Chapter 365: The Combination of Tradition and Science

When Chen Jing in the Zhonghua Palace heard that Lin Zhe had brought Fang Deconcubine with him when he inspected the Imperial University, she couldn't help but be stunned when she was holding her little daughter, but she didn't lose her mind for long, she looked down at her sleeping daughter in her arms again, and continued to shake gently.

After walking and chatting with Fang Defei in the Imperial University for more than an hour, Lin Zhe returned to the many ministers and continued a series of boring trips, first meeting with some outstanding employees of the Imperial University, including several foreign faculty members with profound academic attainments.

Then I met with a few students with excellent grades!

Like when he met with ordinary ministers, Lin Zhe sat at the top most of the time, just saying a few words occasionally, and the whole process was a bit like going through the motions.

At noon, Lin Zhe went to the canteen accompanied by a group of ministers and teachers and students of the Imperial University, tasted the food in the canteen, and said a few words in a timely manner about what kind of body is the capital of learning, and it is even more important to supplement nutrition and other nonsense when studying hard.

In the afternoon, a pre-imperial education conference was held in the conference room of the Imperial University, and like most of the pre-imperial conferences, Lin Zhe sat on top and listened, and the rectangular table below was mainly discussed by Jiang Daoquan, Minister of Education, and Xu Shou, President of the Imperial University, mainly to discuss some issues of imperial higher education.

Most of these questions are also empty, and they are discussed, but in fact, it is more like Jiang Daoquan and Xu Shou took this opportunity to make a report to Lin Zhe on the development of higher education, trying to make Lin Zhe pay attention to the development of higher education, and then increase the investment of various resources in higher education.

Listening to these people's reports is naturally boring, because Lin Zhe knows a lot of things, and what he is talking about today is a repetition of the previous topics, which naturally makes Lin Zhe not interested.

After the conclusion of this Imperial Council. Lin Zhe looked at the schedule and said that it was almost there, and after ordering to postpone his return to the palace for two hours, he accompanied Fang Defei to wander around the Imperial University.

The campus of the Imperial University was not newly built, it was originally the residence of a high-ranking general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and although the building was not luxurious, it covered a large area. In addition, there are large gardens and open spaces, so it was chosen here as the site of the Imperial University in the first place.

Later, it successively requisitioned a nearby area, forming the approximate area of the current Imperial University, in addition to the old buildings dug up, and many school buildings were built one after another, but the repair was not a pure Chinese building, nor a Western-style building, but an ordinary brick and wood institution house, and the rows of low bungalows could not see any grand and luxurious atmosphere.

This was due to the tight time frame at the beginning. Moreover, the number of students is growing very fast, and there are eight or nine hundred teachers and students combined, and it is not easy to arrange the study and accommodation of so many teachers and staff in a short period of time, so in order to hurry, the newly built school buildings are basically very ordinary brick and wood bungalows.

The only taller, modern building is the administrative building, but it's just a three-story ordinary brick and stone building.

It is evident from the architecture of the entire campus that Imperial University has not invested its limited funds and time in superficial things. The superficial grandeur and luxury are not what they pay attention to, what they care about is something inside. Xu Shou would rather spend a lot of money to import expensive test equipment and books from abroad and hire foreign scholars to give lectures, rather than spend money to build a magnificent teaching building.

However, although Imperial University does not have a magnificent teaching building, it is better because it covers a large enough area, and the campus site has a large garden, and at the same time, Imperial University often holds various activities, such as allowing students to plant flowers and trees. Engage in some more artistic design and the like, so that the whole campus looks quite cultural.

This cultural atmosphere is both Western-style and traditional Chinese, and even some more traditional things, such as the mounted archery in the six arts of the gentleman. The racetrack and the shooting range are not just two facilities that can be seen in any school.

The Imperial University not only teaches professional modern scientific knowledge, but also some traditional and even ancient things!

At present, Imperial University has a total of 11 majors: Physics, Chemistry, Mechanics, Mathematics, Chinese Studies, Natural Sciences, Justice, Finance, Agriculture and Forestry, Business and Commerce, Medicine, and Foreign Languages.

Under each subject, there will be other courses in detail, such as physics, electricity, optics, etc., medical courses such as traditional Chinese medicine, surgery, pathology, etc., finance courses such as economics and taxation, and industry and commerce such as mining, light industry, heavy industry, etc. Chinese subjects include classics, six arts, historical theory, policy theory, etc., and foreign languages include English, French, Spanish, Russian, etc.

The curriculum of Imperial University is different from that of foreign universities and later universities, and there are no professional departments or faculties, nor is there any credit system, and students do not belong to a certain college or department.

Imperial University students do not say that they will be divided into a certain department, such as physics, chemistry, etc., their course choices are also more complicated, at the beginning of the stage will basically be exposed to all the courses, the second year to start to specialize in several of them, generally speaking, students often need to study three to five subjects at the same time, science and engineering need to study physics, chemistry, mechanics, mathematics at the same time.

In fact, the curriculum of the Imperial University has a great deal to do with the political system of the Empire, for example, the Judicial Department, the Finance Department, the Agriculture and Forestry Department, and the Business Department are completely modeled after the cabinet ministries.

Among these subjects, the status of Chinese studies is more special, because no matter what discipline you want to specialize in, Chinese studies are compulsory.

Although Lin Zhe personally has no good impression of the so-called traditional scriptures, it cannot be denied that the traditional scriptures still have an unshakable position in the hearts of many students, and the current imperial examinations at all levels, including the provincial examination, the general examination, and the entrance examination of many new schools, such as Imperial University, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Fuzhou four high schools, etc., in which classics and new disciplines are all compulsory subjects, and the weight is not light.

In Jiang Daoquan's words, the talents needed by the empire must be well-versed in literature and science. He can not only be familiar with the past and the present, but also be familiar with mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy and geography.

So don't look at the students of Imperial University who can skillfully communicate with foreign professors in English in class, and don't look at them in a dirty mechanical department, and occasionally come up with a few chemical words, but when they change into a Hanfu robe, they can all casually write an article full of people. You can write three or five poems at a banquet.

It is a school where tradition and science merge with each other, and there are strange scenes everywhere.

In this way, it is not difficult to understand why there are shooting ranges and racetracks in the Imperial University, because there are six arts of gentlemen in the Chinese studies class, and there are qin, chess, calligraphy and painting, as well as riding and archery in the six arts of gentlemen.

This riding is naturally horseback riding, so the Imperial University has equestrian courses, and there is even a racecourse with a small area, and the military riding instructors come to teach.

And shoot the words. In ancient times, it was archery, but who still played archery in these years, and the Manchus didn't play this and switched to muskets, so the 'archery class' of the Imperial University did not learn archery, but muskets.

When you see a student in a traditional Hanfu robe loading and shooting with a Mini rifle, it feels weird anyway, even more bizarre than the British wearing plaid skirts and shooting a row of guns.

Take a walk around in such a school, let alone Fang Defei. Even Lin Zhe thought it was quite interesting.

At the end of this day, although Lin Zhe did not spend much time with Fang Defei. But when she got into the carriage back to the palace, Lin Zhe could still clearly see the smile on her face.

Seeing her smile, Lin Zhe felt that it was the right choice to set aside a day to inspect Imperial University today.

As for what Jiang Daoquan and the others who were driving with him thought, it was not Lin Zhe's concern.

After returning to the palace, Lin Zhe returned to his previous life, dealing with official duties that would never end every day. And on the third day, Lin Zhe also got a battle report from the Shandong front.

This battle report from Shi Qingxuan said that he had led the Sixth Army to launch a general attack on Jinan with the First Division of the First Army. The front-line soldiers did not disgrace the holy order, and finally conquered Jinan, destroying nearly 10,000 enemies!

Seeing this good news, Lin Zhe was not as excited as he was when he saw the good news in the past, this sent the Sixth Army up, if he couldn't take Jinan, Lin Zhe would doubt Shi Qingxuan's ability.

The Sixth Army was the first army in the Chinese army to be equipped with rear-loading rifles and front-loading rifled guns, and the weapons and tactics they used were almost epoch-making, and it was not surprising that it was victorious against an army that had not even been able to popularize the Minnie rifle, and could only use flintlock or flintlock muskets.

It would be strange if it failed.

"Now the Sixth Army has continued to move north, and will march into Texas in the future. The 1st Division will be transferred to Henan and join the 3rd Division of the 1st Army to launch the Henan Raid! ”

Chen Yuntao, as before, told Lin Zhe about the current battle situation on the map: "According to the current advance speed of the Sixth Army, we expect that by the end of the month, they will be able to enter the territory of Zhili, and when the supply line is further lengthened, it will be more difficult to supply, and at the same time, the ammunition and other combat materials carried by the Sixth Army itself will also be consumed, so after entering Zhili in December, the Sixth Army will stop fighting north for three consecutive months and enter a period of recuperation."

Taking advantage of this period of time, all departments of the General Headquarters will supply the Sixth Army with troops, ammunition, and various weapons, and strive to restore the combat strength of the Sixth Army in its heyday in mid-December, and launch the next step of the strategy of attacking Baoding, Tianjin, and finally marching into Beiping! ”

"During the expected rest period of the Sixth Army, the First Army will also launch the Henan Offensive accordingly, and the Third Division of the main force of the First Army will march into Kaifeng Mansion, seize Kaifeng Mansion in Kaifeng Prefecture, Zhengzhou and other cities, and then continue to advance west along the Yellow River and enter Henan Mansion to seize Luoyang. During this period, the auxiliary defense division and other troops were dispatched to attack Huaiqing Mansion. At the same time, the three auxiliary defense divisions of the First Army stationed in northern Anhui will also go north to Nanyang Fu and Ruzhou.

In order to cope with the operations of the main force of the First Army, the First Division of the First Army will also move westward into the northern part of Henan and the southern part of Zhili, and attack the areas around the Daimyo Mansion of Zhili, Weihui Mansion of Henan, and Zhangde Mansion. While attacking the above-mentioned areas, the First Division will also appropriately divide its troops to the south to support the operations of other units of the First Army, and it is expected that an infantry regiment will be left in the northern area of Henan, and it will be expanded to form an independent mixed regiment to fight alone.

Then the main force of the 1st Division will continue to move north to reinforce the 6th Army, and the 6th Army's rest time can just wait for the arrival of the 1st Division! ”

With Chen Yuntao's words, and at the same time marked on the map from time to time, Lin Zhe could also clearly and intuitively see the headquarters' strategic arrangements for the Northern Expedition in the next few months. (To be continued......)