Lin Yuan said: "You also know that Lu Dao uses a ruler when measuring, but what if the ruler used by these two people is of different sizes? ”

Emperor Guangxu smiled: "This is easy, as long as these two people use the same ruler, isn't it?" ”

Lin Yuan said: "There are only two people here, so you can use the same ruler, if it is not this seven-star blade that is being built now, but a battleship, then how many people do you need to make parts together?" Can these people use the same ruler? There are only two parts of the blade and the scabbard, so it doesn't matter if there is a measurement error, but what about the parts on the battleship? Thousands, if one part is more wrong, it is really a small mistake, a thousand miles wrong. ”

Emperor Guangxu asked, "What should Lin Aiqing say?" ”

Lin Yuan replied: "We must reform the weights and measures, now the weights and measures used in the Qing Dynasty, the length of the measurement with zhang, ruler, inch, the benchmark is 'Emperor Gaozongchun Emperor King James ruler', this standard ruler is made by Emperor Qianlong, although the Ministry of Industry has printed and distributed, but the number is too small, most of the people are imitated. ”

"It is said that there is nothing to imitate, because the folk ruler is nothing more than measuring land, clothes, houses, and some handicraft workshops also measure the size, these places do not have high requirements for size, so the accuracy is not high and barely enough, but it is not possible to build a battleship, so the first step in building a battleship is to reform weights and measures."

Emperor Guangxu frowned and said, "Reform weights and measures? This is not an easy task, my 40,000 subjects in the Qing Dynasty, every day have to deal with the size of the zhang, the stone and the pound, the reform of weights and measures is not to change everyone's habits? ”

Lin Yuan replied: "Actually, no, private transactions have their own methods of private transactions, we don't need to interfere, what we want to manage is related to national construction, for example, if the Ministry of Industry wants to build houses, it should use new weights and measures, and if the arsenal wants to make weapons, it must use new weights and measures." ”

Emperor Guangxu asked: "Then how did you set the standard for this new type of weights and measures?" ”

Lin Yuan replied: "There is an International Bureau of Weights and Measures, which is responsible for coordinating the weights and measures standards of various countries, and they have set standards for length and weight, and if they join the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, they will make standard rulers and standard weights for the acceding countries, and we will follow theirs." ”

Lin Yuan's voice did not fall, Weng Tongyi snorted coldly, and said: "The things of weights and measures benchmarks, I have long had them in China, as early as the time of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, the Yellow Emperor set five quantities to unify the length and weight, and later all dynasties have used it, why should we learn from the appearance of foreigners!" Handan toddler, never learned its like, and lost its steps! ”

Weng Tonggong quoted the words of "Zhuangzi" here, which means: instead of learning other people's things, he forgot his own things, Lin Yuan thought to himself: "Weng Tonggong, like the intellectuals of this era, are blindly xenophobic. ”

So Lin Yuan smiled and said: "What the adults said is bad, we follow their standards, and it will be convenient for the two sides to communicate in the future, otherwise it will be converted as soon as the length is encountered, how troublesome it is!" Also, switching to standard weights is good for ourselves. ”

"Lord Weng must know that the weights of my Qing Dynasty are not uniform now, and the government uses official weights when collecting various taxes; Each checkpoint collects import and export tariffs and uses customs weights; Caoyun uses Caoyun weights, and the people in the market use another kind of weights, these weights are not uniform, which is bound to bring a lot of problems. ”

Emperor Guangxu nodded and said, "Okay, just Lin Aiqing, Lin Aiqing, what you mean by the social environment?" ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "Not only this, but also the timing and calendar, which also need to be reformed." ”

Emperor Guangxu asked, "What can be changed about this?" Could it be that they also have something to do with building warships? ”

Lin Yuan replied: "Of course, the manufacture of warships requires the coordination and cooperation of various departments, and when coordinating, time is very important. Use a sundial during the day and a missing carving at night. ”

"This kind of timekeeping method is not suitable for the military industry at all, everyone think about it, we know the time, we can't always carry sundials and drips, so we should change the timekeeping method, and the timekeeping method is just part of the calendar."

Lin Yuan said: "The so-called calendar is based on the changes of celestial bodies to determine the year, month, day these time elements, some countries and nations with the sun as a reference to time, the calendar reflects the changes of the four seasons, is the solar calendar, such as the Taixi countries are the same; Some countries use the moon phases as a reference, which is the lunar calendar, as is the case with the Islamic calendar; Although our Chinese calendar is based on the phases of the moon, it also sets 24 solar terms in the calendar, so my Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar. ”

Lin Yuan continued: "The calendar we use now is the Yuan Yuan calendar revised in the seventh year of Qianlong, and I don't think it is as good as us also using the Western Gregorian calendar, which sets the year as three hundred and sixty-five days, and every four years has a leap day, dividing the day into twenty-four hours, and each hour into sixty minutes, so that the calendar is convenient." ”

Weng Tongyi frowned, and said angrily: "Nonsense, how can I use the calendar of Taixi barbarians in China!" ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "Lord Weng doesn't know, the calendar we use now, the number of days in a year is also based on the number of days in the return year calculated by the British scientist Newton, and the first emperor can use the Western calendar, why can't we?" ”

Weng Tongyi heard that Lin Yuan had moved the first emperor out, so he stopped talking, and Emperor Guangxu said: "Okay, I will discuss the matter of reforming the calendar with the ministers tomorrow morning." ”

Lin Yuan said: "The matter of weights and measures and calendars, I hope that the Holy Lord will hand it over to me to manage, and I plan to establish an institution to manage this matter." ”

Emperor Guangxu nodded and said, "Okay, these things are solved, and we can build a battleship." ”

Lin Yuan shook his head and said, "If you want to build a battleship, it's still far away." Lin Yuan smiled and said, "Does the emperor know how this knife was made?" ”

Emperor Guangxu said with a smile: "I have heard a lot about the craftsmanship of this sword, and this sword is said to be made by famous masters. ”

Lin Yuan smiled: "Then have you ever thought about how to glue two knives together?" ”

Emperor Guangxu shook his head slightly, and Lin Yuan smiled: "If you want to glue two knives together, you must use a metal, which is easy to melt, put this metal between the two knives, and then melt this metal, and wait until this metal is condensed, and the two knives will naturally be together." ”

Emperor Guangxu said: "I have also heard of this process, it seems to be called welding, I heard that this process is indispensable when building ships, I don't know if it is right?" ”

Lin Yuan replied: "That's right, this process requires the use of a substance called 'tin', I don't know if you have heard of it?" ”

Emperor Guangxu asked, "What is 'tin'?" ”

Lin Yuan replied: "Tin, like steel, is a metal, and the melting point of this metal is much lower than that of steel, so it is used as a material for welding. ”