On the afternoon of New Year's Day, when Li Mingyuan was accompanying his two little wives to visit the scenery in the back garden, he received a message from the Royal Academy of Sciences.

"Your Majesty, is there any good news?"

Seeing Li Mingyuan with a smile on his face, Empress Wu Lingxuan asked curiously.

"That's good news."

Li Mingyuan unfolded the letter paper in his hand, put it in front of the two women, and explained, "This morning, several researchers from the Royal Academy of Sciences tested the performance of the new dye in the Susong Textile Factory, and the trial production results were very successful. ”

"Congratulations to Your Majesty, the Royal Academy of Sciences has developed a new type of dye, and the finished cloth produced by the Susong Textile Factory using the new dye will surely be more popular with the local people in the future."

"There's more than one piece of good news."

Li Mingyuan said in a good mood, "The research on picric acid, rubber, plastics and other aspects has also made a lot of progress, after ten years of financial investment and support, the chemical industry finally ushered in the first new technology outbreak period." ”

"Your Majesty, I've seen rubber trees, and when I was in Songkhla, a lot of them were planted in the manor outside Daddy City, but what are plastic and picric acid, are they important to Your Majesty?"

Wu Lingxuan was puzzled.

"Plastic is a moldable substance, like a locally produced video camera, which contains a plastic component in the film, picric acid is a new type of gunpowder that is more powerful than traditional black powder when ignited, and is used as rifle ammunition when fired

It does not produce combustion smoke like black powder. ”

Li Mingyuan briefly explained to the two women, and then said, "The level of science and technology in Western countries is higher than that of the mainland, and if the government wants to shelter the eight million people in South America to live on all sides, it must make arrangements in advance in some emerging scientific and technological fields to catch up with the scientific and technological level of Western countries."

Xuan'er, Bao Yi, although our wedding days are short, but before we got married, we have also been in contact for a period of time, you should have a general understanding of my temperament, I am not a stubborn and conservative man, if you are bored in the palace, or want to get in touch with Western science and technology, culture and other knowledge, you can tell me, I will send someone to collect books on related aspects, and send them to you. ”

"The living environment in the palace is very good, there is nothing unsuitable about the concubines, and the concubines usually just like to accompany Your Majesty to play the piano and chess, and they are not good at playing with Westerners' foreign gadgets, so Your Majesty will not bother to work for the concubines."

"Bao Yi, foreigners' cameras and pianos are very fun, if you don't know, I can teach you."

Wu Lingxuan was quite interested, and said coquettishly to Li Mingyuan, "Your Majesty's brother, if the concubine wants to take a photo of Your Majesty's brother in person, she will use the camera in the palace, okay?" ”

"Not today, I'm going to meet a few officials in the outer court, next time, next time, I'll personally accompany you to take pictures."

Li Mingyuan smiled and patted Wu Lingxuan's little hand, and then chatted with the two girls for a while, and waited until the two guards came to the back garden to inform that several officials had arrived, said goodbye to the two girls, and hurriedly left the back garden.

Daming Palace built a pole hall, because the New Year's Day was closed, there were only more than ten officials and researchers of the Academy of Sciences standing in the wide palace.

"Everyone, take a look at the materials in your hands first, and after reading them, if you feel that something is inappropriate, you can give your opinions."

Li Mingyuan sat high in the center of the front hall of the hall and spoke.

More than ten minutes passed, and an official was the first to speak, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty thinks that there is nothing wrong with establishing a new chemical society in the Royal Academy of Sciences.

But is the reward for Zhou Sheng and Lin Shenhe too high, although the two have made some achievements in the research of gunpowder and dyes, but to award them hereditary barons, will it make some officials and generals who have not been awarded the title of hereditary baron think that the imperial court treats scientific and technological personnel too well? ”

"Based in South America for 11 years, officials and generals who have made great and small contributions abound, but the first batch of lists of hereditary titles is only 51 people, hereditary titles are limited, it is impossible for every meritorious official and general to have a share, some people have not received hereditary titles, because their merits have not reached the standard of awards, but Zhou Sheng, Lin Shenhe are different, although they have not fought for the country on the battlefield, but the progress they have made in chemical technology is not inferior to the real military exploits on the battlefield.

Zhou Sheng was one of the first batch of local students to study in Germany, went abroad in 1870, returned to China in 1874, and stayed in obscurity at the Royal Academy of Sciences for five years after returning to China.

The credit for Congo red dye alone may not have earned him the title of hereditary baron, but given the number of chemical talents he had cultivated for the country and the technological advances he had made in textile chemistry in previous years, it was not an exaggeration to grant him a hereditary barony. ”

As a new type of science and technology industry that has been pinned on high hopes, the big chemical strategy has received great attention from Li Mingyuan, and Li Mingyuan can name each of the more than 200 Chinese technicians engaged in chemical technology research in Zhou Sheng, Lin Shenhe and the entire Royal Academy of Sciences.

In order to support the development of chemical technology and set an example for the people, Li Mingyuan publicly announced that he would take out half of the annual income from all the industries controlled by the royal family and invest in the research of chemical technology, and at the same time the palace under construction, the number of palace maids and female officials was also reduced from the original plan of 1,000 to 300 people.

Li Mingyuan's behavior may not be completely clean enough in the eyes of future generations, just take the draft girls and the two things of taking money to support chemical technology research, 300 show girls have been selected, and then announced that they will no longer carry out draft activities in the future, which is a bit secretive.

And to support the research of chemical technology, although the government's propaganda is focused on Li Mingyuan's money to take into account the direction of the big chemical strategy, but in fact, the money is not spent in vain, those who borrow the royal family industrial funds to support the research and development of new technologies, more than sixty percent of the patent fees and product licensing production costs belong to the royal family, in the long run, Li Mingyuan's investment will not only not lose money, but will also enable the royal family to have more high-quality industries.

Taking into account the interests of the country and the royal family itself, only the sustained and healthy development of the country can the status of the royal family and the monarchy not be shaken.

After a pause, Li Mingyuan continued, "The significance of smokeless gunpowder to the combat effectiveness of the army is self-evident, and the research of smokeless gunpowder in Western countries is not later than ours, but because of the influence of some factors, the local people have developed the production method of picric acid earlier than Western countries, but in fact, the technical background of the local people in terms of explosives is not as high as that of Westerners, so we should reward researchers who promote technological development, provide an example for other scientific and technological researchers, and let them know clearly, The Chinese also have their own scientists, and we are still able to independently develop science and technology that surpasses that of Western countries. ”

The long-standing prestige, combined with the importance of encouraging the first group of homegrown science and technology researchers, has led officials to accept Mr. Lee's claims.

The proposal for Zhou Sheng and Lin Shenhe was successfully passed, and then after the two parties expressed their gratitude, they put forward a new proposal to integrate the chemical engineering disciplines of various local universities and re-establish a chemical engineering college affiliated to the Royal Academy of Sciences.

Considering that the country in later generations also had similar plans, Li Mingyuan nodded and agreed to build a new engineering university based on chemical disciplines and supplemented by chemical-related disciplines, named Chang'an University of Technology, under the name of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and accepted the dual leadership of the Ministry of Education and the Royal Academy of Sciences.