The emperor came prepared, and soon the seventh prince, Li Huan, came in from outside.

Although he is a prince, he has not been titled yet, and his marriage has not been concluded.

After coming in, he saluted the emperor and called his father, and then bowed to Liu Yu and called Liu Yu's title.

After looking at it, Li Yan was seventeen or eighteen years old, with an eye patch on his left eye.

The acne lady obviously didn't bless him well, and you don't have to wear an eye patch when you have acne, but if the pimple grows on the eye and causes blindness, then you have to wear it, and it's scary to take it off.

Liu Yu pondered that Li Yan was in the palace all day, and he was afraid that his scary-looking eyes would cause the emperor to be disgusted, so he simply buttoned up the blindfold, although it didn't look aesthetic, but it wasn't scary after all.

He was quite tall, not big enough, and not very strong.

Thinking about such a life experience, and being born in the emperor's family, it doesn't matter if everything is lost; Either it is a gentleman who is strong in his self-improvement.

There is little contact, and Liu Yu is not easy to draw conclusions.

"When I was a teenager, I had heard of the name of the eagle, and I had seen the balloon that flew into the sky. At the beginning, it was those Western missionaries who also praised Ying Suo Boqing all day long for being better than the blue, and studied under Dai Shilang, but his actual knowledge was higher than Dai Shilang. Today, I have the permission of my father and the emperor to study with Ying Sabo, which is really a blessing. ”

I can't see anything in this kind of scene, who knows how many times it has been rehearsed? However, Liu Yu felt that this might be someone who really wanted to learn, because he didn't have the right to inherit, so he didn't have to show a studious appearance to please the emperor.

praised Liu Yu a few words, which sounded very useful.

Li Yan finished praising Liu Yu, and said: "Since I have read the Western national examination written by Ying Sabo, I know the size of the earth and the breadth of the ocean. I have also read some naval brochures compiled by Ying Sabo, and I know that naval warfare used to be mostly fought by jumping gangs, and some brave men wore more blindfolds in order to enter the cabin of the black hole from the sun, and as long as the blindfolds were changed sides, they could fight; After sailing thousands of miles, you need to rely on the sextant to distinguish the latitude, watch the sun all day long, and often have the scorching sun, so there are many blindfolds. ”

"I lost my left eye when I was a child, and I used to have a lot of resentment, but now I think, isn't this God showing me to throw myself into the ship?"

It was a beautiful remark, and the Emperor nodded approvingly as a sign of encouragement.

Li Yan looked at Liu Yu in front of him, and couldn't help but think of the autumn when the hot air balloon first flew in the capital many years ago.

I was only eight years old that year, and I had a rare opportunity to see my biological mother, who always loved this disabled child since childhood.

In the autumn garden, the biological mother told the story.

One day, while Jesus and his disciples were walking along the road, they saw a man who had been blind from birth sitting on the side of the road asking for food. The disciples asked Jesus, "Teacher, who has sinned against this man who was born blind?" Is it him, or his parents? ”

Jesus said, "He was not blind because he himself sinned, nor because his parents were guilty, but because he wanted to embody the power of God in him." As long as I am on earth, I will bring light to this world. ”

Li Yan was still young at that time, and he didn't have much opportunity to contact his biological mother, and the palace had its own system. It's just that he knew that he was baptized soon after he was born, and at that time he didn't have the right to choose, and his Christian name was the same as that of Sun Yuanhua, a firearms expert in the previous dynasty, called Ignatius.

That day, it was not the first time Li Yan had heard this story.

It is said that there is no taboo in children's words, and Li Yan still remembers asking his biological mother a question that made him still feel heartache when he thought of his biological mother's desperate eyes many years later.

"Mother, my eyes are blind when I am very young. But God didn't send Jesus to heal me...... Am I guilty? ”

As soon as he said a word, Li Yan still remembered that his mother's tears fell down, and he held his face and kept saying: "It's my mother's sin, it's my mother's sin......"

He wanted to go to his mother's arms and wipe his mother's eyes, but when he looked up, he saw the hot air balloon floating in the air in the distance.

For a moment, he truly believed that it was a miracle from God that had come to save his eyes.

Her birth mother prayed devoutly, begging Jesus Christ to restore sight to her child's blind eye.

However......

After that day, Li knew that it was nothing more than a hot air balloon flying into the sky. The only little bit of faith that was born in the heart was shattered.

From hope to disillusionment, it only takes a few days.

So the hot air balloon was so impressed with him that he wondered how it got into the sky.

The prince is to learn, and he asked the teachers who taught him the subset of scriptures and histories, but the teachers could not answer.

I also asked the missionaries who taught them Western knowledge at that time, but the missionaries could not answer.

It wasn't until much later that someone told him that the person who made the thing gave an explanation, just like the Kong Ming lantern, that the qi was heated and swollen, and if it was like a wooden plank floating on the water, it was lighter than qi. It's not so much to fly to the sky as to float to the sky.

Li Yan remembered Liu Yu's name very early.

In the years that followed, the name would always come to his ears from time to time.

During the period when the Rakshasa was at war and his father was driving, news about Liu Yu would come; Later, when the palace began to change glass on a large scale, Liu Yu's name was also indispensable; Navy, Quasi-Ministry, Jinghai Palace, Western Missions......

This name was very loud among the princes, and Li Yan felt that he might not know who the several Pingzhang military affairs of the current dynasty were, but he firmly remembered this name.

From time to time, some newly printed pamphlets about Shixue would flow into the court, and Li Yan read them with relish, indulging in another world that would not be touched by those subsets of classics and histories—the world, why is this so? Why does the sun rise in the east and set in the west? Why are there four distinct seasons? Who is the driving force of this world?

The court is the most obscure place in the world, and most of the princes who grew up here are either perverted or crazy, even if they behave like normal people.

But Li Yan is different, no one in the palace bullied him.

It was because of his disability that he received many privileges that the rest of his brothers did not enjoy.

What is lacking, what is said.

Just like the palace of fratricidal brothers, the emperor values the heirs most is the four words "brothers, friends and brothers".

A disabled younger brother, a younger brother who is completely free of political threat, is the best object to show brotherhood and brotherhood in front of his father.

Li Yan has a good relationship with every brother, at least no one dares to make fun of him and bully him in the open.

And as his brothers grew up, all kinds of intrigues completely excluded him, especially after the ban on religion.

Without entanglement of interests, there can be no gratuitous hatred.

Li Yan, who grew up in this environment, can be regarded as a slightly normal person.

Due to his mother's influence, and out of the impression that made him completely disillusioned that day, he began to focus more on Western studies - at this time he changed his name to Shixue, because the emperor divided Western studies and practical studies in the name.

If it is effective in the east and effective in the west, it is called Shixue; What is normal in the west and unacceptable in the east is called Western learning.

After the ban on religion, many books were implicated and required strict censorship before they could enter the palace. Liu Yu's is not among them, so Li Yan has read many pamphlets written by Liu Yu, and he knows far more about the geography and history of the world than his brothers, who want to read more subsets of scriptures and histories, and he has no such needs.

The palace is like a birdcage, and the normal people in this birdcage are eager to see the bigger world. Especially when he was growing up, someone told him how big the world was.

In the dark, Li Yan was grateful to Liu Yu in his heart.

If that fall, without that lucky hot air balloon, maybe he would really have pinned his hopes on God's salvation, just like the story his mother told, Jesus would one day touch his eyes.

However, if that is the case, perhaps after the ban on religion, his fate will be completely abandoned by the court.

It is precisely because of that coincidental hot air balloon that he has become the best one among many princes, and the emperor has praised him a lot.

Because of this background, after the emperor wanted to take over Liu Yu's navy alone, the first thing that came to mind was this disabled son.

There is no threat to the position of the crown prince, no matter who comes to power in the future, he will have a good relationship with him; It is the emperor's own son, no matter what, this fleet is surnamed Li, and it is impossible for a person to inherit the unification, there is no need to stand in line and carry out any coup d'état or rebellion.

Seon is a blessing to lose his horse, and his disability and the disadvantage of being baptized since childhood have actually become an advantage this time.

The Navy was thriving, and it was rumored that it would be necessary to establish an Admiralty in the future, which would be subordinate to the Privy Council, and the War Department and the Admiralty would be placed under the Privy Council.

The princes could go to the Privy Council to train as staff officers, and they could go to the military academy after the military reform to learn the knowledge of war, but they had almost no chance of holding real military power.

And he may be the first of many princes to really have military power.

Li Yan has not tasted the taste of power, but he knows what kind of intoxicating magic it is, so that it will make those brothers and sisters who were brothers and sisters when they were young grow up to change.

Li Jian feels that he is lucky.

Compared with those brothers who failed to compete, they may be trapped in the capital for the rest of their lives in the future, holding less real power. And he, no matter which brother is on top, he will always be the first to be co-opted.

All this luck seems to be traced back to the person in front of him, as well as the hot air balloon that rose to the capital in the golden autumn.

Yourself, don't do anything, and don't have to do anything.

It doesn't matter which of your brothers will become the emperor after your father's death, you only need to be loyal to the emperor, not someone. Whoever is the emperor in the future will be his dearest brother, and he will also be the closest brother of that brother.

At this moment, standing in front of Liu Yu, Li Yan's mood was a little complicated. Facing Liu Yu, his mentality is also a little strange.

A few predestined mysteries; A few points often hear the respect for military exploits; A little as if the prophet cured his heart...... and a little bit of fear.

As for the words with Liu Yu, they are not all scene words. But he wasn't sure if Liu Yu believed it.

The emperor didn't say that he should "be regarded as a teacher" by Liu Yu, but just let him follow Liu Yu to experience and study, perhaps out of some deep meaning, he didn't want to delve into it, but he understood that the emperor didn't say "being regarded as a teacher" because he didn't want him to have a formal teacher-student relationship with Liu Yu, but it didn't mean that he didn't have to do it in practice.

After a brief silence, Li heard Liu Yu ask him what books he had written.

"I've read a lot of the books of the eagle. 、、、、、、……”

A large number of simple pamphlets written by Liu Yu were said like the names of the dishes, and he had a missionary teaching mathematics foundation, and some things seemed to be easier to understand than ordinary people; As for those things that seem to be talking about trade but are actually talking about political economy, there is no other place to think about at this time, and there is no other way to speculate, but to read through and accept it and subconsciously take it for granted, which is quite a sudden sense of enlightenment.

Of course, there's nothing to practice backwards.