Song Yingxing trembled immediately after hearing Ma Cheng finish speaking, of course, it was not that Song Yingxing had eaten too much fat in the past few days and suddenly had a stroke, but that he trembled with excitement when he heard Ma Cheng say this.

Song Yingxing has invested a lot of energy in miscellaneous studies such as arithmetic in his life, and even does not hesitate to delay his fame and fame for miscellaneous studies. However, in ancient China, after all, the imperial examination was the main indicator of a person's success, and such miscellaneous studies were just a small way for scholars to relieve their lonely time when they had nothing to do.

Song Yingxing is almost sixty years old this year, as he gets older, he is more and more afraid that no one will inherit what he has learned, and now he hears Ma Cheng say that he wants to run a school, and then let him teach, and mainly teach his best miscellaneous studies, Song Yingxing can not tremble with excitement?

Ma Cheng saw that Song Yingxing was trembling, afraid that the scientist's cerebral thrombosis he had finally found would suddenly hang up, so he hurriedly stepped forward to support Song Yingxing and asked with concern: "Teacher, are you okay?" ”

Song Yingxing held back the excitement in his heart and asked, "Zhonghe, what you said is the truth?" Isn't it fun to make the old man happy? ”

"Teacher, how dare the disciple deceive the teacher with this matter, the disciple really wants to run a school specializing in miscellaneous teaching, and now the entire Ming Dynasty is no more knowledgeable than the teacher, and this mountain chief naturally wants the teacher to take the role!"

Song Yingxing nodded when he heard Ma Cheng say this, although Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua may be older than Song Yingxing in terms of fame, but these two are Jinshi, and at the same time, the official positions of these two people are far higher than Song Yingxing, so they naturally add a lot of points. But in the study of organ arithmetic, these two are really inferior to Song Yingxing.

Xu Guangqi's expertise was in agriculture, and because he became a Christian, he was able to translate geometric originals. As for Xu Guangqi's apprentice Sun Yuanhua, his specialty is artillery. But Song Yingxing is different from them, Song Yingxing's specialty lies in mechanical manufacturing. Although he may not be as good as Sun Yuanhua in weapons production, for a country, Song Yingxing's expertise is much more important than Sun Yuanhua's.

And what Ma Cheng needs is people like Song Yingxing, the industrialization of a country is not something that one or two professionals can do, which requires hundreds of professional talents, but Ma Cheng belongs to a typical example of what to do and what not to eat, let him stand at the top and brag about it, it is a top trick, but let him go to the grassroots level to be responsible for lathe design, artillery casting, steel refining, etc., Ma Cheng is not as effective as an ordinary craftsman who does not know a big word.

Therefore, Ma Cheng learned that Song Yingxing had been the director of the county education bureau and had practical experience in teaching and educating people, and at the same time, Song Yingxing himself was still a technical talent, so he wanted to run such a school, so that Daming would not lag behind the Western powers.

"Zhonghe, this school is easy to build, but I'm afraid that students will have no way out in the future, after all, people with a little knowledge will take the right path of the imperial examination!"

This is the main problem that Song Yingxing has to worry about, this era pays attention to everything is inferior, only high reading, if you want to get ahead, you have to take the imperial examination, if this school teaches miscellaneous studies, this thing can not be used at all, I am afraid that no one will sign up for the school, what should I do?

Ma Cheng was worried after hearing Song Yingxing's words, and said with a smile: "This teacher can rest assured, the students you recruit will not be for the imperial examination in the future, and naturally you don't need to recruit children from good families!" ”

After speaking, Ma Cheng pointed at the craftsman in front of him with his finger: "Teacher, look at them, these craftsmen are from artisan households, and they have already lost the road of the imperial examination, so it is better for the teacher to recruit craftsmen and select qualified apprentices among them, and after they are released in the future, they can be selected to enter the various manufacturing bureaus of the Ministry of Industry, as well as the large silk weaving factories in the south of the Yangtze River, and they also need this kind of craftsmen who have mastered specialized skills, so their way out is no problem." The disciples can also discuss with my father to choose a few outstanding among the teacher's disciples to serve as low-level petty officials in the Ministry of Works, such as stewards, foremen, and so on! ”

Ma Cheng didn't carry the craftsmen of the artillery workshop behind his back when he said this, these craftsmen all flashed their eyes when they heard Ma Cheng say this, hoping that Song Yingxing would quickly agree, and they would be the first to go to apprenticeship.

In the Ming Dynasty, the households were divided into three categories: civilian, military, and craftsman. Among them, all the craftsmen are handicraftsmen, and there are also many people in the military who serve in the ordnance bureaus under the jurisdiction of the various capitals, called military craftsmen. In terms of legal status, these craftsmen and military craftsmen who are included in the special household register have a lower status than ordinary households, and they have to be inherited from generation to generation, and they are not allowed to divide their households in order to make up for it. If the craftsman and military registration want to break away from the original household registration, it is extremely difficult to obtain the special approval of the emperor, and at the same time, it is stipulated that the craftsman and military registration are not allowed to take the test to be among the scholars.

Nanjing Ordnance Bureau these craftsmen are all military craftsmen, many of them have been inherited for hundreds of years, since the early Ming Dynasty has been a craftsman, naturally their children and grandchildren will also take over their class, continue to work for the Ming Dynasty emperor. Now these craftsmen heard that they could be officials, although they were only some minor officials who were not in the stream, although there were only a few places, but this was a hope after all, so they were all listening to Song Yingxing's opinion.

Song Yingxing was also very conflicted when he heard Ma Cheng say it, in his bones, he still hoped that his disciples would take the right path of the imperial examination, but there were many difficulties, and this detachment would basically block the road to the imperial examination. Song Yingxing had to learn the arithmetic of the institution back then, so he had a lot of contacts with these craftsmen, and knew that the daily life of these craftsmen was very hard, and if the court needed anything, they had to work for free, and they had to pay their own money to delay the affairs of the court. If you teach them all kinds of technical means, although you can't make them rich, you can still go out to work part-time jobs to support your family. 180

Thinking of this, Song Yingxing nodded and agreed: "Zhonghe, the old man agrees with what you said!" ”

Ma Cheng saw Song Yingxing's promise and said happily: "Okay, since the teacher agrees, the disciple will start to prepare, is it good to call the school the Jingshi University Hall?" ”

Song Yingxing heard that Ma Cheng had given such a lofty name to a school that cultivated craftsmen, so he had no choice but to nod with a wry smile. What Song Yingxing didn't know was that this technical school, which was similar to the later Lanxiang Technical School, was the predecessor of the Future Imperial University and the first general university in Asia to train technical talents.

There were more than a dozen craftsmen who came out with Song Yingxing to test the cannon, and when they heard Song Yingxing's promise, they quickly knelt down and kowtowed, shouting: "Please Lord Song accept me as an apprentice!" ”

Song Yingxing didn't expect someone to come to apprentice so soon, and he was stunned for a while and didn't know what to do. On the side, Ma Cheng smiled and said: "You guys are interested, so let's do it, the school has not been built yet, you go back and wait for the notice, and when the school is completed, the first batch of students will be recruited!" ”

Song Yingxing let out a sigh of relief when he heard Ma Cheng come out, pulled Ma Cheng and asked, "Zhonghe, what kind of university should I do?" As a teacher, I have only taught a subset of scriptures and history, how to teach machine arithmetic as a teacher! ”

"This is simple, the teacher, please take it to heart, wait for the disciples to go back and do a good job of the lesson plan, and then the teacher can follow the lesson plan!"

It is difficult for Ma Cheng to run a university, and he can just read the course according to the various departments of the university in later generations. Ma Cheng wants to divide the university into two majors: science and engineering, with mathematics, physics, and chemistry in the sciences, mainly cultivating high-level talents. Engineering has practical majors such as machinery, mining, silk weaving, etc., mainly to train technical talents. The science lesson plan Ma Cheng completely copied the junior high school and high school courses of later generations, Ma Cheng was poisoned by the college entrance examination of later generations for so many years, although he didn't like to study, but he could still remember the textbooks of that year. Song Yingxing is needed in engineering, after all, Ma Cheng can only talk on paper, and when it comes to practical application, he will be smeared.

After Ma Cheng and Song Yingxing separated, they immediately began to prepare, and the house used the vacant military camp in the school field. Ma Cheng asked his soldiers to clean up more than a dozen empty houses, which were the classrooms and dormitories of the Beijing Normal University Hall.

The classroom is very simple, with more than a dozen long wooden chairs and benches, plus a blackboard painted with ink, this is the classroom of the Kyoto Normal University Hall. The dormitory is a 20-person bunk, divided into two floors, and the beds are covered with clean straw.

The management of students is completely copied from that of the army, and semi-military management is practiced, and every morning they get up at dawn to run and exercise, and then eat to start their day of study. The university also adheres to Ma Cheng's will and adopts a three-meal system, but they do not eat meat and are vegetarian every day. However, it also caused a sensation among the craftsmen, and it was not easy to find a good thing to find by serving three meals a day for free, and it was all dry rice.

With the preliminary preparations, this Beijing Normal University began its first enrollment of students, because the preliminary preparation was sufficient, and many people came to sign up, most of them came for the free three meals.

For the enrollment of Ma Cheng, the principle of strict entry and strict exit is adopted, and all children under the age of 15 are recruited in the science department, and these people are the pillars of the country's future, and they must not be sloppy at all. Therefore, Ma Cheng personally interviewed the science students one by one, don't be flamboyant, don't want the roe head rat, don't check the ten numbers, after layers of selection, the science department selected 56 students, this is the first batch of students in Chongzhen's seventeenth year, most of them have become national pillars.

As for the engineering department, it is simple, and the engineering department mainly cultivates technical talents, so in addition to the age limit, other conditions are very open. In this way, two hundred and sixty-seven mature craftsmen of about thirty years of age were selected from the engineering department, who would learn the basic industrial knowledge in two years of study.

After selecting the students, the Beijing Normal University Hall officially started classes on December 20, and the crowds at the time of enrollment were different, Ma Cheng did not do any ceremony when the class was officially opened, nor did he find his father Ma Shiying to make a cut, but by the mountain chief Song Yingxing came to a short speech, even if the first class of students in Chongzhen's seventeenth year officially opened.

At first, these literati thought that this Beijing Normal University Hall, like Bailu Academy, was a school for cultivating talents for imperial examinations. So when they heard that this school was opened by such a person as Song Yingxing, and after adding Ma Cheng, a second ancestor, they all laughed at the fact that anyone dared to run the school now.

After a period of time, the hall of Beijing Normal University slowly faded out of the sight of the literati in Nanjing, because the most important thing happened, that is, the party struggle between the eunuch party and the Donglin party reached a white heat.