Zhen Youcai said: "Master Hou, what kind of yamen is this Academy of Military Sciences, and what should the lowly rank do?" ”

Wang Pu smiled and didn't answer, and asked Song Yingxing and Fang Yizhi instead: "Mr. Song Xian, Mr. Fang, what kind of yamen do you think the Academy of Military Sciences is?" ”

Song Yingxing said: "Master Hou, if the old man is not mistaken, the Academy of Military Sciences should be the yamen responsible for developing and improving ordnance, right?" ”

"Hehe, that's only half right." Wang Pu said with a smile, "It is indeed the duty of the Academy of Military Sciences to study and improve ordnance, but the responsibilities of the Academy of Military Sciences are not only this, but also include more aspects of work, and the preparation for the construction of the German Arsenal will be the first task of the Academy of Military Sciences." ”

As he spoke, Wang Pu told Zhen Youcai and the three of them in detail about his ideas.

After listening to Wang Pu's narration, Zhen Youcai was stunned and said, "Master Hou, I'm afraid this is difficult, right?" Let's talk about the spindle, there is nothing wrong with casting a round iron rod, but what can you use to plane it and straighten it? After all, fine iron is not wood, and no experienced blacksmith can break it with a frustration knife. ”

"Who said they were going to use a frustration knife?" Wang Pu smiled and said, "Those Xiyi academicians will find a way to do this, talented, your duty as the dean is to manage them, tell them what to do and what not to do, and let Mr. Song and Mr. Fang take those Xiyi academicians to do the rest." ”

After that, Wang Pu asked Fang Yizhi again: "Mr. Fang, you are well-informed, can you tell me if there is any way to process a muddy iron rod into a spindle with a straight body and a smooth surface?" ”

Fang Yizhi said: "I once read a Xiyi book, which was translated by the missionary Matteo Ricci, which describes a kind of wooden hydraulic machinery called a machine tool, which can be used to round, drill, bore, polish and other processing of iron parts with hard tools. ”

"Huh." Wang Pu stroked his palms and smiled, "Mr. Fang is really well-informed, that's right, that's it!" First use wooden machine tools to make iron machine tools, and then use iron machine tools to make more precise iron machine tools, when the accuracy of iron machine tools is improved to a certain extent, we can boring out the smooth and flat inner wall of the gun chamber, hehe, and even boring out a cylinder with a good airtight surname, with a cylinder that is amazing! ”

Indeed, if it is really possible to process a cylinder with a smooth and flat inner wall, it will be an epoch-making event, because with the cylinder can make a steam engine, with a steam engine, the Ming Dynasty can enter the industrial civilization two hundred years earlier than the Western world!

Of course, there is an important prerequisite for this, that is, the political system of the Ming Dynasty must be stable and open, and the feudal conservative forces must not be allowed to succeed in counterattacking, otherwise even if the Academy of Military Sciences creates an internal combustion engine and a generator, it can only be banned and destroyed by the conservatives as a miracle in the end, and it will not give birth to a great industrial civilization at all.

"Cylinder?" Zhen Youcai and the three of them were confused when they heard it, and asked in confusion, "Master Hou, what is a cylinder?" ”

Wang Pu didn't bother to explain, and said with a smile: "You'll know when the time comes, what you have to do now is to find a good location in Nanjing City to set up the yamen first, and then meet with the thirty or so Xiyi academicians, get acquainted with each other, exchange academic achievements with each other, and also take advantage of this time to learn a few words of commonly used English for communication." ”

Speaking of English, Fang Yizhi suddenly thought of a person and said: "Master Hou, if there is no special translator, I am afraid that it will be difficult to communicate with my colleagues in Xiyi, and now there is a Xiyi person who is proficient in Chinese living in Nanjing, why don't you invite him to act as a special translator of the Academy of Military Sciences?" ”

"Oh?" Wang Pu said happily, "There are still such talents? ”

"Hmm." Fang Yizhi nodded and said, "His name is Tang Ruowang, he was originally the supervisor of Qin Tianjian, responsible for revising the calendar, and then he returned to the West after the fall of Yanjing, and just arrived in Nanjing a few days ago, he lived in Wuyi Lane, and he had a good relationship with him, if the Hou Ye is willing, he can be summoned here." ”

"John Tang?" Wang Pu nodded and said happily, "This is a talent, you have to make good use of it." ”

After thinking about it, Wang Pu said again: "In this way, you surnamed Suo will stay in Nanjing for a while longer, relax and relax, prepare as well as possible, and then wait for the two hundred students of the first foreign language training class of Yangming University to be recruited, and then go to the Jiande Arsenal together." ”

Zhen Youcai was stunned and said: "Master Hou means to let these two hundred students teach on the spot in the Jiande Arsenal?" ”

"Yes." Wang Pu nodded and said, "Let these two hundred students study while working, first, the Jiande Arsenal can have more than 200 free labor, second, it can allow the students to enhance their physique, increase their experience and vision, and third, learn foreign languages in practice, the effect is definitely better than sitting in the classroom and learning!" Fourth, it happened to use local materials to let Tang Ruowang and those Xiyi academicians act as foreign language teachers. ”

"Great idea!"

"Yes, that's how it should be!"

Song Yingxing and Fang Yizhi couldn't help but applaud, although the two came out of the traditional private school, their vision was not limited to the corner of the East, but through various channels to always pay attention to the Western teaching model at that time, and through their own practice summed up a set of unique views.

In particular, Fang Yizhi, in order to compile the book "Physics Knowledge", he has done thousands of related physics experiments, and knows that the ideal teaching mode should be the combination of teaching and practice.

Wang Pu said with a smile: "Talented, Mr. Song, Mr. Fang, let's go, let's go to the Wonderland to relax and relax." ”

Zhen Youcai and Fang Yizhi bowed their heads happily, but Song Yingxing waved his hand again and again: "Master Hou, at this age, I won't make up for this heat, hehe." ”

Wang Pu quipped: "Old Song, aren't you worried about the Hedong lion at home?" ”

"Ahem." Song Yingxing coughed dryly, and said with an embarrassed expression, "What about this......"

"Old Song." Wang Pu laughed and said, "What are you worried about, hehe, why don't you just go take a bath and leave." ”

After that, Wang Pu couldn't help but say that he went with Song Yingxing, Zhen Youcai and Fang Yizhi also followed with a smile, and the four of them had already set up the carriage when they left the Hou Mansion, and then got in the car and went straight to the fairyland.

■■■

When Wang Pu took Zhen Youcai, Song Yingxing and Fang Yizhi to live happily in the Wonderland, Chen Yuanyuan and Dong Xiaowan were talking to Li Shiniang, Li Xiangjun, Kou Baimen, and Gu Mei.

A few days ago, when Wang Pu invited four Nanqu celebrities including Aunt Chen, Aunt Li and Li Shi Niang to a banquet in the Wonderland, he half-jokingly and half-seriously proposed to let them be his personal secretaries.

In the past few days, seeing that Wang Pu had no follow-up, Gu Mei couldn't sit still, and instigated Li Shiniang, Li Xiangjun and Kou Baimen to come to Jingnanhou Mansion together, nominally to visit the Nanqu sisters Chen Yuanyuan and Dong Xiaowan in the past, but in fact, they wanted to explore the tone of Chen Yuanyuan, the "eldest woman".

Chen Yuanyuan, Wang Puxuan's secretary, actually knew about it, and even instigated it.

From a woman's point of view, Chen Yuanyuan is very reluctant to work with so many sisters, there are too many sisters, and the number of people who stay alone in the empty house will inevitably increase, and the taste of being alone and sleepless is not comfortable, no matter how generous Chen Yuanyuan is, he is not exempt from vulgarity, but from Wang Pu's point of view, Chen Yuanyuan found that several sisters married into the Hou Mansion have many benefits.

As Wang Pu's status and power increase, Wang Pu has more and more things to deal with every day.

Perhaps because of the military general's background, Wang Pu has always been difficult to obtain the true recognition of the Shilin class, although Donglin Fushe and Wang Pu are cooperative relations, but it is only a cooperative relationship, and the two are far from being intimate.

Zhen Youcai is one, but his ability is limited.

Wei Da was originally counted as one, but he is now the governor of Fujian, and he has to keep an eye on Zheng Zhilong, a big pirate, in Fujian.

Wang Pu once said to Chen Yuanyuan that it is relatively easy to cultivate cronies in the army, but it is not easy to cultivate cronies politically!

So, Wang Pu hit the idea on Li Shiniang, Gu Mei, Kou Baimen and other Nanqu celebrities, Chen Yuanyuan also felt that Wang Pu's idea was very reasonable, Wang Pu didn't need them to give advice and lead troops to fight, and he didn't need them to be officials for a term and appease the party, Wang Pu only needed them to help take care of the Wang family's huge industry!

For example, in addition to Nanjing, there are now four branches of Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Shaoxing, and in the near future, more cities and even more countries will have more Wonderland semicolons, and the industry and the gambling industry will always be the most dynamic and profitable industries, and Wang Pu cannot give these two profiteering industries to others!

You can imagine how huge this industry will be in the future!

In addition to the Wonderland, there is also a cigarette factory, the Nanjing Cigarette Factory created by Zhen Youcai has expanded its production scale twice, but the cigarettes produced are still in short supply, especially the Central Army's demand for cigarettes is the largest, this is the power of example, because Wang Pu always likes to hold a cigarette in his mouth when he has nothing to do, and the officers and soldiers of the Central Army follow suit.

Although the current scale of the Nanjing cigarette factory is still very small, and the monthly performance is less than 100,000 taels, this is a monopoly industry with unlimited potential, plus the industry and gambling industry in Wonderland, it will build an incomparably huge business empire in ten years at most.

But Wang Pu's energy is limited, and he can't take care of the war, so how can he have the leisure to manage the operation of the Wonderland?

And Wang Pu also lacks business acumen, what should I do? The best way is to marry a business-minded and knowledgeable Mrs. Ru, and hand over this huge industry to Mrs. Ru to take care of, of course, there must be a precondition for this, this Mrs. Ru has to have a relationship with Wang Pu, and must not eat inside and out.

Gu Mei is undoubtedly the most suitable candidate.

Gu Mei is both a Qinhuai celebrity and a bustard's mother, and she already has business experience in running Meilou at a young age, and she herself is more interested in business, Wang Pu chose her as a business secretary, just to take the opportunity to cultivate the relationship between the two, and then take her in and let her take care of the Wang family's huge business empire.

Let Li Siniang be the financial secretary and Li Xiangjun be the state secretary, but it is Chen Yuanyuan's meaning.

Among all the Qinhuai celebrities, the person with the best relationship with Chen Yuanyuan is Li Shi Niang, don't look at Li Shi Niang's weak appearance, in fact, her surname is like fire in her bones, she is a very assertive strange woman, Chen Yuanyuan believes that as long as Li Shi Niang ignites the fire, she is Wang Pu's most loyal Mrs. Ru.

Let Gu Mei be responsible for the operation of the Wang family's business empire, but let Li Siniang control the huge property of the Wang family, which is the most imaginary combination in Wang Pu and Chen Yuanyuan's minds.

As for the incense fan pendant Li Xiangjun, a refreshing and beautiful little girl, with a refreshing natural body fragrance, Wang Pu is indeed very coveted, I hope that this little beauty can become his personal secretary, and help arrange the affairs that need to be dealt with every day.

■■■

Chuzhou.

Wang Beech is accompanied by two Shanxi big shopkeepers to inspect the green mulberry field, standing on the field stalk upstream to look at, the mountains are full of green mulberry trees, dozens of mulberry farmers are hoeing grass and fertilizing in the field, more than two years have passed, the mulberry seedlings planted the year before last have now become forests!

A big shopkeeper excitedly said to Wang Zel: "Owner, the mulberry forest is growing well, if the 2,000 looms ordered from the Nanjing Wood Workshop can be in place, this year can at least 150,000 more silk than last year, and when sold to the West, it will be 1.8 million taels of silver!" ”

Another big shopkeeper also said: "The cotton fields over there in Songjiang are also growing gratifyingly, and it is foreseeable that this year will be a rare bumper year!" Owner, I think we will be able to build a ticket number next year at the latest! ”

Wang Beech didn't have much excitement on his face, and asked, "Shopkeeper Gu, has the third batch of 100,000 stone rice shipped to Wuchang ready?" ”

The shopkeeper surnamed Gu hurriedly said: "The owner, it was shipped two days ago. ”

"Hmm." Wang Beech nodded, and asked another big shopkeeper, "Big shopkeeper Cao, have you raised all the three million taels of silver to buy 500,000 mu of farmland?" ”

The shopkeeper surnamed Cao said: "Back to the owner, the three million taels of silver have been raised, but do you want to transport one million taels first, and pay off the remaining two million taels in three years?" After all, three million taels is not a small amount, the reconstruction of Wuchang may not be able to use so much silver, but here is about to be a public auction of the government-run workshop, Gu Da and I have already calculated, Nanjing, Suzhou, Yangzhou, Songjiang weaving bureaus, without three million taels of silver can not eat. ”

Gu Da shopkeeper said: "The owner, if you miss the opportunity to auction the weaving bureaus in Nanjing, Suzhou, Yangzhou, and Songjiang for the sake of Wuchang's 500,000 acres of farmland, it will be a big loss!" ”

Wang Zelkova thought for a while and said, "That's it, Shopkeeper Cao, you will escort one million taels of silver to Wuchang first, and the remaining two million taels will be decided after I go to Nanjing to meet the third child of our family." ”

The shopkeeper Cao nodded and asked, "Owner, is the 500,000 mu of farmland in Wuchang planted mulberry seedlings or cotton?" Gu Da and I should prepare as soon as possible. ”

"I don't plant any." Wang Beech shook his head and said, "The third child of my family said that all sweet potatoes and potatoes are planted!" ”

"Huh?" Shopkeeper Cao Da and Shopkeeper Gu Da lost their voices, "Grow sweet potatoes and potatoes? ”

(To be continued)