The use of scientific experiments and mathematical analysis to study mechanics was the precedent pioneered by Galileo Galilei. The Newton's laws of motion, which Chongzhen copied from later generations, established an effective method for Galileo to study the motion of objects in the macroscopic world and at low speeds. To put it simply, because of Su Changqing, a traverser, Galileo has basically finished the work that Sir Isaac Newton should do.

Well, although Sir Isaac Newton lost his honor as the father of classical mechanics, at least he could study mathematics and optics in the future. Of course, this Sir Isaac Newton is not yet born, and he should not be able to express his indignation to Su Changqing and Mr. Galileo Galilei.

Galileo highly admired Chongzhen's conjecture about the three laws of mechanical motion, believing that they could be used to explain the laws behind almost all natural phenomena. Although the Ming Emperor's intellect seems to have fallen into mediocrity after contributing these three mechanical conjectures, and it is difficult to discuss with him more in-depth questions about classical mechanics, Galileo's own dialogue with himself is enough to correct the mistakes of the previous doctrine with these three laws.

It was also because he had heard conjectures about the laws of motion of the three major mechanics in China, and Galileo revised the book "On the Two New Sciences and Their Mathematical Evolution", which had already been drafted in Europe, and postponed the publication of the first volume in Beijing at the end of the summer of the twelfth year of Chongzhen's reign.

Away from the threat of the European Inquisition, Galileo was finally able to continue his reflections on the natural sciences and philosophy in China. After he became the president of the Royal Academy of Sciences, he made use of the sufficient funds provided by Chongzhen to improve and research astronomical instruments and scientific instruments.

In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, that is, in 1639 AD, in the memory of most people in the north of the Ming Dynasty, it was hunger and a hot summer, but in the eyes of scientists like Galileo, this was the last opportunity to observe the transit of Venus in this century. Since the beginning of the year, he has been writing to the emperor non-stop, hoping to send expeditions to various places to observe.

Although in such a year, the process of calling on manpower, material resources and valuable fleets to observe the transit of Venus around the world seems to be quite non-mincible. However, Galileo eventually convinced Chongzhen that the observation of the transit of Venus could determine the parallax of the sun.

Solar parallax is one of the astronomical constants, and its full name is called the parallax of the sun's equatorial horizon. Only when the solar parallax is determined can the distance from the center of mass of the Earth-Moon system to the Sun be calculated, and thus the astronomical units can be determined. The astronomical unit is the basic unit for measuring the distance between celestial bodies in the solar system, and it is also the baseline for determining the triangular parallax of stars, which is an important problem in astrometry.

The last transit of Venus occurred on the 24th of the month, and the 4th of the month was the last transit of Venus in the 17th century. If you want to observe the next transit of Venus, you will have to wait until 1761. Obviously, people in this era will not be able to see the third transit of Venus, but Zhu Youzhen finally issued an order to conduct simultaneous observations in China, Korea, Japan, Ryukyu, South Asia, South Africa, North America and other places.

After Galileo finished the experiment of weighing the earth, he decided to let John Tang and Wan Hongsheng observe in Beijing, while he took his disciples to Nanjing to observe. After Zhu Youzhen heard about it, he also changed into civilian clothes to see off Galileo in person, hoping that he could get what he wanted when he went south this time.

Although it seems silly to measure the size of the solar system in the 17th century, after all, we have not even been able to really explore the earth under our feet. However, Chongzhen somewhat understood at this time why China's science and technology began to lag behind the West from this century.

In the past, there were scientists who had the courage to explore the unknown, both in the East and the West, and in fact there were even more in China. After all, the idlers that the great unified dynasty can provide are always higher than those of the divided European countries. However, with the great geographical discoveries of the Age of Discovery, and the advent of the last years of the dynasty, the number of idlers studying science and art in the West began to surpass that of China. With the subsequent Ming and Qing Dynasty melee and the "chaos" of the three feudatories, the war that lasted for hundreds of years greatly hurt China's vitality.

After the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, the comprehensive cultural and ideological confinement policy made the soil for the study of science and art in China no longer exist, so there was a period of 300 years of degradation of Chinese civilization. At this time, Westerners are tirelessly exploring the truth of this world.

After sending Galileo away, Zhu Youzhen, who returned to the palace, was finally able to comfort himself, at least the Ming in this world would not lag behind the times. With a moment of emotion, Zhu Youzhen decided to take a half-day off to see what Galileo's new book "On the Two New Sciences and Their Mathematical Evolution" was about.

However, before he could turn a few pages, Lu Qi came in and reported to him: "Your Majesty, Sun Chuanting from the Army General Staff is here, and it seems that he has come to report to His Majesty the Yingkou battle plan." ”

Zhu Youzhen put down the book in his hand with some relief, and said to Lu Qi: "Put this book on the shelf, and read it slowly when I have time." Be careful, it has Mr. Galileo's signature on it, and it can't be damaged. ”

Lu Qi immediately nodded and agreed: "The minister will take a box made of sandalwood and put it away, so you don't have to worry about this book being bitten by insects and ants..."

In the living room of Xiyuan Jingshe, Zhu Youzhen met Sun Chuanting and an officer in his early 30s standing beside him, Sun Chuanting saw that the emperor had some doubts about the people around him, so he introduced him loudly: "This is Li Yan, a native of Hanoi, Henan, and a student of the 33rd Staff Section of the Army Military Academy. ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at the officer and couldn't help asking, "Isn't the 33rd batch not yet graduated?" He was specially recruited into the General Staff? ”

Sun Chuanting nodded and said: "Before he was admitted to the military academy, he was already a lifter, and he was a lifter in the year of the Apocalypse. After being admitted to the military academy, he spent more than a year in both the infantry section and the logistics section before finally entering the staff section to complete the rest of his studies. The minister and the other colleagues of the General Staff were of the opinion that he should be appointed to the General Staff in his capacity, and therefore he was involved in the drawing up of the battle plan..."

After Zhu Youzhen beckoned the two of them to sit down, he said to Li Yan: "Since it is a person who is raised in the year of the Apocalypse, why didn't you participate in the imperial examination after that, but applied for the army officer school?" ”

Li Yan replied calmly: "The minister went to Beijing to take the exam once, but he just happened to encounter the imperial examination reform, and the minister was not ready for a while and was not selected on the list.

Later, the Henan gentry and thieves colluded to make a 'chaos', and the minister's hometown was also quite affected. The local gentry recommended me to form a militia to protect the territory and the people, and the minister also made several small contributions, so the county magistrate recommended the minister to apply for the military academy, saying that there are many people in the world who read me, but the military ministers who protect the people are too scarce. After hearing this, the minister felt that it made a lot of sense, so he and his cousin applied for the army officer school together. ”

Zhu Youzhen felt that this person's speech was really interesting, so he continued to ask him: "Since you applied for the military academy, why did you change three departments in a row, didn't you think about it in advance before entering the military academy?" ”

Li Yan shook his head and said: "That's not it, when the minister was studying in the infantry department, he found that today's battlefield confrontation is no longer the hand-to-hand combat of soldiers against soldiers and generals in the past. The improvement of musket and artillery techniques made the discipline and organization of the infantry more important than the courage of the soldiers.

However, muskets and artillery need to be constantly consumed* and cannonballs, and he thought that if he did not understand the importance of logistics supply, he would not be able to serve as a qualified infantry commander, so he applied to transfer to the logistics department. However, after studying in the logistics department for a year, he realized that if he could not know the logic of the order of operations and supplies between the various units, he would not be able to effectively connect the logistics department with the front-line army. Therefore, the minister applied to be transferred to the General Staff Section..."

Listening to Li Yan's serious description of the reason for his change of major, Zhu Youzhen somehow had the urge to laugh. He held back a smile and continued to Li Yan: "Since Sun Qing said that most of this battle plan was drawn up by you, why don't you tell me first, what are the combat objectives and operational concepts set by this battle plan you have drawn up?" ”

Li Yan subconsciously glanced up at the young emperor, as an army officer cadet from a high background, he has always been highly regarded by Sun Chuanting and other instructors from Jinshi. After all, he is the only one who came to apply for the army officer academy as a lifter, and the other people with the highest level of education are Xiucai.

With the relocation of the Army Military Academy to Fengtai Daying, the scale of the school rapidly expanded to thousands of people, and by this time Chongzhen could no longer talk to the cadets one by one, and could only communicate with these cadets in the form of classes or school assemblies.

Therefore, the cadets after the 28th phase of the Army Military Academy can no longer have a more personal conversation with the emperor like the previous seniors. Therefore, although Li Yan has been in the military academy longer than others, his understanding of the emperor is not as good as that of the seniors who took a six-month crash course in the past.

As a man from a human background, his understanding ability is naturally deeper than others, and he has practiced martial arts since he was a child, and his physical fitness is not weaker than those of the generals. Although he did not have a good reputation in front of the emperor, he was extremely famous in the military academy.

Before being brought to see the emperor by Sun Chuanting, Li Yan naturally hoped to leave a deep impression on the emperor, instead of forgetting him in the corner again during the school meeting. The overall framework of the entire Yingkou battle plan was the handiwork of Li Yan, who originally thought that he would have to explain it to the emperor for a long time.

However, Chongzhen simply raised two questions and grasped the core of the entire battle plan. This made Li Yan quite devastated, but he still adjusted his mentality and slowly introduced to the emperor: "The goal of this operation, the minister thought that it should be to capture Yingkou, and cooperate with the Jinzhou garrison to encircle and annihilate the enemy of Fuzhou and Gaizhou..."

Since Chongzhen led his troops to the battlefield in the second year to resist the Houjin army that had entered the customs, Zhu Youzhen no longer felt strange about war. To put it back again, although modern people do not have the opportunity to face war directly, they have been exposed to more war scenes than the most brilliant generals of this era. When this kind of war picture stored in his mind is used to compare it with the actual war, Zhu Youzhen can easily summarize the laws of war than ordinary people in this era.

Therefore, the questions he asked casually were asked on the key points every time, which made Li Yan more and more serious, and he also took long exams from time to time.