Bumpy ride, first by train, then by boat.

Finally, on the seventh day of leaving Guangzhou, John finally arrived in Nanjing.

Even if you are a few miles apart, you can see the majestic city walls of Nanjing. Everything in this country can be a shock to people like never before, whether it is a modern train or a ship, or a classical city wall or glazed tower.

Nanking.

This is the capital of the Ming Empire. As the boat slowly approached the shore, John disembarked with his suitcase. Standing on the harbor and looking back at the Yangtze River rolling east behind him, he actually had a feeling of unreality.

At this time, a Ming man came over and asked.

"Excuse me, are you Mr. John Tillosen?"

To John's surprise, he spoke English, and now, learning Chinese in Europe has long become a trend, scholars are working hard to learn Chinese in order to be able to read books from the Ming Kingdom obtained through various channels, almost every European university has a Chinese course, although Chinese, Chinese is so complicated, but people are still trying to learn.

Along the way, John met many Europeans who could speak Chinese, but Akito who could speak English. In addition to the crew, he was the first.

"I'm sent by Dr. Niu to pick you up."

It turned out that he was sent by Newton to pick him up, and according to him, Newton set off for Zhongdu in three days, because of the meeting of the Royal Academy of Sciences, not before leaving, Newton specially ordered his students to come here to pick up John.

"Oh, thank you."

After thanking him, John got into a carriage under the guidance of this English-speaking young man.

"My name is Li Minglei, I am a student of Dr. Niu, and I have always admired Mr. Niu's name."

When Li Minglei introduced himself, John found that he seemed to keep a certain distance from himself intentionally or unintentionally, and then he was relieved, since he left Wuchang, he has never taken a bath, and it has been three days now, and now the smell on his body must be very unpleasant.

John couldn't help but regret it, he should have put on some perfume. Soon, however, regret was replaced by curiosity, and as the carriage raced along the paved road, John learned that it was a road paved with asphalt and gravel, and that the road was smooth and not afraid of rain.

This asphalt road was introduced to Europe more than a decade ago, and a similar road was built when the Great Fire of London was rebuilt, but only one.

After the carriage passed through the downtown area, John found that the surroundings were much quieter, and the carriage soon drove to Bell Hill, where Newton lived and where John was a guest.

When they arrived at Newton's house, they found that the hostess was already waiting for them. Although John had never met Newton's wife, his Anne was very enthusiastic, after all, for her who had been in the Ming Kingdom for more than ten years, she naturally felt very close when she met John from England.

Newton's life here is really good!

Standing in Newton's European-style house, looking at the beautiful courtyard and the maids in the courtyard, John could imagine that Newton's life must have been very comfortable now. After taking a shower and changing his clothes, John was led by the maid to the dining room.

In the dining room, John enjoyed a sumptuous dinner.

Despite his exhaustion, John was unable to sleep peacefully for some reason, perhaps because he was too excited.

The next morning, as soon as breakfast was finished, John left the Cow Mansion and began his adventure in Nanjing.

Nanjing was very, more prosperous than any city he had ever seen, and John could say for sure that it was the most prosperous city in the world.

However, compared to the prosperity of Nanjing, John was more curious about the academies, the so-called universities, and he easily found a guide, and then spent a whole day visiting more than a dozen academies in a rented carriage.

"There are 57 academies in Nanjing! My God! ”

While surprised by the number of academies in Nanjing, the academies of different sizes often made him reluctant to leave.

Each of these colleges is different, but each has its own characteristics. At medical school, he even watched a surgical operation with the students of the college.

It was a simple surgical operation, but it still surprised John, after all, he was a doctor himself, and he found that England was backward like a barbarian in medicine, and many people in England also associated medicine with witchcraft, and it had developed into a new scientific discipline here when many doctors tried to study medicine with the right research methods.

After leaving the medical school, countless thoughts were tumbling in John's mind, and he found that after coming to Mingguo, this country brought him too many surprises, and these surprises were multifaceted, not just one aspect.

Like many foreigners who came to Daming for the first time, after Newton returned to Nanjing, John was reminded by him to go to the resident registration office to register, and foreigners like him who planned to stay for a long time must register. Although Newton reminded him that he could also apply for naturalization at the same time. But this was not in John's plans, after all, he still had to return to England.

In the following days, John rarely saw Newton, and he seemed to be very busy all the time, until a week after Newton returned to Nanjing, and that evening, after dinner, Newton, dressed in a silk robe, invited John to come to the courtyard, sit on a chair, make a cup of black tea, enjoy the evening breeze, and look at the starry sky. Newton asked.

"John, it's been ten days since you came to Nanjing, what do you think of here?"

Newton was not a good man to deal with, but he owed John Wilkins a favor that he had to take care of.

"It's supposed to be the busiest city in the world."

"It's not just bustling!"

Shaking his head, Newton said seriously.

"If you have time tomorrow, you should go to the academy."

Turning to look at John, Newton said.

"In the academy, you can see that in the academy of the Ming Dynasty, scholars from all over the world gathered, and the best scholars in Europe have come here."

Looking up at the stars in the sky, Newton's tone became a little low.

"In Europe, when scientists are there thinking about how to get a few hundred pounds from a king or a nobleman, in Daming, they can easily get thousands of taels of funding, here, almost every day there are thousands of scholars conducting various research, and the development of science is far beyond your imagination."

"I can imagine that, after all, compared to the Ming Kingdom, England is as backward as a primitive society."

John's words made Newton shake his head.

"No, you can't imagine at all, what you see now, just for you to see, where you can't see, there are many places that are far beyond your imagination, God can testify, and there are many things that you don't see, or don't want you to see, those things are far beyond your imagination."

In the past ten days, John had indeed seen many things that had not been seen in Europe, and many things had aroused his curiosity, and he had even begun to consider whether he should adjust his plans and stay in Mingguo to study.

"Therefore, more people need to come here to study, otherwise, England and Europe will only fall further and further behind, and maybe, one day, when in their eyes, we are reduced to barbarians, who will care about us? Perhaps, at that time, their fleet will appear on the shores of England, and when the time comes, we, like the barbarians of North America, will have to accept the rule of the Ming Kingdom. ”

"They have no interest in England at all, it's too barren, and they don't even have much interest in Europe, and even if it weren't for the canal, they wouldn't have much interest in Egypt, you know, the world is so big, and the Ming Dynasty is not that bad at all."

Then Newton added.

"You want to learn from the Ming Kingdom, of course, this is okay, the reason why many scholars come here is also for this reason, but my friend, you must know that as a foreigner, you can't enter the Ming Academy to study, maybe you can enter a Academy to become a chair, but this is far from enough, you will find that just by yourself, want to learn those knowledge, it is simply impossible, if England wants to learn the Ming Dynasty, at least hundreds of students need to study here every year, but for now, It's unrealistic, and there's not even any possibility! ”

"But what about how many students there will be? Even Cambridge as a whole doesn't have that many students. ”

Newton's words made John say with some frustration.

"But there are hundreds of thousands of such students in the Ming Kingdom, and as early as a dozen years ago, they had already established an education system that began with sociology, and millions of people were educated in schools every day, and a few decades later, they even surpassed the population of England with more scholars."

My God!

Looking at Newton in surprise, John simply couldn't believe what he said, but then he thought of the students he saw in those colleges, even if those colleges were the smallest, they were not inferior in size to Cambridge, not to mention the ones that were more than ten times larger than Cambridge?

They will have more and more scholars, they will invent more and more, and what will all this lead to? Daming will be more and more ahead of European countries, even if European countries are catching up, I'm afraid, it will be difficult to catch up with each other.

"Any scholar who has been here for a few years will clearly understand that it is no longer possible for Europe to catch up with the Ming Dynasty, after all, the Ming Dynasty is ahead of European countries, not only in science, but also in the economy and in other aspects......

Looking at John, Newton said seriously.

"So, John, my friend, I want you to stay here, after all, the future of science is here! Eventually, the best scholars in the world will still be here! ”

In the face of Newton's persuasion, John asked rhetorically.

"But why can't we bring scholars from the Ming Kingdom to England?"