Chapter 49: The Seeds of Science

Wynne didn't say much about Kong Xilu's point.

He has a position in front of the emperor, and he is not willing to leave the emperor for too long, otherwise it will not be good if he is robbed of his position by other eunuchs.

In recent years, under the strong suppression of Zhu Qizhen, a small number of the eunuchs in the Daming Palace have entered the Shaofu system and worked for the emperor, and the rest of the eunuchs have to die in the palace.

With the eunuchs of the Yongle period as an example, they were naturally unwilling.

Therefore, it seems that the wind and waves in the upper palace are calm, but the fight between the eunuchs in private has never stopped.

It's more vicious.

After Zhu Qizhen saw Huai En come back, he asked, "How is this Yan Shenggong?" ”

Huai En said all the words between him and Yan Shenggong, and then said: "From the slave maid's point of view, this Yan Shenggong is a person who understands and will not do anything that he does not understand. ”

Zhu Qizhen sighed and said, "I hope so." ”

What the predecessor Yan Shenggong Kong Hongxu did taught Zhu Qizhen a lesson, he had been fighting with so many people in the court for so long, and he didn't expect that Kong Hongxu would stand out and participate in such a big thing, only tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Although tens of thousands of taels of silver are a lot, for the Kong family, it can't be said to be much, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of acres of land controlled by the Kong family, just to say that all commercial activities inside and outside Qufu have the intervention of the Kong family.

Compared with the family business of the Kong family, tens of thousands of taels cannot be calculated at all.

How did this kind of fool occupy a place above the imperial court, this is what Zhu Qizhen thought at that time.

Although the Kong family gave Zhu Qizhen the direction to break the game, he didn't like this, he would rather fight with the same people who understood each other, and he spent a lot of time thinking about many reasons, and after speculating many times, he found that the ideas of the two sides were not on the same level at all.

It's just that he didn't expect that this Yan Shenggong gave Zhu Qizhen a great surprise.

Yan Sheng Gong left the palace and fell into deep thought.

Huai'en's words were still echoing in the ears of Yan Shenggong.

What should be done in order to conform to the emperor's mind. This problem made him a little difficult to start. When he left the palace, he heard several officials talking loudly while walking out, obviously frequent visitors to the palace.

After all, he is not a frequent visitor to the palace, and he has a sense of restraint when he enters the palace for the first time, and he will never be so relaxed.

He waited silently behind, only listening a few times, but it was Belin with a few young men. But it was yesterday's lunar eclipse event.

For a while, there was elation.

The new Yan Sheng Gong was not far behind, and he had no intention of listening, but as soon as he heard the word "Your Majesty" without paying attention, he immediately erected it

Ears up.

Knowing that the old man in front of him and even Belin, after being summoned by His Majesty just now, went to see the prince again.

The other young children were all students of Belin, some were even children of the Pei family, some were studying astronomy, and some were studying mathematics.

Among these who come to learn mathematics are the children of masters such as the Lu family and the Kuai family.

Because Zhu Qizhen has deeper and higher requirements for them, and advocates them to learn mathematics.

In fact, these masters who can become the leaders of a line may not know much about the Four Books and Five Classics, but it does not mean that their knowledge is poor.

In fact, even in ancient times, in a certain thing, even if it was a small thing, it was a very difficult thing for a person to do the ultimate.

In particular, the construction and coordination of a large project, if the master craftsman himself does not read and write, it is simply unthinkable.

It's just that the technology of this era doesn't need too much for mathematics, and the most basic Pythagorean theorem or something has long been known. However, in order to study the steam engine that Zhu Qizhen had high hopes for, it was natural to study under the name of the first-class mathematician at that time.

And where are the world's first-class mathematicians?

Naturally, it was in the Qin Heavenly Prison.

And so they all bowed down to Belin's door. Before the real master craftsman's skills were not passed down from generation to generation, such as before Kuaixiang, it was to let the children study, take the imperial examination, and take the so-called right path.

Now he has been favored by Zhu Qizhen many times. In particular, every edict to be edicted, the annual rewards add up to thousands of taels, don't be too many thousands of taels.

There are less than 100 edicts to be edicted, which adds up to a lot of money.

After all, Zhu Qizhen has always wanted to suppress the palace expenses below two million taels, and their entire group of edicts spends hundreds of thousands of taels every year, and even some of them have errands on them. It's another penny.

This gave rise to the idea of many masters in their hearts, and the son inherited his father's business.

Yan Sheng Gong Kong Xilu listened silently in the back, and only after leaving the palace gate did he step forward to greet him and said, "Everyone, in the next new Yan Sheng Gong Nan Kong Xilu, can I have the honor to invite you to a meal of water and wine." ”

To tell the truth, even if there is such a scandal in the Kong family, the Kong family's brand is still hard enough, and when I heard that it was Yan Shenggong, including Bei Lin, they all became restrained, and Bei Lin said: "Yan Shenggong is invited, how can I wait?" ”

Now the holy family of these people, and even the real power in their hands, are above this newly appointed Yan Shenggong. It's just that the political status of these craftsmen and the like has always been low, and even if Belin's status is in the Confucian social system, it is not much higher. So how dare you refuse the invitation of the Holy Father.

So this Yan Shenggong took out almost all his money, after all, he had not yet gone to the Ministry of Rites to go through the procedures, nor did he take over the Kong family, and in the south of Kong's family, there were actually not many taels of silver.

The group set up a banquet in the restaurant outside the palace, and spent nearly half of the silver brought by Kong Xilu. But after three rounds of wine and five flavors of food, Kong Xilu, the old master's goal, was achieved.

After a hearty drink, Kong Xilu's son Kong Yi came to pick him up.

After the groggy Kong Xilu returned to the post station, he washed his face with cold water, only to feel that his face was red and hot. Then he was a little sober.

Kong Yi said: "Father, who are you going to drink with?" ”

Kong Xilu said: "With Qintian Supervisor, there are still a few edicts to be issued. It cost a hundred taels in total. ”

Kong Yi was taken aback when he heard this, and said, "One hundred taels, is this eating gold?" ”

Don't think that a hundred taels of silver is very little, very little for the country, but for ordinary people, they can earn about 100 taels a year, which can be almost the same as the income of a county master.

It must be a local figure with a head and a face.

Kong Xilu said: "This is not important, I know one thing from their mouths, that is, His Majesty is willing to spend money on various studies of Shaofu, especially one million taels per year, especially what steam engine, he has been studying for many years, and if he loses all the expenses, there will be millions of taels." ”

Actually, he misheard, these millions of taels were not consumed only on the study of the steam engine, but everything around the research of the steam engine.

Zhu Qizhen has no research on scientific research.

All he can guide is to conjecture, experiment, and then act. In particular, the math tool should be added. But what to do is not what Zhu Qizhen knows.

In his previous life, he had never been in a laboratory.

But now he has a special kryptonite skill, and that is to throw money.

For the steam engine, several masters were in charge, and even several experimental blast furnaces were built for the iron used in the steam engine.

Improving steel quality time and time again.

This improvement was reflected in the army's weapons, armor, and artillery. Since the fourteenth year of orthodoxy, the weapons of the Ming Dynasty have become better and better.

Even today's fully equipped weapons are already backward.

It's just that a full redress is too expensive, even if Zhu Qizhen has money, he can't burn it like this, plus there are no enemies around, just a battalion equipped on a small scale. Five thousand people, not much equipment.

In addition, there are no qualified sealing materials, and now the prototype of the steam engine is already available, but if you want to be able to achieve what Zhu Qizhen wants, you can't move forward on the rails.

So it's still being experimented over and over again.

Kong Xilu didn't know much, and he didn't know much about steam engines. But he has not eaten rice for nothing for so many years, and he can see that this is something that His Majesty attaches great importance to today.

And he heard another piece of news.