Hearing that Chen Jialuo was going to see Gao Zhisi and Yang Dewang, Zhao Banshan said hesitantly, "Chief helmsman, we have already arranged to set up a banquet to entertain Wang Jinglong, and now the kitchen is estimated to be ready!" ”

"Oh, I'm a little too excited!" , Chen Jialuo patted his head, "Thank you for the reminder, but it will take some time to serve the food, I will go to meet the two of you first, and then go to the official visit after the banquet!" ”

"The helmsman forgot again!" , Zhao Banshan said with a smile, "I am now the fourth master, and the third master has already become Brother Lu!" ”

"I'm used to calling it for a while, but I can't change it." , Chen Jialuo followed with a smile and said, "So the fourth brother is leading the way, I will visit these two missionaries who have returned from thousands of miles away." Chen Jialuo didn't take two steps and remembered to call Zhao Banshan's fourth brother, how should he call Luo Bing? If you call the fourth sister-in-law again, it will inevitably be misunderstood.

"Chief helmsman, these two are Gao Zhisi and Yang Dewang." Zhao Banshan took Chen Jialuo to a small courtyard at the back, and through the window, he could see two young men in black Catholic robes, one was writing something with a quill on the desk, and the other was flipping through a thick book in the back and talking to him from time to time.

Chen Jialuo raised his hand to signal Zhao Banshan not to disturb them, and walked lightly behind the two, only to see that the paper was written with five big characters of "China Problem Collection", and a series of questions were listed below, Chen Jialuo glanced at it roughly, only to see that the questions covered wealth, land distribution, farming, printing, Chinese history and other questions, seeing that when he answered the question of printing, Chen Jialuo couldn't help but interject, "If you use clay movable type, the copper plate is better than the iron plate, and the Song Zhou Bida has used the method of learning Bi Sheng from Shen Kuo to improve it, He used copper plates to print his own works, but copper plates were much more expensive than iron plates in terms of cost. ”

"Why is it better to use copper plates than iron plates?" , The person at the end of the question turned around, and saw that Zhao Banshan accompanied a person about his age to the room, and hurriedly got up and saluted, "In the lower class, dare to ask who this brother is?" ”

"In Xia Chen Jialuo, it is not easy for Brother Gao and Brother Yang to travel thousands of miles to study, then Europa is much farther than Tianzhu, and the two brothers' move is far beyond the journey of Zen Master Xuanzang to the west in the past!" , Chen Jialuo hurriedly replied and praised, "I just saw that the two of them were concentrating, so I didn't dare to disturb, and I also hope that the two brothers Tai Haihan." ”

"It turned out to be the helmsman of the Red Flower Society! Bless you! Gao Zhisi was not surprised, and after skillfully drawing a cross on his chest, he asked, "Why did Chief Chen say that the copper plate is better than the iron plate?" ”

"This is because copper has better thermal conductivity than iron, which makes it easy to melt the viscose!" Chen Jialuo explained, I don't know if today's physics studies the problem of thermal conductivity of metals.

"Thermal conductivity?" , Yang Dewang put down the book in his hand and praised, "The word Chen helmsman is used well, but this word is not like my Huaxia inherent vocabulary, where did Chen Zonghelm get it from?" ”

The physics teacher taught, but he couldn't say it directly, he glanced at the cover of the book that Yang Dewang had just put down, and saw a few lines of French written on it, Chen Jialuo had only learned English in his previous life, and in French, he only learned a sentence "je-t'aime" in order to make a girl, so he pretended to be curious and picked up the book and asked, "Dare to ask Brother Yang what book is this?" ”

"The title of this book is "An Examination of the Formation and Distribution of Wealth", which is the study of how wealth is generated and circulated, and is the work of Durgo, the chief financial officer of France. , After speaking, he was afraid that Chen Jialuo would not understand, and he specially explained, "This chief financial officer is similar to my household secretary in the Qing Dynasty." ”

Gao Si raised the paper full of questions in his hand and said, "My "Collection of Chinese Questions" was also handed to me by Monsieur Durgo before I left, and it lists a total of fifty-two kinds of questions, all of which are related to my China, and Mr. Durgo instructed the two of us to answer them in detail and send them back to France. ”

Durgo? Chen Jialuo thought carefully in his mind, and then remembered that he had heard the name of this person when he was studying Western economic history, and he was a representative of the French classical school of political economy - the physiocrat, who regarded agriculture as the only source of wealth and the basis of all social income, and believed that the protection of property rights and individual economic freedom was a necessary factor for social prosperity, which also had something in common with Confucianism's long-standing thought, no wonder this person was so interested in China; When I think of the curiosity and yearning that outstanding figures in the West have cast on China today, and then look at China, since Pope Clement XI issued a ban in 1704, officially banning Chinese etiquette, Chinese officials have gradually stopped communicating with the West, and there are no more scholars like Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua who are willing to open their eyes to the world, until a hundred years later, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was opened by cannons, and a hundred years of time was wasted.

"To be treated so seriously by Senior Brother, presumably this Monsieur Durgo is a great talent in France?" , Chen Jialuo continued.

"Although the kingdoms of Nataixi do not practice Confucianism, they are also talented, and this Mr. Durgo has a lot of insights in the application of the world." After returning to China, when he talked about his affairs in Europe, those scholars cast disdainful glances, and finally some people were interested in it, and Gao Xiangsi's words also increased, "But compared with another Mr. Adam Smith, this Mr. Durgo's talent is slightly inferior, and the two of us have had a few deep conversations with Mr. Adam Smith in Paris, the capital of France, and this person is not inferior to Guan Zhong and Tao Zhu in terms of talent in the world." ”

The name Adam Smith is thunderous! As long as you have a little involvement in political science and economics, you will not have heard the name of "The Wealth of Nations", if you can fool him to China, it will make a lot of money, Chen Jialuo hurriedly asked, "Brother Gao still has a relationship with this Mr. Adam Smith, can you invite him to come to my China?" ”

"I'm afraid it's not easy." Gao Zhisi shook his head, "This person is preparing to write a book, I'm afraid I don't have time to come." However, I have talked with him many times by candlelight, and I also know a little about what he has learned in his chest. ”

"So good, so good." , Chen Jialuo high-fived and praised, "In the future, I will inevitably bother the two gentlemen!" Seeing that he was still going to speak, Zhao Banshan hurriedly coughed, Chen Jialuo remembered that the banquet would start immediately, so he said apologetically, "The younger brother has something urgent to do, if the two brothers don't dislike it, let's talk about it when the matter is done!" ”

The two nodded in agreement, and Chen Jialuo turned back before going out and said, "By the way, there is another friend who has studied mathematics quite a lot, and he will go to Hangzhou in a few days, and we will get together then!" ”

Note: The relationship between these two men and Durgo is a historical fact, and Adam Smith quoted Chinese sources many times in The Wealth of Nations, perhaps because of his contact with them.

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