongzi was really romantic to the sky. So they undressed generously...... Oh no, don't give it. As a result, the funds raised by the Purple Mountain Astronomical Research Foundation skyrocketed to 80,000 taels.

Okay, the famous prostitutes haven't made a penny from Zhao Gongzi yet, so they let him open first.

"The teacher is really and heartbroken for the astronomical career of Daming......

It's just that the old apprentice is happy, but he is also a little worried, in the future, the sky will be full of prostitutes, and he is not afraid of being poked by the ancestor ** flower, he is afraid of being beheaded by the emperor......

Zhao Hao scolded him for being dead-eyed, and he had to name it after a star? Aren't the 1.27 million asteroids in the solar system stars? Not to mention the famous prostitutes of Qinhuai River, it is for Taishan's sister-in-law, West Lake Boat Niang, Yangzhou Skinny Horse, and Datong's mother-in-law...... Even one prostitute in the world is enough...... Right?

Anyway, with money, things are much easier. Pei Peijia threw aside the rotten Nanjing Qintianjian and devoted himself to running the Purple Mountain Research Association.

He issued a recruitment order to the major astronomical families - there was no superfluous rhetoric, only an unpretentious and boring price list:

Recruit senior researchers, with a monthly salary of fifty taels of silver.

Intermediate researcher, monthly salary of twenty taels of silver.

Junior researcher, monthly salary of ten taels of silver.

Assistant researcher, monthly salary of five taels of silver.

Graduate students, monthly salary of three taels of silver.

This glittering silver recruitment order is like a boulder thrown into a pool of stagnant water.

After all, even the lowest-paid graduate students earn twice as much as the skilled craftsmen in Nanjing. And the salary is paid at the end of each month, and there is no arrears. It won't be like the original street stalls, where the wind is halved and the rain is all over......

The major astronomical families were a sensation, and the yin and yang people who had been numb for a long time competed to fill out the registration form, wanting to become a glorious researcher.

But you have to take the entrance exam first, and the exam is divided into four subjects: arithmetic, astronomy, geography, and meteorology, all of which are the skills of yin and yang people to eat. More than 2,000 Yin and Yang people signed up with confidence, but only 300 people were admitted.

More than a dozen of them were hired as junior researchers and worked under the direct leadership of Pei Peijia.

Dozens of Zhongyin and Yang people with solid foundation and hard work have been hired as assistant researchers to assist junior researchers.

There are also more than 200 young yin and yang people who are interested in this way and are smart and can be created, and they have become graduate students taught by Pei Peijia himself...... They are the real hope. As for the recruited researchers, in fact, Bei Peijia was not satisfied, their knowledge system was too old, and the older they were, the more stubborn they became, and the more knowledge they had, the more reactionary they became.

Bei Peijia hired them to buy horse bones for a thousand dollars, and secondly, to use them as human hands first...... Because the task assigned by the master is too tight.

After two months of surprise training for these people, he followed Zhao Hao's orders and launched research projects one after another, including:

Astronomical telescopes are used to make astronomical observations and try to verify the rules of the universe as expounded in the Mathematical Principles of Natural Sciences.

Sort out the vast astronomical data of Qin Tianjian and try to compile a stellar catalog.

The star map was redrawn with Pei Xiu's six cartographic elements, and a longitude and latitude grid system was established.

And Zhao Gongzi has the old problem of thinking about it, and when he pats his head and thinks of an idea, he will immediately ask Secretary Ma to write to him to add burden.

Later, he successively sent Pei Peijia to try to produce an octant, compile the "Astronomical Almanac" that was matched with the navigation clock, study meteorological forecasts, and even typhoon warnings, and other tasks that were increasingly irrelevant to Qin Tianjian......

But there is no way, the teacher's life is like a mountain. Bei Peijia had no choice but to grit his teeth and persist in advancing one arduous task after another. So far, it can barely be regarded as fruitful.

ps. My mother is going to have a minor operation, and I went to the hospital today to communicate and finish writing a chapter. Keep writing, but I definitely can't finish it, and I'll send it tomorrow morning......